Communities in developing country mountain areas,in part due to their remoteness,find themselves excluded from social,political and economic systems; and excluded from access to resources. This paper aims to study the...Communities in developing country mountain areas,in part due to their remoteness,find themselves excluded from social,political and economic systems; and excluded from access to resources. This paper aims to study the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on remoteness and exclusion. It utilises two models - the resource movement framework,and the "information chain" - to analyse a telecentre in one district of mountainous Huancavelica,Peru's poorest region,set in the high Andes. It finds ICTs enabling new and positive resource flows for the two key user groups:teenaged school students and young farmers. These help to maintain social networks. They also support information searches that have improved agricultural practice where other information chain resources have been available. But non-use and ineffective use of the telecentre are found where information chain resources are lacking. ICTs have some impacts on intangible elements of remoteness. In this particular example,they also offer access to some previously-excluded resources. But they have not really addressed the systematic exclusions faced by mountain communities. And they so far appear to be a technology of inequality; favouring those residents who begin with better resource endowments.The paper concludes by offering some recommendations for mountain ICT project practice.展开更多
Visual prostheses are now entering the clinical marketplace. Such prostheses were originally targeted for patients suff ering from blindness through retinitis pigmentosa(RP). However, in late July of this year, for th...Visual prostheses are now entering the clinical marketplace. Such prostheses were originally targeted for patients suff ering from blindness through retinitis pigmentosa(RP). However, in late July of this year, for the first time a patient was given a retinal implant in order to treat dry agerelated macular degeneration. Retinal implants are suitable solutions for diseases that attack photoreceptors but spare most of the remaining retinal neurons. For eye diseases that result in loss of retinal output, implants that interface with more central structures in the visual system are needed. The standard site for central visual prostheses under development is the visual cortex. This perspective discusses the technical and socioeconomic challenges faced by visual prostheses.展开更多
With the continuous development of our country＇ s economy, social economy expands to the globe increasingly.The amount of imports and exports increases to a new high, which leads to the rapid development of the aviat...With the continuous development of our country＇ s economy, social economy expands to the globe increasingly.The amount of imports and exports increases to a new high, which leads to the rapid development of the aviation transportation. This article is written by constructing theoretical models of aviation network, analyzing the relative influencing factors, analyzing the instances and obtaining the final conclusion.展开更多
Poverty has been a focus of Chinese government for a long time. It is therefore of great significance to investigate both the mechanisms and spatial patterns of regional impoverishment in order to adequately target Ch...Poverty has been a focus of Chinese government for a long time. It is therefore of great significance to investigate both the mechanisms and spatial patterns of regional impoverishment in order to adequately target Chinese anti-poverty goals. Based on the human-environment relationship and multidimensional poverty theory, this study initially develops a three-dimensional model encompassing human, society, and environmental factors to investigate the mechanisms of rural impoverishment as well as to construct an indicator system to evaluate the comprehensive poverty level(CPL) in rural areas. A back propagation neural network model was then applied to measure CPL, and standard deviation classification was used to identify counties that still require national policy-support(CRNPSs) subsequent to 2020. The results of this study suggest that CPL values conform to a decreasing trend from the southeast coast towards the inland northwest of China. Data also show that 716 CRNPSs will be present after 2020, mainly distributed in high-arid areas of the Tibetan Plateau, the transitional zones of the three-gradient terrain, as well as karst areas of southwest China. Furthermore, CRNPSs can be divided into four types, that is, key aiding counties restricted by multidimensional factors, aiding counties restricted by human development ability, aiding counties restricted by both natural resource endowment and socioeconomic development level, and aiding counties restricted by both human development ability and socioeconomic development level. We therefore propose that China should develop and adopt scientific and targeted strategies to relieve the relative poverty that still exist subsequent to 2020.展开更多
基金a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Canada, and Microsoft Corporationsupport of the Seminario Permanente de Investigacion Agraria (Permanent Seminar on Agricultural Research), SEPIA
文摘Communities in developing country mountain areas,in part due to their remoteness,find themselves excluded from social,political and economic systems; and excluded from access to resources. This paper aims to study the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on remoteness and exclusion. It utilises two models - the resource movement framework,and the "information chain" - to analyse a telecentre in one district of mountainous Huancavelica,Peru's poorest region,set in the high Andes. It finds ICTs enabling new and positive resource flows for the two key user groups:teenaged school students and young farmers. These help to maintain social networks. They also support information searches that have improved agricultural practice where other information chain resources have been available. But non-use and ineffective use of the telecentre are found where information chain resources are lacking. ICTs have some impacts on intangible elements of remoteness. In this particular example,they also offer access to some previously-excluded resources. But they have not really addressed the systematic exclusions faced by mountain communities. And they so far appear to be a technology of inequality; favouring those residents who begin with better resource endowments.The paper concludes by offering some recommendations for mountain ICT project practice.
基金the National Priorities Research Program (NPRP) (NPRP 5-457-2-181) from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation)
文摘Visual prostheses are now entering the clinical marketplace. Such prostheses were originally targeted for patients suff ering from blindness through retinitis pigmentosa(RP). However, in late July of this year, for the first time a patient was given a retinal implant in order to treat dry agerelated macular degeneration. Retinal implants are suitable solutions for diseases that attack photoreceptors but spare most of the remaining retinal neurons. For eye diseases that result in loss of retinal output, implants that interface with more central structures in the visual system are needed. The standard site for central visual prostheses under development is the visual cortex. This perspective discusses the technical and socioeconomic challenges faced by visual prostheses.
文摘With the continuous development of our country＇ s economy, social economy expands to the globe increasingly.The amount of imports and exports increases to a new high, which leads to the rapid development of the aviation transportation. This article is written by constructing theoretical models of aviation network, analyzing the relative influencing factors, analyzing the instances and obtaining the final conclusion.
基金National Key Research and Development Program of China,No.2017YFC0504701National Natural Science Foundation of China,No.41871183,No.41471143
文摘Poverty has been a focus of Chinese government for a long time. It is therefore of great significance to investigate both the mechanisms and spatial patterns of regional impoverishment in order to adequately target Chinese anti-poverty goals. Based on the human-environment relationship and multidimensional poverty theory, this study initially develops a three-dimensional model encompassing human, society, and environmental factors to investigate the mechanisms of rural impoverishment as well as to construct an indicator system to evaluate the comprehensive poverty level(CPL) in rural areas. A back propagation neural network model was then applied to measure CPL, and standard deviation classification was used to identify counties that still require national policy-support(CRNPSs) subsequent to 2020. The results of this study suggest that CPL values conform to a decreasing trend from the southeast coast towards the inland northwest of China. Data also show that 716 CRNPSs will be present after 2020, mainly distributed in high-arid areas of the Tibetan Plateau, the transitional zones of the three-gradient terrain, as well as karst areas of southwest China. Furthermore, CRNPSs can be divided into four types, that is, key aiding counties restricted by multidimensional factors, aiding counties restricted by human development ability, aiding counties restricted by both natural resource endowment and socioeconomic development level, and aiding counties restricted by both human development ability and socioeconomic development level. We therefore propose that China should develop and adopt scientific and targeted strategies to relieve the relative poverty that still exist subsequent to 2020.
