Tourscapes

Harvey’s assessment of the Lefebvrian concept of the Right to the City is that it is a communal right, shared by association with the community around the urban project. How might this idea translate to a small island nation, recently transformed from being a rural society, headlong into a post-urban, spatially chaotic coagulation of small cities, suburbs, and landscapes of tourism consumption, or ‘Tourscapes’?Existing and emerging Tourscapes can be mapped and analysed, at different but simultaneous scales, related to their local, city or regional importance, and the meanings of these in the visual and spatial order can be reviewed. This work will propose exploratory scenarios for addressing tourism related spatial practice, using Irish Case Study examples, and also will investigate how communal rights to Tourscapes could be claimed or exercised, for use by the broad community around the analysis, management, control and proposition of spatial form.La evaluación de Harvey del concepto lefebvriano del derecho a la ciudad determina que se trata de un derecho comunitario, compartido por asociación con la comunidad que rodea el proyecto urbano. ¿Cómo podría traducirse esta idea a una pequeña nación isleña, recientemente transformada de una sociedad rural a un conglomerado post-urbano, espacialmente caótico de pequeñas ciudades, suburbios y un paisaje de consumo turístico, o ‘Tourscapes’?Los Touscapes existentes y emergentes pueden ser mapeados y analizados, a diferentes escalas simultaneas, relacionadas con su importancia local, ciudadana o regional, y los significados de su orden visual y espacial pueden ser revisados. Este trabajo propondrá escenarios exploratorios para lidiar con la práctica espacial relacionada con el turismo usando ejemplos del caso de estudio irlandés, y también investigará cómo los derechos comunitarios a los ‘Tourscapes’ pueden ser reclamados o ejercidos, para el uso de la comunidad a través del análisis, la gestión y el control y proposición de la forma espacial.  

Tourscapes

Harvey’s assessment of the Lefebvrian concept of the Right to the City is that it is a communal right, shared by association with the community around the urban project. How might this idea translate to a small island nation, recently transformed from being a rural society, headlong into a post-urban, spatially chaotic coagulation of small cities, suburbs, and landscapes of tourism consumption, or "Tourscapes"? Existing and emerging Tourscapes can be mapped and analysed, at different but simultaneous scales, related to their local, city or regional importance, and the meanings of these in the visual and spatial order can be reviewed. This work will propose exploratory scenarios for addressing tourism related spatial practice, using Irish Case Study examples, and also will investigate how communal rights to Tourscapes could be claimed or exercised, for use by the broad community around the analysis, management, control and proposition of spatial form.Peer Reviewe

Visualising Spatial Complexity of Urban Sites

Recent research has linked urban design to artistic practice, and it is suggested that urban design could become refocused if conceived of as an integrative art of place. However, the urban design research methods literature is silent on the topic of artistic practice, and therefore the potential for interpretative, abductive knowledge to emerge from creative visualisation in urban design is under-appreciated. More specifically, regarding evaluation for urban design, complexity theories of cities claim that understanding complexity in particular enhances our ability to organise knowledge in relation to cities, and it is further argued that complexity theory responds to a need for a knowledge leap in planning, design and maintenance of cities, to rise to global urban challenges and crises. In this context, visualising spatial complexity of urban sites through artistic practice is useful to urban design. The specifically spatial complexity of urban sites, (as the spatial component of urban complexity), has not previously been explored, evaluated or visualised for urban design. This paper argues that in creatively visualising spatial complexity, multi-scalar, relational and temporal aspects of the urban built environment can be captured, and this visualisation communicates a unique ‘signature’ of each urban site

Tourscapes

Harvey’s assessment of the Lefebvrian concept of the Right to the City is that it is a communal right, shared by association with the community around the urban project. How might this idea translate to a small island nation, recently transformed from being a rural society, headlong into a post-urban, spatially chaotic coagulation of small cities, suburbs, and landscapes of tourism consumption, or "Tourscapes"? Existing and emerging Tourscapes can be mapped and analysed, at different but simultaneous scales, related to their local, city or regional importance, and the meanings of these in the visual and spatial order can be reviewed. This work will propose exploratory scenarios for addressing tourism related spatial practice, using Irish Case Study examples, and also will investigate how communal rights to Tourscapes could be claimed or exercised, for use by the broad community around the analysis, management, control and proposition of spatial form.Peer Reviewe

Framing the role of technologies in the recognition and development of staff capacities to enhance learning in higher education

There are practical initiatives which can be taken by university management to move institutions forward by engaging a broad range of staff and in cultivating leadership capabilities in teaching and learning. These initiatives are considered in terms of 12 &lsquo;levers of engagement&rsquo; currently being implemented in our university, and shown below. Deakin, as a major flexible education provider, is used as an institutional case study of the role of technology in supporting organisational change in higher education. Many of the levers of engagement are evident in other Australian universities.<br /

Evaluation of record linkage of mortality data between a health and demographic surveillance system and national civil registration system in South Africa

Background: Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS) collect independent mortality data that could be used for assessing the quality of mortality data in national civil registration (CR) systems in low- and middle-income countries. However, the use of HDSS data for such purposes depends on the quality of record linkage between the two data sources. We describe and evaluate the quality of record linkage between HDSS and CR mortality data in South Africa with HDSS data from Agincourt HDSS.Methods: We applied deterministic and probabilistic record linkage approaches to mortality records from 2006 to 2009 from the Agincourt HDSS and those in the CR system. Quality of the matches generated by the probabilistic approach was evaluated using sensitivity and positive predictive value (PPV) calculated from a subset of records that were linked using national identity number. Matched and unmatched records from the Agincourt HDSS were compared to identify characteristics associated with successful matching. In addition, the distribution of background characteristics in all deaths that occurred in 2009 and those linked to CR records was compared to assess systematic bias in the resulting record-linked dataset in the latest time period.Results: Deterministic and probabilistic record linkage approaches combined linked a total of 2264 out of 3726 (60.8%) mortality records from the Agincourt HDSS to those in the CR system. Probabilistic approaches independently linked 1969 (87.0%) of the linked records. In a subset of 708 records that were linked using national identity number, the probabilistic approaches yielded sensitivity of 90.0% and PPV of 98.5%. Records belonging to more vulnerable people, including poorer persons, young children, and non-South Africans were less likely to be matched. Nevertheless, distribution of most background characteristics was similar between all Agincourt HDSS deaths and those matched to CR records in the latest time period.Conclusion: This study shows that record linkage of mortality data from HDSS and CR systems is possible and can be useful in South Africa. The study identifies predictors for death registration and data items and registration system characteristics that could be improved to achieve more optimal future matching possibilities

Addressing Criticisms of Large-Scale Marine Protected Areas

Designated large-scale marine protected areas (LSMPAs, 100,000 or more square kilometers) constitute over two-thirds of the approximately 6.6% of the ocean and approximately 14.5% of the exclusive economic zones within marine protected areas. Although LSMPAs have received support among scientists and conservation bodies for wilderness protection, regional ecological connectivity, and improving resilience to climate change, there are also concerns. We identified 10 common criticisms of LSMPAs along three themes: (1) placement, governance, and management; (2) political expediency; and (3) social–ecological value and cost. Through critical evaluation of scientific evidence, we discuss the value, achievements, challenges, and potential of LSMPAs in these arenas. We conclude that although some criticisms are valid and need addressing, none pertain exclusively to LSMPAs, and many involve challenges ubiquitous in management. We argue that LSMPAs are an important component of a diversified management portfolio that tempers potential losses, hedges against uncertainty, and enhances the probability of achieving sustainably managed oceans

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio