An innovative educational program for residential energy efficiency. Final report

Recognizing the importance of energy conservation, under sponsorship of the US Department of Energy, Cornell University conducted a research and demonstration project entitled An Innovative Educational Program for Residential Energy Efficiency. The research project examined the amount of residential energy that can be saved through changes in behavior and practices of household members. To encourage these changes, a workshop was offered to randomly-selected households in New York State. Two surveys were administered to household participants (Survey 1 and Survey 2, Appendix A) and a control group; and a manual was developed to convey many easy but effective ways to make a house more energy efficient (see Residential Manual, Appendix B). Implementing methods of energy efficiency will help reduce this country`s dependence on foreign energy sources and will also reduce the amount of money that is lost on inefficient energy use. Because Cornell Cooperative Extension operates as a component of the land-grant university system throughout the US, the results of this research project have been used to develop a program that can be implemented by the Cooperative Extension Service nationwide. The specific goals and objectives for this project will be outlined, the population and sample for the research will be described, and the instruments utilized for the survey will be explained. A description of the workshop and manual will also be discussed. This report will end with a summary of the results from this project and any observed changes and/or recommendations for future surveys pertaining to energy efficiency

The influence of variations in eating disorder-related symptoms on processing of emotional faces in a non-clinical female sample:an eye-tracking study

This study aimed to: i) determine if the attention bias towards angry faces reported in eating disorders generalises to a non-clinical sample varying in eating disorder-related symptoms; ii) examine if the bias occurs during initial orientation or later strategic processing; and iii) confirm previous findings of impaired facial emotion recognition in non-clinical disordered eating. Fifty-two females viewed a series of face-pairs (happy or angry paired with neutral) whilst their attentional deployment was continuously monitored using an eye-tracker. They subsequently identified the emotion portrayed in a separate series of faces. The highest (n=18) and lowest scorers (n=17) on the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI) were compared on the attention and facial emotion recognition tasks. Those with relatively high scores exhibited impaired facial emotion recognition, confirming previous findings in similar non-clinical samples. They also displayed biased attention away from emotional faces during later strategic processing, which is consistent with previously observed impairments in clinical samples. These differences were related to drive-for-thinness. Although we found no evidence of a bias towards angry faces, it is plausible that the observed impairments in emotion recognition and avoidance of emotional faces could disrupt social functioning and act as a risk factor for the development of eating disorders

Economic analysis of a passive solar multiple-family dwelling for upstate New York

The objective of this study was to examine the economic feasibility of passive solar energy as applied to a multiple-family dwelling in three upstate New York cities: Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse. Specifically, two passive solar applications - a Trombe wall and a direct-gain system - for a nine-unit structure designed by Total Environmental Action, Inc. were analyzed through the use of a solar economic performance code. City-specific data, including climatological information, building construction costs, utility rates, and property taxes were used, as were various economic parameters to reflect economic conditions in general and specifically those of the solar systems' owners

An innovative educational program for residential energy efficiency. Final report

Recognizing the importance of energy conservation, under sponsorship of the US Department of Energy, Cornell University conducted a research and demonstration project entitled An Innovative Educational Program for Residential Energy Efficiency. The research project examined the amount of residential energy that can be saved through changes in behavior and practices of household members. To encourage these changes, a workshop was offered to randomly-selected households in New York State. Two surveys were administered to household participants (Survey 1 and Survey 2, Appendix A) and a control group; and a manual was developed to convey many easy but effective ways to make a house more energy efficient (see Residential Manual, Appendix B). Implementing methods of energy efficiency will help reduce this country`s dependence on foreign energy sources and will also reduce the amount of money that is lost on inefficient energy use. Because Cornell Cooperative Extension operates as a component of the land-grant university system throughout the US, the results of this research project have been used to develop a program that can be implemented by the Cooperative Extension Service nationwide. The specific goals and objectives for this project will be outlined, the population and sample for the research will be described, and the instruments utilized for the survey will be explained. A description of the workshop and manual will also be discussed. This report will end with a summary of the results from this project and any observed changes and/or recommendations for future surveys pertaining to energy efficiency