PUBLIC FOREST RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN THE PHILIPPINES: TIMBER PRODUCTION, EXTERNALITIES, AND AGRICULTURAL EXPANSION

A dynamic model of deforestation and agricultural expansion in the Philippines is developed to elucidate the economic factors driving current land use trends and determine the efficacy of prevailing public forest management regulations. Optimization results are interpreted to show potential gains and intervention areas to improved national forest resource management.Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Mindfulness Meditation and Child Birth

The practice of mindfulness meditation offers a variety of benefits. These benefits include stress and anxiety reduction, overwhelmed feelings, irritability, worry, and chronic pain. There have been many studies that support this practice and confirm this to be true. Dr. Adrienne Brown a clinical psychologist also confirms the benefits mindfulness meditation has on childbirth. Mindfulness is an insight into habitual thinking, and power to alleviate stress and suffering. There are numerous mindfulness techniques people use. During childbirth one of these techniques include Lamaze breathing. This is a natural labor and childbirth method that focuses on breathing and relaxation. The focus of mindfulness meditation and child labor is to limit stress, anxiety, fear, and labor pain during the birthing process

Ethnic and Immigration Status Differences on Child Indicators of Health for European Americans and Latinos

This study examined the effects of ethnicity and immigration status on subjective and objective health (Body Mass Index; BMI) for Latino and European American children. Social identity and comparison theories were used to frame the investigation. Southern California parents were randomly selected to complete a telephone interview about their children’s health yielding a sample of 165 European American and 152 Latino participants. Compared to European Americans, Latinos evidenced poorer subjective and objective health. Latino children who had a caregiver who was a citizen had better subjective health than Latino children whose caregiver was not a citizen. BMI was correlated with subjective health for European American children but not for Latinos. Our findings add to the literature on the Latino Paradox and the healthy immigrant effect, specifically as it relates to children

Exploring the Latino Paradox: How Economic and Citizenship Status Impact Health

We examined the contributions of economic status (ES) and citizenship status to health differences between European Americans, Latino Americans, and non-citizen Latinos. The investigation was framed using social identity and comparison theories. Southern California residents (N = 2164) were randomly selected to complete a telephone interview. Increases in ES predicted health improvements for European Americans across ES levels. For Latino citizens and non-citizens, ES improvements had no effect on objective health. For subjective health, the Latino paradox existed at the lowest ES level for Latino Americans, and did not exist for non-citizens. For objective health, the paradox existed in both Latino groups at low ES, and additionally for Latino Americans at mid ES. Our findings suggest that compared to Latinos, improvements in ES have a stronger positive impact on the health of European Americans, which is likely due to the social comparisons being made by each cultural group

Disparities in allele frequencies and population differentiation for 101 disease-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms between Puerto Ricans and Non-Hispanic Whites

BACKGROUND. Variations in gene allele frequencies can contribute to differences in the prevalence of some common complex diseases among populations. Natural selection modulates the balance in allele frequencies across populations. Population differentiation (FST) can evidence environmental selection pressures. Such genetic information is limited in Puerto Ricans, the second largest Hispanic ethnic group in the US, and a group with high prevalence of chronic disease. We determined allele frequencies and population differentiation for 101 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 30 genes involved in major metabolic and disease-relevant pathways in Puerto Ricans (n = 969, ages 45–75 years) and compared them to similarly aged non-Hispanic whites (NHW) (n = 597). RESULTS. Minor allele frequency (MAF) distributions for 45.5% of the SNPs assessed in Puerto Ricans were significantly different from those of NHW. Puerto Ricans carried risk alleles in higher frequency and protective alleles in lower frequency than NHW. Patterns of population differentiation showed that Puerto Ricans had SNPs with exceptional FST values in intronic, non-synonymous and promoter regions. NHW had exceptional FST values in intronic and promoter region SNPs only. CONCLUSION. These observations may serve to explain and broaden studies on the impact of gene polymorphisms on chronic diseases affecting Puerto Ricans.National Institutes of Health, National Institutes on Aging (P01AG02394, P01AG023394-SI); National Insitutes of Health (53-K06-5-10); US Department of Agriculture Research Service (58-1950-9-001, 58-1950-7-707); National Institutes of Health & Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (U 01 HL72524, Genetic and Environmental Determinants of Triglycerides, HL54776

The Psychology of Engagement with Indigenous Identities: A Cultural Perspective

(c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved. This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.A questionnaire study among 124 students at Haskell Indian Nations University investigated the hypothesis that engagement with Indigenous identity—assessed along 3 dimensions including degree (identification scale), content (pan-ethnic or tribal nation), and context (reservation or non-reservation)—can serve as a psychological resource for well-being and liberation from oppression. Consistent with this hypothesis, degree of identification was positively correlated with community efficacy and perception of racism. Apparently inconsistent with this hypothesis, degree of identification among students who had resided on a reservation was negatively correlated with the social self-esteem subscale of the Current Thoughts Scale (Heatherton & Polivy, 1991). Rather than evidence against the identity-as-resource hypothesis, this pattern may reflect the cultural grounding of self-esteem and tools designed to measure it

Estrategias de comunicación y difusión que realiza el Programa Subsectorial de Irrigaciones del Ministerio del Desarrollo Agrario y Riego 2021

La presente investigación denominada “Estrategias de comunicación y difusión que realiza el Programa Subsectorial de Irrigaciones del Ministerio del Desarrollo Agrario y Riego 2021” tuvo como principal objetivo determinar la relación que existe entre las estrategias de comunicación y la difusión que realiza la mencionada institución. Por parte de la metodología se desarrolló una investigación de enfoque cuantitativo, tipo básica, no experimental de nivel correlacional. La muestra poblacional se conformó por 34 agricultores dedicados al campo y beneficiarios de las intervenciones en temas de capacitación y asistencia técnica que ejecuta el Programa Subsectorial de Irrigaciones en el ámbito de la región Lima. El instrumento para la recolección de la información fue la encuesta. Luego, se procedió a generar un análisis cuantitativo para la interpretación de los resultados. Finalmente, con los resultados se concluyó que no existe relación entre las estrategias de la comunicación y la difusión que realiza el Programa Subsectorial de Irrigaciones del Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Agrario y Riego. De acuerdo con los resultados obtenidos, a través de Pearson, es una correlación inversa r=0,000<0.05. Por lo tanto, las hipótesis son nulas. Del mismo modo los resultados determinaron que no existe relación entre las estrategias de medios y la difusión; estrategias de contenido impreso y la difusión y, por último, las estrategias de contenido audiovisual y la difusión

Estrés laboral y estilos de afrontamiento en tiempos de pandemia en trabajadores de una empresa de telecomunicaciones de Lima, 2021

Diversos estudios han demostrado los efectos negativos del estrés laboral sobre la salud física y mental de la población económicamente activa, también se indica que si no es tratada a tiempo puede desencadenar en trastornos psicosomáticos graves y severos; por tal motivo, el objetivo del trabajo fue determinar la relación que existe entre el estrés laboral y los estilos de afrontamiento en tiempos de pandemia en un grupo de trabajadores de una empresa de telecomunicaciones de la ciudad de Lima, 2021. El trabajo se enmarcó dentro del enfoque cuantitativo, de tipo básico, nivel correlacional y diseño no experimental de corte transversal correlacional. Los instrumentos utilizados para la recolección de datos fueron: la Escala de Estrés Laboral OIT–OMS y el Cuestionario de Modos de Afrontamiento al Estrés COPE; se trabajó con una muestra de 80 personas adultas entre varones y mujeres, quienes fueron asignados mediante el tipo de muestreo censal. Los resultados indican una prevalencia del nivel bajo de estrés laboral, la estrategia de afrontamiento prevalente es la denominada Reinterpretación positiva y crecimiento, la estrategia menos utilizada es la postergación del afrontamiento. Como conclusión general se observa que no existe relación significativa entre las variables estrés laboral y los estilos de afrontamiento en un grupo de trabajadores de una empresa de telecomunicaciones de la ciudad de Lima, 2021. Por la relevancia de los resultados del presente estudio se sugiere que la universidad publique a través de los canales de comunicación pertinentes

Event-Related Potentials to an English/Spanish Syllabic Contrast in Mexican 10–13-Month-Old Infants

We report brain electrophysiological responses from 10- to 13-month-old Mexican infants while listening to native and foreign CV-syllable contrasts differing in Voice Onset Time (VOT). All infants showed normal auditory event-related potential (ERP) components. Our analyses showed ERP evidence that Mexican infants are capable of discriminating their native sounds as well as the acoustically salient (aspiration) foreign contrast. The study showed that experience with native language influences VOT perception in Spanish learning infants. The acoustic salience of aspiration is perceived by both Spanish and English learning infants, but exposure provides additional phonetic status to this native-language feature for English learning infants. The effects of early experience and neural commitment as well as the impact of acoustic salience are further discussed

Why Do Developers Get Password Storage Wrong? A Qualitative Usability Study

Passwords are still a mainstay of various security systems, as well as the cause of many usability issues. For end-users, many of these issues have been studied extensively, highlighting problems and informing design decisions for better policies and motivating research into alternatives. However, end-users are not the only ones who have usability problems with passwords! Developers who are tasked with writing the code by which passwords are stored must do so securely. Yet history has shown that this complex task often fails due to human error with catastrophic results. While an end-user who selects a bad password can have dire consequences, the consequences of a developer who forgets to hash and salt a password database can lead to far larger problems. In this paper we present a first qualitative usability study with 20 computer science students to discover how developers deal with password storage and to inform research into aiding developers in the creation of secure password systems