ADR through a Cultural Lens: How Cultural Values Shape Our Disputing Processes

I arrived for my second Nepali language class on time, but the teacher kept chatting about inconsequential things. I was paying by the hour, and we had already spent 25 minutes talking about nothing! A week later, I received an invitation to an art exhibit. The location was Royal Museum, so that is where I went, only to find an empty building and no people. What had I missed? In my first meeting with the Dean of the Law Campus, we talked about trekking, the upcoming religious holidays, his visit to Seattle two years ago, relatives in the United States, but never directly addressed the reason for my visit that day. I thought I was there to learn what and when I would be teaching. What was going on here? What was I supposed to read between the lines in each of these encounters

Using Planning and Evaluation Tools to Target Extension Outputs & Outcomes: The New England Private Well Symposium Example

Increasingly, the success of Extension programming is evaluated based on achieved outcomes. Here, we report on the use of the ADDIE model as a tool to plan, implement, and evaluate a specific activity within the New England Private Well Initiative\u27s regional efforts. Using this tool, we have successfully identified outcomes and objectives for the New England Private Well Water Symposium

Is Diverse Television Really Diverse?: An Examination of Shondaland

Have you ever been watching a television show and noticed that the majority of characters are white, cisgender, and heterosexual while there are only a few characters who represent multiple minority identities? This is often the case in television when a limited number of characters are assigned many different minoritized identities, becoming catchalls for diversity. We test this phenomenon through our media analysis of Shondaland, a production company that is widely regarded as more progressive and inclusive relative to its cohort. Its ten ensemble cast drama series—ranging from Grey’s Anatomy to How to Get Away with Murder to Bridgerton—provide ample media to investigate. In examining the distribution of diversity and other patterns in its programming, we answer the question: is Shondaland still susceptible to the pattern of identity piling and other factors that diminish diversity? We anticipate this study will demonstrate how Shondaland has exemplified diversity over time and how this has correlated with the production company\u27s success.https://orb.binghamton.edu/research_days_posters_2021/1075/thumbnail.jp

Using Planning and Evaluation Tools to Target Extension Outputs & Outcomes: The New England Private Well Symposium Example

Increasingly, the success of Extension programming is evaluated based on achieved outcomes. Here, we report on the use of the ADDIE model as a tool to plan, implement, and evaluate a specific activity within the New England Private Well Initiative\u27s regional efforts. Using this tool, we have successfully identified outcomes and objectives for the New England Private Well Water Symposium

Substance use disorders and behavioral addictions during the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19-related restrictions

COVID-19 was first identified in Wuhan, China in December of 2019 and appeared in the United States 1 month later. Between the onset of the pandemic and January 13, 2021, over 92 million people have tested positive for the virus and over 1.9 million people have died globally. Virtually every country in the world has been impacted by this virus. Beginning in March 2020, many U.S. state governments enforced a quarantine to respond to the growing health crisis. Citizens were required to remain at home; schools, restaurants, and non-essential businesses were forced to close, and large gatherings were prohibited. Americans\u27 lives were transformed in a span of days as daily routines were interrupted and people were shuttered indoors. Mounting fear and unpredictability coupled with widespread unemployment and social isolation escalated anxiety and impacted the mental health of millions across the globe. Most (53%) U.S. adults reported that the coronavirus outbreak has had a negative impact on their mental health, including inducing or exacerbating use of alcohol, drugs, gambling and overeating as coping mechanisms. In this paper, we will examine substance use and addictive behaviors that have been used to manage the stress and uncertainty wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. We review the changing treatment landscape as therapy pivoted online and telemedicine became the norm

Development of a Kaizen series model: abducting a blend of participatory formats to enhance the development of process improvement practices

The paper utilises a form of Action Research, known as the ‘Constructive Research Approach’ (CRA), to explore how project teams could engender the development of process improvement (PI) routines in a higher education context. The methodology of Mediated Discourse Analysis (MDA), an ethnographic approach to researching practice, is used to trace the development of PI routines over time. The findings showed that process owners and actors who were engaged because of ‘power’ of an initial pre-project Kaizen event, then became more passive participants in the ensuing traditional improvement project, with reduced performances of the PI routines. The main contrition stemming from the work was the abduction of a hybrid model of participatory engagement, that of a ‘Kaizen series’. This extended series of events affords the development of two key routines, ‘the working with a process map’ and the process analysis routine, by increasing opportunity for actors to perform these routines both within and between events, and by balancing the facilitation and empowerment routines. In addition, the Kaizen series is not dependent on any individual PI methodology. The resulting Kaizen series offers PI practitioners an opportunity to blend the best aspects of two different modes of engagement, Kaizen events and project improvement teams

Beaver Ponds: Resurgent Nitrogen Sinks for Rural Watersheds in the Northeastern United States

Beaver-created ponds and dams, on the rise in the northeastern United States, reshape headwater stream networks from extensive, free-flowing reaches to complexes of ponds, wetlands, and connecting streams. We examined seasonal and annual rates of nitrate transformations in three beaver ponds in Rhode Island under enriched nitrate-nitrogen (N) conditions through the use of 15N mass balance techniques on soil core mesocosm incubations. We recovered approximately 93% of the nitrate N from our mesocosm incubations. Of the added nitrate N, 22 to 39% was transformed during the course of the incubation. Denitrification had the highest rates of transformation (97–236 mg N m−2 d−1), followed by assimilation into the organic soil N pool (41–93 mg N m−2 d−1) and ammonium generation (11–14 mg N m−2 d−1). Our denitrification rates exceeded those in several studies of freshwater ponds and wetlands; however, rates in those ecosystems may have been limited by low concentrations of nitrate. Assuming a density of 0.7 beaver ponds km−2 of catchment area, we estimated that in nitrate-enriched watersheds, beaver pond denitrification can remove approximately 50 to 450 kg nitrate N km−2 catchment area. In rural watersheds of southern New England with high N loading (i.e., 1000 kg km−2), denitrification from beaver ponds may remove 5 to 45% of watershed nitrate N loading. Beaver ponds represent a relatively new and substantial sink for watershed N if current beaver populations persist

Effectiveness of digital interventions to improve household and community infection prevention and control behaviours and to reduce incidence of respiratory and/or gastro-intestinal infections: a rapid systematic review

BACKGROUND: Digital interventions have potential to efficiently support improved hygiene practices to reduce transmission of COVID-19. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the evidence for digital interventions to improve hygiene practices within the community. METHODS: We reviewed articles published between 01 January 2000 and 26 May 2019 that presented a controlled trial of a digital intervention to improve hygiene behaviours in the community. We searched MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Cochrane Controlled Register of Trials (CENTRAL), China National Knowledge Infrastructure and grey literature. Trials in hospitals were excluded, as were trials aiming at prevention of sexually transmitted infections; only target diseases with transmission mechanisms similar to COVID-19 (e.g. respiratory and gastrointestinal infections) were included. Trials had to evaluate a uniquely digital component of an intervention. Study designs were limited to randomised controlled trials, controlled before-and-after trials, and interrupted time series analyses. Outcomes could be either incidence of infections or change in hygiene behaviours. The Risk of Bias 2 tool was used to assess study quality. RESULTS: We found seven studies that met the inclusion criteria. Six studies reported successfully improving self-reported hygiene behaviour or health outcomes, but only one of these six trials, Germ Defence, confirmed improvements using objective measures (reduced consultations and antibiotic prescriptions). Settings included kindergartens, workplaces, and service station restrooms. Modes of delivery were diverse: WeChat, website, text messages, audio messages to mobiles, electronic billboards, and electronic personal care records. Four interventions targeted parents of young children with educational materials. Two targeted the general population; these also used behaviour change techniques or theory to inform the intervention. Only one trial had low risk of bias, Germ Defence; the most common concerns were lack of information about the randomisation, possible bias in reporting of behavioural outcomes, and lack of an analysis plan and possible selective reporting of results. CONCLUSION: There was only one trial that was judged to be at low risk of bias, Germ Defence, which reduced incidence and severity of illness, as confirmed by objective measures. Further evaluation is required to determine the effectiveness of the other interventions reviewed. TRIAL REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42020189919

Computational modeling of threat learning reveals links with anxiety and neuroanatomy in humans

Influential theories implicate variations in the mechanisms supporting threat learning in the severity of anxiety symptoms. We use computational models of associative learning in conjunction with structural imaging to explicate links among the mechanisms underlying threat learning, their neuroanatomical substrates, and anxiety severity in humans. We recorded skin-conductance data during a threat-learning task from individuals with and without anxiety disorders (N=251; 8-50 years; 116 females). Reinforcement-learning model variants quantified processes hypothesized to relate to anxiety: threat conditioning, threat generalization, safety learning, and threat extinction. We identified the best-fitting models for these processes and tested associations among latent learning parameters, whole-brain anatomy, and anxiety severity. Results indicate that greater anxiety severity related specifically to slower safety learning and slower extinction of response to safe stimuli. Nucleus accumbens gray-matter volume moderated learning-anxiety associations. Using a modeling approach, we identify computational mechanisms linking threat learning and anxiety severity and their neuroanatomical substrates