Drivers of plant biodiversity and ecosystem service production in home gardens across the Beijing Municipality of China

Home gardens have been recognized as repositories of agricultural biodiversity across the world. The influence of socioeconomics and location-specific factors on urban gardening patterns merits continued study. Using Beijing Municipal Province in China, a rapidly urbanizing region, as a case study, we address two questions: 1) How do biodiversity patterns change between different urbanized regions in Beijing? 2) How do ecosystem services provided by Beijing home gardens change with socioeconomic status and location-based preferences of gardeners? We surveyed 104 home gardens in Beijing Municipal Province for plant biodiversity, abundance, and species ecosystem services (ES) (provisioning or cultural uses). The gardens were distributed across three urbanized regions (suburban, peri-urban, and exurban). We found that species biodiversity and abundance shift according to a hierarchy of need from ornamentals (cultural ES) to edibles (provisioning ES) with increasing distance from Beijing. These trends are related to reduced income, lowered food security, and lack of urban markets in exurban regions. Rarefaction curves indicate ornamental species drive β diversity. Ordination also showed a shift in species composition with increasing isolation from the city; Suburban and exurban gardens were the most different, while peri-urban gardens were similar to both others. Only exurban gardens had a positive relationship between species and area. High edible cover and high species density indicates that demand for edibles in exurban regions may be higher than space constraints allows. Our study better quantifies species biodiversity patterns in Beijing, and can inform urban planners about the value and usefulness of home garden space.     

The process of coping with domestic violence in adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse

Research suggests that the use of disengaged or avoidant strategies to cope with interpersonal violence contributes to the development of depressive symptoms and other psychological difficulties. Survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) who are exposed to subsequent episodes of abuse may be more likely to rely on disengaged coping strategies, placing them at elevated risk of psychological symptomatology. In this study, we explored the interrelationships between coping, depression, and self-esteem in an ethnically diverse sample of domestic violence survivors (N = 219) with and without a history of CSA. As predicted, CSA survivors (n = 86) reported significantly greater use of disengaged coping strategies (wishful thinking, self-criticism, and social withdrawal) than non-CSA survivors (n = 133). As hypothesized, both a CSA history and the use of disengaged coping significantly predicted higher levels of depression and lower self- esteem. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Evaluating the effect of education on earnings: models, methods and results from the National Child Development Survey

Summary.  Regression, matching, control function and instrumental variables methods for recovering the effect of education on individual earnings are reviewed for single treatments and sequential multiple treatments with and without heterogeneous returns. The sensitivity of the estimates once applied to a common data set is then explored. We show the importance of correcting for detailed test score and family background differences and of allowing for (observable) heterogeneity in returns. We find an average return of 27% for those completing higher education versus anything less. Compared with stopping at 16 years of age without qualifications, we find an average return to O-levels of 18%, to A-levels of 24% and to higher education of 48%.     

Up Versus Down: The Role of Intersensory Redundancy in the Development of Infants' Sensitivity to the Orientation of Moving Objects

According to the intersensory redundancy hypothesis (IRH), during early development, perception of nonredundantly specified properties is facilitated in unimodal stimulation as compared with bimodal stimulation. Later in development, attention becomes more flexible and infants can detect nonredundantly specified properties in both unimodal and bimodal stimulation. This study tested these predictions by assessing the development of infants' sensitivity to the orientation of an object striking a surface, information that is nonredundantly specified in visual and in audiovisual stimulation. Infants of 3, 5, and 8 months were habituated to unimodal visual or bimodal, synchronous, audiovisual films of a hammer tapping a rhythm in 1 of 2 orientations (upward vs. downward). Results demonstrated an Age × Condition interaction, where younger infants (3 and 5 months) detected the orientation change in unimodal but not bimodal stimulation, whereas older infants (8 months) detected the change in both types of stimulation. Further, in a control study, 3‐month‐olds detected the orientation change when bimodal stimulation was asynchronous, demonstrating that temporal synchrony impaired performance in the bimodal condition. These findings converge with those of prior studies and support predictions of the IRH.     

Qualitative Health Research with Children

The authors of this article identify and discuss some of the practical and ethical issues of qualitative research with children. The problems are illustrated through a research study about children's experience of asthma, and the way in which they perceive and interpret their condition. It is shown that social research with children has inherent difficulties relating to access, ethical and developmental issues. Researchers do not only have to gain parental permission but also want the child to enter the research voluntarily. Because of the children's stage of development and the asymmetrical relationship between researcher and informants, adequate safeguards and awareness of these problems are essential.     

Development of Reasoning and the Tension between Scientific and Conversational Inference

We report two studies designed to examine the role of conversational understanding in young children's scientific reasoning. The results indicate that performance can be influenced by the degree of specificity in questioning. Under nonspecific questioning, accurate reasoning was associated with both vocabulary comprehension and pragmatic ability whereas under specific questioning it was associated only with vocabulary comprehension. Findings are discussed in terms of the conversational knowledge that is required for success on measures of scientific reasoning.     

Loosening the Soil of Their Thinking: A Theoretical Integration for Contracting with Low-Income Single Mothers to Stop Physical Aggression Toward Their Children

Clinical social work with low-income single mothers at-risk for physical abuse of their children traverses multiple theoretical perspectives for viewing causality and intervention in order to prevent future abuse. Cognitive-behavioral and psychodynamic approaches have figured prominently in the discourse but are often considered as opposing viewpoints. In this paper, narrative excerpts from a study about social workers’ experiences in developing working alliances with these women are used to suggest an integrative theoretical viewpoint for contracting with them to refrain from hitting their children.