The State of the Great Central Valley -- The Environment

Part of a series that provides various quality of life indicators for California's Central Valley. Includes data on air quality, water, and land use. Highlights successful efforts that combine goals of economic growth and environmental stewardship

C.S. Lewis: True Progressive

This paper examines C.S. Lewis’s view of progress by examining his essays and novels

Review of The A-Z of C. S. Lewis: An Encyclopedia of His Life, Thought, and Writings

Review of Colin Duriez, The A-Z of C. S. Lewis: An Encyclopedia of His Life, Thought, and Writings (Oxford, 2013). 352 pages. $24.95. ISBN 9780745955865

Stabilizing intransitive loops: self‐organized spatial structure and disjoint time frames in the coffee agroecosystem

It is familiar knowledge that population dynamics occur in both time and space. In this work, we incorporate three distinct but related theoretical schemata to qualitatively interrogate the complicated structure of part of a real agroecosystem. The three schemata are first, local dynamics translated into intransitive oscillators through spatial movement, second, stabilizing the system through spatial pattern, and third, formation of a self‐organized spatial pattern. The real system is the well‐studied autonomous pest control in the coffee agroecosystem, in which five insect species (one of which is a pest) are involved in creating a complex community structure that keeps the pest under control (the five species are an ant, Azteca sericeasur, a phorid fly parasitoid, Pseudacteon sp., a hymenopteran parasitoid, Coccophagus sp., a beetle predator, Azya orbigera, and the pest itself, the green coffee scale, Coccus viridis). We use the qualitative framing of the three theoretical schemata to develop a cellular automata model that casts the basic predator/prey (natural enemy/pest) system as an intransitive oscillator, and then explore the interaction of the two basic predator/prey systems as coupled oscillators within this model framework. We note that Gause’s principle of competitive exclusion is not violated with this basic framing (i.e., the two control agents cannot coexist theoretically), but that with a change in the spatial structure of the background habitat, coexistence can be maintained through the tradeoff between regional dispersal and local consumption. Finally, we explore how the other oscillator in the system (the ant and its phorid parasitoid) can act as a pilot system, creating the spatial structure in which the other two oscillators operate, but only in the context of disjoint time frames (between the two control agents and the pilot subsystem).Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146945/1/ecs22489.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146945/2/ecs22489_am.pd

The State of the Great Central Valley -- Community Well-Being

Part of a series that provides various quality of life indicators for California's Central Valley. Includes data on citizenship, community and organizational participation, democratic participation by ethnic and racial groups, and youth engagement

Sailing through Ethnographic Data Collection (*on a hospital ship)

This is a reflection on the experiences of data collection by the researcher positioned as a participant observer whilst conducting an ethnographic study of nurses volunteering in an international humanitarian context on a hospital ship

Challenges and Reflections from an International, Humanitarian, Short-term Surgical Mission on Collecting Ethnographic Data in a Remote Environment

Background The experiences of nurses participating in ethnographic fieldwork have been well documented, but often feature short-term, intermittent periods in the field of less than a day. Aim To provide an overview of methodological issues related to collecting data while undertaking a focused ethnography of nurses volunteering with a humanitarian organisation providing surgical care in a remote setting. Discussion Particular challenges during the fieldwork included limited space and privacy influencing data collection and secure storage; sporadic and unreliable communications limiting contact with other members of the research team; the challenges of withdrawing from the intensity of the setting; and navigating blurred boundaries between the roles of clinician and researcher. Conclusion Social research in practice, despite the best of intentions and significant planning, may not always travel the expected path of rational enquiry

Why Health Care Professionals Belong to an Intensive Care Virtual Community: Qualitative Study

Background: Clinical practice variation that results in poor patient outcomes remains a pressing problem for health care organizations. Some evidence suggests that a key factor may be ineffective internal and professional networks that limit knowledge exchange among health care professionals. Virtual communities have the potential to overcome professional and organizational barriers and facilitate knowledge flow. Objective: This study aimed to explore why health care professionals belong to an exemplar virtual community, ICUConnect. The specific research objectives were to (1) understand why members join a virtual community and remain a member, (2) identify what purpose the virtual community serves in their professional lives, (3) identify how a member uses the virtual community, and (4) identify how members used the knowledge or resources shared on the virtual community. Methods: A qualitative design, underpinned by pragmatism, was used to collect data from 3 asynchronous online focus groups and 4 key informant interviews, with participants allocated to a group based on their posting behaviors during the previous two years-between September 1, 2012, and August 31, 2014: (1) frequent (\u3e5 times), (2) low (≤5 times), and (3) nonposters. A novel approach to focus group moderation, based on the principles of traditional focus groups, and e-moderating was developed. Thematic analysis was undertaken, applying the Diffusion of Innovation theory as the theoretical lens. NCapture (QRS International) was used to extract data from the focus groups, and NVivo was used to manage all data. A research diary and audit trail were maintained. Results: There were 27 participants: 7 frequent posters, 13 low posters, and 7 nonposters. All participants displayed an external orientation, with the majority using other social media; however, listservs were perceived to be superior in terms of professional compatibility and complexity. The main theme was as follows: Intensive care professionals are members of ICUConnect because by being a member of a broader community they have access to credible best-practice knowledge. The virtual community facilitated access to all professionals caring for the critically ill and was characterized by a positive and collegial online culture. The knowledge found was credible because it was extensive and because the virtual community was moderated and sponsored by a government agency. This enabled members to benchmark and improve their unit practices and keep up to date. Conclusions: This group of health care professionals made a strategic decision to be members of ICUConnect, as they understood that to provide up-to-date clinical practices, they needed to network with colleagues in other facilities. This demonstrated that a closed specialty-specific virtual community can create a broad heterogeneous professional network, overcoming current ineffective networks that may adversely impact knowledge exchange and creation in local practice settings. To address clinical practice variation, health care organizations can leverage low-cost social media technologies to improve interprofessional and interorganizational networks