Women, Equity and Participatory Water Management in Brazil

Public participation in resource management is regarded as a central pillar of sustain- able development. Water management is a foremost example, and women globally are prime users and protectors of water. Yet the effectiveness of participatory water man- agement practices is seldom examined from a feminist perspective. This article estab- lishes a methodological framework for such an inquiry, drawing on ecofeminist theory and the Brazilian concept of ‘feminist transformative leadership’ to consider gender, race and class aspects of participatory water management in Brazil.This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canad

Women and Deliberative Water Management in Brazil

In this paper we consider some gender aspects of the evolution of water management in Brazil. In our work on women and water, we have been inspired by ecofeminist philosophy and the concept of 'feministThis research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canad

Semiclassical back reaction around a cosmic dislocation

The energy-momentum vacuum average of a conformally coupled massless scalar field vibrating around a cosmic dislocation (a cosmic string with a dislocation along its axis) is taken as source of the linearized semiclassical Einstein equations. The solution up to first order in the Planck constant is derived. Motion of a test particle is then discussed, showing that under certain circumstances a helical-like dragging effect, with no classical analogue around the cosmic dislocation, is induced by back reaction.Comment: Published version, 4 pages, no figures, REVTeX4 fil

Performance assessment in brain-computer interface-based augmentative and alternative communication

Abstract A large number of incommensurable metrics are currently used to report the performance of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) used for augmentative and alterative communication (AAC). The lack of standard metrics precludes the comparison of different BCI-based AAC systems, hindering rapid growth and development of this technology. This paper presents a review of the metrics that have been used to report performance of BCIs used for AAC from January 2005 to January 2012. We distinguish between Level 1 metrics used to report performance at the output of the BCI Control Module, which translates brain signals into logical control output, and Level 2 metrics at the Selection Enhancement Module, which translates logical control to semantic control. We recommend that: (1) the commensurate metrics Mutual Information or Information Transfer Rate (ITR) be used to report Level 1 BCI performance, as these metrics represent information throughput, which is of interest in BCIs for AAC; 2) the BCI-Utility metric be used to report Level 2 BCI performance, as it is capable of handling all current methods of improving BCI performance; (3) these metrics should be supplemented by information specific to each unique BCI configuration; and (4) studies involving Selection Enhancement Modules should report performance at both Level 1 and Level 2 in the BCI system. Following these recommendations will enable efficient comparison between both BCI Control and Selection Enhancement Modules, accelerating research and development of BCI-based AAC systems.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/115465/1/12938_2012_Article_658.pd