Rehabilitation of Lake Ontario: the Role of Nutrient Reduction and Food Web Dynamics

1991 ◽  
Vol 48 (8) ◽  
pp. 1574-1580 ◽  
Author(s):  
John H. Hartig ◽  
James F. Kitchell ◽  
Donald Scavia ◽  
Stephen B. Brandt
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
Food Web ◽  
Toxic Substance ◽  
Lake Ontario ◽  
The United States ◽  
Food Web Dynamics ◽  
Food Web Interactions ◽  
The Impact

The Laurentian Great Lakes have a complex history of changes due to eutrophication, invasion of exotic species, and fisheries and phosphorus management practices. Remedial actions have reduced nutrient loadings and enhanced the role of food web interactions in improving water quality. Workshops sponsored through the United States – Canada international Joint Commission have addressed the relative importance of nutrient abatement and/or food web manipulation in affecting water quality trends. Both controls have combined to enhance water clarity in Lake Michigan. Lake Ontario has already exhibited the effects of nutrient controls and may be on the verge of manifesting food web controls. Research and monitoring recommendations to elucidate the effects of nutrient and food web controls include the following: (1) water quality and fisheries agencies must coordinate monitoring activities, standardize techniques, and establish and maintain long-term data sets to evaluate the effects of water quality and fisheries programs separately and together; (2) controlled, mesoscale, whole-system experiments should be performed to quantify rates (e.g. growth, predation, etc.) of food web interactions; and (3) the scientific community should promote research which quantifies the impact of changes in food web dynamics on changes in toxic substance levels in Great Lakes fishes.

The link between coronavirus, anxiety, and religious beliefs in the United States and United Kingdom

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Rigoli
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Stressful Event ◽  
Cultural Implications ◽  
The Impact

Research has shown that stress impacts on people’s religious beliefs. However, several aspects of this effect remain poorly understood, for example regarding the role of prior religiosity and stress-induced anxiety. This paper explores these aspects in the context of the recent coronavirus emergency. The latter has impacted dramatically on many people’s well-being; hence it can be considered a highly stressful event. Through online questionnaires administered to UK and USA citizens professing either Christian faith or no religion, this paper examines the impact of the coronavirus crisis upon common people’s religious beliefs. We found that, following the coronavirus emergency, strong believers reported higher confidence in their religious beliefs while non-believers reported increased scepticism towards religion. Moreover, for strong believers, higher anxiety elicited by the coronavirus threat was associated with increased strengthening of religious beliefs. Conversely, for non-believers, higher anxiety elicited by the coronavirus thereat was associated with increased scepticism towards religious beliefs. These observations are consistent with the notion that stress-induced anxiety enhances support for the ideology already embraced before a stressful event occurs. This study sheds light on the psychological and cultural implications of the coronavirus crisis, which represents one of the most serious health emergencies in recent times.

Situational Breakdowns

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Nassauer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Outcomes ◽  
Dynamic Processes ◽  
Collective Decisions ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Impact

This book provides an account of how and why routine interactions break down and how such situational breakdowns lead to protest violence and other types of surprising social outcomes. It takes a close-up look at the dynamic processes of how situations unfold and compares their role to that of motivations, strategies, and other contextual factors. The book discusses factors that can draw us into violent situations and describes how and why we make uncommon individual and collective decisions. Covering different types of surprise outcomes from protest marches and uprisings turning violent to robbers failing to rob a store at gunpoint, it shows how unfolding situations can override our motivations and strategies and how emotions and culture, as well as rational thinking, still play a part in these events. The first chapters study protest violence in Germany and the United States from 1960 until 2010, taking a detailed look at what happens between the start of a protest and the eruption of violence or its peaceful conclusion. They compare the impact of such dynamics to the role of police strategies and culture, protesters’ claims and violent motivations, the black bloc and agents provocateurs. The analysis shows how violence is triggered, what determines its intensity, and which measures can avoid its outbreak. The book explores whether we find similar situational patterns leading to surprising outcomes in other types of small- and large-scale events: uprisings turning violent, such as Ferguson in 2014 and Baltimore in 2015, and failed armed store robberies.

Family Influences on Youth Offending

2018 ◽  
pp. 377-403
Author(s):  
Abigail A. Fagan ◽  
Kristen M. Benedini
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Family Environment ◽  
Parenting Practices ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Parental Violence ◽  
Youth Delinquency ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Children’S Exposure

This chapter reviews the degree to which empirical evidence demonstrates that families influence youth delinquency. Because they are most likely to be emphasized in life-course theories, this chapter focuses on parenting practices such as parental warmth and involvement, supervision and discipline of children, and child maltreatment. It also summarizes literature examining the role of children's exposure to parental violence, family criminality, and young (teenage) parents in affecting delinquency. Because life-course theories are ideally tested using longitudinal data, which allow examination of, in this case, the impact of parenting practices on children's subsequent behaviors, this chapter focuses on evidence generated from prospective studies conducted in the United States and other countries. It also discusses findings from experimental studies designed to reduce youth substance use and delinquency by improving the family environment.

The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreements

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Langston
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Joint Commission ◽  
International Joint Commission ◽  
International Joint ◽  
The 1960S

By the 1960s, the failures of research and cooperative pragmatism to control Great Lakes pollution were becoming painfully evident. In 1972 Canada and the United States signed the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The agreement was groundbreaking in its focus on cleaning up existing pollution and preventing new pollutants, but the International Joint Commission has no authority to force the two nations to implement recommendations. Therefore, when Canada or the United States refuses to abide by the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (in its various revisions), very little happens in response—besides calls for more research.

scholarly journals Governance and decentralized energy transitions: a comparative case study of three medium-sized cities in Sweden, Canada, and the United States.

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-106
Author(s):  
Martin Boucher
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Energy System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Energy Transitions ◽  
Contextual Understanding ◽  
Energy Projects ◽  
Decentralized Energy ◽  
The Impact

 Aim: This study examines the impact of governance on decentralized energy transitions. Knowledge of how particular jurisdictions and their governance arrangements influence these transitions can help strengthen and contextualize divergent trajectories of decentralized energy transitions and—most importantly—reveal the role of geographical context in policy change. Design: This research gap is addressed in this paper by comparing the uptake of decentralized energy transitions in three cities in three different countries—Luleå (Sweden), Saskatoon (Canada), and Anchorage (United States). The jurisdictions in each city has unique governance contexts pertaining to electric utilities, regulations, public policy, and public acceptance.  By comparing these transitions, this study highlights the governance considerations for decentralized energy transitions and asks how does governance impact decentralized energy transitions in cities? To answer this question, actors within various public, private, and sectoral capacities were interviewed to provide their insights on decentralized energy transitions in each jurisdiction. Conclusion: I present five governance dimensions that impact decentralized energy transitions and explain how these factors can be included to provide a more contextual understanding of patterns of decentralized energy transitions in cities.  Originality: Much of the literature on decentralized energy and cities has focused on project and sectoral level analysis and hasn’t considered the holistic nature of the energy system transition. A particular gap that would help inform a broader understanding is the jurisdictional governance impacts of decentralization energy transitions. Implications of the Research: In practical terms, the results could be used to inform inter-jurisdictional comparisons of decentralization energy projects. Limitations of the Research: Given that there were three case studies, it is not possible to make generalizable claims from the results.  

Language Tests, Language Policy, and Citizenship

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kellie Frost ◽  
Tim McNamara
Keyword(s):  
Immigration Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Language Test ◽  
Immigrant Communities ◽  
Language Tests ◽  
Highly Skilled Migrants ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Changing Role ◽  
Significant Attention

The role of language tests in immigration policy has attracted significant attention in recent years as the disruptive effects of globalisation are felt. Much of the research has focused on the situation in Europe, where societies that were traditionally not countries of immigration now have significant and increasing immigrant communities. Less attention has been paid to countries of immigration such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States, which have sometimes encouraged immigration and have found it easier to embrace various forms of multiculturalism, despite some inevitable tensions. This chapter provides an account of the complex and rapidly changing role that language test scores have played in immigration policies favouring highly skilled migrants in Australia, and draws on Foucault’s discussion of the function of examinations to explore the impact of these changes on the lives of individuals subjected to the policies.

Aged care nurse practitioners in Australia: evidence for the development of their role

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Clark ◽  
Rhian Parker ◽  
Brenton Prosser ◽  
Rachel Davey
Keyword(s):  
Nurse Practitioners ◽  
Nurse Practitioner ◽  
The United States ◽  
Aged Care ◽  
Service Planning ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Ageing Population ◽  
Healthcare Outcomes ◽  
The Impact

Aim To consider evidence surrounding the emerging role of nurse practitioners in Australia with a particular focus on the provision of healthcare to older people. Methods Methods used included keyword, electronic database and bibliographic searches of international literature, as well as review of prominent policy reports in relation to aged care and advanced nursing roles. Results This paper reports on evidence from systematic reviews and international studies that show that nurse practitioners improve healthcare outcomes, particularly for hard to service populations. It also maps out the limited Australian evidence on the impact of nurse practitioners’ care in aged care settings. Conclusions If Australia is to meet the health needs of its ageing population, more evidence on the effectiveness, economic viability and sustainability of models of care, including those utilising nurse practitioners, is required. What is known about the topic? Australia, like many industrialised countries, faces unprecedented challenges in the provision of health services to an ageing population. Attempts to respond to these challenges have resulted in changing models of healthcare and shifting professional boundaries, including the development of advance practice roles for nurses. One such role is that of the nurse practitioner. There is international evidence that nurse practitioners provide high-quality healthcare. Despite being established in the United States for nearly 50 years, nurse practitioners are a relatively recent addition to the Australian health workforce. What does this paper add? This paper positions a current Australian evaluation of nurse practitioners in aged care against the background of the development of the role of nurse practitioners internationally, evidence for the effectiveness of the role, and evidence for nurse practitioners in aged care. Recent legislative changes in Australia now mean that private nurse practitioner roles can be fully implemented and hence evaluated. In the face of the increasing demands of an ageing population, the paper highlights limitations in current Australian evidence for nurse practitioners in aged care and identifies the importance of a national evaluation to begin to address these limitations. What are the implications for practitioners? The success of future healthcare planning and policy depends on implementing effective initiatives to address the needs of older Australians. Mapping the terrain of contemporary evidence for nurse practitioners highlights the need for more research into nurse practitioner roles and their effectiveness across Australia. Understanding the boundaries and limitations to current evidence is relevant for all involved with health service planning and delivery.

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