Water under the Bridge: Fairness and Justice in Environmental Decision-Making

Concepts of justice and the distribution of public resources have been an important aspect of social debate for centuries. Finding fair and just allocations of natural resources remains a major preoccupation for national governments and their constituent communities. Yet Australian governments, despite their long history of dealing with resource use conflicts, have largely failed to establish lasting legal or institutional frameworks in which resources are allocated in ways that are seen as equitable, fair and just. Where such allocations or decisions are perceived as unjust, underlying social tensions can emerge and result in social conflict. This study examines two such social conflicts in which communities expressed dissatisfaction with government plans and decisions through organized protests. The first case study explores community reactions to a 2006 NSW government action to cut a water allocation in the Murray Irrigation District. The second investigates community reactions to the Victorian government's North South Pipeline and Food Bowl Modernisation Project initiated in 2007. This study investigates these conflicts from a justice perspective, concentrating on notions of fairness and justice. Using a transdisciplinary investigative framework the thesis explores these notions through stakeholder perceptions of procedural justice and distributive justice. Procedural justice is concerned with the fairness of elements of the decision-making process and distributive justice with the outcome or decision. The study aims to find out how people perceive fairness and justice within the social context of the decision-making process and how these perceptions contribute to their acceptance of an outcome. The study also explores how better outcomes might be achieved. The study finds that justice and fairness are critical in determining people's acceptance of, or opposition to, a decision. Participants discussed conceptions of fairness or a sense of justice invoked when they perceived unfairness or injustice to themselves or others. The study also finds that people distinguish between the terms fairness and justice, with the former being concerned with how individuals treat each other on a day-to-day basis and the latter with the legal system and outcomes. The importance of injustice in any consideration of fairness and justice is shown in the way people felt they were treated during the decision-making processes and in the proposed or actual outcomes. Stakeholders experienced a variety of ways in which the process or outcome affected their lives: these included material, social and personal effects. A diversity of motivations for seeking justice emerged, including protection of livelihood and property rights, protection of community interests, maintaining environmental integrity, and justice as a means of valuing people's contribution to society. The thesis relates these findings to justice theories. Distinctions between justice and injustice are discussed: the thesis argues that justice can be conceptualised as an active process which prevents or remedies perceived injustice. The thesis explains why justice is important, not only to those directly affected by a decision, but also to those indirectly affected or onlookers. The thesis finds that in order for resource allocation decisions to be perceived as fair and equitable the three constructs of justice - distributive, procedural and interactional - are all required. A principal finding is that procedural justice and interactional justice are important in determining the acceptance of outcomes because they deliver things that people feel they are entitled to, such as respect, information and recognition of their right to be involved in a decision-making process. The thesis suggests the development of analytical tools based on justice constructs that can be used in decision-making processes in a proactive way to increase the acceptance of the outcome: theories of justice can be seen as a means and an end. Finally, the thesis explains why a theory of justice is required in decision-making within natural resource management

Outcomes after pneumonectomy versus limited lung resection in adults with traumatic lung injury.

Pneumonectomy after traumatic lung injury (TLI) is associated with shock, increased pulmonary vascular resistance, and eventual right ventricular failure. Historically, trauma pneumonectomy (TP) mortality rates ranged between 53 and 100%. It is unclear if contemporary mortality rates have improved. Therefore, we evaluated outcomes associated with TP and limited lung resections (LLR) (i.e., lobectomy and segmentectomy) and aimed to identify predictors of mortality, hypothesizing that TP is associated with greater mortality versus LLR. We queried the Trauma Quality Improvement Program (2010-2016) and performed a multivariable logistic regression to determine the independent predictors of mortality in TLI patients undergoing TP versus LLR. TLI occurred in 287,276 patients. Of these, 889 required lung resection with 758 (85.3%) undergoing LLR and 131 (14.7%) undergoing TP. Patients undergoing TP had a higher median injury severity score (26.0 vs. 24.5, p = 0.03) but no difference in initial median systolic blood pressure (109 vs. 107 mmHg, p = 0.92) compared to LLR. Mortality was significantly higher for TP compared to LLR (64.9% vs 27.2%, p < 0.001). The strongest independent predictor for mortality was undergoing TP versus LLR (OR 4.89, CI 3.18-7.54, p < 0.001). TP continues to be associated with a higher mortality compared to LLR. Furthermore, TP is independently associated with a fivefold increased risk of mortality compared to LLR. Future investigations should focus on identifying parameters or treatment modalities that improve survivability after TP. We recommend that surgeons reserve TP as a last-resort management given the continued high morbidity and mortality associated with this procedure

Children's Oncology Group's 2013 blueprint for research: Non‐Hodgkin lymphoma

Non‐Hodgkin lymphomas account for approximately 7% of cancers diagnosed in patients less than 20 years of age, with approximately 800 cases diagnosed annually at COG institutions. With current therapies, cure rates range from 70% to over 90%, even for children with disseminated disease. However, two major challenges need to be overcome: (i) to optimize upfront treatment to prevent relapse since prognosis for patients with relapsed disease remains poor and (ii) minimize long‐term side effects in survivors. Hence, the future initiatives for the treatment of pediatric NHL are to utilize novel targeted therapies to not only improve outcomes but to decrease bystander organ toxicities and late effects. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2013; 60: 979–984. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97477/1/24416_ftp.pd

Mathematics and Morphogenesis of the City: A Geometrical Approach

Cities are living organisms. They are out of equilibrium, open systems that never stop developing and sometimes die. The local geography can be compared to a shell constraining its development. In brief, a city's current layout is a step in a running morphogenesis process. Thus cities display a huge diversity of shapes and none of traditional models from random graphs, complex networks theory or stochastic geometry takes into account geometrical, functional and dynamical aspects of a city in the same framework. We present here a global mathematical model dedicated to cities that permits describing, manipulating and explaining cities' overall shape and layout of their street systems. This street-based framework conciliates the topological and geometrical sides of the problem. From the static analysis of several French towns (topology of first and second order, anisotropy, streets scaling) we make the hypothesis that the development of a city follows a logic of division / extension of space. We propose a dynamical model that mimics this logic and which from simple general rules and a few parameters succeeds in generating a large diversity of cities and in reproducing the general features the static analysis has pointed out.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figure

Stochastic oscillations of adaptive networks: application to epidemic modelling

Adaptive-network models are typically studied using deterministic differential equations which approximately describe their dynamics. In simulations, however, the discrete nature of the network gives rise to intrinsic noise which can radically alter the system's behaviour. In this article we develop a method to predict the effects of stochasticity in adaptive networks by making use of a pair-based proxy model. The technique is developed in the context of an epidemiological model of a disease spreading over an adaptive network of infectious contact. Our analysis reveals that in this model the structure of the network exhibits stochastic oscillations in response to fluctuations in the disease dynamic.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Mesial temporal sclerosis is linked with more widespread white matter changes in temporal lobe epilepsy

AbstractTemporal lobe epilepsy patients with unilateral mesial temporal sclerosis (TLE+uMTS) have been demonstrated to have extensive white matter abnormalities both ipsilateral and contralateral to the seizure onset zone. However, comparatively less is known about the white matter integrity of TLE patients without MTS (non-lesional TLE, nl-TLE). The purpose of the study was to investigate the diffusion properties of thirteen major white matter tracts in patients with TLE+uMTS and nl-TLE. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was performed on 23 TLE+uMTS (15 left MTS and 8 right MTS), 15nl-TLE and 21 controls. Thirteen tracts were delineated by tractography and their diffusion parameters compared for the two TLE groups relative to controls, with left and right hemispheres combined per tract. A subgroup analysis investigated left and right MTS separately. Compared to controls, reduced anisotropy was detected in ten tracts for TLE+uMTS, but only the parahippocampal cingulum and tapetum for nl-TLE. Right MTS subgroup showed reduced anisotropy in 7 tracts bilaterally (3 limbic, 3 association, 1 projection) and 2 tracts ipsilaterally (1 association, 1 projection) and the body of the corpus callosum whereas the left MTS subgroup showed reduced anisotropy in 4 tracts bilaterally (2 limbic, 1 association, 1 projection) and 2 tracts ipsilaterally (1 limbic, 1 association). Diffusion abnormalities in tracts were observed within and beyond the temporal lobe in TLE+uMTS and were more widespread than in nl-TLE. Patients with right MTS had more extensive, bilateral abnormalities in comparison to left MTS. These findings suggest different dysfunctional networks in TLE patients with and without MTS

Investigation Of Obesity-Related Mortality Rates In Delaware

As Delaware’s adult obesity crisis continues to be a leading public health concern, we evaluated Delaware’s 1999–2014 vital records to examine the association between obesity and mortality. We used the Delaware population death records from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) WONDER database and the Delaware Health Statistics Center (DHSC). Together with the vital records, we incorporated Microsoft Excel, SAS (Statistical Analysis System) and GIS (geographic information system) tools to analyze obesity influences from county residence, economic status, education, gender, and race. Using the 15-year (1999–2014) time span with the CDC WONDER database, we observed a statistically significant 28.7% increase in the age-adjusted Delaware obesity-related mortality rates (where obesity was a contributory factor). Furthermore, obesity influenced death counts in all three Delaware counties (New Castle, Kent, and Sussex). Kent County experienced the largest increase (66.0%), followed by New Castle County (47.4%), and Sussex County (25.2%). The DHSC mortality rates for all leading causes of death from 2000 to 2011 indicated relatively stable mortality rates for Delaware. However, using CDC WONDER data, the Delaware mortality rate for obesity as a single underlying cause in 2011 was 56.9% higher than mortality rate in 2000

Moving Beyond MDA to Control STH Infections through WASH, Hygiene Education, and Community Engagement

Over 1.5 billion people worldwide are afflicted by soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections: Ascaris lumbricoides, hookworm, and Trichuris trichiura (Ercumen et al., 2019). The disease burden falls mainly on low and middle-income countries (LMICs) without adequate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), since transmission mainly occurs through soil contaminated with infected feces (Khan et al., 2019). Infection control has typically relied on annual school-based mass drug administration (MDA), however, MDA is not a long-term solution because it does not interrupt environmental transmission (Khan et al., 2019; Vaz Nery et al., 2019, Ziegelbauer et al., 2012).  WASH infrastructure and hygiene behavior must be improved to reduce environmental transmission of STH infections (Ecrumen et al., 2019). WASH efforts include access to safely managed water sources and latrines and adequate fecal management (Worrell et al., 2016). However, WASH infrastructure improvements must be accepted by the community and coupled with behavior change to achieve full benefits (Al-Delaimy et al., 2014; Parker et al., 2008; Watson et al., 2017). Community engagement centers communities in the design, implementation, and evaluation of interventions to increase their acceptability and maximize sustainability (Clarke et al., 2018; Muluneh et al., 2020), thus improving the ability of MDA and WASH interventions to achieve long-term and sustainable reductions in STH infections (Clark et al., 2018; Gyorkos et al., 2013; Muluneh et al., 2020). The objective of this review is to examine the impact, methods, and takeaways from interventions that supplement MDA on efforts to control STH infections globally and demonstrates how community engagement practices can augment the effectiveness of interventions.

Soil-block and agar-block techniques for evaluation of oil-type wood preservatives : creosote, copper naphthenate, and pentachlorophenol

A laboratory method for evaluating wood preservatives should provide in a comparatively short time an integrated measure of the relative permanence and fungus-inhibiting capacity of a product. There is as yet no generally acceptable laboratory method of this type. Systematic service records serve to bolster the reputation of established preservatives. Accelerated field tests provide a basis for recognizing new preservatives. However, if it were not for basic technical information, supplied through laboratory experiments, changes in specifications which night further improve such preservatives are delayed. Furthermore, the development of new and promising preservative materials is retarded if evaluation must depend entirely on years of service. Such retardation complicates the consumer's problem of procuring suitable substitute preservatives when material shortages arise during emergencies

Chapter 1 The multifaceted picture of transdisciplinarity in marine research

Chapter 1 = The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget is considered responsible for coining the term transdisciplinarity’ in the 1970s, defining it as a higher stage after the interdisciplinary relations. To date, transdisciplinarity research is a growing field in academia, but still there is no uniform definition. In this book chapter, we explore how the term ‘transdisciplinarity’ is used in marine research including different fields like quantitative ecology and modeling, marine social science or marine conservation. We used a quantitative full-text analysis of peer-reviewed journal publications from 1992 to 2021, ensuring to include most recent contributions to the analysis. A total of over 6000 publications could be identified, about 500 of these focusing on marine realm. We applied an agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis (program R) to consider relative frequencies of significant conceptual words within the transdisciplinary landscape. Multiple research clusters have been identified and further divided regarding the study background (e.g., meta-analysis, case study, theory)