Co-designing for Community Resilience Beyond the Local

In this position paper we highlight our strategy for co-creating a platform to support community resilience that goes beyond a situated research. We first engage with a diverse set of stakeholders to conceive the design problem, and then we address the implementation aspects with local communities. We briefly illustrate a number of methods and strategies used to identify and extract the general socio-technical requirements from communities in different contexts

Relationships between Business Planning and Reaching Forecasted Sales Objectives for New England Farmers

Over the last 100 years, more than 3 million small farming operations have been replaced by large factory farms in America. This shift toward food production by conglomerations has led to severe environmental issues, food security hazards, and economic hardship in farming communities nationwide. This study investigated the extent to which a written business plan could help small farming operations meet their sales objectives and ultimately continue to operate; this study also examined the perceptions of farm owners regarding the ability of a business plan to affect sales objectives. The sample consisted of 71 Maine Farms for Future (FFF) recipients and 71 randomly selected New England farmers as identified by the Maine Department of Agriculture. The study used a mixed methods approach. Quantitative data were analyzed using a Mann-Whitney U test to determine the extent to which creating a business plan corresponds with the ability to meet sales objectives. Qualitative data were analyzed using inductive and open coding techniques to determine the extent to which farmers perceive business planning as having value. Quantitative data analysis showed the differences between the groups to be statistically significant and that a written business plan corresponded with farmers meeting sales objectives. The qualitative analysis showed that the majority of both groups identified business plans as having value due to its ability to affect sales objectives. These findings confirm resource-based theory as a valid predictor of why farmers write a business plan. This study may positively impact social change by providing small farming operations a way to increase sustainability and reduce the food security risks that are commonly caused by large factory farming practices

Rules of ministerial recruitment

Women’s recruitment to ministerial office is improving, but our understanding of what determines women’s access to cabinet remains underdeveloped. Comparative studies explain women’s ministerial presence through correlations with country-level socio-economic or political factors. This research uses a feminist institutionalist approach to explain gendered access to cabinets. It uses original data from interviews with former ministers and special advisors to map the rules in use of ministerial recruitment. It demonstrates that that women’s access to ministerial office is facilitated and constrained by three complexes of predominantly informal rules which structure: who is eligible to be chosen (the eligibility pool); how to qualify (specialist or generalist principles); and who selects ministers (the prime minister or the party). By examining the rules of ministerial recruitment in two Westminster democracies, Australia and the UK, the research demonstrates the differences that exist, even in most similar cases, at system level, at party levels, and over time. By identifying the specific complexes of rules which shape women’s access it is possible to identify the rule changes which have been effective in improving women’s ministerial opportunities and suggest future reform strategies which would be most effective in the specific context

Cell Atlas technologies and insights into tissue architecture.

Since Robert Hooke first described the existence of 'cells' in 1665, scientists have sought to identify and further characterise these fundamental units of life. While our understanding of cell location, morphology and function has expanded greatly; our understanding of cell types and states at the molecular level, and how these function within tissue architecture, is still limited. A greater understanding of our cells could revolutionise basic biology and medicine. Atlasing initiatives like the Human Cell Atlas aim to identify all cell types at the molecular level, including their physical locations, and to make this reference data openly available to the scientific community. This is made possible by a recent technology revolution: both in single-cell molecular profiling, particularly single-cell RNA sequencing, and in spatially resolved methods for assessing gene and protein expression. Here, we review available and upcoming atlasing technologies, the biological insights gained to date and the promise of this field for the future

Community Ownership of Local Assets: conditions for sustainable success

In the United Kingdom, the transfer of ownership of certain assets to local community control has been a common response to the financial constraints under which local authorities have operated since the global economic crisis of 2008 (Hart, 2010; DSDNI, 2014). Such a process raises important questions over the to understand a process in which community organisations are ‘in some cases, replacing state provision’ (2015: 85). This is particularly challenging for rural and semi rural communities, which Osborne et al (2004) argue may struggle in their attempts at asset management unless strong voluntary engagement and community infrastructure is present. Others such as Murtagh (2015) and Mackenzie (2006; 2012) have identified the challenges in such transfers as well as some of the ways in which communities can avoid ‘dispossession’ of these important community resources. This paper presents research that focuses on the management of two semi-rural assets transferred from local authority into community ownership. The research was conducted partly in conjunction with the Community and Economic Development team at Tewkesbury Borough Council (TBC), Gloucestershire, England, who identified assets in Churchdown and Brockworth as examples of transferred assets run successfully in community ownership. The data comes from a series of interviews with key stakeholders at each asset, and interviews with a Tewkesbury Borough Council Community Development officer. The work makes two contributions to the study of conditions for sustainable community ownership of transferred assets. First, it argues that legitimacy for asset transfer may be established through engaging a wider range of community members and a greater sense of community ownership post-transfer. Such developments pose a potential challenge to narratives that see asset transfer as the result of neoliberal doctrines and as legitimating neoliberal objectives. There is, however, a tension in this debate, expressible as the difference between a forced responsibilisation of communities that might not be equipped for this, and the conditions required for generating ‘collective responsibility’. Second, we add to the analysis of those such as Emery and Flora (2006) and Fisher and McKee (2017) by applying four of Carney’s (1999) sustainable livelihoods categories to an understanding of the essential community capacity required to pursue successful ownerships of assets. We argue that it is the presence of sufficient human, social, physical, and financial capital that creates an ‘institutional thickness’ (Armin and Thrift, 2012) that can help ensure an asset is sustainable in community ownership

Análisis del rendimiento y eficiencia actual en la producción de madera aserrada, en el aserradero El Almendro S.A., Cartago, Costa Rica.

Proyecto de Graduación (Licenciatura en Ingeniería Forestal) Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, Escuela de Ingeniería Forestal, 2017.En Costa Rica la industria de aserrío ha disminuido en los últimos años hasta en un 20%, lo que implica que las empresas existentes deben mejorar la calidad de servicio y rendimiento para mantenerse estables. La empresa El Almendro S.A no cuenta con estudios sobre la distribución de planta, flujo de producción, de tiempos y movimientos o de rendimiento de la madera aserrada, por lo que el objetivo de este trabajo es determinar la distribución de planta, flujo de producción, tiempos y movimientos y el rendimiento en la línea de producción de madera aserrada. El rendimiento se determinó con relación al volumen de la troza y el volumen obtenido de madera aserrada. Se encontró una distribución de planta la cual está organizada de manera lógica con respecto al flujo de la madera. En el flujo de producción se pudo determinar que existe un gran material almacenado, principalmente por la gran producción de material al salir de los tres aserraderos principales, provocando embotellamiento de la materia prima. En el estudio de tiempos y movimientos se obtuvo un 84%,88%,87%,84% y 83% de trabajo productivo correspondientes al aserradero 1(AS01), aserradero 2 (AS02), aserradero pequeño (AS03), re aserradora (RA01) y despuntadora (DP01), respectivamente. Además, se calculó el factor de recuperación de madera aserrada (FRM) para las especies de Eucalyptus spp y Cordia alliodora, obteniendo un 50,32% y 52.66% respectivamente. Resultando que las características que más influyen en el rendimiento del proceso son la presencia de nudos para Eucalyptus spp y la torcedura en C. alliodora.Aserradero El Almendro S.A

Consumer‐grade UAV solid‐state LiDAR accurately quantifies topography in a vegetated fluvial environment

To accompany a journal article in Earth Surface Processes & Landforms (ESPL) which details an investigation into the data quality and limitations of using the DJI L1 solid-state LiDAR system at both a controlled test location (Garscube Sports Fields, Glasgow, Scotland) and also in a geomorphic environment (River Feshie, Highlands, Scotland). Included are the following datasets (further detailed in readme file): • Point Clouds o Garscube – 4 x raw, unthinned o Feshie – 6 x thinned to 15cm density o Terrestrial Laser Scanning – 7 x gravel comparison patches • Digital Elevation Model o River Feshie only (see Figure 10 of article) • GNSS points o Garscube – GCPs & Football pitch markings o Feshie – GCPs, check points and vegetatio

A higher degree of resilience: Using psychometric testing to reveal the benefits of university internship placements

Resilience is a multi-faceted concept but, in the context of learning, it can best be thought of as an individual’s capacity to create and maximise opportunities as well as responding positively to setbacks and challenges. Developing students’ resilience is becoming increasingly important. Research has shown resilience links to attainment, retention, engagement and employability. However, very little work has examined what aspects of curricula enhance resilience and the particular role of active learning frameworks in achieving this. Here, we analyse the effects of optional real-world internship placements on eight measures of resilience. Psychometric testing was conducted twice per student – at the start of their second academic year and again at the end. Students choosing an internship had significantly higher challenge orientation and adaptability scores than other students in the same cohort. Adaptability of both interns and non-interns improved over the academic year, but improvement was significantly higher for interns. Scores for optimism, purposeful direction, and ingenuity significantly increased between start-of-year and end-of-year tests for interns versus a decline for non-interns. We conclude that facilitating student engagement with real-world issues and challenges through supported internships within an active learning framework is an important mechanism for increasing students’ resilience

The duration of sexual relationship and its effects on adverse pregnancy outcomes

This study aims to determine if a short duration of sexual relationship is more common among women who experience adverse pregnancy outcomes including gestational hypertension (GHT), preeclampsia, small for gestational age (SGA) pregnancies and spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB) with or without abnormal uterine artery Doppler compared to women who have uncomplicated pregnancies. 5591 nulliparous women from the Screening for Pregnancy Endpoints (SCOPE) study were included. The risk for pregnancy complications for women who had a duration of sexual relationship of ≤3 months, 4–6 months, 7–9 months, 10–12 months was compared with women who had a duration of sexual relationship of >12 months. Uterine artery Doppler was performed at 20 ± 1 weeks’ gestation. A short duration of sexual relationship (≤3 months) was more common among women with SGA in the presence of abnormal uterine artery Doppler [9.8% vs 3.0%, aOR (95% CI) 3.4 (1.6–7.08] compared to women who had uncomplicated pregnancies. A short duration of sexual relationship (≤3 months) was also more common among women who had abnormal uterine artery Doppler compared to those with normal uterine artery Doppler [6.1% vs 3.1%, aOR (95% CI) = 2.1 (1.4–3.2)]. A short duration of sexual relationship was not associated with preeclampsia after adjusting for confounders. A short duration of sexual relationship is more common among women who deliver SGA infants with features of placental insufficiency as indicated by abnormal uterine artery Doppler.Prabha Andraweera, Claire T. Roberts, Shalem Leemaqz, Lesley McCowan, Jenny Myers, Louise C. Kenny, James Walker, Lucilla Poston, Gus Dekker on behalf of the SCOP