Search

Local energy projects have been associated with several benefits for the local community like social cohesion, economic gains, new skills, and environmental awareness. Yet, there is limited research on whether the projects fulfill their sustainability promises, and how the local community perceive the benefits. This research introduces a novel framework to assess the success of a local renewable energy project based on the perceptions of the local population and the initial ambitions of the projects. Using this framework two innovative local renewable energy projects are assessed; one in Tilos island in Greece and the other in El Hierro in Spain. An online questionnaire was used to assess the impact of the project on people's lives, their overall assessment of the project and their willingness to support similar future initiatives. The data show that the economic benefits are not significant when people assess the project, while on the contrary other factors like the environmental benefits, sense of pride, technical parameters institutional seem to have a greater effect. The environmental and institutional factors are also among the ones that influence people's willingness to support and participate in future projects. Overall, we reveal that the two projects are quite successful in the eyes of the local population and offer good case studies with several implications for policymakers and future initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Welfare reform has been central to UK government policy since 2010. This article compares initial expectations with key outcomes by 2016. The article shows that although the financial savings to the Treasury have been large, they have been rather less than the government first anticipated, mainly because the reduction in spending on incapacity‐related benefits has proved far smaller than expected. The financial losses have also been spread highly unevenly across the country, and the evidence from a pilot study in Scotland suggests that the reforms have had little impact on levels of worklessness. The article concludes that whilst forecasting the financial savings from welfare reform is an inherently uncertain activity, the United Kingdom's reforms should be understood first and foremost as about reducing public spending in the poorest places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Aims: We investigate the relationship between outlet density (of different types) and violence (as measured by police activity) across the North Island of New Zealand, specifically looking at whether the relationships vary spatially.Design and Methods: We use New Zealand data at the census area unit (approximately suburb) level, on police-attended violent incidents and outlet density (by type of outlet), controlling for population density and local social deprivation. We employed geographically weighted regression to obtain both global average and locally specific estimates of the relationships between alcohol outlet density and violence.Result: We find that bar and night club density, and licensed club density (e.g. sports clubs) have statistically significant and positive relationships with violence, with an additional bar or night club is associated with nearly 5.3 additional violent events per year, and an additional licensed club associated with 0.8 additional violent events per year. These relationships do not show significant spatial variation. In contrast, the effects of off-licence density and restaurant/café density do exhibit significant spatial variation. However, the non-varying effects of bar and night club density are larger than the locally specific effects of other outlet types.Discussion and Conclusion: The relationships between outlet density and violence vary significantly across space for off-licences and restaurants/cafés. These results suggest that in order to minimise alcohol-related harms, such as violence, locally specific policy interventions are likely to be necessary. [Cameron MP, Cochrane W, Gordon C, Livingston M. Alcohol outlet density and violence: A geographically weighted regression approach. Drug Alcohol Rev 2016;35:280-288]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background In three former reports, the present team has presented the 1-year outcome of four different treatment procedures handling the edentulous mandible; that is, two-stage and one-stage surgery with turned Brånemark System® ( Nobel Biocare AB, Gothenburg, Sweden) implants ( Group 1 and 2) and one-stage surgery using either 5 or 4 TiUnite™ ( Nobel Biocare AB, Gothenburg, Sweden) implants ( Group 3 and 4). Purpose The aim of the present investigation was to follow up these patients for a period of 5 years with regard to implant/prosthesis cumulative survival rates, marginal bone loss calculations, clinical complications, and results related to age at surgery. Materials and Methods A total of 385 patients, provided with 1,838 implants, were originally included in the four patient groups. All patients received fixed prostheses. The overall majority of patients had each five implants placed. Radiographs were obtained at prosthesis delivery, at the 1 and 5-year follow-up. Results A total of 1,230 implants in 259 patients (67%) were possible to follow up for 5 years. Implant Cumulative Survival Rates ( CSR) in 5 years for Groups 1-4 were 99.7, 97.0, 98.5, and 98.6%. The corresponding prosthesis treatment CSR was 100, 99.3, 98.5, and 98.6%, respectively. Significantly, more patients ( p < .05) lost turned implants after one-stage surgery ( Group 2). Frequency distributions of implants revealed that >1.2 mm bone loss was observed around 75 implants (6.4%). The moderately rough central (midline) implant showed more bone loss than other placed implants ( Group 3; p < .05). The youngest half of included patients at surgery ( Youngest50%; n = 193) presented significantly higher mortality than older patients as well as compared to normal population ( p < .05). Patients in the Younger50% group showed also an association to patients with complete loss of all implants and patients with most implants with obvious bone loss after 5 years. Conclusions All four treatment procedures served well during the 5 years of follow-up and only eight patients (2.1%) were complete failures or showed obvious bone loss (>1.8 mm) at several implants (>2 implants), mostly observed in younger patients. The few complications in relation to implant failure and/or obvious bone loss could be associated to both local impact factors (surface, implant site, surgical protocol) as well as to host response factors (systemic health). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the characteristics of a number of recently established rural tourism co-operatives in Andalucía, southern Spain against the background of the theory of co-operatives as economic organisations. The origins and composition of the co-operatives are examined, their local impact, their policies on employment and remuneration, and their internal management characteristics. Few of the businesses in the sample appear to possess the characteristics of the ‘ideal type’ of co-operative identified in the literature. Although small-scale, beneficial impacts may be identified within their localities, these appear to be no different to those associated with any small business organisation in the rural tourism sector. Furthermore, it is concluded that their prospects for developing genuine alternative forms of employment structures are not strong, partly owing to the circumstances of their foundation and partly because of the very nature of rural tourism itself, where extreme seasonality imposes a very specific labour regime. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]