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Assessing social resilience to disasters at the neighbourhood level : co-producing a resilience assessment framework : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (Emergency Management) at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

All reprinted and copyrighted Figures have been removed, but they may be accessed via their source identified in the caption.Disasters of the past decade have drawn considerable attention to the need to build resilient communities and prompted the adoption of disaster resilience policies across communities, cities, and nations. As policies are translated into local actions, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners are advocating for the measurement of disaster resilience as a means to identify areas for improvement, plan interventions, evaluate the effectiveness of resilience strategies, and monitor resilience progress. The need to assess disaster resilience has spawned a growing body of research examining the underlying drivers of resilience and identifying how disaster resilience can be operationalised and measured. In particular, recent research has focused on the importance of social resilience, which is a component of disaster resilience and refers to the capacity of people and communities to deal with external stresses and shocks, and how it contributes to disaster preparedness, disaster response, and post-disaster recovery. However, while local communities are seen as the frontline in preparing for and responding to disasters, the scale of analysis for much of the existing resilience assessments have focused on the city or higher levels of analysis. Questions thus remain about whether these assessment tools are relevant and applicable at the sub-city or neighbourhood level. This thesis seeks to develop social resilience assessment measures for neighbourhoods through integrating scientific and local knowledge. Using an appreciative inquiry approach, a workshop with hazard researchers, practitioners, and a policymaker in Wellington, New Zealand, was first conducted in 2015. This was followed in 2016 by a series of focus groups with stakeholders in five neighbourhoods across the Wellington region in New Zealand, and the City and County of San Francisco in the United States. The workshop and focus groups explored how social resilience is conceptualised, its essential characteristics, and neighbourhood-specific contextual influences that shape social resilience levels. Responses from various stakeholder groups – hazard researcher, emergency practitioner, policymaker, and neighbourhood stakeholder – revealed similarities in how social resilience is perceived. Social resilience is conceptualised as having both cognitive and structural dimensions and is linked to communities’ economic, infrastructural/built, natural, and institutional/governance environments. Cognitive characteristics – those that relate to people’s attitudes, values, and beliefs as well as their mental processes and perceptions of themselves and their environment – include collective efficacy, sense of community and place attachment, decision-making inclusiveness, and unifying leadership at the neighbourhood-level. Structural dimensions relate to discrete features and characteristics of people and communities and include their diversity of skills, education and training; social networks; access to financial resources; and understanding potential hazard risks and impacts. These characteristics form a framework for measuring neighbourhood-level social resilience. Furthermore, these shared characteristics across different stakeholder groups demonstrate the potential universality of social resilience assessment constructs at the neighbourhood level that could inform new models for measuring disaster resilience. They also provide a foundation for local-level stakeholders (e.g., policymakers, practitioners, and community members) who are looking into baselining neighbourhood disaster resilience using an integrated approach. While different stakeholder perspectives contain similarities, this thesis finds that common social resilience characteristics are contextual to individual neighbourhoods, reflecting diversity at this level of analysis. By examining the concept of social capital – one of the social resilience characteristics – three key themes were identified that influence the formation, activation, and benefits of social capital resources: community demography, cultural influences on social support, and neighbourhood governance. An assessment framework was proposed that incorporates both quantitative indicators and contextual questions across six structural dimensions (i.e., population stability, neighbourhood-based organisations and groups, coordination between community-based organisations, linkages to cultural and ethnic minority communities, presence and effectiveness of neighbourhood leaders and community-based organisations, and inclusive and transparent government processes) and four cognitive dimensions (i.e., cultural beliefs and expectations, trust, social support, and empowerment through collective action). Thus, the results of this thesis highlight one important consideration in the development and implementation of resilience assessment tools at this geographic scale. While this research points to potential universality of social resilience assessment constructs and measures, it has also identified the need to consider contextual influences and characteristics when mapping them onto various neighbourhoods

Collapse of the vortex-lattice inductance and shear modulus at the melting transition in untwinned YBa2Cu3O7\rm YBa_2Cu_3O_7

The complex resistivity $\hat{\rho}(\omega)$ of the vortex lattice in an untwinned crystal of 93-K $\rm YBa_2Cu_3O_7$ has been measured at frequencies $\omega/2\pi$ from 100 kHz to 20 MHz in a 2-Tesla field $\bf H\parallel c$, using a 4-probe RF transmission technique that enables continuous measurements versus $\omega$ and temperature $T$. As $T$ is increased, the inductance ${\cal L}_s(\omega) ={\rm Im} \hat{\rho}(\omega)/ \omega$ increases steeply to a cusp at the melting temperature $T_m$, and then undergoes a steep collapse consistent with vanishing of the shear modulus $c_{66}$. We discuss in detail the separation of the vortex-lattice inductance from the `volume' inductance, and other skin-depth effects. To analyze the spectra, we consider a weakly disordered lattice with a low pin density. Close fits are obtained to $\rho_1(\omega)$ over 2 decades in $\omega$. Values of the pinning parameter $\kappa$ and shear modulus $c_{66}$ obtained show that $c_{66}$ collapses by over 4 decades at $T_m$, whereas $\kappa$ remains finite.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, Phys. Rev. B, in pres

Thermal comfort and energy performance of public rental housing under typical and near-extreme weather conditions in Hong Kong

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Building performance evaluation is crucial for sustainable urban developments. In high-density cities, occupants suffer from poor living conditions due to building overheating, especially during increasingly frequent near-extreme summer conditions caused by climate change. To represent this situation, the summer reference year weather data was employed for building simulations using DesignBuilder. This study aims to evaluate the thermal comfort and energy consumption of four typical public rental housing (PRH) building types in Hong Kong. For free-running flats, results show generally higher air temperatures in the oldest PRH type (Slab) with a compact linear building form and the most sensitive response to outdoor temperature changes for another older PRH type (Trident) with a Y-shaped design, possibly owing to its high wall conductivity. Occupants in all building types experience a ???10% increase in the proportion of discomfort hours when compared to results for typical summer conditions, but overheating is the most severe in Slab type PRH. Following an initial assessment of the cooling energy usage, a simple sensitivity test was conducted to explore the potential energy savings by various passive design strategies, including shading and reducing the exposed cooled space. A cross-shaped building form also appears to be more energy efficient. These findings, complemented by further parametric analyses, may prove useful when designing buildings for climate change

Olfactory dysfunction: A plausible source of COVID-19-induced neuropsychiatric symptoms

Olfactory dysfunction and neuropsychiatric symptoms are commonly reported by patients of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a respiratory infection caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Evidence from recent research suggests linkages between altered or loss of smell and neuropsychiatric symptoms after infection with the coronavirus. Systemic inflammation and ischemic injury are believed to be the major cause of COVID-19-related CNS manifestation. Yet, some evidence suggest a neurotropic property of SARS-CoV-2. This mini-review article summarizes the neural correlates of olfaction and discusses the potential of trans-neuronal transmission of SARS-CoV-2 or its particles within the olfactory connections in the brain. The impact of the dysfunction in the olfactory network on the neuropsychiatric symptoms associated with COVID-19 will also be discussed

Microwave and Millimeter Wave Techniques

Contains reports on four research projects.Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAAB07-74-C-0630)National Science Foundation (Grant MPS-73-05043-A01