At the Intersections of Dialogue, Social Media, and Crisis Communication: A Case Study of Consolidated Edison\u27s Communicative Response to Superstorm Sandy

Crisis is constantly lurking in the shadows for organizations, and leaders must be prepared to respond when it strikes. Traditional organization-stakeholder communication models have largely relied on one-way frameworks, but the advent and widespread adoption of social media is changing the way organizations and stakeholders interact. This project explores how one organization, Consolidated Edison, utilized Twitter to communicate dialogically with stakeholders during the 2012 Superstorm Sandy crisis. Analysis focuses on how the organization\u27s use of dialogue and Sturges\u27 (1994) instructing and adjusting information tactics helped mitigate negative backlash from stakeholders throughout the crisis. Theoretical and practical implications for public relations and crisis communication are discussed, and future research directions are presented

Thoreau and eastern spiritual texts: the influence of sacred sound in the writings of Henry David Thoreau

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on October 25, 2007)Includes bibliographical references.Thesis (M.A.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2007.Dissertations, Academic -- University of Missouri--Columbia -- English.Henry David Thoreau articulated his beliefs through Eastern spiritual ideas of nature and its cycles. From his own account, he was an iconoclast and bore no one religious stamp; however, the Hindu idea that nature is our teacher and if there are spiritual laws we ought to be following, they should be apparent in the cycles of the stars, the flow of the mountain streams, and in the way the mind itself operates, was revealed in his seminal work, Walden and in his other writings. I argue that you cannot fully understand Thoreau without understanding the impact Asian religious texts had in his writing and in his thinking over the course of his life. He found much confirmation in ancient Indian works to favor ascetic rule and his defiant individualism over the mercantilism order of his day. He also agreed with the concept of creation as separation - of the propping apart of heaven and earth - and that the only way back to unity and its accompanying enlightenment was through close attention to the present moment. The strongest avenue to that orientation for Thoreau was through the sense of sound

Short rotation coppices along watercourses - an innovative combination of sustainable agriculture and water protection

PosterThe multiple advantages of short rotation coppices (SRC) such as sustainable energy wood production, income diversification, and ecological services are well known and investigated in various projects. Additionally, strips of SRC present an innovative instrument to buffer nutrient and pesticide contamination of watercourses induced by soil erosion. Through extensive management, provision of permanent plant cover, soil improvement, and long rotations, SRC-strips on arable land could help to achieve the goals of the EU Water Framework Directive (i.e., reduction of nutrient contamination of water bodies). In comparison to near-natural buffer strips, SRC also provides monetary benefits for farmers and therefore is a sustainable combination of agriculture production and water pollution control. SRC-strips represent a special form of agroforestry systems. From the aspect of erosion control and runoff reduction, strips should have a width of 12 - 18 m; therefore, the SRC-strips are small in comparison to conventional SRCs. This circumstance requires adapted planting strategies such as a reduced tree number (3.000 trees/ha), a rotation period of at least 10 years and manual harvest to optimise labour input and revenues. The project “Short rotation coppice along a watercourse” investigates the anticipated environmental advantages of SRC-strips. The study site, installed in 2011, is situated near Wolferschwenda in Thuringia on the edge of a field, slightly sloping towards the Bennebach stream. The experiment compares three management options for the buffer strip: cropland, grassland, and SRC (willow). Two main objectives of the project are (i) simulation of potential soil input by erosion on the study site under different crops and (ii) investigation of the retention capacity of SRC, grassland, and cropland. Intensive soil measurements carried out from 2012 until present show initial trends that SRC may be a more effective nutrient buffer than grassland. More detailed results are expected from irrigation experiments in spring 2014

The effect of the dispersal kernel on isolation-by-distance in a continuous population

Under models of isolation-by-distance, population structure is determined by the probability of identity-by-descent between pairs of genes according to the geographic distance between them. Well established analytical results indicate that the relationship between geographical and genetic distance depends mostly on the neighborhood size of the population, $N_b = 4{\pi}{\sigma}^2 D_e$, which represents a standardized measure of dispersal. To test this prediction, we model local dispersal of haploid individuals on a two-dimensional torus using four dispersal kernels: Rayleigh, exponential, half-normal and triangular. When neighborhood size is held constant, the distributions produce similar patterns of isolation-by-distance, confirming predictions. Considering this, we propose that the triangular distribution is the appropriate null distribution for isolation-by-distance studies. Under the triangular distribution, dispersal is uniform within an area of $4{\pi}{\sigma}^2$ (i.e. the neighborhood area), which suggests that the common description of neighborhood size as a measure of a local panmictic population is valid for popular families of dispersal distributions. We further show how to draw from the triangular distribution efficiently and argue that it should be utilized in other studies in which computational efficiency is importantComment: 18 pages (main); 4 pages (supp

Internet of things: Conceptual network structure, main challenges and future directions

Internet of Things (IoT) is a key technology trend that supports our digitalized society in applications such as smart countries and smart cities. In this study, we investigate the existing strategic themes, thematic evolution structure, key challenges, and potential research opportunities associated with the IoT. For this study, we conduct a Bibliometric Performance and Network Analysis (BPNA), supplemented by an exhaustive Systematic Literature Review (SLR). Specifically, in BPNA, the software SciMAT is used to analyze 14,385 documents and 30,381 keywords in the Web of Science (WoS) database, which was released between 2002 and 2019. The results reveal that 31 clusters are classified according to their importance and development, and the conceptual structures of key clusters are presented, along with their performance analysis and the relationship with other subthemes. The thematic evolution structure describes the important cluster(s) over time. For the SLR, 23 documents are analyzed. The SLR reveals key challenges and limitations associated with the IoT. We expect the results will form the basis of future research and guide decision-making in the IoT and other supporting industries.Coordenaç~ao de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brazil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001 and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under grants PID2019-105381 GA-100 (iScience)Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT) and Direcci on General de Relaciones Exteriores (DGRI

Shadow Systems, Risk, and Shifting Power Relations in Organizations

Drawing on notions of power and the social construction of risk, we build new theory to understand the persistence of shadow systems in organizations. From a single case study in a mid-sized savings bank, we derive two feedback cycles that concern shifting power relations between business units and central IT associated with shadow systems. A distant business-IT relationship and changing business needs can create repeated cost and time pressures that make business units draw on shadow systems. The perception of risk can trigger an opposing power shift back through the decommissioning and recentralization of shadow systems. However, empirical findings suggest that the weakening tendency of formal risk-management programs may not be sufficient to stop the shadow systems cycle spinning if they fail to address the underlying causes for the emergence of shadow systems. These findings highlight long-term dynamics associated with shadow systems and pose “risk” as a power-shifting construct

Pecuária de corte: baixos índices zootécnicos e eficiência no setor exportador

O objetivo deste trabalho é demonstrar a contradição entre uma pecuária “atrasada”, medida pelos indicadores usualmente utilizados para avaliar a produtividade do setor — os chamados índices zootécnicos —, e o dinamismo apresentado pelo setor exportador de carne bovina do Brasil. A análise proposta inclui também uma comparação do desempenho do setor exportador dos estados brasileiros que concentram essa atividade, buscando estabelecer indicadores de competitividade entre os estados

As mudanças sociais nos espaços urbanos com o uso da internet: a relação do uso dos espaços urbanos com o Facebook

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Urbanismo, História e Arquitetura da Cidade, Florianópolis, 2015.Esta dissertação tem como objetivo o estudo dos espaços públicos na cidade contemporânea e sua relação com o uso da internet, especificamente o Facebook. A pesquisa procura compreender as mudanças do uso dos espaços urbanos e sua relação com as redes sociais na internet, procurando refletir sobre o desejo social de encontros e relacionamentos, e como isto se estabelece nos espaços físicos. Pressupõe-se que o uso dos espaços urbanos, na configuração atual, se estabelece de maneira diferenciada da modernidade, pois a população contemporânea demonstra comportamentos distintos, deste período. Para tanto, estudaram-se conceitos de espaços urbanos, de relações público/privado, de mudanças sociais, sob o escopo da modernidade e da pós-modernidade, e a apropriação dos espaços, bem como, desenvolveu-se um levantamento prático sobre o uso da rede social Facebook. Utilizou-se como estratégia de pesquisa o estudo de caso com grupos de ciclistas de Florianópolis. Por meio de apreciação teórica e prática, faz-se análise do comportamento do uso dos espaços urbanos em relação à internet. Identificou-se que apesar das novas tecnologias de comunicação e mídias sociais permitirem a redução da necessidade de encontro presencial para a comunicação interpessoal, em relação à atividade dos grupos de ciclistas, a rede social tem potencializado a articulação de encontros, com apropriação e vivência dos espaços urbanos. O desejo e a necessidade de intercâmbio social se mostram vigente nestas novas práticas e os instrumentos como o Facebook, indicam o interesse pelos encontros presenciais e práticas de vivência e apropriação urbana, sendo possível identificar novas características e mudanças sociais neste sentido.Abstract : This research aims the public spaces study in the contemporary city and its relation with the use of Internet, specifically Facebook. This research seeks to understand the changes of the urban spaces utilization and its relationship with internet social networks, seeking to speculate upon a social desirability of meetings and relationships, and the way it settles on those spaces. It is assumed that the use of urban spaces in the current configuration is established in a different way of modernity, as contemporary population shows different behaviors during this period. Therefore, it was studied urban spaces concepts, public / private relationships, social changes, under the scope of modernity and post modernity, and the appropriation of space as well as attenuated a practical survey of the use of Facebook social network. A case study of cyclists groups from Florianopolis was utilized as research strategy. The use of behavior analysis of urban spaces in relation to internet was made through theoretical and practical assessment. It was identified that despite the new communication technologies and social media enable a reduction of the need to face meeting for interpersonal communication in relation to the activity of cyclists groups, social network has enhanced joint meetings, appropriating the experience of urban spaces. The desire and need for social exchange proves effective in these new practices, and tools such as Facebook indicate interest in the physical meetings and practices of living and urban appropriation, it is possible to identify new features and social change in this regard