Towards a Common Language of Infrastructure Interdependency

Infrastructure systems can exist interdependently with one another either by design, necessity or evolution. There is evidence that interdependencies can be the source of emergent benefits and hazards, and therefore there is value in their identification and management. Achieving this requires collaboration and communication between infrastructure stakeholders across all relevant sectors. Recognising, developing and sharing multiple understandings of infrastructure interdependency and dependency will facilitate a wide range of multi-disciplinary and cross-sectorial work and support productive stakeholder dialogues. This paper therefore aims to initiate discussion around the nature of infrastructure interdependency and dependency in order to establish the basis of a useful, coherent and complete conceptual taxonomy. It sets out an approach for locating this taxonomy and language within a framework of commonplace stakeholder viewpoints. The paper looks at the potential structural arrangements of infrastructure interdependencies before exploring the qualitative ways in which the relationships can be characterised. This builds on the existing body of knowledge as well as experience through case studies in developing an Interdependency Planning and Management Framework for Infrastructure

Correction to: The hidden therapist: evidence for a central role of music in psychedelic therapy.

The article The hidden therapist: evidence for a central role of music in psychedelic therapy, written by Mendel Kaelen, Bruna Giribaldi, Jordan Raine, Lisa Evans, Christopher Timmerman, Natalie Rodriguez, Leor Roseman, Amanda Feilding, David Nutt, Robin Carhart-Harris, was originally published electronically on the publisher's internet portal

Mutual Fund Survivorship

This article provides a comprehensive study of survivorship issues using the mutual fund data of Carhart (1997). We demonstrate theoretically that when survival depends on multiperiod performance, the survivorship bias in average performance typically increases with the sample length. This is empirically relevant because evidence suggests a multiyear survival rule for U.S. mutual funds. In the data we find the annual bias increases from 0.07% for 1-year samples to 1% for samples longer than 15 years. We find that survivor conditioning weakens evidence of performance persistence. Finally, we explain how survivor conditioning affects the relation between performance and fund characteristics

Semantic activation in LSD: evidence from picture naming

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a classic psychedelic drug that alters cognition in a characteristic way. It has been suggested that psychedelics expand the breadth of cognition via actions on the central nervous system. Previous work has shown changes in semantic processing under psilocybin (a related psychedelic to LSD) that are consistent with an increased spread of semantic activation. The present study investigates this further using a picture-naming task and the psychedelic, LSD. Ten participants completed the task under placebo and LSD. Results revealed significant effects of LSD on accuracy and error correction that were consistent with an increased spread of semantic activation under LSD. These results are consistent with a generalised “entropic” effect on the mind. We suggest incorporating direct neuroimaging measures in future studies, and to employ more naturalistic measures of semantic processing that may enhance ecological validity

Strategic Infrastructure performance indicators

How strategic performance indicators, aligned with those elements of infrastructure performance most valued by the society the infrastructure serves, can be most effectively developed and used to evaluate infrastructure performance is of interest to any country that aspires to understand and improve the performance of its nation’s infrastructure. This White Paper shares an overview of three interim research outputs from collaborative ICIF and iBuild research on the use and design of strategic performance indicators for infrastructure. Refined versions of these outputs will be published shortly in a report to Infrastructure UK and two academic papers

Evidence for the Value of a Systems Approach to Infrastructure Planning, Delivery and Operation

The paper discusses the notion of infrastructure as a system, the nature of the systems approach in the context of infrastructure, and how this could complement the shortfalls of more dominant approaches. It argues that taking a systems perspective is a route to unlocking additional value from national and regional infrastructure system-of-systems, where value is a measure of the benefits derived by stakeholders in relation to the costs they have incurred. Thinking about infrastructure challenges, assets and services in terms of systems comprising multiple dynamic interactions and perspectives can enhance understanding of how value is created and captured. Examples are presented of infrastructure projects where interactions were overlooked, leading to increased cost and reduced benefits, and where interdependencies were recognised and manged to reduce cost and increase benefits. The paper concludes by outlining recently developed practical tools and techniques which have been designed specifically for the application of a systems approach to infrastructure

Infrastructure Resilience: A Multi-Disciplinary Perspective

• Resilience is multi-dimensional concept and as such difficult to define. Common across disciplinary perspectives, are the concept that resilience is a property of a system that emerges from the interaction between (interdependence of) system components. And that a resilient system a certain abilities characteristics. • All human activity (including construction and operation of infrastructure) takes place in the context of the broader system of which it is a part. It follows any infrastructure asset, sub-sector or sector is only as resilient as the least resilient component of the supply chains or other infrastructure on which it depends. Therefore, it is not possible (or at least very difficult) to be resilient without being systemic. • In order to be resilient, any action(s) to increase efficiency or optimise a system must be evaluated in the context of potential changes to the system (sudden and gradual) that might affect the ability to preserve existence of function. Explicitly acknowledging and maintaining awareness of broader external factors during problem framing and solution selection, is therefore, an essential element of the resilience approach. • To increase resilience and reduce recovery time, an organisation must be dynamic in continually planning for, and adapting to, changing external contexts. This requires regular re-evaluation of desired function(s)/outcome(s), and the business model and mode of delivery to enable those. Upgrading/adapting infrastructure assets only after a failure event, or focusing solely on rapid recovery to business-as-usual performance after a failure event, impedes an organisation’s ability to be resilient

Learning Journeys and Infrastructure Services: a game changer for effectiveness

Organisations need to be able to learn and thus benefit from their experience. They need the capability to respond profitably to information about processes, people and the environment in order to improve performance in the digital world: in other words to develop their corporate learning power. Infrastructure services businesses have a great deal to gain from such learning because they work in partnership with many other organisations but in highly competitive industries. They design for end use but are often detached from their users. Unlocking the learning power of individuals, teams and leaders to adapt and change will increase the pace of business transformation and generate greater value for all stakeholders. It will transform tacit knowledge that is locked within individuals into corporate intelligence. The cost of not doing this is quantifiable through sub-optimal performance and business failure or conversely through the benefits of success. Knowledge is increasingly about ‘flows’ and ‘networks’ rather than ‘stocks’ so how individuals and teams use their learning power ‘on the job’ to generate actionable insights from data that inform decision-making is a crucial new capability for the future. Data is increasingly complex, rapidly available and ubiquitous and requires continuous and collaborative interpretation and response aligned to business purpose. The premium is on the ability to interpret and use it rather than to simply collect it. This represents a significant mind-set shift from seeing knowledge as static to understanding data as the ‘raw material’ through which knowledge is generated and re-generated in the service of business strategy. The learning journey is a metaphor which incorporates four measurable processes: forming identity and purpose (ii) generating learning power (iii) knowledge structuring and (iv) producing value. Learning power is the way in which we regulate the flow of information and energy over time and this can be developed at any age. Each of these forward looking processes has implications for operational practices as well as for the ways in which digital resources are designed and deployed. Learning infrastructures can be co-designed and integrated with business strategy to (i) increase corporate agility, responsiveness and innovation, (ii) to model and explore customer and stakeholder behaviour and thus improve service and (iii) to develop digital platforms which support self-directed learning and behaviour change at scale

Increased spontaneous MEG signal diversity for psychoactive doses of ketamine, LSD and psilocybin

What is the level of consciousness of the psychedelic state? Empirically, measures of neural signal diversity such as entropy and Lempel-Ziv (LZ) complexity score higher for wakeful rest than for states with lower conscious level like propofol-induced anesthesia. Here we compute these measures for spontaneous magnetoencephalographic (MEG) signals from humans during altered states of consciousness induced by three psychedelic substances: psilocybin, ketamine and LSD. For all three, we find reliably higher spontaneous signal diversity, even when controlling for spectral changes. This increase is most pronounced for the single-channel LZ complexity measure, and hence for temporal, as opposed to spatial, signal diversity. We also uncover selective correlations between changes in signal diversity and phenomenological reports of the intensity of psychedelic experience. This is the first time that these measures have been applied to the psychedelic state and, crucially, that they have yielded values exceeding those of normal waking consciousness. These findings suggest that the sustained occurrence of psychedelic phenomenology constitutes an elevated level of consciousness - as measured by neural signal diversity