Exploring the interface between community-based forest management and systems modelling

Participatory modes of development, in general and community-based forest management in particular, have been widely accepted as a better alternative to traditional management paradigms, which have been discredited for being too expert-driven, centrally planned, and essentially top-down with strong adherence to principles of rationality. Recently however, participatory approaches have also received some criticism for their lack of rigour and highly empiricist orientation. Traditional modelling approaches have often been associated with traditional management paradigms in part because they are highly structured and systematic in their approach. Despite their perceived limitations, participatory approaches and modelling offer a number of desirable properties and strengths that can enhance both the practice and theory of community-based management. This paper explores alternative ways by which systems modelling can be adopted in a participatory framework. Combining these two approaches offers the flexibility, inclusivity and practicality of participatory methods, and the systemic, systematic and analytical capabilities of systems modelling. Examples of models that adhere to this hybrid approach are described in this paper

The Kiosk Culture: Reconciling The Performance Support Paradox In The Postmodern Age Of Machines

Do you remember the first time you used an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM)? Or a pay-at-the-pump gas station? Or an airline e-ticket kiosk? How did you know what to do? Although you never received any formal instruction in how to interact with the self-service technology, you were likely able to accomplish your task (e.g., withdrawing or depositing money) as successfully as an experienced user. However, not so long ago, to accomplish that same task, you needed the direct mediation of a service professional who had been trained how to use the required complex technology. What has changed? In short, the technology is now able to compensate for the average consumer\u27s lack of experience with the transactional system. The technology itself bridges the performance gap, allowing a novice to accomplish the same task as an experienced professional. This shift to a self-service paradigm is completely changing the dynamics of the consumer relationship with the capitalist enterprise, resulting in what is rapidly becoming the default consumer interface of the postmodern era. The recognition that the entire performance support apparatus now revolves around the end user/consumer rather than the employee represents a tectonic shift in the workforce training industry. What emerges is a homogenized consumer culture enabled by self-service technologies--a kiosk culture. No longer is the ability to interact with complex technology confined to a privileged workforce minority who has access to expensive and time-consuming training. The growth of the kiosk culture is being driven equally by business financial pressures, consumer demand for more efficient transactions, and the improved sophistication of compensatory technology that allows a novice to perform a task with the same competence as an expert. The Kiosk Culture examines all aspects of self-service technology and its ascendancy. Beyond the milieu of business, the kiosk culture is also infiltrating all corners of society, including medicine, athletics, and the arts, forcing us to re-examine our definitions of knowledge, skills, performance, and even humanity. The current ubiquity of self-service technology has already impacted our society and will continue to do so as we ride the rising tide of the kiosk culture

Transhumanism and Society: The Social Debate Over Human Enhancement

This book provides an introductory overview to the social debate over enhancement technologies with an overview of the transhumanists\u27 call to bypass human nature and conservationists\u27 argument in defense of it. The author present this controversy as it unfolds in the contest between transhumanists proponents and conservationists, who push back with an argument to conserve human nature and to ban enhancement technologies. Readers are informed about the discussion over humanism, the tension between science and religion, and the interpretation of socio-technological revolutions; and are invited to make up their own mind about one of the most challenging topics concerning the social and ethical implications of technological advancements

Design for manufacturability

Design for Manufacturability represents a new awareness of the importance of design as the first manufacturing step. It recognizes that a company cannot meet all its objectives with isolated design and manufacturing operations. The Design for Manufacturability approach embodies certain underlying imperatives that help maintain communication between all components of the Manufacturing and Design system and permit flexibility to adopt and to modify design during each stage of the product realization. Design for Manufacturability cannot be bought or sold and it should be implemented by management. Complete support of management to the implementation is very important to the success of the Design for Manufacturability. In this thesis Design for Manufacturability and its inputs a proposed product concept, a proposed process concept and a set of design goals are explained, associated methodologies are discussed, and their effect on the design of a product and a plan implementation of design for manufacturability is developed

Individual Differences in Cognitive Science: Conceptual and Methodological Issues

A primary aim of cognitive science is the investigation of psychological and neuroscientific generalizations that hold across subjects. Individual differences between people’s minds and brains are pervasive, however, even among subjects considered neurotypical. In this dissertation, I argue that both scientific practice and our philosophical understanding of science must be updated to reflect the presence of such individual differences. The first half of the dissertation proposes and applies a philosophical account of what it takes to explain variation, while the second half identifies several methods in psychology and neuroscience that demand reform in light of existing individual differences

Quality Infrastructure for Renewable Energy Technologies: Solar Water Heaters

This guide is part of a series prepared by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in the field of quality infrastructure (QI) for small-scale renew­able energy technologies. Quality Infrastructure for Renewable Energy Technologies: Solar Water Heaters analyses the challenges and offers recommendations for developing QI for solar water heaters (SWHs), as well as highlighting the experiences of several countries in developing and implementing QI for SWHs. The SWH guide concludes by applying guidelines for incrementally developing QI to the particular case of SWH market

Certification of machine learning algorithms for safe life assessment of landing gear

This paper provides information on current certification of landing gear available for use in the aerospace industry. Moving forward, machine learning is part of structural health monitoring, which is being used by the aircraft industry. The non-deterministic nature of deep learning algorithms is regarded as a hurdle for certification and verification for use in the highly-regulated aerospace industry. This paper brings forth its regulation requirements and the emergence of standardisation efforts. To be able to validate machine learning for safety critical applications such as landing gear, the safe-life fatigue assessment needs to be certified such that the remaining useful life may be accurately predicted and trusted. A coverage of future certification for the usage of machine learning in safety-critical aerospace systems is provided, taking into consideration both the risk management and explainability for different end user categories involved in the certification process. Additionally, provisional use case scenarios are demonstrated, in which risk assessments and uncertainties are incorporated for the implementation of a proposed certification approach targeting offline machine learning models and their explainable usage for predicting the remaining useful life of landing gear systems based on the safe-life method

Safe-To-Fail Infrastructure for Resilient Cities under Non-Stationary Climate

abstract: Motivated by the need for cities to prepare and be resilient to unpredictable future weather conditions, this dissertation advances a novel infrastructure development theory of “safe-to-fail” to increase the adaptive capacity of cities to climate change. Current infrastructure development is primarily reliant on identifying probable risks to engineered systems and making infrastructure reliable to maintain its function up to a designed system capacity. However, alterations happening in the earth system (e.g., atmosphere, oceans, land, and ice) and in human systems (e.g., greenhouse gas emission, population, land-use, technology, and natural resource use) are increasing the uncertainties in weather predictions and risk calculations and making it difficult for engineered infrastructure to maintain intended design thresholds in non-stationary future. This dissertation presents a new way to develop safe-to-fail infrastructure that departs from the current practice of risk calculation and is able to manage failure consequences when unpredicted risks overwhelm engineered systems. This dissertation 1) defines infrastructure failure, refines existing safe-to-fail theory, and compares decision considerations for safe-to-fail vs. fail-safe infrastructure development under non-stationary climate; 2) suggests an approach to integrate the estimation of infrastructure failure impacts with extreme weather risks; 3) provides a decision tool to implement resilience strategies into safe-to-fail infrastructure development; and, 4) recognizes diverse perspectives for adopting safe-to-fail theory into practice in various decision contexts. Overall, this dissertation advances safe-to-fail theory to help guide climate adaptation decisions that consider infrastructure failure and their consequences. The results of this dissertation demonstrate an emerging need for stakeholders, including policy makers, planners, engineers, and community members, to understand an impending “infrastructure trolley problem”, where the adaptive capacity of some regions is improved at the expense of others. Safe-to-fail further engages stakeholders to bring their knowledge into the prioritization of various failure costs based on their institutional, regional, financial, and social capacity to withstand failures. This approach connects to sustainability, where city practitioners deliberately think of and include the future cost of social, environmental and economic attributes in planning and decision-making.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Sustainability 201

A Radical Feminist Critique of the Video Games Industry

This IQP proposes a radical feminist critique of the video game industry. It explores the conflicts arising at the intersection of video games, gender, violence, masculinity, and militarism, and argues that the industry as a whole reinforces an unjust set of gendered political power relations. This paper strives to understand the problems and conflicts existing at the core of video game design, and charts new paths toward challenging games, gamers, and the industry from a feminist perspective