GPS verification of National Mapping Agency topographical data for generation of high - accuracy GPS - derived topographic model data for sea - level rise prediction in protected salt marsh areas.

Global average temperatures have increas ed by approximately 0.6°C during the 20 th century, and are projected to increase by a minimum additional 1.4 °C by 2100. The relationship between atmospheric warmi ng and sea-level rise (SLR) is well documented, and is expected to lead to SLR of up to 0.8m by 2100 (IPCC, 2007). Estuaries are predominantly sedimentary environments, and are characterised by shallow sloping gradients, making them particularly sensitive to SLR. The Shannon estuary is the largest river estuary in Ireland and is designated as a Special Area of Conservation, providing legisl ative protection for a range of habitat types, including estuarine salt marsh (E.U., 1992)

The impact of education programs on smoking prevention: a randomized controlled trial among 11 to 14 year olds in Aceh, Indonesia

© 2013 Tahlil et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background School-based smoking prevention programs have been shown to increase knowledge of the negative effects of smoking and prevent tobacco smoking. The majority of evidence on effectiveness comes from Western countries. This study investigated the impact of school-based smoking prevention programs on adolescents’ smoking knowledge, attitude, intentions and behaviors (KAIB) in Aceh, Indonesia. Methods We conducted a 2 × 2 factorial randomized controlled trial among 7th and 8th grade students aged 11 to 14 years. Eight schools were randomly assigned to a control group or one of three school-based programs: health-based, Islamic-based, or a combined program. Students in the intervention groups received eight classroom sessions on smoking prevention education over two months. The KAIB impact of the program was measured by questionnaires administered one week before and one week after the intervention. Results A total of 477 students participated (58% female, 51% eighth graders). Following the intervention, there was a significant main effect of the Health based intervention for health knowledge scores (β = 3.9 ± 0.6, p < 0.001). There were significant main effects of the Islamic-based intervention in both health knowledge (β = 3.8 ± 0.6, p < 0.001) and Islamic knowledge (β = 3.5 ± 0.5, p < 0.001); an improvement in smoking attitude (β = −7.1 ± 1.5, p < 0.001). The effects of Health and Islam were less than additive for the health and Islamic factors for health knowledge (β = −3.5 ± 0.9, p < 0.01 for interaction) and Islamic knowledge (β = −2.0 ± 0.8, p = 0.02 for interaction). There were no significant effects on the odds of intention to smoke or smoking behaviors. Conclusions Both Health and Islamic school-based smoking prevention programs provided positive effects on health and Islamic related knowledge respectively among adolescents in Indonesia. Tailoring program interventions with participants’ religion background information may provide additional benefits to health only focused interventions. Trial registration Australia and New Zealand Clinical Trials Register, ACTRN1261200107082

A Dual-frequency GPS survey to test medium-scale DTM data quality and to generate precise DTM data for sea-level rise prediction in protected habitat areas.

Global average temperatures have increased by about 0.6°C (± 0.2°C) during the 20th century, and are projected to increase by between 1.4°C and 5.8°C by 2100 (IPCC,2001a). This is predicted to lead to worldwide sea-level rise (SLR) of up to 1m by 2100 (IPCC, 2001b), which will have an impact on coastal environments protected under the Natura 2000 Habitats and Birds Directives (EU, 1992 & 1979)

Food insecurity in South Australian single parents: an assessment of the livelihoods framework approach

Single parent households experience periods of food insecurity more frequently than other Australian families. Despite elevated risk, many single parents achieve food security with limited means. This article applies and evaluates the utility of the livelihoods framework approach as a tool for understanding food insecurity in this population and generating relevant policy recommendations. The approach is adapted here to provide insight into the skills, strategies and resource individuals use to attain or strive for food security. The framework incorporates these individual capabilities into a model of the social, economic and political structures and processes through which individuals navigate to attain food security. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with single parents living in rural and urban South Australia. Transcripts were analysed in an effort to populate a food security livelihoods framework for single parents. The livelihoods framework is found to be capable of reproducing the types and levels of capabilities reported in previous findings. Furthermore, it provides novel insight into the relationships that form between classes of capabilities and between capabilities and the structures and processes in which they are utilised. These insights are considered in terms of relevance to policy

A qualitative study of CVD management and dietary changes: problems of ‘too much’ and ‘contradictory’ information

This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated

Dual-frequency GPS survey for validation of a regional DTM and for the generation of local DTM data for sea level rise modelling in an estuarine Salt Marsh

Global average temperatures have risen by an average of 0.07°C per decade over the last 100 years, with a warming trend of 0.13°C per decade over the last 50 years. Temperatures are predicted to rise by 2°C - 4.4°C by 2100 leading to global average sealevel rise (SLR) of 2 – 6mm per year (20 – 60cms in total) up to 2100 (IPCC 2007) with impacts for protected coastal habitats in Ireland. Estuaries are predominantly sedimentary environments, and are characterised by shallow coastal slope gradients, making them sensitive to even modest changes in sea-level. The Shannon estuary is the largest river estuary in Ireland and is designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) under the EU Habitats Directive (EU 1992) providing protection for listed habitats within it, including estuarine salt marsh. Trends in Shannon estuary tidal data from 1877 – 2004 suggest an average upward SLR trend of 4 - 5mm/yr over this period. A simple linear extension of this historical trend would imply that local SLR will be in the region of 40 - 45cm by 2100. However, this may underestimate actual SLR for the estuary by 2100, since it takes no account of predicted climate-driven global SLR acceleration (IPCC 2007) up to 2100

GPS verification of National Mapping Agency topographical data for generation of high - accuracy GPS - derived topographic model data for sea - level rise prediction in protected salt marsh areas.

Global average temperatures have increas ed by approximately 0.6°C during the 20 th century, and are projected to increase by a minimum additional 1.4 °C by 2100. The relationship between atmospheric warmi ng and sea-level rise (SLR) is well documented, and is expected to lead to SLR of up to 0.8m by 2100 (IPCC, 2007). Estuaries are predominantly sedimentary environments, and are characterised by shallow sloping gradients, making them particularly sensitive to SLR. The Shannon estuary is the largest river estuary in Ireland and is designated as a Special Area of Conservation, providing legisl ative protection for a range of habitat types, including estuarine salt marsh (E.U., 1992)

Configuring the caller in ambiguous encounters: volunteer handling of calls to Samaritans emotional support services

This paper discusses volunteer strategies for handling and assessing calls to Samaritans emotional support services for the suicidal and despairing. It presents findings from the qualitative components of a two year mixed methods study based on an online caller survey, branch observations and interviews with volunteers and callers throughout the UK. A thematic analysis of the qualitative data analysis was undertaken using the principle of constant comparison. Many calls fell beyond the primary remit of a crisis service, and called for rapid attribution and assessment. Uncertainty about identifying ‘good’ calls and recognizing those which were not caused difficulty, frustration and negative attribution towards some callers. This paper presents our analysis of volunteers’ accounts of how they configure the caller in intrinsically uncertain and ambiguous encounters, and how such strategies relate to the formal principles of unconditional support and non-judgemental active listening espoused by the organization