The Transformation of an Agriculture-Based Economy to a Tourism-Based Economy: Citizens\u27 Perceived Impacts of Sustainable Tourism Development

Many researchers have explored the perceptions and impacts of tourism development. However, no studies have included the Caribbean islands of St. Kitts and Nevis where tourism has replaced agriculture as the primary driver of the islands’ economies. Furthermore, recent studies have not explored demographic factors that determine people’s perceptions of the impacts of tourism development in these islands. The purpose of this study was to investigate if citizens’ perceptions of the economic, socio-cultural, environmental and community impacts of tourism development vary by demographic factors such as age, education, gender and geographical location in relation to tourist areas. Nineteen research hypotheses were proposed: sixteen relating to the tourism impacts, two relating to social exchange theory and one relating to distributive justice theory. In order to explore the research question and test the hypotheses, a 108 item questionnaire was administered to citizens in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis located in the Caribbean (N = 452). Analyses were performed using Bivariate Correlations, One-way ANOVA and Independent-Samples t-Test. Findings from the bivariate analyses showed that there is a moderate relationship between the economic, sociocultural, environmental and community impact indexes. The indexes measuring social exchange theory and distributive justice also showed moderate relationships with the work in the tourist industry (independent) variable. Results from several one-way ANOVA and independent samples t-Test showed that while most citizens’ were not concerned with the impacts of tourism, they were concerned with the personal, economic and fairness of rewards/ benefits associated with tourism industry

Perceptions of Police Abusive Behavior: Factors Influencing Citizens\u27 Attitudes Toward the Police Use of Excessive Force

This study analyzed several factors to determine their influence on the public\u27s perceptions of the police use of excessive force or police brutality. Conflict theory and cognitive consistency theory were used to conceptualize the perceptions of police brutality. Based on these theories, five hypotheses were predicted. Secondary data from a 1995 National Opinion Survey of Crime and Justice were re-analyzed. The data provide 1,005 respondents for the analyses. Analyses were performed at the bivariate and multivariate level. Findings from the bivariate analysis show that Blacks were three (3) times more likely than Whites to perceive the police use of excessive force as a serious problem. Low socioeconomic status respondents held the same views. Multivariate analyses were performed using the independent variables (socioeconomic status, police-citizen contact, confidence in the police and fear of crime and victimization) as intervening variables to determine if they could interpret the previously observed relationship between race and views of police brutality. Findings indicate that race explained only a small proportion (4 percent) of the variation in the perceptions of the police use of excessive force. The other independent or intervening variables did not have an effect on the relationship. Each independent or intervening variable added to the model, increased the percent of explained variance of respondents\u27 perceptions. While race remained significant, contact with the police, and confidence in the police are the most important factors determining respondents\u27 attitudes toward the police use of excessive force

L'Institut de Recherches sur les Fruits et Agrumes 1942-1984 : de l'IFAC à l'IRFA

Ce rapport fournit quelques éléments pour un bilan et ravive la mémoire par un rappel historique et géographique de la naissance de l'IFAC, de sa croissance, puis de l'ultime phase de dépendance croissante à son intégration dans un organisme de plus grande dimension. Tout au long de ses 40 années d'existence, l'activité de l'IRFA a été répartie en quatre programmes consacré aux agrumes, à l'ananas, aux bananiers et aux plantains et aux autres fruitier

REVIEW OF EARLY TRIASSIC THYLACOCEPHALA

Thylacocephala (Euarthropoda: Eucrustacea?) is a group of enigmatic fossil euarthropods, known from at least the Silurian to the Cretaceous. The Triassic is considered to be the period during which thylacocephalans were the most diversified with 17 species reported from 19 localities in nine countries. However, Thylacocephala were assumed to be rare during the Early Triassic until recent discoveries in Japan, Nevada and Idaho, U.S.A.       Our study focuses on thylacocephalans from the Early Triassic, especially from Madagascar and Idaho. The revision of previously known taxa from Madagascar provides new important information. A new kind of ornamentation is reported for Paraostenia ambatolokobensis nov. comb., previously assigned to Ostenocaris ambatolokobensis. In addition, Ankitokazocaris acutirostris and Paraostenia ambatolokobensis are only the third and fourth thylacocephalan taxa for which possible cephalic appendages are described.  New occurrences of Thylacocephala in Nevada and Idaho, U.S.A., lead to the description of one new taxon and to the reassignement of Parisicaris triassica to Ankitokazocaris triassica nov. comb. Those occurrences provide a significant contribution to the knowledge of Thylacocephala taxonomic diversity and geographic distribution during the Early Triassic. An important revision of Early Triassic thylacocephalan taxa from Japan and China is also performed, including Ankitokazocaris chaohuensis, Ankitokazocaris parva nov. comb., Ankitokazocaris utatsuensis nov. comb. and Paraostenia sp. Overall, the taxonomic diversity of Triassic thylacocephalans has likely been slightly over-estimated (17 species before, 15 now). However, the Triassic represents the richest period in terms of thylacocephalan-bearing outcrops (19 localities from nine countries)

A comparison of methods for the measurement of methane emissions from municipal solid waste landfills for the purpose of evaluating their contribution to the greenhouse effect

International audienceThis study was funded and co-ordinated by the French Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maitrise de l'Energie (Ademe) in the framework of the French research programme on the evolution of the climate and the atmosphere, with the specific aim of estimating the contribution to the greenhouse effect due to methane emitted by municipal solid waste landfills

Probing pre-formed alpha particles in the ground state of nuclei

In this Letter, we report on alpha particle emission through the nuclear break-up in the reaction 40Ca on a 40Ca target at 50A MeV. It is observed that, similarly to nucleons, alpha particles can be emitted to the continuum with very specific angular distribution during the reaction. The alpha particle properties can be understood as resulting from an alpha cluster in the daughter nucleus that is perturbed by the short range nuclear attraction of the collision partner and emitted. A time-dependent theory that describe the alpha particle wave-function evolution is able to reproduce qualitatively the observed angular distribution. This mechanism offers new possibilities to study alpha particle properties in the nuclear medium.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

A stable fish reporter cell line to study estrogen receptor transactivation by environmental (xeno)estrogens.

International audienceCross-species differences between human and fish estrogen receptor (ER) binding by environmental chemicals have been reported. To study ER transactivation in a fish cellular context, we stably co-transfected the PLHC-1 fish hepatoma cell line with a rainbow trout estrogen receptor (rtER) and the luciferase reporter gene driven by an estrogen response element (ERE). This new cell model, called PELN-rtER (for PLHC-1-ERE-Luciferase-Neomycin), responded to 17beta-estradiol (E2) in a both concentration- and temperature-dependent manner, as well as to environmental ER ligands from different chemical classes: natural and synthetic estrogens, zearalenone metabolites, genistein, alkyphenoles and benzophenone derivatives. The comparison with other in vitro models, i.e. human reporter cell lines (HELN-rtER, MELN) and vitellogenin induction in primary cultures of rainbow trout hepatocytes, showed an overall higher sensitivity of the human cells for a majority of ligands, except for benzophenone derivatives which were active at similar or lower concentrations in fish cells, suggesting species-specificity for these substances. Correlation analyses suggest that the fish cell line is closer to the trout hepatocyte than to the human cell context, and could serve as a relevant mechanistic tool to study ER activation in fish hepatic cellular context

Ray-tracing simulations of a bent crystal X-ray optics for imaging using laser-plasma X-ray sources

Ray-tracing simulations of an optical X-ray system based on a spherically bent crystal operating in Bragg configuration for monochromatic projection imaging of thin samples are presented, obtained using a code developed for that purpose. The code is particularly suited for characterizing experimental arrangements routinely used with laser-produced plasma X-ray sources. In particular, the spatial resolution of the imaging system was investigated and a careful study of the complex pattern of the X-ray backlighting beam was performed