How do people perceive urban trees? Assessing likes and dislikes in relation to the trees of a city

Cities are systems that include natural and human-created components. When a city grows without proper planning, it tends to have low environmental quality. If improving environmental quality is intended, people’s opinion should be taken into account for a better acceptance of urban management decisions. In this study, we assessed people’s perception of trees by conducting a survey with a controlled sample of citizens from the city of Morelia (west-central Mexico). Citizens liked both native and exotic tree species and rejected mainly exotic ones. Preference for trees were related to tree attributes; such as size. Trees that dropped leaves or tended to fall were not liked. The most-mentioned tree-related benefits were oxygen supply and shade; the most mentioned tree-related damages were accidents and infrastructure damage. The majority of respondents preferred trees near houses to increase tree density. Also, most respondents preferred trees in green areas as well as close to their houses, as they consider that trees provide oxygen. The majority of the respondents thought more trees were needed in the city. In general, our results show that although people perceive that trees in urban areas can cause damages, they often show more interest for the benefits related to trees and consider there should be more trees in cities. We strongly suggest the development of studies that broaden our knowledge of citizen preferences in relation to urban vegetation, and that further policy making takes their perception into account when considering creating new urban green areas, regardless of their type or size.     

Local and Global Knowledge Complementarity: R&D Collaborations and Innovation of Foreign and Domestic Firms

We analyze how research and development (R&D) collaborations affect product innovation for subsidiaries of foreign multinational firms and domestic firms. We build on the knowledge-based view to propose that subsidiaries and domestic firms differ in their ability to benefit from alternative R&D partners as a result of the variation in their knowledge complementarities. Specifically, we propose that subsidiaries may benefit more from undertaking R&D collaborations with customers and competitors, whose deeper knowledge of local conditions better complements the more global knowledge base of subsidiaries. In contrast, we argue that domestic firms may benefit more from engaging in R&D collaborations with suppliers and universities, whose more global nature of knowledge better complement the deeper local knowledge base of domestic firms.     

Visual Attention Patterns Differ in Gynephilic and Androphilic Men and Women Depending on Age and Gender of Targets

Visual attention patterns measured with eye-tracking techniques provide indirect clues about sexual response. This study aimed to test the category specificity of sexual responses to stimuli varying in gender and age by evaluating both early and late attention of gynephilic and androphilic men and women. We simultaneously presented sexually preferred and nonpreferred stimuli and measured time to first fixation and total duration of fixation on four areas of interest: entire body, then face, chest, and pelvis. Androphilic women’s early attention patterns were nonspecific, whereas gynephilic women and both groups of men showed a category-specific pattern for the entire body. In contrast, all groups showed gender-specific patterns of late attention for all areas of interest. We also found support for age specificity of early and late visual attention in all four groups, with greater attention to adult than child stimuli. This study supports the usefulness of a competing stimulus eye-tracking paradigm as a method to examine gender specificity in gynephilic women and androphilic and gynephilic men, and as a measure of age specificity in gynephilic and androphilic men and women.     

Catching Babies in Prohibition States: Midwives' Accounts for an Illegal Profession

Practicing midwifery is illegal in four states and the District of Columbia. However, midwives still practice as they and much of the public do not see their behavior as criminal. Based on in‐depth interviews with twenty‐six midwives, our findings demonstrate that midwives employed both public and professional accounts. They collectively justified midwifery in prohibition states by condemning their condemners, appealing to higher loyalties, denying injury, and justifying by comparison. We also found a new account, denial of illegality. This research uniquely applies the concept of collective accounts to an illegal but socially acceptable career.     

Expectancy of life at birth in 36 nationalities of the Soviet Union: 1958-60

In the 36 nationalities of the Soviet Union the estimated expectancy of life at birth ranged from 50·0 years for Chechens to 71·1 years for Latvians with a median of about 67·5 years for Russians.

In essence, the life table function e₀ was generated from the child-woman ratios with the use of intricate equations based on empirical data obtained from official Soviet publications. A modified version of Bourgeois-Pichat's model was used to estimate life expectancies at birth among the 36 nationalities on the basis of their crude death rates and the percentage of population aged 65 years and over. The 1959 U.S.S.R. Census of Population provided information pertaining to the older age groups. The crude death rates were estimated separately with the aid of second-degree polynomials fitted to the crude demographic measures for 109 administrative areas of the Soviet Union for 1960.

Information about recent improvements in public health, as well as conjectural evaluations of economic advancement in recent years were examined and related to the past and present level of mortality among the Russian people and the remaining population of minorities.     

A Further Assessment of Momentary Time-Sampling Across Extended Interval Lengths

The current study compared the estimation of momentary time-sampling (MTS) to actual safety performance of three ergonomic responses: back, shoulder, and feet. Actual safety performance was established for the five participants by measuring the target responses with a continuous procedure. MTS 90, 105, 120, 135, 150, 165, 180, 195, 210, 240, and 300 s interval lengths were used to estimate safety performance. Two analyses were conducted. The first analysis found that MTS both under- and overestimates safety performance for all responses when compared with actual safety performance. The second analysis showed the MTS mean error of estimation when compared to actual safety performance across low, medium, and high levels of safety. The overall results suggest the use of MTS with longer intervals shows considerable accuracy (minimal error of estimation).     

Exploring Organizational Form in the Affordable Rental Housing Sector

The nature and benefits of different kinds of affordable rental housing providers, and particularly for-profit housing developers, have been contested by practitioners and scholars. We contribute to this debate by exploring whether the missions, the resources harnessed to build housing, the human resources, and the involvement of residents in decision-making differ based on organizational form. Using case study design, we examine two third sector organizations (a zero equity cooperative and a community-based non-profit) and a for-profit located in Canada. The two third sector organizations had less knowledge of housing construction and harnessed in-kind contributions compared to the for-profit. These organizations, and again in contrast with the for-profit, also pursued social missions, including supporting other organizations and sharing their experiences related to housing construction. The zero equity cooperative featured greater resident involvement in the development and the management of the housing compared to both the community-based non-profit and the for-profit.     

Mark S. Leclair: Philanthropy in Transition

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

Adaptation and validation of the Double Standard Scale in Basque adolescents / Adaptación y validación de la Escala de Doble Estándar en adolescentes vascas-os

The goal was to adapt the Double Standard Scale to the Basque language and to validate it in this language. The sample was comprised of 2,919 adolescents in secondary school. The reliability was analysed and the cross-validation method was applied with exploratory factorial analysis and confirmatory factorial analysis to check the structure of the scale. A differential item analysis was performed according to sex. Finally, correlations were made with ambivalent sexism and distorted beliefs about women and violence, and a contrast of means was performed by sex and age groups using variance analysis and effect sizes. The results were: (a) good internal consistency; (b) a one-dimensional structure with seven items; (c) just one item presents a differential functioning; (d) a positive, significant relationship between the sexual double standard, ambivalent sexism and sexist beliefs; (e) boys and younger adolescents showed a greater adherence to the double standard; and (f) social desirability affects the responses of girls, especially younger ones.     

Measuring Hope in the Philippines: Validating the Short Version of the Locus-of-Hope Scale in Filipino

A short version of the locus-of-hope Scale was developed and translated into the Filipino language for the purpose of assessing hope in Filipinos who have lower levels of education and who may not have adequate levels of proficiency in English. The 20-item scale had four locus-of-hope subscales (internal, external-family, external-peers, and external-spiritual) each with four items (another four were filler items); all items described thoughts associated with some capacity and strategy to attain important goals in life. A sample (N = 362) of adults from communities in Metro Manila were asked to answer the scale, as well as measures of optimism, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated an adequate fit between the hypothesized four-factor structure and the data, but the internal locus-of-hope scale was found to have low internal consistency. Regression analysis showed positive associations between the internal and external-family locus-of-hope subscales and the three measures of wellbeing. But external-peers locus-of-hope was negatively associated with optimism and self-esteem, and external-spiritual locus-of-hope was positively related with optimism.