scholarly journals Building with Nature in landscape practice

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 203-220
Author(s):  
Maike Van Stiphout
Keyword(s):  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Novel Ecosystem ◽  
The Public ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Building With Nature ◽  
The Status ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Surrounding Landscape

In a world where increased prosperity has created a number of novel, ecosystem-related threats to people’s health and the economy, designing with nature offers a promising outlook to mute the potential negative impacts of our actions and to keep improving the quality of life worldwide. It also provides an alternative to an attitude that has been largely negligent towards our non-human fellow beings. Drawing from the experience of DS landscape architects, four actualized projects and two student master theses illustrate the challenges, opportunities and benefits that building with nature presents. These cases highlight four important lessons for designing with nature in rural and urban landscapes. First, considering the surrounding landscape as a starting point creates a deeper understanding of the situation at hand. This allows for better planning with the ecosystem and enhances the richness of its biodiversity once a project is delivered. Secondly, planning with nature creates the opportunity to let nature do some of the work. This can include water purification, drainage, and cooling. The third lesson is that designing with nature requires a long-term plan. Maintenance might be necessary, and the public may need to be patient to watch the ecosystem slowly flourish through the decades. Finally, creating a new kind of wilderness-imbued beauty to inspire public acceptance and to motivate stewardship is a promising method for establishing a successful long-term nature-inclusive design project. These and other lessons contribute to a field of design where incorporating nature is the status quo.

scholarly journals 2018: A watershed year for psychedelic science

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 205032451987228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob S Aday ◽  
Christopher C Davoli ◽  
Emily K Bloesch
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ballot Initiatives ◽  
The Public ◽  
Psychedelic Drugs ◽  
The Status ◽  
Regulatory Bodies ◽  
The Public Sphere

While interest in the study of psychedelic drugs has increased over much of the last decade, in this article, we argue that 2018 marked the true turning point for the field. Substantive advances in the scientific, public, and regulatory communities in 2018 significantly elevated the status and long-term outlook of psychedelic science, particularly in the United States. Advances in the scientific community can be attributed to impactful research applications of psychedelics as well as acknowledgement in preeminent journals. In the public sphere, Michael Pollan’s book How to Change Your Mind was a commercial hit and spurred thought-provoking, positive media coverage on psychedelics. Unprecedented psychedelic ballot initiatives in the United States were representative of changes in public interest. Finally, regulatory bodies began to acknowledge psychedelic science in earnest in 2018, as evidenced by the designation of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy to “breakthrough therapy” status for treatment-resistant depression by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In short, 2018 was a seminal year for psychedelic science.

scholarly journals HOLDING UP A MIRROR TO APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA: PUBLIC DISCOURSE ON THE ISSUE OF OVERCROWDING IN SOUTH AFRICAN PRISONS 1980 TO 1984 – PART 2

Obiter ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Allister Peté
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Media ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Ideological Struggle ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Formed Part ◽  
Apartheid Regime

During the first half of the 1980s, the issue of chronic overcrowding within the South African penal system formed part of an intense ideological struggle between those who supported and those who opposed the apartheid regime. Public debate around this issue acted as a mirror, reflecting early cracks which were beginning to appear in the edifice of apartheid. Since the prisons were the ultimate instrument of social control within the apartheid system, the ongoing crises caused by chronic overcrowding within these institutions served as a kind of “canary in the mine” for the apartheid system as a whole. The debates which took place during the early 1980s around overcrowding are also important because they form part of a common theme running through South African penal discourse as a whole. This article seeks to show how the debates on prison overcrowding which took place in the first half of the 1980s fit into a long-term pattern of recurring ideological crises surrounding this issue. The article is divided into two parts. In Part One, the above themes were explored through the public discourse surrounding the Steyn Commission of Enquiry into the public media, as well as the Hoexter Commission of Enquiry into the structure and functioning of South Africa’s courts. Whereas Part One deals only with certain early debates arising out of the Hoexter Commission – up to February 1981 – Part Two takes this as a starting point and traces a number of further themes which arose in the debates surrounding the Hoexter Commission between February 1981 and April 1984, when the Commission delivered its report.

scholarly journals The need for a long-term mindset when measuring the effects of lean on health-related quality management values

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pernilla Ingelsson ◽  
Ingela Bäckström
Keyword(s):  
Quality Management ◽  
Health Related Quality ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Related Quality ◽  
Health Related

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects a lean initiative has on the health-related quality management (QM) values, “Leadership Commitment” and “Participation of Everybody,” as well as on perceived co-worker health in the public sector. Design/methodology/approach A case study was carried out at a municipal division that had been working with lean for approximately 18 months. A questionnaire was used to measure the effect on health-related QM values both before and after the initial 18 month period. Documents from the intended lean implementation were studied at the starting point and after 18 months; this was followed up by examining new documents. The results from the questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS and the documents were analyzed by means of document comparisons and consensus discussion in the research group. Findings The effects on the health-related QM values; “Leadership Commitment” and “Participation of everybody” in this study showed that the values still permeated the organization to a relatively high extent after 18 months but that no statistical differences can be shown between the two measurement points. When measuring what effects a lean initiative has on values, a period of 18 months might be too short, if significance changes are expected. None the less, the results can be a way of monitoring the development of these softer values. Something that is equally important is to see if there have been any major changes, as a way of keeping the work with building a new culture alive and in focus. The results strengthen the assumption that a long-term mindset is needed when QM initiatives such as lean are applied within an organization especially when changes to values and workplaces are expected. Originality/value This study has further explored the QM in relation to lean in the respect of how the QM values “Leadership commitment” and “Participation of Everybody” are effected by a lean initiative.

scholarly journals Snap4City Platform to Speed Up Policies

2021 ◽  
pp. 103-114
Author(s):  
Nicola Mitolo ◽  
Paolo Nesi ◽  
Gianni Pantaleo ◽  
Michela Paolucci
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Public Transportation ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Research Centers ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Aggregated Data ◽  
The Public ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Status

AbstractIn the development of smart cities, there is a great emphasis on setting up so-called Smart City Control Rooms, SCCR. This paper presents Snap4City as a big data smart city platform to support the city decision makers by means of SCCR dashboards and tools reporting in real time the status of several of a city’s aspects. The solution has been adopted in European cities such as Antwerp, Florence, Lonato del Garda, Pisa, Santiago, etc., and it is capable of covering extended geographical areas around the cities themselves: Belgium, Finland, Tuscany, Sardinia, etc. In this paper, a major use case is analyzed describing the workflow followed, the methodologies adopted and the SCCR as the starting point to reproduce the same results in other smart cities, industries, research centers, etc. A Living Lab working modality is promoted and organized to enhance the collaboration among municipalities and public administration, stakeholders, research centers and the citizens themselves. The Snap4City platform has been realized respecting the European Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and it is capable of processing every day a multitude of periodic and real-time data coming from different providers and data sources. It is therefore able to semantically aggregate the data, in compliance with the Km4City multi-ontology and manage data: (i) having different access policies; and (ii) coming from traditional sources such as Open Data Portals, Web services, APIs and IoT/IoE networks. The aggregated data are the starting point for the services offered not only to the citizens but also to the public administrations and public-security service managers, enabling them to view a set of city dashboards ad hoc composed on their needs, for example, enabling them to modify and monitor public transportation strategies, offering the public services actually needed by citizens and tourists, monitor the air quality and traffic status to establish, if impose or not, traffic restrictions, etc. All the data and the new knowledge produced by the data analytics of the Snap4City platform can also be accessed, observing the permissions on each kind of data, thanks to the presence of an APIs complex system.

scholarly journals Research on the status quo of psychological care for AIDS patients in adolescents

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Huiling Zhang ◽  
Qin Wei
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Psychological Characteristics ◽  
Psychological Care ◽  
Aids Patients ◽  
The Public ◽  
Immunodeficiency Virus ◽  
The Status ◽  
Psychological Coping

AIDS is a chronic infectious disease caused by human immunodeficiency virus. Due to the infectiousness of AIDS and the lack of specific drugs to treat AIDS, the majority of people still have the psychology of rejection and discrimination against AIDS patients. Under the influence of various factors such as themselves, families and the public, AIDS patients are prone to be negative, inferior and even world-weary. Among them, the mental health status of adolescent AIDS patients is even less optimistic due to their unique psychological characteristics. The living conditions and mental health of this particular group deserve social attention; Psychological nursing is an important way to promote the mental health of adolescent patients. Improving the long-term psychological coping ability of young AIDS patients is beneficial to their own health, family stability and social harmony. This paper studies the current situation of psychological care for AIDS patients in adolescents, analyzes its importance and puts forward some suggestions.

scholarly journals Stratification of language users

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 515-528
Author(s):  
Juraj Dolník
Keyword(s):  
Ordinary Language ◽  
Public Communication ◽  
Standard Language ◽  
The Public ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Status ◽  
Communication Activity ◽  
Linguistic Behaviour ◽  
The Right ◽  
Answering Questions

AbstractThis study is about one of the ways in which community of language users appear to be structured: the users of standard language are hierarchicaly stratified with regard to the degree of rationality that determines the ways in which language is conceived of. The starting-point is that all language users are linguistic experts that are stratified in four groups with these labels: practical, educated, theoretical and metatheoretical linguistic experts. Practical linguistic expert is not a commonly used term but it is useful in answering questions that could be asked about the status of ordinary language users in the linguistic life of society. The author argues for the right of these users to power to influence the linguistic behaviour in the public communication. He is interested in the contrast between practical and rational linguistic order and in the reasons for why preference of practical linguistic order is in accordance with tendency to natural communication activity.

scholarly journals The Impacts of Covid-19 on Circular Economy: Gaining Insight across the SCOPUS and Web of Science Research Articles with Text Mining Techniques

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khoa Tran ◽  
Tuyet Anh Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Text Mining ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Aviation Industry ◽  
The Public ◽  
Prisma Statement ◽  
Negative Impacts

The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has created both negative and positive changes, including implementing the circular economy across the globe. This Systematic Review follows the PRISMA statement and employs the Text Mining (Voyant Tools) technique to visualize and analyze the impacts of the Covid-19 on three aspects of the circular economy: economic, social, and environmental. The research employs Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to identify five major topics: (1) Shortage of medical equipment but high medical waste during Covid-19 due to the high demand in healthcare; (2) The long term negative impacts of lockdown on economic and social activities because of Covid-19 pandemic; (3) The reports on impacts of Covid-19 pandemic on the manufacturing globally, and their coping strategies and new opportunities; (4) The impacts of international restriction on the tourism, trade, shipping, and aviation industry, causing billion-dollar losses; (5) The reduction of pollution with health environment improvements with example cases from China and EU. The research identifies current literature gaps in the circular economy and Covid- 19 topics and encourages the application of text mining tools into researching to stimulate the research process and assist in communicating with the public.

scholarly journals Cultural Landmarks and Urban Landscapes in Three Contrasting Societies

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4295
Author(s):  
Jiquan Chen ◽  
Hogeun Park ◽  
Peilei Fan ◽  
Li Tian ◽  
Zutao Ouyang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reference Points ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Global Database ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
Emerging Culture ◽  
Cardinal Directions ◽  
Surrounding Landscape ◽  
Negative Relationships

Cultural heritage sites and landscapes are intuitively connected in urban systems. Based on available databases of cultural landmarks, we selected three pairs of cities that are currently dominated by three contrasting religions (Catholic, Buddhist and emerging culture) to compare the long-term changes in cultural landmarks, to quantify their spatial distribution in the current landscape, and to examine the potential influences these landmarks have on landscapes. The landmark database and landscapes were constructed from archived maps, satellite imagery and the UNESCO heritage sites for Barcelona, Bari, Beijing, Vientiane, Shenzhen, and Ulaanbaatar. Roads in Asian cities are mostly constructed in alignment with the four cardinal directions, forming a checkerboard-type landscape, whereas Bari and Barcelona in Europe have examples of roads radiating from major cultural landmarks. We found clear differences in the number of landmarks and surrounding landscape in these cities, supporting our hypothesis that current urban landscapes have been influenced similarly by cultural landmarks, although substantial differences exist among cities. Negative relationships between the number of cultural landmarks and major cover types were found, except with agricultural lands. Clearly, cultural landmarks need to be treated as “natural features” and considered as reference points in urban planning. Major efforts are needed to construct a global database before an overarching conclusion can be made for global cities.

scholarly journals Landscape hemerobics in wetlands in the urban area of Inhumas, GO, Brazil

Terr Plural ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. e2115201
Author(s):  
Marcos Antonio Bonifacio Silva ◽  
◽  
Karla Maria Silva de Faria ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Metropolitan Region ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Urban Core ◽  
Critical Areas ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Water Recharge ◽  
Urban Planning And Management

Wetlands are fragile ecosystems and are important for water recharge in rural and urban landscapes. However, urban occupation patterns do not highlight the local importance of these environments in providing ecosystem services and do not prevent their degradation. A viable methodology for assessing the levels of anthropization is the calculation of hemerobic indices, which in turn are associated with the level of technological dependence of the landscape. The objective of this research is to evaluate the level of hemerobicity of landscapes in the urban core of Inhumas, the metropolitan region of the state of Goiás. Five hemerobic levels of wetland landscape were identified, where High and Maximum hemerobic levels predominate, which compromises their ecosystem functions. Cartography based on the principles of Landscape Geoecology indicates hierarchical levels that can be considered by the public authorities in urban planning and management. This enables the selection of critical areas for mitigation, recovery, and rehabilitation interventions in the urban environment.

Who Is Afraid of Transparency?

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benzion Barlev ◽  
David B. Citron ◽  
Joshua Rene Haddad
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Financial Stability ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Discussion Paper ◽  
Accounting Standard ◽  
The Public ◽  
Structure Of Scientific Revolutions ◽  
The Status ◽  
Qualitative Characteristics

ABSTRACT The Conceptual Framework issued by the IASB and the FASB in 2010 excludes the concept of transparency on the grounds that it adds nothing to the existing corpus of qualitative characteristics. This paper argues that incorporating the concept of process transparency into the Conceptual Framework would provide the necessary conceptual basis for raising the status of the Management Discussion and Analysis from a non-mandatory guideline to an accounting standard. This would further the Boards' stated public interest objectives of “fostering trust, growth and long-term financial stability” by requiring disclosure of how critical accounting estimates affect reported results and, at a broader level, how and why key strategic management decisions are made. The paper derives this recommendation from a review of notions of transparency and “black box” in the public finance and management literatures. We also analyze the viewpoints expressed in comment letters to the Boards' Discussion Paper and the Exposure Draft, which preceded the Conceptual Framework. In contrast to the Boards' stance we find that most respondents who address the issue of transparency favor its inclusion in the Conceptual Framework. Finally, based on Kuhn's (1970) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, we seek to explain the Boards' objection to the new concept. Data Availability: All data are available from public sources.

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