A note on race, ethnicity and nativity differentials in remarriage in the United States

The objectives of this study are to produce up-to-date estimates of race/ethnic/nativity differentials for remarriage and repartnership among women in the United States and to see if these differences are due to across-group differences in demographic characteristics. First, we produce lifetable estimates of remarriage and repartnering for white, black, U.S. born Latina and foreign born Latina women. Next, we estimate race/ethnic/nativity differentials for remarriage and repartnership using event-history analysis with and without controls for demographic characteristics. The results suggest a continued overall decline in remarriage rates, while many women repartner by cohabitating. Whites are more likely than blacks or Latinas to remarry and they are also more likely to repartner. Race/ethnic/nativity differentials remain even after accounting for variations in demographic characteristics. This suggests that race/ethnic/nativity differentials in remarriage and repartnering rates, rather than ameliorating disadvantages associated with divorce, reinforce these differentials.cohabitation, divorce, ethnicity, nativity, remarriage

Impact of residential energy system sizing and control over heat pump’s system cost and reliability

Using a simulation-based approach, this work analyses the impact that different energy unit sizes and control methodologies will have over the capital and running costs of an air source heat pump (ASHP) system to be installed in a refurbished dwelling. A total of 9 different heating configuration options were investigated and the cumulative cash flow over a period of 10 years (including initial investment) was utilized to compare the systems from a customer perspective. Additionally, in selected cases, the cycling of the heat pump was calculated in order to estimate the life-span of the device. The building and heat pump systems were simulated using TRNSYS energy system models. The results revealed the sensitivity of the system’s costs and life-span to its operating characteristics. For example, operating the system as a direct gas boiler replacement resulted in capital costs above £10,000 and the unit's life span reduced by half in comparison to more favourable operational strategies. The results highlight the fact that the successful technical and financial performance of heat pumps within the UK’s residential market will depend of designers, installers and end-users’ awareness regarding optimal operational strategies for this technology

Stress in the higher education sector: causes and yoga-mindfulness interventions

The Aim of this paper was to critically review the nature and causes of stress among academics in higher education workplaces and to undertake a pilot study of how yoga-mindfulness interventions might help to address these issues. The background to this subject comprises an increase in reported levels of stress and stress-related absenteeism in university employees. Universities have changed considerably from workplaces once thought of as secure and relaxed contexts, to those facing considerable upheaval due to the erosion of resource bases, temporary contractual work, and multifaceted job roles and rising expectations. Whilst the topic of stress in educational workplaces is broad one, this paper focuses on the causes and sources of stress identified by a selection of key research articles. This focus allows for an in-depth initial understanding of why stress is an increasing problem in this sector. The methods employed to undertake the first part of this work involved an extensive literature analysis. Key academic articles were selected using a range of inclusion and exclusion criteria. Studies were reviewed from across the developed world and many employed mixed qualitative and quantitative methodologies as part of their research. Databases used to select the final papers included the Cochrane library, Science Direct, Medline, PsychInfo, BMJ, Swetswise, Google Scholar, EPPI centre and Ebscho host. The methods employed for the second part of this work involved a pilot study survey assessing the perceived benefits of participation in a yoga-mindfulness based programme in a UK university. The findings collated for this review show that majority of stress causes among academic staff stem from the ‘external environment’ or extrinsic sources; i.e. the ‘organisation’ itself and how it is managed. The most common key stressors were reductions in resources/financial constraints; workload pressures (including job expectations, time constraints and increased administrative loads); job insecurity/contracts; ‘management’ styles and policies; and workplace relationships (issues with staff-management interfaces, unmotivated colleagues, and workload disparities). Interestingly, stressors concerned with ‘core’ functions of academics, those of teaching and student demands did not rank highly in most cases. Intrinsic causes of stress were related to issues of reward and recognition; increased lack of individual control; promotional prospects and maintaining a good work-life balance. Various differences were reported on correlations between the above stressors and variables such as age, gender, length of employment. The pilot study of the YMBI (Yoga-Mindfulness Based Intervention) indicated that there was a strong positive effect on individual’s perceived levels of personal coping abilities during the programme. This indicates a growing need for structural inclusion of targeted prevention as well as individual intervention strategies for stress management among faculty in universities. More work is needed on the relationship between stress in Higher Education and effective mind-body work-based interventions

Medicine, Law, and the Lash:Militarized Medicine and Corporal Punishment in the Australian Colonies 1788-1850

The service of medical practitioners in the early Australian colonies was inextricably bound up with a heavily militarized culture. This article explores the relationships between those medical practitioners, legal punishment, and the British Empire in the first half of the nineteenth century. The service of medical practitioners in the Australian colonies, coming as it did so close on the heels of two generations of war, gives us an important insight into the effects of the Napoleonic wars both upon the practice of medicine in the service of the British State, and also the State’s attitude to the use of medical expertise. In the military spaces of transport and colony, the medical officer became an important lynch pin in the discipline and control exercised over convict bodies. Military medical expertise was useful to the State in understanding the best ways to discomfort and hurt convicts, without quite killing them. This expertise was further cultivated by the State in the ongoing design of the medical role in the colonies that came to hark forward to the prison officer of the later nineteenth century whose position, balanced precariously between punishment and care, has been of such interest to penologists and medical historians

‘I Just Want to Go Home’:Emotional Wellbeing Impacts of COVID-19 Restrictions on VFR Travel

The COVID-19 global pandemic has had a profound impact on the taken-for-granted familial connections bound up in VFR travel. This paper examines the emotional impacts on diasporic migrants who could not travel to their homeland for extended periods of time. It considers pre-pandemic VFR patterns and assesses new meanings attributed to post-pandemic renewed travel. The lived experiences, patterns and emotions of seventy mainly UK-based participants were examined in this study. The research approach used both Maslow’s hierarchy of needs analysis and Urry’s tourist-gaze as conceptual frames for assessing these emotional experiences. The research showed that for many diasporas, the need to travel home is central to a sense of personal and place-identity as well as emotional security. The impacts of the pandemic in terms of wellbeing and emotional health were keenly felt by study respondents. Furthermore, contrary to much prior VFR research, this pandemic related study showed that in this instance, it is the “people” of VFR rather than just the “place” (of home) that are most valued. The removal of the right to VFR travel reinforced the centrality of family connections, especially in times of crisis. A mindful, VFR gaze emerges, rooted deeply in Maslow’s basic human needs pillars of safety, love and belonging. This was shown to be a highly tuned post-COVID-19 gaze, where familiar touchstones of home helped to restore depleted emotions through performances and practices of connectivity. The unique global pandemic experience of a world full of migrant mobile diaspora brought to an abrupt halt, emphasizes the need for tourism research to focus on the emotions embedded in the inherent human-place connections of VFR travel. The longitudinal-temporal legacy of COVID-19 on this form of tourism requires future research attention for both the tourism industry and tourists themselves