STS analysis of natural gas development in the United States

Thesis (Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS))--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2011.Page 689 blank. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 652-688).Natural gas extraction in the United States in the early 21st century has transformed social, physical, legal and biological landscapes. The technique of hydraulic fracturing, which entails the high-pressure injection into subsurface shale formations of synthetic chemical mixtures, has been viewed by the natural gas industry as a practice of great promise. But there is another side to the story. The first half of this dissertation explores an innovative scientific approach to studying the possible deleterious impacts on human health and the environment of the release of chemicals used in gas extraction. Via participant-observation within a small scientific advocacy organization, The Endocrine Disruption Exchange (TEDX), I follow the development of a database of chemicals used in natural gas extraction, a database that seeks to document not only what these chemicals are (many are proprietary), but also what sorts of bodily and ecological effects these substances may have. I analyze ethnographically how TEDX transformed an information vacuum around fracturing and generated fierce regional and national debates about the public health effects of this activity. The second portion of the dissertation expands TEDX's databasing methodology by reporting on a set of online user-generated databasing and mapping tools developed to interconnect communities encountering the corporate forces and chemical processes animating gas development. Shale gas extraction is an intensive technological practice and requires the delicate calibration of corporate, governmental, and legal apparatuses in order to proceed. The industry operates at county, state, and federal levels, and has in many instances been able to organize regulatory environments suited to rapid and lucrative gas extraction. In the midst of such multi-scalar deterritorializing forces, communities may have little legal or technical recourse if they think that they have been subject to chemical and corporate forces that undermine their financial, bodily, and social security. ExtrAct, a research group I co-founded and directed with artist and technologist Chris Csikszentmihalyi, sought to intervene in these processes by developing a suite of online mapping and databasing tools through which "gas patch" communities could share information, network, study and respond to industry activity across states. Using ExtrAct as an example this dissertation explores how social sciences and the academy at large can invest in developing research tools, methods, and programs designed for non-corporate ends, perhaps redressing in the process the informational and technical imbalances faced by communities dealing with large-scale multinational industries whose infrastructure and impacts are largely invisible to public scrutiny. The dissertation describes one potential method for such engaged scientific and social scientific research: an iterative, ethnographically informed process that I term "STS in Practice."by Sara Ann Wylie.Ph.D.in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HAST

WellWatch: reflections on designing digital media for multisited para-ethnography

WellWatch was a webtool designed to create a collaborative space for communities and academics to monitor, study, and respond more effectively to the emerging shale gas industry. This article reflects on the successes and failures of the first iteration of WellWatch for academic research and its community of nonacademic participants. For academics, this tool succeeded in gathering rich narratives of the personal experiences of people living amidst natural gas development. These narratives, from multiple locations, provide insight into structural patterns associated with this industry. They gave a lens into social processes emerging from and responding to these structures. Taken together, these narratives help define next steps for research. WellWatch also proved useful for non-academics, primarily impacted landowners from Colorado and Pennsylvania. It helped landowners manage problems of individual isolation by networking them with other landowners and providing useful information about how to manage and resolve problems. It also furnished data to the people affected that they could use in their own advocacy, with potentially important effects. The tool also helped non-profit advocacy groups in assisting with networking and with sharing best practices. Based on this review of WellWatch, the article proposes a method for further developing collaborative ethnographic and community-based research through networked digital media. Key words: citizen science, community based participatory research, digital ethnography, hydraulic fracturing para-ethnography, multi-sited ethnograph

Politics, ecology, and the new anthropology of energy: exploring the emerging frontiers of hydraulic fracking

This article reviews recent literature relevant to the ongoing shale gas boom and introduces the Journal of Political Ecology's Special Section on hydraulic fracking. We highlight the need for ethnographic studies of the tumultuous social and physical transformations resulting from, and produced by, an unfolding frontier of energy production that unsettles social, economic, and ecological landscapes. We examine how intercommunity connections are vital to recognizing the shared structural conditions produced by the oil and gas industry's expansion, through examining the roles played by the oil field services industry, the sequestration of information and agnotology (the deliberate production of ignorance), divide and conquer tactics, and shared experiences of risk and embodied effects. Summarizing the contributions of the five articles included in the Special Section, we offer recommendations for further inquiry. We examine how social science studies of hydraulic fracking are producing new and innovative methodologies for developing participatory academic and community research projects. Key words: digital media, embodiment, energy, hydraulic fracturing, oil field services industry, shale ga

Nebraska Alternative to Detention Programs 2015 to 2016

The overarching goal of an alternative to detention (ATD) program is to ensure that youth released to the community are adequately supervised instead of being detained. JJI set out to evaluate whether youth would have in fact been detained (that is, are we using the program as an alternative to detention?). Secondarily, we planned to evaluate whether the program ensured that the youth showed up for the scheduled court date and refrained from any new law violations while placed in the community. The research questions that JJI hoped to answer were as follows: 1. How many youth are served in an ATD? 2. How many of those youth would have gone to detention, without the ATD? 3. Are ATDs effective programs for ensuring youth get to their court date? 4. Do ATDs help youth avoid additional charges while the court date is pending? Number of youth served? Programs funded through Community-based Aid, including ATDs, are statutorily required to report data to the Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice (Nebraska Crime Commission or NCC) (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 43-2404.02(4a)). This requirement is fulfilled when programs enter youth information into the Juvenile Case Management System (JCMS). However, many of these programs serve youth at various stages, some pre-adjudicated and others who have been adjudicated to probation. For an accurate count of youth served, programs must enter data on all youth served. The Office of Probation has indicated that they cannot share any information about youth who are on probation because it is a violation of confidentiality. However, the community-based aid statutes are clear regarding confidential records. Neb. Rev. Stat. §43-2404.02(c) specifically states that: ”Providing the commission access to records and information for, as well as the commission granting access to records and information from, the common data set is not a violation of confidentiality provisions under any law, rule, or regulation if done in good faith for purposes of evaluation. Records and documents, regardless of physical form, that are obtained or produced or presented to the commission for the common data set are not public records for purposes of sections 84-712 to 84-712.09. Furthermore, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 43-2404.02 mandates that the Office of Probation shall share data with the Nebraska Crime Commission, “to ensure that the dataset permits evaluation of recidivism and other measures.” How many of those youth would have gone to detention, without the ATD? In the State of Nebraska, the Office of Juvenile Probation Administration screens youth using the Nebraska Juvenile Intake Screening Risk Assessment prior to making a recommendation on whether a youth should be detained. The data indicates that 26.2% of the youth participating in an ATD were the intended population and scored high enough to be detained, if not for an available ATD. However, once again, in 476 cases the data on RAI score not completed, so we are unable to assess whether youth served in our ATDs would have otherwise been detained. Are ATDs effective programs for ensuring youth get to their court date? JJI sought court data on court dates for the youth served through an alternative to detention from the Court Administrator. Unfortunately, when a youth fails to appear for court that is coded as continued, but the reason the case is continued is not captured. In the future, JJI will build fields to capture information related to court dates and ask programs to track whether the youth appeared in court as scheduled. Do ATDs help youth avoid additional charges while the court date is pending? From the 877 youth examined, only 91 or roughly 10%, had a new law violation between the youth’s date of enrollment in an ATD and the date of discharge. Unfortunately, while these appear to be very promising results, with so much data missing, the results are incomplete and not valid. Overall, the missing data compiled for this report led to an insufficient count of youth participating in ATDs and an inadequate evaluation into how alternatives to detention are being used in Nebraska

A database of microRNA expression patterns in Xenopus laevis

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short, non-coding RNAs around 22 nucleotides long. They inhibit gene expression either by translational repression or by causing the degradation of the mRNAs they bind to. Many are highly conserved amongst diverse organisms and have restricted spatio-temporal expression patterns during embryonic development where they are thought to be involved in generating accuracy of developmental timing and in supporting cell fate decisions and tissue identity. We determined the expression patterns of 180 miRNAs in Xenopus laevis embryos using LNA oligonucleotides. In addition we carried out small RNA-seq on different stages of early Xenopus development, identified 44 miRNAs belonging to 29 new families and characterized the expression of 5 of these. Our analyses identified miRNA expression in many organs of the developing embryo. In particular a large number were expressed in neural tissue and in the somites. Surprisingly none of the miRNAs we have looked at show expression in the heart. Our results have been made freely available as a resource in both XenMARK and Xenbase

‘A Chain of Creation, Continuation, Continuity’ : Feminist dramaturgy and the matter of the sea

This article considers what remnants of the imaginary link established between the maternal and the sea might still be useful in feminist performance practice and theory. It does so by discussing a practice-as-research experiment that adapted strategies from Hélène Cixous’s écriture féminine–which performs a liquification of ordering structures in prose writing–into a dramaturgical form based on the logic of waves. The article goes on to suggest that such a dramaturgy recasts creation as a fluid state of becoming ex tempore, resisting the masculine-connoted vision of creation as an act of the singular genius ex nihilo. It further argues that drawing on a non-human phenomenon, the sea, to describe and theorise a type of dramaturgical composition might be read as a twofold attempt on the hegemony of patriarchal culture: through its associative link with the maternal body the creative potential of the feminine is revalued while at the same time the generative capacity of the non-human is recognised via Gaston Bachelard’s notion of the material imagination. The article concludes by proposing that the sea, together with its analogic association to the maternal, can be instated as a figure that gives temporary shape to an alternative vision of cultural production

Twenty questions about design behavior for sustainability, report of the International Expert Panel on behavioral science for design

How behavioral scientists, engineers, and architects can work together to advance how we all understand and practice design—in order to enhance sustainability in the built environment, and beyond.https://www.nature.com/documents/design_behavior_for_sustainability.pdfPublished versio

Neural modulation of directed forgetting by valence and arousal: an event-related potential study

Intentional forgetting benefits memory by removing no longer needed information and promoting processing of more relevant materials. This study sought to understand how the behavioural and neurophysiological representation of intentional forgetting would be impacted by emotion. We took a novel approach by examining the unique contribution of both valence and arousal on emotional directed forgetting. Participants completed an item directed forgetting task for positive, negative, and neutral words at high and lower levels of arousal while brain activity was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG). Behaviourally, recognition of to-be-remembered (TBR) and to-be-forgotten (TBF) items varied as a function of valence and arousal with reduced directed forgetting for high arousing negative and neutral words. In the brain, patterns of frontal and posterior activation in response to TBF and TBR cues respectively replicated prior EEG evidence to support involvement of inhibitory and selective rehearsal mechanisms in item directed forgetting. Interestingly, emotion only impacted cue-related posterior activity, which varied depending on specific interactions between valence and arousal. Together, results suggest that the brain handles valence and arousal differently and highlights the importance of considering in a collective manner the multidimensional nature of emotion in experimentation

The influences of nursing transformational leadership style on the quality of nurses’ working lives in Taiwan: a cross-sectional quantitative study

- Background: Taiwan’s NHI system is one of the most successful health care models for countries around the globe. However, little research has demonstrated the mental health issues associated with nursing transformational leadership style under the NHI system, especially in the quality of nurses’ working lives in Taiwan. It is important to know the relationship between transformational leadership style and the mental health of nurses, organisational commitment and job satisfaction. The research aimed to understand the influences of nursing transformational leadership style on the quality of nurses’ working lives in Taiwan. The research hypothesis was that transformational leadership styles would have positive influence on the quality of nurses’ working lives. - Methods: This was a cross-sectional quantitative study. Nurses from each type of hospital ownership (private, public and religious) were recruited. Participation was voluntary and signed informed consent was obtained. The inclusion criteria were nurses with at least one year’s work experience in the hospitals. Self-administrated questionnaires were used. A total of 807 participants were contacted and 651 questionnaires were fully completed (response rate 80.7 %). A theory driven model was used to test the research hypotheses using structural equation modelling performed with AMOS 16.0. - Results: Transformational leadership contributes significantly to supervisor support. Workplace support, particularly from the supervisor, is an important mediator variable that explains the relationship between transformational leadership and job satisfaction. Organisational commitment was the strongest factor relevant to the general health well-being in Taiwanese nurses than job satisfaction. The hypothesized positive relationships between transformational leadership and all variables were supported by the data. - Conclusions: Our findings have important consequences for organisational health. Our model demonstrates a complete picture of the work relationships on the quality of nurses’ working lives. The results provided information about the subordinates’ perceptions of transformational nursing leadership styles and mental health outcomes in different hospital settings, as well as identified organisational factors that could improve the quality of nurses’ working lives