Yes / Since the UK’s 2001 Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (SENDA, 2001), academic libraries have had a legal duty to provide all students with information in a form accessible to them, an obligation strengthened by the 2010 Equality Act (c15). Crucially, the latter duty covered readers with all kinds of impairments, not just visual impairment, and thus covers a huge range of needs for an enormous number of individuals. Libraries have put a huge amount of time and effort into providing documents in accessible format (alt-format) but obviously it is preferable for both libraries and readers if the documents are accessible as supplied from the publisher. Electronic resources have the potential to address many of the accessibility needs of our readers, but concerns have been growing in the HE sector (see, for instance, JISCTechdis, 2013) that the way in which e-resources are delivered actually renders them, in some cases, less accessible. This paper describes a project undertaken by the University of Bradford library to systematically assess the accessibility of our electronic resources, and gives recommendations for others wishing to do the same.

During the past decade, there has been a clear recognition of the relationship between environment and development, and that it is through the process of development that environment is often negatively affected. Therefore, to minimize the destructive effect of development, planning became a necessity. However, for any management goal, there are usually several alternative ways of developing a plan. My planning process began by a general resources inventory of the Republic of Mali including soils, vegetation, surface waters, groundwaters, land use, and population. Then, based on this inventory, I chose a planning area using pre-established criteria. The area chosen was the "Inland Delta of the Niger River." The Delta, with 30,100 km², has an enormous economic potential, and livestock raising is an important component of this potential. However, four main factors are limiting the development of livestock raising in the region: Lack of an official and consistent land right, uncontrolled increase of the number of animals, uncontrolled increase of cultivated fields, and persistent drought. The objective of this dissertation was to make a preliminary investigation which would help the Government of the Republic of Mali establish a coherent and integrated plan for all economic activities in the Delta. The economic, social and environmental components of the current livestock management and two management alternatives have been analyzed, using a model planning unit and also a herd model. The first alternative consisted of changing the herd composition, and the second alternative was a combination of changing the herd composition and the use of irrigation and fertilization to grow adapted forage species. The results showed that the two alternatives are better than the current management, and that the second alternative provided the highest economic returns and stability to the region. The implementation of the proposed plan will necessitate the creation of agro-pastoral units based on soils, vegetation, and social characteristics. The Government should adopt a more coherent and coordinated policy toward the different land users of the Delta, the final objective being high stable economic returns for the population, the preservation of the basic resources, and the equilibrium among different activities.

The red swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, represents an important aquaculture species responsible for over half of all commercial aquaculture profits in Louisiana. White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is highly pathogenic and induces mass mortality in crustacean aquaculture operations worldwide. Crayfish lack the adaptive ability of the vertebrate immune system, and must depend on primitive, innate immune responses to combat viral infections. This study aims to investigate the dose-response of WSSV in P. clarkii and to examine viral-host interactions by examining the biochemical and immunological changes induced by WSSV infection in this species. Viable viral particles were isolated from naturally infected P. clarkii gill tissue, quantified using a novel digital PCR approach, and inoculated into P. clarkii to determine a median lethal dose (LD50) value of WSSV particles. After estimating an LD50 value, crayfish were inoculated at this nominal concentration of viral particles, and biological tissues were sampled across time to observe physiological and immunological changes throughout the course of WSSV infection. Antioxidant activity increased over time, while immunological gene expression was downregulated in the gill tissue of WSSV-infected crayfish. Knowledge of the infectivity of WSSV in native crayfish is of critical importance to the management of the commercial aquaculture industry in Louisiana. Examination of the viral-host interactions in crayfish can be used to facilitate future investigations towards WSSV prevention and management, and serve to develop the use of P. clarkii to model innate immune responses to WSSV infection in other decapod crustaceans. This is the first study to investigate dose-response and immunological changes induced by the Louisiana strain of WSSV in native crayfish.

Biomass gasification is generally regarded as a promising technology for various advanced application in energy production. Biomass is the only carbon-based sustainable option among the renewable energy sources. This study is focused on fostering biomass gasification for electricity generation sector in India. The study addresses four broad aspects of biomass gasification for electricity generation - feedstock properties and gasification technology, policy and regulatory framework governing the sector, financial evaluation of electricity generation from biomass gasification, and feedstock supply. The study is divided in four chapters, each of which addresses one aspect of electricity generation through biomass gasification. Based on literature, first chapter presents a brief review of various properties of biomass feedstocks that are critical for gasification. It reviews the thermochemical conversion processes and the major issues related with biomass gasification with reference to some promising gasifier technology systems. Based on literature, second chapter examines the importance of national and sub-national policies supporting the development of bioenergy industry (including gasification for electricity generation) in various countries. The policies and instruments deployed globally are compared with those deployed in India. Third chapter posits a framework for conducting financial evaluation of a gasification power project. A case study of pine needle gasification power project in a remote rural area of Northern India is considered. In absence of historical data related with similar projects, a probability distribution for the Net Present Value (NPV) for the project is generated with the help of Monte Carlo Simulation. The simulation for NPV uses estimates of input variables from the data gathered from an existing pine needle based gasifier operating in the study area. Continuing with the case study, fourth chapter studies the villagers perspective on supplying pine needles to the gasification project. . A survey was administered to estimate villagers willingness to collect pine needles from the forests and supply it at a price to the gasification project. The willingness is modeled on demographic, livelihood, and latent factors, that are used in a Multinomial Logistic Regression Model to estimate the probability of households willingness to collect and supply pine needles to the project.

Methane has a warming potential 28 times that of carbon dioxide and has been increasing in the Earths atmosphere since 1750. An understanding of the dynamics of methane emissions from natural sources is becoming increasingly important as we may need to mitigate emissions from these sources in the future to help reduce the effects of climate change. Wetlands are the single largest natural source of methane; however, little attention has been given to how plant species, biota, and interactions between above and belowground communities and microbial communities may affect methane emissions. First, microbial community structure and function was assessed for two salt marsh plant species, Spartina alterniflora and Juncus romerianus via bacterial, archaeal, and fungal gene fragments, and extracellular enzyme assays to determine whether wetland microbial communities were structured by vegetation, and whether communities were functionally different. Bacterial communities were differentiated by plant species in two of three sites, suggesting while vegetation likely plays a role in structuring these communities, specific site characteristics are likely of equal importance. Fungal communities were influenced more by site than vegetation, and archaeal communities appeared to be structured by vegetation. Second, four freshwater wetland plants (Sagittaria lancifolia, Panicum hemitomon, Eleocharis macrostachya, Echinochloa walteri) were transplanted and grown in large mesocosms, and clipped to differing heights under different nutrient treatments to detect changes in methane emissions, methanogen, and methanotroph communities. Methane emission rates were plant species specific, and a three way interaction indicated that species, nutrient level, and clipping level altered methane emission. Methanogen and methanotroph communities were not altered by the treatments. Lastly, densities of marsh periwinkle snails and southern ribbed mussels were manipulated inside fenced enclosures within a S. alterniflora salt marsh, and methane emissions and extracellular enzyme activities were measured over the course of a year. Southern ribbed mussels increased the emission of methane when present, but marsh periwinkle snail density had no effect. The data collected show that microbial community structure in wetlands are influenced by vegetation, that methane emission rates are plant species specific, and that southern ribbed mussels have the potential to increase methane emissions from S. alterniflora marshes.

The wetlands of Louisiana are losing area at the rapid rate of 42.9 km2 yr-1 and the trend is expected to continue. This combined with expected sea-level rise will likely cause large shifts in vegetation and salinity regimes that will affect the wildlife species reliant on these ecosystems. Waterbirds serve as indicator species of ecosystem health in estuarine wetland habitats; therefore, these species are often the targets of wetland management goals in Louisiana. However, many proposed wetland restoration projects are focused primarily on social impacts with only a few specific waterbird species designated for management. The majority of these waterbird habitat-use studies in Louisiana wetlands have focused on waterfowl species and their abundance in wetland habitats during migration and winter. My overall objective was to compare habitat use of all waterbird taxa in fresh and saline estuarine wetland habitats. Additionally, I examined habitat use at finer spatial scales to assess a possible preference for marsh edge microhabitats when compared to open water and interior emergent vegetation. I also investigated waterbird associations with the environmental parameters of emergent and aquatic species composition, percentage of open water, and salinity. From July 2014 to December 2015, I compared waterbird density and species richness both spatially and temporally to assess habitat use. I found that species richness differed between fresh and saline habitats depending on the month, with the month of April having the greatest species richness. Waterbird density was greatest among edge microhabitat regardless of salinity type, and birds utilized this habitat up to 15 m from the edge. Density did not vary in open water plots in relation to salinity type. The relationships between environmental variables and species were significant (p=0.002) as well as relationships between guilds and environmental variables (p=0.002). These data will be useful in attempts to simulate the effects of wetland loss and salinity changes on habitat quality for waterbirds in coastal Louisiana, and will inform habitat restoration and management decisions for optimal waterbird use.

No description available.

The current research firstly explores the degree of organisation/market orientation of Japanese managers in Japanese plants in Japan - called "Japan plants" hereafter - and British managers in Japanese owned UK plants - called "UK plants" hereafter - in terms of values and attitudes related to the work place. Secondly, the research examines the degree of organisation/market orientation of Japan and UK plants with respect to organisational structures and practices implemented in them. Thirdly, the research investigates the gap between Japanese managers' and Japan plants' organisation/market orientation, and British managers' and UK plants' organisation/market orientation, since recent environmental changes observed in Japan and the UK may create a gap between them British managers showed slight market orientation. In general UK plants also showed slight market orientation. There was little discrepancy between managers' and firms' market orientation in the UK. In contrast, Japanese managers showed very slight organisation orientation whereas Japan plants generally showed high organisation orientation. There was therefore a large discrepancy between firms' and managers' organisation orientation in Japan. This indicated that the speed of change occurring in Japanese managers' attitudes towards their tasks and company was much faster than Japanese firms' attempts to modify organisational structures/practices as a result of environmental changes. The internal pressures for change are pervasive since they directly impact on a key asset of an organisation, namely its human resources. Accordingly, firms will have to more promptly modify their structures/practices in accordance with changes in managers' conceptions and values. In today's globalised economy we are being constantly exposed to, and influenced by the prevailing cultural values and lifestyles. As a result, cultural differences are gradually and almost imperceptibly absorbed and assimilated. Eventually managers' attitudes towards their tasks and companies may not much differ across societies. The universal approach claims that the driving force towards conversion to the same structures/practices is an economic rationale. The current research, instead, suggests that the driving force towards similar structures/practices is the assimilated conceptions and values of managers and other employees.

No description available.

Patterns from hurricane damage give an indication that longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) is more windfirm than loblolly pine (Pinus taeda). Tree windfirmess has been attributed to many factors including species and material properties like wood strength and stiffness. Because longleaf pine wood is stronger and stiffer than loblolly pine wood, this study used static winching methodology to see if these properties account for differences in windfirmness by measuring bending force required to break stems (MMAX). Stress-strain diagrams were constructed for pulled trees to explore how they behave under increasing loads. Based on these diagrams, it appears that living trees can act as linear elastic materials as they experience increasing static lateral stress. As expected, longleaf pine stems were stiffer than loblolly pine wood in situ based on Youngs modulus of elasticity derived from these diagrams. Tree basal area was the best predictor of MMAX for both species, however, species had no effect on the maximum bending moment required to break tree stems of a given basal area for these trees under these conditions. The stiffness of the stems was higher for longleaf than loblolly as indicated by the modulus of elasticity, but the strength of the stems as indicated by the modulus of rupture was not significantly different between the species.