Identifying and categorizing stakeholders for protected area expansion around a national park in Namibia

Protected areas and adjacent landscapes are increasingly being viewed as integrated. A more general awareness is emerging of the relevance of collectively managed landscapes for conservation and human well-being. In Namibia, areas dedicated to conservation are increasing because of the proliferation of conservancies and game reserves. Management toward integrated conservation in these landscapes involves land use practices variably dedicated to wildlife management and the inclusion of land owners and resource users in the decision-making process. We use stakeholder analysis to identify participants integral to an expanded protected area network around the Etosha National Park in Namibia. We identified and categorized important stakeholder groups, and quantitatively and qualitatively assessed their relative importance to the protected area decision-making process. Twelve stakeholder groups were identified, and categorized according to proximity to the national park, land tenure, and land use type. Primary stakeholders, those who both affect and are affected by decision making, comprised livestock farmers, communal conservancy members, resettlement farmers, and tourism/hunting enterprises. For each group the cumulative values of position (level of support for, or opposition to the concept), interest (perceived disadvantages and advantages thereof), and power (resources stakeholders can mobilize to express their position) were calculated. These attributes provide an indication of stakeholder salience, i.e., how likely stakeholders are to affect or be affected by an integrated conservation landscape. We find that livestock farmers, although interested in the concept, mostly oppose protected area expansion. The conflict in opinion is linked to the benefits derived from being part of the conservation landscape and the losses endured due to the porous park fence, including human-wildlife conflict and regulations involving a veterinary cordon fence. A consideration of stakeholder salience, taking into account the different perceptions surrounding the benefits of living adjacent to a protected area, can potentially lead to the better implementation of integrated conservation areas

Editorial: Natural products as drivers in drug development for neurodegenerative disorders

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Precision of micromilled x-ray masks and exposures

Micromechanical milling has been shown to be a rapid and direct method for the fabrication of structures with the geometry and size suitable for use as x-ray mask absorbers. While the micromilling process can not duplicate the size and resolution of absorber patterns created by high energy electron beam or optical lithography methods, micromilling can repeatedly create absorber line widths down to 10 micrometers, or less, with a one-sigma tolerance of 0.5 micrometers. A method for easily characterizing milling tool run out has been adapted so tool change out can be more routine. The milling process leaves some absorber burrs and the absorber is apparently tapered at the machined wall which introduce process biases, both of which add to exposure degradation. Nevertheless, based on work to date, it appears both of these effects can be reduced to acceptable limits

Grundlagen und Anwendungsmoeglichkeiten der LIGA-Technik in der Mikrooptik

The LIGA technique offers a means of manufacturing passive, refractive optical components such as lenses or prisms having characteristic dimensions in the submillimeter range. It further allows components of any two-dimensional geometry, structural heights of several hundred micrometers and with vertical sidewalls to be manufactured with ultra-high precision. Besides, manufacture of side walls inclined towards the substrate surface opens up a way of deflecting the light imaged in the LIGA plane in a direction normal to the plane, e.g. by total internal reflection at a sidewall inclined by 45"0. In this way, a three-dimensional optical setup can be assembled and decoupling of light into electrooptical elements is achieved in an easy way. Besides the accuracy of patterning and the relative capability of positioning of several components on one substrate, the quality of the optical interfaces, in the case considered here of the sidewalls produced, will be crucial as regards the applications of LIGA structures in microoptics. The analysis of the surface roughness of the sidewalls made with an Linnick-type interferometer has made evident that the mean surface roughness of both the vertical and the inclined sidewalls is in the range of 30 nm to 50 nm. This good quality meets the prerequisite of applications of these components in many microoptical setups. The measurements of the imaging characteristics of individual components provides evidence of the good performance of the elements. A fiber coupling element is studied as a concrete example of application of microoptical LIGA components. (orig./SR)Dissertation submitted by J. GoetterSIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: ZA 5141(5153) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

A Micro corona motor fabricated by a SU-8 built-on X-ray mask

Abstract A micro corona motor was fabricated using a membraneless built-on X-ray mask. Sharp stator electrodes of this motor ionize air molecules and ionized charges transfer onto the rotor surface, resulting in rotating rotor motions by Coulomb forces. For good performance, the stator's electrodes should be wide (axial) and have sharp tips. Therefore, X-ray lithography was adopted for precise, high aspect ratio characteristics. To avoid the fabrication difficulty of a membrane X-ray mask, a built-on X-ray mask (conformal mask) technique was employed with negative toned SU-8 photoresist. SU-8 features X-ray fabrication compatibility, X-ray transparency and a large range of thickness. This technique may be suitable for fast fabrication of prototypes or very tall structures, which can be largely affected by printing gaps. For the X-ray built-on mask, 20 lm SU-8 was patterned and 8 lm gold absorber was electroplated on top of the 300 lm PMMA resist. Tests showed good quality pattern transfer from the SU-8 pattern and smooth sidewalls. Introduction Corona motors, a unique type of electrostatic motor [1], have not been developed in the micro domain. This motor uses repulsive forces between charges of like polarity applied to stator electrodes and the charges induced via corona action onto rotor surface, to create rotating motion. Sharp edges of the stator's electrodes generate highly non-uniform fields; the tips of these long electrodes are close to the surface of the rotor. Since strong electric fields can ionize air molecules, resulting in a corona, the surface of the rotor can be charged by means of a partial corona discharge from the stator electrodes. In motor operation, the stator and rotor charges interact to produce both torque and bearing lift. Driving forces of past electrostatic micromotors (e.g., variable capacitance and induction motors) arose from Coulomb attraction between opposite charges. Coulomb's electrostatic force increases as distance between charge s decreases. Out of tolerance between a bearing and rotor produces unwanted radial motions of the rotor, which changes the air gap and disturbs the forces. A small disturbance can unbalance the rotor, and the resulting radial motions of the rotor increase contact, friction, and wear, which limit life. In the corona motor introduced in this paper, repulsion between like charged stator electrodes and rotor surface charges levitate the rotor, augmenting bearing action and avoiding stiction and friction. The design of this motor demands small dimensions, high tolerances, large aspect ratios, and very sharp electrodes. X-ray lithography was adopted for fabrication of this motor, because the short wavelength of X-rays can satisfy the following geometric specifications. First, the smallest possible tip radius of a sharp electrode is determined by the wavelength of the light sourc