Developing a Framework to Link Multi-Sector Drought Impacts to Drought Severity at the State Level

The United States Drought Monitor, a weekly map depicting severity and spatial extent of drought, is a key indicator for federal and state policy decisions including the annual distribution of hundreds of millions of dollars for agricultural financial relief in the United States. However, the current table describing potential drought impacts for the map’s severity levels fails to adequately represent a state’s unique environmental, economic, and social values affected by drought. One approach to improve this broad, national-scale assessment is to transition from the former platform to a more detailed characterization of drought impacts at the state level. To accomplish this, state and regionally specific drought impact classification tables were developed by linking multi-sector, qualitative impacts chronicled in the Drought Impact Reporter (DIR) to historic USDM severity levels across the United States and Puerto Rico. After creating state-level tables, a nationwide survey was administered to local experts and decision makers (n=89), including the USDM authors, in an effort to capture greater resolution of drought impacts at a local level. As a result, 76% of responses indicated the state table as acceptableor goodwhen classifying drought impacts in their respective state. This updated classification scheme builds a narrative supported by a reproducible methodology that can be simulated in future research for a multiplicity of drought events to better understand the complex relationship between drought severity and corresponding impacts. This thesis includes one manuscript (Chapter Two) currently in preparation for potential publication in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. The thesis highlights methodology, products, and next steps surrounding the drought impact classification table scheme, building upon the importance of enhancing qualitative impact reporting and drought characterization. Advisors: Deborah Bathke and Michael Haye

Alien Registration- Boucher, Mary (Auburn, Androscoggin County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/30160/thumbnail.jp

The role of motivation on employee’s performance in Strategies Insurance Tanzania Limited

The study aimed at assessing the role of motivation on employee performance in Strategic Insurance Tanzania Limited. A descriptive research design with a crosssectional survey strategy was employed. A sample of 115 employees was selected by simple random sampling. Questionnaires were used to collect primary data. Descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis techniques were used to analysis data. Results show that motivation has significant positive influence on employee performance. Intrinsic motivation has significant positive influence on employee performance. Extrinsic motivation also was found to have positive influence on employee performance. The study found that there is high performance among employees shown by most employees having morale and desire of increasing efforts. Moreover, the study findings show that there is high employee motivation in SITL .It was recommended that the insurance companies should undertake regular review of motivational strategies particularly considering opportunities of enhancing motivation among employees in order to effectively increase morale for employees

The LIFE Model: Livelihood Improvement through Facilitated Extension

The previous papers (Menz; Puerto et al.; Johnson et al.; Johnson et al., this issue) provided a background context for the development of an extension model thought to be applicable in conflict-vulnerable areas of Mindanao. This was done by developing and using an extension model that is effective and resource efficient, as well as sufficiently flexible to be adapted to local community needs. First in this chapter, learnings from previous extension work are listed. From those learnings, a set of sixteen extension principles are derived. These extension principles are categorized under the umbrella of three overarching and concurrent extension strategies: (1) improving access to technical innovations, (2) building community social capital, and (3) collaborating closely with local institutional partners. Finally a set of practical activities that defines the model is specified, while recognizing the need for flexibility in responding to prevailing circumstances

An attempt to develop a picture-preference-test depression scale.

Dept. of Psychology. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1979 .N645. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 40-07, page: . Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1979

A Framework for Developing Social Capital Indicators

Previous papers (Puerto et al; Johnson et al., this issue) have defined social capital and explained its relevance to agricultural (and other) extension approaches. The strong linkage between social capital and economic development was also described. It was also noted that social capital is an elusive concept to measure. Consequently “indicators” are frequently used to assess changes in social capital. However, deciding on an appropriate set of indicators is a nontrivial task and is dependent upon the settings in which the indicators are to be used. This paper first describes the initial steps taken in implementing an improved model of agricultural extension. This provides a context for the derivation of the social capital indicators relevant to the project discussed in detail in later papers (see Vock et al.; Meguito et al., this issue). A framework is then produced for deriving a set of indicators, followed by the indicators themselves and guides to measurement. At the micro level, the identified indicators were the following: farmer group is established and functioning; farmer group expanding their networks; level of trust within the farmer group and community is increasing; and the farmer group is contributing to community solidarity. At the meso level, the identified indicators are the following: local institutions and key personnel are present and accessible; local institutions are actively engaged with farmer groups; and local institutions are well networked within the target area and externally. The framework was then expanded to encompass measurement guidelines for each indicator along the lines of “what can change,” “how to measure,” “measurement outcome,” and “importance of the measure.” The framework has potentially broad application beyond the project for which this was developed. The framework is more “local” in nature compared to most previous attempts to derive social capital indicators