by
Baskin, Yvonne.
Call Number
577.18 21
Publication Date
2002
Summary
The human love of novelty and desire to make one place look like another, coupled with massive increases in global trade and transport, are creating a growing economic and ecological threat. The same forces that are rapidly "McDonaldizing" the world's diverse cultures are also driving us toward an era of monotonous, weedy, and uniformly impoverished landscapes. Unique plant and animal communities are slowly succumbing to the world's "rats and rubbervines"--Animals like zebra mussels and feral pigs, and plants like kudzu and water hyacinth--that, once moved into new territory, can disrupt human enterprise and well-being as well as native habitats and biodiversity. From songbird-eating snakes in Guam to cheatgrass in the Great Plains, "invasives" are wreaking havoc around the world. In A plague of rats and rubbervines, Yvonne Baskin draws on extensive research to provide an engaging and authoritative overview of the problem of harmful invasive alien species. She takes the reader on a worldwide tour of grasslands, gardens, waterways, and forests, describing the troubles caused by exotic organisms that run amok in new settings and examining how commerce and travel on an increasingly connected planet are exacerbating this oldest of human-created problems. She offers examples of potential solutions and profiles dedicated individuals worldwide who are working tirelessly to protect the places and creatures they love. While our attention is quick to focus on purposeful attempts to disrupt our lives and economies by releasing harmful biological agents, we often ignore equally serious but much more insidious threats, those that we inadvertently cause by our own seemingly harmless actions. This book takes a compelling look at this underappreciated problem and sets forth positive suggestions for what we, as consumers, can do to help.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0495
by
Kompier, Michiel.
Call Number
658.382 21
Publication Date
1999
Summary
Changing the workplace to help prevent stress is much more cost effective in the long term than treating employees for the effects of stress. But to date, there has been little guidance for employers who wish to implement such programmes. This text has gathered together examples of best practice in the workplace across a range of EU countries and organizations. It explores the costs and benefits of stress prevention for workers and organizations and includes case studies, evaluations and reviews. It should be of value to occupational psychologists, consultants and managers across a wide range of work settings.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0495
by
Wykle, May L.
Call Number
362.6089 22
Publication Date
1999
Summary
Nationally recognized scholars address the unique problems encountered by minority elders in achieving the goal of maximum well-being as we enter the 21st century. Topics include physical health, continuum of care, mental health, social policy, economic security and research planning and development. Minority populations surveyed include the elderly African American, Asian American, American Indian, Mexican American and women. Contributors include: D. Lee, M. Haug, R. Binstock, G. Cohen, K. Markides, T. Tripp-Reimer, E. Kahana and many more.
Format:
Electronic Resources
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0.0495
by
Karoly, Lynn A., 1961-
Call Number
362.70973 21
Publication Date
1998
Summary
There is increasing evidence that the first few years after birth are particularly important in child development and present opportunities for enrichment but also vulnerabilities do to poverty and other social stressors. Elected officials have begun proposing potentially costly programs to intervene early in the lives of disadvantaged children. Have such interventions been demonstrated to yield substantial benefits? To what extent might they pay for themselves through lower welfare and criminal justice costs incurred by participating children as they grow into adults? This study synthesizes the results of a number of previous evaluations in an effort to answer those questions. Conclusions are that under carefully controlled conditions, early childhood interventions can yield substantial advantages to recipients in terms of emotional and cognitive development, education, economic well-being, and health. (The latter two benefits apply to the children's families as well.) If these interventions can be duplicated on a large scale, the costs of the programs could be exceeded by subsequent savings to the government. However, the more carefully the interventions are targeted to children most likely to benefit, the more likely it is that savings will exceed costs. Unfortunately, these conclusions rest on only a few methodologically sound studies. The authors argue for broader demonstrations accompanied by rigorous evaluations to resolve several important unknowns. These include the most efficient ways to design and target programs, the extent to which effectiveness is lost on scale-up, and the implications of welfare reform and other "safety net" changes.
Format:
Electronic Resources
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0.0495
by
Barbell, Kathy, editor.
Call Number
362.7330973 23
Publication Date
2017 2001
Summary
Family foster care is supposed to provide temporary protection and nurturing for children experiencing maltreatment. Although it has long been a critical service for millions of children in the United States, the increased attention given to this service in the last two decades has focused more on its inability to achieve its intended outcomes than on its successes. However, as social and political trends and new legislation reshape child welfare, policymakers and service providers continue to offer innovative policy and practice options for this child welfare service. Though use of the service has changed, family foster care remains important. Responding to a widespread sense of the "drifting" of children in care, Congress passed the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare ACt of 1980. This legislation became a key factor shaping the current status of family foster care. Its goal was to reduce reliance on out-of-home care and encourage use of preventative and reunification services; it also mandated that agencies engage in planning efforts for permanent solutions for foster children. Yet despite federal mandates and funding, the child welfare system has continued to struggle to provide the level of services needed for children to reduce the amount of time children remain in temporary foster care. The latest response to these problems, the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, established unequivocally that safety, permanency, and well-being were national goals for children in the child welfare system. To comply with the law, public and private agencies are required to initiate significant program and practice changes in the coming years to improve permanency outcomes and child well-being in family foster care. The central theme of the volume is accountability for outcomes, certainly a current driving force in child welfare as well as in other public and private service fields."--Back of book
Format:
Electronic Resources
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0.0477
by
Pulkkinen, Lea.
Call Number
155.25 22
Publication Date
2002
Summary
This important new book, edited by two distinguished psychologists, explores the relationship between personality and development and is unique in focussing on successful development, where developmental psychology in the past seems to have focused almost entirely on problem behaviour and risk of maladaption.
Format:
Electronic Resources
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0.0477
by
Dronamraju, Krishna R.
Call Number
333.95 21
Publication Date
2002
Summary
The biological wealth of our planet is represented by the biodiversity that surrounds us. Our future wellbeing depends on the care and conservation that we practice to protect and enhance that biodiversity, which resides mostly in developing countries. Yet, the holders of traditional knowledge remain poor, while those exploiting it commercially become prosperous. As we utilize recombinant DNA technology to achieve food security and other goals, serious apprehension has arisen in the public mind with regard to the impact of genetically modified crops on our environment and health. Similarly, the long-term impact of gene therapy is not known either. These dilemmas and their ethical implications are examined in this book in the context of intellectual property rights and international cooperation.
Format:
Electronic Resources
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0.0477
by
Kellert, Stephen R.
Call Number
261.55 21
Publication Date
2002
Summary
The good in nature and humanity brings together 20 leading thinkers and writers - including Ursula Goodenough, Lynn Margulis, Dorion Sagan, Carl Safina, David Petersen, Wendell Berry, Terry Tempest Williams, and Barry Lopez - to examine the divide between faith and reason, and to seek a means for developing an environmental ethic that will help us confront two of our most imperiling crises: global environmental destruction and an impoverished spirituality. The book explores the ways in which science, spirit, and religion can guide the experience and understanding of our ongoing relationship with the natural world and examines how the integration of science and spirituality can equip us to make wiser choices in using and managing the natural environment. The book also provides compelling stories that offer a narrative understanding of the relations among science, spirit, and nature. Grounded in the premise that neither science nor religion can by itself resolve the prevailing malaise of environmental and moral decline, contributors seek viable approaches to averting environmental catastrophe and, to achieving a more harmonious relationship with the natural world.
Format:
Electronic Resources
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0.0477
by
Phiri, Isaac, 1962-
Call Number
261.70968 21
Publication Date
2001
Summary
As the population of Africa increasingly converts to Christianity, the church has stepped up its involvement in secular affairs revolving around the transition to democracy in nations such as Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Comparative in approach, the author analyzes patterns of church-state relations in various sub-Saharan countries, and contends that churches become more active and politically prominent when elements and organizations of civil society are repressed by political factors or governing bodies, providing services to maintain the well-being of civil society in the absence of those organizations being repressed. The author concludes, that once political repression subsides, churches tend to withdraw from a confrontation with the state and their political role becomes unclear. This unique book advances the idea that in pluralist Africa, churches should focus their influence and resources on nurturing the fragile multiparty democracies and promoting peace and reconciliation. In his analysis of church-state relations in sub-Saharan Africa, Phiri shows how churches are drawn into confrontation with the state by the repression of civil society and that once civil society is liberated, direct church-state confrontation diminishes. In South Africa, churches led by figures such as Bishop Desmond Tutu assumed a major role after nationalist movements such as Nelson Mandela's African National Congress were banned and their leaders jailed. In Zimbabwe, the church assumed a confrontational role in 1965 after political movements were banned and their leaders exiled. In Zambia, churches became confrontational when the single-party rule repressed all opposition and supported the rise of the prodemocracy movement that ended Kenneth Kaunda's twenty-seven-year rule. Examining these situations and others in different parts of Africa, Phiri illuminates the major issues and conflicts and suggests ways in which the church can continue to help promote smooth transitions to democracy.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0477
by
Noller, Patricia.
Call Number
306.81 22
Publication Date
2002
Summary
This book draws together a wide range of new developments in the study of marital interaction. The book should be of great interest both to those who study couple interaction, and to those who work with couples to help them resolve their differences, and improve their communication.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0460
by
Hertz, Rosanna.
Call Number
306.360973 21
Publication Date
2001
Summary
The dynamics of work and parenthood are in the midst of a revolutionary shift in the United States. Focused around a major factor in this shift--the rise of dual-income families--this groundbreaking volume provides a highly informative snapshot of the intricate fabric of work and family in the United States.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0460
by
Soon, Willie.
Call Number
523.74 22
Publication Date
2003
Summary
This book takes an excursion through solar science, science history, and geoclimate with a husband and wife team who revealed some of our sun's most stubborn secrets. E. Walter and Annie S.D. Maunder's work helped in understanding our sun's chemical, electromagnetic and plasma properties. They knew the sun's sunspot migration patterns and its variable, climate-affecting, inactive and active states in short and long time frames. An inactive solar period starting in the mid-seventeenth century lasted approximately seventy years, one that E. Walter Maunder worked hard to make us understand: the Maunder Minimum of c 1620-1720 (which was posthumously named for him). With ongoing concern over global warming, and the continuing failure to identify root causes driving earth's climatic changes, the Maunders' story outlines how our cyclical sun can alter climate. The book goes on to view the sun-earth connection in terms of geomagnetic variation and climatic change; contemporary views on the sun's operating mechanisms are explored, and the effects these have on the earth over long and short time scales are pondered. If not a call to widen earth's climate research to include the sun, this book strives to illustrate how solar causes and effects can influence earth's climate in ways we must understand in order to enhance solar system research and our well-being.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0445
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