127 research outputs found
Mongolian Herders’ Evaluation of Rangeland Ecosystems Services, Values, and Changes over the Past Decade
Mongolia\u27s rangeland is one of the largest remaining contiguous ecosystems encompassing 2.6% of the global grasslands, and almost three-fourths of the country\u27s territory provides essential ecosystem services (ESS) for over 3 million Mongolians and 71 million livestock. The well-being of 171,605 pastoral households directly depends on the rangelands receiving provisional services in the forms of nutrition, material use and energy, regulatory services, and cultural services. This study explored herders\u27 perceptions of these ESS, their evaluation for ESS values, and observations of ESS change for the last decade. The study found that Mongolian herders have more benefits from provisional ESS (on average, 10 out of 18 identified), including nutritional and material use (four out of six and nine respectively), and energy services (two types out of three). An average herder household said to receive eight types of regulatory services out of 10, including environment regulation, storage/sequestration, erosion control, disease, and pest control, flood and wind protection, water cycle, soil formation and climate regulation, and six cultural services out of seven such as experiential and intellectual interactions with nature, historical and cultural heritage, both symbolic and religious-spiritual customs and nomadic identity and pride. The herders most valued the provisioning services, followed by regulatory services, and reported a declining trend in provisioning ESS for the past decade, while, in their views, non-provisioning services remained the same. Herders\u27 reported about the exploitation of local ecosystems by external companies without sharing benefits with pastoral communities and contributing to the ESS restoration and maintenance, which was the expression of the common rangeland marginalization narrative. The study recommends necessary policies and actions to ensure equitable benefit distribution derived from rangelands to support adaptive capacity and well-being of pastoral communities, essentially acknowledge the importance of non-provisional ESS across various levels
Schr\"odinger Deformations of AdS_3 x S^3
We study Schr\"odinger invariant deformations of the AdS_3 x S^3 x T^4 (or
K3) solution of IIB supergravity and find a large class of solutions with
integer and half-integer dynamical exponents. We analyze the supersymmetries
preserved by our solutions and find an infinite number of solutions with four
supersymmetries. We study the solutions holographically and find that the dual
D1-D5 (or F1-NS5) CFT is deformed by irrelevant operators of spin one and two.Comment: 23 page
Topologically Massive Gravity and the AdS/CFT Correspondence
We set up the AdS/CFT correspondence for topologically massive gravity (TMG)
in three dimensions. The first step in this procedure is to determine the
appropriate fall off conditions at infinity. These cannot be fixed a priori as
they depend on the bulk theory under consideration and are derived by solving
asymptotically the non-linear field equations. We discuss in detail the
asymptotic structure of the field equations for TMG, showing that it contains
leading and subleading logarithms, determine the map between bulk fields and
CFT operators, obtain the appropriate counterterms needed for holographic
renormalization and compute holographically one- and two-point functions at and
away from the 'chiral point' (mu = 1). The 2-point functions at the chiral
point are those of a logarithmic CFT (LCFT) with c_L = 0, c_R = 3l/G_N and b =
-3l/G_N, where b is a parameter characterizing different c = 0 LCFTs. The bulk
correlators away from the chiral point (mu \neq 1) smoothly limit to the LCFT
ones as mu \to 1. Away from the chiral point, the CFT contains a state of
negative norm and the expectation value of the energy momentum tensor in that
state is also negative, reflecting a corresponding bulk instability due to
negative energy modes.Comment: 54 pages, v2: added comments and reference
Real-time gauge/gravity duality: Prescription, Renormalization and Examples
We present a comprehensive analysis of the prescription we recently put
forward for the computation of real-time correlation functions using
gauge/gravity duality. The prescription is valid for any holographic
supergravity background and it naturally maps initial and final data in the
bulk to initial and final states or density matrices in the field theory. We
show in detail how the technique of holographic renormalization can be applied
in this setting and we provide numerous illustrative examples, including the
computation of time-ordered, Wightman and retarded 2-point functions in
Poincare and global coordinates, thermal correlators and higher-point
functions.Comment: 85 pages, 13 figures; v2: added comments and reference
Studying the impact of ocean eddies on the ecosystem of the Prince Edward Islands: DEIMEC ll
The Dynamics of Eddy Impacts on Marion’s Ecosystem Study (DEIMEC) programme was begun in 2002 with the aim of understanding the importance of the oceanic, upstream environment to the ecosystem of the Prince Edward Islands. This island group consists of two small volcanic islands and provides many opportunities for studying ecological and evolutionary processes, for monitoring ecological changes in relation to global climate change and for conserving a unique component of the planet’s biological diversity
Designing an automated clinical decision support system to match clinical practice guidelines for opioid therapy for chronic pain
Abstract Background Opioid prescribing for chronic pain is common and controversial, but recommended clinical practices are followed inconsistently in many clinical settings. Strategies for increasing adherence to clinical practice guideline recommendations are needed to increase effectiveness and reduce negative consequences of opioid prescribing in chronic pain patients. Methods Here we describe the process and outcomes of a project to operationalize the 2003 VA/DOD Clinical Practice Guideline for Opioid Therapy for Chronic Non-Cancer Pain into a computerized decision support system (DSS) to encourage good opioid prescribing practices during primary care visits. We based the DSS on the existing ATHENA-DSS. We used an iterative process of design, testing, and revision of the DSS by a diverse team including guideline authors, medical informatics experts, clinical content experts, and end-users to convert the written clinical practice guideline into a computable algorithm to generate patient-specific recommendations for care based upon existing information in the electronic medical record (EMR), and a set of clinical tools. Results The iterative revision process identified numerous and varied problems with the initially designed system despite diverse expert participation in the design process. The process of operationalizing the guideline identified areas in which the guideline was vague, left decisions to clinical judgment, or required clarification of detail to insure safe clinical implementation. The revisions led to workable solutions to problems, defined the limits of the DSS and its utility in clinical practice, improved integration into clinical workflow, and improved the clarity and accuracy of system recommendations and tools. Conclusions Use of this iterative process led to development of a multifunctional DSS that met the approval of the clinical practice guideline authors, content experts, and clinicians involved in testing. The process and experiences described provide a model for development of other DSSs that translate written guidelines into actionable, real-time clinical recommendations.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78267/1/1748-5908-5-26.xmlhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78267/2/1748-5908-5-26.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78267/3/1748-5908-5-26-S3.TIFFhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78267/4/1748-5908-5-26-S2.TIFFhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78267/5/1748-5908-5-26-S1.TIFFPeer Reviewe
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