Migrant Farmworkers\u27 Perceptions of Pesticide Risk Exposure in Adams County, Pennsylvania: A Cultural Risk Assessment

Agricultural exceptionalism, a system in which regular labor laws and standards do not apply to farm labor, makes migrant farmworkers particularly vulnerable populations—economically, socially, and in terms of environmental health. To address inequities inherent in migrant farmworker margin­aliza­tion, studies advocate for actively engaging the migrant farmworker population in the conversation surrounding these issues. We conducted 40 semi­structured interviews with migrant farmworkers in Adams County, Pennsylvania, to understand pesti­cide risk exposure perceptions and practices. We employed the Health Belief Model as our cultural risk assessment frame, using it in combination with technical risk assessment, which uses government calculations (from the Environmental Protection Agency) to quantify pesticide risk exposure. We used mixed methods analyses (quantitative and qualitative) to compare and understand farmworker demographics, perceived risk, perceived control, and risk behavior. Results show that demo­graphics —e.g., age, education, visa status—are important factors in risk perception. They also confirm observations present in many earlier studies. While trainings and educational materials are valuable to help build awareness of risk, a systemic lack of control over their circumstances make it hard for migrant farmworkers to engage in safe behavior. Results also highlight the limitations of technical risk assessment. Such calculations, however, rarely account for risk perceptions and experiences of farm­workers themselves. Acknowledging the voices of migrant farmworkers is an essential first step in rebalancing inequities of power in our food systems, and cultural risk assessment can help frame recommendations that target different stake­holders across the pesticide regulatory spectrum to ensure migrant farmworker needs and safety

Online communities: utilising emerging technologies to improve crime prevention knowledge, practice and dissemination

Foreword: Online communities are increasingly being recognised as a way of sharing ideas and knowledge among different practitioner communities, particularly when practitioners are not able to meet face to face. This paper explores the considerations associated with establishing online communities for crime prevention practitioners, drawing on research from across the community of practice, online community and knowledge management sectors. The paper provides an overview of the administrative considerations of online community development, as well as the key barriers and enablers to practitioner engagement in an online community, and the potential implications for a crime prevention-specific practitioner community. As such, it is a useful tool for those in the crime prevention sector wanting to maximise the influence of an existing online community or to guide those contemplating the implementation of an online community of practice in the future

Consumer Preferences and Trade-Offs for Locally Grown and Genetically Modified Apples: A Conjoint Analysis Approach

Using conjoint analysis methodology, this study used an online survey to measure consumers’ preferences for the apple attributes as place of production, method of production, and price. The results of the conjoint analysis indicate that consumers are willing to make trade offs between the studied attributes. Segment analysis indicates Place-oriented consumers may be willing to pay 60% to 70% premiums for locally grown apples. The high consumer preferences for locally grown products combined with environmental benefits transferred through genetic modification provide an opportunity for producers to capture and build their markets, especially within certain market segments.conjoint analysis, consumer preferences, GM, locally grown, Consumer/Household Economics, Q10, Q13,

Soil Governance: Accessing Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives

Soil provides the foundation for agricultural and environmental systems, and are subject to a complex governance regime of property rights and secondary impacts from industry and domestic land use. Complex natural resource management issues require approaches to governance that acknowledge uncertainty and complexity. Theories of next generation environmental governance assume that inclusion of diverse perspectives will improve reform directions and encourage behaviour change. This paper reports on a qualitative survey of an international workshop that brought together cross-disciplinary perspectives to address the challenges of soil governance. Results reveal the challenges of communicating effectively across disciplines. The findings suggest that strategies for improved soils governance must focus on increasing communications with community stakeholders and engaging land managers in designing shared governance regimes. The need for more conscious articulation of the challenges of cross-disciplinary environments is discussed and strategies for increasing research collaboration in soils governance are suggested. The identified need for more systematic approaches to cross-disciplinary learning, including reporting back of cross-disciplinary initiatives to help practitioners learn from past experience, forms part of the rationale for this paper

Concept Interview Assignment to Foster Intentional Learning in Nursing Students

Intentional learning is the process of acquiring skills and attributes that facilitate knowledge attainment and application, and this process may foster learning skills and attributes in nursing students so they may thrive in student-centered nursing curricula and competently practice in today’s dynamic and complex healthcare system. The purposes of this study were to determine 1) if there are any associations between academic achievement and intentional learning and 2) if there is an effect of a nursing concept interview assignment on academic achievement and intentional learning scores in second-semester nursing students. The majority of studies on intentional learning were quasi-experimental designs providing strong evidence. Positive associations with intentional learning discovered in these studies include higher order thinking, learner satisfaction, efficacy, autonomy, learning how to learn, and self-reflection and evaluation. The interview assignment, developed in the accounting discipline, has demonstrated initial promising results and is adaptable to nursing education as both disciplines have similar end goals to prepare students for practice through professional formation. However, the studies involving the interview assignment did not use an instrument to measure intentional learning, which would strengthen the findings. This study used the Learning Orientation Questionnaire (LOQ), which has demonstrated sound psychometric properties. The Conceptual Model for Successful Intentional Learning was adapted to guide this study. This model is based on neuroscience research on the limbic system (i.e., emotional center of the brain) and supports the use of individualized approaches to support and teach students. These approaches specifically target areas of need based on the student’s intentional learning ability and foster areas for improvement, such as goal setting, prioritization, reflection, and self-evaluation. A quasi-experimental, two group (experimental and comparison) pretest/posttest design was used for this study. A convenience sample of 92 students in the second semester of a Bachelor of Science in nursing program in the midwestern United States was used. All students enrolled in a nursing theory course were given a demographic survey and LOQ at the beginning of the second semester. The intervention, a nursing concept interview assignment, occurred throughout the semester with the experimental group only. The LOQ was administered again at the end of the semester to both groups of students to answer research questions one and three. Lastly, final exam scores for all students were analyzed at the end of the semester as a measure of academic achievement to answer research questions one and two. Respective to the three research questions asked in this study, statistical analyses demonstrated 1) no significant relationship between final examination scores and posttest LOQ scores; 2) significant differences for final examination scores between the comparison and experimental group, with students in the comparison group scoring higher on the final examination (p = .000), which was an unexpected finding; and 3) no interaction effect of time by group and no differences in pretest and posttest LOQ scores between groups after completing the nursing concept interview assignment. Although not a specific research question in this study, it was discovered that LOQ scores significantly increased from the beginning to the end of the semester, regardless of group (p = .039). While the intervention trialed in this study did not influence this change, other interventions and/or factors must be studied to determine how to positively impact intentional learning in nursing students so they gain the characteristics needed for student-centered nursing curricula and practice

Developing a panarchy model of landscape conservation and management of alpine-mountain grassland in Northern Italy.

This paper explores methods of applying resilience theory to a case study of natural resource management and the cultural landscape of upland and alpine pasture in northern Italy. We identify that the close interaction between alpine pastures and its managers offers a strong fit with the concept of a social-ecological system that maintains the cultural landscape. We first considered a descriptive approach looking historically at socio-economic development in the study area. We explored whether this can be related to resilience phenomena such as regime shifts, thresholds and/or regime stability through adaptive processes. However, we found it difficult at this overarching level to conceptually combine natural and social capital of alpine pastures and their managers in any quantitative way. We also interpreted our data through considering economic, social and ecological information as acting within separate but interacting domains. This led us to construct conceptual models of adaptive cycles to describe the alpine mountain grassland ecosystem of our study site and to conclude that a panarchy model can offer a powerful metaphor for its ecological dynamics. This has practical implications both for the management of Natura 2000 interest and the maintenance of the cultural landscape in which this Alpine interest occurs. We suggest that Resilience theory through its dynamic approach of interacting scales of adaptive cycles offers useful insights into the resource management (of valued cultural and natural attributes) but that care is needed in distinguishing between descriptive metaphor and predictive model or "real" system.natural resource management, natural and social capital

TB STIGMA – MEASUREMENT GUIDANCE

TB is the most deadly infectious disease in the world, and stigma continues to play a significant role in worsening the epidemic. Stigma and discrimination not only stop people from seeking care but also make it more difficult for those on treatment to continue, both of which make the disease more difficult to treat in the long-term and mean those infected are more likely to transmit the disease to those around them. TB Stigma – Measurement Guidance is a manual to help generate enough information about stigma issues to design and monitor and evaluate efforts to reduce TB stigma. It can help in planning TB stigma baseline measurements and monitoring trends to capture the outcomes of TB stigma reduction efforts. This manual is designed for health workers, professional or management staff, people who advocate for those with TB, and all who need to understand and respond to TB stigma

Consumers’ resistance to digital innovations: A systematic review and framework development

Consumer resistance is one of the major causes of failure of any innovation. Despite rising academic interest, the non-adoption of digital innovation or consumer resistance has received less scholarly attention as compared to the factors driving the adoption of digital products and services. The existing research on consumer resistance is also in siloes, running across multiple verticals, spanning from resistance to green products to the Internet of things (IoT). The current study provides a systematic review of the extant literature on consumer resistance to digital innovations by utilising the systematic literature review (SLR) methodology. A total of 54 studies were selected for content analysis to isolate thematic foci, identify research gaps, recommend future research avenues and develop a framework. Our analysis revealed that the extant literature could be grouped under broad research themes, namely resistance to digital innovations, organisational resistance to technological innovations, resistance to technological healthcare innovations and consumer resistance to innovations (offline). The results of this SLR study are expected to galvanise future research in this area from the theoretical as well as from a practice-oriented perspective by providing various actionable inputs to combat consumer resistance to digital innovations.publishedVersio

Consumers’ resistance to digital innovations: A systematic review and framework development

Consumer resistance is one of the major causes of failure of any innovation. Despite rising academic interest, the non-adoption of digital innovation or consumer resistance has received less scholarly attention as compared to the factors driving the adoption of digital products and services. The existing research on consumer resistance is also in siloes, running across multiple verticals, spanning from resistance to green products to the Internet of things (IoT). The current study provides a systematic review of the extant literature on consumer resistance to digital innovations by utilising the systematic literature review (SLR) methodology. A total of 54 studies were selected for content analysis to isolate thematic foci, identify research gaps, recommend future research avenues and develop a framework. Our analysis revealed that the extant literature could be grouped under broad research themes, namely resistance to digital innovations, organisational resistance to technological innovations, resistance to technological healthcare innovations and consumer resistance to innovations (offline). The results of this SLR study are expected to galvanise future research in this area from the theoretical as well as from a practice-oriented perspective by providing various actionable inputs to combat consumer resistance to digital innovations.publishedVersio