Urban environments are associated with earlier clutches and faster nestling feather growth compared to natural habitats

Urbanization creates new habitats with novel benefits and challenges not found in natural systems. How a species fares in urban habitats is largely dependent on its life history, yet predicting the response of individual species to urbanization remains a challenge. While some species thrive in urban areas, others do poorly or are not present at all. Mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli) are year-round residents of montane regions of western North America. Commonly found in higher-elevation coniferous forests, these birds can also be found in urban areas where they will regularly visit bird feeders and nest in nest boxes. We monitored mountain chickadees nesting along a habitat gradient, from natural habitat to suburban areas, to determine if the degree of urbanization was associated with: clutch size and success; nestling growth rates; or variation in parental size and age. Females nesting in urbanized areas initiated clutches earlier in the breeding season than those in natural areas, but neither fledging success nor the rate of nestling mass-change differed between habitats. Nestling feather growth-rate increased with later first egg dates in both habitats, and the magnitude of this increase was greatest in urban habitats. We found no difference in the proportion of first-time breeders versus experienced breeders between habitat types, nor any differences in male or female mass or size. Our results indicate no detriment to nesting in urban habitats, suggesting mountain chickadees are able to adapt to moderate urbanization much like other members of the Paridae family.     

„Da gibt es Sachen,die macht man einfach nicht“ – Deutungsmuster von Banken im Kontext von Nachhaltigkeit und Krise

Banks in Germany are experiencing a profound legitimacy crisis. In the wake of financial and economic crises, failures, and bailouts, as well as new oversight and stricter regulations, banks have lost the reputation and trust they once had. The present article uses an analysis of interpretative patterns to examine how banks seek to legitimize themselves in times of crisis, with reference to sustainability as a guiding principle of society. Following the concept of social legitimacy by new institutionalism in sociology, and based on discursive interviews with 18 representatives of German banks, we reconstructed three interpretative patterns: a) the differentiation from “bad” banks, which abandons profit-maximizing business models and promotes the moral superiority of sustainable banking, b) responsibility for society, which promotes the role and responsibility of banks as socially relevant actors that spur social change, and c) “right” return, whereby banks seek an appropriate relationship between their value orientation and a return on investments. Although a return on investment is economically necessary and confers legitimacy, it may not be understood as an end in itself. Banks discredited during the crisis can refocus on a banking model which promises social legitimacy by referring to sustainability.     

Life-Coaching zur Entwicklung der Lebenszufriedenheit

This research explores with the help of pretest-posttest-design with two repeated measures, control group and 19 clients, whether a Life Coaching can change a life dissatisfaction. As a result, dissatisfaction decreased in 81% of the clients or terminate completely. Stressors were reduced by 100% (T(11) = 4; p < 0.005), strains were reduced by 88%. A significant decline of the emotional-cognitive strains by 89% (T(13) = 0; p < 0.005) was noticed. The stress load all over was significantly lower (T(13) = 20; p < 0.05). It exists a within-subjects effect between intervention and one of the subscales, F(1.24) = 5.776, p = 0.024.     

Race/Ethnic Differences in Effects of Family Instability on Adolescents' Risk Behavior

We used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 7,686) to determine whether racial and ethnic differences in socioeconomic stress and social protection explained group differences in the association between family structure instability and three risk behaviors for White, Black, and Mexican American adolescents: delinquent behavior, age at first nonmarital sex, and age at first nonmarital birth. The positive association between mothers' union transitions and each outcome for White adolescents was attenuated by social protection. The association of instability with age at first sex and first nonmarital birth was weaker for Black adolescents but not for Mexican American adolescents. The weaker association was explained by Black adolescents' more frequent exposure to socioeconomic stress in the context of union instability.     

Making the Best of a Bad Situation: Material Resources and Teenage Parenthood

Past research has largely ignored the influence of material resources on teenage parents' life outcomes. A lack of resources such as housing, child care, and financial support is hypothesized to explain the negative effect of teenage parenthood on educational attainment. Regression analyses use nationally representative data from the 1988 - 2000 National Education Longitudinal Study (N = 8,432, n = 356 teenage parents). Results support the hypothesis completely for the teenage fathers in the sample and partially for mothers: Resources substantially diminish the educational penalty teenage parents paid by age 26. Gender influences which types of resources are protective, providing policy implications. Help with child care is critical for teenage mothers, whereas housing and financial resources may be important for men.     

Exploring the Gender Gap in Support for a Woman for President

The gender gap in support for a female presidential candidate gathered much media attention with Hillary Clinton as a frontrunner for the 2008 democratic presidential nomination. Two common explanations for this gap are that women have more liberal gender role and political attitudes. We contend that another important, and distinct, factor for heightened support among women is a shared social identity. We tested these three explanations across two studies. In Study 1, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that both attitudes toward women and sex independently predict a significant proportion of the variance in willingness to elect a woman for president. In Study 2, hierarchical regression analyses showed that when entered together, attitudes toward female authority and sex independently predict support, but when political attitudes was entered, only sex and political attitudes predicted support for Clinton. Finally, as expected, when primed with their gender identity, women increased their support for Clinton and men decreased their support, and women perceived her more favorably and men less so. In sum, these studies strongly support the arguments that the gender gap in support for female presidential candidates stems in part from women's more liberal gender role and political attitudes, and also from women sharing the same gender social identity as a female candidate for commander in chief .     

The Beliefs in the Inheritance of Risk Factors for Suicide Scale (BIRFSS): further results on demographic correlates, dimensionality, reliability, and validity

Convergent lines of evidence from adoption, family, geographical, immigrant, molecular genetic, surname, and twin studies of suicide point to genetic contributions to risk factors for suicidal behavior. Related mental health literacy (knowledge and beliefs) of professionals and laypersons may, however, lag behind this research progress. The purpose of this study was to further validate the 22-item Beliefs in the Inheritance of Risk Factors for Suicide Scale (BIRFSS), a novel instrument for assessing individuals' beliefs in the genetics of suicide. Data from a general population sample of 159 Austrian adults showed adequate internal scale consistency. Due to deliberate content heterogeneity, the instrument has a subscale structure, but factor analysis of items extracted a dominant first factor. BIRFSS scores were positively related to overall and specific knowledge on suicide facts (convergent validity), whereas unrelated to the Big Five personality dimensions, locus of control, social desirability, and verbal intelligence (discriminant validity). Demographic correlates of BIRFSS scores included respondents' age and religiosity (both positive ones), but not respondents' sex, educational level, or political orientation.     

What is Recklessness in Scientific Research? The Frank Sauer Case

On May 22, 2017, administrative law Judge Leslie Rogall of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Departmental Appeals Board, Civil Remedies Division, ruled in favor of the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) concerning its decision to charge former University of California at Riverside biochemistry professor Frank Sauer with research misconduct for fabricating or falsifying digital image data included in three papers and seven grant applications submitted to the National Institutes of Health. More specifically, Sauer was deemed responsible for manipulating, reusing, and falsely labeling images of autoradiograms and gels in his research in epigenetics. One month after this decision, ORI announced its final ruling concerning Sauer, which barred him from serving in any advisory capacity to the Public Health Services and required him to retract affected papers. The case raises some interesting and important questions concerning research integrity because it focused on the legal issue of what constitutes recklessness in scientific research.     

Climate,agriculture, and hunger: statistical prediction of undernourishment using nonlinear regression and data-mining techniques

An estimated 1 billion people suffer from hunger worldwide, and climate change, urbanization, and globalization have the potential to exacerbate this situation. Improved models for predicting food security are needed to understand these impacts and design interventions. However, food insecurity is the result of complex interactions between physical and socio-economic factors that can overwhelm linear regression models. More sophisticated data-mining approaches could provide an effective way to model these relationships and accurately predict food insecure situations. In this paper, we compare multiple regression and data-mining methods in their ability to predict the percent of a country's population that suffers from undernourishment using widely available predictor variables related to socio-economic settings, agricultural production and trade, and climate conditions. Averaging predictions from multiple models results in the lowest predictive error and provides an accurate method to predict undernourishment levels. Partial dependence plots are used to evaluate covariate influence and demonstrate the relationship between food insecurity and climatic and socio-economic variables. By providing insights into these relationships and a mechanism for predicting undernourishment using readily available data, statistical models like those developed here could be a useful tool for those tasked with understanding and addressing food insecurity.     

Effect of Perceived Crisis Response on Consumers' Behavioral Intentions During a Company Scandal – An Intercultural Perspective

In the context of a multi-national company scandal, namely Volkswagen's Dieselgate, we examine the effect of customers' perception of organizational crisis response on their revenge and avoidance intentions in different cultural settings. Using data collected in the US and in Germany, we are able to show that the perception of appropriate crisis response reduces customers' revenge as well as avoidance intentions. However, due to the domestic bias of German respondents, the mechanism linking perception of the organization's crisis response to the respective outcomes differs between Germany and the US. Our results demonstrate for the first time that domestic bias is not always associated with being an amplifier of positive factors; rather, in the context of an organizational scandal, it dampens the effects of organizational crisis response.