Reducing Electricity Use on Campus: The Use of Prompts,Feedback, and Goal Setting to Decrease Excessive Classroom Lighting

Energy conservation is an important factor in both sustainability programs and operating costs faced by organizations. The current study used visual prompts, performance feedback, and goals setting to reduce unnecessary classroom lighting on a college campus. A package intervention was applied weekly over a semester using a multiple baseline design across three units, with one unit serving as a baseline-only control. Signs were hung in classrooms and updated weekly. The signs asked users to conserve energy by turning off the lights when the room is not in use, and indicated progress toward a goal for the current room as well as the building overall. The combined treatment successfully reduced unnecessary classroom lighting and generated interest in campus sustainability programs.     

A CGE Framework for Modeling the Economics of Flooding and Recovery in a Major Urban Area

Coastal cities around the world have experienced large costs from major flooding events in recent years. Climate change is predicted to bring an increased likelihood of flooding due to sea level rise and more frequent severe storms. In order to plan future development and adaptation, cities must know the magnitude of losses associated with these events, and how they can be reduced. Often losses are calculated from insurance claims or surveying flood victims. However, this largely neglects the loss due to the disruption of economic activity. We use a forward‐looking dynamic computable general equilibrium model to study how a local economy responds to a flood, focusing on the subsequent recovery/reconstruction. Initial damage is modeled as a shock to the capital stock and recovery requires rebuilding that stock. We apply the model to Vancouver, British Columbia by considering a flood scenario causing total capital damage of $14.6 billion spread across five municipalities. GDP loss relative to a no‐flood scenario is relatively long‐lasting. It is 2.0% ($2.2 billion) in the first year after the flood, 1.7% ($1.9 billion) in the second year, and 1.2% ($1.4 billion) in the fifth year.     

The fanta-sy of global products: fizzy-drinks,differentiated ubiquity and the placing of globalization

ABSTRACT

If globalization is conceived as an outcome of negotiations between places and relational processes, how do researchers capture such amorphous complexity? Drawing upon the framework of assemblage theory this paper unpicks the plethora of processes and practices encompassed within the problematic term ‘globalization’. Focusing on the ‘banal’ object of a can of Fanta, we demonstrate how this exists in an assemblage which maintains coherence across space (i.e. is universally recognizable) yet is spatially differentiated in its components. Shedding light on how these processes coalesce in place we argue for the acknowledgement of the ‘ubiquitous’ in making place and the importance of difference in underpinning the ‘global’.     

Children's humour and the grotesque pleasures in school mealtime socialisation

In this paper, we argue for two propositions: children are socialised and guided to become competent members of school mealtime community, and children have the capacity to modify and challenge existing practices. We draw on Bakhtin's concepts of the carnivalesque laughter and grotesque realism to illustrate how children use humour to test the boundaries of what is permitted. Children's mealtime interactions foster the development of social skills to subvert and negotiate adult authority and manage unfolding interactions between children and adults. We present findings from a child-centred perspective in a primary school in the United Kingdom.     

The development of gaze following in monolingual and bilingual infants: A multi-laboratory study

Determining the meanings of words requires language learners to attend to what other people say. However, it behooves a young language learner to simultaneously encode relevant non-verbal cues, for example, by following the direction of their eye gaze. Sensitivity to cues such as eye gaze might be particularly important for bilingual infants, as they encounter less consistency between words and objects than monolingual infants, and do not always have access to the same word-learning heuristics (e.g., mutual exclusivity). In a preregistered study, we tested the hypothesis that bilingual experience would lead to a more pronounced ability to follow another's gaze. We used a gaze-following paradigm developed by Senju and Csibra (Current Biology, 18, 2008, 668) to test a total of 93 6- to 9-month-old and 229 12- to 15-month-old monolingual and bilingual infants, in 11 laboratories located in 8 countries. Monolingual and bilingual infants showed similar gaze-following abilities, and both groups showed age-related improvements in speed, accuracy, frequency, and duration of fixations to congruent objects. Unexpectedly, bilinguals tended to make more frequent fixations to on-screen objects, whether or not they were cued by the actor. These results suggest that gaze sensitivity is a fundamental aspect of development that is robust to variation in language exposure.     

Access,boundaries and confidence: The ABC of facilitating continuity of care experience in midwifery education

BackgroundTo register as a midwife in Australia, students must complete minimum requirements of clinical experiences throughout their programme. This includes following women through their childbirth journey in order to gain continuity of care experience. Research suggests that women and students find the continuity of care experience (COCE) valuable. Nevertheless, students cite difficulty in achieving these experiences.Aim This project sought to explore the challenges and identify supportive strategies for midwifery students undertaking the COCE.MethodsThis project adopted an action research approach incorporating the four stages of planning, action, observation and reflection. This paper specifically reports the findings from the planning stage in which a focus group with education providers, facilitator and students was conducted and a survey with students (n = 69) was undertaken. Key themes were identified through thematic analysis and a number of actions were proposed.FindingsThree main themes, ‘access’, ‘boundaries’ and ‘confidence’ were identified as challenges for students undertaking the COCE. Students raised concern regarding lack of access to women for COCE. They identified a need to establish clear professional and personal boundaries in managing the COCE. Students also highlighted the significance of confidence on the success of their experience. Throughout the study students identified strategies that could assist in the COCE.ConclusionThere is a need for clarity and support around the COCE for all stakeholders. Placing the COCE within a Service Learning model is one response that ensures that this experience is understood as being symbiotic for women and students and enables supportive actions to be developed and implemented.     

Maternal experiences of intimate partner violence and adolescent delinquency: Pathways through parenting stress and harsh parenting behaviors

Abstract

Women with children in the home are more likely to report experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) compared to women without children in the home. Consistently, research has identified an association between maternal experiences of IPV and adolescent delinquency. While research has suggested that this link may be explained through parenting factors, there are limited studies exploring sequential mediators that may explain how maternal experiences of IPV are related to distal outcomes, such as adolescent delinquency. The present study investigated mechanisms that might explain the association between early maternal experiences of IPV and adolescent delinquency. Data were collected as part of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), a longitudinal birth cohort study. Using a structural equation modeling approach, parenting stress and both physically and psychologically harsh parenting behaviors were examined as sequential mediators in the association between the latent construct of maternal experiences of IPV and adolescent delinquency. Findings supported one sequential mediation mechanism: maternal parenting stress at child age five and psychologically harsh parenting at child age nine mediated the association between maternal experiences of IPV and adolescent delinquency at child age 15. In contrast, support was not demonstrated for the other proposed sequential mediation mechanism: maternal parenting stress at child age five and physically aggressive parenting at year nine did not mediate the link between maternal experiences of IPV and adolescent delinquency child age 15. The present study suggests maternal parenting stress and psychologically harsh parenting behaviors should be examined when referred for psychological services for experiences of IPV.     

Parenting Practices and Adolescent Sexual Behavior: A Longitudinal Study

The effects of parental attitudes, practices, and television mediation on adolescent sexual behaviors were investigated in a study of adolescent sexuality and media (N = 887). Confirmatory factor analyses supported an eight‐factor parenting model with television mediation factors as constructs distinct from general parenting practices. Logistic regressions indicated that adolescents reporting greater parental disapproval and limits on viewing at Wave 1 were less likely to initiate oral sex between Waves 1 and 2. Adolescents who reported more sexual communication with parents were more likely to initiate oral sex. Results for vaginal intercourse were similar to those for oral sex. Coviewing was a significant negative predictor of initiation of sexual behavior. Parental attitudes and television mediation can delay potentially risky adolescent sexual behaviors.