Longitudinal studies that track individuals from childhood into adulthood may be the best method to identify risk and protective factors for crime and delinquency. The primary goals of this study were to determine 1) the ability of risk factors identified by the end of elementary school to predict delinquency referrals, 2) the extent to which positive assets (promotive factors) add to the prediction of delinquency, and 3) potential interactions between these risk and promotive factors that moderate the relationship between risk and delinquency referrals. The final purpose was to identify gender and racial differences in these relationships. The current study utilized archival data from a large metropolitan Florida school district which tracked students who began kindergarten in the 1989-90 school year for as long as they remained in the district. After controlling for gender, race, and SES, fifth grade teacher rated externalizing behaviors, prenatal smoking, parent marital status, and mother’s years of education significantly predicted delinquency referrals. The biological factors birth weight and Apgar score were not related to delinquency referrals in correlation or regression models. Additionally, the combination of the nine potential promotive factors was found to contribute to a significant increase in variance above that accounted for by the three control factors and nine risk factors. The most consistently supported promotive factor was parental acceptance/involvement. Although no interaction effects were found in the overall model, when analyzed by gender, two significant interactions were found for females. These interactions were between parents’ martial status and parental acceptance involvement as well as third grade standardized reading scores and parent educational involvement. Findings suggest that, even when using a stringent test of significance, risk factors assessed between birth and the end of elementary school can be used to predict the number of subsequent delinquency referrals. In conclusion, results from this study not only identify and confirm early risk factors for later delinquency involvement, but also implicate potential positive assets that may buffer the impact of early risk factors. These findings can inform early intervention programs aimed at reducing rates of juvenile delinquency, by identifying criteria for early identification as well as components of effective prevention/intervention.

This project examined the life narratives of four veteran teachers, each of whom began their careers before the onset of the Standards Era and were still teaching in 2013. Seeking to surface both their ways of resilience and negotiations of their identities as teachers through their decades-long careers, the question is positioned in the neoliberal turmoil of high-stakes accountability, national curriculum standards, and widespread, large-N assessment, to determine if resilient, long-career teachers exhibit particular characteristics and support systems that enable their accomplished status. Using the postmodern, interpretivist methodologies of portraiture and oral history, richly contextualized narratives for each teacher were crafted as an initial analysis. A secondary analysis revealed three manifestations of identity: the socially constructed identity, the bureaucratically informed identity, and the emotionally shaped identity. Findings suggest that having a fully developed and robust set of identities might encourage teacher resilience and longevity, supporting existing bodies of research, and that storytelling is an important aspect of identity development and maintenance. An additional finding was the absence of adversity through veteran teachers’ careers, which pushes against current research on resilience, as it positions resilience against adversity. An interesting question remains, which is in what ways might these veterans have renamed themselves—through the development of multiple and fluid identities—and renamed the challenges and disruptions of their world of work so that they might continue in the classroom. As school leaders typically rely on the knowledge base of seasoned veterans—to inform curriculum development, novice teacher support, and professional learning communities—it seems important to consider the power of storytelling in those venues. In conclusion, the author suggests that the addition of research from the field of knowledge creation, usage, and stewardship could be useful to future research of veteran teachers and the ways their professional knowledge might be better leveraged for improved educational outcomes. / text

Manufacturing today is no longer a single point of production activity but a chain of activities from the acquisition of raw materials to the delivery of products to customers. This chain is called supply chain. In this chain of activities, a generic pattern is: processing of goods (by manufacturers) and delivery of goods (to customers). This thesis concerns the scheduling operation for this generic supply chain. Two performance measures considered for evaluation of a particular schedule are: time and cost. Time refers to a span of the time that the manufacturer receives the request of goods from the customer to the time that the delivery tool (e.g. vehicle) is back to the manufacturer. Cost refers to the delivery cost only (as the production cost is considered as fi xed). A good schedule is thus with short time and low cost; yet the two may be in conflict. This thesis studies the algorithm for the supply chain scheduling problem to achieve a balanced short time and low cost. Three situations of the supply chain scheduling problem are considered in this thesis: (1) a single machine and multiple customers, (2) multiple machines and a single customer and (3) multiple machines and multiple customers. For each situation, di fferent vehicles characteristics and delivery patterns are considered. Properties of each problem are explored and algorithms are developed, analysed and tested (via simulation). Further, the robustness of the scheduling algorithms under uncertainty and the resilience of the scheduling algorithms under disruptions are also studied. At last a case study, about medical resources supply in an emergency situation, is conducted to illustrate how the developed algorithms can be applied to solve the practical problem. There are both technical merits and broader impacts with this thesis study. First, the problems studied are all new problems with the particular new attributes such as on-line, multiple-customers and multiple-machines, individual customer oriented, and limited capacity of delivery tools. Second, the notion of robustness and resilience to evaluate a scheduling algorithm are to the best of the author's knowledge new and may be open to a new avenue for the evaluation of any scheduling algorithm. In the domain of manufacturing and service provision in general, this thesis has provided an e ffective and effi cient tool for managing the operation of production and delivery in a situation where the demand is released without any prior knowledge (i.e., on-line demand). This situation appears in many manufacturing and service applications.

Although a number of negative consequences of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) have been identified, research has shown that some survivors of CSA are fairly resilient and do not demonstrate these negative outcomes. The current study examined differences between sexually abused and non-abused children on a number of emotional and behavioral dimensions and on achievement. In addition, the role of factors such as intelligence, abuse severity, gender, history of previous psychological interventions and number of foster homes on outcomes in a group of 117 children between the ages of 7 and 16 with sexual abuse histories and 80 controls who did not have a reported history of sexual abuse was examined. Results suggested that children with CSA histories were rated by their caregivers as exhibiting significantly more overall behavior problems than children without CSA histories. CSA history was not found to be significantly associated with self reported depressive symptoms and there was not a significant relationship between gender and caregiver reported behavior problems. However, consistent with expectations, CSA history was significantly associated with intelligence and higher levels of intelligence being predictive of better functioning in a number of areas. Similarly, CSA history was significantly associated with achievement and as expected, higher levels of intelligence were significantly associated with higher overall achievement. Number of foster care placements, abuse severity, history of previous psychological treatment and age at time of testing were generally not found to be significantly associated with resilience.

Sustainable management of natural resources requires an in-depth understanding of the interplay between social and ecological change. Linked social-ecological systems (SES) have been described as complex adaptive systems (CAS), which mean that they are irreducible, exhibit nonlinear dynamics, have interactions across scales and are uncertain and unpredictable. These propositions have however rarely been tested empirically, in part due to a lack of methodological approaches and suitable datasets. In this thesis, I address this methodological and empirical gap in a study of long-term change of Baltic Sea fisheries. In Paper I, we develop the concept of fishing style through integrating multivariate statistical analysis and in-depth interviews. We thereby identify an intermediate level of detail for analyzing social-ecological dynamics, embracing the case specific and context dependent approaches of the social sciences with the generalizable and quantifiable approaches from the natural sciences. In Paper II we ask: How has the Baltic Sea fishery been regulated over time, and can we identify a way to quantify regulations in order to be able to analyze their effects? We analyze all regulatory changes in Sweden since 1995 with a new methodology and conclude that there is a clear trend towards increased micro-management. In Paper III, we use the fishing styles developed in Paper I and examine how they have changed over time. We relate these changes to the dynamics of regulation (Paper II), as well as to the dynamics of fish stocks and prices. We conclude that regulation has been the main driving force for observed changes, but also that regulation has prompted significant specialization and decline in flexibility for fishers over time. These changes are unintended consequences and may represent a looming risk for the long-term sustainability of this social-ecological system. Paper IV zooms in on a particular fishery, the pelagic trawl fishery for sprat Sprattus sprattus and Atlantic herring Clupea harengus, mainly targeted for the production of fishmeal and fish oil. Suspicions of non-compliance in this fishery motivated us to apply a statistical approach where we used socioeconomic data to re-estimate the historical catches in this fishery (a novel approach to catch-reconstruction estimates). We found that catches had been significantly underreported over several years, with consequences for the quality of stock assessments and management. The study underlines the importance of understanding linked social, economic and ecological dynamics for sustainable outcomes. Finally, Paper V takes a longer historical look at the Baltic Sea fishery, using regionally disaggregated data from 1914-2009 (96 years), which were analyzed with a novel type of nonlinear statistical time-series methods (Empirical Dynamical Modeling). Our analysis explicitly recognized the potential nonlinear dynamics of SES and showed high predictability across regions of catches and prices of cod Gadus morhua and herring. The signal was generally nonlinear and predictability decreased strongly with time, suggesting that the dynamics of this SES are ever-changing. To our knowledge, this is the first long-term analysis of a SES using empirical data and methods developed from the CAS field of research. The main contributions of this thesis are the integrated analysis of social and ecological data, the development of novel methods for understanding SES dynamics, insights on the ever-changing nature of CAS and the quantitative analysis of management outcomes. Future work should focus on assessing the generality of these findings across a broad range of SES and evaluate alternative governance approaches given the complexity and uncertainty of SES suggested by this thesis. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 5: Manuscript.</p>

This study explored the experiences of Hausa young people in the Jos ethno-religious crisis. It sought to answer the following research question: is there evidence of trauma resilience among the Hausa young people in Jos? If established, further enquiry into the methods employed by the social organisation to make its young people resilient was made. A qualitative study of 32 young people (16 females and 16 males) drawn from the social organisation discussed their experiences during the crisis in a focus group forum. In addition, 16 parents (consisting of 8 males and 8 females) discussed their experiences and observations of the young people's behaviours during and after the crisis. Furthermore, focus group discussions were held with some hospital workers (comprising 2 male and 4 female staff) to gain insight into their experiences of working with the young people during the crisis. Five traditional/religious leaders in Jos were also interviewed to share their experiences during and after the crisis. Focus groups, picture drawings and individual interviews were used to capture and illuminate on the young people's experiences. The results revealed that there is high level of resilience among the young people. The young people through their discussions and pictures demonstrated that they had faced many difficulties during the crisis, and presented symptoms of trauma, but these symptoms were not severe enough to attract a diagnosis of PTSD and did not require treatment. All the young people reported a great deal of anxiety and fear (100%), and avoiding some parts of Jos (100%); however, none reported increased irritability (0%) and none reported symptoms of hypervigilance or insomnia (0%). However, the pictures drawn by the young people revealed lots of trauma, some dealing directly with crisis and others in different areas of their lives. Girls reported more traumatic incidents than boys. Likewise, the younger age group (7-12 years) reported more traumatic incidents than the older age group (13-18years). Furthermore, all the young people reported engagement with religiosity/spirituality; social support; cultural factors such as the socialisation process; and individual resources to contain the effects of the conflict and to remain healthy. The young people also gave reasons why they used religion/spirituality; most mentioned it gave them confidence, independence and hope. Gender and age differences were revealed. Girls used more emotion-focused channels to cope with the difficulties in addition to religion/spirituality. Boys used problem-solving channels in addition to religion/spirituality. The younger age group also used more of an emotion focus in addition to religiosity, while the older age group used more problem-solving techniques. The results from the parents, hospital workers and traditional/religious leaders further corroborate the findings from the young people. The findings were discussed alongside the literature (Millwood, 1995, Koenig, King, & Carson, 2012, Bracey, 2010). It is recommended that in times of recovery of a post-conflict society, religion and the indigenous methods should be explored and employed to get the young people out of their emotional difficulties.

The growing connectivity of cyber-physical systems (CPSes) has led to an increased concern over the ability of cyber-attacks to inflict physical damage. Current cybersecurity measures focus on preventing attacks from penetrating control supervisory networks. These reactive techniques, however, are often plagued with vulnerabilities and zero-day exploits. Embedded processors in CPS field devices often possess little security of their own, and are easily exploited once the network is penetrated. In response, researchers at Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech have proposed a Trustworthy Autonomic Interface Guardian Architecture (TAIGA), which monitors communication between the embedded controller and physical process. This autonomic architecture provides the physical process with a last line of defense against cyber-attacks by switching process control to a trusted backup controller if an attack causes a system specification violation. This thesis focuses on classifying the effects of cyberattacks on embedded controllers, evaluating TAIGA’s resilience against these attacks, and determining the applicability of TAIGA to other CPSes. This thesis identifies four possible outcomes of a cyber-attack on a CPS embedded processor. We then evaluate TAIGA’s mechanisms to defend against those attack outcomes, and verify TAIGA satisfies the listed trust requirements. Next, we discuss an implementation and the experimental results of TAIGA on a hazardous cargo transportation robot. Then, by making various modifications to the setup configuration, we are able to explore TAIGA’s ability to provide security and process protection to other CPSes with varying levels of autonomy or distributed components.

This thesis explores the relationship between water infrastructure, ecological change, and the politics of planning in New Orleans and the Mississippi River Delta, USA. Complex assemblages of water control infrastructure have been embedded in the delta over the last several centuries in an effort to keep its cities protected from floodwaters and maintain its waterways as standardized conduits for maritime transportation. This thesis investigates the historical development of these infrastructural interventions in the delta’s dynamics, and shows how the region’s eco-hydrology is ensnared in the politics and materiality of pipes, pumps, canals, locks, and levees. These historical entanglements complicate contemporary efforts to enact large-scale ecosystem restoration, even while the delta’s landscape is rapidly eroding into the sea. This historical approach is extended into the present through an examination of how waterway standards established at so-called chokepoints in the global maritime transportation system (the Panama Canal, for example) become embedded and contested in coastal landscapes and port cities worldwide. Turning towards urban ecology, the thesis examines socioecological responses to the flooding following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, with a special focus on how infrastructure failures, flooding intensity, and land abandonment are driving changing vegetation patterns in New Orleans over the past decade. The thesis contributes new conceptual language for grappling with the systemic relations bound up in water infrastructure, and develops one of the first studies describing urban ecosystem responses to prolonged flooding and post-disaster land management. This provides insights into the impending planning challenges facing New Orleans and coastal cities globally, where rising sea levels are bringing about renewed attention to how infrastructure is implicated in patterns of ecological change, hazard exposure, resilience, and social inequality. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Accepted. Paper 5: Manuscript.</p>

Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(情報学) / 甲第19115号 / 情博第561号 / 新制||情||99 / 32066 / 京都大学大学院情報学研究科社会情報学専攻 / (主査)教授 林 春男, 教授 田中 克己, 教授 喜多 一 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当

People of the Caribbean have maintained social networks that provide security in the face of human and natural perturbations. Rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs) constitute one such system, which probably came to much of the Caribbean with African people and persisted through slavery. As a foundation of creole economic systems throughout the Caribbean, ROSCAs are time-tested dimensions of traditional culture and a source of pride and identity. This analysis of the history and contemporary functions of ROSCAs in Barbados and the Bahamas is based on more than a thousand extensive and intensive first-person interviews and surveys. This article argues that ROSCAs continue, much as they did in the past, to provide critical human services, social stability, and a source of African-ancestor identity in these two nations. (Women’s power, rotating credit, Bahamas, Barbados).