A statistical assessment of brilliance and fire for published gem diamond on the basis of geometrical optics

Imperial Users onl

Gender and Remittances: Creating Gender-Responsive Local Development: The Case of Lesotho

The number of international migrants passed 200 million in 2008, more than double the figure in 1965. As the number of migrants continues to grow, the character of international migration has been transformed. South-South migration, as it is now commonly referred to, is acquiring ever-greater significance in contemporary migration configurations. South-South movements of international migrants are highly gendered. In particular, the feminization of international migration has meant that the absolute numbers and proportion of women migrants is increasingly rapidly. More and more women are also migrating for work in other countries in their own right. The gender dynamics behind this new trend in South-South migration have not been sufficiently examined. In spite of the rapid increase in the volume and diversity of knowledge on the migration-development nexus, issues on gender and especially the changing role of women, continue to be lacking. This study aims to contribute to the narrowing of this knowledge gap through an interlinked analysis of migration and development from a gendered perspective. It pays particular attention to the impact of remittances – financial, in-kind and social – on gendered development processes in countries of origin and amongst transnational households spanning the origin and destination countries. The study focuses on these dynamics in the context of Lesotho and the destination country of South Africa. Objectives The overall objective of the Project is to enhance gender-responsive local development by identifying and promoting options in the utilization of remittances for sustainable livelihoods and the building of social capital in poor rural and semi-urban communities. The strategic aims include: increasing awareness and improving access by women-headed, remittance-recipient households to productive resources while augmenting their assets and strengthening their capacities; providing relevant information and support to local and national governments to identify and formulate policies that will optimize the utilization of remittances for sustainable livelihoods and building social capital; and enhancing the capacities of key stakeholders to integrate gender into policies, programmes, projects and other initiatives linking remittances with sustainable livelihoods and building social capital. The Project has been implemented in six countries, which provide a global representation of UNDP’s regional bureaus: Albania, Dominican Republic, Lesotho, Morocco, Phillipines and Senegal. The Project’s main hypothesis is that the optimized use of remittances enhances gender-responsive local development. By analyzing the actual use of remittances, opportunities and weaknesses will be diagnosed, thus identifying possibilities for intervention as well as identifying capacity building needs for enhancing gender-responsive local development. The developmental impacts of remittances can be analyzed at the macro, meso and micro levels

The Report of the Council on Medical Education.

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The principles of public transport network planning: a review of the emerging literature with select examples

This paper highlights for urban planners the key strategies and tactics that can be deployed to improve suburban public transport networks. Introduction The governance and management of public transport systems is an essential component of metropolitan planning and urban management. Most metropolitan strategies in Australia and in other jurisdictions presuppose the provision of public transport. Yet there is often a disconnection between transport plans and land-use schemes. Similarly, metropolitan land-use plans that do integrate with transport plans tend to focus on infrastructure rather than service quality and connectivity. A failure to adequately consider the quality of public transport networks in land-use planning analysis has the potential to produce poor planning outcomes in two key ways. First new land-uses may be inadequately served with public transport services, leading to dependence on alternative travel modes, such as cars. Second, the failure to recognise the significance of well-planned local public transport networks may result in the preclusion of some land-use options. This preclusion may relate to the location of land-uses or their design, such as over-provision of carparking. The continuing debate over whether to address suburban cardependence via land-use change or via transport planning is a case in point. And while the arguments in favour of and against land-use change as a means to overcome car dependence are well known in the planning literature. There is a growing if not yet widely appreciated literature that advocates improvements to public transport network planning and coordination as a means of reducing car dependence. The recognition of improved public transport network planning as a means of reducing car dependence is immensely significant because it offers planners an additional or alternative tool for managing urban transport patterns beyond land-use variation or investment in heavy infrastructure. Urban planning practitioners are not yet well served and informed by the broader public transport planning literature on the advantages of public transport network planning. While there is an extensive literature focusing on the economics and engineering of urban public transport systems the planning literature on the practices that contribute to success in public transport network design and operations is relatively poorly documented. There is also very little literature dedicated to public transport network design within Australian cities which are distinguished by highly centralised radial heavy rail networks with bus or tram networks that are well developed in inner urban zones but less so in the outer suburbs. The remainder of this paper has four objectives for transport planning theory and practice. First the paper reviews the literature on public transport network planning principles; next the paper attempts to formulate these principles in practical terms such that they can be applied to line and network design; third the paper considers further dimensions of network planning, including institutional arrangements and transition points in network design. The paper is intended for three audiences. The first is planning scholars who are involved in debates about public transport. The second is strategic policy officials in planning agencies who are involved in the planning and design of public transport networks. The third audience comprises those involved in development processes and who seek insights into the technical components of public transport network planning. Some caveats are appropriate however. The paper is not seeking to justify public transport network planning. The authors consider that the case for dedicated planning is implicit in the assumption that cities should provide good quality public transport to their residents. The wider case in favour of network planning has been successfully advanced elsewhere. Conversely, the paper is not intended as a directly applicable manual of detailed transport planning practice. While it does offer some insights into the practical public transport network planning task such guidance is better provided by Nielsen et al and Vuchic. Instead the paper highlights for urban planners the key strategies and tactics for that can be deployed to improve suburban public transport networks. Understanding these principles should thus assist urban planners – and urban scholars – to better shape and evaluate urban development processes and patterns

No. 52: Migration, Remittances and ‘Development’ in Lesotho

Lesotho is one of the most migration dependent countries in the world. Migrant remittances are the country’s major source of foreign exchange, accounting for 25% of GDP in 2006. Lesotho is also one of the poorest countries in the world due to high domestic unemployment, declining agricultural production, falling life expectancy, rising child mortality and half the population living below the poverty line. The majority of households and rural communities are dependent on remittances for their livelihood. Households without access to migrant remittances are significantly worse off than those that do have such access. Since 1990, patterns of migration from Lesotho to South Africa have changed dramatically. These changes include significant increases in legal and irregular cross-border movement between Lesotho and South Africa; declining employment opportunities for Basotho men in the South African gold mines; increased female migration from Lesotho; growing internal female migration of young women within Lesotho; a ‘brain drain’ from Lesotho to South Africa and the growth of AIDS-related migration in Lesotho. The central question addressed in this report is how these changes have impacted remittance flows and usage. For most of the twentieth century, the vast majority of migrants from Lesotho were single young men who went to work on the South African gold mines and remitted funds to their parents’ households. Migration has become much more mixed in recent years and the profile of migrants leaving Lesotho has changed significantly: The number of Basotho male migrants working on the mines declined from 100,000 in 1990 to 46,000 in 2006. However, the majority of male migrants from Lesotho are still mineworkers. The demographic profile of male migrants has shifted markedly. Migrants used to be single young men. Now 84% are married and 77% are heads of households. Nearly 50% of migrants are over the age of 40 and only 5% are under 25. Half of the growing number of female migrants from Lesotho are domestic workers in South Africa. The rest are spread between the informal sector (9%), commercial farmwork (5%), self-employed businesses (6%), the professions (5%) and skilled manual work (5%). In other words, although one sector dominates, female migrants work in a wider variety of jobs than males. On the whole, female migrants are younger than males but significant numbers of older women are also migrants. In contrast to male migrants, only 27% of female migrants are married. On the other hand, 42% are divorced, separated, abandoned or widowed. Most older women migrants fall into this category. A sizable group of women thus has the responsibility of being the head of their own household but have to migrate to South Africa in order to ensure the survival of the household. Over 40,000 young, mostly single, women are internal migrants working in Lesotho’s textile factories. The textile workers have been called the ‘new miners’ though wages in the factories are paltry compared with the mines. If the textile industry did not exist, or closed down, then most of these women would probably migrate to South Africa. Most migrants who work outside mining are irregular migrants as the South African government is reluctant to give them work permits. This increases their vulnerability to exploitation. Many women are in South Africa on 30-day visitor’s passes and are supposed to return to Lesotho every 30 days to renew them. If they do not, they have to pay a “fine” when they eventually return home. Changes in the profile of migration from Lesotho have impacted on remittance flows in a number of ways: The decline in mine employment has not led to a decrease in remittance flows to Lesotho. On the contrary, total remittance flows increased as a result of increases in mine wages. But rising remittance flows are directed to a shrinking number of households thus increasing inequality between households and accelerating levels of poverty and food insecurity for households that do not have a mineworker. Female domestic workers in South Africa remit less to Lesotho than male miners. This is primarily because they earn about a third as much as their male counterparts. Domestic workers are notoriously exploited in South Africa. Some migrants have second families or partners in South Africa. In the case of male migrants, this tends to reduce the amount remitted to Lesotho. In the case of female migrants, it often increases the flow of remittances as they are able to remit some of their partner’s earnings back home as well. The vast majority of cash remittances flow through informal channels (usually carried by hand). Only 5% of migrants use the Post Office and 2% the banks to remit. Remittance-receiving households in Lesotho tend to use most of the remittances for basic needs: Migrant remittances form an important, and in many cases, the only, source of income for migrant-sending households in Lesotho. Over 95% of the households with male migrant members and 90% with female migrant members list remittances as a source of household income. Fewer than 10% list income from the second-ranking income source, non-migrant wage labour. Most households (89%) say that the contribution of remittances to household income is important or very important. Remittances are also key to having enough food in the household (with nearly 90% saying that it is important or very important). The most common use of remittances is for food (90% of households spend remittances on food), clothing (76%), school fees (56%) and fares for transportation (34%). Almost three quarters of households do not invest remittances in agriculture. Of those that do, a quarter spend remittances on seed, 18% on fertilizer, 12% on tractors and 4% on livestock. Nearly 19% of households put some remittance income into savings. Other expenditures such as funerals (incurred by 16% of households) and funeral and burial insurance policies (29%) reflect the impact of HIV and AIDS. Households with female migrants are more likely to supplement remittance earnings with other sources of income. Remittances are not used on luxury consumer items but are used, directly or indirectly, to meet the household’s subsistence needs. The proportion of households investing remittances in formal or informal business is extremely low. In the rural villages, remittances are often “pooled” by women through burial societies, grocery associations and egg circles. As well as loaning money to be paid back with interest, the associations buy food and groceries in bulk to divide up among members. Remittances are essential to household survival in Lesotho but the opportunities for investing remittances in productive, developmental activities are very limited. This suggests that it is important to stop seeing Lesotho as the only site for entrepreneurship by migrants from there. Companies from all over the world are permitted to come and do business in South Africa. The same opportunity should be afforded to Basotho households. Basotho should also be freely allowed to do business in South Africa. Instead, migrants are more often viewed as a threat and undesirable. Migration needs to be re-thought as something that is mutually beneficial for both countries. The only realistic option is to open the borders for unrestricted travel in both directions and to allow Basotho to pursue economic opportunities in South Africa free of harassment and deportation

What does the occurrence of Sporormiella (Preussia) spores mean in Australian fossil sequences?

Understanding the loss of the final few species of Australian megafauna is beset by a paucity of data on human arrival, well-provenanced megafauna, human/megafauna population range and distribution (coexistence and interaction), and the range, scale and impact of environmental changes spanning the human-megafauna period. To overcome these shortcomings, the occurrence and decline of coprophilous fungal spores of Sporormiella in sediments have been used as a proxy for extinct megaherbivores. The Sporormiella evidence is presented as the key indicator of extinction timing and these reports are often from locations where there is no known archaeological record or megafauna remains. However, interpreting fungal spore occurrence is not straightforward, as demonstrated by studies investigating taphonomy, taxonomy and the types of animal dung where Sporormiella occurs. No detailed studies on these problems exist for Australia and no evidence supporting the use of Sporormiella as a valid proxy has been reported. Here we examine the occurrence of Sporormiella spores from Cuddie Springs in south-eastern Australia. Despite a well-preserved suite of megafauna fossils, Sporormiella occurrence is sporadic and frequencies are low. We conclude that using Sporormiella alone as an indicator for the presence of megafauna is premature for the Australian context. Copyright (C) 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Rehabilitation Using Mobile Health for Older Adults With Ischemic Heart Disease in the Home Setting (RESILIENT): Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND: Participation in ambulatory cardiac rehabilitation remains low, especially among older adults. Although mobile health cardiac rehabilitation (mHealth-CR) provides a novel opportunity to deliver care, age-specific impairments may limit older adults\u27 uptake, and efficacy data are currently lacking. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to describe the design of the rehabilitation using mobile health for older adults with ischemic heart disease in the home setting (RESILIENT) trial. METHODS: RESILIENT is a multicenter randomized clinical trial that is enrolling patients aged \u3e /=65 years with ischemic heart disease in a 3:1 ratio to either an intervention (mHealth-CR) or control (usual care) arm, with a target sample size of 400 participants. mHealth-CR consists of a commercially available mobile health software platform coupled with weekly exercise therapist sessions to review progress and set new activity goals. The primary outcome is a change in functional mobility (6-minute walk distance), which is measured at baseline and 3 months. Secondary outcomes are health status, goal attainment, hospital readmission, and mortality. Among intervention participants, engagement with the mHealth-CR platform will be analyzed to understand the characteristics that determine different patterns of use (eg, persistent high engagement and declining engagement). RESULTS: As of December 2021, the RESILIENT trial had enrolled 116 participants. Enrollment is projected to continue until October 2023. The trial results are expected to be reported in 2024. CONCLUSIONS: The RESILIENT trial will generate important evidence about the efficacy of mHealth-CR among older adults in multiple domains and characteristics that determine the sustained use of mHealth-CR. These findings will help design future precision medicine approaches to mobile health implementation in older adults. This knowledge is especially important in light of the COVID-19 pandemic that has shifted much of health care to a remote, internet-based setting. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03978130; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03978130. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/32163