The Land of One Thousand Villages; Examining Rural Resettlement Planning as a Driver for Poverty Reduction in Post-Conflict Rwanda

Following the 1994 Genocide, Rwanda embarked on an ambitious plan to resettle its entire rural population into thousands of planned settlements across the country. Development agencies at the time were skeptical of such a plan as similar efforts across Africa had largely failed and were crippled by corruption, human rights abuses and poor follow through. Rwanda however, has been an exception. Twenty years after the initial Human Settlement Policy was introduced, Rwanda has made notable strides towards addressing land use planning, a poor education record, high levels of poverty and low levels of health access. Through national-level strategies, clear and concise goals, adequate international and domestic funding, and an acute recognition of its vulnerable populations, Rwanda is now leading Africa in economic, health, education, and environmental standards. This thesis explores Rwanda's resettlement practices and argues that it could not have been realized without thoughtful and decisive actions taken by the Government in planning and executing the rural resettlement program

Ecology of ant lions (Myrmeleon bore, Euroleon nostras) on succession areas

Offenlandschaften, insbesondere vegetationsarme bzw. von Sandmagerrasen bewachsene Binnendünen stellen seltene Lebensräume dar, die einer Vielzahl spezialisierter Arten einen Lebensraum bieten. Solche Ökosysteme sind in der Oberlausitz unter anderem durch Truppenübungsplätze entstanden und gehen nach Nutzungsaufgabe durch Sukzession verloren. Dadurch verlieren verschiedene stenöke Tierarten ihren Lebensraum. Dies gilt im besonderen Maße für Myrmeleon bore, eine Art, die nach Gepp & Hölzel (1996) offene Sandflächen benötigt. In gewissem Maße profitiert auch Euroleon nostras, der aber auch andere Biotope besiedelt, so lange genügend offene Fläche mit rieselfähigem Substrat, sowie Witterungsschutz vorliegt. Hier soll der Einfluss der Sukzession auf die Verbreitung der Arten untersucht werden, um somit insbesondere Hinweise zum Erhalt der Populationen zu gewinnen.In a former troop training area in Upper Lusatia investigations on the influence of succession on habitat utilisation of the ant lion species Myrmeleon bore and Euroleon nostras, (Neuroptera, Myrmeleontidae), were performed from 1999 to 2006. The influence of vegetation cover and prey availability at sites with different seral stages on the density of ant-lion larvae could be proved. An optimum was found between 5 % and 40 % vegetation cover with grass or mosses. With raising plant cover positive effects (shading, protection from wind, higher prey availability) are getting stronger until the optimum is reached, after which negative effects (higher parasitism- and predation-rate, lower availability of open substrate, moist microclimate) are getting stronger, until at > 80 % plant cover no ant lions occur any more. It seems to be a trade off between plant cover and prey availability. Also the importance of overhangs at forest edges, which provided the suitable microclimate for Euroleon nostras could be confirmed

Räumlich-statistische Clusteranalyse - ein Beitrag zur Quantifizierung physischer Vulnerabilität durch alpine Naturgefahren (Wildbachprozesse)

Die Erfassung und Beurteilung der physischen Vulnerabilität gegenüber Wildbachprozessen ist ein integraler Bestandteil eines holistischen Konzepts zum Management von Risiko. In der Naturgefahrenforschung wird Risiko als Funktion von Frequenz und Magnitude multipliziert mit den Auswirkungen eines Prozesses definiert. Die Auswirkungen eines Prozesses auf die physischmaterielle Umwelt werden zumeist durch die Quantifizierung von Vulnerabilität erfasst. Vulnerabilität wird in diesem Kontext als Schadenausmaß verstanden, das durch das Einwirken einer Naturgefahr auf ein Risikoelementes verursacht wird. Über die räumlichen Ausprägungen von Vulnerabilität ist sehr wenig bekannt (Fuchs et al. 2012), obwohl jedoch das Verständnis räumlicher Muster der Vulnerabilität viel dazu beitragen könnte die Bewertung von Risiken zu verbessern (Papathoma-Köhle et al. 2011). Aufbauend auf den Daten für zwei sehr gut dokumentierte Wildbachereignisse in Österreich wird in der vorliegenden Arbeit das räumliche Muster der Vulnerabilität untersucht. Mit Hilfe eines räumlich-statistischen Ansatzes – implementiert in das Programm SaTScan nach Kulldorff (1997) – wird untersucht, ob die Siedlungsstruktur eine Auswirkung auf die Clusterung von hohen Schadenlastwerten hat. Weiters wird über eine Erhöhung und Verringerung der räumlichen Dichte der Datenpunkte und eine schrittweise Veränderung des Verhältnisses zwischen beschädigten und nicht-beschädigten Gebäuden eruiert, ob erstens die Weibullfunktion (vorgestellt in Totschnig et al. 2011) geeignet ist, um Schadenlastwerte zu schätzen und zweitens, ob es Schwellenwerte für die Anzahl und Zusammensetzung der Datenpunkte gibt, ab denen eine räumlich-statistische Datenanalyse keine plausiblen Ergebnisse mehr liefert. Die Plausibilität der Ergebnisse wird durch die Berechnung der Indizes Power, Sensitivität und Positiver Vorhersagewert beurteilt. Weiters werden die Ergebnisse anhand von Karten, die die räumliche Lage der Cluster auf dem jeweiligen Schwemmkegel verorten, dargestellt. Die Ergebnisse lassen den Schluss zu, dass die Weibullfunktion nur eingeschränkt anwendbar ist, um Werte für die Schadenlast abzuschätzen. Weiters zeigen die Ergebnisse der Punkterhöhung und -verringerung sowie die Veränderung des Verhältnisses zwischen beschädigten und nicht- beschädigten Gebäuden, dass keine klare Aussage über Schwellenwerte getroffen werden kann. Es lässt sich vielmehr sagen, dass die Signifikanz und räumliche Lage der Cluster innerhalb gewisser Datenbereiche relativ stabil bleibt. Die Ergebnisse der Diplomarbeit ergänzen das Verständnis der räumlichen Verteilung von Vulnerabilität auf einer lokalen Maßstabsebene und können damit einen Beitrag zur integrativen Risikoforschung leisten.The acquisition and assessment of physical vulnerability to torrential hazards is an integral component of a holistic risk management concept. In natural hazard science risk is defined as the function of frequency and magnitude multiplied by the impact of the process. The impact of a process on its physical environment is often assessed by quantifying vulnerability. In this context vulnerability is defined as the degree of damage to a given element at risk due to the impact of a natural hazard. However less is known about the spatial patterns of vulnerability (Fuchs et al. 2012), although a better understanding of spatial patterns of vulnerability could improve the assessment of risk (Papathoma-Köhle et al. 2011). Based on data of two well documented torrent events in Austria this diploma thesis deals with the analysis of spatial patterns of vulnerability. By means of a spatial scan statistic – implemented in the software SaTScan by Kulldorff (1997) – it will be examined, if settlement structures have effects on the clustering of high damage values. Moreover there will be investigations on the applicability of the Weibullfunction (introduced by Totschnig et al. 2011) in terms of estimating damage values. Furthermore the question will be addressed if there are threshold values concerning the amount and the composition of the data points, above which the spatial scan statistics can not provide plausible results. These issues will be dealt with by increasing and decreasing spatial density of the data points and stepwise altering the proportion of damaged and non-damaged building points. The plausibility of the results will be evaluated by the calculation of the power, sensitivity and positive predictive value. At last the results will be presented in maps, that show the spatial positions of the clusters on the particular alluvial cone. The results lead to the conclusion, that the utilisation of the Weibullfunction for estimating damage values is limited. Furthermore the results of the increase and decrease of data points, as well as the altering of the proportion of damaged and non-damaged building points show, that no clear conclusion about threshold values can be drawn. It rather can be said, that within a certain data range the significance and spatial position of the clusters seam to be relatively stable. The results of this diploma thesis add to the understanding of spatial patterns of vulnerability on a local scale and as such contribute to an integrative approach of risk research

Head motion predictability explains activity-dependent suppression of vestibular balance control

Vestibular balance control is dynamically weighted during locomotion. This might result from a selective suppression of vestibular inputs in favor of a feed-forward balance regulation based on locomotor efference copies. The feasibility of such a feed-forward mechanism should however critically depend on the predictability of head movements (HMP) during locomotion. To test this, we studied in 10 healthy subjects the differential impact of a stochastic vestibular stimulation (SVS) on body sway (center-of-pressure, COP) during standing and walking at different speeds and compared it to activity-dependent changes in HMP. SVS-COP coupling was determined by correlation analysis in frequency and time domains. HMP was quantified as the proportion of head motion variance that can be explained by the average head trajectory across the locomotor cycle. SVS-COP coupling decreased from standing to walking and further dropped with faster locomotion. Correspondingly, HMP increased with faster locomotion. Furthermore, SVS-COP coupling depended on the gait-cycle-phase with peaks corresponding to periods of least HMP. These findings support the assumption that during stereotyped human self-motion, locomotor efference copies selectively replace vestibular cues, similar to what was previously observed in animal models

Physical and Tribological Characteristics of Ion-Implanted Diamond Films

Unidirectional sliding friction experiments were conducted with a natural, polished diamond pin in contact with both as-deposited and carbon-ion-implanted diamond films in ultrahigh vacuum. Diamond films were deposited on silicon, silicon carbide, and silicon nitride by microwave-plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition. The as-deposited diamond films were impacted with carbon ions at an accelerating energy of 60 keV and a current density of 50 micron A/cm(exp 2) for approximately 6 min, resulting in a dose of 1.2 x 10(exp 17) carbon ions/cm(exp 2). The results indicate that the carbon ion implantation produced a thin surface layer of amorphous, nondiamond carbon. The nondiamond carbon greatly decreased both friction and wear of the diamond films. The coefficients of friction for the carbon-ion-implanted, fine-grain diamond films were less than 0.1, factors of 20 to 30 lower than those for the as-deposited, fine-grain diamond films. The coefficients of friction for the carbon-ion-implanted, coarse-grain diamond films were approximately 0.35, a factor of five lower than those for the as-deposited, coarse-grain diamond films. The wear rates for the carbon-ion-implanted, diamond films were on the order of 10(exp -6) mm(exp 3)/Nm, factors of 30 to 80 lower than that for the as-deposited diamond films, regardless of grain size. The friction of the carbon-ion-implanted diamond films was greatly reduced because the amorphous, nondiamond carbon, which had a low shear strength, was restricted to the surface layers (less than 0.1 micron thick) and because the underlying diamond materials retained their high hardness. In conclusion, the carbon-ion-implanted, fine-grain diamond films can be used effectively as wear resistant, self-lubricating coatings for ceramics, such as silicon nitride and silicon carbide, in ultrahigh vacuum

Correlating students' educational background, study habits, and resource usage with learning success in medical histology

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109887/1/ase1449.pd

Development and preliminary evaluation of the VPS ReplaySuite: a virtual double-headed microscope for pathology

BACKGROUND: Advances in computing and telecommunications have resulted in the availability of a range of online tools for use in pathology training and quality assurance. The majority focus on either enabling pathologists to examine and diagnose cases, or providing image archives that serve as reference material. Limited emphasis has been placed on analysing the diagnostic process used by pathologists to reach a diagnosis and using this as a resource for improving diagnostic performance. METHODS: The ReplaySuite is an online pathology software tool that presents archived virtual slide examinations to pathologists in an accessible video-like format, similar to observing examinations with a double-headed microscope. Delivered through a customised web browser, it utilises PHP (Hypertext PreProcessor) to interact with a remote database and retrieve data describing virtual slide examinations, performed using the Virtual Pathology Slide (VPS). To demonstrate the technology and conduct a preliminary evaluation of pathologists opinions on its potential application in pathology training and quality assurance, 70 pathologists were invited to use the application to review their own and other pathologists examinations of 10 needle-core breast biopsies and complete an electronic survey. 9 pathologists participated, and all subsequently completed an exit survey. RESULTS: Of those who replayed an examination by another pathologist, 83.3% (5/6) agreed that replays provided an insight into the examining pathologists diagnosis and 33.3% (2/6) reconsidered their own diagnosis for at least one case. Of those who reconsidered their original diagnosis, all re-classified either concordant with group consensus or original glass slide diagnosis. 77.7% (7/9) of all participants, and all 3 participants who replayed more than 10 examinations stated the ReplaySuite to be of some or great benefit in pathology training and quality assurance. CONCLUSION: Participants conclude the ReplaySuite to be of some or of great potential benefit to pathology training and quality assurance and consider the ReplaySuite to be beneficial in evaluating the diagnostic trace of an examination. The ReplaySuite removes temporal and spatial issues that surround the use of double-headed microscopes by allowing examinations to be reviewed at different times and in different locations to the original examination. While the evaluation set was limited and potentially subject to bias, the response of participants was favourable. Further work is planned to determine whether use of the ReplaySuite can result in improved diagnostic ability