Research on policies and institutions to support small and medium scale enterprise in the Caribbean: Trinidad adn Tobago report

The Government of Trinidad and Tobago continues to provide support to SMEs in order to enhance their international competitiveness. The increasing effects of globalization and the reality of several trade agreements require that local businesses attain and maintain a level of competitiveness which ensures their continued survival and growth. This report examines in detail the policy environment within which these enterprises operate. It also examines the role of the key implementing agencies such as the BDC and NEDCO for government’s policy on the sector and also the role of the respective line ministries. These organizations strive to deliver value added technical, financial and export promotion services to its clients on a subsidised basis. The services offered reflect five key business areas such as financing, training, technical assistance, trade assistance, business re-engineering, project management and export promotion. In the case of the BDC its services target six sectors: food and beverage, metal processing, leisure marine, including yachting, information and communication technology/electronics, printing and packaging and entertainment. These said sectors are identified by the government, on the basis of a study which was done by TIDCO, for the promotion of a cluster development strategy. In the case of NEDCO it targets the following sectors: art and craft, food and beverages, fashion and fashion accessories, culture and ecotourism, bed and breakfast operations, indigenous entertainment and light manufacturing.

Role of the lateral parabrachial nucleus in the control of sodium appetite

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Dinâmica da secreção de néctar em Zeyheria montana Mart. (Bignoniaceae) relacionada à atividade dos beija-fores polinizadores

The Cerrado is home to important biodiversity areas in the state of Sao Paulo. Therefore, research on the reproduction of species of this biome are essential to help conservation programs. Pollination is the main mechanism by which outcrossing plants perpetuate their populations, and the attractive, such as nectar, are of vital importance to many anthophilous animals and essential to the maintenance of interactions with pollinators. In this context, the objective of this study was to investigate the ecological dynamics of secretion and sugar composition of floral nectar in Zeyheria montana, an ornithophilous exclusive Cerrado species, visited preferentially by Colibri serrirostris, also exclusive to this biome. This dynamic was assessed in isolated flowers in pre-anthesis, using microsyringes to collect nectar and manual refractometer to measure the concentration. Experiments were carried out to evaluate production throughout anthesis, including the assessment of total daily production, the effect of successive removal, the rate of production during the day and night and changes in concentration and composition of sugars, which was performed in HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography). The rate of nectar production was about three times greater at night with a concentration two times lower, resulting in a supply of large amounts of dilute nectar in the early morning hours, peak of visitation for hummingbirds. Moreover, the production of nectar was more pronounced before the anthesis, and is available to visitors already in newly opened flowers, which are preferentially visited by C. serrirostris. There was an increase in the nectar production of flowers in the group with successive manual removal upon the control group, suggesting that the withdrawal by visitors stimulates the production, ensuring the availability of the resource including flowers previously visited... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

The sustainability of ethanol production from sugarcane

The rapid expansion of ethanol production from sugarcane in Brazil has raised a number of questions regarding its negative consequences and sustainability. Positive impacts are the elimination of lead compounds from gasoline and the reduction of noxious emissions. There is also the reduction of CO2 emissions, since sugarcane ethanol requires only a small amount of fossil fuels for its production, being thus a renewable fuel. These positive impacts are particularly noticeable in the air quality improvement of metropolitan areas but also in rural areas where mechanized harvesting of green cane is being introduced, eliminating the burning of sugarcane. Negative impacts such as future large-scale ethanol production from sugarcane might lead to the destruction or damage of high-biodiversity areas, deforestation, degradation or damaging of soils through the use of chemicals and soil decarbonization, water resources contamination or depletion, competition between food and fuel production decreasing food security and a worsening of labor conditions on the fields. These questions are discussed here, with the purpose of clarifying the sustainability aspects of ethanol production from sugarcane mainly in Sao Paulo State, where more than 60% of Brazil`s sugarcane plantations are located and are responsible for 62% of ethanol production. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Air pollution and health: bridging the gap from sources to health outcomes: conference summary

Air Pollution and Health: Bridging the Gap from Sources to Health Outcomes, an international specialty conference sponsored by the American Association for Aerosol Research, was held to address key uncertainties in our understanding of adverse health effects related to air pollution and to integrate and disseminate results from recent scientific studies that cut across a range of air pollution-related disciplines. The Conference addressed the science of air pollution and health within a multipollutant framework (herein "multipollutant" refers to gases and particulate matter mass, components, and physical properties), focusing on five key science areas: sources, atmospheric sciences, exposure, dose, and health effects. Eight key policy-relevant science questions integrated across various parts of the five science areas and a ninth question regarding findings that provide policy-relevant insights served as the framework for the meeting. Results synthesized from this Conference provide new evidence, reaffirm past findings, and offer guidance for future research efforts that will continue to incrementally advance the science required for reducing uncertainties in linking sources, air pollutants, human exposure, and health effects. This paper summarizes the Conference findings organized around the science questions. A number of key points emerged from the Conference findings. First, there is a need for greater focus on multipollutant science and management approaches that include more direct studies of the mixture of pollutants from sources with an emphasis on health studies at ambient concentrations. Further, a number of research groups reaffirmed a need for better understanding of biological mechanisms and apparent associations of various health effects with components of particulate matter (PM), such as elemental carbon, certain organic species, ultrafine particles, and certain trace elements such as Ni, V, and Fe(II), as well as some gaseous pollutants. Although much debate continues in this area, generation of reactive oxygen species induced by these and other species present in air pollution and the resulting oxidative stress and inflammation were reiterated as key pathways leading to respiratory and cardiovascular outcomes. The Conference also underscored significant advances in understanding the susceptibility of populations, including the role of genetics and epigenetics and the influence of socioeconomic and other confounding factors and their synergistic interactions with air pollutants. Participants also pointed out that short-and long-term intervention episodes that reduce pollution from sources and improve air quality continue to indicate that when pollution decreases so do reported adverse health effects. In the limited number of cases where specific sources or PM2.5 species were included in investigations, specific species are often associated with the decrease in effects. Other recent advances for improved exposure estimates for epidemiological studies included using new technologies such as microsensors combined with cell phone and integrated into real-time communications, hybrid air quality modeling such as combined receptor-and emission-based models, and surface observations used with remote sensing such as satellite data.

Travel time and speed of gray whales and amphipod abundance along Chukotka Peninsula in 2006

The purpose of this study was to evaluate summer and fall residency and habitat selection by gray whales, Eschrichtius robustus, together with the biomass of benthic amphipod prey on the coastal feeding grounds along the Chukotka Peninsula. Thirteen gray whales were instrumented with satellite transmitters in September 2006 near the Chukotka Peninsula, Russia. Nine transmitters provided positions from whales for up to 81 days. The whales travelled within 5 km of the Chukotka coast for most of the period they were tracked with only occasional movements offshore. The average daily travel speeds were 23 km/day (range 9-53 km/day). Four of the whales had daily average travel speeds <1 km/day suggesting strong fidelity to the study area. The area containing 95% of the locations for individual whales during biweekly periods was on average 13,027 km**2 (range 7,097-15,896 km**2). More than 65% of all locations were in water <30 m, and between 45 and 70% of biweekly kernel home ranges were located in depths between 31 and 50 m. Benthic density of amphipods within the Bering Strait at depths <50 m was on average ~54 g wet wt/m**2 in 2006. It is likely that the abundant benthic biomass is more than sufficient forage to support the current gray whale population. The use of satellite telemetry in this study quantifies space use and movement patterns of gray whales along the Chukotka coast and identifies key feeding areas.

Software tool for simulation of aircraft trajectories

New concepts in air navigation have been introduced recently. Among others, are the concepts of trajectory optimization, 4D trajectories, RBT (Reference Business Trajectory), TBO (trajectory based operations), CDA (Continuous Descent Approach) and ACDA (Advanced CDA), conflict resolution, arrival time (AMAN), introduction of new aircraft (UAVs, UASs) in air space, etc. Although some of these concepts are new, the future Air Traffic Management will maintain the four ATM key performance areas such as Safety, Capacity, Efficiency, and Environmental impact. So much, the performance of the ATM system is directly related to the accuracy with which the future evolution of the traffic can be predicted. In this sense, future air traffic management will require a variety of support tools to provide suitable help to users and engineers involved in the air space management. Most of these tools are based on an appropriate trajectory prediction module as main component. Therefore, the purposes of these tools are related with testing and evaluation of any air navigation concept before they become fully operative. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview to the design of a software tool useful to estimate aircraft trajectories adapted to air navigation concepts. Other usage of the tool, like controller design, vertical navigation assessment, procedures validation and hardware and software in the loop are available in the software tool. The paper will show the process followed to design the tool, the software modules needed to perform accurately and the process followed to validate the output data.

Food and nutrition security and the eradication of hunger CELAC 2025: Furthering discussion and regional cooperation

The region of Latin America and the Caribbean can boast a successful track record in the process of eradicating hunger: it is the only region in the world that has halved both the proportion of people who suffer from hunger (the target set in the Millennium Development Goals) and their absolute number (the target set at the World Food Summit of 1996). This publication aims to provide the region’s countries with up-todate and timely information on the status of food and nutrition security; on the role in eradicating hunger played by the different areas such as agriculture, agrifood trade and natural resources management; and on the possibility of successfully addressing the twin burden of malnutrition, in a context where the effects of climate change could threaten the progress achieved in Latin America and the Caribbean thus far. The CELAC Plan for Food and Nutrition Security and the Eradication of Hunger 2025 is a cross-cutting tool for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; and it thus encourages the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean to redouble their efforts to identify key policy areas that will make it possible to speed up and consolidate the process of eradicating hunger and tackle the twin burden of malnutrition in the region, in which overweight and obesity are increasingly adding to that scourge.

Human resource development in the Sultanate of Oman

This study explores the scenario of human resource development (HRD) in the Sultanate of Oman. The investigation was conducted with the help of a questionnaire survey in stateowned enterprises (SOEs). The research findings highlight an increased emphasis on HRD initiatives at a national level in Omani firms. There is a significant degree of awareness among the top managers regarding the benefits of a strategic approach to HRD. Despite all this, the implementation of HRD programmes has not been particularly successful. This is because the state has not been able to develop the skills and competencies of the Omani workforce to the levels required under the sixth national five–year plan. The article makes a number of recommendations in this regard. It also highlights key research areas for further examination.

Computer automation of land evaluation procedures

This study was concerned with the computer automation of land evaluation. This is a broad subject with many issues to be resolved, so the study concentrated on three key problems: knowledge based programming; the integration of spatial information from remote sensing and other sources; and the inclusion of socio-economic information into the land evaluation analysis. Land evaluation and land use planning were considered in the context of overseas projects in the developing world. Knowledge based systems were found to provide significant advantages over conventional programming techniques for some aspects of the land evaluation process. Declarative languages, in particular Prolog, were ideally suited to integration of social information which changes with every situation. Rule-based expert system shells were also found to be suitable for this role, including knowledge acquisition at the interview stage. All the expert system shells examined suffered from very limited constraints to problem size, but new products now overcome this. Inductive expert system shells were useful as a guide to knowledge gaps and possible relationships, but the number of examples required was unrealistic for typical land use planning situations. The accuracy of classified satellite imagery was significantly enhanced by integrating spatial information on soil distribution for Thailand data. Estimates of the rice producing area were substantially improved (30% change in area) by the addition of soil information. Image processing work on Mozambique showed that satellite remote sensing was a useful tool in stratifying vegetation cover at provincial level to identify key development areas, but its full utility could not be realised on typical planning projects, without treatment as part of a complete spatial information system.

Satisfaction with knowledge and competencies:a multi-country study of employers and business graduates

This study critically discusses findings from a research project involving four European countries. The project had two main aims. The first was to develop a systematic procedure for assessing the balance between knowledge and competencies acquired in higher, further and vocational education and the specific needs of the labor market. The second aim was to develop and test a set of meta-level quality indicators aimed at evaluating the linkages between education and employment. The project was designed to address the lack of employer input concerning the requirements of business graduates for successful workplace performance and the need for more specific industry-driven feedback to guide administrative heads at universities and personnel at quality assurance agencies in curriculum development and revision. Approach: The project was distinctive in that it combined different partners from higher education, vocational training, industry and quality assurance. Project partners designed and implemented an innovative approach, based on literature review, qualitative interviews and surveys in the four countries, in order to identify and confirm key knowledge and competency requirements. This study presents this step-by-step approach, as well as survey findings from a sample of 900 business graduates and employers. In addition, it introduces two Partial Least Squares (PLS) path models for predicting satisfaction with work performance and satisfaction with business education. Results: Survey findings revealed that employers were not very confident regarding business graduates’ abilities in key knowledge areas and in key generic competencies. In subsequent analysis, these graduate abilities were tested and identified as important predictors of employers’ satisfaction with graduates’ work performance. Conclusion: The industry-driven approach introduced in this study can serve as a guide to assist different types of educational institutions to better align study programs with changing labor market requirements. Recommendations for curriculum improvement are discussed.

Projections of change in key ecosystem indicators for planning and management of marine protected areas: An example study for European seas

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are widely used as tools to maintain biodiversity, protect habitats and ensure that development is sustainable. If MPAs are to maintain their role into the future it is important for managers to understand how conditions at these sites may change as a result of climate change and other drivers, and this understanding needs to extend beyond temperature to a range of key ecosystem indicators. This case study demonstrates how spatially-aggregated model results for multiple variables can provide useful projections for MPA planners and managers. Conditions in European MPAs have been projected for the 2040s using unmitigated and globally managed scenarios of climate change and river management, and hence high and low emissions of greenhouse gases and riverborne nutrients. The results highlight the vulnerability of potential refuge sites in the north-west Mediterranean and the need for careful monitoring at MPAs to the north and west of the British Isles, which may be affected by changes in Atlantic circulation patterns. The projections also support the need for more MPAs in the eastern Mediterranean and Adriatic Sea, and can inform the selection of sites.

Projections of change in key ecosystem indicators for planning and management of marine protected areas: An example study for European seas

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are widely used as tools to maintain biodiversity, protect habitats and ensure that development is sustainable. If MPAs are to maintain their role into the future it is important for managers to understand how conditions at these sites may change as a result of climate change and other drivers, and this understanding needs to extend beyond temperature to a range of key ecosystem indicators. This case study demonstrates how spatially-aggregated model results for multiple variables can provide useful projections for MPA planners and managers. Conditions in European MPAs have been projected for the 2040s using unmitigated and globally managed scenarios of climate change and river management, and hence high and low emissions of greenhouse gases and riverborne nutrients. The results highlight the vulnerability of potential refuge sites in the north-west Mediterranean and the need for careful monitoring at MPAs to the north and west of the British Isles, which may be affected by changes in Atlantic circulation patterns. The projections also support the need for more MPAs in the eastern Mediterranean and Adriatic Sea, and can inform the selection of sites.

Designing market-based instruments for biodiversity conservation: learning with the Australian experience and evaluating Portugal's potential

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia do Ambiente, perfil Gestão de Sistemas Ambientais

Spatial distribution of trachoma cases in the City of Bauru, State of São Paulo, Brazil, detected in 2006: defining key areas for improvement of health resources

IntroductionThe objective of this study was to analyze the spatial behavior of the occurrence of trachoma cases detected in the City of Bauru, State of São Paulo, Brazil, in 2006 in order to use the information collected to set priority areas for optimization of health resources.Methodsthe trachoma cases identified in 2006 were georeferenced. The data evaluated were: schools where the trachoma cases studied, data from the 2000 Census, census tract, type of housing, water supply conditions, distribution of income and levels of education of household heads. In the Google Earth® software and TerraView® were made descriptive spatial analysis and estimates of the Kernel. Each area was studied by interpolation of the density surfaces exposing events to facilitate to recognize the clusters.ResultsOf the 66 cases detected, only one (1.5%) was not a resident of the city's outskirts. A positive association was detected of trachoma cases and the percentage of heads of household with income below three minimum wages and schooling under eight years of education.ConclusionsThe recognition of the spatial distribution of trachoma cases coincided with the areas of greatest social inequality in Bauru City. The micro-areas identified are those that should be prioritized in the rationalization of health resources. There is the possibility of using the trachoma cases detected as an indicator of performance of micro priority health programs.