Does Identity Precede Intimacy? Testing Erikson's Theory on Romantic Development in Emerging Adults of the 21st Century

Erikson stated that healthy identity development during adolescence is a precursor of intimacy in romantic relationships during emerging adulthood. However, from a developmental contextual perspective, there are reasons to question this strict developmental ordering. Using interview and questionnaire data from a longitudinal study on 93 adolescents, the authors tested whether ego development in middle adolescence predicts intimacy in emerging adulthood. Second, the authors examined whether identity achievement at the transition to adulthood mediates this link. Results revealed direct links between early ego development (age 15) and intimacy in romantic relationships (age 25). No paths were found from earlier intimacy to later ego development. No gender differences occurred. Relational identity achievement, an integrative identity construct measured at age 24, fully mediated the association between earlier ego development and later intimacy. This study confirms Erikson's old ideas on the developmental ordering of identity and intimacy for youngsters in the 21st century. Moreover, it highlights the integrative function of relational identity for later mature intimacy

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The solar furnace research project at Valparaiso University utilizes a decoupled solar thermal electrolysis process for the production of H2 from water. We are focusing on an iron oxide system, which involves the conversion of magnetite to hematite in a cyclical process. Our experimental study for the iron oxide system confirmed that the electrolytic oxidation and thermal reduction steps of the metal oxide occur in a laboratory scale environment. Unfortunately, some of the Fe+3 products for the magnetite system stays in solution when the electrolysis is done in a strong acid. We needed to develop methods to quantify the fraction of iron remaining in solution in order to maximize solid phase recovery. Our analyses provide data consistent with the expected Fe+2: Fe+3 ratio. We will continue with improving solid phase hematite recovery

Water Quality Monitoring of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Great Marsh Complex

The Great Marsh complex of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore was drained extensively by humans, beginning in the late 1800’s to provide land for farming and residences. Since 1998, 500 acres of the Great Marsh complex have been undergoing restoration in an attempt to return them to their pre-developed conditions. To assess the success of the ongoing restoration on water quality, 15 different parameters used to assess water quality are being measured. Data collected from June 2007 through July 2011 indicates that the water quality is typical of that for a wetlands in this region, and that the Great Marsh complex is functioning properly as a wetlands. For example, total phosphorous analyses indicate that the Great Marsh complex is consuming substantial amounts of phosphorus present in water entering the wetland, that the average conductivity in the Great Marsh complex is ≈270µS/cm, and that the amount of nitrogen in the water generall y decreases as the water passes through the marsh. The restored Great Marsh complex also experiences seasonal changes that are characteristic of a wetlands. This includes fluctuating water temperatures, water levels, pH levels, and dissolved oxygen levels

Separation anxiety in families with emerging adults

In several developmental theories separation anxiety has been identified as an important feature of close interpersonal relationships. Most often, separation anxiety has been examined in the context of mother-child dyads in infancy. Increasingly, however, it is recognized that separation anxiety is also relevant in other relationships (e.g., the father-child relationship) and in later developmental periods (e.g., adolescence and emerging adulthood). The present study aimed to investigate separation anxiety at the family level in families with emerging adults. By using the Social Relations Model, we aimed to determine the extent to which the actor, the partner, their specific relationships, and the family contribute to separation anxiety in dyadic family relationships. A total of 119 Belgian two-parent families with an emerging adult participated in a round-robin design, in which family members reported on their feelings of separation anxiety towards each other. Findings showed that separation anxiety can be represented as a personality attribute (i.e., an actor effect) and as a specific feature of the mother-child dyad. Further, findings indicate that separation anxiety is also characteristic of the father-mother marital relationship and of the family climate as a whole. Implications for the meaning of separation anxiety and clinical practice are discussed

CAN GM-TECHNOLOGIES HELP AFRICAN SMALLHOLDERS? THE IMPACT OF BT COTTON IN THE MAKHATHINI FLATS OF KWAZULU-NATAL

Analysis of a survey of the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 seasons for the same 100 smallholders in the Makhathini Flats region of KwaZulu-Natal shows that Bt cotton has performed better than other varieties. Having two years of data for the same farmers allows innate efficiency differences, due to factors such as farm size, to be separated from the effects of the new technology, which is not normally possible. Farmers who adopted Bt cotton in 1999-2000 benefited according to all the measures used. Higher yields and lower chemical costs outweighed higher seed costs, giving higher gross margins. These measures showed negative benefits in 1998-99, which conflicts with continued adoption, but stochastic efficiency frontier estimation, which takes account of the labor saved, showed that adopters averaged 88% efficiency, as compared with 66% for the non-adopters. In 1999/2000, when late rains lowered yields, the gap widened to 74% for adopters and 48% for non-adopters.KwaZulu-Natal, Bt cotton, Stochastic Frontiers, Efficiency, Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Services and the new economic landscape

The growth of the service economy in advanced and developing economies has created what are now being referred to as New Economic Landscapes. These landscapes are not only built forms, they are job generators and new sources of economic power for the regions that house them. This service economy is variegated, with differing sources of demand, and varying geographies of supply. A dynamic element in this mileaux is the evolving producer service complex--an amalgum of financial, business, legal, and professional services, which have had rapid expansion in most parts of the global economy. Existing conceptual paradigms in regional science have not fully acknowledged the manifold importances of The New Economic Landscape--they have essentially danced around it. In this paper we zero in on the central role of services, as well as primary and secondary industries, in the current economic era, relating on the one hand the expansion of information-oriented producer services to patterns of evolution in goods producing primary and secondary industries, as well as placing these dynamic producer service sectors in context of the ongoing expansion of the larger service sector. The goal of this paper is to make clear the regional development implications of the complex processes of service industry development occuring globally, while simultaneously speaking to the implications of this transformation for regions and theory in regional science. In this regard we build on recent conceptualizations of the role of industrial and information networks, economic underpinnings of regional economies, new perspectives on entrepreneurial activity, and behaviors which we have documented are important to the success of service industries on the New Economic Landscape. In doing so, we take advantage of and extend conceptualizations which have been developed largely in management science as they bear on firm-level performance, and marry these ideas with the emerging literature on the importance of the vital position of regions in the so-called global economy.