Glocalization of COVID-19 responses and management of the pandemic in Africa

ABSTRACT

The study explores how glocalization of COVID-19 responses affects the management of the pandemic in Africa. Using data from 20 selected African countries, the study found that the reliance on local medicines alongside other salient global initiatives for containment of COVID-19 is effective in managing the pandemic in Africa. It concluded that despite the high vulnerabilities of African countries to COVID-19, the glocal approach has yielded positive outcomes by increasing the number of patients that recover from COVID-19 and scaling down the fatalities compared with the other regions.     

WEP的安全技术分析及对策

在对无线局域网WLAN标准IEEE80 2 .11的WEP描述的基础上 ,笔者深入研究了WEP协议的设计上和实际应用中存在的密钥序列重复使用、消息认证和完整性等严重安全漏洞 ;详细分析了标准无线局域网中WEP协议解决方案 ;提出了WEP的改进算法WEP2 ,WEP2将IV大小增加到 12 8bit,以增强抗攻击能力 ;分析了AES解决方案的可行性 ;在密钥再生与分配方面 ,提出在MAC层实现经认证的密钥交换 ,用来改善WEP的安全脆弱性等解决措施。最后 ,还对今后的研究方向作出进一步的展望     

基于不完全信息博弈理论的地方煤矿安全监管的博弈分析

运用不完全信息重复博弈的基本理论和分析方法，建立了地方政府与煤矿企业的多阶段动态博弈模型。不完全信息的引入改变了完全信息博弈中地方政府会随着从煤矿生产中获益越大对其提供的庇护程度越大，而企业必然选择干扰的结论。一旦地方政府的这种合作行为出现，国家在安全监察方面的成本和难度将会大大减低。     

USE OF A PREDICTIVE MODEL IN EVALUATING WATER CONSUMPTION CONSERVATION1

ABSTRACT: The effectiveness of water conservation policies on reduction of water consumption was evaluated by use of a multiple regression predictive model. Data were obtained from eight Iowa communities, with regard to water consumption and water conservation policies adopted during the drought of 1977. The proposed model, which takes precipitation, temperature, month effects, and uniqueness of communities into account, is considered superior to the use of simple percent changes in evaluating the significance of reduction in water consumption due to conservation efforts. Among the variety of policies reviewed, mandatory policies with per capita restrictions were found to be most effective. However, voluntary conservation policies also resulted in significant reduction in some communities located in close proximity to other communities with severer water shortages. High credibility of local governments as to water shortage information was singled out as the most important factor in successful conservation by water resource policymakers of these communities. Use of the proposed predictive model for water consumption was demonstrated. Recommendations regarding future water conservation were made.     

PROCEDURES FOR THE EVALUATION OF ENGINEERING ALTERNATIVES1

ABSTRACT: This paper describes a method of analyzing the nonquantifiable parameters which should be considered in the evaluation of engineering alternatives. The nonquantifiable parameters can include environmental impact, feasibility of implementation, and performance. The method considers rating all the alternatives on the basis of a set of criteria which reflect these parameters. A procedure is discussed for obtaining review and guidance in the evaluation of engineering alternatives from the local elected officials or governing bodies and for obtaining the views and desires of the local communities. This is achieved through the formation of project review committees and an evaluation procedure which allows for the technical rating of alternatives by the engineer and the weighing of the evaluation criteria by the political and social groups. With the growing environmental concern and the high cost of engineering projects, the involvement of the public during the evaluation of engineering projects is becoming increasingly important to the final success of the project.     

Multi-level water governance – the case of the Morsa River Basin in Norway

Management of fresh water resources meets a range of often conflicting interests. Waterways usually run across political and administrative borders and hence make management difficult and collective action politically challenging. In order to meet these challenges, multi-level bioregional approaches to water management have been called for. Such an approach is institutionalised in the EU's Water Framework Directive (WFD). This paper presents the experiences of the Morsa water sub-district in southern Norway, a pilot for implementing the WFD. The paper discusses Morsa in the light of four principles for multi-level water governance: management on a bioregional scale; polycentric governance; public participation; and an experimental approach to water governance. Contrary to widely held assumptions that collective action in polycentric networks will be difficult because actors will follow their own narrow interests, the findings demonstrate how this is not an absolute truth, and how social action cannot be fully explained by rational action theories. The analysis concludes that the relative success of Morsa relates to a complex of factors, including openness of practices and active involvement of key actors, strong but including leadership, and a knowledge based ‘hybrid’ type of multi-level network combining horizontal and vertical network governance.     

Thinking with salmon about rain tanks: commons as intra-actions

The construction of California's large waterworks was inextricably entangled with a discourse of progress through technoscientific control over unruly rivers. In recent years, a turn towards decentralised governance and diversified infrastructure has produced alternate discourses of human–ecological collaboration and water as a commons. I investigate how water is understood by residents along Salmon Creek (Sonoma Co., CA) engaged in efforts to increase streamflow and restore salmon runs. Drawing on Barad's theory of agential realism, I find that living with springs and rainwater harvesting cisterns enacts intra-actions that increase residents' sense of interdependence with other human and nonhuman watershed residents. I argue that commons frameworks represent a coherent alternative to state and market frameworks of water governance.     

(Dis)connected communities and sustainable place-making

Why, despite a recent surge in the UK in “sustainable communities” policy discourse, do so many community-led sustainability initiatives remain fragmented, marginal and disconnected from local government strategies? How can community- and government-led sustainability initiatives be better integrated such that they add significantly to a denser matrix and cluster of sustainable places? These questions, we argue, lie at the heart of current sustainable place-making debates. With particular reference to two spatial scales of analysis and action, the small town of Stroud, England and the city of Cardiff, Wales, we explore the twin processes of disconnection and connection between community sustainability activists and local state actors. We conclude that whilst there will always remain a need for community groups to protect the freedom which comes from acting independently, for community activists and policy-makers alike, there are nevertheless a series of mutual benefits to be had from co-production. However, in setting out these benefits we also emphasise the dual need for local government to play a much more nuanced, integrative and facilitatory role, in addition to, but separate from, its more traditional regulatory role.     

Adapting to changing climate risk by local government in New Zealand: institutional practice barriers and enablers

Adaptation to climate change has been reviewed in several developed nations, but in none where consideration of the effects of climate change is required by statute and devolved to local government. We examine the role of institutional arrangements, the players operating under them, the barriers and enablers for adaptation decision-making in the developed nation of New Zealand. We examine how the roles and responsibilities between national, regional and local governments influence the ability of local government to deliver long-term flexible responses to changing climate risk. We found that the disciplinary practices of law, engineering and planning, within legal frameworks, result in the use of static mechanisms which create inflexible responses to changing risk. Several enablers are identified that could create greater integration between the different scales of government, including better use of national policy instruments, shared professional experience, standardised information collection and risk assessment methods that address uncertainties. The framing of climate risk as dynamic and changing that differentiates activities over their lifetime, development of mechanisms to fund transitions towards transformational change, are identified as necessary conditions for delivering flexible responses over time.     

中国污染物总量减排数据核算体系研究

"十一五"期间,中国对COD和SO2两种污染物开展总量减排工作,预期指标超额完成。"十一五"期间构建起来的总量减排数据核算体系为中央政府提供了相对准确的减排数据,是减排取得成功的基础。本文通过研究减排数据核算体系来对总量减排的成功进行制度性解释。本文采用文本分析和实地调研的方法,描述了中国减排数据核算体系的组织机构及其基本职责,整理出了自下而上的数据生成、流动机制和自上而下的数据核查、反馈机制,归纳出总量减排数据核算体系相较于传统环境统计的基本特征:一是设立了区域督查中心和各级总量控制部门等专门的组织机构;二是数据的双向流动机制,中央拥有对减排数据的审核权和最终确定权,并且会将正式确定后的数据逐级反馈给地方政府并应用于上级政府对下级政府的行政考核当中去;三是在数据核算中采用环境监测数据,并因此进行了全国范围的环境监测能力建设;四是减排工作全过程数据核算。这些新特征使得中国减排数据核算体系得以提升减排数据质量,对地方政府可能的违规行为进行约束;将减排绩效与地方政府考核相结合,通过政治激励促进地方政府开展减排工作;加强地方政府环境监管能力,保障减排工作的开展和完成。但现有数据核算体系仍然存在监测数据利用不到位而导致行政成本较高、减排量核算细则"一刀切"导致政策公平性缺失等亟需改进完善的问题。