315 research outputs found
Does Green Consumerism Increase the Acceptance of Wind Power?
In this paper, we discuss what might be termed an action-based learning approach to promoting important pro-environmental actions, such as support for or acceptance of environmental policy. Such an approach involves promoting simple and easy behaviours as entry points for more radical steps towards sustainability, referred to as âcatalyticâ or âwedgeâ behaviours. Despite the obvious need for innovative approaches to promote important pro-environmental behaviour, and sound theoretical backing for such concepts, there is a lack of research testing the key propositions of this approach. In a survey study based on a random sample of residents of the state of Maine, USA, we find that both everyday âgreenâ behaviour and the acceptance of an expansion of wind power are rooted in environmental concern and that everyday âgreenâ behaviour gives a significant contribution to predicting acceptance of wind power when controlling for environmental concern. Hence, the promotion of everyday âgreenâ behaviours may prepare the grounds for increasing acceptance of more far-reaching changes in the population, such as an expansion of wind power
Thomas-Fermi Approximation for a Condensate with Higher-order Interactions
We consider the ground state of a harmonically trapped Bose-Einstein
condensate within the Gross-Pitaevskii theory including the effective-range
corrections for a two-body zero-range potential. The resulting non-linear
Schr\"odinger equation is solved analytically in the Thomas-Fermi approximation
neglecting the kinetic energy term. We present results for the chemical
potential and the condensate profiles, discuss boundary conditions, and compare
to the usual Thomas-Fermi approach. We discuss several ways to increase the
influence of effective-range corrections in experiment with magnetically
tunable interactions. The level of tuning required could be inside experimental
reach in the near future.Comment: 8 pages, RevTex4 format, 5 figure
One More Awareness Gap? The BehaviourâImpact Gap Problem
Preceding research has made hardly any attempt to measure the ecological impacts of pro-environmental behaviour in an objective way. Those impacts were rather supposed or calculated. The research described herein scrutinized the ecological impact reductions achieved through pro-environmental behaviour and raised the question how much of a reduction in carbon footprint can be achieved through voluntary action without actually affecting the socio-economic determinants of life. A survey was carried out in order to measure the difference between the ecological footprint of âgreenâ and âbrownâ consumers. No significant difference was found between the ecological footprints of the two groupsâsuggesting that individual pro-environmental attitudes and behaviour do not always reduce the environmental impacts of consumption. This finding resulted in the formulation of a new proposition called the BIG (behaviourâimpact gap) problem, which is an interesting addition to research in the field of environmental awareness gaps
Living apart, losing sympathy? How neighbourhood context affects attitudes to redistribution and to welfare recipients
Rising levels of income inequality have been directly linked to rising levels of spatial segregation. In this paper, we explore whether rising segregation may in turn erode support for the redistributive policies of the welfare state, further increasing levels of inequality â a form of positive feedback. The role of the neighbourhood has been neglected in attitudes research but, building on both political geography and âneighbourhood effectsâ literatures, we theorise that neighbourhood context may shape attitudes through the transmission of attitudes directly and through the accumulation of relevant knowledge. We test this through multilevel modelling of data from England on individual attitudes to redistribution in general and to welfare benefit recipients in particular. We show that the individual factors shaping these attitudes are quite different and that the influence of neighbourhood context also varies as a result. The findings support the idea that neighbourhood context shapes attitudes, with the knowledge accumulation mechanism likely to be the more important. Rising spatial segregation would appear to erode support for redistribution but to increase support for welfare recipients â at least in a context where the dominant media discourse presents such a stigmatising image of those on welfare benefits
"Step by Step". A feasibility study of a lunchtime walking intervention designed to increase walking, improve mental well-being and work performance in sedentary employees: Rationale and study design
BACKGROUND:
Following an extensive recruitment campaign, a 16-week lunchtime intervention to increase walking was implemented with insufficiently physically active University employees to examine programme feasibility and the effects of the programme in increasing walking behaviour, and in improving well-being and work performance.
METHODS/DESIGN:
A feasibility study in which participants were randomised to an immediate treatment or a delayed treatment control (to start at 10 weeks) group. For the first ten weeks of the intervention, participants took part in three facilitator-led group walks per week each of thirty minutes duration and were challenged to accumulate another sixty minutes of walking during the weekends. In the second phase of the intervention, the organised group walks ceased to be offered and participants were encouraged to self-organise their walks. Motivational principles were employed using contemporary motivational theory. Outcome measures (including self-reported walking, step counts, cardiovascular fitness, general and work-related well-being and work performance) were assessed at baseline, at the end of the 16-week intervention and (for some) four months after the end of the intervention. Process and outcome assessments were also taken throughout, and following, the intervention.
DISCUSSION:
The results of the intervention will determine the feasibility of implementing a lunchtime walking programme to increase walking behaviour, well-being and performance in sedentary employees. If successful, there is scope to implement definitive trials across a range of worksites with the aim of improving both employee and organisational health
Self-Determination Theory Applied to Health Contexts: A Meta-Analysis \ud
Behavior change is more effective and lasting when patients are autonomously motivated. To examine this idea, we identified 184 independent data sets from studies that utilized self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2000) in health care and health promotion contexts. A meta-analysis evaluated relations between the SDT-based constructs of practitioner support for patient autonomy and patientsâ experience of psychological need satisfaction, as well as relations between these SDT constructs and indices of mental and physical health. Results showed the expected relations among the SDT variables, as well as positive relations of psychological need satisfaction and autonomous motivation to beneficial health outcomes. Several variables (e.g., participantsâ age, study design) were tested as potential moderators when effect sizes were heterogeneous. Finally, we used path analyses of the meta-analyzed correlations to test the interrelations among the SDT variables. Results suggested that SDT is a viable conceptual framework to study antecedents and outcomes of motivation for health-related behaviors
Efimov Trimers near the Zero-crossing of a Feshbach Resonance
Near a Feshbach resonance, the two-body scattering length can assume any
value. When it approaches zero, the next-order term given by the effective
range is known to diverge. We consider the question of whether this divergence
(and the vanishing of the scattering length) is accompanied by an anomalous
solution of the three-boson Schr\"odinger equation similar to the one found at
infinite scattering length by Efimov. Within a simple zero-range model, we find
no such solutions, and conclude that higher-order terms do not support Efimov
physics.Comment: 8 pages, no figures, final versio
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