Indigenous Self-Determination in Health in Guatemala: Lessons from Chile and Canada

As a response to the poor health conditions that indigenous people experience worldwide, indigenous groups in many countries have demanded increased autonomy and control over health care in hopes of developing more accessible and responsive health services. The purpose of this work is to explore factors required for self-determining indigenous health systems, and consider whether these would work in Guatemala. To accomplish this, a review of the literature was conducted and two examples of indigenous self-determination in health from Chile (Makewe Hospital) and Canada (NAN’s Crisis Teams) were selected. The formation and implementation process of these initiatives was analysed to identify factors that enable indigenous self-determination in health. Factors that would be feasible to replicate in Guatemala include strong community involvement in organizing health care, revalorization and revitalization of indigenous knowledge and culture, leadership capacity, flexibility, and integration of Western and traditional medical systems.&nbsp

Meandering evolution and width variation, a physics-statistical based modeling approach

Many models have been proposed to simulate and understand the long-term evolution of meandering rivers. These models analyze the hydraulics of the in-channel flow and the river bank movement (erosion \u2013 accretion) process in different ways, but some gap still remain, e.g. the stability of long-term simulations when width variations are accounted for. Here we proposed a physics-statistical based approach to simulate the river bank evolution, that erosion and deposition processes act independently, with a specific shear stress threshold for each of them. In addition, we link the width evolution with a parametric probability distribution (PPD) based on a mean characteristic channel width. We are thus able to obtaining stable long-term simulations with realistic and reasonable spatio-temporal distribution of the along channel width

Rereading \u3ci\u3ePico\u3c/i\u3e and the Equal Protection Clause

More than forty years ago, in Board of Education v. Pico, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of a school board’s decision to remove books from its libraries. However, the Court’s response was heavily fractured, garnering seven separate opinions. In the plurality opinion, three justices stated that the implicit corollary to a student’s First Amendment right to free speech is the right to receive information. Thus, the plurality announced that the relevant inquiry for reviewing a school’s library book removal actions is whether the school officials intended to deny students access to ideas with which the officials disagreed. The plurality’s reliance on the “right to receive information” drew strong opposition from the dissenting justices, who stressed that the plurality had fashioned a new right by encouraging judicial intervention in school book removal decisions. Today, the Court’s fractured opinion in Pico leaves many questions unanswered for students affected by school library book removals. Using PEN American Center v. Escambia County School Board as a case study, this Note explores the current First Amendment and Equal Protection Clause arguments used by students challenging school book removals. In that case, Escambia County removed ten books featuring themes about race, gender, or sexuality from its school libraries. The plaintiff students alleged that the school board violated their First Amendment right to receive information and their equal protection rights. In light of Pico’s progeny and existing equal protection doctrine, this Note argues that the defendant school board’s actions in PEN American Center violated the First Amendment and Equal Protection Clause. Using the facts of PEN American Center, this Note suggests how courts reviewing similar book removal cases should analyze students’ First Amendment and equal protection claims

False Memories for Stereotypes: Effects of Attention and Delay

The present study investigated the conditions in which stereotype-based beliefs elicit the creation of false memories for information consistent with racial-occupational expectations and the extent to which attentional depletion increases this likelihood. This was examined in the context of racial-occupational stereotypes for White and Latino individuals. Participants were presented with pictures of faces paired with stereotype-consistent and -inconsistent occupational information. One group of participants was exposed to these stimuli while also completing an additional task designed to divide their attention. Their memory for these pairings was tested in both an immediate and delayed recognition test. Due to the social reliance on categorical-based pre-conceptions to facilitate information processing when cognitive resources are limited, it was hypothesized that the group in the divided-attention condition would produce a higher rate of stereotype-consistent false memories than the group under full attention. Results showed that both attention conditions produced similar false memory rates. However, participants displayed a propensity to generate expectancy-consistent false memories both after an immediate and delayed recognition test taken 7 days later

Carrier Concentration Dependencies of Magnetization & Transport in Ga1-xMnxAs1-yTey

We have investigated the transport and magnetization characteristics of Ga1-xMnxAs intentionally compensated with shallow Te donors. Using ion implantation followed by pulsed-laser melting, we vary the Te compensation and drive the system through a metal-insulator transition (MIT). This MIT is associated with enhanced low-temperature magnetization and an evolution from concave to convex temperature-dependent magnetization.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the proceedings of the 27th International Conference on the Physics of Semiconductors (ICPS-27, Flagstaff, AZ, July 26-30, 2004

El Pla Territorial de l'illa de Menorca

El Pla Territorial de Menorca és un exemple d’aplicació dels criteris de desenvolupament sostenible a la realitat territorial de l’Illa. Aquests criteris condueixen tot el procés planificador i troben un bon suport en la societat menorquina, que és ben conscient de la qualitat, i també de la fragilitat, del seu territori. Menorca opta així per un model territorial diferenciat que pretén fer compatible economia i respecte als recursos naturals i al paisatge. El Pla introdueix mesures de protecció sobre la totalitat del sòl rústic, per tal de preservar la diversitat d’àmbits rurals, tant naturals com humanitzats, tots ells amb valor paisatgístic remarcable. Amplia els espais naturals protegits, de tal manera que es passa de tenir una sèrie inconnexa d’espais naturals protegits a establir un vertader sistema d’espais naturals protegits. Limita el creixement de les zones turístiques, a fi que aquestes puguin ser reconduïdes a paràmetres de més qualitat i preveu un desenvolupament harmònic dins els nuclis tradicionals de població

Reflexions sobre l’evolució de la protecció dels valors ambientals a les illes Balears: els espais naturals protegits i la Xarxa Natura 2000

Aquest article pretén reflexionar sobre els importants canvis experimentats en matèria de protecció i conservació del medi natural a les illes Balears en el darrer quart de segle. Ens hem centrat particularment en allò que la LECO defineix com a espais de rellevància ambiental: els espais naturals protegits, d’una banda i la xarxa ecològica de protecció d’hàbitats i aus, la Xarxa Natura 2000, de l’altra. Nogensmenys hem aportat un enfocament més humà i historicista en reflexionar sobre que són 25 anys des d’una perspectiva humana i retre, alhora, un merescut homenatge a qui ha dedicat bona part de la seva vida professional a l’Administració Autonòmica i, concretament, a la defensa dels valors ambientals de l’arxipèlag balear