Life just got complicated

The fossil record of ancient life is, in general, poor. Certainly, fossils are abundant in many rock successions and may reveal remarkable details about evolution and environmental change, but they typically consist of disarticulated or broken skeletal material, such as shells, bones and teeth. Even worse, the record of entirely (or largely) soft-bodied organisms, such as jellyfish and worms, is extremely scant, despite the fact that such animals dominate modern marine environments and presumably did so in the past. The reason is obvious — such organisms are highly susceptible to post-mortem decay and typically decompose more rapidly than the ‘normal’ processes of fossilisation operate. This significantly blurs our view of ancient life, with obvious consequences for those interested in understanding evolution and past ecosystems

Shadow Forest

Black and white photograph that capture the graphic lines of the forest and shadows

Insular Interconnectivity in the Viking Age: A Geospatial View from Norse Jarlshof

During the Viking Age, settlements and trading centers were often located near lakes, seas, waterways, and sailing routes. As such, access to other locations was facilitated, whether for the purpose of settlement, trade, resource acquisition, or conflict, by some form of seafaring vessel or watercraft. Over the course of the Scandinavian Diaspora, a level of cultural and economic interconnectedness was maintained between mainland Scandinavia and the settlements in the North Atlantic region. This shared link with Scandinavia contributed to the development of local connections between insular and coastal sites within the broader diasporic network. This thesis considers the archaeological evidence for insular interconnectivity during the Viking Age ca. 790-1066 CE in the British Isles and North Atlantic, as well as the potential for using a GIS-based joint visibility and mobility model that depicts the experiential use of, and interaction between, past landscapes and seascapes while maintaining a quantitative approach. This is considered through the evaluation of intervisibility between a mobile sailing ship entering the mouth of Grutness Voe and the occupants of the Norse farmstead at the Jarlshof archaeological site, Mainland, Shetland over the course of its occupation ca.850-1200 CE. The results of this research support the argument that the investigation of the diasporic maritime communities of the Viking Age can benefit from the use geospatial technology to evaluate insular interconnectivity and to better conceptualize broader patterns within those extensive maritime networks. Broadly speaking, these findings can also inform our understanding of coastal and insular populations in the past, and the way that they have engaged with their environment, both aqueous and terrestrial. Advisor: Heather Richards-Rissett

Institutional Change and Firm Adaptation

We develop a typology of organizational forms found in Southeast Asia that contains four major archetypes, Colonial Business Groups, Family Business Groups, Government Linked Enterprises, and New Managers. We explain how the institutional environment prevailing at their founding profoundly influence the strategies and capabilities of each form. Consequently, strategic repertoires and competencies that are imperfectly aligned with environmental conditions largely delimit the capacity for organizational adaptation in the face of environmental change. We discuss the consequences of such a pattern of path dependence for each organizational form as well as the social and economic systems in which they are embedded

Organisational Path-Dependence and Institutional Environment

Through a case study of Chinese Family Business Groups (FBGs) in East Asia, this paper examines the relationship between the strategic behaviour exhibited by an organisational form and it's administrative heritage. To do so, we trace the origins of the strategic behaviour which scholars commonly attribute to FBGs to the environmental conditions prevailing during their emergence in the turbulent post-Colonial era of East Asia. We explain how fundamental changes brought about by shifts in the post-Cold war environment of East Asia have confronted FBGs with new opportunities and organising imperatives which their administrative heritages have left them ill-equipped to deal with. In concluding, we explain how the lack of fit between a dominant organisational form and contemporaneous environmental conditions may have significant implications for the organisations themselves and the economies whose landscape's they dominate

Can NFL Players Obtain Judicial Review of Arbitration Decisions on the Merits when a Typical Hourly Union Worker Cannot Obtain This Unusual Court Access?

Several recent court cases, brought on behalf of National Football League (NFL) players by their union, the NFL Players Association (NFLPA), have increased media and public attention to the challenges of labor arbitrator decisions in federal courts. The Supreme Court has established a body of federal common law that places a high premium on deferring to labor arbitrator decisions and counseling against judges deciding the merits of disputes covered by a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). A recent trend suggests federal judges have ignored this body of law and analyzed the merits of labor arbitration decisions in the NFL setting. NFL employees, as millionaires, are able to use a significant war chest, given to their union, to hire very prominent attorneys to argue their cases in federal courts after the union has lost the dispute in final and binding arbitration. Unlike a typical hourly union worker, who has very limited legal options after an arbitration award has been rendered, millionaire professional football players and their union appear to be successfully challenging labor arbitrator decisions on the merits in federal district courts. Their prominent attorneys, from major corporate law firms that tend to represent employers in workplace disputes, appear to add value in resources and skills on behalf of their rich, professional football employee clients. Do these rich financial and legal resources suggest an unusual access to judges who may be more willing to hear their novel legal arguments outside of the typical standards established by the Supreme Court’s federal arbitration jurisprudence? This Article explores the recent access to court that NFL players have been able to obtain in challenging decisions made pursuant to a CBA. The Article argues that the financial resources of these unique union employees have led to the unusual access and consideration by federal trial judges in reviewing the merits of decisions that typically would not be considered under federal labor arbitration law. Overall, however, the record also suggests that the immediate appellate courts have responded to overturn this unusual consideration of the merits of labor arbitration decisions by reversing those initial court opinions. This Article concludes that, because of the strong public interest in labor arbitration decisions involving the NFLPA, the federal courts must normally defer to the arbitrator’s decision regardless of the merits. Otherwise, a typical union worker challenging a labor arbitrator’s decision will be left with the wrong perception about access to justice and believe that one must be rich to have a federal judge consider the merits of a labor dispute

Informatics Metrics and Measures for a Smart Public Health Systems Approach: Information Science Perspective

Public health informatics is an evolving domain in which practices constantly change to meet the demands of a highly complex public health and healthcare delivery system. Given the emergence of various concepts, such as learning health systems, smart health systems, and adaptive complex health systems, health informatics professionals would benefit from a common set of measures and capabilities to inform our modeling, measuring, and managing of health system “smartness.” Here, we introduce the concepts of organizational complexity, problem/issue complexity, and situational awareness as three codependent drivers of smart public health systems characteristics. We also propose seven smart public health systems measures and capabilities that are important in a public health informatics professional’s toolkit

Attitudes Towards Vaccination Among Medical Students: A Two-Site Study

Introduction: Mandatory immunization for school age children in the 20th Century led to a substantial decline in infectious disease. All US states allow medical exemptions from immunizations with 49 permitting additional religious exemptions and 19 permitting additional philosophical exemptions. Vaccine exemptions have lead to an increase in the incidence of disease outbreaks. Healthcare providers play a critical role in educating parents about the benefits and risks of immunizations. This project compares student attitudes and knowledge regarding vaccination at medical schools in two distinct states: one with no additional exemptions (West Virginia) and one with both additional exemptions (Vermont).https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1218/thumbnail.jp