Home  About us  Contact
 

Wider Region (wider + region)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences42%
Earth and Environmental Science28%

Selected Abstracts

Archaeological evidence for destructive earthquakes in Sicily between 400 B.C. and A.D. 600

GEOARCHAEOLOGY: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 2 2009
Carla Bottari
A systematic archaeoseismological study indicates that at least three earthquakes occurred between 400 B.C. and A.D. 600, causing destruction to numerous ancient monuments in Sicily. Evidence for these earthquakes comes from the collapse style of buildings (toppled walls, column drums in a domino-style arrangement, directional collapses, etc.), and the exclusion of other likely causes for such effects. Dating of inferred earthquakes is based on coins (accurate to within 5,10 years), pottery (accurate to within 50,200 years), and other artifacts. The oldest documented earthquake occurred between 370 and 300 B.C. and caused the collapse of two Greek temples in Selinunte. This otherwise poorly documented event was probably also the cause of extensive destruction in northeastern Sicily in the first century A.D. Destruction of some sites may be assigned to an earthquake that occurred between 360 and 374 and correlates with the A.D. 365 seismic sequence known from historical sources. This study covers a wider region and provides a more precise dating of earthquakes than previous studies. Although it focuses on a certain period (4th,3rd centuries B.C., 4th,7th centuries A.D.), it indicates that the period before A.D. 1000 is not a period of seismic quiescence in Sicily as was previously believed, but to a period characterized by strong and destructive earthquakes. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

Caribbean Children's Geographies: A Case Study of Jamaica

GEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2007
Therese Ferguson
Understanding children's lives within the various spaces, places, and environments they inhabit is critical to making their worlds safer, facilitating their participatory roles in society, and implementing policies relevant to their realities. While the children's geographies scholarship is rapidly growing, much of the research is still centred on children in the ,West', with less focus on those in developing countries. Within the Third World, the Caribbean itself is slightly marginalised. This article uses the island-nation of Jamaica as a case study within the Caribbean region, examining some of the areas of interest in research on children's environments, and reflecting upon progress made in the range of methodological and theoretical approaches brought to the research agenda. It suggests prospective directions for future research to further a critical approach to this expanding field, both within Jamaica and the wider region. It ends by briefly raising some ethical issues for consideration, arising from advancing a research agenda with children at its fore. [source]

The nature and extent of landscape change under land resettlement programmes in Zimbabwe

LAND DEGRADATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 5 2006
J. A. Elliott
Abstract Issues of land and further resettlement are central within the inter related crises that Zimbabwe is currently understood to be experiencing. This paper presents objective data that has not been available to date, concerning the landscape outcomes of the resettlement programme in Zimbabwe as it was implemented in the first two decades after independence. Sequential aerial photograph interpretation and GIS techniques are used to document and explore spatial patterns of resource use, landscape structure and change. Based on 21 resettlement villages across three scheme areas, the analysis explicitly considers the role of national drivers (of the relatively consistent policy and procedures during that time), of agro-ecology and of multidirectional transformations at the village level to raise understanding of these outcomes. The implications of these findings and the value of the methodological techniques for the design and monitoring of further resettlement in the country and the wider region are suggested. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Moving lives: migration and livelihoods in the Lao PDR

POPULATION, SPACE AND PLACE (PREVIOUSLY:-INT JOURNAL OF POPULATION GEOGRAPHY), Issue 3 2007
Jonathan Rigg
Abstract Laos is one of the poorest and most ,rural' countries in the world. Yet there is evidence of heightened levels of mobility as the country is drawn into the wider mainland southeast Asian region. Mobility is becoming increasingly important in supporting and defining livelihoods for some households and villages. The paper reviews the evidence for growing levels of mobility in Laos and, drawing on the experience of the wider region, reflects upon the implications of this for source communities in terms of economy and society. The paper highlights the shifting nature of the meaning of mobility for migrants and, therefore, for villages of origin and those ,left behind'. The paper proposes that rather than searching out hard-and-fast views of migration and its impacts, the focus should be on 14 identified questions or lines of influence. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Bang-Bang solution of nonlinear time-optimal control problems using a semi-exhaustivesearch

THE CANADIAN JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, Issue 1 2001
Yash P. GuptaArticle first published online: 27 MAR 200
Abstract At times, the objective is to seek a bang-bang control policy for nonlinear time-optimal control problems. The usefulness of iterative dynamic programming (IDP) has been shown in the literature for solving such problems. However, the convergence to the optimal solution has been obtained from about 50% of the guessed values near the optimum. In this paper, we present a semiexhaustive search method for seeking such solutions and a comparison is made with the IDP. The results show that the convergence can be obtained from a significantly higher number of guessed values chosen over a much wider region around the optimum. Dans certains cas, l'objectif est de chercher une méthode de contr,le bang-bang pour les problèmes de contr,le optimal en temps non linéaire. L'utilité de la programmation dynamique itérative (IDP) a été illustrée dans la littérature scientifique dans le but de résoudre de tels problèmes. Toutefois, la convergence de la solution optimale a été obtenue à environ 50% des valeurs estimées près de l'optimum. Dans cet article, on présente une méthode de recherche semi-exhaustive pour la recherche de telles solutions et une comparaison est faite avec l'IDP. Les résultats montrent que la convergence peut ,tre obtenue à partir d'un nombre beaucoup plus grand de valeurs estimées dans une région beaucoup plus large autour de l'optimum. [source]

ASEAN in the Asia Pacific: Central or Peripheral?

ASIAN POLITICS AND POLICY, Issue 4 2010
Julio Santiago Amador III
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is an enduring regional organization in the Asia Pacific. However, its claim of being central to any talks on regional architecture is challenged by a multiplicity of external and internal factors. This article assesses ASEAN's centrality by looking into the possible challenges facing it, which inevitably affect its claim to be the central organization in managing the direction of the wider region. It then offers possible ways forward so that ASEAN can retain its leadership and prove to be a credible driver for regional cooperation. [source]

Case ascertainment and estimated incidence of drug-induced long-QT syndrome: study in Southwest France

BRITISH JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY, Issue 3 2008
Mariam Molokhia
WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THIS SUBJECT , Drug-induced long-QT syndrome (LQTS) is a potentially fatal condition that has led to a number of postmarketing withdrawals in recent years. , However, many cases may not survive long enough to reach hospital, and only a small proportion are reported to pharmacovigilance agencies. , The extent to which genetic determinants of susceptibility to LQTS are specific to particular drugs, or common to several classes of drug, remains to be determined. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS , We estimated population prevalence of drug-induced LQTS in the Midi-Pyrenees region, southwest France, using five different institutions and assessed feasibility of tracing potential cases (in addition to pharmacovigilance data), using hospital data and rigorous case definition. , These methods can be adapted to a wider region, used to augment pharmacovigilance reporting, and offer researchers the opportunity to study genetic susceptibility to drug-induced LQTS. AIMS The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence and reporting rate of drug-induced long-QT syndrome (LQTS) in France [defined by evidence of torsades de pointes (TdP), QT prolongation and exposure to a relevant drug] and to assess feasibility of case collection for drug-induced LQTS. METHODS A retrospective population-based study was carried out in Southwest France in five institutions: three main hospitals, one private clinic and one cardiac emergency unit, searched from 1 January 1999 to 1 January 2005 (population coverage of 614 000). The study population consisted of 861 cases with International Classification of Diseases-10 diagnostic codes for ventricular tachycardia (I147.2), ventricular fibrillation (I149.0) and sudden cardiac death (I146.1) from hospital discharge summaries, supplemented by cases reported to national or regional pharmacovigilance systems, and voluntary reporting by physicians, validated according to internationally defined criteria for drug-induced LQTS. RESULTS Of 861 patients coded with arrhythmias or sudden cardiac death, there were 40 confirmed surviving acquired cases of drug-induced LQTS. We estimated that the incidence of those who survive to reach hospital drug-induced LQTS is approximately 10.9 per million annually in France (95% confidence interval 7.8, 14.8). CONCLUSIONS Many cases of drug-induced LQTS may not survive before they reach hospital, as the reporting rate for drug-induced LQTS identified through the cardiology records and also reported to pharmacovigilance systems for the Midi-Pyrenees area is 3/40 (7.5%). Using the methods outlined it is possible to assemble cases to study genetic susceptibility to drug-induced LQTS and adapt these methods more widely. [source]