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Disaster Impact on Impoverished Area of US: An Inter-Professional Mixed Method Study
- Linda H. Banks, Lisa A. Davenport, Meghan H. Hayes, Moriah A. McArthur, Stacey N. Toro, Cameron E. King, Hazel M. Vazirani
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- Journal:
- Prehospital and Disaster Medicine / Volume 31 / Issue 6 / December 2016
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 19 September 2016, pp. 583-592
- Print publication:
- December 2016
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Introduction
In the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains, in central Appalachia (a region that spans 13 states in the US), sits an economically distressed and rural community of the United States. Once a thriving coal-mining area, this region now is reported as one of the hardest places to live in the US. Southeastern Kentucky, located in a remote, rocky, mountainous area surrounded by rivers and valleys and prone to flooding, experienced a major flood in Spring 2013 causing significant damage to homes and critical infrastructure.
PurposeAims of the study were to: (1) identify and better understand the contextual variables compounding the impact of a disaster event that occurred in Spring 2013; (2) identify ways participants managed antecedent circumstances, risk, and protective factors to cope with disaster up to 12 months post-event; and (3) further determine implications for community-focused interventions that may enhance recovery for vulnerable populations to promote greater outcomes of adaptation, wellness, and readiness.
MethodsUsing an ethnographic mixed-methods approach, an inter-collaborative team conducted face-to-face interviews with (N=12) Appalachian residents about their disaster experience, documented observations and visual assessment of need on an observation tool, and used photography depicting structural and environmental conditions. A Health and Emergency Preparedness Assessment Survey Tool was used to collect demographic, health, housing, environment, and disaster readiness assessment data. Community stakeholders facilitated purposeful sampling through coordination of scheduled home visits.
ResultsTriangulation of all data sources provided evidence that the community had unique coping strategies related to faith and spirituality, cultural values and heritage, and social support to manage antecedent circumstances, risk, and protective factors during times of adversity that, in turn, enhanced resilience up to 12 months post-disaster. The community was found to have an innate capacity to persevere and utilize resources to manage and transcend adversity and restore equilibrium, which reflected components of resilience that deserve greater recognition and appreciation.
ConclusionResilience is a foundational concept for disaster science. A model of resilience for the rural Appalachia community was developed to visually depict the encompassing element of community-based interventions that may enhance coping strategies, mitigate risk factors, integrate protective factors, and strengthen access. Community-based interventions are recommended to strengthen resilience, yielding improved outcomes of adaptation, health and wellness, and disaster readiness.
,Banks LH ,Davenport LA ,Hayes MH ,McArthur MA ,Toro SN ,King CE .Vazirani HM Disaster Impact on Impoverished Area of US: An Inter-Professional Mixed Method Study . Prehosp Disaster Med.2016 ;31 (6 ):583 –592 .
12 - Post-downsizing implications and consequences
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- By Franco Gandolfi, Regent University, Lisa M. Renz, Regent University, Magnus Hansson, Örebro University, John B. Davenport, Regent University
- Edited by Cary L. Cooper, Lancaster University, Alankrita Pandey, University of Texas, Arlington, James Campbell Quick, University of Texas, Arlington
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- Book:
- Downsizing
- Published online:
- 05 July 2014
- Print publication:
- 19 April 2012, pp 356-388
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Summary
Introduction
This book and the scholarly literature agree that firms engage in workforce downsizing for many reasons. Downsizing generates a myriad consequences and implications at organizational, subgroup, and individual levels of analysis (Gandolfi and Hansson, 2011; Datta, Guthrie, Basuil, and Pandey, 2010).
The body of literature on downsizing is substantial, reflecting the prevalence of this management practice in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, and it is also spreading to other regions. The majority of the downsizing research has been conducted in the United States and Europe (Datta et al., 2010). Still, the contraction of workforces has not been confined to US firms, but has occurred throughout the world (Ryan and Macky, 1998). Empirical evidence shows that downsizing and its many related concepts has been particularly pervasive in, for example, North America (Freeman, 1994), Britain (Thornhill and Saunders, 1998), Canada (Dolan, Belout, and Balkin, 2000), Japan (Griggs and Hyland, 2003; Mroczkowski and Hanaoka, 1997), Australia (Gandolfi, 2006a), New Zealand (Macky, 2004), South Africa (Littler, 1998), Western Europe (Lamsa and Takala, 2000) and several countries in Eastern Europe (Redman and Keithley, 1998; Filatotchev, Buck, and Zhukov, 2000). It is also evident that downsizing as a strategy has not been limited to established economies but has also been employed in developing countries, including African and Latin American countries (Jones, Jammal, and Gokgur, 1998) and transitioning economies (La Porta and Lopes-de-Silanes, 1997).
Estimating the ages of successional stands of tropical trees from growth increments
- John Terborgh, Cesar Flores N., Peter Mueller, Lisa Davenport
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- Journal:
- Journal of Tropical Ecology / Volume 13 / Issue 6 / November 1997
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 10 July 2009, pp. 833-856
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Inability to age tropical trees has imposed major limitations on the basic and applied science of tropical forests. Here advantage was taken of even-aged stands present in successional chronosequences found on Amazonian Whitewater river meanders to simplify the assumptions needed to estimate tree ages from growth measurements. Growth increments of eight common early successional species were measured in 21 0.5-ha plots evenly distributed over chronosequences from the earliest post-pioneer stage to mature Ficus-Cedrela stands representing approximately the mid-point of primary succession. Increment measurements, based on 4 or 5 y of growth, were arrayed in scatter diagrams against the midpoints of the growth intervals. A loess regression of the points, weighted for the higher mortality of slow-growing individuals, was then conducted to generate a ‘best estimate lifetime growth trajectory’ (BELGT) of a ‘typical’ individual surviving to maturity. The BELGT curves were integrated to generate a set of derived curves describing the time required by a ‘typical’ surviving individual to attain any given size up to the maximum for the species. Predictions of the ages of particular stands were derived from these latter curves and found to agree within 3 to 20% of ages independently estimated from the rate of point bar accretion.
Endogenous and exogenous control of leaf morphology in Iriartea deltoidea (Palmae)
- JOHN TERBORGH, LISA DAVENPORT
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- Journal:
- Journal of Tropical Ecology / Volume 17 / Issue 5 / September 2001
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 November 2001, pp. 695-703
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Like many other palms, Iriartea deltoidea undergoes ontogenetic transitions in leaf morphology. It has been asked whether the transition to adult leaf form in Iriartea was a fixed developmental pattern or a more plastic response to changes in environmental conditions, but studies so far have not resolved the question. We re-examined the question by taking measurements on palms growing under the full range of conditions experienced in the natural environment. Using trunk height as a surrogate variable for ontogenetic stage, we found that individual palms undergo the transition to adult morphology over a wide range of heights from < 10 m to > 20 m. Palms growing in gaps undergo the transition early, whereas those growing under a closed canopy undergo the transition late. Noting this, we asked whether the transition occurred in individuals that were growing faster than a critical minimum rate, and found no correlation between growth and morphological stage. A post-hoc hypothesis, that structural support of the crown (measured as trunk diameter) could limit or delay the transition, was confirmed. Our results indicate that multiple conditions must be satisfied before the transition can be completed. The complex requirements for leaf morphogenesis in Iriartea confer an ability to respond flexibly to spatially and temporally varying environmental conditions.