102 research outputs found
The evolution of Environmental Assessment through storytelling – Stories from five decades of experience
This paper aims to explore the evolution of EA as a concept and as a tool through the thoughts, perspectives and reflections of those who have lived-through 50 years of EA practice. It presents findings from research informed by interviews through storytelling with 12 longstanding practitioners and scholars who have engaged with EA over five decades. The narratives collected and the emerging discourses provide useful insight into the “story” of the evolution of EA thus far, reflecting on the internal and external motivations driving EA’s evolution, and looking to where EA might go next, and how it might continue to evolve. The findings call for a return to more holistic conversations about the environment, and for greater advocacy at the heart of decision-making and institutional structures to enhance the influence of EA
Change-making in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA):piloting changeology approach using England as a case study
Piecemeal changes to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process have to date not fully delivered EIA’s normative goals and met today’s environmental challenges. By regarding the to date approaches to change-making as a problem requiring a solution, this paper applies critical analysis to reflect upon current change-making based on England’s EIA system as a case study. The analysis identifies a lack of innovative ideas and sound evidence-based approaches to inform and support the change-making process. Consequently, we argue for an epistemology of change-making (changeology) so that the entire approach can be based on an empirically informed framework, to inform the journey (process) and destination (fit-for-purpose EIA) and make the EIA process fit-for-purpose and aligned to future expectations. Changeology should be viewed as more than informing one-time change-making but as a framework of well-studied practice for changing (or improving) EIA in the long-term
Change-making in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA):piloting changeology approach using England as a case study
Piecemeal changes to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process have to date not fully delivered EIA’s normative goals and met today’s environmental challenges. By regarding the to date approaches to change-making as a problem requiring a solution, this paper applies critical analysis to reflect upon current change-making based on England’s EIA system as a case study. The analysis identifies a lack of innovative ideas and sound evidence-based approaches to inform and support the change-making process. Consequently, we argue for an epistemology of change-making (changeology) so that the entire approach can be based on an empirically informed framework, to inform the journey (process) and destination (fit-for-purpose EIA) and make the EIA process fit-for-purpose and aligned to future expectations. Changeology should be viewed as more than informing one-time change-making but as a framework of well-studied practice for changing (or improving) EIA in the long-term
The effects of recent austerity on environmental protection decisions:evidence and perspectives from Scotland
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to establish the evidence for, the why and how recent austerity policy atmosphere associated with the UK government affected environmental protection decisions within planning in Scotland. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative analysis based on perspectives gathered via questionnaire survey targeted at stakeholders involved in planning in Scotland was undertaken. The questionnaire responses were analysed thematically, supplemented by using statistical tests of significance and variance to show how responses differed across participants. Findings: The evidence showed that austerity policy atmosphere resulted in a pervasive neoliberal imperative of resuscitating the economy; whilst producing subtle and adverse effects on environmental decisions. This was best understood within a neo-Gramscian perspective of hegemony, borrowed from the field of political economy of states. Research limitations/implications: The gathered views were constrained within unknown biases that the participants may have had; and because the case study approach was not equipped to generalize the results beyond the study, more research testing cause-effect between the austerity and selected environmental parameters is needed, from various contexts. Practical implications: Decision-making frameworks should explicitly acknowledge the unique pressures during austerity periods; and contemplate resilient decision-making frameworks that can withstand the hegemonic tendencies which prioritise economic goals above environmental ones. Originality/value: Whilst the area of austerity’s impacts on the environment remains poorly evidenced, empirically, this seminal paper uses robust analysis to establish how the austerity policy atmosphere affects environmental decisions. This is insight into what may be happening in other similar situations outside Scotland, raising concern as to whether and how we should approach the challenge of hegemonic ideas
Symmetrization Techniques in Image Deblurring
This paper presents a couple of preconditioning techniques that can be used
to enhance the performance of iterative regularization methods applied to image
deblurring problems with a variety of point spread functions (PSFs) and
boundary conditions. More precisely, we first consider the anti-identity
preconditioner, which symmetrizes the coefficient matrix associated to problems
with zero boundary conditions, allowing the use of MINRES as a regularization
method. When considering more sophisticated boundary conditions and strongly
nonsymmetric PSFs, the anti-identity preconditioner improves the performance of
GMRES. We then consider both stationary and iteration-dependent regularizing
circulant preconditioners that, applied in connection with the anti-identity
matrix and both standard and flexible Krylov subspaces, speed up the
iterations. A theoretical result about the clustering of the eigenvalues of the
preconditioned matrices is proved in a special case. The results of many
numerical experiments are reported to show the effectiveness of the new
preconditioning techniques, including when considering the deblurring of sparse
images
Landscape impact assessment in planning processes
The book is specifically dedicated to a broad spectrum of aspects of landscape impact assessment in the process of strategic planning and decision-making. It aims to show the required standard process, content and scope of assessment of impact on the landscape and to present the main principles to ensure their integrity and consistency
L'accertamento del dolore nel paziente con demenza
Background: La demenza è caratterizzata da un progressivo declino cognitivo che porta, specialmente nella fase più avanzata, alla perdita dell’abilità di comunicare nonché alla perdita di alcuni concetti tra cui quello di dolore. Ciò rappresenta un problema per l’infermiere: il self-report risulta impossibile e si rendono, perciò, necessari strumenti osservazionali che permettano di valutare la presenza di dolore nell’anziano con demenza.
Questa revisione della letteratura ha l’obiettivo di indagare quali siano gli strumenti di accertamento del dolore più validi che l’infermiere può utilizzare a seconda dell’avanzamento della patologia e quale sia il ruolo dell’infermiere nella valutazione di questo sintomo così soggettivo.
Materiali e metodi: La ricerca è stata effettuata presso le banche dati PUBMED, CINAHL, GOOGLE SCHOLAR e COCHRANE. Essa ha portato all’inclusione di 72 articoli, i quali sono stati revisionati e tradotti seguendo i criteri di inclusione, eseguendo una selezione che ha portato alla scelta finale di 25 articoli specifici dell’argomento trattato.
Risultati: Dalla ricerca emerge che le scale di autovalutazione sono il gold standard per l’accertamento del dolore, ma nel decadimento cognitivo severo esse risultano inapplicabili. In questa fase è opportuno utilizzare strumenti osservazionali che dovrebbero essere a disposizione in ogni ambito di cura. Tuttavia, nonostante siano molti gli strumenti disponibili, il dolore negli anziani con demenza è sottovalutato e sotto-trattato. Inoltre, non esiste uno strumento universalmente valido e applicabile in qualsiasi contesto.
L’infermiere gioca un ruolo molto importante nella valutazione del dolore, in particolare perché, con la sua vicinanza al paziente, può cogliere quei segni atipici come i sottili cambiamenti di comportamento che sono spesso l’unica manifestazione con cui le persone con demenza esprimono il proprio dolore.
Parole chiave: demenza, dolore, accertamento del dolore, strumenti di accertamento del dolore, scale di dolore, comportamenti di dolore, gestione del dolore, manifestazioni di dolore, infermieristica, ruolo dell’infermiere.
Key words: dementia; pain; pain assessment; pain assessment tools; pain scales; pain behaviors; pain management; pain manifestations; nursing; nurse’s role.ope
Landscape impact assessment in planning processes
The book is specifically dedicated to a broad spectrum of aspects of landscape impact assessment in the process of strategic planning and decision-making. It aims to show the required standard process, content and scope of assessment of impact on the landscape and to present the main principles to ensure their integrity and consistency
“Albergo Diffuso” Model for the Analysis of Customer Satisfaction
This paper focuses on assessing the level of satisfaction of customers that had spent some part of their holidays in an eco-way style. This is an innovative form of hospitality that is represented by the “Albergo Diffuso”. The connection between this sustainable tourism model and the customers wellbeing is based on concepts which are directly connected with sustainability and environment in a rural destination. The data are related to 450 reviews which were selected randomly from two websites of reviews and are about 15 different Hotels (Albergo Diffuso model). The methodology of content analysis, with a successive application of regression model, has been used to understand the factors that influence the tourist’s opinion. It also identifies the role ofsustainability, innovation, and tradition for customers that spend their holiday in ADs. The hypotheses tested in the paper are associated with the features of the literature and the link with sustainability of this model. This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the customers satisfaction factors of a new tourist model which is quite diffused in Italy and other parts of the world. This will help to understand if the elements highlighted in the literature are consistent with the reviews or if there are other factors. For example, the provision of physiological and safety needs are more important for tourists
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