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Maps for land cover, deforestation hotspots, and reforestation hotspots in the Chocó-Darien Global Ecoregion at 2002 and 2015 Ecosphere Drivers of forest cover changes in the Chocó-Darien Global Ecoregion of South America J. Camilo Fagua1,2,3*, Jacopo A. Baggio4,, and R. Douglas Ramsey 1 1- RS/GIS laboratory, Department of Wildland Resources and the Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322 USA. 2- School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011 USA. 3- CIAF, Instituto Geográfico Agustín Codazzi, Bogotá DC, Colombia. 4- Department of Political Science and National Center for Integrated Coastal Research, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, 32816, USA. *Corresponding author at: School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems (Building #90), Northern Arizona University, 1295 S. Knoles Dr., Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA. Email: , Camilo.Fagua@nau.com, camilo.fagua@aggiemail.usu.edu I) The files Land_Cover_CGE_2002 and Land_Cover_CGE_2015 quantify the land covers in the Chocó Darien Global Ecoregion of South America at 2002 and 2015. These maps were created using time series of the cloud-free MODIS vegetation index products MOD13Q1 (Terra vegetation indices 16-Day L3 Global 250m) and high spatial resolution imagery (WorldView-2, Quick Bird, Ikonos and GeoEye-1). Random Forest was the algorithm used to build these maps. The validation of these maps resulted in a Kappa of 0.87 (Sd= 0.008). The map codes for Land_Cover_CGE_2002 and Land_Cover_CGE_2015 are: 0) Forest 1) Secondary vegetation 2) Grassland 3) Crops 4) Palm plantation 5) Settlement 6) Water 8) Wetland. II) The files DEFOrestation_hotspots_2002_15 and Reforestation_hotspots_2002_15 identify the areas where deforestation (DEFOrestation_hotspots_2002_15) and reforestation (Reforestation_hotspots_2002_15) transitions were spatially clustered (hotspots). The land cover maps of the Chocó-Darien Global Ecoregion at 2002 and 2015 (Land_Cover_CGE_2002 and Land_Cover_CGE_2015) and ...

The lack of a national comprehensive climate change policy in the United States has prompted cities to take the lead on urban sustainability actions. Extent research has explored various political, socio-economic and institutional factors to explain why some cities pursue sustainability actions and others do not. The role of organized interest groups – particularly business interest groups – is unclear as to whether their involvement correlates with more or less likelihood of sustainability policy adoption. The pluralist nature of the American political system suggests that various organized interests compete to advance their policy positions, and business interest groups have generally been theorized as economically rational profit-maximizers who would presumably oppose environmental regulation. The overall rise in environmental awareness (Yale University and George Mason University, 2017) raises the possibility that business interest groups will support urban sustainability policies, as firm can be profitable while also limiting environmental impacts. This dissertation explores how various types of business interest groups effect the adoption of select urban sustainability policies that regulate the environmental impacts of buildings. My rationale for studying buildings is that urban sustainability is too broad of a concept to get at the nuances of interest group activity occurring in each sector, and distinctive business interest groups participate in urban policy processes depending on what sector is being regulated as many firms only work in one sector (e.g., buildings, transportation, water). Further, urban sustainability research commonly operationalizes business interest groups as one group which assumes a singular profit interest, but not all businesses respond to urban sustainability in the same way. I segment the business interest groups in an attempt to measure the effects of distinctive organized interests within a single industry – the construction industry. I generate sector-specific business ...

In the face of rapid technological change and the creation of ambitious military modernisation programmes, this paper argues that land forces, in managing the relationship between force levels and the adoption of military robotics, must recognise that there are inherent limits to techno-centric force reduction efforts and realise the inefficacy of substituting skilled soldiers with robots. It begins with an overview of how the proper integration of robotics into a military's force structure can improve capability, save lives and potentially reduce costs, but suggests that common accounts of robot utility are exaggerated and endanger the risk assessment processes governing the adoption of said technologies and relevant personnel settings. The paper explores the limits of robotic solutions to military problems, discussing their technical limitations, redundancy and related issues that, when combined with a technico-moral skills degradation problem also detailed within, point to the need to reshape force structures to suit the adoption of robotics while preserving existing levels of human staffing.

This chapter is dedicated to the challenges which the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, fifty years into its existence, faces in a world marked by a globalised economy and rapid technological developments. The author reflects on new diplomatic processes which have emerged through the creation of governmental and non-governmental institutions and on notions such as collaborative, public and cultural diplomacy which have challenged accepted understandings of the role and functions of traditional diplomacy. Barker also explores the fact that international law itself is changing from a system regulating co-existing sovereignties to a possibly fragmented discourse of complex frameworks which themselves challenge the sovereignty paradigm. In this context, he investigates the continued relevance and purpose of the VCDR and gives particular focus to existing mechanisms within the Convention that allow for modified and developed interpretations of the Convention to take account of the changing international world in which contemporary diplomacy operates.

This article deals with the organization of health care in the Roman army, especially in the garrisons stationed in the more remote provinces of the Roman empire. A system of military healthcare was first created during the reign of Augustus. It consisted of various ranks of military physicians (milites medici) and assistants (capsarii and marsi) as well as military hospitals (valetudinaria). These played a major part in the spread of rational medicine over the less civilized parts of the Roman empire.

The dollar value of property losses due to fires, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, lightning, freezes, etc. can be substantial. Federal income tax regulations often provide relief by allowing deductions for losses of both business-use and personal-use property. This fact sheet describes losses to property, the process used to determine if you have a deductible loss, how insurance proceeds and cost share benefits are treated, and how to reconstruct records to document a loss. Examples help explain the rules that apply to property found on the farm including buildings, machinery, livestock, feed, supplies, personal residence and the contents and personal vehicles. A list of related Internal Revenue Publications are included at the end of this fact sheet. These publications provide additional information about disaster losses. A casualty is defined as the damage, destruction, or loss of property resulting from an identifiable event that is sudden, unexpected, or unusual. Therefore, the casualty event must not be gradual or progressive deterioration, an event that is anticipated or intended to occur, or a day to day occurrence from an activity in which the taxpayer is engaged. A deductible loss can occur from a vehicle or equipment accident, earthquake, a fire that was not willfully set by the taxpayer, flood, freeze, lightning, hurricane, tornado, terrorist attack, vandalism, volcanic eruption, or government-ordered demolition or relocation. To determine the extent of a loss, the owner of the property needs to compare the property's condition immediately before and after the event to determine the extent of the loss and whether the amount may be deductible against taxable income. If the damaged property was insured, there may be the possibility of a taxable gain if the insurance reimbursement is greater than the amount of the deductible loss. This article addresses casualties and the information needed to determine whether or not a taxpayer will have a deductible loss or a taxable gain depending upon the type of property that was damaged or destroyed and if it was or was not insured. ; https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/rural_tax/1006/thumbnail.jpg

The Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act 41 of 2003 provides, amongst others matters, for the recognition of kings and queens and the establishment of a Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims to decide on disputes and claims relating to traditional leadership, including kings and queens. The author examines the criteria and procedure for the creation of kingdoms and for identifying the rightful incumbents. During the apartheid years the traditional leadership was manipulated for political purposes. The Act goes a long way towards restoring it to conform to precepts of customary law and custom. The author argues, in essence, that this is easier said than done. It would, he submits, be difficult to dismantle the apartheid structures. It would likewise be difficult to identify the rightful incumbents and to resolve new claims. He suggests that the relevant provisions of the Act be revised to provide more clarity on fundamental principles.

Micro-states illustrate deep changes in the international system obscured by scholars' traditional focus on great powers. Logically, the nature and systemic effects of international anarchy should be most apparent in relation to the smallest and weakest states, and least apparent in relation to great powers. Focusing on micro-states suggests a permissive contemporary international system facilitating the proliferation and survival of states independent of their military and functional capacities. Micro-states' lack of great power allies illustrates the irrelevance of military threats under anarchy, while the presence of an international economic safety net attenuates problems of economic viability. The lack of association between smallness and delegating sovereignty questions functional explanations of hierarchy. Instead, varying micro-states strategies of à la carte hierarchy and selling sovereign prerogatives demonstrate that the current international system presents even its smallest and weakest members with choices rather than imperatives.

This is a critique of the exhibition "Black Mist Burnt Country" which examined the cultural and physical impact on the nuclear tests of the 1950s on the Aboriginal people whose land was appropriated by the British and Australian governments.

The Heritage Foundation and the Fraser Institute measure economic freedom in nations using indices with ten and five indicators respectively. Eight of the Heritage-indicators and four of the Fraser-indicators are about specific types of institutional quality, like rule of law, the protection of property, and the provision of sound money. More of these is considered to denote more economic freedom. Both indices also involve indicators of 'big government', or levels of government activities. More of that is seen to denote less economic freedom. Yet, levels of government spending, consumption, and transfers and subsidies appear to correlate positively with the other indicators related to institutional quality, while this correlation is close to zero for the level of taxation as a percentage of GDP. Using government spending, consumption transfers and subsidies as positive indicators is no alternative, because these levels stand for very different government activities, liberal or less liberal. This means that levels of government activities can better be left out as negative or positive indicators. Thus shortened variants of the indices create a better convergent validity in the measurement of economic freedom, and create higher correlations between economic freedom and alternative types of freedom, and between economic freedom and happiness. The higher correlations indicate a better predictive validity, since they are predictable in view of the findings of previous research and theoretical considerations about the relations between types of freedom, and between freedom and happiness.

Although historical studies on African music date to the twentieth century, particularly idioms that developed in the colonial and postcolonial eras, minimal music research has focused on diasporas within Africa and even fewer studies are concerned with the precolonial era. Yet, music scholars are not the only ones guilty of this omission. In The African Diaspora (1996), Alusine Jalloh explains: "Despite the availability of good studies on trading diasporas in Africa, more research is needed to explore the internal and cross-boundary mercantile activities of ethnic groups with a long history of migration on the continent." Oliver Bakewell's comments in African Diaspora (2008) are also noteworthy: "Ironically, within the growing volume of literature on African diasporas, very little of it is concerned with diasporas whose population is based on the continent. Africa is portrayed as a continent which generates diasporas rather than one in which diasporas can be found." The paucity of music material on diasporas within Africa raises several questions. Why do we ignore precolonial political and cultural constructs that developed on the continent? Is it because of the lack of sources, the complexity of the topic, or the fact that we believe precolonial polities have little to offer the discussion of performance culture or issues (i.e., globalization, identity) of importance today? In my opinion, part of the problem lies in our perception of Africa. Many music researchers do not regard precolonial Africa as a continent with empires, nations, or societies with far-reaching extensions, but instead, as a place with insulated communities and few connections. Because of our focus on discrete, isolated African groups, we do not know why and how musical traditions were dispersed and maintained for hundreds of years nor do we understand the processes that contributed to differences and similarities. Continuing research on African music history begun by Klaus Wachsmann, Kwabena Nketia, and others, in this paper, my primary objective is to explore music and diasporic movements in West Africa during the precolonial era. Specifically, I will address the following: (1) If intra-African diasporas exist, when and how did they form? (2) How are they similar or different from diasporas outside Africa? (3) How has music (in the homeland and host area) been affected by diasporic movements? (4) What can the music of diasporas within Africa during precolonial times tell us about African musicking outside the continent in modern times?