A rank based social norms model of how people judge their levels of drunkenness whilst intoxicated

Background: A rank based social norms model predicts that drinkers’ judgements about their drinking will be based on the rank of their breath alcohol level amongst that of others in the immediate environment, rather than their actual breath alcohol level, with lower relative rank associated with greater feelings of safety. This study tested this hypothesis and examined how people judge their levels of drunkenness and the health consequences of their drinking whilst they are intoxicated in social drinking environments. Methods: Breath alcohol testing of 1,862 people (mean age = 26.96 years; 61.86 % male) in drinking environments. A subset (N = 400) also answered four questions asking about their perceptions of their drunkenness and the health consequences of their drinking (plus background measures). Results: Perceptions of drunkenness and the health consequences of drinking were regressed on: (a) breath alcohol level, (b) the rank of the breath alcohol level amongst that of others in the same environment, and (c) covariates. Only rank of breath alcohol level predicted perceptions: How drunk they felt (b 3.78, 95 % CI 1.69 5.87), how extreme they regarded their drinking that night (b 3.7, 95 % CI 1.3 6.20), how at risk their long-term health was due to their current level of drinking (b 4.1, 95 % CI 0.2 8.0) and how likely they felt they would experience liver cirrhosis (b 4.8. 95 % CI 0.7 8.8). People were more influenced by more sober others than by more drunk others. Conclusion: Whilst intoxicated and in drinking environments, people base judgements regarding their drinking on how their level of intoxication ranks relative to that of others of the same gender around them, not on their actual levels of intoxication. Thus, when in the company of others who are intoxicated, drinkers were found to be more likely to underestimate their own level of drinking, drunkenness and associated risks. The implications of these results, for example that increasing the numbers of sober people in night time environments could improve subjective assessments of drunkenness, are discussed

Your superinsulated house

"12/80/10M""This guide is written for home builders. All the information was furnished by professional homebuilders who build to sell and therefore build the qualities and characteristics that are requested by home buyers. The message to all future home buyers is clear and important. Unless the home buyer looks for and demands homes with far more insulation in the walls and ceiling, such homes will not be built. Most builders know how to build homes that are more energy efficient. When such homes will be built is determined by you, the home buyer. It's your move."--First page.Gordon L. Moore (Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Producing short and long run projections for the Ecological Footprint

The Ecological Footprint is a useful tool for public awareness of ecological pressures and for policymakers who aim to reduce them. In order to determine the potential effects of future actions and policies, it is necessary to construct scenarios of future global conditions, both in the short-term and long-term. This study develops two alternative methods for creating Ecological Footprint scenarios: first using asymmetric changes in simple economic output (GDP) to look at short-term projections; then using widely accepted scenarios from international agencies to develop long-term projections. Changes in GDP were found to be causal in determining changes in the Ecological Footprint, and this method can be used for nowcasting and projecting the future Ecological Footprint. Furthermore, it was found that the projections from different agencies can be combined under a single Ecological Footprint framework, but there are certain inconsistencies across projections that are highlighted. Lastly, the use of dynamic Ecological Footprint models based on computable general equilibrium models is explored as the preferred solution for the creation of policy-relevant tools

Acrimonious and divisive: the role the media played in Brexit

Britain’s media is highly partisan, and this was more apparent than ever in the run-up to the EU referendum. In this extract from a report on media coverage of the campaign, Martin Moore (left) and Gordon Ramsay explain how the Leave campaign styled Remain’s warnings about the effects of Brexit as ‘Project Fear’, accusing ‘experts’ arguing for the status quo of self-interest and a lack of patriotism. Leave then went on to make immigration the key issue, with the Express, Mail and Telegraph urging voters to ‘take back control’ of Britain’s borders

Analyzing the Use and Impacts of Oakland Slow Streets and Potential Scalability Beyond Covid-19

This report presents the results of a mixed-methods study of the 2020-2022 Oakland Slow Streets program. An official response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the program used signs and temporary barricades to limit thru-traffic on 21 miles of city streets to create more and safer space for walking, cycling, and outdoor recreation. Researchers collected data throughout the summer of 2021 on seven designated slow streets plus one cross street and one control street for each – a total of 21 street segments representing conditions in seven different neighborhoods across Oakland. Data collection comprised in-person passerby counts, observations and photographs of local conditions, and logged traffic speed data. Findings vary widely across study sites. In certain cases, observed slow streets saw less car traffic or more bicycle/pedestrian use than one or both of their comparison streets, and in at least one case the slow street was clearly embraced by the local community and used as planners intended; in others the slow street was no different than neighboring streets. The study draws on these findings to identify local conditions that seem likely to make slow treet treatments more or less successful. However, acknowledging that all neighborhoods deserve safer streets and greater outdoor recreational opportunities, the authors argue that better community outreach must be implemented to ensure areas not predisposed to make full use of slow streets can have the opportunity to do so. The study also makes suggestions regarding the potential for rapid, low-cost bike and pedestrian street safety improvements going forward

UK Election 2015:Setting the Agenda

UK election 2015: setting the agenda builds on innovative work by Dr Martin Moore and Dr Gordon Ramsay started in January 2015. Using new methods for collecting and analyzing news and social media content,the report provides a fresh perspective on how political communication is changing in the digital era

Money and happiness : rank of income, not income, affects life satisfaction

Does money buy happiness, or does happiness come indirectly from the higher rank in society that money brings? Here we test a rank hypothesis, according to which people gain utility from the ranked position of their income within a comparison group. The rank hypothesis contrasts with traditional reference income hypotheses, which suggest utility from income depends on comparison to a social group reference norm. We find that the ranked position of an individual’s income predicts general life satisfaction, while absolute income and reference income have no effect. Furthermore, individuals weight upward comparisons more than downward comparisons. According to the rank hypothesis, income and utility are not directly linked: Increasing an individual’s income will only increase their utility if ranked position also increases and will necessarily reduce the utility of others who will lose rank

Short-Run Economic Impacts of Hurricane Katrina (and Rita)

Sturm; Erdölförderung; Offshore-Industrie; Makroökonomischer Einfluss; USA

An evalaution of BookTrust additional needs resources

This report explores reading for pleasure among children with special educational needs through an evaluation of BookTrust's additional needs resources.The BookTrus

A Tunable Anomalous Hall Effect in a Non-Ferromagnetic System

We measure the low-field Hall resistivity of a magnetically-doped two-dimensional electron gas as a function of temperature and electrically-gated carrier density. Comparing these results with the carrier density extracted from Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations reveals an excess Hall resistivity that increases with decreasing temperature. This excess Hall resistivity qualitatively tracks the paramagnetic polarization of the sample, in analogy to the ferromagnetic anomalous Hall effect. The data are consistent with skew-scattering of carriers by disorder near the crossover to localization