National Development Project Research Articles

Globalisation and resistance in post-cold war Mexico: Difference, citizenship and biodiversity conflicts in Chiapas

In the post-cold war era changes at the global, regional, national and local level are altering earlier ways of understanding and practising citizenship. In Mexico the decline of the state-guided national development project (1930s-70s) has been accompanied by the transformation of corporatist forms of political control. This article uses examples of recent biodiversity conflicts in the state of Chiapas to illustrate this process in terms of a struggle between competing models of 'market citizenship' and 'pluri-ethnic citizenship'. By focusing on the actions and demands of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation and other indigenous organisations, the article highlights how resistance to globalisation in the Lacandon rainforest of Chiapas is related to struggles for collective rights and a more inclusive form of democracy in Mexico. This also raises important questions regarding the future shape of national identities and the scope of democratic rights around the world in the post-cold war era.

Communism to Capitalism in Mongolia: International Trade in the First Seven Years

This paper examines how economic reforms in Mongolia have impacted on international trade for that country. It tracks trade development since the 1991 open market economy decision and provides an outlook for 1997. It captures most of the events, moods and important reform legislation that is trade development related. It looks at trade indicators in conjunction with key economic indicators to endeavour to provide conclusions as to logical future directions of policies. The article is influenced in part by the writer's views after involvement in a United Nations Development Project on business education in Mongolia over a four year period.

Where Do You Stand with Service Users?

This contribution to Critical Forum comes from Shaping Our Lives, a UK national user-controlled development project and network which has also established a National User Group to develop thinking on service provision and outcomes from a user perspective. Set up in 1996 with initial funding from the Department of Health, it is now supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Its aim is to involve user organizations and service users across user groups, including people with physical and sensory impairments, older people, people with learning difficulties, people living with HIV/AIDS and mental health service users and survivors. Shaping Our Lives has also sought to address other forms of difference, according to race, gender, disability and sexuality. At the same time, while Shaping Our Lives and its National User Group seek to reflect the diversity and viewpoints of service users, neither makes any claim to represent them. Shaping Our Lives currently manages two other national user-led projects. The first of these is Our Voice in Our Future, which supports social care service users in order that they may have a voice in welfare reform locally and nationally. The second initiative supports user involvement in the General Social Care Council and other new social care bodies established by the government to set and regulate standards in care. Shaping Our Lives is actively committed to placing service users at the centre of the government’s Quality Strategy for Social Care, to full access to employment by social care service users, to enforceable civil rights to end the barriers posed by inappropriate housing and public transport and to the achievement of flexible support services that are led by users and their needs.

Multilateral agencies and higher education reform in Latin America

During the last decade, the debate over higher education took up a significant space on the agendas of various international agencies, including multilateral development banks and other intergovernmental agencies. This fact points to the importance of the subject within a broader discussion that refers to national development projects and their articulation within the new international economic and political order. In this context, the purpose of this article is to discern the principal lines of argument at work and their implications for the transformation of higher education in Latin America. To this end, we have chosen four cases that we consider relevant for the region: The United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Bank, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLA) and the Interamerican Development Bank (IADB). In the first part of the text we characterize the particularities of each of these organizations, highlighting their relation with the processes of educational change. In the second, we approach the subject of the recommendations made by the multilateral agencies on change in the higher education systems in the world and, particularly, in the Latin American region.

Assessing a new direction for fusion

The principal application proposed for fusion for the past 40 years has been the central station, electrical power generation plant. However, the sizable increases that were forecast for future electrical power demands have not been realized to date. Only coal power plants have been increasing (3%/year) generating capacity (Annual Energy Outlook, 1998) [1]. Likewise, the ability of fusion to deliver economical electrical power has not been credibly postulated, much less demonstrated. Together these two factors have stagnated the commercialization of fusion power. It is now time for a reassessment of what fusion can best do for the world. Fusion, with a practically inexhaustible energy supply, has many unique properties that enable a wide variety of useful products. A study by the ARIES team is underway to review possible fusion applications and assess those with the potential to provide useful and worthwhile new products. A roadmap of possible applications has been developed to assess the utilization of the unique properties of the fusion process. The potential product categories are energy production (fuel, electricity, heat), space propulsion, altered or transmuted material properties (transmutation, waste treatment, tritium production), chemical compound dissociation (waste treatment, ore reduction, refining), and direct use of fusion nuclear products (radiography, lithography, radiotherapy, activation analyses). An evaluation methodology based on the success and failure of previous large, national and international technology development projects was developed to assess and recommend encouraging fusion product applications. A list of significant attributes was defined to describe and characterize projects that are likely to succeed or fail in the global marketplace. These attributes were assigned weights according to their perceived value to the national or global enterprise. An additive utility theory methodology was used to qualitatively evaluate the proposed applications in terms of market potential, environmental considerations, economic impact, risk and public perception. Quantified values were assigned to each potential fusion application and market to make more intelligent decisions on the allocation of future resources. Incorporating some of the long term market trends suggested in the December 1997 Kyoto Climate Change Conference, the most favored fusion applications were found to be the production of hydrogen fuels, transmutation of nuclear wastes and dissociation of chemical compounds, all slightly ahead of electricity production. The results from this decision analysis process will help balance the benefits of success against the risks of failure to help select promising products for future study.

The role of qualitative methods in a national research and development project in midwifery education

The role of qualitative methods in a national research and development project in midwifery education

Study on Commercialization of High Efficiency IGCC System.

The Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) is regarded as a prospective winner of thermal power system in the next decade. Ishikawajima Harima Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (IHI) has been developing gasification technology and dry gas desulfurization technology. These are key technologies for IGCC commercialization. IHI has constructed Texaco Type coal gasification test facility and has been carrying out various tests since 1987. Also at the Japanese national IGCC development project. IH I has been in charge of a dry gas desulfurization pilot plant development for 200 coal tons/day gasification plant. This worldly largest desulfurization unit has performed successfully and concluded in February 1996. With these test results, IHI has continued to improve IGCC system through yarious feasibility studies with Toshiba who designed the combined cycle. We also carried out parameter survey that focused on the influence of fuel properties. These results made clear some useful features for IGCC development.

The Alice Springs-Darwin Rail Line: National Development Project or Political Gesture?

The Alice Springs-Darwin Rail Line: National Development Project or Political Gesture?

NetLinkS: a national professional development project for networked learner support

This paper provides an overview of NetLinkS, a professional development project for networked learner support (NLS). The project is funded by the UK Electronic Libraries programme, and aims to encourage the further development of NLS across the UK higher education sector. The paper introduces the aims and objectives of the project and the activities carried out in its first year, presents some of the information gathered by the project about current practice in NLS in the UK, and discusses the plans for the project's second phase, from September 1996 to May 1998. The main aim of phase two is to facilitate the development of a networked learning community, or community of interest, for NLS.

International Postgraduate Program of Water Resources Engineering in Asia

Over the course of three decades (1961–90), the Water Resources Engineering (WRE) Program of the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand has conferred master’s degrees to about 650 students and doctoral degrees to 22 students. Many of its alumni are now employed in national development projects or hold key government positions in their home countries in Asia. Its academic curriculum covers a broad range of graduate courses in water resources engineering, with primary emphasis on the applications of scientific knowledge. The program, through its intensive academic curriculum, its wide range of courses available, its emphasis on professional development and research projects of practical relevance to Asia, its international faculty staff, and resources provided mainly by developed countries, has succeeded in bringing modern technology to developing countries of Asia and has assisted them in developing their water resources infrastructure. However, from the perspective of the interdisciplinary nature of WRE, of changes in technology, growing complexities in engineering problems, and environmental concern, the program should evolve towards multidisciplinary training in order to meet the needs of Asia in the twenty-first century.

Sediment‐related river maintenance: The role of fluvial geomorphology

AbstractThis paper addresses the role that fluvial geomorphology might play in the management of sediment‐related river maintenance in the U.K. Sediment‐related river maintenance refers to the operational requirement of river management authorities to remove deposits of sediment or protect river boundaries from erosion, where these compromise the flood defence levels of service. Using data collected as part of a National Rivers Authority (NRA) Research and Development Project it is possible to identify the geomorphic causes of problems, and engineering responses to sediment‐related river maintenance (SRRM) in England and Wales. The Project identified the management problem as widespread and often treated in isolation from the causative processes. Geomorphological guidance is shown to be both relevant and complementary to conventional engineering practice through its ability to identify the cause of a SRRM problem. A methodology for conducting a geomorphological survey, or ‘fluvial audit’, is presented, which synthesizes historical data on the catchment land‐use and channel network, with contemporary morphological maps to present a statement of the location and type of sediment supply, transport and storage within the river basin under scrutiny. The application of geomorphology to two contrasting SRRM problems is explored using case studies from two catchments: the River Sence, a fine sediment system, and the Shelf Brook, a coarse sediment system.

Quo vadis, FAO?

The present recession in aid funding and the ongoing transformation of the United Nations development programme and project management approach calls for fresh ideas, particularly from within the UN specialized agencies. In the largest of these, PAO, a process of self-reflection and intellectual fermentation seems to be taking place to some extent in response to the important November 1993 biennial FAO Conference. The Conference marks the end of the third consecutive six-year electoral term of the organization's Director-General. This article presents for debate some critical issues and opportunities which appear timely for consideration by those working within and outside FAO on the design of realistic development policies.

Field winding model test of 70 MW class superconducting generator

A national project for development of a superconducting generator has been continuing since 1988 in Japan. In this project, the authors have been developing a superconducting field winding. An aluminium stabilized double standard superconducting cable has been developed for the winding. In the rotor, the centrifugal force field is 5000 G, and consequently liquid helium has a cooling ability ten times larger than that in the 1-G gravitational field. Therefore, a cryostable winding design can be used. A field winding model having 40% of the 70-MW-class generator field winding was tested in a nonrotated cryostat. The specification and structure of the cable and the test results are outlined. >

Evaluating the influence and legacy of TVEI: An overview

Abstract TVEI is now ten years old. In its heyday, it was the largest ever national curriculum development project in the United Kingdom, and also the most evaluated. This paper looks back at some of the general effects of TVEI, both upon the 14–18 curriculum and upon the role and functions of evaluation. These effects are contextualised by a consideration of the tensions which surrounded both its conception and its extension. The paper includes a brief resume of the contributions to this issue of ERiE, each of which explores a different dimension of TVEI's ten‐year history. It concludes somewhat pessimistically that its presence in the curriculum of the 21st century is uncertain, and that its longest lasting legacy is likely to be in the bidding and monitoring systems which it pioneered, rather than in the curriculum changes it promoted.

DEVELOPMENT OF A FARMER-BASED BEAN SEED MULTIPLICATION AND DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM FOR RWANDAN FARMERS

Most farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa plant local cultivars introduced generations ago. Various national and international organizations and development projects introduce annually hundreds of improved germplasms to a country, and test these under farmer conditions for adaptability and acceptability. Although some local varieties perform well under traditional farming practices, many disease and insect pest resistant improved varieties out-yield local cultivars even under low-input production conditions of Africa. Regrettably, the seed production and distribution system in most of these countries are poorly developed; thus the promising varieties remain unavailable to the majority of farmers. To overcome this problem, the University of Arkansas-led Rwanda Farming Systems Research Project (FSRP) personnel trained farmer-cooperators in the production of good quality bean (Phaselous sp.) seeds. This, and the development of a farmer to farmer seed distribution system that led to quick diffusion of improved bean varieties in the project area will be discussed.

New solutions for superconducting dipole magnets for commercial size MHD power plant

In the Italian National Project for development of superconducting magnets for MHD (magnetohydrodynamic) applications, a conceptual study of magnets for commercial-size MHD power plants (300-600 MW) has been performed. The overall dimension of the proposed dipole magnet will be about 20 m. The current opinion is that superconducting magnets of this length are beyond the limit of today's technology. The authors propose alternative solutions to the single dipole magnet, realized with a modular combination of magnets of 6 to 8 m length. This selection allows reduction of some important technological problems and seems to be very promising both from the standpoint of magnet feasibility and ability to meet design constraints. >

Groundwater Abstraction and River Flows

AbstractConsiderable attention has been focused in the last few years on certain rivers which are perceived to be experiencing increasingly frequent low flows. A common feature of these is a high level of abstraction, predominantly of groundwater. The mechanics of the effect of groundwater abstraction on river flow are outlined in the paper and illustrated by reference to the River Colne in the Chilterns. The National Rivers Authority is actively investigating these low flow conditions both regionally and nationally. Approaches to the philosophy of alleviation schemes and two national research and development projects relevant to general principles are discussed. The issue of low flows is set in the context of achieving a balance between the uses of water resources for supply and to support the environment.

State, Industrialization and Agricultural Policy in Korea

ABSTRACTAnalyses of Korean (Republic of Korea) development point to the strong role of the state in directing the industrialization process. State intervention has also been pronounced in agriculture, as state agents have mobilized bureaucratic resources to direct agricultural production activities in support of the national development project through the creation of strategic agroindustrial linkages. The Korean green revolution campaign to achieve rice self‐sufficiency is used to illustrate the state's role in fostering intersectoral linkages. Agriculture is brought back into the debate about Korean development.

Photovoltaics for utility-scale applications: project overview and data analysis

Abstract PVUSA, a national cooperative research and development project, is cofunded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the California Energy Commission (CEC)/State of California, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Pacific Gas and Electric (PGE and to create a program to transfer PV knowledge between government, the PV industry, and other utilities. Two 20 kW arrays are now installed in Davis, and the completion of three more is expected this year. Award negotiations are now under way to procure additional 20 kW arrays and several Utility Scalable (US) PV systems that will include tracking and fixed structures and use innovative balance of system designs. These US systems will be either 200 or 400 kW. PVUSA has adopted rating criteria that allow array/system peak performance to be described under outdoor operating conditions. This method for describing performance is believed to be more useful to utility users than extrapolation of data from PV modules flash-tested in a laboratory. A simple regression model is used to rate each system at the PVUSA Test Conditions based on about 30 days of measured outdoor data. The resulting equation can be used by other utilities to site a duplicate system hypothetically in their own territory.

Recent research and development, future problems and trends in advanced composite materials in Japan

The progress and contributions of the national research and development project on advanced composites so far are described, some structural applications of composites in Japan are outlined to examine the structural utility. Future problems and trends are also considered.