The effect of spatial position of calorie information on choice, consumption and attention. ESRI WP615, February 2019

We report a “lab-in-the-field” experiment designed to test the impact of posting calories on menus. The study adds substantially to previous work by testing different spatial arrangements of price and calorie information. Choices were real, not hypothetical, and participants were unaware that their lunch choice was part of a study, even though their eye-movements were being tracked. Participants exposed to calorie information ordered 93 fewer calories (11%) relative to a control group. The impact was strongest when calorie information was presented on menus just to the right of the price, in an equivalent font. The difference in number of calories consumed was greater still. These effects were mediated by knowledge of the amount of calories in the meal, implying that calorie posting led to more informed decision making. There was no impact on enjoyment of the meal. Eye-tracking data suggested that this arrangement altered the decision process such that greater decision weight was given to calorie content

Greenhouse Gas Emission Mitigation and Emission Intensities in Agriculture

Energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions are closely linked. This paper reviews agricultural options to reduce energy intensities and their impacts, discusses important accounting issues related to system boundaries, land scarcity, and measurement units, and compares agricultural energy intensities and improvement potentials on an international level. Agricultural development in the past decades, while increasing yields, led to lower average energy efficiencies between the sixties and mid eighties. In the last two decades, energy intensities in developed countries increased, however, with little impact on greenhouse gas emissions. Efficiency differences across countries suggest a maximum improvement potential of 500 million tons of CO2 annually.Energy intensity, Agriculture, Greenhouse gas emissions, Mitigation potential, Fertilizer efficiency

Underestimation of money growth and pensions: Experimental investigations. ESRI WP611, February 2019

People underestimate long-term growth in savings because they linearise exponential growth – a phenomenon known as exponential growth bias (EGB). This bias has implications for multiple financial decisions, particularly those relating to pensions. We hypothesised that underestimation might be even more severe for regular savings relative to lump sums, because savers need also to estimate accumulation. The additional cognitive load could strengthen EGB, or individuals might underestimate accumulation in addition to EGB. Four experiments investigated: (1) whether underestimation of money growth is greater for long streams of regular savings than for lump sums; (2) whether underestimation occurs when questions are framed intuitively as the cost of delaying starting a pension; and (3) whether practice with a calculator designed to illustrate the cost of delay attenuates underestimation. Individuals were more likely to underestimate money growth from regular savings than from lump sums, because they failed to accumulate contributions in addition to displaying EGB. Underestimation was substantial and persistent. Practice with a calculator partially attenuated underestimation, primarily among individuals with higher educational attainment and without a pension. Overall, these findings imply that across multiple judgements, decisions and frames, individuals substantially underestimate money growth, reducing the attractiveness of saving

Childhood Trauma and the Faith Maturity of Seventh-day Adventist Pastors and Seminarians

Problem Unfortunately, Childhood Trauma is a fact of life. For instance, children lose parents/guardians through death or divorce. Children grow up in impoverished situations. Children have parents who suffer from mental illness and/or commit suicide. In addition, more unfortunately, some children are mistreated, neglected, and/or abused. The long-lasting impact of Childhood Trauma includes increased morbidity and mortality, and decreased opportunities for prosperity. This research sought to establish a statistical relationship between Childhood Trauma and Faith Maturity. Childhood Trauma has been demonstrated to affect attachment processes in children and, since religion is an attachment process and God is an attachment figure, it follows that Childhood Trauma has the potential to affect an individual’s relationship with God. Method This research measured the prevalence of Childhood Trauma among those preparing for ministry, as well as those already serving in pastoral ministry. Next, a quantitative nonexperimental correlation research design examined whether Childhood Trauma was correlated with Faith Maturity. The independent variable Childhood Trauma was grouped in multiple ways and the means of the dependent variable Faith Maturity were compared with one-way ANOVAs. In addition, the respondents were grouped by demographic information (gender, age, race, marital status, and educational background), and their means were compared to see if there was any interaction. Results This research found a negative correlation between Childhood Trauma and Faith Maturity. While the results followed what was theorized in the literature review, as the study was conducted with pastors and seminarians, it is significant that despite their theological training, higher Faith Maturity scores and practice of spiritual disciplines (prayer, Bible study, etc.), there was still a negative relationship between Childhood Trauma and their Faith Maturity. This research found no interaction on the basis of demographics. Conclusion The results of this research suggest the need to create trauma-informed pastors, church administrators, and churches. This research needs to be repeated with a larger sample and with a more diverse population to determine whether the negative correlation would be greater with a sample that includes those less trained, with lower average Faith Maturity scores and a less frequent practice of spiritual disciplines (prayer, Bible study, etc.), and with a larger, more diverse sample, would demographics show any interaction

Using Geographic Information Systems to Predict Changes in Water Quality Due to Erosional Processes

The primary objective of this project was to develop a spatial erosion model using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) that took into account various management issues including road construction, fire history, and grazing. The model was created in five steps: the erosion model, three individual management analyses (for roads, fire history, and grazing), and the combined analysis. Modeling was conducted at the 1 :250,000 scale using USGS Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) 5th code boundaries. The erosion model and individual analysis results were compared to expected results from applicable research in their respective fields of study. The project goal was for the combined analysis results, when compared to the New Mexico Environment Department\u27s impaired waters dataset, to provide an indication of impaired waters. Although the individual analyses produced accurate results, those of the combined analysis did not relate to the to the actual sample data. While several iterations of the model were run with various modified parameters, the results continually failed to yield a relationship. Although the model did not produce predictive results, several valuable conclusions could be drawn from which to base future modifications. The roads analysis required fine-tuning since many of the roads within the study area were located close to water bodies and could be expected to have significant impacts on erosion. In addition, weighting the combined analysis such that areas near watercourses and water bodies have a greater impact on water quality than those further away would have yielded more accurate results. Finally, using the entire watershed as a study area caused significant problems due to the large areas involved, and this could have been avoided by limiting analysis to the catchment of each impaired stream independently

Jerarquía temporal en Bergson y Whitehead

Este artículo intenta analizar el método filosófico de bergson y aplicarlo luego a las nociones de tiempo biológico y jerarquía temporal en biología. Para bergson, la intuición no es un acto único, sino un número de actos, cada uno de los cuales enfocado en un nivel (amplitud) particular de duración. Tales actos, enfocados en los ritmos de los organismos vivos, pueden llevar a investigaciones en cronobiología. La filosofía de Bergson, con su diversidad de organismos existentes y niveles de proceso, tiene más semejanzas con la de Whitehead de lo que se ha creído.This article attempts to analyze bergson's philosophical method and then applying it to the notions of biological time and of temporal hierarchy in biology. Intuition is not a single act, he insists, but a number of acts, each focussed on a particular level (breadth) of duration. Such acts, focussed on the rhythms of living organisms, can lead to researches in chronobiology. Bergson’s philosophy, with its diversity of real organisms and levels of process, is more like Whitehead’s than has been believed