Natural Resource Management in Pastoral Africa

Current research on rangeland ecology suggests that we have less to fear from pastoral land stewardship than was previously thought. On the one hand, the natural environments exploited by pastoralists are generally robust and resilient. And on the other hand, pastoral techniques of land management are not as dysfunctional as was once widely assumed. While regulation of pastoral activity may be necessary in specific circumstances, there no longer exists a broad scientific mandate to control or modify almost every aspect of pastoral land use in order to preserve the environment.     

Authors’ response: on the role of data,statistics and decisions in a pandemic

AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis -     

Family Cohesion in the Lives of Mexican American and European American Parents

This study investigated similarities and differences in relations between stress and parenting behaviors for 509 Mexican American and European American fathers and mothers in Southern California. Our model posited that family cohesion mediates the relation between stressors and parenting behavior, and we found that family cohesion strongly mediated most of the relations between stress and parenting behaviors. Important ethnic and gender differences were evident. In contrast with other groups, Mexican American fathers reported higher levels of family cohesion when faced with economic pressures. Implications for future research on stress and parenting are discussed.     

Health-enhancing physical activity during practice among student football managers at a Division I university

Abstract

Objective: Student football managers have demands on their time that may pose barriers to meeting recommended current physical activity (PA) guidelines. The study sought to assess the amount of PA obtained by student football managers at a NCAA Division I Football university. Participants: Subjects were student football managers (n?=?14) with data collected in the fall 2015. Methods: Participants wore an Omron HJ-720ITFFP pedometer for seven consecutive days during football activities only, while self-reporting their overall PA on day 7. Measures were analyzed using repeated measures and mixed-design ANOVAs. Results: Managers averaged 8474 steps/day for each practice/game. All PA measures significantly varied by day and manager experience. Overall PA equated to 78?hours of walking. Conclusions: Student football managers easily met and surpassed the recommended aerobic health-enhancing PA guideline. While their manager-related PA was 140?minutes per week, other PA allowed them to easily reach significantly healthy levels of PA.     

On the role of data,statistics and decisions in a pandemic

AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis - A pandemic poses particular challenges to decision-making because of the need to continuously adapt decisions to rapidly changing evidence and available...     

Parteineigung als Fakt oder Parteineigung durch Fakten

Textbooks in empirical research of voting behavior usually distinguish between the sociological approach, the social psychological approach and the rational choice approach. The distinction is based on the component of explanation on which each approach is focused. In doing so, it is neglected that the logic of explanation changes in accordance to the main determinant of voting behavior. This paper points out this difference between the three approaches, while concentrating on party affiliation and issues as components of explanation. With reference to the “Retrospective Voting” approach of Fiorina and attitude theories of Fishbein, Ajzen and Fazio an integrative model is presented in which the specific relevance of one of the two components of explanation depends on the mode of decision making. The mode of decision making again also determines the logic of explanation.