Practical guidelines for modelling post-entry spread in invasion ecology

In this article we review a variety of methods to enable understanding and modelling the spread of a pest or pathogen post-entry. Building upon our experience of multidisciplinary research in this area, we propose practical guidelines and a framework for model development, to help with the application of mathematical modelling in the field of invasion ecology for post-entry spread. We evaluate the pros and cons of a range of methods, including references to examples of the methods in practice. We also show how issues of data deficiency and uncertainty can be addressed. The aim is to provide guidance to the reader on the most suitable elements to include in a model of post-entry dispersal in a risk assessment, under differing circumstances. We identify both the strengths and weaknesses of different methods and their application as part of a holistic, multidisciplinary approach to biosecurity research

Practice-oriented controversies and borrowed epistemic credibility in current evolutionary biology: phylogeography as a case study

Although there is increasing recognition that theory and practice in science are intimately intertwined, philosophy of science perspectives on scientific controversies have been historically focused on theory rather than practice. As a step in the construction of frameworks for understanding controversies linked to scientific practices, here we introduce the notion of borrowed epistemic credibility (BEC), to describe the situation in which scientists, in order to garner support for their own stances, exploit similarities between tenets in their own field and accepted statements or positions properly developed within other areas of expertise. We illustrate the scope of application of our proposal with the analysis of a heavily methods-grounded, recent controversy in phylogeography, a biological subdiscipline concerned with the study of the historical causes of biogeographical variation through population genetics- and phylogenetics-based computer analyses of diversity in DNA sequences, both within species and between closely related taxa. Toward this end, we briefly summarize the arguments proposed by selected authors representing each side of the controversy: the ‘nested clade analysis’ school versus the ‘statistical phylogeography’ orientation. We claim that whereas both phylogeographic ‘research styles’ borrow epistemic credibility from sources such as formal logic, the familiarity of results from other scientific areas, the authority of prominent scientists, or the presumed superiority of quantitative vs. verbal reasoning, ‘theory’ plays essentially no role as a foundation of the controversy. Besides underscoring the importance of strictly methodological and other non-theoretical aspects of controversies in current evolutionary biology, our analysis suggests a perspective with potential usefulness for the re-examination of more general philosophy of biology issues, such as the nature of historical inference, rationality, justification, and objectivity

Corporate motivation for integrated management system implementation : why do firms engage in integration of management systems: a literature review & research agenda\ud

Integration of management systems such as for quality, environment, occupational health and safety, risk management, and corporate social responsibilities is a viable organisational approach to cost reduction, efficient utilization of resources, greater motivation of employees, and better compliance to social obligations and stakeholders‘ requirements. Identification of drivers for corporate motivation for IMS decision making and its implementation is a matter of interest for academicians, practitioners, industry, and government regulatory agencies; paradoxically literature on this subject is pretty thin. This paper describes the literature review and research agenda for the exploration of drivers of IMS implementation and factors influencing IMS implementation. The exploratory research is meant to be executed by an inductive approach through case studies in Pakistani manufacturing firms

A Model-Driven Approach for Business Process Management

The Business Process Management is a common mechanism recommended by a high number of standards for the management of companies and organizations. In software companies this practice is every day more accepted and companies have to assume it, if they want to be competitive. However, the effective definition of these processes and mainly their maintenance and execution are not always easy tasks. This paper presents an approach based on the Model-Driven paradigm for Business Process Management in software companies. This solution offers a suitable mechanism that was implemented successfully in different companies with a tool case named NDTQ-Framework.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TIN2010-20057-C03-02Junta de Andalucía TIC-578

Bells that still can ring: systems thinking in practice

Complexity science has generated significant insight regarding the interrelatedness of factors and actors constituting our real world and emergent effects from such interrelationships. But the translation of such rich insight towards developing appropriate tools for improving real world situations of change and uncertainty provides a further significant challenge. Systems thinking in practice is a heuristic framework based upon ideas of boundary critique for guiding the use and development of tools from different traditions in managing complex realities. By reference to five systems approaches, each embodying more than 30 years of experiential use, three interrelated features of the framework are drawn out – contexts of systemic change, practitioners as change agents, and tools as systems constructs that can themselves change through adaptation. The ‘bells that still can ring’ refer to tools associated with the Systems tradition which have demonstrable capacity to change and adapt by continual iteration with changing context of use and different practitioners using them. It is in the practice of using such tools whilst being aware of significant ‘cracks’ associated with traps in managing complex realities that enables systems thinking in practice to evolve. Complexity tools as examples of systems thinking can inadvertently invite traps of reductionism within contexts, dogmatism amongst practitioners, and fetishism of our tools as conceptual constructs associated with ultimately undeliverable promises towards achieving holism and pluralism. The heuristic provides a guiding framework on monitoring the development of tools from different traditions for improving complex realities and avoiding such traps

Quality of Life Research and Methodology: Developing a Measure for Alaska Native Peoples

Quality of life (QOL) is often complicated by global measures that ignore the uniqueness of culture and context. The research is inundated with Western influence and colonized approaches, and indigenous ways of knowing are often overlooked and devalued. Diverse methodologies are a first step in stakeholder collaboration; mixed-methods research and Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) are a means of capturing the lived realities and worldviews of indigenous populations. These approaches allow for Alaska Native (AN) voice to be present in all aspects of the research process. A culturally relevant and sound measure of QOL for AN peoples must incorporate the voice of the stakeholders and the indigenous knowledge and traditional values that contribute to the beautiful and invaluable cultures of AN peoples

Framing purposeful evaluation through critical systems thinking

Two traditions of practice – evaluation and systems – share three significant concerns regarding development intervention: (i) making sense of complex interrelationships and the continual change brought about by such relationships; (ii) engaging with multiple (including exogenous and endogenous), often conflicting, perspectives on situations; and (iii) challenging vicious cycles of practice and understanding by cultivating a more radical learning culture. These challenges might be described successively in terms of cultivating a shift from (i) summative to formative evaluation (ii) positional bargaining to interest based negotiation, and (iii) purposive to purposeful action. Some ideas from traditions of social learning and critical systems thinking are presented to support a re-framing of intervention and evaluation from one serving the 'project state' towards one serving more radical transformative practice

Observing the observers – uncovering the role of values in research assessments of organic food systems

Assessing the overall effects of organic food systems is important, but also a challenge because organic food systems cannot be fully assessed from one single research perspective. The aim of the article is to uncover the role of values in assessments of organic food systems as a basis for discussing the implications of combining multiple perspectives in overall sustainability assessments of the food system. We explore how values are embedded in five research perspectives assessing organic food systems, 1) Food Science, 2) Discourse Analysis, 3) Phenomenology, 4) Neoclassical Welfare Economics and 5) Actor-Network Theory. The article shows that value has various meanings in different scientific perspectives, and that a strategy for including and balancing different forms of knowledge in overall assessments of the effects of food systems is needed. Based on the analysis, we propose five ecommendations: 1) Elucidate values as a necessary foundation for research assessment across perspectives. 2 The choice of perspective is decisive and should be openly discussed 3) Formulate common goals which can be translated into the different perspectives and 4) Consider assessment of food system sustainability a learning process and design it as such

Revisiting the role of the grounded theory research methodology in the accounting Information systems

The aim of this paper is to explore the role of grounded theory (GT) as a research method in the accounting information systems. The GT research method can able the GT researcher to generate a rigour theory. This research paper seeks to investigate how researchers can use GT in relation to its epistemological perspective, methodological stance and research methods. GT as a research philosophy provides clear understanding of how to generate and develop rigorous theory. GT offers an interpretative perspective based on its epistemological stance. This interpretative perspective can be a foundation for GT researchers in interpretative accounting information systems researches

How to study the mind: An introduction to embodied cognition

Embodied Cognition (EC) is a comprehensive approach to, and framework for, the study of the mind. EC treats cognition as a coordinated set of tools evolved by organisms for coping with their environments. Each of the key terms in this characterization-tool, evolved, organism, coping, and environment-has a special significance for understanding the mind that is discussed in this article