Sustainable landscaping programs in the United States and their potential to encourage conservation and support ecosystem services

Sustainable landscaping programs are voluntary initiatives that recommend a set of practices to improve the environmental quality of urban ecosystems by providing landscaping materials, guidelines, and educational resources. Our goal was to examine the recommendations and outcomes of these programs in the United States and their value for encouraging conservation practices in residential ecosystems. We conducted a comprehensive web search and identified 193 sustainable landscaping programs in the United States. Programs aim to increase native species richness, affordably manage stormwater runoff, and offer residents meaningful experiences with nature. Sustainable landscaping programs present many opportunities to engage people with local ecological knowledge and conservation practices, provide accessible spaces for environmental education, cultivate interdisciplinary research collaborations, and advance inclusion in conservation. However, assessments of their ecological value are rare, leaving many questions surrounding the benefits to biodiversity and water quality afforded by participation. Many programs also require investments in landscaping materials and certification fees that might limit participation by some households. Future work should examine how recommended practices influence urban biodiversity, identify and address barriers to participation, and generate social-ecological knowledge that can inform future programs.

     

Climate events and the role of adaptive capacity for (im-)mobility

Population and Environment - The study examines the relationship between sudden- and gradual-onset climate events and migration, hypothesizing that this relationship is mediated by the adaptive...     

Joint Income-Wealth Inequality: Evidence from Lucerne Tax Data

Social Indicators Research - Using tax data from the Swiss canton of Lucerne, we study how measures of economic inequality change if they account for income and wealth rather than income alone....     

Inside stories: Maternal representations of first time mothers from pre-pregnancy to early pregnancy

BackgroundAccording to the psychoanalytical literature, it is during pregnancy that maternal representations of the mother–infant relationship become activated. Midwives who are engaged with the mother and the baby have not drawn upon this concept in their practice. In order for this to happen, it is important to understand better the nature of maternal representations and when they are activated from empirical studies.QuestionThe research question is: what are the maternal representations of a group of first time mothers from pre-pregnancy, early pregnancy and to the first ultrasound.MethodA narrative approach was used to gain insight into the maternal representations of first time pregnant womens’ account of their representations. The analysis method was based on thematic approach.ParticipantsFifteen women aged between 23 and 38 years.SettingA midwives clinic attached to a tertiary hospital in Melbourne, Australia.FindingsFirst-time pregnant women's maternal representations were activated when a woman begins to plan her pregnancy (‘the time is right’), again at the onset of physical changes to her body as a result of conception (‘my body is changing’), and at the first early ultrasound at around twelve weeks (‘it’ is a real baby).ConclusionMaternal representations are important for the midwife and pregnant women because this concept provides another understanding in relation to the psychological dimension of pregnancy.     

Sexual Behaviors,Sexual Health Practices,and Community Engagement Among Gay and Bisexually Identified Men Living in Rural Areas of the United States

Limited research has focused on the sexual behaviors of men who have sex with men (MSM) from rural communities. We examined the sexual and health-related behaviors of MSM living in rural areas of the United States in order to understand the sexual health repertoire of this population. A total of 5,357 participants living in rural settings were recruited online and completed an anonymous Internet-based survey that assessed sexual behaviors, condom use, and men’s engagement with various community activities and events. These data provide a greater understanding of sexual health profiles that exist among rural MSM and will help inform the design of effective programs for men in these often underserved communities.     

Subjective Health-Related Quality of Life in Homeless and Vulnerably Housed Individuals and Its Relationship with Self-Reported Physical and Mental Health Status

Although the association between homelessness and objective indicators of poor health is well-established, little research has focused on the subjective health-related quality of life of homeless and vulnerably housed (HVH) individuals. This study examined the subjective health-related quality of life of HVH individuals, using the Multiple Discrepancies Theory (MDT) Scale for Health of the Quality of Life for Homeless and Hard-to-House Individuals (QoLHHI) Inventory, and its association with self-reported functional health status, as measured by the SF-12, and self-reported physical and mental health conditions in a sample of 100 HVH individuals recruited in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa. Our findings indicate that physical and mental health conditions are highly prevalent among HVH individuals and that the SF-12 Physical and Mental Component Summary scores are substantially lower compared to US population norms. The MDT Health items were not statistically significantly associated with physical or mental health conditions and only showed correlations of small to moderate magnitude with the SF-12 Component Summary Scales. These findings suggest that the QoLHHI MDT Scale for Health can provide information about HVH individuals’ subjective health experiences that is different from, and can serve as a valuable complement to, health status information for use in research and evaluation studies, as well as for policy purposes to make informed decisions based on subjective health-related quality of life data from HVH individuals.     

Discount rates and risky sexual behaviors among teenagers and young adults

This article examines the relationship between personal discount rates and sexual behaviors in a sample of teenagers and young adults. We find that higher discount rates (an indication of less willingness to forego current consumption for future consumption) are significantly associated with a range of sexual behaviors, including ever having sex, having sex before age 16 years, and past or current pregnancy. These associations are consistent with previous studies showing a link between discounting and other, non-sexual health behaviors. JEL Classification D80 · D90 · I10     

Strategic and Sincere Voting in a One‐Sided Election: The Canadian Federal Election of 1997*

Objective. We are interested in whether and how voters make strategic decisions in a race that is, according to the polls, expected to be very one sided. Looking specifically at the choices available to ideologically right‐of‐center voters in the 1997 Canadian federal election, we argue that strategic considerations will be filtered by voters' assessments of the competitiveness of the race both locally and nationally. Methods. We estimate logistic regression models measuring support for the two right‐of‐center Canadian political parties. Our models focus on the relationship between assessments of district‐ and national‐level party prospects on voting for the Progressive Conservative Party. Results. We find that voters who consider the race competitive emphasize district‐level data in their strategic calculations. However, those who consider the election to be all but over look more closely at national‐level concerns when deciding which right‐wing party to support. Conclusions. We conclude that earlier understandings of tactical voting should be updated to take into consideration the circumstances under which voters will use national‐level evaluations of relative party viability in casting their ballots.     

E-Capacities and the Ellsberg Paradox

Ellsberg's (1961) famous paradox shows that decision-makers give events with known probabilities a higher weight in their outcome evaluation. In the same article, Ellsberg suggests a preference representation which has intuitive appeal but lacks an axiomatic foundation. Schmeidler (1989) and Gilboa (1987) provide an axiomatisation for expected utility with non-additive probabilities. This paper introduces E-capacities as a representation of beliefs which incorporates objective information about the probability of events. It can be shown that the Choquet integral of an E-capacity is the Ellsberg representation. The paper further explores properties of this representation of beliefs and provides an axiomatisation for them.     

Adolescent Religiosity and School Contexts*

Objectives. Schools serve as the primary social organizations for adolescents, structuring their lives and conveying a variety of skills, norms, and values, but relatively little is known about how schools influence the development of religious belief, attitudes, and behavior during adolescence. We explore how schools' religious norms, coupled with adolescents' pursuit of social status through conformity, affect public and private religiosity. Methods. Employing data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we use multilevel modeling to examine the impact of school context on adolescents' public and private religiosity. Results. We find that school norms are influential in shaping both public religious expressions and private devotional activities, but pursuit of social status is a motivation for change across religious contexts only of public religious activity. The effect of social status as a motivator of religious change was moderated by the strength of the adolescent's identification with the school, especially for private religiosity. Conclusions. Schools play a key role in the social development of adolescents, and students' religious beliefs and behaviors are influenced systematically and observably by the type of religious climate within the school.