Appropriate Terminology for the Alcohol,Eating, and Physical Activity Relationship

Abstract

“Drunkorexia” merges prior literature identifying positive relationships between (a) alcohol use/abuse and disordered eating/eating disorders, (b) alcohol use/abuse and physical activity, and (c) disordered eating/eating disorders and physical activity. The term, highlighting an individual's proactive and/or reactive weight management behaviors (ie, disordered eating, physical activity) in relation to alcohol consumption, originated in news editorials and has recently gained recognition via use in scholarly publications. The purpose of this commentary is to recommend discontinuing use of the term “drunkorexia” due to (a) inconsistent definitions of drunkorexia across investigations, (b) drunkorexia being a misnomer, and (c) the medical community's lack of recognition/acceptance of drunkorexia. Because the behaviors encompassed by drunkorexia are of concern to researchers and health professionals, future investigations are still warranted. However, until a medically recognized term/phrase is accepted, scholars should utilize more appropriate characterizations such as “weight-conscious drinkers,” “weight management behaviors of drinkers,” or “Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified” (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision).     

Impact of the Adoption of Tobacco-Free Campus Policies on Student Enrollment at Colleges and Universities,North Carolina, 2001–2010

Abstract

Objective: College and university administrators have expressed concern that adoption of tobacco-free policies may reduce applications and enrollment. This study examines adoption and implementation of 100% tobacco-free campus policies by institutions of higher education on applications and enrollment. Participants: North Carolina private colleges and universities and public community colleges. Analysis was conducted in 2011. Methods: Student enrollment and application data were analyzed by campus type to determine (a) if there was a difference in student applications and enrollment before and after policy implementation, and (b) if there was a difference in student applications and enrollment for campuses with versus without a policy. Results: No significant differences were found in student enrollment or applications when comparing years prior to and following policy implementation or when comparing with institutions without 100% tobacco-free campus policies. Conclusions: The authors found no evidence that 100% tobacco-free policy adoption had an impact on student enrollment or applications.     

Radcliffe-Brown And Rivers: a correspondence

This paper focuses on a study of the multi-functional trouser-cord (that ties traditional Pakistani trousers) and its connotations within the Islamic dress tradition as well as local concepts of the body. Comparable to the importance of belts and loincloths in other cultures of the Muslim, Christian, and Hindu world, the apparently simple and unpretentious drawstring plays a central role in the Pakistani discourse of chastity and desire. On the one hand the tying of the trouser-cord stands for the Muslim ideals of modesty and body control, but on the other the untying of the string refers to the dimension of emotion and sexuality where it can be strategically deployed as a medium of erotic play, allurement, and sensuousness. Thus, the trouser-cord is an item of clothing carrying ambiguous meanings, reflecting the tension and moral polarity between ‘nomos’ and ‘eros’.     

GETTING INTO THE WEEDS: DOES LEGAL MARIJUANA ACCESS BLUNT ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN COLLEGE?

This paper examines the effect of legal access to marijuana on student performance stemming from a voter-approved initiative legalizing marijuana for those 21 and older in the State of Washington. Using panel data from a medium-sized public university, we use a within-student and within-class estimator to show that legalization reduces students' grades, with an effect size about one-half the impact of gaining legal access to alcohol. Consistent with how marijuana consumption affects cognitive functioning, we find that students' grades fall furthest in courses that require more quantitative skills. These effects are largely driven by men and low performers. (JEL I23, I18, K32)     

Return Migration and Decontamination After the 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Disaster

Return migration is key to community recovery from many disasters. Japanese governments have conducted radiation decontamination efforts in the Exclusion Zone designated after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in order to encourage this outcome. Little is known, however, about the factors that influence post-disaster migrants to return, and, if people are relatively unresponsive to decontamination, then the costs of promoting recovery may exceed the benefits. We exploit a unique survey of Fukushima evacuees to determine the factors that influence their decision to return after a disaster. Location-specific capital characteristics, such as housing tenure and the extent of property damage, are estimated to be strong factors. The radiation dose rate of the home location is found to be a statistically significant factor for intent to return, but its effect is small. We also found that households with various other characteristics were noncommittal about the return option and likely to defer their decisions, which implies that “return” and “not-return” are asymmetric. Our simulation analysis found that the number of returnees encouraged by this decontamination was 12,882, less than 8% of the total evacuees, while the decontamination cost per returnee was 3.36 million USD. This result implies that the government could have improved the well-being of evacuees at a lower cost by policies other than decontamination.     

People with visual impairment ‘watching’ television? Leisure pursuits of people with visual impairment in Ghana

Leisure pursuits of people with visual impairment is one of the under-researched concepts in disability discourse. Employing focus group discussions, this study explored the leisure pursuits of people with visual impairment. Their leisure pursuits include chatting, sleeping, listening to radio, meditation and watching television. The watching of television is traditionally considered unconventional for people with visual impairment; however, this was pursued for multiple reasons including as a form of resistance to traditional stereotypes on visual impairment as well as its educational and informative values. Reasons underlying their leisure pursuits include availability and accessibility, desire to obtain information and relaxation.     

Floral abundance and richness drive beneficial arthropod conservation and biological control on golf courses

Urban Ecosystems - Golf courses are among the largest, most ubiquitous highly maintained urban green spaces in the U.S. Although their primary function is recreation, a large portion of golf course...     

A note on a makespan minimization problem with a multi-ability learning effect

In the scheduling literature the learning effect is perceived as a process of acquiring experience by a processor (e.g. a human worker) in one ability. However, in many real-life problems the processor, during execution of jobs, increases its experience in different, very often independent, abilities (skills). In consequence, it causes the overall growth of the efficiency of the processor. According to this observation, in this paper, we bring into scheduling a new approach called multi-ability learning that generalizes the existing ones and models more precisely real-life settings. On this basis, we focus on a makespan minimization problem with the proposed learning model and provide optimal polynomial time algorithms for its special cases, which often occur in management.     

Workplace occupation and the possibilities of popular power in Chile and Argentina, 1972–6

ABSTRACT

The recent wave of occupations has had a transformative effect on radical politics, but, to date, many have been restricted in their social and spatial expansion. Reflecting on these challenges, this article examines workplace occupation in the coordinadoras interfabriles in Argentina (1975–6) and the cordones industriales in Chile (1972–3) to understand how they overcame barriers to such expansion. Starting from debates in critical geography and social movement studies on space and occupations, I unpack the possibilities for popular power that emerged in this period by using approaches from critical labour studies and autonomist Marxism. First, I outline the generative role of the workplace in producing these possibilities in a context of wider social change. Second, I demonstrate how the capacity for expansion lay in the simultaneous capacity to disrupt and reconstruct social relations derived from solidarities that exceeded the existing physical space of occupation.     

Is relationship and marriage education relevant and appropriate to child welfare?

Child welfare professionals (CWPs) have historically been ignored as a potential delivery system of relationship and marriage education (RME). Based on a sample of 1015 CWPs from two states, the current study shows that CWPs believe promoting healthy couple and marital relationships is relevant to the families they serve and their work, and that they are open to receiving RME training. Results from structural equation modeling indicate that CWPs' beliefs about the relevancy and appropriateness of RME may be influenced by their current RME ability and comfort level, their beliefs about the state of marriage and the prevalence of couples in their current caseload of families they serve. Implications related to promoting RME within child welfare and engaging CWPs in RME training are discussed.