Forced Migration,Climate Change,Mitigation and Adaptive Policies in Mexico: Some Functional Relationships

Natural disasters related to hydro-meteorological events have increased during the last few decades, both in frequency and severity. Mexico is heavily exposed to climate change, but has also suffered in the past from climate variability ( Blümel, 2009 ). The new risks oblige the government to develop mitigation processes, while the affected people are implementing strategies of adaptation and resilience-building, mostly at the family and community level. This includes forced migration due to climate change into the slums of megacities or illegal immigration to the United States. The arid, semi-arid and subhumid condition of 49.2 per cent of the territory of Mexico is seriously affected by climate change. In addition, poverty and the lack of jobs have created complex livelihood situations, in which young people leave rural areas, partly due to socio-economic pull factors. In this paper, we address the functional relationships between climate patterns and migration processes in Mexico, highlighting the linkages between the origin of migrants, their economic activity and their vulnerability to extreme events and we discuss long-term climate patterns. Agriculture still uses 78 per cent of the available water in Mexico. In the drylands the competition for water use requires an integrated policy to deal with the new threats from climate change, including mitigation from the top down and adaptation processes from the bottom up to reduce the social vulnerability of the rural population in the highly affected drylands of the central and northern parts of Mexico. The new policy for administering water resources, which promotes the efficient use of an increasingly scarce and polluted resource, still suffers from a lack of participation by the affected rural population. In this paper, we propose an integrated management system from the watershed onwards, involving socio-economic, political, cultural and hydrological variables, to deal with the rising scarcity of water, and the uncertainty and complexity of climate change.     

白洋淀近七十年来“干淀”问题探析

“干淀”是白洋淀水资源不足、水环境变化的重要表征。白洋淀浅碟状的地形决定了其蓄水能力弱、蒸发量大和下渗量大,伴随着气候转干,降雨量减少,加之域内工农业用水量增大、上游水利工程截水量大和地下水超采严重,地表径流量进一步减少,多种因素导致白洋淀在经历了20世纪五六十年代丰水期后,七八十年代入淀水量锐减,“干淀”频现,不得已采取“引水济淀”和“综合治理”,力求解除“干淀”威胁。     

The relational costs of crossing class lines

How do low socioeconomic status students navigate cross-class interactions in extremely unequal contexts? Previous research has described the high costs of college integration for underprivileged students, which in turn, negatively impact academic performance and general wellbeing. These studies tend to concentrate on cultural capital costs, such as catching up with assumed middle-class or elite capital and dealing with two worlds. Less has been said about social capital costs, the costs of making friends, especially more privileged friends. Through 61 in-depth interviews with various types of students as part of a broader ethnographic fieldwork, this article analyses the experiences of low-income scholarship holders in an elite institution in a very unequal society, Colombia. Rather than isolating themselves or resorting to safe homophilic relations, they faced their new elite environment engaging with the hidden relational cost of making friends with more affluent students. In so doing, they had to overcome fears and experiences of discrimination and micro-aggressions, as well as cultural and economic capital barriers, and employed either camouflaging or disclosure strategies, sometimes becoming culturally and socially omnivorous. Symbolic belonging to the institution and the acquisition of middle-class cultural capital were among the benefits that made overcoming the costs worthy. Our results shed light on what institutions can do to reduce the costs for underprivileged students and, theoretically, unveil an important mechanism and barrier for social mobility: building cross-class ties.     

Promoting social innovation amidst organizational complexity: Case study evidence from the German Red Cross

Social innovation is concerned with the creation and implementation of new solutions to social problems. Although research commonly frames social innovation as the domain of small, entrepreneurial organizations, an increasing number of large and well-established nonprofit organizations have started actively launching their own innovation initiatives. Using a case study of social innovation ventures within the German Red Cross (GRC), this study identifies organizational hurdles and viable management strategies targeting the promotion of social innovation within particularly complex organizations. Based on our results, we develop a conceptual framework highlighting that promoting social innovation in established organizations requires simultaneous attention to multiple dimensions of leadership and governance. Our study thereby offers a blueprint for management strategies that can guide nonprofit leaders in their quest to promote social innovation from within their organization.     

高校财务管理课程教学改革

大数据环境下,为了应对财务管理相关岗位职能、工作环境的变化,高校财务管理课程教学也应进行教学改革.该文从教学内容、教学方法与手段、网络课程资源、实践内容、课程考核、教学团队等多个方面对财务管理课程教学改革的手段和方法进行多维度讨论,以培养学生财务分析、财务决策的能力,拓展学生的开放性思维,提高学生解决实际问题和复杂问题...     

基于模糊PID的矿浆预热器液位控制系统设计

针对高压酸浸工艺中矿浆预热器液位控制过程存在的大滞后、非线性、特性变化快等问题,以低温预热器为研究对象对矿浆液位控制进行研究.建立低温预热器液位数学模型,运用模糊PID方法对液位进行控制,采用Matlab平台进行仿真研究.仿真结果表明:模糊PID控制比单纯PID控制鲁棒性强、稳定性和动态性能好.     

Replacement of semi-natural cover with artificial substrates in urban parks causes a decline of house sparrows Passer domesticus in Mediterranean towns

Urban Ecosystems - Many European towns and cities have undergone reurbanisation processes in recent decades. However, their effects on urban biodiversity have been poorly studied. Currently...