Regional planning has been regarded as a design activity. Usually planners focus on physical design rather than on societal issues. Nowadays, mass communication, environmental issues and social awareness lead to often complex and conflicting needs and interests of the public in regional planning. This paper focuses on the regional planning as a group problem solving process from the view of information processing. It offers an analysis of the causes of conflicts in the group decision (...) process, and defines the characteristics of group decision process support systems. (shrink)

In the last decades, Mexican government applied traditional economic policies to overcome underdevelopment and to face the recurrent economic crisis. As a result, macroeconomic indicators show an acceptable economic performance, however, half of population is considered poor. One of the poorest region is Soconusco in the southern state of Chiapas. The Soconusco Strategic Plan 2020 proposes development strategies based on the regional characteristics. As a precondition for these strategies to work, a knowledge based platform has to be built. As (...) suggested by the evolutionary view of economic theory, knowledge, as an input in the creation of capabilities, can be a useful tool to promote development. (shrink)

As conceptual and theoretical discussions on environmental valuation approaches have advanced there is growing interest in the impact that valuation has on decision making. The perceived legitimacy of the outputs of valuation studies is seen as one factor influencing their impact on policy decisions. One element of this is ensuring that participants of valuation processes see the results as legitimate and would be willing to accept decisions based on these findings. Here, we test the perceived legitimacy to participants of two (...) approaches to deliberative monetary valuation, deliberated preferences and Deliberative Democratic Monetary Valuation, in the context of marine planning in the Clyde estuary in Scotland. We compare and contrast deliberated preference and deliberative democratic monetary valuation and track their emergence as responses to critiques of conventional stated preference approaches. We then present the results of our case study where we found that deliberative democratic monetary valuation produced valuations that were perceived as more legitimate that deliberated preference as the basis for decision making by those involved in the valuation process. (shrink)

This article presents a description and a critical reflection of some methodological issues involved in a number of participative planning projects that have been carried out in several cities and/or communities in Mexico and other Latin-American countries since 1994. The projects involved the design of regional development plans based on a vision shared by the corresponding communities. The projects include the participation of a large number of people, representing the various sectors of the populations concerned as well as (...) the leading opinion groups of those communities. The methodological approach of the projects is based on prospective and participative planning techniques. (shrink)

This study presents the case of a Metropolitan Municipality in the Aegean Region of Turkey, which undertook a series of initiatives to conduct projects on environmental protection and sustainability. This case study was conducted as two separate studies as a part of Horizon 2020-funded ECHOES project under Work Package 6, aiming to gain insight into the collective magnitudes of energy-related choices and behavior. The starting point of the process is marked, in 2015, by the municipality becoming a party to the (...) Covenant of Mayors movement, joining around 8,000 signatories from over 50 countries. In line with European Union’s climate targets and associated energy-related policies, signatories of the Covenant of Mayors aim to decrease carbon emissions by 20% by 2020 and by 40% by 2030. In order to enhance the design and operationalization of policies for achieving these targets, each partner in the Covenant of Mayors is required to develop a Sustainable Energy Action Plan. The SEAP is to be prepared within 2 years of becoming a party to the Covenant of Mayors and involves action plans and projects in order to operationalize the strategies for achieving the associated targets. To this end, this study analyzes the Metropolitan Municipality’s SEAP and its components, which include zero-emission public transportation project, transformation of existing buildings to a more energy-efficient standard and related energy audit studies, a project for decreasing waiting periods in traffic via a Smart Traffic System, a pedestrianization project, and a project for increasing the use of geothermal energy for district heating. This study set out to identify the internal and external factors, as well as bottom-up and top-down mechanisms involved in various phases of the preparation and implementation of the SEAP. The research method was expert interviews, incorporating viewpoints and perceptions of stakeholders from different levels of the municipality. Among the key results are understanding the roles of enthusiasts and frontrunners in such initiative and the importance of top-management and central government support. (shrink)

Family planning programmes in Tanzania date back to the 1950s. By the early 1990s, however, only 5[hyphen]10% of women of childbearing age used contraceptives in the country. Low contraceptive prevalence in Tanzania is reportedly attributable to men's opposition to family planning. This paper employs focus groups to explore the role of Tanzanian men in family planning. More specifically, it presents a rural[hyphen]urban comparison of the attitudes of men in Mbeya region, Tanzania, to family size preference, sex composition, (...) partners' communication on family planning matters and contraceptive behaviour. Findings indicate that men express positive attitudes towards fertility[hyphen]regulating methods. There is, moreover, little rural[hyphen]urban variation in male attitudes towards family planning in the study area. Possible reasons for this normative convergence (including structural similarities and rural–urban migration between the two communities) are discussed. (shrink)

Regional planning for improved agricultural capacity to supply produce, legumes, and whole grains has the potential to improve population health as well as the local food economy. This case study of Waterloo Region (WR), Canada, had two objectives. First, we estimate the quantity of locally grown vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains needed to help meet the Region of Waterloo population’s optimal nutritional requirements currently and in 2026. Secondly, we estimate how much of these healthy food requirements for (...) the WR population could realistically be produced through local agriculture by the year 2026. Results show that a shift of approximately 10% of currently cropped hectares to the production of key nutritious foods would be both agriculturally feasible and nutritionally significant to the growing population. We supplement our findings with some agronomic considerations and community-level strategies that would inform and support such change. The methodology of this study could be applied to other regions: more such analyses would create a broader picture of the diverse qualitative and quantitative agricultural shifts that could synchronize optimal land use with dietary recommendations, thus informing coordinated policy and planning. (shrink)

In recent times, the role of the regional economy changed significantly under certain conditions of globalization and structural adjustment. The process of changing must be crucial to analyse regional economy and develop the planning of regional economy. Developing economies depend often on industries and country policies. Modern studies tend to participate in important factors in this field such as energy intensity, labour skills, local industries, resources, and local expertise. Furthermore, in this study, to start developing the (...) regional economy and make the revolution in this field to connect it with new technology, we train the deep learning algorithm of gathering factors to manage them perfectly and make a good prediction for the future economy. Hybrid sequence to sequence algorithms of deep learning fed with previous information from past years and run the system to compare the predicted result data with current information to evaluate the method to be certified for the coming years. (shrink)

Studies with primates in sequence production tasks reveal that chimpanzees make action plans before initiating responses and making on-line adjustments to spatially exchanged stimuli, whereas such planning isn't evident in monkeys. Although planning may rely on phylogenetically newer regions in the inferior parietal lobe – along with the frontal lobes and basal ganglia – it dates back to as far as five million years ago.

This set is a carefully balanced selection of writings representing some of the most important currents in the thought of city and regional planning during the period 1870-1940 when urban planning emerged as a serious disciplinary field. The set consists of eight key books from this period, handsomely illustrated and reproduced in their entirety, and a separate volume of fifteen seminal short selections - all by major figures of the time, such as Abercrombie, Geddes, and the Olmsteds. (...) Soria y Mata's writings on the linear city also appear in translation for the first time. In addition to seminal works on city planning, the set covers themes such as neighbourhood, Utopian and visionary planning; planning for parks; housing; transportation systems, and public health. A wide variety of cities feature including Paris, Vienna, Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Manchester, New York and San Francisco, showing a great diversity of cultural styles. Early Urban Planning 1870-1940 is of continued importance today, as it highlights ideals which remain strikingly relevant in development of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. (shrink)

One of the main purposes of Terwagne's law is to associate the regions to the economic planning. Three regions : Flanders, Wallonia and Brabant are instituted and endowed with organs, the SDR and the CBR.The CERB took part to the regionalisation of the Plans. But various factors made this regionalisation insufficient.The CERB still expressed views on the used water purification, transport infrastructure, territory planning and institutional matters. Moreover, the ERB greatly developed its research mission rather than claiming activity. (...) Meanwhile, the subsequent development of the ideas about regionalisation led to a delimitation of a central region not the same as that instituted by the economic decentralisation : the Brussels region restricted to nineteen communes.The activity of CERB makes it primarily a consultative organ of the future regional institutions. But as a preliminary, the geographical competence of the CERB and its composition must be modificated.To organize a real regionalisation, it is necessary to suppress technical impediments and it is also necessary that the consultation should be complete and real. (shrink)

National Priority Regions (NPRs) are one of Israel’s most robust tools for redistribution: a resource allocation governmental plan that favors some regions over others, mostly according to their socioeconomic status and peripherality. Drawing on archival research, this article is the first to focus on this topic and provide a detailed description and analysis of this measure. It provides historical and theoretical accounts of NPRs, tracing their history, starting in the 1970s, over three periods and showing how they have been used (...) and abused. This allows for some important observations about the stakes of using a "color-blind" place-based distributive mechanism, and about the complex relationship between redistribution, development, and settlement. At the national level, this article shows how NPRs changed over the years from a discriminatory tool that excluded almost all Palestinian-Arab localities into a more inclusionary mechanism, but one that also works to support and incentivize Jewish settlement in the Occupied West Bank. At the theoretical level, this article lends itself to and supports a ‘region-skeptic’ approach that sees the regional scale, much like other seemingly “race-neutral” criteria, mostly as an elusive exercise of power that often deepens inequality. However, drawing on Israel’s experience with NPRs, this article provides some more specific cautionary tales that can, I suggest, work to improve the regional scale rather than eliminate it altogether. (shrink)

The “Freedom Agenda” of President George W. Bush for the Middle East assumed that the liberation of Iraq from the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and the start of political change would trigger the process of democratization of the entire region. Encouraged by financial and economic support, Arab countries should have been willing to implement political and educational support, which would lead to the creation of civil society and grassroots political changes initiated by society itself. A number of mistakes made by (...) the Bush administration in Iraq has not only caused the mission of the democratization of Iraq to be a failure, but also influenced the situation that today Iraq is closer to being a failed state than a democracy. (shrink)

La política de desarrollo regional constituye una de las principales herramientas con las que cuenta la Administración pública para impulsar un modelo de desarrollo económico regional descentralizado en razón a las potencialidades endógenas de las diferentes regiones. Por tanto, la concreción de un modelo de política indicativa destinada a ser implementada en los territorios regionales españoles, como es el caso de Galicia, pretende ejercer de motor de arrastre para incentivar el desarrollo económico del territorio en base a sus (...) potencialidades internas. Galicia, durante mucho tiempo de su historia, ha estado padeciendo el enclavamiento territorial. (shrink)

BackgroundThe global interest in developing therapies for Ebola infection management and its prevention is laudable. However the plan to conduct an emergency immunization program specifically for healthcare workers using experimental vaccines raises some ethical concerns. This paper shares perspectives on these concerns and suggests how some of them may best be addressed.DiscussionThe recruitment of healthcare workers for Ebola vaccine research has challenges. It could result in coercion of initially dissenting healthcare workers to assist in the management of EVD infected persons (...) due to mistaken beliefs that the vaccine offers protection. It could also affect equity and justice. For example, where people who are not skilled health care professionals but who provide care to patients infected with Ebola are not prioritized for vaccination. The possibility of study participants contracting Ebola infection despite the use of experimental vaccine, and the standard of care they would receive, needs to be addressed clearly, transparently and formalized as part of the ethics review process. Future access to study products in view of current status of the TRIPS agreement needs to be addressed. Finally, broad stakeholder engagement at local, regional and international levels needs to be promoted using available communication channels to engage local, regional and international support. These same concerns are applicable for current and future epidemics.SummarySuccessful Ebola vaccine development research requires concerted efforts at public dialogue to address misconceptions, equity and justice in participant selection, and honest discussions about risks, benefits and future access. Public dialogue about Ebola vaccine research plans is crucial and should be conducted by trusted locals and negotiated between communities, researchers and ethics committees in research study sites. (shrink)

Environmental landscaping is known to build, plan, and manage landscapes that consider the ecology of a site and produce gardens that benefit both people and the rest of the ecosystem. Landscaping and the environment are combined in landscape design planning to provide holistic answers to complex issues. Seeding native species and eradicating alien species are just a few ways humans influence the region’s ecosystem. Landscape architecture is the design of landscapes, urban areas, or gardens and their modification. It comprises (...) the construction of urban and rural landscapes via coordinating the creation and management of open spaces and economics, finding a job, and working within a confined project budget. There was a lot of discussion about global warming and water shortages. There is a lot of hope to be found even in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. AI is becoming more significant in many urban landscape planning and design elements with the advent of web 4.0 and Human-Centred computing. It created a virtual reality-based landscape to create deep neural networks (DNNs) to make deep learning (DL) more user-friendly and efficient. Users may only manipulate physical items in this environment to manually construct neural networks. These setups are automatically converted into a model, and the real-time testing set is reported and aware of the DNN models that users are producing. This research presents a novel strategy for combining DL-DNN with landscape architecture, providing a long-term solution to the problem of environmental pollution. Carbon dioxide levels are constantly checked when green plants are in and around the house. Plants, on either hand, remove toxins from the air, making it easier to maintain a healthy environment. Human-centered Artificial Intelligence-based web 4.0 may be used to assess and evaluate the data model. The study findings can be sent back into the design process for further modification and optimization. (shrink)

Observers of metropolitan dysfunction have long advocated for a regional tier of government that could (among other things) equalize spending across local jurisdictions, pursue cooperative economic development policies, provide for fair share housing, rationalize land use, and coordinate transportation planning. For many good government reformers, right-scaling our fragmented metropolitan areas appears to be an obvious solution to interjurisdictional spillovers and competitive races-to-the-bottom. This article counsels caution. “Region hope”—the idea that the substantive problems of metropolitan governance can be solved (...) regionally by redrawing territorial boundaries to encompass ever-larger areas—is perennial. But territorial manipulation in aid of state centralization has significant drawbacks. The regional impulse exhibits some key features of failed social engineering efforts; seen through the lens of the state, these efforts privilege technocratic over democratic governance, bureaucratic over local knowledge, and mobile over immobile capital. That does not mean that regionalism should be resisted in all cases, but only that the costs of territorial manipulation should be weighed against its asserted benefits. (shrink)

We can often learn from systematic patterns, so let us focus for a moment on the previous champion, Turkey. As a major U.S. military ally and strategic outpost, Turkey has received substantial military aid from the origins of the Cold War. But arms deliveries began to increase sharply in 1984 with no Cold War connection at all. Rather, that was the year when Turkey initiated a large-scale counterinsurgency campaign in the Kurdish southeast, which also is the site of major U.S. (...) air bases and the locus of regional surveillance, so that everything that happens there is well known in Washington. Arms deliveries peaked in 1997, exceeding the total from the entire period 1950-1983. U.S. arms amounted to about 80 percent of Turkish military equipment, including heavy armaments (jet planes, tanks, etc.). (shrink)

This article offers a discussion on the opportunity of collaborative, multi-actor (public, private, science, social, and civic actors) partnerships as experimental policymaking and governance solutions for climate mitigation and adaptation plans geographically localized at the urban, metropolitan, and regional level. It sets out considerations as regards the need to design newly conceived permanent or temporary institutional geographies by building on the analysis of examples of policies implementing this kind of partnerships in Italy (e.g., river contracts; river foundations; neighborhood agreements; (...) pacts of collaboration; city science offices; urban sustainable development and innovation partnerships, etc.). Finally, the article draws attention to the challenges entailed by these partnerships including ethics, accountability, and climate justice concerns. (shrink)

Evidence for a dichotomy between the planning of an action and its on-line control in humans is reviewed. This evidence suggests that planning and control each serve a specialized purpose utilizing distinct visual representations. Evidence from behavioral studies suggests that planning is influenced by a large array of visual and cognitive information, whereas control is influenced solely by the spatial characteristics of the target, including such things as its size, shape, orientation, and so forth. Evidence from brain (...) imaging and neuropsychology suggests that planning and control are subserved by separate visual centers in the posterior parietal lobes, each constituting part of a larger network for planning and control. Planning appears to rely on phylogenetically newer regions in the inferior parietal lobe, along with the frontal lobes and basal ganglia, whereas control appears to rely on older regions in the superior parietal lobe, along with the cerebellum. Key Words: action; apraxia; control; illusions; optic ataxia; PET; planning; reaching;. (shrink)

Thirty-five stakeholder representatives and six observers from thirty organizations, interested in anticipating the adoption of energy efficiency for the Pacific Northwest, identified and described one hundred and seventy-eight national and regional trends extending to the year 2015 impacting energy efficiency, and proposed more than ninety actions for addressing these trends at the regional level. The representatives were engaged in a collaborative action planning workshop that was facilitated with the CogniScope methodology founded in the systems sciences. Convergence was (...) achieved on eight highly influential actions as the highest priority. (shrink)

The aim of the article is to trace the integration of education, science and production through the development of regional cluster policy. At the present stage of development of postindustrial society in the global economy, the processes of globalization and specialization of national markets significantly increase competition between countries, between regions and between producers within the country. In these circumstances, the state authorities of the Russian Federation, while maintaining global leadership in the energy sector, define as long-term development goals (...) of the country, the creation of a competitive economy based on knowledge and high technologies. Following this doctrine in the Russian regions in the period from 2012 to 2014 cluster policy is implemented on the basis of Federal and regional innovation strategies. An important role in this process belongs to the activities of leading higher educational institutions - national research universities, which contribute to stimulate an active scientific activity of students and the introduction of scientific achievements into production. One of the pilot cluster projects, funded by the Federal budget became the territorial cluster ‘ Pharmaceutics, medical technology and information technology ‘ formed in the Tomsk region with a unique starting opportunities for the development of sustainable regional innovation system is a developed scientific and educational complex, small and medium-sized innovative enterprises with the latest technological developments in pharmaceuticals and medical technology. In two years, the activity cluster, implemented with the financial support of public authorities, has been successful. In the future, there are plans to expand the range of pharmaceutical products and the collaboration with other clusters Tomsk. Cluster policy contributes to the emergence of stakeholders and large economic enterprises, thus providing a close relationship between science, business and regional authorities. (shrink)

The sampling-based motion planner is the mainstream method to solve the motion planning problem in high-dimensional space. In the process of exploring robot configuration space, this type of algorithm needs to perform collision query on a large number of samples, which greatly limits their planning efficiency. Therefore, this paper uses machine learning methods to establish a probabilistic model of the obstacle region in configuration space by learning a large number of labeled samples. Based on this, the high-dimensional samples’ (...) rapid collision query is realized. The influence of number of Gaussian components on the fitting accuracy is analyzed in detail, and a self-adaptive model training method based on Greedy expectation-maximization algorithm is proposed. At the same time, this method has the capability of online updating and can eliminate model fitting errors due to environmental changes. Finally, the model is combined with a variety of sampling-based motion planners and is validated in multiple sets of simulations and real world experiments. The results show that, compared with traditional methods, the proposed method has significantly improved the planning efficiency. (shrink)

This paper examines the reasons for the high level of unmet needfor contraception in rural Egypt, using data from the individual survey andservice availability module of the 1988Ð89 Egypt Demographic and HealthSurvey. Two broad sets of potential factors are considered: characteristics ofa woman which influence her desire for children and thus her propensity touse contraception, and factors relating to the family planning serviceenvironment in which she lives. The results from a multivariate analysis showthat certain individual characteristics, such as family (...) composition andeducation, have a strong impact on the level of contraceptive use and on theproportion of total demand for spacing or limiting childbearing that is metby use of family planning. Unmet need, however, remains fairly constantacross demographic and socioeconomic subgroups of the population. Thelargest variations in unmet need are regional, but elements of the familyplanning services, namely the provision of a community-based nurse whodistributes family planning and female doctors at clinics, also play animportant role. (shrink)

Research represents an avenue through which patients can contribute to the knowledge base surrounding their condition. However, persons with dementia cannot legally consent to participation in most scientific research. One possible avenue to preserve patient autonomy in the sphere of research is through an advance planning document. Scholars of medicine, ethics, and law have largely approached this topic from a theoretical angle, compelling the authors to develop and implement a tangible research-specific advance planning tool. In order to inform (...) the creation of this novel legal instrument, the present study leveraged semistructured telephone interviews with cognitively intact older adults in the Upper Connecticut River Valley region of New Hampshire. Participants were prompted to reflect on their attitudes toward participation in scientific research, should they develop dementia. They were also asked to consider the possibility of incorporating research into their advance planning regime, their preferred format for a research-specific advance planning tool, and the potential relationship between an advance planning tool and their surrogate decision maker in the context of research participation. Qualitative analysis was employed to extract themes from interview responses, revealing a pervasive desire for an advance planning tool that embraces specificity, flexibility, practicality, and the integral role of the surrogate decision maker. Ultimately, through collaboration with physicians and an elder law attorney in the region, these findings were translated into a research-specific advance planning component within the Dartmouth Dementia Directive. (shrink)

Food systems are made of a myriad of actors, visions and interests. Collaborative governance arrangement may foster their transformation towards greater sustainability when conventional means, such as state-oriented planning, technological developments or social innovations provide insufficient impetus. However, such arrangements may achieve transformative results only under certain conditions and in specific contexts. Despite an abundant literature on participatory schemes, the success for collaborative governance arrangements remains partially understood and deserves academic attention, in particular in the field of food systems (...) reform. This article provides an in-depth analysis of an empirical case study in the Walloon Region (Belgium), where the administration for sustainable development initiated a six-month participatory process to collectively construct a roadmap towards a sustainable regional food system. The article explores the extent to which the process has allowed transformative voices to emerge, and assesses whether the outcome provides a promising tool for adopting a transformative policy at the regional scale. It argues that the facilitation process insufficiently attenuated existing power relations and highlights key underlying factors (including time, resources, expertise and coalition building) that, like in classical negotiation settings, strengthen or weaken specific actors. It discusses the link between the results of the participatory process and the potential for policy-makers to build upon these to guide further the region’s food system towards a sustainable future. (shrink)

Planners increasingly rely on collaborative planning models that engage stakeholders to develop plans through consensus-based nego-tiations. While support for using collabora-tive planning models is growing, evaluation of their effectiveness is in its infancy. This paper reports on a case study evaluation, using a multiple criteria evaluation method, of an inno-vative collaborative planning process to pre-pare a strategic land use plan for a region in British Columbia, Canada. The study reveals that the collaborative planning process gen-erated important (...) benefits, including improved relationships and understanding, even though it did not result in consensus agreement on a plan. The outcome also shows that the plan did not result in consensus because some stakeholders were not sufficiently engaged in the process. In addition, an unrealistic timeline was imposed that led to a final offer selection process whose result was ultimately rejected by the government. (shrink)

Adomnán of Iona's work on the holy places of Jerusalem and surrounding regions has been used as a guide to seventh-century Palestine. In particular, its plans of monuments such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre have been used by archaeologists for information about buildings, while their form interests historians of cartography. However, these plans must be read with the book's several purposes in mind. They attempt to harmonize biblical data visually. In addition, they project elements of Iona's monastic liturgy (...) into an alien liturgical space. The plans are not simply illustrations to clarify the text but constitute a distinct, parallel text of their own, with elements shown that Adomnán would not have asserted in writing. They indicate that, for Adomnán, there were different orders of verification for written texts and visual materials such as plans. (shrink)

This study investigates the ethnic differentials in contraceptive use in the north-eastern Ch’orti area of Guatemala, a region dominated by the Ladino culture. Data come from a household survey and in-depth interviews with service providers carried out in 2001 in the town of Jocotán, and a survey carried out in 1994 in two nearby indigenous villages (aldeas). Descriptive analysis and logistic regression are used to explore the data. Previous DHS surveys have used dress and language to classify ethnic groups. In (...) this paper, an alternative approach based on self-identification is adopted. The results reveal significant differences in contraceptive behaviour among different ethnic groups within the same town and region. The results show that self-identified Ladino women who represented the minority of the population had contraceptive behaviour similar to their counterparts elsewhere in Latin America. The extremely low levels of contraceptive use among indigenous women from the aldeas suggest that the corresponding DHS figures in this region are probably overestimated. (shrink)

Starting with the hypothesis that during this first decade of the 21st century a certain territorial culture has spread that implies greater awareness of landscape on the part of the authorities, the economic and social agents who exercise a degree of leadership in territorial matters and the general public, this article sets out to analyse the possibility that a new ethics of landscape is beginning to take shape. The notion of landscape as proposed by the European Convention in Florence in (...) 2000 looks at the idea of the social construction of landscape. In this new paradigm, landscape is conceived as a social product, the cultural projection of a society in a given space from a material, spiritual and symbolic standpoint. Landscape is understood to be inherently dynamic and changing. When the elements that give a particular landscape its historical and cultural continuity are suddenly removed and its sense of place is lost, we are seeing not evolution in the landscape but its destruction. And the very idea of intervention in these landscapes gives rise to the need for principles and moral values that will provide guidelines that allow landscapes, whether unique or commonplace, to evolve without being destroyed. As I see it, therefore, there is an obvious need for an ethics applicable to regional and landscape planning and management. The new ethics of landscape must be based on the ethics of responsibility, taking into account the dignity of nature, the rights of future generations to enjoy quality landscapes and the rights and duties of today's citizens whose interventions transform landscapes and with them their collective identity, their quality of life, their physical and social welfare and, in short, their happiness. (shrink)

On the basis of PM2.5 data of the national air quality monitoring sites, local population data, and baseline all-cause mortality rate, PM2.5-related health economic benefits of the Air Improvement Action Plan implemented in Wuhan in 2013–2017 were investigated using health-impact and valuation functions. Annual avoided premature deaths driven by the average concentration of PM2.5 decrease were evaluated, and the economic benefits were computed by using the value of statistical life (VSL) method. Results showed that the number of avoided premature deaths (...) in Wuhan are 21,384 (95% confidence interval (CI): 15,004 to 27,255) during 2013–2017, due to the implementation of the Air Improvement Action Plan. According to the VSL method, the obtained economic benefits of Huangpi, Wuchang, Hongshan, Xinzhou, Jiang’an, Hanyang, Jiangxia, Qiaokou, Jianghan, Qingshan, Caidian, Dongxihu, and Hannan District were 8.55, 8.19, 8.04, 7.39, 5.78, 4.84, 4.37, 4.04, 3.90, 3.30, 2.87, 2.42, and 0.66 billion RMB (1 RMB = 0.1417 USD On 14 October 2019), respectively. These economic benefits added up to 64.35 billion RMB (95% CI: 45.15 to 82.02 billion RMB), accounting for 4.80% (95% CI: 3.37% to 6.12%) of the total GDP of Wuhan in 2017. Therefore, in the process of formulating a regional air quality improvement scheme, apart from establishing hierarchical emission-reduction standards and policies, policy makers should give integrated consideration to the relationship between regional economic development, environmental protection and residents’ health benefits. Furthermore, for improving air quality, air quality compensation mechanisms can be established on the basis of the status quo and trends of air quality, population distribution, and economic development factors. (shrink)

Background Advance care planning (ACP) is a process in which adults engage in an ongoing dialogue about future medical treatment and care. Though ACP is recommended to improve the quality of end-of-life care, the details of the dialogue experience in ACP are unknown. Objective To explore participants’ experiences of dialogue in an ACP educational program that encouraged them to discuss the value of a way of life. Research design This qualitative descriptive study used the focus group interview method. Data (...) were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Participants and research context A dialogue-based ACP educational program was conducted in four regions in Japan for local citizens to discuss the value of their way of life. A total of 66 individuals (mean age = 55.5 ± 17.2 years; 50 women and 16 men) participated in focus group interviews. Ethical considerations This study was approved by the Ethical Review Committee of Tokyo Women’s Medical University (no. 4723) and Kyoto University (no. R2099). Findings Five main themes were extracted: discussing one’s thoughts with others in a considerate manner, reflecting on one’s way of life through others, feeling a sense of connection with others through storytelling, realizing the difficulties of talking about “what if” topics, and turning one’s eyes toward the future through the dialogue. These themes were interrelated and illustrated the complexity of the experience of discussing values. Conclusions The results suggest that dialogue in ACP is useful in clarifying values. They also indicated the need for dealing with the ethical challenges of discussing value and the importance of caring for the interlocutor to have a safe dialogue. In the ACP process, safety in dialogue may improve readiness in ACP, and health practitioners who support ACP need to address the ethical challenges entailing dialogue about values. (shrink)

The Venezuelan migration crisis has displaced over six million people and is the Americas’ largest forced migration. Nearby countries have received the majority of the displaced and initially showed an impressive welcome to Venezuelans, regardless of whether they may be considered migrants, asylum seekers, or refugees. However, host country responses have mainly been uncoordinated, siloed, and impromptu. This paper examines the solidarities and tensions within the individual country responses of Venezuela’s closest Latin American and Andean neighbors: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, (...) and Brazil. The number of displaced people leaving Venezuela has steadily increased since 2015 yet limited long term-planning and inclusion of migrants in host communities has led to a growth in xenophobia. Additionally, many Latin American host nations have erected new barriers that make legal entry or residency forms more difficult for migrants to obtain. The COVID-19 pandemic has compounded these issues as host countries grapple with supporting and offering resources to their citizens in addition to migrants. However, some promising regional solutions could be applied in a more coordinated regional approach to help ensure that host countries and IOs supporting them can better extend enduring solidarity and inclusion to Venezuelans. These solutions include longer-term visa options, such as the new Colombian 10-year visa, that can help regularize and include Venezuelans over a prolonged period. A particularly recommended approach would be the regional application of an inventive Latin America humanitarian-orientated accord, the Cartagena Declaration, a forward-thinking concept with a potential that has never been realized. The Cartagena Declaration could offer more comprehensive protection and fairer access to rights beyond temporary measures. (shrink)

This chapter presents the successive stages to make changes in the Polish development policy after 1989. The national administration reform of 1990 in the Third Commonwealth of Poland restored the local government after 40 years of non-existence during the time of Polish People’s Republic that was a satellite state of the Soviet Union after the Second World War. Another reform took place in 1998 as a part of preparations for the country’s membership in the European Union from 2004. Currently developed (...) strategic documents are suggesting the use of the "polarization and diffusion model of the development." The authors also discuss the regional policy currently implemented in Poland, which was designed in years 2009-2014. The process of creation of new policy includes plans to reform the policy instruments and to update the strategic framework. Conclusions highlight a need for a clearer division of powers between the center and regional governments and the importance of strengthening the financial basis and institutional capacity building. (shrink)

The Treatment Escalation Plan (TEP) was introduced into our trust in an attempt to improve patient involvement and experience of their treatment in hospital and to embrace and clarify a wider remit of treatment options than the Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order currently offers. Our experience suggests that the patient and family are rarely engaged in DNR discussions. This is acutely relevant considering that the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) now obliges these discussions to take place. The TEP is a form (...) that the doctor completes, ideally with the competent patient or close relative, documenting what treatment options would be appropriate if that patient were to become acutely unwell. Ventilation of the lungs, cardiac resuscitation, renal replacement therapy, intravenous fluids and antibiotics are all discussed. The study evaluated patient and relative experiences with the TEP. 55 patients or their relatives were interviewed regarding their experience of the TEP and thoughts regarding the process. 96% of patients and relatives evaluated thought that the TEP was a good idea. Free text comments were all positive and only 34% of patients claimed to feel anxious when completing the form. Following this study, the TEP has been expanded hospital wide and into the community within our trust. Discussions are currently taking place in hospitals within our region to introduce the TEP form into other local trusts. (shrink)

This paper reports on an action research project about organizational change by a regional food bank in New York State’s southern tier. While the project team initially included a sociologist, food bank leadership and staff, it expanded to involve participants in food access programs and area college students. This paper combines findings from qualitative research about the food bank with findings generated through a collaborative inquiry about a ten-year process of organizational change. We ask how a regional food (...) bank can change its approach to address root causes of hunger. Acknowledging that narrow, pragmatic definitions of hunger promote charitable responses, our collaboration is grounded in structural understandings of poverty that refuse to blame the poor or treat poverty as an accident. Decades-long economic restructuring, deindustrialization and a rise in the service economy have resulted in growing inequality and long-term demand for “emergency” food in New York State. We outline critiques by scholars and practitioners of the emergency food regime. Description and analysis of the organizational change efforts of the Food Bank of the Southern Tier combine discourse analysis, collaborative inquiry, interviews, and participant observation. Discourse analysis of the agency’s strategic plans documents changes in aspirations, exposure to new epistemic communities and repertoires of actions. Interviews with participants evidence impacts of the organization’s advocacy and education programs on people with lived experience in poverty. Through a participatory process, we developed a collaborative chronology of phases of organizational change. Collaborative analysis of organizational changes demonstrates new definitions of the problem, a shift in service focus, changing outcomes and increased funding for advocacy. While recognizing substantial constraints, this project contributes to evidence that food banks may shift their discourse and practices beyond charity. (shrink)

Drawing for explanation flourished in the medieval West in biblical exegesis. Some Christian and Jewish scholars, holding that the literal meaning of the holy scriptures had to be established before the allegorical and typological meanings could be reached, made good use of visual exegesis. Of the few Christian scholars who attempted a literal interpretation of the notoriously difficult Old Testament book of the prophet Ezekiel, one was Richard of St Victor and another was Nicholas of Lyra, who had read Richard's (...) work and also, like him, seen the Jewish scholar Rashi's illustrations for Ezekiel. Both Richard and Nicholas supported their arguments with the plans of Ezekiel's visionary temple and the map that places the temple in its regional context discussed in this essay. Also discussed is the subsequent adaptation of these medieval diagrammatic maps for a quite different readership. (shrink)

This paper examines the planning process and architecture of two public psychiatric institutions built around 1900 in Trieste and Lower Austria. From 1864, the building of new asylums was the responsibility of Crown land governments, which by the end of the nineteenth century had emerged as sites of power and self-presentation by minority groups and new political parties. At the same time, the area of asylum planning was establishing itself as a branch of asylum psychiatry and promoting the (...) idea of the asylum as model settlement, contributing to social reform. I analyse the interaction of psychiatrists, architects and government officials involved in planning the two institutions in the context of Crown land governments’ self-positioning within the empire and internationally . The Trieste asylum planners were working for a government controlled by Italian nationalists, but their desire for a ‘modern’ asylum turned them towards German models. The Christian Social government in Lower Austria sought to supplant Germany as the leader in this branch of science. The spatial arrangement and visual articulation of the two asylums is interpreted in the context of the interaction of psychiatry and the politics of regional autonomy. (shrink)

The study is designed to provide an informal summary of what is known about consumer switching of health insurance plans and to contribute to knowledge about what motivates consumers who choose to switch health plans. Do consumers switch plans largely on the basis of critical reflection and assessment of information about the quality, and price? The literature suggests that switching is complicated, not always possible, and often overwhelming to consumers. Price does not always determine choice. Quality is very hard for (...) consumers to understand. Results from a random sample survey ( n = 2791) of the Alkmaar region of the Netherlands are reported here. They suggest that rather than embracing the opportunity to be active critical consumers, individuals are more likely to avoid this role by handing this activity off to a group purchasing organization. There is little evidence that consumers switch plans on the basis of critical reflection and assessment of information about quality and price. The new data reported here confirm the importance of a group purchasing organizations. In a free-market-health insurance system confidence in purchasing groups may be more important for health insurance choice than health informatics. This is not what policy makers expected and might result a less efficient health insurance market system. (shrink)

This chapter is a product of a study undertaken to investigate the influence of gender related factors as regards to adoption of fish farming technology in selected villages of Morogoro Region, Tanzania. Data for this chapter had been collected in various studies conducted earlier and results published by the author about the study area from November 2005 to May 2008. These data were supplemented by primary data which had been collected by the author but not used before, and secondary information (...) from other sources. Descriptive statistics was used to report findings and data were validated by the level of significance and mean percentages. The overall results indicate that the adoption of fish farming technology was not gender neutral. More specifically, the results revealed that the probability of women to adopt fish farming technology was higher than that of men. This was likely because fish farming met women objectives of food security, immobility as they attend to household chores, and lack of alternative opportunities among themselves. Yet, women had lesser access to resources necessary for adoption of fish farming technology and were less reached by extension services than men. This was mainly attributed to the kinship system which favoured men than women, lack of legal information on ownership of productive resources and social-cultural and economic barriers to adoption among women such as high levels of illiteracy, low formal education, immobility, poverty in terms of low income and very heavy workload. In addition, although women participated in all activities of fish farming, men controlled income accruing from the activity. Three recommendations emerge from this study: First, there has to be alignment of extension methodology and activities to the task, needs, objectives, appropriate time and place and socio-cultural and economic barriers of women to technology adoption. Extension staff should be trained to take such aspects into account and plan for training sessions at times and locations suitable for women. Secondly, socio-cultural and economic barriers that hinder women’s access to productive resources should be identified and dealt with during project design. Finally, efforts should be made by women and other organizations to ensure that they are heard and they should exert pressure, through advocacy and lobbying, in order to bring equal distribution of income accruing from using fish farming technology. (shrink)