2,281 research outputs found
Interview with Valerie Bunce--February 22, 2013
No full textInterview Themes: What brought Bunce to study the region (1:40); On how a scholar's background relates to his/her disciplinary proclivities (3:50); Bunce's formative early experiences and travels to Southeastern Europe [Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia] in the early 1970s (5:06); Events of the past decades that left a lasting impression on Bunce [Solidarity, collapse of Yugoslavia] (9:58); The biggest surprises in the trajectory of the region since Bunce started studying it (20:07); How the upheavals in the region affected scholarly approaches to it (21:50); Fallout in the field of Soviet studies of the collapse of the Soviet Union (25:03); The national question under communism in the USSR and East-Central Europe (30:00); Will the national question go away in the foreseeable future? (32:57); Bunce's view the nature of the interplay between policy/politics and culture (35:15); Bunce's experiences with the policy world and the language used in both worlds (36:57); On knowledge of the region and democracy promotion (41:28); Does the knowledge we have about the region give us special insight into what has taken place/is taking place elsewhere [Egypt]? (44:19); On political scientists' growing lack of knowledge of the region's history (47:55); Are "one-party" states back? (53:03); Comparison of the situation in Russia and Hungary--is it remembering or forgetting communist party strategies in the two cases? (56:53); How important is Southeastern Europe to Russian/Soviet history? (1:00:41); What are the directions we can go with knowledge of this region in comparative terms? (1:04:10); How does one know if a revolution/transition to democracy/authoritarianism is decisive or temporary? (1:07:04); On training the next generation for work in this field (1:09:29); Bunce mourns the loss of eccentricity in the younger generation of scholars and reflects on its causes (1:13:08)Interview with Valerie Bunce, the Aaron Binenkorb Professor of International Studies and Professor of Government at Cornell University. Interview conducted in Ithaca, NY on February 22, 2013. Bunce's work is mainly in comparative politics and international relations, with a geographical emphasis on East-Central Europe, the Balkans and the Soviet successor states. She’s the author of many articles and the book Subversive Institutions: The Design and the Collapse of Socialism and the State (published by Cambridge University Press in 1999), and has written another book together with Sharon Wolchik titled Defeating Authoritarian Leaders in Postcommunist Countries (Cambridge, 2011).1_pbse4u0
Driving into the sunset: Supporting cognitive functioning in older drivers
No full textCopyright @ 2011 Mark S. Young and David Bunce - This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.The rise in the aging driver population presents society with a significant challenge-how to maintain safety and mobility on the roads. On the one hand, older drivers pose a higher risk of an at-fault accident on a mile-for-mile basis; on the other hand, independent mobility is a significant marker of quality of life in aging. In this paper, we review the respective literatures on cognitive neuropsychology and ergonomics to suggest a previously unexplored synergy between these two fields. We argue that this conceptual overlap can form the basis for future solutions to what has been called "the older driver problem." Such solutions could be found in a range of emerging driver assistance technologies offered by vehicle manufacturers, which have the potential to compensate for the specific cognitive decrements associated with aging that are related to driving.Support was received from the Leverhulme Trust, UK
Pioneer personal history, Robert G. Bryant
No full textTypescript of answers by Robert G. Bryant for a questionnaire filled out for Utah Works Progress Administration\u27s "Pioneer personal history" survey. He was born in Kentucky in 1863, and worked his way west, as a miner and in other jobs, from 1876 to 1896 when he arrived in Moab. He recounted experiences from various parts of the West, including an incident involving Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce tribe, and a train robbery in Grand County in 1900. Typed by Winford Bunce of Moab in 193
Protecting the Bunce legacy: lessons learned from safeguarding long-term ecological survey datasets in Great Britain
No full textRescued data helps to strengthen ecological understanding of biodiversity change. This paper presents experience from safeguarding long-term strategic ecological surveys established by the late Professor Robert Bunce and colleagues in the 1970s: the Great Britain Countryside Surveys, and various related and complementary surveys in the period 1969 to the mid-1990s, including woodland surveys, and regional surveys for Cumbria and Shetland. These surveys are valuable data sources - especially considering national and global ecological restoration targets to address the biodiversity crisis - providing evidence to explore and understand ecological changes in the British countryside over time. For these kinds of data to be useful, usable and used, it is essential they are accessible and well managed, but many important ecological data sets are at risk of loss. A decade of work to protect the Bunce surveys has resulted in a structured five-step approach that can benefit other data rescue and safeguarding initiatives as well as scientists planning new ecological monitoring projects. The steps involve identifying available resources, processing datasets, assembling metadata, producing outputs and publishing. Valuable lessons learnt in the process include: (1) the growing appreciation and relevance of historic ecological data; (2) the importance of adequate resourcing and recognition of data rescue activity; (3) the value of engaging with the originators; (4) the need to identify and understand potential users and uses of the data. The Bunce legacy of strategic ecological surveys in the UK is now protected and the data available for repeat survey and further analysis
The relative dependence of Spanish landscape pattern on environmental and geographical variables over time
No full textThe analysis of the dependence of landscape patterns on environment was carried out in order to investigate the landscape structure evolution of Spain. The underlying concept was that the dependence between landscape spatial structure and environmental factors could be gradually decreasing over time. Land cover data were recorded from aerial photo interpretation of 206 4 x 4 km(2) samples from three different years: 1956, 1984 and 1998. Geographical variables were taken into consideration together with the purely environmental ones. General Linear Models of repeated measures were then used to segregate environmental from geographical effects on the pattern of the land cover patches of the samples. Aridity, lithology and topography were the environmental factors used to analyse structural indices of landscape. Landscape composition has a higher dependence on environment than configuration. Environmental variables showed higher correlations with landscape composition and configuration than geographical variables. Ail-long them, overall the climatic aridity and topography significantly accounted for more variation than did lithology. There was a high degree of stability in land cover composition over time, with some significant exceptions. Nevertheless, the registered increase of fragmentation over time has demonstrated that configuration measures are needed to fully assess landscape change
A generational relational model of nature and mental wellbeing: results of a qualitative analysis.
No full text© 2025 Bunce and Owens. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these termsIntroduction: There is a developing evidence base for the benefits of natural environments for health and mental wellbeing. However, given the increasing urbanisation of our planet and subsequent disconnection from our natural world, there is a danger that we may ultimately suffer from a nature 'generational amnesia'. The facets and mechanisms underpinning these relationships are poorly understood and theoretical frameworks are needed to aid further research. There is a paucity of research into the lived experiences of people with good wellbeing and their nature experiences, which has the potential to elucidate key elements of the nature-wellbeing relationship.
Methods: The current study used a qualitative design to explore themes concerning the lived experiences with nature, of 12 people with self-reported good wellbeing. Semi-structured interviews were carried out and data were analysed using thematic analysis.
Results: Two overarching themes of human-nature relationship and self-regulation encapsulated the data. Within the first, there were two superordinate themes of developmental and nature interconnectedness. Self-regulation consisted of managing health and flourishing.
Discussion: A theoretical model is proposed to help better understand these relational themes in a generational context. The model is informed by Cognitive Analytic Therapy and attachment theory and generates testable hypotheses for future research
Reconnection in a rotation-dominated magnetosphere and its relation to Saturn's auroral dynamics
No full textpeer reviewed[1] The first extended series of observations of Saturn's auroral emissions, undertaken by the Hubble Space Telescope in January 2004 in conjunction with measurements of the upstream solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field ( IMF) by the Cassini spacecraft, have revealed a strong auroral response to the interplanetary medium. Following the arrival of the forward shock of a corotating interaction region compression, bright auroras were first observed to expand significantly poleward in the dawn sector such that the area of the polar cap was much reduced, following which the auroral morphology evolved into a spiral structure around the pole. We propose that these auroral effects are produced by compression- induced reconnection of a significant fraction of the open flux present in Saturn's open tail lobes, as has also been observed to occur at Earth, followed by subcorotation of the newly closed flux tubes in the outer magnetosphere region due to the action of the ionospheric torque. We show that the combined action of reconnection and rotation naturally gives rise to spiral structures on newly opened and newly closed field lines, the latter being in the same sense as observed in the auroral images. The magnetospheric corollary of the dynamic scenario outlined here is that corotating interaction region- induced magnetospheric compressions and tail collapses should be accompanied by hot plasma injection into the outer magnetosphere, first in the midnight and dawn sector, and second at increasing local times via noon and dusk. We discuss how this scenario leads to a strong correlation of auroral and related disturbances at Saturn with the dynamic pressure of the solar wind, rather than to a correlation with the northsouth component of the IMF as observed at Earth, even though the underlying physics is similar, related to the transport of magnetic flux to and from the tail in the Dungey cycle
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