Relationships between urban green land cover and human health at different spatial resolutions

Relationships between landscape patterns and ecological processes can vary with changing resolution. Many studies in ecosystem services and human health rely on spatial-dependent data, yet the effects of changes in spatial resolution on the linkages between landscape and human health are underexplored. This study seeks to address the research gap by exploring the relationships of green land cover and pattern metrics at 1 m, 10 m, and 30 m with life expectancy in the City of Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Spearman’s rho correlation and stepwise and hierarchical regression models were applied. Results showed that the effects of resolution change did not emerge for percent green land cover but were evident in other pattern metrics. Multivariate relationships showed that metrics at 1 m explained the most variability of the relationships between green land cover and life expectancy after controlling for potential confounding factors (adjusted R²?=?0.776, and 0.752 at 10 m and 0.747 at 30 m). Edge density of coarse vegetation was significantly associated with life expectancy at 1 m (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]?=?1.012, 95%CI?=?1.004–1.024, p?<?0.01) and 10 m (AOR?=?1.018, 95%CI?=?1.009–1.027, p?<?0.001) but not at 30 m. Euclidean distance of fine vegetation had a strong positive association with greater life expectancy at 1 m (AOR?=?2.067, 95%CI?=?1.185–4.072, p?<?0.05) but not at 10 m and 30 m. These findings underscore the importance of acknowledging the effects of resolution on the interpretation of landscape-human health relationships and the need for caution when results are used in planning and management decisions.

     

“It's Just a Lot of Work”: Adolescents’ Self‐Presentation Norms and Practices on Facebook and Instagram

We explored adolescents’ (12‐ to 18‐year‐olds; n = 51) awareness of their audience and subsequent self‐presentation practices on Facebook and Instagram through focus group discussions. Findings suggest that teens, who are developmentally able to perceive a situation from the third‐person perspective and who value peer approval, purposefully share content to appear interesting, well liked, and attractive. Some teens invested great effort into posting by these norms, even asking their friends to help; however, this was more common among girls. Older teens especially discussed taking the perspective of their audience when deciding what to post, which is consistent with the finding that perspective taking continues to develop throughout adolescence. These findings suggest that perspective taking skills and need for peer approval influence self‐presentation online.     

Reports of Conferences,Institutes, and Seminars

Abstract

This column covers sessions from the 2018 Charleston Library Conference, an informal annual gathering of librarians, publishers, electronic resource managers, consultants, and vendors of library materials in Charleston, South Carolina, in November. Topics include the impact of open access and open research, assisting faculty with locating and integrating these resources into their courses through partnerships and open applications, and managing gifts and donations with restricted resources.     

SOCIAL DRINKING VERSUS ADMINISTERING ALCOHOL

Alcohol consumption tends to make some people (unwillingly) tell the truth, hence social drinking can serve as a signal in social contact games. We provide empirical evidence which shows that social drinking can serve as a trust facilitating mechanism. Liver cirrhosis mortality and the rate of abstainers are used to construct a novel index of moderate alcohol consumption, which correlates with trust levels in a cross‐country analysis.(JEL L14, D82, D71)     

Identification of the variance components in the general two-variance linear model

Bayesian analyses frequently employ two-stage hierarchical models involving two-variance parameters: one controlling measurement error and the other controlling the degree of smoothing implied by the model's higher level. These analyses can be hampered by poorly identified variances which may lead to difficulty in computing and in choosing reference priors for these parameters. In this paper, we introduce the class of two-variance hierarchical linear models and characterize the aspects of these models that lead to well-identified or poorly identified variances. These ideas are illustrated with a spatial analysis of a periodontal data set and examined in some generality for specific two-variance models including the conditionally autoregressive (CAR) and one-way random effect models. We also connect this theory with other constrained regression methods and suggest a diagnostic that can be used to search for missing spatially varying fixed effects in the CAR model.     

The impact of a stress management programme on staff well-being and performance at work

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate whether employees experience emotional drain when they witness unpleasant interactions between coworkers. This was tested in a sample of staff in a UK hospital department, which included nurses, doctors, specialists and administrative staff. The study used a diary method in which participants recorded their reactions to over 1000 interpersonal interactions between coworkers across 15 work days. Multilevel analyses indicated that staff felt significantly more emotionally drained after witnessing unpleasant interactions compared to pleasant ones. This effect was mediated both by what the staff felt in response to what they witnessed and by the extent to which they controlled their feelings. Staff felt more emotionally drained when they took the perspective of the target to a greater extent and when they witnessed interactions directly (first-hand) rather than indirectly (hearsay). Witnesses appear to be vulnerable to emotional depletion because they experience an affective reaction and self-regulate their own emotional response to what they have seen or heard. This third-party effect on the witnesses of unpleasant interactions has the potential not only to have a negative effect on the individual but to pervade the organisation.     

Paternal childcare and parental leave policies: evidence from industrialized countries

This paper merges data from the Multinational Time Use Study (MTUS) with national parental leave characteristics from eight industrialized countries from 1971 to 2005 to estimate the association between national parental leave arrangements and paternal childcare. We also test whether this association varies according to a father’s educational level. We find that the number of parental leave weeks available to fathers and high rates of benefit are positively associated with fathers’ childcare time. This is generally robust when taking into account country and year as fixed effects, and other country-specific variables such as female employment rates. The magnitudes of the coefficients are economically significant. For example, high parental leave benefits compared to none are associated with an increase of almost 1 h per week in paternal childcare time. This relationship between benefit rate and time spent on childcare is strongest for highly educated fathers. They also benefit the most from exclusive ‘daddy weeks’ whereas the positive association of transferable leave to paternal childcare is solely driven by lowly educated fathers.