Impact of School-Based Sex Education on College Students’ Rape Myth Acceptance: An Exploratory Analysis

Research indicates nearly one-fourth of college women fall victim to sexual assault (Cantor et. al., 2015). Two predictors of high proclivity to rape are endorsement of rape myths and adherence to traditional gender norms (King & Roberts, 2011). Additionally, research shows school-based sex education in the United States presents gender and sexual norms in troubling ways that disproportionately harm women (Kendall, 2013). However, research on sexual assault and rape myths have not examined the impact school-based sex education has on rape supportive attitudes. This study aimed to bridge that gap by using original survey data from undergraduate students at a large public university. Analyses indicate sex education has an inconsistent impact on rape myth acceptance; additionally, seeking sexual health information online was found to significantly lower endorsement of rape myths. Study outcomes suggest that further research is needed to explore the relationship between sex education curricula and rape supportive attitudes

Do Social Preferences Increase Productivity? Field experimental evidence from fishermen in Toyama Bay

We provide a reason for the wider economics profession to take social preferences, a concern for the outcomes achieved by other reference agents, seriously. Although we show that student measures of social preference elicited in an experiment have little external validity when compared to measures obtained from a field experiment with a population of participants who face a social dilemma in their daily lives (i.e., team production), we also find strong links between the social preferences of our field participants and their productivity at work

Do Social PreferencesIncrease Productivity? Field experimental evidence from fishermen in Toyoma Bay

We provide a reason for the wider economics profession to take social preferences, a concern for the outcomes achieved by other reference agents, seriously. Although, we show that student measures of social preference elicited in an experiment have little external validity when compared to measures obtained from a field experiment with a population of participants who face a social dilemma in their daily lives (i.e. team production), we do find strong links between the social preferences of our field participants and their productivity at work. We also find that the stock of social preferences evolves endogeously with respect to how widely team production is utilized.Field experiment, social preference, income pooling, productivity

Competitive Work Environments and Social Preferences: Field experimental evidence from a japanese fishing community

Models of job tournaments and competitive workplaces more generally predict that while individual effort may increase as competition intensifies between workers, the incentive for workers to cooperate with each other diminishes. We report on a field experiment conducted with workers from a fishing community in Toyama Bay, Japan. Our participants are employed in three different aspects of fishing. The first group are fishermen, the second group are fish wholesalers (or traders), and the third group are staff at the local fishing coop. Although our participants have much in common (e.g., their common relationship to the local fishery and the fact that they all live in the same community), we argue that they are exposed to different amounts of competition on-the-job and that these differences explain differences in cooperation in our experiment. Specifically, fisherman and traders, who interact in more competitive environments are significantly less cooperative than coop staff who face little competition on the job. Further, after accounting for the possibility of personality-based selection, perceptions of competition faced on-the-job and the treatment effect of job incentives explain these difference in cooperation to a large extent.Field experiment, cooperation, social disapproval, social preference, competition, Japan, fishing

A Curriculum-Based Approach for Social-Cognitive Skills Training: an Intervention Targeting Aggression in Head Start Preschoolers.

The present study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a social-cognitive skills training curriculum targeting aggression in Head Start preschoolers. Developmental psychopathology research clearly suggests that early intervention with aggressive preschoolers is critical. Despite the fact that aggressive behavior becomes stable by the elementary school years, there has been relatively little interest in intervening with preschool-aged children. In the present study, the COMPASS program is a 12-session curriculum teaching basic individual social skills (e.g., sharing, questioning, listening). Following the work of Mize and Ladd (1983; 1990), the curriculum was puppet-facilitated and employed the components of instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and evaluation feedback. Two Head Start centers comprised the treatment group and two centers comprised the control group, with a total of 80 preschoolers participating. Assessments were made at pre-treatment, post-treatment, and three-month follow-up. The assessment battery consisted of the Social Skills Rating System-Teacher Form, teacher-rated relational aggression, Aggression subscale of the Achenbach Caregiver-Teacher Report Form, peer ratings of acceptance, and the Enactive Social Knowledge Interview. It was hypothesized that aggression would decrease, while prosocial skills and peer acceptance would increase, more so in the treatment than the control group. The SSRS-T, relational aggression ratings, and aggregate peer acceptance ratings had significant site differences at pre-treatment, which were controlled for statistically. No significant results emerged with respect to aggression and social skill levels. With respect to peer acceptance ratings, both the treatment and control groups decreased between post-treatment and follow-up, although the treatment group decreased slightly, but significantly, more than the control group. Several post-hoc hypotheses are offered as explanation for the generally null findings, including applicability of the Mize and Ladd model to a Head Start population, inability to adequately control for site differences, length of the treatment, and difficulty adding to the effectiveness of the Head Start program alone. Several directions for future research are discussed, including the addition of more sessions to the curriculum, a parent-involvement component, and a contingency management program. It would also be helpful to evaluate COMPASS in a larger number of Head Start centers and to extend follow-up assessment beyond three months

Millimeter Dust Emission and Planetary Dynamics in the HD 106906 System

Debris disks are dusty, optically thin structures around main sequence stars. HD 106906AB is a short-period stellar binary, host to a wide separation planet, HD 106906b, and a debris disk. Only a few known systems include a debris disk and a directly imaged planet, and HD 106906 is the only one in which the planet is exterior to the disk. The debris disk is edge-on and highly asymmetric in scattered light. Here we resolve the disk structure at a resolution of 0.38" (39 au) with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) at a wavelength of 1.3 mm. We model the disk with both a narrow and broad ring of material, and find that a radially broad, axisymmetric disk between radii of $\sim$50$-$100 au is able to capture the structure of the observations without evidence of any asymmetry or eccentricity, other than a tentative stellocentric offset. We place stringent upper limits on both the gas and dust content of a putative circumplanetary disk. We interpret the ALMA data in concert with scattered light observations of the inner ring and astrometric constraints on the planet's orbit, and find that the observations are consistent with a large-separation, low-eccentricity orbit for the planet. A dynamical analysis indicates that the central binary can efficiently stabilize planetesimal orbits interior to $\sim$100 au, which relaxes the constraints on eccentricity and semimajor axis somewhat. The observational constraints are consistent with in situ formation via gravitational instability, but cannot rule out a scattering event as the origin for HD 106906b's current orbit

Entomopathogenic Fungus as a Biological Control for an Important Vector of Livestock Disease: The Culicoides Biting Midge

BACKGROUND: The recent outbreak of bluetongue virus in northern Europe has led to an urgent need to identify control measures for the Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) biting midges that transmit it. Following successful use of the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae against larval stages of biting midge Culicoides nubeculosus Meigen, we investigated the efficacy of this strain and other fungi (Beauveria bassiana, Isaria fumosorosea and Lecanicillium longisporum) as biocontrol agents against adult C. nubeculosus in laboratory and greenhouse studies. METHODOLOGY/FINDINGS: Exposure of midges to 'dry' conidia of all fungal isolates caused significant reductions in survival compared to untreated controls. Metarhizium anisopliae strain V275 was the most virulent, causing a significantly decrease in midge survival compared to all other fungal strains tested. The LT(50) value for strain V275 was 1.42 days compared to 2.21-3.22 days for the other isolates. The virulence of this strain was then further evaluated by exposing C. nubeculosus to varying doses (10(8)-10(11) conidia m(-2)) using different substrates (horse manure, damp peat, leaf litter) as a resting site. All exposed adults were found to be infected with the strain V275 four days after exposure. A further study exposed C. nubeculosus adults to 'dry' conidia and 'wet' conidia (conidia suspended in 0.03% aq. Tween 80) of strain V275 applied to damp peat and leaf litter in cages within a greenhouse. 'Dry' conidia were more effective than 'wet' conidia, causing 100% mortality after 5 days. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: This is the first study to demonstrate that entomopathogenic fungi are potential biocontrol agents against adult Culicoides, through the application of 'dry' conidia on surfaces (e.g., manure, leaf litter, livestock) where the midges tend to rest. Subsequent conidial transmission between males and females may cause an increased level of fungi-induced mortality in midges thus reducing the incidence of disease