Dissemination Area Research Articles

Scientific evidence for the control of antimicrobial resistance.

[Extract]. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the greatest global threats to human health. It is estimated that by 2050, AMR will lead to approximately 10 million annual deaths worldwide. Considering the impact of AMR on reproductive capacity and food production, in addition to its direct effect on infected people, the world's population could drop by between 11 and 444 million inhabitants by 2050 if AMR control is not achieved. As migrations and shared economies lead to the transmission of resistant bacteria across borders, the impacts of AMR become regionally significant. In the United States, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus caused 10 600 deaths in 2017. In Latin American and Caribbean countries, information is available from studies conducted in hospitals and other health facilities on the prevalence of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens. In many hospitals in Mexico, Peru, and Colombia, for example, resistance to third-generation cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones in Escherichia coli isolates is reaching almost 60%. Moreover, the dynamics of colonization and infection of multidrug-resistant organisms (such as carbapenemaseproducing Klebsiella pneumoniae) are unique in endemic areas of Latin America, favoring spread and dissemination. [...]

Trajetória e corporalidade da produção científica sobre Bibliografia: um estudo preliminar a partir do Portal de Periódicos Capes (1960-2019)

Objetivo: mapear a produção científica sobre Bibliografia no Portal de Periódicos da Capes, desde o ano de 1960 a 2019, buscando-se refletir sobre os direcionamentos de pesquisa que essa disciplina vem recebendo em seu arcabouço teórico. Método: a pesquisa foi efetuada junto ao portal de periódicos da Capes, nos dias 09 e 10 de outubro de 2019, mediante unicamente a seleção de publicações (artigos) relacionadas à temática “Bibliografia”. As buscas foram editadas e personalizadas a partir do item “Buscar Assunto”, optando-se pelo refinamento no item “Busca Avançada”. O preenchimento dos campos foi limitado aos fins da investigação, utilizando-se termos específicos e operadores booleanos. Foram determinados os períodos entre 1º de janeiro de 1960 a 10 de outubro de 2019 para as buscas. A investigação apresenta abordagem qualitativa e trata-se de um estudo exploratório e descritivo executado também por meio de revisão da literatura concernente à área. Resultado: levantou-se que as publicações sobre Bibliografia dentro de um determinado período direcionam-se mais para sua funcionalidade como ferramenta de mapeamento e representação dos saberes e do conhecimento para outras áreas, ou seja, sua aplicação como produto e atividade. No entanto, a partir das duas últimas décadas, pelo menos no que se refere às publicações científicas em forma de artigos de periódicos, já se percebeu um maior aprofundamento da sua esfera como campo disciplinar científico, bem como por suas interfaces teóricas. Conclusões: este estudo limitou-se à investigação dos artigos científicos publicados nos últimos 59 anos. Nesse sentido, entende-se e sugere-se o desenvolvimento de trabalhos que tratem das publicações em diferentes formatos como de livros, bases de repertórios ou repositórios, eventos científicos, entre outras áreas de disseminação científicas e em variados períodos temporais e/ou recortes disciplinares, para preenchimento das lacunas investigativas ainda existentes. Iniciativas que fortaleceriam ainda mais o arcabouço científico da Bibliografia.

Active living environments, physical activity and premature cardiometabolic mortality in Canada: a nationwide cohort study

ObjectiveTo evaluate sex-specific and age-specific associations of active living environments (ALEs) with premature cardiometabolic mortality.DesignPopulation-based retrospective cohort study.SettingResidential neighbourhoods (1000-metre circular buffers from the centroids of dissemination areas) across Canada...

Diet Quality and Neighborhood Environment in the Atlantic Partnership for Tomorrow's Health Project.

An understanding of relationships between different constructs of the neighbourhood environment and diet quality is needed to inform public health interventions. This study investigated associations between material deprivation, social deprivation and population density with diet quality in a cohort of 19,973 Canadian adults aged 35 to 69 years within the Atlantic PATH cohort study. Diet quality, a metric of how well diet conforms to recommendations was determined from a 24-item food frequency questionnaire. Neighbourhood environment data were derived from dissemination area level Census data. Two deprivation indices were evaluated: material and social deprivation, which reflect access to goods and amenities and social relationships. Multi-level models were used to estimate relationships (mean differences and 95% CI) between neighbourhood environment and diet quality, adjusting for covariates. Mean diet quality was lower in the most socially deprived neighbourhoods compared to the least socially deprived: −0.56, 95% CI (−0.88, −0.25). Relationships between diet quality and population density differed between urban and rural areas (p-interaction < 0.0001). In rural areas, diet quality was higher in intermediate-density neighbourhoods: 0.54, 95% CI (0.05, 1.03). In urban areas, diet quality was lower in intermediate-density and the most-dense neighbourhoods: −0.84, 95% CI (−1.28, −0.40) and −0.72, 95% CI (−1.20, −0.25). Our findings suggest socially deprived and high-density neighbourhoods are associated with lower diet quality and possible urban-rural differences in neighbourhood environment-diet quality relationships. Additional studies are needed to determine the temporal nature of relationships and whether differences in diet quality are meaningful.

Social Resilience to Flooding in Vancouver: The Issue of Scale

ABSTRACT Socioeconomic characteristics are commonly used as indicators of vulnerability and resilience to inform disaster risk planning and management. Vancouver is a coastal seaport city along the west coast of Canada and is exposed to risk from the impacts of flooding. Previous studies have assessed and modelled a city's resilience to environmental hazards based on socioeconomic status derived from census data, such as income status, family structure, and dwelling conditions. However, these data sources are aggregated into different census units of varying scale, such as Census Tracts (CT) and Dissemination Areas (DA). Spatial analysis of the same data using different aggregation units manifests in the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP), where varying scale can produce different results and conclusions. This exploratory analysis of the MAUP demonstrates that social resilience to flooding hazards in Vancouver at the CT and DA census scales can have contradictory results depending on the census scale adopted. The effect of scale and the aggregation units at which spatial analysis occurs can have a significant impact on the conclusions imparted and decision making to identify priority areas. Since individual-level disaggregate data is unavailable, the analytical results based solely on aggregate data should be interpreted with caution.

Access to transit? Validating local transit accessibility measures using transit ridership

Abstract Local transit accessibility measures are important tools used by planners to understand the effects of changes to public transit systems. Several local transit accessibility measures exist in the literature, however, it is not clear how these measures relate to public transit usage. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate several transit accessibility measures that are commonly used in the literature by examining their associations with ridership levels at the dissemination area level. The assessed transit accessibility measures ranged from a basic stop count, to gravity-based measures which use distance decay functions from a local household survey, and Walkscore.com’s Transit Score. Using several land use and transit service datasets, including data collected from the fare box systems onboard the Saskatoon Transit buses, three types of models were tested. These models include ordinary least square models (OLS), spatial lag models (SLM), and spatial error models (SEM). The results from the models suggest that we can more closely predict actual public transit ridership when including a gravity-based accessibility measure in the model, while controlling for several household socioeconomic factors and built environment characteristics. In all cases, the measure that best fit the variation in ridership was the filtered frequency accessibility measure calculated using a 400 m network buffer and a Butterworth filter with a distance decay bandpass value of 250 m. This study offers transit planners and practitioners a better understanding of the performance of different transit local accessibility measures in relationship to actual transit ridership.

Material deprivation and rates of all-terrain vehicle- and snowmobile-related injuries in Ontario from 2003 to 2018: a population-based study

ObjectivesSocio-economic status (SES) is a well-established predictor of health outcomes; however, there is a dearth of evidence on the relationship between SES and off-road vehicle (ORV) injuries. In Ontario, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and snowmobiles present a serious risk for preventable injury. This study assessed the association between area-level material deprivation and the risk of ATV- and snowmobile-related injuries in Ontario, as well as the impact of sex and age.MethodsA population-based, repeat cross-sectional study was conducted using administrative data of ATV- and snowmobile-related emergency room visits from 2003 to 2018. Material deprivation was measured using the Ontario Marginalization Index, which assigned a score and quintile of deprivation to each dissemination area in Ontario. Age-standardized incidence rates and relative index of inequality values were calculated, stratified by quintile of deprivation, sex, age group, vehicle type, and health region.ResultsWe found a significant, positive relationship between ORV-related injuries and quintile of material deprivation (RII = 1.28, 95% CI: 1.01–1.63). Rates of ATV- and snowmobile-related injuries remained stable over time. Across all age groups, sex, and rural categories, we found an inverse u-shaped relationship between rates of injuries and quintile material deprivation. Males, individuals living in rural areas, and adolescents and young adults experienced the highest rates of injuries.ConclusionDespite the positive relationship between ORV-related injuries and quintiles of deprivation, the inverse u-shaped relationship suggests that this increased risk of injury is likely related to exposure to ORVs. These results contribute to an understanding of the prevalence of the injury problem at a local level in Ontario. Stable rates of injury over time suggest that current public health programs are not sufficient in reducing these injuries, and further research should determine which factors amenable to intervention are contributing to increased risk of injury.

OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit

The OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit is a brand new free resource for researchers, created through a collaborative writing process by global and diverse members of the academic community and scholarly communications organisations. &#x0D; The toolkit aims to help authors better understand open access (OA) for books, to increase trust in OA book publishing, to provide reliable and easy-to-find answers to questions from authors, and to provide guidance in the process of publishing an OA book. The toolkit was developed in a series of workshops for authors, hosted by the university libraries at Oxford, Glasgow and Utrecht, in collaboration with Springer Nature and OAPEN.&#x0D; The idea for this toolkit came about in a Researcher to Reader workshop where discussions concluded that a trusted single resource was needed to tackle the lack of awareness and understanding amongst authors about OA book publishing, and common misconceptions about licensing and quality which form important barriers in the transition to OA books.&#x0D; This poster describes the content and layout of the toolkit, and the journey in developing it. We want the academic community to get involved by spreading the word about this toolkit and providing feedback for further development. &#x0D; The OAPEN Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that works with publishers to build a quality-controlled collection of open access books through the OAPEN Library and the Directory of Open Access Books, and provides services for publishers, libraries and research funders in the areas of deposit, quality assurance, dissemination, and digital preservation.

Disaggregating Ecosystem Benefits: An Integrated Environmental-Deprivation Index

The valuation of ecosystem services has become an integral part of smart urban planning practices. Traditionally designed to bridge ecology and economy through economic language and logic (e.g., goods and services), this conceptual framework has developed into an effective tool for interdisciplinary work. The concept of ecosystem services is used to improve the management of ecosystems for human well-being. However, gaps in how to govern ecological benefits remain. Specifically, identifying which stakeholders benefit the most from the provision of ecosystem services remains largely unaddressed. This study examines the spatial discordance between ecosystem services and the residential stakeholders who may benefit. Using a landscape approach to quantify urban ecosystem services, an area-based composite index was developed for the City of Toronto, Canada, based on the three pillars of sustainability in order to identify potentially vulnerable populations. This method combines the use of principal component analysis (PCA) and spatial multicriteria decision analysis (GIS-MCDA) to combine and weight a select grouping of socioeconomic and ecological indicators. In addition, two sets of enumeration units (i.e., dissemination areas and census tracts) were evaluated to assess the potential impact of measurement scale on subsequent decision or policy outcomes. Results indicate the spatial interdependencies between ecological and socioeconomic processes in an urban setting, offering a unique framework for novel planning and policy intervention strategies. The influence of measurement scale was demonstrated, creating an opportunity to assess an appropriate policy scale by which to measure and evaluate trends over time and space. This approach seeks to provide a flexible and intuitive planning tool that can help to achieve goals relating to urban sustainability, resiliency and equity.

Spatial distribution of gambling: two indexes in support of the reduction of health inequalities

Abstract Background Many studies have showed that disadvantaged areas residents have greater access to gambling sites and are more affected by gambling. Our research proposes an innovative method to characterize gambling environments in Quebec and addresses social inequality with respect to gambling exposure. Methods This cross-sectional ecological study was carried out in 3 stages: a Gambling Exposure Index (GEI) was built and is composed of 3 dimensions: spatial accessibility to gambling sites, density of gambling places, and relative risk associated with the types of game. The two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method was used to combine these dimensions into an overall GEI index. Data was retrieved from a geocoded directory of gambling sites and commercial databases. The relative risk of games is expressed by prevalence rates for those specific games in a Quebec population prevalence survey. A Vulnerability to Gambling Index (VGI) was produced based on 6 socio-economic proxies of problem gambling from the 2016 Canadian census, which were weighted and aggregated at the dissemination area (DA) level. Spatial and descriptive statistical analyses were conducted to explore the relationship between VGI and GEI, and to identify highly exposed and vulnerable areas. Results Our analyzes reveal significant associations between the GEI and the VGI in 2 599 out of 13 420 Quebec DAs (p &amp;lt; 0.05). Sectors with a high GEI show an average distance to the closest gambling sites of 2.8 km compared with 13.5 km for more advantaged sectors. Conclusions The interactive online mapping of the two indexes and statistical analysis of the results are beneficial to the professionals working in several fields such as risk monitoring, management of zoning, licensing and gambling distribution, prevention and treatment services. The method and the associated tools can be adapted to address the problem of increased accessibility to other unhealthy products in vulnerable neighborhoods. Key messages Two innovative ecological indexes show that increased accessibility to gambling correlates with a higher vulnerability to gambling in many Quebec regions. The online interactive map on gambling exposure and vulnerability provides reliable criteria to municipal, regional and governmental bodies for a safer distribution of gambling offer.

The urban greenness score: A satellite-based metric for multi-decadal characterization of urban land dynamics

Canada’s urban areas have experienced extensive growth over the past quarter century; however, there has been no consistent, spatially explicit approach for quantifying the loss and gain of greenness in cities nationally. Herein, we developed a novel urban greenness score metric using greenness fractions from a multi-decadal time series (1984–2016) of spectrally unmixed annual Landsat satellite image composites to characterize final year (2016) greenness and its overall change for 18 major Canadian urban areas, summarized by census dissemination area (DA). The applied validation procedure confirmed correlation coefficients (ρ) ranging from 0.67 – 0.85 between reference and estimated greenness fractions, indicating that spectral unmixing is an appropriate method for extracting urban greenness from a time series of medium spatial resolution satellite imagery. Most DAs across Canada sustained a moderate (∼20 % – 40 %) or low (≲ 20 %) level of greenness between 1984 and 2016, but overall there was a decreasing trend in greenness. Eastern urban areas maintained the most greenness over time, while urban areas in the Prairies had the greatest increase in greenness. Densely populated urban areas experienced the greatest loss in greenness (16 % of DAs); whereas, urban areas with a moderately-low density experienced the greatest increase (14 % of DAs). In agreement with previous studies, we found that greenness was negatively associated with urban infilling, with lower greenness levels typically found in urban cores, and greenness loss most often found in the urban periphery in conjunction with urban expansion. Methods presented in this analysis take advantage of the open and longstanding Landsat archive, as well as multiple spatial scales, including sub-pixel unmixing techniques, pixel level greenness faction data summarized for management units, and analysis conducted nationally. The developed urban greenness score provides a comprehensive framework to understand current urban greenness and relate it to its recent past, which supports long-term strategic planning, and can be transferred to other regions across spatial and temporal scales.

Spatial distribution of gambling exposure and vulnerability: an ecological tool to support health inequality reduction

ObjectivesRecent research by Public Health has redefined harmful gambling, shifting the focus from problematic people with irresponsible behaviour to ‘gamblogenic’ environments. The aim of this research was to support this alternative perspective with concrete ecological tools for characterizing harmful environments. Studies that analyse the spatial distribution of gambling show that people living in the most disadvantaged areas have greater access to gambling and are more affected by the harms of gambling. Despite their quality methodology and usefulness, the scope of geographic access measures has been partially limited. These measures have been mostly structured around a single form of gambling, focus on only one dimension of accessibility (density or proximity) and few of them take into account the risks associated with each type of the game.The main goal of our research was to propose an innovative method to characterize gambling environments in Quebec and address social inequality with respect to gambling exposure. This article more specifically describes the method we used to address the aforementioned shortcomings by developing the gambling exposure index (GEI), a more comprehensive ecological index of all games—weighted by their relative level of risk—to which populations are exposed. Study designThe study design is a cross-sectional ecological study. MethodsThe methodological approach was carried out in three stages. A GEI was operationalized and is composed of three dimensions: A dimension of spatial accessibility to gambling sites, a dimension of density of gambling places and a dimension of relative risk associated with different types of game. The two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method was used to combine these three dimensions into an overall GEI index. Data were retrieved from a geocoded directory of all gambling sites from Loto-Québec and other commercial databases. The relative risk of each type of game has been expressed by prevalence rates for those specific games in a Quebec population prevalence survey. A vulnerability to gambling index (VGI) was produced based on 6 socio-economic proxies of problem gambling from the 2016 Canadian census. The six variables were weighted and aggregated at the dissemination area (DA) level. Spatial and descriptive statistical analyses were conducted to explore the relationship between VGI and GEI and to identify areas that are highly vulnerable and have a high gambling exposure. ResultsThe findings of our analysis reveal widespread geographic exposure to gambling and a significant positive linear relationship between the GEI and the VGI. In many areas, increased accessibility to gambling is significantly associated with a higher vulnerability to gambling. Our findings demonstrate that in 1328 DAs in Quebec, there is a particularly unequal and potentially harmful geographical distribution of gambling, exposing 9% of the population which are theoretically vulnerable to gambling to an increased presence of gambling. ConclusionThis research applied a spatial analytical approach to assess the association between environments, gambling and vulnerability. The GEI and VGI at the DA level can serve as a monitoring tool for policy-makers regarding gambling exposure in the most vulnerable sectors and contribute to prevention and intervention strategies better adapted to the population. The general findings raise the ethical implications of increased marketing development in vulnerable neighbourhoods. As the GEI takes into account both the environmental determinants and the relative risk of games, it is in contributing to the shift in public and scientific discourse, redefining the subject from problematic people to problematic games and environments.

Accuracy of matching residential postal codes to census geography.

Postal codes are often the only geographic identifier available to match subjects in a health dataset to census geography. This paper describes the characteristics of postal codes reported by the Canadian population on the census and, as an indicator of geocoding accuracy, the proportion that are linked to a single dissemination area (DA). Postal codes reported on the 2016 Census questionnaire were matched to a combination of the Postal Code Conversion File (PCCF) and the Postal Code Conversion File Plus (PCCF+ version 7B) (reference date November 2018) to calculate population-weighted counts and the number of matches to DAs by province or territory, delivery mode type (DMT), population centre or rural area size, and census metropolitan area. The number of single matches to census tracts (CTs), census subdivisions (CSDs) and census divisions (CDs) was also calculated. In Canada, 72.6% of the population reported postal codes that matched to a single DA. This proportion was higher in urban cores (87.1%) and among postal codes for an urban street address (DMT=A) (85.3%) or apartment building (DMT=B) (95.3%), and was lower in rural areas (26.2% to 38.1%) and among rural postal codes (13.9%). In comparison, 89.3% and 95.4% of the population reported postal codes matching to a single CSD or CD, respectively, while 92.1% of the population that live within CT boundaries were matched to a single CT. Matching postal codes to census geography is relatively accurate and frequently one to one in urban centres. In rural areas and for some types of postal code DMTs, alternative approaches to using the PCCF and PCCF+ for attaching census geography might be explored.

A Bayesian shared components modeling approach to develop small area indicators of social determinants of health with measures of uncertainty.

Existing Canadian social determinants of health (SDOH) indicators do not quantify uncertainty to identify priority areas. The objectives of this methodologic study were: (1) to estimate and map small area (dissemination area) shared and variable-specific SDOH indicators with measures of uncertainty using a Bayesian model that accounts for spatial dependence; (2) to quantify geographic variation in the SDOH indicators and their contribution to a shared indicator; and (3) to assess the SDOH indicators' associations with behavioural risk factors and their consistency with the Ontario Marginalization Index (ON-Marg). Lower education-, income-, unemployment-, living alone- and visible minority-related variables used in existing Canadian SDOH indices were fit as dependent variables to a Bayesian model to produce area-based SDOH indicators that were mapped with measures of uncertainty in two study areas. The fractions of spatial variation explained by the model components were computed. Bayesian analysis of variance was used to examine the SDOH indicator associations with behavioural risk factors and their consistency with ON-Marg examined using Pearson's correlation coefficient. The shared component was strongly associated with material deprivation (i.e., income) in each study area; however, variable-specific SDOH indicators were important too. The SDOH indicators were associated with behavioural risk factors for chronic disease, particularly alcohol consumption and smoking, and the shared component estimates were consistent with the ON-Marg material deprivation. The Bayesian approach to produce SDOH indicators met the three study objectives and as such provides a new approach to prioritize areas that may experience health inequalities.

Pendampingan Ustaż dan Tuan Guru Pesantren Melalui Penguatan Nilai-nilai Multikultural Untuk Mencegah Radikalisme Islam Berbasis Pesantren di Kota Bima

Bima city has been called “Red Zone” area for radicalism dissemination. Prior reasearch indicated that the Islamic radicalism in Bima appeared from Islamic institution such as pesantren. This community service aimed at preventing Islamic radicalism in pesantren by sharing, educating and giving reinforcement of multicultural values to ustaż and Tuan Guru Pesantren (TGP). Community-Based Research (CBR) approach was employed because ustaż and TGP are the prior of pesantren’s community who can developed and transfer their understanding and religious perception to the students (santri). The results showed that ustaż and TGP had been more inclusive in their religion understanding, they transformed multicultural values to their student and all of pesantren’s community until this preventive step can prohibit the Islamic radicalism. They were also willing to involve the community service team in composing pesantren’s learning program. The team also give monthly visit for sharing idea about multicultural values.&#x0D;

Cell Towers and the Ambient Population: a Spatial Analysis of Disaggregated Property Crime

As a crime rate denominator, the ambient population has seen very limited use in a multivariate context. The current study employs a new measure of this population, constructed using cell tower location data from OpenCellID, to compare residential and ambient population-based crime rates. The chosen study area is Vancouver, BC, but the conclusions generalize to other administrations and the OpenCellID data have global coverage so the implications are applicable elsewhere. Five disaggregated property crime types are examined at the dissemination area level. Findings demonstrate striking differences in the spatial patterns of crime rates constructed using these two different measures of the population at risk. Multivariate results from spatial error models also highlight the substantial impact that the use of a theoretically informed crime rate denominator can have on pseudo R2 values, variable retention, and trends in significant relationships. Implications for theory testing and policy are discussed. In particular, the results suggest that policies designed around residential-based crime rates risk having no effect, or even of increasing crime.

Validation of non-electric chick brooding system in different areas of Bangladesh- A new device for rural poultry farmers

The experiment was conducted to validate an alternative chick brooding device developed for rural poultry farmers in 3 Technology Dissemination Area (TDA) of Poultry Technology Development and Dissemination Project (PTDDP) during winter. The device is a locally designed drum type non-electric chick brooder. A total of 8 poultry farmers in two groups (500 and 1000 chicks) used the specially designed brooder of different sizes. The size of the drum (Height, H- 40.64 × Diameter, D- 45.72) and (H-40.64 × D- 60.96) cm found suitable for 500 and 1000 chicks respectively. The diameter of the hover should double of diameter of the drum with 15 cm long down ward lid around the hover and two bottom outlets for each drum. Manufacturing cost and brooding cost were TK. 2250 and TK. 900 for 500 chicks and TK. 1750 and Tk.1350 for 1000 chicks respectively. The drum designed for 500 and 1000 chicks required 25 kg and 35 kg of saw dust in one time filling that could produce heat for 14 and 22 hours, respectively. Better growth performance as well as profitability was found in non-electric chick brooding groups than the brooding with electricity and diesel burner (locally known as Hericane). It may be concluded that the newly developed non electric chick brooding device could be suitable as an alternative chick brooding system for rural poultry farmers, especially in the areas where there is no electricity supply.&#x0D; Bangladesh J. of Livestock Res. 21-25: 178-182, 2018

Cartografia tátil: meio de inclusão

RESUMO: A cartografia tátil é um ramo da cartografia que visa à produção de mapas, maquetes, cartas topográficas e outros materiais para pessoas com deficiências visuais, (tanto os cegos quanto os de baixa visão). Nesse sentido, este trabalho tem por objetivo contribuir para as discussões sobre o uso da cartografia tátil em sala de aula, contribuir na ampliação do público de aplicação desse método, e em consonância expandir a área de divulgação deste método. A pesquisa de caráter qualitativo foi realizada mediante a revisão de literatura. Destarte, foi-se possível observar como o objeto tátil pode ser crucial para o aprendizado dos alunos tanto os sem quanto os com deficiência, sendo esta visual ou não.&#x0D; PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Aprendizado, Mapas, Alunos com deficiências visuais.

Using Social Media to Campaign: Are Ghanaian Political Parties Getting It Right

It is an undeniable fact that in recent years internet usage has increased in the area of information dissemination in Ghana. Indeed, when the roll call is made Ghana would not be found wanting on the league of African countries with internet penetration and social media usage. According to Ramamohanarao et al, (2007), interment usage has become one of the easiest tools for seeking information and the fastest for that matter in communicating with friends and loved ones. Due to the comparative advantage, social media has over traditional media, it has become a means by which many are using it to reach their targeted audience at the shortest possible time. The study investigates how some selected supporters of the two major political parties in Ghana, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) use social media platforms to campaign for and to woo potential voters for their respective parties. The study was undertaken as desk research and the research relied on secondary sources with particular reference to posts of some supporters of the two leading parties in Ghana, who have all in the last two to three decades have had the opportunity of ruling in the country ever since the country returned to democratic rule. The results revealed that indeed supporters of the two major political parties through social media with particular reference to Facebook use the internet to both propagate the ideologies and philosophies of their political parties, making social media a vital platform for campaigning and also allowing the Ghanaian populace to participate in political activities.

Ґендерна політика НАТО: історичний аспект і досвід інтеграції

Метою статті є окреслення основних засад і шляхів формування ґендерної політики Північноатлантичного альянсу та розкриття напрямів і результатів інтеграції Збройних Сил України до вимог НАТО стосовно дотримання принципу ґендерної рівності у війську.Авторами зазначено, що ґендерна рівність в арміях країн – членів НАТО означає рівні права та рівні обов’язки військовослужбовців незалежно від статі. Для жінок і чоловіків мають бути створені рівні умови проходження військової служби і поставлені рівні вимоги, вони мають нести рівну відповідальність за власні дії або бездіяльність та їх наслідки. Підкреслено, що ґендерна політика НАТО поширюється не лише на країни – члени НАТО, а й на країни-партнери, одним з яких є Україна. З огляду на це зазначено, що протягом тривалого часу Збройні Сили України вже включені у сферу інтересів і поширення ґендерної політики Північноатлантичного альянсу.Політику щодо впровадження принципу ґендерної рівності НАТО реалізує шляхом виконання Резолюцій Ради Безпеки ООН щодо жінок, миру та безпеки. Ці Резолюції (1325, 1820, 1888, 1889, 1960, 2106, 2122, 2422, 2467, 2493) визнають непропорційний вплив військових конфліктів на чоловіків та жінок, хлопців і дівчат та закликають до повної і рівноправної участі жінок на всіх рівнях запобігання конфліктам, а також до захисту від сексуального насильства.Реалізація ґендерної політики НАТО охоплює збір та аналіз інформації про особливості забезпечення принципу ґендерної рівності у збройних силах країн-членів НАТО та країнах-партнерах. Крім того, Міжнародний офіс військового штабу радника з ґендерних питань (IMS GENAD) забезпечує належну координацію з командними структурами НАТО та штаб-квартирою НАТО, сприяє діалогу з країнами-партнерами щодо відповідних ґендерних питань та встановлює зв'язки з міжнародними організаціями та агенціями, що здійснюють інтеграцією ґендерної перспективи у військову сферу.Значну увагу на шляху до реалізації ґендерної політики Північноатлантичний альянс приділяє питанню впровадження ґендерної освіти в країнах-членах НАТО та країнах-партнерах та формуванню у цивільних та військових співробітників НАТО відповідних ґендерних компетенцій.У центрі ґендерної політики НАТО міститься поняття «ґендерна інтеграція», що визначається як стратегія досягнення ґендерної рівності у збройних силах через активізацію залучення жінок та чоловіків до ефективного виконання завдань за призначенням на всіх рівнях, з метою врахування інтересів та досвіду обох статей.Саме критерій ефективності є визначальним вектором формування ґендерної політики НАТО.