Devolution Of Power And Woreda Or District Development In Benshangul Gumuz Regional State: The Case Of Metkel Zone (North West Ethiopia),
2017
Assosa University, Ethiopia
Devolution Of Power And Woreda Or District Development In Benshangul Gumuz Regional State: The Case Of Metkel Zone (North West Ethiopia), Aldo Morka Atnafu
International Journal of African Development
Decentralized governance offers opportunities for achieving development through good governance and community participation at the grass root level (Ayenew, 2007). Ethiopia has adopted two phases of decentralization, namely decentralizing of power from the federal government to the regional level and from the regional to the woreda level (Gebre-Egziabher & Berhanu, 2007). Thus, this study has aimed at assessing the effect of the woreda level decentralization on the development of the Metekel zone. In particular, it examines the nature of political, administrative and fiscal decentralization in woredas. The study was conducted in two selected woreda, Bulen and Mandura. Data were collected …
Assessing Preservation Priorities Of Caves And Karst Areas Using The Frequency Of Endemic Cave-Dwelling Species,
2017
“Emil Racoviţă” Institute of Speleology
Assessing Preservation Priorities Of Caves And Karst Areas Using The Frequency Of Endemic Cave-Dwelling Species, Eugen Nitzu, Marius Vlaicu, Andrei Giurginca, Ioana N. Meleg, Ionut Popa, Augustin Nae, Ştefan Baba
International Journal of Speleology
Endemic and rare species as bioindicators of habitat vulnerability were used to develop protection and management plans for biotope prioritization (mainly islands habitats, lava tubes or groundwaters). Due to their narrow distribution, the endemic species (species confined to a restricted geographic area) are more susceptible to ecological disequilibrium and habitat loss than the widespread ones. Consequently, endemics become endangered in the context of ecological disturbance caused by anthropogenic pressure, making them suitable candidates to assess environmental preservation needs. Taking into consideration that most of the stygobitic and troglobitic species are endemic and confined to specific karst areas, based on their …
Globalization Tumult And Civilizational Greatness,
2017
Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
Globalization Tumult And Civilizational Greatness, Pradip N. Khandwalla
Markets, Globalization & Development Review
In the kind of tumultuous, strife-torn, and stressful world we are living in, we need to ask the questions: “Is our civilization moving in the right direction? What makes a civilization great?” Greed for power and greed for money, unless offset by a shared conception of civilizational excellence, often degenerate into widespread corruption, fraud, and violence. In developing countries like India, the challenge is to design a civilization that uses the creativity and enterprise of the market economy, the freedom of choice of democracy, and the altruism of the developmental state – to reverse degeneration and foster social, economic, and …
Collective Narcissism, Anti-Globalism, Brexit, Trump, And The Chinese Juggernaut,
2017
York University
Collective Narcissism, Anti-Globalism, Brexit, Trump, And The Chinese Juggernaut, Russell Belk
Markets, Globalization & Development Review
Brexit and the election of Trump both relied on a particular type of nationalistic appeal to collective narcissism — an exaggerated emotional belief that the nation’s greatness is being undermined by other nations and other people. This tendency is catered to by appeals to make the nation great again by shutting borders and embracing isolationism while scapegoating refugees and immigrants. The rise of jingoistic leaders like Trump, Putin, and Erdogan can be explained by such appeals. But China, which has long suffered feelings of national humiliation is reacting in quite different ways that embrace globalism, even while rejecting multiculturalism. This …
Globalization: Mere Hiccup, Major Convulsion Or Mega Transformation?,
2017
University of Rhode Island
Globalization: Mere Hiccup, Major Convulsion Or Mega Transformation?, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Deniz Atik
Markets, Globalization & Development Review
No abstract provided.
Global Production Networks, Foreign Direct Investment, And Supplier Linkages In The Integrated Peripheries Of The Automotive Industry,
2017
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Global Production Networks, Foreign Direct Investment, And Supplier Linkages In The Integrated Peripheries Of The Automotive Industry, Petr Pavlínek
Geography and Geology Faculty Publications
This article examines the regional development effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the integrated peripheries of the automotive industry by analyzing supplier linkages between foreign subsidiaries and domestic firms. It develops the spatial concept of integrated peripheries in core-based macroregional production networks. Conceptually, it draws on the dynamic notion of uneven development in contemporary capitalism, namely, on David Harvey’s spatiotemporal fix and on the global production networks concept of strategic coupling to investigate the mode of articulation of integrated peripheries into macroregional production networks. Empirically, it analyzes the quantity and quality of supplier linkages in the automotive industry of …
Canada In A Climate Disrupted World,
2017
University of Waterloo
Canada In A Climate Disrupted World, Simon Dalby, Daniel Scott, Clay Dasilva, Alex Suen
Geography and Environmental Studies Faculty Publications
Climate change has already begun impacting economies and societies across the globe, and its impacts are expected to increase into the future. Adaptation to climate change is and will continue to be one of the greatest policy challenges facing the Canadian government. However, im- portant and much-needed work on understanding the future of climate change has not yet been completed. Gaps remain in the body of academic, government, and other policy-relevant publications. Specifically, there is a relative paucity of research done on the indirect impacts of climate change on Canada. These external impacts outside of Canada’s borders may have second-order …
Enhancing Ontario’S Rural Infrastructure Preparedness: Inter-Community Service Sharing In A Changing Climate — Interim Report 1: Key Informant Interview Results,
2017
Wilfrid Laurier University
Enhancing Ontario’S Rural Infrastructure Preparedness: Inter-Community Service Sharing In A Changing Climate — Interim Report 1: Key Informant Interview Results, Bryce Gunson, Brenda Murphy
Social and Environmental Justice Faculty Publications
The purpose of this study is to develop a climate change (CC) prepared inter-community service sharing strategy (ICSS) targeted to rural Ontario communities that capitalizes on infrastructure assessments that are undertaken through the asset management process (AMP). AMP is defined by the Ontario government as “…. the process of making the best possible decisions regarding the building, operating, maintaining, renewing, replacing and disposing of infrastructure assets. It helps prioritize infrastructure needs and ensures that investments are made in the right place and at the right time to minimize future repair and rehabilitation costs.” The objective of AMPs are to maximize …
A Summer At Azavea Working With Nonprofit Organizations: The Summer Of Maps Fellowship,
2017
Clark University
A Summer At Azavea Working With Nonprofit Organizations: The Summer Of Maps Fellowship, Sarah Gates
Sustainability and Social Justice
This report details my experience as a Summer of Maps Fellow at Azavea during June 2017 to August 2017. As a Summer of Maps Fellow I worked with nonprofit organizations, the Fair Tech Collective and the World Resources Institute, on two geospatial analysis projects. For the Fair Tech Collective I analyzed data on refinery flaring pollution, air toxin concentrations, and sensitive receptor populations to produce a series of maps and infographics detailing the impacts of petrochemical pollution in the San Francisco Bay Area. For the World Resources Institute I used data-driven methods to analyze conservation efforts in the Central African …
Greening The Gateway Cities: Summer Internship With The Clark University Human Environment Regional Observatory (Hero) And Massachusetts Department Of Conservation And Recreation (Dcr),
2017
Clark University
Greening The Gateway Cities: Summer Internship With The Clark University Human Environment Regional Observatory (Hero) And Massachusetts Department Of Conservation And Recreation (Dcr), Zhiwen Zhu
Sustainability and Social Justice
This report provides a detailed account of my internship experience with the Clark University Human-Environment Regional Observatory (HERO) and Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) in the summer of 2017. This internship concerns the urban tree health assessment in three ‘Greening the Gateway’ cities in Massachusetts. During the internship, I conducted tree survey field work, database management, mapping, tree survey data analysis and urban tree plantation benefits microclimate simulation. During the internship I worked with the professors and students at Clark University and University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the staff from Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), Worcester Tree …
Northern Eurasia Future Initiative (Nefi): Facing The Challenges And Pathways Of Global Change In The Twenty-First Century,
2017
NOAA National Centers
Northern Eurasia Future Initiative (Nefi): Facing The Challenges And Pathways Of Global Change In The Twenty-First Century, Pavel Groisman, Herman Shugart, David Kicklighter, Geoffrey Henebry, Nadezhda Tchebakova, Shamil Maksyutov, Erwan Monier, Garik Gutman, Sergey Gulev, Jiaguo Qi, Alexander Prishchepov, Elena Kukavskaya, Boris Porfiriev, Alexander Shiklomanov, Tatiana Loboda, Nikolay Shiklomanov, Son Nghiem, Kathleen Bergen, Jana Albrechtová, Jiquan Chen, Maria Shahgedanova, Anatoly Shvidenko, Nina Speranskaya, Amber Soja, Kirsten De Beurs, Olga Bulygina, Jessica Mccarty, Qianlai Zhuang, Olga Zolina
GSCE Faculty Publications
During the past several decades, the Earth system has changed significantly, especially across Northern Eurasia. Changes in the socio-economic conditions of the larger countries in the region have also resulted in a variety of regional environmental changes that can have global consequences. The Northern Eurasia Future Initiative (NEFI) has been designed as an essential continuation of the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI), which was launched in 2004. NEESPI sought to elucidate all aspects of ongoing environmental change, to inform societies and, thus, to better prepare societies for future developments. A key principle of NEFI is that these developments …
No. 12: Compounding Vulnerability: A Model Of Urban Household Food Security,
2017
Balsillie School of International Affairs/WLU
No. 12: Compounding Vulnerability: A Model Of Urban Household Food Security, Cameron Mccordic
Hungry Cities Partnership
The efficiency of the infrastructure systems in cities will define the extent to which dystopic visions of urban futures become a reality. At the level of the individual household, vulnerability to hazards in cities is defined, in part, by the ability to access essential resources and services. This discussion paper proposes a model to help explain the relationship between access to urban infrastructure systems and household vulnerability to food insecurity. Food access in cities is primarily achieved through food purchases, where households convert assets into food at retail locations. When a household falls into food insecurity through trading household assets …
Strategic Culture In Sub-Saharan Africa: The Divergent Paths Of Uganda And Tanzania,
2017
University of Southern Mississippi
Strategic Culture In Sub-Saharan Africa: The Divergent Paths Of Uganda And Tanzania, Kevin Frank
Dissertations
Strategic culture is a concept accepted by scholars and practitioners, but with problematic applicability to states newly independent or emerging from conflict. The elements that comprise strategic culture in the developed world are not always present in emerging states. This research addresses the pertinency of strategic culture in Uganda and Tanzania, and then tests the operationalization of the concept using the case of participation in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). The African Union and the international community expected Uganda and Tanzania to contribute troops to AMISON in 2007. In the event, Uganda did and Tanzania chose another path. …
How To Best Apply Neural Networks In Geosciences: Towards Optimal "Averaging" In Dropout Training,
2017
The University of Texas at El Paso
How To Best Apply Neural Networks In Geosciences: Towards Optimal "Averaging" In Dropout Training, Afshin Gholamy, Justin Parra, Vladik Kreinovich, Olac Fuentes, Elizabeth Y. Anthony
Departmental Technical Reports (CS)
The main objectives of geosciences is to find the current state of the Earth -- i.e., solve the corresponding inverse problems -- and to use this knowledge for predicting the future events, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In both inverse and prediction problems, often, machine learning techniques are very efficient, and at present, the most efficient machine learning technique is deep neural training. To speed up this training, the current learning algorithms use dropout techniques: they train several sub-networks on different portions of data, and then "average" the results. A natural idea is to use arithmetic mean for this …
The Monadnock Volume 59, December 2017,
2017
Clark University
The Monadnock Volume 59, December 2017, Clark University Geographical Society
The Monadnock (Clark Geographical Society)
Volume 59 of The Monadnock. The Monadnock was the alumni magazine of the Clark University Geographical Society (1927-1985) (2014-present).
Seeing Prehistory Through New Lenses: Using Geophysical And Statistical Analysis To Identify Fresh Perspectives Of A 15th Century Mandan Occupation,
2017
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Seeing Prehistory Through New Lenses: Using Geophysical And Statistical Analysis To Identify Fresh Perspectives Of A 15th Century Mandan Occupation, Amber Marie Mitchum
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Great Plains prehistoric research has evolved over the course of a century, with many sites like Huff Village (32MO11) in North Dakota recently coming back to the forefront of discussion through new technological applications. Through a majority of its studies and excavations, Huff Village appeared to endure as the final stage in the Middle Missouri tradition. Long thought to reflect only systematically placed long-rectangular structure types of its Middle Missouri predecessors, recent magnetic gradiometry and topographic mapping data revealed circular structure types that deviated from long-held traditions, highlighting new associations with Coalescent groups. A compact system for food capacity was …
Poverty Mapping Using Convolutional Neural Networks Trained On High And Medium Resolution Satellite Images, With An Application In Mexico,
2017
Orbital Insight
Poverty Mapping Using Convolutional Neural Networks Trained On High And Medium Resolution Satellite Images, With An Application In Mexico, Boris Babenko, Jonathan Hersh, David Newhouse, Anusha Ramakrishnan, Tom Swartz
Economics Faculty Articles and Research
Mapping the spatial distribution of poverty in developing countries remains an important and costly challenge. These “poverty maps” are key inputs for poverty targeting, public goods provision, political accountability, and impact evaluation, that are all the more important given the geographic dispersion of the remaining bottom billion severely poor individuals. In this paper we train Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) to estimate poverty directly from high and medium resolution satellite images. We use both Planet and Digital Globe imagery with spatial resolutions of 3-5 m2 and 50 cm2 respectively, covering all 2 million km2 of Mexico. Benchmark poverty estimates come from …
Young People’S Perceptions Of Nature And Interactions With National Parks,
2017
University of Southern Mississippi
Young People’S Perceptions Of Nature And Interactions With National Parks, Addy Falgoust
Honors Theses
This thesis examines young people’s perceptions of nature and the outdoors, in order to better understand their interactions and experiences with national parks. Younger generations currently are not engaging with the national parks as much as older generations. This study seeks to understand the reasons behind this change and explore potential solutions to this challenge, as younger generations will be responsible for the conservation and preservation of national parks in the near future. This research was modeled on a previous study based on students at the University of Northern Colorado. Research methodologies included both a survey and focus groups to …
Spatial Analysis Of Ethnic And Racial Segregation In The Chicago Metropolitan Area, 2000–2014,
2017
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Spatial Analysis Of Ethnic And Racial Segregation In The Chicago Metropolitan Area, 2000–2014, Roy Yao
Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
Racial segregation has long been a great concern in the United States. Scholars study and measure racial segregation over different time periods to trace the changing patterns of racial segregation. Chicago, as the nation’s third largest city, also ranked on top of the most segregated cities. Previous studies measured racial segregation in Chicago only numerically; few studies have used geospatial statistic methods to identify racial segregation patterns in the Chicago metropolitan area. This study uses “Hotspot Analysis” (Getis Ord Gi*) to identify Chicago’s most recent segregation patterns among four major ethnic and racial groups: White, African American, Hispanic and Asian. …
A Longitudinal Study Of Prenatal Care And Prenatal Outcomes Of Women In Foster Care Across Michigan Counties,
2017
Western Michigan University
A Longitudinal Study Of Prenatal Care And Prenatal Outcomes Of Women In Foster Care Across Michigan Counties, Lauryn Jianrattanasawat
Masters Theses
According to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, at any given time, there are approximately 13,000 youth in foster care throughout Michigan. This study used secondary data of linked child welfare case records and State of Michigan Medicaid claims from January 1, 2009 to September 30, 2012 to research the effects of individual, foster care and spatial characteristics experienced by 307 women that became pregnant and delivered while still enrolled in foster care in Michigan on their prenatal care and prenatal outcomes. While, the majority of the analyses resulted in insignificant relationships, significant differences between foster care characteristics …
