Waking the Watchdog: Needs, Opportunities, and Challenges of Environmental Advocacy in Modern Bhutan

In a half-century, the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan has emerged from isolation to achieve international recognition as a model of alternative development.The small country’s Gross National Happiness philosophy emphasizes sustainable development, cultural preservation, environmental conservation, and good governance over the long-favored global metric of success: Gross Domestic Product. Bhutan’s historic environmental record has been strong, but modernization and the 2008 transition to democracy are changing the ecological and socio-political landscape, requiring the adaptation of conservation strategy. This paper draws on historic and policy analysis, ethnographic observation, and qualitative interviews with 20 of Bhutan’s key stakeholders to identify needs, opportunities, and challenges to public environmental advocacy in Bhutan. While Bhutan is often characterized as a static, serene Buddhist kingdom, its recent history has been dynamic, marked by major political change, economic growth, and active cultivation of a specific and uniform national identity. Accelerating ecological degradation due to development, vulnerability to global threats such as climate change, and transformation of the governance system create a need to advocate for creative and effective solutions. The rapid rate of change within Bhutanese society allows unprecedented opportunities for powerful civil society action. Interviews with major environmental figures from government, international organizations, and domestic groups show a common call for new, dynamic actors who can serve as a “watchdog” for the environment. Their tasks include producing scientific research and translating it into policy, mediating effectively between government and citizens in the fledgling democracy, and overcoming traditional cultural deference to publically challenge actions that threaten the environment. Thoughtful, responsible, and public environmental advocacy is both necessary and possible, and holds potential to enhance the environmental and democratic integrity of modern Bhutan

Restenosis, reocclusion and adverse cardiovascular events after successful balloon angioplasty of occluded versus nonoccluded coronary arteries: Results from the multicenter american research trial with cilazapril after angioplasty to prevent transluminal coronary obstruction and restenosis (MARCATOR)

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to compare the frequency of restenosis, reocclusion and adverse cardiovascular events after angioplasty of occluded versus nonoccluded coronary arteries. BACKGROUND: Angioplasty of chronically occluded coronary arteries is believed to be associated with a higher frequency of restenosis and reocclusion than angioplasty of subtotal stenoses. Whether this leads to adverse cardiovascular events is unknown. METHODS: The Multicenter American Research Trial With Cilazapril After Angioplasty to Prevent Restenosis (MARCATOR) was a placebo-controlled trial with angiographic follow-up to determine the effect of the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor cilazapril on the frequency of restenosis. In this trial, restenosis was defined as 1) angiographic reduction of minimal lumen diameter > or = 0.72 mm between angioplasty and the follow-up visit; and 2) > 50% diameter stenosis on the follow-up angiogram. We identified

Urban atmospheric chlorine chemistry : mechanism development, evaluation and implications

textDetailed photochemical modeling is used to guide air quality management activities around the world. These models use condensed chemical mechanisms to describe the multiphase processes that lead to chemical transformations in the atmosphere. Condensed mechanisms have generally not included the reactions of halogens, yet an expanding body of ambient observational evidence indicates that halogen chemistry, particularly chlorine chemistry, can be important in urban environments. This thesis is focused on the development, implementation, and evaluation of condensed chemical mechanisms that incorporate chlorine chemistry pathways. Gas phase reactions involving molecular chlorine and nitryl chloride (ClNO₂), as well as heterogeneous reactions involving particulate chloride species are addressed. The predictions of the modeling work presented here are compared to environmental chamber experiments and field observations.Chemical Engineerin

Employer Sanctions for Hiring Illegal Aliens: A Simplistic Solution to a Complex Problem

Several factors have led to the current push for sanctions against employers who hire illegal aliens. One main factor is the perception that illegal aliens take jobs from United States citizens and legal aliens, work- ers and negatively affect the national economy. Obviously, any percep- tion that the jobs of United States citizens are being lost tends to create an emotionally charged environment that hampers objective decision making. Further, frustration has built up because current legal mecha- nisms seem incapable of halting illegal immigration. This frustration has increased xenophobia. Finally, proponents of sanctions identify a major inequity in a law which punishes illegal immigrants but provides no sanc- tions against their employers. The answer, some say, is to end the pull of illegal immigration, i.e. eliminate employment opportunities in the United States by prohibiting employers from hiring illegals. Although employer sanctions temporarily satisfy an emotional need to do something to preserve citizens\u27 jobs from hordes of illegal aliens, they do not permanently address underlying problems. Congress must adopt a more sophisticated approach to illegal immigration and recog- nize the potential pitfalls of employer sanctions

Preparation and examination of high school experiments in chemistry

This item was digitized by the Internet Archive. Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universityhttps://archive.org/details/preparationexami00fax

Free surface flows emerging from beneath a semi-infinite plate with constant vorticity

The free surface flow past a semi-infinite horizontal plate in a finite-depth fluid is considered. It is assumed that the fluid is incompressible and inviscid and that the flow approaches a uniform shear flow downstream. Exact relations are derived using conservation of mass and momentum for the case where the downstream free surface is flat. The complete nonlinear problem is solved numerically using a boundary integral method and these waveless solutions are shown to exist only when the height of the plate above the bottom is greater than the height of the uniform shear flow. Interesting results are found for various values of the constant vorticity. Solutions with downstream surface waves are also considered, and nonlinear results of this type are compared with linear results found previously. These solutions can be used to model the flow near the stern of a (two-dimensional) ship

Beyond the Hype:Digital Transformations in Global Land, Housing, and Property

This theme issue investigates how 21st-century digital innovations are changing the nature and value of land, housing, and property. Contributors bring together an array of cases to understand how digitization is remaking land and housing on a global scale and, in turn, how existing property relations structure digital transformations in particular geographies. In this introduction to the theme issue, we outline how hype can be used as an analytical entry point to characterize the collection’s contribution, demonstrating how hype elides unequal relations of land and labor while stoking speculation in immovable property, even as it creates new markets for less tangible assets—whether rental data or virtual plots—that usher in new global connections and familiar market dynamics