Green Looks Good on You: The Rhetoric and Moral Identity of Conscious Consumption Blogs

Conscious consumption blogs are at the center of a particular online community where eco-friendly products are popularized. Through the lens of these blogs, this paper analyzes discourse around identity, purchasing, sustainability, lifestyle, community, and activism, to investigate the forces at work in the conscious consumption movement and identify where there is a need for a shift towards a more political environmentalism. As an environmentalist strategy, conscious consumption disproportionately centers the consumer angle, constructing personal possessions as symbols of sustainability. Language analysis reveals strong individualistic messages about personal belief, preference, and benefit which overwhelm any sense of communal good. Instead, motivation is tied to personal morals (holding oneself accountable for the environmental impact of consumption). In place of organized action, the goal of conscious consumption is self-fulfillment as a result of progressing on one’s personal journey. This is encouraged through self-education, voluntary awareness campaigns and leading by example. Overall, conscious consumption blogs’ strong emphasis on self improvement contributes to individualization of responsibility, discouraging followers from collectively imagining new political possibilities outside of individual households

Locally Produced Foods

A locally-produced diet is more sustainable than other diets

TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION RISK: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

Digital transformation research and industry adoption has been on the rise over the past decade with the majority of organisations viewing it as critical to their survival over the next five years. However, in spite of the benefits of digital transformation, it presents a clear but paradoxical risk to organisations such as the requirement to develop innovative products and services while maintaining a stable customer and employee experience. With an estimated 90% of digital transformation projects resulting in failures, several calls have emerged from within the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) and the wider academy for research exploring digital transformation risks and the methodologies to manage them (Munns et al., 2022; Rowland et al., 2022). This article presents a systematic literature review (SLR) of 117 papers from high quality information systems (IS) research outlets. This research identifies six major risks that must be identified, monitored and evaluated to enable digital transformation success. These risks encompass the culture, organisation, processes, and technologies being transformed, along with the stakeholders involved in the initiative, and the overall digital transformation strategy being developed

The City: Art and the Urban Environment

The City: Art and the Urban Environment is the fifth annual exhibition curated by students enrolled in the Art History Methods class. This exhibition draws on the students’ newly developed expertise in art-historical methodologies and provides an opportunity for sustained research and an engaged curatorial experience. Working with a selection of paintings, prints, and photographs, students Angelique Acevedo ’19, Sidney Caccioppoli ’21, Abigail Coakley ’20, Chris Condon ’18, Alyssa DiMaria ’19, Carolyn Hauk ’21, Lucas Kiesel ’20, Noa Leibson ’20, Erin O’Brien ’19, Elise Quick ’21, Sara Rinehart ’19, and Emily Roush ’21 carefully consider depictions of the urban environment in relation to significant social, economic, artistic, and aesthetic developments. [excerpt]https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/artcatalogs/1029/thumbnail.jp

Distribution of cardiovascular health by individual- and neighborhood-level socioeconomic status: Findings from the Jackson Heart Study

BACKGROUND: Data demonstrate a positive relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and cardiovascular health (CVH). OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between individual- and neighborhood-level SES and CVH among participants of the JHS (Jackson Heart Study), a community-based cohort of African Americans in Jackson, Mississippi. METHODS: We included all JHS participants with complete SES and CVH information at the baseline study visit (n = 3,667). We characterized individual- and neighborhood-level SES according to income (primary analysis) and education (secondary analysis), respectively. The outcome of interest for these analyses was a CVH score, based on 7 modifiable behaviors and factors, summed to a total of 0 (worst) to 14 (best) points. We utilized generalized estimating equations to account for the clustering of participants within the same residential areas to estimate the linear association between SES and CVH. RESULTS: The median age of the participants was 55 years, and 64% were women. Nearly one-third of eligible participants had individual incomes \u3c$20,000 and close to 40$25,480). Adjusted for age, sex, and neighborhood SES, there was an average increase in CVH score of 0.31 points associated with each 1-category increase in individual income. Similarly, each 1-category increase in neighborhood SES was associated with a 0.19-point increase in CVH score. These patterns held for our secondary analyses, which used educational attainment in place of income. These data did not suggest a synergistic effect of individual- and neighborhood-level SES on CVH. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest a potential causal pathway for disparities in CVH among vulnerable populations. These data can be useful to the JHS community to empower public health and clinical interventions and policies for the improvement of CVH

Design and Integration of Smart Surgical Drill for Use in Novel Spine Surgery

Spinal fusion surgeries require substantial resources, result in long recovery times, and can cause unintended damage to the patient. PEER Technologies is working to revolutionize the spinal fusion space with the development of a new procedure, termed C-LIF. PEER’s C-LIF procedure is minimally invasive, minimizing patient tissue damage and decreasing recovery time, but lacks the sensory information present in open surgery. Our team investigated how different sensing modalities could be used to account for this lost information. We began by identifying relevant sensing modalities, interviewing spinal surgeons, and performing ex-vivo testing in excised pig spines. We then developed a benchtop testing setup and procedure to determine if the sensors could distinguish between materials during drilling. We eliminated confounding variables while mimicking the proposed C-LIF procedure as closely as possible. This involved developing testing protocols, acquiring sensor hardware, and creating a new drill bit and physical testing apparatus. All three sensing modalities: audio, speed, and bioimpedance, were able to classify the drilled benchtop materials with greater than 90% accuracy, indicating that they are effective at material classification in the benchtop setting. Future work should involve integrating the confounding variables back into sensor testing, and following the steps set out by our team, determining which sensing modalities are most effective at material classification in ex-vivo tissue. The final goal is to develop a control algorithm that integrates all chosen sensing modalities and displays a single metric to the surgeon

Field experiment of signs promoting hand hygiene during the COVID-19 pandemic

Objective: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. public was encouraged to practice good hand hygiene, such as hand washing or the use of hand sanitizer. Young adults reported lower levels of hand hygiene compared to adults of other ages. The aim of the current study was to test the effectiveness of different messages to promote hand sanitizer use among young adults. Method: Over a 6-week period, we examined whether 3 brief messages (gain-frame, static descriptive norms, dynamic descriptive norms), placed next to sanitizer dispensers in university residence halls, predicted dispenser use in comparison to dispensers with no sign. Amount of sanitizer usage was measured 3 times per week via the weight of dispenser units. We tracked and controlled for the number of positive COVID-19 cases in residence halls because we expected it might influence sanitizer usage. Results: Compared to no signage, dispensers with signs had 35% greater usage, with the static descriptive norms sign associated with greatest usage (46% compared to no sign), although differences did not reach conventional levels of significance. The strongest predictor of sanitizer use was a residence hall’s degree of COVID-19 risk based on the hall’s case positivity. Conclusions: Dispensers with signs had higher use than those without signs, but this difference was not statistically significant. We conclude that compared to prior research, \u27nudges\u27 such as evidence-based messaging may have had less of an effect on health behavior engagement due to methodological differences across studies or characteristics of the COVID-19 context.</p

Development and preliminary evaluation of an integrated treatment targeting parenting and depressive symptoms in mothers of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

OBJECTIVE: More than 50% of mothers of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have a lifetime history of major depressive disorder (MDD). Maternal depressive symptoms are associated with impaired parenting and predict adverse developmental and treatment outcomes for children with ADHD. For these reasons, we developed and examined the preliminary efficacy of an integrated treatment targeting parenting and depressive symptoms for mothers of children with ADHD. This integrated intervention incorporated elements of 2 evidence-based treatments: behavioral parent training (BPT) and cognitive behavioral depression treatment. METHOD: Ninety-eight mothers with at least mild depressive symptoms were randomized to receive either standard BPT (n = 51) or the integrated parenting intervention for ADHD (IPI-A; n = 47). Participants were assessed at baseline, posttreatment, and 3- to 6-month follow-up on measures of (a) self-reported maternal depressive symptoms, (b) observed positive and negative parenting, and (c) observed and mother-reported child disruptive behavior and mother-reported child and family impairment. RESULTS: The IPI-A produced effects of small to moderate magnitude relative to BPT on maternal depressive symptoms, observed negative parenting, observed child deviance, and child impairment at posttreatment and on maternal depressive symptoms, child disruptive behavior, child impairment and family functioning at follow-up. Contrary to expectations, the BPT group demonstrated moderate to large effects relative to IPI-A on observed positive parenting at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: This treatment development study provides encouraging preliminary support for the integrated intervention targeting parenting and depressive symptoms in mothers of children with ADHD. Future studies should examine whether this integrated intervention improves long-term developmental outcomes for children with ADHD