Green IS/IT:an overview of historical periods, recent research initiatives and theoretical approaches

Abstract In this paper, we discuss historical periods and recent research initiatives and theoretical approaches to Green Information Systems and Technologies (GIS/IT). Having observed that the GIS/IT history is an insufficiently investigated topic, we used Information Systems History (ISH) research methods, such as periodization, contextualization and generalization. With the help of exploring existing variety of theories and initiatives, we provide clarification of evolution of the GIS/IT concept and explore areas in industry and research that are currently lacking insight. Our methodological diversification of the GIS/IT research assists not only in summarizing the current state of the GIS/IT but also in encouraging ideation and cooperation of the academics from different fields to produce novel outlooks on the GIS/IT

The PDS: a study of the development and stabilisation of the PDS as an eastern German regional party, 1989 - 2000.

This study examines the place of the PDS within the German political system. By developing and employing a typology of regional parties this work illustrates that the PDS has been politically successful on account of its mobilisation of distinct territorial interests - in much the same way as other regional parties across the democratic world have done. The creation of a territorial divide along the former inner-German border has offered the PDS the opportunity to re-model its image and profile as the protector of eastern German specificity. The West German party system that expanded eastwards in 1990 has not been able to sufficiently channel regionally specific sentiment into the political process: and it is for this reason that a regional party has been able to stabilise itself in the eastern states. The PDS has taken advantage of a number of structural advantages (in terms of its regional heritage, leadership, its party organisation and so forth) in moulding and shaping a policy package that reflects the differing opinions, attitudes, values and beliefs of many eastern Germans. It is as a result of this that the PDS has been able to stabilise its position within the eastern German regional party system and to build a platform that offers it the opportunity of being a longterm actor in the German party system

Preventing overweight and improving parenting skills from birth to age 3 years: preliminary results

Background. Parenting has been associated with child weight status. This study aims to evaluate the effects on parenting skills and BMI-SDS of the BBOFT+ overweight prevention program, compared to care-as-usual (CAU). Method. In a cluster-randomized trial, 2500 parents participated. Parent-reported weight and length were used. Parenting was measured with subscales control and reinforcement of the parenting strategies for eating and activity scale (PEAS) and the warmth subscale from the Child Rearing Questionnaire. Results. The first univariate analyses show that at age 15 months, no statistically significant differences in BMI- SDS, parental control, reinforcement or warmth were found between the BBOFT+ and the CAU group. Further cluster analyses need to be conducted. Results from age 36 months will be presented during the conference, which will include all subscales of the PEAS and an assessment of parenting styles. Conclusion. The intervention does not seem to have an effect on BMI-SDS or parenting

Men in the Family: Constructions and Performance of Masculinity in England, c.1700-1820

PhDThis thesis examines the meanings, constructions, and performances of masculinity in the long eighteenth century, c.1700-1820, within familial relationships. Rather than reading the codes of masculinity out of representational sources, the thesis engages with men's lived experiences as depicted in ego-documents, such as letters, diaries, memoirs and autobiographies, in which contemporaries reflected on and made sense of their actions and behaviours. Thus, the work is in essence – what I coin – a cultural history of lived experiences. Rather than analysing men's activities in the public sphere or taking for granted their patriarchal omnipotence in the house, this thesis puts men back into the fundamental unit of human interpersonal relationships: the family ties, which has received less attention by scholars of men's history. Inspired by R. W. Connell's concept of masculinity, the thesis analyses men's lives through three connected themes: gender hierarchy, practices of gendered roles and obligations, and the impact of these practices on family relationships and individuals' characters and personalities. It explores five key male roles and familial identities: suitor, husband, father, son, and brother. It asks, firstly, how masculinity was fashioned within familial contexts; secondly, what the prevailing concepts of manhood were when men's identities changed according to their different familial stations; thirdly, how men performed their gendered roles to their family members to express, negotiate, and gain social recognition of their gender identities. The thesis argues that the family was a crucial locus in which masculinity was engendered, fashioned and performed. It therefore contributes to men's history in general by demonstrating how family ties could shape and fashion male gendered identities through the practices of family duties. Familial relationships did play vital roles helping men to construct and perform masculinity, no less than in public domains or in the possession of a household.The Queen Sirikit Scholarship (Thailand