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Same Constraints (same + constraint)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

New Opportunities, Same Constraints: Environmental Protection and China's New Development Path

POLITICS, Issue 2 2008
Thomas R. Johnson
Since coming to power in 2002, China's ,fourth generation' leadership has attempted to steer the country on to a new development path that emphasises environmental protection and resource conservation. This article argues that this has opened up a window of opportunity for China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), long perceived as a weak body, to expand its influence and improve implementation of environmental policies. This article examines two recent SEPA initiatives, green GDP and so-called ,environmental storms', to see to what extent SEPA has been able to achieve these outcomes. It concludes that, although the profile of environmental issues has risen as a result of these two initiatives, they also highlight the difficulties inherent in enforcing better environmental standards in an authoritarian political system. [source]

Optimized management of genetic variability in selected pig populations

JOURNAL OF ANIMAL BREEDING AND GENETICS, Issue 5 2008
J.J. Colleau
Summary Controlling the increase of coancestry and inbreeding coefficients in selected populations is made possible through calculation of the optimal contributions allowed to breeding animals, given the current situation with regard to genetic diversity, and further, through optimal design of matings. The potential of such an approach for pig breeding was tested by retrospective optimization on the French Landrace population in reference to the matings actually carried out during a 21-week test period. The major constraint was that the average overall estimated breeding value (EBV) should be the same as the observed one, for not decreasing short-term genetic gain. Optimizing breeding allocations to boars would have led one to decrease coancestry and inbreeding coefficients by approximately 20%. This decrease would have even increased to approximately 30%, would have replacements and disposals been optimized after accounting for genetic variability, keeping the same constraint of genetic level identical to the observed one. These results showed the potential value, in the future, of completing each periodical calculation of EBVs by optimizations considering genetic variability and of releasing corresponding information to breeders, in order to enhance maintenance of genetic variability. [source]

Ehealth: Market Potential and Business Strategies

JOURNAL OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION, Issue 4 2001
Pamela Whitten
Due to the economic and social priorities afforded health services in the United States, research on new delivery modalities such as the Internet is gaining in popularity. Claims of the Internet's potential range from a promise to revolutionize the fundamental way health care is delivered to a tool for empowering patients through enhanced interaction with providers (Rice, 2001). Even though a great amount of attention has been given to e-health activity, the preponderance of publications to date has focused on the Internet as a source of health information. However important this form of e-health is, this type of service simply does not face the same constraints that must be addressed by those actually delivering health care services or tightly regulated pharmaceutical products. In this paper, we examine e-health by focusing explicitly on the delivery of health care products and services. Our examination of e-health activity is guided by two broad research questions. First, we ask what the potential is for the development of online health care services by examining its potential in major health care service and product sectors. Second, based upon case studies of two online health service firms, we seek to understand the emerging strategies of firms that are attempting to enter the health care market with an entirely online approach. Our examination of current e-health trends, as well as our two case studies, demonstrates the tremendous potential for health-related commercial activity on the Internet. However, our examination of the barriers facing ehealth from the US health system also pointed out the almost insurmountable challenges. We therefore conclude that a "click and mortar" model may perhaps be the optimal strategy for e-health. [source]

Tracking island colonization history and phenotypic shifts in Indian Ocean bulbuls (Hypsipetes: Pycnonotidae)

BIOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY, Issue 3 2005
BEN H. WARREN
Molecular phylogenies of island organisms provide useful systems for testing hypotheses of convergent or parallel evolution, since selectively neutral molecular characters are likely to be independent of phenotype, and the existence of similar environments on multiple isolated islands provides numerous opportunities for populations to evolve independently under the same constraints. Here we construct a phylogenetic hypothesis for Hypsipetes bulbuls of the western Indian Ocean, and use this to test hypotheses of colonization pattern and phenotypic change among islands of the region. Mitochondrial sequence data were collected from all extant taxa of the region, combined with sequence data from relevant lineages in Asia. Data are consistent with a single Hypsipetes colonization of the western Indian Ocean from Asia within the last 2.6 Myr. The expansion of Hypsipetes appears to have occurred rapidly, with descendants found across the breadth of its western Indian Ocean range. The data suggest that a more recent expansion of Hypsipetes madagascariensis from Madagascar led to the colonization of Aldabra and a secondary colonization of the Comoros. Groupings of western Indian Ocean Hypsipetes according to phenotypic similarities do not correspond to mtDNA lineages, suggesting that these similarities have evolved by convergence or parallelism. The direction of phenotypic change cannot be inferred with confidence, since the primary expansion occurred rapidly relative to the rate of mtDNA substitution, and the colonization sequence remains uncertain. However, evidence from biogeography and comparison of independent colonization events are consistent with the persistence of a small grey continental bulbul in India and Madagascar, and multiple independent origins of large size and green plumage in insular island populations of the Comoros, Mascarenes and Seychelles. © 2005 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2005, 85, 271,287. [source]