621 research outputs found

    Making Connections: A Handbook for Effective Formal Mentoring Programs in Academia

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    This book, Making Connections: A Handbook for Effective Formal Mentoring Programs in Academia, makes a unique and needed contribution to the mentoring field as it focuses solely on mentoring in academia. This handbook is a collaborative institutional effort between Utah State University’s (USU) Empowering Teaching Open Access Book Series and the Mentoring Institute at the University of New Mexico (UNM). This book is available through (a) an e-book through Pressbooks, (b) a downloadable PDF version on USU’s Open Access Book Series website), and (c) a print version available for purchase on the USU Empower Teaching Open Access page, and on Amazon

    Integrating ecosystem–based management and marine spatial planning for sustainable ocean governance in the Bay of Bengal

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    In the contemporary world, oceans are increasingly realized as ‘threatened places’ in need of environmental protection, at risk from pollution, habitat loss, and overfishing. On the other hand, nations around the world are turning their attention to oceans as a new source of economic development and growth, seeing them as ‘industrialized spaces’. The concept of integrating Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) and Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) is a new approach for sustainable Ocean Governance (SOG). As an effective strategic tool for planning and managing conflicting ocean uses and their interactions with marine ecosystems, the EBM-MSP approach creates an opportunity for long-term development in relation to ocean and its resources. This thesis scrutinizes the contemporary concepts, definitions, and approaches pertinent to the establishment of a comprehensive Ecosystem-based Management and Marine Spatial Planning (EBM-MSP) framework for Sustainable Ocean Governance that reflects global and regional standards. The study also analyses various scientific data – especially the pollutants’ concentration at spatial and temporal scales – with special reference to EBM-MSP. The research analyses international laws, declarations, conventions, and agreements that are relevant to the proposition of a new dynamic approach to SOG based on EBM-MSP. This new approach could be useful to support necessary reforms, filling gaps in legal regimes and achieving integrated and effective ocean governance mechanisms to prevent, reduce, and control pollution in the marine environment, as well as promoting sustainable exploration of marine resources. Specifically, the research critically analyses the existing legal frameworks in relation to SOG in the Bay of Bengal (BOB). Based on an analysis of sectoral legislation and institutional arrangements in the BOB, the thesis recommends the modification and adoption of legislation, as well as integration among the relevant departments of Bangladesh Government, to match transboundary SOG, particularly along with EBM-MSP development processes. The study focuses on national policies and strategies along with sectoral legislation and institutional arrangements to contribute towards EBM-MSP at national level for SOG, by considering socioeconomic balance and jurisdictional overlays. Based on experiences in the Baltic Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP), the research determines numerous key features to assist with the generation and application of EBM-MSP in the BOB region, specifically in Bangladesh, by integrating EBM-MSP with particular reference to a Comprehensive Ocean Zoning (COZ). The substantial outcome of the study is to suggest a COZ Framework for Bangladesh to protect priority seascapes and sites, species of special concern, and their critical habitats, by designing Marine Protected Area networks throughout the transboundary coast

    Changing Business models for Sustainability: Role of drivers and dynamic capabilities in Arctic nature tourism

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    This thesis investigates nature tourism companies, which strive to incorporate sustainability into their business models and change them to be more resilient. For this purpose, it adopts a dynamic perspective on business models by which companies address corporate sustainability which is understood here as a balance among environmental, social, and economic pillars as well as a sustainable competitive advantage. Past studies overlooked the significance of a systematic analysis of drivers and enablers of change as a way to explain how business models are stimulated and changed. Thus, this thesis aims to answer this overall research question: What are the key drivers and dynamic capabilities underlying business model change for sustainability, and how do they give rise to business model changes for sustainability? Four sub-research questions are formulated across three studies: one systematic literature review and two empirical qualitative studies. Article 1 was inspired by the existing literature regarding a prominent knowledge gap in terms of the theorization of business models in tourism research compared to management research. This study resides in a systematic literature review of nature tourism literature about the conceptualization and operationalization of business models with respect to sustainability and innovation. Article 2 follows a qualitative multiple-case study design to comparatively examine five nature tourism companies to explore how their business models are driven to incorporate sustainability aspects. This study differentiates these business models in terms of sustainability integration and underlying drivers to shed light on crucial driving factors in terms of how they can drive various business models to embed sustainability. Article 3 relies on a longitudinal qualitative design to study how nature tourism companies handled the COVID-19 crisis and enhanced their resilience by changing their business models through building dynamic capabilities. To address the temporal aspects of dynamic capabilities and business model changes, two rounds of interviews were held with seven tourism entrepreneurs. This article regards the crisis as a driver underlying the building of dynamic capabilities that set the stage for business model changes. Given the conceptual contribution of individual articles, article 1 stresses that business models are relevant tools to set off the desired changes and innovations and contributes to sustainable business model research by offering insight into how past nature tourism studies applied the concept of business model with respect to sustainability and innovation. By identifying knowledge gaps in the literature on the nature tourism business models, this study yields two empirical qualitative articles, articles 2 and 3. Article 2 contributes to sustainable business model literature by refining and extending past typologies of drivers for sustainability embeddedness by clarifying how drivers perform empirically across different business models, particularly in nature tourism. Compared to article 2, article 3 seeks to probe more closely into firms via their respective dynamic capabilities and underlying practices, which enable business model changes to be either radical (innovations) or incremental (adjustments). While article 2 considers sustainability in terms of social and environmental aspects in addition to the economic aspect, article 3 conceptualizes sustainability in light of resilience. Article 3 proposes a taxonomy of dynamic capability-based practices and contributes to the dynamic capabilities and business model innovation literature in times of crisis. Above all, this thesis contributes to filling the noteworthy knowledge gap in terms of the lack of a systematic and thorough explanation of the relevant key drivers and dynamic capabilities to illustrate business model changes for sustainability. Notably, it makes novel theoretical contributions to the research stream of business model innovations for sustainability. Relatedly, this research clarifies how critical driving factors and dynamic capability-based practices stimulate and facilitate business model changes. This is done in this thesis by differentiating drivers and dynamic capabilities, but at the same time seeing them as closely linked. Hence, by applying a dynamic perspective on business models, the overall findings demonstrate how business models are driven, enabled, and changed to embed sustainability and enhance resilience. This thesis argues that business model design is a continuous task and not a one-time practice. Moreover, the overall results of this thesis provide useful insights into business models in nature tourism in two different situations: a competitive environment before the crisis and a turbulent environment during the crisis. More importantly, as the findings of articles 2 and 3 suggest, the focus of change might vary to ensure a proper balance among economic, social, and environmental aspects. This thesis concludes with some research limitations, suggestions for future studies and implications for practice

    Plug-in healthcare:Development, ruination, and repair in health information exchange

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    This dissertation explores the work done by people and things in emerging infrastructures for health information exchange. It shows how this work relates to processes of development, production, and growth, as well as to abandonment, ruination, and loss. It argues for a revaluation of repair work: a form of articulation work that attends to gaps and disruptions in the margins of technological development. Often ignored by engineers, policy makers, and researchers, repair sensitizes us to different ways of caring for people and things that do not fit, fall in between categories, and resist social norms and conventions. It reminds us that infrastructures emerge in messy and unevenly distributed sociotechnical configurations, and that technological solutions cannot be simply ‘plugged in’ at will, but require all kinds of work. With that, repair emphasizes the need for more democratic, critical, and reflexive engagements with (and interventions in) health information exchange. Empirically, this study aims to understand how ‘integration’ in health information exchange is done in practice, and to develop concepts and insights that may help us to rethink technological development accordingly. It starts from the premise that the introduction of IT in healthcare is all too often regarded as a neutral process, and as a rational implementation challenge. These widespread views among professionals, managers, and policy makers need to be addressed, as they have very real – and mostly undesirable – consequences. Spanning a period of more than ten years, this study traces the birth and demise of an online regional health portal in the Netherlands (2009-2019). Combining ethnographic research with an experimental form of archive work, it describes sociotechnical networks that expanded, collapsed, and reconfigured around a variety of problems – from access to information and data ownership to business cases, financial sustainability, and regional care. It puts a spotlight on the integration of standards, infrastructures, and users in the portal project, and on elements of collapsing networks that quietly resurfaced elsewhere. The reconstruction of these processes foregrounds different instances of repair work in the portal’s development and subsequent abandonment, repurposing, and erasure. Conceptually, this study contributes to academic debates in health information exchange, including the politics of technology, practices of participatory design, and the role of language in emerging information infrastructures. It latches on to ethnographic studies on information systems and infrastructural work, and brings together insights from actor-network theory, science and technology studies, and figurational sociology to rethink and extend current (reflexive and critical) understandings of technological development. It raises three questions: What work is done in the development and demise of an online health portal? How are relations between people and things shaped in that process? And how can insights from this study help us to understand changing sociotechnical figurations in health information exchange? The final analysis includes five key concepts: the act of building network extensions, the method of tracing phantom networks, the notion of sociotechnical figurations, the logic of plug-in healthcare, and repair as a heuristic device.<br/

    The Future Role of Strategic Landpower

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    Recent Russian aggression in Ukraine has reenergized military strategists and senior leaders to evaluate the role of strategic Landpower. American leadership in the European theater has mobilized allies and partners to reconsider force postures for responding to possible aggression against NATO members. Although Russian revisionist activity remains a threat in Europe, the challenges in the Pacific for strategic Landpower must also be considered. At the same time, the homeland, the Arctic, climate change, and the results of new and emerging technology also challenge the application of strategic Landpower. This publication serves as part of an enduring effort to evaluate strategic Landpower’s role, authorities, and resources for accomplishing the national strategic goals the Joint Force may face in the next conflict. This study considers multinational partners, allies, and senior leaders that can contribute to overcoming these enduring challenges. The insights derived from this study, which can be applied to both the European and Indo-Pacific theaters, should help leaders to consider these challenges, which may last a generation. Deterrence demands credible strategic response options integrated across warfighting functions. This valuable edition will continue the dialogue about addressing these issues as well as other emerging ones.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1959/thumbnail.jp

    Circular Economy in the Water and Wastewater Sector: Possibilities for the local production and sale of biogas and biochar to finance municipal treatment plant's operation and maintenance costs and enhance sustainability

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    This thesis aims to investigate the possibility of optimizing the sludge treatment process in a municipal wastewater treatment plant to produce biogas and biochar from bioresidues. The objective is to maximize the sales of these products to finance the operating and maintenance costs of the treatment plant or reduce the energy bill. The study involves a detailed review of literature and interviews to identify the best practices in sludge treatment and the potential for biogas and biochar production. Furthermore, the thesis considers the economic and environmental benefits of producing biogas and biochar, including their potential as renewable energy sources and soil amendments. The study also evaluates the feasibility of locally using the produced biogas and biochar, including the availability of local markets and the infrastructure required for transportation and distribution. Ultimately, this document provides a comprehensive picture of sludge as an important resource from a municipal water and wastewater treatment plant in terms of sustainability and economic viabilityThis thesis aims to investigate the possibility of optimizing the sludge treatment process in a municipal wastewater treatment plant to produce biogas and biochar from bioresidues. The objective is to maximize the sales of these products to finance the operating and maintenance costs of the treatment plant or reduce the energy bill. The study involves a detailed review of literature and interviews to identify the best practices in sludge treatment and the potential for biogas and biochar production. Furthermore, the thesis considers the economic and environmental benefits of producing biogas and biochar, including their potential as renewable energy sources and soil amendments. The study also evaluates the feasibility of locally using the produced biogas and biochar, including the availability of local markets and the infrastructure required for transportation and distribution. Ultimately, this document provides a comprehensive picture of sludge as an important resource from a municipal water and wastewater treatment plant in terms of sustainability and economic viabilit

    The causes of retinal dystrophy and the development of more comprehensive screening approach

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    Inherited retinal diseases (IRDs) are a group of genetically and phenotypically heterogenous disorders caused by variants in around 280 genes. Additional loci have also been localised to chromosomal regions, though the causative genes remain unknown. Recent improvements in screening technologies have increased the detection of pathogenic variants in IRD. This thesis describes the use of next generation sequencing (second (short-read) and third (long-read) generation sequencing) to find missing or hard to find pathogenic variants in IRD patients. The first results chapter describes use of whole exome sequencing to screen 24 individuals with syndromic and non-syndromic IRDs. This identified pathogenic variants in known genes in eight cases; CDHR1 (c.1527T>G, p.Y509*), RHO (c.284T>C, p.L95P), PRPF31 (c.797delC, p.S266*), CNGA3 (c.1088T>C, p.L363P), BBS10 (c.728-731delAAGA, p. K243Ifs*15), USH2A (c.252T>G, p.C84W), ABCA4 (c.2588G>C, p.G863A and c.6089G>A, p.R2030Q), and SLC25A46 (c.670A>G, p.T224A). In addition, several candidate variants were highlighted for further investigation. In the second results chapter, seven patients with late onset macular dystrophy and one with age related macular degeneration were found to carry the same heterozygous ~126 kb deletion encompassing CRX, TPRX1 and SULT2A1. This phenotype has already been documented in patients with heterozygous variants in the gene encoding retinal transcription factor CRX, while there is no known functional or phenotypic link with variants in TPRX1 or SULT2A1. This therefore confirms that CRX haploinsufficiency is pathogenic, a finding that had previously been debated in the ophthalmic literature. The deletion was characterized using a PCR assay followed by cloning and Sanger sequencing or direct Sanger sequencing. Haplotype analysis was done by microsatellite genotyping. The third results chapter describes use of SMRT PacBio and nanopore long-read sequencing to screen the hard-to-sequence mutation hotspot RPGR-ORF15. Both approaches were effective in reading throughout ORF15 and allowed sequencing indexed pooled samples, and 218 IRD patients were screened, detecting known and new variants. Nanopore sequencing on the smaller Flongle flowcell allowed low-cost optimisation, but pores rapidly blocked, probably due to ORF15 secondary structures. Repeated DNase I washes reopened the pores but required use of the more expensive MinION flowcells. Ultimately, the PacBio sequencer proved simpler to use, cheaper, and more scalable
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