1,638 research outputs found
Pricing and Investments in Internet Security: A Cyber-Insurance Perspective
Internet users such as individuals and organizations are subject to different
types of epidemic risks such as worms, viruses, spams, and botnets. To reduce
the probability of risk, an Internet user generally invests in traditional
security mechanisms like anti-virus and anti-spam software, sometimes also
known as self-defense mechanisms. However, such software does not completely
eliminate risk. Recent works have considered the problem of residual risk
elimination by proposing the idea of cyber-insurance. In this regard, an
important research problem is the analysis of optimal user self-defense
investments and cyber-insurance contracts under the Internet environment. In
this paper, we investigate two problems and their relationship: 1) analyzing
optimal self-defense investments in the Internet, under optimal cyber-insurance
coverage, where optimality is an insurer objective and 2) designing optimal
cyber-insurance contracts for Internet users, where a contract is a (premium,
coverage) pair
Striking a Balance: Identity, Language, and Belonging in the Gujarati-American Immigrant Community
This project explores the question of how children of immigrants negotiate a sense of belonging through expressions of bilingualism and biculturalism in the public and private spheres. Drawing upon insights from linguistic anthropology, Asian studies, and migration studies in conjunction with information gleaned from a series of semi-structured interviews of a single informant born in the United States to parents who emigrated from India, I seek to understand how a specific experience of an individual fits into the larger discussion of identity, language, and belonging. Experiencing culture is a distinctly and exclusively human process, and this project makes sure to treat the experience of “striking a balance” between cultural identities in terms of its human effects and consequences
Drinking water quality and farming practices on dairy farms in the greater Mangaung Metro, South Africa
ThesisDairy farms produce large volumes of animal waste comprising of manure, urine and dairy wash
water. In South Africa, dairy waste is usually discharged onto pastures and land by irrigation or
flooding which has been known to pollute groundwater with faecally derived microorganisms and
nitrates. This study was undertaken to assess groundwater quality on dairy farms in the greater
Mangaung area of the Free State. Secondly, the minor aim was to investigate factors that may
influence groundwater quality on the farms. These included farming management practices, dairy
farm infrastructure and dairy farm waste disposal. Groundwater quality data was collected on
75 dairy farms in 2009. A follow-up study was undertaken in 2013, however, because many farms
had ceased production, only 34 farms were included in this round.
The groundwater quality data of the 75 farms assessed in 2009 revealed that many farms were
compliant with the South African National Standard for Drinking Water. However, 49% of the farms
exceeded the limit for nitrates, 60% for total coliforms and 29% for Escherichia coli. When the data
gathered on the 34 farms in 2013 were compared to the same farms’ data of 2009, it was found
that 45% of the farms in 2009 and 57% in 2013 demonstrated hardness levels that could pose a
risk to sensitive consumer groups, such as infants, the aged and the immune compromised. The
groundwater on many farms tested as hard or very hard, while the water on a few farms tested
extremely hard. Since water is used in all dairy cleaning operations, these levels of hard water
could add an additional cost to the running of a dairy by reducing the life span of equipment and
increasing the amount of soap used. On 18.9% of the farms in 2009 and 5.6% in 2013, the counts of coliforms exceeded 1 000 per
100 m l groundwater, posing a serious health risk for all consumers. Groundwater with counts of 10
– 100 coliforms per 100 m l could result in clinical infections in consumers, but counts of 100 – 1 000
coliforms could cause infections, even with once-off consumption. In this study, three of the 2013
farms (8.8%) demonstrated counts of E. coli greater than 100 per 100 m l, posing a serious health
risk to the consumers. Counts in the region of 10 – 100 per 100 m l were observed in groundwater
of 17.6% of the 2009 farms and 29.4% on the 2013 farms. Therefore, consumers on these farms
are at risk of clinical infections. Furthermore, when such poor quality water is used in a dairy, the
quality of raw milk and products may be affected. Moreover, the number of farms that presented a
health risk increased from 41.2% in 2009 to 50.0% in 2013. One of the most effective ways to communicate water quality information is through the use of an
index which aggregates all water quality data into a single value. Through a review of literature,
three prominent water quality indexes were selected, evaluated and modified; the Canadian Council
of Ministers of the Environment (CCME-WQI), the Weighted (W-WQI) and the Weighted Arithmetic
(WA-WQI). Environmental health limits were assigned to eight selected water quality parameters
and Water Quality Index (WQI) values calculated using 2013 data. WQI values were categorised
into five classes ranging from excellent to unacceptable. When these results were compared with
a manual rating of the data, the versatile W-WQI provided the most accurate description of data.
The index was then applied to the 2009 and 2013 groundwater quality data of 34 farms. Results
revealed an improvement from 2009 to 2013, however, the change was not significant (p = 0.110).
Overall, the quality of groundwater on these dairy farms is poor and could pose a health risk to
consumers, farm animals and the quality of raw milk and products.
During 2013, management practices and infrastructural data were recorded on 34 dairy farms. All
farms in this study depend on untreated groundwater for domestic and dairy activities. More than
two thirds of the farms (85.3%) disposed of the dairy effluent by means of flooding or collection
in shallow soil dams, while only five farmers re-used dairy effluent as fertiliser. The results also
indicate that, although dairy farms vary in milk yield and size, they are designed and managed
to prevent obvious groundwater contamination by dairy effluent. Possible correlations between
farm management practices, infrastructure and the poor water quality revealed a weak negative
correlation between the number of cows on a farm and the coliform values in the groundwater
( R 2 = 0.0023). Also, no correlation existed between the number of cows on a farm and the E. coli
values or the number of cows and the nitrate values in the groundwater. These results suggested
that the link between groundwater pollution and farm management practices and infrastructure are
not clear and in need of further investigation. This study supports the findings that groundwater is vulnerable to pollution. In particular, the
microbiological quality of the groundwater on the dairy farms was poor. The high levels of coliforms and
E. coli in the groundwater confirm faecal pollution that could be indicative of poor sanitary conditions.
This water contains high concentrations of microbial organisms and nitrates. Vulnerable groups on
the farms are therefore at risk of becoming ill. Furthermore, the use of poor quality groundwater in
dairy activities and other agricultural activities, such as the irrigation of crops, may further impact
produce quality and could ultimately impact the health of consumers
Application of a water-related environmental health epidemiological process : a guide for environmental health practitioners
ThesisOne of the more suitable methodologies to follow to assess the impacts of
environmental factors on the health of humans would be the epidemiological
process. Environmental health practitioners in South Africa are, however, ill
equipped to use this process and thereby lose an effective tool in its service
abilities. This situation is aggravated by the lack of a suitable guide that can be
used to lead such a process.
It was therefore decided to conduct a study that could lay the foundation for
developing a guide for using epidemiology in environmental health practice under
typical South African conditions. An epidemiological survey was conducted within
an extended research programme to study the effects of stored domestic water on
the health of the consumers in Section K, Botshabelo, a developing urban
settlement in the south-eastern Free State.
In the study area, people used various types of containers to move drinking water
from the municipal supply (public standpipes or yard taps) to their individual
dwellings to store for daily use. The main aim of this study was to determine
whether the people's water-use patterns that had developed around this method of
haulage-and-storage had a detrimental effect, specifically diarrhoea, on their health.
The study design entailed an environmental health survey, which provided an
opportunity to compile a guide for the application of such an environmental health
epidemiological survey. This guide was written based on the experiences gained
from conducting the community-based survey.
During the survey, diarrhoea was used as an indicator of the health of the target
community. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire designed for
household respondents, completed by students. A proportional stratified sample of 300 households was randomly selected from a population of approximately 3326
households. Water provision, water storage, water use, sanitation, and personal
hygiene were some of the key variables investigated in the study.
Results indicated that infants (older than 1 year, up to 5 years old) were the age
group that were affected most by diarrhoea. Container hygiene, container type
(plastic or metal) and storage of water as well as poor sanitation in the area were
variables related to the occurrence of diarrhoea. Other practices indicated by the
survey as possible causes were unhygienic scooping of water from containers
(including scooping-mug hygiene) and the presence of domestic animals in the
household.
The study indicated that an epidemiological survey could be appropriately applied to
assess environmental health impacts although the results merely pointed towards
tendencies. Several other potential variables such as food hygiene, baby-care
hygiene as well as other personal and environmental hygiene practices were not
investigated in this study. The use of an environmental health epidemiological study
process can provide a useful investigative tool if suitably applied for the assessment
of water quality effects on the health of humans. The guide developed from this
study is seen to be provisional and is released for further evaluation, inputs and
development
Consequences of hydroelectric power plants on the river ecosystems
Hidroenergija je obnovljiv, ali nije i održiv („zelen“) i čist način proizvodnje električne energije i umanjivanja utjecaja klimatskih promjena. Održivost pretpostavlja isključivanje daljnjeg uništavanja ili većih šteta na važnim riječnim ekosustavima i biološkoj raznolikosti, a hidroelektrane i brane imaju ogroman i nepopravljiv učinak na okoliš, prirodu i društvo, kao što su: prekinuti kontinuitet toka rijeke, promjene životnih uvjeta, promjene režima pronosa sedimenta, onemogućena veza s okolnim površinskim i podzemnim vodama, šteta ribljeg fonda te utjecaj akumulacija na mikroklimu okolnog područja. Biološki/ekološki aspekti najčešće nisu obuhvaćeni energetskim politikama. Mnoge europske direktive i međunarodni dokumenti odnose se na ovaj problem, ali je njihova provedba tek u začecima, a promjena je nužna odmah kako bi se spasile preostale nepromijenjene, prirodne rijeke i sačuvala biološka raznolikost slatkovodnih ekosustava u Hrvatskoj, ali i općenito u svijetu.Hydroenergy is restorable, but not sustainable („green“) and clean way of producing electric energy and reducing climate changes. Sustainability means that there is no further destruction or bigger damages in important river ecosystems and biodiversity. As we can see, hydroelectrics and watergates have huge and ireclaimable influence on environment, nature and society, as discontinued river flow, changes of life conditions, changes in mode of sediment transfer, disabled connection with surrounding water above and in the ground, damage on fish fund and influence of reservoir on microclime of surrounding area. Biological/ecological aspects usually are not included by energetic politics. Many European directives and international documents take care of this problem, but their enforcement is still in the beginning, and changes are neceseary to save those rivers that are still natural and to save biodiversity of freshwater ecosystems in Croatia and in the world
The Human Capital Dimensions of Sustainable Investment: What Investment Analysts Need to Know
This paper identifies a number of questions that need to be answered if the growing interest in building investment portfolios of firms that follow socially and environmentally sustainable practices is to be successful in transforming the financial institutions and analysts from a liability to an asset in expanding the number of sustainable firms in the economy. Evidence from three decades of research on "high performance workplace practices" is reviewed that identifies what is required for firms to align human capital and financial strategies. A longer term research and education agenda is presented for answering the remaining open questions
The Good War?: Reinterpreting the Second World War in Contemporary Musical Theatre
For years, American musicals have contributed to the mythologization of the Second World War and upheld ‘Greatest Generation’ nostalgia in mainstream war memory. For example, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific is effectively silent on the brutality and dehumanization of the Pacific Theater and exoticizes the experience of service members. In the past five years, the New York theatre scene has seen three shows that portray the Second World War more accurately and less romantically: Allegiance, Bandstand, and Alice by Heart. While none of these shows ran for longer than a few months in New York, in that short time they have all become important parts in renegotiating World War II’s history, myth, and memory in the musical theatre medium. Contemporary musical theatre provides more nuanced examinations of World War II through shows like Allegiance, which depicts the Japanese American incarceration experience; Bandstand, which depicts the reintegration of veterans post-World War II; and Alice by Heart, which depicts an adolescent’s experience in the London Blitz. These musicals renegotiate myths of the ‘Good War,’ ‘Greatest Generation,’ and ‘Blitz Spirit’ onstage to reveal the deep seeded impacts of war trauma and displacement on military and civilian populations alike. With over seventy-five years since World War II’s end, ample time to reflect has driven composers, lyricists, and librettists to dismantle the myths surrounding the war to both depict its truths and serve as cautionary tales in today’s age of perpetual war. Today’s creators provide counter-narratives and alternatives to traditional historical memory, especially through telling marginalized communities\u27 stories and encouraging audiences to reexamine the dominant historical narrative. This study analyzes the aforementioned hallmark musicals, their content, historical context, and the importance of their cultural contribution to American society, in an examination of the interplay between war, myth, and memory
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