<p> The central theme of the study is to identify strength-stiffness correlations for chemically treated subgrade soils in Indiana. This was done by conducting Unconfined Compression (UC) tests and resilient modulus tests for soils collected at three different sites, namely : US 31, SR 37 and I-65. At each site, soil samples were obtained from 11 locations at 30 ft spacing. The soils were treated in the laboratory with cement, using the same proportions used for construction, and cured for 7 and 28 days before testing. Results from the UC tests were compared with the resilient modulus results that were available. No direct correlation was found between resilient modulus and UCS parameters for the soils investigated in this study. A brief statistical analysis of the results was conducted, and a simple linear regression model involving the soil characteristics (plasticity index, optimum moisture content and maximum dry density) along with UCS and resilient modulus parameters was proposed.  </p>

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Den rådande covid-19-pandemin har inneburit stora prövningar för bibliotek världen över; Sverige är inget undantag. Syftet med denna uppsats har varit att med hjälp av begreppet resiliens skapa fördjupad förståelse för hur folkbibliotek har anpassat sig till den pågående covid-19-pandemin, samt hur väl de har kunnat behålla sin struktur och funktion trots de förändrade omständigheterna som pandemin har inneburit. Materialet utgörs av fem transkriberade semi-strukturerade intervjuer med bibliotekspersonal på olika folkbibliotek i en och samma kommun i Sverige. Intervjuerna ägde rum i månadsskiftet november–december 2020, några veckor efter att en andra våg av covid-19-pandemin drabbat stora delar av Sverige. De transkriberade intervjuerna har analyserats med hjälp av teoretisk, semantisk, realistisk/essentialistisk tematisk analys. De huvudsakliga resultaten visar att folkbiblioteken i föreliggande studie har nyttjat ett flertal strategier och adaptiva resurser i sitt svar på covid-19-pandemin. Dessa syftar till att förhindra smittspridning på biblioteket, ställa om utåtriktad verksamhet, underlätta situationen för besökarna och främja folkhälsomedvetenhet. Olika faktorer har fungerat hämmande (t.ex. teknikovan personal, upphovsrätt och sekretess) respektive främjande (t.ex. tillgång till digitala verktyg och anpassningsbarhet hos bibliotek och personal) för folkbibliotekens anpassning av verksamheten. Pandemin har dessutom medfört olika utmaningar och möjligheter. Två utmaningar är att ge god och jämlik service och att ställa om till det digitala, medan möjligheter handlar om att personalen har fått mer tid till andra arbetsuppgifter. Under pandemin fyller folkbiblioteken flera roller, dock har rollen som mötesplats upphört. Slutligen har pandemin haft såväl negativa som positiva konsekvenser; de långsiktiga effekterna på folkbiblioteken är dock oklara. Troligtvis kommer det digitala att leva vidare i någon form. Folkbibliotekens hantering av covid-19-pandemin liknar till viss del hur bibliotek hanterade spanska sjukan 1918–1919, till exempel när det gäller att möblera om och begränsa antalet besökare på biblioteket. Skillnaden ligger framför allt i tillgången på digitala verktyg. Genom sina anpassningar kan folkbiblioteken sägas möta besökarnas behov och främja folkhälsomedvetenhet. Vidare har folkbiblioteken kunnat behålla sin struktur och vissa delar av sin funktion under pandemin, även om förbättringspotential finns. Därmed kan folkbiblioteken sägas vara relativt resilienta.

There is a debate within the field of policy studies whether disasters are drivers of policy reforms, as encapsulated by the disaster-reform hypothesis. Since the disaster rate for extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and severity due to climate change, it is of high relevance to study if these disasters have any effect on climate polices. The aim of this thesis is therefore to empirically explore if there are any discernible global trends of disasters preceding a subsequent increase in Climate resilient development (CRD) policies and to show the variation of “effect lag” between income groups and regions. The research design operationalises the most severe disasters through “milestone events” and creates a CRD index by the arithmetical mean of sustainable development, climate adaptation, and climate mitigation. The results show a proportional share of countries experienced an effect lag of 1-3 years after their milestone events, while a large incidence of HIC and LMIC countries had a lag of 4-6 years. This explorative thesis has provided a research design and results on CRD, previously undescribed, that suggests several pathways for future studies such as interesting samples for case studies and alternative designs to the operationalisation of concepts.

A laboratory test program was undertaken to evaluate a series of engineering properties over a range of soil types; amendment types and addition rates; and moisture contents to enhance understanding of the engineering significance of polymer amendment. Four soils were manufactured and tested with varying ranges of fines and plasticity. A proprietary elastic copolymer was tested at addition rates of 0.5% to 2.5% (dry weight basis). Cement was tested at addition rates of 1% to 4%. Lime was tested at an 8% addition rate. Water addition rates ranged from 4% dry of optimum to 4% wet of optimum. Engineering properties determined throughout the test program included dry unit weight / moisture content relationships through compaction tests; shear strength through unconfined compression strength tests and direct shear tests; durability through freeze-thaw and wet-dry durability tests; and stiffness through resilient modulus tests and through interpretation of the unconfined compression and direct shear test results. The addition of polymer altered the optimum moisture content of the soils. Change in optimum moisture content ranged from 0.51 to 1.27 times the control water demand. The dry unit weight of polymer amended specimens ranged from 0.97 to 1.01 times their respective control dry unit weight. The peak strength of polymer amended specimens ranged from 1.02 to 18.4 times the control strength. The peak wet-dry and freeze-thaw durability of polymer amended specimens ranged from 6.8 to 10.8 times the control durability. The addition of polymer increased the peak initial stiffness of specimens to approximately 3 times the control stiffness. However, the stiffness was reduced to 0.68 times the control stiffness with dynamic repeated loading through the resilient modulus test. The polymer addition rate required to achieve peak engineering performance ranged from 0.5% to 2.5%, based on soil type. Polymer modified the engineering properties of soil through physical bonding. The amount of polymer required to modify the engineering properties was directly related to specific surface and soil particle coating thickness. It was determined that polymer amendment had an optimal addition rate that resulted in the greatest increase in engineering parameters. The addition rate was optimum when polymer was applied at rates high enough to sufficiently coat all soil particle surfaces, but at rates low enough that it did not cause additional particle separation. Overall, polymer amendment of soil improved or maintained all tested engineering parameters, except the resilient modulus, of all soils. Polymer amended soils displayed a reduced performance compared to cement amended soils, and an improved performance compared to lime amended soils.

The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) has fully implemented the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide for pavement design but has been using primarily level-three design inputs obtained from correlations to aggregate base materials developed at the national level. UDOT was interested in investigating correlations between laboratory measurements of resilient modulus, California bearing ratio (CBR), and other material properties specific to base materials commonly used in Utah; therefore, a statewide testing program was needed. The objectives of this research were to 1) determine the resilient modulus of several representative aggregate base materials in Utah and 2) investigate correlations between laboratory measurements of resilient modulus, CBR, and other properties of the tested materials. Two aggregate base materials were obtained from each of the four UDOT regions. Important material properties, including particle-size distribution, soil classification, and the moisture-density relationship, were investigated for each of the sampled aggregate base materials. The CBR and resilient modulus of each aggregate base material were determined in general accordance with American Society for Testing and Materials D1883 and American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials T 307, respectively. After all of the data were collected, several existing models were evaluated to determine if one or more of them could be used to predict the resilient modulus values measured in this research. Statistical analyses were also performed to investigate correlations between measurements of resilient modulus, CBR, and other properties of the tested aggregate base materials, mainly including aspects of the particle-size distributions and moisture-density relationships. A set of independent predictor variables was analyzed using both stepwise regression and best subset analysis to develop a model for predicting resilient modulus. After a suitable model was developed, it was analyzed to determine the sensitivity of the model coefficients to the individual data points. For the aggregate base materials tested in this research, the average resilient modulus varied from 16.0 to 25.6 ksi. Regarding the correlation between resilient modulus and CBR, the test results show that resilient modulus and CBR are not correlated for the materials tested in this research. Therefore, a new model was developed to predict the resilient modulus based on the percent passing the No. 200 sieve, particle diameter corresponding to 30 percent finer, optimum moisture content, maximum dry density (MDD), and ratio of dry density to MDD. Although the equation may not be applicable for values outside the ranges of the predictor variables used to develop it, it is expected to provide UDOT with reasonable estimates of resilient modulus values for aggregate base materials similar to those tested in this research.

Resilience is vital to college and university student success. Furthermore, resilience is necessary for successful leadership. Student leadership programs must consider resilience building as part of successful program development. By considering resilience as a factor in student leadership success and future leadership success, programs may encourage the development of leaders who are highly equipped to lead and continue to lead in the long term. Because of the need to promote resilience building through leadership program development, the researcher sought to explore the potential relationship between participation in leadership activities and student resilience scores. The purpose of this quantitative research was to determine if there were differences in scores on the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale among undergraduate students involved in honors leadership programs at a 4 year university. Potential links between specially designed 4 year student leadership programs and resilience scores were studied. The number of leadership opportunities participants had engaged in as well as gender, age, and class status (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior) were analyzed. A quantitative nonexperimental survey research design was employed by examining the results of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. The survey link was provided to students during the Fall 2018 semester. Data from the survey were analyzed to address each of the 9 research questions. Seven of the research questions were addressed using ANOVA and 2 research questions were addressed using t tests. No significant relationship was found between overall resilience scores among the 3 activity groups. The results indicated that the majority of the students scored well above the national average score. Although the analyses of relationship between the number of activities and each of the 5 resilience factors were not significant, students who completed 5 or more activities tended to score higher overall. Gender and age showed no significant difference on resilience scores. However, male students scored slightly higher than females, and females scored higher than the national average. The findings from this study may contribute to resilience research, student development research, leadership development research, and educational programming considerations.

Apple orchards as social-ecological systems provide high value crops and habitat for a variety of species. Yields are influenced by pest control and pollination services, and profit-oriented management often motivates the use of inputs, e.g., pesticides, to complement or replace these services. This can cause undesirable side-effects on the agroecosystem. Previous research insufficiently considers the interplay of social, including economic, and ecological aspects of orchard management. I present an economic-ecological model integrating ecosystem services from natural enemies of pests and wild pollinators, and the anthropogenic inputs pesticides and honeybees. The value of ecosystem services is approached by service provisioning of resilient systems granted through the availability of habitat for service providing organisms instead of assessing the contribution of individual species. The model identifies profit-maximising combinations of anthropogenic inputs and land for habitat. Adding a social perspective, the findings of the model are complemented with survey data on perceptions and economic preferences of apple growers in Skåne, southernmost Sweden. The study suggests that initial densities of pest natural enemies and wild pollinators create a path-dependency determining profit-maximising strategies. Over time, either high- or low-input management is economically rational, and switching strategies requires time and foregoing profits. The threshold, determining the optimal trajectory towards high- or low-input management, is influenced by prices for pesticides, land and honeybees, pesticide toxicities for pest vs. non-target organisms, beneficial effects of habitat, and the effectivity of honeybees substituting wild pollinators. Individual perceptions, e.g., on the substitutability of wild pollinators, as well as risk and time preferences play a vital role in decision-making of the apple growers. Future research should continue exploring the economic importance of resilience in perennial crops as well as social and economic drivers of integrated pest and pollination management.

Gothenburg, Sweden's second-largest city, faces significant environmental challenges due to climate change and risks from rising sea levels. These challenges include eutrophication, spread of environmental toxins, invasive species, and habitat loss. Gothenburg needs more transformative responses, shifting towards adopting water environment changes rather than against it, a concept gaining global traction. This project goaling to making a climate-responsive urban planning to save Gothenburg from lost in economy, ecology, and residents' well-being due to sea level rise. The city is transitioning from a self-centered development approach to one that emphasizes functional ecosystems. This shift includes implementing a multi-scale network of blue-green infrastructures by four methods which are: 1) Improve urban water system; 2) Constructed wetland; 3) Build green road network; 4) Create shore parks for residents. These infrastructures not only maintain the city's water supply system but also create water buffer wetlands, dynamic dykes, and flood bypasses enhancing water environment control. They use low-impact ecological methods for urban runoff regulation and provide ecological and recreational spaces along city-center riverbanks, achieving efficient land use in density city center.