Appraisal of water resources in the east central Florida region

The rapidly expanding population and economic growth in the seven counties of the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council as shown in Figure 1, herein called the East Central Florida Region or the Region, has resulted in increasing demands on its water resources. Although there is abundant water in the Region as a whole, the water in some areas of the Region is of unacceptable quality for most uses. As the population increases the demand for water will become much greater and the available supply may be reduced by pollution and increased drainage necessitated by urbanization and other land development- Ground-water supplies can be increased by capturing and storing water underground that now drains to the sea or evaporates from swamp areas. Research is needed, however, to develop artificial-recharge methods that are feasible and which will preserve or improve the quality of water in the aquifer. (PDF contains 57 pages)

Chelmsford College: Full circle – using systems integration to enhance observation, appraisal and CPD

Chelmsford College has created an observation, appraisal and continuing professional development (CPD) cycle by successfully integrating a collection of bespoke web-based systems together within its intranet. Students have benefitted from improved teaching and learning because of the rapid, transparent and thorough cycle of staff being observed, appraised and given appropriate CPD. The College has also saved time and money by being able to use single-source data to schedule observations, appraisals and CPD to individuals' needs.

The lowland dry zone of Sri Lanka: site for study of aquaculture development within farmer-managed irrigation systems and methodology for participatory situation appraisal

The aims of this paper are twofold. Firstly to characterise rural poverty and to give a broad overview of the agro-ecological, climatic and socio-economic conditions in Sri Lanka which shape poverty. Secondly to present the methodology employed to screen suitable field research areas and the techniques subsequently used to carry out Rapid Rural Appraisal in two upper-watersheds villages. Also presented are details of a concurrent stakeholder analysis that aimed to investigate the capacity of secondary stakeholders to promote sustainable aquatic resource development and to invite their participation in the formulation of a participatory research agenda.[PDF contains 58 pages]

Structural Integrity of the Contralesional Hemisphere Predicts Cognitive Impairment in Ischemic Stroke at Three Months

After stroke, white matter integrity can be affected both locally and distally to the primary lesion location. It has been shown that tract disruption in mirror's regions of the contralateral hemisphere is associated with degree of functional impairment. Fourteen patients suffering right hemispheric focal stroke (S) and eighteen healthy controls (HC) underwent Diffusion Weighted Imaging (DWI) and neuropsychological assessment. The stroke patient group was divided into poor (SP; n = 8) and good (SG; n = 6) cognitive recovery groups according to their cognitive improvement from the acute phase (72 hours after stroke) to the subacute phase (3 months post-stroke). Whole-brain DWI data analysis was performed by computing Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) followed by Tract Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS). Assessment of effects was obtained computing the correlation of the projections on TBSS skeleton of Fractional Anisotropy (FA) and Radial Diffusivity (RD) with cognitive test results. Significant decrease of FA was found only in right brain anatomical areas for the S group when compared to the HC group. Analyzed separately, stroke patients with poor cognitive recovery showed additional significant FA decrease in several left hemisphere regions; whereas SG patients showed significant decrease only in the left genu of corpus callosum when compared to the HC. For the SG group, whole brain analysis revealed significant correlation between the performance in the Semantic Fluency test and the FA in the right hemisphere as well as between the performance in the Grooved Pegboard Test (GPT) and theTrail Making Test-part A and the FA in the left hemisphere. For the SP group, correlation analysis revealed significant correlation between the performance in the GPT and the FA in the right hemisphere. Palabras clave