Suchergebnisse

ABSTRACTSince Dublin hosted the International Conference on Water and the Environment in January 1992, the importance of (a) managing water resources at the most appropriate level, (b) the catchment, and (c) participation have been stated repeatedly at international forums. The developing principles in 'integrated water‐resources management'have built upon these needs. Much effort and resources have been concentrated at the national and transboundary level; however, it is at the local level, in mainly financially resource‐starved countries, that such principles often need to be implemented.This paper examines the progress in the formation of a river‐basin authority, through local initiation and consultation, and with limited resources within the Southern Philippines. It highlights the benefits of the process and the problems which were encountered, and draws together lessons that have a wider application than the case study itself.

AbstractHuman and environmental needs sometimes conflict: the more for the environment, the less for the people and vice versa. Environmental needs include soil water, wetlands, lakes, rivers and estuaries. The paper recognizes that all these aspects must be catered for, but focuses on the flow needs of rivers; in particular, it suggests a method to determine river‐flow targets which are objective, sustainable, integrated with river‐quality characteristics and economically justified. Such targets could help the Environment Agency to balance human and environmental water needs in a rational manner.

BACKGROUND: The interface between primary and secondary care has become a major focus of health policy debate, but the differing perspectives of stakeholders on recent developments in policy and practice have seldom been researched. AIM: To examine stakeholder perspectives on the extent of developments at the primary and secondary care interface, and the barriers and opportunities for future development. METHOD: This qualitative study was based on semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 27 primary and secondary care stakeholders in Southampton and South West Hampshire in 1994. Respondents were asked to identify developments in seven areas: direct access, consultant outreach, shifted services, substituted services, shared care, workload shifts and communication. RESULTS: Key issues were identified relating to the cultures of primary and secondary care, communication and work-load. Most respondents described an important shift in power from consultants to GPs. Although respondents identified several useful developments at the interface, including improvements in communication and increased direct access facilities, there were relatively few reports of shifts in resources and services to primary care. Respondents identified important continuing barriers to change, including the attitudes of consultants and the individualistic culture of GPs. CONCLUSION: Policies to "shift the balance' and to further "a primary care-led NHS (National Health Service)' need to address the cultural and political factors which respondents identified as barriers to primary care development.

Fundamental to complex dynamic systems theory is the assumption that the recursive behavior of complex systems results in the generation of physical forms and dynamic processes that are self-similar and scale-invariant. Such fractal-like structures and the organismic benefit that they engender has been widely noted in physiology, biology, and medicine, yet discussions of the fractal-like nature of language have remained at the level of metaphor in applied linguistics. Motivated by the lack of empirical evidence supporting this assumption, the present study examines the extent to which the use and development of complex syntax in a learner of English as a second language demonstrate the characteristics of self-similarity and scale invariance at nested timescales. Findings suggest that the use and development of syntactic complexity are governed by fractal scaling as the dynamic relationship among the subconstructs of syntax maintain their complexity and variability across multiple temporal scales. Overall, fractal analysis appears to be a fruitful analytic tool when attempting to discern the dynamic relationships among the multiple component parts of complex systems as they interact over time.