1,897 research outputs found
Bottling Scotland, drinking Scotland: Scotland's future, the whisky industry and leisure, tourism and public-health policy
Single-malt whisky is the product of over one hundred distilleries across Scotland, and is the subject of a number of claims about its status as an âauthenticâ Scottish drink. The whisky industry in Scotland argues that it creates significant amounts of revenue for Scotland and the United Kingdom â not just in sales of single-malt whiskies and blended whiskies, but also from the contribution of whisky tourism. As such, Scottish policy-makers in tourism and local regeneration have used whisky both as an attraction to market to visitors to the country, and a vehicle for creating jobs. In this paper, the whisky industry and related whisky tourism industry in Scotland is explored alongside an analysis of tourist and local regeneration policies and strategies that explicitly nurture the notion that whisky is a necessary part of Scottish identity. I will then contrast this with policies on leisure that identify alcohol drinking as problematic, and argue that the whisky industry has worked to convince its public sector supporters that drinking single-malt whiskies in distillery visitor centres is harmless, while signing up to campaigns to moderate drinking in the wider Scottish public
Do existing research summaries on health systems match immunisation managers' needs in middle- and low-income countries? Analysis of GAVI health systems strengthening support
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The GAVI Alliance was created in 2000 to increase access to vaccines. More recently, GAVI has supported evidence-based health systems strengthening to overcome barriers to vaccination. Our objectives were: to explore countries' priorities for health systems strengthening; to describe published research summaries for each priority area in relation to their number, quality and relevance; and to describe the use of national data from surveys in identifying barriers to immunisation.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>From 44 health systems strengthening proposals submitted to GAVI in 2007 and 2008, we analysed the topics identified, the coverage of these topics by existing systematic reviews and the use of nation-wide surveys with vaccination data to justify the needs identified in the proposals.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Thirty topics were identified and grouped into three thematic areas: health workforce (10 topics); organisation and management (14); and supply, distribution and maintenance (6). We found 51 potentially relevant systematic reviews, although for the topic that appeared most frequently in the proposals ('Health information systems') no review was identified. Thematic and geographic relevance were generally categorised as "high" in 33 (65%) and 25 (49%) reviews, respectively, but few reviews were categorised as "highly relevant for policy" (7 reviews, 14%). With regard to methodological quality, 14 reviews (27%) were categorised as "high".</p> <p>The number of topics that were addressed by at least one high quality systematic review was: seven of the 10 topics in the 'health workforce' thematic area; six of the 14 topics in the area of 'organisation and management'; and none of the topics in the thematic area of 'supply, distribution and maintenance'. Only twelve of the 39 countries with available national surveys referred to them in their proposals.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Relevant, high quality research summaries were found for few of the topics identified by managers. Few proposals used national surveys evidence to identify barriers to vaccination. Researchers generating or adapting evidence about health systems need to be more responsive to managers' needs. Use of available evidence from local or national surveys should be strongly encouraged.</p
Cumulative and Differential Effects of Early Child Care and Middle Childhood Out-of-School Time on Adolescent Functioning.
Effects associated with early child care and out-of-school time (OST) during middle childhood were examined in a large sample of U.S. adolescents (N = 958). Both higher quality early child care AND more epochs of organized activities (afterschool programs and extracurricular activities) during middle childhood were linked to higher academic achievement at age 15. Differential associations were found in the behavioral domain. Higher quality early child care was associated with fewer externalizing problems, whereas more hours of early child care was linked to greater impulsivity. More epochs of organized activities was associated with greater social confidence. Relations between early child care and adolescent outcomes were not mediated or moderated by OST arrangements in middle childhood, consistent with independent, additive relations of these nonfamilial settings
Sustainable Tourism Stewardship Council - raising the standards and benefits of sustainable tourism and ecotourism certification
Certification of sustainable tourism and ecotourism can help to reduce the negative
environmental and social impacts of tourism, ensure that the tourism industry is held
accountable and provide marketing benefits to those firms that meet the certification
standards. Reports by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World
Tourism Organization (WTO) have cited the benefits of certification and many governments,
NGOs and other stakeholders are introducing national, regional and international certification
programs. There is consensus that the increasing numbers of certification programs would
benefit from shared functions such as marketing, training and development, while supply
chains and consumers would benefit from the setting of standards.
Some two years ago, the Rainforest Alliance, with funding from the Ford Foundation and help
from its Advisory Committees of NGOs, multilateral agencies and industry representatives,
initiated a study of the feasibility of establishing an international Sustainable Tourism
Stewardship Council (STSC) to promote globally recognized, high-quality certification
programs for sustainable tourism and ecotourism through a process of information sharing,
marketing, and assessment of standards. (Certification is defined as the procedure by which
the certification/awarding body gives written assurance and awards a logo (to the consumer
and the industry in general) to signify that a product, process, service, or management system
conforms to specified requirements. Accreditation is key to the role of a Stewardship Council,
a body that grants certifying powers. In effect it certifies that the certifiers are doing their job
correctly.)
This report summarizes the findings over the two years of the study. During the study period,
the authors documented growing international agreement about the need for a sound
accreditation program to assess and help standardize the rapidly growing number of
certification programs for the sustainable and ecotourism markets. The study involved a
broad range of experts around the globe from grassroots and indigenous community activists
to key tourism firms to high-level officials in UN and international environmental
organizations. The need for a STSC was publicly endorsed at the World Ecotourism Summit
(WES) and incorporated in its final communiqué.
The Rainforest Alliance (and this project's Advisory Committees) acknowledges that
certification and accreditation are not a panacea for all the problems associated with
unsustainable tourism. Certification is one important tool currently being used and its merits
and weaknesses must be recognized. However the study and the report presented hereby are
intended to address specifically the feasibility of implementing a Stewardship Council as an
accreditation organization for sustainable tourism and ecotourism certification.
This report analyzes the state of the art in tourism certification and the lessons to be learned
from accreditation in other sectors. Based on extensive consultation, it profiles key
stakeholders and considers needs that the STSC can satisfy, and methods to do so. It proposes
an organizational blueprint for a STSC that grows through a phased implementation to allow
for bottom-up development of agendas and structures. It benchmarks the criteria used in
certification at present to consider the feasibility of an international standard, and it also
benchmarks principles and guidelines for managing tourism certification that can form the
basis of accreditation criteria.
As a result of the extensive consultation process, we propose three phases of development
aimed at improving the quality of certification programs (and thus the sustainability of
tourism) and address different issues affecting tourism certification.
âą Phase 1: STSC-Network to share information and gain consensus on priorities and
processes. It is recommended that the STSC starts as a Network for a period of two years
within which a wide range of stakeholders can consider the results of this feasibility study
and the applicability in different regions, discuss the contents of a possible international
standard and the necessary regional variations. The Network phase also gives tourism
certification programs a vehicle to build trust and to take ownership of the systems
proposed.
âą Phase 2: STSC-Association to market certified products, provide guidance to countries
seeking to establish or upgrade certification programs, and reach agreement on standards
and processes. The STSC-Association phase allows tourism certification programs and
other stakeholders to agree on international standards and criteria and methods to assess
how programs meet these standards, while benefiting from joint marketing and training
that increases the exposure of the tourism certification programs and improves their
performance. The Association phase is a necessary stepping-stone to allow tourism
certification programs to make the necessary improvements to be able to meet
accreditation requirements.
âą Phase 3: STSC-Accreditation to accredit and market certification programs that meet
the agreed upon standards and demonstrate capacity to certify. This phase finally
includes all key functions of the STSC by building on the agreements made at the
Association phase and introducing the key element of accreditation. Structures from the
Association are kept and the function of accreditation is outsourced to be able to maintain
training and marketing functions separate from decision-making on which certification
programs are accredited, and in doing so, guarantee independence and transparency and
avoid conflicts of interest
Black Holes, Mergers, and the Entropy Budget of the Universe
Vast amounts of entropy are produced in black hole formation, and the amount
of entropy stored in supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies is now
much greater than the entropy free in the rest of the universe. Either mergers
involved in forming supermassive black holes are rare,or the holes must be very
efficient at capturing nearly all the entropy generated in the process.
We argue that this information can be used to constrain supermassive black
hole production, and may eventually provide a check on numerical results for
mergers involving black holes
Retelling racialized violence, remaking white innocence: the politics of interlocking oppressions in transgender day of remembrance
Transgender Day of Remembrance has become a significant political event among those resisting violence against gender-variant persons. Commemorated in more than 250 locations worldwide, this day honors individuals who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. However, by focusing on transphobia as the definitive cause of violence, this ritual potentially obscures the ways in which hierarchies of race, class, and sexuality constitute such acts. Taking the Transgender Day of Remembrance/Remembering Our Dead project as a case study for considering the politics of memorialization, as well as tracing the narrative history of the Fred F. C. Martinez murder case in Colorado, the author argues that deracialized accounts of violence produce seemingly innocent White witnesses who can consume these spectacles of domination without confronting their own complicity in such acts. The author suggests that remembrance practices require critical rethinking if we are to confront violence in more effective ways. Description from publisher's site: http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/srsp.2008.5.1.2
Reflection 1 the city: a shift in mindset?
Human migration to urban centres is at an unprecedented level, prompting searching questions about their design and enablement, politically, economically, technologically, or socially. Rapid urban development is laying challenge to existing paradigms, and demanding fresh thinking and radical new models. Historic ideas founded on ideals are increasingly outmoded, yet optimism about the potential for future betterment must remain, particularly within the architectural profession
Furthering alternative cultures of valuation in higher education research
The value of higher education is often implicit or assumed in educational research. The underlying and antecedent premises that shape and influence debates about value remain unchallenged which perpetuates the dominant, but limiting, terms of the debate and fosters reductionism. I proceed on the premise that analyses of value are not selfâsupporting or self-referential but are embedded within prevailing cultures of valuation. I contend that challenging, and providing alternatives to, dominant narratives of higher education requires an appreciation of those cultures. I therefore highlight some of the existing cultures of valuation and their influence. I then propose Sayerâs concept of lay normativity as a culture of valuation and discuss how it translates into the practices of research into higher education, specifically the practice of analysis. I animate the discussion by detecting the presence of lay normativity in the evaluative space of the capability approach
Multiscale Modeling of Superior Cavopulmonary Circulation: Hemi-Fontan and Bidirectional Glenn Are Equivalent
Superior cavopulmonary circulation (SCPC) can be achieved by either the Hemi-Fontan (hF) or Bidirectional Glenn (bG) connection. Debate remains as to which results in best hemodynamic results. Adopting patient-specific multiscale computational modeling, we examined both the local dynamics and global physiology to determine if surgical choice can lead to different hemodynamic outcomes. Six patients (age: 3-6 months) underwent cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and catheterization prior to SCPC surgery. For each patient: (1) a finite 3-dimensional (3D) volume model of the preoperative anatomy was constructed to include detailed definition of the distal branch pulmonary arteries, (2) virtual hF and bG operations were performed to create 2 SCPC 3D models, and (3) a specific lumped network representing each patient's entire cardiovascular circulation was developed from clinical data. Using a previously validated multiscale algorithm that couples the 3D models with lumped network, both local flow dynamics, that is, power loss, and global systemic physiology can be quantified. In 2 patients whose preoperative imaging demonstrated significant left pulmonary artery (LPA) stenosis, we performed virtual pulmonary arterioplasty to assess its effect. In one patient, the hF model showed higher power loss (107%) than the bG, while in 3, the power losses were higher in the bG models (18-35%). In the remaining 2 patients, the power loss differences were minor. Despite these variations, for all patients, there were no significant differences between the hF and bG models in hemodynamic or physiological outcomes, including cardiac output, superior vena cava pressure, right-left pulmonary flow distribution, and systemic oxygen delivery. In the 2 patients with LPA stenosis, arterioplasty led to better LPA flow (5-8%) while halving the power loss, but without important improvements in SVC pressure or cardiac output. Despite power loss differences, both hF and bG result in similar SCPC hemodynamics and physiology outcome. This suggests that for SCPC, the pre-existing patient-specific physiology and condition, such as pulmonary vascular resistance, are more deterministic in the hemodynamic performance than the type of surgical palliation. Multiscale modeling can be a decision-assist tool to assess whether an extensive LPA reconstruction is needed at the time of SCPC for LPA stenosis
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