56 research outputs found

    An integrative approach to conceptualizing sustainable resilience

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    Vulnerability, resilience, and sustainability are three concepts commonly used in assessing the quality of a variety of systems. While each can be applied independently when performing risk analysis, there is growing interest across multiple disciplines in understanding how these concepts can be integrated when considering complex adaptive systems, such as communities. In this paper, we identify issues related to the use of these respective concepts in assessing complex adaptive systems, and describe how these issues may produce imbalanced results and maladaptive outcomes. We identify five critical areas where alignment and integration across concepts can lead to improved system assessment. As a result, we introduce a new paradigm, sustainable resilience, in which these concepts are integrated to enable alignment of adaptation and transformation strategies with desired resilience outcomes. This work provides the foundation for the development of an integrated assessment framework to help guide informed risk-based decisionmaking for sustainable and resilient systems

    An integrated and dynamic framework for assessing sustainable resilience in complex adaptive systems

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    Growing awareness of climate change and resulting impacts to communities have generated increasing interest in understanding relationships between vulnerability, resilience, sustainability, and adaptive capacity, and how these concepts can be combined to better assess the quality of complex adaptive systems over time. Previous work has described interactions between these concepts and the value-added should they be integrated and applied in a strategic manner, resulting in a new understanding of system quality defined as sustainable resilience. However, a framework for explicitly integrating vulnerability, resilience, and sustainability assessment to develop understanding of system sustainable resilience has yet to be proposed. This paper presents a high-level, integrated and dynamic framework for assessing sustainable resilience for complex adaptive systems. We provide a set of functional definitions, a description of each step in the proposed assessment process, and walk through an example application of the framework, including a discussion of preliminary analyses, technical methodologies employed, and suggested future advances

    Treatment impact on recidivism of family only vs. generally violent partner violence perpetrators

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    Background/objective: The outcome of a treatment program for a large sample of male perpetrators on probation for intimate partner violence (IPV) was evaluated with particular reference to the differential impact on family only (FO) versus generally violent (GV) perpetrators. Method: Official rates of recidivism for three years post termination of treatment and probation were examined for 456 perpetrators after they were classified as FO and GV. Results: Both treatment completion and type of perpetrator were predictive of IPV recidivism and time to recidivism. However, analyses conducted separately for the two groups indicated that participation in the intervention predicted both recidivism and time to recidivism for the GV but not FO perpetrators who participated in treatment. Specifically, GV men were responsive to treatment whereas FO men were not. Results were somewhat different depending on who was included in the no treatment comparison group. Conclusions: Implications of these findings for one size fits all interventions in IPV are discussed with specific reference to the need to develop different interventions for GV and FO perpetrators

    Retention of Re in metakaolin based geopolymer in the presence of an organic reductant – an experimental study

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    The goal of this research was to examine the change in redox sensitive contaminant retention and leaching behavior from a model geopolymer system, during oxidation and carbonation, in the presence of an organic reductant. The behavior of redox sensitive elements under variable environmental conditions is specifically important for understanding the leaching of radionuclides retained in geopolymeric materials (e.g. Tc) that are soluble when oxidized and insoluble under reducing conditions. An alkali-activated metakaolin geopolymer with high silica/alumina ratio was selected as a model material. Rhenium was selected as the model redox sensitive element, which exhibits a large valence (-3 to +7) and solubility range. Rhenium was introduced in its most oxidized form (VII) as Re2S7. Ascorbic acid was used as a reducing agent during geopolymer casting due to its high solubility and homogeneous distribution within the matrix. Cylindrical monoliths were cured for 90 days under an inert atmosphere (N2) and then aged for 60 days under 98% N2 + 2% CO2 or CO2 deficient air, at a constant relative humidity (68%). The samples were then subjected to EPA 1313 pH dependent leaching test and EPA 1315 monolith leaching test. Leachates were analyzed using DOC and ICP techniques. XRD and SEM – EDS imaging and analyses were used to characterizes the solids Results show that Re has precipitated as ReS2 (IV) in the matrix. The pH dependent leaching test show that Re was released homogenously throughout most of the pH range (3-12). However, the retention of the material aged under CO2 deficient air was three times lower, indicating that the main effect on leaching from this material is of the oxidation process. The natural pH values were 11.3 and 12 for the material aged under 2% CO2 and for material aged under CO2 deficient air respectively, indicating minor carbonation in the former, however, no carbonate minerals were detected in the matrix. Monolith leaching results show that the geopolymers aged under CO2 deficient air have retained significantly less Re (0.24% leaching) relative to the sample aged under 2% CO2 (0.07wt % leaching). -log(diffusivity) values were in the order of 15 and 16 for CO2 deficient air and 2% CO2 respectively. There is a clear positive correlation between the amount of Re and DOC released from the samples, where their amounts are significantly larger for the samples aged under CO2 deficient air, indicating that the main Re-release mechanism from these samples is related to chelation to organic species under oxidizing conditions

    State-dependent executive deficits among psychopathic offenders

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