Turbulent friction in flows over permeable walls

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Historical perspectives on pastoralism and land tenure transformation in Ngamiland, Botswana: What are the policy and institutional lessons?

Pastoral societies in dryland Africa continue to face changes to their pastoral systems. These systems are influenced by a range of historical factors but little use is made of this information to design policies that suit pastoralists’ landscapes. This article provides a synthesis of historical perspectives on pastoral land use and tenure transformations in Ngamiland, south of the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Little documentation of herders’ historical perspectives exists and less is known about how past experiences can be applied to sustainable pastoralism policies. In this article, current land use pressing issues are examined and analysed within the context of past experiences. We use a series of oral histories with key informants, focus group discussions, expert interviews and rangelands field observations. Ngamiland historical perspectives depict a pastoral landscape that has been shaped by a variety of factors; livestock diseases, Human-wildlife-conflicts, droughts, land tenure transformations associated with rangeland policies and the pastoral identity of the Ovaherero/Ovambanderu ethnic groups. Pastoralists have followed unique trajectories, specific to their rangeland conditions and socio-cultural context. Resilience to climate shocks and diseases has been weakened by inequitable patterns of control over rangeland resources. We recommend institutional diversity such that from experiences of the past, lessons can be drawn of the sort of processes and institutions required for pastoralism policies including targeted pastoralists’ adaptations. Using pastoralists to provide information, especially in the area of indigenous knowledge, strategies can be developed to link conservation of wildlife and rangelands with pastoral production by developing ecologically-sensitive low-volume tourism that pastoral communities can tap in to diversify their livelihoods

Affirmative action in the higher education admissions process

The purpose of the study was to determine if administrators, faculty, staff, and students perceive differently the use of affirmative action in the college admissions process at Tennessee State University (TSU). This research examines the general knowledge, perceptions, behaviors, and attitudes regarding affirmative action in the higher education college admissions process of the different university participant groups. The results of the study were used to make recommendations to assist future administrators, faculty, staff, and students in addressing the need to have affirmative action programs, educational seminars and open forums in place for enlightened informational exchange at the University. The study sample (N = 325) included respondents from four different participant groups. In addition to the demographic information provided and the comparisons among the various group means, focus was placed ethnicity, gender, and academic discipline to determine any relationship that may exist. Data were gathered using the Echols\u27 Affirmative Action Inventory (EAAI) © 1997. Sixteen hypotheses were tested through the use of ANOVA, two-way ANOVA and Fisher\u27s PLSD tests. The 325 completed surveys revealed the following: Not all administrators, faculty, staff, and students: maintain the same perceptions and behaviors exhibiting diversity as it relates to affirmative action; maintain the same attitude about quotas as it relates to affirmative action being used in the college admissions process; and not all academic disciplines maintain the same perceptions and behaviors exhibiting diversity as it relates to affirmative action. These results support the findings of previous research studies using a variation of the same survey used in this study (Virgil, 2000) and (Echols, 1997). Further research could be conducted to determine the general knowledge, attitudes, and associated behaviors of diversity, perceptions of quotas and attitudes toward moral and ethics as they all relate to the use of affirmative action in the college admissions process at a majority White institution in Tennessee, another HBCU in Tennessee, and again at TSU after various administrative programs, sensitivity trainings and curriculum changes have been implemented and then, compare and contrast the findings of the new research with the findings of this research

Advice, methods and tools for estimating channel roughness

Roughness plays an essential role in water level estimation for rivers, watercourses and drains. It reduces the discharge capacity through energy expenditure from boundary-generated turbulence as well as physical blockages caused by vegetation. Today's practitioners are constantly challenged with identifying, quantifying and simulating these processes to provide vital information for a range of flood risk management tasks. This paper introduces the roughness advisor, one of a series of tools embedded in the recently developed Environment Agency's conveyance and afflux estimation system. The roughness advisor provides an extensive database of roughness information from a diverse set of sources (>700) and presents it in a structured manner to enable users readily to select from a range of in-channel and floodplain vegetation and bed material types. Traditionally, flow resistance datasets are based on average values of Manning's n for whole river sections. Here, the notion of a local unit roughness n(l) is introduced and its performance is demonstrated through flow prediction for a range of channel types. Further applications are used to compare the unit roughness with the traditional Manning n, to trial a boulder roughness approach and to describe the sensitivity and relative importance of roughness in the calculation of channel flow

Early Intervention for Speech Impairment in Children With Cleft Palate

Objective: This study explored the effectiveness of a parent-implemented, focused stimulation program on the speech characteristics of children younger than 3 years with cleft lip and palate. The research questions included the following: (1) Can parents be trained to deliver an early intervention (EI) program for children with cleft palate? (2) Does a parent-implemented EI program result in positive changes in speech characteristics? Participants: Ten mother-child pairs in which the child had cleft lip and palate (CLP) and 10 mother-child pairs in which the child did not have a cleft (NCLP). The children ranged in age from 14 to 36 months of age and were matched between the CLP and the NCLP groups for vocabulary size, age, and socioeconomic status. Main Outcome Measures: Group differences (CLP and the NCLP) for preintervention and postintervention language and speech measures were compared. Results: The results of this study showed that the mothers could be trained to deliver the intervention reliably. Furthermore, the results indicated that the intervention resulted in increased sound inventories, increased speech accuracy, and reduced use of glottal stops for the children with clefts. Conclusions: While the intervention resulted in speech gains for the children with clefts, speech measures did not exceed those made by the children without clefts. The results of the study have implications for service delivery models where the services of speech-language pathologists are limited

National flood hazard mapping for Scotland - an innovative approach

National-scale fluvial and coastal water level prediction and flood extent mapping is an essential planning tool for the management of flood risks through strategic planning, risk mapping, land-use development and management of flood defences. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has commissioned HR Wallingford to provide an innovative, semi-automated, robust approach for the prediction of flood hazard maps for Scotland. These include flood events with a 1.0%, 0.5% and 0.1% annual probability of occurrence in the absence of defences. The methodology is based on state of the art GIS scripts developed in-house for handling and processing large volumes of data. The hydraulic calculation incorporates the latest R&D research such as the new EA/Defra Conveyance Estimation System (CES) software, recent initiatives for the assessment of uncertainty and an independent study to establish the likelihood of the Digital Terrain Model (DTM) identifying the channel bed, through consideration of bankfull discharge. The InfoWorks RS (IWRS) 1D hydrodynamic modelling software is used for simulating the hydraulics and for flood spreading. The method is designed to readily incorporate existing more detailed hydraulic models, information on previous flooding and local flood defence data. This paper describes the complete flood mapping methodology