The Myth of the Amorphous Peasantry: A Northern Nigerian Case Study

The purpose of this article is to present some rather detailed statistical ("grass-root") material bearing on the question of rural inequality, in the hope that this may help to bring discussion by economists out into the open. I am seeking to demonstrate that there are circumstances in which "inequality" may be a more realistic assumption than "uniform poverty," in which case it is the economic relationship between the different sections of the rural population which requires examination, together with the different scarcities (or groups of scarcities) from which these various sections suffer.Center for Research on Economic Development, University of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/100753/1/ECON218.pd

Hidden Trade in Hausaland

This article is mainly concerned with the importance of the 'house-trade' conducted by fully-secluded women in a village, Batagarawa, in northern Katsina Emirate. I shall show that although each woman sells her produce within the privacy of her husband's compound, one may yet argue that the sellers as a group, together with their customers, are the equivalent of a market-place, especially so far as grains are concerned-a market-place of incomparably greater importance than that which was established in the village recently. Other economic activities of secluded women will also be mentioned.Center for Research on Economic Development, University of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/100752/1/ECON217.pd

Decolonising Environmental Risk Assessments of Potentially Polluting Wrecks:a Case Study of the Wreck of the USS Mississinewa in Ulithi Lagoon, Federated States of Micronesia

Millions of tonnes of oil lie entombed within wrecks from two world wars which, when released, can cause environmental devastation. Wrecks are predominantly risk assessed by the Global North Nations responsible, resulting in an epistemology that separates human from nature. This research aimed to decolonise risk assessments to capture the spatially heterogeneous nature of human vulnerability to oil pollution. Triangulation analysis of interviews and official reports relating to the USS Mississinewa oil spill identified three Global South issues a Eurocentric risk assessment failed to capture: region-specific meteorological conditions causing the leak, remoteness making external resources slow to arrive, and the impact of the fishery closure on traditional subsistence lifestyles. A vulnerability assessment is proposed to prioritise wrecks in susceptible locations. Recommendations are made for a collaborative approach to wreck management by including local voices, resisting the Global North assumption of generality, and recognising the priorities of those living with wrecks

Resource availability and territorial behavior in Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) at UMBS

General EcologyThe goal of this study was to determine if Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) exhibited territorial behaviors in relation to varied degrees of nectar availability. In order to examine this territorial behavior, we worked with students in the ornithology class to set-up 6 feeding sites at the edge of a field and woods at the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS) in Pellston, Michigan. Feeders at the sites were used to mimic low, intermediate, and high resource availability. Our group predicted that males would exhibit more territorial behavior than females at the sites with higher resource abundance. We also expected the most interactions to occur among males. We observed and recorded the territorial behavior of chasing at the feeding sites 3 times a day for hour-long periods for 4 days. Our results showed that the highest number of chasing behavior occurred at the single-feeder stations amongst females. We observed relatively low numbers of chasing between males. Furthermore, we observed that males preferred visiting sites with more feeders whereas females did not exhibit a clear preference of feeder abundance. Further studies on hummingbird territorial behavior would be beneficial to clarify whether chasing amongst females is common.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116607/1/DesJardins_Hill_Washabaugh_Wellman_2015.pd

Articulating encounters between children and plastics

In the context of global concerns about plastics, this paper sets out and exemplifies a research agenda for articulating children’s encounters with plastics. The paper analyses data co-produced with 11–15 year-olds through interviews, app-based research and experimental/arts-led workshops. It moves beyond scholarship in health and environmental sciences, and in environmental education research, to outline a far richer range of ways to conceptualise children’s encounters with plastics, based in children’s everyday, embodied and emotive interactions with plastics

Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents

Anxiety disorders are among the most common psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents. They commonly interfere with peer relationships, schooling and family life, and persist into adulthood if left untreated. This paper gives an overview of the identification, assessment and treatment of anxiety disorders in children and young people. Identification of anxiety disorders is often poor and many young people with anxiety disorders go untreated. We present a brief review of the evidence base for pharmacological and psychological treatment approaches to the management of anxiety disorders in youth. Both have been found to be effective in the treatment of anxiety disorders, although psychological treatments such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) are considered the first-line treatment due to relative benefits in terms of patient safety and parental preference. Low intensity CBT approaches such as bibliotherapy and online therapies are effective and have the potential to improve access to evidence-based interventions. CBT approaches have also been found to be effective with particular patient groups, such as those with long-term physical health conditions and autism spectrum disorders, who are at an increased risk of anxiety disorders

Resilience of SAR11 bacteria to rapid acidification in the high latitude open ocean

Ubiquitous SAR11 Alphaproteobacteria numerically dominate marine planktonic communities. Because they are excruciatingly difficult to cultivate, there is comparatively little known about their physiology and metabolic responses to long- and short- term environmental changes. As surface oceans take up anthropogenic, atmospheric CO2, the consequential process of ocean acidification could affect the global biogeochemical significance of SAR11. Shipping accidents or inadvertent release of chemicals from industrial plants can have strong short-term local effects on oceanic SAR11. This study investigated the effect of 2.5 fold acidification of seawater on the metabolism of SAR11 and other heterotrophic bacterioplankton along a natural temperature gradient crossing the North Atlantic Ocean, Norwegian and Greenland Seas. Uptake rates of the amino acid leucine by SAR11 cells as well as other bacterioplankton remained similar to controls despite an instant ∼50% increase in leucine bioavailability upon acidification. This high physiological resilience to acidification even without acclimation, suggests that open ocean dominant bacterioplankton are able to cope even with sudden and therefore more likely with long-term acidification effects

Immersive virtual reality and digital applied gaming interventions for the treatment of mental health problems in children and young people: the need for rigorous treatment development and clinical evaluation

Background: Mental health problems in children and young people are common and can lead to poor long-term outcomes. Despite the availability of effective psychological interventions for mental health disorders, only a minority of affected children and young people access treatment. Digital interventions, such as applied games and virtual reality (VR), that target mental health problems in children and young people may hold a key to increasing access to, engagement with and potentially the effectiveness of psychological treatments. To date, several applied games and VR interventions have been specifically developed for children and young people. This systematic review aims to identify and synthesise current data on the experience and effectiveness of applied games and VR for targeting mental health problems in children and young people (defined as average age of 18 years or below). Methods: Electronic systematic searches were conducted in Medline, PsychINFO, CINAHL and Web of Science. Results: 19 studies were identified that examined nine applied games and two VR applications, and targeted symptoms of anxiety, depression and phobias using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Existing evidence is at a very early stage and studies vary extensively in key methodological characteristics. For applied games, the most robust evidence is for adolescent depressive symptoms (medium clinical effect sizes). Insufficient research attention has been given to the efficacy of VR interventions in children and young people. Conclusions: The evidence to date is at a very early stage. Despite the enthusiasm for applied games and VR, existing interventions are limited in number and evidence of efficacy, and there is a clear need for further co-design, development, and evaluation of applied games and VR before they are routinely offered as treatments for children and young people with mental health problems

DIE BIOETHIK UND ANTHROPOLOGIE

Budući da je i bioetika, kako je već naznačeno i u njezinu imenu, posebna, specijalna etika (sadržana i u koncepciji bioetike kao nove, transdisciplinarne znanosti), prvo je rečeno ono osnovno o etici kao disciplini praktičke filozofije, da bi tako postao razgovjetniji i smisao, zadaća i mogućnosti bioetike kao primijenjene etike na područje života općenito, prvenstveno na čovjekov život i zdravlje. Kako je etika kao refleksija o ispravnom i dobrom ljudskom djelovanju bitno povezana s antropologijom kao filozofijskim i znanstvenim promišljanjem naravi, položaja u svijetu i biti čovjekova bića uopće (prirodnoga, društvenoga i duhovnog), to je u drugom dijelu ovoga konspekta pokazana i »pupčana« sveza bioetike s antropologijom, s posebnim obzirom na suvremene ekološke uvjete života, tj. na prijeteću globalnu i strukturalnu ekološku krizu.Since bioethics, as the name itself indicates, is a special kind of ethics (contained in the concept of bioethics as a new, transdisciplinary science), in the beginning, the basic thing about ethics as a discipline of practical philosophy is said, to make, therefore, more comprehensible the sense, task and possibilities of bioethics as applied ethics in the field of life in general, first of all, in human\u27s life and health. And since ethics as a reflection on right and good human activity is essentially connected with anthropology as philosophical and scientific reflexion on nature, on the position in the world and on the essence of human being in general (natural, social and spiritual) , thus, in the second part of this conspectus, the "umbilical" connection between bioethics and anthropology has been shown, with the special regard to contemporary ecological conditions of life, i.e. to the threatening global and ecological crisis.Da auch die Bioethik wie schon aus ihrem Namen hervorgeht eine besondere spezielle Ethik ist (das ist auch in der Konzeption der Bioethik als einer neuen transdisziplinaren Wisenschaft enthalten), wurde zuerst das Grundlegende über Ethik als einer Disziplin der praktischen Philosophie gesagt, damit so auch der Sinn deutlich wird, die Aufgabe und die Möglichkeiten der Bioethik als einer auf dem Gebiet des Lebens allgemein angewandten Ethik, vor allem angewandt auf das menschliche Leben und Gesundheit. Da die Ethik als eine Reflexion über die gute und richtige Wirkung des Menschen im Wesentlichen mit der Anthropologie als philosophische und wissenschaftliche Überlegung der menschlichen Natur verbunden ist, mit der Stellung in der Welt und dem Kern des menschlichen Wesens (natürlichem, gesellschaftlichem und geistigem), so ist im zweiten Teil dieses Konspekts die "Nabelschnurr" — Verbindung der Bioethik mit der Anthropologie dargelegt, und daß mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der heutigen ökologischen Umweltbediengungen., d.h. der droheneden globalen und strukturalen ökologischen Krise

Risk assessment of war wrecks – a comprehensive approach investigating four wrecks containing munitions in the German Bight/North Sea

Shipwrecks and dumped munition continue to be a major hazard, both in the North Sea but also on a global scale. Research within the EU Interreg project North Sea Wrecks (NSW), in cooperation with the German Aerospace Centre, Institute for the Protection of Maritime Infrastructures (DLR), is generating new insights into the status of wrecks, the potential leakage of pollutants from remaining munitions loads and the effects of contamination on exposed marine organisms in the North Sea environment. Further, historical documents are generated from archives to describe ship’s history and sinking scenario. These historical findings were compared to models and images of the visual inspections of the wrecks. Further, samples of water, sediment and organisms are being analysed for traces of explosives. Combining the results of these different fields of research allows for a better understanding of the environmental risks deriving from these wrecks. This process is shown below by focusing on the wreck of the German light cruiser SMS MAINZ, which sank in 1914. Data were compared to three additional wrecks situated also within the southern German Bight. Available data about the wrecks were preliminary assessed using a wreck risk model. Finally, wrecks were ranked according to their potential environmental risk