The awareness of Rowan University undergraduate students regarding dating violence

The purpose of this mixed method study was (a) to investigate the Rowan University\u27s undergraduate students\u27 awareness of dating violence and its multiple forms, (b) to assess if the undergraduates are knowledgeable of the available on and off campus resources for dating violence, (c) to assess if one\u27s gender identity affects their idea of relationships, and (d) to assess how cultural norms may affect one\u27s idea of gender roles in relationships. There were a total of 198 subjects who completed the survey portion of the study that helped assess their awareness of dating violence and knowledge of the available on and off campus resources. Six of those subjects then voluntarily agreed to be participants in the interview process. Through the interview process, it provided a personal perspective from the student\u27s experiences on gender and cultural norms that may affect their relationships. The interviews were transcribed and content analysis was used to analyze the data. This study found that majority of the subjects responded quite similarly about the attitudes towards dating violent perpetrators and victims. The selected participants\u27 responses provided data about how cultural norms can affect an individual\u27s idea of his or her gender norms. Thus recognizing how those norms can affect the individual\u27s idea of a healthy relationship

Sounding the alarm: Is the Sri Lankan tourism sector prepared for climate change?

The United Nations has concluded that climate change is unequivocal and without a rapid decarbonization of the global economy there will be risks of severe, pervasive, and irreversible impacts. The World Bank also emphasized that no scenario exists by which the Sustainable Development Goals of 2030 could be met in a world transformed by climate change. Climate change has already affected the sustainability and competitiveness of global tourism yet it remains to be one of the least prepared economic sectors for the risks and opportunities of climate change. Several studies have highlighted persistent and significant regional knowledge gaps within the scholarship on tourism and climate change – particularly in the South and South-East Asia sub-regions where global tourism is expected to grow the fastest by 2030. Consequently, it is unclear the scale and scope of potential climate change impacts on tourism in these countries or how the tourism sector is planning for climate change in policy and practice. Tourism is Sri Lanka’s third largest economic sector and has been earmarked as one of the most vulnerable sectors to climate change by the Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment. This thesis fills the regional knowledge gap and examines the preparedness of Sri Lanka’s tourism sector at the national scale (Phase I) and the destination level (Phase II). Phase I established the state of knowledge of climate change risks and impacts facing the tourism sector and reviewed the policy coherence between Sri Lanka’s national tourism strategy and climate adaptation plan. Phase II examined tourism stakeholder perceptions’ of climate change and identified barriers to climate adaptation at the embedded case study site (Unawatuna). This study found that Sri Lanka’s tourism sector is not prepared for climate change. The policy review indicated that climate change receives minimal attention in the tourism strategy and therefore does not enable stakeholders to take a proactive and planned approach to adaptation. Interviews suggested that despite being acutely aware of changes in the climate system, climatic conditions were not a priority in the context of other more immediate challenges among tourism stakeholders in Unawatuna. In light of these findings, this thesis recommends the following actions: 1) Conduct research studies to improve understanding of sector relevant climate change risks and impacts; 2) Communicate climate change as a local problem to tourism stakeholders; and, 3) Strengthen institutional capacities to mainstream adaptation. These findings can be used to inform future tourism policies and adaptation plans in Sri Lanka and can offer insight on mainstreaming adaptation in other developing countries facing similar challenges

Raising the Stakes: The Impact of Emotional Investment on Learning Stage Combat

One of the most integral parts of stage combat is safety. A fight director’s constant challenge is keeping their actors safe. One aspect of a fight scene that then merits close inspection is the effect that the intense emotions involved in the scene have on an actor’s ability to perform the fight safely. Does the level of stakes in the scene affect the integrity of the actor’s fighting technique? There exists a paradox when an actor must be emotionally present in a fight as their character while performing technical fight moves accurately. Knowing how to navigate this paradox will enhance the safety of everyone involved in a fight scene as well as contributing to the growing amount of literature available on stage combat

Ultrasound localization microscopy to image and assess microvasculature in a rat kidney.

The recent development of ultrasound localization microscopy, where individual microbubbles (contrast agents) are detected and tracked within the vasculature, provides new opportunities for imaging the vasculature of entire organs with a spatial resolution below the diffraction limit. In stationary tissue, recent studies have demonstrated a theoretical resolution on the order of microns. In this work, single microbubbles were localized in vivo in a rat kidney using a dedicated high frame rate imaging sequence. Organ motion was tracked by assuming rigid motion (translation and rotation) and appropriate correction was applied. In contrast to previous work, coherence-based non-linear phase inversion processing was used to reject tissue echoes while maintaining echoes from very slowly moving microbubbles. Blood velocity in the small vessels was estimated by tracking microbubbles, demonstrating the potential of this technique to improve vascular characterization. Previous optical studies of microbubbles in vessels of approximately 20 microns have shown that expansion is constrained, suggesting that microbubble echoes would be difficult to detect in such regions. We therefore utilized the echoes from individual MBs as microscopic sensors of slow flow associated with such vessels and demonstrate that highly correlated, wideband echoes are detected from individual microbubbles in vessels with flow rates below 2 mm/s

Economic Cost of Campylobacter, Norovirus and Rotavirus Disease in the United Kingdom.

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the annual cost to patients, the health service and society of infectious intestinal disease (IID) from Campylobacter, norovirus and rotavirus. DESIGN: Secondary data analysis. SETTING: The United Kingdom population, 2008-9. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Cases and frequency of health services usage due to these three pathogens; associated healthcare costs; direct, out-of-pocket expenses; indirect costs to patients and caregivers. RESULTS: The median estimated costs to patients and the health service at 2008-9 prices were: Campylobacter £50 million (95% CI: £33m-£75m), norovirus £81 million (95% CI: £63m-£106m), rotavirus £25m (95% CI: £18m-£35m). The costs per case were approximately £30 for norovirus and rotavirus, and £85 for Campylobacter. This was mostly borne by patients and caregivers through lost income or out-of-pocket expenditure. The cost of Campylobacter-related Guillain-Barré syndrome hospitalisation was £1.26 million (95% CI: £0.4m-£4.2m). CONCLUSIONS: Norovirus causes greater economic burden than Campylobacter and rotavirus combined. Efforts to control IID must prioritise norovirus. For Campylobacter, estimated costs should be considered in the context of expenditure to control this pathogen in agriculture, food production and retail. Our estimates, prior to routine rotavirus immunisation in the UK, provide a baseline vaccine cost-effectiveness analyses

Technology Features, Empowering Perceptions, and Voicing Behavior on Microblog

Recently, we have observed rapid growth of individual daily technologies such as microblogs, and the technology’s influence on people’s social life. To investigate such self-determined technology usage, we choose an empowerment perspective as our theoretical lens, because the empowerment concept highlights human beings’ proactive nature. We investigate a specific microblog usage, i.e. publicly voicing personal views on social affairs, which is an initial yet fundamental step in citizen participation. The study reveals that microblog features have transformed the way social news disseminate, and hence influence information quality and users’ social network building. These changes further influence users’ empowerment perceptions through raising users’ perceptions of internal political self-efficacy, autonomy, meaning, and impact. The more empowered users are, the more likely users will voice on microblog. We integrate context into our theorizing, and the empowerment framework allow us to uncover the psychological mechanism through which microblog technology features enable voicing, a specific technology usage

Online Community Citizenship Behaviors (OCCB) and Community Sustainability: An Examination of Benefit Creating Behaviors in Online Communities

Online communities now reach various aspects of people’s work and life; and both practitioners and researchers have recognized their importance. However, among the tens of thousands of online communities, a considerable portion of them gradually become lifeless, with little ongoing conversation and few active members. Since online communities largely rely on members’ participations to generate benefits, it is important to identify the behaviors that contribute to community sustainability. Specifically, the research questions are: 1) Besides knowledge contribution, what are the behaviors contributing to online community sustainability? 2) What is the nature of these behaviors? How do they benefit communities? Comparing online communities with organizations and referring to Organization Citizenship Behaviors (OCB), we conceptualize the benefiting creation behaviors as Online Community Citizenship Behaviors (OCCB), which have the following characteristics: 3) Discretionary 4) Beyond personal needs gratification 5) Promote the effective functioning of the online community We then identify the dimensions of OCCB, viewing online communities as complicated social entities which people go to with various needs to be fulfilled. Previous IS research mainly focuses on people’s information needs and examine knowledge sharing. Referring to social psychology studies on human needs and small group interaction analysis, we highlight that people also have social emotional needs, and argue for the importance of social emotional support on community sustainability. Behaviors offering social emotional support contribute to community relationship building, help to attract new members, and attract posts asking for social emotional support. We also examine behaviors related with community norm development and maintenance, such as recognizing other’s contribution, discouraging inappropriate behaviors. These behaviors cultivate community reciprocity norm and a friendly social atmosphere. They create strong bonding among members, retain members, and encourage members to contribute. We also note community participants may leverage other Internet platforms, such as personal blogs, to promote the community. Specifically, members’ recommendations on other platforms may generate publicity for the community and help the community to attract new users, hence we include cross platform community promotion in OCCB. Overall speaking, how to make online community sustainable is a question of both practical and theoretical interest. We address this question through investigating the benefit creating behaviors, i.e. OCCB. The study goes beyond knowledge contribution, and highlights behaviors related with social emotional needs gratifying, group norms forming, and group publicity. We propose that OCCB have positive influence on membership size, attracting posts seeking knowledge and social support, and hence make the community more influential and sustainable in the topical area; and we suggest ways to help community develop sustainably

Gender Equality, Drinking Cultures and Second-Hand Harms from Alcohol in the 50 US States.

BackgroundGender inequality and cultures of binge drinking may increase the risk of second-hand harms from alcohol.MethodsUsing the 2014-2015 National Alcohol Survey and 2015 National Alcohol's Harm to Others Survey (N = 7792), we examine associations of state-level gender equality measures (contraceptive access, abortion rights, women's economic equality) and binge drinking cultures (rates of men's and women's binge drinking) with individual-level indicators of second-hand harms by drinking strangers and partners/spouses.ResultsIn main effects models, only male binge drinking was associated with greater odds of harms from drinking strangers. There were significant interactions of gender equality with male binge drinking: High male binge drinking rates were more strongly associated with stranger-perpetrated harms in states low on contraceptive access or abortion rights compared to states high on these measures. Conversely, male binge drinking was more strongly associated with spouse/partner-perpetrated second-hand harms in states with more economic equality, compared to states lower on this measure.ConclusionsDetrimental effects of high male binge drinking rates may be modified by gender equality. Targeted interventions may reduce alcohol-related harms experienced by women in states with high rates of male binge drinking. Restrictions in access to contraception and abortion may exacerbate harms due to men's drinking

Age-Specific Incidence Rates for Norovirus in the Community and Presenting to Primary Healthcare Facilities in the United Kingdom.

In a prospective, population-based cohort study and a study of primary-healthcare consultations, we had a rare opportunity to estimate age-specific rates of norovirus-associated infectious intestinal disease in the United Kingdom. Rates in children age