scholarly journals Infrastructure as a wicked complex process

Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikhail V. Chester ◽  
Braden Allenby
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Cyber Attacks ◽  
Technical Performance ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Sustained Change ◽  
Long Term Trends ◽  
Lock In ◽  
And Training

Changing complexity in the increasingly integrated human, natural, and built systems within which our infrastructures are designed and operated make it necessary to examine how the role of engineering requires new competencies for satisficing. Several long-term trends appear to be shifting our infrastructures further away from the complicated domain where optimization and efficiency were the core approaches, to the domain of complexity, where rapidly changing environments and fragmentation of goals require fundamentally new approaches. While complexity in infrastructure has always existed in some form, making infrastructures agile and flexible for the Anthropocene will require us to acknowledge and work with the fact that infrastructure change now appears to be a wicked and complex process. Wicked complexity is the result of three competing forces that are inimical to rapid and sustained change of infrastructures in a future marked by acceleration and uncertainty: wicked problems, technical complexity including lock-in, and social complexity. The combination of these factors raises serious questions about whether rapidly changing demands, technologies, and perturbations (such as climate change, or cyber attacks) will affect our infrastructure’s capacity to provide services. What infrastructure managers need to do today is very different than in the past. Increased presence and polarization of viewpoints is becoming more common, where solutions are dictated not by technical performance measures but instead by “acceptable enough” to all parties. Adaptive management practices and associated competencies that have proven successful in managing complex socio-ecological systems may provide some guidance for how to manage infrastructure change. These competencies are i) promoting a shared understanding of what infrastructures can do, ii) managing infrastructures as systems with changing demands, iii) emphasizing experimentation over conventional approaches, and, iv) restructuring education and training for a complexity mindset that emphasizes what can be over what is, and relies on satisficing, not optimization.

Social Cohesion, Breaks, and Transformations in Italy, 535–600

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Pohl
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Religious Context ◽  
Ancient Society ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Term Change ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
Classical Culture

When the Gothic War began in Italy in 535, the country still conserved many features of classical culture and late antique administration. Much of that was lost in the political upheavals of the following decades. Building on Chris Wickham’s work, this contribution sketches an integrated perspective of these changes, attempting to relate the contingency of events to the logic of long-term change, discussing political options in relation to military and economic means, and asking in what ways the erosion of consensus may be understood in a cultural and religious context. What was the role of military entrepreneurs of more or less barbarian or Roman extraction in the distribution or destruction of resources? How did Christianity contribute to the transformation of ancient society? The old model of barbarian invasions can contribute little to understanding this complex process. It is remarkable that for two generations, all political strategies in Italy ultimately failed.

Comment on “Long-term decline of sugar maple following forest harvest, Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire”

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (7) ◽  
pp. 861-862
Author(s):  
Scott W. Bailey ◽  
Robert P. Long ◽  
Stephen B. Horsley
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
Acer Saccharum ◽  
Sugar Maple ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Hubbard Brook ◽  
Whole Tree

Cleavitt et al. (2018, Can. J. For. Res. 48(1): 23–31, doi: 10.1139/cjfr-2017-0233 ) report a lack of sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) regeneration in Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF), Watershed 5 (W5), following whole-tree clearcut harvesting and purport that harvesting-induced soil calcium depletion contributed to regeneration failure of this species. In New England, clearcutting is a silvicultural strategy used to promote less tolerant species, especially birch (Betula spp.; Marquis (1969), Birch Symposium Proceedings, USDA Forest Service; Leak et al. (2014), doi: 10.2737/NRS-GTR-132 ), which is just the outcome that the authors report. While this study reports an impressive, long-term data set, given broad interest in sugar maple and sustainability of forest management practices, we feel that it is critical to more fully explore the role of nutrition on sugar maple dynamics, both prior to and during the experiment, and to more fully review the scientific record on the role of whole-tree clearcutting in nutrient-induced sugar maple dynamics.

Economic Wood Supply — Problems and Opportunities: Choices for Canada's Forest Industry

1990 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger A. Sedjo
Keyword(s):  
Forest Resource ◽  
Plantation Forest ◽  
Broad Perspective ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Intensive Forest Management ◽  
Second Growth ◽  
Long Term Trends ◽  
Intensively Managed

This paper examines the role of Canada in world forest resource production. A broad overview of global timber supply is presented together with an overview of likely future sources. The discussion covers both regions of supply as well as the nature of the forest resource — old growth, second growth, and plantation forest. Within this broad perspective some long-term trends and tendencies are identified. The growing role of plantation and intensively managed forestry is discussed. Canada's strengths and liabilities as a forest resource supplier are discussed within this context. It is argued that Canada cannot compete successfully with semi-tropical regions in intensive forest management. Rather, Canada appears to have the features necessary to compete in world wood markets using a strategy of extensive forestry that takes advantage of Canada's vast forest land areas.

Measuring management practices impact on hygiene practices of food handlers: The mediating role of commitment and training perception

Food Control ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 108313
Author(s):  
Sadi Taha ◽  
Tareq M. Osaili ◽  
Mohit Vij ◽  
Anu Vij ◽  
Eslam Alhogaraty ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Food Handlers ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Hygiene Practices ◽  
And Training

Irregular Migration, Human Smuggling, and the Eastern Enlargement of the European Union

2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Jandl
Keyword(s):  
Eu Enlargement ◽  
Human Smuggling ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eastern Enlargement ◽  
Irregular Migration ◽  
Ample Evidence ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Long Term Trends

This article examines the consequences of the latest round of EU-Enlargement in May 2004 on irregular migration across Central and Eastern Europe. Drawing on a unique collection of both quantitative and qualitative data related to irregular migration and human smuggling, the article first presents some long-term trends in irregular migration across the region before taking up more recent developments in 2003 and 2004. While border apprehensions have broadly declined since about 2000 there is ample evidence for an increasing role of human smugglers in facilitating irregular migration. In addition, there are noticeable changes in the modus operandi of human smugglers.

Long term trends in total nitrogen of a vertisol subjected to zero-tillage, nitrogen application and stubble retention

Soil Research ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 223 ◽  
Author(s):  
RC Dalal
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
N Recovery ◽  
Zero Tillage ◽  
Fertilizer N ◽  
Total N ◽  
Leaching Losses ◽  
Stubble Retention ◽  
Long Term Trends ◽  
Apparent N Recovery

The effects of conservation practices, zero-tillage and stubble retention, on long-term trends in total N (0-0.1 m depth) of a Vertisol used mainly for wheat cropping were studied in a semi-arid subtropical environment (28�12'S. and 152�06' E.) in Queensland. Trends in total N content of a Vertisoi (65% clay, pH 7.2) were discerned during a 22-year period of management practices including: zero-tillage (ZT) and conventional tillage (CT); stubble retention (SR) and stubble burning (SB); and fertilizer N application of nil (Nl), 23 kg N ha-1 yr-1 (N2) and 69 kg N ha-1 yr-1 (N3). Soil total N (0-0.1 m) declined under all treatments at an overall rate of 25f 2 kg N ha-1 yr-1 although after 22 years soil under ZT, SR and N3 treatments still contained higher soil total N than under CT, SB and N1 treatments. Apparent fertilizer N recovery in the soil-plant system was poor (34 64%) under CTSB, CTSR and ZTSB and ZTSR treatments, because N removed by the wheat crop was equivalent to less than 20% of fertilizer N in the first 12 years of management practices, due mainly to disease. Deep leaching losses of NO3-N was the likely factor for poor recovery of N. The ZTSR treatment showed better apparent N recovery than the CTSB treatment, most likely due to greater immobilization of fertilizer N, more N uptake in grain due to additional available soil water and hence less leaching losses of NO3-N. Under the current cultural practices, soil total N (0-0.1 m) may decline further to reach a steady state (about 1000 kg N ha-1). However, the apparent N recovery in the soil-plant system can be increased by disease control (for example, resistant cultivars and winter-summer crop rotations) and optimum utilisation of soil water (opportunity cropping) to minimize NO3-N leaching losses and to maximise production of crop biomass.

The Pediatric Convalescence Hospital

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 617-618
Author(s):  
M. Harry Jennison
Keyword(s):  
Unique Role ◽  
Complex Needs ◽  
Hospital Facility ◽  
Childhood And Youth ◽  
Training And Research ◽  
Historical Origin ◽  
Inpatient And Outpatient Care ◽  
And Training

I was delighted to read Dr. Frederic Burke excellent analysis of the important and unique role of the specialized children hospital designed to meet the complex needs of long-term childhood illness (PEDIATRICS, 43:879, 1969). We operate a similar intermediate-care children hospital facility at Stanford, having a parallel historical origin which has now evolved into a comprehensive program providing inpatient and outpatient care, teaching and training, and research in the chronic diseases of childhood and youth.

MISSION AND MANPOWER

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1963 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-196
Author(s):  
ALEX J. STEIGMAN
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Child Health ◽  
Health Services ◽  
The United States ◽  
Child Health Services ◽  
Child Health Care ◽  
Long Term Trends

THE SPECIAL ARTICLE by Stewart and Pennell, "Pediatric Manpower in the United States and Its Implications," is interesting and timely. It will be viewed differently by various readers, by some as seen from their personal perch, by others in terms of the broad reaches past and present of pediatrics as a discipline. The purposes of the Special Article are to highlight the manpower situation and to point out long-term trends and implications in the light of the growing responsibility of pediatrics. The authors say that one requires a "delineation of the role of the specialty of pediatrics in child health care," and "while this role may be shared by other types of physicians, the responsibility for the development, maintenance, and improvement of child health services was clearly assumed by pediatrics when, as a specialty, it adopted as its objectives the protection and promotion of the health of children."

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