1,444 research outputs found

    Systematic conservation planning in marine environments: sensitivities of the planning framework to aspects of scale

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    Problems of scale abound in the science, governance, and conservation planning of complex social-ecological systems. In systematic conservation planning processes, which aim to effectively and efficiently allocate conservation interventions in space and time, nearly half of the stages in the planning framework involve decisions directly related to scale. The implications of scale-related problems are still poorly understood by conservation planners and researchers, as well as approaches to deal with these problems and integrate explicit multiscale thinking into the planning process. Thus, the overall goal of this thesis is to improve understanding of the different influences of scale on conservation planning outcomes, with the ultimate goal of making specific recommendations to improve the conservation planning framework to deal with scale more explicitly. As such, the structure of this thesis mirrors the relevant stages in the planning framework that involve scale-explicit decisions, organized by the two groups of scale considerations: technical versus practical. The first research objective of my thesis seeks to understand the extent to which technical aspects of setting spatial priorities for marine conservation ('spatial prioritisations') influence where priorities are determined, and how this relates to conservation strategies that rely on broad, coarse-resolution prioritisations to guide the locations of finer-resolution priorities are actions. I address this objective in Chapter 2 by quantifying the individual and interacting effects of three prioritisation factors on spatial priorities for marine conservation: (1) planning-unit size, (2) thematic resolution of coral reef classes, and (3) spatial variability of socioeconomic costs. I used Fiji and Micronesia as case studies and found that all three factors influenced spatial priorities to different extents, with the spatial variability of socioeconomic costs having the largest influence, followed by planning-unit size and thematic resolution of reef classes. Furthermore, I identified an interaction effect between the thematic resolution of reef classes and the socioeconomic cost data used. These findings have important implications for the strategy of relying on coarse-resolution prioritisations to guide finer-resolution assessments and invalidate a number of implicit assumptions that are made when adopting such strategy. Progressing to practical considerations of scale, my second research objective seeks to investigate the implications of another strategy commonly assumed or proposed to overcome scale mismatches between regional and local perspectives: dynamically iterating between regionalextent planning and locally applied actions ('iterative planning'), as conservation plans are incrementally implemented across a region. To address this objective in Chapter 3, I specifically explore how frequently regional priorities should be updated as local actions are gradually implemented. Using Fiji as a case study region, I found that changes in the frequency of updating regional priorities did not influence the total time taken to achieve conservation objectives, or the total extent of final reserve systems. However, I did identify two potential benefits to updating priorities more frequently: faster achievement of objectives for high-priority features, and greater potential to capitalise on areas that have previously had conservation efforts applied. This work provides insights into trade-offs to consider regarding the frequency of updating regional conservation assessments, which vary depending on specific planning contexts. My third research objective seeks to determine if there is an optimal scale at which to conduct conservation planning, as a precursor to understanding how best to integrate planning across multiple scales ('multiscale conservation planning'). I address this in Chapter 4 by elucidating the respective strengths and weaknesses of conservation plans developed at different jurisdictional levels in the Coral Triangle region (e.g., local, national) to adequately consider multiple social and ecological scales. I found that no plans I assessed were able to adequately address all social and ecological scales, and that plans generally best addressed social and ecological components representative of the same level at which the plan was developed. This research adds nuanced appreciation of the limitations of lower- versus higher-level conservation planning. While these respective limitations are understood as the general inability to consider components at other scales, I demonstrate that these limitations can be attributed to differences in technical versus conceptual abilities. My findings demonstrate the necessity for vertical integration between planning levels as a means to overcome their respective limitations. The fourth and final research objective of my thesis seeks to investigate the concept of multiscale conservation planning. It is overwhelmingly evident that the consideration and understanding of any social and ecological system must consider multiple scales explicitly. Thus, my thesis culminates in Chapter 5 with a theoretical and empirical examination of what it might mean to conduct multiscale conservation planning, a critical frontier in this field. Using Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands as case studies, I provide empirical evidence that refutes the conventional notion that conservation planning across multiple scales occurs unidirectionally ('scaling up' versus 'scaling down') and present a novel archetype that more realistically reflects multiscale planning in practice: 'multidirectional scaling'. I also evaluate factors that impeded or facilitated successful outcomes across multiple scales and reveal six scale-explicit characteristics for effective multiscale planning, the first two of which are novel concepts to the literature: (1) multiscale understanding, (2) scale jumping, (3) leadership characteristics, (4) stakeholder engagement, (5) policy frameworks, and (6) institutional settings. I propose these six characteristics constitute a new form of conservation capital, 'scalar capital', as a necessary resource or investment for successful outcomes across multiple scales. My thesis contributes nuanced understanding of the sensitivities of the conservation planning framework to aspects of scale, in both theory and practice. I offer specific recommendations for each of the relevant stages in the conservation planning framework that involve scale-explicit concerns and illuminate some implications of existing problems and influences of scale. Essentially, it is the aim of my thesis to conduct research that can enable conservation practitioners to consider aspects of scale more explicitly and improve the efficacy of conservation planning outcomes. Conservation planning in practice must progress to view any system to manage and govern as inherently complex and multiscale; similarly, planning processes across multiple scales should adopt a 'planning system identity' (such as in complex systems) to correspond in design with the systems that they seek to manage

    Studies on Spinal Fusion from Computational Modelling to ‘Smart’ Implants

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    Low back pain, the worldwide leading cause of disability, is commonly treated with lumbar interbody fusion surgery to address degeneration, instability, deformity, and trauma of the spine. Following fusion surgery, nearly 20% experience complications requiring reoperation while 1 in 3 do not experience a meaningful improvement in pain. Implant subsidence and pseudarthrosis in particular present a multifaceted challenge in the management of a patient’s painful symptoms. Given the diversity of fusion approaches, materials, and instrumentation, further inputs are required across the treatment spectrum to prevent and manage complications. This thesis comprises biomechanical studies on lumbar spinal fusion that provide new insights into spinal fusion surgery from preoperative planning to postoperative monitoring. A computational model, using the finite element method, is developed to quantify the biomechanical impact of temporal ossification on the spine, examining how the fusion mass stiffness affects loads on the implant and subsequent subsidence risk, while bony growth into the endplates affects load-distribution among the surrounding spinal structures. The computational modelling approach is extended to provide biomechanical inputs to surgical decisions regarding posterior fixation. Where a patient is not clinically pre-disposed to subsidence or pseudarthrosis, the results suggest unilateral fixation is a more economical choice than bilateral fixation to stabilise the joint. While finite element modelling can inform pre-surgical planning, effective postoperative monitoring currently remains a clinical challenge. Periodic radiological follow-up to assess bony fusion is subjective and unreliable. This thesis describes the development of a ‘smart’ interbody cage capable of taking direct measurements from the implant for monitoring fusion progression and complication risk. Biomechanical testing of the ‘smart’ implant demonstrated its ability to distinguish between graft and endplate stiffness states. The device is prepared for wireless actualisation by investigating sensor optimisation and telemetry. The results show that near-field communication is a feasible approach for wireless power and data transfer in this setting, notwithstanding further architectural optimisation required, while a combination of strain and pressure sensors will be more mechanically and clinically informative. Further work in computational modelling of the spine and ‘smart’ implants will enable personalised healthcare for low back pain, and the results presented in this thesis are a step in this direction

    Advancing PSS with complex urban systems sciences and scalable spatio-temporal models

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    Planning Support System (PSS) with a core of dynamic spatio-temporal model has been developed as analytical and information tools to aid and inform urban planning processes. However, scholarly communities identify that PSS has yet been popularized in planning practices, and not fully capable of meeting the challenge of understanding complex urban environments. I am dedicated to investigate and break through the bottlenecks of PSS with my experiences with University of Illinois Landuse Evolution and Impact Assessment Model (LEAM) PSS, which exemplify a PSS that that aid the process of collaboratively building spatio-temporal scenario models and transferring the knowledge to planning practitioners. I explore the future applications of PSS including Smart Cities, sentience, resilience, and environmental planning processes and their role in improving PSS usefulness in the practice of planning. PSS improvements will be presented in terms of multi-directional spatio-temporal processes and scenario planning. Moreover, I will address the process of transferring knowledge to users on model validity and ‘goodness-of-fit’ in real world planning applications. Beyond the traditional theoretical framework of PSS, the emerging Complex Urban System Sciences (CUS) challenge the core assumptions of spatial models of PSS, and pose opportunities for updating current PSS approaches into scalable spatio-temporal model that adheres to CUS principles. I will analyze this potential infusion by examining next generation PSSs within a framework of current CUS theories and advancement in statistical and computational methods. Case studies involved in my dissertation include LEAM PSS’ applications in McHenry County (IL), Peoria (IL), Chicago (IL), and St. Louis (MO). The final part of this dissertation highlights my contributions to the existing CUS theories. I will demonstrates how evidence from empirical applications can contribute to CUS theory itself. I will show how CUS can challenge the core assumptions of “distance to CBD” models that economists use to characterize urban structure and land-use

    Using scenario modelling for adapting to urbanization and water scarcity: towards a sustainable city in semi-arid areas

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    Sustainable development on a global scale has been hindered by urbanization and water scarcity, but the greatest threat is from decision-makers ignoring these challenges, particularly in developing countries. In addition, urbanization is spreading at an alarming rate across the globe, affecting the environment and society in profound ways. This study reviews previous studies that examined future scenarios of urban areas under the challenges of rapid population growth, urban sprawl and water scarcity, in order to improve supported decision-making (SDM). Scholars expected that the rapid development of the urbanization scenario would cause resource sustainability to continually be threatened as a result of excessive use of natural resources. In contrast, a sustainable development scenario is an ambitious plan that relies on optimal land use, which views land as a limited and non-renewable resource. In consequence, estimating these threats together could be crucial for planning sustainable strategies for the long term. In light of this review, the SDM tool could be improved by combining the cellular automata model, water evolution and planning model coupled with geographic information systems, remote sensing and criteria analytic hierarchical process modelling. Urban planners could optimize, simulate and visualize the dynamic processes of land-use change and urban water, using them to overcome critical conditions

    Design: One, but in different forms

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    This overview paper defends an augmented cognitively oriented generic-design hypothesis: there are both significant similarities between the design activities implemented in different situations and crucial differences between these and other cognitive activities; yet, characteristics of a design situation (related to the design process, the designers, and the artefact) introduce specificities in the corresponding cognitive activities and structures that are used, and in the resulting designs. We thus augment the classical generic-design hypothesis with that of different forms of designing. We review the data available in the cognitive design research literature and propose a series of candidates underlying such forms of design, outlining a number of directions requiring further elaboration

    Scenario Planning for Organizational Adaptability: The Lived Experiences of Executives

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    Organizational adaptability is critical to organizational survival, and executive leadership\u27s inability to adapt to extreme disruptive complex events threatens survival. Scenario planning is one means of adapting to extreme disruptive complex events. In this qualitative interpretive phenomenological study, 20 executives who had lived experience with extreme disruptive complex events and applied scenario planning to help adapt participated in phenomenological interviews to share their experiences related to the application of scenario planning as a means adaptation to extreme disruptive complex events. Participants were from a single large organization with executives distributed throughout the United States and executives from 10 state agencies located within a single state. Using the thematic analysis process, 14 themes emerged. The themes included knowing the difference between adaptation and response, not being afraid to tackle difficult questions, scenario planning is never over because the environment constantly changes, the true measures of scenario planning value are the benefits achieved via the planning exercise versus the business application, and participation should be individuals who can or could have a direct influence on adaptation and do not get bogged down in structured and/or rigid processes, methods, or tools because while useful, they are not required to be successful. The implications for positive social change include the ability for organizations to reduce economic injury and the compound effects of disruption including the social impacts of business injury, disruption, recovery, job loss, and reduced revenue on communities and local economies

    Enabling NATO’s Collective Defense: Critical Infrastructure Security and Resiliency (NATO COE-DAT Handbook 1)

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    In 2014 NATO’s Center of Excellence-Defence Against Terrorism (COE-DAT) launched the inaugural course on “Critical Infrastructure Protection Against Terrorist Attacks.” As this course garnered increased attendance and interest, the core lecturer team felt the need to update the course in critical infrastructure (CI) taking into account the shift from an emphasis on “protection” of CI assets to “security and resiliency.” What was lacking in the fields of academe, emergency management, and the industry practitioner community was a handbook that leveraged the collective subject matter expertise of the core lecturer team, a handbook that could serve to educate government leaders, state and private-sector owners and operators of critical infrastructure, academicians, and policymakers in NATO and partner countries. Enabling NATO’s Collective Defense: Critical Infrastructure Security and Resiliency is the culmination of such an effort, the first major collaborative research project under a Memorandum of Understanding between the US Army War College Strategic Studies Institute (SSI), and NATO COE-DAT. The research project began in October 2020 with a series of four workshops hosted by SSI. The draft chapters for the book were completed in late January 2022. Little did the research team envision the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February this year. The Russian occupation of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, successive missile attacks against Ukraine’s electric generation and distribution facilities, rail transport, and cyberattacks against almost every sector of the country’s critical infrastructure have been on world display. Russian use of its gas supplies as a means of economic warfare against Europe—designed to undermine NATO unity and support for Ukraine—is another timely example of why adversaries, nation-states, and terrorists alike target critical infrastructure. Hence, the need for public-private sector partnerships to secure that infrastructure and build the resiliency to sustain it when attacked. Ukraine also highlights the need for NATO allies to understand where vulnerabilities exist in host nation infrastructure that will undermine collective defense and give more urgency to redressing and mitigating those fissures.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1951/thumbnail.jp

    Real‐time biofeedback integrated into neuromuscular training reduces high‐risk knee biomechanics and increases functional brain connectivity: A preliminary longitudinal investigation

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    Prospective evidence indicates that functional biomechanics and brain connectivity may predispose an athlete to an anterior cruciate ligament injury, revealing novel neural linkages for targeted neuromuscular training interventions. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of a real‐time biofeedback system for altering knee biomechanics and brain functional connectivity. Seventeen healthy, young, physically active female athletes completed 6 weeks of augmented neuromuscular training (aNMT) utilizing real‐time, interactive visual biofeedback and 13 served as untrained controls. A drop vertical jump and resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging were separately completed at pre‐ and posttest time points to assess sensorimotor adaptation. The aNMT group had a significant reduction in peak knee abduction moment (pKAM) compared to controls (p = .03, d = 0.71). The aNMT group also exhibited a significant increase in functional connectivity between the right supplementary motor area and the left thalamus (p = .0473 after false discovery rate correction). Greater percent change in pKAM was also related to increased connectivity between the right cerebellum and right thalamus for the aNMT group (p = .0292 after false discovery rate correction, r2 = .62). No significant changes were observed for the controls (ps > .05). Our data provide preliminary evidence of potential neural mechanisms for aNMT‐induced motor adaptations that reduce injury risk. Future research is warranted to understand the role of neuromuscular training alone and how each component of aNMT influences biomechanics and functional connectivity.Emergent evidence indicates that the risk of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury is, in part, due to central nervous system alterations that could be targeted using neural mechanistic sensorimotor‐based treatments. Young female athletes completed 6 weeks of neuromuscular training while interacting with a real‐time, visual biofeedback stimulus. Our training was designed to reduce the risk of by (a) promoting injury‐resistant movement and (b) strengthening brain functional connectivity. Our data not only indicated that athletes’ biomechanics and brain connectivity were improved following training, but the observed biomechanical improvements were related to distinct, strengthened connectivity within regions important for sensorimotor control. This study supports the use of real‐time biofeedback systems to reduce the risk of ACL injury by leveraging neuroplasticity.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154933/1/psyp13545_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154933/2/psyp13545.pd

    Traveling Yellow Peril: Race, Gender, and Empire in Japan's English Teaching Industry

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    Contemporary U.S. white migrants working in Japan long-term as English teachers find themselves in an increasingly precarious labor market. When reacting to industry flexibilization, the U.S. men I interviewed during two years of fieldwork in Nagoya regularly invoked Filipina competition as an impending threat to their livelihoods. Anxieties coalesced around the question of whether racialized postcolonial subjects can fully inhabit the category of "native English teacher." This essay combines Asian American, postcolonial, and transnational American Studies perspectives to situate these "nativist" logics within an historical trajectory of anti-Asian labor backlash in the United States and "benevolent assimilation" policies in the Philippines. These histories reappear within Japan's neoliberal labor regimes to position Filipina migrants as a feminized "yellow peril" menace to hegemonic white masculinities abroad. Extending Homi Bhabha's theories, the essay demonstrates how Filipina "colonial mimicry" undermines the embodied, linguistic authority of white "native" English teachers and becomes a discursive conduit for the transplantation into Japan of the "white male victim" figure commonly seen in domestic U.S. culture wars
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