Teaching a New Paradigm: Towards Rewarding Instruction for Librarian and Students

Library staff at the University of Victoria identified four main literacy instruction challenges - time, lack of student engagement, lack of relevancy to students, and lack of faculty awareness. They presented proposed solutions to address these issues. A handout was circulated and is included here

Teaching a New Paradigm: Towards Rewarding Instruction for Librarian and Students

Library staff at the University of Victoria identified four main literacy instruction challenges - time, lack of student engagement, lack of relevancy to students, and lack of faculty awareness. They presented proposed solutions to address these issues. A handout was circulated and is included here

Understanding vulnerability to the poverty premium:An analysis of factors influencing use of high-cost credit among low-income individuals

Introduction & BackgroundAccess to affordable credit is essential for individuals living on low incomes to participate in society fully. However, due to their limited credit history and volatile incomes, many cannot access mainstream sources of credit, such as credit cards and personal loans.As a result, they often must rely on more expensive sources of credit such as payday loans, doorstep loans or rent-to-own loans. This leads to them paying more for credit, also referred to as the poverty premium.Incurring the poverty premium exacerbates the financial challenges faced by already vulnerable individuals and can lead to a cycle of financial distress. Identifying the behaviours and factors that lead to a need for high-cost credit can help in identifying individuals who are most vulnerable to incurring the poverty premium.Objectives & ApproachTo achieve this, we rely on anonymized Open Banking transaction data from 100,000 individuals provided by a UK-based social lender.Given the latent nature of vulnerability, we identify indicators of vulnerability to poverty premium which include frequency of overdraft use, previous debt problems, low financial resilience, and indebtedness. We use a copula-based approach to create an index of vulnerability to poverty premium.This is based on weighting the individual indicators using their Spearman rank correlation coefficient. We use a fixed effects model to identify the factors that contribute to this vulnerability, where the index of vulnerability is the dependent variable.Relevance to Digital FootprintsWe use a rich and granular dataset on individual financial transactions to address a key social issue. The findings from this study can inform policy and industry efforts to promote greater credit affordability for these vulnerable individuals. This is particularly important due to the renewed concerns regarding the increased use of high-cost credit by individuals living on low incomes due to COVID-19 and the increased cost of living.ResultsOur findings show that variables related to the financial profile of an individual are important driving factors of the vulnerability to poverty premium. These include the number of salary sources, frequency of salary receipt, benefit receipt and savings frequency. Other variables related to spending behaviour such as gambling, volatility in fixed expenses and high transaction counts all have positive relationships with this vulnerability.Conclusions & ImplicationsThis study is a first step towards examining the determinants of vulnerability to poverty premium by analyzing an Open Banking transaction data set. The innovative feature of this work is the creation of an index of vulnerability to poverty premiums based on various indicators of financial distress and high-cost credit use.Our findings on the relationships between the individual's financial profile and the vulnerability to poverty premium suggest that policymakers should consider targeting interventions for individuals with specific profiles to alleviate the need for high-cost credit. For example, programs to promote regular savings or financial education for gamblers and people with volatile spending behaviour can help assist these individuals manage their finances better

Measuring the energy poverty premium in Great Britain and identifying its main drivers based on longitudinal household survey data

Following the consistent hike in energy prices in recent years, energy affordability by low-income households in Great Britain has become a significant concern. These concerns are further compounded by the disproportionate cost of energy that poor households are likely to pay, compared to the non-poor. In this study, we examine the exposure of poor households to energy premiums by measuring the additional costs incurred and identifying the main drivers. We merge household-level data from Understanding Society with energy consumption data from the National Energy Efficiency Data - Framework (NEED). Using the merged dataset and the Theory of Complaints, we propose a new approach to measuring the poverty premium based on the cost per unit of energy incurred by households. Based on a two-stage regression model, our results show that poorer households are likely to pay premiums for energy consumption. Furthermore, among households who incur these energy premiums, poor households pay higher premiums than non-poor households, incurring a cost of between 10% - 20% more per unit for both gas and electricity premiums between 2011 and 2019. These relationships are still significant even after addressing the potential endogeneity of poverty, thereby confirming the relationship between energy premiums and poverty. The results also suggest that the other key drivers of electricity and gas premiums are payment methods used, and household characteristics such as the number of adults per household, presence of children, unemployed adults and pensioners

Adjuvant Migraine Medications in the Treatment of Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss.

Objectives/hypothesisTo examine the hearing outcomes of patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) treated with oral and intratympanic (IT) steroid only or a combination of steroid and migraine treatment. Our hypothesis was that adjuvant migraine medications may improve outcomes in SSNHL.MethodsA retrospective chart review at a tertiary otology center was conducted to identify patients with SSNHL who received oral steroid and IT dexamethasone injection(s) with or without migraine medications (a combination of nortriptyline and topiramate).ResultsA total of 47 patients received oral steroid and IT dexamethasone injection(s) only, and 46 patients received oral steroid and IT dexamethasone injection(s) as well as migraine lifestyle changes plus a combination of nortriptyline and topiramate. There were no significant differences in demographics and baseline audiometric data between the two groups. Both groups demonstrated improvements in pure tone average (PTA) and hearing thresholds at 250 Hz and 8000 Hz posttreatment. However, compared to steroid-only group, the adjuvant migraine medications group had significantly greater improvements in hearing thresholds at the lower frequencies (250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1000 Hz). Patients in the latter cohort also had greater improvement in PTA (P = .01) and received fewer IT injections (P = .04) PTA improvement of ≥ 10 dB was observed in 36 patients (78%) in the adjuvant migraine medications group and 22 patients (46%) in the control group (P < .001).ConclusionIn multimodal treatment of SSNHL, supplementing oral and IT steroid with migraine medications may result in greater improvements in lower frequency hearing thresholds and PTA. Furthermore, adjuvant migraine treatment can lead to decrease in number of IT injections, thus reducing procedure-related risks and complications.Level of evidence3 Laryngoscope, 131:E283-E288, 2021

SERVBID: The Development of a B2C Service Brand Identity Scale

Structured Abstract Purpose: This paper re-conceptualizes and measures brand identity from a services perspective. It develops and tests a psychometrically valid and reliable scale to measure service brand identity. Design/Methodology/Approach: A multi-stage research design was adopted drawing on qualitative and quantitative studies consistent with extant scale development procedures. Qualitative studies comprised comprehensive literature review, expert panel review and interviews to develop theoretical framework and generate items. Quantitative studies comprised pilot testing (n=106), online survey for scale development (n=245) and scale validation (n=246) on UK-based consumers using Exploratory and Confirmatory factor analysis. Findings: The study finds support for a five-dimensional Service Brand Identity (SERVBID) scale comprising: process identity; organization identity; symbolic identity; servicescape identity; communication identity.Practical Implications: The SERVBID scale provides practitioners with a practical tool to understand, benchmark and assess service brand identity. The scale will assist marketers in assessing the strength of brand identity overall as well as strength of individual facets of brand identity.Originality/Value: This study provides a deeper and complete understanding of the theoretical construct of brand identity through a service-dominant lens, in particular recognizing the defining role of service process and servicescape in service brand identity construction