Transformative social innovation for sustainable rural development:An analytical framework to assist community-based initiatives

The interactions between bottom-up initiatives and top-down structures in the implementation of regional development policies and projects are complex in theoretical and practical terms. Using concepts such as transformative social innovation, adaptive governance, and bridging institutions, we developed an analytical framework to enhance understanding of the processes by which local top-down and bottom-up forces enhance sustainable rural development by co-developing bottom-linked governance. Bottom-linked governance is a multi-level middle ground where actors from various political levels, geographical scales and industry sectors come together to share decision-making. Social innovation has the potential to be transformative, but to do this, it has to be able to scale-up and provoke changes in the governance system. Using a rural social innovation initiative in Costa Rica, we tested our framework and considered the enabling factors of bottom-linked governance. They comprise the various bridging roles the initiative must play: network enabler; knowledge broker; resource broker; transparency and conflict resolution agent; and shared vision champion. We also considered the critical success factors of bottom-linked governance. Bottom-linked governance and social innovation together comprise how planning practice contributes to social-ecological regional development. Sharing of power and participatory decision-making facilitate more flexible, inclusive and effective planning. Our analytical framework was helpful in understanding how a social innovation initiative fostered transformation and contributed to sustainable rural development

Community-Led Green Land Acquisition:Social Innovative Initiatives for Forest Protection and Regional Development

Land acquisition often involves power and displacement and can be carried out on a large scale. There are many forms of land acquisition, including for environmental and conservation purposes as well as for production activities. While green grabbing has joined land grabbing as an environmental justice issue of concern, it is not necessarily the case that all green land acquisition is large scale, done by powerful outsiders, or leads to displacement and exclusion. The outcomes of green land acquisition are dependent on the mechanisms used, the adequacy of resettlement and/or compensation, and the social and environmental context in which it happens. We discuss the outcomes of community-led land acquisition for conservation purposes in Costa Rica. We considered a special case of green land acquisition done by local civil society to defend the forest and water resources of the Juan Castro Blanco NationalWater Park in Costa Rica. We used the literature on green grabbing, social ecological systems, and social innovation to discuss local environmental governance and regional sustainable development. This paper makes a fresh contribution to environmental planning and environmental governance by bringing in aspects of green land acquisition that have not been previously explored

What News Users Perceive as ‘Alternative Media’ Varies between Countries: How Media Fragmentation and Polarization Matter

Studies have extensively discussed what characterizes news media sources as alternative. However, this study focuses on users and the range of news sources they perceive as alternative media. We expect that these audience perceptions vary between countries, depending on the level of media fragmentation and polarization. We use original survey data from five countries (Denmark = 2,667 respondents; Italy = 2,121; Poland = 2,536; Switzerland = 1,859; United States = 3,493) and investigate (i) what sources are perceived by users as alternative and (ii) whether these perceptions differ among users embedded in more or less fragmented-polarized media environments. Our results reveal that users have distinctive types of media in mind when reporting alternative media consumption, fanning out on a spectrum from traditional mass media outlets to self-proclaimed alternative news media. Interestingly, despite a greater supply of alternative news sources and an overall higher propensity to indicate the use of alternative news sources, citizens in more fragmented-polarized media environments are more likely to indicate using mass media outlets as alternative news media. We conclude from these findings that media fragmentation and polarization in a political information environment contribute to the convergence of the alternative-to-mainstream spectrum in the eyes of their audiences

The formation of planetary disks and winds: an ultraviolet view

Planetary systems are angular momentum reservoirs generated during star formation. This accretion process produces very powerful engines able to drive the optical jets and the molecular outflows. A fraction of the engine energy is released into heating thus the temperature of the engine ranges from the 3000K of the inner disk material to the 10MK in the areas where magnetic reconnection occurs. There are important unsolved problems concerning the nature of the engine, its evolution and the impact of the engine in the chemical evolution of the inner disk. Of special relevance is the understanding of the shear layer between the stellar photosphere and the disk; this layer controls a significant fraction of the magnetic field building up and the subsequent dissipative processes ougth to be studied in the UV. This contribution focus on describing the connections between 1 Myr old suns and the Sun and the requirements for new UV instrumentation to address their evolution during this period. Two types of observations are shown to be needed: monitoring programmes and high resolution imaging down to, at least, milliarsecond scales.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Science 9 figure

Rethinking science communication in a changing landscape

Science communication continues to grow, develop and change, as a practice and field of research. The boundaries between science and the rest of society are blurring. Digitalization transforms the public sphere. This JCOM special issue aims to rethink science communication in light of the changing science communication landscape. How to characterize the emerging science communication ecosystem in relation to the introduction of new media and actors involved? What new practices are emerging? How is the quality of science communication maintained or improved? We present a selection of papers that provide different perspectives on these questions and challenges

News Media Performance Evaluated by National Audiences: How Media Environments and User Preferences Matter

Media fragmentation and polarization have contributed to blurring the lines between professional and non-professional journalism. Internationally, more fragmented-polarized media environments are often associated with the emergence of non-professional news providers, the weakening of journalistic standards, and the segmentation of audiences along ideological leanings. Furthermore, these environments are home to partisan and alternative news media outlets, some of which try to actively undermine the credibility of traditional mainstream media in their reporting. By following an audience-centric approach, this study investigates the consequences of more fragmented-polarized media environments and consumption habits on users’ perceptions of news media performance. We use online-survey data from five countries that differ in the extent of fragmentation and polarization in the media environment (CH = 1,859, DK = 2,667, IT = 2,121, PL = 2,536, US = 3,493). We find that perceptions of high news media performance are more likely to be expressed by citizens from less fragmented-polarized media environments. Positive perceptions of news media performance are also stronger among users of traditional media, and those who inform themselves in a more attitude-congruent manner. By contrast, citizens from more fragmented-polarized media environments and users of alternative news media tend to express less satisfaction with news media performance. Based on these results, we argue that perceptions of news media performance among news users are shaped by their individual media choices as well as by the composition of the news media environments that surrounds them

A technomorphological and functional study of Late Pleistocene and Middle Holocene lithic assemblages from Patagonia Argentina

In this paper, we analyze the lithic assemblages from three sites from the Central Plateau of Santa Cruz in the Argentine Patagonia. Functional analysis was combined with a techno-morphological and distributional approach, the investigation on raw materials and the study of the technological strategies of production and consumption. The significance of combining functional analysis with other research methods involving lithic remains is emphasized. By articulating different methodologies, it is possible to understand the systems of technological organization. Two sites refer to Final Pleistocene occupations (Cerro Tres Tetas 1 and Casa del Minero 1). The integration of approaches showed the diversity of strategies developed in the production and use of tools, as well as the existence of activity areas within the sites. The third site is a Middle Holocene context (Cueva 13 of Los Toldos). The combination of perspectives allowed a redefinition of the toolkit structure and showed that blade production was part of a standardized technological system.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

Two short mass-loss events that unveil the binary heart of Minkowski's Butterfly Nebula

Studying the appearance and properties of bipolar winds is critical to understand the stellar evolution from the AGB to the planetary nebula (PN) phase. Many uncertainties exist regarding the presence and role of binary stellar systems, mainly due to the deficit of conclusive observational evidences. We investigate the extended equatorial distribution around the early bipolar planetary nebula M 2-9 ("Minkowski's Butterfly Nebula") to gather new information on the mechanism of the axial ejections. Interferometric millimeter observations of molecular emission provide the most comprehensive view of the equatorial mass distribution and kinematics in early PNe. Here we present subarcsecond angular-resolution observations of the 12CO J=2-1 line and continuum emission with the Plateau de Bure interferometer. The data reveal two ring-shaped and eccentric structures at the equatorial basis of the two coaxial optical lobes. The two rings were formed during short mass-loss episodes (~ 40 yr), separated by ~ 500 yr. Their positional and dynamical imprints provide evidence of the presence of a binary stellar system at the center, which yields critical information on its orbital characteristics, including a mass estimate for the secondary of ~< 0.2 \ms. The presence of a stellar system with a modest-mass companion at the center of such an elongated bipolar PN strongly supports the binary-based models, because these are more easily able to explain the frequent axisymmetric ejections in PNe.Comment: 8 page

Análisis, diseño y desarrollo de un prototipo de software para la administración de parqueaderos

Este proyecto nace a partir de la necesidad de un software que facilite la administración de un establecimiento dedicado al alquiler de parqueaderos, de modo que muchas de las características de estos establecimientos sean parametrizables desde una herramienta de software. En el proyecto, se diseñó y se desarrolló una aplicación de escritorio, compatible con versiones de Windows (7, 8, 8.1, 10) que permite la administración, parametrización y ejecución de las tareas realizadas en un establecimiento de alquiler de parqueaderos, con características extendidas como préstamo de inventario (cascos, chalecos) y creación de cupos de parqueo. El prototipo se desarrolló en la plataforma Windows para aprovechar la infraestructura básica de un parqueadero de la ciudad de Pereira. La concepción del software incluye actividades como; gestión de clientes, empleados, quejas, vehículos, mensualidades, ingresos, egresos, bitácora, auditoría, inventario, préstamos y facturación. para el desarrollo del prototipo se utilizó una arquitectura cliente/servidor, de modo que los diferentes equipos estén conectados a una misma base de datos, compartiendo entre sí cada gestión. Se utilizó el Ide WINdeV y el lenguaje WLANGUAGE para el desarrollo

A recursive Lov\'asz theta number for simplex-avoiding sets

We recursively extend the Lov\'asz theta number to geometric hypergraphs on the unit sphere and on Euclidean space, obtaining an upper bound for the independence ratio of these hypergraphs. As an application we reprove a result in Euclidean Ramsey theory in the measurable setting, namely that every $k$-simplex is exponentially Ramsey, and we improve existing bounds for the base of the exponential.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure