Using Photovoice to Navigate Social-ecological Change in Coastal Maine: a Case Study on Visibility, Visuality, and Visual Literacy

Media representations of the environment support specific cultures of viewing that can create expectations about how to observe social-ecological interactions in everyday life. While public perceptions may appear, in some cases, to reflect these normative representations, more critical and participatory approaches to environmental research and management have begun to complicate these representations as they are negotiated through intrapersonal, interpersonal, and group communication. Working from a visual cultural approach that interrogates issues of visibility, visuality, and visual literacy, this dissertation theorizes how coastal residents represent their own observations and experiences of environmental change through photography and what impact their views have on the perceived availability, desirability, and feasibility of community responses to change. For this project, I designed and facilitated a multi-stage photovoice project and a Q method evaluation that engaged a small group of residents from the communities surrounding the Bagaduce and Damariscotta Rivers in Maine. Across the three main chapters, I critically and collaboratively analyze the affordances of photography as a research methodology, visual communication practice, and social-ecological assessment tool. In the second chapter, I document the social-ecological changes residents perceived to impact their community and how related interactions were framed as inevitable, manageable, and deconstructive. In the third chapter, I explore how residents used photographs in individual interviews and group discussions and through material and dialogic exchanges to broaden, focus, and shift their meaning-making. In the fourth chapter, I evaluate how the photovoice methodology influenced participants’ perceived development of visual learning and communication skills and discuss implications for photovoice goal attainment. Together, this research indicates that environmental applications of photovoice may inspire resilience thinking through group negotiation of visual meaning and critical reflection on self-other-environment relationships. In turn, this research offers new possibilities for understanding and engaging visual representations of social-ecological change that constitute community experience and influence environmental adaptation

Antecedents to Supply Chain Integration

Although supply chain management and supply chain integration have become topics found within today‟s organization as well as topics for researchers from various disciplines, little research has been completed concerning the linkage between business strategy, supply chain strategy, and the resulting decision which an organization makes to enter into an integration initiative. This paper discusses the experience of one organization in formulating a supply chain strategy which is well aligned with its business strategy. The paper concludes with key elements driving the supply chain which emerge from this linkage

Acceptance and Use of the \u27Digital Measures\u27 System in an Organized Anarchy

The literature reveals that researchers have examined the adoption of different types of systems, both voluntary and mandatory, by different groups of individuals affiliated with different types of organizations. Adoption studies may exhibit the following characteristics: a) the research participants are drawn from multiple levels of the organization’s hierarchy, and b) the research participants attach similar interpretations regarding the adoption of the information system. It is not inconceivable that individuals within the same group attach different interpretations of voluntariness to the same information system. This may be applicable in Colleges and Universities in which faculty, in particular, comprise an “organized anarchy”. Taking the case of “Activity Insight”, a commercially-available software product (hereafter referred to as Digital Measures) meant for employees in colleges and universities to report their activities. This study provides a scenario for research on whether interpretations regarding voluntariness may result in findings that stray from the norm

Using ITIL to Improve IT Services

This paper examines the adoption and implementation of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). Specifically, interviews with a CIO, as well as literature from the ITIL Official site and from the practitioner’s journals are consulted in order to determine whether the best practices contained in the ITIL framework may improve the management of information technology (IT) services, as well as assist in promoting the alignment of Business and the IT Function within the organization. A conceptual model is proposed which proposes a two-way relationship between IT and the provision of IT Services, with ITIL positioned as an intervening variable

Demonstrating Operating System Principles via Computer Forensics Exercises

We explore the feasibility of sparking student curiosity and interest in the core required MIS operating systems course through inclusion of computer forensics exercises into the course. Students were presented with two in-class exercises. Each exercise demonstrated an aspect of the operating system, and each exercise was written as a computer forensics investigation. Students were asked to indicate their perception of the practicality of the course material before and after completing the exercises. Based upon a t-test, we conclude that students find the course material to be of greater practical significance when course materials are linked to forensics topics

Organizational Engagement with Supply Chain Integration: Achieving a Tangible Strategy

Although supply chain management and supply chain integration have become topics found within today’s organization as well as topics for researchers from various disciplines, little research has been completed concerning the linkage between business strategy, supply chain strategy, and the resulting decision which an organization makes to enter into an integration initiative. This paper discusses the experience of one organization in formulating a supply chain strategy consistent with its business strategy. The paper concludes with key elements driving the supply chain which emerge from this linkage, a framework for determining the importance of the supply chain to the organization, and a discussion of the benefits gained from creating a tangible incarnation, an enactment, of the firm’s strategy

Stemming the tide of light pollution encroaching into Marine Protected Areas

Open Access journalMany marine ecosystems are shaped by regimes of natural light guiding the behaviour of their constituent species. As evidenced from terrestrial systems, the global introduction of nighttime lighting is likely influencing these behaviours, restructuring marine ecosystems, and compromising the services they provide. Yet the extent to which marine habitats are exposed to artificial light at night is unknown. We quantified nightime artificial light across the world's network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Artificial light is widespread and increasing in a large percentage of MPAs. While increases are more common among MPAs associated with human activity, artificial light is encroaching into a large proportion of even those marine habitats protected with the strongest legislative designations. Given the current lack of statutory tools, we propose that allocating ‘marine dark sky park’ status to MPAs will help incentivize responsible authorities to hold back the advance of artificial light.European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013

Recovery of neurofilament following early monocular deprivation

Postnatal development of the mammalian geniculostriate visual pathway is partly guided by visually driven activity. Disruption of normal visual input during certain critical periods can alter the structure of neurons, as well as their connections and functional properties. Within the layers of the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN), a brief early period of monocular deprivation can alter the structure and soma size of neurons within deprived-eye-receiving layers. This modification of structure is accompanied by a marked reduction in labeling for neurofilament protein, a principle component of the stable cytoskeleton. This study examined the extent of neurofilament recovery in monocularly deprived cats that either had their deprived eye opened (binocular recovery), or had the deprivation reversed to the fellow eye (reverse occlusion). The loss of neurofilament and the reduction of soma size caused by monocular deprivation were ameliorated equally and substantially in both recovery conditions after 8 days. The degree to which this recovery was dependent on visually driven activity was examined by placing monocularly deprived animals in complete darkness. Though monocularly deprived animals placed in darkness showed recovery of soma size in deprived layers, the manipulation catalyzed a loss of neurofilament labeling that extended to non-deprived layers as well. Overall, these results indicate that both recovery of soma size and neurofilament labeling is achieved by removal of the competitive disadvantage of the deprived eye. However, while the former occurred even in the absence of visually driven activity, recovery of neurofilament did not. The finding that a period of darkness produced an overall loss of neurofilament throughout the dLGN suggests that this experiential manipulation may cause the visual pathways to revert to an earlier more plastic developmental stage. It is possible that short periods of darkness could be incorporated as a component of therapeutic measures for treatment of deprivation-induced disorders such as amblyopia

Enabling Context-Based Learning with KPortal Webspace Technology

Recognizing the importance of context-based learning and the general lack of technology applications in the design and development of the ideal and formal curricula, this paper describes an experimental system at a large public university. The authors describe the creation of a contextual environment for introducing concepts related to information security to undergraduate business students using the KPortal (Knowledge Portals) webspace technology that supports dynamic content gathered from various sources automatically. The KPortal webspace rated highly on the various attributes of effective contexts and the characteristics of technologies that enable context-based learning. The flexibility provided by the webspace permitted the authors to develop adaptable environments in which the students could connect well with rather abstract concepts. The overall intervention was designed to examine if a limited portion of the course could be supported by technology and next phases of the research will broaden its use to semester-length curriculum

Global trends in exposure to light pollution in natural terrestrial ecosystems

This is a freely-available open access publication. Please cite the published version which is available via the DOI link in this record.The rapid growth in electric light usage across the globe has led to increasing presence of artificial light in natural and semi-natural ecosystems at night. This occurs both due to direct illumination and skyglow - scattered light in the atmosphere. There is increasing concern about the effects of artificial light on biological processes, biodiversity and the functioning of ecosystems. We combine intercalibrated Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) images of stable night-time lights for the period 1992 to 2012 with a remotely sensed landcover product (GLC2000) to assess recent changes in exposure to artificial light at night in 43 global ecosystem types. We find that Mediterranean-climate ecosystems have experienced the greatest increases in exposure, followed by temperate ecosystems. Boreal, Arctic and montane systems experienced the lowest increases. In tropical and subtropical regions, the greatest increases are in mangroves and subtropical needleleaf and mixed forests, and in arid regions increases are mainly in forest and agricultural areas. The global ecosystems experiencing the greatest increase in exposure to artificial light are already localized and fragmented, and often of particular conservation importance due to high levels of diversity, endemism and rarity. Night time remote sensing can play a key role in identifying the extent to which natural ecosystems are exposed to light pollution.European Research Council/ European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013