Modeling the Total Allowable Area for Coastal Reclamation : a case study of Xiamen, China

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2013. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Ocean & Coastal Management 76 (2013):38-44, doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2013.02.015.This paper presents an analytical framework to estimate the Total Allowable Area for Coastal Reclamation (TAACR) to provide scientific support for the implementation of a coastal reclamation restriction mechanism. The logic of the framework is to maximize the net benefits of coastal reclamation subject to a set of constraints. Various benefits and costs, including the ecological and environmental costs of coastal reclamation, are systematically quantified in the framework. Model simulations are developed using data from Tongan Bay of Xiamen. The results suggest that the TAACR in Tongan Bay is 5.67 km2, and the area of the Bay should be maintained at least at 87.52 km2.The study was funded by the National Oceanic Public Welfare Projects (No. 201105006) and the Fujian Natural Science Foundation (No. 2010J01360

"To live until you die could actually include being intimate and having sex" : a focus group study on nurses' experiences of their work with sexuality in palliative care

AIM: The aim of the study was to examine nurses' experiences of working with issues of sexuality in palliative care. BACKGROUND: Sexuality has value for human lives and relations and is important for one's overall well-being throughout life. Guidelines for palliative care state that sexuality should be addressed. Previous research shows that the inclusion of sexuality in general healthcare is deficient, and there is a knowledge gap on how sexuality is addressed in palliative care. METHOD: Within a qualitative design, the empirical material was obtained through three focus group interviews with eleven registered nurses working in palliative care. The interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. RESULT: Nurses experience that sexuality has an indistinct place in their work, 'sexuality' is a word difficult to use, and differing views are held on whether it is relevant to address sexuality, and if so, when? Although they have experiences involving patient and partner sexuality, which is viewed as sexuality in transformation during the palliative care process, nurses seldom explicitly address patient or partner sexuality. Despite the lack of knowledge, routines and organizational support, they acknowledge the importance of addressing sexuality in palliative care, as they express that they want to do right. CONCLUSION: Overall, nurses appear to follow differing cultural, interpersonal and intrapsychic scripts on sexuality rather than knowledge-based guidelines. This underlines the importance of managers who safeguard the adherence to existing palliative care guidelines where sexuality is already included. In this work, it is important to be aware of norms to avoid excluding patients and partners that differ from the nurses themselves as well as from societal norms on sexuality. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The results can be used as a point of departure when implementing existing or new guidelines to include and address sexuality and sexual health needs in palliative care

Conflicts and Reconciliation in the Postmillennial Heritage-Policy Discourses of the Council of Europe and the European Union

Lähdesmäki analyses the heritage-policy discourses of the EU and the Council of Europe. She particularly discusses how these institutions deal with the challenges the idea of heritage faces in today’s Europe and the opportunities that these may present to respond to these challenges. The analysis shows how the EU and the Council of Europe seek to reconcile heritage-related conflicts by approaching heritage as a space for civil participation, interaction, intercultural dialogue, and conversation about divergent values and narrations of the past. However, their policy discourses often relay on a static and materialist notion of heritage. This kind of discourse maintains geographical, cultural, political, socio-economic, and religious power hierarchies and an exclusive understanding of a common European cultural heritage.peerReviewe