Editorial: ecopsychology: past, present and future

Opening paragraph: One of the central tenets of ecopsychology is the articulation and examination of our psychological, including the emotional, relationships with the natural world. The fundamental challenge is to locate the human mind back within the natural world and to understand that this relationship is a reciprocal one (e.g., Boston, 1996; Schroll, 2007; Scull, 2009; Greenway, 2010). However, finding a 'core' language to represent ecopsychology as a unified discipline is problematic, and it might best be seen as a space for thought, language and practical actions that attempt to articulate the human-nature relationship which, thus far, other branches of the social and natural sciences have failed to do

Accelerating Monte Carlo simulations with an NVIDIA® graphics processor

Modern graphics cards, commonly used in desktop computers, have evolved beyond a simple interface between processor and display to incorporate sophisticated calculation engines that can be applied to general purpose computing. The Monte Carlo algorithm for modelling photon transport in turbid media has been implemented on an NVIDIA® 8800gt graphics card using the CUDA toolkit. The Monte Carlo method relies on following the trajectory of millions of photons through the sample, often taking hours or days to complete. The graphics-processor implementation, processing roughly 110 million scattering events per second, was found to run more than 70 times faster than a similar, single-threaded implementation on a 2.67 GHz desktop computer

The Implementation of SNB Monetary Policy

We use a regime switching approach to model the implementation of the SNB monetary policy. The regime switching technique is crucial to assess the flexibility inherent in the SNB's monetary policy concept. The empirical findings support the idea that repo operations are instrumental in smoothing the implementation of monetary policy in normal times while changes in the official operational target accompanied by the accommodating use of repo operations produce the aimed effects in distressed periods. A significant contribution also came from some new measures designed to improve liquidity in the Swiss franc money market during the financial crisis in 2007- 8.implementation of monetary policy, Libor, repo, Swiss franc money market, regime switching model

The Modern Fairy Tale

This book provides a unique and intriguing insight into current debates concerning the relationship between nation and state as well as the political management of international image in today’s Europe through an examination of debates on nation branding and the Eurovision Song Contest. Europe is a contested construct and its boundaries are subject to redefinition. This work aims to advance critical thinking about contemporary nation branding and its relationship to, and influence on, nation building. In particular it focusses on key identity debates that the Eurovision Song Contest engendered in Estonia in the run-up to EU accession. The Eurovision Song Contest is an event which is often dismissed as musically and culturally inferior. However, this work demonstrates that it has the capacity to shed light on key identity debates and illuminate wider socio-political issues. Using a series of in-depth interviews with political elites, media professionals and opinion leaders, this book is a valuable contribution to the growing field of research on nation branding and the Eurovision Song Contest

Social contracts and community forestry: how can we design policies and tenure arrangements to generate local benefits in the forestry sector?

I examine the forest tenure system in British Columbia and evaluate recent attempts to create community-based forest tenures in a broader context of industrial forestry. I focus on whether community forests provide more local benefits compared to various other industrial tenure arrangements, and assess how indicators of local benefits have been affected by major changes in policy instituted in the 2003 Forest Revitalization Plan. Results demonstrate that at a large regional scale, the policy changes were not a large perturbation to indicators of local benefits. Additionally, although community forests do not necessarily meet all expectations in every community, taken as a group, they performed equal to or better than other types of tenures as measured by indicators of local benefits. However, large variation among individual community forests is evident, highlighting the disparate strategies used by communities to promote local benefits and the influence of market forces in the forestry sector

Elucidation of the mechanisms underlying agonist-induced lipid mediator biosynthesis in macrophages and mast cells

Infections with antibiotic-resistant S. aureus strains are one of the most common serious bacterial infections worldwide. The acute inflammatory response and its subsequent resolution are central processes to overcoming bacterial invaders and returning to homeostasis. Unresolved inflammation and hyperinflammatory events worsen the disease outcome and are strongly connected to chronicity and mortality. The underlying mechanisms of how infectious inflammation is initiated and how the inflammatory responses can become a hyperactivated life-threatening status are incompletely understood. This thesis aims at providing new mechanistic insights into the inflammation process and resolution mechanisms upon bacterial infection of different innate immune cells to further translate into therapeutic strategies for human diseases. We focused on macrophages and mast cells and their unique LM profiles after exposure to bacterial virulence factors or endogenously released patterns. Major aims are the evaluation of pharmacological modulation of LM networks and the elucidation of potent activators of 15-LOX-1 to underline the role of 15-LOX-1 and SPMs in promoting resolution of inflammation in bacterial infections. Also, the ability to manipulate macrophages polarization during S. aureus infections and mechanisms, which lead to hyperinflammation caused by endogenous derived DAMPs, are addressed. Furthermore, we aimed at studying the beneficial effects of SPMs during bacterial infections in order to encourage a rethinking and improvement of commonly used therapeutic treatments