Cultural geography. Different encounters, encountering difference

In the first half of this paper it is argued that cultural geography is a dynamic and diverse field that extends well beyond a single branch of human geography. The boundaries between it and other sub-disciplines are often blurred. People have «different» encounters with cultural geography depending on their sub-disciplinary convergences. People also have different encounters with cultural geography depending on where they live and work. «Place matters» in the construction, production and representation of cultural geography. It takes different forms in different places. In the second half of the paper it is argued that as cultural geography continues to encounter «difference» in many guises, four possible future trends are likely: first, it is probable that there will be continued growth in cultural geography; second, there may be mounting recognition that cultural geography needs to be critical offering possibilities for radical critique and reflection; third, cultural geographers are likely to continue with their efforts to think about what, if anything, might lie beyond representation; and finally, cultural geographers are likely to deepen their reflections on the politics of knowledge production leading to more multi-language publishing practices in this area

Project vital: Community revitalization industry report

ViTAL (Vitality Through Active Living) FIJIAN PROJECT The ViTAL project aims to aid in the reduction of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) through investment in the health and well-being of women by increasing the level of participation in physical activity (PA) and health eating across the community. Women are agents of change in families, communities and countries. The ViTAL program aims to support, other community-based programs such as community gardens, healthy cooking classes, healthy cookbooks, walking groups and other ongoing physical activity programs

Heartland Wainuiomata: Rurality to suburbs, black singlets to naughty lingerie

Robyn Longhurst and Carla Wilson enlarge the question of both national identity and gender by investigating the aptly-named Heartland documentary series. They analyse both the series itself and the discourses around it from the book of the series to the press cuttings. In doing so they pinpoint images of nation, masculinity and femininity that are both stable and transgressive and which emerge through the documentaries themselves, their presenter Gamy McCormack and the celebrated Chloe of Wainuiomata

Project ViTAL ViTAL (Vitality Through Active Living) Fijian project

Physical inactivity, along with other lifestyle-related health risk factors such as an unhealthy diet, is becoming increasingly prevalent in developing countries which face rapid economic and social development, urbanization and industrialization. The importance of physical activity as a means of NCD prevention and control is recognized in developing countries, as well as the need for suitable programmes, policies and guidelines. However, the evidence on implementing physical activity interventions in a developing country context is sparse. It is evident from research findings that encouraging participation in health-enhancing physical activity is a public health issue of urgent concern. A healthy revitalised community is one that is concerned about the well-being of the community, protection of the environment and investing into future generations. Research stresses that physical activity interventions carried out in developing countries include strategies to: • raise awareness of the importance and benefits of physical activity among the community, • educate the whole population and/or specific community groups, • conduct local physical activity programmes and initiatives; • build capacity among individuals implementing local physical activity programmes through training of potential programme coordinators; and • create supportive environments that facilitate participation in physical activity

Optimising Age-Replacement and Extended Non-Renewing Warranty Policies in Lifecycle Costing

This paper analyses the life cycle cost of equipment protected by both base and extended warranty policies from a consumer's perspective. We assume that the equipment has two types of failure: minor and catastrophic. A minor failure can be corrected with minimal repair whereas a catastrophic failure can only be removed by a replacement. It is assumed that equipment is maintained at no charge to the consumer during the warranty period, whereas the consumer is fully charged for any maintenance on failures after the extended warranty expires. We formulate the expected life cycle cost of the equipment under a general failure time distribution, and then for special cases we prove that the optimal replacement and extended warranty policies exists where the expected life cycle cost per unit time is minimised. This is examined with numerical examples. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

A method for soil health assessment in the conversion to organic farming

This paper was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference of the Colloquium of Organic Researchers (COR). The regulation for the assessment of the conversion to organic farming establishes the use of soil/produce pollution and the type of agricultural practices as indicators of performance. However, these indicators don’t reflect the complexity of the soil ecosystem and soil health. Therefore, complementary indicators were sought (soil biostructure and field capacity), and a specific three-steps method for the assessment and monitoring of soil health during the conversion process was developed

Policy-relevant research and integrative indicators in the conversion to organic farming

This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference. Council Regulation 2092/91 specifies the general standards for the production methods of organic products in Europe. The criteria for the conversion process assessment, though, are largely defined by the national Certification Bodies. Assessment indicators mostly used are (a) type of agricultural practices (whether within organic standards or not) and (b) pollution in soil or produce. However, the conversion process is complex and its aims go beyond the achievement of soil fertility as indicated by these indicators. Soil health and socio-economic indicators need to be essential elements in the organic farming regulation policy. The research reported here (partial result of a four-years Ph.D. research) applies policy-relevant research to identifying conversion process aims within a systems perspective, as well as integrative indicators to assess and monitor soil health. In this paper, only the research on soil health indicators is shown

UK Foot and Mouth disease: a systemic risk assessment of existing controls

This article details a systemic analysis of the controls in place and possible interventions available to further reduce the risk of a foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in the United Kingdom. Using a research-based network analysis tool, we identify vulnerabilities within the multibarrier control system and their corresponding critical control points (CCPs). CCPs represent opportunities for active intervention that produce the greatest improvement to United Kingdom's resilience to future FMD outbreaks. Using an adapted ‘features, events, and processes’ (FEPs) methodology and network analysis, our results suggest that movements of animals and goods associated with legal activities significantly influence the system's behavior due to their higher frequency and ability to combine and create scenarios of exposure similar in origin to the U.K. FMD outbreaks of 1967/8 and 2001. The systemic risk assessment highlights areas outside of disease control that are relevant to disease spread. Further, it proves to be a powerful tool for demonstrating the need for implementing disease controls that have not previously been part of the system

Determination of renewable energy yield from mixed waste material from the use of novel image analysis methods

Two novel techniques are presented in this study which together aim to provide a system able to determine the renewable energy potential of mixed waste materials. An image analysis tool was applied to two waste samples prepared using known quantities of source-segregated recyclable materials. The technique was used to determine the composition of the wastes, where through the use of waste component properties the biogenic content of the samples was calculated. The percentage renewable energy determined by image analysis for each sample was accurate to within 5% of the actual values calculated. Microwave-based multiple-point imaging (AutoHarvest) was used to demonstrate the ability of such a technique to determine the moisture content of mixed samples. This proof-of-concept experiment was shown to produce moisture measurement accurate to within 10%. Overall, the image analysis tool was able to determine the renewable energy potential of the mixed samples, and the AutoHarvest should enable the net calorific value calculations through the provision of moisture content measurements. The proposed system is suitable for combustion facilities, and enables the operator to understand the renewable energy potential of the waste prior to combustion