2,407 research outputs found
Conceptual model of salt marsh management on Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Florida: final report
Diking and holding water on salt marshes ("impounding" the marsh) is a
management technique used on Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge
(MINWR) and elsewhere in the Southeast to: a) prevent the reproduction of
saltmarsh mosquitos, and b) attract wintertering waterfowl and other marsh,
shore, and wading birds. Because of concern that diking and holding water
may interfere with the production of estuarine fish and shellfish,
impoundment managers are being asked to consider altering management
protocol to reduce or eliminate any such negative influence. How to change
protocol and preserve effective mosquito control and wildlife management is
a decision of great complexity because: a) the relationships between
estuarine organisms and the fringing salt marshes at the land-water interface
are complex, and b) impounded marshes are currently good habitat for a
variety of species of fish and wildlife. Most data collection by scientists
and managers in the area has not been focused on this particular
problem. Furthermore, collection of needed data may not be possible before
changes in protocol are demanded. Therefore, the purpose of this document
is two-fold: 1) to suggest management alternatives, given existing information,
and 2) to help identify research needs that have a high probability
of leading to improved simultaneous management of mosquitos, waterfowl,
other wildlife, freshwater fish, and estuarine fish and shellfish on the
marshland of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. (92 page document
Native Village of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corp.
The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Kivalina follows the United States Supreme Court’s recent trend in denying the use of federal common law claims for redress of damages allegedly caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Under the doctrine of displacement, the court concluded that the concerns raised by the Native Village of Kivalina are addressed under the Clean Air Act, precluding a federal common law nuisance claim. However, the court noted that additional analysis by future federal courts may be appropriate in addressing whether damages are also displaced. The court did not preclude the possibility for redress under a state common law nuisance claim. The court held that federal common law was not available to resolve the issues raised by Kivalina, and that only the legislative and the executive branches could provide a remedy
Est. of Hage v. U.S.
The decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Appeals Court) in Hage VI raises the question of what it means to own the right to use stock water and perform range improvements on public, federal lands. In Hage VI the Appeals Court altered a trend of favoring private property rights on public lands by reversing the Court of Federal Claims (Claims Court) decision to award the Hage family $14.2 million for government takings of private property interests on public lands
Categorized bibliography for a conceptual model of salt marsh management on Merritt Island, Florida
Enclosed is a bibliography of 556 published articles,
technical reports, theses, dissertations, and books that form the
basis for a conceptual model of salt marsh management on Merritt
Island, Florida (Section 1). A copy of each item is available on
file at the Florida Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit,
Gainesville. Some relevant proprietary items and unpublished
drafts have not been included pending permission of the authors.
We will continue to add pertinent references to our bibliography
and files. Currently, some topics are represented by very few
items. As our synthesis develops, we will be able to indicate a
subset of papers most pertinent to an understanding of the
ecology and management of Merritt Island salt marshes.
(98 page document
Development of a programme to facilitate interprofessional simulation-based training for final year undergraduate healthcare students
Original report can be found at: http://www.health.heacademy.ac.uk/publications/miniproject/alinier260109.pdfIntroduction: Students have few opportunities to practise alongside students from other disciplines. Simulation offers an ideal context to provide them with concrete experience in a safe and controlled environment. This project was about the development of a programme to facilitate interprofessional scenario-based simulation training for final year undergraduate healthcare students and explored whether simulation improved trainees’ knowledge of other healthcare discipline’s roles and skills. Methods: A multidisciplinary academic project team was created and trained for the development and facilitation of this project. The team worked on the development of appropriate multiprofessional scenarios and a strategy to recruit the final year students on a volunteer basis to the project. By the end of the project 95 students were involved in small groups to one of fifteen 3-hour interprofessional simulation sessions. Staff role played the relatives, doctor on call, and patient when it was more appropriate than using a patient simulator (Laerdal SimMan/SimBaby) in the simulated community setting and paediatric or adult emergency department. Each session had 3 to 4 of the following disciplines represented (Adult/Children/Learning Disability Nursing, Paramedic, Radiography, Physiotherapy) and each student observed and took part in one long and relevant high-fidelity scenario. Half the students were randomly selected to fill in a 40-item questionnaire testing their knowledge of other disciplines before the simulation (control group) and the others after (experimental group). Students were assessed on the questions relating to the disciplines represented in their session. Results: By the end of the project 95 questionnaires were collected of which 45 were control group students (Questionnaire before simulation) and 50 experimental group students (Questionnaire after simulation). Both groups were comparable in terms of gender, discipline and age representation. Participants were: Adult nurses (n=46), Children’s nurses (n=4), Learning Disability nurses (n=7), Nurses, Paramedics (n=8), Radiographers (n=20), Physiotherapists (n=8). 15 sessions were run with an average of around 7 participants and at least 3 disciplines represented. The knowledge test results about the disciplines represented was significantly different between the control and experimental groups (Control 73.80%, 95% CI 70.95-76.65; and Experimental 78.81%, 95% CI 75.76-81.87, p=0.02). In addition, there were sometimes reliable differences between the groups in their view of multidisciplinary training; confidence about working as part of a multidisciplinary team was 3.33 (SD=0.80, Control) and 3.79 (SD=0.90, Experimental), p=0.011; their anticipation that working as part of a multidisciplinary team would make them feel anxious was 2.67 (SD=1.17, Control) and 2.25 (SD=1.04, Experimental), p=0.073; their perception of their knowledge of what other healthcare professionals can or cannot do was 3.00 (SD=0.91, Control) and 3.35 (SD=0.93, Experimental), p=0.066; their view that learning with other healthcare students before qualification will improve their relationship after qualification was 3.93 (SD=1.14, Control) and 4.33 (SD=0.81, Experimental), p=0.055; their opinion about interprofessional learning helping them to become better team workers before qualification was 3.96 (SD=1.24, Control) and 4.42 (SD=0.77, Experimental), p=0.036. Conclusions: Although the difference is relatively small (~5%), the results demonstrate that students gained confidence and knowledge about the skills and role of other disciplines involved in their session. Through simulation, the positivism of students about different aspects of learning or working with other healthcare disciplines has significantly improved. Students gained knowledge of other disciplines simply by being given the opportunity to take part in a multiprofessional scenario and observe another one. The results of the test and their reported perception about multidisciplinary team working suggest that they are better prepared to enter the healthcare workforce. Discussions during the debriefings highlighted the fact that multidisciplinary training is important. The main challenges identified have been the voluntary student attendance and timetabling issues forcing us to run the session late in the day due to the number of disciplines involved in each session and their different placement rota. The aim is now to timetable formally this session within their curriculum. Introducing simulation in the undergraduate curriculum should facilitate its implementation as Continuing Professional Development once these students become qualified healthcare professionals
On Representations of Conformal Field Theories and the Construction of Orbifolds
We consider representations of meromorphic bosonic chiral conformal field
theories, and demonstrate that such a representation is completely specified by
a state within the theory. The necessary and sufficient conditions upon this
state are derived, and, because of their form, we show that we may extend the
representation to a representation of a suitable larger conformal field theory.
In particular, we apply this procedure to the lattice (FKS) conformal field
theories, and deduce that Dong's proof of the uniqueness of the twisted
representation for the reflection-twisted projection of the Leech lattice
conformal field theory generalises to an arbitrary even (self-dual) lattice. As
a consequence, we see that the reflection-twisted lattice theories of Dolan et
al are truly self-dual, extending the analogies with the theories of lattices
and codes which were being pursued. Some comments are also made on the general
concept of the definition of an orbifold of a conformal field theory in
relation to this point of view.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX. Updated references and added preprint n
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