scholarly journals Implications for Conservation of Collection of Mediterranean Spur-Thighed Tortoise as Pets in Morocco: Residents’ Perceptions, Habits, and Knowledge

Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amalia Segura ◽  
Miguel Delibes-Mateos ◽  
Pelayo Acevedo
Keyword(s):  
Species Conservation ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
Wild Populations ◽  
Rural People ◽  
Testudo Graeca ◽  
Common Activity ◽  
Living Species ◽  
Education Campaigns ◽  
The Impact

The trading and collection of wild animals as pets may be cause for concern regarding animal welfare and species conservation. These concerns can be exemplified by Mediterranean spur-thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca), a long-living species whose use as pets is long established. The human dimension plays a major role in the wildlife for the pet collection, and is particularly important in countries like Morocco, where this might pose a threat to the conservation of the species involved. This study, which is based on a questionnaire survey (n = 480 participants), documents the fact that many people in Morocco keep tortoises as pets: 55% of the participants in the survey and over two tortoises/person. Importantly, most captive tortoises, particularly juveniles, had been collected directly from wild populations by their owners (42%, n = 264). In general, the tortoise owners had limited knowledge of their tortoises’ habits and requirements, although rural people were more likely to acknowledge that the tortoise is a wild and threatened species. Our study reveals that non-commercial collection is a common activity in Morocco that may threaten wild tortoise populations and hence species conservation, and it could have consequences regarding the welfare of the animals. We were also able to identify the profile of people towards whom education campaigns should be directed in order to reduce the number of tortoises collected from wild populations. Additional field research should also be conducted to quantify the impact of pet collection on wild tortoise populations.

scholarly journals From troubles to solutions: conservation of Mediterranean tortoises under global change

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Graciá ◽  
Roberto Carlos Rodríguez-Caro ◽  
Marcos Ferrández ◽  
Albert Martínez-Silvestre ◽  
Irene Pérez-Ibarra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
Wild Populations ◽  
Testudo Graeca ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Endangered Status

Chelonians are among the animal groups with the poorest conservation status. Since tortoises are long-lived species that need very long time to reach sexual maturity, they are extremely vulnerable to human pressure. Despite their endangered status, there are no common strategies for the development of conservation actions. At the “Mediterranean workshop to develop tortoise conservation strategies”, scientists, conservation associations, environmental managers, IUCN advisers and CITES inspectors met in October 2019 in Alicante (Spain). The aims were to update the diagnosis of the conservation status of the Hermann’s tortoise (Testudo hermanni) and the spur-thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca) and to suggest strategies that guarantee their preservation at the Mediterranean Region. The main conclusions are summarized by: i) Mediterranean tortoises are wild endangered species that must be protected in, and together with, their natural habitat. Their main threats are habitat loss and fragmentation and pet trade, but we should also pay attention to wildfires, spread of diseases, the introduction of exotic species or lineages and climate change. ii) Long-term efforts and stablished protocols are needed to accurately diagnose and monitor the conservation status of wild populations, as well as flows among captive and wild animals. iii)  Tortoise trade should be banned because it threatens the conservation of wild populations of tortoises. Illegal practices related to tortoises should be decidedly persecuted. People should consider tortoises as wild animals that are endangered and deserving of protection. It is possible to enjoy them by responsibly observing them in their habitat. iv) Tortoises may carry pathogens or parasites and their sanitary status cannot be fully assessed. They should always be considered potential vectors of tortoise diseases and of zoonosis. Hygiene protocols should be implemented when managing them. v) The researchers attending this workshop aimed to develop a scientific network for the long-term monitoring of graeca and T. hermanni populations in the Mediterranean Region. They will need the support from public administrations.  

“Land fever” and “Bankruptcy”: Social Problems in Hanoi’s Urbanizing Peri-urban Communities

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 550-562
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Urban Communities ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Credit Market ◽  
Urbanization Process ◽  
Impact Of Urbanization ◽  
The Impact

Drawn upon field research in two peri-urban villages of Hanoi in 2014 and short re-visits recently, the research examines the widespread of gambling and other social issues in Hanoi’s urbanizing peri-urban communities which happened concurrently with the phenomenon of “land fever,” and at the time local villagers received compensation from land appropriation. The article aims to understand the impact of urbanization on these communities and the interface between urbanization and the increase of social problems. It argues that gambling, drug use, and other social problems have been existing in Vietnamese rural communities long before; however, when urbanization came, some people have higher chances to engage in these activities. Those are villagers who want to transform quickly into entrepreneurs or bosses by joining the “black credit” market and gambling. Together with middle-aged and old farmers who greatly relied on agricultural production and face difficulties in transforming their occupation, they formed the group of losers in the urbanization process. Received 6th January 2019; Revised 26th April 2019; Accepted 15th May 2019

Keynote

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanne LIEDTKA
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Performance ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Lens Design ◽  
Social Sector ◽  
Extensive Field ◽  
Innovative Solutions ◽  
The Impact

The value delivered by design thinking is almost always seen to be improvements in the creativity and usefulness of the solutions produced. This paper takes a broader view of the potential power of design thinking, highlighting its role as a social technology for enhancing the productivity of conversations for change across difference. Examined through this lens, design thinking can be observed to aid diverse sets of stakeholders’ abilities to work together to both produce higher order, more innovative solutions and to implement them more successfully. In this way, it acts as a facilitator of the processes of collectives, by enhancing their ability to learn, align and change together. This paper draws on both the author’s extensive field research on the use of design thinking in social sector organizations, as well as on the literature of complex social systems, to discuss implications for both practitioners and scholars interested in assessing the impact of design thinking on organizational performance.

THE IMPACT OF SERVICE QUALITY ON BRAND LOYALTY OF DTAC SELULER SERVICE USERS

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Debby Arisandi
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Service Provider ◽  
Brand Loyalty ◽  
Service Industry ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Main Research ◽  
The Impact

<p>Purpose- In the GSM seluler telephony sector, the main condition for protecting the subscriber base is to win customer to be loyalty, a key necessity for the maintenance of a brand loyalty in the long term. To achieve this aim, service quality must be measured and identified. This paper’s aim is to measure the effects of service quality towards brand loyalty on DTAC seluler service provider. This study will explore the relationship between service quality and brand loyalty in the seluler service industry.</p><p>Design/methodology/approach- The main research target sample covered 200 seluler phone users in Prince of Songka University, Hatyai campus. Field research was conducted. The questionnaire was formed by a synthesis of existing constructs in relevant literature. Reliability tests, descriptive statistic, and regressions analyses were performed to both confirm scale reliability and answer the research questions. The data were analysed by moderated regression analysis to test the hypotheses.</p><p>Findings- The findings of this study show that an overall service quality directly affects brand loyalty. Network quality, customer service, pricing structure and billing system are the service quality dimensions that have significant positive influence on brand loyalty, which in turn has a significant positive impact on brand loyalty 43,5%. Therefore, it plays a crucial role in winning customer loyalty.</p><p>Originality/value- It is of great importance for seluler operators in a mature market such as that of Thailand, to understand what the drivers of brand loyalty are. The present study produced useful findings, which can be utilized by seluler service provider managers, in their effort to develop and implement successful brand loyalty strategies. With respect to the findings, pricing structure has the most importance than others dimensions of service quality which provides positive outcomes on brand loyalty, not only in the present but also in the future. So, the effect of pricing structure on brand loyalty becomes greater than the effect of others dimenstions of service quality. Therefore, any GSM operator who wishes to preserve its existing subscriber base should concentrate on winning its subscribers’ loyalty, especially for DTAC.</p>Keywords- Seluler Services, Brand Loyalty, Service Quality

Impacto de las tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones: Una mirada en la Educación Superior

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karina Virginia Mero Suárez ◽  
Edwin Joao Merchán Carreño ◽  
Ana Del Rocío Fernández Torres ◽  
Narcisa María Crespo Torres
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Information Technology ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Research Problem ◽  
Research Report ◽  
Educación Superior ◽  
Educational Design ◽  
Educacion Superior ◽  
The Impact

El artículo aborda la necesidad de la creatividad que se impone en la era actual del conocimiento y la importancia que  constituyen las tecnologías como herramientas indispensables en todas las esferas de la vida. En Trabajo toma como campo investigativo los cambios que se llevan a cabo en esta esfera en la Universidad Estatal del Sur de Manabí y la Universidad Técnica de Babahoyo, Ecuador, donde se toman como objeto el proceso de enseñanza aprendizaje en la Educación Superior. El objetivo de la investigación fue comunicar el impacto de las Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones en las Universidades, donde se hace énfasis en el nuevo rol de los docentes y su nuevo desempeño de facilitadores del aprendizaje en los educandos a través en los nuevos escenarios mediados por las tecnologías. Para el desarrollo exitoso de esta memoria investigativa se   usó como metodología instrumentos que se basaron fundamentalmente en documentos referativos que ayudaron a justificar el problema de investigación, el cual consistía fundamentalmente en el impacto de las nuevos  dispositivos tecnológicos y su utilidad en los centros de altos estudios del país. Se concluyó que las Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación son herramientas indispensables en la docencia y al mismo tiempo la forma de intervenir en el diseño educativo que nos llevan a explorar nuevos métodos docentes en los escenarios educativos mediados por estas. Se constató además que estas herramientas favorecen satisfactoriamente al proceso si se tiene una buena preparación por parte del docente.   Palabras clave: Herramientas tecnológicas, universidades, formación, docencia universitaria, proceso de enseñanza – aprendizaje Impact of information technology and communications: a look at higher education  Abstract The article states the need of the creativity that prevails in the current era of knowledge and the importance that technologies constitute in all spheres of life. In field research work it takes as changes take place in this area in Southern State University of Manabí and the Technical University of Babahoyo, Ecuador, where they are taken as an object the process of learning in higher education. The aim of the research was to communicate the impact of Information Technology and Communications in the universities, where the emphasis is on the new role of teachers and their new performance of facilitators of learning in students through the new scenarios mediated by technologies. For the successful development of this research report it was used as a methodology instruments based mainly on referative documents that helped to justify the research problem, which consisted mainly of the impact of new technological devices and their use in the centers of higher learning in the country. It was concluded that information technology and communication are indispensable tools in teaching and at the same time how to intervene in the educational design that lead us to explore new teaching methods in educational settings mediated by these. It was further found that these tools successfully promote the process if there is a good preparation by the teacher.

THE INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTS OF LEADERSHIP: THE UNITED STATES GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE AND ITS AUDIT REPORT REVIEW PROCESS

1994 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 255-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Onker N. Basu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Review Process ◽  
Field Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Organizational Leaders ◽  
Audit Report ◽  
The Public ◽  
General Accounting Office ◽  
Audit Team ◽  
The Impact

In accounting research, the role of organizational leaders has been underrepresented. The limited research dealing with leadership issues has focused on the impact of leadership on micro activities such as performance evaluation, budget satisfaction, and audit team performance. The impact of leadership on the structure of accounting and audit systems and organizations has been ignored. This paper focuses on the impact that past Comptrollers General have had on the working and structure of one federal audit agency, the United States General Accounting Office (GAO). In addition, it also focuses on the influence of the two most recent Comptrollers General on one important audit related activity, i.e., the audit report review process. Using qualitative field research methods, this paper documents how the organizational leadership impacts its long-term audit practices and thereby influences auditing, especially in the public sector.

From Silent Spring to The Frog of War

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David K. Skelly
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Wild Populations ◽  
Rachel Carson ◽  
Chemical Agents ◽  
Silent Spring ◽  
The World ◽  
History Information ◽  
Wildlife Populations ◽  
The Impact

This chapter presents two examples to demonstrate that natural history is the necessary basis of any reliable understanding of the world. More than a half century ago, Rachel Carson revolutionized the public’s view of pesticides. The foundation of her success was the careful use of natural history data, collated from across North America. The examples she assembled left little doubt that DDT and other pesticides were causing a widespread decline in birds. More recently, the case for the impact of atrazine on wildlife was based on laboratory experiments, without the advantage of natural history observations. For atrazine, natural history observations now suggest that other chemical agents are more likely to be responsible for feminization of wildlife populations. Developing expectations for scientists to collect natural history information can help to avoid over-extrapolating lab results to wild populations, a tendency often seen when those lab results conform to preconceptions about chemicals in the environment.

scholarly journals Retail Policies and Urban Change in Naples City Center: Challenges to Resilience and Sustainability from a Mediterranean City

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7620
Author(s):  
Rosario Sommella ◽  
Libera D’Alessandro
Keyword(s):  
Field Research ◽  
Urban Resilience ◽  
City Center ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
Sustainability Research ◽  
Combining Data ◽  
Consumption Practices ◽  
Adaptive Resilience ◽  
Policy And Planning ◽  
The Impact

Political discourses, public discussions, and studies in different fields have increasingly focused on the vulnerabilities affecting cities and on the possible responses to them, which are often traced back to urban resilience and sustainability. Research and debates in the field of retailing and consumption geographies are no exception. To carry out a critical analysis on the retail policies associated with the urban commercial change of the Naples city center, the case study is placed in the context of the literature review focusing on three concepts: spatial vulnerability, adaptive resilience, and territorialized sustainability. The analysis is conducted combining data, policy, and planning documents with long-term field research. The changing relationship between consumption practices, retail dynamics, and policies highlights a sort of hybridization of commercial and consumption central cityscapes, which is produced by the coexistence between retail-led phenomena of regeneration and forms of local resistance. The results of the research highlight, from a Mediterranean perspective, new general insights on the impact of selective forms of vulnerability and on the adaptive resilience strategies adopted, but most of all on the indispensable rethinking of the urban retail governance for the enhancement of urban livability, social cohesion, and locally sustainable lifestyles, activities, and places.

scholarly journals Morphological Variations of Wild Populations of Brycon dentex (Characidae, Teleostei) in the Guayas Hydrographic Basin (Ecuador). The Impact of Fishing Policies and Environmental Conditions

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1901
Author(s):  
Ana Gonzalez-Martinez ◽  
Carmen De-Pablos-Heredero ◽  
Martin González ◽  
Jorge Rodriguez ◽  
Cecilio Barba ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Discriminant Analysis ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Anthropogenic Activity ◽  
Freshwater Species ◽  
Fishing Pressure ◽  
Wild Populations ◽  
Morphometric Variation ◽  
Morphological Variations ◽  
Body Development ◽  
The Impact

The Guayas, located in Ecuador, is the largest basin in the Pacific Ocean and has an inventory of 123 native freshwater species. Most of these are endemic species that are threatened or at-risk due to anthropogenic activity and the modification, fragmentation, and destruction of habitats. The aim of this study was to determine the morphometric variation in three wild populations of Brycon dentex in the Guayas basin rivers and their connections to fishing management and environmental conditions. A total of 200 mature fish were captured, and 26 morphometric parameters were measured. The fishing policies (Hypothesis 1) and environmental conditions (Hypothesis 2) were considered fixed factors and were validated by t-tests. The morphological variation among the three populations (Hypothesis 3) was validated through a discriminant analysis. Fishing policies and resource management were found to generate morphological differences associated with body development. In addition, the environmental conditions were found to influence the size and structure of Brycon dentex populations. The analyzed populations were discriminated by the generated morphometric models, which differentiated Cluster 1 (Quevedo and Mocache rivers) with high fishing pressure from Cluster 2 (Pintado river) with medium–low fishing pressure. Morphometric differentiation by discriminant analysis is a direct and economic methodology that can be applied as an indicator of diversity maintenance.

scholarly journals A Comparative Analysis of the Government and NGOs in Delivering Quality Services for the Rural People of Pakistan: Community Perspectives

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 203-225
Author(s):  
Mohsin Khan ◽  
Jetnor Kasmi ◽  
Abdul Saboor ◽  
Iftikhar Ali
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Public Health Education ◽  
Road Transport ◽  
Extension Services ◽  
Rural People ◽  
Basic Services ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

Often the government and the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are criticised for their poor performances in delivering services particularly in rural areas. However, there has been limited research on the assessment of their relative performances in service delivery as well as on the perceptions of people on the quality of such service delivery. This study examines the relative performances of NGOs and the governmental development interventions that provide basic services including public health, education, drinking water and sanitation. The study explains the impact of agricultural extension services and infrastructure such as access to roads and markets on the rural people and measures the satisfaction level of the rural community. For this purpose, 225 households (HHs) in 8 villages of Phalia Tehsil, district Mandi Bahauddin, Punjab, Pakistan were first surveyed in 2010 and then in 2014 using a structured questionnaire. The findings reveal different satisfaction levels of HHs, with most of them expressing less satisfaction on government service delivery compared with NGOs. They reveal satisfaction over the performance of NGOs in health, drinking water supplies and agriculture extension services. Further, the study shows an increasing satisfaction of people on access to road, transport, agri-market and price of agri-commodities by the government.

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