Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Human Relationships (human + relationships)
Selected AbstractsRecognition of Indigenous Interests in Australian Water Resource Management, with Particular Reference to Environmental Flow AssessmentGEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 3 2008Sue Jackson Australia's new national water policy represents a substantial change from the previous approach, because it recognises a potential need for allocations to meet particular indigenous requirements, which will have to be quantitatively defined in water allocation plans. However, indigenous values associated with rivers and water are presently poorly understood by decision-makers, and some are difficult to quantify or otherwise articulate in allocation decisions. This article describes the range of Australian indigenous values associated with water, and the way they have been defined in contemporary water resource policy and discourse. It argues that the heavy reliance of indigenous values on healthy river systems indicates that, theoretically at least, they are logically suited for consideration in environmental flow assessments. However, where indigenous interests have been considered for assessment planning purposes indigenous values have tended to be overlooked in a scientific process that leaves little room for different world views relating to nature, intangible environmental qualities and human relationships with river systems that are not readily amenable to quantification. There is often an implicit but untested assumption that indigenous interests will be protected through the provision of environmental flows to meet aquatic ecosystem requirements, but the South African and New Zealand approaches to environmental flow assessment, for example, demonstrate different riverine uses potentially can be accommodated. Debate with indigenous land-holders and experimentation will show how suited different environment flow assessment techniques are to addressing indigenous environmental philosophies and values. [source] Social networks at Sempra Energy's IT division are key to building strategic capabilitiesGLOBAL BUSINESS AND ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE, Issue 2 2007Chris Chen How does an IT division, faced with new and challenging strategic goals, get technical people to understand and appreciate the impact of human relationships on individual and organizational performance? It turns to social network analysis (SNA),a nifty tool for quantifying and visualizing the number and strength of connections between people. Taking advantage of a large menu of SNA's analytical options, this organization learned how it could better identify succession candidates, build social capital, lessen dependence on the senior leadership team, and improve interdepartmental collaboration and communication,in short, move to the next level of organization effectiveness. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Contrasting response of native and alien plant species richness to environmental energy and human impact along alpine elevation gradientsGLOBAL ECOLOGY, Issue 6 2009Lorenzo Marini ABSTRACT Aim, We tested whether the species,energy and species,human relationships vary between native and both naturalized and casual alien species richness when other environmental variables had been taken into account. Location, Trento Province, a region (c. 6200 km2) on the southern border of the European Alps (Italy), subdivided into 156 contiguous (c. 37.5 km2) cells and ranging in elevation from 66 to 3769 m. Methods, Data were separated into three subsets, representing richness of natives, naturalized aliens and casual aliens and separately related to temperature, human population and various environmental correlates of plant species diversity. We applied ordinary least squares and simultaneous autoregressive regressions to identify potential contrasting responses of the three plant status subsets and hierarchical partitioning to evaluate the relative importance of the predictor variables. Results, Variation in alien plant species richness along the region was almost entirely explained by temperature and human population density. The relationships were positive but strongly curvilinear. Native species richness was less strongly related to either factor but was positively related to the presence of calcareous bedrock. Native species richness had a decelerating positive relationship with temperature (R2= 55%), whereas naturalized and casual aliens had a positive accelerating relationship explaining 86% and 62% of the variation in richness, respectively. Native species richness had a positive decelerating relationship with population density (R2= 42%), whilst both alien subsets had a positive accelerating relationship. Main conclusions, Alien species richness was higher in areas with the most rich and diverse assemblages of native species. Areas at high altitudes are not especially prone to alien invasion due to energy constraints, low propagule pressure and disturbance, even considering a potential increased in temperature. Thus, if we consider future environmental change, we should expect a stronger response of aliens than natives in the currently warm, urbanized, low-altitude areas than in cold, high-altitude areas where human population density is low. [source] Future eating and country keeping: what role has environmental history in the management of biodiversity?JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY, Issue 5 2001D.M.J.S. Bowman In order to understand and moderate the effects of the accelerating rate of global environmental change land managers and ecologists must not only think beyond their local environment but also put their problems into a historical context. It is intuitively obvious that historians should be natural allies of ecologists and land managers as they struggle to maintain biodiversity and landscape health. Indeed, ,environmental history' is an emerging field where the previously disparate intellectual traditions of ecology and history intersect to create a new and fundamentally interdisciplinary field of inquiry. Environmental history is rapidly becoming an important field displacing many older environmentally focused academic disciplines as well as capturing the public imagination. By drawing on Australian experience I explore the role of ,environmental history' in managing biodiversity. First I consider some of the similarities and differences of the ecological and historical approaches to the history of the environment. Then I review two central questions in Australian environment history: landscape-scale changes in woody vegetation cover since European settlement and the extinction of the marsupials in both historical and pre-historical time. These case studies demonstrate that environmental historians can reach conflicting interpretations despite using essentially the same data. The popular success of some environmental histories hinges on the fact that they narrate a compelling story concerning human relationships and human value judgements about landscape change. Ecologists must learn to harness the power of environmental history narratives to bolster land management practices designed to conserve biological heritage. They can do this by using various currently popular environmental histories as a point of departure for future research, for instance by testing the veracity of competing interpretations of landscape-scale change in woody vegetation cover. They also need to learn how to write parables that communicate their research findings to land managers and the general public. However, no matter how sociologically or psychologically satisfying a particular environmental historical narrative might be, it must be willing to be superseded with new stories that incorporate the latest research discoveries and that reflects changing social values of nature. It is contrary to a rational and publicly acceptable approach to land management to read a particular story as revealing the absolute truth. [source] Social support and end-of-life issues for small town Japanese elderlyNURSING & HEALTH SCIENCES, Issue 3 2000Akira Tagaya PhD Abstract Social support for Japanese elderly people living in small towns is the focus of this paper. Specifically, it explores the relationship between selected aspects of self-reported social support, religion, end-of-life issues, and death anxiety. A total of the 1956 men and women responded to a questionnaire including a scale of social support they received in their home. The major findings showed that an increased level of perceived social support is not a predictor of decreased death anxiety but correlated with image of death and coping style of death anxiety, for which those who reported greater support tend to use more human relationships and fewer religious beliefs. Early in the next century 25% of Japan's population will be 65 years of age or older. Elderly Japanese have benefited from the traditional values of family care giving which historically provided great social support. How do these elderly respond to questions about the end of their lives when their reported social support varies? [source] Relationship between late-life depression and life stressors: Large-scale cross-sectional study of a representative sample of the Japanese general populationPSYCHIATRY AND CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCES, Issue 4 2010Tatsuhiko Kaji MD Aim:, The purpose of the present study was to clarify the relationship between late-life depression and daily life stress in a representative sample of 10 969 Japanese subjects. Methods:, Data on 10 969 adults aged ,50 who participated in the Active Survey of Health and Welfare in 2000, were analyzed. The self-administered questionnaire included items on 21 reasons for life stressors and the magnitude of stress, as well as the Japanese version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). The relationship between the incidence of life stressors and mild,moderate (D16) and severe (D26) depressive symptoms was examined using logistic regression analysis. Results:, A total of 21.9% of subjects had D16 symptoms, and 9.3% had D26 symptoms. Further, increased age and being female were associated with more severe depressive state. Logistic regression analysis indicated that the strongest relationship between both the incidence of D16 and D26 symptoms and life stressors stemmed from ,having no one to talk to' (odds ratio = 3.3 and 5.0, respectively). Late-life depression was also associated with ,loss of purpose in life', ,separation/divorce', ,having nothing to do', ,health/illness/care of self', and ,debt'. Conclusion:, There is a relationship between late-life depression and diminished social relationships, experiences involving loss of purpose in life or human relationships, and health problems in the Japanese general population. [source] Dealing with damage: the desire for psychic violence to soothe psychic painPSYCHOTHERAPY AND POLITICS INTERNATIONAL, Issue 3 2005Raman KapurArticle first published online: 10 JAN 200 Abstract Damage and destruction in people's lives can be dealt with either through recognizing and resolving psychic pain and loss or acting out destructive human relationships. This paper highlights the internal processes within a patient and a troubled society where psychic pain may not be recognized, experienced and worked through, so leading to the possibility that psychic violence may be used to soothe heartfelt emotional injuries. Psychic pain is often associated with emotional poverty and inadequacy. This paper describes the idea that pain is acted out through psychic violence and how the therapist has to face and contain many facets of this human frailty disguised as ,sexed-up' violence. My observations of psychic violence in the everyday life of a society exposed to over 35 years of death and destruction are also described. Here, there is not the comfort of the consulting room to detoxify poisonous projections, which often present under the psychic guise of superiority and contempt. Intrapsychic formulations are outlined which underlie such violence and clinical interventions and suggestions to repair societal troubles are offered to help this disturbed state of mind move towards more whole-object human relations. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Factors Affecting Satisfaction Levels of Japanese Volunteers in Meal Delivery Services for the ElderlyPUBLIC HEALTH NURSING, Issue 5 2008Hisayo Yanagisawa ABSTRACT Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting satisfaction with volunteer work of participants in a meal delivery service for the elderly. Design: A cross-sectional study with a self-administered survey was carried out. Sample: Of 364 volunteers assisting with a meal delivery service for the elderly in rural towns A (80), B (159), and C (125), 247 responded (response rate: 68%). Method: An anonymous self-administered questionnaire survey was administered seeking information about basic attributes, sense of satisfaction with volunteer work, and working circumstances such as human relationships with fellow volunteers, meal service users or professional staff members, opportunities for meetings or workshop, publicity through public relations magazines, and the like. Results: In multivariate logistic analysis, the sense of satisfaction of volunteers was closely associated with human relations among volunteers (odds ratio [OR] 5.15, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.84,14.40, p<.01), meal service users (OR 3.84, 95% CI 1.37,10.77, p<.05), and professional staff members supervising the meal delivery service (OR 3.53, 95% CI 1.27,9.84, p<.05). Human relations were also affected by the emphasis on communication, consultation with supervisory staff members, having opportunities for meetings, having friends with whom to confer, and publicity through public relations magazines. Conclusion: Satisfaction levels of volunteers in meal delivery services for the elderly were most affected by human relations with fellow volunteers, meal service users, and professional staff members. Increasing opportunities for communication may be important to promote good human relationships among volunteers and volunteer activities. [source] Inclusive fitness in human relationshipsBIOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY, Issue 1 2009J. PHILIPPE RUSHTON For Homo sapiens, inclusive fitness theory goes well beyond ,kin'. As William Hamilton hypothesized, genes can increase the probability of their own survival by bringing about the reproduction of not only family members with whom they share copies, but also of any individuals with whom they share copies. Research with Hamilton's theory on people is less well known and remains controversial. This review shows: (1) spouses and close friends assort on blood groups and that similarity predicts fertility; (2) twin and adoption studies find genes rather than upbringing cause people to positively assort; (3) phenotype matching is more pronounced on more heritable items within sets of homogeneous traits; (4) bereavement studies find grief is greater following the death of a more similar co-twin or child; (5) studies of face perception find people prefer and trust those who look like them; and (6) DNA variance within and between ethnic groups is equivalent to that within and between families. © 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 96, 8,12. [source] | ||||||||||||||||