VTechWorks Repository :: Browsing by Author "Tomblin, David Christian"

Browsing by Author "Tomblin, David Christian"

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Accelerating Innovation: Assessing Nanotechnologies, Prototypes and Research Teams
Shaler, Lisa Marie (Virginia Tech, 2019-04-29)
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.
Co-production of Science and Regulation: Radiation Health and the Linear No-Threshold Model
Tontodonato, Richard Edward (Virginia Tech, 2021-06-15)
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.
Ecological niche responses of small mammals to gypsy moth disturbance
Tomblin, David Christian (Virginia Tech, 1994)
The objective of this study was to determine differences in small mammal assemblage structure and population dynamics among four oak dominated sites at four different stages of gypsy moth disturbance: a high tree mortality site, a disturbance in process site, a disturbance recovery site, and an undisturbed reference site. More specifically, the study was designed to identify changes in habitat structure that would influence small mammal microdistributions and determine the quality of habitat created by gypsy moth herbivory using demographic structure of Peromyscus populations as an indicator of habitat quality. Peromyscus leucopus, Peromyscus maniculatus, the Soricids, and Clethrionomys gapperi had greater abundances at the disturbed sites relative to the reference site. Gypsy moth disturbance increased the abundance of small mammals and the number of coexisting species within a given area, which was attributed to several changes in habitat structure. The disturbed sites were characterized as having more fallen logs and standing dead snags, greater shrub and herbaceous cover, and higher invertebrate abundances relative to the reference site. These changes in habitat structure provided small mammals with increased cover from avian predators, more food resources, and potential nesting cavities. P. leucopus populations at the high mortality site exhibited greater demographic stability than the reference Site populations. This was marked by higher proportions of females, smaller density fluctuations, more fall recruitment of young, higher residency, and lower proportions of males. Strong evidence for density-dependent population regulation was observed for P. leucopus populations at the high mortality site and the P. maniculatus population at the recovery site. At high densities these populations exhibited extensive intraspecific microhabitat segregation. Female adults segregated from juveniles and male adults into more optimal microhabitats. Male adult microhabitat use significantly differed from male juvenile microhabitat use. The exclusion of young mice from optimal microhabitats by adults may be a mechanism by which adults limit over-exploitation of resources by subordinate members of the population at high densities. The results of this study suggest that gypsy moth disturbance of areas dominated by chestnut oaks at least temporarily improves habitat quality for small mammals.
The Fusion Enterprise Paradox: The Enduring Vision and Elusive Goal of Unlimited Clean Energy
Eulau, Melvin L. (Virginia Tech, 2020-01-23)
In an age of shrinking research and development (RandD) budgets, sustaining big science and technology (SandT) projects is inevitably questioned by publics and policy makers. The fusion enterprise is an exemplar. The effort to develop a viable system to produce unlimited and environmentally benign electricity from fusion of hydrogen isotopes has been a goal for six decades and consumed vast financial and intellectual resources in North America, Europe, and Asia. In terms of prolonged duration and sustained resource investment, the endeavor has developed into a huge fusion enterprise. Yet, no practical system for the generation of electricity has yet been demonstrated. This is the paradox at the heart of the fusion enterprise. Why, despite unfulfilled visions and broken promises, has the grand fusion enterprise endured? How can such a long-term enterprise persist in a funding culture that largely works in short-term cycles? Adapting Sheila Jasanoff's thesis of "sociotechnical imaginaries", I examine the relationship of shared and contrasting visions, co-produced expressions of nature and society, and distinctpolitical cultures in the quest for viable fusion. A systematic cultural and technological comparison of three fusion ventures, the National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), and Wendelstein-7X, exposes how these projects and the institutions they inhabit frame the goals, risks, and benefits of the fusion enterprise and sustain a common set of fusion imaginaries. Positioned within the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in the United States, the international ITER Organization sited in France, and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Germany, the three projects are prime examples of big science and technology. Rigorous research and analysis of these cases advance the thesis of the unfulfilled utopian vision of fusion energy that has endured for more than sixty years.
The Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Virus: a twenty-year journey of narratives and (in)secure landscapes
Egert, Philip Rolly (Virginia Tech, 2016-04-16)
This dissertation is comprised of two manuscripts that explore various contestations and representations of knowledge about the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1virus. In the first manuscript, I explore three narratives that have been produced to describe the 20-year journey of the virus. The journey begins in 1996 when the virus was a singular localized animal virus but then over the next 20 years multiplied its ontological status through a (de)stabilized global network of science and politics that promoted both fears of contagion and politics of otherness. Written by and for powerful actors and institutions in the global North, the narratives focused on technical solutions and outbreak fears. In doing so, the narratives produced policies and practices of biopower that obscured alternative considerations for equity, social justice, and wellbeing for the marginalized groups most directly affected by the H5N1 virus. The second manuscript explores a unique aspect of the H5N1 virus's journey as an emerging infectious disease -- its representation as a potential weapon for bioterrorists. The US government's recent attempt to secure what constitutes H5N1 knowledge produced a global debate between scientists and policy makers over how to balance the nation-state's desire for security with the life science's tradition of openly shared research. Known as the dual-use dilemma, this debate set up binaries of impossible reconciliation between the two groups. This dissertation argues that the dual-use dilemma obscures larger questions of justice. I propose a new concept of justice, knowledge justice, as an alternate more globally inclusive framework for exploring ways out of the dilemma. The concept is premised on the assertion that if knowledge is framed to obscure justice issues, then the justice questions of owning that knowledge can be used as a way out of the dual-use dilemma. Thus, knowledge becomes a question of justice that should be as important to policy makers as more traditional justice considerations of inequities in distribution, recognition, representation, and fairness.
Improving Water Security with Innovation and Transition in Water Infrastructure: From Emergence to Stabilization of Rainwater Harvesting in the U.S.
Reams, Gary A. (Virginia Tech, 2021-11-12)
Globally, two-thirds of the population face significant water shortages and eighty percent of the U.S. states' water managers predict water shortages in the near future. Additionally, the current centralized system in the United States is facing significant problems of scarcity, groundwater depletion, high energy consumption and needs a trillion dollars investment in repairs, replacement, and expansion. Furthermore, due to increased urban/suburban development, runoff (stormwater) pollutes our waterways and is causing increased flooding. The status quo is unsustainable in its present form and the water security of the nation is at risk. Fortunately, in recent decades there has been a resurgence in the use of a millenniums old approach, rainwater harvesting (RWH), that if deployed broadly, will mitigate those issues created by the current centralized municipal water system and the expanding development of our cities, suburbs, and towns reducing permeable surface area and lower water security vulnerabilities. This study enlists Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) to examine the transitioning that is occurring from the current centralized municipal water system to one in which it is significantly complemented by an alternative water source, RWH. MLP posits that pressures originating in the broader landscape exerts pressures on the existing regime, as well as the community as a whole, creating an opportunity for the niche to emerge and either replace or change the regime. In the case of RWH, the myriad of pressures are only partially placed on the current centralized water supply regime providing them less pressure to change. Alongside water shortages another significant pressure being placed on the public and governing authorities is increased flooding and pollution resulting in the RWH niche emerging in the construction industry. In response to these pressures a RWH niche formed, largely outside of the existing water supply regime, and grew until it was joined by actors within the regime (e.g., plumbers, plumbing engineers, standards development organizations). This research is framed using MLP's three phases Start-up (niche), Acceleration, and Stabilization. This dissertation does three things. First it shows the internal processes occurring between the MLP levels (landscape, sociotechnical regime, and niche) and mechanisms created that foster the broader adoption of RWH. Secondly, it reveals that while the incumbent regime is not being significantly influenced by the RWH niche, the construction industry is embracing RWH (especially the commercial sector) and following the MLP pathway of Reconfiguration. Third, it looks at RWH in a phase of stabilization.
Maintaining the Atom: U.S. Nuclear Power Plant Life and the 80-Year Maintenance Regulation Regime
Miller, Daniel Paul (Virginia Tech, 2020-01-22)
Large, ever more complex, technological systems surround us and provide products and services that both construct and define much of what we consider as modern society. Our societal bargain is the trade-off between the benefits of our technologies and our constant vigilance over the safe workings and the occasional failures of these often hazardous sociotechnical systems during their operating life. Failure of a system's infrastructure, whether a complex subsystem or a single component, can cause planes to crash, oil rigs to burn, or the release of radioactivity from a nuclear power plant. To prevent catastrophes, much depends not only on skilled and safe operations, but upon the effective maintenance of these systems. Using the commercial nuclear power industry, of the United States, as a case study, this dissertation examines how nuclear power plant maintenance functions to ensure the plants are reliable and can safely operate for, potentially, eighty years; the current, government regulation defined limit, of their functional life. This study explores the history of U.S. nuclear maintenance regulatory policy from its early Cold War political precursors, the effect of the 1979 Three Mile Island reactor melt-down accident, through its long development, and finally its implementation by nuclear power licensees as formal maintenance programs. By investigating the maintenance of nuclear power plants this research also intends to expand the conceptual framework of large- technological-system (LTS) theory, in general, by adding a recognizable, and practically achievable, end-of-life (EOL) phase to the heuristic structure. The dissertation argues that maintenance is a knowledge producing technology that not only keeps a sociotechnical system operating through comprehension, but can be a surveillance instrument to make system end-of-life legible; that is both visible and understandable. With a discernible and legible view of system end-of-life, operators, policy makers, and the public can make more informed decisions concerning a system's safety and its continued usefulness in society.
Managing Boundaries, Healing the Homeland: Ecological Restoration and the Revitalization of the White Mountain Apache Tribe, 1933 – 2000
Tomblin, David Christian (Virginia Tech, 2009-04-27)
The main argument of this dissertation is that the White Mountain Apache Tribe's appropriation of ecological restoration played a vital role in reinstituting control over knowledge production and eco-cultural resources on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in the second half of the twentieth century. As a corollary, I argue that the shift in knowledge production practices from a paternalistic foundation to a community-based approach resulted in positive consequences for the ecological health of the Apachean landscape and Apache culture. The democratization of science and technology on the reservation, therefore, proved paramount to the reestablishment of a relatively sustainable Apache society. Beginning with the Indian New Deal, the White Mountain Apache slowly developed the capacity to employ ecological restoration as an eco-political tool to free themselves from a long history of Euro-American cultural oppression and natural resource exploitation. Tribal restoration projects embodied the dual political function of cultural resistance to and cultural exchange with Western-based land management organizations. Apache resistance challenged Euro-American notions of restoration, nature, and sustainability while maintaining cultural identity, reasserting cultural autonomy, and protecting tribal sovereignty. But at the same time, the Apache depended on cultural exchange with federal and state land management agencies to successfully manage their natural resources and build an ecologically knowledgeable tribal workforce. Initially adopting a utilitarian conservation model of land management, restoration projects aided the creation of a relatively strong tribal economy. In addition, early successes with trout, elk, and forest restoration projects eventually granted the Tribe political leverage when they sought to reassume control over reservation resources from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Building on this foundation, Apache restoration work significantly diverged in character from the typical Euro-American restoration project by the 1990s. While striving toward self-sufficiency, the Tribe hybridized tribal cultural values with Western ecological values in their restoration efforts. These projects evolved the tripartite capacity to heal ecologically degraded reservation lands, to establish a degree of economic freedom from the federal government, and to restore cultural traditions. Having reversed their historical relationship of subjugation with government agencies, the Apache currently have almost full decision-making powers over tribal eco-cultural resources.

Browsing by Author "Tomblin, David Christian"

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