399 research outputs found
In Africa, climate-smart conservation must be coupled with poverty alleviation
In August, the Seventh Assembly of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) concluded in Vancouver, Canada, with a pledge. A total of 185 countries agreed to protect 30% of land and coastal areas by 2030 (known as the “30 by 30 pledge”). But while this surge of conservation funding is heartening, there are serious concerns. Projects and programs that appear to produce both environmental and developmental goals could actually obscure the continuing marginalization of poor and vulnerable populations. Here, we suggest that such coupling of conservation and extraction needs to pay greater attention to poverty alleviation. Otherwise, it risks further marginalizing vulnerable populations, while boosting environmental and economic indicators—thereby giving a false sense of progress toward sustainable development
Exploring adaptive Expertise as a target for engineering design education
ABSTRACT In this paper we present the concept of adaptive expertise and relate this concept to the design curriculum offered by the Institute for Design Engineering and Applications (IDEA) at Northwestern University. The model of adaptive expertise suggests that instruction and assessment include a balance of "efficiency" and "innovation". These two dimensions are first described from a theoretical perspective, then are discussed in more concrete terms in the context of the design experiences provided in IDEA. The model of adaptive expertise suggests that by providing learning experiences that balance these two dimensions we better prepare students to flexibly apply their knowledge in innovative ways. Since these aims are so closely aligned with the goals of design, we offer adaptive expertise as the target for engineering design education
Searching for stellar mass black holes in the solar neighborhood
We propose a strategy for searching for isolated stellar mass black holes in
the solar neighborhood with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Due to spherical
accretion of the inter-stellar medium and the ambient magnetic field, an
isolated black hole is expected to emit a blended, thermal synchrotron spectrum
with a roughly flat peak from the optical down to the far infra-red. We find
that the Sloan Survey will be able to detect isolated black holes, in the
considered mass range of 1--100, out to a few hundred parsecs,
depending on the local conditions of the ISM. We also find that the black holes
are photmetrically distinguishable from field stars and they have a photometry
similar to QSOs. They can be further singled out from QSO searches because they
have a featureless spectrum with no emission lines. The Sloan Survey will
likely find hundreds of objects that meet these criteria, and to further reduce
the number of candidates, we suggest other selection criteria such as infra-red
searches and proper motion measurements. Estimates indicate that dozens of
black holes may exist out to a few hundred parsecs. If no black hole candidates
are found in this survey, important limits can be placed on the local density
of black holes and the halo fraction in black holes, especially for masses
greater than about .Comment: Latex, 7 pages, 3 postscript figures, submitted to ApJ Letters. Also
available at http://fnas08.fnal.gov
The detection of experimental myocardial infarcts by photoscanning : A preliminary report
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/32339/1/0000409.pd
Hacia una tecnología de apoyo conductual "no aversivo"
En este artículo se hace una introducción del tratamiento conductual no aversivo. Se sugieren importantes definiciones y se presentan tres elementos fundamentales: a) un emergente conjunto de procedimientos para apoyar a personas con trastornos conductuales graves; b) criterios de validación social que insisten en la dignidad de las personas; y c) una recomendación de que se prohíban o limiten ciertas estrategias. Estos elementos se definen con la esperanza de que provoquen ulteriores debates y análisis empíricos del apoyo conductual positivo
Hacia una tecnología de apoyo conductual "no aversivo"
En este artículo se hace una introducción del tratamiento conductual no aversivo. Se sugieren importantes definiciones y se presentan tres elementos fundamentales: a) un emergente conjunto de procedimientos para apoyar a personas con trastornos conductuales graves; b) criterios de validación social que insisten en la dignidad de las personas; y c) una recomendación de que se prohíban o limiten ciertas estrategias. Estos elementos se definen con la esperanza de que provoquen ulteriores debates y análisis empíricos del apoyo conductual positivo
Ernst Freund as Precursor of the Rational Study of Corporate Law
Gindis, David, Ernst Freund as Precursor of the Rational Study of Corporate Law (October 27, 2017). Journal of Institutional Economics, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2905547, doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2905547The rise of large business corporations in the late 19th century compelled many American observers to admit that the nature of the corporation had yet to be understood. Published in this context, Ernst Freund's little-known The Legal Nature of Corporations (1897) was an original attempt to come to terms with a new legal and economic reality. But it can also be described, to paraphrase Oliver Wendell Holmes, as the earliest example of the rational study of corporate law. The paper shows that Freund had the intuitions of an institutional economist, and engaged in what today would be called comparative institutional analysis. Remarkably, his argument that the corporate form secures property against insider defection and against outsiders anticipated recent work on entity shielding and capital lock-in, and can be read as an early contribution to what today would be called the theory of the firm.Peer reviewe
Reconstructing the Inflaton Potential---in Principle and in Practice
Generalizing the original work by Hodges and Blumenthal, we outline a
formalism which allows one, in principle, to reconstruct the potential of the
inflaton field from knowledge of the tensor gravitational wave spectrum or the
scalar density fluctuation spectrum, with special emphasis on the importance of
the tensor spectrum. We provide some illustrative examples of such
reconstruction. We then discuss in some detail the question of whether one can
use real observations to carry out this procedure. We conclude that in
practice, a full reconstruction of the functional form of the potential will
not be possible within the foreseeable future. However, with a knowledge of the
dark matter components, it should soon be possible to combine
intermediate-scale data with measurements of large-scale cosmic microwave
background anisotropies to yield useful information regarding the potential.Comment: 39 pages plus 2 figures (upon request:[email protected]), LaTeX,
FNAL--PUB--93/029-A; SUSSEX-AST 93/3-
A Descriptive, Multiyear Examination of Positive Behavior Support
A major goal of positive behavior support (PBS) is to produce broad-based, long-term improvements in adaptive behavior; however, the empirical base, at present, is mainly composed of relatively short-term studies carried out in circumscribed contexts. Therefore, a need exists for reliable data that can inform the field regarding the comprehensive lifestyle effects of PBS implementation in natural community contexts over extended periods of time. The current investigation was conducted to provide a descriptive analysis of PBS with diverse participants and broad measurement strategies over multiple years. Using extensive data portfolios for 21 participants, we employed rating scales to quantify changes in key variables from baseline through 2 years of intervention. The data revealed variable levels of intervention integrity, generalized reductions in problem behavior with occasional relapses, and encouraging enhancements across six domains of quality of life. This study represents an initial attempt to understand the processes and outcomes of behavioral support by documenting behavioral patterns across full days, entire years, and all environments. We discuss the need to consider new conceptual and methodological frameworks for further study of efficacious and sustainable behavior support
Positive Behavior Support: Evolution of an Applied Science
Positive behavior support (PBS) is an applied science that uses educational and systems change methods (environmental redesign) to enhance quality of life and minimize problem behavior. PBS initially evolved within the field of developmental disabilities and emerged from three major sources: applied behavior analysis, the normalization/inclusion movement, and person-centered values. Although elements of PBS can be found in other approaches, its uniqueness lies in the fact that it integrates the following critical features into a cohesive whole: comprehensive lifestyle change, a lifespan perspective, ecological validity, stakeholder participation, social validity, systems change and multicomponent intervention, emphasis on prevention, flexibility in scientific practices, and multiple theoretical perspectives. These characteristics are likely to produce future evolution of PBS with respect to assessment practices, intervention strategies, training, and extension to new populations. The approach reflects a more general trend in the social sciences and education away from pathology-based models to a new positive model that stresses personal competence and environmental integrity
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