Suchergebnisse

2014 Spring. ; Multi-actor and multi-level processes characterize contemporary environmental governance where a multiplicity of actors and modes of governance are operating in diverse and overlapping spheres of authority. No fixed spatial or temporal level is appropriate for governing ecosystems and their services sustainably, effectively, and equitably. Rather, ecological processes interact across a range of spatial scales, which has led to an increased interest in the way networks operate and govern environmental processes across landscapes. These governance schemes involve communication and coordinated action by federal, state, and local agencies working with private landowners, nonprofit organizations, and industry. They involve multiple, interconnected issues within contexts that are complex, dynamic, and involve uncertainties. Working across multiple levels reveals governance and coordination challenges that often outstrip capacities, structures, and decision-making processes of the individuals or organizations involved. The processes of initiating multi-actor governance is not politically neutral, nor does it exist in a vacuum. It rather reflects competing interpretations of the appropriate distribution of power in a network and how information and knowledge are created and acted upon for environmental governance. Through this dissertation, I maintain that making progress towards these challenges requires a concerted effort and focus on the role of community-based conservation within the broader and emerging cross-scale networks of environmental governance. These cross-scale networks of landscape governance can either strengthen the role of community-based natural resource management or undermine them. To this end, my dissertation entitled: "Is there an Heir Apparent to the Crown? A More Informed Understanding of Connectivity and Networked Environmental Governance in the Crown of the Continent" uses social network analysis and qualitative interviews to explain the mechanisms that nurture cross-scale linkages that enhance collaborative community capacity in environmental governance. Building on a fundamental premise of landscape conservation, ecological connectivity, I develop three conceptual ideas in this dissertation: that social connectivity is a necessary prerequisite for network governance and landscape-scale conservation. Social connectivity includes concepts of social networks and is concerned with how information flows between individuals and organizations. Discourse connectivity is that crucial next step that links the social and the ecological together through a process of narrative and problem framing. Finally, I develop the idea of assemblage connectivity. The interest here is how the previous three concepts (ecological, social, and discourse) catalyze the conditions for cross-scale conservation that strengthens the role of community-based natural resource management. This framework is then applied across three empirical issue 'case-studies', invasive species management, grizzly bear conservation, and climate adaptation.

40 pages ; Over the past century, wildland fire management has been core to the mission of federal land management agencies. In recent decades, however, federal spending on wildfire suppression has increased dramatically; suppression spending that on average accounted for less than 20 percent of the USFS's discretionary funds prior to 2000 had grown to 43 percent of discretionary funds by 2008 (USDA 2009), and 51 percent in 2014 (USDA 2014). Rising suppression costs have created budgetary shortfalls and conflict as money "borrowed" from other budgets often cannot be paid back in full, and resources for other program areas and missions are subsumed by suppression expenditures. Significant policy making over the past 15 years has been designed, at least in part, to address these issues and temper wildfire costs. Effective political efforts and strategies to control public spending on suppression rely on a thorough and comprehensive understanding of the drivers of suppression costs and recent trends. ; Funding for this publication was provided by the Joint Fire Sciences Program.

BackgroundThe perceptions of individuals with Down syndrome are conspicuously absent in discussions about the use of prenatal testing.MethodEight individuals with Down syndrome were interviewed about their views and experience of the topic of prenatal testing.ResultsInterpretative phenomenological analysis revealed two major themes with subthemes: (1) a devalued condition and a valued life and (2) a question of 'want?' Foucauldian discourse analysis highlighted two main discursive practices: (i) social deviance and (ii) tragedy and catastrophe of the birth of a baby with Down syndrome.ConclusionsThe findings suggest that individuals with intellectual disabilities can make a valuable contribution to discussions surrounding the use of prenatal testing. Implications for clinical practice include the use of information about Down syndrome given to prospective parents, and the possible psychological impact of prenatal testing practices on individuals with Down syndrome.

22 pages ; The U.S. Forest Service is facing unprecedented challenges in wildfire suppression, and increasingly depends on private wildfire suppression to bolster capacity for direct attack resources, such as aerial resources, firefighter hand crews and other equipment. The processes and procedures employed for contracting such resources are complex and can be difficult to follow and understand. The purpose of this paper is to provide a clear and step-wise presentation of the private contracting system for wildfire suppression on federal lands, highlighting the key actors, actions, policies and procedures used throughout. ; This study was made possible by funding from the Joint Fire Sciences Program.

This article discusses the influence of family structure on children's use of mental health services and explores whether a family's dependency on government assistance compensates for the effect of family income on children's use of services. Children in nontraditional families are at greater risk of using mental health services and have more mental health visits. Family participation in government subsidies programs offsets the influence of family income on the use of mental health services.

Building on Hobfoll's conservation of resources model, we examine the interaction of different dimensions of supervisor's support and work-family conflict on employee's burnout. Data was gathered via self-administered questionnaires from a sample of human resource management professionals in Canada, and the hypotheses were verified using structural equation models. Results suggest first, that supervisor's emotional support moderates the negative impact of work-family conflict on subordinate's burnout. Second, that supervisor's instrumental support mediates the effect of two forms of work-family conflicts (work interfering on family and vice versa) on subordinate's individual performance. And third, that supervisor's emotional support reduces employee's depersonalization