Significance Of Participation Research Articles

Biodiversity Conservation and Management of Forests: The Significance of Participation of Stakeholders and Communities

Participation of local communities and transboundary conservation issues should be shared by governments and institutions. The knowledge of forest ecology provides the essential ecological basis for the successful management and conservation of forests and biodiversity. Government can play an important role in re-introducing or restoring the local and regional management practices that successfully integrate sound management of biological resources. The practices and beliefs of forestdwelling tribes, nomadic communities and farmers remain closely intertwined with the biological diversity they live amidst. Ethnobotany has an important role to play in conservation of nature and culture, particularly, biodiversity and diversity of traditional human cultures. There is need to further revise the forest policies and ensure wider participation of stakeholders in forest and other resource planning and decision making processes so that the constraints on the implementation of management programs could be resolved through the increased financial resources, conflict management, institutional strengthening and capacity building of human society and other related measures.

Magnetic resonance imaging‐based cartilage loss in painful contralateral knees with and without radiographic joint space narrowing: Data from the osteoarthritis initiative

To determine by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), whether knees with advanced radiographic disease (medial joint space narrowing [mJSN]) encounter greater longitudinal cartilage loss than contralateral knees with earlier disease (no or less mJSN). Participants were selected from 2,678 cases in the Osteoarthritis Initiative, based on exhibition of bilateral pain, body mass index >25 (kg/m(2)), mJSN in 1 knee, no or less mJSN in the contralateral knee, and no lateral JSN in both knees. Eighty participants (mean +/- SD age 60.6 +/- 9.1 years) fulfilled these criteria. Medial tibial and femoral cartilage morphology was analyzed from the baseline and the 1-year followup MRI (sagittal double echo at steady state by 3.0T) of both knees by experienced readers blinded to the time point and mJSN status. Knees with more radiographic mJSN displayed greater medial cartilage loss (-80 mum) assessed by MRI than contralateral knees with less mJSN (-57 mum). The difference reached statistical significance in participants with an mJSN grade of 2 or 3 (P = 0.005-0.08), but not in participants with an mJSN grade of 1 (P = 0.28-0.98). In knees with more mJSN, cartilage loss increased with higher grades of mJSN (P = 0.003 in the medial femur). Knees with an mJSN grade of 2 or 3 displayed greater cartilage loss in the weight-bearing medial femur than in the posterior femur or in the medial tibia (P = 0.048). Knees with advanced mJSN displayed greater cartilage loss than contralateral knees with less mJSN. These data suggest that radiography can be used to stratify fast structural progressors, and that MRI cartilage thickness loss is more pronounced at advanced radiographic disease stage.

Use of lead isotope ratios to identify sources of lead exposure in Alaska Natives

OBJECTIVES: Although banned nationwide for waterfowl hunting, lead shot is still used for hunting in regions of Alaska. Consumption of birds hunted with lead shot may be a route of human lead exposure in susceptible populations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Alaskan health officials conducted a cross-sectional exposure assessment and used isotope ratios (IR) to test that assumption.STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional exposure assessment study.METHODS: We compared isotopic profiles of blood lead in Alaska Native women from Bethel (n = 10) and Barrow (n = 10) to lead shot samples purchased from the respective regions. To evaluate the source of lead for the buckshot, we evaluated IR profiles for lead mineral and ore from a smelter in Torreon, Mexico, a suspected source of origin for the lead.RESULTS: The lead IRs for the blood lead differed significantly from the lead shot IRs (p > 0.001); thus, lead shot is unlikely to be the sole source of lead exposure of public health significance in participants of this study. Overlap in IRs for the lead shot and blood lead existed for 6 (30%) of the women from Bethel and Barrow; however, no correlation was noted between lead levels and the IRs for the blood lead. IR profiles for lead mineral and ore from Mexico were substantially different from the IRs of lead shot from Alaska, confirming that buckshot in this study is unlikely to originate from the Mexican smelter.CONCLUSIONS: Lead shot from the manufacturer in this study does not appear to be the sole source of lead exposure in most participants; nonetheless, lead shot could yet be a potential source of exposure in some populations, possibly those whose diet consists of game hunted with lead shot.

The Significance of Participation in Internationa Geography Olympiad

The Significance of Participation in Internationa Geography Olympiad

Enhancing Control Through Participation: Issues of Conflicts in Public Sector Organizations

Public sector site is always known for its continuous games of power and control. Public managers often use control to enhance their power and to legitimise their actions. Empirical evidence showed that during the process of implementing accounting information system (AIS), the management adopted various strategies in securing accountants’ participation such as offering accountants to be part in the implementation process as change agents and change champions. Participation is seen as a mechanism to mitigate resistance and to cement commitment of the accountants to the new AIS which would ultimately produce “consent”. Theoretically, this paper is informed by Tannenbaum & Kahn (1957) contribution to organizational control structure, especially their idea that the total amount of control within an organization can be increased by emphasising decision‐making among different organizational members. Nonetheless, this paper argues that multilevel conflicts need to be resolved before participation can be secured and ultimately management control can be enhanced in organizations. The significance of participation in resolving conflicts in the public sector has been under researched and this deficiency remains the focus of this paper. Case studies were conducted in four Malaysian public sector organizations where the interplay of participation, control and conflict were observed and suggestions are proposed for future research.

Electronic Dance Music Culture and Religion: An Overview1

This article provides a comprehensive and critical overview of existing research that investigates (directly and indirectly) the religio-spiritual dimensions of electronic dance music culture (EDMC) (from disco, through house, to post-rave forms). Studies of the culture and religion of EDMC are explored under four broad groupings: the cultural religion of EDMC expressed through ‘ritual’ and ‘festal’; subjectivity, corporeality and the phenomenological dance experience (especially ‘ecstasy’ and ‘trance’); the dance community and a sense of belonging (the ‘vibe’ and ‘tribes’); and EDMC as a new ‘spirituality of life’. Moving beyond the cultural Marxist approaches of the 1970s, which held youth (sub)cultural expressions as ‘ineffectual’ and ‘tragic’, and the postmodernist approaches of the early 1990s, which held rave to be an ‘implosion of meaning’, recent anthropological and sociological approaches recognise that the various manifestations of this youth cultural phenomenon possess meaning, purpose and significance for participants. Contemporary scholarship thus conveys the presence of religiosity and spirituality within contemporary popular cultural formations. In conclusion, I suggest that this and continuing scholarship can offer useful counterpoint to at least one recent account (of clubbing) that overlooks the significance of EDMC through a restricted and prejudiced apprehension of ‘religion’.

教員養成における「教育実習」履修前後での「実践参加型授業」の意義

教員養成における「教育実習」履修前後での「実践参加型授業」の意義

Participación social en salud: conceptos de usuarios, líderes comunitarios, gestores y formuladores de políticas en Colombia: Una mirada cualitativa

Health sector reforms taking place in Colombia during the Nineties included policies to promote social participation in the health system, which is considered essential to its functioning. The aim of this article is to analyse the meaning and the significance of participation in health for the different social actors involved in implementing policies in Colombia.A qualitative, descriptive, exploratory study was carried out using focal groups (FG) and semi-structured individual interviews (I) of the different social actors: 210 users (FG), 40 community leaders (FG), 3 policy makers (E) and 36 healthcare professionals (E). A carried out analysis was content up of the contents. The study area corresponded to the municipalities of Tulua and Palmira in Colombia.The concept of participation was interpreted differently depending on the actor studied: for users and leaders the concept referred to contributing ideas, presence in social spaces, solidarity and frequently, and use of the health services. Healthcare professionals considered the activities carried out by institutions together with the community as social participation, the use of services and affiliation to the health system. Policy markers considered participation to concern evaluation and control of the health services by the community, to improve its quality.The different concepts of participation reveal dif ferences between the content of the policy and how it is understood and interpreted by the different social actors in their interaction with the health services. These different perspectives must be taken into account to develop a link between society and the health services.

General parental education in Sweden: participants and non-participants

Scand J Prim Health Care 2002;20:xxx-xx. ISSN 0281-3432 Objective - To study factors of importance for participation in parental education within routine child health care. Design - All parents of children born during 1 year were invited by the district nurse to participate in parental education; their participation during the infant year was registered. Setting - Catchment area of two health centres in Växjö, Sweden. Subjects - 221 infants and their parents. Main outcome measures - Number of educational sessions for mothers and fathers. Results - 63% of mothers and 20% of fathers attended at least one session. These mothers attended a mean of 5.7 (SD 2.2) sessions and these fathers a mean of 2.8 (SD 2.3) sessions. Logistic regression analyses showed that the only variable of significance for participation was being a first-time parent (odds ratio 3.9 for the mothers and 3.7 for the fathers). Odds ratios above 2.0 (non-significant) were found for married mothers and Swedish mothers, as well as for Swedish fathers. Conclusion - It is still a considerable problem to get certain groups involved in routine parental education in Swedish child healthcare programmes.

Pursuing Regulatory Relief: Strategic Participation and Litigation in U.S. OSHA Rulemaking

Administrative agencies in the United States have developed highly formalized and complex processes for public participation in rulemaking, especially in areas of social regulation such as the environment and workplace safety and health. This case study considers the significance of participation in formal rulemaking processes by connecting the quality of participation to the strategic possibilities in litigation between private interests and regulatory agencies. Specifically, the strategic possibilities of the leading interest groups engaged in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's major “Lockout/Tagout” rulemaking illustrate how legal resources are created through the development of evidence and claims in hearings. Written and oral presentations, apparently aimed directly at persuading the agency, indirectly affect agency deliberations by increasing the possibility that courts will constrain agency decisionmaking, thus creating opportunities for negotiated alternatives. The case ultimately serves as a paradigmatic example of how bargaining arises at the micro level of policy systems that are infused with broader legal structures.

Pursuing Regulatory Relief: Strategic Participation and Litigation in U.S. OSHA Rulemaking

Administrative agencies in the United States have developed highly formalized and complex processes for public participation in rulemaking, especially in areas of social regulation such as the environment and workplace safety and health. This case study considers the significance of participation in formal rulemaking processes by connecting the quality of participation to the strategic possibilities in litigation between private interests and regulatory agencies. Specifically, the strategic possibilities of the leading interest groups engaged in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's major “Lockout/Tagout” rulemaking illustrate how legal resources are created through the development of evidence and claims in hearings. Written and oral presentations, apparently aimed directly at persuading the agency, indirectly affect agency deliberations by increasing the possibility that courts will constrain agency decisionmaking, thus creating opportunities for negotiated alternatives. The case ultimately serves as a paradigmatic example of how bargaining arises at the micro level of policy systems that are infused with broader legal structures.

The Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme: Contributions to Canadian Sociology

Abstract: The Aid to Scholarly Publication Programme (ASPP) of the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada (HSSFC) has played a major role in the production of sociological research monographs in Canada. Here the Programme analysed and assessed for the magnitude and significance of participation in it by Canadian sociologists. Also highlighted are subsidized books of special importance; they constitute evidence of the critical role the Programme plays in developing Canadian sociology and advancing knowledge of key aspects of Canadian society. This leads to consideration of the future of monograph publishing in Canada. Resume: La contribution a la production des monographies sociologiques au Canada du programme d'aide a l'edition savante [much less than]PAES[much greater than] de la Federation canadienne des sciences humaines et sociales [much less than]FCSHS[much greater than] a ete primordiale. Ici, j'analyse et j'evalue lampleur de la participation dans le programme des sociologues Canadiens. Aussi, j'identifie les livres subventionnes d une importance distincte; ils temoignent le role central du programme dans le developpement de la discipline. Ceci mene a la consideration de l'avenir au Canada de l'edition des monographies. The Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme (ASPP) of the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada has enormous import for Canadian sociology. Although impossible to conclusively demonstrate, it nevertheless likely that many, if not, most of the monographs it has subsidized would not have been released by a Canadian scholarly publishing outlet were it not for this program. The following analysis and assessment of ASPP-supported publications in sociology reveal that both francophone and anglophone sociologists owe a great deal to ASPP. Data supplied by the Programme also demonstrate that the sociological publications it has supported over the years have been highly varied; they have been quantitative and qualitative, theoretical and empirical, pure and applied, and have embraced a vast range of branches of the discipline. Recently, however, the Programme has fallen on hard times, precisely when its need has never been greater. This unhappy situation raises the spectre of possible dramatic declin e in Canada of the scholarly monograph in sociology as traditionally conceived of, accompanied by a likely increase in, among other things, such literary hybrids as monographs designed as course textbooks, referred to here as monotexts, and monographs written for the general public, referred to as popographs. The Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme: The Programme The ASPP directed by the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada (HSSFC) with funds granted for this purpose by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). According to a recent brochure, the Programme is designed to assist the publication of works of advanced scholarship which make an important contribution to knowledge, but which are unlikely to be self-supporting. Scholarly monographs are by definition specialized, detailed research reports directed to specialists rather than the general public. Although ASPP has provided subventions to a large number of publishers, it noteworthy that it mainly scholarly presses rather than textbook publishers who have received them. In this regard, University of Toronto Press and McGill-Queen's University Press have published most of these works. Manuscripts in the various disciplines in the humanities and social sciences in both official languages are considered if they meet ASPP eligibility criteria. In general, only book-length manuscripts to be published in Canada written by an author normally resident in this country are eligible for consideration. Grants are given only for publication and marketing expenses and not for manuscript preparation of any kind. Manuscripts considered for subvention are evaluated by at least two reviewers selected by the Aid to Scholarly Publications, or ASP, Committee, typically in collaboration with a publishing house when it rather than the author submits the manuscript. …

The Seduction and Significance of Participation for Development Interventions

ABSTRACT Through the past three decades development agencies have increasingly adopted the rhetoric of participatory development. This shift has been informed by a desire to achieve greater sustainability of initiated projects. This paper examines the relationship between participatory development and international development interventions, and focuses on the difficulty of adopting participatory strategies while maintaining existing, powerful development agencies. The significance of participatory development has, however, remained minimal as changes in the praxis of development have seldom resulted from the rhetoric.

Participation in research and development at the Tshikonelo agricultural project, Northern province

This article takes to task certain assumptions about participation in research and development, and criticises them for being decontextualised and ethnographically uninformed. Results of social scientific research at an existing agricultural project in the Northern Province of South Africa are brought to bear on the theory and assumptions of participatory research and development. The study starts with a theoretical account of participatory research. The point is made that there is not necessarily any connection between participatory research and participatory development. It is concluded from the subsequent case study that participation in research and development could be negatively influenced by local power dynamics, by institutional reluctance to experiment with participation, and by policy decisions and circumstances that do not lend themselves to social change. The significance of participation cannot be deduced in isolation from its context of implementation. It is concluded that participation by itself would not necessarily lead to these changes.

Intercontinental Trade and the Development of the Third World since the Industrial Revolution

This paper inserts two centuries of historical perspective into the ongoing debate on the nature and significance of participation in the global economy for the long-term material progress of the Third World. The global economy impinged upon the relative rates of growth achieved by national, regional, and local economies basically through commodity trade, the migration of labor, flows of capital, and transfers of technology between the developed continents of Europe, North America, and Australasia, on the one hand, and the less developed continents of Asia, Africa, and South America (the Third World) on the other. Despite the marked inequality in the distribution of income across continents, Third World economies and populations derived significant benefits from participation in the global economy until 1914, and the breakdown of the liberal order imposed serious impediments to trade during the era of neo-mercantilism between 1914 and 1950, which severely constrained Third World opportunities for growth through trade. When a new international economic order emerged with decolonization and the rise of American hegemony, the Third World again found it entirely beneficial to participate in global commerce.

Power, participation and post modernism: User and practitioner participation in mental health social work education

The focus of this paper is service user and social work practitioner participation in the teaching for the mental health social work course. A review of the programme seeks to illuminate the value and significance of participation. The obstacles exposed through interviews and a collective workshop suggest a blocking opposition between idealistic education and ‘the reality of practice’. However this opposition is challenged by user and black advocacy participation. The value of participation appears in terms of anti-discrimination and extended possibilities to bring about change. Theory and practice divides are also dissolved. Participation is connected to power and modern and post modern approaches to education provide the theoretical framework.

The Place of Health, Physical Culture and Sport Activity in the Life and Value Orientation of Soviet School Students

In 1982/83, in consideration of the increasing significance of physical culture and sport, the attitudes of more than 2000 school students toward health and sport in an east Siberian territory were investigated. It was shown that boys, when they finished school, placed higher value on health and sport than girls, and also than younger students. Value orientation towards sport and the extent of the individual's sport activity have a mutual influence. Whoever is enthusiastic about sport also values other aspects of life more highly. The significance of participation in sport in the choice of profession is stressed. However, the involvement in sport as well as the demands of particular professions must be more carefully analysed and the results published.