Effects of garden management practices,by different types of gardeners,on human wellbeing and ecological and soil sustainability in Swiss cities

Urban Ecosystems - Gardens have effects on the local ecology as well as on the wellbeing of the gardener, but few studies have attempted to study gardens using both ecological and social outcome...     

If you plant it,they will come: quantifying attractiveness of exotic plants for winter-active flower visitors in community gardens

Urban community gardens are potentially important sites for urban pollinator conservation because of their high density, diversity of flowering plants, and low pesticide use (relative to agricultural spaces). Selective planting of attractive crop plants is a simple and cost-effective strategy for attracting flower visitors to urban green spaces, however, there is limited empirical data about which plants are most attractive. Here, we identified key plant species that were important for supporting flower visitors using a network-based approach that combined metrics of flower visitor abundance and diversity on different crop species. We included a metric of ‘popularity’ which assessed how frequently a particular plant appeared within community gardens. We also determined the impact of garden characteristics such as size, flower species richness, and flower species density on the abundance and diversity of flower visitors. Two plant species, Brassica rapa and Ocimum basilicum were identified as being particularly important species for supporting flower visitor populations. Flower species richness had a strong positive effect on both the abundance and diversity of flower visitors. We suggest that gardeners can maximise the conservation value of their gardens by planting a wide variety of flowering plants including attractive plants such as B. rapa and O. basilicum.

     

Precarious workers' choices about unemployment insurance membership after the Ghent system reform: The Finnish experience

The literature on the Ghent system has focused on the link between voluntary unemployment insurance and union membership in terms of industrial relations. Less attention has been paid to unemployment benefits and employees' decision‐making concerning unemployment insurance, even though the core function of the Ghent system is to provide unemployment insurance. This paper examines both of the options that precarious workers (i.e., part‐timers, temporary employees, and low‐skilled service employees) choose regarding unemployment insurance membership and the change in union density after the Ghent system reform in Finland. First, the results show that the growth of the independent unemployment insurance fund was the main reason for declining union density in the 2000s and early 2010s. Second, in terms of precarious workers, we find that the emergence of the independent fund has affected their choices about unemployment insurance membership and that their choices depend on the type of precarious employment they have. Moreover, part‐timers and temporary employees younger than 35 years of age are much less likely to enroll in unemployment insurance than older employees who have the same types of employment contracts.     

WINNING IN PROFESSIONAL TEAM SPORTS: HISTORICAL MOMENTS

Our aims in this paper are to (1) examine the higher moments of the distribution of winning percentages and (2) discover economic implications of such an examination. The results prove useful to both current sports league policy questions and future research. We speculate that the institutional differences between North American pro leagues and European soccer leagues will prove fruitful areas for future research on the determination of competitive balance. (JEL C1, L83, Z20)     

Assessing Racial and Ethnic Differences in Attitudes towards the Use of Physical Discipline in Parenting: A Mixed-Methods Approach

Using a concurrent nested mixed-methods approach, this study assessed racial and ethnic differences in attitudes towards the use of physical discipline in parenting based on data recently collected in Nebraska. Relative to Non-Hispanic White parents, African American parents were more likely to approve the practice of physical punishment to correct misbehavior of children, whereas Hispanic parents were less likely to support physical punishment. There was a positive relationship between acculturation and approval of physical discipline among Hispanic parents. Understanding these differences can help inform the design and implementation of future parenting education programs for parents of different racial and ethnic backgrounds.     

Parameter estimation for mixtures of skew Laplace normal distributions and application in mixture regression modeling

In this article, we propose mixtures of skew Laplace normal (SLN) distributions to model both skewness and heavy-tailedness in the neous data set as an alternative to mixtures of skew Student-t-normal (STN) distributions. We give the expectation–maximization (EM) algorithm to obtain the maximum likelihood (ML) estimators for the parameters of interest. We also analyze the mixture regression model based on the SLN distribution and provide the ML estimators of the parameters using the EM algorithm. The performance of the proposed mixture model is illustrated by a simulation study and two real data examples.     

Defining the Universe of Social Enterprise: Competing Metaphors

After more than a decade of research the debate over social enterprise definitions and classifications continues. EMES network in Europe argues that there is an ideal type of social enterprise to which all ventures should aspire. The spectrum approach emphasizes the trade-off between pure profit-making and social impact, locating organizations on this continuum. The Schumpeterians take innovation as its central focus, arguing that the disruption of the status quo is an important differentiator. We argue that each falls short of providing an adequate framework for future research, policy, and practice. Instead we offer an alternative metaphor, that of a social enterprise zoo; many different “animals” combine social and market goals in substantially different ways and each species has distinct environments and needs. Using the metaphor we consider the important components of a meaningful research agenda and examine the place of social entrepreneurs within the social enterprise zoo.     

Understanding publics’ perception and behaviors in crisis communication: Effects of crisis news framing and publics’ acquisition,selection, and transmission of information in crisis situations

This study aims to better understand publics’ perception and communicative behaviors in crisis communication. The extant research has overlooked how framing factors and different publics’ communicative behaviors directly influence crisis outcomes, including reputation and behavioral intentions. An online experiment with 1,113 participants was conducted to fill the gap. The findings demonstrated that preventable crisis news framing was a strong negative predictor for crisis outcomes. Another finding based on Communicative Action in Problem Solving (CAPS) in Situational Theory of Problem Solving (STOPS) revealed that information attending, forwarding, and seeking are positively associated with reputation and behavioral intentions.     

Is your church “liked” on Facebook? Social media use of Christian congregations in the United States

Despite the increasing interests in social media platforms among religious congregations, little is known about the patterns of these organizations' social media use. This study examines religious congregations' adoption of Facebook, using the data from the 2012 National Congregations Study. The results show that Christian congregations' involvement in nonreligious activities, both social service and political activities, predicts their Facebook adoption. Congregations' membership size and staff resources are also positively associated with their Facebook use. Other organizational characteristics, including religious tradition, clergyperson's age, and urban location, also explain congregations' Facebook use. Overall, the findings suggest that Christian congregations' adoption of social media platforms is closely related with their community outreach and social marketing activities as well as their resources. This study concludes with suggestions for narrowing the gap in social media use between resource‐rich and resource‐restricted congregations, as well as between urban and rural congregations.