Building Age-Friendly Community: Notes from the Field

Building age-friendly communities is a global as well as a national concern. The purpose of this paper is to explore fundamental tensions underlying the formulation of age-friendly goals and their implementation, based on a review of age-friendly projects and reflections on the journey towards age friendliness in one state (Rhode Island). The authors conducted a comprehensive investigation of the relevant literature on previous age-friendly initiatives, which included case studies of individual projects, meta-analyses of age-friendly work, and educational toolkits for promoting age-friendly community. They also collected original data from ten focus groups with older adults, interviews with key informant service providers, surveys of older adults and observational environmental audits. Through this multi-faceted approach, they identified recurrent questions often not overtly addressed in building livable communities, despite their being central to decisions made in age-friendly projects. This paper focuses on six questions: Age friendliness for whom? Older adults viewed as a burden or a benefit? Age friendliness by or for older adults? Is age friendliness affordable? Should the target be the aged overall or the needy aged in particular? Should interventions aim to change people or places? The Aging in Community Report, (prepared by the authors and submitted to Rhode Island’s General Assembly), reflected decisions made—albeit sometimes inadvertently—in response to these questions. It showed that priority was given to age friendliness over livability, assistance to vulnerable, older adults was given precedence over helping the entire older population, and top-down interventions were emphasized more than grass-roots endeavors. Its recommendations were geared to leveraging or modestly increasing existing resources to better serve older adults and enhancing opportunities for older adults to contribute to their community. Following the release of the report, the focus shifted from modifications of the environment to facilitating changes in individual behavior to optimize person-environment fit

EFFECTS OF STREAMSIDE MANAGEMENT ZONE TIMBER HARVEST ON SALAMANDER COMMUNITIES IN ROBINSON FOREST

Salamanders are critical components of forest ecosystems, in terms of total biomass, as well as for their value as indicators of ecosystem stress. Considering the worldwide decline in amphibian populations, the known effects of timber harvest on salamander populations, and the importance of the forest products industry in Kentucky and elsewhere, the impacts of silvicultural operations on salamander communities cannot be overlooked. The objective was to investigate the effects of three different silvicultural treatments, each involving different streamside management zone (SMZ) characteristics, on salamander communities in ephemeral streams. Data were collected by regular checks of pitfall traps, coverboards, and transect searches. Using both pre- and post-harvest data, abundance estimates were acquired using binomial mixture models. Declines in some species of terrestrial and stream-breeding salamanders were detected, and were shown to be likely related to characteristics of the corresponding silvicultural treatment. Applying modest SMZ regulations to ephemeral streams would likely alleviate these declines significantly

Sustainability Reporting in the Port Sector

Over the past ten years, there has been a substantial increase in corporate sustainability per-formance coupled with a need to voluntarily and publicly report on these issues. The current prominent and legitimate guidelines framing companies’ sustainability reporting practices are those proposed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). In addition to providing a frame-work applicable for all types of companies, the GRI has developed Sector Supplements, allowing sectors to report according to their specific needs. However, such guidance has not yet been developed for the port sector. As a result, the objective of this research is to investigate the current state of sustainability reporting in the port sector by focusing on environmental indicators. Using a questionnaire-based method, this study seeks to understand the rationale behind each of these environmental disclosures in order to identify material topic indicators representative of the port sector. Through a Stakeholder theory framework, a list of GRI G3.1 environmental indicators is proposed to be either included or suppressed for the development of a Sector Supplement, or likewise. Potential additional indicators material to the port sector that are not covered under G3.1 is also identified. Complemented with a meeting and interviews with GRI staff, this information has enabled the study to also provide broader recommendations – not limited to the environmental pillar – for the creation of a Sector Supplement, or the equivalent, for the port sector. Overall, this thesis provides an overview of both the current situation concerning sustainability reporting and the potential future stages, which are already seen in more advanced reporting systems in the reporting systems of certain ports

LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY AND POPULATION GENOMICS OF TWO SYMPATRIC PITVIPER SPECIES ACROSS A FRAGMENTED APPALACHIAN LANDSCAPE

Understanding the link between landscape patterns and ecological and evolutionary processes is an important prerequisite for informed wildlife conservation and management, especially in rapidly changing landscapes. Until recently, the inaccessibility of spatial and genomic data sets of sufficient resolution limited our ability to incorporate the impacts of landscape patterns into predictions of ecological and environmental outcomes. In this dissertation, I utilized several high-resolution spatial and genomic data sets to address ecological questions in a rapidly fragmenting landscape in southeastern Kentucky. Overall, my results indicate that large-scale surface coal mining is causing widespread homogenization of landforms, resulting in a uniquely permanent form of habitat loss. This is likely causing significant fragmentation of remain forested habitat in many portions of the Cumberland Plateau of Kentucky, as evidenced by reductions in suitable overwintering habitat for the timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus). At the level of the individual, the high resolution and three-dimensional imagery provided by lidar remote sensing systems allows for a much more accurate assessment of the drivers of individual movement in C. horridus than using coarse topographic data sets alone. While this fragmentation might be expected to limit migration and increase genetic differentiation among population, patterns of genomic diversity in another common pit viper, the copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix), suggest that contemporary surface mining is not associated with spatial patterns of genomic diversity. However, using a 2,140 SNP data set, I did find significant associations between a historic highway path and divergent genomic patterns, suggesting a time lag may be responsible for contemporary genomic patterns associated with a historic barrier to movement. When examining the landscape at broad spatial scales, the topographic rearrangement of land after mining followed steady patterns until approximately 2011. At this point, coinciding with federal policy shifts aimed at reducing the frequency of valley fill operations, mining impacts in stream bottoms decreased markedly, but ridgetops and upper slopes continued to be impacted at rates equal to or greater than before 2011. I recommend topographic restoration be highlighted as a worthy goal of reclamation, on par with vegetation establishment and erosion control

Development of sustainable biodegradable lignocellulosic hemp fiber/polycaprolactone biocomposites for light weight applications

Biocomposites with poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) as matrix and lignocellulosic hemp fiber with varying average aspect ratios (19, 26, 30 and 38) as reinforcement were prepared using twin extrusion process. The influence of fiber aspect ratio on the water absorption behavior and mechanical properties are investigated. The percentage of moisture uptake increased with the aspect ratio, following Fickian behavior. The hemp fiber/PCL biocomposites showed enhanced properties (tensile, flexural and low-velocity impact). The biocomposite with 26 aspect ratio showed the optimal properties, with flexural strength and modulus of 169% and 285% respectively, higher than those of neat PCL. However, a clear reduction on the mechanical properties was observed for water-immersed samples, with reduction in tensile and flexural moduli for the aspect ratio of 26 by 90% and 62%, respectively than those of dry samples. Summarily, the optimal sample provides an eco-friendly alternative to conventional, petroleum-based and non-renewable composites for various applications.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Ce que les cultural studies font aux savoirs disciplinaires

Si l’on veut identifier la spécificité de la démarche cultural studies, il est nécessaire de penser une transformativité non dialectique, tant sur le plan épistémologique que sur le plan politique. Depuis Stuart Hall, ce courant de recherche considère que l’état normal de la science est la crise et qu’il ne faut clore le savoir que dans le cadre d’une visée politique. Le savoir est un processus sans fin sauf à le muer en positivisme, une politique des savoirs qui gèle des rapports de pouvoir préétablis. Pourtant, les cultural studies ne se contentent pas de déconstruire, elles utilisent et construisent des outils au service des savoirs et d’une politique. Leur ancrage dans les pensées contre-hégémoniques ne se réduit pas à une inclusion dans une famille « critique », qu’elles enrichissent pourtant.If we want to identify the specificity of the cultural studies approach it is necessary to think a non-dialectical transformativity both epistemological and political. Since Stuart Hall, the research considers that the normal state of science is the crisis and that we must close the knowledge only for political reasons. Knowledge is an endless process except if you slide in positivism, a politics of knowledge that freezes pre-established power relations. Yet cultural studies do not simply deconstruct, they use and build tools for knowledge and politics. Cultural studies are anchored in counter-hegemonic thoughts but they are not easy to include in a "critical" family, while they enrich this loose famil

Le conflit du Kosovo du côté des opinions

La guerre, par l’intensité des émotions et des enjeux qu’elle mobilise, est l’un des derniers refuges de la croyance primaire en la manipulation des individus et des foules par les médias. Les publics et leurs réactions aux images de guerre ont ainsi été au cœur des débats sur l’intervention occidentale au Kosovo en 1999, les supputations sur leurs relations aux médias l’ayant emporté sur la connaissance de ces relations. Un regard sur les sondages d’opinion permet cependant de souligner la complexité des interprétations du conflit et de mesurer l’importance que des enquêtes de réception pourrait revêtir pour la recherche