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‘Making a Positive Environmental Impact’: Exploring the Role of Volunteering at a Campus Community Garden
Get PDFPromoting sustainability in higher education is a social and environmental imperative. This paper explores how and why volunteering at a campus community garden (CCG) can serve as a unique context for promoting sustainability. Twenty-five undergraduate students between the ages of 18 and 27, who had volunteered at a campus garden, participated in individual semi-structured interviews. A majority of participants identified as female (80%) and Asian American (52%). Using reflexive thematic analysis, we first found students were motivated to volunteer for personal and academic reasons as well as to learn more about gardening. Childhood gardening experiences influenced participants’ re-engagement as adults. Second, building social connections and spending time in nature, especially when living in an urban area, sustained students’ engagement in the garden, whereas time constraints and physical tasks made it challenging to volunteer. Finally, the findings suggest that volunteering promoted pro-environmental behaviors. Students felt that their volunteer work allowed them to make a positive environmental impact. Participants also gained new environmental knowledge and skills, which encouraged them to adopt environmentally friendly lifestyle changes, advocate for environmental and social justice issues, and reflect on how they might integrate pro-environmental behaviors into their future careers
Holotomographic microscopy reveals label-free quantitative dynamics of endothelial cells during endothelialization
Get PDFHolotomograhic microscopy (HTM) has emerged as a non-invasive imaging technique that offers high-resolution, quantitative 3D imaging of biological samples. This study explores the application of HTM in examining endothelial cells (ECs). HTM overcomes the limitations of traditional microscopy methods in capturing the real-time dynamics of ECs by leveraging the refractive index (RI) to map 3D distributions label-free. This work demonstrates the utility of HTM in visualizing key cellular processes during endothelialization, wherein ECs anchor, adhere, migrate, and proliferate. Leveraging the high resolution and quantitative power of HTM, we show that lipid droplets and mitochondria are readily visualized, enabling more comprehensive studies on their respective roles during endothelialization. The study highlights how HTM on a commercial instrument can uncover novel insights into HUVEC cell behavior, offering potential applications in medical diagnostics and research, particularly in developing treatments for cardiovascular diseases. This advanced imaging technique not only enhances our understanding of EC biology but also presents a significant step forward in the study of cardiovascular diseases, providing a robust platform for future research and therapeutic development
Exploring Self-dehumanization as a Factor in Misinformation Belief and Spread
Get PDFThe role of dehumanization is little explored in the literature of misinformation studies, primarily seen as a mechanism of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) to denigrate members of targeted outgroups. One noted aspect of dehumanization is the unexpected impact it has on the person enacting it as well as victims, resulting in the noticeable phenomenon of self-dehumanization, in which persons deny their own humanity. Notably, a link to self-dehumanization in information behavior may be evident in the foundational research of Eflreda Chatman, whose examination of information poverty, life in the round and normative behavioral theory resulted in sometimes perplexing findings where those in marginalized groups often would refuse to seek out information helpful to them. It is theorized that a missing link in Chatman’s approach, accounting for some of the unexpected results in her research, may be the effect of self-dehumanization on marginalized groups and their members. The result of such self-dehumanization effects may impact information use, pointing toward another factor in the way that misinformation is believed or spread. This paper shows a novel way forward in the field of information science and information behavior, examining an important aspect of how misinformation may come to be believed and shared within smaller worlds and codified in marginalized groups’ normative behaviors. Finally, the paper points the way toward a nascent conceptualization of a ‘misinformation need’ inherent to the normative behaviors of those within marginalized groups
Moral Intensity Dimensions of Information Security Policy Compliance: Perspectives of Construal Level Theory and Ethical Theories
Get PDFSanctions are often ineffective in promoting employee compliance with information systems security policies (ISSPs) and may lead to undesired outcomes. We establish that ISSP compliance is an ethical decision and examine it through the lens of ethical decision-making using scenario-based surveys. Guided by normative ethical theories and the construal level theory, we find that both the opinions of co-workers and perceived negative consequences of noncompliance to the organization influence employee ISSP compliance intention. Additionally, perceived social distance affects employees\u27 assessment of when damages to the organization can occur. Both the assessed timing of damage and the perceived social distance from the organization influence employees\u27 judgment of potential damages from security breaches resulting from noncompliance. To improve compliance, we recommend organizations align employee compliance motivation with organizational security interests through clear communications of potential security breach damages, fostering a pro-compliance culture, and reducing the psychological distance employees feel from the organization
Validation of a Self-Fitting Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Intervention Compared with a Clinician-Fitted Hearing Aid Intervention: A Within-Subjects Crossover Design Using the Same Device
Get PDFIn October of 2022, the US Food and Drug Administration finalized regulations establishing the category of self-fitting over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids, intended to reduce barriers to hearing aid adoption for individuals with self-perceived mild to moderate hearing loss. Since then a number of self-fitting OTC hearing aids have entered the market, and a small number of published studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of a self-fitted OTC intervention against a traditional clinician-fitted intervention. Given the variety of self-fitting approaches available, and the small number of studies demonstrating effectiveness, the goal of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a commercially available self-fitting OTC hearing aid intervention against a clinician-fitted intervention. Consistent with previous studies, we found that the self-fitted intervention was not inferior to the clinician-fitted intervention for self-reported benefit and objective speech-in-noise outcomes. We found statistically significant improvements in self-fitted outcomes compared to clinician-fitted outcomes, though deviations from best audiological practices in our clinician-fitted intervention may have influenced our results. In addition to presenting our results, we discuss the state of evaluating the noninferiority of self-fitted interventions and offer some new perspectives
Impact of sensory organization tasks on prefrontal cortex activity in older women: a comparative fNIRS study of osteoarthritis and healthy aging
Get PDFIntroduction: Osteoarthritis (OA), a prevalent musculoskeletal condition, is associated with an increased risk of falls. Maintaining posture relies on visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive inputs, but these systems can be compromised due to aging or disease, heightening fall risk. Such impairments may result from neuromuscular decline and reduced cognitive or visuospatial processing abilities. This study aimed to investigate prefrontal cortical (PFC) activation patterns during clinical sensory organization tasks (SOT) using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in older women with OA and healthy controls (HOA). We hypothesized that PFC activation would increase as SOT conditions became more challenging, but that increases would be limited in OA, relative to HOA, given a decreased attentional capacity due to chronic pain. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 10 women with OA (65.7 ± 3.01 years) and 11 HOA (66.0 ± 4.86 years). Baseline cognitive and motor assessments preceded three trials of six SOT conditions. Results: Significant differences between groups in BMI, WOMAC pain score, repeated chair stand, and TUG scores were found (p \u3c 0.001). Linear mixed-model analysis revealed significant effects of condition (CND; p \u3c 0.001), trial (TR; p \u3c 0.0001), and interactions between CND*TR (p \u3c 0.01) and Cohort*CND (p \u3c 0.01) on PFC activation. Discussion: In conclusion, both groups demonstrated increased PFC activation with task difficulty. However, OA participants exhibited diminished capacity to recruit additional attentional resources compared to HOA, emphasizing the need for further research with larger cohorts to elucidate these findings
Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Clash Between the Psychological Contract and Reality: How Attachment Style Influences Turnover Intentions
No full textPsychological contract breach (PCB)—employees’ perception that their employer has failed to fulfill promised obligations—has been linked to increased turnover intentions. While organizational factors like perceived support have been studied as moderators of this relationship, the role of individual traits remains underexplored. This study investigated whether adult attachment style (secure, anxious, avoidant, disorganized) moderates the relationship between PCB and turnover intentions. A sample of 100 employed adults in San Francisco, CA, completed an online survey measuring PCB, attachment style, and turnover intentions. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that PCB significantly predicted higher turnover intentions; however, none of the attachment styles significantly moderated this relationship, indicating that the influence of PCB on turnover intentions did not differ based on one’s attachment style. These findings highlight the strong impact of PCB on turnover intentions, regardless of individual attachment orientation, and suggest that organizations should prioritize fulfilling perceived obligations to retain employees
Assessing the Effectiveness of Data Privacy Rights in America by Measuring Consumer Awareness and Confidence
No full textData privacy is becoming increasingly important in today’s society. This is due to the increasing prominence of the Internet in our everyday lives, as well as our heavily increased reliance on remote communication due, in large part, to the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. Over the past decade, the ability to protect one’s data when browsing the Internet has become an increasingly prominent concern among the general public as the implications of online companies being able to track and collect the personal data of their users becomes a more frequent topic of discussion. This thesis aims to address the effectiveness of current data privacy rights in America by surveying various American citizens on their current views and familiarity with both data privacy and legislation related to it. We then compared our findings to similar surveys conducted within the past few years. The results of our survey show that consumers are more proactive in protecting their data privacy and more concerned with the collection of their data online compared to previous surveys. However, respondents appear to be less familiar with data privacy legislation within their respective states than a number of other countries, and a moderate majority of people who are familiar with current data privacy legislation are not confident in the legislation’s ability to protect their personal data
Evaluating Seasonal vs. Spatial Extrapolation for Cetacean Distribution Models in the California Current
Get PDFSpecies distribution models (SDMs) have been developed for multiple cetacean species within the California Current Ecosystem (CCE) from shipboard survey data collected by the Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) in summer and fall, thus limiting the ability to inform management decisions in cool seasons when abundance and distribution patterns are substantially different. Winter and spring SDMs have been developed for a few species using California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) shipboard survey data, but model predictions are limited to the waters off southern and central California. In this study, winter and spring density estimates for the entire CCE study area were made from SWFSC summer and fall model predictions (temporal extrapolation) and CalCOFI winter and spring model predictions (spatial extrapolation) for short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis delphis), Pacific white-sided dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens), Dall\u27s porpoise (Phocoenoides dalli), and fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus). The performance of the models was compared based on available abundance estimates and documented distribution patterns in the cool seasons. Results reveal species-specific ecological factors to consider when extrapolating model predictions temporally or spatially, including whether a given study area includes a species “core habitat”, and whether static variables should be included when a species exhibits temporal distribution shifts
