The Earth as an Engineering System: Addressing Sustainability through Science, Technology and Policy

We combine insights from the two emerging fields of engineering systems and sustainability science to develop an analytical approach for understanding and managing coupled natural and human systems. The Earth system is characterized with reference to the attributes of engineering systems (real-world existence, artificiality, dynamic properties, hybrid state, and some human control). We argue that human influences have become so overwhelming that it is impossible to understand global Earth systems without taking into account both technical and social dimensions. Aspects of sustainability systems that fulfill functional types of engineering systems are enumerated with reference to five processes (transporting, transforming, storing, exchanging and controlling) and operands (living organisms, matter, information, energy and money). Building on methods from sustainability science, we introduce the concept of Spatial-Temporal-Functional (STF) analysis for addressing sustainability problems in an engineering systems context. We illustrate this framework with reference to the case of global transport of hazardous chemicals. Our analysis suggests that efforts to address cross-scale problems should focus on enhancing mechanisms for transforming and exchanging in addition to controlling

“Once you’ve been there, you’re always recovering”: exploring experiences, outcomes, and benefits of substance misuse recovery

Purpose – Recovery is a central component of UK substance misuse policy, however, relatively little is known about the views and meanings of recovery by those experiencing it. The purpose of this paper is to explore these factors, and understand how service user experiences align to current understandings of “recovery capital”. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on qualitative interviews with 32 individuals from six UK recovery communities, including those commissioned by a statutory service (n=8) and a peer-led recovery community (n=24). Findings – Meanings of recovery differed between people in abstinence-based communities and those not; however, all had consistent views on their own recovery outcomes and the benefits they believed recovery brought. All viewed recovery as a process; a continuous journey with no end-point. Internal motivation, peer support, social networks and daily structure were integral to supporting individuals achieve and maintain recovery. Key benefits of recovery reflected recovery capital and included positive relationships, sense of belonging, increased self-worth and confidence, employment and education. Research limitations/implications – This research shows that recovery experiences and outcomes are not centred entirely on the individual but are wider, more holistic. Maintaining recovery involves being connected to themselves and to the wider environment: family, friends, peers and society. Although the recovery capital model has many elements that were discussed by the participants of this research, the discourse they used does not align with the model. To validly measure and quantify recovery outcomes, individuals need to identify with the measures themselves. Practical implications – From policy and commissioning perspectives, these findings suggest benefits of recovery that were viewed by participants as indicators of success: demonstrate elements which support recovery; and highlight key social value outcomes which people attribute to recovery. Social implications – These “softer”, qualitative benefits should be considered by policy-makers, commissioners, statutory and non-statutory services in order to evidence outcomes. However, it should also be recognised that a temporally static approach to assessing recovery may be in contradiction to the meaning and perspectives held by those in recovery communities who conceptualise it as a long term and ongoing process. Originality/value – This paper adds to understandings of experiences and meanings of recovery, with a particular focus on the measurement of outcomes and their meanings, and the role of abstention and continued drug use within the recovery process. © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Evaluation of Four Recovery Communities across England: Interim report for the Give it Up project

The Comic Relief: Give it Up Fund is a programme that aims to develop and build abstinence based recovery communities and learn more about their value. The Give it Up Fund supports the development of recovery communities in four geographical locations in England. It is expected that the recovery communities will be sustainable and continue to operate after the two years of funding is complete. The aim of this research is to evaluate the operational processes of the pilot programmes and better understand how they might contribute to ambitions of improved and sustained recovery. Abstinence-based recovery communities aim to ensure that people with addictions are supported to meet their personal, social and economic needs in order to enable long-term recovery and reintegration back into society. Abstinence-based recovery complements the UK Drug Strategy (2010) objective of supporting people to live abstinence-based, ‘drug-free’ lives. The large grants programme element of the Give it Up Fund is supporting the development of recovery communities in Durham, Birmingham, Gloucester and London by creating partnerships offering collaborative working with approaches that aim to sustain recovery. This work explores how each of the projects contribute to recovery outcomes over time, and aims to embed processes to ensure that projects are able to measure and evidence their outcomes once the commissioned evaluation has finished

Exploring Charity Worker Perceptions of the Social Value and Sustainability of Solar Lighting in Malawi, Kenya and Zambia: A Scoping Study

Approximately 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have no access to electricity and use kerosene as a source of light. Solar lighting is a safer and cost effective alternative allowing families to study, work and live without the harmful effects of kerosene. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with staff from a United Kingdom (UK) based charity to explore the social value of solar lighting (n=7). These staff were based in the UK, Malawi, Kenya and Zambia. Two overarching themes: ‘The Social Value of Solar Lighting’ and ’Improving the Sustainability and Economic Viability of Solar Lighting’ illustrated perceived multi-faceted and wide reaching benefits on the micro-level creating positive social, economic and environmental outcomes. Future studies may look to identify the impact that solar lights may have upon the macro-level, and medium to long-term outcomes; and estimated social return on investment in different developing countries

Experiences of Sustainable Abstinence-Based Recovery: an Exploratory Study of Three Recovery Communities (RC) in England

Contemporary recovery-models of treatment for substance misuse prioritise community-based support systems that focus on developing individuals’ strengths and quality of life. The research project aimed to explore the perceived mechanisms and processes that underpinned support in three abstinence-based recovery communities (RCs) across England. Focus groups and telephone interviews were conducted with 44 individuals. This was to identify self-prioritised outcomes for members and other key factors contributing to the delivery of an effective recovery community. Data were thematically analysed. Along with a number of other key outcomes, the achievement and maintenance of abstinence by participants was considered to be a key indicator of an effective RC. RC processes were also viewed as underpinning the development of recovery capital. The study provides an insight into the processes of RCs and highlights that development and support of recovery capital is an important aspect of service provision and delivery for those in abstinence-based recovery. © 2018, The Author(s)

Practical Application of Sociology in Systems Engineering

Systems engineering involves both the integration of the system and the integration of the disciplines which develop and operate the system. Integrating the disciplines is a sociological effort to bring together different groups, who often have different terminology, to achieve a common goal, the system. The focus for the systems engineer is information flow through the organization, between the disciplines, to ensure the system is developed and operated will all relevant information informing system decisions. The practical application of the sociology in systems engineering brings in various organizational development concepts including the principles of planned renegotiation and the application of principles to address information barriers created by organizational culture. Concepts such as specification of ignorance, consistent terminology, opportunity structures, role-sets, and the reclama (reconsideration) process are all important sociological approaches that help address the organizational social structure (culture). In bringing the disciplines together, the systems engineer must also be wary of social ambivalence, social anomie, social dysfunction, and insider-outsider behavior. Unintended consequences can result when these social issues are present. These issues can occur when localized subcultures shift from the overarching organizational culture, or when the organizational culture prevents achievement of system goals. These sociological principles provide the systems engineer with key approaches to manage the information flow through the organization as the disciplines are integrated and share their information and provides key sociological barriers to information flow through the organization. This paper will discuss the practical application of sociological principles to systems engineering

Netrin-3 Signals Through Serine Phosphorylation in Tetrahymena thermophila

The netrin family of proteins are structurally related to laminin and, while first discovered in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, are now known to be present in species throughout the animal kingdom, including humans. These proteins also have a wide variety of roles that include inhibition of apoptosis, chemorepulsion, and axonal guidance. Due to the results of previous studies involving netrin-1 in vertebrate systems, the current prevailing assumption is that netrins, when acting as chemorepellents, signal using tyrosine kinases. However, data that we gathered through phosphoserine-targeting ELISA assays and immunofluorescence microscopy demonstrates that the netrin-3 peptides signal Tetrahymena thermophila through serine phosphorylation instead, causing the ciliate protists to avoid netrin-3 peptides in response. Treatment with netrin-3 peptides also seems to cause mitotic inhibition in Tetrahymena, which can be reversed by addition of a serine kinase inhibitor. This new information suggests that netrin-3 may have physiological roles that have previously been unexplored

Wndchrm – an open source utility for biological image analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Biological imaging is an emerging field, covering a wide range of applications in biological and clinical research. However, while machinery for automated experimenting and data acquisition has been developing rapidly in the past years, automated image analysis often introduces a bottleneck in high content screening.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p><it>Wndchrm </it>is an open source utility for biological image analysis. The software works by first extracting image content descriptors from the raw image, image transforms, and compound image transforms. Then, the most informative features are selected, and the feature vector of each image is used for classification and similarity measurement.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>Wndchrm </it>has been tested using several publicly available biological datasets, and provided results which are favorably comparable to the performance of task-specific algorithms developed for these datasets. The simple user interface allows researchers who are not knowledgeable in computer vision methods and have no background in computer programming to apply image analysis to their data.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We suggest that <it>wndchrm </it>can be effectively used for a wide range of biological image analysis tasks. Using <it>wndchrm </it>can allow scientists to perform automated biological image analysis while avoiding the costly challenge of implementing computer vision and pattern recognition algorithms.</p

Top-down constraints on atmospheric mercury emissions and implications for global biogeochemical cycling

We perform global-scale inverse modeling to constrain present-day atmospheric mercury emissions and relevant physiochemical parameters in the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model. We use Bayesian inversion methods combining simulations with GEOS-Chem and ground-based Hg[superscript 0] observations from regional monitoring networks and individual sites in recent years. Using optimized emissions/parameters, GEOS-Chem better reproduces these ground-based observations and also matches regional over-water Hg[superscript 0] and wet deposition measurements. The optimized global mercury emission to the atmosphere is ~ 5.8 Gg yr[superscript −1]. The ocean accounts for 3.2 Gg yr[superscript −1] (55% of the total), and the terrestrial ecosystem is neither a net source nor a net sink of Hg[superscript 0]. The optimized Asian anthropogenic emission of Hg[superscript 0] (gas elemental mercury) is 650–1770 Mg yr[superscript −1], higher than its bottom-up estimates (550–800 Mg yr[superscript −1]). The ocean parameter inversions suggest that dark oxidation of aqueous elemental mercury is faster, and less mercury is removed from the mixed layer through particle sinking, when compared with current simulations. Parameter changes affect the simulated global ocean mercury budget, particularly mass exchange between the mixed layer and subsurface waters. Based on our inversion results, we re-evaluate the long-term global biogeochemical cycle of mercury, and show that legacy mercury becomes more likely to reside in the terrestrial ecosystem than in the ocean. We estimate that primary anthropogenic mercury contributes up to 23 % of present-day atmospheric deposition.National Science Foundation (U.S.). Atmospheric Chemistry Program (1053648