Protection Coverage Research Articles

Assessing public preferences for deep sea ecosystem conservation: a choice experiment in Norway and Scotland

ABSTRACT Recent events around the world have revealed varying degrees of public support for climate change and environmental regulation. Applying a latent class logit model, this study investigates Norwegian and Scottish public’s economic support for proposed deep sea management policies for novel attributes, identifying the presence of preference heterogeneity. Marine litter and health of fish stocks were the attributes with the highest values in absolute terms. This was followed by the size of the protected area coverage, whilst the creation of jobs was the least valued. The results highlight public support for the further collective action required by the EU in moving beyond the 2020 objective of achieving good environmental status of Europe’s seas, despite the low WTP values of the minority classes in each country.

Potential contribution of OECMs to international area-based conservation targets in a biodiversity rich country, Spain

Other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) are new conservation tools intended to complement protected areas (PAs) at achieving effective biodiversity conservation and meeting international area-based targets. However, OECMs have been rarely considered in practical terms until recently. Here, we performed a rapid evaluation on the degree of fulfilment of current area-based international biodiversity targets, post-2020 foreseeable oncoming targets, and ecological targets by considering: 1) Protection coverage; 2) Inclusiveness of important areas for biodiversity; 3) Protection management; 4) Connectivity; and 5) Habitat representation, on land and at sea in Spain, a Euro-Mediterranean, biodiversity rich country. We conducted the evaluation under two scenarios: 1) Scenario 1 considers designated PAs; and 2) Scenario 2, that also includes potential OECMs. In order to generate Scenario 2, thirteen legal categories were assessed against international guidance on OECMs as a first step to screen their likelihood of providing OECMs in Spain. Our findings show that some potentially satisfactory OECM categories such as Public Utility Forests, River Reserves or Geoparks meet the OECM criteria to a large degree and deserve further study. Our results also highlight that Spain is currently well above most foreseeable post-2020 biodiversity targets and even close to some ecological targets using just PAs, except for marine protected area (MPA) management and MPA offshore coverage. Adding OECMs would noticeably improve the country’s figures yet without reaching many exigent ecological targets. OECMs can become a useful, cost-effective biodiversity conservation tool that contributes to international targets under new, more ambitious area-based conservation requirements in Spain and elsewhere. Nevertheless, for this to happen, suitable biodiversity management and monitoring schemes must be ensured.

Exploring equity in health and poverty impacts of control measures for SARS-CoV-2 in six countries

BackgroundPolicy makers need to be rapidly informed about the potential equity consequences of different COVID-19 strategies, alongside their broader health and economic impacts. While there are complex models to inform...

Mekanisme Perlindungan Sosial Bagi Pekerja Migran Indonesia (PMI) Perempuan Di Hongkong

To fulfill the economic needs through working abroad in order to raise the wind is one of benefit seeks by the woman migrant workers. Migrant workers is protected with formal social protection schemes both in origin and destination countries as stipulated in UU No. 18 tahun 2017 about migrant workers protection article 31. This study aims to apprehend on how is the mechanism of social protection to Indonesian Women Migrant Workers in Hongkong. 12 informants were involved in this study from Indonesian women migrant workers post placement and in placement period. This study founds that donation and inter-family loan among Indonesian women migrant workers were informal social protection mechanism developed by them in Hongkong. In certain condition, the coverage of formal social protection is insufficient to to protect Indonesian women migrant workers. As woman migran workers have solid friendship relations among their group and communities, informal social protection schemes with gotong royong principle helped them when in illness, unemployment, and work injury.

Heat Stress Management in the Military: Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature Offsets for Modern Body Armor Systems.

The aim of this study was to model the effect of body armor coverage on body core temperature elevation and wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) offset. Heat stress is a critical factor influencing the health and safety of military populations. Work duration limits can be imposed to mitigate the risk of exertional heat illness and are derived based on the environmental conditions (WBGT). Traditionally a 3°C offset to WBGT is recommended when wearing body armor; however, modern body armor systems provide a range of coverage options, which may influence thermal strain imposed on the wearer. The biophysical properties of four military clothing ensembles of increasing ballistic protection coverage were measured on a heated sweating manikin in accordance with standard international criteria. Body core temperature elevation during light, moderate, and heavy work was modeled in environmental conditions from 16°C to 34°C WBGT using the heat strain decision aid. Increasing ballistic protection resulted in shorter work durations to reach a critical core temperature limit of 38.5°C. Environmental conditions, armor coverage, and work intensity had a significant influence on WBGT offset. Contrary to the traditional recommendation, the required WBGT offset was >3°C in temperate conditions (<27°C WBGT), particularly for moderate and heavy work. In contrast, a lower WBGT offset could be applied during light work and moderate work in low levels of coverage. Correct WBGT offsets are important for enabling adequate risk management strategies for mitigating risks of exertional heat illness.

Central Asian wild tulip conservation requires a regional approach, especially in the face of climate change

Tulips (Tulipa spp.) are one of the most widely appreciated plants worldwide, nevertheless species taxonomy and biogeography are often poorly understood. Most wild tulips inhabit the mountains of Central Asia, a recognised biodiversity hotspot, and a centre of tulip diversity. Despite the presence of several country-level endemic Tulipa species, most taxa span the borders of several nations. With no globally Red Listed tulip taxa from this region national level conservation assessments are an important resource. Nonetheless, threats posed to tulips are still inadequately understood, especially climate change, and given the trans-national nature of most species, distributional information is restricted and often misleading. Here we collate 330 species records from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility with 85 newly collected records, to undertake species distribution modelling (MaxEnt) for ten native Central Asian species. This work showed that regional level models provide a much more comprehensive understanding of species’ extinction risks, proportions of habitat in different countries, and limitations in protected area coverage. Furthermore, our climate modelling, the first of its kind for tulips, suggests that climate change will have a significant negative impact on the range size of all species; including those that are currently widespread. We therefore add climate change to the list of threats affecting tulip populations in Central Asia, which already includes livestock overgrazing, urbanisation, wild collection, and mining. Overall, our work shows that although national information is important, a regional approach is crucial not just for tulip conservation efforts, but likely for Central Asian plant conservation in general.

Study on generation capacity of small hydropower stations in distribution network

Small hydropower station, when producing power energy to power system through the distribution network, may lead to the change of the detected current in relay protection and the protection coverage. In this paper, IEEE7 based network is formed in the platform of PSCAD/EMTDC to analyze the effects of distribution network in current protection when a small hydropower station is linked in. The running of relay protection in Section I and II is simulated to obtain the difference of current variation of network with or without small hydropower station. Also the key parameters are calculated to point out the maximum generation capacity of the small hydropower station in case of reliable and sensitive current protection.

The last hotspots of structural complexity as conservation targets in the Mesoamerican Coral Reef

Coral reefs are highly diverse marine ecosystems offering invaluable services to hundreds of million people worldwide. These ecosystems are currently threatened by global and local stressors, particularly affecting structurally complex coral species in depauperate zones such as the Caribbean. Marine protected areas (MPAs) can counteract climatic and local human stressors and offer a source of ecosystem resilience in the Anthropocene. Yet, their protective effect on structurally complex corals is still under scrutiny, while this could give light to management strategies towards the protection of such remaining “hotspots”. This study examined the combined effects of local stressors (human gravity) and thermal stress (maximum Degree Heating Week) on scleractinian corals' community structure over 158 sites located in the Mesoamerican Reef and evaluated how MPAs can mitigate these stressors. Our results suggest that MPAs can buffer the impacts of local human stressors on coral reefs, yet there is a spatial mismatch between hotspots of structural complexity and the level of protection since 41% of these sites were not protected in 2016. We recommend these last hotspots of structural complexity as priority areas for increased protection coverage and enforcement in the Mesoamerican Reef.

The composite structure for human body impact protection

The article presents results of research and analysis of the currently conducted project aiming at the development of a flexible impact protector. The need to carry out the work results from the necessity of the ever-wider and more frequent use of body armours, including those resistant to blunt impacts, by the army, police and other public security services as well as a demand for impact protective elements in the civilian market. In the first part, the assumptions regarding the protective coverage under development and the origin of the topic with reference to earlier work on the use of non-Newtonian fluids in body armours are indicated. Next, the requirements for impact protectors and a review of the state of the art in the scope of this type of protective elements are presented. Finally, the results of the impact tests of armour samples are shown.

Is the protected area coverage still relevant in protecting the Southern Ground-hornbill (Bucorvus leadbeateri) biological niche in Zimbabwe? Perspectives from ecological predictions

ABSTRACT Examining the suitability of landscape patches for endangered species enhances critical insights and indicators into the processes of population structure, community dynamics, and functioning in ecosystems particularly in protected areas (PAs). While PAs are the cornerstone in biodiversity conservation, there is debate on their efficacy to retain their conservation superiority over unprotected areas under climate change. In the present study, we examined the spatial and temporal effectiveness of PAs at maintaining suitable habitat for the “vulnerable” Southern Ground-hornbill (SGH), Bucorvus leadbeateri compared with the unprotected areas in Zimbabwe. We used a landscape-scale analysis of 182 PAs, their surrounding buffer zones, and unprotected areas coupled with three machine learning models (maximum entropy: MaxEnt, random forest, and support vector machines) to simulate SGH habitat suitability. Bioclimatic, vegetation seasonality and terrain variables were used as predictors against SGH “presence-only” observations and the models were projected for 2050 as future climatic scenarios (i.e. representative concentration pathways: RCP2.6 and RCP8.5). The true skill statistic (TSS) and area under the curve (AUC) were used to evaluate the performance of the modeling framework. Our results show that the PAs network in Zimbabwe is extremely relevant for the conservation of SGH, with 8% of the suitable habitat within PAs projected to become unsuitable by 2050. Higher levels of protection status resulted in higher levels of suitable habitat for the SGH while the suitability of eastern-based PAs showed a decrease and the western-based PAs will potentially increase in suitability. Thus, conservation strategies should take the eastern PAs range contraction and associated westward shift into account. The established potential increase in suitability outside the PAs network (23%–31%) might increase conflicts between agriculture and conservation. We, therefore, suggest an expanded cross-boundary institutional alliance and policy development with all stakeholders to implement a holistic conservation plan. Our work demonstrates the importance of combining multi-source remotely sensed data in predicting habitat suitability for endangered species such as the SGH as key indicators of biological conservation and PAs’ effectiveness.

Butterflies are weakly protected in a mega-populated country, Bangladesh

Protected areas have been established around the world to preserve samples of biodiversity from pressing threats. Yet the adequacy of protected area systems in many tropical nations is poorly understood, and assessments are usually focused on vertebrates. Here, we model the occurrence of 246 butterfly species, and determine the extent to which they occur in protected areas in Bangladesh, a country that forms part of the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot. We develop ecological niche models, and measure overlap with protected areas using three methods to map species distributions (habitat suitability, area of occupancy, and extent of occurrence). Suitability maps identify the north-east and south-east regions as the main centres of butterfly diversity, yet there is marked variation among families, and between non-threatened and threatened species. Using the suitability map approach, a mean of 1.27% of the geographic range of species is covered by protected areas. Only two species (Euploea crameri and Danaus melanippus) have >15% coverage, 25% of species have no coverage and 70% of species have <1% coverage. Overall, protected area coverage is slightly higher for threatened species. Tracts of suitable, but unprotected habitat still exist in the north-east and south-east regions of Bangladesh, and designation of new protected areas in these regions will strengthen butterfly conservation in the country. Enhanced management of existing protected areas, and a strategy for conserving butterflies and other insects outside protected areas will also help secure the long-term future for biodiversity in Bangladesh.

Functional Development of Residential Fire-Retardant Clothing for Older Adults

Older adults are at higher risk for fire-related injuries and deaths than younger people due to their impaired physical and sensory functions. However, current fire-safety products could not satisfy their requirements. The purpose of this study was to develop a novel fire-safety product to help older adults safely evacuate from fire. A multifunctional fire-retardant clothing item was developed for older adults through requirements analysis and design features selection, which can provide greater body coverage for better thermal protection and flexibility for leg movement compared to current fire blankets. Several special design features were also developed to meet the specific needs of older adults. For example, an asymmetric placket with a combined opening was developed to guarantee dressing convenience for older adults or caregivers. Moreover, this newly developed fire-retardant clothing can be folded into a cushion cover for easy storage and maintenance as well as used in a variety of emergency situations. This new fire-retardant clothing has the potential to be useful in future fire prevention and safety strategies. Practical research outcomes, including new ideas and design approaches, can also provide guidance in the future design of age-oriented residential fire-safety products.

Short-term income mobility in Latin America in the 2000s: intensity and characteristics

Abstract: The aim of this article is to compare the intensity and characteristics of short-term income mobility during the 2000s in Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru, countries with very dissimilar labor market structures and social protection coverage. This period is particularly relevant since Latin America experienced sustained economic growth together with improvements in labor and social conditions. Results show that the degree of mobility is higher in the region than in certain developed countries. The presence of a large number of income rises in all seven cases is another main finding of the analysis. However, at the same time, a great proportion of households suffered a reduction in their income. Finally, differences in mobility between countries are more closely linked to those in labor market structures than to those derived from disparities in overall economic performance during the period under analysis.

Assessing the Safety of Central Counterparties

We propose a general framework for empirically assessing a central counterparty's capacity to cope with severe financial stress. Using public disclosure data for global central counterparties (CCPs), we show how to estimate the probability that a CCP could cover any specified fraction of payment defaults by its members. This framework supplements conventional standards of assessing risk protection across CCPs that is not predicated on a specific number of member defaults. We apply the approach to a wide range of CCPs in different geographical jurisdictions and asset classes and find that there are substantial differences in protection coverage. In particular, large European CCPs appear to be significantly safer than their counterparts in Asia-Pacific and North America. These differences are also reflected in supervisory data that provide CCP members' risk assessments of the CCPs to which they belong.

Assessing the Safety of Central Counterparties

We propose a general framework for empirically assessing a central counterparty's capacity to cope with severe financial stress. Using public disclosure data for global central counterparties (CCPs), we show how to estimate the probability that a CCP could cover any specified fraction of payment defaults by its members. This framework supplements conventional standards of risk management such as Cover 2, and provides a comparative and comprehensive approach to assessing risk protection across CCPs that is not predicated on a specific number of member defaults. We apply the approach to a wide range of CCPs in different geographical jurisdictions and asset classes and find that there are substantial differences in protection coverage. In particular, large European CCPs appear to be significantly safer than their counterparts in Asia-Pacific and North America. These differences are also reflected in supervisory data that provide CCP members' risk assessments of the CCPs to which they belong.

Threats and Opportunities of the COVID 19 on Tourism Industry in Sri Lanka and South Asian Region

Covid 19 Global pandemic has now brought the entire socio-economic structures in to a standstill state all over the world. It has already challenged the global operations of several business sectors. Time has come to rethink how to recover and regain of the economy, employment and business functions with a fresh beginning in most of the worsened economic sectors. South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka; Afghanistan and the Maldives) with a population of 1.8 billion has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic due to poor public health infrastructure, pervasive informality and poor coverage of social protection. The key sectors such as MSMEs, tourism and labour-intensive exports such as readymade garments have been most adversely impacted, leading to loss of jobs for the millions of people in the sub-region. The economic growth has come to a grinding halt and the threat of rising incidence of poverty, hunger and inequality is real. This sudden fall in tourism industry have created severe economic and social consequences within and beyond tourism in the region. Sri Lanka is a country with open economy, has hit badly under this circumstances, in particularly the Sri Lankan export market. Sri Lankan Rupee is depreciating and U.S Dollar has increased to Rs.197/= by January 2021. Total export of Sri Lanka in 2019 was $16.14Bn which comprised $11.94Bn from Merchandise exports and $4.2Bn from service sector. The services sector revenue generation was mainly from the tourism industry which amounts to $3.6Bn during 2019. However this was 18% drop compares to previous year which was $4.2Bn in 2018, following the Easter Sunday attack in April 2019. As a result of Covid – 19 global pandemic outbreaks, many countries imposed travel restrictions and locked down no of cities/countries. Sri Lankan government imposed Island wide curfew on 20^th March 2020 resulting tourism industry dropped to the bottom while crippling the Sri Lankan economy. For Sri Lanka, tourism sector’s contribution towards countries development is been quite considerable. This paper discuss the present situation, how to recapture the tourism market and to create new opportunities for future growth in this foreign currency earning very important sector in Sri Lanka as well as in South Asian Region.

E-Law Consulting Application Prototype Field Test on PGRI Teachers in Kedungsapur Indonesia

Kedungsapur, which is an ex-residency area of Semarang which includes Kendal, Demak, Ungaran, Salatiga, Semarang, and Purwodadi, is a densely populated area which means that the number of schools in this area is also quite dense and of course, schools in carrying out their activities cannot be separated from various problems such as law problem. Based on data obtained from LKBH PGRI Central Java shows that the number of teachers with legal problems related to their professional duties in the last 5 years (2015-2020) was more than 50 cases and these problems could be resolved with E-Law Consultinging. Kedungsapur area was chosen by the research team because of its strategic and representative location whereas the research method used in this research is juridical empirical heavily relies on empirical data taken from the field which in this case, The Teachers in Kedungsapur Area to then analyzed using triangulation data. The results showed that of 29 respondents in Kendal, Demak, Ungaran, Salatiga, Semarang, and Purwodadi, more than 90 percent were interested in the E-Law Consulting application and felt helped by this application as it is cheap, responsive, and reliable. The feedback received from respondents is to further improve the interface and increase the coverage of protection so that it is not only limited to providing services to teachers but also the general public so that the existing material needs to be expanded to include general criminal material to cover the law problem experienced in the community at the application development stage in the future.

Exploring Equity in Health and Poverty Impacts of Control Measures for SARS-CoV-2 in Six Countries

Background: Policy makers need to be rapidly informed about the potential equity consequences of different COVID-19 strategies, alongside their broader health and economic impacts. While there are complex models to inform both potential health and macro-economic impact, there are few tools available to rapidly assess potential equity impacts of interventions.Methods: We created an economic model to simulate the impact of lockdown measures in Pakistan, Georgia, Chile, United Kingdom, Philippines, and South Africa. We consider impact of lockdown in terms of inability to socially distance, and income loss during lockdown, and tested the impact of assumptions on social protection coverage in a scenario analysis.Findings: In all examined countries, lower socioeconomic quintiles were likely to experience disproportionately more income loss and greater inability to socially distance during lockdown. Improving social protection increased the percentage of the workforce able to socially distance from 40% (30% Chile - 55% UK) to 60% (57% Chile - 67% UK). We estimate the cost of this social protection would be equivalent to an average of 0.5% GDP.Interpretation: We illustrate the potential for using publicly available data to rapidly assess the equity implications of social protection and non-pharmaceutical intervention policy. We highlight potential for social protection to mitigate inequitable health and economic impacts of lockdown. Although social protection is usually targeted to the poorest, middle quintiles will likely also need support as they suffer the worst income losses and are disproportionately more exposed.Funding: This work was supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Wellcome [grant number 221303/Z/20/Z].Declaration of Interests: We declare no competing interests.

Single vs Multiple Antibiotic Drug Regimen in Preventing Infectious Morbidity in Caesarean Section: A Randomised Clinical Trial

Introduction: Surgical site infections are a serious cause of maternal morbidity and mortality. Various preventive measures are being used to reduce the incidence of surgical site infections. One of them is the use of prophylactic antibiotics. In this study, authors have evaluated three antibiotic regimen with respect to preventing infectious morbidity in caesarean section. Aim: To study the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of a single dose (ceftriaxone) versus multiple doses of antibiotic therapy (ceftriaxone and ornidazole) administered preoperatively in women undergoing caesarean delivery. Materials and Methods: A prospective interventional study was conducted on 300 pregnant women undergoing emergency or elective caesarean delivery. Study was conducted at BLDE (DU) Shri BM Patil Medical College and Research Centre, Vijayapur, Karnataka, India. Patients were randomly assigned to three groups by block random sampling with 100 women in each group. Group A received Inj. ceftriaxone 1 gm single dose 60 minutes prior to commencement of surgery. Group B received Inj. ceftriaxone 1 gm along with Inj. ornidazole 500 mg intravenous infusion 60 minutes prior to commencement of surgery and Group C received Inj. ceftriaxone 1 gm and Inj. ornidazole 500 mg intravenous infusion 60 minutes prior to commencement of surgery and a repeat dose 12th hourly for 24 hours followed by Tab. cefixime 200 mg and Tab. ornidazole 500 mg twice daily for four days postoperatively. The effectiveness of therapy was measured in terms of adverse effects of antibiotics such as nausea and vomiting and postoperative complications like pyrexia, foul smelling lochia, surgical site infections, uterine tenderness, peritonitis and endometritis. Results: There was no statistical difference in outcome measures in side-effects of antibiotics (p-value=0.13), fever (p-value=0.68), lochia discharge (p-value=0.88), wound infection (p-value=0.39) and peritonitis (p-value=0.30) among the three groups. The single dose medication in group A had a cost of Rs.60 INR (0.82 cents USD), which was significantly less compared to the multiple dose regimens in group B that cost Rs.203 INR ($2.76 USD). The mean hospital stay in non infectious and infectious patients were 5 and 10 days in present study (p&lt;0.0001). Conclusion: Caesarean delivery poses 5-20 times greater risk of postoperative infection when compared to vaginal birth. There has been a shifting trend of increasing caesarean deliveries and postoperative infections can contribute to overwhelming health and economic burden. Present study shows outcome measures which were statistically insignificant among the three study groups with different prophylactic regimen for caesarean delivery, so it’s safe to state that both single dose and multiple dose regimen provided equal protective coverage in reducing maternal infectious morbidity. Also, single dose regimen proved to be cost-effective. So, to conclude single dose prophylactic antibiotic given preoperatively in caesarean section is both cost-effective and as is efficient.

Leveraging Network Functions Virtualization Orchestrators to Achieve Software-Defined Access Control in the Clouds

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) has been widely recognized as an effective way to implement and consolidate hardware-based network functions by using software-based approaches, with a potential to significantly reducing CAPEX and OPEX. In particular, NFV orchestrators (e.g., Tacker, Cloudify, and ONAP) play a vital role in managing and orchestrating various virtualized network resources (e.g., VMs, Virtualized Network Functions), and TOSCA is one of the standard data models to fulfil such a role. However, it remains unclear how the security mechanisms can be seamlessly integrated into the entire lifecycle of those virtualized network assets. Starting with a comparative analysis on the available NFV orchestrators, we extend the TOSCA model to incorporate security attributes of interest, and leverage the extended model to create access control policies at cloud scale. Specifically, a security orchestrator is developed, which contains a TOSCA-parser and a novel tenant-specific access control paradigm. One of the salient features of our security orchestrator is that it allows to dynamically generate access control models and policies for different tenant domains, resulting in a flexible and scalable protection coverage that is across different NFV layers and multiple data centers. To validate its feasibility and effectiveness, we develop a security orchestrator prototype and test its performance with respect to throughput, scalability, and adaptability. The experimental results demonstrate that all the desirable properties can be achieved, and the throughput of our security orchestrator can be maintained at a satisfactory level regardless of the varying number of tenants, users, or objects that are deployed in the cloud.