Trends in Maternal and Child Health Indicators in Making Connections Sites

Reviews the rates of teen births, low birth-weight babies, and first-trimester prenatal care received, as a share of total births, in Casey's Making Connections initiative neighborhoods. Compares the neighborhood data to overall trends in the county

PROTHEGO Deliverable D.07.01: Dissemination and communication strategy, Version 1.0.

PROTHEGO (PROTection of European Cultural HEritage from GeO-hazards) is a collaborative research project funded in 2015–2018 in the framework of the Joint Programming Initiative on Cultural Heritage and Global Change (JPI-CH) – Heritage Plus. The project aims to make an innovative contribution towards the analysis of geohazards in areas of cultural heritage, and uses novel space technology based on radar interferometry (InSAR) to retrieve information on ground stability and motion in the 400+ UNESCO's World Heritage List monuments and sites of Europe. Dissemination and communication are central to the success of PROTHEGO, and are embedded into its WP7, which runs throughout the whole lifetime of the project under the leadership of NERC. This report outlines the strategy that NERC in collaboration with ISPRA, CUT, UNIMIB and IGME designed to disseminate PROTHEGO’s objectives, methodologies and achievements and to engage stakeholders and heritage practitioners to maximise the impact of the project. Several dissemination tools are used to achieve PROTHEGO’s dissemination goals, including the development of the project branding (see sections 2.1.1 and 2.1.2), a dedicated website (see section 2.1.4), project leaflets and brochures (see section 2.1.3). A publication plan is in place with associated scenarios (see sections 2.2.1 and 2.2.2) to publicise the project and its results at both national and international level. An internal approval process and copyright responsibilities are identified in line with the Consortium Agreement (see section 2.2.3). A record of dissemination activities undertaken by Project Partners and Associate Partners (Table 6) is kept via the List of Outputs (see section 2.2.4 and Appendix A). Deliverables with public (PU) dissemination level (as defined in the Description of Work) are made freely available to stakeholders and the public via the project website. Restricted (PP) dissemination level deliverables are stored in the password-protected file sharing platform only for internal use to the Project Partners and the JPI-CH Heritage Plus Coordinator (see section 2.2.5). PROTHEGO will capture the needs and requirements of end-users and stakeholders, inform them about the project activities and outputs, and engage them from the very beginning of the project. This will be achieved through stakeholder-focussed workshops and activities: (i) Initial Consultation Workshop (see section 3.1); (ii) Public Consultation via Online Survey (see section 3.2); (iii) Stakeholder and User Workshop (see section 3.3); and (iv) Final PROTHEGO Workshop (see section 3.4). These workshops and activities will allow PROTHEGO to tailor its project outcomes and results to the stakeholders’ needs, to maximise the impact of the project and transfer its research outcomes to the heritage sector, policy makers and the general public

Getting ready for the generation of a nationwide ground motion product for Great Britain using SAR dta stacks: feasibility, data volumes and perspectives

This paper discusses the feasibility of monitoring ground stability and motion across the entire British landmass using satellite InSAR techniques. The ERS-1/2 and ENVISAT archive data availability, topographic visibility and land cover constraints for multi-temporal InSAR techniques to succeed across Britain are analysed. Data volumes, hardware and software requirements for the generation of a nationwide InSAR product are discussed, with a view to both novel processing methods to extend InSAR across unfavourable land covers, and parallel and cloud computing systems to decrease InSAR processing time demands. The P-SBAS method implemented into ESA’s G-POD platform is tested for London and Newcastle using ERS-1/2 1992-2000 and ENVISAT 2002-2008 image stacks, revealing a decrease of the processing time demand from several days to only ~8 hours per image frame

Why comparative political economy should take the post-growth debate seriously

Climate change has prompted interest in ‘degrowth’ strategies, through which countries would prioritise protecting the environment instead of economic growth. Luca Cigna argues that given the increasing importance of the climate for national economies, comparative political economy scholars should better integrate degrowth and post-growth models into their analytical frameworks

Le grotte turistiche e la protezione dell’ambiente

Il ruolo delle grotte turistiche per lo sviluppo di studi e ricerche in grotta è ormai ampiamente documentato nonostante certe posizioni minoritarie in ambito speleologico che ritengono come lo sviluppo a scopo turistico di una grotta ne comporti invece la perdita della stessa per la scienza. Tuttavia, il fatto che i gestori possano sostenere con varie modalità l’attività scientifica non assicura di per se che lo sviluppo della grotta avvenga nel rispetto dell’ambiente stesso. Per questo motivo si è sentita la necessità, già da un paio di decenni, di formulare delle linee guida che potessero fornire dei criteri per garantire nel contempo la sicurezza dei visitatori e la protezione dell’ambiente sempre nell’ambito di una gestione economicamente vantaggiosa. La stesura di queste linee guida si è così evoluta nel corso degli anni grazie al contributo di numerosi specialisti e sotto l’egida di organizzazioni internazionali quali l’ISCA, l’UIS e l’IUCN-WCPA. I risultati delle successive elaborazioni sono stati presentati a diversi congressi sia nazionali che internazionali assicurando così ulteriori contributi. Recentemente si è evidenziato un conflitto d’interesse tra taluni gestori di grotte turistiche e la necessità di garantire l’applicazione di inderogabili principi scientifici per conseguire una efficiente protezione delle grotte che, d’altra parte, assicura la buona conservazione della fonte di guadagno per la stessa gestione.Show caves and environmental protection. The role played by show caves for the development of studies and researches in caves is already widely reported notwithstanding some minor groups within the speleological domain which assume that the tourist development of a cave implies its loss for science. However, the fact that show cave managers might support the scientific research according different forms, does not imply necessarily that the development of a cave is obtained with the due respect for the environment. For this reason, already twenty years ago, it was felt the necessity to have some guidelines aiming to the safety of visitors and the protection of the environment as well as a cave management economically profitable. The preparations of such guidelines developed along many years thanks to the contribute of a number of specialists under the aegis of international organisations as ISCA, UIS and IUCN-WCPA. The results of the successive drafts were delivered in some national and internationals congresses and got additional contributions. Recently clashing interests were found between some show cave managers and the need to assure the application of unbreakable scientific principles to achieve an reliable cave protections, which, on the other hand, are a guarantee for the best conservation of the income source of the management itself

Politics of COVID-19

https://digitalcommons.misericordia.edu/research_posters2020/1026/thumbnail.jp

Desigualdade Digital na Teoria e Prática: Antigas e Novas Divisões na Era da Banda Larga

Em 2017, o número de usuários de TIC no mundo atingiu os 4 mil milhões de pessoas - eram apenas 16 milhões em 1995. De acordo com seus primeiros observadores, a World Wide Web poderia efetivamente combater as desigualdades socioeconómicas, promovendo a difusão de informação e oportunidades pelos quatro cantos do globo. No entanto, apesar das expectativas, os “dividendos digitais” decorrentes das novas tecnologias têm sido distribuídos de forma desigual, Passando ao lado de um dramático e generalizado ímpeto emancipatório. Além disso, como os privilegiados tendem a agarrar os recursos e as habilidades necessárias para se beneficiar das TICs, os necessitados podem ser “expulsos” da revolução da banda larga. Com base nestas preocupações, o objetivo do artigo é rever o “estado da arte” do debate sobre desigualdade digital, lançando luz sobre cinco pontos principais: 1. A definição adaptativa de “clivagem digital”; 2. Abordagens metodológicas; 3. Interação com outras formas de desigualdade (status socioeconómico, educação, raça, género, idade); 4. Dimensão global e “periferias digitais”; 5. A questão intrinsecamente política da “ação conectiva”

Modern Trend in Cave Monitoring

Opisan je razvoj jamskega monitoringa od 19. stoletja dalje. Prednost razvojnih teorij je omogočila doseči primerljive rezultate in napovedati razvoj jamske klime, še preden je prišlo do nepopravljivih procesov. Našteti so najpomembnejše parametri monitoringa. V zadnjih letih smo doživeli močan tehnološki razvoj in ocenjena je bila relativna pomembnost vsakega parametra. Novembra 1999 so odprli za obisk Kartchner Caverns, AZ, ZDA. Opravljenih je bilo nekaj predhodnih raziskav. Arizona Conservation Project, Inc. (ACPI) je predvidel 22 merilnih postaj. Dobili so oceno vpliva. Drugi primer je iz Cango Caves. Septembra 2000 so postavili preprosto mrežo za monitoring, ki naj bi delovala eno leto. Sestavljena je iz 15 preprostih “data loggerjev”, razporejenih po jami. Merijo temperaturo zraka in vode, koncentracijo CO2 in relativno vlažnost in vrednosti občasno prenesejo v računalnik izven jame. Prispevek podaja prve rezultate. Popolnoma avtomatičen monitoring bo postavljen v prihodnosti, ko bodo pregledani rezultati te prve preproste opazovalne mreže. Vzpostavili bodo popolnoma avtomatizirano mrežo, ko bodo razpolagali z rezultati prve preproste opazovalne mreže.The evolution of cave monitoring since 19th century is described. The advantage of the development of theories was the possibility to obtain comparable results and forecast the evolution of a cave climate before irreversible modifications take place. The most important parameters to be monitored are indicated. In recent years both important technological improvements have been obtained and the relative importance of each parameter has been reviewed. Kartchner Caverns, Arizona, USA, was opened to the public in November 1999. Some preliminary studies have been performed. Arizona Conservation Project, Inc. (ACPI) established 22 monitoring stations. An evaluation of the impact assessment was obtained. The second case concerns Cango Cave. A simple monitoring network has been installed in September 2000 to be operated for one year. It consists in about 15 rugged data loggers distributed along the cave. Air and water temperature, carbon dioxide concentration, and relative humidity are measured and the values are transferred periodically by a shuttle into a computer outside the cave. A totally automatic monitoring network will be installed in the future after the results of the first simple network are achieved