Esta investigación está motivada por dos observaciones. En primer lugar, la constatación de que, a pesar de la multiplicación de directivas, leyes e iniciativas, la biodiversidad continúa disminuyendo. En segundo lugar, el reconocimiento de que la biodiversidad articula consideraciones sociales, políticas y científicas. En este marco, la pérdida de biodiversidad requiere de un análisis teórico en tres dimensiones, teniendo en cuenta las cuestiones sociales y éticas (¿cuál es el valor de la biodiversidad?), políticas (¿cuáles son los mecanismos legítimos para proteger la biodiversidad?) y epistemológicas (¿cómo podemos entender la biodiversidad?). Esta tesis presenta una conceptualización de la biodiversidad teniendo en cuenta estos tres niveles. Se discute cómo podemos mejorar la gobernanza de la biodiversidad desde estas tres perspectivas, poniendo así en relieve las bases sociales, políticas y científicas que la humanidad necesita entender y apoyar si quiere tratar de forma efectiva la cuestión de la protección de la biodiversidad. Para responder a esta pregunta, he enfocado mi investigación en las interfaces entre los actores clave de la investigación europea en biodiversidad. Adopto un punto de vista normativo según el cual las investigaciones que incluyen a las partes interesadas son por definición más ‘sociales’. En este contexto, los objectivos de esta tesis son: (i) pasar de un enfoque antropocéntrico basado en las necesidades humanas hacia otro más global y ecosistémico, (ii) poner de relieve las perspectivas que reconocen los procesos politicos de gobernanza de abajo a arriba, (iii) avanzar hacia procesos poliédricos y multidireccionales de producción y transferencia de conocimientos, y (iv) convertir las tensiones y desafios relacionados con la investigación intercultural e interdisciplinaria en oportunidades. Para cumplir estos objetivos, la tesis se apoya en cuatro estudios que valoran críticamente (i) la extensión del Modelo de Desarrollo de Escala Humana hacia lo no-humano como parte del análisis de los conflictos ambientales en el sur de Europa, (ii) dos mecanismos de gobernanza: la participación de los actores no gubernamentales y la producción de escenarios para la planificación ambiental en Europa occidental, (iii) los niveles y formas de involucramiento de los participantes en los proyectos europeos de investigación en biodiversidad (FP6) y el impacto de un enfoque más participativo, y (iv) los retos y oportunidades que surgen cuando nueve estudiantes de Doctorado escriben sus tesis a partir de sus proyectos de investigación interdisciplinarios (GoverNat). Para mejorar la gobernanza de la biodiversidad, propongo una visión holistica de las necesidades humanas y no humanas, reconociendo el valor intrínseco del mundo de los seres vivos (la dimensión social del concepto de biodiversidad, capítulo 1); fortalecer la vida comunitaria presente y futura promoviendo los procesos de toma de decisión colectivos de abajo a arriba (dimensión política del concepto de biodiversidad, capítulo 2); involucrar y compartir las experiencias de las partes interesadas claves, creando redes locales para la co-construcción de un conocimiento común (dimensión científica del concepto de biodiversidad, capítulo 3); y generar las condiciones para permitir la comunicación interdisciplinaria (capitulo 4). Esta tesis ofrece argumentos y herramientas para justificar la protección de la biodiversidad en sus dimensiones social, política y científicas, en un contexto interdisciplinario. Tambièn alimenta el debate sobre el diseño de las políticas públicas. A partir de ahora, necesitamos apoyar un enfoque integrador de la gobernanza basado en las necesidades fundamentales y en el cual el público esté involucrado. Esto permetirá una reflexión inclusiva, permanente pero dinámica sobre las propuestas futuras de políticas ambientales. / This research is underpinned by two observations: despite man-made directives, laws and initiatives, biodiversity is still shrinking; and the very concept of biodiversity combines societal, political and scientific considerations. The challenge of biodiversity loss therefore requires us to consider a three-layered theoretical framework that contains social and ethical (what are the values of biodiversity?), political (what are the legitimate mechanisms by which biodiversity can be protected?) and epistemological questions (how can we understand biodiversity?). In this thesis I develop this three-layered understanding of biodiversity and of the general issue of how we may best improve biodiversity governance from these three viewpoints in order to highlight the social, political and scientific foundations that humanity must understand and support if it is to address the issue of biodiversity protection in an effective way. To respond to this question, I focus on science-stakeholders interfaces in the field of European biodiversity research. I adopt a normative standpoint in which research that includes stakeholders was by definition more ‘social’, integrating human needs and the impact of human activity as fundamentals that should be considered if we are to meet the environmental challenges of the present and the future. In this context, the objectives of this thesis are (i) to shift from an anthropocentric human needs-based approach to a more global and ecosystemic one, (ii) to highlight perspectives that acknowledge the redistribution of state functions towards non-state, and bottom up environmental governance process, (iii) to shift toward multi-faceted, multi-directional process of knowledge production and transfer, and (iv) to turn the tensions and challenges related to interdisciplinary and intercultural research for sustainable development into opportunities. To reach these objectives, the thesis builds on four case studies that cover a critical assessment of (i) the extension of the Human-scale Development model to non-humans in analysing environmental conflict in South Europe, (ii) two mechanisms of governance: the participation of non-state actors and scenario-building for environmental planning in Western Europe, (iii) the level and modalities of stakeholder engagement in EU-funded FP6 biodiversity research projects and the impact of a more participatory approach, and (iv) the challenges and opportunities that arise when nine PhD students set out to write a doctoral dissertation within an interdisciplinary research project (GoverNat). To improve biodiversity governance, I therefore propose a holistic view of human and non-human needs, recognizing the intrinsic value of the living world (i.e. the social dimension of the concept of biodiversity, chapter 1); strengthen community life present and future, encouraging bottom-to-top collective decision-making (i.e. political dimension of the concept of biodiversity, chapter 2); involve and share experiences of key stakeholders, creating local networks for the co-construction of common knowledge (i.e. scientific dimension of the concept of biodiversity, chapter 3); and enable interdisciplinary communication and networks that require time and patience (chapter 4). This thesis offers arguments and tools to justify the protection of biodiversity in its social, political and scientific dimensions, and therefore also in an interdisciplinary context. It also feeds the debate on sustainable public policy-making. From now on, we need to support an integrative approach to governance in which the public are involved based on fundamental needs. This would enable an inclusive, permanent but dynamic reflexion on future environmental policy proposals.

Background: Renacimiento, Mexico in the state of Nuevo Leon is home to approximately 1,000 families who currently experience a host of social, health, and community challenges that span both rural and urban Mexico. The state has committed to initiate the construction of a community health clinic. Methodology: In preparing for the clinic, a needs assessment instrument and associated materials were developed for community members and volunteers to administer to residents within Nuevo Leon. Results: A culturally sensitive survey instrument and associated documents were created with consideration for low-literacy participants and with a wide variety of topics in the areas of individual, women’s, children’s and community health. Conclusions: The creation of this needs assessment survey provide insight to stakeholders in Mexico and abroad who stand to benefit from learning what community residents’ perceive as their greatest needs. The results from the survey will provide the first ever documentation of this unique community’s health status and will demonstrate areas of need within which the community health clinic can focus their efforts.

Canadian cancer clinics are straining to keep up with growing numbers of patients and, as a result, the capacity to provide follow-up care to cancer patients is being stretched. The Saskatchewan Cancer Agency has structured its community follow-up program to ensure the routine follow-up of patients who have finished active cancer treatments. Follow-up letters are routinely sent to family physicians and some specialists requesting information on the disease status of their cancer patients. For this thesis, I conducted a mail survey of 925 Saskatchewan physicians serving 21,000 patients to learn about general practitioners' and specialists' views of the follow-up program. A 52.5% response rate was achieved. <p>The program was considered useful for 91.5% of physicians, with the follow-up letter serving an important role in reminding physicians to see their cancer patients for follow-up. High percentages of physicians indicated a need for additional patient-specific information (59.3%), clinical information (73.0%) and training (34.9%) to do follow-up. Logistic regression analyses found female gender, a specialty in general practice and lower physician confidence in following cancer to be associated with the need for additional patient information. Lower physician confidence was associated with the need for additional clinical information and a specialty in general practice and lower physician confidence were associated with the need for more training.<p>Percentages of physicians saying they were very confident in following various cancers ranged widely from 19.1% for lymphomas to 54.2% for breast cancer. All regression models regarding physician confidence in following six different cancers had a common correlate: the need for additional training. A physician�s number of follow-up patients was a significant correlate in four of the six regression models and physician specialty was included in half of the models.<p> The results suggest areas of the program and physician need that should be addressed to ensure the delivery of quality follow-up care and the survey findings will be helpful in devising strategies to this end. At the same time, responses indicate the program to be an essential component in the delivery of community-based follow-up care in Saskatchewan.

Syftet med denna systematiska litteraturstudie var att beskriva de psykosociala och existentiella behov som kan uppstå hos kvinnor med bröstcancer samt i hur stor utsträckning bröstcancerpatienter upplever att dessa behov tillgodoses i vården. Dessutom var syftet att få en uppfattning om betydelsen av komplementär och alternativ medicin för bröstcancerdrabbade kvinnor. De vetenskapliga artiklar (n=25) som ingick i studien söktes datoriserat samt manuellt och en kvalitetsgranskning gjordes av litteraturen utifrån olika bedömningsformulär. Resultaten visar att de behov som uppstod hos kvinnorna med bröstcancer var behov av stöd, behov av information samt behov av kontinuitet i sjukvården. Majoriteten av kvinnorna upplevde att det psykosociala och existentiella stödet i sjukvården samt den information de fick hade stora brister. Detta ansågs i stor utsträckning bero på en bristfällig kontinuitet. De komplementär- och alternativmedicinska behandlingarna visade sig vara mycket betydelsefulla då de i stor utsträckning tillgodosåg de psykosociala och existentiella behoven hos bröstcancerpatienterna. Behandlingarna minskade psykiska symtom som oro, ångest och depression avsevärt hos kvinnorna samt hjälpte dem att hantera och bearbeta känslor förknippade med cancerdiagnosen och nå ett accepterande av sin sjukdom. Kontinuiteten upplevdes dock ibland som bristfällig även inom den komplementär- och alternativmedicinska vården.

Zygmunt Bauman and other postmodernists have argued that postmodernity is characterized by the disintegration of the legitimacy and authority of what has been referred to as grand narratives or "illusions." These theorists often highlight the manipulative and obfuscating effects of illusion. As such, scholars like Bauman contend that postmodernity sets the stage for sincere, moral responsibility. However, they fail to acknowledge that these illusions provide a cultural and social function through their satisfaction of human needs. Failing to fully acknowledge the importance of this function and human needs in general leads many postmodern theorists to be unable to adequately theorize about the contemporary epoch. In addition to the weakening authority of grand illusions, the advent of technologically advanced society coincided with the process of desublimation (a process by which instant gratification occurs). Desublimation worked to undermine what Sigmund Freud has referred to as the life instincts by promulgating false needs (i.e., wants or desires perceived as needs). As such, contemporary society may be depicted as constituting anomic, atomistic individuals seeking self-preservation. This process may be delineated as the death instincts, or Thanatos, as coming to triumph over the life instincts, Eros. A Thanatos society has significant implications for moral responsibility. The diminution of sincere emotional integration facilitates the unbridled spread of postemotionalism into more and more spheres of social life. As postemotional scripts become the prevailing moral guidelines, Thanatos manifests itself as a compulsion to repeat destructive behavior at the societal and individual level. Society and its members struggle in their attempts to choose the "right" course of action. Confusion and fear become affixed features of personal and social life and morality becomes an arbitrary endeavor.

The purpose of this study was to assess the management of volunteers through self-perceptions of Texas 4-H volunteers. This research was an on-line questionnaire designed to assess volunteers’ attitudes toward recruitment, orientation, training, resources, utilization, motivations for continuation of service, and recognition. The population was volunteers enrolled in the Texas 4-H Program during the 2007-2008 program year. The census included 711 Texas 4-H volunteer respondents. This study used a questionnaire designed by the researcher and a team of faculty and staff at a major land grant university and a demographics questionnaire. SPSS® 16.0 for Windows® was used to analyze the data. The study revealed that most Texas 4-H volunteers are oriented and trained in their roles and responsibilities as a volunteer, have additional opportunities for training in their role as club managers or project leaders, have the resources necessary to fulfill their role, and are recognized for their contributions to the Texas 4-H Program. However, as with any program, there is room for improvement. Respondents indicated a need for curriculum development in volunteer and club management. Additionally, 83% of volunteers began volunteering because they had children or family enrolled in the 4-H program; however, volunteers are motivated to continue to serve as volunteers because they want to help youth and support youth development, the 4-H program, agriculture, and family and community development. Respondents indicated they chose to discontinue serving as a 4-H volunteer due to lack of county Extension staff support, lack of time, children aging out of the program, and burnout. The following recommendations for action were based on the findings and conclusions of this study. Volunteer orientation and training programs should become an integral part of all county 4-H volunteer management programs. Curriculum should be developed in the areas of volunteer and club management. In addition, all volunteers should be recognized for their contributions to the program. Orientation, training, and recognition of 4-H volunteers will provide opportunities for volunteers to build an affiliation for the Texas 4-H program, and in turn, motivate volunteers to continue to serve the 4-H youth development program.

A strong volunteer development program is important to the success of volunteer based organizations. Such a program can bolster volunteer recruitment efforts, increase retention of current volunteers, and improve their performance. But, in order for the training to be successful, the training must help the volunteers achieve their personal goals as well as helping the organization achieve its own goals. For this reason a skills approach to leadership was used in this study since it would be beneficial to both the organization and the volunteer. The seven leadership competencies chosen for the study based on the literature review were: (1) identifying problems, (2) gathering information, (3) solving problems in new ways, (4) communicating effectively, (5) understanding other roles in the organization, (6) understanding others’ attitudes, and (7) adapting behavior to work with others. The purpose of the study was to determine for which of these leadership competencies volunteers at Bryan/College Station nonprofit organizations needed training. To determine this, it was important to first determine the current leadership competencies of local area volunteers and how important each of these competencies were to nonprofit organizations. With this information, it was possible to draw conclusions and determine what areas of volunteer leadership training would be most beneficial to both nonprofits and their volunteers. This study found that all seven leadership competencies chosen were important to the organizations studied. More than eighty percent of organizations asked their volunteers to explicitly or implicitly perform each competency. Furthermore, each competency was rated as either important or very important by at least half of the organizations. Based on the findings, it was concluded that communicating effectively and adapting behavior to work with others were the two most important competencies. At least two thirds of the organizations demonstrated a need for training in these areas. Identifying problems, solving problems in new ways, understanding other roles in the organization, and understanding others’ attitudes showed a need for training in about half of the organizations. These competencies should be developed, but show less potential for training benefits. Finally, gathering information showed limited need for training.

No description available.

To enhance the managerial competencies of an enterprise has become one of the most important factors to advance its competitive capacity in addition to the prices and quality of products. For an enterprise, the executives¡¦ managerial competencies are essential to its continuous development. There are two intentions of this research. First, to acquire the factors that will effect the managerial competencies of the executives and the required managerial competencies of an individual or organization. Second, to investigate the appropriate managerial competencies training needs according to the personal characters in order to shorten the training period and reduce the training cost in response to the competition of this electrical age. Through the researches of documents, cases, assessments of managerial abilities and questionnaires, I found that the assessment could illustrate the differences of executives¡¦ managerial competencies. An enterprise needs to train its personnel according to individual preferences and the firm¡¦s weakness to avoid wasting training resources. As to the training needs of executives¡¦ managerial competencies, the best methodology is to strengthen the weaknesses and adopt the training methods as ¡§Case Studies¡¨, ¡§Simulation and Practice of role-play¡¨, and ¡§Group Discussion¡¨. Regarding the abilities of administration, communication, supervisory, and cognition, the training would be better with ¡§Lessons-Giving Pedagogy¡¨. Besides, it is necessary to adopt appropriate methodology according to the training of a certain managerial competencies. ¡§Intranet Learning Methodology¡¨ is a trend of current times. It is revealed in the research that the younger executives usually more acknowledge its training effects. The best training methodology could not satisfy everyone. According to the analysis of training requirements, the effect of several well-evaluated training methods actually varies according to several personal characteristics such as their expertise, positions, seniority, education, or ages. The best training efficiency should be based on the consideration of these individual features when designing the training. ¡§The most important administrative policy is to use the right person for the right position.¡¨ This research possesses practical values on the education of enterprises¡¦ executives and the innovation of training modes. Its extensive application will be helpful to develop the executives¡¦ managerial competencies of the enterprises.

The purposes of this study were to explore the actual condition of beginning teachers¡¦ job-related problems and induction needs, as well as to analyze the relationship between beginning teachers¡¦ problems and induction needs. In order to achieve the aims, the use of questionnaire was mainly conducted through the study, with complement of semi-structured in-depth interview. A total of 322 questionnaires were sent to the 49 junior high schools in Kaohsiung County, and 224 questionnaires were collected back. The effective return rate was 70¢H. The collected data was described, analyzed through descriptive statistics, F-test, One-Way ANOVA and Pearson¡¦s Product-Moment Correlation. Furthermore, the qualitative interviews with 8 beginning teachers were analyzed to know more about beginning teachers¡¦ job-related problems and induction needs. Conclusions derived from the present study are as following: 1.The degree of problems perceived by the beginning teachers in junior high school was moderate, and the most difficult part for them was ¡§teaching and classroom management¡¨. What made beginning teachers in junior high school feel most difficult were the low achievement of students, the paradox of school management, and the difficulty in maintaining the classroom-discipline. 2.In the analysis based on background variables, the degree of problems perceived by the beginning teachers in junior high school was significantly different among teachers of different school size, but not significantly different according to gender, teaching experience, position, educational background, teacher internship program, and school location. 3.The most urgent induction needs for beginning junior high school teachers was to increase the knowledge about teaching and classroom management such as the techniques for managing problem behaviors, the effective strategies for organizing class procedures, and the teaching skills to enhance teaching effectiveness. 4.Beginning teachers hopes the above knowledge could be inducted in the ways of arranging seminars, communication with expert teachers ,and classroom observation on them. 5.In the analysis based on background variables, the degree of induction needs perceived by the beginning teachers in junior high schools was significantly different among teachers of different school size. Furthermore, the induction ways of beginning teachers in junior high schools were significantly different among teachers of different gender, teaching experience, and school size. 6.There were significant positive correlations between the whole problems and induction needs of beginning teachers in junior high school. The higher problem level which the beginning teachers perceived on the whole job problem, the more urgently they feel in needs of induction.