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The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of human factor on ecological conditions of Moroccan cedar forest with a view to drawing out implication for sustainable forest management. The study is set against the backdrop of the global depletion of natural capital in a rare axis which, if not brought under an integrated sustainability purview, might lead to the extinction of this quickly receding natural resource.

Data for this research are mined from publicly held databases but processed through a time series regression analysis in a way that measures variations in ecological/environmental variables.

Findings reveal that changes in precipitation and temperature account for a small but significant amount of variation during the period 1940-2006. However, most of the decline is attributable to human activities such as overgrazing and illegal logging. These are having far-reaching implications for forest conservation management.

Human agency, more than any effect of nature, is chiefly responsible for the unsustainable development in this sphere of natural capital. Whilst this may not altogether constitute new knowledge, the paper highlights ambivalent positions that both promote and constrain efforts to sustain cedar forest. Its novelty lies not only in the empirical substantiation it affords but also in ferreting out strategic initiatives to dis-incentivise unsustainable exploitation of this important aspect of natural capital.

Abstract‐CEDAR protocol is a distributed routing protocol oriented to Quality of Service (QoS) support in MANET, and bandwidth is the QoS parameter of interest in this protocol. However, without energy efficiency consideration, earlier node failure will occur in overloaded nodes in CEDAR, and in turn may lead to network partitioning and reduced network lifetime. The storage and processing overhead of CEDAR is fairly high because too many kinds of control packets are exchanged between nodes and too much state information needs to be maintained by core nodes. The routing algorithm depends fully on the link state information known by core nodes. But the link state information may be imprecise, which will result in route failures. In this paper, we present an improved energy efficient CEDAR protocol, and propose a new efficient method of bandwidth calculation. Simulation results show that the improved CEDAR is efficient in terms of packet delivery ratio, throughput and mean‐square error of energy.

Like language, the law is an instrument – a tool – for the accomplishment of certain purposes. The idealized understanding insisted that the law is, if not divinely inspired, the empirical manifestation of received wisdom and truth. On this view the law is crafted to produce ideal outcomes. Richard Posner once insisted that the law was purposefully crafted to achieve economic efficiency (1973).¹ Warren Samuels reminded us that the law is an instrument to get one's way. The interesting question, therefore, concerns who is able to control this valuable instrument? Sometimes good and noble people wield the tool. At other times nefarious forces prevail. Samuels presented his vision of the law by means of a Virginia statute concerning an obscure pest known as Cedar Rust (Samuels, 1971). As it happens, Virginia apple growers were able to wield the tool – saws and axes – against red cedar trees which serve as an intermediate host for a fungus detrimental to apple trees. Small spores make for large debates.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the water repellent efficiency of some oil modified solvent‐type alkyd resins, as wood protective formulations (WPs). It was done by surface treating of pine and cedar woods with the five leading brand of alkyd resins that are available in Turkey.

For effective water repellency, various formulations were made by incorporating different concentrations of varnish resin, pigment, solvent, and a substance that repels water. The impact and adhesive strengths of the five different solvent‐type alkyd resins were characterised by using a very simple experimental design.

The swelling variations of unmodified pine and cedar woods were determined in water. Next, the water repellent efficiency of the five different alkyd resin formulations was evaluated. The modification of pine and cedar woods using alkyd resins showed various level enhancement of resistance against water over the unmodified samples. The modification caused a chemical linkage between surface and resin that led to ensuring the intrinsically chemical bonds across the wood/resin matrix interface, which was the main cause to the improved water resistance. However, some WPs were less compatible, hence, had less bonding potential to both woods.

The method developed provided a simple and practical solution to selecting WPs (brands) for pine and cedar woods.

The method for evaluating adhesive strengths of the five different brand solvent‐type alkyd resins to pine and cedar woods were novel and could find numerous applications in surface coating.

Companies may spend capital and effort to ensure the survival within their niche but have limited capacity to expand into other niches or broaden their target segment. This paper aims to provide insights into how they can overcome this niche entrapment – companies becoming trapped in the very niche they have cultivated, the weight and inertia of their investment shackling them to its continued existence.

Cedar Fair’s acquisitions and its organizational structure are carefully examined to illustrate the need for considering niche entrapment as a concept. To understand the complexities that firms face in their attempts to overcome the niche entrapment, this paper analyzes Cedar Fair using the concepts of categories and inherited identities.

The following important lessons are elaborated for helping business organizations overcome niche entrapment: embrace the organizational complexity; use gateway and complementary identities; consider brand disassociation; and achieve ambidexterity through a portfolio of offering.

This paper deviates from the traditional treatment of niches as a focus strategy that firms can select to build competitive advantages but instead provides insights into how those very niches can become constraints. It also conceptually evaluates the attempts to overcome these constraints from an organizational perspective instead of an industry perspective. Apart from using categories in a novel way, it also introduces a new concept of inherited identities, which are the organizational identities that firms inherit as they acquire and assimilate other firms.

To discuss one child welfare agency's efforts to construct an image and identity in the era of privatization that reflects its mission to holistically serve its constituents. The study documents the nature of organizational image and organizational identity, elements of change, and the particular nature of the structural and image changes that the agency has integrated.

This is a case study of CEDARS of Lincoln, NE, a child welfare agency and key participant in the changes in child welfare due to privatization of service delivery systems.

Privatization imposes certain challenges for child welfare providers that can be creatively addressed. Management can be encouraged to think outside the box when managing these challenges.

As a key participant, CEDARS is a model for other similar child welfare agencies that might be facing similar issues with privatization.

This paper aims to present a history of the marketing of hope chests in the USA, focusing in particular on one very successful sales promotion, the Lane Company’s Girl Graduate Plan. The Girl Graduate Plan is placed within its historical context to better understand the socioeconomic forces that contributed to its success for a considerable period but ultimately led to decreased demand for the product.

The history of the marketing of hope or marriage chests draws upon primary sources located in the Lane Company Collection at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture. Secondary sources and images of advertising culled from Google image searches provided additional insight into the operation of the company’s Girl Graduate Plan.

While the Lane Company benefitted in the form of increased sales, profit and brand awareness and loyalty from prevailing socio-economic trends, which supported the success of its Girl Graduate Plan, including targeting the youth market, this promotion ultimately fell victim to the company’s failure to stay abreast of social changes related to the role of women in society.

Like all historical research, this research is dependent upon the historical sources that are accessible. The authors combined documents available from the Virginia Historical Society archives with online searches, but other data sources may well exist.

This history investigates how one manufacturer, a leader in the North American industry, collaborated with furniture dealers to promote their products to young women who were about to become the primary decision makers for the purchase of home furnishings. As such, it provides an historical example of the power of successful collaboration with channel partners. It also provides an example of innovation within an already crowded market.

The hope chest as an object of material culture can be found in many cultures worldwide. It has variously represented a woman’s coming of age, the love relationship between a couple and a family’s social status. It has also served as a woman’s store of wealth. This history details how changing social values influenced the popularity of the hope chest tradition in the USA.

The history of the marketing of hope chests is an area that has not been seriously considered in consumption histories or in histories of marketing practices to date, in spite of the continuing sentimental appeal for many consumers.

This paper outlines the continuous improvement journey of a voluntary organisation. The significant level of organisational growth and improving quality of services described is clearly linked to the organisation’s commitment to improvement. One of the approaches used in adopting a total quality culture was the EFQM model, specifically interpreted for the voluntary sector. Until recently such an approach would have been considered alien to the sector, not least because of its origins in the business community. This article contradicts this assumption. Issues addressed include how the improvement process is driven, the use of performance measurement, external verification and the difficulties in accessing sector appropriate benchmark data. It is suggested that the pursuit of excellence is no longer optional for the voluntary sector, it is essential.

This paper aims to design and evaluate an innovative community-based service for adults with autism in a rural region of Northern Ireland. The goal was to reduce their social isolation through gaining social skills and building social networks.

Over three years, 54 persons with a median age of 21 years received 12 months of one-to-one, personalised support and opportunities to participate in peer groups and social activities which are detailed in the paper. Quantitative and qualitative information about the impact of the service was obtained from its users, their relatives, as well as service personnel.

Service users rated themselves to have changed in more ways than did their relatives and staff although there was a consensus that the changes were most marked in terms of spending more time out of the house, engaging in more community activities, being more independent and increased confidence. The main benefits they perceived from participation in the project were socialising, new experiences and learning new things.

As with many service projects, a longer term follow-up of service users was not possible due to resource constraints.

The service could be replicated with suitable staff although current constraints on social care budgets have limited its expansion to more users and extension to other areas in Northern Ireland.

Reducing the social isolation of adult persons with autism spectrum disorders needs to be personalised to the person, their living circumstances and the community in which they live. Family carers also stand to gain from community support services.

This low level, low cost service was implemented in a predominantly rural area with a majority of users from socially deprived areas.

This paper explores the experiences of Lebanese and Ukrainian diasporans on the Canadian island of Newfoundland by using the concepts of host-region and reflective domestic ethnicity. ¹ It is based on fieldwork among the descendants of Lebanese immigrants who settled at the turn of the twentieth century (Hirschfeld Shibley) and recent immigrants from Ukraine (Lesiv). Many studies of diasporas explore the notion of ethnicity. These explorations often take place in large and representative diasporic settings that, in turn, offer platforms for diverse public expressions of ethnic identities reinforced by vibrant diasporic institutions. Newfoundland is a comparatively small territory and has historically been an unpopular destination for immigrants. Furthermore, in Canada, the island is known for its distinct regional sense of identity. The generalised framework of ‘hostland’ frequently used to embrace entire countries or continents is unsuitable for the present study. Via a narrower regional prism, our findings show that, albeit for dissimilar reasons, Lebanese and Ukrainian diasporans engage with their ethnic heritages predominantly in domestic spheres. We explore domestic ethnicity formation processes focusing on select creative expressions, including material objects.