2,916 research outputs found
The formation of objects in the group matrix: Reflections on creative therapy with clay
In this article describes an experimental group experience where five people worked in silence for 20 minutes around a 2 ft square slate using clay as a medium for communication as part of a creative therapy session on an inpatient psychiatric ward. The interaction culminated in a group sculpt. It is suggested that the process of the sculpting may throw some light on the formation of objects in the unconscious group matrix. The article is intended as a contribution towards the debate about the potential symbiosis between group analysis and the creative therapies (Waller) as well as the basis for further investigation into Rey's question about the formation of group matrix
Review of impact of post-tsunami reconstruction and rehabilitation of infrastructure facilities
On 26 December 2004, an earthquake in the West Coast of Northern
Sumatra set off a series of other earthquakes lasting for several hours
which resulted in a Tsunami in the Indian Ocean. This led to widespread
disaster, particularly in Sri Lanka, India, the Maldives, Indonesia and
Thailand, with damage also in Malaysia, Bangladesh, Somalia, the
Seychelles and Kenya. Sri Lanka, the ‘pearl of the Indian Ocean’, blessed
with abundant natural resources, faced one of the worst natural disasters
recorded in recent history. The Tsunami struck a relatively thin but long
coastal area stretching over 1,000 kilometers - two thirds of the country's
coastline. The destructive ocean waves killed more than 35,000 people,
displaced nearly 2,500,000 people and destroyed thousands of
houses. The overall damage to Sri Lanka is estimated at $1 billion, with a
large proportion of losses concentrated in housing, tourism, fisheries and
transportation. Development Partners range from private individuals both
inside and outside Sri Lanka, to governments and NGOs. Coastal
infrastructure, namely roads, railways, power, telecommunications, water
supply and fishing ports were also significantly affected. Reactions ranged
from immediate assistance to communities and local governments in
restarting to function as speedily as possible, to short and long-term
assistance in supporting communities to rebuild their infrastructure and
housing so that they might again have normal lives and eventually recover
from the trauma of the tsunami.
As the infrastructure consists primarily of transportation, electric and
telecommunications, and water and sewerage facilities that provide
services to the public through a network of roads, rails, ports, airports, pipes
and lines, the effectiveness of infrastructure systems impact on all
economic activities. In this context, this paper aims to analyse the impact of
the Tsunami on infrastructure facilities in Sri Lanka and how the postTsunami
reconstruction process has affected the development of the same.
A comprehensive literature review was carried out regarding the Tsunami
and its impact on the nation. The infrastructure-related reconstruction and
rehabilitation data were obtained from the RADA (Reconstruction And
Development Agency, formerly TAFREN) through unstructured interviews
conducted among personnel involved in the reconstruction and
rehabilitation of infrastructure facilities. Results confirm that after almost
one and a half years, the Tsunami rehabilitation process is slow as
compared to its start
Probability: modeling and applications to random processes
This is a review of the book "Probability: Modeling and Applications to Random Processes" by Gregory K. Miller
Effects of post disaster infrastructure reconstruction on disaster management cycle and challenges confronted: The case of Indian Ocean tsunami in Sri Lanka
There has been an increase in the number of natural disasters over the past few
years. Sri Lanka was particularly hard hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004,
which caused devastating effects on the economy, in terms of huge human and economic
losses, and washed away most of its basic infrastructure that served the poorer communities
while significantly setting back the development efforts of the country. The developing
countries are less able to face the impacts of disasters and so it is imperative to develop the
infrastructure for the poorer nations in order to quip them to manage disasters. Without being
able to provide the basic infrastructure, the plight of these affected people have been further
compounded. Post-disaster reconstruction has a key relevancy to development discourse and
disaster management cycle; particularly infrastructure reconstruction should be envisaged
from development perspectives. However infrastructure reconstruction projects are
sandwiched between the short-term necessity to act promptly and the long-term requirement
of sustainable development. In this context this paper aims to discover the necessity of
rebuilding infrastructure for a successful disaster management cycle and some key challenges
for post-tsunami long-term infrastructure reconstruction in Sri Lanka. A comprehensive
literature review was carried out regarding these issues. Results confirm that infrastructure can
both reduce the losses resulting from natural disasters and facilitate easy post-disaster
recovery and thus more investment in infrastructure reconstruction is needed. Currently
disaster management teams in Sri Lanka faces some key challenges in reconstructing the
affected infrastructure; most aggravating is the unfamiliarity of the event, poor institutional
capacity, and current security problems in the north and east of the country. Sri Lanka has to
learn much from other settings and there is a strong need to develop the capacity
Economic development perspectives of post-disaster infrastructure reconstruction: Post-tsunami reconstruction in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka was found to be a disaster prone country in the recent past. The impact is more severe
when developing countries are faced to various natural or man-made disasters. Impact appears
in many forms; loss of lives and property, economic impact, social impact etc. As a developing
country, Sri Lanka is much more concerned with the country’s economic development.
Therefore, it is wise to look into post-disaster activities in development perspectives and
integrate disaster risk reduction concerns into economic development activities. This paper
reveals the importance of post-disaster infrastructure reconstruction in economic development.
A comprehensive literature review was carried out regarding the role of infrastructure in disaster
management, economic development together with the key indicators of economic
development
Exploring good practice knowledge transfer related to post tsunami housing re-construction in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka was badly affected by the tsunami that occurred on 26th December 2004. The tsunami destroyed about two-thirds of the Sri Lankan coastline and affected more than 1,000,000 people. It does not only affected the lives of the community, but also had a devastating effect on their housing and livelihoods. The overall loss of 100,000 or more houses due to the tsunami proved to be a major challenge to the emergency response teams and disaster planners. Although several major disasters of varying magnitudes have occurred in the world, the body of knowledge related to post-disaster housing reconstruction and rehabilitation appears fragmented and poorly integrated. This paper attempts to fill this theoretical gap by focusing on the extent to which good practice knowledge transfer helps in overcoming this problem for more effective and efficient delivery of post-tsunami housing in Sri Lanka. The paper applied knowledge transfer principles within the context of the two housing reconstruction strategies employed in post-tsunami housing reconstruction in Sri Lanka; namely donor-driven housing and owner driven housing. The results of this study reveal that the knowledge transfer within this context cannot be simply copied and inserted from one context without any localisation. Therefore, the paper proposes a high-level abstraction of the core principles of community engagement through participatory techniques associated with appropriate capacity and capability building techniques that will enable the various stakeholders to create a new application to suit the appropriate context of the transfer destination (post-tsunami context in Sri Lanka)
Disaster risk reduction strategies and post-disaster infrastructure reconstruction
World’s vulnerability to natural disasters has increased over the last few years.
Hence, mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into constructed facilities has taken
up an important role in the whole of the disaster management cycle. This paper
aims to study the importance of mainstreaming disaster risk reduction in to postdisaster
infrastructure reconstruction and the initiatives taken by the relevant
bodies in order to minimize the future natural risks in reconstruction of
infrastructure. Reconstruction serves to reinforce the society or sometimes even
increase the vulnerability of the society. Therefore, investment in the physical
infrastructure for disaster management is essential as it can result in reduced loss
of lives in case of a disaster, do withstand disasters, reduces the risk of failure and
thus contributes to disaster reduction and prevention. However, infrastructure
reconstruction programs should aim to change the vulnerable conditions for the
development of the country. It is well identified that all critical infrastructure
facilities must be designed to a given level of safety from disaster impact.
Moreover, such guidelines must be provided to designers and adequate monitoring
system be in place. Thus, the routine reconstruction of infrastructure should, for
example, incorporate design features that protect them from known hazards. The
research reveals strategies used in general and in specific to the infrastructure
sectors in addressing the above issues. A comprehensive literature review was
carried out on the present situation with regard to above-mentioned measures.
This research expects to strengthen the infrastructure reconstruction process by
reporting the practical measures taken in reduction of future risks in the posttsunami
infrastructure reconstruction of Sri Lanka
Exploring good practice knowledge transfer related to post tsunami housing re-construction in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka was badly affected by the tsunami that occurred on 26th December 2004. The tsunami destroyed about two-thirds of the Sri Lankan coastline and affected more than 1,000,000 people. It does not only affected the lives of the community, but also had a devastating effect on their housing and livelihoods. The overall loss of 100,000 or more houses due to the tsunami proved to be a major challenge to the emergency response teams and disaster planners. Although several major disasters of varying magnitudes have occurred in the world, the body of knowledge related to post-disaster housing reconstruction and rehabilitation appears fragmented and poorly integrated. This paper attempts to fill this theoretical gap by focusing on the extent to which good practice knowledge transfer helps in overcoming this problem for more effective and efficient delivery of post-tsunami housing in Sri Lanka. The paper applied knowledge transfer principles within the context of the two housing reconstruction strategies employed in post-tsunami housing reconstruction in Sri Lanka; namely donor-driven housing and owner driven housing. The results of this study reveal that the knowledge transfer within this context cannot be simply copied and inserted from one context without any localisation. Therefore, the paper proposes a high-level abstraction of the core principles of community engagement through participatory techniques associated with appropriate capacity and capability building techniques that will enable the various stakeholders to create a new application to suit the appropriate context of the transfer destination (post-tsunami context in Sri Lanka)
Chapter 11--Private Party vs. Governments, Investor-State Dispute Settlement: Frankenstein or Safety Valve
Chapter 11 dispute settlement, NAFT
Gas concentration effects on plant cell cultures of Artemisia Annua
1993 Spring.Includes bibliographic references (pages 155-162).Many of the costly organic chemicals used by modern society are harvested from plants. A number of investigators have studied the use of plant cells in culture, rather than whole plants, as sources of some of the more valuable organic compounds. Before such processes can become a viable manufacturing option, a great deal more must be learned about the optimum conditions for growth and productivity of cells in culture. One aspect of this problem that has been relatively little studied is the effect of gaseous compounds on plant cell behavior. The most influential gases are believed to be oxygen, carbon dioxide and ethylene. One such organic compound of interest is the promising antimalarial artemisinin (known as "qing hao su" in China where it has been a folk remedy for centuries). It is produced in very low concentrations by Artemisia annua ("sweet wormwood"). The present author grew A. annua cells under a variety of dissolved gas conditions. Suspended cells were grown in tightly plugged flasks, in flasks under somewhat permeable conventional closures and under conditions of continuous headspace flushing with known gas mixtures. In the plugged culture tests, the usage rate of oxygen and production rates of carbon dioxide and ethylene per quantity of biomass were investigated. In the flushed headspace tests, cultures were exposed to various concentrations of the three key gases. The culture conditions were such that equilibrium between the culture liquid and gas headspace was assured. The growth rate of the cells and their production rates of artemisinin and related compounds were determined. These quantities were correlated as functions of the gas concentrations and compared with those exhibited by the conventional cultures
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