73 research outputs found

    Interdependent Infrastructure as Linked Social, Ecological, and Technological Systems (SETSs) to Address Lockā€in and Enhance Resilience

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    Traditional infrastructure adaptation to extreme weather events (and now climate change) has typically been technoā€centric and heavily grounded in robustnessā€”the capacity to prevent or minimize disruptions via a riskā€based approach that emphasizes control, armoring, and strengthening (e.g., raising the height of levees). However, climate and nonclimate challenges facing infrastructure are not purely technological. Ecological and social systems also warrant consideration to manage issues of overconfidence, inflexibility, interdependence, and resource utilizationā€”among others. As a result, technoā€centric adaptation strategies can result in unwanted tradeoffs, unintended consequences, and underaddressed vulnerabilities. Technoā€centric strategies that lockā€in today\u27s infrastructure systems to vulnerable future design, management, and regulatory practices may be particularly problematic by exacerbating these ecological and social issues rather than ameliorating them. Given these challenges, we develop a conceptual model and infrastructure adaptation case studies to argue the following: (1) infrastructure systems are not simply technological and should be understood as complex and interconnected social, ecological, and technological systems (SETSs); (2) infrastructure challenges, like lockā€in, stem from SETS interactions that are often overlooked and underappreciated; (3) framing infrastructure with a SETS lens can help identify and prevent maladaptive issues like lockā€in; and (4) a SETS lens can also highlight effective infrastructure adaptation strategies that may not traditionally be considered. Ultimately, we find that treating infrastructure as SETS shows promise for increasing the adaptive capacity of infrastructure systems by highlighting how lockā€in and vulnerabilities evolve and how multidisciplinary strategies can be deployed to address these challenges by broadening the options for adaptation

    Welcome and keynote address [videorecording]

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    System requirements: Windows Media Player version 9 or above.The Missouri Regional Life Sciences Summit 2010 opened with remarks from Gary Forsee, President of the University of Missouri System, Dr. Brady Deaton, Chancellor of the University of Missouri-Columbia, and Senator Claire McCaskill. William H. Danforth delivered the keynote address, "Partnerships for Progress in Health and Economic Development.

    Calcification of the Pericardium in Apparently Healthy People

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    Cadmium

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