A crise hídrica no Vale do Sambito: uma perspectiva de desenvolvimento socioambiental

The establishment of the European Communities has meant that economic relations between member States have been subjected to specific legal rules embodied in the constituent treaties. It has not meant, however, that legal rules have replaced the interplay of political forces as the standards for conducting these relations. With the British application for membership of the European Communities, the French proposals for organizing closer political cooperation between member States, and the end of the first stage 1 of the transitional period in EEC, it seems useful to pay attention to the relation between legal and political factors in the three Communities. On the following pages we intend to discuss some aspects of this relation, focussing attention on the existence of conflicting or convergent trends in the evolution of law and politics in the Communities. After a brief survey of some characteristics of the law of the treaties and politics in the Communities, we shall inquire into the extent to which the law can serve as an instrument of integration in the evolution of relations between member States.

Spatiotemporal analysis of interactions between seasonal water, climate, land use, policy, and socioeconomic changes: Hulun-Buir Steppe as a Case Study

In against the of community, Miranda Joseph argues that the of [c]ommunity is almost always invoked as an unequivocal good, an indicator of high quality of life, life of understanding, caring, selflessness, belonging.... [It] has connoted cherished ideals of cooperation, equality, and communion (xxxiii). As Joseph also observes, however, the of identity politics of the 1980s and 1990s critiqued the underpinnings of national and other incarnations of community; it lay bare the real racism, sexism, and violence that were simultaneously perpetuated and obscured by affirmative attitudes about various communities and their peculiar manifestations. Yet, as she notes, in spite of the critical trajectory that denounced the enveloping notions of community, a celebratory discourse around it relentlessly returns (viii). In attempting to address the logic of its persistence, she suggests that capitalism is often complicit: Capitalism and, more generally, modernity depend on and generate the of to legitimate social hierarchies. [...] While identity is often named as the bond among members, it is false name in that participants are not identical and many of those to whom an identity is attributed do not participate in activities. I argue that is constituted not by identity but rather through practices of production and consumption. (viii) Such idealization about utopian state of relatedness averts the penetrating gaze that would expose real inequities. More than cursory glance would reveal that communal subjectivity is not necessarily founded in the human caring and understanding that others habitually ascribe to it but, rather, in those practices of consumption. Indebted to Raymond Williams's The Country and the City and his discussions of romantic anti-urbanism, Joseph shows how the romance of community is often determined, even driven, by these nostalgic impulses: that is, the idealization of country life, (dis)located temporally from present moment of discontent and geographically from heavily industrialized city-centre. is thus invoked as model of positive interaction, from which tenuous ethical values are generated and are held in opposition to the economic pursuits generated by modernity. So Joseph asserts: [T]he of positions as the defining other of modernity, of capitalism. This includes Romantic narrative of as prior in time to society, locating as long-lost past for which we yearn nostalgically from our current fallen state of alienation, bureaucratization, rationality. It distinguishes from society spatially, as local, involving face-to-face relations, where capital is global and faceless; is all about boundaries between us and them, boundaries that are naturalized through reference to place or race or culture or identity, while capital would seem to denature, crossing all borders and making everything, everyone, equivalent. (1) Community is thus endowed with sense of nostalgia and alleged to be resistant to, rather than complicit with, capitalism. Conversely, the latter is characterized as destructive entity that disables genuine interaction and undermines identity. The nostalgia for community, which Joseph sees as characteristic of critical thought, also marks some of the literary criticism of Duncan Campbell Scott's In the Village of Viger. Recent criticism determines the book to be an achievement for its sophisticated, complex, and realistic rendering of this small village located in Quebec (see, for example, New 47). The criticism more contemporary to the collection's initial date of publication, however, valued its pastoral elements and regarded the depicted therein as being eroded by the compounded influences of the city, modernity, and industrialization. …

The protective effect of community factors on childhood asthma

Water crisis is considered in international politics as a multifaceted and complex phenomenon. Following events such as industrial development, population growth, climate change, global warming, etc., water and resources have been the focus of strategic debate more than ever before. This is particularly important in areas of water stress and hazardous areas of water scarcity and can be regarded as a serious factor in the relationship between states. Central Asia as one of the crisis-prone areas is no exception. The region is in a complex situation due to multiple historical, political, climatic and economic factors. Hence, tensions over water resources are likely to happen. The main question of this article is: what are the consequences of water crisis within the framework of Central Asian security relations? This research hypothesizes that reaching a consensus about water resources in the Central Asian is difficult, and water scarcity would lead to conflicts in region.

Population growth, even if coupled to economic growth, and resources, were already on a collision course, especially in Africa. The 2019 United Nations World Water Development Report provided a dramatic status of world water, however without questioning the main drivers of an imminent water crisis, that were unbounded, unequal, economic, and population growth, within the context of reducing resources in a finite world. Despite the report was a small step forward in awareness, still, it was not proposing satisfactory remedies. With business-as-usual, without acting on the drivers of water scarcity, regional water crises were inevitable in the next 3 decades, starting from Africa. Constrained by political, financial, and energy burdens, the technological improvements that have helped humanity to deal with the increased demand for water, food, and energy over the last 70 years, were likely not enough to avoid the water crisis. On top of forecast is the Covid19 pandemic. Coronavirus cases are (August 4, 2020) 18,446,065 and fatalities are 697,202 worldwide, and still growing. The containment measures enforced for Covid19 infection following the examples in the United Kingdom have already produced significant damage to the world economy. This will limit social expenditures in general, and the expenditures for the water issue in particular. The water crisis will consequently become worse in the next months, with consequences still difficult to predict. This will be true especially for Africa, where the main problem has always been poverty. There is the opportunity of significant health, food, and water crisis, especially in Africa. While the concepts of washing hands and social distancing that are difficult to apply haven’t produce so far major issues with the Covid19 outbreak in Africa, borders closure, restrictions on movement, and more poverty will translate in a lack of food and water potentially much more worrying than the virus spreading.

Scotland, which has one of the highest death rates in the world from coronary heart disease, also has considerable regional variation in mortality from this cause. The relation between standardised mortality ratios for coronary deaths (1979-83) for 56 local government districts and a range of socioeconomic factors from the 1981 Census as well as climatic factors and water hardness were investigated. Strong associations were seen with several measures of social disadvantage, the strongest being with percentage of male unemployment. A fitted multiple regression model with mortality from coronary heart disease in men found independent effects of two social variables (percentage male unemployment and percentage social class III-V) and one climatic factor (rainfall). The model explained much (73%) of the geographical variation in mortality from coronary heart disease, but part of the geographical pattern, in particular some of the east-west gradient in mortality, remained unexplained by it. Explanations for the geographical variation and the association with economic factors are currently being sought in terms of individual risk factors in a large screening study, the Scottish Heart Health Study.

Decision making in critical situations is a complex process. There are many processes to consider. This paper describes a theoretical approach to researching attentional processes and automatic unconscious processes in terms of metacognition. An application of the approach is presented to explain decision making and metacognition as a solution for ineffective cognitive biases during a crisis situation. Evidence is presented from studies on neuropsychology, cognitive control, and cognitive architectures. An application of the recently formulated semiotic methodology is implemented that allows the design of conceptual models of Attention as Action. The formulation of a general model of attentional processes is based on a set of rules. The crisis phenomenon, as the crisis situation trigger, is semiotically described and applied as insight for a crisis information system design that prompts its users toward self-aware internal decision making. The research conducted evidently shows how the approach can explain the design of several cognitive architectures. Pointing toward metacognition as a solution to a crisis phenomenon and cognitive biases, the paper shows that understanding human cognitive and behavioral processes can significantly improve management in a critical infrastructure crisis situation.

PurposeSubjective social status (SSS) reflects individuals’ perceived position in a social hierarchy. Low SSS is associated with several mental health impairments. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine if unemployed individuals report lower SSS in Germany (national SSS) and lower SSS in their social community (local SSS) than employed individuals. Moreover, the relationship between unemployment, SSS, and mental health was examined.Patients and methods113 unemployed and 1117 employed individuals from a representative German panel provided information on their national and local SSS, their monthly income and their mental health. SSS was assessed with the German version of the MacArthur Scales. Mental health was measured using the mental component scale (MCS) of the SF-12.ResultsUnemployed individuals reported significantly lower national SSS, local SSS and mental health compared to employed participants. Mediational analyses suggest that the negative effect of employment status on mental health was explained via a reduction of national SSS. Local SSS did not mediate the association of employment status and mental health.ConclusionUnemployment is associated with lower SSS and reduced mental health. The perceived position relative to others in the country (ie, national SSS) mediates the association between employment status and mental health.

The growing water crisis in Central Asia and the driving forces behind it

East Asians show high interest in luxury brand goods, and Asia is now the world’s largest target market for luxury brand goods. South Korea is no exception to this luxury fever, and some Koreans even fall into debt to participate. Why are Koreans so attracted to luxury brand goods and their cachet? This paper seeks an explanation for this phenomenon by drawing on the concept of “face” and chemyon (the Korean notion of social face) and the idea of “face consumption.” The author investigates the differences between face and chemyon, as well as the differences in the degree of face consumption through luxury brand goods in British and Korean consumers. This study uses the first two terms distinctly when discussing their salient differences but combines them when they are being used more generically. Even though face is a universal phenomenon, it is an especially important concept in a collectivist culture. British consumers are unlikely to relate face to their social worth, and even the concept of (social) face may be unfamiliar to them. However, Korean consumers deal with face-related issues almost every day because chemyon is pervasive in the Korean culture. Furthermore, the specific characteristics of face differ from one culture to another. While the Western notion of face is oriented towards an independent self, chemyon is more closely linked with social status and position. Thus, Korean consumers show their social status and maintain chemyon by wearing or purchasing luxury brand goods. Among British consumers, however, purchasing luxury brand goods has little to do with preserving face. Face consumption is similar to conspicuous consumption as they both involve luxury brand goods. However, face consumption differs from conspicuous consumption in that not all face consumption is intended to show off and that the possession of luxury brand goods feels necessary to keep up with others in the practice of face consumption. Furthermore, face consumption inhibits the consumption of too many luxury brand goods because the Eastern notion of face emphasizes frugality and modesty. The questionnaire containing the face consumption scale was administered to British and Korean undergraduate students. Luxury brand goods were limited to bags, purses, watches, and shoes because brand logos are sufficiently revealed in these items allowing others to recognize their presence. Questions regarding the number of luxury brand goods possessed and the individual economic status were also included in the questionnaire. Data from 100 Korean and 152 British respondents (252 total) were used for data analysis. Principal component analysis using varimax rotation was conducted to figure out the properties of face consumption. The face consumption scale contained two dimensions: “face consumption in pursuit of distinction and acknowledgement” and “conformity face consumption.” Both factors had high internal consistency as Cronbach’s alpha was .851 and .868. The result of the independent samples t-test indicated that Korean consumers show a higher degree of face consumption in pursuit of distinction and acknowledgment. Korean consumers also exhibited a higher degree of conformity face consumption than British consumers. However, there was no statistically significant difference in morality-conscious face consumption between British and Korean consumers. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to illustrate the effect of face consumption and economic status on the number of luxury brand goods one possesses. Conformity face consumption has a significant effect on the number of luxury brand goods for both British and Korean consumers. However, economic status has a significant effect on the number of luxury brand goods for British consumers only. Whereas Koreans purchase luxury brand goods regardless of their economic status, British consumers seem to consider their economic status when purchasing luxury brand goods. This result is consistent with the suggestion that people who cannot afford luxury brand goods purchase them to gain social acknowledgement in Korea. It also explains why regardless of their social and economic status, Koreans show a higher interest in luxury brand goods than British consumers. Based on the research findings, it can be suggested that noticeable brand logos will increase the sales of luxury brand goods in Korean market. In addition, launching or promoting the second line of the luxury brand will further increase sales because the second line greatly appeals to Korean consumers who cannot afford to buy the first line brand yet still aspire to gain social acknowledgement by possessing luxury brand goods.

Oil tea Camellia, as a major cash and oil crop, has a high status in the forestry cultivation systems in China. To meet the current market demand for oil tea Camellia, its potential distribution and suitable soil condition was researched, to instruct its cultivation and popularization. The potential distribution of oil tea Camellia in China was predicted by the maximum entropy model, using global environmental and soil databases. Then, we collected 10-year literature data about oil tea Camellia soil and applied multiple imputation and factor modeling for an in-depth analysis of soil suitability for growing of oil tea Camellia. The prediction indicated that oil tea Camellia was mainly distributed in Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Hainan, East Hubei, Southwest Anhui and most of Guangdong. Climatic factors were more influential than soil factors. The minimum temperature of the coldest month, mean temperature of the coldest quarter and annual precipitation were the most significant contributors to the habitat suitability distribution. In the cultivated area of oil tea Camellia, soil fertility was poor, organic matter was the most significant factor for the soil conditions. Based on climatic and soil factor analyses, our data suggest there is a great potential to spread the oil tea Camellia cultivation industry.

In this neoliberal moment, love is seen as apolitical and unrealistic. Love is often used in confusing and sloppy ways, which leads to a disbelief in love itself. Some simply interpret love as fantasy. As discussed in chapter 2, because love is seen as a commodity that benefits one’s bottom line (one’s own interests, social status, financial agenda, etc.), love remains suspect and undesired within personal and social dimensions of life. Some simply “write off love,” arguing that it does not exist. Love is seen as impossible within personal relationships and broader political life. This cynicism of love within social and political communities is a tragedy. In part, love is often relegated to the idealistic because it is understood in abstract terms rather than as a practice. Love is a concrete revolutionary practice that integrates the ways in which eros enables an “enfleshment” of agape and even philia.

Evidence indicated that socio-environmental factors were associated with occurrence of Japanese encephalitis (JE). This study explored the association of climate and socioeconomic factors with JE (2006–2014) in Shaanxi, China. JE data at the county level in Shaanxi were supplied by Shaanxi Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Population and socioeconomic data were obtained from the China Population Census in 2010 and statistical yearbooks. Meteorological data were acquired from the China Meteorological Administration. A Bayesian conditional autoregressive model was used to examine the association of meteorological and socioeconomic factors with JE. A total of 1197 JE cases were included in this study. Urbanization rate was inversely associated with JE incidence during the whole study period. Meteorological variables were significantly associated with JE incidence between 2012 and 2014. The excessive precipitation at lag of 1–2 months in the north of Shaanxi in June 2013 had an impact on the increase of local JE incidence. The spatial residual variations indicated that the whole study area had more stable risk (0.80–1.19 across all the counties) between 2012 and 2014 than earlier years. Public health interventions need to be implemented to reduce JE incidence, especially in rural areas and after extreme weather.

To review the scientific evidence about the impact of climate change and socio-environmental factors on dengue transmission, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. Search of the published literature on PubMed, ISI web of Knowledge and Google Scholar. Articles were included if an association between climate or socio-environmental factors and dengue transmission was assessed in any country of the Asia-Pacific region. Twenty-two studies met the inclusion criteria. The weight of the evidence indicates that global climate change is likely to affect the seasonal and geographical distribution of dengue fever (DF) in the Asia-Pacific region. However, empirical evidence linking DF to climate change is inconsistent across geographical locations and absent in some countries where dengue is endemic. Even though climate change may play an increasing role in the transmission of DF, no clear evidence shows that such impact has already occurred. More research is needed across countries to better understand the relationship between climate change and dengue transmission. Future research should also consider and adjust for the influence of important socio-environmental factors in the assessment of the climate change-related effects on dengue transmission.