METHODS This state obesity dashboard design was based on the County Health Rankings (Rankings) model, a population health model which highlights key factors that, if improved, would make the counties and communities healthier places to live.6 The Rankings measures health based on 3 elements: health outcomes, health factors, and policies and programs.7 While in the Rankings model adult obesity r...

Although eID technology has undergone several development cycles and eID have been issued to citizens of various European countries, it is still not as broadly used as originally expected. One reason is the absence of compelling use cases besides eGovernment. Current Research focuses mainly on the needs of the user and technical aspects. The economic perspective is often disregarded. This is es...

Most ecological interactions occur in environments that are spatially and temporally heterogeneous-'patchy'-across a wide range of scales. In contrast, most theoretical models of ecological interactions, especially large-scale models applied to societal issues such as climate change, resource management and human health, are based on 'mean field' approaches in which the underlying patchiness of...

To understand ecological systems and environmental impact, techniques can be used which combine thermodynamics with environment and ecology. Most assessments consider thermodynamics via energy, but it many feel that ecological and environmental factors are better understood through exergy. One rationale is that exergy, not energy, is often a measure of the potential for ecological and environme...

The discovery and quantification of significant non-target ecological effects of Rhinocyllus conicus on native species in the northcentral USA provides the opportunity to experimentally evaluate factors that might help predict non-target host plant use, magnitude of direct impact with transference, and indirect effects mediated by trophic interactions. The relevance for biocontrol risk assessme...

otostegia persica (burm.) boiss. is the medicinal plant of lamiaceae family that has long been used traditionally in treatment of severe diarrhea, common cold, flatulence, headache, sore, fever, skin allergies, and blood fat and sugar. this research was conducted in 2013 for one year to identify some ecological characteristics and potential allelopathicof o. persica in hormozgan province. the c...

BACKGROUND Species Distribution Models (SDMs) aim on the characterization of a species' ecological niche and project it into geographic space. The result is a map of the species' potential distribution, which is, for instance, helpful to predict the capability of alien invasive species. With regard to alien invasive species, recently several authors observed a mismatch between potential distrib...

The notion of systemic thinking for social and ecological responsibility is deconstructed and its holistic potential examined from a critical systemic perspective informed by the ideas of the systems philosopher, C. West-Churchman. Systemic thinking involves being critically aware of the boundaries in which we work and the boundaries to which we apply our expertise. It involves making boundary ...

The notion of systemic thinking for social and ecological responsibility is deconstructed and its holistic potential examined from a critical systemic perspective informed by the ideas of the systems philosopher, C. West-Churchman. Systemic thinking involves being critically aware of the boundaries in which we work and the boundaries to which we apply our expertise. It involves making boundary ...