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Diane Storch looks over books on gardening during the Wilton Library Annual Gigantic Book Sale on Sunday in Wilton.
WILTON — More than an hour before the Wilton Library’s weekend-long “Gigantic Book Sale” even began, a line was queued up outside as book dealers jostled for better starting positions.
Some hauled crates, others held bags and a few just did it the old-fashioned way and grabbed all the books that they could hold in their hands.
Regardless of how these customers decided to wield their newest acquisitions, one thing was certain: come 7 a.m. when the doors opened up, these people would descend on the library’s collection of 75,000 books and spend the next two hours sifting through the bulk for a potential diamond in the rough.
Stamford resident David Grief was one of the approximately 85 customers who eagerly awaited the doors to open on the sale.
“When I get in there, I’m looking for material that I don’t think is common,” said Greif, who takes the books that he buys at sales like the Wilton Library’s and sells them online under his Stamford-based business Griffin Books.
“Some people operate under this brute force method where they just grab anything that looks like it can turn even a small profit, but for me, I’m after stuff that‘s actually much harder to sell, but does not have the shelf-life of fish,” he said.
For these folks, a $15 surcharge was a small price to pay for the chance to be the among the first group of people to dash through the aisles of cheaply priced books Supermarket-Sweep style, looking for the best deals possible. For the one-time fee, dealers bought themselves a two-hour head start to peruse the library’s collection before the general public was admitted at 9 a.m.
While dealers won’t always strike gold, Greif said that stumbling upon that rare book one time makes up for the many other times when you barely break even.
While the book dealers were the first to appear on the scene, they certainly weren’t the last. As in the past, this year’s event brought out people of all ages, and they were not just from Wilton either, but from all over Fairfield County.
Whether you’re an au-pair from Germany shopping for funny, educational books for the 4-year-old that you look after, or you’re a teenager looking for some fiction to help you through an awkward phase, the Wilton book sale had something for you.
“This is just a great event and an all-around good cause. Not only does the money go towards improving the library, but in holding this book sale, we also connect people to books that they may not have otherwise owned,” said Lila Griswold, one of the events three chairpersons.
The book sale even had a silent auction for rare book enthusiasts who were looking to add to their collections. Library historian and director of the silent auction Bob Russell estimates that the silent auction made about $2,000, offering books such as a signed, 1979 edition of “Ansel Adams: Yosemite and the Range of Light” in like-new condition; a 3-volume set of “Churchill and Roosevelt: Complete Correspondence,” and “Certain People: A Book of Portraits” by Robert Mapplethorpe from 1985 in perfect condition with beautiful full-page portraits.
While the final numbers have yet to be tallied, the library’s Communications Director Janet Crystal said that the numbers thus far are promising.
Book sale Tri-Chair Pat Gould said that with the conclusion of the weekend’s event, volunteers who had helped in the year-long buildup to the fundraiser will be given a few weeks rest before they come back in to begin preparing for year’s book sale again.
“The real heroes of these book sales are the volunteers, without them, none of this is possible,” said Greif. | https://www.thehour.com/wilton/article/Wilton-Library-s-annual-book-sale-draws-huge-8024773.php |
Collectors of antique radios have a variety of reference books and price guides available to them. Communication receivers have also been documented, although to a lesser degree. But the vast number of amateur radio transmitters and transceivers have not been well documented. Now Eugene Rippen's Tube Type Transmitter Guide provides a wealth of useful information on the subject of transmitters and transceivers as well as some ancillary equipment.
Although the title suggests only tube type transmitters, the book's subtitle "Manufactured Pre-builts and Kits from 1922 to 1970 Using All, or Mostly Tubes" assures us that some hybrid transceivers are included.
An impressive range of transmitters and transceivers are covered from "Abbott" to "Yaesu." Approximately 100 manufacturers are listed. The earliest equipment covered is a Benwood Wireless Telephone from 1921. Some obscure and interesting gear is included. I was surprised to see that a 5-meter transceiver in my collection, a Chauncy Wing rig from 1934, was included in the book.
The equipment descriptions are arranged in alphabetical order by the manufacturer's name. Most, but not all, of the equipment is illustrated. The author acknowledges the cooperation of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) in providing most of the photographic material used in the book. The reproduction quality of the illustrations is disappointing in what is an otherwise satisfactory book. Nevertheless, readers will find the illustrations useful as an aid to identifying equipment.
The descriptive material and illustrations are supplemented by four indices. These include a "MAKE then MODEL INDEX" that lists the make, model, year first produced, tube type used in the final stage and page number; a "MODEL then MAKE INDEX" that lists model, make, year and page; a "MODEL YEAR INDEX" that lists the year, make, model, finals and page; and a "TUBE TYPE INDEX" that lists the finals, make, model, year and page. These cross-references make locating a particular model and its associated information very easy. However, with only a few exceptions, it is necessary to consult one of the indices in order to determine the year in which a model was first produced. Had the author included the production date in the description of each model, the book would be much easier to use, and the reader would be saved a lot of page flipping.
The author has included a short, but informative, history of amateur radio, including some background information about Single Side Band (SSB).
Old timers will probably salivate and marvel at their original selling prices when they see their old rigs described. On the other hand, the book provides new collectors with a good introduction into the mysteries of older equipment. The author has written the introduction "with the consideration that the reader may have experience mostly with solid-state devices." New collectors may be amazed at the variety of transmitting tubes that were used over the years. Some of the older high-power transmitters are monstrous.
Little known manufacturers are listed, including Haigis Laboratories of Maple Shade, New Jersey, circa 1934, and Marmax Electronics located in Alamogordo, New Mexico, in 1952. As you might expect, the major manufacturers are well represented in the book, but you may be surprised at the number of rare items that are documented, such as the National TRM and TRW.
In addition to transmitters and transceivers, the book includes ancillary items such as linear amplifiers, converters, antenna matching units, modulators and VFOs. The book even describes a crystal oven.
The Tube Type Transmitter Guide is a good reference book that collectors have been longing for, but it is also fun to leaf through -- either to reminisce or discover treasures from the past.
This 8 1/2" x 11" softbound book contains approximately 150 pages and includes over 500 illustrations. The cover price is $17.95. It is available from Sound Values, PO Box 9, Auburn, CA 95604, A.R.C. and other suppliers. Be sure to check these sources for ordering information.
(Ray Bintliff, 2 Powder Horn Ln., Acton, MA 01720)Transmitters, Exciters & Power Amplifiers 1930-1980, By Raymond S. Moore
Raymond S. Moore's popular book Communications Receivers now has a companion publication that covers amateur radio transmitters and amplifiers. This latest effort, Transmitters, Exciters & Power Amplifiers, follows the format used in the 2nd and 3rd editions of Communications Receivers and consists of equipment shown in alphabetical order by manufacturer. The equipment described in this book was produced in the period from 1930 to 1980.
Moore's ground rules for including an item in this book are that it must have been manufactured in the U.S.A., must have been offered for sale to hams directly or through surplus channels, and must cover the HF bands.
Moore begins his book with a 5-page introduction that traces the development of transmitters, beginning with the basic 1-tube oscillator and ending with the application of solid-state technology in the "finals" of transmitters and transceivers. As Moore notes, not all of the changes in equipment resulted from technological progress -- regulatory changes also accounted for some advances in equipment design and construction. This section of the book is a good primer for collectors with a desire to learn about the major milestones in the history of amateur radio.
Section II of the book contains illustrations and descriptions of equipment from about 120 manufacturers that range from Ace Radio Labs to Wholesale Radio Labs (WRL). Most, but not all, of the descriptions are accompanied by an illustration. The quality of the illustrations ranges from very good to fair.
This wide range of quality is not surprising when you consider the nature of the source material that was available to the author. Many of the halftones and line drawings taken from old magazines, manuals, catalogs and brochures were probably not of high quality even in their original state. However, the illustrations serve their purpose by enabling the reader to identify a piece of equipment readily.
The major manufacturers are well represented, and Moore has unearthed some obscure manufacturers. Do you remember Ace Radio Labs, Aero Products, Delft, Marmax, Neil or Web? They are in this book. And were you aware that Micamold (yes, the capacitor manufacturer) made a 3-tube transmitter in kit form?
Moore conserves space by using abbreviations in his descriptions. Fortunately, he provides a list of these abbreviations and their meanings, although the "Preface" states that they are not included. One attempt at conserving space may be a bit confusing to readers who are not familiar with the layout technique used in this and in his previous books. For example, sometimes an illustration will appear at the bottom of a right-hand page, but the accompanying description is located at the top of the following page.
Transmitters, Exciters & Power Amplifiers is another in a growing number of good reference books for collectors of ham gear. The book represents more than three years of effort by Moore. We are fortunate that he and others are so dedicated to our hobby.
This 144-page softbound book with over 500 illustrations is priced at $21.95. It is available from RSM Communications, PO Box 1046, Key Largo, FL 33037-1046, A.R.C., and A.R.C. advertisers. Be sure to check these suppliers for ordering information and shipping costs.COMPARING THE MOORE AND RIPPEN BOOKS
In Raymond S. Moore's Transmitters, Exciters & Power Amplifiers and Eugene Rippen's Tube Type Transmitter Guide, collectors have two excellent sources of information about amateur radio equipment. The quandary -- which book should I buy?
Although both books cover the same general subject, there are significant differences between them. Rippen covers the years 1922 to 1970, and Moore covers 1930 to 1980. Moore includes only U.S.-made equipment, while Rippen includes foreign products as well. Each book covers manufacturers not found in the other book. For a given manufacturer, some models can be found in one book but not in the other. Rippen includes an index and cross-references, but Moore does not.
Each book has something special. After some careful thought, the answer becomes clear -- both books should be in your library. | http://www.antiqueradio.com/bookrev1_9-96.html |
1 edition of Antiquities of Portsmouth and vicinity found in the catalog.
Antiquities of Portsmouth and vicinity
G. S. B. Hempstead
Published
1875 by McFarland & Elick in Portsmouth, Ohio .
Written in English
|Classifications|
|LC Classifications||E74.O3 H4|
|The Physical Object|
|Pagination||p. cm.|
|ID Numbers|
|Open Library||OL25607191M|
|LC Control Number||02012824|
Arts, Culture, and Humanities. Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities Defining the past. Shaping the future. BOOK DONATIONS. ALL BOOK DONATIONS FOR THE FRIENDS MAY BE LEFT AT ANY OF THE FOUR LIBRARY LOCATIONS! We are not currently picking up books from residences. Please note we are not able to sell encyclopedias and National Geographics. Importantly - our volunteers cannot handle moldy, buggy, boxes or bags! Sincerely, Louise Johnson. President
Toward an Understanding (East-West Occasional Papers)
North America
Magasin du Nord
exposition of Basotho Rural Women in Development Project
Student revolt!
Doctor on call.
Story of Halloween
BENRUBI (H) & FILS SA
The state of New-Hampshire, to the selectmen of [blank] in the county of [blank] greeting.
Affairs of the mind
Environmental Law Handbook
Fertility and contraception in the human female [by] John A. Loraine [and] E. Trevor Bell.
Mechanics of plastic deformation in metal processing [by] Erich G. Thomsen, Charles T. Yang [and] Shiro Kobayashi.
Radon and the environment, conference proceedings, May 8-10, 1986, Ramapo College of New Jersey.
Subject guide to large print books
The Antiquarian Bookstore, New Hampshire's Largest antiquarian book store, features collections, out-of-print books, rare books, antiquarian books, magazines, comics, art, and collections.
We've been in business in Portsmouth, NH since We have an eclectic assortment of more than two hundred fifty thousand (,) books.
Book digitized by Google from the library of Harvard University and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user : All books set in Portsmouth on the global book map. We found 97 books set in Portsmouth and 16 others set nearby.
Antiquities of the Jews / Book 20; Share Tweet Save. From Fadus The Procurator To Florus (22 Years) Chapter 1. A SEDITION OF THE PHILADELPHIANS AGAINST THE JEWS; AND ALSO CONCERNING THE VESTMENTS OF THE HIGH PRIEST Chapter 2.
HOW HELENA THE QUEEN OF ADIABENE AND HER SON IZATES, EMBRACED THE JEWISH RELIGION; AND HOW HELENA SUPPLIED THE. Antiquities of the Jews (Latin: Antiquitates Iudaicae; Greek: Ἰουδαϊκὴ ἀρχαιολογία, Ioudaikē archaiologia) is a volume historiographical work, written in Greek, by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in the 13th year of the reign of Roman emperor Flavius Domitian which was around AD 93 or Antiquities of the Jews contains an account of history of the Jewish.
antiquities of portsmllthamiiciniiy: with somespeculations upon hepriginandpestinyoftheyvloundjsuilders. ead,a.m.,m.d. portsmouth,ohio: mcfarland&elick. Antiquities of the Jews / Book 12; Share Tweet Save. From The Death Of Alexander The Great To The Death Of Judas Maccabeus ( Years) Chapter 1.
HOW PTOLEMY THE SON OF LAGUS TOOK JERUSALEM AND JUDEA BY DECEIT AND TREACHERY, AND CARRIED MANY THENCE, AND PLANTED THEM IN EGYPT Chapter 2. HOW PTOLEMY PHILADELPHUS PROCURED THE LAWS.
Antiquarian Bookstore, Lafayette Rd, Portsmouth, NH When Marsha and I were planning a weekend trip to Portsmouth, I did some online research to find bookstores in the area.
One of the bookstores I found was the Antiquarian Bookstore, but we decided against going there. About The Portsmouth Inquirer (Portsmouth, O. [Ohio]) Edward Jordan and James Mitchell Ashley founded the Portsmouth Inquirer as the Democratic Enquirer in under the motto: “We may revere what is old, and admire what is novel, but we should adhere only to what is just and true.” The partners published the first weekly issue on April 6, in Portsmouth, the seat of Scioto.
antiquities of the jews - book xv. containing the interval of eighteen years. from the death of antigonus to the finishing of the temple by herod. chapter 1. concerning pollio and sameas. herod slays the principal of antigonus's friends, and spoils the city of its wealth.
antony beheads antigonus. The Antiquities of the Priory of Christ-Church, Hampshire: Consisting of Plans, Sections, Elevations, Details, and Perspective Views, of the Present Church by Brayley E. (Edward Wedla and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at Antiquities are objects from Antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures.
Artifacts from earlier periods such as the Mesolithic, and other civilizations from Asia and elsewhere may also be covered by the term. Page - III. We shall with the same sincerity, reality and constancy, in our several vocations, endeavour with our estates and lives mutually to preserve the rights and privileges of the Parliaments, and the liberties of the kingdoms, and to preserve and defend the King's Majesty's person and authority, in the preservation and defence of the true religion and liberties of the kingdoms, that.
"Reprint of the original edition: New Bedford, "--p. . Includes facsimile of t.-p. of New Bedford edition with title: Letters from the West, comprising a tour through the western country, and a residence of two summers in the states of Ohio and Kentucky; originally written in letters to a brother.
Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress Web site. An increasing amount of our book stock is in the form of electronic books.
You can search for ebooks listed in the Library Catalogue by clicking on the search button at the top right of this page then entering your query in the Library Catalogue box on the search page.
To restrict your search to databases only, select 'ebooks' instead of 'all. antiquities of the jews - book vi. containing the interval of thirty-two years. from the death of eli to the death of saul.
chapter 1. the destruction that came upon the philistines, and upon their land, by the wrath of go on account of their having carried the ark away captive; and after what manner they sent it.
When prominently featured in Portsmouth Furniture (pp –27, color plate 3 and the dust jacket), this important high chest was still in a private collection.
The inlaid inscription in its pediment — “I + S / ” — suggests that the piece was owned by John Sherburne (–circa ), a merchant of Portsmouth, and made inwhich, in the words of Brock Jobe, make it “the. Welcome to our website. We deal in antiquities, PreColumbian art and other quality collectables and are based in England.
All our antiquities are guaranteed to be genuine ancient or ethnographic artefacts and all are sold fully described and with certificates of authenticity. Antiquities can be surprisingly modestly priced and offer a.
Folder 26 Portsmouth Chronicle, short story contest, scrapbook of published entries, Folder 27 Portsmouth High School, graduation programs, Folder 28 Portsmouth Jail, record book, ca. Folder 29 Portsmouth Junior High, “Purple and Gold” newsletter, Folder 30 Portsmouth Mutual Fire Insurance Company, policies, - View albums many using the Louis Glaser process.
See more ideas about Views album, Souvenir and Album pins. Portsmouth is an independent city in the Commonwealth of of the census, the population It is part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area.
The Norfolk Naval Shipyard, often called the Norfolk Navy Yard, is a historic and active U.S. Navy facility that is located in Portsmouth. The shipyard's original name, Gosport, was changed to reflect its location in what once State: Virginia.
Investigating the remains of the U.S.S. Monitor: a final report on site testing in the Monitor National Marine Sancturary by Gordon P Watts (Book) 3 editions published in in English and held by 30 WorldCat member libraries worldwide. Antiquities of the Jews Book 9. CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SEVEN YEARS.
FROM THE DEATH OF AHAB TO THE CAPTIVITY OF THE TEN TRIBES. Antiquities Book 9 Antiquities Book 9, Podcast/Download. Chapter 1. CONCERNING JEHOSHAPHAT AGAIN; HOW HE CONSTITUTED JUDGES AND, BY GOD'S ASSISTANCE OVERCAME HIS ENEMIES.
Take in the natural beauty of the New England coastline on this full-day tour from Boston. See the seaside villages and rugged shoreline stretching through Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine — all in a climate-controlled, luxury vehicle.3/5(2).
Free kindle book and epub digitized and proofread by Project Gutenberg. The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Halifax, in Yorkshire The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Halifax, in Yorkshire, John Watson: Author: John Watson: Publisher: T.
Lowndes, Original from: the Bavarian State Library: Digitized: Length: pages: Export Citation: BiBTeX EndNote RefMan. Antiquities of Portsmouth and vicinity by G. Hempstead (1 copies) The testimony of the mounds: considered with especial by Thomas E Pickett (1 copies) The book of Algoonah.
Antiquarian Bookstore. Lafayette Road Portsmouth, NH, U.S.A. Joined Ap Get reviews, hours, directions, coupons and more for Antiquarian Bookstore at Lafayette Rd, Portsmouth, NH Search for other Used & Rare Books in Portsmouth on The Real Yellow Pages®.
Browse3/5(2). Antiquities of the Jews. Preface to the Antiquities of the Jews Book I-- From Creation to the Death of Isaac Book II-- From the Death of Isaac to the Exodus out of Egypt Book III-- From the Exodus out of Egypt to the Rejection of the Generation Book IV-- From the Rejection of that Generation to the Death of Moses Book V-- From the Death of Moses to the Death of Eli.
Museums in Portsmouth on See reviews, photos, directions, phone numbers and more for the best Museums in Portsmouth, VA. - Looking to get inspired on your trip to Portsmouth. Immerse yourself into world-class art, exciting history, and mind-bending science.
Check out the best museums in Portsmouth to visit in Book effortlessly online with Tripadvisor. Frontispiece, Introduction and Acknowledgements / K. Holium, A. Raban, I.
Patrich --Part 1: FIELD REPORTS The Temple Platform and environs The Temple Platform: progress report on the excavations / K. Holum The south flank of the Temple Platform (area Z2, excavations) / F. Stanley, Jr. A corpus of.
Rare book collection of 22 different titles dating s, of which 15 are true 1st Editions. All very good condition in original bindings, no dust jackets. $2, includes careful packing, shipping, insurance.
Portsmouth, NH () Jerusalem, Excavations in the Vicinity of the Ancient City: [a] Stone-Vessel Production Caves on Mount Scopus, [b] The Monastery of Theodorus and Cyriakos on Mount Scopus, in E. Stern (ed.), The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land Vol.
5, pp. – (with J. Seligman and I. Zilberbod). Portsmouth City Hall Contact Us Crawford Street Portsmouth, VA Phone: Monday-Friday 8 a.m.
- 5 p.m. In art market: East Asia. The collecting of antiquities had become widespread by the 14th century, a trend reflected in the writing of the first connoisseur’s manual, Cao Zhao’s Geguyaolun (; “Essential Criteria of Antiquities”).It included advice on handling dealers and other collectors.
His book-keeping methods, however, were less than stellar and after losing a considerable sum of money he turned to authoring works on heraldry and antiquities.
His first and best known publication, "The Antiquities of England and Wales", was published in parts beginning in and was completed fifteen years later in Find Rare & Secondhand Books near Portsmouth, get reviews, directions, opening hours and payment details.
Search for Rare & Secondhand Books and other retailers near you, and submit a. Historical and descriptive sketches of Norfolk and vicinity, including Portsmouth and the adjacent counties, during a period of two hundred years.
(Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, ), by William S. Forrest (page images at HathiTrust) Filed under: Norfolk (Va.) -- History -- 19th century. Athenæum book collections an important document of Portsmouth reading habits.
When books from several large private libraries were added at the turn of the 20 th century, a card catalogue replaced earlier printed catalogues published from (unlocated) to naval prison portsmouth nh inmate history portsmouth ohio newspaper archives.
book stores portsmouth nh emergancy clinic portsmouth new hampshire sigma pi phi history Portsmouth City ( pop. ), seat of Scioto co., S Ohio, Another notable part of Portsmouth's history in .Original Logo of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia. Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.
Contributed by James M. Lindgren. Organized inthe Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA), currently known as APVA/Preservation Virginia, was the nation's first statewide historic preservation organization. | https://niviliqureqaf.amstrad.fun/antiquities-of-portsmouth-and-vicinity-book-15874pd.php |
Over 400 colonies of approximately 45,000 Hutterites live in Western Canada, Montana, the Dakotas and other various places. Many look at the Hutterites with awe and fascination. Their traditions, old-fashioned ways, communal lifestyle and Hutterish accent set them apart from the rest of us, but little is known about them.
Some may inaccurately depict them on tv shows and in paperback romances. Many will say one thing, yet others will say something different. Really, few know.
Nine ex-hutterites try to describe how life really was for them in their book Hutterites: Our Story to Freedom ( available online or in bookstores).
Each tell his or her story through their own eyes. They relate their struggles and victories, and their ultimate discovery - Jesus Christ.
Most of The Nine are related by blood or marriage. All left because of their faith, and some were excommunicated and forced to leave their homes in Manitoba and North Dakota. Most of the Nine live in the States now.
Though life does vary from colony to colony, they expose the basics of a Hutterite life. Some may think their story is too harsh and unjust, or overly dramatized, but those that are familiar with the Anabaptists will see just how real their stories are.
The Nine share how they each were able to find a fulfilling life, and use the gifts and talents they were given to please God, others, and still be joyful and satisfied. They take pleasure in being creative with their time and dress, and consider the little things we take for granted miracles, such as swimming, horseback riding, driving or shopping.
As they explain in their book, the jobs that each one is assigned for life in the Hutterite colonies depends on their status or relationships with those in charge. Jason Waldner, one of the nine, had always been interested in construction and graphic-design. He was not consulted or asked what he wanted to do with his life, but assigned to work in the chicken barns. Not that this job in and of itself was bad, but it was not something that fit his personality or interests.
But, as they will say, these weren’t the only reasons they left. Far from it. They said “Many youth leave to work and make money, and find freedom, and soon return.Without Jesus, you won’t have a successful life anywhere.”
The book tells how the Hutterites aren’t what they started out to be. In the 16th century, Jacob Hutter, their founder, travelled and preached, and was burned to death for doing so. Nowadays, the Hutterites do not try to share the gospel, and most consider themselves holyier than the “English” world. Also, the early founders were against drunkenness, and this now is very common among the Hutterites.
Their book is a heartfelt plea that should be heard and appreciated. They want others - Hutterites and non-Hutterites - to know that there is always another way. Sometimes it may take great sacrifice and perseverance, but in the end it is well worth it.
They hope that you will be encouraged, and maybe even be inspired to help others.
When asked if many leave the Hutterites; “Yes, especially in the last decade” said Sheryl, Karen and Cindy Waldner, three of the nine. “Two families left just this last couple of weeks.”
There will be some that will be bothered by the Nine’s decision to press a lawsuit against one of the colonies. They said “We did everything we could biblically. We tried to talk to them, but they would not listen. And already they had made it very clear that they did not want to be our brethren. We felt that we could make them hear us in the courtroom.”
According to the Bible, it is wrong for one Christian to sue another Christian. We should be more willing to be hurt ourselves rather than to hurt another. That is where much trouble comes. Who is or is not a Christian? A brother or sister in Christ?
If we remember the parable of the Good Samaritan, we should treat all good..not just those that are similar to us, or even just those that like us.
Also in the story of Cain and Abel, Abel never did anything back to Cain. It was Cain who killed his brother and said “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Something evil never makes up for many good deeds. And, yes, maybe the Hutterite life is not fair, but if one chooses it, it is their life, and they should be allowed to live how they see best for themselves and their family.
Despite their mistakes, you can see that The Nine are trying to serve their Lord with all their might. Besides reaching out to those here, they have traveled to Liberia to help the people there. They are active in their ministry and church. Their utmost goal is to bring peace and freedom to everyone.
The Nine also stress the importance of forgiveness. They say that they hold nothing against their Hutterite friends. In fact they say that they did learn many good things from the Hutterites, such as working hard and cooking well.
“No, it was God’s plan for us to be born there” they answered when asked if they felt their time with the Hutterites was wasted. “Even though we may not understand His reasons, it was God’s specific plan for us.”
To get the other side, I called a Hutterite relative in Manitoba. When asked what his opinion was on how the Nine live their lives and why they left, he answered “I have no association with them. They left and made their decision. You would have to ask them why they left.”
They are currently working on their second book Since We Told The Truth which will be available in bookstores and online July 1.
The Nine are having a book signing in Bozeman at Barnes & Noble on Saturday, May 10, 2pm-4pm. If you have any questions, or just want to see them, be sure to stop by. | https://bozemanmagazine.com/news/2014/05/04/106934-hutterites-nine-who-left |
“I am not an advocate of spending money unnecessarily, particularly when missionaries go in want. I am not an advocate of spending hours glued to a computer, when nursing home patients go unvisited.
However, the enemy has pulled the wool over our eyes and too many will peek out only long enough to be spoon-fed by the dead T.V.. Examining foreign languages with a dictionary, plodding through Foxe’s history, or deciphering fonts from the 1500s is “study” (2 Tim. 2:15) and “much study is a weariness of the flesh” (Eccl. 12:12).
BUT without some effort on our part, our children and grandchildren will be left with crumbs for a spiritual heritage. We each must “study” and “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3).
THIS faith is there to see on this CD-Rom set, with the original gospels in 12 languages, as well as the rarely ever seen 8 volumes of Foxe’s history of the true Christian church. The Lord gave me a library of rare volumes; we could not help but share them with fellow Christians on these CD-ROMs. The cost of the books and the CD-ROMs' production by AGES Software, Inc.TM, which put us in the red, will be worth it, if fellowservants see it and “teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2).
a.) Search any name, word, phrase, or letter pair. It is better than an index.
b.) Print out pages or chapters on 3-hole paper to insert in study notes or give away (see p. 2).
c.) Cut and paste quotes into other documents.
2.) The King James Bible, searchable by words, letter groups and phrases.
We wanted the KJB to interface with a searchsoftware that allowed the search of letter pairs (bl, st, etc.); this software does it better than any other.
You can cut and paste the KJV verses into other documents.
This antique Polyglot is extremely rare; museums count themselves fortunate to have one page of it. Its previous owner was A. Gifford D.D., cofounder of the British Museum. Its price tag was well worth the secrets it revealed.
It demonstrates the perfect agreement of the English King James Bible with all pure Bibles from other languages. It is perhaps the most important polyglot Bible in print because it was printed twelve years before the KJV and five years before the KJV’s translation work began.
This is available nowhere else on CD-Rom, nor are copies or originals available for sale anywhere in the world.
The Nuremberg Polyglot contains the Gospels of the New Testament in 12 languages, as they appeared before the King James Bible (approx. 1100 pages). The Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, French, Spanish, Italian, German, English, Bohemain, Polish and Danish match the KJV precisely and prove that the NIV, TNIV, NASB, NKJV, HCSB, ESV and NRSV are in error.
This CD-ROM documents verse comparisons in In Awe of Thy Word, chapter 28. It is very valuable to own this Polygolt, even if you do not speak these languages. It is simple to show friends that words, such as ‘Jesus Christ,’ and verses, such as the last 12 verses of Mark, and the 16 or so verses omitted by most new versions, are in all the Bibles of the world. (An inexpensive paperback like, Harrap’s Five-Language Basic Dictionary will help you to compare many verses).
It also allows the readers to document for themselves the agreement of the pure "scriptures... make known to all nations" (Rom. 16:26). It makes glaringly clear that new versions, such as the TNIV, NIV, ESV, NKJV, HCSB and NASB divert dangerously from "the word" given "in all the world" (Col. 1:5, 6).
This is the rare, seldom seen, entire 8 volume set of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, nearly 6000 pages long. It was originally written in 1563 ; this is the 1837-49 printing.
Print a page a day for 16 years of daily devotionals.
“OUTSIDE of being saved and experiencing that wonderful transition from darkness to light some 30 years ago, reading my copy of Foxe’s 8 volumes has been the greatest spiritual experience of my life. We put these 8 volumes on CD-Rom, that other Christians might benefit from this experience also.
5.) The Tome of the Paraphrases of Erasmus Upon the New Testament (1548-1549) with the New Testament text of the Great Bible (1540).
ERASMUS printed an edition of the Greek New Testament Textus Receptus (available on another CD-ROM), because of this he has been the subject of many slanders.
Erasmus’ commentary on the New Testament (the original English translation), valued at over $30,000.00 today, tells the truth about his beliefs. It has never before been make available on CD-Rom to everyone.
These original antique volumes are a treasure God spared when Queen Bloody Mary charged that every copy of it be burned. The Erasmusian scholars at the world’s leading universities have admitted to us that they do not have access to this. Both volumes total about 1880 pages. Recent translations, re-typesettings, and reprints are highly unreliable.
1.) To allow Christians in these dark days to peak back to a more sober era through the eyes of one of history’s finest Christians. Erasmus was a very spiritual man; his humble spirit, piety, and zeal against error are refreshing.
2.) To show that Erasmus was not a Catholic when the whole of his views on the Bible are examined verse by verse. His comments make is very clear that he abhorred the beliefs and practices unique to the Catholic church. It is important to read it all, since Erasmus defines his own terms. (e.g. He defines baptism as the baptism into Christ (Rom. 6:3), not infant baptism). Critics who take snippets out and pose them in the lonely shadow of their own dark mind will show themselves to be poor scholars. Should his quotes be released, they will dissolve any false charges about Erasmus.
King Edward VI. He commanded also that "the whole Bible of the largest volume in English and...the paraphrase of Erasmus" be placed in churches for, "every person to read the same as the very lively word of God" (Foxe, vol. 5, p. 708).
Its preface shows strong Christian convictions and marked anti-popery; the Paraphrase of Erasmus shows strong Christian orthodoxy.
Rare Bible collectors are offering for sale, Erasmus’ Paraphrases upon the New Testament [English translation], bound with an edition of the Great Bible. It is the only copy on the market today in the world. The price for this second edition is $26,000. God gave us the first edition (1548-49), which is now nestled away in a bank vault, but is available on this CD-Rom for all Christians to see.
PC with Windows XP and Macintosh OS meet all system reqirements. PC with Windows 95/98/NT4: 486 processor (Pentium or better recommended) 16MB RAM (24 MB+ recommended), 10MB free hard disk space, NT4 should have Service Pack 3 or higher. PC with Windows 2000/ME: Pentium 90 or better, 32 MB RAM (64 MB recommended), 10 MB free hard disk space. Macintosh: PowerPC or better processor, OS 9 or better system software, 8MB RAM, 10 MB hard disk space. | https://shop.avpublications.com/product_info.php?products_id=52&osCsid=jknc3ckob0sejim9hjqskk2ch1 |
For the last few years, the manager of the Book Corner, a secondhand bookstore in Islamabad’s Jinnah market, has been asking me when he would finally see my first novel on his shelves. My response was always the same: soon. But late last year, as the South Asian edition was being finalised, my answer was slightly different: the book would be out soon, but I wasn’t sure he’d be able to display it in his shop because of its cover.
The novel takes place in 1970s Karachi, in a freer country than the one today, and one of the main venues is a cabaret from the pre-Prohibition era, when the city’s nightclubs drew visitors from across the region. When my Indian publisher asked me what I wanted for the cover, I suggested something that evoked the cabaret. The photograph we finally decided on is a close-up of a dancer in an opulent white corset; her legs are crossed, revealing a significant shot of her thighs, as well as the corset’s crotch. The title, Invitation, runs across the belly. More than a few people predicted it would never make it past customs officials or booksellers in a country that seems more and more to be trapped in a puritanical straitjacket.
When I showed the manager of the bookstore the image on my phone, he had a co-worker dig up an old copy of Khushwant Singh’s 1956 novel, Train to Pakistan, about Partition. The campy illustrated cover has a villain (whether Hindu or Muslim is not clear) standing over a woman who has probably either been or is about to be raped, whose clothes are partially torn, revealing a big bust and a lot of leg. The image was a scandal for some time, he said, and the book would have only been available in stores like his rather than mainstream outlets.
So, would his store carry my book if its cover, too, shocked local sensibilities? If worse came to worst, he replied, I could bring him copies from India and he could keep them under the counter where, for example, he kept copies of Salman Rushdie’s novels, among others. Not the worst company.
In the 1980s, General Zia-ul-Haq’s military government banned Rushdie’s novel, Shame, because of its unfavourable depiction of a country that was “not quite Pakistan” and a dictatorship that was not quite Zia’s — but just about. The ban backfired because with all the attention the book became required reading for new diplomats posted in Islamabad. Many Western capitals sent copies via the diplomatic bag and, as a result, the capital was flooded with copies — an attack of Shame, if you will — which eventually ended up in the many secondhand bookstores interspersed through the city’s main markets.
You can, of course, find secondhand bookstores the world over. But in Islamabad these bookstores sometimes suggest a sense of a breach, of things that shouldn’t be there. Like a Rushdie book.
There was another little book during the Zia regime that circulated in manuscript form, clandestinely, through these stores: Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s If I Am Assassinated, which Pakistan’s first elected prime minister wrote from jail after Zia’s 1977 coup. Its publication was blocked, and the regime closed the offices of the press that tried to print it. The military hanged Bhutto in 1979, but he remained a powerful anti-military symbol that the regime tried to suppress by targeting his party colleagues, his daughter, his supporters and, indeed, his words. Yet, in stapled copies, there was his most polemical work being sold right under the dictatorship’s nose.
In the Eighties and early Nineties, when my father was posted in Islamabad, these bookstores were a child’s access not so much to forbidden works as to Western culture. In those days, the federal capital didn’t have much. There was one television channel, state-run, that showed one highly censored English movie a week — including, my favourite, a censor board — approved Dr No with the bikini-clad Ursula Andress completely excised from all her scenes until the very end, when she appears out of nowhere, more or less fully dressed.
There was no real cinema to speak of, so we survived on pirate video stores that rented “camera copies” of new releases overlaid with the silhouettes and chatter of moviegoers moving back and forth in front of the projector.
In these conditions, the authentic experience was to be found in the secondhand bookstores, stacked with publications that were passed on by the city’s many foreign visitors, including diplomats, donors, teachers and tourists.
If entering such shops today can feel somewhat like a rearward timewarp, back then it felt as if we were re-entering the present. In the days before the internet, the network of secondhand bookstores, with their dusty piles of Western magazines on the floor, was like a cable between East and West, past and present: Mad magazine; Empire, the movie magazine; two- and three-week-old Sports Illustrated issues to keep us up to date on the NBA and NFL seasons; Ebony to tell us what was happening in rap and hip hop. When my father was posted back to Europe a few years later, I didn’t feel too far behind the times.
If the internet and cable television have closed the East-West gap in Pakistan, Islamabad’s secondhand book stores are still good for one thing: rare books. In Pakistan, of course, “rare” means something different from, say, Edinburgh, or my old home, Northampton, Massachusetts. Rarely do you find, for example, Saul Bellow in any of the mainstream outlets in Karachi, Lahore or Islamabad. So when I entered a serious Bellow phase, I went from secondhand store to secondhand store, finding Dangling Man and The Victim in one, Augie March in another, and, after several failed attempts, a beautiful copy of Herzog in a store that I hardly ever visit, which caters more to readers of plays and 19th-century classics. Other unusual finds have included a collection of Kenneth Tynan’s dazzling profiles for the New Yorker, Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, and, perhaps strangest for me personally, a novel by my old professor and mentor in Massachusetts, Sabina Murray.
“Rare” here can also be for the puritanical factor. This adds a delicious buzz to browsing those dense, dust-covered piles and shelves. In the Book Corner, where Rushdie novels lie discreetly under the counter, I’ve found a copy of Catherine Millet’s explicit memoir, The Sexual Life of Catherine M, and a July 1964 issue of Playboy, with a beautiful spread on Brigitte Bardot in the middle pages.
Which brings me to the best of the lot, my favourite secondhand trophy: it’s another Playboy production, this one a first edition of a collection of the best Playboy interviews, whose roll-call of subjects includes Miles Davis, Bertrand Russell, the legendary jungle doctor Albert Schweitzer, a medicine man of another kind in Timothy Leary, Nabokov, Fidel Castro, Jimmy Hoffa the month before his disappearance, James Earl Ray nine years after he shot Martin Luther King, and many others. The conversations are extensive and remarkably frank. Given the list, one doesn’t really need to cite the content of the interviews to convey how beguiling this book is. It may not be, for the local sensibility, as indecent as the magazine itself. But it’s a demonstration of the unpredictable encounters in these little asylums of words and ideas, in a city which has for most of its 50 years felt like an isolated island dominated by an austere bureaucracy — but where, perhaps for the wrong reasons, people from around the world still come for one- or two- or three-year stints, leave something behind and, I’m sure, take something back.
Since I began writing this piece, my speculations about the fate of my own book in Pakistan subsided as I heard that the novel had made it past customs and into Pakistani bookstores, where it is selling well. When I went to the Book Corner to break the news to my manager friend, I found the book already on display at the front of the store. He had ordered 20 copies for sale among the small collection of new releases he stocks.
I visited him again the following weekend, and he told me that he’d sold out and had to restock, and that the prominent display of a cabaret dancer’s thigh had not brought him any grief yet, from mullahs or anyone else. | https://standpointmag.co.uk/dispatches-november-11-books-do-furnish-a-little-freedom-shehryar-fazli-islamabad-book-shops-freedom-of-press/ |
Friends of Tompkins County Public Library Book Sale resumes this weekend
Residents looking for a great deal on a unique book, record or other gift may be interested in stopping by the Friends of Tompkins County Public Library Book Sale.
The book sale will start at 8 a.m. Saturday and runs til 8 p.m. at 509 Esty St. in Ithaca.
"Some die-hard book lovers will be camping out the night before to be first through the doors to pore over the quarter-million books on the shelves," said Jan Safran, who runs Collector's Corner, a section containing rare books and collectibles at the book sale.
If you can't make it Saturday, there's no reason to fret. The book sale will run from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday and Monday, as well as Oct. 19-21 and 26-29.
Many residents have found prized possessions at past book sales.
Before coming to Ithaca, Laurent Ferri, a curator at Cornell University's Rare and Manuscript Collection, worked for five years as a conservateur at the Archives Nationales in France. One of his prized books signed by the artist Marc Chagall is an item he found not in an antiquarian shop in France, but on a shelf at the Spring 2019 Friends of the Library Book Sale.
For less than $5.
Among some of the finds this year are thousands of mint-condition comics, a copy of "Tales of the South Pacific" signed by James Michener, a rare two-volume first edition of "Lolita," a signed copy of "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman, and hundreds upon hundreds of jigsaw puzzles. There also will be an original oil painting by Alfred Hair, who was one of the founding fathers of the school of artists known as the Florida Highwaymen.
"There are genuine treasures to be found at the Ithaca Book Sale," Safran said.
Money from the sales go toward the Tompkins County Public Library and the Finger Lakes Library System, as well as the nonprofit's maintenance fees. About $250,000 is made from the sales.
Collector's Corner will be open from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on all other days of the sale, excluding Oct. 28 and 29, when it will be closed.
In addition to running for three weekends, the Tompkins County Friends of the Public Library will be holding the book sale on other days as well. To learn more about these other days the book sale will be open, with special discounts and deals for qualifying customers, go to the Friends of the Tompkins County Public Library Book Sale website, booksale.org/.
Follow Matt Steecker on Twitter @OnTheStecord. Support our journalism and become a digital subscriber today. Click here for our special offers. | https://www.ithacajournal.com/story/news/local/2019/10/09/book-lovers-line-up-tompkins-county-book-sale-weekend/3910385002/ |
Recent Book Searches:
ISBN-10/ISBN-13:
0801057841 / 978-0801057847 / 3 Crucial Questions about Spiritual Warfare (Three Crucial Questions) / Clinton E. Arnold
0801058090 / 978-0801058097 / The Last Days Are Here Again: A History of the End Times / Richard G. Kyle
080105818X / 978-0801058189 / A Search for the Spiritual: Exploring Real Christianity / James Emery White
0801058228 / 978-0801058226 / Equal to Serve: Women and Men Working Together Revealing the Gospel / Gretchen Gaebelein Hull
0801058295 / 978-0801058295 / The Sound of the Harvest: Musics Mission in Church and Culture / J. Nathan Corbitt
0597720002 / 978-0597720000 / 2000 Import and Export Market for Special Transactions and Commodities in Papua New Guinea / Inc Icon Group International
1451190948 / 978-1451190946 / Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing & Healthcare: A Guide to Best Practice 3rd edition / Bernadette Melnyk PhD RN CPNP/NPP FAAN, Ellen Fineout-Overholt PhD RN FNAP FAAN
0133351777 / 978-0133351774 / Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum: Best Practices in Early Childhood Education (6th Edition) / Marjorie J. Kostelnik, Anne K. Soderman, Alice P. Whiren, Michelle Q Rupiper
145119286X / 978-1451192865 / Nursing Health Assessment: A Best Practice Approach / Sharon Jensen MN RN
1506332358 / 978-1506332352 / Visible Learning for Literacy, Grades K-12: Implementing the Practices That Work Best to Accelerate Student Learning (Corwin Literacy) / Douglas B. Fisher, Nancy Frey, John A. (Allan) Hattie
0078137209 / 978-0078137204 / Organizational Behavior: Key Concepts, Skills & Best Practices / Angelo Kinicki, Mel Fugate
1462517196 / 978-1462517190 / Best Practices in Literacy Instruction, Fifth Edition / N/A
0133495655 / 978-0133495652 / Policing America: Challenges and Best Practices (8th Edition) / Ken Peak
032504354X / 978-0325043548 / Best Practice, Fourth Edition: Bringing Standards to Life in America's Classrooms / Steven Zemelman, Harvey "Smokey" Daniels, Arthur Hyde
0984380213 / 978-0984380213 / Predictable Revenue: Turn Your Business Into a Sales Machine with the $100 Million Best Practices of Salesforce.com / Aaron Ross, Marylou Tyler
1530088690 / 978-1530088690 / Masters of Corporate Venture Capital: Collective Wisdom from 50 VCs Best Practices for Corporate Venturing How to Access Startup Innovation & How to Get Funded / Andrew Romans
B01IQR5AC6 / Get Packing Book 3: The How Of Travel (Get Packing: The Ultimate Travel Guide) / John Kumm, Barbara Walsh
0664227279 / 978-0664227272 / Lai-Israelites in History and Tradition / Niels Lemche
0140371486 / 978-0140371482 / Save Queen of Sheba (A Puffin Book) / Louise Moeri
080105950X / 978-0801059506 / Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching: From Leadership Journal / Craig Brian Larson
080105995X / 978-0801059957 / Gods Way, Not Ours: Isaiah 1 / D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
0801059984 / 978-0801059988 / Mixed nuts: An informative and entertaining collection of trivia / E. C McKenzie
0801061229 / 978-0801061226 / Family Foundations / Paul Meier, Richard Meier
0801061288 / 978-0801061288 / Introduction to Psychology and Counseling: Christian Perspectives and Applications / Paul D. Meier
0801061350 / 978-0801061356 / Counseling and the Nature of Man / Frank B. Minirth, Paul D. Meier
0801062020 / 978-0801062025 / Reflections on the Gospel of John: The Word Was Made Flesh / Leon Morris
0801062209 / 978-0801062209 / Kingdom of Priests: A History of the Old Testament Israel / Eugene H. Merrill
0801062225 / 978-0801062223 / Scaling the Secular City: A Defense of Christianity (Scaling the Secular City) / J. P. Moreland
0801062330 / 978-0801062339 / The God Who Is Real: A Creationist Approach to Evangelism and Missions / Henry M. Morris
0801058481 / 978-0801058486 / The New Millennium Manual: A Once and Future Guide / Robert G. Clouse, Robert N. Hosack, Richard V. Pierard
Browse ISBN Directory:
9780836805765-9780836809596 9780836809626-9780836811339 9780836811346-9780836813678 9780836813685-9780836815665 9780836815672-9780836817348 More...
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Be Sure to Compare Book Prices Before Buy
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Our goal is to find the cheapest books and college textbooks for you, both new and used books, from a large number of bookstores worldwide. Currently our book search engines fetch book prices from US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, France, and Japan. More bookstores from other countries will be added soon. Before buying from a foreign book store or book shop, be sure to check the shipping options. It's not unusual that shipping could take 2 -3 weeks and cost could be multiple of a domestic shipping charge.
Buy Used Books and Used Textbooks
Buying used books and used textbooks is becoming more and more popular among college students for saving. Different second hand books could have different conditions. Be sure check used book condition from the seller's description. Also many book marketplaces put books for sale from small bookstores and individual sellers. Make sure to check store review for seller's reputation when available. If you are in a hurry to get a book or textbook for your class, you would better choose buying new books for prompt shipping. | http://www.alldiscountbooks.net/_Harry_Kamper_Books_a_.html |
Special interest in topics relating to library management over the last decade has led to the close examination of crisis management practice among library professionals. Due to the importance of the archives, documents, and books housed within libraries around the world, preemptive planning for potential disaster is necessary to all librarians and their staff. TheHandbook of Research on Disaster Management and Contingency Planning in Modern Libraries brings together the latest scholarly research, theories, and case studies to investigate the scale and types of disasters that can impact a library. Through the evaluation of past crisis management strategies and future best practices, this handbook is an essential reference source for librarians, library staff, archivists, curators, students, professionals, private collectors, and corporations with archival collections to learn from the experiences of others, expand their definition of disaster, and create or redesign their own disaster plans with newfound awareness. This handbook features timely, research based chapters and case studies on crisis management, emergency response, exhibition loans, natural disasters, preserving archives, public and staff safety, and risk assessment. | http://presderfelsjack.comunidades.net/handbook-of-research-on-disaster-management-and-contingency-planning-in-modern-libraries-pdf |
Resilience Speaker Series Video Library
The Enterprise Community Partners Multifamily Housing Resilience Speaker Series provides training to a variety of multifamily housing owners, operators, staff, developers, stakeholders and allied agencies on disaster preparedness response, planning and resilience. The series is part of Enterprise’s ongoing efforts to strengthen the resilience of the affordable multifamily housing community.
Lights Out: Simulating Building Thermal Response to Power Outages
Evisioning Site Resilience in Campus Style Housing
Building a Prepared community through Resident Engagement: Voices from the Field
Disaster Preparedness for Seniors
Flood Perimeter Protection
Building Codes for Multi-Family Housing Resilience
Multi-Family Housing Resilience
Operations and Maintenance for Disaster Preparedness
Insurance 101
Resident Engagement
Auxiliary Power
Mold and Indoor Air Quality
Flooded Boilers
Cogeneration
Lights Out: Simulating Building Thermal Response to Power Outages
February 2015
Speakers: Benjamin Shepard, Associate Director, Atelier Ten
Michael Esposito, Environmental Designer, Atelier Ten
In collaboration with Enterprise, representatives from Atelier Ten present the building envelope resiliency tool to analyze and model the impact of extreme weather on multifamily buildings.
- Introduction
- What if Sandy was worse? - Scenarios and Solutions
- Passive Survivability
- Modeling the Impact of Extreme Heat and Cold
- Intro to the Envelope Resiliency Tool
- Tool Demonstration: Single Weather Scenario
- Tool Demonstration: Multiple Weather Scenarios
- Tool Demonstration: Summer Scenario
- How to Use the Tool in the Field
- Why the Tool is unique
- Q&A Part One: Methodology
- Q&A Part Two: Strategies for Implementation
- Q&A Part Three: Applications for Public Housing
- Full Video
Envisioning Site Resilience in Campus Style Housing
October 2014
Speakers: Marc Wouters, Director of Urban Design, Stantec
Deborah Gans, Founder and Principal, Gans studio
Karen Kubey, Executive Director, Institute for Public Architecture
This session focuses on best practice site planning and stormwater management strategies to increase the resilience of campus style housing sites in the event of rain water events and major storms.
- Campus Style Housing Rain Strategies
- Storm Surge and Sea Level Rise
- Protecting Critical Systems
- Social Resilience Aided by Design
- Shelter in Place Strategy
- Multi-Purpose Flood Protection
- The “New York is My Home” and “Share What?!” Projects
- The “Journal of a Houser” and “9x18” Projects
- Q&A – Architects and Engineers Working Together
- Q&A – Feasibility of Stormwater Management Strategies
Building a Prepared Community through Resident Engagement: Voices from the Field
September 2014
Speakers: Nancy Ortiz, Vladeck Houses Tenant Association
David Cohen, Shorefront Y
Rev. Terry Troia, Project Hospitality
Carrie Gadsen, Ed Tyree, Theresa Davis, Gowanus Houses Tenant Association
A collaboration with the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD), this panel of resident and community leaders discusses strategies to support and cultivate resident leadership for successful disaster response and recovery.
- What is a Community Emergency Response Team?
- Why are Resident Associations Important?
- Know Your Generators and Boilers
- Shelter Locations
- Building the Go Bag
- Understand Civic Leadership in a Community
- Identify Cultural Diversity in a Community
- Understand Social and Economic Issues in a Community
- Perceptions of a Place Post-Storm
- The Importance of the Community Center
- Working with NYCHA on Repairs
- The Need for Low Cost Wi-Fi
- Block by Block Organizing Structure
- The Importance of Block Captains in Diverse Neighborhoods
- How to Build Resilient Housing and Protect the Integrity of the Neighborhood
Disaster Preparedness for Seniors
July 2014
Speakers: Lindsay Goldman, New York Academy of Medicine
Rupal Sanghvi, Health x Design
Donald Manning, Jewish Association Serving the Aging
This session features discussion about how affordable multifamily housing providers that serve seniors can strengthen resident engagement and preparedness for their most vulnerable residents.
- A Socio-Demographic Profile of Older People in NYC
- Results of Focus Group on Older People after Hurricane Sandy
- Why do the Same Conditions Arise after Every Disaster?
- Suggestions for Housing Owners to Prepare Their Tenants for a Disaster
- Addressing the Needs of the Most Vulnerable
- How to Lessen the Impact on a System of Response During a Disaster
- Describe the Elderly Population
- What to do if You Lose Your Paper File System
- Staff as First Responders
- How do You Get Your Tenants Engaged?
- Describe the OEM Ready NY Packet and the “I’m OK” Flyer
Flood Perimeter Protection
June 2014
Speakers: William Zoeller, Steven Winter Associates
Gita Nandan, Thread Collective
Zully Rolan and Angel Rodriguez, Fifth Avenue Collective
This session focuses on flood mitigation solutions for multifamily properties in New York City. Panelists discuss strategies for permanent and temporary flood mitigation using green infrastructure solutions such as berms, swales, and green roofs as well as hard infrastructure solutions like flood gates and flood doors as well as temporary solutions.
- What is Green Infrastructure?
- The Dangers of Inland Flooding
- What are the Co-Benefits of Green Infrastructure?
- Three Major Strategies of Perimeter Protection
- Important Points About Building Perimeters
- How is the Fifth Avenue Committee Preparing for the Next Storm? | https://www.enterprisecommunity.org/solutions-and-innovation/green-communities/tools-and-services/resilience-speaker-series-video-library |
Eric Hall, Digital Services Fellow, shares his experience at a disaster simulation training with Cumberland County.
As unfathomable as the bombing of the Maine Mall may be, it is this exact hypothetical scenario that an array of emergency management and other relevant organizations convened to discuss next to the still-standing complex. As an attendee of the third Cumberland County Capabilities Assessment and GAP Analysis Workshop, I took part in and listened to the various groups discuss their role in response to an intentional incident. There were participants from Maine Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security, police and fire departments, mall security, hospitals, and municipal government. All discussed their internal plans and logistics for collaboration.
One representative from a regional hospital noted the importance of practicing for a mass casualty incident (MCI) by training their employees every few years. However, the necessity to prepare for an MCI has to be weighed against the current crushing need faced by health care providers. They stated the hospital is almost always at capacity due to the impact of Covid-19, superseding training time due to busy shifts. Even at an in-person workshop, the devastation of the pandemic was not lost on the planning for speculative devastation.
It is this conjuncture in planning, between predictable and unpredictable events, that fascinates me about the field. Organizations must, by necessity, develop plans to and discuss a range of hypothetical disasters, and yet they will never be able to plan for everything. Much like organizations, I did not plan ahead for everything. I had not penciled a disastrous global pandemic into my calendar, nor imagined graduating into a more uncertain and uncomfortable time. Now it would be great to say that I took the initial disruption in stride and I would relish the opportunity to tout my resilience before joining the Resilience Corps, but the lived rather than imagined is meaningful. I worked as an Enumerator for the Census and in a warehouse for L.L.Bean. In the communities I surveyed and amongst my hardworking coworkers, I saw resilience. A resilience not tempered by the pandemic, but bolstered in spite of it. It is the shining example of those around me that inspired me to serve communities dealing with disasters or planning for more resilient futures.
Preparation for a disaster is relevant to my role as an AmeriCorps member. Members can be deployed to respond to disasters as part of an emergency response effort. In order to prepare, my cohort and I took a National Incident Management System (NIMS) introductory course and passed NIMS certification. We learned about resource management, command and coordination, and communications. NIMS lays out the structural planning to best prepare responders for an assortment of disasters. In the midst of a crisis, we see organizational structures tested, a certain degree of improvisation, and certainly leadership. Workshops like these allow ideas to be sounded out, relationships between different intersecting organizations strengthened, and current needs listed. There is a lot of value in planning ahead, even if there will occasionally be events as shocking as they are horrifying as the destruction of the Maine Mall.
About Eric Hall
Eric is from Lewiston, Maine, and a recent graduate of Bowdoin College. At Bowdoin he double majored in History & Government and Legal Studies and was a member of the sailing team. He also co-led the Ski and Ride Club and volunteered with Big Brother Big Sister his senior year, serving as a mentor and friend to a local middle school student. On the weekends he enjoys skiing on Maine’s mountains or playing board games with his friends. Eric is very excited to be a member of the Resilience Corps team because of his passion for public service and love of the state of Maine. He looks forward to helping to solve the pressing problems of the Greater Portland region. | https://www.maineresiliency.org/post/best-laid-plans |
Office of Emergency Management
The City of Riverside's Office of Emergency Management (OEM), also known as the City of Riverside Fire Department’s Special Services Division administers a comprehensive all-hazards community based emergency management program. Riverside OEM promotes a disaster resistant and resilient community through partnerships with all levels of government entities, businesses, non-governmental organizations and the residents and visitors of the City of Riverside.
The welfare and safety of city residents and visitors is of utmost importance to the Office of Emergency Management. The Office of Emergency Management plans and prepares for emergencies, incidents and events that will have an impact on the City of Riverside. OEM maintains a robust preparedness effort through our Community Emergency Response Team training and resident and city employee public education events. Working with partner organizations we work to identify and mitigate issues prior to an incident. OEM also coordinates the response and recovery efforts through the activation of our EOC.
Residents and community members are encouraged to visit the Office of Emergency Management's Ready Riverside website for emergency preparedness tips.
Sign Up now for Riverside Alert: All members of the community should sign up for the Riverside Alert notification system. Sign up is quick and easy. | https://riversideca.gov/fire/divisions/office-emergency-management/about |
INTRODUCTION TO THE TRACK:
The data-driven nature of the scientific research on situation awareness demands open access to data as it is impossible to fully understand the cause and impact of a situation or impact of an event without consulting multiple types of data. Numerous technological advances in instrumentation and computation have enabled the observation and recording of various data before, during and after each events, creating a valuable database of information for research into situation such as natural hazards. The most recent improvement in satellite observation, aerial photogrammetry, in development of ground observation stations and advancement of various measurement instruments have significantly improved our ability to obtain information in real time and increased our capacity to keep the exponentially growing amounts of data. This accelerated growth in data size is due both to the higher ability of data collection and to the increased number of incident events in recent years.
The data challenge for researchers comes from several aspects: the massive quantity of data, the distributed nature of these data, the heterogeneity and diversity of the data. Compounding these challenges is the lack of data sharing. Due to both policy and technology limitations, it is often difficult to share and access data across disciplines, organizations, and distant geographic locations.
Sharing of science data on any situation or disasters is realized through cooperation among states, institutions and organizations, which has received a lot of concern from international organizations and governments. International data organizations and disaster research entities show keen interest in open access of data; they have proposed relevant strategic plans and enhanced contact with policy makers and research institutes to implement the plans, making standards and integrating interoperability.
As our societies have entered the information age, the collection, framework, storage and services of disaster data have also entered the digital phase, enabling large scale analysis and processing of such data by the scientific community. Open data strategies have been adopted in more and more disaster related data service infrastructure, especially with the trend of global open data. In all phases of disaster management including forecast, emergency response and post-disaster reconstruction, the need for interconnected multi-disciplinary open data for collaborative study and analysis is apparent, in order to recognize and discover the rules and discipline of disaster completely, scientifically and in time.
TRACK OBJECTIVES:
The chairs invite innovative contributions that address data standards, data quality, and analytical framework, dealing with uncertainty, data fusion, interoperability and data representation and reasoning for situation or disaster events. In particular, this track aims to showcase initiatives that look within and across the natural, built and socioeconomic environments for resilience solutions that support survival, sustainable growth and flourishing at community, global, regional and national scales. Scientific community and governmental organizations do to advance the state of disaster relevant data for a better understanding of disasters and more effective ways of mitigating and reducing impact of disasters on lives and properties will be explored in the session.
TRACK EXAMPLE TOPICS
- Data standards
- Data quality
- Data uncertainty
- Data fusion
- Data representation and reasoning
- Emergency data interoperability, e.g. EDXL
TRACK CO-CHAIRS:
Bapon Fakhruddin (coordinating co-chair)
Tonkin + Taylor, New Zealand
[email protected]
Vimukthi Jayawardena
University of Queensland, Australia
[email protected]
Virginia Murray
Public Health England, United Kingdom
[email protected]
Joanne Stevenson
Resilient Organisation, New Zealand
[email protected]
Bapon Fakhruddin
Dr Fakhruddin is an expert climate change risk assessor with 15 years’ global experience in working on disaster risk and climate resilience projects. This experience is a major advantage in climate change adaptation and mitigation strategy development. His key areas of expertise are climate and hydrological assessment, early warning and emergency response, climate change adaptation, and capacity building. Dr Fakhruddin designed early warning and emergency response projects more than 25 countries in Asia and the Pacific.
Dr Fakhruddin is currently advising the Government of Samoa on potential adaption strategies for dealing with the country’s vulnerability to climate change and enhancing its resilience to hydrological disaster. He is a Science Committee Member of IRDR of ICSU/UNISDR, Co-Chair for the Disaster Loss DATA and Risk Interpretation and Applications (RIA) Working Group of IRDR of ICSU/UNISDR. He is also Co-Chair CODATA task group Linked Open Data for Global Disaster Risk Research (LODGD) and PSG member of the Coastal Inundation Forecasting Demonstration Project (CIFDP) of WMO.
Capabilities: climate and hydrological risk assessment, design and implementation of hazard early warning system and emergency communication, climate change adaptation, training and capacity building and integrated water resources management.
Vimukthi Jayawardene
Vimukthi holds a PhD in data quality management from the University of Queensland Australia. He is an expert in modelling data quality requirements using goal oriented requirements engineering methods. His current research interests are focussed on developing a proactive and reusable solution base for data quality management through implementing data quality requirements in business processes and business rules. Vimukthi has expertise in enterprise resource planning systems (ERP) with SAP for more than ten years of industry experience in technical consulting. Vimukthi holds a Bachelor’s degree in physical science from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and a master’s degree (MBA in IT) from the University of Moratuwa Sri Lanka. Currently he is lecturing for the foundation year course of the University of Queensland.
Joanne R. Stevenson
Over the past decade Joanne has accumulated post-disaster research and consulting experience in several countries, examining recovery and resilience of communities, economies, and organisations. She enjoys grappling with complex systems and developing practical solutions to work with these, using her background in geospatial assessment and network analysis. Joanne also farms in partnership with her family on a commercial sheep and beef property where the risks and opportunities of running a business in a dynamic environment are lived every day. | https://www.confer.co.nz/iscramasiapacific2018/conference-theme-tracks/data-issues-for-situationdisaster-awareness/ |
involving large marine passenger vessels.
Mr.
Paul Saunders, a Disaster Risk Management Specialist at DHP Caribbean Ltd in
Trinidad and Tobago, facilitated the consultation which served to examine the
use of the incident command system, local support available to impacted
vessels, border control, managing environmental impacts, shelter provisioning,
search and rescue resources and management of external assistance. Later in the week, Mr. Saunders will also
meet with other stakeholders to discuss proposed changes to the existing External
Affairs Plan.
In his opening statement Mr.
Saunders said, “We are going to identify key areas that would need to be
addressed in the event of major accidents at sea and analyse them with the
intention of creating national policies, strategies and guidelines to be used
in the management of large passenger marine vessels incidents”
He further said, “The
consultation is the first step in obtaining stakeholders feedback which will ultimately
be used to shape the guidelines.”
Mr.
Saunders has over twenty (20) years of knowledge and
experience in the field of Disaster Risk Management; and also served as
Director General and Chief Executive Officer for the disaster offices in
Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago respectively.
This
project is part of an initiative to ensure that adequate plans and procedures
are in place to address all possible hazards that can impact the Territory and
its critical resources. DDM’s Planning and Preparedness Manager, Ms. Sheniah
Armstrong-Davies said, “As the Government of the Virgin Islands moves towards
embracing a comprehensive approach to managing disastrous events, we have
identified the need to develop standardised procedures and guidelines to guide
any response to incidents involving large scale passenger marine vessels. We
may not be able to prevent an incident from occurring but with combined efforts
and a high level of preparedness will aid in averting a catastrophe.”
The consultation was held
at Conservation and Fisheries Department conference room and was attended by
key stakeholders from government and the private sector.
The project expected to be completed by mid
June, 2012 and is fully funded by the Comprehensive Disaster Management
Harmonization Implementation (CDM HIP) Programme being implemented by the Caribbean
Disaster Emergency Agency (CDEMA) and funded by various donor partners
including UKAID from the Department of International Development. | https://www.bviddm.com/procedures-being-developed-to-address-large-scale-accidents-at-sea-2/ |
FEMA Responds to NRDC's Petition for Better State Disaster Planning Requirements
NRDC recently received a response from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to a petition that we filed with the agency nearly a year ago.
Last October, we filed a petition with FEMA asking the agency to ensure that states address climate change in their Hazard Mitigation Plans, which are developed to help states prepare for natural disasters. The plans include disaster risk assessments, statewide vulnerability studies, and strategies to reduce the loss of life and property. Every three years, states submit these plans to FEMA for approval. When the plans are approved, states are then eligible to receive certain FEMA grants to help implement on-the-ground strategies to reduce disaster risks. These strategies include activities like relocating structures out of flood-prone areas and windproofing vulnerable buildings.
Because federal taxpayer dollars are at stake, FEMA needs to ensure that states will spend grant funds as effectively as possible. This means adopting strategies that are based on an accurate understanding of risks and vulnerabilities – including the impact that climate change could have on the state. Since climate change will bring more frequent and more intense natural disasters, including extreme heat, wildfires, droughts, floods, and hurricanes, it is critical that states fully understand their climate risks and plan accordingly. President Obama recognized the importance of increasing resilience and preparing for climate change in the Climate Action Plan he announced this summer. Unfortunately, many states either completely omit or barely address climate change in their Hazard Mitigation Plans, instead relying solely on historical disaster data to estimate – and potentially underestimate – future risks. This practice could needlessly put people and property in harm’s way.
To resolve this problem, the petition we filed last year requested that FEMA do three things:
- Approve states’ Hazard Mitigation Plans only if climate change is adequately considered;
- Amend FEMA regulations to confirm explicitly that climate change must be considered in these plans; and
- Develop guidance for states to provide them with advice and resources for addressing climate change in their plans.
For more background on this effort and the relationship between natural disasters and climate change, check out these blogs about filing the petition, the Hurricane Sandy rebuilding strategy, and GAO’s report citing fiscal exposure from climate change.
On September 16, after 11.5 months, we received an official response to our petition.
In response to our request to approve plans only if they adequately address climate change, FEMA’s response is silent.
Regarding our second request to amend regulations, the letter says :
“FEMA has denied the petition because it does not contain adequate legal justification establishing how FEMA’s existing regulations and policies are insufficient. FEMA’s regulations already require State mitigation plans to include an overview of past and future natural hazard events that can affect the State.”
On the bright side, regarding our third request to improve climate guidance, the letter also says:
“All future guidance for State, local and Tribal mitigation planning will incorporate elements of climate change, as appropriate.”
Moving forward, FEMA must follow through on this commitment to improve the guidance it gives to states so that climate change is a required factor in states’ future hazard projections. We hope to see strong, clear guidance on this topic issued in a timely fashion, as well as enforcement of the requirement to consider climate change in plans. We will keep a close eye on FEMA’s progress. Communities around the country are already feeling the impacts of climate change, and FEMA needs to make sure that all 50 states are ready and resilient. More robust disaster planning will help to minimize loss of life, prevent property damage, and protect federal taxpayers. | https://www.nrdc.org/experts/becky-hammer/fema-responds-nrdcs-petition-better-state-disaster-planning-requirements |
Investing in Disaster Risk Reduction Saves Lives, Protects Assets and Builds Resilience
The 2005 earthquake and the 2010 and 2011 floods have revealed the vulnerability of Pakistani society and economy to disasters. Damages and losses have been massive. Since 2005, the calamities have claimed over 80,000 lives and affected about 50 million people. In addition, the financial and economic losses of these events are estimated to have exceeded $24.7 billion so far.
Figure: Economic Impact of Recent Disaster on Pakistan
These losses could have been largely reduced if disaster risk reduction measures had been incorporated into physical, social and economic development.
The 2005 earthquake illustrated the fact that disasters are not natural; they are closely related to human knowledge, skills and action or inaction. The 2005 earthquake also provided a wake-up call to move away from an emergency response paradigm, and to devote more attention to prevention, mitigation, and preparedness.
The UN Environment Programme has stated that each USD invested in DRR will later save $47 in emergency response, a more moderate estimate from ECHO (international donor) estimates savings of 4-7 Euro in emergency response per Euro invested in DRR. Even the most moderate estimate demonstrates the importance of investing in Disaster Risk Reduction.
Reducing exposure to hazards, lessening the vulnerability of people and property, wise management of land and the environment, and improving preparedness and early warning for adverse events are all examples of disaster risk reduction.
What is Disaster Risk?
A “disaster” is a situation that causes substantial losses and damage to communities and individuals, possibly including losses of life and livelihood assets and damage to the ecosystem, which leaves the affected communities unable to function normally without outside assistance.
“Disaster risk” is the likelihood that people will experience disasters. This risk is a function of the nature, probability, and intensity of hazards; the vulnerability of the people to these hazards; and, inversely, of their capacities to withstand or cope with these hazards.
The magnitude of the risk is determined as illustrated in the equation below:
DR (disaster risk) = V (vulnerability) * H (hazard)
(Capacity)
Pakistan prepared its national Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Policy in 2012 reflecting a major shift in Government of Pakistan’s traditional emphasis on disaster response (reactive) to disaster reduction (proactive), and in effect seeking to promote a culture of prevention and preparedness.
NDRMF investment to reduce vulnerabilities to natural disasters
NDRMF focuses on financing Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) sub-projects with strong knowledge based on risk and vulnerabilities for informed investment. All NDRMF’s investments aim to contribute to enhancing Pakistan’s resilience to climatic changes and other natural hazards. | https://www.ndrmf.pk/drr/ |
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This month, we want to share a variety of white papers, articles, presentations, etc. on this month's topic of emergency preparedness and business continuity. These 10 pieces will cover topics like active shooter threats, disaster plans, office space security, and more.
Some of the following features require IFMA Member or Knowledge Pass access.
Protect People, Not Pests: Hurricane Recovery Tools to Keep People SafeHurricanes and other natural disasters can cause extreme structural damage as well as create safety hazards and situations that are conducive to pest infestations. Businesses can use these recovery tips and check-list to protect their people, manage clean up more efficiently and prevent potential pest control issues.
The Future of Office Space SecurityTechnology is transforming how we socialize, work and play. Office space security is riding that wave for a smarter, safer, more connected workplace. See how current technologies are driving the future of office space security, including hands-free access, using cameras as virtual eyes and brains for video analytics and surveillance, and creating seamless visitor management experiences.
Workplace Violence Active Shooter ThreatAn instructional presentation addressing workplace violence issues, including statistics, at-risk behaviors and predictors, and the effects on companies and employees, plus recommendations for active shooter response considerations and procedures.
Balancing Physical Security and ProductivityThis presentation offers actionable items that can be employed to aid in reducing the overall cost of ownership, while also increasing the amount and quality of security. Providing a safe secure workplace, learning, or rehabilitation environment is the goal.
Are You Disaster-ready?This article takes a point-by-point approach to discuss the concrete steps for risk management plan creation, preparing FMs in the event of emergencies that involve damage to their facilities.
Is Your Disaster Plan in Place?Implement emergency preparedness through business continuity management and disaster recovery planning, including risk evaluation and control, business impact analysis (BIA), and follow-up business continuity strategies.
Town Hall: Facility Management Challenges During COVID-19Town Hall panel presentation on the challenges Facility Managers face in a pandemic. General discussion covering multiple topics.
Emergency Management: Practical Tools and Resources that Every FM Needs This webinar will help answer these questions and will be packed full of practical tools and training resources that all Facility Managers need to know and understand. Joined by an expert from FEMA’s National Preparedness Directorate, we will explain the preparedness cycle and the six step planning process for creating high-quality emergency operations plans.
Emergency Response Management: A Plan for Failure... In this session, we will provide five simple steps for developing an Emergency Response Management (ERM) Program and preparing the FM department and the organization for all that goes bump in the night.
The 17 Mistakes Made in Emergency Plans and How to Avoid and Correct ThemReview why emergency plans are integral to strategic emergency preparedness and business continuity, while identifying seventeen common errors and oversights of emergency planning.
Changing the Paradigm of Emergency Preparedness in FM: The Real Factors Driving Successful Incident ResponseFacilities Management Operations are a critical and integral part of Emergency Preparedness and response for corporations with infrastructure responsibilities. The traditional paradigm of creating planning guides and checklists are valuable and required tools, but the real catalyst to a successful response is a well-defined Incident Command System both internal and external to your company.
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Have something you'd like to share with fellow facility management professionals? Submit your content to the Knowledge Library and get published! | https://community.ifma.org/knowledge_library/b/news_and_updates/posts/august-2021-content-feature-emergency-preparedness-and-business-continuity |
Investing in Disaster Risk Reduction Saves Lives, Protects Assets and Builds Resilience
The 2005 earthquake and the 2010 and 2011 floods have revealed the vulnerability of Pakistani society and economy to disasters. Damages and losses have been massive. Since 2005, the calamities have claimed over 80,000 lives and affected about 50 million people. In addition, the financial and economic losses of these events are estimated to have exceeded $24.7 billion so far.
Figure: Economic Impact of Recent Disaster on Pakistan
These losses could have been largely reduced if disaster risk reduction measures had been incorporated into physical, social and economic development.
The 2005 earthquake illustrated the fact that disasters are not natural; they are closely related to human knowledge, skills and action or inaction. The 2005 earthquake also provided a wake-up call to move away from an emergency response paradigm, and to devote more attention to prevention, mitigation, and preparedness.
The UN Environment Programme has stated that each USD invested in DRR will later save $47 in emergency response, a more moderate estimate from ECHO (international donor) estimates savings of 4-7 Euro in emergency response per Euro invested in DRR. Even the most moderate estimate demonstrates the importance of investing in Disaster Risk Reduction.
Reducing exposure to hazards, lessening the vulnerability of people and property, wise management of land and the environment, and improving preparedness and early warning for adverse events are all examples of disaster risk reduction.
What is Disaster Risk?
A “disaster” is a situation that causes substantial losses and damage to communities and individuals, possibly including losses of life and livelihood assets and damage to the ecosystem, which leaves the affected communities unable to function normally without outside assistance.
“Disaster risk” is the likelihood that people will experience disasters. This risk is a function of the nature, probability, and intensity of hazards; the vulnerability of the people to these hazards; and, inversely, of their capacities to withstand or cope with these hazards.
The magnitude of the risk is determined as illustrated in the equation below:
DR (disaster risk) = V (vulnerability) * H (hazard)
(Capacity)
Pakistan prepared its national Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Policy in 2012 reflecting a major shift in Government of Pakistan’s traditional emphasis on disaster response (reactive) to disaster reduction (proactive), and in effect seeking to promote a culture of prevention and preparedness.
NDRMF investment to reduce vulnerabilities to natural disasters
NDRMF focuses on financing Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) sub-projects with strong knowledge based on risk and vulnerabilities for informed investment. All NDRMF’s investments aim to contribute to enhancing Pakistan’s resilience to climatic changes and other natural hazards. | https://www.ndrmf.pk/drr/ |
The goal of most security programs is to reduce risk. Risk mitigation is accomplished by decreasing the threat level by eliminating or intercepting the adversary before they attack, blocking opportunities through enhanced security, or reducing the consequences if an attack should occur.
What does mitigation mean in security?
Threat Mitigation is the process used to lessen the extent of a problem or attack by isolating or containing a threat until the problem can be remedied.
What is mitigate in cyber security?
Cybersecurity risk mitigation involves the use of security policies and processes to reduce the overall risk or impact of a cybersecurity threat. In regard to cybersecurity, risk mitigation can be separated into three elements: prevention, detection, and remediation.
Whats is mitigation?
The word mitigation means the act of reducing the severity or seriousness of the impact of something on a situation. IT Threat mitigation is therefore defined as the corrective actions, prevention or remedies put in place to combat or reduce IT threats on a computer, server or network.
What are examples of mitigation?
Examples of mitigation actions are planning and zoning, floodplain protection, property acquisition and relocation, or public outreach projects. Examples of preparedness actions are installing disaster warning systems, purchasing radio communications equipment, or conducting emergency response training.
What is mitigation strategy?
A risk mitigation strategy, by definition, is taking steps to reduce the risk (the severity of the impact and/or probability of the occurrence). An effective risk management program will include a systematic and timely approach to dealing with IRR measures that fall outside of policy. …
How do you develop a risk mitigation strategy?
The following strategies can be used in risk mitigation planning and monitoring. Assume and accept risk. Avoidance of risk.
…
Watch and monitor risk.
- Assume and accept risk. …
- Avoidance of risk. …
- Controlling risk. …
- Transference of risk. …
- Watch and monitor risk.
What are the three main goals of security?
The Three Security Goals Are Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability.
What are the four types of risk mitigation?
The four types of risk mitigating strategies include risk avoidance, acceptance, transference and limitation.
What are the three types of mitigation plans?
The types of mitigation enumerated by CEQ are compatible with the requirements of the Guidelines; however, as a practical matter, they can be combined to form three general types of mitigation: avoidance, minimization, and compensatory mitigation.
What is the main purpose of mitigation?
Mitigation actions reduce or eliminate long-term risk and are different from actions taken to prepare for or respond to hazard events. Mitigation activities lessen or eliminate the need for preparedness or response resources in the future.
How do you use mitigation?
Mitigate sentence example
- Good information on a product can mitigate this problem. …
- Morphine may be given hypodermically to mitigate the pain. …
- They protect the valleys from destructive avalanches, and, retaining the superficial soil by their roots, they mitigate the destructive effects of heavy rains.
What is called disaster mitigation?
Himachal Pradesh. State Disaster Management Authority
Mitigation means the lessening or limitation of the adverse impacts of hazards and related disasters. The adverse impacts of hazards often cannot be prevented fully, but their scale or severity can be substantially lessened by various strategies and actions. | https://gsi-alarme-securite.com/protection-of-information/best-answer-what-is-mitigation-in-security.html |
Provides an overview to fire protection and EMS; career opportunities, related fields, philosophy and history, organization and function of public and private agencies, nomenclature, functions. In addition, provides new students a broad overview of college and life success strategies as related to this field.
Learning outcomes
1. Analyze your personal qualities, skills, strategies and resources necessary for success and apply them to achieve desired outcomes and experiences.
2. Identify factors that challenge success in college and develop a plan for resolving difficulties and overcoming obstacles.
3.Illustrate and explain the history and culture of the fire and emergency services
4. List and describe the scope, purpose, and organizational structure of major organizations that provide emergency response service and illustrate how they interrelate.
5. Differentiate between fire and emergency services training and education; fire and emergency services degree programs; and explain the value of education in the fire and emergency services culture.
6. Describe and discuss common career options in the Fire and Emergency services disciplines and the role of national, state and local support organizations.
7. Identify fire protection and emergency service careers in both the public and private sector.
8. Discuss and describe preparation for entry and promotion within the fire and emergency services career options and goal setting.
9. Describe and discuss various levels of disasters and all hazard events.
10. Demonstrate basic understanding of the Incident Command System (ICS) and National Incident Management System (NIMS). Compare and contrast effective management concepts for various emergency situations.
11. Analyze the basic components of fire as a chemical chain reaction, the major phases of fire, and examine the main factors that influence fire spread and fire behavior.
12. Describe the common types of fire and emergency service facilities, equipment, and apparatus.
13. Describe the importance of wellness and fitness as it relates to emergency services.
14. Identify the primary responsibilities of fire prevention personnel including, code enforcement, public information, and public and private protection systems.
Content outline
1. Introduction, Assignments Course Information
2. Emotional Intelligence
3. Active Learning
4. Financial Aid
5. Procrastination Motivation
6. Education, Careers and the Job
7. 2/3 Year Plans – Program Information
8. COCC Scavenger Hunt
9. History of Fire
10. History of EMS
11. GradTracks Plans Advising
12. Library Information Session and Library Scavenger Hunt
13. Fire Physics
14. Interdependence
15. Mental Health and Wellness
16. Bend Fire Tour
17. Deschutes 911 Tour
18. ICS Disasters
19. Disaster Scenario
20. COMBAT Demonstration
Required materials
Required textbook.
Grading methods
Students will be assessed on their individual assignments, quizzes, group assignments and tests, the final exam and participation within their team. | https://catalog.cocc.edu/course-outlines/sfs-101/ |
by National Institute of Economic and Social Research in London .
Written in English
Edition Notes
|Series||National Institute of Economic and Social Research briefing note -- no.2|
|Contributions||National Institute of Economic and Social Research.|
|ID Numbers|
|Open Library||OL20260860M|
The primary goal of a national minimum wage floor is to raise the incomes of poor or near-poor families with members in the work force. However, estimates of employment effects of minimum wages tell us little about whether minimum wages are can achieve this goal; even if the disemployment effects of minimum wages are modest, minimum wage increases could result in net income losses for poor Cited by: Jonathan Kozol is one of America’s most forceful and eloquent observers of the intersection of race, poverty, and education. His books, from the National Book Award–winning Death at an Early Age to his most recent, the critically acclaimed Shame of the Nation, are touchstones of the national conscience. Using a difference-in-difference estimator that takes advantage of substantial regional income variation and 21 increases in the Brazilian national wage floor, the study finds that within three months of these minimum wage hikes, poverty and inequality declined by % and %, : Orlando J. Sotomayor. A national minimum wage is a legal requirement. There are three levels of minimum wage, and the rates from April are: £ for those over 25; Since the introduction of the NMW, many low paid workers have seen an increase in the hourly wage as firms are obliged to pay workers the statutory minimum wage.
Combining this effect with the loss of benefits to those families where the minimum wage workers continue on the job and estimates of the lost . In general definition, minimum wage is the minimum amount of compensation that laborers must receive under the law and is regarded as the lowest wage employers are allowed to pay. Though a federal minimum wage is set in the US, individual states are still allowed to choose to make their own laws on this. In public economics, it is often treated as a measure to address problems associated with. A “universal supports and work poverty reduction package,” which includes a bigger increase in the EITC than the first three packages, includes a minimum wage increase to . Setting a higher minimum wage seems like a natural way to help lift families out of poverty. However, minimum wages target individual workers with low wages, rather than families with low incomes. As a result, a large share of the higher income from minimum wages flows to higher-income families. Other policies that directly address low family income, such as the earned income tax .
One simple way to reduce poverty and inequality with no costs to the federal budget and no significant adverse impacts on employment is to combine a modest increase in the minimum wage . WASHINGTON — A bill to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by would lift million people out of poverty but also put an estimated million Americans out of . Working is supposed to keep people out of poverty. The current federal minimum wage is $ per hour and working class households are struggling to live outside of poverty. The minimum wage is the minimum hourly wage an employee gets paid from her/his employer for the work that has been done. This reality faced by many working families living on minimum wage is a blight on society. In my Durham diocese alone, there are 44 food distribution centres – a . | https://gerabacuzudebu.grupo-operativo-gei-porcino.com/national-minimum-wage-poverty-and-benefit-dependence-book-9042js.php |
Minimum wage hike: A weak economic antidote Obama can’t ignore
Ever since the February 2013 State of the Union address, when President Obama announced his support for a higher minimum wage, the issue has captivated a nation worried over stagnating middle-class wages and income inequality.
It’s no surprise that Democrats across the country have clung to the issue, as it’s quite popular. A CNNMoney poll released Tuesday showed that 71% of Americans favor raising the minimum wage, including 54% of Republicans. Heck, even former Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have come out in favor of raising the wage floor.
But policy experts are less enthusiastic about the move. At a Fortune event on Monday, economists Peter Henry and Glen Hubbard (former Obama and George W. Bush advisors, respectively) agreed that there are more effective ways to help the working poor than raising the minimum wage.
And at a policy speech to business leaders on Wednesday morning, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew laid out a comprehensive plan for moving economic recovery into the next gear, making only passing reference to a minimum wage increase. Instead, Lew spent the majority of his time arguing that the main challenges facing the economy are slow growth within the labor force, a lack of business investment, and the deceleration of productivity growth and technological innovation. “Growth in our labor force has slowed considerably … since 2008 the labor force participation rate has actually fallen by 2.7 percentage points,” Lew said. “We need to do a better jobs helping workers who want to re-enter the workforce.”
Statements like these seem to bolster the case against raising the minimum wage, a policy that will almost certainly lead to a dip in employment. The Congressional Budget Office, for instance, estimated earlier this year that raising the minimum wage would lead to a total decrease of 500,000 jobs.
What will help boost wages without shedding jobs? A more robust Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) as well as federal programs that help working parents like funding for early childhood education could help. A strengthened EITC would also provide workers with higher pay and thus give low wage earners more spending power, decreasing the need for a minimum wage hike altogether.
But advocating for larger refundable tax credits, as opposed to a higher minimum wage, is difficult for two reasons. One is that a higher minimum wage is simple for voters to understand and overwhelmingly popular. The other is that the costs of a higher minimum wage–like lower profit margins, higher prices, and lower employment–are shouldered by the entire economy and make no direct appearance on the federal budget. An expanded EITC, on the other hand, would have to be paid for with higher taxes or by adding to the deficit.
As Glen Hubbard said at the Fortune event on Monday:
“Reasonable people can disagree on employment effects of raising the minimum wage … some would suggest large [employment] losses, others negligible losses. If you really wanted to empower low income people, you would expand and make more work- oriented things like the earned income credit, because you’re not losing jobs when you do that.”
Hubbard said that minimum wage efforts distract politicians from more effective solutions for helping those at the bottom of the income scale. And listening to Lew’s 3,500-plus-word speech on Wednesday (of which he devoted just 20 words to the minimum wage) you get the sense that he doesn’t want policymakers to be focusing too much on minimum wage efforts, either. The popularity of a minimum wage hike makes it impossible for the Obama administration to ignore it as a political tool, but such raises won’t be all that effective at addressing what the Treasury Secretary says are our economy’s biggest challenges. | https://fortune.com/2014/06/11/obama-administration-minimum-wage/ |
For everyone who thought the fight for minimum wage to be raised to fifteen dollars an hour was pointless, turns out it was not. Premier Wynne has gone along with the plan to have minimum wage increased by 2019. What does this mean for Torontonians?
The answer depends on which side of the fence you are on. One of the most prominent opinions out there right now is from the supporters of basic income.
The concept of basic income is a complicated idea but at its simplest, basic income gives people a guaranteed amount of money to help elevate financial stress.
Rob Rainer is the Chair of the Provisional Steering Committee, the Ontario Basic Income Network and Advocate for the Basic Income Canada Network. In the following Interview conducted by VIBE TALKS Contributor Michael Asiffo, Rainer shares his thoughts on how Basic Income and the Minimum Wage increase can co-exist.
Michael Asiffo: Will the Minimum wage increase be incremental or will just happen by in 2019?
Rob Rainer: Currently the Minimum Wage is $11.40 an hour. As of October 1 2017, it will go up to $11.60 and as of January 1 2018, it will go up to $14.00 an hour. Then on January 1 2019, the Minimum Wage will go up to $15.00 an hour.
Michael Asiffo: Why do you think Premier Wynne is doing the Wage increase now?
Rob Rainer: I think the Premier and her government are very aware of the statistics and the stories around the labour problems in Ontario. The number and the percentage of people who are in what is called “precarious labour situations” or are unemployed, has steadily gotten worse over the last decade or two. Meaning that there are fewer full time, secure, well-paying jobs being created and lots of part time positions, often low paying without benefits and no security. So many advocates for a higher minimum wage have been making a case for a principle that if you are working in the labour market, you should be able to make enough from your labour to meet all of your basic needs.
Michael Asiffo: Can you explain the concept of basic income?
Rob Rainer: So, basic income is essentially income that would be provided by the government which would flow to many, if not all, people of a society depending on how it is structured. Basically, if your income from other sources is low enough, you would receive additional income through the tax system to ensure you have a level income that again could meet your basic needs. There are different models for this. Some people propose that everyone in a society, rich and poor alike, should receive the basic income and others are more of the view that the basic income should largely be directed to those most in need of receiving it at any point in time through the income tax system. There is debate within the basic income community as to which of those models is the proper one but the essential concept is that people would be given a guarantee that they will have enough income to meet their basic needs. That is the optimum situation.
Michael Asiffo: Both the minimum wage increase (to $15 an hour) and basic income are both meant to alleviate financial stress on the working and middle class. Is that correct?
Rob Rainer: Absolutely. There is a sense of outrage, I would say, in many parts of Canada and so many people are struggling. I certainly see the stories during my daily work routine. These revolve around basic income and the immense struggle and desperation around earning it. There are literally millions of people in Canada in this situation. So, both minimum wage and basic income proposals largely have to do with alleviating economic insecurity and in my view, they both have a role to play.
"After all, an increase in minimum wage only really applies to people who are seeking to be in the labour market."
Michael Asiffo: So that means both minimum wage income and basic income can co-exist?
Rob Rainer: Yes, I strongly believe that. I think if you are in the labour market, you should have the assurance of having a fair living wage for every hour you work. Optimally, not a minimum wage but a fair living wage. To their credit there are some employers who set out to establish a living wage standard for their business and such employers should be applauded. We need more such employers in our society, but, definitely both policies can and should co-exist.
"Not a minimum wage but a fair living wage."
Michael Asiffo: How do you think the minimum wage increase will affect basic income?
Rob Rainer: Everything depends on the design of the program and the design in turn depends on the goals that are set out for the program, including the values that underpins all of this. I believe that with basic income in place and everyone knowing that they will have that as a baseline foundation of security – it will increase the labour flexibility, as well as the bargaining power of people seeking to work in the labour market. Therefore, employers will have to continue to look at what they can do to provide the most attractive working conditions, including wages. So, I think basic income helps to strengthen the bargaining power of workers. Also, if a person is not in the labour market for whatever reason, and there can be a whole host of reasons, you have got that assurance of basic income. This is in opposition to employers looking to see what they can do to undercut those workers and continue the exploitation of people.
Michael Asiffo: Where can people go for more information on basic income?
Rob Rainer: The best resource in itself is Basic Income Canada Network. There are also resources on the minimum wage concept with basic income as well. | https://www.vibe105to.com/full-disclosure/the-struggle-is-real-with-minimum-wage |
Home Business Economy Do we really need a minimum wage?
We look at the case for and against.
The main purpose of a minimum wage is to provide unskilled workers with a safety net, says Professor Lisa Cameron, Development Economist at the University of Melbourne.
That said, some economists argue that a minimum wage only has a limited effect on bringing incomes together and that the real impact may be more social and political than economic.
“Minimum wages aren’t an especially effective tool for combatting income inequality as minimum wage earners are spread across the distribution of income e.g. domestic partners and/or children of high income earners may be minimum wage earners,” Cameron says.
Jo Masters, Chief Economist at Ernst & Young, says that this political angst can have far-reaching repercussions.
Masters also says a minimum wage also won’t go much way towards lifting wages generally – an issue Australia is struggling with at the moment.
Australia was an early adopter of the concept of a minimum wage. While it has its origins in the famous Harvester decision by Justice Higgins of the Arbitration Court in 1907, Australia derives its current minimum wage from the 10 National Employment Standards enshrined in the Fair Work Act 2009.
Each year, the Fair Work Commission reviews and revises the level of the wage based on submissions from its ‘expert panel’. At the moment this panel consists of members of the Fair Work Commission itself, as well as outside economists.
Traditionally, the Fair Work Commission has a record of setting a relatively high minimum wage by international standards.
In fact, Australia’s minimum wage for workers over 21 is currently $18.93 an hour, or $719.20 a week, based on a 38-hour week. Casual workers receive a 25 per cent loading on top of that.
This makes ours one of the highest – if not the highest – in the world, both in real terms and purchasing power.
To put this in perspective, the United States has a federal minimum wage of just US$7.25 an hour, approximately A$10.10. In the United Kingdom, it is £8.21, around A$15.
“While it’s true that most low paid workers in Australia are Award covered, the minimum wage really sets a floor for these,” Masters says.
Can a minimum wage hold back the economy?
If the arguments for a minimum wage are largely social and political, many opponents to the minimum wage attempt to use economics to support their position.
In particular, Professor Cameron says that there is an argument that it could lead to unemployment if the minimum wage is set above the intersection of supply and demand.
Professor Cameron also points out that “classical economic theory (and so some extent common sense)” suggests a high minimum wage could lead to fewer people being hired.
“In fact, it is surprisingly hard to convincingly show that minimum wages decrease employment. It may be that the classical economic model, does not explain the labour market very well,” argues Professor Cameron.
Masters agrees, describing the empirical evidence linking between higher minimum wage and unemployment as “mixed, at best”.
But she does note that there can be some flow-on effects of setting a minimum wage too high, which can include businesses choosing to cut down on vocational training or employing people part-time over full-time.
“Higher wages tend to have a particular impact on small businesses because they tend to have less flexibility and run on tighter margins,” Masters explains.
Increasingly many low-paid workers are finding they have no right to a base level of pay at all because they’re not employees but “contractors”. This model has gained widespread popularity in the food delivering and ride-sharing sectors, as apps like Uber and Deliveroo increase in popularity.
But Professor Cameron believes that it is this very fact that makes a minimum wage more important than ever.
So maybe the debate isn’t just about increasing the minimum wage, but about keeping it there as a safety net for those who need it in a changing world. | https://www.yourmoney.com.au/business/economy/do-we-really-need-a-minimum-wage/ |
What is the GST Offset Package going to do for Singaporeans? To answer this question, the Ministry of Finance prepared a table to illustrate the benefits the package provides.
If we divide the Total Benefits from GST Offset Package by Additional GST Payable Annually, we get values of 16.17 and 1.46 for HDB 1 RM and Private House and Flats households respectively. How these figures are related to the values 19 and 2 for respective households in Number of Years of Additional GST Payable that is offset by the GST Offset Package is a puzzle.
The next point worth noticing is that the low income groups have their annual household expenditure exceed their annual household income (with GST offset benefits included).
In fact, the report Trends in Household Income and Expenditure, 1993-2003 had shown that lower income groups are not earning enough to cover expenditure as early as 2003.
They will have to spend every cent they receive from the GST Offset Package and get some additional financial assistances elsewhere to make ends meet. How is it possible for them to set aside the GST Offset Package to pay for the additional GST payable in the next 10 to 15 years is another puzzle.
Given that low income families need to depend on various government assistance programs to make ends meet, including the GST hike, it may not be meaningful to say if the GST hike is a regressive tax or not. It is more like a way to fund another set of “Progress Package” for the next four years.
The Straits Times articles “Workfare: Not an ideological shift, just economics” and “Rewarding work” (Feb 17, 2007) provide some interesting insights into the Workfare Income Supplement Scheme.
There is a need to make sure workers earn enough to live a decent life. This is the principle behind the idea of Minimum Wage (or Living Wage as some call it).The Singapore People’s Party and the Singapore Democratic Party are two proponents of the Minimum Wage idea.
While the government rejects Minimum Wage law as the way to go, it acknowledges the need to help with market oriented schemes like training fund and programs that help workers to acquire skills to earn higher wages and Job Redesign schemes to raise their productivity and pay.
The move to have a permanent wage supplement scheme is a more direct way to address the need. But, why is the government doing it now? Is it a sign that existing schemes have their limitations, like they do not work as well as expected or they do not work for some low income workers?
“SMU economist Pang Eng Fong added that supplementing incomes makes more economic sense than having a minimum wage which distorts the labour market.
With Minimum Wage law, individual businesses will have to absorb the cost burden first and then pass on the cost to businesses and customers they serve. Some will bear a heavier share while others bear little. On the other hand, funding wage supplement via consumption tax like the GST will spread the cost across society. Individual businesses are not heavily impacted and those who are able to consume more bear a bigger share of the cost.
As such, the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) Scheme has a better funding mechanism. However, the scheme that “benefit 438,000 Singaporeansand cost about $400 million a year over time” is a disappointment. The scheme is only offering low income workers $913.24 a year (or $76.10 a month) on average, with a larger share going to the CPF. It falls far short from doing enough to help low income workers “live decently”.
The fact that the main share of the state’s ‘supplementing the market wages that low-income workers receive’ goes to CPF shows how cautious the government is. It can be seen as a step in turning ad hoc CPF top-up exercises we see over the years into a regular top-up scheme. The cash portion of the WIS scheme hardly produce any impact. The difficulty of making ends meet will continue to push workers to find ways to move up the wage ladder.
So, it is fair to say that there is no “ideological shift” in government policy. What we have is a more formal and structured mechanism of funding and distributing financial assistance to low income workers. It may also mean that the government acknowledges that the low income groups need long term attention, and hence a formal and structured funding mechanism.
Dividing Additional GST Payable Annually by the 2% GST hike.
Dividing Total Benefits from GST Offset Package (over 5 years) by 5.
Adding Annual Household Income from work and Annual GST offset benefits and minus Annual Household Expenditure. | https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2007/02/22/budget-2007-reviewing-the-gst-the-wis-scheme/ |
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/11375/21245
|Title:||A Common Agency Approach to Lobbying: Theory and Empirical Applications|
|Authors:||Lesica, Josip|
|Advisor:||Han, Seungjin|
|Department:||Economics|
|Keywords:||Lobbying, Political Economy, Minimum Wage, Taxation, Income Inequality|
|Publication Date:||2017|
|Abstract:||This thesis explores lobbying as an important political economy dimension of policymaking. It exploits theoretical, empirical, and numerical approaches and methods to investigate the possibilities of engaging in costly lobbying and how lobbying by special interests affects the setting of minimum wage and small business tax rates. The theoretical modeling relies on the common agency framework - a situation with multiple principals who are simultaneously and non-cooperatively interacting with a single agent - of public policy lobbying and a simpler principal agent model. Empirical analysis employs panel data regression methods in the context of Canadian provinces to identify causal relationship. Both minimum wage and small business taxation invite a considerable amount of activity from various special interest groups in Canada, which engage in lobbying for a policy stance more favorable to their members. After providing a brief overview of lobbying issues and literature in the first chapter, in the second one I show that initial lobbying cost can be a clear entry barrier, that lobbying competition can have properties of a high-stakes game and that lobbying can take place simply to preserve the status quo and not lose ground. In the pure rivalry sense, to not allow the opponent to gain ground in the policy arena. In the third chapter, I formulate a model of minimum wage determination based on the common agency lobbying framework to evaluate how the competition for political influence between unionized workers and firm owners affects the minimum wage determination. A binding minimum wage is a function of the policymaker's political ideology, the labor demand elasticity and the skill composition of union members. Specifically, when the elasticity of labor demand is large, the benefit of lobbying against (for) an increase in the minimum wage is greater since a potential minimum wage increase has a larger negative (positive) effect on firms' (unionized workers') income. Lobbying is successful in inducing the policymaker to set the minimum wage in accordance with her political preference; a more business (labor) friendly policymaker reduces (increases) the minimum wage. However, lobbying can also induce the policymaker to go against its ideological preference. Empirical analysis on a panel data for ten Canadian provinces over the 1965-2013 period gives considerable support for theoretical predictions. Preferred panel data regression specifications, controlling for unobserved province and year effects, and various province specific, time varying factors, indicate that real minimum wage decreases in skill-adjusted union density and a measure of political ideology, and increases with technological progress. Greater labor demand elasticity reinforces the influence of political ideology in the presence of lobbying. In the fourth chapter, I focus on the issue of small business tax determination and the effect of lowering its rate on income inequality. In Canada, where the small business income tax rate is considerably lower than the top individual rate, higher income individuals are able to reduce their personal taxes by retaining and shifting income via privately owned small businesses. Therefore, because the small business owners benefit from an increasing difference between the small business and top individual tax rates, I show using a principal-agent model that by lobbying as a special interest group they can always `buy' a lower corporate tax rate from the government. However, a lower business income tax, relative to a given personal income tax rate, is not income inequality neutral and unambiguously increases the income share of the highest earning individuals in the economy, specifically those who own small corporations.|
|URI:||http://hdl.handle.net/11375/21245|
|Appears in Collections:||Open Access Dissertations and Theses|
Files in This Item:
|File||Description||Size||Format|
|Lesica_Josip_2017March_PhD Economics.pdf||1.4 MB||Adobe PDF||View/Open|
Items in MacSphere are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. | https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/handle/11375/21245 |
In my opinion, minimum wage should be raised. It is time for the United States to stand up for the original purpose of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The low wage is hurting the economy as a whole because it is squeezing the lower income level so tightly that they have to make choices between paying rent or buying food. The three main reasons for this increase are as follows. First, an increase in minimum wage would directly impact those at the bottom of the economic ladder. Second, by increasing minimum wage, you also increase the value of work. Third, because the cost of living has increased so much, the cost of work must follow its lead. Due to these reasons, minimum wage must be raised.
History
In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed. This was a reaction the hard work of women like Jane Adams and Eleanor Roosevelt who were trying to end child labor and increase the standard of living in the poorest communities. The labor unions were advocating for it as early as the late 1800’s when women in the Lowell factories claimed they deserved equal pay and treatment. Its passage was also influenced by industrial disasters like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, which killed many of the young workers in New York. The Jungle written by Upton Sinclair about the struggles of the working class in Chicago, influenced politicians and communities and caused them to start looking at its workers in a different light and with increased understanding.
It set the maximum work week, standards of child labor and overtime pay. It also created minimum wage. This is the idea that there is a minimum standard of pay that everyone should be given. It was set at twenty five cents an hour. The act succeeded in many ways but it failed in keeping pace with inflation. Originally, this was written into the act. Now, raising minimum wage to keep pace with inflation has become a political issue. Usually democrats are in favor of raising the wage and republicans are against it. Because the federal government has failed to protect its people by raising the wage, many states and cities have taken it upon themselves to raise their own wages.
Argument against
The conservative argument against raising the wage is primarily economic. They say this action hurts the whole economy and doesn’t help the lower classes at all. (Chapman) Their argument is that if employers have to pay more, they will limit the employees they have or even take their work overseas, which is a valid threat. They claim that in reality, the people who benefit are in higher economic classes because they learn to manage their businesses more efficiently and the boom lines their pocketbooks.
My Argument
As my thesis demonstrates I disagree with the conservative stance. I feel that an increase in the minimum wage would help the people intended. It would add value to what they do and keep up with the cost of living, as it was originally designed to do.
The lower income families in the U.S. are hurting. “Today more than 28 million people, about a quarter of the workforce between the ages of 18 and 64, earn less than $9.04 an hour, which translates into a full-time salary of $18,800 a year—the income that marks the federal poverty line for a family of four.” (Working and Poor) It is extremely difficult, if not impossible to raise a family on that amount of money. The argument has been made that you can make more money on welfare than working for minimum wage. What kind of lesson does that teach?
So, is the answer raising minimum wage. According to Jeff Chapman in his brief for the Economic Policy Institute, it is. “If the federal wage were raised to $7.00, the bottom 40% or households would receive nearly 60% of the benefits.” (Chapman) He goes on to say, “Raising the minimum wage provides income support to families in need. While it is important to understand that the minimum wage should not be judged solely on its efficiency at targeting low-income families, research shows that it does just that.”(Chapman)
Business Weekly agrees with these finding. “Lifting the minimum wage by $1.50 an hour, would boost the incomes of 10 million workers.” (Working and Poor) My research indicates that raising the minimum wage would be an effective way to target lower income workers and increase their income. This would help offset the cost of inflation, as I will prove is a necessity.
Originally, the wage was designed to increase as the cost of living increased. This system makes sense. If things cost more, people need to make more money to afford them—not luxuries, necessities. If this adjustment is not made, the consequences affect the family, not just the worker. “Some experts on homelessness say the numbers are growing because of the widening gap between low pay and high rents.” (Kaufman) “Real pay for the bottom 10 percent of wage earners rose less that one percent in adjusted dollars from 1979 to 2003, according to the Economic Policy Institute. (Kaufman)
If the wage doesn’t keep up, how can people afford rent? If I make just enough to cover my bills, and my rent increases but my salary doesn’t, I have no choice. I would have to get another job, which may not be a possibility, try to work overtime, which my job might not allow, or move. What if I live in the cheapest apartment available? This is the cycle that must be stopped. It leads to hopelessness, debt and in some circumstances, homelessness.
“Even if the minimum wage were not well-targeted at helping those in need, it serves an important role in the U.S. economy and society. It is a fundamental statment of principle about the value of work, opportunity and the responsibilities of employers.” (Chapman) Increasing minimum wage validates the worker. As the girls in Lowell were looking for acknowledgement of the value of their work, so do the workers of today search for validation for what they do.
When the government raises the wage, they are sending a clear message that they value the workers and understand their position. The C.E.O. of Costco is quoted as saying, “We no longer have a motivated working class.” (Working and Poor) This is a huge problem. If you can’t take pride in your work, what’s the point of working at all, especially if you can take advantage of the welfare system? If no one values what you do, why try to do any better than the bare minimum?
Raising the minimum wage demonstrates employer accountability. The government is making them responsible for the people their success rests upon. “No employer should be allowed to unreasonably profit by exploiting the lack of negotiating power of low-wage workers.” (Chapman) Labor simply has no power anymore. The unions have been broken and they have no voice. Someone has to hold the employers accountable. Someone must step forward for the workers.
An increase in the wage would do just that. As I have shown, it does have a direct affect on those in the deepest need. “Everyone should have the opportunity to earn a decent wage. No American should be compelled to work at a rate that amounts to the federal poverty level. This is equally true for a middle-class youth working to raise money for college as it is for a single mother supporting a family.” (Chapman)
Conclusion
Minimum wage is one small part of the Fair Labor Standards Act that was designed to protect the worker. Society saw its people falling through the cracks and they stood up for those people, claiming that everyone who works hard deserves a chance to succeed. Minimum wage is the foundation of that success. I have shown three strong reasons for the need to increase minimum wage. The first is that raising the wage directly affects those in the greatest need.
They do benefit from a raise as it corresponds to the raise in the cost of living. My second reason demonstrated this. As the cost of living increases so should the minimum wage. This way, workers can easily adjust their earnings to cover new expenses and not have to make hard decisions that could greatly impact their families. The third reason is philosophical.
Adding value to the worker validates the job that is being done. When employers are held to greater accountability, the working class feels they are appreciated. This is so important for our society. Welfare shouldn’t have to be an option for a family willing to work and take part in the economy. Without a raise in the minimum wage, this might be a serious threat. “Equality means dignity. And dignity demands a job and a paycheck that lasts through the week.” (Weisman) I feel this quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. conclude my thoughts on this subject. | https://essaysamurai.co.uk/minimum-wage-my-case-to-raise-it/ |
In the minimum wage debate in Oregon last week, there was a hearing held at the Capitol on Thursday night. Some folks from Eastern Oregon made the long drive over to testify about the potential harm in raising the minimum wage on their farms, ranches and businesses. They were heard but not before facing a gauntlet of hatred from those in favor of the raise, mostly from the Portland area. I received an email from one of the Eastern Oregon travelers and I thought I would pass it on to you as it’s quite good.
Gov. Kate Brown is the latest state politician to have a plan to increase the minimum wage. She wants two tiers — one in Portland and one everywhere else in the state. By 2022, the minimum wage would be $15.52 in Portland and $13.50 in the rest of the state.
Her goal is to address poverty. But there are policies that are better targeted to reduce poverty.
Think carefully, though, about what the minimum wage does. It targets individuals with low wages. It does not target the real objective, which is families with low incomes. They aren’t quite the same thing.
Is increasing the minimum wage the right policy, or might something else be a better tool? We’ll give away the answer: Increasing the earned income tax credit is better.
Economist David Neumark recently ticked off several reasons in a paper for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Many poor families have no workers. In fact, 2014 data showed 57 percent of poor families with heads of household ages 18–64 have no workers. Increasing the minimum wage won’t help them. Other data shows that the problem for many workers is more low hours than low wages. And, of course, many minimum wage earners are teens, who do not live in low-income families.
If you are keeping track, that’s three ways in which the minimum wage loses. The benefits of raising the minimum wage wouldn’t go to many of the people Brown wants to help.
Minimum wage increases would help lift some families out from under the federal poverty line. But when employers are compelled to increase the minimum wage, some employers do decide that they need to employ fewer workers. That makes increasing the minimum wage good for some and bad for others. That’s another way in which the minimum wage loses.
Consider, instead, the earned income tax credit. It’s a federal subsidy to earnings. Some states, including Oregon, supplement the federal credit.
The earned income tax credit is based on family income and the composition of the family. It does target low-income families by need.
Basically, it’s better than increasing the minimum wage. And there’s a point worth reinforcing: It’s a subsidy to earnings. So it’s also an incentive to work.
The earned income tax credit is not without problems of its own. Some workers who could use more income may be ineligible. There’s also an Oregon-specific problem. The state has had one of the lowest rates of participation for those individuals who are eligible. People don’t apply. Oregon was dead last among the 50 states, according to a 2015 paper from the Oregon Center for Public Policy that was based on the most recently available data from 2012.
The governor should be making proposals about Oregon’s earned income tax credit and not the minimum wage. Or here’s another idea: Try some policies that create jobs. | http://billpost.us/2016/01/19/words-of-wisdom-from-eastern-oregon-on-minimum-wage/ |
This report was updated on April 9, 2008 to reflect new Census Data. Click to view the new analysis with state-by-state fact sheets.
Washington, D.C. Despite the strong economic growth and tight labor markets of recent years, income disparities in most states are significantly greater in the late 1990s than they were during the 1980s, according to a new analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute. In two-thirds of the states, the gap in incomes between the top 20 percent of families and the bottom 20 percent of families grew between the late 1980s and the late 1990s. In three-fourths of the states, income gaps between the top fifth and middle fifth of families grew over the last decade, according to the report. By contrast, inequality declined significantly in only three states.
Over the longer term, the report found that income disparities between high- and low-income families increased in all but four states. The report also found that in 45 states, the gap between the average incomes of middle-income families and of the richest 20 percent of families expanded between the late 1970s and the late 1990s.
Pulling Apart: A State-by-State Analysis of Income Trends uses the latest Census Bureau data to measure pre-tax changes in real incomes among high-, middle- and low-income families in each of the fifty states at similar points in the business cycle from the late 1970s to the late 1980s and from then until recently.
For the U.S. as a whole in the late 1990s, the average income of families in the top 20 percent of the income distribution was $137,500, or more than 10 times as large as the poorest 20 percent of families, which had an average income of $13,000. In nine states New York, Arizona, New Mexico, Louisiana, California, Rhode Island, Texas, Oregon and Kentucky the average income of the richest fifth of families was more than eleven times as great as the average income of the bottom fifth of families.
From the late 1970s to the late 1990s, in every state but three the incomes of families in the top 20 percent of the income distribution have grown, with average growth exceeding $34,000 (in 1997 dollars) after adjustment for inflation. In 31 states, the incomes of the upper fifth of families jumped by more than 30 percent over the past two decades.
Incomes of the poorest fifth of families declined in 18 states between the late 1970s and the late 1990s. In some states, the decline was very steep. In six states, the average income of the bottom fifth of families declined by more than $2,000 (per family, in 1997 dollars): Wyoming (-$5,600); Arizona (-$3,900); New York (-$2,900); California (-$2,900); New Mexico (-$2,400); and West Virginia (-$2,200).
In eleven large states, income increases for the top five percent of families ranged from 35 percent (in Texas) to 75 percent (in Pennsylvania). By contrast, the incomes of the bottom fifth of families either declined or grew very little between the late 1970s and late 1990s in ten of these eleven states. For example, the highest-income five percent of New York families gained nearly $108,000 per family, while the lowest-income 20 percent of New Yorkers lost $2,900 per family.
"The report shows that with few exceptions economic growth in the fifty states has not been broadly shared," said Jared Bernstein of EPI, co-author of the report. "The strong economic growth in the U.S. results from the contributions of people in all walks of life, from laborers to corporate executives. The fact that many families are not sharing in the resulting prosperity stands as our nation's most serious economic problem."
Over the 1990s, the average real income of high-income families grew by 15 percent, while average income remained the same for the lowest-income families and grew by less than two percent for middle-income families not enough to make up for the decline in income during the previous decade.
In two-thirds of the states, the gap in incomes between the lowest-income and the highest-income families grew over the last decade. The gap between low- and high-income families declined significantly in only three states Alaska, Louisiana, and Tennessee.
The states with the widest income gaps and the states in which disparities between high- and low-income families and high- and middle-income families grew the most over the time periods considered in the report are shown in Table A of this release.
The report notes that several factors have contributed to the large and growing income gaps in most states. The growth of income inequality is primarily due to the growth in wage inequality. Wages at the bottom and middle of the wage scale have only recently grown after having stagnated or declined for nearly two decades. The wages of the very highest paid employees, however, have grown significantly. Factors generally identified as contributing to increasing wage inequality include globalization, the decline of manufacturing jobs and the expansion of low-wage service jobs, immigration, the lower real value of the minimum wage, and fewer and weaker unions.
In the last few years, persistent low unemployment and increases in the minimum wage have fueled wage gains at the bottom. As a result, there has been a lessening of wage inequality between the bottom and the top, although the gap between middle- and high-wage workers continues to grow. The recent wage growth for low-wage workers has, however, been far from sufficient to counteract the two-decade long pattern of stagnant or declining incomes.
Government at all levels has an important role to play in pushing back against the growth of income inequality. The role of state governments, in particular, has been increasing.
"As the administration and financing of government programs continue to be shifted from the federal to the state level, state policy-makers must be prepared to shoulder additional responsibilities for pushing back against growing income inequality," said Liz McNichol of CBPP, co-author of the report. "They have the resources to do so, thanks to the current economic expansion producing booming revenues. The question is whether they have the will to do so."
Through policies such as raising the minimum wage, strengthening unemployment insurance, implementing a wide range of supports for low-income working families, and reforming regressive state tax systems, state and federal lawmakers can help moderate the growing income divide.
The report is based on an original analysis of before-tax income for families recorded by the Census Bureau's March Current Population Survey. The analysis compares "pooled" data from the three most recent years available 1996, 1997 and 1998 to similarly pooled data from the late 1970s and late 1980s. Using pooled data rather than data collected within a single year enlarges the sample size, thus increasing precision. The three periods compared reflect similar stages in the economic cycle. All figures in this report are adjusted for inflation and are expressed in 1997 dollars.
An analysis of the average income of the top five percent of families was also conducted for eleven large states: California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. They are the only states with sufficient observations in the Current Population Survey to allow the calculation of reliable estimates of the average income of the top five percent of families.
Florida Institute for Economic Justice, Inc. | https://www.cbpp.org/archives/1-18-00sfp.htm |
A relationship of trust and confidence between employees of the Maine Human Rights Commission and the communities that they serve is essential to the effective operation of state government. Agency employees must be free to exercise their best judgment in the performance of their duties. Agency employees also have a special obligation to respect the rights of all persons. The Maine Human Rights Commission acknowledges its responsibility to establish a complaint system and procedures that not only will subject Maine Human Rights Commission employees to corrective action when improper conduct has occurred, but that will also protect Maine Human Rights Commission employees from unwarranted or spurious criticism when they discharge their duties properly. The purpose of these procedures is to provide prompt, just, and open disposition of complaints regarding the conduct of Maine Human Rights Commission employees. This procedure is not for complaints about the results of investigations of complaints of discrimination filed with the Commission.
It is the policy of the Maine Human Rights Commission to encourage the public to comment when the conduct of the employee is believed to be improper. The Maine Human Rights Commission will make every effort to ensure that no adverse consequences occur to any person or witness as a result of having brought a complaint or for providing information concerning a complaint. Any Maine Human Rights Commission employee who subjects a complainant or witness to such recrimination will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action.
- PROCEDURE
- The Maine Human Rights Commission encourages the public to bring forward legitimate complaints regarding misconduct by its employees. To this end, a copy of "HOW TO FILE A PERSONNEL COMPLAINT" will be posted at agency worksites and on agency websites and will be given to anyone requesting this information. A copy of this document is attached to this policy. Complaints, regardless of nature, can be lodged in person, by mail, or by telephone. Telephone contacts are welcome, but complaints must be in writing, provide contact information, and contain specific details about the complaint. Anonymous complaints will not be accepted.
- Any employee of the Maine Human Rights Commission who receives a complaint about an agency employee shall, as soon as practicable, notify the Executive Director of the details of the complaint for evaluation and assignment.
- Upon receipt of a complaint, the Executive Director shall determine whether the complaint should be investigated and by whom. Complaints of criminal conduct should be forwarded to the Bureau of Employee Relations to ensure cooperation with appropriate law enforcement authorities.
- Investigations of complaints shall be completed within a reasonable time.
- It is the responsibility of the investigator to thoroughly and confidentially investigate the matter and, when appropriate, to submit a complete and accurate investigation report. In the event a report is warranted, all relevant information obtained by the investigator shall be included.
- All investigations shall comply with the provisions of the applicable collective bargaining agreement.
- REPORT
- When applicable, the report shall include a summary of interviews with the complainant, synopsis, finding(s) of fact, chronology of the investigation, and documentation of compliance with the employee's contractual rights.
- Recommendations regarding the disposition of an investigation or discipline generally are not included in the investigation report. Such recommendations should only be included in consultation with the appointing authority.
- NOTIFICATION TO THE COMPLAINANT
- Upon final disposition, the complainant will be notified of the outcome of the investigation to the extent permitted by civil service and agency confidentiality laws.
- Upon final disposition, the complainant will be notified of the outcome of the investigation to the extent permitted by civil service and agency confidentiality laws.
- ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES
- The Commission shall ensure that:
- All citizen complaint records and investigations remain confidential as allowed or required by statute.
- Each complaint and corresponding investigation is documented.
- An annual summary report is prepared for the agency head that includes statistical data that will aid in identifying the possible need for training, supervision, or other pertinent issues.
- The Commission shall ensure that:
How to file a personnel complaint
Complaints may be filed in any of the following ways:
-
By letter addressed to:
Executive Director
Maine Human Rights Commission
51 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0051
- By phone: (207) 624-6290
- FAX: (207) 624-8729
- TTY: Maine Relay 711
- By e-mail: [email protected]
- In person at the Commission's Office, 19 Union Street, Augusta.
Please provide the following information when filing:
- Your Name
- Your Mailing Address
- City, State, Zip code
- Phone # where you can be reached between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
- Name of MHRC employee you are complaining about
- Date of the incident
- Description of the complaint/incident
- (Attach additional sheets if necessary.)
- Name(s) and contact information of witness(es) to the incident
All complaints will be processed as defined in section B. PROCEDURE of the Maine Human Rights Commission's Complaint Policy. | https://www.maine.gov/mhrc/about/staff-directory/complaints |
Tutorials, algorithms for outbreak management and tools for threat updates, detection of outbreak signals and prioritisation of threats.
Algorithm for Ebola virus disease contact management
The algorithm describes the possible actions for public health authorities for monitoring of contacts of Ebola virus disease case and the actions to take in the event of a contact developing symptoms.
Algorithm for initial assessment and management of patients for Ebola virus disease
This algorithm demonstrates the possible actions that public health authorities can take for assessing and managing patients of Ebola virus disease.
Algorithm for laboratory diagnosis of Ebola virus disease
The algorithm for detection of Ebola virus nucleic acid in a clinical specimen indicates the steps required to consider a case as laboratory confirmed, as per laboratory criteria.
Algorithm for public health management of cases under investigation for Zika virus infection
The aim of this algorithm is to determine when a person who has been exposed to Zika virus needs to be tested and notified, and when vector control measures should be considered around a case.
Assessment tool for influenza pandemic preparedness in European countries
The tool is used for ongoing country support visits by joint missions from ECDC, the European Commission, and WHO EURO. The tool follows the main components of the European Commission communication on pandemic influenza preparedness and response planning in the European Community, the WHO global influenza preparedness plan, the WHO checklist for influenza pandemic preparedness planning, and existing country preparedness plans.
Communication toolkit on gastrointestinal diseases: How to support infection prevention in schools
This toolkit aims to support infection prevention in schools, with a focus on gastrointestinal diseases, by assisting EU/EEA countries in their communication initiatives for disease prevention in school settings.
ECDC model for national pandemic preparedness
ECDC presentational tool to visualise the multi-dimensional aspects needed to ensure adequate preparedness for a pandemic (September 2008). This tool highlights aspects that national authorities need to consider in order to move towards full preparedness across in three crucial dimensions: from plans through practise (exercises) to preparedness; from national level planning to operational planning for local and front line staff; and from health sector to multisectoral approach.
ECDC Pandemic Preparedness Self Assessment Indicators
This is part of the pandemic preparedness assessment tool for Europe, developed by the Unit for Preparedness and Response at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm, in collaboration with the European Commission and the World Health Organisation Regional Office for Europe.
ECDC tool for the prioritisation of infectious disease threats
This qualitative tool, implemented as an Excel workbook, ranks infectious disease threats in a transparent, comparable and methodologically reproducible manner.
EpiSignalDetection tool
Public health experts and epidemiologists can use the tool to detect signals for outbreaks, based on changes in disease incidence.
Legionnaires' disease outbreak investigation toolbox
The main objective of this site is to provide a series of practical tools that Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway and ECDC can use to facilitate a co-ordinated investigation and response to clusters and outbreaks of Legionnaires' Disease with an EU dimension.
Online tutorial on how to detect and assess public health threats
This tutorial demonstrates the various epidemic intelligence steps that need to be undertaken in order to timely detect and assess current and emerging threats to human health from communicable diseases.
Suggested ‘Acid Tests’ for helping assess, stregthen local preparedness for moderate or severe pandemics
The idea of these acid tests is that those responsible for local services can use them to assess whether the can deliver what is expected of them in a crisis. They should be applied along with planning assumptions of 20-30% of staff being off sick for short periods (2 to 3 weeks) just when numbers of people seeking or requiring care increases considerably.
Template for pandemic evaluations
The objective of this Excel sheet and the accompanying Word document is to provide a simple template for evaluations of National Pandemic Responses in European Union (EU) and EEA member states
Threat Reports app
A new and practical way to get information about infectious disease threats on the go. Get the latest news on disease outbreaks and ECDC risk assessments
Toolkit for investigation and response to Food and Waterborne Disease Outbreaks with an EU dimension
The purpose of this toolkit is to provide investigators with a series of tools that can be useful during an investigation of a European FWD outbreak, i.e. an outbreak that involves at least two EU Member States. | https://ecdc.europa.eu/en/tools/outbreak-tools |
ECB Announces Launch of Investigation Phase of Digital Euro Project
The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to launch the investigation phase of a digital euro project. The investigation phase will last 24 months and aim to address key issues regarding design and distribution. A digital euro must be able to meet the needs of Europeans while helping to prevent illicit activities and avoiding any undesirable impact on financial stability and monetary policy. This will not prejudge any future decision on the possible issuance of a digital euro, which will come only later. In any event, a digital euro would complement cash, not replace it.
During the investigation phase of this project, the Eurosystem will focus on a possible functional design that is based on user needs; this will involve focus groups, prototyping, and conceptual work. The investigation phase will examine the use cases that a digital euro should provide as a matter of priority to meet its objectives, including a riskless, accessible, and efficient form of digital central bank money. The project will also shed light on changes that might be needed for the EU legislative framework and that will be discussed with, and decided by, the European co-legislators. ECB will continue to engage with the European Parliament and other European policymakers throughout the investigation phase. The technical work on the digital euro with the European Commission (EC) will also be intensified. Finally, the investigation phase will assess the possible impact of a digital euro on the market, identifying the design options to ensure privacy and avoid risks for euro area citizens, intermediaries, and the overall economy. It will also define a business model for supervised intermediaries within the digital euro ecosystem. A market advisory group will consider the prospective of users and distributors of a digital euro during the investigation phase. These views will also be discussed by the Euro Retail Payments Board.
The investigation phase will benefit from the experimentation work done by ECB and the euro area national central banks over the past nine months, which involved participants from academia and the private sector. Experiments were conducted in four areas: the digital euro ledger, privacy and anti-money laundering, limits on digital euro in circulation, and end-user access while not connected to the internet and facilitating inclusiveness with appropriate devices. No major technical obstacles were identified to any of the assessed design options. Both the Eurosystem TARGET Instant Payment Settlement and alternatives such as blockchain were proven capable of processing more than 40,000 transactions per second. The experiments also suggested that architectures combining centralized and decentralized elements are possible. According to these experiments, a digital euro core infrastructure would be environmentally friendly for the architectures that were tested; the power used to run tens of thousands of transactions per second is negligible compared with the energy consumption of cryptoassets such as bitcoin. These practical findings will provide useful input for the investigation phase.
Related Links
Keywords: Europe, EU, Banking, Digital Euro, Cyber Risk, Digital Currencies, CBDC, Environmental Risk, Suptech, ECB
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Seeking Consultant as Chief Strategy Officer for New Initiative on Human Rights in India
The Carter Center is guided by the principles of our Founders, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. Founded on a fundamental commitment to human rights and the alleviation of human suffering, the Center seeks to prevent and resolve conflicts, enhance freedom and democracy, and improve health.
The Carter Center’s Human Rights Program is establishing a new initiative, called I-Policy (India Policy), with the objective to surface evidence, perspectives, and dialogue on civil liberties, freedom of press, and rule of law in India among a specialized audience in the United States. The Human Rights Program is seeking a consultant to serve as the inaugural lead for this project. The consultant will be called Chief Strategy Officer. She/he/they will meet key decision makers to educate them and manage the initiative’s website, reporting on developments in the Indian democracy. She/he/they will commission and publish blog pieces, policy analysis, and white papers, and will host and/or foment conversations (online and in-person) to educate on human rights and Indian democracy. This position will report to the Director of the Human Rights Program at The Carter Center. This position is on a consultancy basis for a duration of 12 months with the possibility of renewal.
Key deliverables:
– Develop, maintain, nurture relationships of trust, respect and understanding with a diverse audience of persons who have the capacity to influence public policy and discourse in the U.S.;
– Oversee publication of at least one white paper over the course of the project;
– Hold at least one event in Washington to educate on key areas of strategic interest for an audience that can influence public policy;
– Prepare and participate in educational events with select audiences as agreed with supervisor, in coordination with the advisory board;
– Educate key technology companies investing in India regarding the importance to foreground respect for human rights, including freedom of the press, democracy, and rule of law;
– Establish and exercise day-to-day oversight of the project’s publication web platform;
– Be responsible for project management, analytical insight, and editorial oversight for platform content, specifically commissioning and preparing for publication at least 45 blog pieces over the course of the project with the assistance of a researcher-editor;
– Write a key blog post once every month (a la monthly column) advancing the mission of the initiative;
– Build a key constituency at the end of the first quarter, and start for them a personalized weekly newsletter service with the assistance of a researcher-editor consultant;
– Build, maintain, and deepen network of Indian human rights defenders working on issues pertinent to the project;
– Prepare materials for and facilitate meetings with project advisory board once every two months (six meetings total);
– Coordinate with and advise consultant researcher-editor to support delivering on project;
– Provide regular updates to supervisor (Director of Human Rights Program at The Carter Center), with copy to executive committee of advisors;
– Meet weekly with supervisor to update on progress and for guidance and clarification on work, with additional meetings scheduled on an as-needed basis.
The ideal consultant will be able to demonstrate:
– commitment to further democracy, human rights, and rule of law in India;
– strong understanding of US-India ties;
– deep knowledge of US foreign policy process and structures;
– appreciation of the workings of technology companies and social media platforms as powerbrokers vis-à-vis freedom of expression worldwide;
– ability to identify, reach, and educate key influencers of US foreign policy towards India as well as influencers with business or cultural interests in India; and
– ability to produce high quality analytical content on policy matters in a manner that is engaging, respectful, and ethical.
We are looking for a consultant with the following or equivalent experience and competencies:
– Ten years of experience in policy analysis, advocacy, and education in the United States, ideally vis-a-via India or South Asia;
– Proven track record of building networks rooted in respect and relational ties, both in-person and remotely;
– Record of informed risk-taking, learning from failures, personal accountability, even in a fast-paced environment;
– Ability to self-start and self-organize, prioritize, and be transparent about goal-setting and time management.
– Ability to work alone and within teams with equal ease;
– Record of being very organized and able to manage multiple priorities simultaneously while producing high quality work;
– Clear and concise written and oral communication skills in English;
– Entrepreneurial orientation and creative thinking;
– Excellent interpersonal and intercultural skills;
– A particular academic background is not required, as long as the candidate can demonstrate a high level of analytical thinking and the ability to lead the production of academic-level research and writing.
(All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.)
Preferred location: homebased, preferably in or near Washington DC.
Please write to [email protected] with a cover letter, a copy of your resume, and contact information for at least two references who can speak to your experience and competencies. Tell us in your cover letter why you are compelled to apply for this position and what makes you think you are the most suitable candidate. Application review will begin on Tuesday, September 7, 2021, and continue until position is filled. | https://ocs.yale.edu/jobs/the-carter-center-human-rights-program-the-carter-center-consultant-chief-strategy-officer/ |
Children in migration are a particularly vulnerable group. The number of children arriving in the EU in various types of migration situation has increased dramatically. Many of these children are unaccompanied, i.e. without adult guardians. They represented around 30 % of all asylum-seeking children in 2015 and 2016, and their number has increased six-fold over the last few years.
The Commission communication looks at areas where the protection of children in migration could be improved. Its recommendations are based on existing legislation, processes and initiatives. The increase in the number of children in migration has put pressure on reception and in child protection systems. By proposing a number of key measures that the European Union and its Member States, supported by the relevant EU bodies (EASO, FRA and Frontex), should either introduce or should implement better, the Commission aims to address the most acute shortcomings in the protection of migrant children and to meet children's needs and uphold their rights in migration situations.
THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS
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1.
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welcomes the Commission's communication in light of the deficiencies in the EU and its Member States with respect to protection of children in different types of migration situation. It is positive that the Commission has identified ways of improving implementation so as to enable timely, coordinated and more targeted action in this area;
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2.
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shares the Commission's view about the importance of a comprehensive approach that includes both unaccompanied children and children arriving with their families, regardless of their status and at all stages of migration. Another welcome aspect is that the Commission's proposed measures extend from addressing the underlying reasons for children's dangerous journeys to the EU and strengthening the child protection system along migration routes to measures that would improve reception in the EU, integration, and return and family reunification mechanisms;
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3.
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notes that children's fundamental rights are clearly set out in Article 24 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The fundamental rights of the child are a cross-cutting, multifaceted issue, and must therefore be incorporated into all relevant European and national policies (1);
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4.
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points out that children's rights are universal, indivisible and interrelated. The EU and its Member States have all ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), and they are urged to ensure compliance with the provisions set out in that convention. The UNCRC should be used as a framework, not just when rights are violated, but also to improve development and opportunities for all children and young people (2);
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5.
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notes that there is an institutional and legal framework for protecting children's rights in the EU, e.g. through the UNCRC, the European Convention on Human Rights, and other key international agreements entered into by the Member States. The challenge is to actually apply these legal instruments in the current situation in Europe where there has been a dramatic increase in migrating children who need protection;
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6.
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highlights the link between the present opinion and other CoR opinions on proposals for reform of the asylum system that were adopted in 2016 (3), and repeats its call for a comprehensive, sustainable EU migration strategy based on solidarity and respect for human rights, including measures to provide effective protection for the most vulnerable migrants, namely children;
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7.
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considers the communication under discussion to be an important complementary contribution to the new Common European Asylum System (CEAS) and urges the EU institutions involved in negotiations about the future asylum system to ensure that children's rights feature clearly in every aspect of it;
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8.
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commends the Commission's proposals for specific key actions that highlight the responsibility of the EU and its Member States for protecting children in migration. It is important to safeguard children's rights throughout the whole migration process;
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9.
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welcomes the Commission's concern to ensure uniformity and better reception conditions for children and young people in all the Member States, but points out that both the EU and its Member States have a duty to ensure the right conditions for local and regional authorities to receive migrants;
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10.
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points out that protection of children in migration cannot be assured without a broad partnership between all those concerned: the EU institutions, the Member States, and local and regional authorities, as well as civil society. Local and regional authorities now help to determine the practical conditions in which vulnerable migrant children live, and they play a key role in coordination with other relevant players;
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11.
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is concerned that the communication fails to consider the circumstances and conditions faced by local and regional authorities, and emphasises that their experiences and situations must guide the proposals put forward. If new ways of working are to be put into effect, then local and regional authorities must be involved at an early stage and throughout the whole process. The EU and the Member States must develop targeted and locally adapted support in the form of funding, legislative and regulatory systems, and skills;
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12.
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sees migration and development policy as closely linked: cooperation at international, national, regional and local level is critical to achieving uniform protection for children in migration in line with the Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030;
Children's best interests must be the guiding principle
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13.
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believes that the principle of children's best interests, as defined in the provisions of the UNCRC, must guide decisions and measures throughout the whole asylum process, as well as for children who are not seeking asylum. A child is defined as any person aged 18 or under. To determine a child's best interests their opinions must be ascertained, and for this the child needs access to all relevant information about both their rights and the asylum process. Information must also be appropriate to the child's age and other circumstances. All of this should be guaranteed by appointing a legal representative for the child or, as the case may be, a guardian ad litem;
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14.
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points to the lack of criteria for identifying and assessing the child's best interests, and therefore welcomes the prospect of the Commission and EU agencies providing guidance, training and tools for this task;
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15.
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believes that children's particular vulnerability should be a concern and that cases involving children must therefore be given priority. An investigation should be carried out for every child precisely to establish that child's specific protection needs. There is reason to welcome the specific guidelines on operational standards and material reception conditions for unaccompanied children being drawn up by the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) in 2017;
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16.
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believes the Commission is right to call on the Member States to ensure that people working with migrant children in any situation have appropriate training. As well as training, there is a need to fund and provide support for the sharing of experience and best practice;
Migrant children need protection
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17.
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agrees that the first step in strengthening support for migrating children is to address the underlying reasons for which children embark on perilous journeys in Europe. This means successfully combating poverty and privation, as well as inequalities in living standards, and addressing prolonged and violent conflicts. It is also important to develop integrated child protection systems in third countries;
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18.
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notes that children who are fleeing or in migration represent a particularly vulnerable and exposed group, and have often been victims of extreme forms of violence, exploitation, trafficking and criminality, as well as physical, psychological and sexual abuse. The type of vulnerability of girls and boys may differ: girls are more susceptible to sexual and gender-based violence, and are particularly at risk of forced marriage, whereas boys are at risk of being drawn into criminal activity. A gender dimension must therefore always be applied when planning, implementing and assessing efforts to protect children;
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19.
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notes that particular attention should be paid to children arriving with adults where the adult-child relationship is unclear, so as to guarantee protection of the child's health and rights;
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20.
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observes that the past few months have seen record fatality levels among refugees and migrants, many of them children, in the central Mediterranean. The Committee refers here to its previously stated position (4) and echoes Unicef's call on the EU and its Member States to take measures to protect children forced to leave their homes, by preventing exploitation and trafficking of children, and by stepping up the child protection programmes in Libya;
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21.
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underlines the importance of providing a child protection ombudsman at every reception centre where children are to be registered and identified, with that person serving as a contact point in all questions concerning children and children's rights;
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22.
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believes that information collected must be comparable between Member States and broken down by gender. When biometric data and fingerprints are collected, the methods should be based on the child's best interests and appropriate to each child's gender and particular circumstances. This requires the presence of a child protection ombudsman;
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23.
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believes that there must be a functioning and legally watertight age assessment system in the EU. It is important from a children's rights and legal certainty perspective that an applicant's age be assessed early on in the process. It is a welcome step that the EASO is updating its age assessment guidance in 2017 so that the procedure treats children more equally;
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24.
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stresses the need to improve cooperation, monitoring and measures in relation to children who go missing within the EU. An increasing proportion of children are going missing with only a few being found again. Missing migrant children have the same rights as other children. To counter the disappearance of children, a legally watertight and systematic method is needed of reporting and responding each time a child goes missing;
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25.
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welcomes the plan for the Commission's Knowledge Centre on Migration and Demography to compile a data repository with information on children in migration;
Types of accommodation for children in migration
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26.
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encourages the EU and the Member States to promote the development of different types of accommodation for unaccompanied children. These could be placement with a family, various facilities hosting children, or accommodation with adult relatives. The child's best interest should be assessed before such placements;
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27.
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opposes any form of detention of children based on their migrant status. The negative effects on children of detaining them means that this option should only be used as a last resort and in exceptional cases, e.g. when a child's life or health is at risk, and should be for as short a time as possible and never under prison-like conditions. In any case, this must be supervised at all stages by the competent authority and/or the relevant public services for children. The detention facilities must be specially adapted for children and have properly trained staff. The Committee notes with satisfaction that the promotion of alternatives to detention is one of the key issues debated at the European Forum on the Rights of the Child on 6-8 November 2017;
Children's right to a guardian
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28.
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notes that guardianship systems vary between the Member States, which reduces the chances of equal conditions obtaining for children who are assigned a guardian within the EU. Every unaccompanied child entering a country has the right to a professional guardian who can speak on behalf of the child in legal matters and protect their interests, regardless of whether or not the child is seeking asylum. The guardian is an important figure who should build trust with the child and protect them from various types of exploitation. A good relationship between child and guardian makes integration easier. A guardian can also help to prevent the child from going missing. The Committee is pleased to note that, in line with the Commission Communication on the state of play of the European Agenda on Migration, swift progress has been made at EU level in setting up a European network of guardianship institutions;
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29.
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believes it is important for guardians to receive appropriate training from a competent institution or public authority or be able to demonstrate that they have obtained this. They should have responsibility for a limited number of children. Guardians must be employed and paid by, and be able to work autonomously of, the Member States;
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30.
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welcomes the setting up of a European guardianship network where experiences can be shared and guidelines drawn up;
Children's integration into society and the need for education
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31.
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points in particular to the close link between reception conditions for children and opportunities for integration, notes that procedures and reception conditions should not be allowed to hold up or compromise the integration process, and highlights how important it is to promptly launch the process of acquiring a legalised administrative status;
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32.
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believes that early integration of children is critically important in supporting their development into adulthood. Children's integration into the new country is a social investment that helps to minimise the risk of them falling into criminal activity and their susceptibility to radicalisation. A child's development can be encouraged by ensuring access to education, healthcare, leisure activities and psychosocial support at an early stage;
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33.
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emphasises that prompt and reliable access to inclusive formal education — including early education — and to childcare is one of the most important and powerful ways of integrating children because it promotes language skills, social cohesion and mutual understanding;
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34.
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stresses how important it is for traumatised children to receive adequate psychosocial support to make the integration process easier. Specific services are also needed, and access to sexual and reproductive healthcare, for children who may have been the victims of sexual and gender-related violence;
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35.
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highlights the importance of ongoing efforts to encourage a positive attitude to diversity and to combat racism, xenophobia and above all hate-mongering against children in migration;
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36.
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notes that the Commission highlights the problems arising when unaccompanied minors reach the age of 18 and are no longer regarded as children, even though they still have substantial protection needs. Children must be prepared for this phase of transition to adult life by receiving counselling, support and opportunities for further education and vocational training;
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37.
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underlines the importance of finding lasting solutions to give children normality and stability over the long term. All possible approaches should be considered: integration, return, resettlement or reunification with family members. The most important thing is to carefully assess the child's best interest in every case;
The European, national, regional and local perspectives
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38.
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observes that local and regional authorities should be seen as key partners in implementing and delivering the EU's strategy for protecting children in migration. The Commission is urged to consider the consequences for the local and regional level in all its proposals, since the reception of asylum-seeking children takes place locally and it is here that access is given to various welfare services and that early integration into society begins;
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39.
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calls on the Commission to make clear in its communication with the Member States that they should draw on the experience and knowledge of local and regional authorities, which can provide many good examples and have considerable experience with the protection and reception of children in migration;
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40.
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notes that various types of EU funding and support can facilitate and contribute to protection and integration of children in migration, and urges the Commission to improve the information available about existing support and funding options for local and regional authorities;
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41.
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agrees with the Commission that determined, concerted and coordinated follow-up to the key short-term actions set out in its communication is required at the EU and national, regional and local levels, also in cooperation with civil society and international organisations. All the relevant aspects of EU law should be carefully monitored, in particular compliance with obligations in respect of fundamental rights and safeguards relating to the rights of the child;
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42.
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believes that a coherent system with common objectives for the reception of children in migration at EU and national level will ensure that the right action can be taken at the earliest possible stage. This is crucial in terms of ensuring children's opportunities for rapid integration, successful schooling and good preparation for the employment market. To ensure that these goals can be achieved, all the Member States should support each other and share responsibility for the reception of children in need of protection;
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43.
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points out that children are Europe's future: demographic change means that the proportion of older people in the population is increasing while demand for labour among the working-age population is rising. An intake of young people is needed for our society to grow and thrive. If reception conditions are right and if an effective integration process is introduced, migrant children and young people can be given good life and development opportunities in our society. A good reception and integration process is therefore a long-term investment in welfare, democracy and human rights.
Brussels, 11 October 2017.
The President of the European Committee of the Regions
Karl-Heinz LAMBERTZ
(1) CoR own-initiative opinion on Local and regional cooperation to protect the rights of the child in the European Union (CdR 54/2010).
(2) See footnote 1.
(3) COR-2016-05807-00-00-AC and COR-2016-03267-00-00-AC.
(4) Draft opinion on Migration on the Central Mediterranean route, CIVEX-VI/023. | https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52017IR2782&rid=9 |
Employment Status: Temporary, 18 month temporary assignment with possibility of extension or permanency.
Language Requirement: Bilingual Imperative (BBBB)
Employee Class and Level: CPMGA01
Number of Vacancies 1
Job Closing Date : 07/05/2021
Job Description
Under the functional direction of the Director Employment Policies and Program, and reporting directly to the Manager, Human Rights and Employment Equity (Head Office), the Specialist responds to internal and external inquiries, and provides guidance related to Human Rights and workplace conflict to management staff and employees in the region. Additionally, the Specialist tracks and analyses regional conflict, and is proactive in identifying areas of focus, recommending and deploying solutions. The Specialist participates in the development and implementation of regional and national programs and initiatives, including training, process improvements and conflict management strategies. Working with regional Canadian Human Rights Commission resources, internal Labour Relations, Human Resources, and Operations, the Specialist maintains a network of resources on an ongoing basis to ensure complaints are addressed considering all appropriate aspects. Additionally, the Specialist is a regional resource and contact for compliance policy and programs overall, as required considering the varying needs of each region. The Specialist also investigates formal and internal Human Rights complaints, prepares investigation reports and findings, facilitates dispute resolution and settlements, coaches regional operators on managing conflict, and delivers prevention training and awareness programs.
Job Responsibilities
Below are the main job requirements and responsibilities for the Specialist Human Rights and Employment (Head Office).
- Responds to complex enquiries from and provides information to employees, management, unions and associations, federal regulators, on human rights and employment equity issues, the investigative process, and conflict resolution process, and possible outcomes, as well as process requirements, timing, past precedents and jurisprudence.
- Undertakes frequent reporting activities with research and analysis as required, and provides proactive advice and support in the development, implementation and monitoring of Human Rights and Employment Equity national strategies and plans.
- Analyzes and prepares human rights and employment equity reports, presentations, briefing notes on an ongoing or adhoc basis as required (for Senior Management, Board and other Committees, Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC), Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), and other internal and external stakeholders as required.)
- As required, independently conducts time-sensitive impartial investigations and analysis for human rights (formal and internal), general harassment and/or violence in the workplace complaints. Gathers and examines confidential documentary and testimonial evidence, determines findings, facilitates the early resolution of complaints where possible and writes investigative reports, in compliance with legislated requirements under the Canadian Human Rights Act, the Employment Equity Act, Canada Labour Code, and the standards, policies and processes of the corporation, including its collective agreements.
- Acts as the subject matter expert in creating training and awareness, in collaboration with Learning and Development, of employment equity, human rights, and conflict prevention policies and programs by participating in the development and delivery of Human Rights and Employment Equity programs and initiatives, including training content development for management and employees.
- Coordinates regular meeting management with internal and external stakeholders, and union meetings with bargaining agents, writing formal meeting minutes, and ensuring follow-up with multiple stakeholders.
Job Responsibilities (continued)
- Takes part as required in the development, delivery, reporting and evaluation of national human rights programs and special projects, and assists in the development and management of the budget.
- Analyzes overall complaint and conflict activity from the regions, and makes national prevention and mitigation recommendations through reporting to management.
- Maintains administration and advancement of the national human rights complaint case management system, and ensures all complaint activities are tracked and up to date and creates frequent reports from the case management system.
- Facilitates the negotiation process to achieve resolution of disputes, including recommendations on terms of settlement as appropriate, considering the interests of the parties and exposure to risk for the corporation. Recommends continuance or discontinuance of the process, tracks and oversees the implementation of settlement agreements.
- As required, consults on policy and process, and supports national and regional initiatives for compliance programs overall, such as supporting the development of policies, practices and processes.
- Keeps current on relevant human rights and employment equity legislation, jurisprudence, relevant areas of the collective agreements and corporate human rights and employment equity programs. Maintains regular collaboration with regional and national resources, particularly within the CHRC, other federal agencies, Health and Safety, Labour Relations and Human Resources.
Qualifications
Education
• University degree in a relevant field such as Law, Human Resources, or Conflict Resolution, in combination with extensive related experience
Experience
• 2+ years of relevant functional experience in the area of managing human rights in an employment and business context
• 2+ years of experience in a large and complex organization (ex: national in scope with customers)
• 1+ year of experience of collaboration in a unionized environment.
Other Candidate Requirements
• Knowledge of relevant federal legislation and regulations (ie: Canadian Human Rights Act, Employment Equity Act, Canada Labour Code (Occupational Health and Safety, Harassment in the workplace), Accessible Canada Act, etc.) and familiarity with Privacy Act requirements.)
• Knowledge of investigation and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) principles for conflict resolution.
• Strong written and communication skills, and ability to negotiate.
• Interpersonal skills with an ability to build and maintain relationships.
• Sound organizational, analytical, judgement and decision-making skills with proven abilities in problem solving and providing business solutions to internal clients.
• Proficient computer skills and competent in Microsoft Office Programs.
Other Information
Canada Post is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes interest from all qualified applicants. To address areas of representation from equity seeking groups, priority will be given to Indigenous candidates and persons with disabilities. To ensure these diversity assets are recognized, we encourage all equity seeking candidates self-identify on the application.
Safety Sensitive Positions
This position may be considered a Safety Sensitive position.
Employment Equity
Canada Post is committed to employment equity and encourages applications from women, Aboriginal people, persons with disabilities and visible minorities.
Conflict of Interest
The Conflict of Interest Policy prohibits employees from hiring, supervising or reporting to, directly or indirectly via the reporting hierarchy, their immediate family or close personal relations. Should you feel that you may be in an actual or potential Conflict of Interest in regard to this job opportunity, you must communicate with the designated Human Resources representative.
Accommodation
If you are contacted by Canada Post regarding a job opportunity or testing, please advise if you require accommodation.
Important Message
Your application must clearly demonstrate how you meet the requirements as Canada Post cannot make assumptions about your education and experience. We thank all those who apply. Only those selected for further consideration will be contacted.
Our Leadership Behaviours
Decision Making – A champion of the organization who takes calculated risks and makes prudent, common sense decisions about current issues, future opportunities and resource requirements in a timely, well thought out manner that aligns with the corporation's best interests.
Accountability – An individual who strives for performance excellence and who holds him/herself and direct reports accountable for decisions and actions and for learning from mistakes when intended results are not achieved.
Business Orientation – A proactive individual who understands the competitive nature of the business, and is committed to sustaining the business through excellent customer service and new business opportunities.
Execution – A focused and self-motivated individual who acts with a sense of urgency and delivers on time and within budget, by dealing effectively with challenges and ambiguous situations.
Leading People – A compelling communicator and leader who engages, motivates and inspires others to achieve results and who encourages personal growth and finding better ways of doing things.
Our Values
Canada Post’s corporate values reflect the principles, beliefs and aspirations that guide our behaviour and shape our culture.
Transformation – We will innovate and transform to win in the marketplace.
Customer – We serve Canadians with pride and passion.
Integrity – We act responsibly and with integrity.
Respect – We treat each other with fairness and respect.
Safety – We are committed to a safe and healthy environment for all our stakeholders. | https://jobs.canadapost.ca/job/Ottawa-Specialist%2C-Employment-Equity-and-Human-Rights-ON/546316917/ |
Hearings and Public Sector Employee Investigations
Employee investigations and hearings are a regular challenge for HR professionals in the public sector.
These activities form a core element of our HR Consultancy practice.
To begin we ensure we focus on our client as an individual, because whatever the size of the organisation, the needs for HR support are always best initially served at personal level. We combine our expertise, genuine teamwork and client commitment into a blend of services that set us apart, and this is why we’re confident that we always deliver the most effective HR support to our public sector clients.
Investigations into complex grievances or disciplinary matters are invariably time consuming and take key people away from their core responsibilities. This is where we can step in and conduct investigation work, sensitively and efficiently.
We carry out investigations, interview witnesses, gather evidence and prepare investigation reports, attending resulting disciplinary and grievance hearings as the investigating officer, as the need arises.
If our clients have resourced the investigation in house, we can provide support with other stages of the process. We can provide on-site HR support and guidance to panels hearing grievance, disciplinary or capability issues. If it’s appropriate we can also act as a panel member, if this is needed because of the nature of the particular case.
It is important to understand ACAS guidance in carrying out investigations as these suggest that independent representation and involvement is important:
“Key points
- An investigation is a fact-finding exercise to collect all the relevant information on a matter.
- An investigator should be given clear guidance on what exactly they are required to investigate, and how their findings should be reported.
- Whenever possible the investigator should not be involved in the issue being investigated.
- The investigator should gather and document what the issues of the matter are, consider what evidence may be available and relevant, and how it may be collected.”
Creative, pragmatic and professional are the words we’d use to describe our style. If this resonates and you have a current or upcoming challenge that would benefit from impartial, professional HR support, please get in touch. | https://narrowquayhr.co.uk/2018/01/12/public-sector-employee-hearings/ |
Extend the mandate of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia.
21 September, 2022
Your Excellencies,
The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) and Atrocities Watch Africa (AWA) urge the UN Human Rights Council (from now on the Council) to support a resolution that extends the mandate of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (from now on ICHREE or the Commission) for a second year.
The Council’s 51st regular session is taking place between 12 September and 7 October 2022, time during which the Commission is set to present a second report to the Council. The ICHREE conducted its first briefing to the Council on 30 June, where they reflected on certain challenges in properly fulfilling their mandate, including the lack of financial and technical resources to fulfill their mandate, especially in relation to the collection and preservation of evidence to support accountability efforts. These limitations as well as time constraints have led the ICHREE to adopt an approach to investigate only certain emblematic incidents.
The Commission is mandated to conduct investigations to establish the facts and the circumstances surrounding alleged violations and abuses of international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law, committed by all parties to the conflict in Ethiopia since 3 November 2020. The ICHREE is also mandated to provide guidance and technical support on transitional justice including accountability, national reconciliation, healing and make recommendations to the government of Ethiopia on these measures.
The ICHREE conducted its first visit to Ethiopia between 25 and 30 July 2022. During their visit they reiterated their request for access to sites of atrocities, which the government has not yet granted. Without access, the ICHREE risks not being able to produce a comprehensive and legitimate investigation.
Taking into consideration the complex nature of the Ethiopian conflict and the magnitude of the atrocities committed the Commission has had neither sufficient time nor resources to complete its mandate.
A recent briefing by Amnesty International has concluded that certain gaps in Ethiopian law enable impunity for crimes under international law and human rights violations that proscribe, which make effective accountability unlikely. The Ethiopian federal government established an Inter-Ministerial Taskforce responsible for investigating and prosecuting human rights violations in the context of the conflict, but it is unclear whether there is political will to support it to undertake truly impartial investigation and, even if it is, whether Tigrayans and others who have been framed as enemies in the war would trust the mechanism and be willing to participate. If they are not, the findings will not be credible, no matter the position of the committee.
We strongly urge all Council member states, in particular those from Africa, to adopt a resolution that extends the ICHREE’s mandate for at least another year and provides them with the necessary technical, logistical and financial support to effectively carry out their work. The Commissions work is key to ensuring justice for victims in the conflict and their families, and accountability for perpetrators.
Moreover, the Council should employ all tools in its power to ensure the ICHREE has access to the geographical sites they deem necessary to complete a full investigation, not being able to do so may affect the quality of their findings.
Sincerely, | https://atrocitieswatch.org/letter-un-human-rights-council-extend-mandate-ichree/ |
The Associate Investigator, under the direct supervision of the Principal Investigator and the overall authority of the Director of the Internal Oversight Office, manages the work-flow of individual investigation cases within the set timeframes.
More specifically, the Associate Investigator will:
- Perform background research.
- Receive allegations, liaise with complainants and whistle-blowers, screen allegations received, draw recommendations and take part in the internal assessment of complaints and allegations.
- Plan investigations and define investigative scope, methodologies and tools, under guidance from the Principal Investigator.
- Obtain documentary and physical evidence; examine documents and records; conduct interviews; maintain case records, interview transcripts and evidence.
- Request and examine digital files and data to be retrieved from computers and other electronic devices.
- Draft investigative reports.
- Monitor follow up actions related to investigations, specifically by liaising with HRM; draft memos and reports on lessons learned from investigations providing recommendations to improve internal controls, policies and procedures.
- Perform legal research or benchmark investigative practices as requested; liaise with relevant departments within the Organization (human resources, ethics office, legal affairs).
- Maintain an up-to-date case tracking database and provide KPI analysis or adhoc analysis as needed; Support IOS Management in preparing reports related to investigative activity when need arises.
- Provide support related to IOS mandates as requested by the IOS Director and/or the Principal Investigator, including activities in the areas of fraud awareness and management advisory.
Education
- Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in international administrative law or criminal justice, or related subject. Advanced university degree in forensic audit may be accepted in conjunction with a relevant law degree.
- Certified training in handling cases of sexual harassment and abuse.
Work Experience
- At least two (2) years of progressively responsible and relevant professional experience in investigation.
- Relevant investigative experience acquired in both fields: fraud examination and sexual misconduct.
Skills/Competencies
- Ability to work independently.
- Advanced knowledge of legal principles applicable to investigative activities.
- Ability to identify key investigation issues and to collect, synthesise, and analyse complex information and technical materials (including data).
- Strong coordination and analytical skills.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication (oral and written) skills applicable to a diverse cultural environment.
- Proven ability to draft investigative reports on complex topics with effectively supported and well formulated conclusions, in both English and French.
- Demonstrated ability to conduct sensitive interviews in consideration of due process and duty of care, and prepare interview transcripts in both English and French.
Languages
- Excellent knowledge of English or French and good knowledge of the other language.
Education
- Professional certification from an internationally recognized compliance or investigation body such as CFE, CCEP-I or equivalent.
Work Experience
- Relevant experience acquired at the international level.
- Professional experience in the conduct of investigations in a United Nations organization or similar international organization.
- Experience in protection of sources and victims.
- Engagement in professional investigative networks practice groups.
Skills/Competencies
- Knowledge of UN system policies, rules, regulations and procedures.
- Engagement in professional investigative networks practice groups.
Languages
- Good knowledge of other official UNESCO languages (Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish).
UNESCO’s salaries consist of a basic salary and other benefits which may include if applicable: 30 days annual leave, family allowance, medical insurance, pension plan etc.
For more information in benefits and entitlements, please consult ICSC website and UNESCO's career website.
Evaluation of qualified applicants may include an assessment exercise and a competency-based interview.
UNESCO applies a zero tolerance policy against all forms of harassment.
UNESCO is committed to achieve and sustain gender parity among its staff members in all categories and at all grades. Furthermore, UNESCO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities, as well as nationals from non-and under-represented Member States (last update here) are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. Worldwide mobility is required for staff members appointed to international posts. UNESCO does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process. | https://careers.unesco.org/job/Paris-Associate-Investigator/519746002/ |
We believe that all students are created with unique gifts and talents, and that each student deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. Through the Personalized Learning Initiative, we develop a deep knowledge of every student and personalize instruction to ensure all students achieve both academic and personal goals. We blend the best of our Catholic schools’ long tradition of academic excellence and faith-based moral development with cutting-edge instructional practices and learning technologies.
Developing Learners
Your students are guided by teachers to gradually assume responsibility for their own learning and development. Teachers work individually with your child to identify, document, and develop their strengths as learners and children of God. Students meet with teachers to set and track progress towards achieving their own personal and learning goals, increasing their capacity for independent and self-guided learning over time. | http://stmarkschool.org/academics/personalized_learning |
In an information abundant digital age, Organizational Learning and Development programs are riddled with information overload. Learning content from multiple sources, channels, disregarding boundaries of time and geography can be disorienting. However, employees need to know what is important or not important from the perspective of the vision and goals of their organization.
Employee development happens when a competency-led approach is mapped to learning needs. HR leaders need to curate the right content to align it with specific competencies and then design the learning paths. Because of this need, learning content curation is rising.
In order to provide authentic and scientifically attested learning material, it’s imperative that an expert should curate authentic learning materials. Without this streamlining exercise, it would not be surprising for employees to spend time on learning, only to find that the content is not relevant.
What is Content Curation?
With so much information in many formats at one’s fingertips, it is very difficult to make a streamlined, beneficial use of these learning resources. Curation is the art and science of identifying and contextualizing the best information and format for the content. The advent of digital technologies and learning media gives employees a plethora of options to learn from. Each of these platforms comes with its own delivery style and content.
The danger of using online materials is that they may not be authentic or up to date. In order to provide authentic and scientifically attested learning material, it’s imperative that a subject matter expert working closely with employees verifies course content and organizes learning modules.
Without this streamlining exercise, courses may lose relevance to the job, leading to a decline in both the learning effectiveness as well as learner engagement levels. There is a pressing need to move from mere “information” to “ideation,” to deliver a relevant and immersive learning experience.
Why Curate?
Content curation requires effort in terms of time, personnel, funds, technology platforms etc. Why would an organization invest so much time in curating learning content? The reality is that content curation is a necessity for developing skills for the future.
- Makes up for the lack of time:
The ‘lack of time’ is a commonly quoted reason by employees to not invest in their own skill development. According to Bersin by Deloitte, “1% of a typical workweek is all that employees have to focus on training and development.”
Moreover, if learning modules are too time consuming or boring, there is the risk of the employee abandoning the learning journey in between. For example, if a learner needs a particular input to solve a problem at a particular time and hundreds of options come up, it can be overwhelming and frustrating for the employee. It is, therefore, important to curate content to create an experience that’s personalized. This means presenting the content in an organized manner so that it optimizes the time spent on it and engages the learner.
- Provides context:
L&D must guide learners by contextualizing the learning offerings to job roles. This means that L&D professionals need to spend time recognizing learning styles, learning needs and the required competencies of learners.
Providing context is all about helping learners apply their learning to their jobs so that they understand the importance of why and what they have learnt. For this, they must design relevant and engaging job aids, assessments, simulation tools etc.
- Enhances productivity:
More information means more time spent looking for the right information, which in turn translates to reduced productivity. According to McKinsey, high-skill knowledge workers spend 19% of their day searching and gathering information. That’s nearly one day per week lost. This is the antithesis to what learning intends to achieve viz., increased employee productivity. To enhance the productivity of employees, L&D must go beyond “push learning” and strive for learners to find what they need organically. Some of the useful features in the learning system are a timely reminder system and stacked learning content with curated channels.
- Adds value:
Every employee who spends time in learning ultimately asks “What’s in it for me?” And offering limitless learning choices can end up confusing and overwhelming time-starved employees. Having an employee go through a laundry list of learning options will certainly put him or her off and give up on learning. Curation can offer personalized, expert recommendations on a regular basis. When employees receive guidance and structure which is tailored to their needs, they can realize their full potential.
It is said that “Too many cooks spoil the broth,” similarly, “Having too many choices lead to poor learning and therein, poor business results.” Curating content for employees is the answer to make sense of this clutter and achieve a better return on learning investments. Well curated content has the power to create a “learning pull”, empowering the learners by helping them develop the skills to improve in their job function and can maximize what little free time they have by focusing on the most impactful content.
Sources: | https://www.peoplematters.in/article/training-development/four-reasons-why-you-should-curate-not-create-content-18213 |
As the L&D industry works towards personalized learning design, we are all set on a focused approach to use data and analytics to drive the design and development of initiatives.
In this regard, a 2019 research paper discusses the Personalization and Learning Analytics Framework—or PERLA—to represent the integration of Personalization and Learning Analytics. The paper positions PERLA as a theoretical base towards a systems approach to designing and developing effective indicators for personalized learning backed by analytics. The aim of the proposed framework is to highlight the use of Learning Analytics (LA) to promote personalization (towards creating ‘smart learning environments’).
Breaking down the personalized learning activity
The authors also model the personalized learning activity as a 7-stage cyclical process. Drawing from this cycle, the main aspects of a personalized learning experience up for consideration are execution and evaluation—both comprising three stages each.
Each of the seven stages of the model can be thought of as trigger points to raise pertinent questions towards the design of effective indicators for personalized learning. I found the description for the indicators suggested by the authors very intuitive in terms of insights that I think learning designers could consider.
So what’s in it for learning designers?
I mapped the indicators for personalized learning from the research and tried to translate them to usable insights when approaching learning design.
Here is the result of the mapping activity that presents certain insights to develop the right approach towards solving a business problem in a ‘real’ or human-focused way.
For each indicator, consider all the aspects learning designers need to factor in when designing a platform to enable content consumption
(I have made a deliberate attempt not to say ‘LMS’ or ‘LXP’ here, because I think irrespective of the technological output, these design considerations can be common to both).
What this means for L&D practitioners is that with the right thinking tools (questions and indicators suggested in the paper), and mapping them to the proposed learning experience, intervention or platform, there’s a systems-focused way to approach any business problem and design a suitable solution for it through personalized and adaptive delivery.
So overall…
The PERLA paper, as many other research initiatives and industry opinions I’m sure, opens up the idea of personalization as the go-to rather than a good-to-have approach. With industry-wide disruption placing data and learning analytics in the spotlight, personalization continues to remain a hot topic, until it becomes the norm.
Until it does (since data and analytics would have many dependencies), learning designers can make use of ideas to personalize the experience at three levels—(yes, the triad again!)—the Learners, the Content, and the Environment (or ‘Smart’ Environment, as the authors of the PERLA paper rightly state).
More on this after some more digging around on what’s trending with personalized learning experiences! | https://blog.upsidelearning.com/2020/04/23/food-for-thought-for-personalized-and-adaptive-learning-part-2/ |
Our brains are surprisingly good at fooling us, and this has big consequences for how well - or how badly - people learn. In this session, Nick Howe, Chief Learning Officer of Area9 Lyceum, will highlight a few tricks that our brains play, and how a new breed of personalized learning systems can give everyone the opportunity to excel in whatever they do.
Real-time personalization adjusts to meet the learners' needs in the way that a tutor would, but does it digitally for hundreds or thousands of learners at once.
Hosted by Gilmore Global | CHART
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MEET YOUR HOST
Nick Howe, CLO Area9 Lyceum
Area9’s adaptive learning algorithms mimic the way viruses behave in nature: evolving moment-by-moment using trial and error as their environment changes. Our algorithms allow the learner to make mistakes and pursue misconceptions, closely mimicking real-world cognitive situations, and providing an effective and engaging experience.
By using a personalized approach to replicate one-to-one interaction in a digital environment, our adaptive learning models allow for efficient scale. Such personalization increases efficiency, as well as engagement, by taking into consideration what each learner has already mastered.
Download this brochure to learn more.
Copyright © 2020 Area9 Lyceum. All rights reserved. | https://offers.area9lyceum.com/area9-lyceum-gilmore-global-webinar-2020 |
Gregg, Dawn G.
The Learning Organization Vol. 14 Issue 4, pp. 300-312
Purpose – This paper illustrates the advantages of using intelligent agents to facilitate the location and customization of appropriate e-learning resources and to foster collaboration in e-learning environments.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper proposes an e-learning environment that can be used to provide customized learning. It utilizes a set of interacting agents that can personalize instruction based on an individual’s prior knowledge as well as their cognitive and learning needs. The e-learning agents monitor the e-learning environment and improve learning and collaboration based on learners’ prior knowledge, social characteristics and learning style.
Findings – e-Learning agents should allow discovery of new learning objects more easily, allow learners to customize materials presented to improve learning outcomes, and improve collaboration in the e-learning environment.
Originality/value – Little prior research has been done on the use of agents in e-learning environments. This paper proposes a set of e-learning agents that, if implemented in online education or training environments, should provide tangible benefits to organizations. | https://business2.ucdenver.edu/research/2007/07/06/elearning-agents/ |
The Cupertino Union School District Board of Education will hold a school board advance meeting this Thursday, January 21 at 3pm to discuss the progress of K-8 students in mathematics during distance learning and the proposal of a new education parcel tax.
CUSD staff will present recent data on K-8 student progress and recommendations to help meet student needs via distance learning. The staff report indicates all grade levels have made growth, and student progress is on track with previous years; elementary students in particular are making strong improvement. However, English Language Learners, Hispanic/Latino and Black/African American students require focused support, with diagnostic growth for these subgroups falling below aggregate performance. Students using the personalized learning platform are making stronger diagnostic growth gains.
The Board will also provide an update on school reopening plans, including updated information from the State and Public Health Department.
The Board will also hold a public hearing to discuss placing the Quality Local Schools and Academic Excellence Parcel Tax Measure on the May 2021 ballot. This proposed measure would replace the current Measure A parcel tax expiring after the 2022 tax year. It increases the annual school parcel tax amount from $250 to $398, and will include a waiver option for seniors. The total expected annual revenue from this measure is estimated at $14 million per year for eight years.
The parcel tax is one of the local funding options being examined to “retain our high-quality teachers and staff with competitive compensation, help keep schools open, ensure fiscal solvency, and provide programs to support students’ social and emotional wellness,” according to CUSD. If the parcel tax does not pass, CUSD will be forced to review other proposed remedies including school closures, staff layoffs and salary freezes, creating a new parcel tax based on square footage, or some combination of school closures and tax increases.
The link to the virtual meeting and the public comment form will be available on the District’s website 15 minutes prior to the start. For those who are unable to attend, the virtual meeting will be recorded and posted on the CUSD website within 48 hours of the meeting’s conclusion. A link to the agenda can be found here. | https://cupertinotoday.com/2021/01/20/cupertino-union-school-district-board-of-education-to-discuss-student-progress-new-parcel-tax/ |
On a recent Tuesday, teacher Danica Johnson sat on the floor with a small group of fourth- and fifth-graders discussing the book, “Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing.” Visible through an opening in the wall leading to an adjoining classroom at Remington Traditional School, fellow teacher Emily Cook helped a student identify a text box in a book as part of a scavenger hunt to locate different features within a book.
Nearby, other students worked independently, reading books or working on handwriting. After about 30 minutes, students put away their reading materials and got ready for math instruction. Some stayed where they were. Others changed rooms, including some who walked across the hall to the adjoining classrooms of Ben Johnston and Karrie Peters.
The new structure for the fourth- and fifth-grade students at Remington is anything but traditional. That’s because these teachers changed the way their classes are structured and how they teach in order to better personalize learning for their students. The classes now make up Team 4-5, a learning configuration that combines fourth- and fifth-grade students into four classrooms, with students changing core classes (English language arts, math, science and social studies) as needed to best meet their personal learning needs and strengths.
Each morning, students report to homeroom with one of the teachers. Throughout the day, students are engaged in learning the core subject areas based on their individual academic, behavioral and social-emotional needs. The students have different teachers for the core subjects based on their levels of need. Prior to the new arrangement, all four teachers had at least one year of teaching both grade levels.
“All four teachers are familiar with the academic, behavioral and social-emotional needs of fourth and fifth grade,” Johnson said. “We saw this as a unique opportunity to create something new and different that will help reach students on a personalized level.”
Teachers instruct students in small groups based on their individual needs. In the future, they plan to incorporate project-based learning (PBL) as a component of their program. With PBL, students learn and reinforce core subject learning and critical thinking skills by working through a long-term project or problem.
“The students will begin to have more voice and choice surrounding their learning as the year progresses,” Johnson said. “Our goal is for our program to be a student-centered approach to learning as opposed to teacher-centered. The students will be in charge of setting their own goals and tracking their progress as aligned to the state standards. The students will show what they have learned in a variety of ways: presentations, written reports, projects and utilizing apps on their iPads.”
The personalization extends even to the classroom seating. All Team 4-5 classes offer a variety of flexible seating options, including futons, yoga balls, bean bags, pillows, stools and more, in addition to traditional options such as desks, chairs and tables.
Remington teacher Emily Cook (in foreground) assists students during English language arts while fellow teacher Danica Johnson meets in a small group to discuss a book they read (in background).
Teacher Danica Johnson discusses "Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing" with students in a small group.
A student reads independently during English language arts in Danica Johnson's classroom.
After some students changed rooms for math instruction, Remington teacher Ben Johnston brings his class together on the floor to go over what students will be doing during the period.
Teacher Karrie Peters goes over math concepts with a small group at Remington Traditional School. | https://www.psdr3.org/cms?/District/News/I0B0C5EE7 |
SPeL 2017 workshops, held in conjunction with the SAINT 2008 conference,
WI/IAT 2009 conference, DEXA 2010 conference, ICWL 2011 conference, ICALT
2012 conference, ICSTCC 2013 conference, ICWL 2014 conference, ICSLE 2015
conference, ICWL & SETE 2016 conferences and ICWL & SETE 2017 conferences
respectively. The general topic of the workshop is the social and personal
computing for web-supported learning communities.
Web-based learning is moving from centralized, institution-based systems
to a decentralized and informal creation and sharing of knowledge. Social
software (e.g., blogs, wikis, social bookmarking systems, media sharing
services) is increasingly being used for e-learning purposes, helping to
create novel learning experiences and knowledge. In the world of pervasive
Internet, learners are also evolving: the so-called "digital natives" want
to be in constant communication with their peers, they expect an
individualized instruction and a personalized learning environment, which
automatically adapt to their individual needs. The challenge in this
context is to provide intelligent and adaptive support for collaborative
learning, taking into consideration the individual differences between
learners.
This workshop deals with current research on the interplay between
collaboration and personalization issues for supporting intelligent
learning environments. Its aim is to provide a forum for discussing new
trends and initiatives in this area, including research about the
planning, development, application, and evaluation of intelligent learning
environments, where people can learn together in a personalized way
through social interaction with other learners.
The workshop is targeted at academic researchers, developers,
educationists and practitioners interested in innovative uses of social
media and adaptation techniques for the advancement of intelligent
learning environments. The proposed field is interdisciplinary and very
dynamic, taking into account the recent advent of Web 2.0 and ubiquitous
personalization, and it is hoped to attract a large audience.
TOPICS OF INTEREST
==================
The workshop welcomes submissions covering aspects of collaboration,
social interactions, adaptivity and personalization in technology enhanced
learning, particularly related to issues about:
* Social learning environments
* Theory and modeling of social computing in education
* Web 2.0 tools for collaborative learning
* Personal learning environments
* Lifelong learning networks
* Virtual spaces for learning communities
* Social networks analysis and mining
* Computer-supported collaborative learning
* Personalized and adaptive learning
* Adaptation methods and techniques for groups of learners
* Intelligent learner and group modeling
* Collaborative filtering and recommendations for learners
* Game-based social learning
* Personalized mobile learning applications
* Cloud-based social learning
* Intelligent agent technology for social learning
* Metadata, folksonomies and tagging
* Semantic web and ontologies for personalized learning
* Cognitive, motivational and affective aspects for personalization
* Practice and experience sharing
PAPER SUBMISSION AND PUBLICATION
==================================
The workshop papers should be formatted according to the Springer AISC
template
(ftp://ftp.springernature.com/cs-proceeding/llncs/word/splnproc1703.zip).
The length of the manuscript should be 4-6 pages for short papers and 8
pages for full papers.
Papers should be submitted in PDF format, through the Easychair system:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mis4tel18 (please select
"WS01-SPeL - Workshop on Social and Personal Computing for Web-Supported
Learning Communities").
All accepted workshop papers will be included in MIS4TEL 2018 Proceedings,
published by Springer in Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing
series.
IMPORTANT DATES
===============
Abstract submission: February 12, 2018 (extended, strict!)
Full paper submission: February 19, 2018 (extended, strict!)
Acceptance notification: March 12, 2018
Registration and camera-ready papers: March 26, 2018
Conference dates: June 20-22, 2018
WORKSHOP CHAIRS
================
Elvira Popescu - University of Craiova, Romania
Sabine Graf - Athabasca University, Canada
Please refer to the workshop website
(http://software.ucv.ro/~epopescu/spel2018) for more information and
contact us at: [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask] for
any inquiry. | https://listserv.acm.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ACMLPX.CGI?A2=CHI-ANNOUNCEMENTS;20b30396.1801D&FT=&P=18367646&H=A&S=a |
The Personalization Principle is one of Mayer’s 12 Principles of Multimedia Learning. The theory views simulating a social discourse as an event that promotes active cognitive processing, allowing people to feel they are engaged in a conversation with a partner instead of passively receiving information. This theory suggests you can use an informal, conversational style and virtual coaches to increase learning outcomes and increase learner engagement.
Guidelines for Use
Guideline 1 – Use Conversational Style Rather Than Formal Style
Using an informal conversational style helps learners relate to the presented material. Language should use some first- and second-person language to help create the feeling of conversation. Instructions should be polite by offering suggestions, asking questions, or phrasing as though working cooperatively with the learner. It is important to use personalization in moderation because it is important not to distract the learner.
Guideline 2 – Use Effective On-Screen Coaches to Promote Learning
On-screen coaches are characters, real or animated, that guide the learning process during an e-learning episode. Coaches help provide the feeling of being engaged in conversation and should move, sound, and use eye movement in a human-like manner. Coaches should be used for instruction rather than entertainment by providing hints, worked examples, demonstrations, and explanations.
Guideline 3 – Make the Author Visible to Promote Learning
Visible authors give information about themselves and highlight their perspectives. Newer learners may be encouraged by the author as a guide to the topic and can make the topic seem less intimidating. Learners at a middle level of interest also become more engaged in the topic.
Good Examples of Use
Example 1 – Duolingo
Duolingo uses polite and cooperative language on its instructions to progress to the next steps. The Duolingo owl acts as a coach to new users, providing advice on learning techniques from useful tips to overall learning advice like practicing consistently. Visible authors establish a presence by providing feedback and answering questions on the forum.
Example 2 – Udemy
Udemy has a variety of programs available for e-learning. In the course overview, the author acts as the on-screen coach. They provide study techniques, descriptions of course and lesson content, and resources for practice questions.
Helpful Resources
Resource 1 – Applying the Personalization Principle
Clark and Mayer provide direct advice on how to use the Personalization Principle.
Resource 2 – The Learning Pod
In this episode of The Learning Pod, Kell Hansen and Jeanine Sullivan discuss what the Personalization Principle is and how it can be used in the workplace.
Resource 3 – Contrasting Study of the Personalization Principle
The study found learners in personalized simulations spent 20% more time on it but no differences in achievement.
Research
Brom, C., Bromová, E., Děchtěrenko, F., Buchtová, M., & Pergel, M. (2014). Personalized messages in a brewery educational simulation: Is the personalization principle less robust than previously thought? Computers & Education, 72, 339-366.
Clark, Ruth & Mayer, Richard. (2012). Applying the Personalization Principle: Use Conversational Style and Virtual Coaches. In E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia, 3rd Edition. John Wiley & Sons. Available from https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118255971.ch9
Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2016). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. John Wiley & Sons. | https://pressbooks.pub/elearning2020/chapter/the-personalization-principle/ |
The first phase of the project is the acquisition of all navigation data (sensors, GPS, SERVO control) in order to trim the navigation algorithms with real data. The data will be used in order to simulate the vehicle and to verify the output of the navigation algorithm and INS filtering. In this part the analysis will be done using the Matlab software tool and we will check all the systems phases from the input IIR filters to the output SERVO commands.
First Step: Data Acquisition
After the software and hardware implementation has finished the next step is to test the whole system in a real scenario. First we will collect the full data in a predefined route in order to emulate the navigation algorithm and make all the necessary modifications to the system’s hardware and software in order to adapt it to the real “life”.
The first step is to collect and examine all the sensors and GPS pure data. With the first look in the pure data we can not extract enough information as we can see in the following graphs. So, we conclude to the obvious, signal processing is necessary.
Pure Sensor Data
The results are better when we apply the necessary filtering in the incoming data from the sensors. In the following graphs we can see the output data from the low pass filters that will feed the INS. With a short view in the following graphs, we can notice the noise reduction after filtering. Also, we can easily notice the correlation between the Gyro’s outputs the compass’s outputs, this will be very helpful to improve the performance of the INS when running along without any GPS data. Note that the three rate gyro sensors and the three compass sensors feed the INS with almost the same information (heading information) and also if the vehicle is an aircraft then data coming from compass sensor are very accurate since no external magnetic fields can easily affect the performance of the sensor. Heading information is very critical in the overall system performance when the GPS data absent. This information will be used to reject the earth gravity from the accelerometer outputs.
Finally, we can see the two small section with no GPS data.
Field Data Part I
INS Data (Acceleration, Rate Gyro, Compass)
GPS Data (Velocity, No of Satellites)
GPS Position
Now, we can focus on a smaller part of samples, about 45sec, to test the INS algorithm.
First of all, we must integrate the gyro output in order to have the rotation of the vehicle from the initial position. The sensor output voltage changes by 5mV for each degree of rotation per second. So, we can change the Y axis to degrees from Volts. In the following graph we can see the data from the gyros. In the Yaw (X axis) we have a grate change, about 85 degrees, and also we can notice an increase for the Pitch (Y axis).
Gyro Output (After Processing)
We can process the compass output for the same duration in order to compare it with the results from the gyros.
The earth magnetic field gives us a variation of ±25mV on the compass sensor output. So, we can calculate the heading information of the vehicle using the following equation:
Compass Roll Output
It is time to examine the output of the acceleration sensors. The first step is to integrate the output. Before this it is necessary to remove the offset of the sensor and then make a correction for the earth gravity. For this data examination will use the previous calculated rotation from the rate gyro outputs as reference. The following graph presents the acceleration of the vehicle after offset and earth gravity removing:
Vehicle Acceleration
The next step is to integrate the ‘clean’ acceleration in order to obtain the vehicle velocity for the three axes. We can see the vehicle velocity in the following graph:
Now, we can integrate one more time the velocity in order to get the displacement of the vehicle in the three axes:
Position Displacement (INS Only)
The above graph will help us to calculate the vehicle route. In order to calculate the route we need information for the rotation of the vehicle. For the route calculation we will use the output of the rate gyros. We will calculate the position using the following equation:
INS Route
From the atmospheric pressure we can calculate the altimeter of the vehicle. The output of the pressure sensor increases 45.9mV for each kPa of pressure change. The transfer function of the sensor is:
(Volt)
Also, (feet)
The following graph shows the altitude, calculated from the pressure sensor:
Altimeter
Finally, we must mention the temperature changes inside the sensors that affect the offset voltage of the sensors output. In the following graph we can see the changes in the temperature from an embedded temperature sensor inside to the gyroscope. Correction needed in order to reduce the effects of those changes to the INS.
Comparing the results from the INS with those from the GPS we can see that the output from the INS is extremely good. Note, that in the calculations we have discarded many parameters that will cause improvement to the INS output (Temperature compensation, better earth gravity correction, better sensor offset calculations and many others). From the first field test we can see that the vehicle can be self guided without GPS information for many seconds (in the last analysis the performance seems absolutely good for the duration of 45sec that examined). | https://www.ioko.eu/projects/inetrial-navigation-system/field-tests/ |
The Field Mapper Processor can be used to translate (or map) data from one GeoEvent schema to another GeoEvent schema or GeoEvent Definition. Every GeoEvent has an associated GeoEvent Definition that identifies the attribute fields and data types. GeoEvent Definitions can change if they are processed such as when a GeoEvent is enriched with new fields.
To configure the Field Mapper Processor, select a source GeoEvent Definition and a target GeoEvent Definition. Fields from the target GeoEvent Definition appear to the right, with drop-down lists available from the selected source GeoEvent Definition, allowing you to select the appropriate field to map. The data type of each field is displayed to help identify the appropriate mappings for each field.
A GeoEvent Definition appropriate to GeoEvents at one stage of processing might not align with the schema of a published feature service. The GeoEvent will need to be processed by the Field Mapper Processor to translate each GeoEvent's schema to match the schema of the target features before a GeoEvent Service can update features in a feature service.
For example, many real-time data streams (especially those providing generic JSON) frequently provide data structures that include groups with subfields or lists with multiple values. Such data structures do not align with feature service schemas whose data structures are flat and expect discrete data types (date, string, integer, and so forth). The primary purpose of the Field Mapper Processor is to flatten hierarchical structures and align them with a feature service's schema.
Some other common uses for the Field Mapper Processor include:
- Since specifying a target GeoEvent Definition establishes the schema of the GeoEvents sent from the Field Mapper Processor, the processor can effectively be used to reduce the number of attribute fields routed from an input to an output. You just need to create a GeoEvent Definition with the desired fields and then use the Field Mapper Processor to reduce and align GeoEvents received by a GeoEvent Service with the desired output schema.
- Perform some basic data conversions. For example, when a GeoEvent field containing integer data can be converted to a long or double representation of the data value. Numeric values can be converted to create string representations of the data. If the Field Mapper Processor is unable to complete a data type conversion, a null value will be written to the mapped field.
Note:
If you are updating features in a published feature service and do not want one or more fields of existing features to be modified, leaving those fields unmapped in the Field Mapper Processor will result in null values being written as features are updated. Use the Field Reducer Processor to remove unmapped fields before sending the GeoEvents to an output connector, which is responsible for the feature service update. | https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/geoevent/latest/process-event-data/field-mapper-processor.htm |
|Course unit objective:
|
To introduce students with problems and concepts of digital data acquisition, and to teach them digital data processing techniques which enable reliable description of studied objects and processes by the acquired data.
|Learning outcomes of the Course unit
|
A student is able to design an adequate data acquisition system, select its components and select an appropriate data processing procedure that would enable measurements within the sufficient error limits.
|Course unit contents
|
Theoretical classes
An overview of structure and characteristics of measurement systems. Classification and concepts of digital signal representation. Sampling, digitalization and reconstruction of signals. Data processing techniques: frequency analysis, filtering, correlation and spectral power analysis.
Practical classes
A student project consists of design and software implementation of data processing procedure relevant for research interest of the student. The project is tested on experimental or simulated data. | http://mfkv.kg.ac.rs/en/index.php/erasmus-plus/1178-erasmus/51-digital-processing-of-experimental-data.html |
Anterior maxilla is one of the most challenging sites for implant placement, as the local anatomy is most frequently compromised. At the same time, the high expectations of natural aesthetics introduce significant challenges for the operator, who is required to “begin with the end in mind”, carefully select the appropriate treatment pathway and design the best intervention for the individual patient.
read more here!
– Introduction: About this course
– Minimally invasive implant surgery: philosophy, biology and technology
– Anterior maxilla: anatomic, aesthetic and functional limitations – Moving from the generic to the individual
– Computer aided implant surgery and restoration
– Peri-implant Soft tissues: what do we have, what do we need and how to get it!
– Managing the compromised bone: diagnosis and treatment planning
– Immediate implants
– Ridge preservation
– Guided bone regeneration with simultaneous implant placement
– Technology: implant surface, design and diameter
Day 2 (Seminars + Hands-on)
Advanced Surgical Techniques and Decision Making
– Introduction
– Managing the compromised soft tissues: manipulation and augmentation
– Two-stage augmentation approaches
– Summing up the big picture – site assessment and decision making
Hands-on exercises (on plastic models): | https://www.mattheos.net/event/implants-in-the-aesthetic-zone-a-masterclass/ |
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Document pages: 16 pages
Abstract: Notarial instruments are a category of documents. A notarial instrument canbe distinguished from other documents by its notary sign, a prominent symbol inthe certificate, which also allows to identify the document s issuer.Naturally, notarial instruments are underrepresented in regard to otherdocuments. This makes a classification difficult because class imbalance intraining data worsens the performance of Convolutional Neural Networks. In thiswork, we evaluate different countermeasures for this problem. They are appliedto a binary classification and a segmentation task on a collection of medievaldocuments. In classification, notarial instruments are distinguished from otherdocuments, while the notary sign is separated from the certificate in thesegmentation task. We evaluate different techniques, such as data augmentation,under- and oversampling, as well as regularizing with focal loss. Thecombination of random minority oversampling and data augmentation leads to thebest performance. In segmentation, we evaluate three loss-functions and theircombinations, where only class-weighted dice loss was able to segment thenotary sign sufficiently.
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- Data loading, please wait... | https://www.eduzhai.net/48455-the-notary-in-the-haystack--countering-class-imbalance-fileshare |
The Microsoft Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution 2007 solution consisted of two server products: Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007.
The primary goal of Office Project Server 2007 is to enable day-to-day project management, and therefore most Office Project Server 2007 users are project managers and their project resources (Team Members, etc.). Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 allows for Portfolio Strategy, Prioritization, and Optimization, and therefore the typical Portfolio Server users are project-management officers and company executives. Office Project Server 2007 and Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 are able to exchange data by using the Project Server Gateway.
In Microsoft Project 2010, the best-in-class portfolio management techniques from Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 are incorporated into Project Server 2010. Together, they provide a single-server platform with end-to-end Project Portfolio Management capabilities to support strategic planning and project execution. The unified solution helps organizations achieve the following business goals:
Simplify Project Initiation and Business Case Development Project Server 2010 streamlines and centralizes project capture and initiation with a new Demand Management module, and it provides customizable governance workflows to ensure that projects are guided by the appropriate controls throughout their life cycles.
Select Project Portfolios That Align with Strategic Priorities Project Server 2010 helps organizations select projects that align with their business priorities by providing techniques to objectively prioritize business strategy, score competing projects, and run what-if analyses under diverse budgetary constraints.
Maximize Resource Utilization and Control The new capacity-planning module in Project Server 2010 helps analysts effectively manage resources by proactively identifying surpluses and deficits and rescheduling proposed projects to maximize available resources.
This document is intended for both IT Professionals and business users who use Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 today and are considering an upgrade to Project Server 2010. This document outlines the various approaches and points out the useful resources in this area. | https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/office/project-server-2010/ff919559(v=office.14)?redirectedfrom=MSDN |
What are reference lines Revit?
Create a reference line that you can use when creating model geometry, or to create constraints for the geometry. In the Family Editor, you can add a reference line in any view and use the same drawing tools and techniques used when adding model lines. When you sketch a reference line, it displays as a single line.
What is the difference between a reference line and a reference plane in Revit?
What is the difference between reference planes and reference lines? A Reference Plane is an infinite plane that servers as a guide for drawing lines and geometry. A Reference Line creates a line similar to a reference plane, but that has logical start and end points.
How do you manage reference planes in Revit?
On the Manage ribbon, in the Settings panel, click Object Styles. Switch to the Annotation Objects tab. Here, you can control the Line Weight, Line Color, and Line Pattern for Reference Lines and Reference Planes.
How do you change a reference plan in Revit?
Select a work plane-based element in a view. Click Modify |
…
In the Work Plane dialog, select another work plane.
- Name—Choose an available work plane from the list, and click OK. …
- Pick a plane—Revit creates a plane coincident to the selected plane.
How do you create a reference level in Revit?
In addition to creating a level for each story in a building, you can also create reference levels, such as sill level.
- Open the section or elevation view to add levels to.
- On the ribbon, click (Level). …
- Place the cursor in the drawing area and click. …
- Draw level lines by moving the cursor horizontally.
What is a reference line?
A reference line, also referred to as a base line, is a user-defined vertical or horizontal line in the graph. Use reference lines to compare, reference, or measure against the data values displayed in the graph.
What do you mean by reference plane?
In celestial mechanics, the plane of reference (or reference plane) is the plane used to define orbital elements (positions). The two main orbital elements that are measured with respect to the plane of reference are the inclination and the longitude of the ascending node.
How do you lock a reference plane in Revit family?
To constrain the sketch of a piece of geometry during creation:
- Use the Align tool and select the specific reference plane and the sketch line to establish the constraint.
- When the lock symbol displays, click it to lock the constraint.
Where is Family Editor in Revit?
The method you use for opening the Family Editor depends on what you want to do. Do one of the following: Select an instance of the family in the drawing area, and click Modify |
Where are reference planes in Revit?
On the ribbon, click (Reference Plane). To draw a line: On the Draw panel, click (Line). In the drawing area, draw the reference planes by dragging the cursor.
How do you turn off reference planes in Revit?
Hide the Reference Plane in the View
- Select one or more reference planes to hide.
- Right-click and click Hide in View Elements. To hide the selected annotations and all other annotations of the same category in the current view, click Hide in View Category.
What are the different types of reference planes?
1.1 shows the three standard reference planes: the medial (mid-sagittal), the frontal (or coronal), and the transverse planes, all at 90 degrees to each other and usually set to meet in the center of mass of the whole body.
How do you align walls in Revit?
Examples
- Click Modify tab Modify panel (Align). …
- On the Options Bar, select the desired options: …
- Select the reference element (the element to align other elements to).
- Select one or more elements to align with the reference element. | https://powerpointmaniac.com/other/what-is-a-weak-reference-in-revit.html |
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please register as a participant for the conference (free!) and then Login in order to have access to downloads in the detailed view. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view.
Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 22nd Oct 2020, 12:51:53am EEST
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Session Overview|
|Session|
|
CAI1-SS: Computational Audio Intelligence for Immersive Applications 1 (Music source separation)
|
|
External Resource:
Session: https://mmsp-virtual.org/presentation/special-session/computational-audio-intelligence-immesive-applications-1-music-source|
First presentation: https://mmsp-virtual.org/presentation/special-session/depthwise-separable-convolutions-versus-recurrent-neural-networks
Second presentation: https://mmsp-virtual.org/presentation/special-session/multichannel-singing-voice-separation-deep-neural-network-informed-doa
Third presentation: https://mmsp-virtual.org/presentation/special-session/mixingspecific-data-augmentation-techniques-improved-blind-violinpiano
Fourth presentation: https://mmsp-virtual.org/presentation/special-session/multichannel-unet-music-source-separation
|Presentations|
9:40am - 9:55am
⭐ This paper has been nominated for the best paper award.
Depthwise Separable Convolutions Versus Recurrent Neural Networks for Monaural Singing Voice Separation
1Media Research Group, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland; 2Semantic Music Technologies Group, Fraunhofer-IDMT, Ilmenau, Germany; 3Audio Research Group, Tampere University, Finland
Recent approaches for music source separation are almost exclusively based on deep neural networks, mostly employing recurrent neural networks (RNNs). Although RNNs are in many cases superior than other types of deep neural networks for sequence processing, they are known to have specific difficulties in training and parallelization, especially for the typically long sequences encountered in music source separation. In this paper we present a use-case of replacing RNNs with depth-wise separable (DWS) convolutions, which are a lightweight and faster variant of the typical convolutions. We focus on singing voice separation, employing an RNN architecture, and we replace the RNNs with DWS convolutions (DWS-CNNs). We conduct an ablation study and examine the effect of the number of channels and layers of DWS-CNNs on the source separation performance, by utilizing the standard metrics of signal-to-artifacts, signal-to-interference, and signal-to-distortion ratio. Our results show that by replacing RNNs with DWS-CNNs yields an improvement of 1.20, 0.06, 0.37 dB, respectively, while using only 20.57% of the amount of parameters of the RNN architecture.
9:55am - 10:10am
⭐ This paper has been nominated for the best paper award.
Multichannel Singing Voice Separation by Deep Neural Network Informed DOA Constrained CMNMF
1Universidad de Jaén, Spain; 2Tampere University, Finland
This work addresses the problem of multichannel source separation combining two powerful approaches, multichannel spectral factorization with recent monophonic deep learning (DL) based spectrum inference. Individual source spectra at different channels are estimated with a Masker-Denoiser twin network, able to model long-term temporal patterns of a musical piece. The monophonic source spectrograms are used within a spatial covariance mixing model based on complex-valued multichannel non-negative matrix factorization (CMNMF) that predicts the spatial characteristics of each source. The proposed framework is evaluated on the task of singing voice separation with a large multichannel dataset. Experimental results show that our joint DL+CMNMF method outperforms both the individual monophonic DL-based separation and the multichannel CMNMF baseline methods.
10:10am - 10:25am
Mixing-Specific Data Augmentation Techniques for Improved Blind Violin/Piano Source Separation
1Graduate Program of Multimedia Systems and Intelligent Computing,National Cheng Kung University and Academia Sinica, Taiwan; 2Research Center for IT Innovation, Academia Sinica, Taiwan; 3Yating Music Team, Taiwan AI Labs
Blind music source separation has been a popular
and active subject of research in both the music information
retrieval and signal processing communities. To counter the lack
of available multi-track data for supervised model training, a
data augmentation method that creates artificial mixtures by
combining tracks from different songs has been shown useful
in recent works. Following this light, we examine further in
this paper extended data augmentation methods that consider
more sophisticated mixing settings employed in the modern music
production routine, the relationship between the tracks to be
combined, and factors of silence. As a case study, we consider the
separation of violin and piano tracks in a violin piano ensemble,
evaluating the performance in terms of common metrics, namely
SDR, SIR, and SAR. In addition to examining the effectiveness of
these new data augmentation methods, we also study the influence
of the amount of training data. Our evaluation shows that the
proposed mixing-specific data augmentation methods can help
improve the performance of a deep learning-based model for
source separation, especially in the case of small training data.
10:25am - 10:40am
Multi-channel U-Net for Music Source Separation
1Department of Information and Communications Technologies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain; 2Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Seville, Spain
A fairly straightforward approach for music source separation is to train independent models, wherein each model is dedicated for estimating only a specific source. Training a single model to estimate multiple sources generally does not perform as well as the independent dedicated models. However,
Conditioned U-Net (C-U-Net) uses a control mechanism to train a single model for multi-source separation and attempts to achieve a performance comparable to that of the dedicated models.
We propose a multi-channel U-Net (M-U-Net) trained using a weighted multi-task loss as an alternative to the C-U-Net. We investigate two weighting strategies for our multi-task loss: 1) Dynamic Weighted Average (DWA), and 2) Energy Based Weighting (EBW). DWA determines the weights by tracking the rate of change of loss of each task during training. EBW aims to neutralize the effect of the training bias arising from the difference in energy levels of each of the sources in a mixture. Our methods provide two-fold advantages compared to the C-U-Net: 1) Fewer effective training iterations per epoch with no conditioning, and 2) Fewer trainable network parameters (no control parameters). Our methods achieve performance comparable to that of C-U-Net and the dedicated U-Nets at a much lower training cost.
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Contact and Legal Notice · Contact Address: | https://www.conftool.org/mmsp2020/index.php?page=browseSessions&path=adminSessions&form_session=7 |
Object collection: Contains a list of items (objects) that are each made up of a set of fields. For example, a Customer object would be made up of the fields First Name, Last Name, Account ID, Phone Number, and so on.
Note: For more details about collections and their configuration, refer to Defining Collections.
From the Insert menu, select Collection Display. Alternatively, from the toolbar, click IconInsertCollectionDisp.
The Collection Display Definition dialog opens.
In the Reference Name field, enter an appropriate name for the element.
In the Page Title field, enter text to be displayed at the top of the page.
From the Select a Collection dropdown list, select the relevant simple collection.
From the Display Options dropdown list, select the desired display option.
The default display option is Bulleted List.
If desired, enter a header and/or footer to be displayed before/after the collection of values.
The Collection Display element is added to the Interaction.
From the Select a Collection dropdown list, select the relevant object collection.
The Fields tab is enabled. At the bottom of the dialog, the Display as field is populated.
To prevent certain fields from being displayed to the end user, clear the Visible checkbox in the rows of the relevant fields.
To change the order in which the fields are displayed, select a row. Then, at the right side of the dialog, click the Up/Down arrows, as required.
To change the alignment of the field in the table row, from the Align column of the relevant row, select Left, Right, or Center. | https://jacada.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/202170406-Collection-Displays |
Return to: Programs of Study
The Information Technology-Applications Development track prepares individuals for employment as computer programmers, applications specialists, and related positions through study and applications in computer concepts, logic, programming procedures, languages, platforms, data management, and business operations.
Students will solve business problems through programming techniques and procedures, using appropriate languages, platforms, and software. The primary emphasis of the curriculum is hands-on training in applications development and related computer areas that provide the ability to adapt as systems evolve.
Graduates should qualify for employment in entry-level computer programming and applications development positions with business, educational systems, and governmental agencies.
The Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) recognizes the Information Technology-Applications Development Associate in Applied Science Degree for accreditation.
Students, to help you progress in your degree program, take prerequisite courses along with English and Math early in your academic career. This will align you for greater success in completing your program of study. Click on the courses listed below to ensure you are aware of prerequisites. The order shown below under the student program priorities is a guide.
OR
Select one (1) course from the following:
Select one (1) course from the following:
Select three (3) credit hours from the following:
Major course credits earned over five years ago will not apply toward an Associate Degree in Information Technology.
Students may complete up to three hours credit from WBL courses. Please contact the Work-Based Learning office for more information. | http://catalog.gaston.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=22&poid=3190&returnto=958 |
- Session:
- Time: Monday, October 29, 2018 - 3:30pm-5:00pm
Given importance of oscillations across disciplines, several techniques have been developed to detect oscillations in data using time, frequency and time-frequency analysis techniques. A straightforward time domain analysis technique is visual inspection for presence of oscillations. Although simple, this makes the analysis subjective. The empirical mode decomposition (a widely used time domain technique) can be used to reduce the effect of noise, and has been employed to analyze intermittent and elliptic oscillations at the atmospheric boundary layer. However, intermittent oscillation in data leads to presence of several modes in a single IMF, referred to as mode mixing. Moreover, a single mode of oscillation can also appear in multiple IMFs which makes mode mixing a serious concern for reliable detection of intermittent oscillations.
On the other hand, several frequency domain techniques exist that can be used for detection of oscillations. The most common frequency domain technique is the Fourier transform which transforms the time domain signal to frequency domain in which the power content at different frequencies can be examined to detect oscillations. However, phenomena such as spectral leakage make it difficult to correctly identify the frequencies of oscillations. An extension to Fourier Transform is the Short Time Fourier Transform for signals with time varying frequency that restricts the calculation of Fourier transform to a moving window of finite length. However, this approach suffers from the problem of fixed window size and hence fixed time and frequency resolution. The wavelet transforms use waveforms with certain desired characteristics (such as orthogonality) called (mother and daughter) wavelets as basis functions. However wavelet based techniques suffer from the fact that they lack clear definition of sinusoidal oscillations and there is a need to select appropriate mother wavelet for desired feature extraction.
Despite their limitations, the above techniques and many more have been extensively used for detection of oscillations in diverse applications. However, there is a lack of a common framework that can accommodate several important features in data such as non-stationarity, intermittent oscillation, measurement noise and multiple oscillations. In this paper, we report an approach that addresses all of the above stated problems. The proposed framework combines both time and frequency information for better oscillation characterization. A key segmentation idea that allows the localization of the oscillating regimes using template matching is used to overcome many of the difficulties with both time and frequency based oscillation characterization approaches. We show that the proposed approached is robust to non-stationarity, intermittency and noise while characterizing oscillations with multiple modes. The power of this approach is demonstrated using data from various disciplines.
References:
P. Fries, D. Nikolić, and W. Singer, “The gamma cycle,†Trends Neurosci., vol. 30, no. 7, pp. 309–316, 2007.
H. Zhang, C. Thurber, and C. Rowe, “Automatic P-wave arrival detection and picking with multiscale wavelet analysis for single-component recordings,†Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am., vol. 93, no. 5, pp. 1904–1912, 2003.
A. Mendoza-bricen and R. Erde, “Intermittent coronal loop oscillations by random energy releases ´,†pp. 722–731, 2006.
J. K. Lundquist, “Intermittent and Elliptical Inertial Oscillations in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer,†J. Atmos. Sci., vol. 60, no. 1997, pp. 2661–2673, 2003.
A. Mougi and Y. Iwasa, “Evolution towards oscillation or stability in a predator--prey system,†Proc. R. Soc. London B Biol. Sci., p. rspb20100691, 2010.
J. Röschke, J. Fell, and K. Mann, “Non-linear dynamics of alpha and theta rhythm: Correlation dimensions and Lyapunov exponents from healthy subject’s spontaneous EEG,†Int. J. Psychophysiol., vol. 26, no. 1–3, pp. 251–261, 1997.
A. L. Goldberger, D. R. Rigney, J. Mietus, E. M. Antman, and S. Greenwald, “Nonlinear dynamics in sudden cardiac death syndrome: heartrate oscillations and bifurcations.,†Experientia, vol. 44, no. 11–12, pp. 983–987, 1988.
D. Kim and H. Oh, “EMD: A Package for Empirical Mode Decomposition and Hilbert Spectrum,†R J., vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 40–46, 2009. | https://www.aiche.org/conferences/aiche-annual-meeting/2018/proceeding/paper/183e-segmentation-approach-oscillation-characterization |
This assessment is a culmination piece, in which you will be given an opportunity to combine the information you have accumulated in Assessments 1 and 2. More importantly, you will need to showcase an understanding of marketing issues related to consumer behaviour such as attitudes, group influences, culture, social class, consumer learning processes, and personal buying decision-making processes.
The Task: Based on the scenario below, you are required to write a 2000-word report. In this report, you must demonstrate an understanding and application of various consumer behaviour concepts and theories by analysing the facts gathered from the video and the survey, and present strategic recommendations. You will be required to incorporate recent peer-reviewed literature in order to justify your proposed recommendations.
Scenario: Imagine that you have just been employed by the company of your chosen FMCG product that you analysed in your earlier assessments. You have recently learnt that the company’s customer loyalty has declined over the last year and that repeat purchases are at a historic low.
You have now been asked to prepare a report in which you must critically analyse company’s current marketing strategy and marketing communication mix and its alignment to your findings in assessment 1 and 2. More specifically, you will need to determine if identified consumer behavioural factors in previous assessments align with company’s current marketing focus. Based on your analysis, you are also required to provide at least three strategic recommendations to the board of directors, along with reasons for recommending further improvements, all of which must be based on scholarly sources.
The paper is to be presented in a professional report format and cannot exceed 2000 words. In all of the responses, whilst your views are important and must be shared, you must cite consumer behaviour theory to support your position.
Strategic Recommendations (600 words) that are logical and feasible.
You must use a minimum of 15 references.
Please note that Wikipedia and other ‘popular’ or non-academic sources are not to be used.
You are also encouraged to submit your work well in advance of the deadline to avoid any possible delay with the Turnitin similarity report or any other technical difficulties.
theories and concepts and does so convincingly.
o Ideas/themes have been developed, but your composition lacks connections and integration. | https://www.australiabesttutors.com/recent_question/43196/assessment-information-3subject-code-mba404subject |
In the fierce competitive environment of the fashion industry, characterized by increasingly shorter product-life-cycles, growing expectations of informed consumers and an intensifying pressure from cheap products, consumer proximity, a strong brand presentation and a short time to market, are decisive elements for manufacturers. Due to market concentration of large-scale retail chains and a shift in power within the distribution channel from manufacturers towards retailers, new vertical marketing concepts emerged which allow to increasingly control the retail channel. Especially the specific success factors of the Shop-in-Shop Concept (SiSC) and the Concession Model (CM) are under focussed discussion. This paper aims to explore the consumers’ perception of the CM compared to the SiSC in retailing.The research question here is:Do consumers perceive the potential benefits of the CM compared to the SiSC in fashion retailing?In these premises an exploratory study was undertaken.By means of grounded research a framework was developed and the success factors of both concepts regarding Instore Marketing, Merchandise and Personal selling were determined. Based on these findings hypotheses were put forward and tested by means of primary data (consumer survey) gathered in selected sales areas of HUGO BOSS, managed by means of the two retail models (CM and SiSC) in department stores of El Corte Inglés (ECI) in Spain. | https://www.springerprofessional.de/determination-of-success-factors-of-the-shop-in-shop-and-the-con/6861772 |
Charitsis, Vasileios (2009) Developing and managing brand communities through event marketing strategies. Masters thesis, Waterford Institute of Technology.
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DEVELOPING_AND_MANAGING_BRAND_COMMUNITIES_THROUGH_EVENT_MARKETING_STRATEGIES.pdf
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Abstract
As the market landscape keeps evolving with a blistering pace and traditional marketing approaches are no longer effective in delivering competitive advantage there is a need for new marketing strategies to be implemented. The concept of brand communities has been attracting increasing attention as it provides a platform upon which various kinds of strong relationships centered around a brand can be established, providing a multitude of positive outcomes for brands. The purpose of this study is to explore the role of event marketing strategies in developing and managing brand communities. The focus of the present study was placed on the higher education sector and the role of event marketing in building alumni associations. The chosen research methodology was qualitative as the primary data for this study was collected through semi-structured interviews with both alumni officers and alumni members whichallowed the researcher to gain an in-depth understanding of the investigated phenomenon. This research revealed a number of significant findings that add to previous literature and contribute to managerial practice as well. The findings indicate that event marketing strategies reinforce overall community feelings within alumni associations and can have a positive impact on alumni’s referral and contributing behaviour towards the institution, on their intention to return to the institution for further education as well as on their involvement with the institution. Based on the findings of the primary research a number of managerial recommendations were also made to enhance the effectiveness of event marketing strategies in building alumni associations. | https://repository.wit.ie/1452/ |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
This study seeks to describe and give an overview of product branding theory from the phenomenon of entrepreneurial empowerment for original Solo batik (Batik Asli Solo) clothing products. By referring to Trihatmoko (2019b), this study applied a qualitative research method using a phenomenological approach and pragmatism interpretation. The theoretical foundation was structurally depicted in agency theory and channel management from Bergen, Dutta, and Walker (1992). The results of this study identified that product branding includes entrepreneurial creativity and marketing strategies that determine or have an impact on brand performance and the competitive market. Creativity and marketing strategies carried out by batik entrepreneurs depend on government regulations at the regional and central levels, in the context of economic empowerment. Brand performance and market competitions are branding outcomes that create regional and country icons. An icon is built continuously by consumers’ perceptions and evaluations of their behavior, namely consumers and businesses by the local, national and international market. So, the theorizing of the research findings describes that batik is an icon of Solo and Indonesia for the international community. This paper contributes to the expansion of marketing management knowledge, namely the marketing mix, entrepreneurial behavior, and consumer and business behavior. In practice, it has implications for the entrepreneurship of clothing products based on local wisdom as well as government regulations in economic empowerment for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Keywords: Batik Entrepreneurship, Clothing Product, Government Regulation, Marketing Strategies, Products Branding, Region and Country Icon
Authors’ individual contribution: Conceptualization — R.A.T.; Methodology — R.A.T. and T.H.; Resources — L.P.; Writing — Original Draft — R.A.T.; Writing — Review & Editing — L.P. and R.A.T.; Supervision — L.P.
Declaration of conflicting interests: The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgements: The Authors express their thanks to the Directorate General of Institutional Science, Technology and Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia, for financial support for this research project (grant No. 017/LL6/PG/SPH2H.1/AMD/Penelitian/2020). | https://virtusinterpress.org/Branding-of-products-as-a-region-and-country-icon-Governance-and-entrepreneurship-in-the-textile-industry.html |
The past decade has seen heightened attention towards the potentially harmful consequences of intellectual property crime. In particular, there are concerns about the damage to industry and the global economy, alongside increasing recognition of links with organised crime and terrorism. As a result, a plethora of policy initiatives have sought to reduce the problem of counterfeiting and piracy, of which the underlying principle is consumer responsibility. However, this thesis argues that this approach is based on a number of assumptions. These are prominent when the specific example of fashion counterfeiting is examined. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to explore consumers' perceptions about fashion counterfeiting and how they relate to their fashion purchasing and assumptions underpinning anti-counterfeiting policy. The research seeks to contextualise fashion counterfeiting within the broader literature about consumption and fashion and add to criminological literature. This is achieved by taking an interdisciplinary consumer-based approach which involved the completion of 801 questionnaires and conducting 27 semi-structured interviews and 2 focus groups. The findings support recent existing research findings that consumers of counterfeit fashion goods cannot be distinguished by their demographic characteristics. Instead, consumers' preferences about fashion, as well as the situation, context and availability are major factors related to the propensity to purchase fashion counterfeits. Techniques of neutralisation and notably the denial of harm can be clearly identified in consumer justifications for purchasing counterfeits. This has clear consequences for consumer perceptions about whether counterfeiting is a 'real crime' and inevitably, responses to counterfeiting. In particular, the notion that consumers will change their behaviour through being educated about the 'dangers of buying fakes' is problematic, as is the suggestion that criminalising the consumption of counterfeits could be a solution. Therefore, these findings demonstrate fundamental concerns about current assumptions underpinning anti-counterfeiting policy. | https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.545729 |
Special Issue "Geospatial Technology for Land Restoration and Planning"
A special issue of Environments (ISSN 2076-3298).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 August 2019
Special Issue Editors
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Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Teiji Watanabe
Group of Environmental Geography, Section of Integrated Environmental Science, Faculty of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University W-5, N-10, Sapporo, 060-0810, Japan
Website | E-Mail
Phone: +81 11 706 2213
Interests: mountain geoecology; landscape changes in high mountain areas; geodiversity; sustainable use and management in mountain protected areas/national parks; trail erosion in mountain areas
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Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Yu-Pin Lin
Department of Bioenvironmental Systems Engineering, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan
Website | E-Mail
Phone: 886-2-33663468
Fax: +86 2 23686980
Interests: spatial statistics and modeling in environmental and ecological systems; applications of GIS and remote sensing in environmental and ecological systems; freshwater monitoring and modeling; optimal environmental monitoring network design; landscape ecology in land-use management and planning; ecohydrology; groundwater modeling; land-use planning and modeling; soil heavy metal pollution assessment; multiscale analysis in environmental and ecological systems; system dynamic modeling in environmental systems; ecosystem services; system dynamic modeling; optimization techniques
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Guest Editor
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Li-Pei Peng
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In spite of the fact that urban areas are where most of the population around the world resides today, there are still millions of people depending on agriculture for life. However, due to excessive and inappropriate land use, land degradation has become worse, influencing people from all walks of life in an increasingly connected world. As a consequence, engaging stakeholders from a variety of disciplines to create socially, economically, and environmentally beneficial land use patterns is necessary and particularly urgent. Nevertheless, little research in the past has addressed the topic of land restoration, while it is important to understand the relationship between and the balance of both land degradation and restoration for land degradation neutrality; furthermore, there is still an existing knowledge gap in applying remote sensing techniques to land ecosystem management. On account of the situations mentioned above, it is needed for land managers, practitioners, and decision-makers to be capable of evaluating the losses, gains, and changes in land use systems across various spatial and temporal scales.
Attempting to solve stakeholders’ knowledge gap in land use management, the goal of this Special Issue is to invite papers which are able to (1) explore land restoration and planning with the use of innovative scientific technologies; (2) apply existing and/or innovative remote sensors to quantify and analyze land use change in novel ways; and (3) integrate geographical data from different spatial, spectral, and thematic scales, along with their spatial patterns. Well-prepared review papers are also welcome.
This Special Issue aims at realizing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 11, to “make cities and human settlements,” and 15, to “protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably”. The Special Issue is co-organized by the Japan and Tapei Nodal Offices.
Prof. Dr. Teiji Watanabe
Dr. Ram Avtar
Prof. Dr. Yu-Pin Lin
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Li-Pei Peng
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Environments is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 300 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions. | https://www.mdpi.com/journal/environments/special_issues/Geospatial_Technology |
This project will obtain spatial and long-term pollutant load information from the Root River watershed in Southeast Minnesota. To accomplish this, the Fillmore Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) will assist the MPCA with water quality monitoring and annual pollutant loading calculations. Approximately 25 grab samples will be collected/site/year at 5 sites within the Root River watershed (totaling 125 grab samples/year). Annual load calculations for each site will be determined using the FLUX32 model.
The Winona County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) developed this project to help reduce the amount of pathogens and nutrients generated by livestock from reaching surface waters and groundwater by targeting feedlots located in areas that are highly susceptible to groundwater pollution and sinkhole formation.
The grant will use local data to develop stormwater planning options that prioritize, target, and measure the effectiveness of Best Management Practices and allow local city officials to make decisions on stormwater Best management Practices that reduce pollutants in the stormwatershed.
The AgBMP Loan Program provides needed funding for local implementation of clean water practices at an extremely low cost, is unique in its structure and is not duplicated by any other source of funding.The AgBMP loan program provides 3% loans through local lenders to farmers, rural landowners, and agriculture supply businesses.
Peer Engineering, Inc. (Peer) will evaluate and recommend to MPCA groundwater monitoring staff prospective sites/locations for the installation of groundwater monitoring wells to evaluate contaminant/pollutant concentrations from various sources. Peer will oversee the installation of monitoring wells by retaining a state drilling contractor or preparing bid documents to retain well driller through the Department of Administration. Superfund staff will assist in the project by providing oversight of contractual requirements and provide technical assistance as needed.
The Beltrami SWCD proposes to partner with citizen and non-profit groups to complete projects that will reduce stormwater runoff and retain water on the land. The majority of the projects will be in the Lake Bemidji lakeshed which has recently been identified in the WRAPs project as being on the verge of impaired for nutrients. With the City of Bemidji being a regional hub for Northwestern Minnesota and the First City on the Mississippi, there are ample opportunities for citizen involvement and ample opportunities for stormwater improvements.
Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District (RWMWD) will improve water quality in Casey Lake and ultimately Kohlman Lake through the installation of approximately 25 rain gardens on priority properties identified as part of the Casey Lake Urban Stormwater Retrofit Assessment completed by Ramsey Conservation District (RCD) in 2011.
This monitoring project includes lake and stream monitoring and encompasses all of Cass County, and surrounding counties. The project will obtain water quality data for streams; in 2009, lakeshed assessments indicated that many surface waters throughout the county were data deficient. This project will address the need for sufficient data on a county-wide basis and fulfill the State’s intensive watershed monitoring program goals by obtaining water quality data at targeted lake and stream sites.
This project will include lake and stream monitoring on 23 lakes and 4 streams found within the Leech Lake River and Pine River watersheds in Cass County. The project will be conducted in an effort to gain sufficient data on these data-deficient lake and stream sites within these watersheds. All of the proposed monitoring sites are target sites located in the targeted watersheds for 2012. Cass ESD is partnering with Hubbard SWCD, the Leech Lake Band of Objibwe, and RMB Environmental Laboratories to conduct the fieldwork for this project.
This project will build network and the skill set of local resource professionals to do effective civic engagement work for water restoration and protection in Southeast Minnesota. The cohort will be administered through the Southeast Minnesota Water Resources Board (SE MN WRB) which is an area wide Joint Powers Board (JPB) established to help improve and protect the water resources of the area through coordinating local water planning efforts. This JPB has successfully administered water quality grants in the past that have positively impacted the water resources of this region.
This project will identify and compile existing nitrate data from groundwaters and surface waters in the Lower Mississippi Basin (LMB) generally and focus on the Root River Watershed. The purpose is to investigate the quantity and quality of existing nitrate data, and to organize it for use in comprehensive watershed strategy development (including assessment, TMDL computation and identification and study of nitrate sources and delivery mechanisms).
The Drinking Water Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CEC) program identifies environmental contaminants for which current health-based standards currently do not exist or need to be updated, investigate the potential for human exposure to these chemicals, and develop guidance values for drinking water. Contaminants evaluated by CEC staff include contaminants that have been released or detected in Minnesota waters (surface water and groundwater) or that have the potential to migrate to or be detected in Minnesota waters.
After 6 years of intensive baseline monitoring at 5 edge-of-field sites, 1 intermittent and 3 in-stream sites in 3 sub-watersheds representing the geomorphic regions of the Root River, the second phase of the project is well prepared for the implementation of BMPs. Continued monitoring will be used to measure the effectiveness of the BMPs for the next 6 years. In preparation for BMP implementation, extensive planning was completed using LiDAR terrain analysis and the Tomer Framework to prioritize practices.
This leadership workshop series will provide the participants (citizen leaders) with knowledge, skills, processes and tools that can help to strengthen their current efforts and nurture new ones.
This project will study the geologic controls on nitrate transport in southeast Minnesota's karst landscape and will also provide datasets for other projects over time.
The goal of this project is to continue and finalize HSPF watershed model construction and complete the calibration/validation process.
This project will construct, calibrate, and validate three HSPF watershed models. The consultant will produce HSPF models that can readily be used to provide information to support conventional parameter TMDLs. The consultant will clearly demonstrate that these models generate predicted output time series for hydrology, sediment, nutrients, and dissolved oxygen which are consistent with available sets of observed data.
The purpose of this project is to identify effective irrigation and nutrient management best management practices and technologies and the barriers that prevent irrigators, producers, and other agricultural partners from adopting them in Otter Tail County. The primary goal is to reduce nitrate in areas where groundwater is susceptible to contamination as mapped by The Minnesota Department of Health by identifying effective BMPs and addressing the barriers to their adoption.
The north-central Minnesota counties of Cass and Hubbard share large portions of the Crow Wing River, Leech and Upper Mississippi Watersheds, all of which play an important role in providing clean drinking water to over one million Minnesota residents. Each county assumes the responsibility of inspecting and evaluating the judicial and county ditch systems that drain directly into these watersheds. The two counties together share two judicial ditch systems and combined have an additional 42 ditches within their borders.
The main outcome of Phase III of the project will be the final deliverable of a WRAPS report that will prescribe the restoration and protection strategies for the surface water resources within the Leech Lake River Watershed. The WRAPS will provide the analytical and strategic foundation which will be essential in protecting the surface water resources within this high quality watershed. Along with the development of the WRAPS report, this project will support the development and completion of the MPCA Stressor ID and Watershed Assessment reports to be completed for this watershed.
This project supports the planning, coordination and civic engagement/outreach components of the Leech Lake River Major Watershed project. Phase 1 will focus towards the development of project teams, identifying stakeholders, developing an initial civic engagement strategic plan and reviewing current and past watershed project data. Phase II of this project will focus on source assessment, running of watershed modeling scenarios, lake protection planning, stressor identification and the continuation of the Civic Engagement components of the project.
LEQA is a Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) program to help livestock producers address, using a non-regulatory approach, the unique water quality issues on their farms. The MDA has contracted with Ag Resource Strategies, LLC, to recruit farmers to enroll in the LEQA program. The company trains technicians to assess different areas of each farms, such as the farmstead, livestock facilities, fields and wooded areas. The technicians then develop an environmental assessment and identify financial assistance for these projects.
Ninety percent of the land in Mower County is used for agriculture. The County ranks 10th and 13th in the State for corn and bean production, making much of the land vulnerable to erosion due to the planting of row crop. As a result, streams and ditches in the county see high sediment loads.
This project supports monitoring and assessment activities by MPCA EAO staff and includes lab analysis, equipment, fieldwork, data management, and interpretation expenses associated with monitoring and assessment activities.The ambient groundwater monitoring network describes the current condition and trends in Minnesota's groundwater quality.
This project supports monitoring and assessment activities by MPCA EAO staff and includes lab analysis, equipment, and fieldwork expenses associated with monitoring and assessment activities within the described priority watersheds.
Lake Monitoring: Lakes are monitored for nutrients, clarity and other information to provide the data needed to assess the aquatic recreation use support.
Regionally, nitrate nitrogen concentrations are continuing to increase in both surface water and ground water based on monitoring data. The increasing trends are thought to be attributable to over application of manure and commercial nutrients on row-cropped fields. In order for nitrate concentrations to decrease, nutrient management is needed throughout the basin. Two nutrient management specialists will assist landowners in the eleven-county Southeast Minnesota Area with writing nutrient management plans and implementing conservation practices for manure and fertilizer use.
Olmsted SWCD will work in coordination with Fillmore SWCD and Root River (Houston) SWCD to collect water quality and chemistry parameters on 14 Minnesota Pollution Control Agency approved sites within the Root River watershed during the 2018-2019 sampling season.
Parameters to be tested include:TSS, TP, Chloride, CaCO3 (hardness), E. Coli, Chlorophyll A, Specific Conductance, Temp, pH, DO, NO2/NO3.
This project will, over a 27 month period, fund a 0.75 Full Time Equivalent Conservation Planning Specialist position to update approximately 400 United States Department of Agriculture Highly Erodable Lands conservation plans on 40,000 acres in high priority areas within the Root River watershed. Currently, only 5% of the USDA conservation plans -approximately 40 per year - are being checked for compliance, and this project will increase that number to 150 or more per year.
The Root River Field to Stream Partnership is comprised of farmers, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, the Minnesota Agricultural Water Resource Center, The Nature Conservancy, Fillmore and Mower County Soil and Water Conservation Districts, the Root River SWCD, Monsanto and academic researchers.Together, project partners are addressing the following key questions:What is the range of sediment, nitrogen and phosphorus losses from agricultural fields on real farms in southeast Minnesota?What are the long-term trends and relationships between specific farming practices and water qualit
This project aims to mitigate flow and nitrate impacts from agricultural drainage to the Root River through the installation of a suite of multi-purpose drainage management practices.
The goal of this project is to perform water quality monitoring in order to accomplish MPCA’s Intensive Watershed Monitoring (IWM) plan in preparation for development of Watershed Restoration and Protection (WRAP) monitoring efforts. The monitoring sites are located in Houston, Fillmore and Mower counties in southeast Minnesota. This project will provide intensive stream monitoring for Pine Creek in the La Crescent watershed, Winnebago and Crooked Creek in the Reno watershed, Bear, Pine and the Upper Iowa in the Upper Iowa watershed.
TMDL project in the Root River Watershed that will support surface water assessment, analysis of data, interpretation of southeast Minnesota's karst landscape, stressor identification, TMDL computation, source assessment, and implementation planning.
The goal of this project is to complete the construction, calibration, and validation of an Hydrological Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) watershed model for the Minnesota portions of three watersheds: Root River, Upper Iowa, and Mississippi River-Reno.
Approximately 70 percent of all Minnesotans rely on groundwater as their primary source of drinking water. Wells used for drinking water must be properly sealed when removed from service to protect both public health and Minnesota’s invaluable groundwater resources. The Minnesota Department of Health protects both public health and groundwater by assuring the proper sealing of unused wells.
Clean Water funds are being provided to well owners as a 50% cost-share assistance for sealing unused public water-supply wells.
The lack of sewage treatment in some small communities in Southeast Minnesota is causing surface water and groundwater pollution. Fourteen of these communities will be the target of the technical assistance provided by this project. These communities have community or individual straight pipes discharging raw sewage directly into the environment;surfacing sewage or have sewage contaminating groundwater.
The lack of sewage treatment in many small communities in Southeast Minnesota is causing surface water and groundwater pollution. Fourteen of these small communities will receive technical assistance provided by this project. These communities have community or individual straight pipes which are discharging raw sewage directly to the environment, surfacing sewage, or have sewage contaminating groundwater.
The purpose of this effort is to create an educational video that will “bring to life” geo-scientific information related to groundwater movement in southeast Minnesota. This video will be used by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) and other regional partners to help explain the local geology and related groundwater movement. It is anticipated that the video will be used at meetings and other events related to water resource management and natural resource issues. In addition, three stand alone high resolution graphics will be created.
The goal of this project is to investigate nitrate transport and the sources of nitrate in karst for more effective implementation of best management practices that will reduce nitrate concentrations in ground and surface water. | https://www.legacy.mn.gov/projects?search_api_fulltext=&%3Bamp%3Bf%5B0%5D=fiscal_year%3A2007&%3Bamp%3Bf%5B1%5D=fiscal_year%3A2010&%3Bamp%3Bf%5B2%5D=project_facet_watershed%3A32&%3Bamp%3Bf%5B3%5D=project_facet_watershed%3A108&%3Bf%5B0%5D=project_facets_counties_affected%3A437&f%5B0%5D=project_facet_watershed%3A34&f%5B1%5D=project_facet_watershed%3A69 |
This project will build network and the skill set of local resource professionals to do effective civic engagement work for water restoration and protection in Southeast Minnesota. The cohort will be administered through the Southeast Minnesota Water Resources Board (SE MN WRB) which is an area wide Joint Powers Board (JPB) established to help improve and protect the water resources of the area through coordinating local water planning efforts. This JPB has successfully administered water quality grants in the past that have positively impacted the water resources of this region.
This project will identify and compile existing nitrate data from groundwaters and surface waters in the Lower Mississippi Basin (LMB) generally and focus on the Root River Watershed. The purpose is to investigate the quantity and quality of existing nitrate data, and to organize it for use in comprehensive watershed strategy development (including assessment, TMDL computation and identification and study of nitrate sources and delivery mechanisms).
The Drinking Water Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CEC) program identifies environmental contaminants for which current health-based standards currently do not exist or need to be updated, investigate the potential for human exposure to these chemicals, and develop guidance values for drinking water. Contaminants evaluated by CEC staff include contaminants that have been released or detected in Minnesota waters (surface water and groundwater) or that have the potential to migrate to or be detected in Minnesota waters.
Phase 2 of the Marsh River Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) project includes: continued civic engagement; production of the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study, which allocates pollutant load reductions for impaired waters; and production of the WRAPS report, which identifies implementation strategies that will maintain or improve water quality in many lakes and streams throughout the watershed.
Regionally, nitrate nitrogen concentrations are continuing to increase in both surface water and ground water based on monitoring data. The increasing trends are thought to be attributable to over application of manure and commercial nutrients on row-cropped fields. In order for nitrate concentrations to decrease, nutrient management is needed throughout the basin. Two nutrient management specialists will assist landowners in the eleven-county Southeast Minnesota Area with writing nutrient management plans and implementing conservation practices for manure and fertilizer use.
The Prioritization, Targeting, and Measuring Water Quality Improvement Application (PTMA) connects the general qualitative strategies in a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and Watershed Restoration and Protection (WRAP) and the identification of implementable on-the-ground Best Management Practices (BMPs). Leveraging geospatial data from the International Water Institute this application will be developed for two pilot areas within the Red River Basin.
As part of the FY 2012 funding cycle, the Board of Water and Soil Resources granted funds for development of the Water Quality Decision Support Application (WQDSA). The WQDSA will provide land and water managers with geospatial data and online tools to prioritize, market, and implement actions on the landscape to achieve water quality objectives identified in local and state water plans and to ensure that public funding decisions are strategic and defensible.
This project will develop an effective transferable model to engage and educate watershed residents, stakeholders and others to better understand and protect watershed ecostystems through environmental monitoring, training, and formal and informal education programs in their local watershed. The project will build on the foundation of the existing Red River Basin River Watch program by strengthening three main activity areas: 1) curriculum integration and teacher training, 2) youth leadership and civic engagement, and 3) applied research collaboration and watershed science skills building.
MN Legislative Clean Water Fund funding to engage citizens in local watershed monitoring, work with regional partners to promote understanding and protection of watersheds, and organize and facilitate gathering of scientific data all for the benefit of water quality in the Red River Basin.
The purpose of this project is to improve understanding of primary productivity in the Red River and the diversity and population structure of the algal communities occurring along the river system. This will be accomplished through taxonomic identification of periphyton and phytoplankton assemblages necessary for characterizing responses to nutrient gradients along the Red River of the North.
The objective of the project is to demonstrate controlled drainage and saturated buffers as flood mitigation practices as well as their water quality and quantity benefits. The project is intended to set a compelling example to increase the acceptance and adoption of drainage water management practices in the Red River Valley.Surface and subsurface runoff will be monitored, and water samples will be collected and analyzed for nitrate-nitrogen. Installations were completed in 2015-2016.
The goal of this project is to complete the construction, calibration, and validation of an Hydrological Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) watershed model for the Minnesota portions of three watersheds: Root River, Upper Iowa, and Mississippi River-Reno.
The lack of sewage treatment in some small communities in Southeast Minnesota is causing surface water and groundwater pollution. Fourteen of these communities will be the target of the technical assistance provided by this project. These communities have community or individual straight pipes discharging raw sewage directly into the environment;surfacing sewage or have sewage contaminating groundwater.
The purpose of this effort is to create an educational video that will “bring to life” geo-scientific information related to groundwater movement in southeast Minnesota. This video will be used by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) and other regional partners to help explain the local geology and related groundwater movement. It is anticipated that the video will be used at meetings and other events related to water resource management and natural resource issues. In addition, three stand alone high resolution graphics will be created.
The goal of this project is to investigate nitrate transport and the sources of nitrate in karst for more effective implementation of best management practices that will reduce nitrate concentrations in ground and surface water.
Project goal is to develop Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) and Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategies (WRAPS) that will protect and improve water quality for the Minnesota portion of the Mississippi River–Reno and Upper Iowa River watersheds. This information paired with other tools (e.g. Hydrologic Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) models and best management practice spreadsheets) and will support restoration and protection strategy development and prioritization efforts in the 1W1P area.
This is a joint project between the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), North Dakota, and Manitoba. The project is a basin-wide, up-to-date water quality trend analysis using the "QWTrend" program for approximately 40 bi-national river sites to review nutrients, total suspended solids, total dissolved solids, sulfate and chloride from 1980 - 2015. | https://www.legacy.mn.gov/projects?search_api_fulltext=&%3Bamp%3Bf%5B0%5D=fiscal_year%3A2011&%3Bamp%3Bf%5B1%5D=project_facets_counties_affected%3A438&%3Bamp%3Bf%5B2%5D=project_facet_subject%3A120&%3Bamp%3Bf%5B3%5D=project_facets_counties_affected%3A423&%3Bf%5B0%5D=project_facet_subject%3A127&f%5B0%5D=project_facet_watershed%3A84&f%5B1%5D=project_facet_watershed%3A70 |
Urban streams have been the focus of much research in recent years, but many questions about the mechanisms driving the urban stream syndrome remain unanswered. Identification of key research questions is an important step toward effective, efficient management of urban streams to meet societal goals. We developed a list of priority research questions by: 1) soliciting input from interested scientists via a listserv and online survey, 2) holding an open discussion on the questions at the Second Symposium on Urbanization and Stream Ecology, and 3) reviewing the literature in the preparation of this paper. We present the resulting list of 26 questions in the context of a review and summary of the present understanding of urban effects on streams. The key questions address major gaps in our understanding of ecosystem structure and function responses (e.g., what are the sublethal impacts of urbanization on biota?), characteristics of urban stream stressors (e.g., can we identify clusters of covarying stressors?), and management strategies (e.g., what are appropriate indicators of ecosystem structure and function to use as management targets?). The identified research needs highlight our limited understanding of mechanisms driving the urban stream syndrome and the variability in characteristics of the effects of urbanization across different biogeoclimatic conditions, stages of development, government policies, and cultural norms. We discuss how to proceed with appropriate management activities given our current incomplete understanding of the urban stream syndrome.
Catchment urbanization sets into motion a cascade of changes to stream ecosystems. These changes, collectively termed the urban stream syndrome (Meyer et al. 2005a, Walsh et al. 2005b), have been the subject of an expanding field of scientific research that has contributed to successful characterization of urban streams in many parts of the world (see reviews by Paul and Meyer 2001, Walsh et al. 2005b). Nevertheless, considerable gaps in our understanding remain. Some areas, such as urban stream processes and sublethal effects on biotic assemblages, are only partially understood (Martí et al. 2004, Smith et al. 2009), and the work of characterizing the variability of the urban stream syndrome under differing government policies, cultural norms, and biogeoclimatic conditions has only just begun. Perhaps the biggest gap in our knowledge concerns the relative importance of different mechanisms driving the urban stream syndrome and the interactions among them. Our ability to make inferences about the relative importance of different stressors is often confounded because the process of urbanization changes multiple stressors at the same time (Paul and Meyer 2001, Walsh et al. 2005b).
Our objective is to advance the pace of research into these difficult problems by identifying some of the most critical unanswered questions in urban stream ecology. We are motivated in part by an interest in developing a body of information useful to urban stream managers. The current lack of mechanistic understanding makes difficult the identification of the specific stressors of concern under different conditions and the most efficient solutions for meeting stream management objectives. Our intention is to identify research areas that will yield insights useful for achieving efficient, effective management of urban stream stressors.
We define urban in the broadest possible sense to include the entire landscape developed for residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation purposes, including cities, towns, villages, suburbs, and exurban sprawl that has a density of >1 residential unit/2 ha. We use this encompassing definition because even very low-density development can have measurable negative effects on aquatic ecosystems. We focus on impervious cover (total imperviousness [TI]) as an indicator of urban intensity because, in the absence of deliberate management, TI is highly correlated with stream degradation (Leopold 1968, Schueler 1994, Booth and Jackson 1997). This relationship is captured by the Impervious Cover Model (ICM; Center for Watershed Protection 2003), which takes the form of a wedge-shaped distribution of ecological condition. Streams with low TI can vary widely in condition, from minimally altered to degraded, but as TI increases, the best attainable condition declines until only degraded streams are observed.
The strong relationship between TI and stream ecosystem indicators is driven by the fact that TI affects streams via multiple mechanistic pathways and is closely correlated with other stressors (Brabec et al. 2002, Walsh et al. 2005b). Elevated TI causes an increase in contaminant-laden stormwater runoff that alters stream hydrology at the same time that it alters water chemistry (Fig. 1). This effect is often exacerbated by routing runoff to streams through stormwater drainage pipes. For this reason, such directly connected impervious cover (termed effective imperviousness [EI]) is often a better predictor of stream ecological condition than is TI (e.g., Wang et al. 2001, Hatt et al. 2004; see also review by Brabec et al. 2002). High TI and EI tend to be correlated with sewerage infrastructure, stream piping, and reductions of riparian vegetation, all of which can further degrade water and habitat quality. On the other hand, some urban stressors, such as septic systems and point-source discharges, with weaker correlations with impervious cover might be equally important in driving the urban stream syndrome in some regions of the world. These various stressors and their relationships to sources and responses are shown graphically in Fig. 1. Only selected major causal pathways are shown and much detail, including the complexity of urban stream food webs and functional relationships (grouped in a box at the right of the diagram), is omitted. More detailed diagrams for individual stressors were developed for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Causal Analysis/Diagnosis Decision Information System (CADDIS) program ( http://www.epa.gov/caddis). We have adopted symbols and terms consistent with CADDIS and consider our diagram to be a collapsed version that aggregates all CADDIS diagrams related to urban stressors. In our paper, we used the organizational framework of ecosystem responses, stressors, and sources to summarize our current understanding of urban stream ecosystems. We identified critical unknown elements, which we list as key research questions. Later, we discuss how urban stream management can proceed with our current level of understanding.
Methods for identifying key questions
We identified key research questions through 3 phases of information gathering: 1) solicitation of questions via a listserv and website survey, 2) breakout sessions during the Second Symposium on Urbanization and Stream Ecology (SUSE2; Salt Lake City, Utah), and 3) drafting of this paper. During winter 2007 to 2008, we solicited candidate research questions from a listserv of >100 ecologists, engineers, and environmental scientists. We removed redundant questions and combined similar ones to produce a list of 47 questions, which were then resubmitted to listserv members for ranking in a website survey. Twenty-eight people responded to the survey. Based on the results, we cut low-ranked questions, combined and split some questions, and added a few new ones to produce a revised list of 38 questions. At the SUSE2 meeting held on 22 to 23 May 2008, 116 attendees (Table 1) were divided into 4 groups to review and refine the proposed questions. Each group produced a new list of questions, many of which were broader in scope than the initial list. This process yielded a total of 19 questions. Our paper is based on the list of questions refined by meeting participants, complemented by some of the questions from the web survey and additional questions added during manuscript preparation. The result is a set of 26 questions that we suggest are among the top research priorities needed to improve our understanding and management of urban streams.
Although urban stream management was a motivation for developing the research questions, the attendees at SUSE2 and the contributors of research questions were mostly academics and government researchers, not watershed managers or planners (Table 1). Therefore, this list represents the opinion of a subset of the research community regarding knowledge gaps that should be filled to develop more informed and effective urban stream management policies and strategies. SUSE2 included a panel of watershed managers to help focus discussions, but the primary goal was not to identify research priorities for meeting existing short-term management goals (although these were considered), but rather to consider what new research was needed to advance the state of the science in ways that will better meet the broader objective of healthy urban streams. We intended this project to be international in scope, but most of the authors of this paper and 91% of participants at SUSE2 were from the US (including 7 from Puerto Rico). The remaining SUSE2 participants were from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, New Zealand, and Spain. This geopolitical distribution no doubt introduced some bias into the findings.
Stream Ecosystem Responses to Urbanization
Stream community structure responses
Research has repeatedly demonstrated declines in assemblage richness, diversity, and biotic integrity of algae, invertebrates, and fishes with increasing urbanization (reviewed in Paul and Meyer 2001, Walsh et al. 2005b). The disappearance of sensitive species is sometimes accompanied by an increase in tolerant species, many of which might be nonnative. Fewer studies have addressed the responses of herpetofauna, riparian birds, and other vertebrates to urbanization (Fig. 2), but the limited data suggest reduced abundances of taxa in these groups in urban streams (Mattsson and Cooper 2006, Lussier et al. 2006, Miller et al. 2007). Microbial communities in urban streams are not well studied and should be a focus of future research (question 1; Table 2). The general pattern of structural change in response to increasing urbanization is fairly consistent across different biogeoclimatic conditions, but responses of individual taxa might vary in different physiographic regions (Utz et al. 2009). The effects of urbanization also might be exacerbated by climate shifts (Webb and King 2009, Nelson et al. 2009), another area in need of study (question 2). Urbanization effects often are reduced or confounded when urbanization occurs on land previously used for agriculture (Fitzpatrick et al. 2004, Van Sickle et al. 2004, Heatherly et al. 2007). In their synthesis of research in 9 metropolitan areas across the US, Brown et al. (2009) found no detectable responses of water quality (N and herbicides), algae, and fishes to urbanization of previously agricultural lands. Presumably, this lack of response was observed because sensitive members of these groups already had been eliminated by stressors associated with agricultural activities.
Responses vary by assemblage group, and macroinvertebrates often show the highest sensitivity to urbanization (Brown et al. 2009, Walters et al. 2009). However, this pattern might be a result of the higher diversity of macroinvertebrates than of fishes, and our greater knowledge of invertebrate taxa than of algal taxa. Some studies have demonstrated responses at very low levels of urbanization, such as 4% total urban area (fish; Miltner et al. 2004), 4.4% TI (invertebrates; Ourso and Frenzel 2003), and even 1% EI (diatoms; Walsh et al. 2005a). The spatial arrangement of impervious cover and urban development in a watershed might be a significant determinant of the magnitude of stream ecosystem response (King et al. 2005, Moore and Palmer 2005). Given the range of response patterns and thresholds observed for different taxa and different geographic locations (Walsh et al. 2005b), we argue against attempting to identify a universal threshold of imperviousness or urbanization at which ecosystem responses become significant. Furthermore, evidence indicates that algae, macroinvertebrate, and fish assemblages are influenced by different urban stressors (Brown et al. 2009, Walters et al. 2009). Multiple taxa often are used to assess urban impacts and causal pathways because of the lack of concordance among assemblages and potential differences in response mechanisms (e.g., European Union Water Framework Directive 2000, Walsh and Kunapo 2009).
The structural changes described above might be influenced by trophic and other species interactions, but these mechanistic pathways are not well studied in urban streams. For example, both aquatic macroinvertebrate species and invertivore fish species might decline in urban streams, but whether these responses to stressors are independent or the fish decline is mediated in part by alteration of food resources is not clear. Similarly, loss of sensitive species could result from loss of suitable habitat conditions, or it could reflect a more subtle shift in the competitive environment that favors generalists. More research on foodweb shifts, species interactions, and sublethal responses to urbanization is required (question 3).
Stream functional responses
Stream ecosystem functional responses to urbanization are less studied than are structural responses, but this imbalance is beginning to shift. One frequent finding is that leaf breakdown rates are higher in some urban streams than in nonurban streams, but putative mechanisms differ. Paul et al. (2006) attributed higher breakdown rates to physical abrasion, a result supported by the findings of Swan et al. (2008). However, Imberger et al. (2008) demonstrated that microbial activity, not physical abrasion, was the primary driver. In streams with significant contamination by Zn, Cu, and other metals, leaf decomposition might be reduced as a result of reduced abundances of shredders (Duarte et al. 2008, Roussel et al. 2008). Thus, leaf breakdown rates can show a unimodal response to increasing urbanization in which rates increase with higher nutrients and microbial activity up to some threshold level of urban impact and then decrease in response to high toxicant concentrations at high levels of urban impact (Chadwick et al. 2006). However, Imberger et al. (2008) found increased leaf breakdown despite reduced shredder abundance, perhaps in part because urban riparian zones in some locations are dominated by exotic species with more labile leaves than native species. We have seen no published studies of woody debris breakdown rates in urban streams.
N processing in urban streams is an area of active research, and some patterns are emerging (reviewed by Bernhardt et al. 2008). Urban streams tend to transport elevated N loads (Groffman et al. 2004, Lewis and Grimm 2007, Kaushal et al. 2008b), and the biotic capacity of these streams for attenuating increased N loads might become diminished or saturated compared with biotic capacity in streams draining natural landscapes (e.g., Martí et al. 2004, Grimm et al. 2005, Gibson and Meyer 2007, Klocker et al. 2009). In some cases, the capacity of streams to assimilate N decreases at even low levels of suburban development (Kaushal et al. 2006). Denitrification might be substantial and spatially variable in many urban streams (e.g., Baker et al. 2001, Groffman et al. 2005), and denitrification rates increase with increasing NO3− concentrations, albeit not enough to keep pace; i.e., efficiency declines with increasing concentrations (Mulholland et al. 2008). Where channel incision lowers floodplain water tables, denitrification in the riparian zone might be reduced because of a lack of saturated, anoxic riparian soils or decreased hydrologic connectivity between the stream channel and hyporheic zone (Groffman et al. 2003, Kaushal et al. 2008a). Conversely, nitrification might be elevated in urban streams, particularly those receiving wastewater effluent (Merseberger et al. 2005), unless dissolved O2 is severely depressed. Elucidating the relative importance of different environmental variables influencing N retention and removal in urban streams is still a central area of research (question 4). Moreover, an emerging picture is that unless all species of N are tracked, what appear to be reductions or losses might simply be conversion to other forms.
Studies of stream ecosystem respiration and metabolism have not yielded a clear trend with urbanization (Meyer et al. 2005a, Iwata et al. 2007, von Schiller et al. 2008). However, streams receiving untreated or partially treated wastewater discharges—a category that includes many urban streams in the developing world, and even in Europe and North America—have high respiration rates because of inputs of high-quality C and nutrients (Ometto et al. 2004, Izagirre et al. 2008). Mechanisms affecting metabolism are not always straightforward. For example, bed sediment instability, which can result from increased stormwater runoff in urban areas, reduces both primary production and community respiration (Uehlinger et al. 2002). Metabolism is linked to light, temperature, nutrient availability, organic matter, and channel dynamics, so responses vary among streams depending on how urbanization has affected each of those factors.
Some urban streams have higher algal biomass relative to less disturbed streams (e.g., Taylor et al. 2004, Catford et al. 2007), and might have higher primary production. In some cases, nutrient and C concentrations in urban streams stimulate sufficient periphyton growth to alter fundamentally the structure of the benthic habitat (Murdock et al. 2004). These changes to primary productivity might have cascading effects on higher trophic levels (question 5). However, use of algal standing crops to infer primary productivity is especially problematic in urban streams because frequent high flows can scour and remove algal accumulations. In a Texas stream where wastewater effluent comprised ∼70% of baseflow, high nutrient and C levels contributed to rapid algal growth, but algae were regularly removed by frequent flow events generated by as little as 1.3 cm of rainfall (Murdock et al. 2004). High algal biomass in urban streams has been variously explained by increased nutrients (Catford et al. 2007) and increased light (e.g., Roy et al. 2005a). Conversely, high levels of toxicants are associated with reduced algal biomass (Hill et al. 1997), so algal biomass and primary production might follow the same unimodal relationship with urbanization as leaf breakdown rates. Many questions about the effects of urbanization on stream metabolism remain unanswered (e.g., question 6).
Urban Stream Stressors
The stressors reviewed in this section are loosely organized to proceed from physical to chemical and biological in nature. This organization reflects the concept that changes to the physical environment are often fundamental and affect many other stressors, but does not mean that physical stressors are always the most important drivers of changes to biota and function.
Hydrologic alteration
Impervious surfaces increase surface runoff, which alters stream hydrology by increasing the frequency and magnitude of high-flow events (e.g., Leopold 1968, Schueler 1994, Booth and Jackson 1997). The result is often a profound change to the disturbance regime of urban streams. The degree to which the disturbance regime changes depends heavily on the nature of stormwater management systems (Booth and Jackson 1997, Walsh et al. 2005a), including whether stormwater is collected and routed directly to streams, is routed into sewer lines in a combined wastewater system, is temporarily detained in ponds or other structures, or is infiltrated onsite. Base flows sometimes are reduced with urbanization because of lack of groundwater recharge, although lawn watering, septic effluent, point-source discharges, leaking water and sewer lines, and deforestation associated with urbanization might augment base flows (Lerner 2002, Konrad and Booth 2005, Roy et al. 2009). In other regions, flows can be reduced locally by groundwater and surface-water withdrawals (Konrad and Booth 2005). Some of the mechanisms by which urban-induced hydrologic alteration affects stream ecosystems were reviewed by Konrad and Booth (2005). Significant among these mechanisms are increased scour of algal assemblages, rapid export of nutrients and organic matter (i.e., decreased retentiveness), and direct physical washout of fauna. Hydrologic alteration influences channel geomorphology and water quality and indirectly affects biotic communities and ecosystem processes. Climate change might further exacerbate hydrologic alteration, especially in regions where storms increase in frequency and severity. Issues related to hydrologic budgets and hydrologic alteration are fundamental drivers of many of the changes shown in Fig. 1 (questions 7 and 8).
Altered geomorphology
As a result of hydrologic alteration and changes in sediment supply, urban stream channels typically have increased bed and bank erosion that leads to increased widths and cross-sectional areas compared to nonurban streams unless artificially constrained (Leopold 1968, Booth and Jackson 1997, Hession et al. 2003, Chin 2006). A long-standing paradigm is that urban stream channels first undergo a period of sedimentation from construction, subsequently experience channel enlargement from increased storm flows, and eventually stabilize (Wolman 1967, Chin 2006). Significant urban stream channel enlargement has been documented, but numerous studies have been unable to find a relationship between degree of urbanization and indicators of enlargement (Doyle et al. 2000, Cianfrani et al. 2006, Yagow et al. 2008). Eventual stabilization of enlarged urban streams also has been described (Finkenbine et al. 2000, Henshaw and Booth 2000), but stabilization might be rare, and much work needs to be done to determine under what conditions a new stable form might occur (question 9). Channel enlargement (where it occurs) can affect stream ecosystems by several mechanisms. Expanding channels can be a major source of sediment (Trimble 1997); unstable channels can provide poor habitat for some organisms (Schiff and Benoit 2007); and channel incision can lower the water table below microbially active soil zones (Groffman et al. 2003).
Urban stream geomorphology also can be affected by direct channel modification and by large inputs of sediment. Direct modification often takes the form of placing a stream in a concrete-lined channel to prevent it from migrating or enlarging. This practice causes extreme habitat simplification, and although it will stabilize the local reach, it will tend to exacerbate hydrologic and geomorphic impacts downstream. Moreover, concrete channels separate the stream from the floodplain and the hyporheic zone and eliminate important locations of microbial processing and other biological activity. Many urban streams also have elevated suspended sediment levels compared to streams in undeveloped watersheds (e.g., Walters et al. 2003, Grimm et al. 2005), although this trait is not universal (Burcher and Benfield 2006). High levels of suspended and bed sediment have multiple deleterious effects on aquatic ecosystems (reviewed by Newcombe and MacDonald 1991, Waters 1995, Wood and Armitage 1997).
Piping and filling channels
Piping and filling of streams (i.e., stream burial) is an extreme form of modification that is common in highly urbanized areas, especially where stormwater is routed into combined sewer–stormwater overflow systems. The proportion of buried streams can be quite high; in Baltimore City, ⅔ of all stream reaches have been buried (Elmore and Kaushal 2008). The degree of burial has not been assessed in most urban areas, but in many regions, most buried reaches are ephemeral or intermittent headwater streams (Roy et al. 2009), which are areas of high biological activity in undisturbed systems (Meyer and Wallace 2001). Piping of headwaters causes downstream impacts via increased flow velocities, altered C and nutrient inputs, and amplified N transport; these effects can be exacerbated by increased climatic variability (Kaushal et al. 2008b). In the US, interest in understanding how headwater degradation affects downstream waters is particularly strong because of important ramifications for regulation under the US Clean Water Act (Leibowitz et al. 2008). Questions 10 and 11 relate to stream burial.
Increased temperature and light
Urban streams often have higher summer baseflow water temperatures than do nonurban streams because of the urban heat island effect (increased air temperatures in urban cores), release of stored water from shallow detention ponds, point discharges from wastewater treatment plants, and increased insolation from removal of riparian vegetation. In some climates, urban streams also suffer pulses of high temperatures because runoff from heated impervious surfaces can result in highly variable temperatures over short time scales (Van Buren et al. 2000, Nelson and Palmer 2007). Increased insolation also can lead to increased algal production (see Stream functional responses above). Elevated water temperatures can exceed tolerances of cold-water species or favor species metabolically adapted to higher temperatures, thereby altering assemblage structure (Krause et al. 2004, Nelson et al. 2009). Elevated water temperatures also can affect whole-reach metabolism, especially respiration. However, controls on stream temperature are numerous and complex (LeBlanc et al. 1997, Burkholder et al. 2008). Most research has focused on developing predictive models from small- or medium-scale data sets (e.g., Van Buren et al. 2000, Nelson and Palmer 2007), but research is needed to address questions related to the broad-scale patterns of temperature effects and whether elevated temperatures are contributing to higher metabolic rates (questions 12 and 13). Answers to these questions will contribute to our understanding of the interactive effects of climate change and urbanization on aquatic communities and ecosystem functions.
Increased toxicants
We use toxicants broadly to mean chemical contaminants that cause lethal and sublethal effects on aquatic organisms. Our definition includes what are commonly called emerging contaminants (potentially harmful but traditionally unmonitored compounds) and regulated trace metals and organic contaminants. Detrimental effects on ecosystem structure and function from toxicants has been well documented (reviewed by Paul and Meyer 2001), but determining which toxicants are of most concern is usually difficult. Toxicants common in urban streams include heavy metals (particularly Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and a range of pesticides (Bannerman et al. 1993, Beasley and Kneale 2002, Gilliom et al. 2006). In US National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) surveys conducted between 1992 and 2001, 83% of urban water samples and 70% of urban bed sediment samples exceeded aquatic life benchmarks for ≥1 pesticides (Gilliom et al. 2006). Many other potential toxicants can be present in urban streams, especially streams that receive point-source wastewater discharges (Kolpin et al. 2002). Interactions among compounds can have synergistic or antagonistic effects that further complicate our ability to predict the consequences of these substances for stream structure and function, although some of these issues are being addressed as part of the NAWQA program (Belden et al. 2007).
Toxicity tests of urban runoff on aquatic biota have shown mixed results, with some studies reporting high toxicity (e.g., Skinner et al. 1999) and others showing low biotic responses to relatively high contaminant concentrations (Maltby et al. 1995). Sensitivity to toxins varies greatly among taxa (reviewed by Beasley and Kneale 2002), so the choice of study organism in such tests is critical. In addition, many contaminants are present at much higher concentrations in sediments than in the water column, and sediment suspension during high flows can greatly increase toxicity (Christensen et al. 2006). Despite an increasing volume of research, many questions about the importance of toxicants in urban streams remain unanswered (questions 14 and 15).
Dissolved O2
In urban streams that receive insufficiently treated wastewater, biological and chemical O2 demand can be elevated and can lead to O2 deficits (reviewed in Paul and Meyer 2001). O2 deficits also can occur in urban streams with reduced baseflows or elevated organic matter (e.g., Mallin et al. 2006, Pellerin et al. 2006), and in areas where increased sedimentation leads to stagnant, anaerobic pools. Most lotic macroinvertebrates and fishes are adapted to well-oxygenated environments, so low dissolved O2 can reduce biotic integrity. However, anaerobic microbial processes, such as denitrification, can be enhanced under these conditions.
Increased ionic concentrations
Stormwater runoff, deicing salt, point-source discharges, leaking sewer lines, and improperly functioning septic systems can increase concentrations of dissolved solutes and conductivity in urban streams. Conductivity values vary naturally among streams with different underlying geology, but conductivity consistently increases along gradients of urbanization. Elevated salinity can be a stressor to freshwater organisms, particularly mayflies (Kefford et al. 2003, Kaushal et al. 2005). In high-latitude locations where salt is used as a deicer, salinity and Cl− concentrations reach toxic levels for many organisms and can have numerous secondary effects, including acidification and mobilization of metals (Kaushal et al. 2005, Daley et al. 2009). Urban streams in lower latitudes also have elevated conductivities (e.g., Rose 2007), but salinities are generally at least an order of magnitude lower than toxic levels. Nevertheless, conductivity is a useful and inexpensive indicator of certain aspects of urban disturbance, especially wastewater inputs (Wang and Yin 1997).
Increased available nutrients
According to US NAWQA data from 1992 to 2001, inorganic nutrient levels are higher in urban than in forested streams and are similar between urban and agricultural streams, although NO3− and total N are highest in agricultural streams (Mueller and Spahr 2006). This pattern is less likely in many developing countries where fertilizer use is low and discharges of untreated wastewater in urban streams are high. NH4+ concentrations tend to be highest in urban streams (von Schiller et al. 2008), especially those receiving inputs from wastewater treatment plants (Martí et al. 2004). In a recent review of N dynamics in urban watersheds, Bernhardt et al. (2008) found that, in many cities, the original source of most N is food, with significant additional contributions from fertilizer, drinking water, and atmospheric deposition, especially highly local deposition of combustion-derived N produced by automobiles. In urban areas with effective wastewater treatment systems, most of this N is exported to terrestrial systems as sludge, but in areas with limited wastewater management much N is discharged into streams and rivers (Bernhardt et al. 2008). Even where effective treatment systems exist, significant quantities of nutrients enter streams via leaking sewer and septic systems (Kaushal et al. 2006, Walsh and Kunapo 2009) and stormwater runoff delivered to streams through stormwater drainage systems (Hatt et al. 2004, Bernhardt et al. 2008). The actual contributions of various sources are often unclear (e.g., see question 10). Elevated nutrients and shifts in relative proportions of different nutrients (e.g., N to P) or of forms of N (e.g., NO3− to NH4+) can alter stream processes, including nutrient uptake, leaf breakdown rates, and primary production.
Altered terrestrial inputs
Reduced riparian cover and burying of streams in urban areas can reduce inputs of leaves, wood, and terrestrial invertebrates. However, leaves that fall onto roads in many urban areas ultimately wash into streams via the storm drainage network. Thus, leaf inputs can be much higher in urban than in undeveloped watersheds (Miller and Boulton 2005, Carroll and Jackson 2009). Alteration of riparian vegetation in urban areas can significantly change the composition and timing of leaf inputs. For example, deciduous leaf inputs (and thus, N inputs) are higher in urban than in nonurban areas in the northwestern US, and timing of inputs differs between urban and nonurban areas (Roberts and Bilby 2009). However, terrestrial inputs are more important in some systems than others. For example, Amazonian stream ecosystems depend heavily on allochthonous inputs, and decreased riparian cover and loss of terrestrial input are important factors in the decline of macroinvertebrates in urban streams in Brazil (Couceiro et al. 2007). Large wood inputs tend to be lower in urban than in forested streams (Finkenbine et al. 2000, Elosegi and Johnson 2003), and wood is sometimes removed to prevent flooding and damage to bridges. The lack of wood can affect stream habitat and biological assemblages (reviewed by Gurnell et al. 1995, Díez et al. 2000). Even when present, the functions of wood can be compromised in urban streams (Larson et al. 2001). The degree to which terrestrial inputs are altered and the extent to which this alteration drives observed ecosystem changes are unclear (question 16).
Increased barriers to movement
Streams in urban areas tend to have high densities of instream obstructions that prevent movement of fish and other aquatic organisms. Road crossings, particularly culverts with extreme slopes, velocities, pool sizes, or vertical drops, can prevent small organisms from passing upstream or downstream (Warren and Pardew 1998, Schaefer et al. 2003). Culverts also can be barriers to upstream dispersal of adult aquatic insects (Blakely et al. 2006), and absence of forested areas can prevent among-stream dispersal of adults (Smith et al. 2009). Even small channel modifications can interrupt movement. For example, road crossings that divide discharge into multiple sections can be unsurpassable barriers for neritid snails that rely on complex hydrologic cues for upstream migration (Blanco and Scatena 2006). Movement barriers are of particular concern to migratory species, which include temperate anadromous species, such as salmon and eels, and a large proportion of tropical fish, shrimp, and snail species (Ramírez et al. 2009). Thus, coastal cities that sit astride major rivers can affect aquatic communities far inland. However, the overall importance of urban movement barriers has not been well studied (question 17).
Evaluating multiple stressors
Each of the stressors described above has been observed in at least some urban streams, and each can significantly affect ecosystem structure and function under certain circumstances. However, multiple stressors occur in most cases. This tendency for co-occurrences interferes with our ability to connect observed structural or functional changes to a single stressor, and herein lies the crux of the difficulty in understanding the urban stream syndrome. It might be that only a few stressors (e.g., certain toxicants) are the proximal causes for most of ecosystem structural changes, but teasing these stressors apart from those that are relatively unimportant will require an extensive series of reductionist studies. Therefore, we suggest that examining stressors that consistently covary also would be a useful way to elucidate mechanisms (question 18). Furthermore, many stressors interact to produce nonadditive and synergistic effects, in which case management for single stressors could cause unanticipated effects. Thus, stressor interaction is an important area for study (question 19).
Urban Stream Management
Stressor sources and management tools
Many potential stressors are produced by a few key sources, which in theory can be managed by a relatively small suite of tools. This principle is illustrated in Table 3, which links the symptoms of the urban stream syndrome with their specific causes or sources and the prescriptions or management practices used to address them. Here, we discuss the most widespread and significant stressor sources and describe management tools used to control those sources.
Overall, the most significant stressor source in most urban streams in developed countries is stormwater runoff (Walsh et al. 2005b). Researchers have long recognized that increased stormwater runoff from impervious cover is a key indicator of urban impact on aquatic systems (e.g., Leopold 1968, Schueler 1994, Booth and Jackson 1997). Many of the stressors described above are products of efficient delivery of contaminant-laden stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces to streams via the storm drainage systems (measured by EI; Brabec et al. 2002). Stormwater runoff effects can be managed by planning/zoning regulations that reduce EI, stormwater management ordinances that require control or treatment of runoff with engineering or design solutions, and good housekeeping controls on the use and storage of toxicants, fertilizers, and other contaminants. Stormwater controls might even be able to compensate for the loss of some of the ecosystem services provided by headwater streams (question 20). In some cases, control measures could have additional societal benefits. Stormwater harvesting provides a substantial low-energy water resource to cities (Fletcher et al. 2007), and biofiltration systems have the potential to cool urban microclimates that are affected by the urban heat island effect (Endreny 2008). Identifying such win–win management strategies is another important area for future research (question 21).
Riparian degradation is another source of multiple stressors, or is a contributing factor that affects multiple stressors. Intact, naturally vegetated riparian zones have functions, such as trapping and processing nutrients and toxicants, moderating temperatures, and contributing organic matter, that are important for maintaining natural stream function and structure (for reviews see Wenger 1999, Broadmeadow and Nisbet 2004, Mayer et al. 2006). Urban streams commonly have reduced and altered riparian zones. Even intact urban riparian zones have limited opportunities to function because much stormwater runoff is routed directly into streams via the stormwater conveyance network, which bypasses the riparian buffer (Roy et al. 2005b, 2006). Overall, the importance of riparian degradation as an urban stressor is highly variable. In some regions, such as the Amazon, loss of riparian forests might be a major driver of stream ecosystem changes (Couceiro et al. 2007), whereas in many more developed regions, loss of riparian forests is likely to be less important than stormwater runoff (e.g., Walsh et al. 2007). Riparian degradation can be reduced by effective implementation and enforcement of planning/zoning regulations and riparian buffer ordinances.
Direct channel modification, resulting in buried or concrete-lined streams, is a major stressor source in many urbanizing areas. Direct regulation of stream burial is rare, but the practice sometimes is managed indirectly via riparian buffer ordinances and stream protection laws, such as the US Clean Water Act. Sometimes reach-scale restoration is used to return buried streams to the surface, but the restored stream might still be degraded (Purcell et al. 2002).
In most developed countries, point sources have been regulated for many decades, and management emphasis has shifted to nonpoint sources. Nevertheless, in many urban areas, point sources remain significant sources of labile C and nutrients and a host of poorly studied toxicants that might be of ecological importance, especially during baseflow conditions (Kolpin et al. 2002). In less developed countries, the level of point-source management varies widely, and direct discharges of untreated waste is common in many cities (Bernhardt et al. 2008). In such areas, point sources might be the most significant stressor sources.
Of the remaining stressor sources, construction-site erosion is ubiquitous and one of the most obvious, and for these reasons, it commonly is regulated to some degree. Water withdrawals and impoundments are very significant stressor sources in some regions. However, their effects and potential management often transcend urban boundaries because withdrawals and impoundments are not strictly urban phenomena and often are not managed at the scale of the city. Leaking septic systems, leaking sewer lines, and road crossings are stressor sources that are often of secondary importance but have potentially high local importance (see Fig. 1, Table 3 for management strategies). Much research is needed to determine which management strategies are most effective for controlling stressors under varying levels of impervious cover and differing biogeoclimatic conditions (question 22).
Managing urban streams based on incomplete knowledge
Answering the questions listed above will improve management of urban streams by enabling us to target the causes of degradation with appropriate strategies and regulations. However, some of these questions might never be answered fully from a scientific perspective, and streams nevertheless must be managed now. How might urban stream management proceed with existing knowledge? We suggest 3 simple steps (modified from Palmer et al. 2005):
1) Identify the desired stream ecosystem state
Potential states of urban streams can be categorized into 3 groups: a) minimally altered streams in which near-natural ecosystem structure and function is preserved or restored; b) moderately altered streams with significantly modified ecosystem structure and function, but that still provide multiple ecosystem services (usually the largest category of urban streams outside of dense urban cores); c) severely altered streams that have lost all but the most tolerant species and provide few ecosystem services (often in concrete channels and managed purely for stormwater drainage and dilution of contaminants).
This categorization scheme is essentially a simplified version of the Biological Condition Gradient (Davies and Jackson 2006) that is used by the US EPA. Currently, most urban stream management proceeds without conscious declaration of goals, and streams arrive at one of these states (usually moderately or severely altered) haphazardly. We argue that explicit identification of the desired end state of an urban stream is a necessary first step in its management to minimize misallocation of resources. Each of these 3 states might be an appropriate choice, depending on the situation. In a newly developing watershed where imperiled fish species are present, minimally altered would be the appropriate goal for most streams. In a heavily urbanized watershed with important downstream resources (say, a bay with a productive fishery), moderately altered might be reasonable, with a focus on minimized downstream nutrient and contaminant transport rather than on maintaining local biotic integrity. In a heavily urbanized city in a developing nation with few resources, the paramount objective could be to provide improved drainage for public health purposes, and severely altered might be an acceptable state. However, such a decision should not be made lightly. In many cases, developing cities might be able to avoid the mistakes of the developed world and implement new stormwater management strategies that provide multiple environmental and social benefits, sometimes at lower financial cost than conventional drainage practices (Bernhardt et al. 2008, Roy et al. 2008).
The choice of desired end state is one for society to make, perhaps through a public participation process involving residents and stakeholders of each stream's catchment or region. Scientists can inform this decision by communicating the costs and benefits of setting different goals in terms of supplied ecosystem services. The existing state of the stream is a key issue, and scientists have the critical roles of assessing the existing condition and the factors that led to it (step 2, below) and advising decision makers on the kind of improvement that is possible, given ecological, economic, and political constraints. The question of what is possible is often difficult to answer, and additional research is needed to find practical, inexpensive, and effective stream management tools (questions 20–22).
2) Identify major stressors or stressor sources and select appropriate management actions
The 2nd task is to identify stressors that might prevent the stream from being in the desired end state. In some cases, the major stressors will be apparent, and in others, causal assessment tools, such as CADDIS, could be used to identify the stressors of concern. However, in many cases, the available evidence will not indicate clearly which stressors are critical. In such cases management can proceed on the basis of our understanding of strong links between overarching stressor sources and ecosystem responses even when the intermediate mechanisms and specific stressors are poorly understood. For example, using low-impact design techniques to infiltrate stormwater can manage stressors ranging from hydrologic alteration to toxicants (Walsh et al. 2005a, Ladson et al. 2006, Murakami et al. 2008).
We wish to emphasize 2 basic principles for selecting management approaches. First, a tool that addresses stressors and their underlying sources is more likely to have long-term success than a tool that treats symptoms. Second, preventative approaches that implement regulations in advance of development are more cost-effective than retrofitting or restoring developed watersheds. Therefore, we recommend that reach-scale stream restoration be used judiciously because it might not achieve desired goals unless implemented as part of a broader management strategy that controls the critical underlying stressors (Bernhardt and Palmer 2007). Stream restoration is a multibillion dollar business, but most restoration projects are not held to criteria for success (Palmer et al. 2005) or monitored (Bernhardt et al. 2005), although notable exceptions exist (e.g., Kaushal et al. 2008a). In general, restoration of urban streams has relied far too heavily on structural approaches, such as channel reconfiguration or bank armoring, rather than process-based approaches, such as restoration of natural flow and reestablishment of features, such as floodplain wetlands and infiltration areas, that protect infrastructure and promote desired ecosystem services (Kaushal et al. 2008a, Craig et al. 2008, Palmer 2009, Klocker et al. 2009). In other words, restoration has focused on addressing reach-scale symptoms rather than considering the underlying dynamics of the watershed as a whole (Palmer 2009). More research is needed on how to design truly effective restoration strategies and how to integrate restoration of streams with upland stormwater management (question 23).
3) Identify appropriate monitoring indicators and manage adaptively
As with any type of management activity, the degree to which goals are being met must be monitored, and a system is needed for adjusting management approaches that are not delivering intended results. A discussion of these issues is beyond the scope of our paper, but we note 2 key points. First, selection of indicators is not trivial (question 24). Sometimes the choice of indicators is driven by government mandates, such as the total maximum daily loads of the US Clean Water Act, but mandated metrics are not necessarily useful surrogates for other ecosystem services of interest. The European Union Water Framework Directive (2000) has made identification of indicators a high priority, although to date, the emphasis has been more on structural than functional indicators. Second, adaptive management (Walters and Hilborn 1978) should be considered from the outset. This management strategy is challenging in urban systems, where management decisions affect numerous stakeholders and might be controversial. Decision makers should be prepared from the beginning for the possibility that management policies might have to be revisited. A clear monitoring and assessment plan with triggers—thresholds of monitoring results that require action—should be established early in the management process and communicated to all involved parties.
The Need for Better Communication among Scientists, Managers, and Decision-Makers
Even complete scientific understanding will not benefit urban streams if the understanding is not communicated effectively to planners, managers, and decision makers. One of the major themes of the SUSE2 meeting was the need to convey existing scientific knowledge to on-the-ground practitioners. A particular example is the need to describe the ecosystem services provided by urban streams, especially those of greatest societal value (question 25). A more fundamental question is how to establish better multiway communications among all parties with an interest in urban stream function and management (question 26). Considerable time at the SUSE2 meeting was devoted to seeking answers to question 26. Ideas included fact sheets, workshops and training sessions, and cooperative programs to test scientific questions with on-the-ground management actions that include effective monitoring. Many existing government agencies, educational institutions, and nongovernmental organizations work actively in this arena, and the need for multidisciplinary, integrative approaches to urban ecology is well recognized (e.g., Pickett et al. 2008). However, discussions at the SUSE2 meeting revealed that scientists still have work to do to ensure we are contributing our share to effective communication.
Acknowledgments
Funding for the SUSE2 meeting was provided by the US EPA Office of Research and Development National Center for Environmental Assessment, the Baltimore Ecosystem Study Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site, the Central Arizona–Phoenix LTER, the US Geological Survey (USGS), and The University of Georgia River Basin Center. We thank Jerry McMahon of the USGS for assisting in meeting planning. We thank 2 anonymous referees for helpful comments on a draft of this manuscript. Last, we thank the many attendees of SUSE2 and the members of the listserv who contributed to the development of these questions.
Literature Cited
Table 1.
Number of individuals attending the Symposium on Urbanization and Stream Ecology (SUSE2) by affiliation type. The distribution of affiliations of members of the urban stream listserv was similar.
Table 2.
Twenty-six key research questions in urban stream ecology. Questions are organized by the order referenced in the text, not by importance.
Table 3.
Symptoms, causes, and mitigation for the urban stream syndrome. | https://bioone.org/journals/freshwater-science/volume-28/issue-4/08-186.1/Twenty-six-key-research-questions-in-urban-stream-ecology/10.1899/08-186.1.full |
As part of the 3rd YSLME Science Conference, the Parallel Event 4 on Nutrient Management in YSLME was conducted from July 18-19, 2019. The event looked into several studies conducted in PR China and RO Korea regarding the status of nutrient inputs from selected river basins, atmosphere-based and sea-based sources, as well as progress made in nutrient reduction in the Yellow Sea. Based on the information and data available, the session also discussed possible opportunities to further strengthen policy developments and regional cooperation in improving nutrient reduction.
On behalf of PR China, the session was opened by Mr. Ziwei Yao, NMEMC, PR China, who shared a short background about NMEMC, particularly its roles in monitoring the Bohai Sea, developing technical standards for marine environment and publication of annual reports on marine environmental quality. NMEMC has been supportive of the YSLME initiative related to nutrient reduction since its first phase. Mr. Yao hoped that this event would contribute to better understanding root causes and distribution of nutrients, as well as find ways to better manage reduction of nutrient load in the Yellow Sea region.
On behalf of RO Korea, Mr. Chang Hee Lee from Myongji University, RO Korea, delivered the opening address. Mr. Lee indicated that Yellow Sea is one of the most exploited seas in the world, and has often experienced harmful algal blooms: red tide, green tide and golden tide. Furthermore, increasing population also contributed significantly to increase nutrient enrichment in coastal areas. As such, nutrient control practices need to be put in place. Under the YSLME project and with the YSLME Strategic Action Program’s (SAP) target to reduce nutrient loading from land-, ocean-, and atmosphere-based sources, there are good opportunities for regional cooperation in this aspect.
Keynote Address
Setting the tone of discussions were two keynote presentations, with Mr. Joong Ki Choi moderating the session.
Ms. Milcah Ndegwa, Associate Programme Management Officer, UNEP, Nairobi, Kenya, delivered the first keynote on GPA/Global Partnership on Nutrient Management (GPNM), progress and prospects. According to Ms. Ndegwa, the accelerated use of nitrogen and phosphorus is becoming one of the key issue areas that provide both development benefits and environmental problems. There are two major projects on nutrients management: (1) the Global foundations for reducing nutrient enrichment and oxygen depletion from land-based pollution in support of Global Nutrient Cycle (GNC) which was implemented from 2012 to 2019; and (2) the ongoing International Nitrogen Management (INMS) project. Under the GNC project, a GPNM policy toolbox was developed and related trainings were conducted. Ecosystem health development report cards were also published (i.e., Chilika Lake; Laguna de Bay). These initiatives are contributing to achieving UN SDG 14.1 which aims to significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities by 2025. In March 2019, the United Nations 4thAssembly (UNEA4) adopted the Sustainable Nitrogen Management Resolution which called for improved coordination of policies across the global nitrogen cycle at the national, regional and global levels; improved management of the global nitrogen cycle, through the sharing of assessment methodologies, best practices and emerging technologies for recovery and recycling of nitrogen; coordinated management of information to facilitate decision-making particularly around the quantification of health; and economic benefits and contributing to capacity building. The INMS Project will implement a substantial part of this resolution by developing evidence based effective practices for global nitrogen management.
In line with Ms. Ndegwa’s keynote, Dr. Ning Liu of NOWPAP shared a brief information on the NOWPAP Eutrophication Assessment Tool (NEAT) which uses asatellite imagery technique for timely detection of potential dead zones in the sea.
The second keynote was delivered by Dr. Chang Hee Lee, President of the Korean Society of Water Environment and Head of the Department of Environmental Engineering and Energy, Myongji University, RO Korea. His presentation focused on mitigation of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total phosphorus (TP) by implementing Total Pollutant Load Management System (TPLMS) in the Shiwa coastal reservoir (SCR). The first-phase TPLMS action plan was implemented in 2013 to accomplish the interim water quality targets by 2018. Maximum daily loads were allocated to four municipalities within the SCR watershed. The load reduction measures included traditional point source measures as well as diverse nonpoint source control measures (i.e., construction of nonpoint source (NPS) treatment facilities, road sweeping, wetland improvement, and dredging contaminated sediments). While these measures were implemented timely and considered successful, the scheduled development projects experienced some delays because of recent economic setback. The 2ndphase of TPLMS is seen to be more challenging due to additional water quality targets that were set in the inner area where tidal mixing is limited, and load reduction measures for NPS are also seen as inefficient due to high cost and low reduction amount.
During the discussion, Mr. Lee further underscored the need to establish a national coordination mechanism which will involve coordination with relevant ministries on nutrient management, to effectively implement the plan that was developed by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF) of RO Korea. He further emphasized that putting up treatment facilities require tremendous investment, currently two facilities have been established, but none yet for NPS.
As for NOWPAP, Dr. Liu indicated that most of their efforts are focusing on scientific research and through the help of partner governments, they hope to bridge the gap between science and policies.
Ms. Ndegwa further clarified that UNEP was given the mandate to implement the UNEA4 resolution, and as such linkages will be made in the GNC and INMS projects, but INMS project will be on a larger scale.
Session 1
The first session focused on status of nutrients inputs from land-, atmosphere- and sea-based sources. The session was moderated by Mr. Ziwei Yao.
Mr. Lijun Wang, from the National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center (NMEMC), Ministry of Ecology and Environment, PR China, shared the study on land-based nutrient loadings in Haizhou Bay, Jiangsu Province.For the nutrient production and discharge estimation, a series of data was collected, including the information of the river network, the data of DEM, land use, river water flow, amount and type of livestock farming, urban and rural population, industry wastewater discharge, fertilizer use, etc. ArcGIS software was employed for export coefficient model building. The result showed that Linhong River is the major nutrient pollutant source to Haizhou Bay. Mr. Wang underscored that while the contribution of pollution sources showed an almost equal/ identical TN and TP loading, the potential loading from fertilizer use should not be ignored, especially in the wet year or flood season, when nutrient loading may dramatically increase.
Mr. Hong Lae Cho, CEO of HydroCore Ltd, RO Korea, shared their study on watershed modeling and nutrient loadings in Han River, RO Korea. Mr. Cho emphasized the importance of understanding the spatio-temporal distributions of pollution loads in order to effectively reduce pollution loads in the Yellow Sea. Focusing on Han River watershed which accounts for 34.3 percent of total area of RO Korea.
To effectively decrease the pollution loads to the YS, it is critical to understand the spatio-temporal distributions of pollution loads. In RO Korea, there are four major river systems that flow to the YS: the Han, Geum, Mankyoung-Dongjin, and Youngsan rivers. The pollution loads from each of these river systems need to be evaluated using the best available science-based methodology. Using REDPOLL as watershed model in Han River, flows and pollution loads to the YS were evaluated for the year 2016 based on simulation results. River flows and pollution loads have a very wide range of daily and monthly variation. As affected by the monsoon weather system, the monthly volume of river flows in July reaches 7,484 x 106 m3/month accounting for 35.2% of the annual discharge. Likewise, the monthly pollution loads in July comprise more than a quarter of the annual loads: SS 49.4%, BOD 40.0%, TN 30.9% and TP 41.6%. In the Han River Watershed, the majority of pollution loads come from the diffuse sources: SS 99.8%, BOD 86.8%, TN 75.2%, and TP 92.7%.
Dr. Yoonseok Choi, Korea Laboratory Accreditation Scheme Assessor, National Institute of Fisheries Science in West Sea Fisheries Research Institute (WSFRI), RO Korea, introduced the results of investigations on temporal and spatial variations conducted in the west coastal areas of Yellow Sea covering years 1974 to 2014. Water samples were collected at 60 stations and physicochemical parameters were analyzed including water temperature, salinity, SS, DO, Chlorophyll a and nutrients. Medium-term trends and distribution patterns of water quality were investigated. Spatial distribution patterns of temperature, pH and DO were not clear among stations but the seasonal variations were distinct except ammonium. The results of water quality evaluation index (WQI) values is 25, and ecology-based seawater water quality criteria were grade Ⅱ (Good).
Dr. Tae Wook Kim, Assistant Professor, Korea University, RO Korea, presented on atmospheric deposition of inorganic nitrogen to East Asian marginal seas. Dr. Kim emphasized that the atmospheric deposition of anthropogenic nitrogen is an increasingly important new source of nitrogen to the ocean. His presentation showed the concentrations and depositional fluxes of nitrate and ammonium in airborne total suspended particles and precipitation, and factors affecting them based on three-year observation data collected in Uljin, eastern coastal site of RO Korea, which is adjacent to the East Sea. Their study found that atmospheric nitrogen deposition could contribute to approximately two percent of phytoplankton production in the southwestern East Sea. Furthermore, nitrogen and oxygen isotopic ratios in atmospheric and seawater samples also have significant contribution of atmospheric nitrogen deposition to the nitrogen pool in the East Sea. This atmospheric deposition also directly reduces ocean alkalinity. Similar investigations are also being conducted in Songdo, western coastal site of RO Korea and to an ocean site in Yellow Sea.
Ms. Limin Yu, Senior Engineer, NMEMC, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, PR China, shared the results of their monitoring of the dry and wet atmospheric deposition of nitrogen and phosphorus over the west coast of Yellow Sea. Their study showed that the size distribution of ammonium exhibited bi-modal in the dust season and uni-modal in the other seasons, while the remaining nitrogen components exhibited bimodal/multimodal size distribution, and multimodal distribution for phosphorus in atmospheric aerosols. The deposition velocities of the particulate nitrogen were calculated with the improved Willimas model. It was showed that the proportion of aerosol pollutants in fine particles has little effect on the overall dry deposition velocities, while the proportion of coarse particles may be the most important factor. The atmospheric deposition of nitrogen and phosphorus in the Yellow Sea was estimated. The atmospheric wet deposition of nitrogen and phosphorus in the Yellow Sea was higher than that of dry deposition. And the scouring effect of rainwater on ammonium salt was higher than that of nitrate.
In the session discussion, Ms. Yu further clarified that their monitoring already considered the different sizes of particles in order to assess different behaviors.
Session 2 discussed the impacts of excessive nutrients loadings in the Yellow Sea, and was moderated by Ms. Milcah Ndegwa.
Dr. Baodong Wang, from the First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, PR China, presented thehistorical evolution and ecological effects of nutrient status in Jiaozhou Bay in the past 40 years. The results showed that the DIN concentration increased continually in Jiaozhou Bay before the late 2000s, while the DIP and DSi concentrations decreased slightly and then increased rapidly in the same period. Since the late 2000s, the concentrations of nutrients decreased rapidly in Jiaozhou Bay. The nutrient limitation shifted from nitrogen limitation in the early 1980s to silicon limitation in the 1990s, and finally to phosphorus limitation in recent years. The annual average concentration of chlorophyll a has been fluctuating before 2015 but it has decreased in recent years. The zooplankton biomass increased significantly in the last two decades compared with the previous two decades. Analysis found that the increase in nutrient fluxes and reduction of sea area of the bay were the main reasons for the increase of nutrient concentrations before the late 2000s; whereas in recent years, the implementation of comprehensive environmental remediation measures was the main reason for the reduction of N and P fluxes to Jiaozhou Bay. Before 2010, shellfish culture was the main factor controlling the phytoplankton biomass in Jiaozhou Bay. However, the decrease of dissolved inorganic phosphorus concentration and the increase of zooplankton biomass were the main reasons for the decline of chlorophyll concentration in recent years.
Dr. Qinsheng Wei from the First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, PR China, highlighted the scientific significance of acidification and deoxygenation in obtaining an in-depth understanding of the evolution and ecological responses of the marine environment. Using time series observations in the Yellow Sea, China, their study illustrated the seasonality of deoxygenation and associated mechanisms in this semi-enclosed shelf ecosystem, and explored the linkage of acidification with anthropogenic eutrophication. Results show that the DO content displayed a decreasing trend in the water column in vertical-mixed winter. The rapid decline in DO and pH was observed in the bottom water in a stratified summer. In winter, when the water column is vertically homogeneous, the seawater warming is the most plausible driver of deoxygenation. In the stratified summer, increased nutrient availability and consequently enhanced productivity are responsible for the drawdown of DO and pH in the bottom layer, and the stoichiometric pattern between DO depletion and nitrate also suggests a cascading linkage between the exacerbation of eutrophic conditions and bottom deoxygenation. Results provide strong evidence that a rapid shelf-scale decline in DO and pH is underway, which may lead to the hypoxic and acidified Yellow Sea, thereby highlighting the necessity of nutrient reduction strategies in the future.
During the session discussion, it was further indicated that in recent years nutrient input to Jiaozhou Bay has significantly declined with the construction of more sewage treatment plants around the Bay.
It was also emphasized that under China’s ecological civilization initiative, the drive towards nutrient reduction is now very strong. Most of the water quality along the coasts are to be assessed and every year local governments will be assessed if they have achieved the set targets. Registration Guidelines related to nutrient reduction are also already in place in China.
Session 3, also moderated by Ms. Ndegwa, focused on nutrient reduction or remediation through nature-based solutions.
Mr. Guoxiang Liao, Deputy Director of Coastal Wetland and Marine Protected Area
Research Center, NMEMC, China, introduced four case studies on restoring coastal wetlands as nutrient sinks. First, the case of Wuyuan Bay, Xiamen, Fujian Province, which highlighted the returning fish and salt ponds to bays and coastal marshes. The second case is Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, where wetland is used for tertiary treatment associated with sewage treatment plants. The third case is in Longhai, Fujian Province which demonstrates the use of species and aquaculture to achieve the co-benefits of sustainable harvest and environmental performance. Lastly is nutrient bio-extraction in coastal areas through restoration in Yellow River Delta, Shandong Province, PR China. Mr. Liao proposed several recommendations on strategies, approaches and methods to enhance investment, capacity, knowledge and awareness raising to mainstream use of wetland into urban planning, marine park development, coastal wetland restoration projects and other investment decisions to enlarge wetland sink areas.
Ms. JeongHee Shim, Researcher, East Sea Fisheries Research Institute of National Institute of Fisheries Science, RO Korea, presented the investigation conducted on contribution of microalgae to biogeochemical nutrient and carbon cycles. They measured the uptake rates of nutrients and CO2by Undaria pinnatifida, Saccharina japonicaand Porphyra yezoensis Uedausing an incubation method in an acrylic chamber. U. pinnatifidaand S. japonicawere sampled at Ilkwang, whereas P. yezoensis sampled at Nakdong-River Estuary, Busan, southeast coast of Korea. The initial and final concentrations of nutrients, DO, total alkalinity, and pH of the chamber water were measured, and production/uptake rates were calculated using concentration changes, chamber volume, and incubation time. DO and the consumption rates of nitrate, phosphate and DIC, respectively, suggesting that these factors may serve as good indicators of photosynthesis for the seaweeds. There was a negative logarithmic relationship between fresh weight or length of thallus and uptake rates of nutrients and CO2, which suggested that younger specimens were much more efficient at nutrients and CO2uptake than old specimens for all the three species. However, inorganic nitrogen & carbon demands for mariculturing P. yezoensis in Busan and Jeollabuk-do provinces, calculated by monthly mass production and culturing area, were much higher than those of Jeollanam-do province, the highest harvesting area in Korea. Chlorosis events at Jeollabuk-do recently might have developed due to the heavy culture in narrow area and insufficient nutrients in maximum yield season (December – January) due mostly to shortage of land discharge and weak water circulation. Future research should be focused on evaluating the roles of seaweed aquaculture to the coastal nutrients cycles and global carbon cycle.
Mr. Birun Lin shared the key results of a World Bank Project in Guangdong, China focusing on agricultural pollution control for prevention of water eutrophication. The project, launched in 2014 and is expected to be completed on 30 June 2021, is considered as the largest project in Asia using a World Bank loan. It is also the first pollution control project funded by the World Bank in China, with a total investment of USD 213 million (RMB 1.34 billion). Achievements include: (1) Establishment of compensation mechanism for agricultural pollution control based on informationization (information dissemination); (2) Establishment of incentive mechanism for promotion of agricultural pollution control technology focusing on villages and towns; (3) Establishment of goal-oriented monitoring and evaluation mechanism for agricultural pollution control; (4) Creating a new model of high-rise ecological breeding; (5) Creating a new model of conservation agriculture in the Southern area; and (6) Establishment of a new model for fund management of agricultural projects. By 2018, the cumulative reduction of pesticides (active ingredients) and chemical fertilizers (total amount) as well as reduction of COD, BOD, ammonia nitrogen and TP were significant. The project achievements have made significant contribution to the protection of water n in the national water quality standard all year round.
Mr. Mihai Constantinescu, Specialist for Agriculture and Afforestation, Coordinator of the Nitrates Directive Review and Revise Project in Romania, presented the implementation ofEU Nitrates Directivein Romania. The EU Nitrates Directive was approved in 1991, which is aimed towards prevention and reduction of the nutrient pollution from agricultural sources, based on the experience of the old Member States. However, the EU expansion towards East-Europe implied also a full takeover of the EU legislation for the newcomers. As Romania has not only large intensive farms, but also still a consistent small-farming sector, this Directive brought certain challenges. In line with the nitrates policies/legislations, four interlinked intervention areas were put in place: research; policymaking; institutional implementation capacity; and knowledge transfer. The EU and national interventions include: provision of subsidies which is linked to Nitrates Directive provisions under cross-compliance; agri-environment payments help promote sustainable management of grasslands; investments; and communal manure platforms. The interventions done were seen effective, but consolidation of the monitoring and control system still has to continue as part of the efforts for the consolidation of the institutional capacity.
During the discussion, it was clarified that while the problem posed by microalgae to farmers and tourism industry, some institutes are also developing plans on how to make full use of microalgae as biofuel.
In the case of spartina, it was recognized that while it can serve as carbon sinks, negative effects in other areas cannot be discounted. In Tianjin, China, for instance after removal of spartina and rehabilitation was undertaken significant increase in migratory birds have been observed. However, most local governments find it difficult to remove spartina as the cost can be very high and new techniques are needed to effectively remove spartina.
In the case of agriculture in Romania, the country was divided into two: modern agriculture and traditional agriculture. Romania continues to maintain this set up and provides incentives to farmers who continue to use the traditional method.
In closing, the session identified the following areas that need to be further strengthened or undertaken in support of nutrient management in the Yellow Sea:
- need to distinguish nutrient sources in open areas;
- manage nutrient control from the source;
- establishment of stronger waste treatment systems from land-based pollution;
- transfer good research developments, information and know-how on nutrient management to on-the-ground stakeholders (i.e., farmers) to
- the whole country to effectively implement nutrient management programs;
- strengthen implementation, build partnerships, and simplify knowledge on nutrient management; and
- develop a nutrient reduction strategy for the Yellow Sea. | http://www.yslmep.org/?p=3017 |
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Good food is the basis of true happiness. That’s why at Midwinter Khao Yai, dish tastes and appearances are what we always care for; essentially, we have a conviction that quality ingredients make perfect foods. For our chef, this is a secret recipe that could never be dispensable.
“Rosemary” is one ingredient, prevalently used for most menus at our restaurant. For freshness and safety, our Rosemary is organically planted, grown, and harvested solely at Midwinter Farm.
Visit us and taste this moment! We guarantee that every delicacies we serve are of high quality and safe.
Reserve for special seats, | https://www.midwinterofficial.com/en/content/5064/rosemary |
In this Kitchen Nightmares episode, Chef Gordon Ramsay visits The Secret Garden in Moorpark, California.
The Secret Garden is a French restaurant which has been owned by French chef Michel Bardavid for 7 years. He is $300,000 in debt and has a dwindling customer base.
Sous Chef Devon reveals that Michel has a huge ego and Jane finds him hard to work with.
Gordon arrives and struggles to find his way into the restaurant as the front door is locked. There is no one to greet him and he finds Michel and Jane in the kitchen.
He is unimpressed with the old fashioned decor, artificial flowers and the paper doily on the tables.
Waitress Jane offers Gordon a dinner roll and the tiny roll looks silly in the huge basket she is carrying.
Gordon orders a shrimp and strawberry salad that Gordon sends back to the kitchen as the shrimp are over cooked. He also orders steak, which is tough,the carrots on the side are raw and the potatoes are greasy.
Michel doesn't take Gordon's criticisms well, especially about the canned crab and they explode into a tirade of swear words.
The next day, Gordon inspects the kitchen and finds the fridge is mouldy with maggots, sending Gordon retching into the bathroom.
Michel is once again defensive and responds that no kitchen is perfect. Gordon asks the staff to clean the kitchen.
Gordon arrives to observe a dinner service and Michel is serving a slice of strawberry to the customers as a canape.
The dishes are so complex that they take so long to prepare that customers are kept waiting.
Michel goes out the front to speak to customers and Devon takes over, speeding up the pace in the kitchen allowing customers to be served their food.
The next day Gordon decides he is going to shock Michel so he boards up the restaurant and places foreclosure signs out the front.
Michel is angry when he arrives, worried that customers may have seen them and think he has closed. Gordon says that unless he changes, he will close and the place boarded up.
Gordon introduces simpler recipes that can be prepared faster including roast chicken, French onion soup and an asparagus tart.
These fly out of the kitchen and go down well with the new younger crowd in the restaurant.
The kitchen soon falls apart as Michel won't let anyone else do anything and customers are left waiting as the orders back up.
Michel stops cooking and goes into the restaurant to talk to his friends and Devon starts to rescue the service by getting the food sent out.
When Michel is asked to return to the kitchen, the service once again backs up.
For relaunch, Gordon's team revamps and modernises the decor, Michel says the decor is charming but is worried that the changes to the décor will hurt his business.
Gordon introduces his new menu to the team and Michel once again is on the fence. For relaunch night, Gordon invites local VIPs and a food critic.
The service is organised until a bus of 25 tourists appears. The food critic is served a fish dish which she finds over seasoned and too salty.
When Michel hears her criticism he asks the critic for another chance to impress her.
Gordon is not impressed about him attempting to revert to his old menu and Michel serves the food critic another dish, she loves it.
Michel is still unconvinced of the changes to the menu and asks the customers in the restaurant if they like the new food and they are full of compliments for the new menu.
When Michel learns that the restaurant made a profit that evening, where it usually makes a loss, he begins to realise that he has been wrong and does need to change.
What Happened Next at The Secret Garden?
At the end we hear that Jane was promoted to manager but within months Michel had reverted to his old menu as he says customers had complained.
Yelp reviews are mixed with comments about a lack of diners and accusations of false reviews submitted by Michel.
The Secret Garden closed in March 2010, Michael posted the below on Facebook but the sale fell through and he later found a new buyer.
"Dear Friends,
It is with a heavy heart that we inform you that Saturday, November 28th will be Chef Michel's last day at The Secret Garden. The business has been sold. We are so thankful for so many things. At this time of year, we celebrate you, our incredible customers that have come to feel more like family. Thank you for your many years of patronage and support
Chef Michel is looking into other ventures. Keep an eye on your inbox or like us on facebook to stay up to date on what's happening next..."
Michel has been working at Custom Pie in Moorpark since 2012. He later bought the restaurant and is currently owner of Custom Pie.
The Secret Garden aired on December 12 2007, the episode was filmed in February 2007 and is Kitchen Nightmares season 1 episode 10.
Read About More Kitchen Nightmares
Previous episode - Campania
Next episode - Handlebar
This post was last updated in September 2019. | https://www.realitytvrevisited.com/2011/05/us-season-1-episode-10-secret-garden.html |
A quest for a better tasting Caribbean food led founder Wendy Ellington to open her own restaurant and lounge. Tired of the same old Jamaican food options and disappointed with some of the other local the "jerk chicken" restaurants, Wendy decided to make her own gourmet signature secret ingredient sauce and make it truly gourmet.
After experimenting with a blend of different herbs and spices, Wendy was finally satisfied with her unique blend recipes to make the best tasting Jamaican food ever. But, not to leave out his vegetarian friends, Wendy was sure to include plenty of vegetarian options on her menu.
After teaming up with Chef John in 2012, the two perfected the menu and experienced great success with Da House of Jerk restaurant. With great success at the first location, Wendy to open a few locations. | http://www.houseofjerk.ca/about-us.html |
McShane’s was an East Syracuse, New York restaurant featured on Season 2 of Restaurant Impossible.
Though the McShanes Restaurant Impossible episode aired in November 2011, the actual filming and visit from Robert Irvine took place before that.
It was Season 2 Episode 13.
Located in East Syracuse, NY, McShane’s is owned by Cindy Baker.
The restaurant focuses on chicken dishes and has a signature chicken dish that is popular.
Cindy’s brother Kenny owned a thriving restaurant, so she asked him to help her open McShane’s.
He invested money because Cindy was struggling financially as a single mother.
Initially, McShane’s was profitable, but things began to change around five years before the McShanes Restaurant Impossible episode.
Contractors were the majority of their customer base, but after many manufacturing jobs in the area shut down, the contractors stopped visiting the restaurant.
Soon the decor began to fall apart. To save costs, the owner started buying lower-quality food.
Cindy asked her brother for more money, refinanced her home, and cashed in an insurance policy to keep the restaurant afloat. Basically, she’s all-in on McShane’s Restaurant.
When Robert Irvine arrives, he notices a stench coming from McShane’s.
He believes the smell is coming from the filthy carpet.
Robert and Cindy talk, and she tells him before owning the restaurant, she was a travel agent.
Robert Irvine thinks McShane’s is in a prime location because many hotels surround it.
Local hotel staff members are invited into the restaurant so Robert can watch a service.
The service is poor, and the locals tell Robert they would not recommend the restaurant to their guests.
Helga, Cindy’s mother, meets Robert to further talk about the restaurant.
Robert tastes the signature chicken dish and is pleasantly surprised.
However, the kitchen is inspected next, and it is filthy.
Old food and grease are all over the stove. Mold grows on food containers, and produce isn’t being stored properly.
The chef and cooks meet with Robert, who decides to call in a professional cleaning company. A temporary kitchen is set up in the parking lot while the professionals give the kitchen a deep cleaning.
Yvette is the designer and meets with Robert. She informs him she will need at least $100,000 to renovate the dining room, which is way over budget.
Unfortunately, she only has $8,000.00, and Robert needs to take two thousand from it for the cleaning service.
The employees assist the designers in taking out all the furniture and appliances.
Cindy is upset, so Robert has everyone compare her chicken dish to his, and everyone loves hers by far.
The design team is making good progress, and so are the cleaners.
To find a new cook, Cindy placed a job advertisement for a new head chef in the newspaper, and she has gotten many responses.
Robert tells her to call in the prospective chefs the next day.
The next day, the design team works on the booths when Robert checks in with them.
Robert is impressed with the cleanliness of the kitchen.
During renovations, someone discovered a gas leak, so a contractor came to fix it.
Two applicants arrive for the head chef role at McShane’s.
Beyond that, Greg, one of the cooks, is offered a chance to interview for head chef due to his loyalty to Cindy.
The prospects have one hour to create a new dish Cindy will add to the menu.
Next up, Cindy and Robert Irvine go to the New York State Fair to promote McShane’s.
To attract customers, they hand out free samples of food from McShane’s Restaurant.
Arthur is hired as a head chef back at McShane’s.
Greg is upset, so Robert gives him a motivational talk to cheer him up. He is encouraged to learn under Arthur.
Pork Osso Bucco and a new chicken dish are added to the menu.
Everyone gathered when the design team finished redecorating.
McShane’s now has a rustic feel, and the staff is delighted.
The customers love the new dishes and atmosphere.
So was the McShanes Restaurant Impossible episode a success? Keep reading our update to learn what happened next and how the restaurant is doing in 2022 and beyond.
McShane's Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the McShane’s Restaurant Impossible episode, let’s talk about what happened to the restaurant after Robert Irvine and his crew left East Syracuse, NY.
Things seemed to start off well for McShane’s after the changes, as Robert Irvine revisited the restaurant and it was still going strong.
Cindy also stuck with the new menu additions from Robert Irvine, which you don’t always see from restaurants on the show.
Unfortunately, the good times will not last.
Is McShane’s from Restaurant Impossible still open?
McShane’s Restaurant closed for good in May 2013, around a year and a half after the McShane’s Restaurant Impossible episode happened.
As of 2022, the old McShane’s East Syracuse, NY location is occupied by a pet business named Pampered Pubs & Wiggle Butts Doggy Daycare and Grooming Salon, so there’s no more restaurant there.
Cindy closed the restaurant because she wanted to focus on a food truck that she was opening, named The Chicken Bandit.
Cindy didn’t like that the restaurant was stuck in one location and preferred the mobility of a food truck.
As of 2022, The Chicken Bandit food truck seems to still be open and serving customers, so it seems like Cindy knew what she was doing here!
The food truck still serves the famous McShane’s Half Chicken dish, so some of the food survives.
If you want to learn more, you can check out the official Chicken Bandit food truck website.
Cindy also posts about the food truck on the original McShane’s Facebook page (linked below).
So while the McShane’s Restaurant Impossible episode itself was not a success, it appears that Cindy put her skills and the knowledge from Robert Irvine to good use and is still successful in the food industry.
More Informationhttps://www.yelp.com/biz/mcshanes-restaurant-and-pub-east-syracuse-2
https://www.facebook.com/McShanes-Restaurant-Pub-256419174402467/
What did you think about the McShane's Restaurant Impossible update? I'd love it if you shared your thoughts on the episode in the comments below!
You can also click the buttons below to share this post!
And don't forget to check out all of the other Restaurant Impossible updates. | https://realitytvupdates.com/restaurant-impossible/mcshanes/ |
Q – How long have you been cooking professionally?
I started in 1989 in a small restaurant just outside Bray, called ‘The Warrener’ restaurant - sadly no longer around.
Q – Where did you train to cook?
My training as such was with Nico, starting at ‘Simply Nico’ and going onto ‘Chez Nico’ on Great Portland street. Then I worked at ‘Nico at Ninety’ on Park Lane. I went on from there to ‘The Ritz’ under David Nicholls.
Q – How would you describe your style of cooking?
I always struggle to answer this question... I would like to think it was real and wholesome with great depth of flavours, which showcase the ingredients that have been carefully sourced from field to fork.
Q – Is there a secret for a successful restaurant?
I don’t know if there is a secret, but at Chapter One we are constantly looking at ways to improve the experience for our diners. I believe we should be accessible to all. Pricing is very important to us and we are relentless in keeping our prices as reasonable as possible.
Q – Do you have a “signature dish” or favourite dish you enjoy cooking?
Dishes constantly change and evolve. However at the moment I would say Jugged Hare. It has a traditional method of cooking with long slow braising after it has been marinated and is served in a modern, refined way. Very popular with our customers!
Q – Do you have a favourite ingredient?
I love to cook Grouse – it’s everything in one. It is the beginning of the game season. The aroma whilst cooking it is amazing and the taste is unbelievably good - like nothing else!
Which restaurant do you most enjoy eating at on your night off?
Although I don’t go as frequently as I would like, Chez Bruce never fails. Bruce’s cooking is simple, spot on with flavours and the restaurant also has a great local atmosphere.
What is your most interesting or fun experience from your time in restaurants?
Working with professionals, watching staff improve, enjoying the buzz of the service in the kitchen and feeling the atmosphere of a busy restaurant is always a great experience for me.
What would be your “last request” dish?
A plate of great French cheese, a bottle of red wine with some fresh, rustic bread.
Is there another chef that you most admire?
Eric Chavot, Phil Howard.
Any advice you would give to someone wanting to become a chef?
Be prepared that it will be very hard work. Understand your ingredients and their simplicity. Never lose sight of what good food is and remember you need to cook for your customers.
Any final thoughts you’d like to add?
On the one hand I am feeling the need to expand. On the other hand there is so much more we can do with what we already have. | https://www.andyhayler.com/chef-interviews/chef-interview/andrew-mccleish |
Bryan Webb is chef/patron of the Michelin starred Tyddyn Llan in north Wales, after establishing his reputation at Hilaire in London in the 1990s.
Q – How long have you been cooking professionally?
I left school in 1975 on the Friday after sitting my last O level exam and started in the kitchen of the Crown at Whitebrook the next day picking spinach, peeling potatoes and washing up, so that adds up to 36 years.
Q – Where did you train to cook?
It was at the Crown, Sonia Blech was a self taught cook, she showed me the basics, I was amazed how she chopped an onion at first. It was working with Sonia that I developed a passion for food and the restaurant business, it was the Blech’s that took me to eat in my first proper restaurant. The Crown was a great place and the food served was rated with a Michelin star, dishes like sweetbreads in brioche, steak with peppercorn sauce, salmon with chives and cucumber, good classic cooking. After two years I moved to the Drangway restaurant in Swansea, where Colin Pressdee prepared the most fantastic fresh fish straight from the boats; bass, turbot, lobster, crabs and crawfish, oysters and clams were kept in tanks and of course there was always Welsh beef and lamb on the menu. It was here I learnt so much about seafood. I had the chance at 20 years of age to work as a first commis chef at the Waterside in Bray but rightly or wrongly I turned it down, but in the same year won the William Heptinstall Award and spent three months working at 3 top places in France. By 1983 my head was too big for my boots so I packed myself off to Scotland to work alongside Ken Mcphee were he had spent many years working with Miss Shaw at the then famous Inverlochy Castle. Ken knocked me down to size and showed me how to cook more methodically, I enjoyed two years in Scotland but in 1985 three months before my 25th birthday London was calling and I took a head chef’s job at a restaurant in the city called Café Rouge, (nothing to-do with the chain) the owner Danny Murphy wanted a good highly rated restaurant and would buy the best ingredients, something’s that I had not seen before; such as wild mushrooms, foie gras and fresh tuna, so it was books and teach yourself from there on, books that were constantly in use were Michel Guerérd’s Cuisine Gourmande, Cuisine of the Sun by Roger Vergé, Anton Mosimann’s Cuisine à Carte and New Classic Cuisine by the Roux brothers (maybe I should have gone to the Waterside). Within 6 months Mr Murphy got his good restaurant as Café Rouge entering the Good Food Guide with a rating of 13/20.
Q – How would you describe your style of cooking?
I love good quality ingredients, only the best will do and from that point the menu is built, I have cooked this simple ingredient based food for over twenty years, the first five years of running my own kitchen my style was all over the place, chopping and changing from this trend and that but now it’s my straight forward cooking, keeping as simple as possible but with great flavour, simple presentation so that it looks that it’s not been messed around with.
Q – Is there a secret for a successful restaurant?
The simple answer is no. How many restaurant come and go, when we were in London it always amazed me how much money would be thrown at a new opening, become the hottest ticket in town, to find a year later to be closed down waiting for another wad of cash to be thrown at it. The restaurants that I know something about are small intimate places mostly run with a husband and wife team, back in the eighties and early nineties there were many around in London and I am proud that my time at Hilaire lasted 14 years, but with rents always on the increase and the trend for restaurants for seating at least a hundred customers there are now hardly any special small restaurants left. But to last that long at Hilaire and the nine years we have under our belt at Tyddyn Llan its mostly down to hard work, I cook from the heart and what I like and for the customers that comes through my door, I don’t cook for the guides, when I hear a Chef say he is aiming for a Michelin star I think that is bullshit, cook good food and if it’s good enough you may be rewarded, ok it took me 20 years but I stayed in business. But along the way I have discovered you cannot please everyone, while customers may love my simple approach to food others may expect all singing and dancing on a plate and have left disappointed, but stick to what you know and love.
Q – Do you have a “signature dish” or favourite dish you enjoy cooking?
Bass with laverbread, scallops with vegetable relish and steak “au poivre” are always on the menu and I never get tired of cooking them. I love making terrines and fiddly dishes like pig’s trotters and belly pork stuffed with black pudding when I have time and the kitchen is quiet.
Q – Do you have a favourite ingredient?
As long as all the produce is top notch I am happy with everything, but salt and butter I could not live without, and with some good olive oil and lemon you can lift a dish. I also love Orzo tinned tuna for sandwiches and salads for our supper.
Which restaurant do you most enjoy eating at on your night off?
Living where we do there are no good places without at least an hour’s drive, but I like lunch at the brassiere in the Chester Grosvenor when we are out shopping. Otherwise it’s a night away, my favourite place is the Walnut Tree near Abergavenny, I have been going there as long as I have been cooking and celebrated all my big birthdays there, also Steve Terry’s Hardwick pub, and if I was in London, either Chez Bruce, Koffmann’s or lunch at Sally Clark’s.
What is your most interesting or fun experience from your time in restaurants?
Over the years everything seemed to have happened to us from a customer having a heart attack on a very busy Saturday night, being held at gun point after service and numerous occasions cooking by candle light with no extraction due to power cuts, all of this at Hilaire. At Tyddyn Llan recently the kitchen porter was handcuffed, arrested and taken away during service with no one to do the washing up except me. The rush and adrenaline of a busy service is always good fun as long as everything falls into place and there are no hiccups in the restaurant, every service is different and some have their moments but whatever is said; all forgotten at the end. The most fun was in-between Hilaire and Tyddyn Llan, when we were unemployed and unemployable, Susan and I had a bet who could get a job first, she won and I ended up at hotel where weddings were a big event and I could see all the problems the owners was having; been there got the tee shirt, but it was not my problem this time and I could go to bed with no worries.
What would be your “last request” dish?
Roast grouse with bread sauce and game chips, and if not in season Steak “au poivre” with chips and a green salad.
Is there another chef that you most admire?
There are lots, Franco Taruschio when he was at the Walnut Tree was always tops as is Shaun Hill who now runs the show, and I have always looked up to Simon Hopkinson, Alistair Little, Rowley Leigh and Sally Clark.
Any advice you would give to someone wanting to become a chef?
Make sure you are doing it for the right reasons, that is you love food and are passionate eating and breathing restaurants as this is a hospitality industry, so no more weekends out. Don’t become a chef to become the next Jamie Oliver or Gordon Ramsay; being a chef is not about being on TV it’s about what you cook in your kitchen and be prepared, its dammed hard work and very long hours.
Any final thoughts you’d like to add?
I think I have said enough, but personally I hope to still be here at Tyddyn Llan for a few years yet and once we have paid the bank we can enjoy it even more. | https://www.andyhayler.com/chef-interviews/chef-interview/bryan-webb |
Restaurant De Lindehof is a 2 Michelin star restaurant managed by Chef Patron Soenil Bahadoer. The restaurant is located in Nuenen (near Eindhoven) in The Netherlands. Nuenen is particularly known as the ‘Van Gogh’ town, as the famous artist lived here from 1883 until 1885 and several of his paintings are based on this town. We had lunch at De Lindehof in February 2015, and spent the night at the 4* hotel Pullman Cocagne in the centre of Eindhoven. Highly recommended if you’re looking for a hotel after your lunch or dinner!
Restaurant De Lindehof is housed in a renovated villa in the centre of Nuenen, just in front of the picturesque Van Gogh church.
The interior of is light and modern. Several modern artworks adorn the walls of the small restaurant and a colourful sketch of Chef Patron Soenil himself draws the attention at the entrance of the restaurant.
The spacious tables are covered with white linen and the purple, comfortable chairs set the mood for a different but memorable food experience. The restaurant also offers guests the opportunity to reserve the chef’s table inside the kitchen, which is literally located next to the cooking pots.
The Chef
Chef Patron Soenil Bahadoer was born in Surinam and grew up within a traditional Hindu family. It was here that Soenil developed his passion for cooking and this background is still reflected in his kitchen today.
Chef Patron Soenil is a very dynamic chef and runs his restaurant with a natural charisma. He leads his team in a unique and motivating way and makes a point to personally greet all of his guests.
The Food
Soenil Bahadoer’s cooking is typified by creativity, exotic influences and a thorough understanding of the basic cooking techniques. Spices and herbs are an important point throughout his kitchen to add flavour and colour. Chef Patron Soenil is assisted by sous-chef Gijs Hoevenaars and a team of seven other chefs. A signature dish of Chef Patron Soenil Bahadoer is the preparation with Rendan (Indian pot roast), combined with ginger beer, cabbage, kimchi, miso powder, potato with curry, and white soy. An example of a dish where Soenil combines a traditional basis with international ingredients is his preparation with Sole, Vadouvan, masala, European roots, and roots from Suriname.
With his tasting menu, the chef takes his guests on a creative journey around the world:
Appetisers
Menu
Coffee and sweets
The wines & service
The dining room is led by the chef’s daughter Jennifer Bahadoer and the service is informal and professional. She is assisted by Sommelier & maître Edgaras Razminas and a team of 6 other persons.
Sommelier Edgaras hails from Lithuania and is a born entertainer (make sure to check out one of his videos on www.wbpstars.com). His passion for whiskey led him to wines and other beverages. Chef Patron Soenil took him under his wings and today Edgaras is a skilled, open and assertive Sommelier that guides the guests through the interesting wine & beverage list of the restaurant.
The “Belgian Taste Buds” Experience
Restaurant de Lindehof is great place to enjoy some of the best top-end gastronomy in The Netherlands. The extravagant chef, the flamboyant team and the creative, exotic cuisine ensure that you are up for a memorable treat!
Belgian Taste Buds:
– Food Buds 8.5/10
– Wine Pairing Buds 8/10
– Price/Quality Buds 7.5/10
– Service Buds 8.5/10
– Experience Buds 8/10
De Lindehof
Beekstraat 1
5671 CS Nuenen
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 40 283 7336
www.restaurant-delindehof.nl
Original review made for wbpstars.com. Discover the ultimate guide for food lovers, travellers and the restaurant business. Discover many thousands of images and hundreds of films of the most amazing culinary wonders in the world. An exclusive documentation of the very best. | http://www.belgiantastebuds.com/de-lindehof-nuenen-netherlands/ |
Cuisine is an incredibly unique process intimately bound to each chef's DNA. When you cook, you never forget who you are: where you come from, who you are cooking for, and especially where you're cooking. I have two signature dishes. The first is my blue lobster, which is a tribute to my father. It's a festive dish that Dad used to whip up on special occasions. The second is my Breton jumbo shrimp, which is my absolute favorite. When I start designing a dish, I'm always looking to capture the authentic taste of each ingredient, its richness and depth of flavor as well as its emotion.
Menus 145-365 EUR s.i. Carte 160 EUR s.i.
Terminology: t. = tax, s.n.i. = service not included, s.i. = service included
Restaurant: Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Assiette Champenoise’s menus are based on three core themes—local, seasonal, and organic, with ingredients carefully sourced from local suppliers who share these same values.
Chef Arnaud Lallement pays close attention to fishing seasons and stocks; lamb is supplied from local producer Sophie Laluc, located less than an hour from the restaurant; and beef is sourced from the nearby department of Meuse.
All fruit and vegetable ingredients come from a single source: a carefully selected market gardener only 5km from the restaurant. In addition, the fine champagnes that accompany dishes are sourced from local vineyards using well-designed production methods that respect their soils.
The Assiette Champenoise also has a long-standing policy of minimizing waste from ingredients. Both meat and fish are delivered unprepared, with every part used. In addition, the menu’s range is deliberately limited to reduce the potential for waste—using a clear formula of three choices of starter, fish, meat, and dessert. | https://www.relaischateaux.com/us/france/restaurant/assiette-champenoise-restaurant |
Wolfgang Puck is an Austrian-born American celebrity chef and restaurateur, who is famous all over the world for his high-end gourmet restaurants, catering services and cookbooks. Best known for his signature dish, the House Smoked Salmon Pizza, Puck is also much renowned for whipping up dishes like Classic Chicken Pot Pie and Catalonian Fire Roasted Lamb Rack. His fascination with food began decades ago when as a young kid he used to observe his mother cooking in the kitchen. His mother was a restaurant chef and young Wolfgang soon decided that he too wanted to be one, much to the chagrin of his father. His father did not approve of his career choice and for a while Puck tried his hand at working at a construction site in order to appease his father. But fate had other plans and soon he found himself working for a restaurant. For a few years he worked at various restaurants and honed his culinary skills. He moved to France from Austria and luckily got the opportunity to work in some of the greatest French restaurants. Eventually he moved to the United States where his career saw a phenomenal rise and over the years he became a very successful celebrity chef. He is also actively involved in many philanthropic endeavors and charitable organizations.
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- He was born as Wolfgang Johann Topfschnig in Austria on 8 July 1949 to a butcher father and a restaurant chef mother. His biological father left his mother shortly before Wolfgang was born, leaving her alone to raise the child.His mother Maria later married a coal-miner called Josef Puck who adopted Wolfgang and gave him his name. Maria gave birth to two girls and a boy, providing Wolfgang with three younger siblings.He became interested in cooking from a young age, observing his mother at work. He started cooking when he was a child and realized that he wanted to become a professional chef.His father, however, did not approve of his son’s career choice and wanted him to take up some other profession. Thus for a while Wolfgang worked at a construction site but left the job soon to focus on his culinary career.He did not attend any culinary school, but instead opted to train as an apprentice. His first experience as an apprentice at a hotel was anything but positive, but this did not discourage him and he moved to train at another hotel.Continue Reading BelowRecommended Lists: | https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/wolfgang-puck-5528.php |
- Ensures that the equipment is maintained properly, that the highest standards of cleanliness are kept and that safe food handling is practiced at all times.
- Assists in managing the daily food preparation and duties assigned by the superiors to meet the standard and the quality set by the Restaurant.
Additional Job Roles & Responsibilities
- Works closely with the immediate superior to discuss customer demand, seasonal ingredient availability, and special events, and may also suggest menu options or new dishes.
- Inspects areas daily and ensures that standards of cleanliness and order of areas are respected
- Ensures that wastage and spoilage is controlled in the section. Immediately reports any non-conformance to Sous Chef/Immediate Superior
- Estimates the daily production needs and checking the quality of raw and cooked food products to ensure that standards are met.
- Checks deliveries to make sure that ingredients are fresh, quantities are correct, and that ingredients are properly stored and accessible to chefs working within the restaurant.
- Prepares food requisitions for the section and submits to the Sous Chef
- Ensures that HACCP standards are followed with consistency in the section
- Ensures all products are in date and that accurate labeling is used to identify expirations.
- Prepares safety and cleanliness guidelines for team members/subordinates and make sure they adhere to strict standards of professionalism and hygiene.
- Report work orders to the Sous Chef when deficiencies are noted or when maintenance is required and to follow up on the work orders in a timely manner.
- Guides and trains the subordinates on a daily basis to ensure high motivation and economical working environment.
- Ensures effective communication among the kitchens and with other department
Additional Job Roles and Responsibilities (Cont.2)
Additional Job Roles and Responsibilities (Cont.3)
Job Knowledge
- Knowledge of the preparation and recipe elements of their section and can identify ingredients used in the preparation
- Fully conversant with all health and safety and hygiene procedures.
- Knowledge of all standard procedures and policies pertaining to food preparation, receiving, storage and sanitation.
- Knowledge of Microsoft office package and Outlook
Job Skills
- Good communication skills.
- Good organizational skills and must show attention to detail.
- Food hygiene and health and safety
- Can effectively use all utensils and equipment to a high standard and is able to demonstrate above average skills in these tasks. | https://careers.powerholding-intl.com/job/CHEF-DE-PARTIE-%28HOSPITALITY%29/520521702/ |
Chef Doug D’Avico gives us the scoop on his perfectly seared swordfish—including the key ingredient and his secret technique
What was your inspiration for the dish?
My basic idea was that I wanted to do a shore lunch, so I kind of took the simple concept and just brought the flavor up a little bit. A classical shore lunch has the fried fish, but we lightened it with a nice clean piece of swordfish. We did a nice Napa cabbage coleslaw, with lime juice and cilantro, to make it really fresh and pop in flavor—and then we used some nice grilled shiitake mushrooms to add some depth to the dish. And we just finished it off with some grilled onions and a lemon beurre blanc—not to go over the top but just to bring all the flavors out.
What's the key ingredient?
I think it’s a really nice quality swordfish. The lime and cilantro and coleslaw is a little bit different, so I think that also contributes to the sweetness of the cabbage. The flavor's a little bit different than what most people are used to—it's not your typical caraway seed or celery seed from your typical coleslaw. We just made a fresh, light coleslaw, not something that lost all its crunch. Not [something that's] really “mayonnaise-y” and lost its flavors.
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Do you have a secret technique?
We use a griddle and sear the fish off on both sides—just cook it properly. We bring it to the temperature we want and let it sit. We don’t want to brown it too much, just want to give it some nice color, to replicate that fried fish look. We let it sit, and it steams and just finishes off. We aren’t trying to overcook it but keep it light and flaky, maintaining all the moisture in the fish. Fried fish tends to have that crunch on the outside and be moist on the inside, and that’s what we are trying to achieve.
Had you ever made this dish before, and how do your other customers like it?
I’d never made this dish before. Out of all the fish dishes, this is by far the most popular.
What will be your next best dish?
I'm trying to do up stuff for spring and summer—crab and zucchini salad maybe—light flavors. I’m also trying to do a quinoa and mushroom salad. It might turn into a vegetable entrée with some sun-dried tomatoes in there. | https://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/May-2011/Best-New-Dish-Swordfish-at-Bistro-One-West/ |
The Buxton Hall Barbecue chef had grown up in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina, which, like much of the state’s eastern seaboard, was once riddled with rice plantations, with the grain irrevocably rooting itself into the local cuisine to this day. And few rice dishes, particularly in this neck of the woods, are more underdoggedly iconic than that of chicken bog.
“Chicken what?,” you might ask. We know (especially because our founder grew up here, too). But it’s simple, really, like it sounds—a rich pot of long grain white rice, whatever chicken and stock you’ve got, cooked together into a not-quite-stew that’s been around for centuries.
It’s a distant cousin to purloo and pilaf, but more, well, boggier, possibly named for its thick, wet consistency, or the region from which it came, with a namesake river speckled with floodplain forests and wetlands. It’s the epitome of comfort food—a one-pot Southern staple. Which is ultimately what caused Moss, years later, to eventually eat his words.
“I remember chicken bog from very early on . . . and the older I got, the more I started missing it,” he says, adding a whole special section of Carolina rice dishes to the menu at Buxton Hall, including, of course, chicken bog. “Most of the food that I cook or eat these days comes from this place of nostalgia from my childhood.”
Before he was even six years old, Moss’s earliest memories of chicken bog were Saturdays spent with his grandfather, who every weekend cooked a pot outside on a propane-fueled turkey fryer, sending leftovers home with his staff and kids. Moss’s mother would carry on the tradition in a saucepot on the stove, serving hers with a side of peas, which now accompany the dish at her son’s restaurant.
“With my family, you used any pot you could get your hands on,” says Moss, pointing to the dish’s everyman ethos, which also appears in its ability to stretch out just a few affordable ingredients. “My grandma taught me to not waste food. At the restaurant, I knew there was always going to be leftover chicken throughout the week, and using nicer quality meat that costs us more, we had to find creative ways to use everything. Chicken bog was that vehicle.”
Today, Moss makes his Buxton bog with nods to his family, as well as his own new flourishes, such as adding smoked kielbasa made with pork from local farmers, and cooking in cast iron since day one, having won a vintage pot in a cooking competition just before opening his restaurant. He points to the medium’s myriad benefits when it comes to cooking rice, which we all know is an ever-loving pain in the neck.
“Rice is a pretty hard dish to master,” says Moss. “I’m still learning how to cook it, and I’m 41 years old."
A few ways cast iron comes in handy: One, its well-seasoned surface, which through polymerization naturally prevents the rice from sticking. Two, its thicker bottom, which helps evenly radiate heat to keep the rice from burning. Three, the material’s high emissivity, or ability to maintain constant heat, which, with the help of a lid, enables the efficient production of steam for thoroughly cooked rice.
And last but not least, four, cast iron doubles as the perfect serving vessel.
Because nobody wants cold bog.
“It’s a simple, humble dish,” says Moss. “I eat it just about every day.”
About Chef Elliott Moss
(Photos and Bio courtesy of Buxton Hall)
Growing up in Florence, South Carolina, where mom and pop 'cue joints reigned supreme, Moss gained a deep appreciation of the art of smoke. His roots for southern food and culture run deep as he spent his younger years playing with pigs and chickens on his grandparents' family farm. He has vivid memories of his grandfather setting up block pits to feed the neighborhood whole hog on special occasions, while helping his grandmother stir kettles of chicken bog and his father saucing barbecued chicken and hogs on the family smoker. It's no wonder this son of the south has vinegar mop running in his veins. Moss moved to Asheville in 2007 to help open The Admiral Restaurant, garnering acclaim throughout the South for his creative & eclectic fare. After being nominated for Best Chef Southeast through the James Beard Foundation in 2013, he left to chase his barbecue dreams.
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Like this interview? Subscribe through the link below so you never miss a story. | https://butterpatindustries.com/blogs/good-reasons/why-use-cast-iron-to-make-chicken-bog |
In this chapter, the concept of “window” was defined from various perspectives and the rhythmic position of windows within architecture, window-light relationship and styles in architectural history were interpreted. The characteristics of windows used in Turkish houses were explained in detail, with reference to examples of traditional windows from Turkey and around the world in the 19th and 20th centuries. In addition, the history, geographical location, social and economic structure throughout history, migration and population expectation, urbanization, historical districts of Kirklareli province and the characteristics of traditional houses were also analyzed.
General characteristics of traditional late 19th century and early 20th century window styles in historical districts of Kırklareli, sash-sash relationships, and the stylistic and functional characteristics of the windows were explained. At the end of the chapter, windows are classified according to the following structural, stylistic and complementary elements: a) Location of the profile frame in the wall section/or wall-profile relationship, b) Profile frame-profile sash relationship/or frame-sash relationship, c) Relationship between the profile sashes or sash/sash relationship, d) Opening direction of the profile/or according to sash movements, e) Number of movable sashes of the profile, f) Window order, g) Movable sashes of the profile, h) Fixed sashes of the profile, i) Ratio of window width to window length, j) Presence of shutter, railing, jamb and molding elements; presence of dripstone in the frame or sashes; and type of lock and sill. A total of 103 windows included in the eBook were briefly defined according to this classification.
Late 19th Century and Early 20th Century Windows in Kirklareli
Page: 99-385 (287)
Author: Nevnihal Erdoğan and Izzet Yüksek
PDF Price: $30
Abstract
This chapter presents 103 examples of late 19th century and early 20th century windows in 89 traditional houses in Kirklareli, Turkey. The windows are presented, using drawings and photographs of varying scales, according to their different characteristics, related to the storey on which they were located. These drawings include images from inner and outer sides, plan and vertical sections, and details from different points of the windows. In addition to visual explanations, each window was analyzed in terms of a) the house in which they were placed, b) structural characteristics, c) complementary elements, and d) stylistic characteristics. At the end of this chapter, new design suggestions are proposed, involving the detailing the stylistic characteristics of structural window profiles. In addition, it was concluded that the study can served as a beneficial resource for urban conservation and planning activities.
References
Page: 386-386 (1)
Author: Nevnihal Erdoğan and Izzet Yüksek
Subject Index
Page: 387-393 (7)
Author: Nevnihal Erdoğan and Izzet Yüksek
Introduction
Traditional Window Designs of Kirklareli, Turkey is original research on window design and presents readers the unique culture of Turkey. The theme of this book is based on samples of windows of the late 19th and early 20th century in Kirklareli. A total of 103 homes of traditional style have been observed in the old districts of the city. The windows in these buildings were studied in detail, were photographed and their plan, sectional elevations and views were obtained by scale drawings. Samples from 57 windows that were collected during the research process were selected to be published in this book. Some details are important with their color, with their ornaments and details, with their place in the façade having architectural elements belonging to certain periods, and with carvings of certain symbols. This presentation is a significant step towards creating new designs with respect to cultural continuation and in building protection studies. Thus the book provides a rich illustrated resource for architects, designers and researchers interested in gaining a better understanding of diversity of design characteristics in different neighborhoods of Kirklareli in Turkey. Readers, including students and industry professionals can learn from the lessons provided in this book about unique window design and production.
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EBSCO, Book Citation Index, Social Sciences & Humanities. | http://www.eurekaselect.com/ebook_volume/1303 |
Earlier this month, Zillow looked at single family homes in various states to determine if home architectural styles are regional. The common architectural styles Zillow reviewed included bungalows, Cape Cod-style homes, colonial-style homes, contemporary and modern to name a few. What they found was that architectural styles “tend to vary by region and even by state within a region” and colonial and ranch/rambler style homes were some of the most popular in the country.
In the western region, Zillow looked as states such as Montana, Washington and Wyoming. Ranch/rambler style homes were most prevalent in all three states. Both Wyoming and Montana had log cabin/rustic home styles with Montana having some bungalow style homes as well. Washington also had bungalows, but traditional styled homes were also common in the area.
To see pictures of home architectural styles and Zillow’s other state and regional findings, go to http://bit.ly/16JYaqh. | https://blog.alliancetitle.com/2013/03/architectural-styles-vary-by-state-and-region/ |
A Global Spa Directors Compensation Survey for 2022 has been launched to review the wages and employment numbers in the spa industry globally.
Open until Nov. 30, 2022, the survey's goal is to tally overall staff compensation data that would typically be known by a spa director, manager or owner. The survey will also review how wages and employment have shifted over time, and how regions of the world compare to each other.
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The survey was created by Lisa Starr, spa and wellness industry professional and principal of Wynne Business. The first edition of this survey, performed in 2014, received results from 35 countries around the world and was published in the Spa Business Handbook.
This year's 26 question survey will also be published in the 2022/23 Spa Business Handbook, and the results will differ from the original through being tallied by country instead of the type of company or spa. Spa owners, directors or managers with a working knowledge of pay rates and staff roles are designated to participate in this survey.
Moving forward, Starr plans to repeat this survey process every two years to share updated results within the spa industry. There are also plans to release a staff survey that pertains to job satisfaction and career growth. | https://www.skininc.com/business/staff/news/22539357/global-spa-directors-compensation-survey-reviews-spa-wage-benchmarks |
The ACLA statement stands up in support of ex-President Okker, the New College community, and faculty and students at institutions of higher education around the country who are experiencing political interventions.
AFS News
News about the American Folklore Society
Following the general membership’s approval of a proposal to authorize the Executive Board to elect a new Board member each year, the Board is presently at work discussing current, pressing needs, as well as the process for how to best manage the process of adding Board-elected members going forward.
The AFS Fellows invites nominations for AFS Fellows from any member of AFS.The nomination period for the 2023 election of new Fellows is open from now until 11:59 pm on March 15th.
Ebony L Bailey's article, “(Re)Making the Folk: Black Representation and the Folk in Early American Folklore Studies" is featured by University of Illinois Press' celebration of Black History Month by sharing their favorite Black history publications.
Winners and accolades recipients of the 2022 Aesop Prize were announced at the AFS Annual Meeting.
Daisy Ahlstone (Ph.D. Student, Ohio State University) and Nichola Miller shared the 2022 Folklore and Science Junior Prize.
The five AFS Bylaws amendments proposed by the Executive Board in 2022 have been approved by AFS members, reaching the 66% approval threshold required by the AFS Bylaws. Proposals 1-5 will go into immediate effect.
The Winter issue (v. 136, no. 539) of the JAF: A Global Quarterly will be available online and will arrive in mailboxes soon. This issue exemplifies the editorial team’s efforts to publish diverse formats and to enhance dialog within the journal.
Stephen Lochetto received 2022 the W.W. Newell Prize for best essay by students or emerging scholars on a topic in children's folklore.
Lei Ting (PhD candidate at the University of Tokyo) received the Saboohi I. Khan Award for Student Scholarship in Asian and Asian American Folklore. | https://americanfolkloresociety.org/category/afs-news/page/3/ |
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Almost all House Republicans vote no on bill to help address... | https://americanindependent.com/tag/summit/ |
Estamos de volta com outro Coding Boot Camp 2022 recap. After learning everything about the If statements and how they can be effectively used in any Windows application development. We are going to take a deeper look at the so-called For-loops. In this session, we will be introduced to the idea of iteration. Generally, in programming, is the process where a set of instructions or statements is executed repeatedly for a specified number of times or until a condition is met. These iterations are commonly known as the loops. In this video taken from the recently concluded Coding Boot Camp 2022, Gerhard Visagie will teach us everything about for-loops and will demonstrate how they work in Delphi.
Understanding for loops and its core function
The For loop is used to repeat a section of code known number of times. Like all loops, the “For loops” execute blocks of code over and over again. The video, however, will not just show how this particular type of loop works but it will also demonstrate how it can tidy up your code by deleting a bunch of duplicate statements. The For Loops will rely on three values. First is the so-called Counter Variable that will keep track of every repetition the loop is doing. This is followed by the low and high values. The low value is where the loop must start while the high value is where the loop must end.
Gerhard will also demonstrate how to reverse a For loop in which results are displayed in descending order. We will also get to see how to loop with a range of characters with a for-loop. In addition to that, the video will also introduce us to other types of loops including the Nested For Loops, While Loops, and Repeat/Until Loops. Each comes with samples to help us understand the core feature of for loops better.
If you want to know more about Looping and Repeating with iteration structure, feel free to watch the video below.
Projeto. Código. Compilar. Implante. | https://learndelphi.org/pt/what-you-should-know-about-looping-and-repeating-with-iterations-in-delphi/ |
When you've been slaving away over a hot stove all evening, the last thing you want to do is tackle a complicated dessert recipe. But if you're anything like us and crave a little sweetness after almost every single meal, then we might just have found the perfect pud to have you reaching for the mixing bowl.
This recipe has been posted by YouTube blogger How To Cook That and it's already had over 400,000 views since it went online in October.
With two staple ingredients and a few simple steps, this layered dessert couldn't be easier. Fancy giving it a go? Here's how…
Ingredients
- 3 bowls of dark, milk and white chocolate
- A splash of water
(Exact measurements are available from the How to Cook That website)
How to make
1. Break three pieces of chocolate into three separate bowls. Add hot water to each of the chocolate-filled bowls.
2. Microwave each bowl for 30 seconds.
3. Take out of the microwave and give it a good stir. Microwave for another 20 seconds, then stir again to make a smooth paste.
4. Pour each one into a separate plastic bag, then seal together and flatten out. Place the flattened bags into the freezer for about an hour.
5. Remove the dark chocolate from the freezer, rip open the bag and place the cold mixture into a bowl.
6. Mix with together with a hand mixer on high speed (or very vigorously if you're mixing by hand). Add chilled water to the chocolate whilst you're mixing, a little at a until it forms a thick, smooth consistency, similar to whipped cream.
7. Pour into a piping bag and pipe into a small glasses.
8. Place the glass into the fridge whilst you prepare your second milk chocolate layer. (Repeat the process as above).
9. When ready pipe over the top of the dark chocolate layer, then pop back into the fridge once again.
10. Repeat the process again for the final white chocolate layer, then place back into the fridge for around 30 minutes, until it's ready to serve.
For the full recipe watch the video below... | https://www.prima.co.uk/all-recipes/quick-recipes/news/a34689/easy-chocolate-mousse-recipe/ |
Students who do not achieve a letter grade of “C” or better in any course or module are considered to have failed that course or module and must repeat it. When students repeat a failed course or module, the grade received is used to calculate the cumulative GPA. Both the original and repeat attempts will be counted in rate of progress calculations. If repeating the course or module is required, the length of the program must not exceed 150 percent of the published program length. Students may repeat a failed course or module only once. Additionally, the ability to repeat a course or module is on a “seat availability” basis. A student’s training may be interrupted if the course or module to be repeated is not available until a later date.
Degree students repeating courses will be charged the per credit cost for each repeated course.
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Ontario Campus: Voted Best Trade School in the 2022 Inland Valley Daily Bulletin Readers Choice Awards.
LA Campus: Voted Best Career College in the 2022 LA Daily News Readers Choice Awards.
OC Campus: Voted Favorite Career College in the 2022 San Gabriel Valley Tribune Readers Choice Awards. | https://americancareercollege.edu/catalog/current/academic-information-and-college-policies/grading-system/repeated-modules-or-courses |
2nd MyPSA National Pharmacy Competition (NPC) 2022 is a national event organised under the Malaysian Pharmacy Students’ Association (MyPSA) which involves participants from 20 pharmacy schools all over Malaysia. The 2nd MyPSA NPC was held on the dates from the 2nd of April 2022 until the 17th of April 2022. The theme for this year was “Refining Excellence: Reaching Beyond Boundaries”, and the Pharmaceutical Society of AIMST (PharmSA) and Cyberjaya University Pharmacy Students’ Society (CUPSS) were selected as the organisers. The event’s goal is to provide participants with a platform to compete against each other based on their expertise such as compounding and type of diseases. Not only that, but the participants will have the opportunity to improve their confidence during the presentation and will be able to analyse various case studies that may come up in their professional lives. Most importantly, participants will be able to build their ties with other university schools.
The registration period for the 2nd MyPSA National Pharmacy Competition (NPC) 2022 was from the 21st of February 2022 until the 6th of March 2022 for Phase 1 and from the 7th of March 2022 until the 13th of March 2022 for Phase 2. There are three challenges under NPC 2022, namely the Clinical Pharmacy Challenge (CC), Piala Aishah Compounding Challenge (PA), and Pharmacy Quiz Challenge (QC). Each of the challenges consists of different rules and regulations and the participants can participate in the challenges which they have expertise. Each of the challenges consists of three sessions, which are the preliminary round, semi-final round, and final round. Judges from various pharmacy schools, such as USM and UiTM, were invited to each of the challenges to ensure that the competition was fair and professional. Besides that, the committee had live streamed the whole competition session on the official Facebook page, and other students can watch the live session to enhance their knowledge and support their school members.
The winners of each competition were determined after two weeks of the competition. In the Clinical Pharmacy Challenge, Taylor’s team took the first and second place, followed by IMU’s team. Besides that, the first place for the Piala Aishah Compounding Challenge (PA) was dropped on a team from Taylor’s University, and the first runner up and second runner up were from USM. The last challenge, the Pharmacy Quiz Challenge, was won by the team from IMU, with the team from Taylor’s coming in second and the team from UOC coming in third.
The closing ceremony was held on the 17th of April 2022 for the announcement of the winners from each of the challenges. The big clap was given to Taylor’s University, which won most of the competition. Every participant had a great time at this competition, even though some of them did not win a medal. However, failure teaches success and all of us have a chance again to compete in next year’s! All in all, the event brought a lot of benefits and it was a memorable experience for all pharmacy students. Hope more of the participants will join NPC next year and give us an amazing competition. | https://www.ukm.my/epharmaline/2nd-mypsa-national-pharmacy-competition-npc-2022/ |
Preheat barbecue to medium-high. Position rack in centre of oven, then preheat to 150°F.
- 2
Brush zucchini, squash, onion and bell pepper with oil. Sprinkle with salt and black pepper.
- 3
Grill vegetables until grill marks form on the bottom, about 1 to 2 minutes. Turn vegetables 90 degrees. Grill until cross-hatched grill marks appear on bottom, about 1 to 2 more minutes.
- 4
Flip vegetables over and repeat process to get cross-hatched grill marks. Transfer vegetables to a cutting board and let cool slightly.
- 5
Dice the grilled vegetables into 1/4 in pieces. Combine grilled vegetables, cheese and salsa in a large bowl.
- 6
Scoop 1 tbsp of vegetable mixture into each Tostitos® Scoops!® and arrange on a baking sheet.
- 7
Bake until cheese melts, about 10 minutes. Serve immediately.
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Last updated: September 22nd, 2022
This article is intended as general information. Always be sure to read and follow the label(s)/instruction(s) that accompany your product(s). Walmart will not be responsible for any injury or damage caused by this activity. | https://ideas.walmart.ca/recipes/grilled-veggies-tostitos-scoops/ |
This weekend is shaping up to be one of the hottest of the year so far, with Met Éireann predicting temperatures could reach the 20s. The country will bask in temperatures to rival those of May 15, when 2022’s current high of 20.9C was hit.
Met Éireann has predicted high pressure is set to build over the country, which will bring mostly dry and sunny spells. Friday is likely to be dry with plenty of sunny spells, with temperatures reaching 18C in the lead-up to a weekend when it could get even warmer.
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Speaking about Saturday, forecaster Brandon Creagh said: ‘High pressure is looking to build. It could be quite nice with the cloud going away.
The temperatures are likely to be in the upper teens, maybe 20C, particularly in the southwest – that will be the best of the sunshine.’
The hot weather is likely to stick around until Sunday too, with Mr Creagh suggesting Kerry and Clare will hit 20C – so it could be time to get down to the coast. This would mark a dramatic change from the unsettled conditions over recent days, which have brought heavy rain, thunder and lightning.
And it seems that before the warm weekend arrives, we may have to suffer with some weather that has been depressingly familiar of late. Today is set to be damp and drizzly in the morning with widespread showers. However, sunny spells are expected in the afternoon as showers become more isolated.
Mr Creagh said tomorrow is expected to be a ‘rinse and repeat’ of early morning showers coming from the west before it clears up later in the day, with temperatures potentially hitting 18C. We should the most of the weekend sunshine and bask in the heat – as next week could be a return to less appealing weather. | https://evoke.ie/2022/05/25/news/irish-news/the-weekend-shaping-to-be-one-of-the-hottest-of-the-year |
2 x 3D 3.75” Easter Egg Chocolate Molds (each mold has 2 cavities) or 2 trays x 6 cavity mini Easter bunny chocolate molds (12 cavities in total) 2 sheets of 9” coloured foil Note: Chocolate molds and coloured tin foil can be purchased online or at specialty cake decorating and chocolate supply stores.
Place the cocoa butter in a heatproof bowl and rest the bowl over a saucepan half-filled with water. Ensure the bowl fits tightly over the saucepan but does not make contact with the water in the saucepan (this ensures the chocolate will not overheat and no water will enter the bowl).
Bring the water to a gentle simmer. Stir with a metal spoon until the cocoa butter melts, reaching a maximum temperature of 45°C. When the cocoa butter is smooth and completely melted, remove from the heat and whisk in the sifted cacao or carob powder, honey and coconut oil. At this point you can add flavouring or your choice such as orange or mint oil. Mix ingredients well until the mixture is shiny and smooth.
Place the bowl of chocolate over another bowl of ice water, again making sure the chocolate never comes into contact with water. Continue stirring gently until the chocolate thickens and coats the back of the spoon. Once the chocolate has cooled to between 28 and 31°C, remove from the bowl of ice. This process and temperature control ensures the chocolate will have a pleasant, bittersweet flavour profile, the chocolate will be smooth and shiny, and the honey will not separate once set.
You may need to complete this process in intervals if you find that parts of the chocolate are hardening more rapidly than others, or that solid lumps are forming. If this occurs, simply remove the bowl from the ice and keep mixing until the chocolate has melted evenly. Check the temperature and return it to the ice if needed. An alternative method is to pour the melted chocolate onto a clean, cold bench and spread the chocolate out over the bench/surface with a pallet knife. Continue spreading and mixing until the chocolate thickens at 28 – 31°C. Scrape the chocolate back into a bowl.
Pipe or carefully pour spoonfuls of the chocolate into the cavities of each mold. Swirl the chocolate around until completely coated, using a pastry brush if necessary, and then remove excess chocolate from the flat surfaces of the molds.
Lift and tap the moulds onto the workbench a few times to remove any air bubbles, then transfer to the fridge for 15 minutes, with the molds placed upright. Repeat the process an additional two or three times until a thick enough layer of chocolate rests in the surface of each cavity. Carefully scrape and smooth off the top edges of the molds using a scraper or the flat side of the knife, between adding each layer. Levelling off the edges is essential so that half cavities of the egg mold adhere together evenly, leaving no holes when sealing. Once you are happy with the thickness of the chocolate layer inside the molds, place them in the fridge for 30 minutes, or until set.
Preheat the oven to 50°C. Remove the molds from the refrigerator and carefully turn out the chocolate by flipping the moulds over and gently tapping them out. Place on a clean surface taking care not to handle the chocolate too much as it will easily start melt from the warmth of your hands.
To seal the two sides/cavities of each chocolate egg together, heat a flat baking tray in the oven for 8 minutes or until the tray is warm. Remove the tray from the oven then place the open edges of cavity directly down onto the tray for few seconds. Immediately join them together, pushing gently to seal. Repeat this process until all half-egg cavities are sealed into solid chocolate eggs. Wrap the eggs in a coloured tin foil of your choice. Store refrigerated.
Note from Pete – Cocoa is a stimulant, so be careful with children….carob is probably a better choice though it is still high in sucrose/fructose.
Want to try white chocolate? Mix cocoa butter, coconut oil, green stevia powder with vanilla bean. | https://blog.innerorigin.com/pete-evans-chocolate-easter-eggs/ |
Today is the first day of the rest of your life. You don’t need it to be a New Year to start anew.
Each day pick one new belief from the right column and repeat it to yourself as many times as you can throughout the day: try for 100 times for each new belief.
Repeat that process each day with the next new belief on your list until you have completed the list.
The way to train your brain to think congruently with what you desire is to command it through repetition. You can also raise your belief by observing other people achieving what you desire and realizing that YOU are no different than them.
DECIDE and put all your focus on being the NEW version of you. | http://www.micheleariana.com/2016/06/whats-stopping-you/ |
What STOPS You From Reaching Your Goals?
It's the time of year when everyone is putting together their goals and making plans for what they want to accomplish in the new year. This is always an exciting time, however, why do so many lose that excitement and fail to reach the goals they set?
FEAR - Although many set a goal for the new year, to create something different in our lives requires change. A change in thinking, a change in actions, a change in perspective. Very often to change one's actions, requires pushing through fear. This is a major stopping point for many.
LIMITING BELIEFS - Many will set the goal they want to achieve, but let limiting beliefs side track them.
NON COMMITMENT - Words mean NOTHING without commitment. Commitment in any area of life is required to get the result. Without commitment, dreams die.
Reflect on how you would FEEL if you give up. This destroys self confidence, self esteem and self worth. Nothing will change in your life, if you repeat the same type of actions, decisions, and thinking as you have in the past. How many times have you set this goal...how many times have you failed to reach it....how many times are you going to repeat this same process?
Is this year going to be different for you? Are you going to give in to the same fears and limiting beliefs that have stopped you in the past? What are you going to do differently to ensure you don't give up on what you want?
To conquer FEAR - be willing to address it and push through it. No one can do thisFOR you....it is up to YOU. Let your goal be stronger and more important to you than any fear. The absence of fear is NOT a requirement to take action. Every single person that achieves anything in life, has learned to push through their fears. It is simply part of the process to push through fear to reach any goal. Be more committed to improving yourself, and reaching your goal, than any fear.
To conquer LIMITING BELIEFS - recognize you would not have the goal if you were not capable of reaching it. Limiting beliefs come from PAST experiences and conditioning. This is a new year, and the time to LEAVE BEHIND your past limiting beliefs. Treat this new year as the opportunity it is....to leave the old behind...old thoughts, old doubts, old fears, old self esteem or confidence limitations. SEEyourself as the person that achieves the goal. Reflect on how that FEELS inside. Now, HOLD ON to THAT feeling every single day. Reflect on that feeling morning and night and keep taking action consistently.
Be PERSISTENT - Implementing persistent consistency is something that will dramatically change your results. You can't start and stop. Persistent and consistent actions must be taken UNTIL the goal is reached. Even if the "time frame" you set is off a bit, keep going until you reach the goal.
STOP BUYING YOUR OWN EXCUSES - This is one of the biggest distinctions to come to terms with. As long as you buy your own excuses, you will always be limited in what you accomplish. Every time you find yourself thinking about an excuse, stop yourself, and find a solution instead.
Implement GRATITUDE - The power of gratitude is underestimated by most people. Be grateful for the smallest of things, daily. It raises the vibration you are putting out to the universe. We get back what we put out in life....the more grateful you are, the more you will have to be grateful for.
LEARN from those that have done what you want to do. Advice is everywhere in life. Most people take advice from the wrong people...those "well meaning" people that are giving you their "best" advice. Stop listening to those that have no credibility or experience in what you want to accomplish. Learn from people that are actually "qualified" to give advice because they have walked the walk and have achieved the results you want.
COMMIT TO YOURSELF - No one can achieve the goal you want...it is up to YOU. Just as you would commit to a relationship no matter what, you must treat your goal the same way. Why do you want to achieve it? How would this change your life? Be willing to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes, PERIOD! DO NOT buy your own excuses. Be solution oriented, and find a way when you run into a roadblock, and it seems there is no way. It is simply part of the process.
The reason so many do not reach their goals, is not because they are not capable. It is because they are not fully committed and they give up at the first sign of challenge. YOU are the only one that can change this. Make THIS year different for you.....prove to yourself what you are truly capable of! Much success!!! | http://www.thesuccesseducator.biz/blog/what-stops-you-from-reaching-your-goals |
# 2022 Women's National Invitation Tournament
The 2022 Women's National Invitation Tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 64 NCAA Division I Women's college basketball teams that were not selected for the field of the 2022 Women's NCAA tournament. The tournament committee announced the 64-team field on March 13, following the selection of the NCAA Tournament field. The tournament started March 16 and ended on April 2 with the championship game televised by CBSSN. The tournament was won by the South Dakota State Jackrabbits.
## Participants
The 2022 Postseason WNIT field consists of 32 teams that receive automatic berths – one berth from each conference – and 32 at-large teams. Three conferences (Big Ten, Big 12, SWAC) rejected their bids. All Division I teams will be considered for at-large berths, including those who are independent and/or are in the transition process of reaching full NCAA Division I status. The automatic berth will go to the team that is the highest-finishing team in its conference's regular-season standings not selected for an NCAA Tournament berth, though some of these teams may still receive an at-large berth into the NCAA women's basketball tournament. The remaining team slots will be filled by the top teams available.
Until Selection Sunday, the highest ranked team that failed to win its conference tournament was placed as the automatic qualifier. If they were selected for the NCAA Tournament, they were replaced with the team next selected.
## Bracket
* – Denotes overtime period
## All-tournament team
Myah Selland (South Dakota State), MVP Haleigh Timmer (South Dakota State) Sidney Cooks (Seton Hall) Lauren Park-Lane (Seton Hall) Ilmar’l Thomas (UCLA) Kseniya Malashka (Middle Tennessee)
Source: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Women%27s_National_Invitation_Tournament |
National Assembly set to close September 19, delaying marriage equality protections
(BANGKOK, September 16, 2022)—Thailand’s House of Representatives should immediately convene its second session this year to ensure the passage of legislation related to LGBTI+ rights, said Fortify Rights today. On June 15, 2022, Thai legislators approved four bills to extend the right to marriage to LGBTI+ couples. However, the National Assembly is expected to close its first session on September 19, 2022 and may not reconvene until after Thailand’s elections in March 2023, delaying the legislative process surrounding the bills.
“Halting the legislative process now will only prolong discrimination against the LGBTI+ community,” said Amy Smith, Executive Director at Fortify Rights. “Members of the LGBTI+ community in Thailand have already waited too long for equal rights. Legislators should schedule the next ordinary session immediately and prioritize further readings of the marriage equality bill.”
LGBTI+ people in Thailand are denied the right to marriage and continue to face discrimination under the law in Thailand.
Earlier this year, Thailand’s House of Representatives approved both the draft Act for Amendment to the Civil and Commercial Code—commonly known as the marriage equality bill—and the draft Civil Partnership Act following their first readings on June 15, 2022. Both bills are now undergoing revisions as the National Assembly edges closer to its termination.
If passed, the marriage equality bill would revise Section 1448 of Thailand’s Civil and Commercial Code,—commonly known as the “marriage law,”—to replace the terms “husband” and “wife” in the Code with the word “spouse.” The bill also proposes replacing “man” and “woman” with “person.” These changes would allow two individuals to be legally married regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, providing LGBTI+ couples with rights to marriage, welfare, child adoption, healthcare consent, property co-management, inheritance, and access to spousal benefits of tax deductions and government pensions.
On the other hand, the civil-partnership bill, if passed, would allow same-sex partners to legally register as “civil partners” and would provide for their rights to child adoption, healthcare consent, property co-management, and inheritance. Unlike the marriage equality bill, the civil partnership bill does not guarantee the same rights to LGBTI+ couples as heterosexual couples, particularly access to spousal benefits of tax deductions and government pensions.
After the marriage equality bill passed its first reading in a vote of 210 to 180 on June 15, the House of Representatives set up a parliamentary sub-committee to scrutinize the bill. The sub-committee’s work began immediately after but will be suspended with the conclusion of the first ordinary session of the National Assembly on September 19, 2022. If the second ordinary session of the National Assembly is not called soon, the next sitting could be pushed to next year after the upcoming election in March. This means that the legislative process for the marriage equality bill, among other awaiting bills, will be on hold for at least another six months.
According to the Constitution of Thailand, any bill needs to be approved in the second and third readings before reaching the Senate, where it would be voted on for approval or sent back to the House. The House of Representatives has yet to schedule the dates for the next annual ordinary session.
Under Section 121 of the constitution, two ordinary sessions of the National Assembly are expected each year, each lasting 120 days. However, if “the period of time from the first sitting . . . to the end of the calendar year is insufficient to hold the second annual ordinary session, the second annual ordinary session may be omitted in that year.”
On September 8, Thai civil society groups involved in the Rainbow Alliance for Marriage Equality submitted an open letter to the parliamentary sub-committee responsible for reviewing the two bills to demand that the sub-committee continue the second and third readings of the marriage equality bill until it reaches the Senate.
On September 6, the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand issued a statement urging the House of Representatives to pass the marriage equality bill in their second and third readings to “enhance the protection of human rights and dignity of LGBTI+ people, as well as eliminate sexual and gender based discrimination in Thailand.” The statement also reiterates the need to bring Thai laws in line with Thailand’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Yogyakarta Principles, which are based on binding international legal standards in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity.
Article 23 of the ICCPR guarantees the right to family and marriage, providing that “[t]he right of men and women of marriageable age to marry and to found a family shall be recognized.” As a state party to the ICCPR, Thailand must “take appropriate steps to ensure equality of rights and responsibilities of spouses as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.” Article 26 of the ICCPR also guarantees equal protection of the law without any discrimination. The principle of non-discrimination is also considered a fundamental right under customary international law binding on all states. Section 27 of the Constitution of Thailand similarly prohibits all forms of discrimination. | https://www.fortifyrights.org/tha-inv-2022-09-16/ |
The Title Track of the EP Helped Me Break away from a Toxic Friendship
After the release of the first single, "Karolina's Trip," I knew this journey would continue. Songwriting feels natural to me, I would compare it to writing a diary or confiding my feelings to a good friend. I had a few singles in my repertoire that I wanted to finish before the EP was released. But in the end, before the studio recording deadline, I composed some new songs with a bit more perspective on my past experiences. So, I came to Prokop Korb's studio with four songs—"Worms," "Spring Skin," "Reaching" and "Please Be Gentle." All of them, like the debut single, capture a dreamlike atmosphere. At the same time, they talk about selfishness and how it relates to growing up.
Now I would like to share with you the process of creating these songs through the notes from my diary.
Day One: 21 February 2022
"We are starting with 'Worms.' They found the drums and made a banger. There's still a lot of work to be done. I have so much endorphin in my body. Eating Vietnamese, walking around the garden of the art school in Ládví, drinking coffee. After a break, we improvise, jam. Prokop plays a river on the piano. The instrumental part for 'Spring Skin' emerges. So fragile. We're sketching 'Reaching' and 'Please Be Gentle.' I wonder how they'll turn out. See you later."
Worms
This song is one of the main reasons why we continued recording with Prokop Korb. Although I got a sound card for Christmas, I still didn't feel like producing it myself. I still need help in this regard, still need to learn. The sessions charge me with new experience. I wanted to support the song with drums, play around with it, break away from the clean acoustics I love so much. I composed it last autumn when I moved to Brno, started studying and enjoying student life. I was reflecting on my selfishness, my need to explore and do things that I know deep down are not good for me and the people around me.
Growing up.
Day Two: 22 February 2022
"We're working on 'Worms again, ' I have a few notes about changes, Prokop disagrees with some of them, communication is crucial, producers know what works. It's good to take advice, humility is important in collaboration. Knowing when to assert your own and when to trust. The final feeling is victorious. Our session today was shot in an analogue by Janek (Jan Liška).
We're looking for harmonies for 'Spring Skin's' vocals and we're making a synth out of some of them. Goosebumps. We back up 'Reaching' with a bow on guitar. We're not pausing today. In the dark, around 10 pm, we record the purely acoustic 'Please Be Gentle.'"
Spring Skin
This delicacy was created shortly after the New Year which was particularly warm, both on the body and on the soul. I am experiencing true love, discovering its textures, believing in a warm tomorrow. The original version was a guitar version, we eventually accompanied its smoothness and high vocals with a piano, I call it a river.
Reaching
I think consciously, act subconsciously, with a grey conscience, actions are familiar, subconscious. Again, I reflect on my actions, and on why I meet people that I must not and do not want to expect anything from. I love and look away. My strong will and good values bubble to the surface.
For this song, I recycled a 2018 FAMU film I was in and I'm recycling situations as well. My younger self was looking up to others and constantly searching for her own identity. Similar moments might repeat in the next phase of my adolescence. But I already know that it is the attitude and change of values that teaches me to approach feelings differently.
Day Three: 23 February 2022
"Today, we only recorded the vocals. We got it. EP, looking forward to seeing you. I'm going home, absorbing. I'm grateful."
Please Be Gentle
In the last track, I don't discuss a love relationship, but a relationship with a friend. The song helped me to detach from a toxic friendship. I ask for sympathy, I ask to be listened to and maybe to go a few years back to the time when everything worked. The song gave me perspective on the situation. That's what I love most about composing.
The recording and composing process were pleasant. I was surprised by how easy it was. Many thanks to Prokop Korb. He facilitated the whole process with his talent and knowledge in music and mastering.
At the moment, I'm working on new singles, now only with little production in a bedroom with a friend. I have to admit it's a lot more work, but even that is shaping me into the sound I'm looking for. I'm grateful for the freedom of musical expression, the opportunities to create, to compose. I look forward to more.
How did you prepare your songs for your first EP or album? Share with us in the comments or email us directly at [email protected].
If you have found an error or typo in the article, please let us know by e-mail [email protected]. | https://insounder.org/title-track-ep-helped-me-break-away-toxic-friendship |
Falkland Islands have experienced an extraordinary Loligo year with catches reaching 101,073 tons in the two season, 54,417 in the first and 43,216 in the second. However great volumes also have their shortcomings, particularly since Falklands' fishing industry this year has had to face dearer fuel and transport costs, and not all the catch has been sold.
According to Dr Andrea Clausen, Director of Natural Resources, Falkland Islands Government, the first Loligo season with 56,417 tons was the highest since 2021, despite voluntary closures to avoid small squid that where in abundance in the south. Overall the biomass remained high throughout the season.
The second season with 43,216 tons, the highest ever, a record, with a Catch Per Unit Effort of 44 tons per day, also outstanding since it was the highest second season CPUE ever.
It must be noted that the season involved 16 vessels, fishing for 64 days in each season.
Overall, including pre-recruit surveys and by-catch the total catch for Loligo for 2022 reached 101,073 tons (the highest since 1989, when 118,721mt was caught by 55 vessels)
But although most of the catch has returned to Spain, not all of it has been sold, even when market prices were holding up well at midyear.
The fact is that with the war in Ukraine, of which the Falklands fishing industry is not immune, return margins and a steady demand are threatened because of higher than usual fuel prices (bunkers have doubled in the past 12 months) and transport costs
Finally it must be remembered that tariffs have been collected on all Falklands' fisheries products during 2021 (the first year since transition out of Brexit ended) with a total of €14.7m paid for imports of circa 86,000mt of FI products, mostly dominated by Loligo imports, with a repeat anticipated for 2022.
Dr. Clausen also mentioned that the implementation of ITQB (the new system of Individual Transferable Quota) is almost complete and will be operational from 1st January 2023.
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page! | https://en.mercopress.com/2022/11/04/falklands-largest-loligo-catches-since-1989-but-world-conditions-have-changed-dramatically |
BERLIN – Qatar’s football association is suing former German soccer chief Theo Zwanziger for calling the Gulf nation a “cancer on world football” following its successful World Cup bid, Duesseldorf’s regional court`said on Tuesday.
Zwanziger, who headed the German football association (DFB) until 2012, was asked in a television interview last year whether the decision to let Qatar host the 2022 World Cup should be reviewed as corruption allegations hit world soccer’s governing body FIFA.
According to the court’s statement, Zwanziger told public broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk a review was “possible and necessary” and added: “I have always said that Qatar was a cancer on world football. It all started with that decision.”
FIFA is facing the biggest crisis in its history with several investigations having led to 41 individuals and entities being indicted on corruption charges.
Switzerland’s prosecutor is investigating both FIFA’s decision to award the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 tournament to Qatar, a small, wealthy desert country with no real soccer tradition.
Qatar’s FA said the remark by Zwanziger showed collective disrespect and was slanderous and he should not be allowed to repeat it, according to the court statement.
“The defendant claims that his remark was not aimed at one person or the Qatar Football Association but ‘instead aimed at the awarding process through FIFA and the decision itself’,” the court said.
There were no immediate statements directly from Qatar or Zwanziger. The case is due to start on Feb. 2.
A Frankfurt prosecutor is also formally investigating Zwanziger and two other former football officials for suspected tax fraud in relation to a payment to FIFA relating to the 2006 World Cup in Germany. | https://eng-archive.aawsat.com/asharq-al-awsat-english/lifestyle-culture/sports/qatar-fa-sues-former-germany-soccer-chief-over-remark |
End of the year musings as 2022 leaves us.
A coach’s journey invariably starts from self-improvement, a search for Self, and somewhere meanders into “purpose” and working with others to help them find a safe space to explore their best Selves. As one goes through the journey, there are always newer biases to encounter and judgments to deal with. Of one’s own. And this in turn leads to tremendous compassion for the world and for the Self.
This last year I worked with some wonderful people. There were chance discoveries and we know from applied neuroscience that chance discoveries are hugely responsible for a feeling of well-being, as it sparks dopamine. And in all of this, there are some things that have bubbled up for me which I would like to share.
#Reachingout
Reaching out is the single biggest action that can change one’s life. An act of huge courage. We can all do with a coaching conversation and even one conversation can change our lives if we are open. It is this one act of #reaching out that opens new thinking in us. I practice it actively. And I am always surprised at where it leads me – usually to a better place.
#Reflection
Reflection is not a one-time action. It is a life-long mindset. It is a way of noticing what is coming up with you in the moment and then checking-in with yourself as to what you resonate with and what you want to give up. Distancing oneself from the situation and seeing how you one can change perspective. In this act, a very very quiet and invisible one, you are giving a pause to your monkey mind, your ‘emotional brain’. It is a life changing habit.
#Relationships
Dr. Paul Brown has taught me – “The quality of our brains is shaped by the quality of our relationships.” And there is a lot of science to that ! Good relationships are essential to a better environment, a better society, better parenting, better friendships and better teams. In this, it is essential to be able to state one’s truth, with authenticity – not necessarily to be right or be seen as doing the socially acceptable thing – but to be who we are and accepted for it.
To find a safe space, one does not always need to go to a coach or counsellor. Each one of us can be creators of safe space. If we can provide safe space to even one person, we are practising coaching as a skill. It is a space where you are not the one in spotlight, where you are listening, where you are letting the other one speak his or her truth without judgement. Repeat, without judgement. Try it with one person. How about starting with your spouse ?
#Conversation
A lot can happen in a conversation. A conversation is not a one way download. It is an exchange. Do you give space to each other in a conversation ? Sometimes I meet people who do not find even one person with whom they can have a conversation, even though they talk to many. A conversation and many ongoing conversations are the very basis of adult relationships. Have we been creating good conversations and therefore solid foundations for relationships over the years ? Do a conversation audit for yourself – think of all the people in your social and professional network and ask yourself if you have engaged with each one in a safe space ?
Thank you Universe for all the old and new relationships this year ; all those I met because they reached out or I; all the authentic conversations and all the reflection that happened to which I was a witness. I look forward to more. | https://www.rhizomeleadership.org/post/endoftheyearmusingsas2022leavesus |
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