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Understanding and dealing with the sources of problems of practice requires learning at both the interpersonal and organisational levels. The means for learning is the ability to engage in conversations that lead to problem clarification and collaborative commitment to change. When these problems are complex and manifest as dilemmas (with tensions between meeting organisational and individual needs) and impact on the quality of learning and teaching, educational leaders who focus on...

Biodiversity plays a decisive role in maintaining the ecological balance of the earth. Towards the end of the 20th century, humankind grew conscious of its unprecedented impact upon natural environments and the danger of exhausting biological resources. Therefore, biodiversity emerged as an environmental issue in the early 1980s, culminating in the Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. At the same time, biological diversity was recognized as an essential...

There is much documented material concerning human thermal comfort from the physiological, adaptive and social convention paradigms. Most of these studies have been conducted on limited-occupancy buildings, such as offices and institutions of higher learning in the northern hemisphere and parts of the ASEAN region; the subjects generally being adults and assumed to be in good health. In contrast, limited work appears to have been carried out in regularly occupied buildings like homes and in...

The pelagic fishes live most part of their life in the surface or subsurface waters. This group exhibits rich species diversity and abundance in the Indian EEZ. Though 240 species constitute the pelagic fisheries along the Indian coast, it is only about 60 species belonging to 8 groups support major fisheries (Table1). During the last decade, pelagic finfishes contributed to 46-56% (average: 51%) of the total marine fish production, of which almost 70% was fished from within the 50 m depth zone

The term ‘remote sensing’ implies feeling from a distance and applies to “the acquisition of information about a portion of the earth’s surface, utilizing instruments operated from a distance”. The term is restricted to the methods that employ electromagnetic energy such as light, heat and radio waves as the means of deflecting and measuring target characteristics. The physical basis of remote sensing is the platforms like aircraft and satellites. Operational types of remote sensing...

The neritic waters along the continental shelf of the Indian EEZ is endowed with a rich abode of demersal finfish resources contributing to about 27.5 % of the total marine landings of the country. The demersal finfishes represented by a total of 23 groups and 71 commercially important species by virtue of their multifarious uses contribute substantially both as a protein supplement and to the revenue generation of the nation. Besides, the island ecosystems of Lakshadweep and Andaman &...

Marine fisheries sector in India plays a significant role in Indian economy and provides livelihood security to about 3.5 million coastal rural folk living in 3200 marine fishing villages. The substantial growth of the sector is due to innovative and efficient fishing practices, government policies, well developed harvest and post-harvest infrastructure and increased demand for marine fish products in the domestic and international markets. The growing demand resulted in fishing effort...

With the development of modern computer technology, a large amount of building energy simulation tools is available in the market. When choosing which simulation tool to use in a project, the user must consider the tool's accuracy and reliability, considering the building information they have at hand, which will serve as input for the tool. This paper presents an approach towards assessing building performance simulation results to actual measurements, using artificial neural networks (ANN)...

Evergreen trees provide temperature sensors with shielding from solar radiation and an elevated location above the snowpack. Sensors were deployed with simple funnel radiation shields in the Sierra Nevada, California, and Rocky Mountains, Colorado. Compared with unaspirated, Gill‐shielded thermistors, inexpensive self‐recording temperature sensors hung in dense stands of trees have less than 0.8°C (0.4°C) mean difference in daily maximum (mean) temperature. In contrast, sensors in sparse and...

The authors conducted a systematic review of the studies of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost because of climate change. The review considered both methodological issues and research results. It found that little is known about DALYs lost because of climate change, except for results based on limited information presented in the World Health Organization (WHO) global-burden-of-disease study in 2002. The measurement of DALYs attributable to climate change presents additional...

The climate in Australia is one of the most variable in the world. Better understanding of this variability and applications of climate risk management are central to profitable and sustainable rural industries. Developments in climate science provide better understanding and forecasting of both between-year El Nino variability and long-term climate change. Climate risk management assesses the possible impacts of climate variability on rural businesses and the options available to mitigate...

The climate in Australia is one of the most variable in the world. Better understanding of this variability and applications of climate risk management are central to profitable and sustainable rural industries. Developments in climate science provide better understanding and forecasting of both between-year El Nino variability and long-term climate change. Climate risk management assesses the possible impacts of climate variability on rural businesses and the options available to mitigate...

In this paper we develop and estimate a model to explain variations in immigration to the United States by source country since the early 1970s. The explanatory variables include ratios to the United States of source country income and education as well as relative inequality. In addition, we incorporate the stock of previous immigrants and a variety of variables representing different dimensions of the immigration quotas set by policy. We use the results to shed light on the impact of...

SUMMARY This work is focused on the evaluation of indoor thermal quality and shows some results of a wider field study in university classrooms. The field study was conducted through physical observations and questionnaires, performed at the same time during the regular lesson time, in a period just before the start of the heating season. The predictions of dissatisfied occupants, based both on Fanger’s heat balance model and on an adaptive approach, were compared to each other. The...

The impact of increasing climatic variability and change are global concerns but in Bangladesh, where large numbers of people are chronically exposed and vulnerable to a range of natural hazards, they are particularly critical. This resource book has been tested and prepared as a reference and guide for further training and capacity building of agricultural extension workers and development professionals to deal with climate change impacts and adaptation, using the example of drought-prone...

With the new European Energy efficiency regulation building are forced to respect restricted standards for energy saving. In the last ten years building envelope has become more important in the overall energy balance, as a dynamic surface able to optimize its performance in relation to different climatic inputs (passive or active). In this sense it will be desirable to manage the necessaries refurbishment actions in the direction of the passive solar gaining, natural cooling and other...

The Heat Stress Index (HSI) is a new, comprehensive summer index that evaluates daily relative stress for locations in United States based on deviations from the norm. The index is based on daily maximum and minimum apparent temperature, cloud cover, cooling degree hours, and consecutive days of extreme heat. The relative nature of the index suggests that the same meteorological conditions in Boston and Atlanta will yield different HSI values, based on the historical frequency of these...