Reports of Conferences, Institutes, and Seminars

This quarter's column features reports from the 2011 Electronic Resources & Libraries Conference; the 2011 North Carolina Serials Conference; the 2011 Association of College and Research Libraries Conference; the 2011 Kansas Library Association Conference; the New England Technical Services Librarians Section of the New England Library Association Spring 2011 Conference; and the 2011 Texas Library Association Conference.     

Child well-being before and after the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns in three Australian states

This paper reports on changes in the social-emotional well-being of 6- to 12-year-old children tested before the COVID-19 pandemic and during 2020 and 2021. Well-being was assessed using a video game that empowers children to report their own well-being, including school attachment, social and emotional well-being, behavioural conformity and family support. We compared well-being over time for two groups of children in government schools in Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania. The treatment group of 580 children were tested in 2019 (Time 1) and a second time in mid-late 2020 and early 2021 (Time 2). The comparison group of 841 children were tested twice before the pandemic. Results showed that children in the treatment group reported significantly lower family support at Time 2 than those in the comparison group. This reduction in perceived family support was stronger for girls. In addition, children in the treatment group who reported lower levels of family support at Time 1 reported a steeper decline in family support by Time 2. Finally, boys in the treatment group reported significantly better behavioural conformity and emotional well-being relative to girls over time. Results highlight the varied impacts of the pandemic lockdowns and the need to provide continued support to vulnerable families.     

An Approach to Assessing the Impacts of Incident-Free Transportation of Radioactive Materials: I. Air Transportation

Annual radiation doses and risks to passengers and crew are calculated for shipments of radioactive materials in passenger aircraft under accident-free and incident-free conditions (i.e., under normal transportation conditions). The 1982 database developed by Sandia National Laboratories is used, and calculations are made using RADTRAN 4.0. This paper is one of two papers estimating radiological risk associated with incident-free transportation of radioactive materials.     

Modelling the Telecommunication Pricing Decision

The local telecommunication pricing decision on residential, business, and private lines is modeled. This study demonstrates that when regulators use a weighted sum linear goal programming model to determine prices, adjustments can be made to Ramsey prices that reflect the regulators’ concerns about the trade-off of fairness with efficiency. An actual example shows that when regulators’ preferences were taken into account, residential prices were 14 percent lower than efficient optimal Ramsey prices.     

A feminist perspective on COVID‐19 and the value of care work globally

The shared response to the COVID‐19 crisis demonstrates that the vast majority of society believes human wellbeing — not economic growth — should be at the centre of policy. COVID‐19 exposes the foundational role of care work, both paid and unpaid, to functioning societies and economies. Focusing on ‘production’ instead of the sustainable reproduction of human life devalues care work and those who perform it. Women’s physical and mental health, and the societies that rely on them, are at stake. When these policies are formulated, the field of feminist economics has valuable lessons for mitigating hardships as countries navigate the related economic fallout. A comprehensive response to the COVID‐19 crisis must recognize this gendered work as an integral part of the economic system that promotes human wellbeing for all.     

Suffering and generativity: Repairing threats to self in old age

Suffering is a powerful experience that can be difficult to articulate. Suffering differs from pain alone and includes an individual's awareness of a threat to self through death, loss of identity, or uncertainty of the meaningfulness of one's life. In response to this threat, generative acts, especially creative expressions imbued with the self, may act as a means to repair the self in crisis. The case of Mr. A, an 85-year old man in good health, illustrates how various artistic pieces he created – a wooden dog and several poems – helps him to restore a “fading” self. For Mr. A. the idea of “fading away” or becoming weaker and less useful until eventually disappearing is a major source of personal suffering. Through his art, he creates unique, interactive and tangible entities that can outlive his physical body and help him reclaim or repair threats to selfhood.     

Challenging Endings: First Year MSW Interns’ Experiences with Forced Termination and Discussion Points for Supervisory Guidance

Every year, students prematurely end their work with some clients due to the completion of their internship, rather than the client’s achievement of goals and thus a more natural endpoint of treatment. It is important to understand students’ experiences with forced termination to provide them with the necessary knowledge, skills, and support to optimally manage this complex phenomenon. This paper reviews the social work literature on forced termination arising from the ending of students’ internships and presents, in their own words, the experiences of four first-year MSW interns with forced termination. Finally, based on the literature and as borne out by these students’ experiences, some areas for discussion and reflection between interns and their supervisors in handling forced termination are offered. Caroline Rosenthal Gelman, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at New York University’s School of Social Work. She received her M.S.W. in 1991 from the University of California, Berkeley, and her Ph.D. in 1998 from the Smith College School for Social Work. Phyllis Fernandez, Nathalie Hausman, Sarah Miller and Michael Weiner received their MSW in 2004 from New York University’s School of Social Work.     

Heart checks in college-aged students link poor sleep to cardiovascular risk

Objective: To describe the relationships between the cardiovascular health, lifestyle behaviors, and lifestyle beliefs among college-aged students.

Participants: Seven hundred and twenty-nine college-aged students participated between October 2016 and April 2017.

Methods: Heart checks, consisting of a cross-sectional survey and biometric screening, were conducted on a large Midwestern university campus.

Results: A small proportion of students (24.5%) engaged in the recommended 150+ minutes of physical activity per week and 7.9% consumed 5+ servings of fruit/vegetables daily. Half (49.6%) slept 7 hours or less per night. Biometric screenings found that 26.4% of the students had high stress, 31.9% were overweight or obese, and 17.3% had prehypertension or hypertension. Less sleep was significantly associated with higher risks of being stressed, being overweight/obese, and having elevated blood pressure.

Conclusions: Early detection, treatment, and education is critical to identify individuals at risk for cardiovascular disease and to promote healthy lifestyle changes before heart disease develops or progresses.