Influences of landscape and lifestyle on home energy consumption

Rapid urbanization coupled with concerns about global climate change has renewed interest in energy conservation and carbon dioxide emissions reduction. Urban residential energy consumption is a valuable place to start reducing emissions, and urban tree planting programs have been both proposed and utilized as an energy conservation mechanism. Home energy savings associated with urban trees are often quantified using models because of the many complex interactions among variables that can influence home energy use. However, recent empirical analyses have found that energy savings associated with trees may be minimal relative to other important factors like building characteristics and human behaviors. We surveyed 176 residents from four neighborhoods in Raleigh, NC with varying socio-economic characteristics to assess relationships between summer energy usage, tree cover, homeowner behavior, and building characteristics. As hypothesized, we found that building characteristics, demographics, and human behaviors were all significant variables in describing the variability in summertime home energy usage. Although, total percent tree cover 18?m around the home did not affect summertime energy use, the number of trees in the NE and NW quadrants around each household did predict home energy use. These results indicate that planting trees may not be a successful strategy for reducing energy use from the residential sector in the heavily forested Southeast; rather efforts should target conservation and efficiency.     

On variable bandwidth selection in local polynomial regression

The performances of data-driven bandwidth selection procedures in local polynomial regression are investigated by using asymptotic methods and simulation. The bandwidth selection procedures considered are based on minimizing 'prelimit' approximations to the (conditional) mean-squared error (MSE) when the MSE is considered as a function of the bandwidth h . We first consider approximations to the MSE that are based on Taylor expansions around h=0 of the bias part of the MSE. These approximations lead to estimators of the MSE that are accurate only for small bandwidths h . We also consider a bias estimator which instead of using small h approximations to bias naïvely estimates bias as the difference of two local polynomial estimators of different order and we show that this estimator performs well only for moderate to large h . We next define a hybrid bias estimator which equals the Taylor-expansion-based estimator for small h and the difference estimator for moderate to large h . We find that the MSE estimator based on this hybrid bias estimator leads to a bandwidth selection procedure with good asymptotic and, for our Monte Carlo examples, finite sample properties.     

Balancing caring and paid work in the UK: narrating ‘choices’ as first-time parents

Paid work is generally accepted as an important dimension of hegemonic masculinities and men's identities, which can become heightened when they become fathers. Changes in global economies together with educational shifts and other demographic patterns mean that paid work has become a significant feature of many women's lives too. Increasingly across Europe women who are mothers combine caring, domestic chores, and paid work. Using data from a qualitative longitudinal study on women's experiences of transition to first-time motherhood in the UK, this paper will explore how women narrate and reconcile their decisions either to return to paid work or not to, following the birth of their first child (Miller 2005). These findings are considered alongside a companion study on men's experiences of transition to first-time fatherhood (Miller 2011). The comparison shows that women articulate work and caring decisions in narratives which convey a sense of ‘guilt’, whilst the men are able to talk more freely – and acceptably – about ‘career progression’ and the importance of work to their identity and their new family. Even though recent research points to some changes in men's involvement in caring and women's increased activities in the work-place, particular aspects of these arrangements remain seemingly impervious to change.     

Professional School Counselors' Career Development Practices and Continuing Education Needs

This study explored the practices of professional school counselors in their delivery of career counseling. School counselors were found to spend significantly less time on career development than on personal–social and academic development. In addition, new professionals placed more priority on career counseling compared with their more experienced counterparts. Continuing education opportunities, future research directions, and implications for school counselors are presented.     

A Content Analysis of Career Development Theory,Research, and Practice—2013

This annual review of the career counseling and development literature presents a content analysis of refereed journal articles published in 2013. Four research questions guided the analysis: (a) What content topics were included in career development articles published in refereed journals in 2013? (b) To what extent are theory, research, and practice integrated in career development articles published in refereed journals in 2013? (c) What variation exists in the characteristics of career development articles published in refereed journals in 2013? and (d) What variation exists in the content included in theory, research, and practice articles? A total of 360 unique topics were identified in 357 articles from 24 journals. Results indicated that topic content in journals evolved slowly with limited integration of theory, research, and practice. Implications are suggested for (a) future topic content; (b) better integration of theory, research, and practice; (c) education and training; (d) journal editorial policy; and (e) future content analyses of journal articles.     

Establishing Concurrent Mands for Items and Mands for Information about Location in Children with Autism

This study replicated and extended the methodology used in Howlett et al. (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 44, 943–947 2011) to bring the mands “Where’s (item)?” and “I want (item)” under appropriate antecedent control in two boys diagnosed with autism. Trials were alternated in which items were present, missing, and within view (but inaccessible) and missing and out of view. To program for generalization, fifteen items, multiple trainers, and multiple settings were used during teaching. For both participants, manding generalized to novel items, instructors, settings, and situations and maintained after 2 weeks following teaching. Results of the social validity assessment indicated that school staff found the procedures highly acceptable.     

Effect of Brief Staff‐Assisted Career Service Delivery on Drop‐In Clients

Brief staff‐assisted career counseling services based on cognitive information processing theory were evaluated using 138 drop‐in clients who completed pre‐ and postintervention self‐report measures of knowledge about next steps, confidence in making next steps, and anxiety about career concerns. Significant changes occurred in each dimension and were significantly associated with the quality of career adviser interaction. Participants rated the experience as highly positive. Decreases in anxiety about career concerns were unrelated to the intervention. Implications include that a brief service delivery model yields positive outcomes for many clients but requires adjustments in organizational culture, physical environment, practitioner approaches, and client expectations. Future research should examine relational variables related to decreased anxiety with a brief service delivery model, the degree to which this approach works with specific career needs, and client attributes leading to successful versus unsuccessful outcomes with this model.     

Facilitating collaborative teacher learning: the role of “mindfulness” in video-based teacher professional development programs

In teacher professional development (PD), the component of collaborative participation among teachers is emphasized. Especially in video-based PD programs, the role of building up a teacher learning community and a trustful exchange among group members is important. Since general rules for productive collaboration do not exist at the beginning of a PD program, the role of a facilitator is pivotal for the successful development of a teacher learning community. In this paper, we present a new video-based PD program, the “Dialogic Video Cycle” (DVC), focusing on the improvement of classroom dialogue. In describing the DVC and the facilitation actions (“moves”), we highlight the role of the facilitator as mindful in providing teachers with new knowledge and with guiding the exchange among teachers about teaching practices and reflections. Results of a final evaluation of the program showed positive perceptions of the facilitation approach in the video-based PD program.     

PRACTICAL SIGNIFICANCE AND PARTITIONING VARIANCE IN DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS

This note sets forth a method for obtaining viable estimates of total discriminatory power in a discriminant analysis. In addition, a technique based upon this methodisgiven for assessing the overall relative importance of each predictor variable regardless of the number of discriminant functions. Two examples are given to illustrate application of the method.