Future Community-Based Ecotourism (CBET) development

Ecotourism is an alternative form of tourism and is usually confused with natural and cultural tourism.CBET is fast becoming a popular biodiversity conservation tool that develops and benefits the local community. Based on the context of conservation theory and practice, Community-Based Ecotourism (CBET) is a form of community-based natural resource management. However, a sustainable CBET development through Community Capacity Building (CCB)programs is not something that it easily achievable. Local community’s capacity varies from one culture to another. It takes a high level of community participation, in order for it to come to a level where the community members themselves are motivated to participate and contribute to the development of the program. This fully qualitative research involved 15 respondents from the community of Kg. Selai, Bekok in Johor, Malaysia. The result show there are five factors that sustained the ecotourism development based for Orang Asli Community in Kg. Selai, namely, existing CBET development, past CBET development, local community participation in planning stage of tourism, local participation in implementation stage of tourism and participation in nature conservation

EuroSpine Task Force on Research: support for spine researchers

In recognition of the value of research to the practice of spine care, Federico Balagué and Ferran Pellisé, at the time President and Secretary for EuroSpine, asked Margareta Nordin to set up a Task Force on Research (TFR) for EuroSpine during summer 2011. The concept was to stimulate and facilitate a research community within the society, through two main functions: (1) distribution of EuroSpine funds to researchers; (2) develop and deliver research training/education courses. What has the EuroSpine TFR accomplished since its inception

Treatment of osteoporosis: why, whom, when and how to treat

The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included. See page 7 of PDF for this item.B E Christopher Nordin, Allan G Nee

"Taste Strips” - A rapid, lateralized, gustatory bedside identification test based on impregnated filter papers

Objective : To elaborate normative values for a clinical psychophysical taste test ("Taste Strips”). Background : The "Taste Strips” are a psychophysical chemical taste test. So far, no definitive normative data had been published and only a fairly small sample size has been investigated. In light of this shortcoming for this easy, reliable and quick taste testing device, we attempted to provide normative values suitable for the clinical use. Setting : Normative value acquisition study, multicenter study. Methods : The investigation involved 537 participants reporting a normal sense of smell and taste (318 female, 219 male, mean age 44 years, age range 18-87 years). The taste test was based on spoonshaped filter paper strips ("Taste Strips”) impregnated with the four (sweet, sour, salty, and bitter) taste qualities in four different concentrations. The strips were placed on the left or right side of the anterior third of the extended tongue, resulting in a total of 32 trials. With their tongue still extended, patients had to identify the taste from a list of four descriptors, i. e., sweet, sour, salty, and bitter (multiple forcedchoice). To obtain an impression of overall gustatory function, the number of correctly identified tastes was summed up for a "taste score”. Results : Taste function decreased significantly with age. Women exhibited significantly higher taste scores than men which was true for all age groups. The taste score at the 10th percentile was selected as a cut-off value to distinguish normogeusia from hypogeusia. Results from a small series of patients with ageusia confirmed the clinical usefulness of the proposed normative values. Conclusion : The present data provide normative values for the "Taste Strips” based on over 500 subjects teste

Elements of Community Capacity Building (CCB)for CBET development

Ecotourism is an alternative form of tourism and is usually confused with natural and cultural tourism.CBET is fast becoming a popular biodiversity conservation tool that develops and benefits the local community. Based on the context of conservation theory and practice, Community-Based Ecotourism (CBET) is a form of community-based natural resource management. However, a sustainable CBET development through Community Capacity Building (CCB)programs is not something that it easily achievable. Local community’s capacity varies from one culture to another. It takes a high level of community participation, in order for it to come to a level where the community members themselves are motivated to participate and contribute to the development of the program. This fully qualitative research involved 15 respondents from the community of Kg. Selai, Bekok in Johor, Malaysia. The result show there are five factors that sustained the ecotourism development based for Orang Asli Community in Kg. Selai, namely, existing CBET development, past CBET development, local community participation in planning stage of tourism, local participation in implementation stage of tourism and participation in nature conservation

Type Ia supernova Hubble diagram with near-infrared and optical observations

We main goal of this paper is to test whether the NIR peak magnitudes of SNe Ia could be accurately estimated with only a single observation obtained close to maximum light, provided the time of B band maximum and the optical stretch parameter are known. We obtained multi-epoch UBVRI and single-epoch J and H photometric observations of 16 SNe Ia in the redshift range z=0.037-0.183, doubling the leverage of the current SN Ia NIR Hubble diagram and the number of SNe beyond redshift 0.04. This sample was analyzed together with 102 NIR and 458 optical light curves (LCs) of normal SNe Ia from the literature. The analysis of 45 well-sampled NIR LCs shows that a single template accurately describes them if its time axis is stretched with the optical stretch parameter. This allows us to estimate the NIR peak magnitudes even with one observation obtained within 10 days from B-band maximum. We find that the NIR Hubble residuals show weak correlation with DM_15 and E(B-V), and for the first time we report a possible dependence on the J_max-H_max color. The intrinsic NIR luminosity scatter of SNe Ia is estimated to be around 0.10 mag, which is smaller than what can be derived for a similarly heterogeneous sample at optical wavelengths. In conclusion, we find that SNe Ia are at least as good standard candles in the NIR as in the optical. We showed that it is feasible to extended the NIR SN Ia Hubble diagram to z=0.2 with very modest sampling of the NIR LCs, if complemented by well-sampled optical LCs. Our results suggest that the most efficient way to extend the NIR Hubble diagram to high redshift would be to obtain a single observation close to the NIR maximum. (abridged)Comment: 39 pages, 15 figures, accepted by A&

Three-color plasmon-mediated reduction of diazonium salts over metasurfaces.

Surface plasmon-mediated chemical reactions are of great interest for a variety of applications ranging from micro- and nanoscale device fabrication to chemical reactions of societal interest for hydrogen production or carbon reduction. In this work, a crosshair-like nanostructure is investigated due to its ability to induce local enhancement of the local electromagnetic field at three distinct wavelengths corresponding to three plasmon resonances. The structures are irradiated in the presence of a solution containing diazonium salts at wavelengths that match the resonance positions at 532 nm, 632.8 nm, and 800 nm. The resulting grafting shows polarization and wavelength-dependent growth patterns at the nanoscale. The plasmon-mediated reactions over arrays of the crosshair structures are further investigated using scanning electron microscopy and supported by finite domain time domain modelling revealing wavelength and polarization specific reactions. Such an approach enables nanoscale molecular printing using light source opening multiplexing applications where different analytes can be grafted under distinct opto-geometric conditions

Three-color plasmon-mediated reduction of diazonium salts over metasurfaces.

Surface plasmon-mediated chemical reactions are of great interest for a variety of applications ranging from micro- and nanoscale device fabrication to chemical reactions of societal interest for hydrogen production or carbon reduction. In this work, a crosshair-like nanostructure is investigated due to its ability to induce local enhancement of the local electromagnetic field at three distinct wavelengths corresponding to three plasmon resonances. The structures are irradiated in the presence of a solution containing diazonium salts at wavelengths that match the resonance positions at 532 nm, 632.8 nm, and 800 nm. The resulting grafting shows polarization and wavelength-dependent growth patterns at the nanoscale. The plasmon-mediated reactions over arrays of the crosshair structures are further investigated using scanning electron microscopy and supported by finite domain time domain modelling revealing wavelength and polarization specific reactions. Such an approach enables nanoscale molecular printing using light source opening multiplexing applications where different analytes can be grafted under distinct opto-geometric conditions