Visitor Support for Recreation Fees in Georgia State Parks

Abstract Public land managers are experiencing increasing pressure to create parks that are self-sustaining. Recreation fees can help managers achieve this goal, but tradeoffs associated with fees often produce undesired consequences (i.e., declining visitation) that warrant further investigation. This study used intercept surveys (n = 1049) to examine support for recreation fees among visitors to Georgia state parks. Participants were evenly split regarding their willingness to pay to enter state parks, with a mean willing to pay increase about $2 above the current$5 parking fee. Proposed fee increases negatively affected projected visitation among all groups, particularly low-income visitors. Place attachment ratings were the strongest predictor of support for fees. Results suggest that, to accommodate a diverse clientele, managers could work on strengthening visitors’ attachment to and reliance upon state parks while developing flexible pricing schemes that appeal to a range of potential users

A study of psychiatrists’ concepts of mental illness

Background: There are multiple models of mental illness that inform professional and lay understanding. Few studies have formally investigated psychiatrists' attitudes. We aimed to measure how a group of trainee psychiatrists understand familiar mental illnesses in terms of propositions drawn from different models. Method: We used a questionnaire study of a sample of trainees from South London and Maudsley National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust designed to assess attitudes across eight models of mental illness (e.g. biological, psychodynamic) and four psychiatric disorders. Methods for analysing repeated measures and a principal components analysis (PCA) were used. Results: No one model was endorsed by all respondents. Model endorsement varied with disorder. Attitudes to schizophrenia were expressed with the greatest conviction across models. Overall, the ‘biological’ model was the most strongly endorsed. The first three components of the PCA (interpreted as dimensions around which psychiatrists, as a group, understand mental illness) accounted for 56% of the variance. Each main component was classified in terms of its distinctive combination of statements from different models: PC1 33% biological versus non-biological; PC2 12% ‘eclectic’ (combining biological, behavioural, cognitive and spiritual models); and PC3 10% psychodynamic versus sociological. Conclusions: Trainee psychiatrists are most committed to the biological model for schizophrenia, but in general are not exclusively committed to any one model. As a group, they organize their attitudes towards mental illness in terms of a biological/non-biological contrast, an ‘eclectic’ view and a psychodynamic/sociological contrast. Better understanding of how professional group membership influences attitudes may facilitate better multidisciplinary working

Surface structure of γ-Fe₂O₃(111)

The surface structure of γ-Fe₂O₃(111) has been investigated with a range of surface techniques. Two different surface structures were discovered depending upon surface preparation techniques. Sputtering followed by annealing in vacuum produced a reduced surface characterised by a (2 × 2) LEED pattern, whereas sputtering followed by annealing in 1 × 10⁻⁶ mbar oxygen produced a surface characterised by a (√3 × √3)-R30° LEED pattern. The latter appears to be a very low conductivity surface, whereas the former has the band gap expected for maghemite (~ 2.0 eV). We propose that the reduced surface is a magnetite-like layer, whereas the oxidised surface is an Fe₂O₃-like layer

Scraping the Social? Issues in live social research

What makes scraping methodologically interesting for social and cultural research? This paper seeks to contribute to debates about digital social research by exploring how a ‘medium-specific’ technique for online data capture may be rendered analytically productive for social research. As a device that is currently being imported into social research, scraping has the capacity to re-structure social research, and this in at least two ways. Firstly, as a technique that is not native to social research, scraping risks to introduce ‘alien’ methodological assumptions into social research (such as an pre-occupation with freshness). Secondly, to scrape is to risk importing into our inquiry categories that are prevalent in the social practices enabled by the media: scraping makes available already formatted data for social research. Scraped data, and online social data more generally, tend to come with ‘external’ analytics already built-in. This circumstance is often approached as a ‘problem’ with online data capture, but we propose it may be turned into virtue, insofar as data formats that have currency in the areas under scrutiny may serve as a source of social data themselves. Scraping, we propose, makes it possible to render traffic between the object and process of social research analytically productive. It enables a form of ‘real-time’ social research, in which the formats and life cycles of online data may lend structure to the analytic objects and findings of social research. By way of a conclusion, we demonstrate this point in an exercise of online issue profiling, and more particularly, by relying on Twitter to profile the issue of ‘austerity’. Here we distinguish between two forms of real-time research, those dedicated to monitoring live content (which terms are current?) and those concerned with analysing the liveliness of issues (which topics are happening?)

Surface and interstitial Ti diffusion at the rutile TiO2(110) surface

Diffusion of Ti through the TiO2 (110) rutile surface plays a key role in the growth and reactivity of TiO2. To understand the fundamental aspects of this important process, we present an analysis of the diffusion of Ti adspecies at the stoichiometric TiO2(110) surface using complementary computational methodologies of density functional theory corrected for on-site Coulomb interactions (DFT+U) and a charge equilibration (QEq) atomistic potential to identify minimum energy pathways. We find that diffusion of Ti from the surface to subsurface (and vice versa) follows an intersticialcy exchange mechanism, involving exchange of surface Ti with the 6-fold coordinated Ti below the bridging oxygen rows. Diffusion in the subsurface between layers also follows an interstitialcy mechanism. The diffusion of Ti is discussed in light of continued attempts to understand the re-oxidation of non-stoichiometric TiO2(110) surfaces

Molybdenum oxide on Fe2O3 Core-Shell catalysts: Probing the nature of the structural motifs responsible for methanol oxidation catalysis

A series of MoOx-modified Fe2O3 catalysts have been prepared in an attempt to make core–shell oxidic materials of the type MoOx/Fe2O3. It is conclusively shown that for three monolayers of Mo dosed, the Mo stays in the surface region, even after annealing to high temperature. It is only when the material is annealed above 400 °C that it reacts with the iron oxide. We show by a combination of methods, and especially by XAFS, that at temperatures above 400 °C, most of the Mo converts to Fe2(MoO4)3, with Mo in a tetrahedral structure, whereas below that temperature, nanocrystalline MoO3 is present in the sample; however, the active catalysts have an octahedral MoOx layer at the surface even after calcination to 600 °C. This surface layer appears to be present at all temperatures between 300 and 600 °C, and it is the nanoparticles of MoO3 that are present at the lower temperature that react to form ferric molybdate, which underlies this surface layer. It is the MoOx layer on the Fe2(MoO4)3 underlayer that makes the surface active and selective for formaldehyde synthesis, whereas the iron oxide surface itself is a combustor. The material is both activated and improved in selectivity due to the dominance of the methoxy species on the Mo-doped material, as opposed to the much more stable formate, which is the main intermediate on Fe2O3

Challenging Social Cognition Models of Adherence:Cycles of Discourse, Historical Bodies, and Interactional Order

Attempts to model individual beliefs as a means of predicting how people follow clinical advice have dominated adherence research, but with limited success. In this article, we challenge assumptions underlying this individualistic philosophy and propose an alternative formulation of context and its relationship with individual actions related to illness. Borrowing from Scollon and Scollon’s three elements of social action – “historical body,” “interaction order,” and “discourses in place” – we construct an alternative set of research methods and demonstrate their application with an example of a person talking about asthma management. We argue that talk- or illness-related behavior, both viewed as forms of social action, manifest themselves as an intersection of cycles of discourse, shifting as individuals move through these cycles across time and space. We finish by discussing how these dynamics of social action can be studied and how clinicians might use this understanding when negotiating treatment with patients

Just how difficult can it be counting up R&D funding for emerging technologies (and is tech mining with proxy measures going to be any better?)

Decision makers considering policy or strategy related to the development of emerging technologies expect high quality data on the support for different technological options. A natural starting point would be R&D funding statistics. This paper explores the limitations of such aggregated data in relation to the substance and quantification of funding for emerging technologies. Using biotechnology as an illustrative case, we test the utility of a novel taxonomy to demonstrate the endemic weaknesses in the availability and quality of data from public and private sources. Using the same taxonomy, we consider the extent to which tech-mining presents an alternative, or potentially complementary, way to determine support for emerging technologies using proxy measures such as patents and scientific publications

Cultivating reflexive research practice when using participants’ photographs as research data

This chapter reflects on a study exploring the development of a feminist consciousness. During the interviews participants were invited to share photographs that were significant to their feminist becoming. Various ethical and methodological challenges arose through the use of visual data, in particular the ethics of the interpretation and dissemination of participants’ personal photographs. Both issues were highlighted and addressed through reflexive research practice, which exposed how the researcher’s reaction to and feelings about the photographs impacted upon how they were interpreted and shared. Reflexivity demands that researchers interrogate their research choices and is essential for ethical and rigorous research. This chapter argues that visual methods, whilst posing new ethical challenges, can enhance the reflexive research practice necessary for responding to and navigating its challenges