Peatlands represent a globally significant carbon stock and wildfire is the largest disturbance affecting these ecosystems. Climate change scenarios suggest that increases in evapotranspiration are likely to exceed increases in precipitation in northern latitudes, raising concern that peatlands will experience substantial drying. Drying may increase peat burn severity and, when coupled with expected increases in total wildfire area burned, may exceed peatland resilience to wildfire. While previous studies have examined both peatland vulnerability to wildfire and post-fire recovery, these studies have not examined the driest peatlands on the landscape that are likely to be the most susceptible to the combined effects of climate change and wildfire. For this reason, this thesis examined the hydrogeological and ecohydrological controls on burn severity and post-fire recovery in peatlands in the Boreal Plains of Alberta, where peatlands exist at the limit of their climate tolerance. High burn severity was prevalent at the margins of a small peatland isolated from groundwater flow, where average burn depths were five-fold greater than in the middle of the peatland. Deep burning was attributable to the effect of dynamic hydrological conditions on margin peat bulk density and moisture. Following wildfire, water availability was a key determinant of post-fire moss recovery. Both high and low burn severity can decrease post-fire water availability by altering peat hydrophysical properties. Post-fire recovery was also dependent on large-scale hydrological processes that influence peatland water tables, specifically, hydrogeological setting. Small peatlands isolated from groundwater flow systems had lower peatland moss recolonization rates at both their middles and margins due to drier conditions. This was important because the margins of these same peatlands were prone to deep burning. Therefore, deep burning is likely altering peatland margin ecohydrological function and may be facilitating a regime shift from peatland to mineral upland. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Racial and ethnic diversity representation in the field of health service psychology is neither equitable nor reflective of the increasingly diverse population nationwide. This discrepancy is endemic to widespread problems associated with mental health care: Minorities are severely underrepresented in the workforce, in psychology training programs, and in treatment populations. The longstanding lack of diversity among trainees in doctoral programs and among professionals in the workforce is associated with poorer mental health outcomes among minority patients; however, the specific contributors that facilitate and maintain racial/ethnic diversity constriction appear to be understudied. Based on the extant literature, a reasonable hypothesis might be that admission of qualified underrepresented minorities to doctoral training is constricted by ineffective and/or outdated recruitment and admissions practices. The proposed study sought to investigate whether impostor feelings or self-reported resilience might be predictive of intent to apply to graduate programs among underrepresented minority students earning their bachelor's degree in psychology. Results indicated that resilience was the most impactful variable in undergraduate students' intent to apply to graduate programs. Hypothesized ethnic differences in impostor feelings and self-perceived resilience were not observed in the study sample. The larger implications of these findings underscore the need for more culturally informed measures that accurately represent the experiences of underrepresented minorities in psychology's training-to-workforce pipeline. A representative workforce via is integral to optimizing treatment outcomes for underserved communities long-term and, as such, necessitates more research into problematic points on representation constriction in the training-to-workforce pipeline.

In order to more fully inform moves toward equity in emergency management (EM), this research seeks to describe a general landscape of professional Tribal EM, and in particular, to examine how Tribal emergency managers and Tribal Nations are situated in relation to the EM enterprise (EME), and how they are doing resilience in their Tribal Nations. The findings presented in this dissertation reflect efforts to explore and document Tribal emergency managers' descriptions of their work and their perceptions about its context as they seek to do resilience in their Tribes. Specifically, qualitative interviews were conducted with Tribal emergency managers whose Tribal Nations span the United States. Findings indicate that there is significant variation among Tribal nations in terms of EM structures and capacities; Tribal emergency managers engage in a wide array of activities to promote resilience in their communities; and Tribal EM is becoming increasingly professionalized. Importantly, however, the research also uncovered a paradox in which Tribal emergency managers, both implicitly and explicitly excluded from the EME in many ways, find themselves doing resilience in the context of an increasingly popular disaster resilience paradigm that both increasingly shifts the burden of resilience to the local level, and expands the range of tasks associated with successful resilience processes. The dissertation concludes by discussing conceptual and practical implications of the research as well as directions for future research in this area.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(医学) / 甲第24842号 / 医博第5010号 / 新制||医||1068(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医学専攻 / (主査)教授 髙橋, 良輔, 教授 林, 康紀, 教授 井上, 治久 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

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Is resilience effortlessly innate or is it an acquired skill developed through the endless battle between thriving and self-destruction? The first goal of the present research is to identify mechanisms of resilience. The second goal of the research is to identify mechanisms of resilience, solidifying and expanding upon previously identified mechanisms and examining novel mechanisms. The third goal is to clarify the resilience process as a whole by examining the order of mechanisms that individuals use to foster their resilience within the workplace. It is hypothesized that (1) Autonomous motivation will be the primary foundational mechanism of resilience; (2) Emotional intelligence, challenge appraisals, positive humour and risk-taking will be important mechanisms of resilience and mediate the relationship between autonomous motivation and resilience; (3) The order of mediators will be important in the process of developing resilience; (4) Emotional intelligence will precede challenge appraisals, and risk-taking will precede positive humour. This research project is comprised of 5 studies. Studies 1-4 use linear and multiple regressions to conduct multiple mediation models to evaluate and examine mechanisms of resilience. Study 5 uses a deductive content-analysis approach to analyze qualitative data, to help better understand the nuances of resilience that quantitative data cannot illustrate. Resilience research has many discrepancies relating to its process and mechanisms thus, this research project offers important potential fundamental contributions. By identifying and solidifying mechanisms of resilience, training, counseling, and education will be better informed to have greater success in fostering resilience within individuals and across contexts.

Although previous research has identified a relationship between insecure attachment styles and symptoms of depression and anxiety, evidence regarding the mechanisms of action driving this relationship has been lacking. Consequently, the current study examined the mediating role of resilience in the relationship between insecure attachment styles (i.e. anxious-avoidant, anxious-ambivalent, helpless-disorganized and frightened-disorganized) and symptoms of depression and anxiety. The current study included a sample of 182 participants (i.e., 87 men and 95 women) who completed six questionnaires that assessed each participants' relationship with their caregivers during their childhood, present symptoms of depression and anxiety, and their resilience. Correlational analyses indicated significant relationships among the variables being studied. The formation of an insecure attachment during childhood predicted significantly symptoms of depression and anxiety in adulthood in both men and women. More specifically, the relationship between anxious-avoidant and anxious-ambivalent with symptoms of depression was partially mediated by resilience for men. There were no significant mediation for symptoms of anxiety for me. Within the women population, resilience served as a partial mediator in the relationship between anxious-ambivalent attachment and depression as well as in the relationship between frightened-disorganized attachment and anxiety. Such findings suggested that resilience could act as a protective factor against symptoms of depression and anxiety. These results demonstrated the importance for promoting resilience, especially for individuals who formed insecure attachments during childhood. The importance of studying the relationships among these variables is discussed further.

Gels are used in many applications ranging from bioengineering and pharmaceuticals to food technology and soft-robotics because of their tunable physical and mechanical properties. In many of these applications, the materials need to sustain large deformation. The microstructure of gels changes significantly at large strain values, causing a deviation in the stress responses from that at low strain. The desired mechanical responses of gels can be obtained by tuning their microstructure, therefore, the structure-property relationship for gels is required to be understood for their practical applications. This dissertation discusses two types of gels, one consists of chemical crosslinking and hydrophobic associations, and the other gel only consists of physical crosslinking. The microstructure of these two gel systems is investigated and related to their mechanical responses. The gel system with chemical and physical crosslinking mimics properties of biomaterials like resilin. Resilin is a protein-elastomer that enables biological species for power amplified activities by taking benefits of specific responses of hydrophilic and hydrophobic segments. Inspired by the microstructure and mechanical properties of resilin, a stretchable and resilient hydrogel was synthesized through a simple free radical polymerization technique. These gels retract from the stretched state to the original state with high speed over a short time, such behavior has not been frequently reported for synthetic hydrogels. This gel is also capable of performing a power-amplified activity like catapulting an object. In addition to retraction experiments, the mechanical properties of this gel were investigated in tensile and cyclic loading to determine their resilience. The hydrophobic polymer concentration affects the swelling behavior and mechanical responses such as stretchability and resilience. The second gel system considered here is a physically assembled ABA triblock copolymer dissolved in a B-selective solvent. Here, two different triblock copolymers with different concentrations were utilized. The real-time microstructural change was captured using a RheoSAXS setup with a high flux X-ray beam. The real-time microstructure of these gels subjected to temperature, varying oscillatory strain amplitude, and during relaxation after step strain was captured. This dissertation advances the understanding of the structure-property relationship of microstructurally complex gels towards their potential practical applications.

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