Review: Amidst ancient monuments: The administrative history of Mound City Group National Monument/Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, Ohio Ron Cockrell

Book review of: Amidst ancient monuments: The administrative history of Mound City Group National Monument/Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, Ohio by Ron Cockrel

Maintaining systems-of-systems fit-for-purpose: a technique exploiting material, energy and information source, sink and bearer analysis

Across many domains, systems suppliers are challenged by the complexity of their systems and the speed at which their systems must be changed in order to meet the needs of customers or the societies which the systems support. Stakeholder needs are ever more complex: appearing, disappearing, changing and interacting faster than solutions able to address them can be instantiated. Similarly, the systems themselves continually change as a result of both external and internal influences, such as damage, changing environment, upgrades, reconfiguration, replacement, etc. In the event of situations unforeseen at design time, personnel (for example maintainers or operators) close to the point of employment may have to modify systems in response to the evolving situation, and to do this in a timely manner so that the system and/or System-of-Systems (SoS: a set of systems that have to interoperate) can achieve their aims. This research was motivated by the problem of designing-in re-configurability to the constituent systems of a SoS to enable the SoS and its systems to effectively and efficiently counter the effects of unforeseen events that adversely affect fitness-for purpose whilst operational. This research shows that a SoS does not achieve or maintain fitness-for-purpose because it cannot implement the correct, timely and complete transfer of Material, Energy and Information (MEI) between its constituents and with its external environment that is necessary to achieve a desired outcome; i.e. the purpose

A nestbox trial for British marsh tits Poecile palustris

Two experimental nestbox trials were attempted, which aimed to maximise uptake by Marsh Tits in British woodland. Nestboxes which more closely approximated the dimensions of natural cavities were used more frequently than standard nestboxes, but the overall uptake was low. We conclude that nestboxes are an inefficient method of monitoring Marsh Tits, at least in the British context, and researchers should concentrate efforts on locating and monitoring natural nest sites

The seven forms of challenges in the wildlife trade

Initiatives that aim to regulate the international wildlife trade must take into account its multiple and often complex dimensions in order to be effective. To do this, it is essential to understand the interactions between three of the key dimensions of the wildlife trade: (1) taxonomic unit, (2) geographic origin, and (3) product form and transformation. We propose a framework to provide a structured approach to defining the complexities of the wildlife trade, based on Rabinowitz’s seven forms of rarity. We demonstrate the complexities and how they apply to our framework using two contrasting examples: the trade in elephant ivory, and the horticultural orchid trade. Further we use the framework to map different traceability solutions. To be as efficient as possible, efforts to tackle the illegal and unsustainable utilisation of wildlife should take a more structured approach. This framework identifies challenges that current initiatives may face, how they may interact and provides a structure for designing future interventions