Maladaptive Planning and the Pro-Innovation Bias: Considering the Case of Automated Vehicles

This article argues that a more critical approach to innovation policy within planning is needed and offers recommendations for achieving this. These recommendations entail rethinking the values, focus, speed, and legitimacy of innovations. It takes a critical perspective on how contemporary societies treat rapid innovation as having necessarily positive results in the achievement of objectives such as sustainability and justice. This critical perspective is needed because innovation can both contribute to and drive a form of maladaptive planning: a collective approach to reality that imposes constant and rapid changes to societal configurations due to an obsession with the new and with too little rapport with the problems in place or that it creates. A maladaptive direction for transport planning is used as a sectorial illustration of the broader conceptual ideas presented: for both sustainability and social justice reasons, it would be desirable to see peak car occurring. However, the car industry is presenting driving automation as an innovation with the potential to restore the vitality of the private vehicles market while creating effective means to dismiss alternatives to car dominanc

Every-day mobility anecdotes: Addressing the blind spot of goal- and expert-oriented mobility research

Every-day mobility anecdotes provide in-depth insights into, and a deeper connection with, the complex reality of how mobility practices are conceived and perceived in a way that more aggregated research approaches overlook in their quest for the summary of travel patterns. Drawing on a study conducted between 2017 and 2019, this article proposes the use of a research method that adds rich insights into understanding travel mode choice from the users' perspective in a way that primarily expert-oriented perceptions of sustainable mobility may not. Furthermore, this method encourages an inter- or post-disciplinary understanding of reality, which researchers have indicated may also contribute to a more sustainable future

Improving adjustment and resilience in children following a disaster: Addressing research challenges

There is compelling evidence of the potential negative effects of disasters on children\u27s adjustment and functioning. Although there is an increasing base of evidence supporting the effectiveness of some interventions for trauma following disaster, more research is needed, particularly on interventions that can be delivered in the early aftermath of disaster as well as those that can address a broader range of adjustment difficulties such as bereavement that may be experienced by children after a disaster. This article identifies gaps in the knowledge of how best to intervene with children following disasters. Key challenges in conducting research in disaster contexts, including obtaining consent, designing rigorous studies, and obtaining funding quickly enough to conduct the study, are discussed. Several strategies hold promise to address research challenges in disasters, including using alternative designs (e.g., propensity scores, matched control groups, group-level assignment), working with schools and communities, and studying implementation of nontraditional modes of intervention delivery

Risk factors for endometrial cancer in black and white women: a pooled analysis from the epidemiology of endometrial cancer consortium (E2C2)

PURPOSE: Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common gynecologic cancer in the United States. Over the last decade, the incidence rate has been increasing, with a larger increase among blacks. The aim of this study was to compare risk factors for EC in black and white women. METHODS: Data from 7 cohort and 4 case-control studies were pooled. Unconditional logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals for each risk factor in blacks and whites separately. RESULTS: Data were pooled for 2,011 black women (516 cases and 1,495 controls) and 19,297 white women (5,693 cases and 13,604 controls). BMI ≥ 30 was associated with an approximate 3-fold increase in risk of EC in both black and white women (OR(black)=2.93, 95% CI: 2.11, 4.07 and OR(white)=2.99, 95% CI: 2.74, 3.26). Diabetes was associated with a 30–40% increase in risk among both groups. Increasing parity was associated with decreasing risk of EC in blacks and whites (p-value=0.02 and <0.001, respectively). Current and former smoking was associated with decreased risk of EC among all women. Both black and white women who used oral contraceptives for 10+ years were also at reduced risk of EC (OR=0.49, 95% CI: 0.27, 0.88 and OR=0.69, 95% CI: 0.58, 0.83, respectively). Previous history of hypertension was not associated with EC risk in either group. CONCLUSIONS: The major known risk factors for EC exert similar effects on black and white women. Differences in the incidence rates between the two populations may be due to differences in the prevalence of risk factors