237 research outputs found
Exploring Deliberation and Participation: Tribal Membership Meetings under Indian Reorganization Act Constitutions
Based on a review of one tribal government\u27s strong membership powers exercised in General Tribal Council (GTC) meetings, tribal leaders do not analyze or review the activities in those meetings on an ongoing basis to determine where or if improvements are needed or are effective when implemented. The purpose of this study was to bridge the gap in empirical studies and to identify a process by which tribes can review GTC meetings to implement continuous improvements. Based on the tenets of Habermas\u27 deliberative democracy framework, this qualitative study used the Discourse Quality Index (DQI) to determine the level of participation and deliberation occurring in membership meetings. Through a content analysis of transcripts from a year of GTC meetings of a single tribe, findings provided insight on speaker interruptions, reasons underlying opinions, respect given to others, and community-based decisions. The findings also identified that GTC meetings score high in all elements except regarding respect for others. By focusing on improvements in deliberative forums, Tribal leaders can create a more inviting atmosphere to individuals to speak, improve community networking, and increase levels of respect for others. Implications for social change are the development of meetings that improve over time, resulting in the generation of a greater range of solutions to public issues and creation of networking relationships as members hear other solutions and positions
Exploring Deliberative Democracy: Tribal Membership Meetings Under Indian Reorganization Act Constitutions
This was a qualitative study of deliberation and participation in a tribal government setting. The results of this study identified high levels of deliberation and participation with a need to focus on improving the aspect of showing respect towards others. Improving deliberation can result in a more networked community, identification of a greater number of solutions, and greater acceptance of the solution selected.https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/archivedposters/1044/thumbnail.jp
Amazonian forest-savanna bistability and human impact
AbstractA bimodal distribution of tropical tree cover at intermediate precipitation levels has been presented as evidence of fire-induced bistability. Here we subdivide satellite vegetation data into those from human-unaffected areas and those from regions close to human-cultivated zones. Bimodality is found to be almost absent in the unaffected regions, whereas it is significantly enhanced close to cultivated zones. Assuming higher logging rates closer to cultivated zones and spatial diffusion of fire, our spatiotemporal mathematical model reproduces these patterns. Given a gradient of climatic and edaphic factors, rather than bistability there is a predictable spatial boundary, a Maxwell point, that separates regions where forest and savanna states are naturally selected. While bimodality can hence be explained by anthropogenic edge effects and natural spatial heterogeneity, a narrow range of bimodality remaining in the human-unaffected data indicates that there is still bistability, although on smaller scales than claimed previously.</jats:p
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Investigating the feedbacks between CO2, vegetation and the AMOC in a coupled climate model
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is an important component of the climate system, however its sensitivity to the terrestrial biosphere has been largely overlooked. Here the HadCM3 coupled climate model is run for millennial timescales to investigate the feedbacks between vegetation and the AMOC at increasing CO2. The impact of agricultural conversion (termed land-use change; LUC) and the role of the simulated 'background' vegetation (termed land cover change; LCC) are investigated. LUC cools climate in regions of high crop fraction due to increased albedo. LCC is shown to evolve at higher CO2, with a northward migration of the tree line in the Northern Hemisphere and dieback of the Amazon. This generally acts to enhance the impact of climate change primarily due to albedo changes. Density in the Greenland-Iceland-Norwegian (GIN) Seas is crucial in driving the AMOC. Increasing CO2 decreases regional sea surface density, reducing convection and weakening the AMOC. The inclusion of LCC is shown to be responsible for a significant proportion of this weakening; reflecting the amplification effect it has on climate change. This acts to decrease the surface density in the GIN Seas. At elevated CO2 (1400 ppm) the inclusion of dynamic vegetation is shown to drive a reduction in AMOC strength from 6 to 20%. Despite the cooling effect of LUC, the impact on the AMOC is shown to be small reflecting minimal impact it has on GIN Sea density. These results indicate the importance of including dynamic vegetation in future AMOC studies using HadCM3, but LUC may be insignificant. In the context of other climate models however, the importance of vegetation is likely to be overshadowed by other systemic model biases.Peer reviewe
Tropical Tree Cover in a Heterogeneous Environment: A Reaction-diffusion Model
Observed bimodal tree cover distributions at particular environmental
conditions and theoretical models indicate that some areas in the tropics can
be in either of the alternative stable vegetation states forest or savanna.
However, when including spatial interaction in nonspatial differential equation
models of a bistable quantity, only the state with the lowest potential energy
remains stable. Our recent reaction-diffusion model of Amazonian tree cover
confirmed this and was able to reproduce the observed spatial distribution of
forest versus savanna satisfactorily when forced by heterogeneous environmental
and anthropogenic variables, even though bistability was underestimated. These
conclusions were solely based on simulation results. Here, we perform an
analytical and numerical analysis of the model. We derive the Maxwell point
(MP) of the homogeneous reaction-diffusion equation without savanna trees as a
function of rainfall and human impact and show that the front between forest
and nonforest settles at this point as long as savanna tree cover near the
front remains sufficiently low. For parameters resulting in higher savanna tree
cover near the front, we also find irregular forest-savanna cycles and
woodland-savanna bistability, which can both explain the remaining observed
bimodality.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, supplementary info include
Science-based approach for credible accounting of mitigation in managed forests
Abstract Background The credibility and effectiveness of country climate targets under the Paris Agreement requires that, in all greenhouse gas (GHG) sectors, the accounted mitigation outcomes reflect genuine deviations from the type and magnitude of activities generating emissions in the base year or baseline. This is challenging for the forestry sector, as the future net emissions can change irrespective of actual management activities, because of age-related stand dynamics resulting from past management and natural disturbances. The solution implemented under the Kyoto Protocol (2013–2020) was accounting mitigation as deviation from a projected (forward-looking) “forest reference level”, which considered the age-related dynamics but also allowed including the assumed future implementation of approved policies. This caused controversies, as unverifiable counterfactual scenarios with inflated future harvest could lead to credits where no change in management has actually occurred, or conversely, failing to reflect in the accounts a policy-driven increase in net emissions. Instead, here we describe an approach to set reference levels based on the projected continuation of documented historical forest management practice, i.e. reflecting age-related dynamics but not the future impact of policies. We illustrate a possible method to implement this approach at the level of the European Union (EU) using the Carbon Budget Model. Results Using EU country data, we show that forest sinks between 2013 and 2016 were greater than that assumed in the 2013–2020 EU reference level under the Kyoto Protocol, which would lead to credits of 110–120 Mt CO2/year (capped at 70–80 Mt CO2/year, equivalent to 1.3% of 1990 EU total emissions). By modelling the continuation of management practice documented historically (2000–2009), we show that these credits are mostly due to the inclusion in the reference levels of policy-assumed harvest increases that never materialized. With our proposed approach, harvest is expected to increase (12% in 2030 at EU-level, relative to 2000–2009), but more slowly than in current forest reference levels, and only because of age-related dynamics, i.e. increased growing stocks in maturing forests. Conclusions Our science-based approach, compatible with the EU post-2020 climate legislation, helps to ensure that only genuine deviations from the continuation of historically documented forest management practices are accounted toward climate targets, therefore enhancing the consistency and comparability across GHG sectors. It provides flexibility for countries to increase harvest in future reference levels when justified by age-related dynamics. It offers a policy-neutral solution to the polarized debate on forest accounting (especially on bioenergy) and supports the credibility of forest sector mitigation under the Paris Agreement
Edge-Based Compartmental Modeling for Infectious Disease Spread Part III: Disease and Population Structure
We consider the edge-based compartmental models for infectious disease spread
introduced in Part I. These models allow us to consider standard SIR diseases
spreading in random populations. In this paper we show how to handle deviations
of the disease or population from the simplistic assumptions of Part I. We
allow the population to have structure due to effects such as demographic
detail or multiple types of risk behavior the disease to have more complicated
natural history. We introduce these modifications in the static network
context, though it is straightforward to incorporate them into dynamic
networks. We also consider serosorting, which requires using the dynamic
network models. The basic methods we use to derive these generalizations are
widely applicable, and so it is straightforward to introduce many other
generalizations not considered here
Ivermectin for the control of scabies outbreaks in the UK
On July 9, 2019, WHO updated its model list of essential medicines to include oral ivermectin for ectoparasitic infections.1 This recommendation follows the 2017 WHO categorisation of scabies as a neglected tropical disease. The list covers the “minimum medicine needs for a basic health-care system, listing the most efficacious, safe and cost-effective medicines for priority conditions”.1 In the UK, scabies outbreaks are a substantial public health burden in care homes for older people
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