Self-feedbacks determine the sustainability of human interventions in eco-social complex systems: Impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem health.

Several administrative polices have been implemented in order to reduce the negative impacts of fishing on natural ecosystems. Four eco-social models with different levels of complexity were constructed, which represent the seaweed harvest in central-northern Chile under two different regimes, Management and Exploitation Areas for Benthic Resources (MAEBRs) and Open Access Areas (OAAs). The dynamics of both regimes were analyzed using the following theoretical frameworks: (1) Loop Analysis, which allows the local stability or sustainability of the models and scenarios to be assessed; and (2) Hessian´s optimization procedure of a global fishery function (GFF) that represents each dynamics of each harvest.

Ethnic density and mortality: aboriginal population health in Taiwan.

Background: Ethnic density (the proportion of ethnic minority populations in a geographic area) has emerged as an important factor determining population health. By examining the relationship between mortality rates and the proportion of aboriginal population in Taiwan, this ecological approach highlights the pressing need to understand why aboriginal health remains relatively disadvantaged affecting the population as a whole, especially given the provision of universal health coverage.

Methods: Using combined data from various government departments in Taiwan, we first compare overall mortality rates between aboriginal people and the general population in Taiwan's 21 administrative locations during the years 2010 and 2011.

Application of loop analysis for evaluation of malaria control interventions.

Background: Despite continuous efforts and recent rapid expansion in the financing and implementation of malaria control interventions, malaria still remains one of the most devastating global health issues. Even in countries that have been successful in reducing the incidence of malaria, malaria control is becoming more challenging because of the changing epidemiology of malaria and waning community participation in control interventions. In order to improve the effectiveness of interventions and to promote community understanding of the necessity of continued control efforts, there is an urgent need to develop new methodologies that examine the mechanisms by which community-based malaria interventions could reduce local malaria incidence.

Social and land use composition determinants of health: variability in health indicators.

Previous studies have shown that a community's socioeconomic status has a significant impact on its residents' health, and that vulnerability in deprived populations expresses itself as variability in health outcomes. The current study adds to this ecological research approach the notion that underlying community vulnerabilities are also related to the physical environment and population growth of a locality. The paper explores the variability in various health indicators in 252 localities in Israel as a function of the localities' socioeconomic status, population growth, and land use composition measures.

One foot in, one foot out.

As radical health professionals, we have the triple identity of workers, of activists, and of intellectuals that creates the cauldron in which we live contradictory lives. We share the concerns of other workers for salaries, job security, health and safety at work, and work load. But like teachers and unlike most other workers we are not completely alienated from our work and have a stake in the outcomes of our labors that we are not always free to express or act on.