Public Nutrition in Emergencies: An Overview of Debates, Dilemmas and Decision-making

This paper introduces and discusses the main themes and issues arising from the workshop 'International Public Nutrition in Emergencies: The Potential for Improving Practice'.
Good co-ordination within the nutrition sector of the international humanitarian response system has led to a range of achievements in recent years. Major constraints to improving programme impact remain, however, including misconceptions about the scope of nutrition among the wider humanitarian system, which tends to give it a narrow focus on malnutrition and feeding people. In contrast to this limited view, the Public Nutrition approach brings a more broad-based emphasis to assessing and responding to nutritional problems in emergencies, and takes into account the wider social, economic and political causes of malnutrition.
Six case study presentations illustrated the various components of a Public Nutrition approach, including in-depth assessment, analysis and tailoring programmes accordingly. Additional presentations considered the nature of vulnerability, the concept of Public Nutrition, the responsibilities for addressing nutritional problems and some of the operational tools and frameworks in current use.
Participants agreed on the necessity of raising levels of awareness and understanding among all actors in the humanitarian sphere about the impact of their actions on nutrition. Strategies for achieving this included developing better multi-sectoral working relationships and also strengthening relationships with donors and key decision-makers in the humanitarian system. Other related strategies included institutional learning, training and capacity building, particularly in relation to institutions based in developing countries and building upon initiatives such as the Sphere Project, which has successfully brought together the various actors within the humanitarian system in order to improve quality of response.     

A critical overview of driver recording tools

Introduction: Technological advancements during recent decades have led to the development of a wide array of tools and methods in order to record driving behavior and measure various aspects of driving performance. The aim of the present study is to present and comparatively assess the various driver recording tools that researchers have at their disposal. Method: In order to achieve this aim, a multitude of published studies from the international literature have been examined based on the driver recording methodologies that have been implemented. An examination of more traditional survey methods (questionnaires, police reports, and direct observer methods) is initially conducted, followed by investigating issues pertinent to the use of driving simulators. Afterwards, an extensive section is provided for naturalistic driving data tools, including the utilization of on-board diagnostics (OBD) and in-vehicle data recorders (IVDRs). Lastly, in-depth incident analysis and the exploitation of smartphone data are discussed. Results: A critical synthesis of the results is conducted, providing the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing each tool and including additional knowledge regarding ease of experimental implementation, data handling issues, impacts on subsequent analyses, as well as the respective cost parameters. Conclusions: New technologies provide undeniably powerful tools that allow for seamless data handling, storage, and analysis, such as smartphones and in-vehicle data recorders. However, this sometimes comes at considerable costs (which may or may not pay off at a later stage), while legacy driver recording methods still have their own niches to fill in research. Practical Applications: The present research supports researchers when designing driver behavior monitoring studies. The present work enables better scheduling and pacing of research activities, but can also provide insights for the distribution of research funds.     

老庄道家思想所蕴含的生态伦理观念

中国古代思想家老子、庄子在生态环境伦理方面就如何协调人与自然的关系提出了许多宝贵的思想,如“天人合一”、“道法自然”、“知止”等。这些观点对我们解决二十一世纪所面临的生态环境问题具有重要的启迪意义。     

试谈企业“安全性评价标准”与创评价的整体意识

安全性评价作为安全管理科学的一种方法,已在机电行业广泛开展,并取得一定成效,但通过实践,发现它仍有不足之处。就进一步完善“安全性评价标准”(下称“标准”)谈述见解,并力求以生产工具本质安全化的观点,编制了“产品设计安全性评价检查表”,试用此法,杜绝事故隐患。     

Using the ECLPSS software environment to build a spatially explicit component-based model of ozone effects on forest ecosystems

We have developed a modeling framework to support grid-based simulation of ecosystems at multiple spatial scales, the Ecological Component Library for Parallel Spatial Simulation (ECLPSS). ECLPSS helps ecologists to build robust spatially explicit simulations of ecological processes by providing a growing library of reusable interchangeable components and automating many modeling tasks. To build a model, a user selects components from the library, and then writes new components as needed. Some of these components represent specific ecological processes, such as how environmental factors influence the growth of individual trees. Other components provide simulation support such as reading and writing files in various formats to allow inter-operability with other software. The framework manages components and variables, the order of operations, and spatial interactions. The framework provides only simulation support; it does not include ecological functions or assumptions. This separation allows biologists to build models without becoming computer scientists, while computer scientists can improve the framework without becoming ecologists. The framework is designed to operate on multiple platforms and be used across networks via a World Wide Web-based user interface. ECLPSS is designed for use with both single processor computers for small models, and multiple processors in order to simulate large regions with complex interactions among many individuals or ecological compartments. To test Version 1.0 of ECLPSS, we created a model to evaluate the effect of tropospheric ozone on forest ecosystem dynamics. This model is a reduced-form version of two existing models: , which represents an individual tree, and , which represents forest stand growth and succession. This model demonstrates key features of ECLPSS, such as the ability to examine the effects of cell size and model structure on model predictions.     

Will Consumers Save The World? The Framing of Political Consumerism

An active ethically conscious consumer has been acclaimed as the new hero and hope for an ethically improved capitalism. Through consumers’ “voting” at the checkout, corporations are supposed to be held accountable for their conduct. In the literature on political consumerism, this has mainly been approached as political participation and governance. In this article, we do a critical review of this literature. We do so by questioning the existence of what we call a “generic active consumer model.” At the core of this position, there is a belief that the active consumer is a universal entity, available across nations and time. Instead we call for an approach that takes accord of the ways consumers and consumer roles are framed in interactive processes in markets, governance structures, and everyday life. Consumers in different countries assess their responsibilities and their powers as consumers differently due to different institutionalizations within distinctive contexts. We also must take into account how the inertia of ordinary consumption and the moral complexities of everyday life restrict the adoption of an active consumerist role. Hence, the debate on political consumerism should make for a more realistic notion of ethical consumer-sovereignty and its role in improving the workings of capitalism. In our view, these findings have severe implications for understanding both theories of political consumption and the dynamics of political consumption per se.     

Implementing SDG 15: Can large‐scale public programs help deliver biodiversity conservation,restoration and management,while assisting human development?

Among the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the proposed SDG 15 promotes activities that, inter alia, “Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems”. An important potential contribution in achieving SDG 15 is through public programmes designed to jointly promote human development through poverty alleviation and improvement of human livelihoods and biodiversity conservation/management/restoration. An analysis of twenty public programmes with such joint objectives yielded twelve lessons learned. In addition to financial commitments, government and intergovernmental agency input for such public programmes includes ensuring political will and appropriate legal frameworks. Local communities and civil society provide input through traditional and indigenous ecological knowledge and stewardship. Appropriate shared inputs in development and the implementation of such public programmes, with communication between local community, broader civil society, the scientific community and governments will result in: better use and management of biodiversity; alleviation of poverty; security of livelihoods and better governance systems. The Ecosystem Approach of the Convention on Biological Diversity provides an ideal framework when planning and implementing new programmes. Application of the lessons learned to new public programmes will ensure that the answer to the question posed in the title is an emphatic “Yes”, and assist with the achievement of SDG 15.     

The integrated project AquaTerra of the EU sixth framework lays foundations for better understanding of river-sediment-soil-groundwater systems

The integrated project "AquaTerra" with the full title "integrated modeling of the river-sediment-soil-groundwater system; advanced tools for the management of catchment areas and river basins in the context of global change" is among the first environmental projects within the sixth Framework Program of the European Union. Commencing in June 2004, it brought together a multidisciplinary team of 45 partner organizations from 12 EU countries, Romania, Switzerland, Serbia and Montenegro. AquaTerra is an ambitious project with the primary objective of laying the foundations for a better understanding of the behavior of environmental pollutants and their fluxes in the soil-sediment-water system with respect to climate and land use changes. The project performs research as well as modeling on river-sediment-soil-groundwater systems through quantification of deposition, sorption and turnover rates and the development of numerical models to reveal fluxes and trends in soil and sediment functioning. Scales ranging from the laboratory to river basins are addressed with the potential to provide improved river basin management, enhanced soil and groundwater monitoring as well as the early identification and forecasting of impacts on water quantity and quality. Study areas are the catchments of the Ebro, Meuse, Elbe and Danube Rivers and the Brévilles Spring. Here we outline the general structure of the project and the activities conducted within eleven existing sub-projects of AquaTerra.