Frontier spaces of vulnerability: Regional change,urbanization, drought and fire hazard in Santarém,Pará, Brazil

Fire hazard is a mounting concern in tropical rainforests of the Brazilian Amazon and has raised awareness within the science community of the links between agricultural fire use, drought and accidental fire. As a result, fire is being addressed as a crisis event with mitigation focused on those who light fires, particularly smallholder agriculturalists. Little attention is paid to the historical and ongoing ways in which Amazon landscapes and peoples have been made more susceptible to fire. Frontier regions of the Brazilian Amazon serve a variety of functions within the larger Brazilian society, including as extractive reserves for economic development, as social safety valves to reduce population pressures, and as areas to support urban regional integration. Each of these functions has impacted frontier environments in ways that create more flammable landscapes and/or shape the vulnerability of people to fire hazard. This paper uses a case study inthe Brazilian Lower Amazon to understand how vulnerability to fire hazard develops. It argues that if fire mitigation remains centered on fire as a crisis event, an understanding of what constitutes frontier spaces of vulnerability, both in landscape and in populations, will be limited.     

The University: An Agent of Social Change?

Can universities be agents of progressive social change? How would we know if a university was acting as an agent of social change? Drawing on four case studies, I raise a number of questions to problematize our understanding of the university as an agent of social change. I outline a number of contributing factors that appear to explain successful cases. I conclude by arguing the relevancy of these cases for larger, and more traditional, sociological projects.     

Women's Changing Attitudes Toward Divorce, 1974–2002: Evidence for an Educational Crossover

This article examines trends in divorce attitudes of young adult women in the United States by educational attainment from 1974 to 2002. Women with 4‐year college degrees, who previously had the most permissive attitudes toward divorce, have become more restrictive in their attitudes toward divorce than high school graduates and women with some college education, whereas women with no high school diplomas have increasingly permissive attitudes toward divorce. We examine this educational crossover in divorce attitudes in the context of variables correlated with women's educational attainment, including family attitudes and religion, income and occupational prestige, and family structure. We conclude that the educational crossover in divorce attitudes is associated most strongly with work and family structure variables.     

Monitoring and evaluation of loveLife's AIDS prevention and advocacy activities in South Africa, 1999–2001

loveLife is the largest effort ever launched in South Africa to change adolescent sexual behaviour with the aim of reducing the rate of HIV infection among 15–20 year olds by 50%, reducing other STIs, and reducing the incidence of teenage pregnancy. loveLife combines high-powered media awareness and education, development of adolescent-friendly reproductive health services, and outreach and support programmes. The 5-year research and evaluation plan includes a multi-year comprehensive observational study, tracking change in a range of behavioural indicators and in sexual health outcomes. In its first 2 years, loveLife reached more than 4 million youth. Sixty-two percent of youth and 59% of their parents/guardians recognize the brand, while the vast majority of parents (97%) and youth (89%) exposed to loveLife, identified loveLife as being positive. Challenges in the next years are the continued roll out of the programme, and the development of institutional support and behaviour change.     

The Role of Cancer Risk in the Regulation of Industrial Pollution

The extent of carcinogen regulation under existing U.S. environmental statutes is assessed by developing measures of the scope and stringency of regulation. While concern about cancer risk has played an important political role in obtaining support for pollution control programs, it has not provided the predominant rationale for most regulatory actions taken to date. Less than 20% of all standards established to limit concentrations of chemicals in various media address carcinogens. Restrictions on chemical use are more frequently based on concerns about noncancer human health or ecological effects. Of the chemicals in commercial use which have been identified as potential human carcinogens on the basis of rodent bioassays, only a small proportion are regulated. There is an inverse relationship between the scope of regulatory coverage and the stringency of regulatory requirements: the largest percentages of identified carcinogens are affected by the least stringent requirements, such as information disclosure. Standards based on de minimis cancer risk levels have been established for only 10% of identified carcinogens and are restricted to one medium: water. Complete bans on use have affected very few chemicals. The general role that carcinogenicity now plays in the regulatory process is not dramatically different from that of other adverse human health effects: if a substance is identified as a hazard, it may eventually be subject to economically achievable and technically feasible restrictions.     

Evaluation of HIV/AIDS peer education projects in Zambia

This 1998 evaluation assessed the peer education programmes of HIV/AIDS projects run by four non-governmental organisations. A mini-case study approach was used and analysis was based on cross-case itemistic variables. The projects were assessed only in terms of immediate developmental outcomes to target groups rather than on long-term impact. The study concluded the following: (1) The projects had raised community awareness of HIV/AIDS; (2) Basic knowledge of HIV/AIDS was for the most part accurate; (3) There was anecdotal evidence of behavioural changes in terms of partner-reduction as reported by the projects, though the evidence was sometimes conflicting; and (4) There was evidence that certain traditional practices, which contributed to the spread of the virus (e.g. sexual cleansing and scarification), were becoming modified over time. The programmes were also instrumental in protecting human rights and enabling people living with HIV/AIDS to maintain human dignity.     

时间如何前进——进化论随笔

中国古代"与时偕行"、"与时俱化"的观念,以取法天地四时的运行为基准,是一种四时循环论的变化观.我党提出的"与时俱进"思想的含义,是随着时代的前进而前进,和随着时代的变化而变化,体现了鲜明的时代创新精神,它的哲学基础是科学进化论.这一特征在语词上通过一个"进"字表达出来.虽然"与时俱进"和"与时俱化"只有一字之差,却体现了本质的超越.同时,这一表述通过对中国古代<易经>、<庄子>等经典的吸收,丰富了自身的思想内涵,也建立,了联接传统与现代的一道桥梁.当然,由于现代时间观念的一维性质,使得人们在批驳"直线进化论"的同时,易于陷入"时间进化论",而时间进化论实际上也是一种直线进化论,这也是需要警醒的.     

基于直接接触凝结理论的汽液两相流升压模型

针对汽液两相流升压装置利用经验模型计算的过程中，仅能对出口压力进行计算，且计算值与实验值有较大误差的弱点，提出了用直接接触凝结（DCC）的理论求解汽液两相流的一维理论模型。计算升压装置的最大出口压力，分析其他参量的变化规律。结果表明，汽液两相流在凝结激波前为泡沫流，在凝结激波后完全凝结成单相水的情况下，升压装置的出口压力达到最大值。     

环境税初探

环境税是解决环境问题的一种重要经济手段。我国环境税收制度在保护环境方面虽然发挥了一定作用，但仍存在不少弊端。为有效发挥环境税的作用，应当在我国现行环境税费制度的基础上，依法确定环境税的纳税人、征税范围、税率、税收优惠等问题，进一步完善我国的环境税收法律制度。