Evoking trust in the nutrition counselor: why should we be trusted?

The virtue of trust is often spoken of as central to the work of dietitians working in nutrition counseling, especially in the context of disordered eating/eating disorders nutrition therapy. Indeed, dietitians are purported to be the most trusted source of information on nutrition and food by professional associations such as Dietitians of Canada. Here trust is explored through educational, relational, and virtue theory in order to elucidate trusts meaning and relevance to dietitians work and interactions with each other, including the general public. If dietitians are to continue to be trusted during times of skepticism in expert knowledge, reflexivity, active contestation, and moral testing in the context of our socio-political milieu need be employed so that we as a profession may respond to clients in respectful, authentic, meaningful ways; practices worthy of our trust.     

构建新型危险化学品安全管理体制

随着我国经济的快速发展,危险化学品事故频频发生。现行危险化学品安全管理体制存在漏洞是其主要原因。笔者认为现行危险化学品安全管理体制主要存在5个方面不足:管理体制与市场经济体制不符;行业管理未能实现;中介作用没有发挥;工会维权力量薄弱;公众参与严重不足等。为此,建议建立政府、市场和民众相互协调的危险化学品安全管理体制,即“政府监管、市场调节和社会监督”。其中,政府监管包括政府管理和国家监督,市场调节包括企业责任和中介服务,社会监督包括员工维权和公众参与。     

分形理论在地区社会经济发展影响度研究中的应用

将分形理论用于地区社会经济发展影响度研究中,用数量化方法分析了人口规模、地区间距离、城市特征半径等因素对城市经济联系强度的影响,并将这一方法应用于阿克苏地区生态环境规划研究中.     

On Sustainable Development of Social Forestry in Bangladesh: Experiences from Sal (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Shorea Robusta</Emphasis>) Forests

Sustainability in forestry is a complex amalgam of trade-offs among its various dimensions and there is no easy route to achieve sustainable development. It is important that policy process and implementation strategy of these policies should be based on sound information about these trade-offs. There is a growing consensus amongst key forest decision-makers in Bangladesh that traditional forestry is needed to make the transition to more sustainable forestry, which is likely to involve local people in forest management. As a result, the government has initiated a social forestry program from 1981 with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) grant and operated mainly in Sal forest areas. The most important objective of this program is to protect, manage, and develop forests in a sustainable way by involving local communities. Although several studies have focused on the management issues of social forestry, none of these studies has evaluated the indicators of sustainable social forestry. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the criteria of sustainable development of social forestry in Bangladesh. The study is based on primary cross-sectional data collected using the multistage stratified sampling technique. In total, 581 social forestry farmers were selected randomly and interviewed using a pre-tested questionnaire. The study evaluated some important components of sustainable development and identified the following conditions of social forestry in Bangladesh:(i) almost all the components of sustainable development of social forestry, although not at the aspiration level, were at good condition;(ii) participants were interested and committed to work with Forest Department in developing social forestry;(iii) they had been utilizing both hard and soft technology in practicing social forestry, although there exists ample scope of development;(iv) income of participants after involving in social forestry had increased, although not at satisfactory level; and(v) process of producing social and material goods had been under progress.However, there exist plenty of scopes for sustainable social forestry development through improving the sustainable development components more carefully.Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Making humanitarian relief networks more effective: operational coordination, trust and sense making

Effective coordination of humanitarian assistance activities remains elusive. This paper briefly addresses some of the reasons for what is widely perceived as a coordination dilemma in humanitarian affairs and argues for a new conceptualisation of the issue. Rather than continue to request that more authority be vested in a single organisation to secure coordination through top-down control, it contends that it may be timely to consider whether relief agencies involved in an emergency should be reconceived as social networks and efforts made to achieve changes in their organizational cultures that encourage operational coordination across institutional lines. Since such labours imply the need to trust, this article explores what forms of trust might be employed to promote improved coordination among relief institutions and how those relationships could themselves be conceptualised. Finally, while acknowledging that coordination is not costless, it suggests that its effective pursuit may be advantageous even in scenarios where aid organisations balk at cooperating to secure it.     

Chemical leasing: cooperative business models for sustainable chemicals management. Summary of research projects commissioned by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management

- Sustainable chemistry - Section editors: Klaus Günter Steinhäuser, Steffi Richter, Petra Greiner, Jutta Penning, Michael AngrickBackground, Aim and Scope Chemicals play a vital role in the day-to-day life of industrialised societies. Their use is not restricted to the chemical enterprises per se, but is a crucial part of production processes in a lot of industrial sectors. Traditional instruments of environmental policy (such as bans, restrictions) can only deal with the most hazardous substances. The Johannesburg Implementation Plan of 2002 calls for more sustainable patterns of production and consumption, and sets the year of 2020 as a goal to use chemicals in a way that human health and the environment are not endangered. Political instruments should not only gather more knowledge about the properties of chemicals, but should also stimulate the environmentally sound use of chemicals. Existing business models should therefore be reviewed in relation to this strategic approach to encourage marketing options with respect to the environmental focus.Main Features Business models were examined for their effects on the consumption of chemicals and amount of waste emissions in relation to their economic potential. Different possibilities for cooperation of supplier, user and disposal companies were elaborated and examined with a view to the specific situation in Austria.Results and Discussion A range of cooperative models – summarised under the term ‘chemical leasing’ - was identified, which can contribute to a more efficient use of resources. 12 main possible application areas (cleaning, lubrication, paint stripping and others) have been identified in Austria. If chemical leasing models were applied in these areas, the amounts of chemicals currently used could be reduced by one third (53,000 tonnes per year). Cost reductions of up to 15 % can be expected.Conclusion The application of chemical leasing models can contribute considerably to achieving more sustainable and resource-efficient patterns of production. The Austrian Ministry for Environment has therefore decided to subsidise the further practical implementation of these new service-oriented business models. Pilot projects in 4 enterprises, which are supervised by consulting companies, are currently being carried out. Recommendation and Outlook The experiences of the pilot projects will serve as valuable building blocks for the wider use of chemical leasing models. Furthermore, the UNIDO Cleaner Production Centres have expressed their clear interest and will examine the possibility to use chemical leasing as a part of their Cleaner Production Programmes.     

浅论经济、社会与环境三效益的矛盾与统一

阐述了经济效益、社会效益与环境效益之间的相互对立统一的辨证关系，从概念和内涵对其矛盾与统一进行了分析，从其相互关系及综合评价中说明了存在的矛盾问题及解决的方法，只有运用可持续发展的理论改变传统的发展观、自然观，人类就一定能够与环境和谐共存，达到经济、社会与环境三效益的结合与统一。     

How Is Household Vulnerability Gendered? Female‐headed Households in the Collectives of Suleimaniyah,Iraqi Kurdistan

This research tries to reach an understanding of the well-being of female-headed household members through a comparison to male-headed household members in the collectives of the Suleimaniyah governorate in Iraqi Kurdistan. Research was undertaken in five collectives in Suleimaniyah during the summer of 1998. The research contributes to the current gender and development debates which are concerned with improving the understanding of the specific gendered forms of disadvantage faced by female-headed households rather than assuming the universal poverty of this group. An understanding of well-being is approached through a broad conceptualisation of vulnerability in preference to a narrow poverty definition. That the findings of this research are complex attests to the multi-dimensional and mutually constitutive gendered experiences of vulnerability. The definitive conclusion to emerge from this research is a refuting of the rhetoric-fuelled stereotype that households headed by women are at a disadvantage in all the dimensions of vulnerability in comparison to households headed by men. The research also establishes the methodological necessity of examining intra-household distributive mechanisms that determine individuals' well-being.     

Harmonizing water management and social needs: a necessary condition for sustainable development. The case of Israel's coastal aquifer

This study focuses on the problem of most efficiently fulfilling the water requirements of society for sustainable water resources management. The goal is to coordinate effectively the social needs of the resident population with operational water resources management planning.The proposed approach consists of a pyramidal hierarchy of water resource management needs, similar to that suggested by psychologist Abraham Maslow for human social needs. The two pyramidal hierarchies can be simultaneously employed to delineate guidelines to synchronize planning for sustainable water resources development with the concerns and expectations of the resident population. In both hierarchies, higher level needs remain irrelevant and difficult to attain until lower level needs of the resident population have been fulfilled.Management planning measures employed with regard to Israel's coastal aquifer have been used to illustrate this approach. Observation of Israel's experience indicates markedly reduced effectiveness where such measures have failed to be properly synchronised with societal needs. Conversely, where hydrological management measures were successfully synchronized with societal concerns, increased efficiency towards attaining sustainable groundwater management was evident.     

The transtheoretical model of change in adolescents: implications for injury prevention

INTRODUCTION: Many injury prevention interventions require changes in human behavior to reduce self-risk or risk to others. Promising injury prevention interventions may be discarded if they lack power to create a significant difference in outcomes when judging their ability to "move a person from nonaction or negative action to positive action (safety)." The transtheoretical model of change (TMC) allows greater sensitivity in detecting along the change process where an intervention may be effective. The stages of change consist of precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and termination. Change is not viewed as an "all or none phenomenon." METHOD: Use of the TMC was examined using a quasiexperimental, cross-over design involving high school agriculture students enrolled in 21 schools in Kentucky (n=9), Iowa (n=7), and Mississippi (n=5). A series of physical and narrative simulations (safety training exercises) were developed with a focus on preventing amputation, spinal cord injury, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, and noise-induced hearing loss. Contemplation and action, as part of the TMC, were measured using a 10-item, Likert-type, stages of change (SOC) instrument comprised of two subscales (reliability coefficients were.88 and.81, respectively). The final sample consisted of 790 students (373 treatment and 417 control). RESULTS: There was a significant group effect for both contemplation, F(1,732)=197.4; p<.0001, and action, F(1,730)=106.1; p<.0001. A convenience sample of 29 of the participating students was selected for follow-up farm visits 1 year postparticipation. Of these students, 25 (86%) had made safety behavior changes in their farm work. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: The use of the TMC model can provide researchers with greater precision in examining intervention effectiveness in promoting change.