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US national security guidance, as well as the US Army's operational experiences since 2001, emphasizes the importance of working closely with partner countries to achieve US strategic objectives. The US Army has introduced the global landpower network (GLN) concept as a means to integrate, sustain and advance the Army's considerable ongoing efforts to meet US national security guidance. This study develops the GLN concept further, and addresses three questions. What benefits can the GLN provide the Army? What are the essential components of the GLN? What options exist for implementing the GLN concept? By developing the GLN concept, the Army has the opportunity to transition the GLN from an often ad hoc and reactive set of relationships to one that the Army more self-consciously prioritizes and leverages as a resource to meet US strategic objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crustaceans are key components of marine ecosystems which, like other exploited marine taxa, show seasonable patterns of distribution and activity, with consequences for their availability to capture by targeted fisheries. Despite concerns over the sustainability of crab fisheries worldwide, difficulties in observing crabs’ behaviour over their annual cycles, and the timings and durations of reproduction, remain poorly understood. From the release of 128 mature female edible crabs tagged with electronic data storage tags (DSTs), we demonstrate predominantly westward migration in the English Channel. Eastern Channel crabs migrated further than western Channel crabs, while crabs released outside the Channel showed little or no migration. Individual migrations were punctuated by a 7-month hiatus, when crabs remained stationary, coincident with the main period of crab spawning and egg incubation. Incubation commenced earlier in the west, from late October onwards, and brooding locations, determined using tidal geolocation, occurred throughout the species range. With an overall return rate of 34%, our results demonstrate that previous reluctance to tag crabs with relatively high-cost DSTs for fear of loss following moulting is unfounded, and that DSTs can generate precise information with regards life-history metrics that would be unachievable using other conventional means. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the role that innovation plays in the transition to a green economy, with special attention paid to the importance of diffusion and transfer of technologies. The article first describes the origins and conceptual foundations of a transition to a green economy, concentrating on the initiative launched by the United Nations Environment Programme, and leading to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012 ( Rio +20). The article then reviews the critical role of innovation in the reconfiguration of the economy's capital stock, leading to a discussion of the roles of both innovation and environmental policy in promoting such technological change. It next discusses the channels for international transfer of technologies and their relationship to the international policy architecture, and proposes that international discussions concerning technology transfer, particularly those related to environmental technologies, have suffered from a lack of coherence in policy positions, based probably on a fundamental misunderstanding of the economic nature of these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To analyze how the dental status of long-term head and neck cancer survivors affects their subjective quality of life.Study Design: Observational case series.Methods: A convenience sample of 5-year head and neck cancer survivors underwent the following battery of tests: 1) targeted head and neck examination, 2) updated medical history, 3) dental evaluation, 4) standardized quality of life questionnaires.Results: Eighty-six survivors were included in the study. The following associations were identified: 1) those who became edentulous secondary to cancer treatment and those without occlusion at time of the study demonstrated worse Pain, Activity, Recreation/Entertainment, Chewing, Swallowing, Speech, Eating in Public, Normalcy of Diet, Physical Well-Being, Social/Family Well-Being, Functional Well-Being, and Additional Concerns scores; 2) higher Decayed/Missing/Filled scores were associated with worse Pain, Disfigurement, Activity, Recreation/Entertainment, Employment, Chewing, Swallowing, Speech, Eating in Public, Understandability of Speech, Normalcy of Diet, Physical Well-Being, Additional Concerns scores, and weight loss; 3) decreased oral opening measurements were associated with worse Chewing, Swallowing, Eating in Public, Normalcy of Diet, Additional Concerns scores, and weight loss; 4) edentulous survivors who did not use dentures had worse Pain, Activity, Recreation/Entertainment, Understandability of Speech, and Eating in Public scores.Conclusions: Although previous studies have shown that many of the effects of cancer treatment disappear between 1 and 3 years, this study shows that the dental status has a persistent impact on subjective quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the links between solid urban waste management and peri-urban agriculture in Bamako, Mali and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Challenges associated with solid waste composition and management; Local initiatives for waste management; Policy issues concerning agriculture.

Technological developments may require a policy response when the potential effects of such technology contribute to unwanted or unpredictable changes. The introduction of genetic modification triggered policy makers to design a framework for risk assessment and release procedures that may be linked to conventional variety release systems (Traynor & Komen, this volume). Often, technological change reaches the policy level only when problems appear after introduction. In some cases, however, discussions can start even before the technology is ready for the market. A good example of the latter is the Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURT), which triggered a very intense debate because of its possible use in the production of 'sterile seeds.' This application was dubbed “terminator technology” in the popular press. GURT is thus an interesting case to analyse the link between technology and policy development. This paper heavily draws upon a study that was prepared by FAO (Visser et al., 2001). This case illustrates that a wide range of concerns and options are linked with one technological development, and that arguments arise from different policy fields. Analysis thus needs a thorough understanding of the individual opportunities and concerns as well as the linked arguments. GURT has received an extremely bad name in the international public debate. Very few, however, have seriously thought about possible policy responses and the tools that are available to the policy makers to implement their decisions. This paper intends to clarify both the complexity of such technological developments and it gives some suggestions about dealing with different concerns in the GURT's case. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Securing food for growing populations while minimizing environmental externalities is becoming a key topic in the current sustainability debate. This is particularly true in the Mediterranean region, which is characterized by scarce natural resources and increasing climate-related impacts. This paper focuses on the pressure Mediterranean people place on the Earth ecosystems because of their food consumption and sourcing patterns and then explores ways in which such pressure can be reduced. To do so, it uses an Ecological-Footprint-Extended Multi-Regional Input-Output (EF-MRIO) approach applied to 15 Mediterranean countries. Results indicate that food consumption is a substantial driver of the region's ecological deficit, whereby demand for renewable resources and ecosystems services outpaces the capacity of its ecosystems to provide them. Portugal, Malta and Greece are found to have the highest per capita food Footprints (1.50, 1.25 and 1.22 global hectares (gha), respectively), while Slovenia, Egypt and Israel have the lowest (0.63, 0.64 and 0.79 gha, respectively). With the exception of France, all Mediterranean countries rely on the biocapacity of foreign countries to satisfy their residents' demand for food. By analyzing the effect of shifting to a calorie-adequate diet or changing dietary patterns, we finally point out that the region's Ecological Footprint – and therefore its ecological deficit – could be reduced by 8% to 10%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crustaceans are key components of marine ecosystems which, like other exploited marine taxa, show seasonable patterns of distribution and activity, with consequences for their availability to capture by targeted fisheries. Despite concerns over the sustainability of crab fisheries worldwide, difficulties in observing crabs' behaviour over their annual cycles, and the timings and durations of reproduction, remain poorly understood. From the release of 128 mature female edible crabs tagged with electronic data storage tags (DSTs), we demonstrate predominantly westward migration in the English Channel. Eastern Channel crabs migrated further than western Channel crabs, while crabs released outside the Channel showed little or no migration. Individual migrations were punctuated by a 7-month hiatus, when crabs remained stationary, coincident with the main period of crab spawning and egg incubation. Incubation commenced earlier in the west, from late October onwards, and brooding locations, determined using tidal geolocation, occurred throughout the species range. With an overall return rate of 34%, our results demonstrate that previous reluctance to tag crabs with relatively high-cost DSTs for fear of loss following moulting is unfounded, and that DSTs can generate precise information with regards life-history metrics that would be unachievable using other conventional means.