Applications of a “Whole Community” Framework for Enhancing Community or Campus Resilience

AbstractThe Community and Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI) has developed a unique approach to community resilience based on a “Whole Community” concept. It treats communities as a collection of systems, each with its own resilience. CARRI has applied its approach to two kinds of communities: civil communities, and institutions of higher education (IHEs). For both civil communities and IHEs, CARRI carried out a pilot program. For each participant, their leadership directed an assessment of the resilience of the component systems to the types of changes most relevant to that community. Each assessment provided suggestions for filling any gaps identified as part of the assessment. The pilot for the seven IHEs followed that for the seven civil communities and was able to take advantage of lessons learned from the first. These two pilot programs led to the following conclusions:•CARRI's systems-based approach is both understandable and usable by both types of communities. In practice, it seemed to provide a natural way to look at a community.•In general, IHEs were able to make better use of the approach than civil communities. This is due, in part, to the improvements made in the IHE pilot program based on the civil communities’ results. However, it also reflects the more hierarchical nature of IHEs, the tighter coupling of systems within an IHE and greater discretion in the use of resources in an IHE.•College campuses can be crucial catalysts for enhancing the resilience of civil communities.•Leadership is a key, perhaps the key, element in the success of a community resilience initiative

Rigidity sensing and adaptation through regulation of integrin types

Tissue rigidity regulates processes in development, cancer and wound healing. However, how cells detect rigidity, and thereby modulate their behaviour, remains unknown. Here, we show that sensing and adaptation to matrix rigidity in breast myoepithelial cells is determined by the bond dynamics of different integrin types. Cell binding to fibronectin through either α5β1 integrins (constitutively expressed) or αvβ6 integrins (selectively expressed in cancer and development) adapts force generation, actin flow and integrin recruitment to rigidities associated with healthy or malignant tissue, respectively. In vitro experiments and theoretical modelling further demonstrate that this behaviour is explained by the different binding and unbinding rates of both integrin types to fibronectin. Moreover, rigidity sensing through differences in integrin bond dynamics applies both when integrins bind separately and when they compete for binding to fibronectin