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World Regions (world + regions)
Selected AbstractsMaterials Use Across World RegionsJOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY, Issue 5-6 2008Inevitable Pasts, Possible Futures First page of article [source] Quo Vadis Doctoral Education?EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, Issue 3 2007New European Approaches in the Context of Global Changes The first part of the article provides an overview of the changing policy contexts in Europe and North America in which doctoral education and training are embedded and points out the similarities and differences of the ongoing debates and concerns about doctoral education in the two world regions. The second part provides some insight into the differentiation of motives and purposes of doctoral education which has led to a differentiation of the models for doctoral education based on a clearer distinction between a research and a professional doctorate. In the third part, a number of networks, projects and initiatives concerned with reforming doctoral education are introduced to serve as an illustration of the direction current changes are taking. The last part draws some conclusions, emphasising in particular the fact that knowledge production has become a strategic resource in the emerging knowledge economies and thus an object of policy-making and institutional management. This development tends to lead to a concentration of research and research training in fewer institutions. [source] The effect of smoking on the male excess of bladder cancer: A meta-analysis and geographical analysesINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CANCER, Issue 2 2009Marjolein Hemelt Abstract Smoking is considered the primary risk factor for bladder cancer. Although smoking prevalence and bladder cancer incidence vary around the world, bladder cancer is on average 4 times more common in males than in females. This article describes the observed male,female incidence ratio of bladder cancer for 21 world regions in 2002 and 11 geographical areas during the time period 1970,1997. A meta-analysis, including 34 studies, was performed to ascertain the increased risk for bladder cancer in males and females when smoking. The summary odds ratios (SORs) calculated in the meta-analysis were used to estimate the male,female incidence ratio of bladder cancer that would be expected for hypothetical smoking prevalence scenarios. These expected male,female incidence ratios were compared with the observed ratios to evaluate the role of smoking on the male excess of bladder cancer. The male,female incidence ratio of bladder cancer was higher than expected worldwide and over time, based on a smoking prevalence of 75% in males, 10% in females and an increased risk (SOR) of bladder cancer associated with smoking of 4.23 for males and 1.35 for females, respectively. This implied that, at least in the Western world, smoking can only partially explain the difference in bladder cancer incidence. Consequently, other factors are responsible for the difference in bladder cancer incidence. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Multilevel Anthropogenic Cycles of Copper and Zinc: A Comparative Statistical AnalysisJOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY, Issue 1-2 2006Barbara Reck Contemporary cycles for copper and zinc are coanalyzed with the tools of exploratory data analysis. One-year analyses (circa 1994) are performed at three discrete spatial levels-country (52 countries that comprise essentially all anthropogenic stocks and flows of the two metals), eight world regions, and the planet as a whole-and are completed both in absolute magnitude and in per capita terms. This work constitutes, to our knowledge, the first multiscale, multilevel analysis of anthropogenic resources throughout their life cycles. The results demonstrate that (1) A high degree of correlation exists between country-level copper and country-level zinc rates of fabrication and manufacturing, entry into use, net addition to in-use stocks, discard, and landfilling; (2) Regional-level rates for copper and zinc cycle parameters show the same correlations as exist at country level; (3) On a per capita basis, countries add to in-use stock almost 50% more copper than zinc; (4) The predominant discard streams for copper and zinc at the global level are different for the two metals, and relative rates of different loss processes differ geographically, so that resource recovery policies must be designed from metalspecific and location-specific perspectives; (5)When absolute magnitudes of life-cycle flows are considered, the standard deviations of the data sets decrease from country level to regional level for both copper and zinc, which is not the case for the per capita data sets, where the statistical properties of the dat sets for both metals approach being independent of spatial level, thus providing a basis for predicting unmeasured per capita metal flow behavior. [source] Relationships Between Community Structure of the Intertidal Macroinfauna and Sandy Beach Characteristics Along the Chilean CoastMARINE ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2001Eduardo Jaramillo Abstract. Eight sandy beaches were seasonally sampled along the coast of Chile, from ca. 21 to 42° S (about 3000 km) to study the relationship between community structure of the intertidal macroinfauna and beach characteristics. Sediment samples (0.1 m2, 30 cm deep) were collected (July , September 1998 and December 1998 , January 1999) with plastic cylinders at 15 equally spaced levels along three replicated transects extending from above the drift line to the swash zone. The sediment was sieved through a 1 mm mesh and the organisms collected stored in 5 % formalin. To define beach types, Dean's parameter (,) was calculated from wave heights and periods, and fall velocity of sand particles from the swash zone. Crustaceans (mainly peracarids) were the most diverse group with 14 species, followed by polychaetes with 5 species. The talitrid amphipod Orchestoidea tuberculata, the cirolanid isopods Excirolana braziliensis and E. hirsuticauda and the anomuran decapod Emerita analoga were the most widely distributed and common species. Regression analyses between species richness, abundance and biomass of the whole macroinfauna versus sediment characteristics, beach face slopes and morphodynamic beach states showed no significant relationships. Thus, macroinfaunal community characteristics did not increase linearly from lower intermediate to higher intermediate or dissipative beach states as had been found before in Chile or in other coasts. A comparative analysis with data from sandy beaches of other world regions showed that the number of species inhabiting Chilean sandy beaches was generally lower, whereas total population abundances were generally higher compared with values reported elsewhere. [source] A parasite-driven wedge: infectious diseases may explain language and other biodiversityOIKOS, Issue 9 2008Corey L. Fincher Parasite,host coevolutionary races are spatially variable across species' or human cultural ranges. Assortative sociality, biased toward local conspecifics, and limited dispersal (philopatry) in humans and other organisms can be adaptive through reduced contact with dangerous contagions harbored by distant/non-local conspecifics. These factors can generate cultural or population divergence. Thus, parasites are like a wedge driving groups apart through their effective creation of anticontagion behaviors. If this proposition is correct, then biological diversity should positively correlate with parasite diversity. Here we show that the worldwide distribution of indigenous human language diversity, a form of biodiversity, is strongly, positively related to human parasite diversity indicative of a legacy of parasite-mediated diversification. The significant pattern remains when potential confounds are removed. The pattern too is seen in each of the six world regions and is not confounded by regional differences in their history of colonization and conquest. We hypothesize that variation in limited dispersal and assortative sociality with conspecifics in response to the worldwide spatial variation in pathogen diversity provides a fundamental mechanism of population divergence explaining many important aspects of the geographic patterns of biodiversity. This hypothesis has broad implications for a diversity of research topics including language diversity, cultural evolution, speciation, phylogeny and biogeography. [source] HIV/AIDS and UrbanizationPOPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW, Issue 3 2003Tim Dyson It is well known that levels of HIV prevalence tend to be appreciably higher inurban areas. This article considers the reasons for this and shows that within world regions that are relatively homogeneous with respect to their experience of HIV/AIDS, variation in the level of urbanization corresponds to about one-third of variation in estimated HIV prevalence. Furthermore, for populations in the world's worst-affected area,eastern and southern Africa,there are signs that, partly by differentially raising urban death rates and depressing urban birth rates, HIV/AIDS is slowing the pace of urbanization. Finally, in countries with very high levels of HIV infection and relatively low birth rates, such as in South Africa, the urban sector will soon constitute a "demographic sink",with death rates exceeding birth rates. [source] Life history evolution in a globally invading tephritid: patterns of survival and reproduction in medflies from six world regionsBIOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY, Issue 1 2009ALEXANDROS D. DIAMANTIDIS Comparisons among populations from different localities represent an important tool in the study of evolution. Medflies have colonized many temperate and tropical areas all over the world during the last few centuries. In a common garden environment, we examined whether medfly populations obtained from six global regions [Africa (Kenya), Pacific (Hawaii), Central America (Guatemala), South America (Brazil), Extra-Mediterranean (Portugal) and Mediterranean (Greece)] have evolved different survival and reproductive schedules. Whereas females were either short-lived [life expectancy at eclosion (e0) 48,58 days; Kenya, Hawaii and Guatemala] or long-lived (e0 72,76 days; Greece, Portugal and Brazil], males with one exception (Guatemala) were generally long-lived (e0 106,122 days). Although males universally outlived females in all populations, the longevity gender gap was highly variable (20,58 days). Lifetime fecundity rates were similar among populations. However, large differences were observed in their age-specific reproductive patterns. Short-lived populations mature at earlier ages and allocate more of their resources to reproduction early in life compared with long-lived ones. In all populations, females experienced a post-reproductive lifespan, with this segment being significantly longer in Kenyan flies. Therefore, it seems plausible that medfly populations, inhabiting ecologically diverse habitats, have evolved different life history strategies to cope with local environmental conditions. © 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 97, 106,117. [source] | ||||||||||