Perception of Climate Risk among Rural Farmers in Vietnam: Consistency within Households and with the Empirical Record

Rural farmers in Vietnamese communes perceive climate risk and potential impacts on livelihood within a complex context that may influence individual and household decisions. In a primary survey of 1,145 residents of the Thach Ha district of Ha Tinh province, we gathered data regarding perception about stability in climate, potential risks to livelihood, demographic characteristics, orientation toward risk, and interest in expanding economic activity. Temporal analysis of meteorological and economic indicator data forms an empirical basis for comparison with human perception. We ask the basic question: Are rural farmers’ perceptions of climate consistent with the historical record and reproducible within households? We find that respondents do perceive climate anomalies, with some anchoring on recent extreme events as revealed by climate observational data, and further that spouses disproportionately share perceptions relative to randomly simulated pairings. To put climate‐related risk perception in a larger context, we examine patterns across a range of risks to livelihood faced by farmers (livestock disease, pests, markets, health), using dimension reduction techniques. We find that our respondents distinguish among potential causes of low economic productivity, with substantial emphasis on climate‐related impacts. They do not express uniform concern across risks, but rather average patterns reveal common modes and distinguish climate concern. Still, among those expressing concern about climate‐related risks to livelihood we do not find an association with expressed intention to pursue changes in economic activity as a risk management response.     

The Value of Information in Decision‐Analytic Modeling for Malaria Vector Control in East Africa

Decision analysis tools and mathematical modeling are increasingly emphasized in malaria control programs worldwide to improve resource allocation and address ongoing challenges with sustainability. However, such tools require substantial scientific evidence, which is costly to acquire. The value of information (VOI) has been proposed as a metric for gauging the value of reduced model uncertainty. We apply this concept to an evidenced‐based Malaria Decision Analysis Support Tool (MDAST) designed for application in East Africa. In developing MDAST, substantial gaps in the scientific evidence base were identified regarding insecticide resistance in malaria vector control and the effectiveness of alternative mosquito control approaches, including larviciding. We identify four entomological parameters in the model (two for insecticide resistance and two for larviciding) that involve high levels of uncertainty and to which outputs in MDAST are sensitive. We estimate and compare a VOI for combinations of these parameters in evaluating three policy alternatives relative to a status quo policy. We find having perfect information on the uncertain parameters could improve program net benefits by up to 5–21%, with the highest VOI associated with jointly eliminating uncertainty about reproductive speed of malaria‐transmitting mosquitoes and initial efficacy of larviciding at reducing the emergence of new adult mosquitoes. Future research on parameter uncertainty in decision analysis of malaria control policy should investigate the VOI with respect to other aspects of malaria transmission (such as antimalarial resistance), the costs of reducing uncertainty in these parameters, and the extent to which imperfect information about these parameters can improve payoffs.     

Inequality and the Self: Exploring Connections from an Interactionist Perspective

Symbolic interactionism provides a major contribution to understanding inequality by illuminating the various manifestations and contexts of inequality at the micro, everyday level of social life. Drawing on a spectrum of symbolic interactionist theory and research, we examine the range of symbolic and interactional manifestations of social inequality, the consequences of being the object of patterned interactional affronts, and the strategies people use to negotiate interactional stigmatization in everyday life. We argue that symbolic interaction's unique contribution to understanding inequality results from two of the perspective's central features. First, symbolic interactionism emphasizes the necessity of investigating social life in situated social interaction. Second, it highlights social actors' capacities to interpret and construct lines of action rather than respond directly to the stimuli they encounter. Symbolic interactionist research and theory thus contribute to a more complex understanding of social stratification than that provided by perspectives focused exclusively on macroscopic structural factors.     

Measuring Sharedness of Team-Related Knowledge: Design and Validation of a Shared Mental Model Instrument

Many researchers have explored how people share and construct similar mental models in teams. They have claimed that successful team performance depends on a shared mental model of team members about task, team, equipment and situation. Most of the literature has illustrated simplified relationships between a team's mental model and their performance without a valid instrument addressing the confined and relevant constructs of a shared mental model. This paper describes the instrument development steps and the conceptual framework for factors associated with shared mental models. After development and refinement, the instrument was finalized for use to measure team-related knowledge. The final instrument consists of 42 items that are linked to the five emergent factors of shared mental models including general task and team knowledge, general task and communication skills, attitude toward teammates and task, team dynamics and interactions, and team resources and working environment.     

The effects of workstation changes and behavioral interventions on safe typing postures in an office

The purpose of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of an ergonomic and behavioral safety intervention for improving participants' safe typing postures in a library office setting. A single-subject multiple baseline design across five participants was employed to evaluate the effects of the four independent variables (workstation adjustment, equipment trial (rollermouse mouse alternative), peer observations, and graphic feedback). Six participant postures were observed repeatedly while participants worked at their workstations throughout the study. Each of the interventions resulted in improvements in safety for more than one posture compared to the previous phase. Results of the study indicate that a comprehensive ergonomic program that includes a workstation adjustment and a behavioral safety approach may be helpful to produce maximum improvements in employees' safe ergonomic postures.     

A Path Analytic Model of a Theory of Quality Management Underlying the Deming Management Method: Preliminary Empirical Findings*

Despite the impact that Deming and his 14 Points have had on the practice of quality management, empirical support for the effectiveness of the Deming Management Method has not advanced beyond the presentation of anecdotal, case-study evidence. In part, this is because theory to guide the conduct of empirical research has not been available. Only recently has such a theory of quality management to describe and explain the effectiveness of the Deming Management Method been articulated in the literature. This paper continues the journey of theory development; it reports the results of an exploratory empirical analysis of an articulated theory of quality management underlying the Deming Management Method. The constructs in the proposed theory are operationalized using measurement statements developed by the World-Class Manufacturing research project team at the University of Minnesota and Iowa State University. Path analysis is applied to the World-Class Manufacturing project data to explore the empirical strength of relationships advanced in the theory. The path analytic results provide support for several of the proposed relationships in the theory, and more importantly, suggest a number of new relationships which have not heretofore been proposed.     

学区在教育变革中的作用

美国和加拿大对于学区在教育变革中的作用研究已有近40年的历史.关于学区在教育变革中的作用研究可划分为几个具有不同特点的时期,包括创新实施时期、高效学校范式时期、学校重构时期和基于标准的变革时期.综述列举了不同研究时期最重要的一些研究,并讨论了它们的研究特点和成果.在关于成功学区的案例研究的基础上,着重分析了学区在系统改进学生学习的过程中所面临的挑战、学区改进学生学习所采取的策略以及学区影响教学和学习质量的证据.同时,总结并讨论了12条促进学生学习的学区策略,提供了5个关于学区在教育变革中的作用的研究方向.     

Comparing measures of general and abdominal adiposity as predictors of blood pressure in college students

Objective: To compare anthropometric measures of body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), and sagittal abdominal diameter (SAD) as predictors of blood pressure in college students. Participants: Students (N = 116) were recruited from November 2012 to May 2014 at an urban university and rural community colleges. Methods: Students underwent a brief physical examination during which anthropometric measures were obtained and blood pressure was measured. Covariates were measured using self-reported questionnaires. Hierarchical multiple linear regressions were used for the data analysis. Results: All anthropometric measures were predictive of systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). WC was the strongest predictor of SBP (β = .582, p < .01) explaining an additional 3–4% of the variance than BMI, WHtR, or SAD. The measures were similar in predicting DBP. WC predicted SBP independent of BMI. Conclusions: Clinicians should consider using WC to assess the risk for hypertension in college students.