The National Carers' Strategy: Recognised, Supported, Empowered 2013

First Annual Progress Report September 2012 РSeptember 2013 The National Carers' Strategy, which was published in 2012, sets the strategic direction for future policies, services and supports provided by Government Departments and agencies for carers. It is a Cross-Departmental Strategy that sets out; This is the first Annual Report on implementation for the period of September 2012 ̢?" September 2013. Download Report

National Carers' Strategy Annual Report 2013

The National Carers' Strategy, which was published in 2012, sets the strategic direction for future policies, services and supports provided by Government Departments and agencies for carers. It is a Cross-Departmental Strategy that sets out; This is the first Annual Report on implementation for the period of September 2012 â?" September 2013.Download the National Carers’ Strategy Annual Report 2013 here

Integration in MASCEM of the Joint Dispatch of Energy and Reserves Provided by Generation and Demand Resources

The provision of reserves in power systems is of great importance in what concerns keeping an adequate and acceptable level of security and reliability. This need for reserves and the way they are defined and dispatched gain increasing importance in the present and future context of smart grids and electricity markets due to their inherent competitive environment. This paper concerns a methodology proposed by the authors, which aims to jointly and optimally dispatch both generation and demand response resources to provide the amounts of reserve required for the system operation. Virtual Power Players are especially important for the aggregation of small size demand response and generation resources. The proposed methodology has been implemented in MASCEM, a multi agent system also developed at the authors’ research center for the simulation of electricity markets.

Interview guide : a guide to interviewing persons with developmental disabilities to obtain information for the development of community based services and supports.

"Funded through a grant from the Illinois Planning Council on Development Disabilities.

Prompt Payments by Government Departments pursuant to Government Decision No. S29296 of May 2009

Prompt Payments by Government Departments pursuant to Government Decision No. S29296 of May 2009 Click here to download PDF 22kb

Memorandum of expenses for work done and materials provided by Messrs. Brown and McDonell

Memorandum of expenses for work done and materials provided by Messrs. Brown and McDonell, contractors for the Port Dalhousie and Thorold Railway to Sept. 1, 1854, signed by S.D. Woodruff, Sept. 2, 1854.

Post-Permanency: An Assessment for Families’ Needs for Services and Supports

This article reports the results of a qualitative study that sought the perspectives of birth parents and adoptive parents following reunification or adoption of children from foster care. Using a participatory action design that actively involved young adults formerly in foster care and parents in the design and implementation of the study, the study focused on the consumers’ perspectives on several issues related to permanency. The article reports findings from interviews with a subset of 27 birth and adoptive families in New York City who were asked about their post-permanency experiences and from interviews with 38 child welfare professionals who were asked to respond to the parents’ perspectives. The article offers directions for child welfare practice and program development.

Report on advisability of coordinating social security coverage and benefits provided by public employee pensions in New York State /

Mode of access: Internet.

CRM : Centro Metalúrgico de Sabadell

El proyecto está basado en la creación de una herramienta para poder gestionar las relaciones que el Centro Metalúrgico de Sabadell tiene con sus clientes. La tarea a desarrollar es un CRM (Custom Relationship Management) para gestionar todos los servicios y ofertas que ofrece el centro con sus clientes, desde cursos impartidos u organizados, consultas que tienen los empleados de los socios, asesoramientos, acciones de los clientes pero también información útil para conocer el estado de acciones comerciales con un cliente, contactos de un socio, así como sus empleados.

Dal Bes ad Urbes: I piani di performance e di trasparenza nelle citta'

Obiettivo del lavoro è quello di legare tra di loro due aspetti che storicamente sono sempre stati scollegati. Il primo è il lungo dibattito sul tema “oltre il PIL”, che prosegue ininterrottamente da circa mezzo secolo. Il secondo riguarda l’utilizzo dei sistemi di misurazione e valutazione della performance nel settore pubblico italiano. Si illustra l’evoluzione del dibattito sul PIL facendo un excursus storico del pensiero critico che si è sviluppato nel corso di circa cinquanta anni analizzando le ragioni assunte dagli studiosi per confutare l’utilizzo del PIL quale misura universale del benessere. Cogliendo questa suggestione l’Istat, in collaborazione con il CNEL, ha avviato un progetto per individuare nuovi indicatori da affiancare al PIL, in grado di misurare il livello non solo della crescita economica, ma anche del benessere sociale e sostenibile, con l’analisi degli indicatori riferiti a 12 domini di benessere individuati. Al progetto Istat-CNEL si è affiancato il progetto UrBES, promosso dall’Istat e dal Coordinamento dei sindaci metropolitani dell’ANCI, che hanno costituito una rete di città metropolitane per sperimentare la misurazione e il confronto sulla base di indicatori di benessere urbano equo e sostenibile, facendo proprio un progetto del Comune di Bologna e di Laboratorio Urbano (Centro di documentazione, ricerca e proposta sulle città), che ha sottoposto a differenti target un questionario on line, i cui risultati, con riferimento alle risposte fornite alle domande aperte, sono stati elaborati attraverso l’utilizzo di Taltac, un software per l’analisi dei testi, al fine di individuare i “profili” dei rispondenti, associando i risultati dell’elaborazione alle variabili strutturali del questionario. Nell’ultima parte i servizi e progetti erogati dal comune di Bologna sono stati associati alle dimensioni UrBES, per valutare l’impatto delle politiche pubbliche sulla qualità della vita e sul benessere dei cittadini, indicando le criticità legate alla mancanza di dati adeguati.

Summary of employment security statistical reports, August 1977.

"This document summarizes the statistical reporting forms and reports required by the United States Employment Service and Unemployment Insurance Service on the services and activities provided by State employment security agencies."

Biogeochemical cycles and biodiversity as key drivers of ecosystem services provided by soils

Soils play a pivotal role in major global biogeochemical cycles (carbon, nutrient and water), while hosting the largest diversity of organisms on land. Because of this, soils deliver fundamental ecosystem services, and management to change a soil process in support of one ecosystem service can either provide co-benefits to other services or can result in trade-offs. In this critical review, we report the state-of-the-art understanding concerning the biogeochemical cycles and biodiversity in soil, and relate these to the provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural ecosystem services which they underpin. We then outline key knowledge gaps and research challenges, before providing recommendations for management activities to support the continued delivery of ecosystem services from soils. We conclude that although there are knowledge gaps that require further research, enough is known to start improving soils globally. The main challenge is in finding ways to share knowledge with soil managers and policy-makers, so that best-practice management can be implemented. A key element of this knowledge sharing must be in raising awareness of the multiple ecosystem services underpinned by soils, and the natural capital they provide. The International Year of Soils in 2015 presents the perfect opportunity to begin a step-change in how we harness scientific knowledge to bring about more sustainable use of soils for a secure global society.

Biogeochemical cycles and biodiversity as key drivers of ecosystem services provided by soils

Soils play a pivotal role in major global biogeochemical cycles (carbon, nutrient, and water), while hosting the largest diversity of organisms on land. Because of this, soils deliver fundamental ecosystem services, and management to change a soil process in support of one ecosystem service can either provide co-benefits to other services or result in trade-offs. In this critical review, we report the state-of-the-art understanding concerning the biogeochemical cycles and biodiversity in soil, and relate these to the provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural ecosystem services which they underpin. We then outline key knowledge gaps and research challenges, before providing recommendations for management activities to support the continued delivery of ecosystem services from soils. We conclude that, although soils are complex, there are still knowledge gaps, and fundamental research is still needed to better understand the relationships between different facets of soils and the array of ecosystem services they underpin, enough is known to implement best practices now. There is a tendency among soil scientists to dwell on the complexity and knowledge gaps rather than to focus on what we do know and how this knowledge can be put to use to improve the delivery of ecosystem services. A significant challenge is to find effective ways to share knowledge with soil managers and policy makers so that best management can be implemented. A key element of this knowledge exchange must be to raise awareness of the ecosystems services underpinned by soils and thus the natural capital they provide. We know enough to start moving in the right direction while we conduct research to fill in our knowledge gaps. The lasting legacy of the International Year of Soils in 2015 should be for soil scientists to work together with policy makers and land managers to put soils at the centre of environmental policy making and land management decisions.

Quantifying and modeling ecosystem services provided by urban greening in cities of the Southern Alps, N Italy

Population growth in urban areas is a world-wide phenomenon. According to a recent United Nations report, over half of the world now lives in cities. Numerous health and environmental issues arise from this unprecedented urbanization. Recent studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of urban green spaces and the role they play in improving both the aesthetics and the quality of life of its residents. In particular, urban green spaces provide ecosystem services such as: urban air quality improvement by removing pollutants that can cause serious health problems, carbon storage, carbon sequestration and climate regulation through shading and evapotranspiration. Furthermore, epidemiological studies with controlled age, sex, marital and socio-economic status, have provided evidence of a positive relationship between green space and the life expectancy of senior citizens. However, there is little information on the role of public green spaces in mid-sized cities in northern Italy. To address this need, a study was conducted to assess the ecosystem services of urban green spaces in the city of Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy. In particular, we quantified the cooling effect of urban trees and the hourly amount of pollution removed by the urban forest. The information was gathered using field data collected through local hourly air pollution readings, tree inventory and simulation models. During the study we quantified pollution removal for ozone, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and particulate matter (<10 microns). We estimated the above ground carbon stored and annually sequestered by the urban forest. Results have been compared to transportation CO2 emissions to determine the CO2 offset potential of urban streetscapes. Furthermore, we assessed commonly used methods for estimating carbon stored and sequestered by urban trees in the city of Bolzano. We also quantified ecosystem disservices such as hourly urban forest volatile organic compound emissions.