1,721,015 research outputs found
Identifying Metrics for Health and Outdoor Initiatives: A Toolkit for Community Evaluators
No full textRising rates of urbanization and resource exploitation have reduced opportunities for
human interaction with nature and motivated an expansion of interest in research and
development of initiatives to achieve human health benefits from contact with nature.
Despite a growing base of evidence linking health benefits to experience with the
outdoors, little research has been conducted to generate evidence-based strategies for
implementing health and nature interventions in practice. To better assist communities
in developing effective health and outdoor initiatives, I conducted a comprehensive
review of metrics used by national community outdoor initiatives to evaluate health
outcomes. I compared community metrics to measures supported by scientific research
and consolidated the results into a guideline for those developing metrics to evaluate
community health and outdoor programs
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
The Feasibility of an Environmental Assurance Program in North Carolina
No full textThe financial cost of private industry’s pollution is often unfairly transferred to the public. Decades can pass between a pollution release and its discovery, making it very difficult for regulators to hold responsible parties accountable. In North Carolina, a prime example of the public shouldering this burden is the primarily publicly financed State Trust Fund for cleaning up after leaking underground storage tanks. One way to ensure polluters pay for remediation is to require financial assurances prior to permitting. There are several mechanisms available that do this, including surety bonds, environmental insurance, and cash accounts signed over to the regulator. In this study, the most commonly used assurance mechanisms were evaluated using a multi-criteria decision analysis and the criteria most important to regulators and industry: contractual strength, verifiability, flexibility, ease of acquisition, and availability/control of funds. These criteria were derived using each party’s core objectives. For regulators, these are protecting the environment and the public and doing so in the least costly way. For industry, these are making profit and meeting the necessary environmental regulations in the least costly way, so that they are allowed to do continuing business. Using North Carolina’s underground storage tank issue as an example, the mechanisms were then ranked by their performance for each criterion. Surety bonds ranked as the best instrument to meet both parties’ needs, providing regulators with a high degree of contractual strength while allowing industry freedom from needing to cover its entire environmental liability up front. Like surety bonds, insurance and letters of credit provide adequate contractual strength and flexibility, but they are not as easily verified by the regulator. Financial self-tests and corporate guarantees were found to be insufficient because they performed at the least preferable level for regulators in all criteria and provided industry with little flexibility. This evaluative framework should prove useful to policymakers as they try to address the unfair liability private industry’s pollution creates for the public. A statewide assurance program is a feasible solution to this problem given the satisfactory performance of several assurance instruments
State-Level Financing for Agricultural Conservation
No full textAgriculture has an enormous impact on environmental quality in the United States, and agricultural conservation programs have great potential to mitigate this impact. We find that state-level programs comprise approximately 40% of all agricultural conservation financing in the United States, and these programs are often more tailored towards a state’s agricultural practices and environmental needs than are federal programs. This report focuses on identifying state-level programs with non-traditional financing mechanisms. Traditional types of financing for agricultural conservation programs include federal grants (cost share) provided through the farm bill and state-level programs funded by appropriations from the state’s general fund that provide loans or grants to farmers. Innovative programs utilize transferable tax credits, revolving funds, double dividend fees and other funding and financing mechanisms that can result in greater environmental impact per dollar and don’t rely on regular appropriations of funds by state legislatures. Out of 90 state-level agricultural programs we identify 17 that utilize an innovative financing mechanism. We highlight 4 of these programs and discuss how similar programs could be applied to address specific environmental impacts due to agriculture in North
Carolina
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Factors of Success for County and Regional Habitat Conservation Plan Creation
No full textHabitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) are a means for private landowners to comply with the Endangered Species Act. Historically, the HCP process has been done on a case-by-case basis, but it has become increasingly common for county and regional governments to create region-wide HCPs that cover development from multiple projects in the entire region. Local governments recognize that these plans can increase economic certainty for residents, increase development, and potentially increase conservation. However, region-wide plans are time and money intensive, so sometimes they fail to be completed.
HCP legal, academic and policy experts, who acted as a focus group for this research, stated that few have studied the "human" side of HCP creation, i.e., HCP process design and management. Such information may be useful to diverse interests, such as conservationists and developers, in counties and regions where a large-scale HCP is possible. Thus, the overarching research question for this project was: What factors and processes lead to the successful completion of a Habitat Conservation Plan at the regional and county level?
This report includes five case studies on county or regional HCPs, located in 1) Benton County, OR; 2) Coachella Valley, CA; 3) East Contra Costa County, CA; 4) Pima County, AZ; and 5) Williamson County, TX. Three to four interviews per case with individuals who were knowledgeable about the county or regional government's perspective of the HCP process were the primary sources of information. Each interviewee was asked questions regarding:
1) The initiation process for the plan and who prepared the plan 2) Logistical and administrative support from other organizations and agencies 3) Local and political support 4) Staff capacity at the time of HCP creation 5) Staff opinions at the time of HCP creation 6) How the covered species were determined 7) How the mitigation strategy was determined 8) How the plan creation was funded 9) How plan preparers decided how to fund the plan once it was implemented
Each case study synthesizes the information from the interviewees, and at the end of this report, a cross-case study analysis brings all of the findings together. This analysis showed that some state agencies, such as the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, played a large role in the HCP creation process, while others were less involved. Also, because the length of time for HCP creation varied from approximately 5 to 15 years, the number of staff from the county or region that were necessary to complete these plans varied also. However, for the plans that took only around 5 years, approximately 2 full time staff from the county were needed. Staff opinions regarding the plans, e.g., whether they felt the plans would generate funding for conservation, also varied; most likely staff's sentiments reflected the local community's values. Despite differences between the cases, this analysis illuminated several factors that contributed to successful HCP creation: A cooperative relationship between the county or region and the USFWS appears important. The relationship between the local governing body and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) office was positive in four out of the five of these successfully completed cases. Local and political support, especially early stakeholder engagement, was important in all cases. A scientific advisory committee or a consultant was necessary to determine what species to cover in the plan. Across all cases, USFWS Section 6 grants were the primary source of funds. The most effective way to handle mitigation at this scale was through utilization of the county or region's own reserve lands, but the funding mechanism for this type of mitigation varied.
An additional exploratory analysis provided insight into three important factors leading to HCP failure. The first is delays at the regional FWS level due to miscommunication and tensions with the regional or county staff. The second occurs when HCP preparers make the scope of the HCP too broad. And the third results from poor project management and HCP preparers who are not responsive to USFWS input. </p
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