A Unified Information Framework for Building A Common Vision in Sustainable City Development

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jialiang Yao ◽  
Terrence Fernando ◽  
Ian Everall

Creating sustainable cities requires a stronger collaboration between a range of public and private sector organisations to ensure cities are safer, healthier, intelligent and prosperous places for citizens to experience an enhanced quality of life. Within this context, urban planning and regeneration projects play a major role where stakeholders need to come together to assess the current challenges or the opportunities within a city and implement projects that transform the physical, social and environmental dimensions to create prosperous and sustainable futures. Within these projects, stakeholders need to assess “social data intelligence” collected by individual agencies and also understand how proposed complex agendas such as transport, health, education and employment could lead to a better environment that can bring social, economical and environmental prosperity. This research proposes a novel Urban Information Framework that allows the stakeholders to integrate their datasets (both spatial and non-spatial) together to create a unified 3D virtual prototype of a city that can be used to represent both the current state of a city as well as intended futures. The proposed Urban Information Framework allows the stakeholders to combine different datasets together, whether they be social or physical transformation agendas, to understand the dependencies or to build up narratives that could be communicated visually to others. The overall framework has been developed and validated by working closely with two major regeneration projects in UK.

i-Perception ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 204166952110203
Author(s):  
Jonas K. Olofsson ◽  
Ingrid Ekström ◽  
Maria Larsson ◽  
Steven Nordin

Olfaction, the sense of smell, is characterized by a notable age-dependency such that aging individuals are more likely to have poor olfactory abilities. These impairments are considered to be mostly irreversible and as having potentially profound effects on quality of life and food behavior, as well as constituting warning signs of mortality, cognitive dysfunction, and dementia. Here, we review the current state of research on aging and olfaction, focusing on five topics which we regard to be of particular relevance for the field: nutrition and health, cognition and dementia, mortality, environment and genetics, and training-based enhancement. Under each of these headlines, we provide a state-of-the-art overview and discuss gaps in our knowledge which might be filled by further research. Understanding how olfactory abilities are diminished in aging, and how they may be alleviated or recovered, involves a set of challenging tasks for researchers in the years to come.


SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 215824402110361
Author(s):  
Gentian Qejvanaj

Roma segregation in Albania has been causing growing concern since the fall of the communist regime. In this study, we analyze the effectiveness of the Albanian national action plan for Roma inclusion 2016–2020, in 2018, halfway in its implementation period. We gathered data on education and employment from the pre-implementation period (2015) and compared it with the latest available data in 2018. Interviews with local experts and surveys by the Balkan Barometer will provide background information to assess the current state of Roma integration in Albania. Moreover, descriptive statistics from national and international institutions and structured interviews will draw an independent narrative of Roma affairs. In our conclusion, we suggest moving beyond the “us and them” approach with programs run on inertia; our findings highlight that although encouraging achievements have been reached under the 2016–2020 action plan, real inclusion is still far, as statistical achievements do not say much about the quality of the education or job training provided under the 2016–2020 action plan.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naphtal Habiyaremye ◽  
Emily Awuor Ouma ◽  
Nadhem Mtimet ◽  
Gideon Aiko Obare

The dairy sector in Rwanda plays a key role in improving nutrition and generating income mostly for rural households. Despite the Rwandan 1994 genocide that left around 80% of dairy cows decimated, the dairy sector has experienced significant growth in the past two decades through government, development organisations, and donor programs, and through the nascent vibrant public–private partnership. In this paper, we reviewed and documented the evolution of the dairy policies, programs, and regulations in Rwanda and how they have contributed to the development of the dairy sector. The policy change has impacted the provision and use of inputs and services that have shaped the sector's milk production and productivity, milk quality, and demand. The results suggest that various policy- and program-level interventions have positively contributed to the growth of the dairy sector and improved the livelihoods of low-income households. This has been achieved through increased access to inputs and services, enhanced capacities of the public and private sector to deliver services, strengthened dairy cooperatives' governance, and increased value proposition to members of various farmer groups and promotion of milk consumption. We find that some of the implemented policies and programs, such as the “Girinka” (one cow per poor family) program, Rwanda Dairy Competitiveness Program II, and Rwanda Dairy Development Project, have resulted in improved farmer access to improved cow breeds and improved milk quality and cow productivity through enhanced health inputs and other services. While the dairy policies, programs, and regulations in Rwanda have paved the way for the development of the dairy sector and contributed to the provision and use of inputs and services, there are still challenges that need to be addressed. Accessibility and use of veterinary and artificial insemination services are limited by the quality of veterinary products, while the inadequate quality of feeds leads to low productivity of improved cow breeds. Consequently, farmers' uptake and use of inputs and services can be enhanced through a strengthened capacity of milk collection centres and health and animal feed policies that guide and control the quality of veterinary products and feeds sold in the markets.


1999 ◽  
Vol 93 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-89
Author(s):  
Ben Bachmair ◽  
Dirk Ulf Stötzel

This article provides an overview of the current state of and future prospects for children's television in the Federal Republic of Germany. It begins with a brief description of current television provision for children, and of children's viewing patterns, and it suggests that views of children's relations with the medium are heavily influenced by social class. The article goes on to describe the structural features of broadcasting and of media regulation in Germany, paying particular attention to the federal structure and the balance between public and private. The implications of this situation for children's programming are then analysed, with particular attention paid to the heavy regulation of advertising on free-to-air channels, and the need to protect children's slots in the context of a general move towards specialist channels. The article concludes by outlining the terms of recent public debates about the social purpose and quality of children's television.


2018 ◽  
Vol 245 ◽  
pp. 16002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anatolijs Borodinecs ◽  
Aleksandrs Korjakins ◽  
Aleksandrs Zajacs ◽  
Anna Iufereva

Rapid urbanization leads to the cities expansion in both dimensions: horizontal and vertical. Thus causing significant increase of energy consumption and reduction of environment quality. Nowadays European Initiative on Smart Cities development becomes a very popular across the globe. The aim of this initiative is to insure sustainable city development taking into consideration quality of life and reduction of carbon emissions. Residential sector is one of biggest energy consumers and carbon emission production in Latvia. Also, city transport is a crucial carbon emission producers. In scope of this study the city development potential is analyzed. The increase of energy efficient scale is taking into consideration.


2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 68-75
Author(s):  
AK Nepal ◽  
A Shrestha ◽  
SC Baral ◽  
R Bhattarai ◽  
Y Aryal

INTRODUCTION: Although the evidences suggest that more than one third tuberculosis (TB) cases are being managed in private sector, the quality of care in private sector is major concern. However, the information regarding the private practices were lacking. Therefore the study was conducted to gain insights on current practices of TB management at private sectors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A descriptive cross sectional study, applying quantitative method, was conducted at two cities of Kaski among all private practitioners, private pharmacies and private laboratories through self administered questionnaire and structured interview schedule. RESULTS: Nearly one fourth of the TB suspects in the district were found to have consulted private providers with about 20.0% of the total smear positive cases diagnosed in private laboratories. Beside sputum microscopy, Private Medical Practitioners (PMPs) were also found to prefer other tests like X-ray, culture for TB diagnosis. Similarly, PMPs’ varying prescription of anti TB drugs beyond National TB Programme (NTP) recommendation along with their weak recording and case holding were noteworthy, and the cost of TB treatment seemed higher in private sector. Only one third of private institution had their staff trained in TB. Except some informal linkage, no collaboration between public and private sector was noted. CONCLUSIONS: Private sector was managing many TB cases in the district. However, their practice of TB management was not much satisfactory. Therefore NTP should take effective measures for Public Private Mix and to make them aware of the standards through training and orientation in order to improve the quality of care. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijim.v1i2.7085 Int J Infect Microbiol 2012;1(1):68-75


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document