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Although the occurrence of extreme events generally cannot be prevented, their negative effects can be lessened by various risk reductions actions and by improving the capacity of communities and individuals to cope. Improving the resilience of both individuals and communities reduces the effects of hazards allowing a faster recovery and return to normal and is increasingly becoming a goal of communities, organisations and governments throughout the world. Improving resilience is complicated and often requires numerous interrelated actions that vary depending specific circumstances of the people, community and location. To meaningfully determine, co-ordinate, plan and prioritise the most effective measures of improving resilience, a baseline assessment of the community’s strengths and weaknesses is required. This paper contributes by examining the status of community resilience in two remote towns within the Northern Territory of Australia. A qualitative narrative assesses community resilience for small remote locations and discusses relevant issues alongside the scoring achieved using a common scoring methodology. It further provides insights and an examination of the methods of assessment and appropriateness of assessment methodology.

There is considerable research interest in the meaning and measurement of resilience to hazards and disasters. However, there are no studies to our knowledge that have made a unified framework of social resilience indicators across the three phases of disaster: pre-disaster, response and recovery. Utilizing a qualitative, multiple case approach the objectives of this project were therefore to (i) identify the most essential social resilience indicators within communities from previous studies (ii) assess these indicators through interviews with experts within the NSW State Emergency Service in regards to flooding of two case studies (iii) classify these indicators for each phase of the disaster cycle. The results of this study provide a novel and general framework for social resilience with the aim of enhancing resilient within communities in different disaster phases.

To prevent spinal cord injury, optimize treatments for it, and better understand spinal cord pathologies such as spondylotic myelopathy, the interaction between the spinal column and the spinal cord during injury and pathology must be understood. The spinal cord is a complex and very soft tissue that changes properties rapidly after death and is difficult to model. Our objective was to develop a physical surrogate spinal cord with material properties closely corresponding to the in vivo human spinal cord that would be suitable for studying spinal cord injury under a variety of injurious conditions. Appropriate target material properties were identified from published studies and several candidate surrogate materials were screened, under uniaxial tension, in a materials testing machine. QM Skin 30, a silicone elastomer, was identified as the most appropriate material. Spinal cords manufactured from QM Skin 30 were tested under uniaxial tension and transverse compression. Rectangular specimens of QM Skin 30 were also tested under uniform compression. QM Skin 30 produced surrogate cords with a Young's modulus in tension and compression approximately matching values reported for in vivo animal spinal cords (0.25 and 0.20 MPa, respectively). The tensile and compressive Young's modulus and the behavior of the surrogate cord simulated the nonlinear behavior of the in vivo spinal cord.

Current understanding of the biomechanics of cervical spine injuries in head-first impact is based on decades of epidemiology, mathematical models, and in vitro experimental studies. Recent mathematical modeling suggests that muscle activation and muscle forces influence injury risk and mechanics in head-first impact. It is also known that muscle forces are central to the overall physiologic stability of the cervical spine. Despite this knowledge, the vast majority of in vitro head-first impact models do not incorporate musculature. We hypothesize that the simulation of the stabilizing mechanisms of musculature during head-first osteoligamentous cervical spine experiments will influence the resulting kinematics and injury mechanisms. Therefore, the objective of this study was to document differences in the kinematics, kinetics, and injuries of ex vivo osteoligamentous human cervical spine and surrogate head complexes that were instrumented with simulated musculature relative to specimens that were not instrumented with musculature. We simulated a head-first impact (3 m/s impact speed) using cervical spines and surrogate head specimens (n = 12). Six spines were instrumented with a follower load to simulate in vivo compressive muscle forces, while six were not. The principal finding was that the axial coupling of the cervical column between the head and the base of the cervical spine (T1) was increased in specimens with follower load. Increased axial coupling was indicated by a significantly reduced time between head impact and peak neck reaction force (p = 0.004) (and time to injury (p = 0.009)) in complexes with follower load relative to complexes without follower load. Kinematic reconstruction of vertebral motions indicated that all specimens experienced hyperextension and the spectrum of injuries in all specimens were consistent with a primary hyperextension injury mechanism. These preliminary results suggest that simulating follower load that may be similar to in vivo muscle forces results in significantly different impact kinetics than in similar biomechanical tests where musculature is not simulated.

Since the 1980s, watersheds or catchments have been the primary regions used for natural resource management in many countries. Catchments however, often do not represent the range of biophysical and social characteristics of importance for effective resource governance. The requirements for spatial definition of resource governance egions have received little analysis in science or policy. Research on ‘place’ attachment and community participation in resource management provides a grounding to re-examine such regional arrangements. This chapter describes three characteristics considered to be of priority importance in identifying regional boundaries for resource governance. Firstly, the boundaries of resource governance regions should enclose areas of high interest and importance to local residents. Secondly, the biophysical characteristics of a resource governance region should be as homogenous as possible. Thirdly, the nature and reach of environmental externalities of resource use should determine the size and nesting of resource management regions. An example of the application of these concepts to derive a hierarchy of nested regions for the State of New South Wales, Australia is provided. The results have been used by the New South Wales Government and the Electoral Commission to reconsider local government, natural resource management regions, and representative democracy within the State. Wider applications might include review of municipal boundaries and regional governance frameworks in other nations and across the European Union.