1,007 research outputs found
Putting the community in the centre : towards effective village-based planning and development in Vietnam
In addition to successful economic reforms, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) is also in the process of implementing reforms in the areas of civil society, decentralisation and grassroots democracy, within what is generally considered a strong state environment. Relevant research argues that uninhibited democracy, decentralisation and civil society are important elements in achieving what has been popularly termed community 'participation' by development practitioners. This process was particularly assisted by the release of the grassroots democracy decree of 1998 and its subsequent update in 2003 that set out the details of what Vietnam required from the village and commune levels as part of the reform process. Interestingly, it is also these two levels that form the dividing line between government and community in Vietnam. Although there have been several studies investigating the strengths and weaknesses of the implementation of the grassroots democracy decree and other related policies, village-based planning and development programs, which are a development approach piloted by several non-government organisations (NGOs) and donors to address these issues, have not been comprehensively evaluated. These programs, which are generally long-term, area-based, holistic and integrated, have frequently been observed to deliver many of the relevant elements within the larger notions of democracy, decentralisation, civil society and participation. The research explores the effectiveness of village-based planning and development approaches within the Vietnamese context using both quality and quantity criteria to assess elements of program effectiveness, focussing primarily on community level perspectives. Four projects of a selected international non-government organisation (INGO), were used as a detailed case study utilising a combination of qualitative focus groups and interviews, complimented by two quantitative household interviews. These community opinions were triangulated against the opinion of other key stakeholders including government, bilateral and multilateral aid donors, as well as Vietnamese and International NGOs involved in such approaches. The research highlights that with careful attention, village-based planning and development approaches do have the ability to more effectively allow the community to be put back into the 'centre of development' in Vietnam, rather than being passive recipients or marginalised by the development process. A set of seven key elements that contribute to more effective village-based planning and development approaches in Vietnam has been outlined in this thesis. It is hoped that these key elements might be further utilised by donor, NGO and government agencies to support the appropriate replication and up-scaling of the approaches to enable development needs and poverty to be more effectively reduced in Vietnam However, the approaches are not without their challenges, in particular in terms of achieving integrated planning from village to national level, being flexible enough for the variety of ethnic minority and geographical areas, effectively involving a broad and appropriate range of individuals and organised civil society groups and, perhaps most importantly, taking the approaches beyond the current few pilot programs to a national scale that forms a more integral part of the government's overall poverty reduction strategy
A conceptual map of invasion biology: Integrating hypotheses into a consensus network
Background and aims
Since its emergence in the midâ20th century, invasion biology has matured into a productive research field addressing questions of fundamental and applied importance. Not only has the number of empirical studies increased through time, but also has the number of competing, overlapping and, in some cases, contradictory hypotheses about biological invasions. To make these contradictions and redundancies explicit, and to gain insight into the fieldâs current theoretical structure, we developed and applied a Delphi approach to create a consensus network of 39 existing invasion hypotheses.
Results
The resulting network was analysed with a linkâclustering algorithm that revealed five concept clusters (resource availability, biotic interaction, propagule, trait and Darwinâs clusters) representing complementary areas in the theory of invasion biology. The network also displays hypotheses that link two or more clusters, called connecting hypotheses, which are important in determining network structure. The network indicates hypotheses that are logically linked either positively (77 connections of support) or negatively (that is, they contradict each other; 6 connections).
Significance
The network visually synthesizes how invasion biologyâs predominant hypotheses are conceptually related to each other, and thus, reveals an emergent structure â a conceptual map â that can serve as a navigation tool for scholars, practitioners and students, both inside and outside of the field of invasion biology, and guide the development of a more coherent foundation of theory. Additionally, the outlined approach can be more widely applied to create a conceptual map for the larger fields of ecology and biogeography
What are the economic costs of biological invasions? A complex topic requiring international and interdisciplinary expertise
Biological invasions can cause substantial economic losses and expenses for management, as well as harm biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being. A comprehensive assessment of the economic costs of invasions is a challenging but essential prerequisite for efficient and sustainable management of invasive alien species. Indeed, these costs were shown to be inherently heterogeneous and complex to determine, and substantial knowledge gaps prevent a full understanding of their nature and distribution. Hence, the development of a still-missing global, standard framework for assessing and deciphering invasion costs is essential to identify effective management approaches and optimise legislation. The recent advent of the InvaCost database â the first comprehensive and harmonised compilation of the economic costs associated with biological invasions worldwide â offers unique opportunities to investigate these complex and diverse costs at different scales. Insights provided by such a dataset are likely to be greatest when a diverse range of experience and expertise are combined. For this purpose, an international and multidisciplinary workshop was held from 12th to 15th November 2019 near Paris (France) to launch several project papers based on the data available in InvaCost. Here, we highlight how the innovative research arising from this workshop offers a major step forward in invasion science. We collectively identified five core research opportunities that InvaCost can help to address: (i) decipher how existing costs of invasions are actually distributed in human society; (ii) bridge taxonomic and geographic gaps identified in the costs currently estimated; (iii) harmonise terminology and reporting of costs through a consensual and interdisciplinary framework; (iv) develop innovative methodological approaches to deal with cost estimations and assessments; and (v) provide cost-based information and tools for applied management of invasions. Moreover, we attribute part of the success of the workshop to its consideration of diversity, equity and societal engagement, which increased research efficiency, creativity and productivity. This workshop provides a strong foundation for substantially advancing our knowledge of invasion impacts, fosters the establishment of a dynamic collaborative network on the topic of invasion economics, and highlights new key features for future scientific meetings.Fil: Diagne, Christophe. Universite Paris-Saclay;Fil: Catford, Jane A.. King's College London; Reino UnidoFil: Essl, Franz. Universidad de Viena; AustriaFil: Nuñez, Martin Andres. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universidad Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; ArgentinaFil: Courchamp, Franck. Universite Paris-Saclay
Binary reaction decays from 24Mg+12C
Charged particle and gamma decays in 24Mg* are investigated for excitation
energies where quasimolecular resonances appear in 12C+12C collisions. Various
theoretical predictions for the occurence of superdeformed and hyperdeformed
bands associated with resonance structures with low spin are discussed within
the measured 24Mg* excitation energy region. The inverse kinematics reaction
24Mg+12C is studied at E_lab(24Mg) = 130 MeV, an energy which enables the
population of 24Mg states decaying into 12C+12C resonant break-up states.
Exclusive data were collected with the Binary Reaction Spectrometer in
coincidence with EUROBALL IV installed at the VIVITRON Tandem facility at
Strasbourg. Specific structures with large deformation were selectively
populated in binary reactions and their associated gamma decays studied.
Coincident events associated with inelastic and alpha-transfer channels have
been selected by choosing the excitation energy or the entry point via the
two-body Q-values. The analysis of the binary reaction channels is presented
with a particular emphasis on 24Mg-gamma, 20Ne-gamma and 16O-gamma
coincidences. New information (spin and branching ratios) is deduced on
high-energy states in 24Mg and 16O, respectively.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl
Structure of Be probed via secondary beam reactions
The low-lying level structure of the unbound neutron-rich nucleus Be
has been investigated via breakup on a carbon target of secondary beams of
B at 35 MeV/nucleon. The coincident detection of the beam velocity
Be fragments and neutrons permitted the invariant mass of the
Be+ and Be++ systems to be reconstructed. In the case of
the breakup of B, a very narrow structure at threshold was observed in
the Be+ channel. Contrary to earlier stable beam fragmentation
studies which identified this as a strongly interacting -wave virtual state
in Be, analysis here of the Be++ events demonstrated that
this was an artifact resulting from the sequential-decay of the
Be(2) state. Single-proton removal from B was found to
populate a broad low-lying structure some 0.70 MeV above the neutron-decay
threshold in addition to a less prominent feature at around 2.4 MeV. Based on
the selectivity of the reaction and a comparison with (0-3)
shell-model calculations, the low-lying structure is concluded to most probably
arise from closely spaced J=1/2 and 5/2 resonances
(E=0.400.03 and 0.85 MeV), whilst the broad
higher-lying feature is a second 5/2 level (E=2.350.14 MeV). Taken
in conjunction with earlier studies, it would appear that the lowest 1/2
and 1/2 levels lie relatively close together below 1 MeV.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in Physical
Review
Structure of 12Be: intruder d-wave strength at N=8
The breaking of the N=8 shell-model magic number in the 12Be ground state has
been determined to include significant occupancy of the intruder d-wave
orbital. This is in marked contrast with all other N=8 isotones, both more and
less exotic than 12Be. The occupancies of the 0 hbar omega neutron p1/2-orbital
and the 1 hbar omega, neutron d5/2 intruder orbital were deduced from a
measurement of neutron removal from a high-energy 12Be beam leading to bound
and unbound states in 11Be.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
Biological invasions as burdens to primary economic sectors
Many human-introduced alien species economically impact industries worldwide. Management prioritisation and coordination efforts towards biological invasions are hampered by a lack of comprehensive quantification of costs to key economic sectors. Here, we quantify and estimate global invasion costs to seven major sectors and unravel the introduction pathways of species causing these costs â focusing mainly on primary economic sectors: agriculture, fisheries and forestry. From 1970 to 2020, costs reported in the InvaCost database as pertaining to Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry totaled 1.3 bn, and 365 bn), followed by China (36 bn). We further identified 19 countries highly economically reliant on Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry that are experiencing massive economic impacts from biological invasions, especially in the Global South. Based on an extrapolation to fill cost data gaps, we estimated total global costs ranging from at least 5.7â6.5 bn for Fisheries, and 600 bn in impacts has been incurred across Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, with the largest share reported in Agriculture. We further identify 19 countries, which rely heavily on primary sectors, facing comparatively high impacts from invasions, requiring urgent action. However, gaps in cost reporting across invasive taxa and countries suggest that these impacts are grossly underestimated. Proactive prioritisation by policymakers is needed to mitigate future impacts to primary sectors.</p
Reaction mechanisms in 24Mg+12C and 32S+24Mg
The occurence of "exotic" shapes in light N=Z alpha-like nuclei is
investigated for 24Mg+12C and 32S+24Mg. Various approaches of superdeformed and
hyperdeformed bands associated with quasimolecular resonant structures with low
spin are presented. For both reactions, exclusive data were collected with the
Binary Reaction Spectrometer in coincidence with EUROBALL IV installed at the
VIVITRON Tandem facility of Strasbourg. Specific structures with large
deformation were selectively populated in binary reactions and their associated
-decays studied. The analysis of the binary and ternary reaction
channels is discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, Paper presented at the Fusion08 International
Conference on New Aspects of Heavy Ion Collisions Near the Coulomb Barrier,
Chicago. Proceedings to be published by AIP Conference Proceedings Illinois,
USA, September 22-26, 200
- âŠ