A Survey of Student Interest in Construction Management Students’ Involvement in Design Village Competition

Included in this paper are the results of two surveys that were designed to assess student interest in Construction Management students’ participation in the annual Design Village Competition hosted by Cal Poly every spring. Sixty-five Architecture and Architectural Engineering, and thirty Construction Management undergraduate students completed these surveys at the College of Architecture and Environmental Design (CAED), Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The overall student interest level in both groups was majority positive. To delve deeper into potential benefits and obstacles on this subject, along with quantitative data from the surveys, there is also qualitative data from faculty member interviews, one from Architectural Engineering and one from Construction Management. The results from these interviews present some significant logistical barriers to this idea becoming a reality, but also their potential solutions

Measuring Competency in Social Work: LGBTQIA Populations

The study conducted interviews to measure the level of competency social workers have assisting members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and/or questioning, intersex, and asexual community (LGBTQIA+) using a qualitative exploratory research design. Data was collected from nine social workers from the United States of America. Key findings indicated the participants generally did not feel competent to work with this community, particularly transgender persons. Training at work, through school, or learned on their own about serving LGBTQIA+ clients were generally limited in scope. Lastly, findings on what the participants thought the specialized needs of the transgender population were ranged from more education, quality mental health services, and access to health care. Recommendations include agencies requiring yearly mandatory LGBTQIA+ training, utilizing affirmative and trauma informed care, and the hiring and supporting of queer social workers to increase visibility in the field

Does Gender Raise the Ethical Bar? Exploring the Punishment of Ethical Violations at Work

We investigate whether women are targets of more severe punishment than men following ethical violations at work. Using a large sample of working adults, Study 1 finds that ethical behavior is more strongly prescribed for women than for men. Women face intensified ethical prescriptions, relative to a gender-neutral person. Study 2 experimentally tests whether women are punished more severely than men. Study 2 also tests the scope of our theory by asking whether women are punished more for errors in general, or only for ethical violations. Study 3 examines our effect in the field by examining how severely attorneys are punished for violating the American Bar Association’s ethical rules. Female attorneys are punished more severely than male attorneys, after accounting for a variety of factors. Study 3 also provides evidence that the gender make-up of the decision-making group that allots punishment serves to moderate the extent of discriminatory punishments. When a larger percentage of women sat on the judges’ panels overseeing attorney disciplinary hearings, disparities in allotted punishment between men and women were smaller. Our research documents a new prescriptive stereotype faced by women and helps to explain gender disparities in organizations. It highlights punishment severity as a novel mechanism by which institutions derail women’s careers more than men’s

Taking a social-class-in-context perspective on the psychology of social class

Social class researchers in social psychology have pushed the field to become more focused on and attentive to the critical role of sociocultural contexts. In this article, we label and articulate the key ingredients of the approach that many social psychological researchers have come to use: what we refer to as a social-class-in-context perspective. This perspective means attending to the contextual differences in resources that create social class differences in psychology and behavior. We also suggest some additional steps that researchers can take to become even more attentive to and responsive to the important role of contexts in creating social class. As a first step, we suggest the importance of adopting a definition of social class that directly explicates its relationship to similar constructs, such as power and status, and also links it to the contexts that produce it. Second, building on this definition of social class, we then describe the importance of taking a multi-level approach to understanding how different social class contexts shape psychology and behavior. Finally, we articulate the important implications and future directions that emerge from intentionally adopting this perspective

Development of a novel in vitro strategy to understand the impact of shaving on skin health: combining tape strip exfoliation and human skin equivalent technology

Introduction: The removal of unwanted hair is a widespread grooming practice adopted by both males and females. Although many depilatory techniques are now available, shaving remains the most common, despite its propensity to irritate skin. Current techniques to investigate the impact of shaving regimes on skin health rely on costly and lengthy clinical trials, which hinge on recruitment of human volunteers and can require invasive biopsies to elucidate cellular and molecular-level changes. Methods: Well-characterised human skin equivalent technology was combined with a commonplace dermatological technique of tape stripping, to remove cellular material from the uppermost layer of the skin (stratum corneum). This method of exfoliation recapitulated aspects of razor-based shaving in vitro, offering a robust and standardised in vitro method to study inflammatory processes such as those invoked by grooming practices. Results: Tape strip insult induced inflammatory changes in the skin equivalent such as: increased epidermal proliferation, epidermal thickening, increased cytokine production and impaired barrier function. These changes paralleled effects seen with a single dry razor pass, correlated with the number of tape strips removed, and were attenuated by pre-application of shaving foam, or post-application of moisturisation. Discussion: Tape strip removal is a common dermatological technique, in this study we demonstrate a novel application of tape stripping, to mimic barrier damage and inflammation associated with a dry shave. We validate this method, comparing it to razor-based shaving in vitro and demonstrate the propensity of suitable shave- and skin-care formulations to mitigate damage. This provides a novel methodology to examine grooming associated damage and a platform for screening potential skin care formulations

Persistent reduced ecosystem respiration after insect disturbance in high elevation forests

Amid a worldwide increase in tree mortality, mountain pine beetles (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) have led to the death of billions of trees from Mexico to Alaska since 2000. This is predicted to have important carbon, water and energy balance feedbacks on the Earth system. Counter to current projections, we show that on a decadal scale, tree mortality causes no increase in ecosystem respiration from scales of several square metres up to an 84 km2 valley. Rather, we found comparable declines in both gross primary productivity and respiration suggesting little change in net flux, with a transitory recovery of respiration 6–7 years after mortality associated with increased incorporation of leaf litter C into soil organic matter, followed by further decline in years 8–10. The mechanism of the impact of tree mortality caused by these biotic disturbances is consistent with reduced input rather than increased output of carbon