Searching for Paralympians: Characteristics of Participants Attending “Search” Events

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-138
Author(s):  
Nima Dehghansai ◽  
Joseph Baker

Initiatives have been designed to attract novice athletes and to enable transfer for experienced athletes. However, the authors have very little knowledge of the effectiveness of these programs. To further improve our understanding, this study explored the demographic and sporting careers of 225 participants attending one of the 10 Paralympian Search events held between 2016 and 2018. The sample consisted of participants with a wide range of impairments and sport experiential backgrounds. The majority of the participants reported having some experience in sports, suggesting that either the promotions reached athletes involved in sports already or the advertising appealed especially to this cohort. Athletes with impairments acquired at various stages of their lives (congenital, before adolescence, adolescence, early adulthood, and adulthood) displayed differences in their sporting trajectories, suggesting considerations for current developmental models. Furthermore, it should be considered to vary the testing locations of future events to increase the reach to rural areas and implement new methods to attract novice participants.

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 243-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yohan Yoo

This article demonstrates the need for the iconic status and function of Buddhist scripture to receive more attention by illuminating how lay Korean Buddhists try to appropriate the power of sutras. The oral and aural aspects of scripture, explained by Wilfred Cantwell Smith, provide only a limited understanding of the characteristics of scripture. It should be noted that, before modern times, most lay people, not only in Buddhist cultures but also in Christian and other traditions, neither had the chance to recite scriptures nor to listen to their recitations regularly. Several clear examples demonstrate contemporary Korean Buddhists’ acceptance of the iconic status of sutras and their attempt to appropriate the power and status of those sacred texts. In contemporary Korea, lay Buddhists try to claim the power of scriptures in their daily lives by repeating and possessing them. Twenty-first century lay believers who cannot read or recite in a traditional style have found new methods of repetition, such as internet programs for copying sacred texts and for playing recordings of their recitations. In addition, many Korean Buddhists consider the act of having sutras in one’s possession to be an effective way of accessing the sacred status and power of these texts. Hence, various ways of possessing them have been developed in a wide range of products, from fancy gilded sutras to sneakers embroidered with mantras.


Author(s):  
Yulia V. Paukova ◽  
◽  
Konstantin V. Popov ◽  

The present article considers the need to predict migration flows using Predictive Analytics. The Russian Federation is a center of migration activity. The modern world is changing rapidly. An effective migration policy requires effective monitoring of migration flows, assessing the current situation in our and other countries and forecasting migration processes. There are information systems in Russia that contain a wide range of information about foreign citizens and stateless persons that provide the requested information about specific foreign citizens, including grouping it on various grounds. However, it is not possible to analyze and predict it automatically using thousands of parameters. Special attention in Russia is paid to digitalization. Using information technologies (artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data analysis) to forecast migration flows in conditions of variability of future events will allow to take into account a number of events and most accurately predict the quantitative and so-called "qualitative" structure of arrivals. The received information will help to develop state policy and to take appropriate measures in the field of migration regulation. The authors come to the conclusion that it is necessary to amend existing legal acts in order to implement information technologies of Predictive Analytics into the practice of migration authorities.


2019 ◽  
pp. 28-34
Author(s):  
Margarita Castillo-Téllez ◽  
Beatriz Castillo-Téllez ◽  
Juan Carlos Ovando-Sierra ◽  
Luz María Hernández-Cruz

For millennia, humans have used hundreds of medicinal plants to treat diseases. Currently, many species with important characteristics are known to alleviate a wide range of health problems, mainly in rural areas, where the use of these resources is very high, even replacing scientific medicine almost completely. This paper presents the dehydration of medicinal plants that are grown in the State of Campeche through direct and indirect solar technologies in order to evaluate the influence of air flow and temperature on the color of the final product through the L* a* scale. b*, analyzing the activity of water and humidity during the drying process. The experimental results showed that the direct solar dryer with forced convection presents a little significant color change in a drying time of 400 min on average, guaranteeing the null bacterial proliferation and reaching a final humidity between 9 % and 11 %.


Author(s):  
Qutaiba I. Ali ◽  
Issam Jafar

Aims: The aim of the Green Communication Infrastructure ‎‎(GCI) project is to understand the idea of a self ‎‎"sustainably" controlled correspondence foundation ‎fitting for smart city application fields. ‎ Background: This paper shows the endeavors to understand the idea of a ‎self "sustainably" energized communication foundation ‎fitting for smart city application fields. The recommended ‎Green Communication Infrastructure (CGI) comprises ‎different kinds of remote settled (or even versatile) hubs ‎performing diverse activities as per the application ‎requests. An imperative class of these hubs is the Wireless ‎Solar Router (WSR). Objective: The work in this venture was begun in 2009 with the aim ‎of demonstrating the essential advances that must be taken to ‎accomplish such framework and to proclaim the value of ‎embracing natural vitality assets in building mission ‎basic frameworks. Alternate destinations of this venture ‎are introducing a sensibly cost, solid, verified, and simple ‎to introduce correspondence foundation.‎ Method: The arrangement to actualize the GCI was accomplished ‎subsequent to passing two structure levels: device level and ‎system level. Result: The suggested system is highly applicable and serves a wide ‎range of smart city application fields and hence many ‎people and organizations can utilize this system. ‎ Conclusion: The presence of a reliable, secured, low cost, easy to install ‎and self-powered communication infrastructure is ‎mandatory in our nowadays. The communities in ‎developing countries or in rural areas need such a system ‎highly in order to communicate with other people in the ‎world which will affect positively their social and ‎economic situation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (65) ◽  
pp. 15164-15172
Author(s):  
S. Pratap ◽  
Aziz Fatima

In present scenario of COVID-19, the effect of pandemic on Digital Marketing is visible not only in urban areas but also in rural areas. Customers are searching for various products and services through Google by which they can purchase wide range of products and services to fill their needs and desires at relatively low price. The freedom to select numerous products is available by browsing various websites. Hence this study focuses on Impact of digital marketing particularly in the selected rural areas of Telangana state. This state been formed recently but in the IT sector it is receiving much attention throughout the globe, as many MNC’s are establishing their operations in this state. Therefore, an attempt has been made in this study to find out how the Impact of digital marketing is trickling down in the rural and remote areas of newly formed Telangana state. Hence this study focuses the impact of digital marketing in the selected areas of Telangana state.


2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1889) ◽  
pp. 20181441 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Guiry ◽  
M. Buckley

Over the past 1000 years, rats ( Rattus spp.) have become one of the most successful and prolific pests in human society. Despite their cosmopolitan distribution across six continents and ubiquity throughout the world's cities, rat urban ecology remains poorly understood. We investigate the role of human foods in brown rat ( Rattus norvegicus ) diets in urban and rural areas over a 100 year period ( ca AD 1790–1890) in Toronto, Canada using stable carbon ( δ 13 C) and nitrogen ( δ 15 N) isotope analyses of archaeological remains. We found that rat diets from urban sites were of higher quality and were more homogeneous and stable over time. By contrast, in rural areas, they show a wide range of dietary niche specializations that directly overlap, and probably competed, with native omnivorous and herbivorous species. These results demonstrate a link between rodent diets and human population density, providing, to our knowledge, the first long-term dietary perspective on the relative value of different types of human settlements as rodent habitat. This study highlights the potential of using the historical and archaeological record to provide a retrospective on the urban ecology of commensal and synanthropic animals that could be useful for improving animal management and conservation strategies in urban areas.


2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 87-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
GISELE GARCIA ALARCON ◽  
ALFREDO CELSO FANTINI ◽  
CARLOS H. SALVADOR

Abstract Environmental services provided by forests are essential to the social reproduction of populations in rural areas. Perceptions about the services provided by forests play an important role in the planning of landscapes; however, few studies have investigated this issue. This study aimed at understanding how farmers perceive the role of forests in maintaining environmental services. One hundred farmers from the Chapecó Ecological Corridor - SC were interviewed. Provisioning and regulating services were mentioned most often. Water availability ranked first (65%), followed by the maintenance of habitat for biodiversity (34%) and firewood (23%). Income and local use of forest resources were the variables that best explained farmers' perceptions of forest benefits. Nevertheless, the use of forest resources has been limited by restrictions imposed by environmental legislation, which is affecting the perception of farmers about the wide range of environmental services provided by forests.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 177
Author(s):  
Peter Tshepiso Ndhlovu ◽  
Abiodun Olusola Omotayo ◽  
Wilfred Otang-Mbeng ◽  
Adeyemi Oladapo Aremu

Globally, the potential of medicinal plants is increasingly being recognized due to their relative availability, particularly in rural areas. This review explored the ethnobotanical and economic values of six selected medicinal plants widely used to treat and manage childhood diseases in South Africa. Acalypha glabrata, Aloe maculata, Datura stramonium, Gomphocarpus fruticosus, Rhoicissus tridentata and Vachellia karroo were selected based on their high relative frequency of citations for treating a wide range of diseases. Information was obtained from various scientific databases and ethnobotanical books. In addition to being popular for treating childhood diseases, the selected medicinal plants possess diverse applications in traditional medicine for other age groups, highlighting their general therapeutic values. This translates to extensive harvesting, trading and consumption of these plants in order to meet demands on local levels. Currently, empirical data on the economic value of the selected plants remain poorly reported. Even though South Africa has many laws to conserve and promote indigenous knowledge and medicinal plants, their commercialization remains low. Particularly the cultivation of the selected plants needs to be promoted under a participatory management action plan to stimulate the economy of the disadvantaged. A collaborative research framework for the inclusive transformation of indigenous medicinal plants is recommended to reveal their concealed beneficial properties.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
C. Echave ◽  
A. Palladus ◽  
M. Boy-Roura ◽  
M. Cacciutolo ◽  
S. Niavis ◽  
...  

Urban areas have been identified as one of the key challenges to tackle in the next decades. Most of the environmental impacts associated to urban contexts are linked to an unsustainable use of resources basically due to urban planning and society’s consumption behaviour. Currently, the paradigm of sustainable cities brought out in the past years situates urban contexts as an opportunity to reduce these impacts. There is a wide range of strategies focused on cities and their transition to a more sustainable urban model: compactness, sustainable mobility, energy efficiency, waste management and greening are some of the most relevant approaches with clear indicators and implementation plans. However, rural areas are still pending for  a precise strategy that highlights their ecological added value avoiding to be defined only as “not urban”. Rural areas should be emphasized from their productivity perspective and their key role in terms of resilience and adaptation to Climate Change. In the framework of the Interreg Med Programme, Thematic Communities are working on the capitalisation of projects from different kind of approaches of application in the Mediterranean Area. Four of these communities - Renewable Energy, Green Growth, Sustainable Tourism and Efficient Buildings - have several projects that present rural areas as one common territory of intervention. The aim of this paper is to expose the standards and goals proposed by the Interreg Med Thematic Communities for Rural Areas Revitalization as a resilience strategy in the Mediterranean Region, using a cross-cutting approach. The cross-cutting approach stresses the relation among the environment, society and economy: rural liveability, increasing RES production with sharing microgrid systems & efficient buildings, as well as green economy based on sectors such as agricultural & tourism activities. These standards and results will provide reference values to shape final policies recommendations. Consequently, the present paper is based on the joint cross-thematic effort and work from four thematic communities of the Interreg MED programme, previously mentioned. It includes some references to existing research studies, but the aim is to open the path to identify new challenges of Mediterranean rural areas and find potential solutions from a holistic approach.


2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Nurpatria ◽  
Yesung Allo Padang

Cow manure can be used as a source of energy and as a solid or liquid fertilizer. An adult cow can produce fases (solid manure) to 23 kg/day and urine (liquid manure) 9 kg/day. Three or four cow is capable to fullfill the dayly needs of cooking fuel for one rural household. Cow manure slurry can also be convert as fertilizer, that is liquid fertilizer which is derived from urine and solid fertilizer originating from the solids. Solid and liquid from cow manure is usually mixed, therefore to make the liquid and solid fertilizer, the liquid and solid masses need to be separated first. Recent separators of fases and urine are are electrical energy driven, so that those kind of device could not be used in the rural areas where the electric grid supply were not available. So that a model of a faces-urine separator of cow manure slurry is utilize which was constructed for manual pressing force. Moreover, through this research It have had created a manual fases-urine separator which only requires one operator. The separator consists of main parts including; lever press, chamber press, fases-urine separation mechanism, the mechanism of loading-unloading, and ajustment mechanism for pressing pressure. This design is capable of performing the separation in a wide range of pressing force and it only requires one operator. Results Show That the model is capable to separate liquid from the slurry as much as 13.9% at a pressing force of 14 kg the which is applied for 18 seconds.


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