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The aim of this study is to get an enhanced understanding of why and how young Syrian refugee males in Jordan prepare for irregular travel to Europe. Through eight semi-structured interviews with Syrians in their 20s and 30s residing in Amman, and a conceptual framework of life plan, existential mobility and social network theory, this research hopefully enhances our understanding of the dynamic and uncertain process of onwards irregular refugee travel. I conclude that discrepancies between the narrative of self and the actual situation may trigger secondary migration, while the social capital inherent in the social network of an individual is essential in the preparation phase of onwards movement. Moreover, the results indicate that latent ties are use actively to assess the reliability of the large pool of information accessed through membership in social media networks.

A key attribute of resilience, robustness serves as a predictor of infrastructure system performance under disruptions, thus informing proactive infrastructure risk management. A literature review indicated that previous studies did not consider some key factors that can influence the robustness of Air Transportation Infrastructure Networks (ATIN) and thus their (system-level cascade) systemic risk management processes. In this respect, the current study first assesses existing and then develops a new methodology to quantify the robustness of ATIN. Specifically, based on integrating travel time and flight frequency, the study develops alternative best route and link weight approaches to assess key ATIN robustness measures and relevant operating cost losses (OCL). In order to demonstrate the practical use of the developed methodology, the robustness and the associated OCL of the Canadian Domestic Air Traffic Network are evaluated under random failures (i.e., disruptive events that occur randomly) and targeted threats (i.e., disruptive events that occur deliberately). The analysis results show that the network robustness is influenced by the utilized evaluation approach, especially after 20% of the network components become nonoperational. Overall, the methodology developed within this study is expected to provide ATIN policymakers with the means to quantify the network robustness and OCL, and thus enable ATIN resilience-guided proactive risk management in the face of natural or anthropogenic hazard realizations. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

The health care system within the United States is in a state of transition. The industry, confronted with a variety of new technologies, new ways of organizing, spiraling costs, diminishing service quality and new actors, is changing, almost on a daily basis. Reports issued by the Institute of Medicine raise quality issues such as avoidable errors and underuse/overuse of services; other studies document regional variation in care. Improvement in the quality of care, according to health care experts is accomplished through measuring and comparing performance, but there are a number of disparate actors involved in this endeavor. Through a network of both public and private actors, collaboration on the development of a set of national performance measures is underway. Organizations such as the National Quality Forum (NQF), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and other have formed networks to develop and standardize performance measurement systems that can distinguish between quality services and substandard ones. While there is some available research about the processes involved in performance measurement system design, there is little known about the factors that influence the development and work of the network, particularly the selection of hospital performance measures. This dissertation explored the development of a national performance measurement system for hospitals, using an institutional rational choice perspective and actor-network theory as frameworks for discussion. Through qualitative research methods such as direct observation, interviews, participant observations and document review, a theoretically informed case study of the NQF's Hospital Steering Committee was performed, to address the following questions: How is a national performance measurement system developed and what is the role of federal agencies (e.g., AHRQ and CMS) in the process? / Ph. D.

The model used as the basis for regulation of human radiation exposures in the United States has been a source of controversy for decades because human health consequences have not been determined with statistically meaningful certainty for the dose levels allowed for radiation workers and the general public. This dissertation evaluates the evolution of the science and regulation of radiation health effects in the United States since the early 1900s using actor-network theory and the concept of co-production of science and social order. This approach elucidated the ordering instruments that operated at the nexus of the social and the natural in making institutions, identities, discourses, and representations, and the sociotechnical imaginaries animating the use of those instruments, that culminated in a regulatory system centered on the linear no-threshold dose-response model and the As Low As Reasonably Achievable philosophy. The science of radiation health effects evolved in parallel with the development of radiation-related technologies and the associated regulatory system. History shows the principle of using the least amount of radiation exposure needed to achieve the desired effect became established as a social convention to help avoid inadvertent harm long before there was a linear no-threshold dose-response model. Because of the practical need to accept some level of occupational radiation exposure, exposures from medical applications of radiation, and some de minimis exposure to the general public, the ALARA principle emerged as an important ordering instrument even before the linear no-threshold model had gained wide support. Even before ALARA became the law, it had taken hold in a manner that allowed the nuclear industry to rationalize its operations as representing acceptable levels of risk, even though it could not be proven that the established exposure limits truly precluded harm to the exposed individuals. Laboratory experiments and epidemiology indicated that a linear dose-response model appeared suitable as a "cautious assumption" by the 1950s. The linear no-threshold model proved useful to both the nuclear establishment and its detractors. In the hands of proponents of nuclear technologies, the model predicted that occupational exposures and exposures to the public represented small risks compared to naturally occurring levels of radiation and other risks that society deemed acceptable. Conversely, opponents of nuclear technologies used the model to advance their causes by predicting health impacts for undesirable numbers of people if large populations received small radiation exposures from sources such as fallout from nuclear weapon testing or effluents from nuclear reactor operations. In terms of sociotechnical imaginaries, the linear no-threshold model was compatible with both of the dominant imaginaries involved in the actor-network. In the technocratic imaginary of institutions such as the Atomic Energy Commission, the model served as a tool for qualified experts to make risk-informed decisions about applications of nuclear technologies. In the socially progressive imaginary of the citizen activist groups, the model empowered citizens to formulate arguments informed by science and rooted in the precautionary principle to challenge decisions and actions by the technocratic institutions. This enduring dynamic tension has led to the model retaining the status of "unproven but useful" even as the underlying science has remained contested. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation provides a social science perspective on an enduring paradox of the nuclear industry: why is regulation of radiation exposure based on a model that everyone involved agrees is wrong? To answer that question, it was necessary to delve into the history of radiation science to establish how safety regulation began and evolved along with the understanding of radiation's health effects. History shows the philosophy of keeping radiation exposures as small as possible for any given application developed long ago when the health effects of radiation were very uncertain. This practice turned out to be essential as science started to indicate that there may not be a safe threshold dose below which radiation exposure had no potential for health consequences. By the 1950s, a combination of theory, experiments, health studies of the survivors of the World War II atomic bombings, and other evidence suggested that the risk of cancer was proportional to the amount of radiation a person received (i.e., linear). Although this "linear no-threshold" model was far from proven, both sides used it in debates over nuclear weapon testing and safety standards for nuclear reactors in the 1950s through the early 1970s. Since the model predicted small health risks for the levels of radiation experienced by radiation workers and the public, nuclear advocates used it to argue that the risks were smaller than many other risks that people accept every day. At the same time, opposing activists used the model to argue that small cancer likelihoods added up to a lot of cancers when large populations were exposed. This decades-long discourse effectively institutionalized the model. The model's "unproven but useful" status was strengthened in the early 1970s when the Atomic Energy Commission supplemented its numeric exposure limits by turning the longtime practice of dose minimization into a requirement. This "As Low As Reasonably Achievable" requirement plays a vital role in rationalizing why a non-zero exposure limit is safe enough despite the fact that the linear no-threshold model treats any amount of radiation as harmful.

Using a Systems Theory approach allows a person to analyze the intertwined elements of the drug development system and the potential influences of the environment. Thomas Hughes's Large Technological Systems (LTS) Theory is one that could be used for this purpose; however, it falls short in its ability to address the complexity of current day regulatory environments. This dissertation provides a critical analysis of Hughes's LTS Theory and his phases of evolution as they apply to the United States (U.S.) system for biologic drug research, development and labeling. It identifies and explains potential flaws with Hughes's LTS Theory and provides suggested improvements. As an alternative approach, this dissertation explores the concept of "techno-regulatory system" where government regulators play an integral part in system innovations and explains why such systems do not always follow Hughes's model. Finally, this dissertation proposes a hybrid version of Hughes's systems approach and uses it to explain the changes that occurred in the drug approval system in response to the push for, opposition, and inclusion of, pediatric research in drug development during the period 1950-2003. / Ph. D.

The Army-sponsored Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN) was an entrepreneurial research institute established at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2002. Using Science and Technology Studies (STS) concepts from Actor-Network Theory, I study the founding era of this twenty-first century laboratory-based community, from 2002-2007. Actor-Network concepts of enrollment and translation, described by Bruno Latour, and heterogeneous engineering, described by John Law, are used as I 'follow the actors' founding this emergent institution. The operationalization of translation is traced through four case studies, structured around Defense funding constructs and Science and Technology communities: 6.0 Founding the Institute; 6.1 Building Basic Research Networks; 6.2 Shaping Applied Research for Cancer Research and Science Education to include non-users; and 6.3 Student Prototyping Teams Accelerating ISN Research for Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI). Scientists, engineers, and transitioners partnered in new ways to transition innovative technologies to improve human protection, with soldiers as the first of many users. Using public information, I used qualitative and quantitative methodologies to assess the actor networks and research portfolio changes. These historical case studies extend STS with operationalization of translation and a new dynamic of bi-directional actor enrollment, as research teams transitioned nanotechnologies and prototypes. / Doctor of Philosophy / The Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN) was an Army-sponsored entrepreneurial research institute established at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2002. This historical study examines the founding era, rarely described for start-up organizations. Science and Technology Studies (STS) concepts of Actor-Network Theory enrollment and translation are traced through four case studies: Founding the Institute; Building Basic Research Networks; Shaping Applied Research for Cancer Research and Science Education to include non-users; and Student Prototyping Teams Accelerating Research for Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI). The scientists, engineers, and transitioners partnered in new ways to transition technologies to improve human protection, with soldiers as the first of many users. Using public information, I provide qualitative and quantitative methodologies to assess the social networks of actors, as well as the composition and changes in the research portfolio. These case studies show what the ISN members did and how the small teams innovated, operationalizing translation through enrollment, and transitioning nanotechnologies and other prototypes.