Month: July 2024

Establishing resilience-targeted prediction models of rainfall for transportation infrastructures for three demonstration regions in China

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Abstract

Rainstorm is one of the global meteorological disasters that threaten the safety of transportation infrastructure and the connectivity of transportation system. Aiming to support the resilience assessment of transportation infrastructure in three representative regions: Sichuan–Chongqing, Yangtze River Delta, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei-Shandong, rainfall data over 40 years in the three regions are collected, and the temporal distribution of rainfall are analyzed. Prediction equations of rainfall are established. For the purpose of this, the probabilistic density function (PDF) is assigned to the rainfall by fitting the frequency distribution histogram. Using the assigned PDF, the rainfall data are transformed into standard normal space where regression of prediction equations is performed and the prediction accuracy is tested. The results show that: (1) The frequency of rainfall in the three regions follows a lognormal distribution based on which the prediction equations of rainfall can be established in standard normal space. The error of regression shows no remarkable dependence on self-variables, and the significance analysis indicates that the equations proposed in this paper are plausible for predicting rainfalls for the three regions. (2) The Yangtze River Delta region has a higher risk of rainstorm disaster compared to the other two regions according to the frequency of rainfall and the return period of precipitation concentration. (3) Over the period of 1980–2021, the Sichuan–Chongqing region witnessed an increase in yearly rainfall but a decrease in rainstorm disasters, whereas the other two regions experienced a consistent rise in both metrics.

Transformation of Relationships with the Environment — Exploring Environmental Memories in Dakar

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Abstract

We examine the role of phenomenological environmental memories to understand environmental changes and favor conservation in Dakar, Senegal, a context of great environmental change and historical traditions of oral memory transmission, where we conducted 42 semi-structured interviews in nine neighborhoods. Our results indicate that experienced environmental memories capture past interactions with the environment, perceived as a place of life, and past representations of this environment, whereas transmitted environmental memory captures information about past environmental conditions, past uses and practices, as well as myths and storytelling. Our informants consider both these forms of memory to be under threat as social relations and environmental conditions change. Furthermore, our conceptual analysis reveals transformations in relationships with the environment. Dakar residents are ambivalent about these changes, wanting improvements in former economic, environmental, and social conditions, but resisting changes to the status quo. We argue that this ambivalence stems from economic and geographic constraints, which are nuanced by perceived interests in the environment as well as a desire to reappropriate it. Our findings are consistent with the literature, except for the role of the media in memory, which is more influential in Western contexts.

International LGBTQ+  politics today: moving beyond ‘crises’?

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Abstract

While the discipline of IR has expanded its inquiry into LGBTQ+ politics, it is still missing an analysis of LGBTQ+ issues in the globalized ‘risk society’ in which crises are not exceptional but increasingly normalized and performatively manipulated. The various risks, threats and crises for LGBTQ+ people are embedded in a globally networked, accelerated interdependence characterized by neoliberal modernity, which produces differential challenges for LGBTQ+ rights promotion in the Global South and the Global North. This introduction to the special issue fills this knowledge gap by offering a novel conceptualization of the political risks and threats as well as the activist and governance responses to real and imagined crises in diverse domestic, regional and transnational settings. The introduction sets the stage for various contributions that draw on differing IR conceptualizations of crisis to investigate how the apparent (new) ‘normal’ of political, economic, environmental, health and other crises over past years have impacted LGBTQ+ politics. We show how LGBTQ+ advocacy politics responded to such challenges, highlighting how LGBTQ+ activists have become skillful norm entrepreneurs in domestic settings and mediators in rights promotion efforts between the Global North and South.

Contagion dynamics on higher-order networks

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Abstract

A paramount research challenge in network and complex systems science is to understand the dissemination of diseases, information and behaviour. The COVID-19 pandemic and the proliferation of misinformation are examples that highlight the importance of these dynamic processes. In recent years, it has become clear that studies of higher-order networks may unlock new avenues for investigating such processes. Despite being in its early stages, the examination of social contagion in higher-order networks has witnessed a surge of research and concepts, revealing different functional forms for the spreading dynamics and offering novel insights. This Review presents a focused overview of this body of literature and proposes a unified formalism that covers most of these forms. The goal is to underscore the similarities and distinctions among various models to motivate further research on the general and universal properties of such models. We also highlight that although the path for additional theoretical exploration appears clear, the empirical validation of these models through data or experiments remains scant, with an unsettled roadmap as of today. We therefore conclude with some perspectives aimed at providing possible research directions that could contribute to a better understanding of this class of dynamical processes, both from a theoretical and a data-oriented point of view.

Seeking a Comprehensive Theory About the Development of Scientific Thinking

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Abstract

Our technological, information-rich society thrives because of scientific thinking. However, a comprehensive theory of the development of scientific thinking remains elusive. Building on previous theoretical and empirical work in conceptual change, the role of credibility and plausibility in evaluating scientific evidence and claims, science engagement, active learning in STEM education, and the development of empirical thinking, we chart a pathway toward a comprehensive theory of the development of scientific thinking as an example of theory building in action. We detail the structural similarity and progressive transformation of our models and perspectives, highlighting factors for incorporation into a novel theory. This theory will focus on beneficial outcomes of a more collaborative scientific community and increasing scientific literacy through deeper science understanding for all people.

Educational materials as an integrative approach to a just and sustainable transition: the Franco-Brazilian cooperation

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Abstract

The methodological framework for two educational materials prior to the publication of 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is analyzed. Conceptual modeling shows the interconnections among SDG 1, 2, 4, 12, and 15. The first project is the PROBIO-Environmental Education teaching material for biodiversity conservation, coordinated by the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment. A set of 45 pairs of illustrated educational sheets was produced in 2006 based on Paulo Freire’s dialogic problem-posing education. Students analyzed real, local socio-environmental conflicts and their respective solutions for Brazilian biomes and priority issues, connecting environmental conservation, education, and reducing poverty and hunger. The second project was focused on the conservation of the babassu palm tree (Attalea speciosa) in the Brazilian Amazon. An educational kit containing games related to the species and remote sensing with a teacher’s manual was created, and several educational activities involving stakeholders and schools were performed within the research project (started in 2013). The two educational materials are relevant in the context of a just and sustainable transition aiming to (a) promote knowledge sharing as a primary tool for social justice, empowerment, and socially engaged research; (b) disseminate actions and projects and bring researchers and civil society together for a just and sustainable transition in land use and occupation and for the wellbeing of the population; (c) parametrize future actions and re-interpret past actions within the conceptual framework of the 2030 Agenda to promote integration across the SDGs towards a just and sustainable transition.

First-Generation Queer and Trans Validation: Structural Relationships Examining Validating Agents, School Engagement, and College Enrollment

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Abstract

Emerging research suggests that first-generation queer and trans (QT) students experience disproportionate discrimination in schooling leading to disengagement early on in their educational trajectories. Although labeled as “at risk”, first-generation QT students are actually more cognitively engaged in academics than their cisgender and heterosexual peers. Administrators, teachers, counselors, and guardians (validating agents) have an ethical responsibility to foster inclusive schooling contexts for first-generation QT students. This study examines how validating agents impact first-generation QT students’ school engagement, high school GPA, and postsecondary enrollment. We posit a queer theorizing of the ecological validation model of student success and through principles of QuantCrit, we examine the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 through a path analysis. Our results reveal that both talking to parents about college and high school GPA had a positive association with college enrollment for first-generation QT students. We provide recommendations for future research and practice that demand further exploration of first-generation QT students.

Primary health care utilisation and delivery in remote Australian clinics during the COVID-19 pandemic

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Abstract

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic period (2020 to 2022) challenged and overstretched the capacity of primary health care services to deliver health care globally. The sector faced a highly uncertain and dynamic period that encompassed anticipation of a new, unknown, lethal and highly transmissible infection, the introduction of various travel restrictions, health workforce shortages, new government funding announcements and various policies to restrict the spread of the COVID-19 virus, then vaccination and treatments. This qualitative study aims to document and explore how the pandemic affected primary health care utilisation and delivery in remote and regional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Methods

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with staff working in 11 Aboriginal Community-Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs) in outer regional, remote and very remote Australia. Interviews were transcribed, inductively coded and thematically analysed.

Results

248 staff working in outer regional, remote and very remote primary health care clinics were interviewed between February 2020 and June 2021. Participants reported a decline in numbers of primary health care presentations in most communities during the initial COVID-19 lock down period. The reasons for the decline were attributed to community members apprehension to go to the clinics, change in work priorities of primary health care staff (e.g. more emphasis on preventing the virus entering the communities and stopping the spread) and limited outreach programs. Staff forecasted a future spike in acute presentations of various chronic diseases leading to increased medical retrieval requirements from remote communities to hospital. Information dissemination during the pre-vaccine roll-out stage was perceived to be well received by community members, while vaccine roll-out stage information was challenged by misinformation circulated through social media.

Conclusions

The ability of ACCHSs to be able to adapt service delivery in response to the changing COVID-19 strategies and policies are highlighted in this study. The study signifies the need to adequately fund ACCHSs with staff, resources, space and appropriate information to enable them to connect with their communities and continue their work especially in an era where the additional challenges created by pandemics are likely to become more frequent. While the PHC seeking behaviour of community members during the COVID-19 period were aligned to the trends observed across the world, some of the reasons underlying the trends were unique to outer regional, remote and very remote populations. Policy makers will need to give due consideration to the potential effects of newly developed policies on ACCHSs operating in remote and regional contexts that already battle under resourcing issues and high numbers of chronically ill populations.