Small Scattered Fragments Do Not a Dwarf Make: Biological and Archaeological Data Indicate that Prehistoric Inhabitants of Palau Were Normal Sized

Current archaeological evidence from Palau in western Micronesia indicates that the archipelago was settled around 3000–3300 BP by normal sized populations; contrary to recent claims, they did not succumb to insular dwarfism

Static and dynamic metrics of economic resilience for interdependent infrastructure and industry sectors

Infrastructures are needed for maintaining functionality and stability of society, while being put under substantial stresses from natural or man-made shocks. Since avoiding shock is impossible, increased focus is given to infrastructure resilience, which denotes the ability to recover and operate under new stable regimes. This paper addresses the problem of estimating, quantifying and planning for economic resilience of interdependent infrastructures, where interconnectedness adds to problem complexity. The risk-based economic input-output model enterprise, a useful tool for measuring the cascading effects of interdependent failures, is employed to introduce a framework for economic resilience estimation. We propose static and dynamic measures for resilience that confirm to well-known resilience concepts of robustness, rapidity, redundancy, and resourcefulness. The quantitative metrics proposed here (static resilience metric, time averaged level of operability, maximum loss of functionality, time to recovery) guide a preparedness decision making framework to promote interdependent economic resilience estimation. Using the metrics we introduce new multi-dimensional resilience functions that allow multiple resource allocation scenarios. Through an example problem we demonstrate the usefulness of these functions in guiding resource planning for building resilience. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Adaptive economic resilience planning for infrastructure and industry sectors with multiple shocks

The interdependent nature of today's infrastructures and industry sectors intensifies in light of major disruptive events, as inoperability propagates throughout physical, geographical, and economic dimensions. Of importance is the ability to measure, and subsequently plan, for how resilient these interdependent systems are to multiple economic disruptions.We have addressed such issues in this study by developing dynamic economic resilience estimation metrics from a dynamic economic risk estimation model. The ultimate goal of this study is to introduce an adaptive dynamic modeling extension to the risk model and use it to develop an adaptive dynamic resilience estimation and planning framework.We have developed a 4-tuple resilience metric to capture system average level of functionality, maximum loss of functionality, time to recovery and rate of recovery, all of which provide a complete resilience measurement scheme for adaptive dynamic resilience. An example problem shows the usefulness of the resilience metrics in recovery planning. © 2013 Taylor and Francis Group, London

Formalization and Evaluation of Non-functional Requirements: Application to Resilience

Part 4: Cognitive Systems for Resilience ManagementInternational audienceThis paper introduces the development of a method for the specification, formalization and evaluation of resilience. The developed method is based on two working approaches. First, we study and analyze several resilience metrics and indicators as well as the relationship between resilience and other non-functional requirements namely “-ilities”. Concepts for evaluation are identified and defined. Further, we map out these “-ilities” by positioning them according to the dynamic of the resilience represented as a set of zones. A set of indicators to evaluate the resilience and particularly indicators that are associated with these “-ilities” to each zone of the resilience has to be selected. The expected benefit of such method is to allow to evaluate resilience in order to master and improve it