SEXUAL HEALTH

Have COVID-19 lockdowns affected passion and intimacy in relationships?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

WILEY

In a study of dating and married couples in India who were surveyed before and after India’s COVID-19 lockdown, relationship satisfaction, love, intimacy, and passion were significantly lower post-lockdown compared with pre-lockdown.

The study, which was published in Family Relations, found that commitment among those who were dating remained unaffected. For those who were dating, watching movies together and revisiting old memories were activities associated with love. For married couples, doing household chores, cooking, and watching movies together were associated with love.

The study included 100 participants (65 dating, 35 married) who were surveyed in two waves, first in January–March and then in May after the lockdown.

“Love in relationships has been a collateral damage to COVID-19. How couples spent time with each other is the key to maintain love. Watching movies together, reminiscing positive experiences, and sharing housework led to better connectedness,” said co-author Kanika K. Ahuja, PhD, of Lady Shri Ram College for Women, in India. “While it is widely believed that the way through a man’s heart is through his stomach, our results suggest that a similar route exists for women as well, provided men want to take that route! Norms that define a relationship, particularly with regard to participation in domestic work by men must be revisited to adjust to the new normal.” 

---

JOURNAL

Family Relations

DOI

10.1111/fare.12582 

A new method for easier consultations with young people on sexual ill-health in Sweden

Reports and Proceedings

LINKÖPING UNIVERSITY

PrintEmail App

 

IMAGE: SOFIA HAMMARSTRÖM, DOCTOR OF MEDICINE AND DEVELOPMENT MANAGER AT THE KNOWLEDGE CENTRE FOR SEXUAL HEALTH, REGION VÄSTRA GÖTALAND. view more 

CREDIT: SOFIA HAMMARSTRÖM.

A procedure that uses written questions to identify visitors to youth clinics who have experienced or risk experiencing sexually transmitted infections, unplanned pregnancy or sexual violence is receiving high praise from personnel and visitors. This is the conclusion of a doctoral thesis from Linköping University, Sweden.

Young people have a higher risk of sexual ill-health in the form of sexually transmitted infections, unplanned pregnancy and sexual violence than other age groups. Youth clinics have been established throughout Sweden and work principally with the sexual and mental health of young people, 13-24 years.

“It has, however, been a problem that sexual ill-health in those who visit such clinics often remains undiscovered, since young people seldom describe these experiences in their contact with the healthcare system, and personnel do not routinely ask visitors about the risks they face or negative sexual experiences they have had,” says Sofia Hammarström, who recently presented her doctoral thesis at the Department of Health, Medicine and Caring Sciences, Linköping University.

She presents in the thesis studies of how it is possible to identify young people at risk, and describes a method she has developed and tested at three youth clinics. The method, SEXIT, consists of a questionnaire for visitors and training and a manual for personnel. It involves young people who visit a youth clinic answering a questionnaire, followed by a discussion during the visit. In a pilot study, a total of 268 young visitors answered the questionnaire and a significant number of them described several risk factors or negative experiences. The method has been praised by both personnel and visitors. Nearly nine out of ten young people thought that the questions were important. Few experienced the questions to be awkward or difficult to answer.

“The visitors I interviewed said it was easier to describe negative or sensitive experiences by completing a questionnaire than bringing up such questions on their own initiative. They found it important that everyone was offered the questionnaire, and that responding was voluntary. This creates transparency, and signals to the visitors that the youth clinic is interested and prepared to discuss difficult questions”, says Sofia Hammarström. 

The interviews also emphasised the importance of a professional and non-judgemental approach from the personnel when dealing with what may be extremely sensitive issues.

The personnel have found that this way of working has increased both the quality and degree of equality in the healthcare system, since everyone now is asked the same questions. Previously, these questions have only come up if the visitor initiates the discussion or if it is obvious that there are problems. SEXIT now identifies more visitors who need care or support, not least because the questionnaire includes several important risk factors at the same time. Both personnel and the young people find it difficult to bring up issues such as experiencing violence or being reimbursed for sex. A questionnaire can make communication between them easier.

As work with the thesis has progressed, other clinics have become increasingly interested. While working on her research, Sofia Hammarström has also worked as development manager at the Knowledge Centre for Sexual Health, Region Västra Götaland. This has enabled her to develop the method and spread it to others. Youth clinics in 11 of Sweden’s 21 regions have implemented the tool, and other units that work with young people have also expressed an interest. 

“We know from research on implementation that it is unusual for new methods in healthcare to be implemented as rapidly as this. I see this as a confirmation that the method works and corresponds to an actual need for those in the field”, says Sofia Hammarström. 

###

The thesis: Identification of young people at risk of sexual ill health – implementing a new tool in youth clinics, Sofia Hammarström (2021), Linköping University, Linköping University Medical Dissertations, ISSN 0345-0082 ; 1784

---

DOI

10.3384/diss.diva-178042 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

Large herbivore can reduce fire risks

Around the world, wildfires are posing major risks to people and nature; domestic and wild animals can help prevent them

Peer-Reviewed Publication

GERMAN CENTRE FOR INTEGRATIVE BIODIVERSITY RESEARCH (IDIV) HALLE-JENA-LEIPZIG

In many parts of the world, socio-economic drivers are causing large-scale land abandonment. Nomadic practices and pastoralism are decreasing worldwide as well. As a result, areas gradually grow over with bushes, and trees accumulate combustible plant material. Established firebreaks are lost. These processes lead to a higher risk and greater intensity of wildfires. Currently, one of the main responses to this risk is to invest in firefighting capacity. While this can be effective in fighting wildfires once they occur, more promising strategies involve avoiding intense wildfires in the first place.

Researchers from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig University, the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Wageningen University and CIBIO/InBIO (Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources of University of Porto and University of Lisbon) found, that large herbivores – including domestic livestock, wild and semi-wild herbivores – can form a nature-based solution to reduce the risk of wildfires. The study was conducted as part of the project GrazeLIFE (LIFE-Preparatory project on request of and co-financed by the European Commission), coordinated by Rewilding Europe.

The international research team examined whether large herbivores can reduce the amount of fire-prone vegetation and in turn the impact of wildfires. To do this, they evaluated existing studies that investigated connections between herbivores, vegetation structure, fire risk, fire frequency and fire damage. They found that herbivores can mitigate wildfire damage. The effectiveness depends on a number of factors: herbivore population density, herbivore species and diet, but also the type of vegetation and environmental conditions.

“Not only domestic animals can do the job, but also reintroduced wild and semi-wild herbivores”, said Julia Rouet-Leduc, lead author of the study and doctoral researcher at iDiv and Leipzig University. “They can be effective in reducing wildfire risk, especially in remote and inaccessible areas where careful management with herbivores can combine wildfire prevention with nature conservation.” Dr Fons van der Plas, senior author of the study and an assistant professor at Wageningen University added: “Extensive forms of grazing will not lead to homogeneous short vegetation, but the presence of short, grazed patches can already be enough to avoid uncontrollable fire spread, acting as natural fire breaks.” Where needed, short-term intensive grazing (known as “targeted grazing”) can also be combined with other actions like mechanical clearing to further reduce fire risks.

Based on their findings, the researchers make recommendations for land managers and policymakers to mitigate wildfires. One is to maintain and promote extensive grazing by domestic or (semi-)wild herbivores in areas currently facing land abandonment. This will require integrating relevant agricultural, forestry and fire management policies, and providing financial support for fire prevention with animals. In Europe, for example, the Common Agricultural Policy should support farmers and land owners in using extensive grazing for fire management. “Allowing animals to do the work is an exceptionally cost-efficient way to manage the land, while at the same time restoring missing ecosystem functions; and it can benefit local people,” said Dr Guy Pe’er, researcher at iDiv and UFZ and also lead author of the study.

“At the same time, we have to accept that fires are natural processes and important to many ecosystems, and we have to learn to live with them to a certain extent,” said Rouet-Leduc. “With climate change, wildfires are likely to become increasingly severe in many parts of the world,” said Pe’er. “Current policies can, and should, take much better account of nature-based solutions, like allowing herbivores to do their job.”

###

---

JOURNAL

Journal of Applied Ecology

DOI

10.1111/1365-2664.13972 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Literature review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Effects of large herbivores on fire regimes and wildfire mitigation.

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

6-Sep-2021

Disclaimer: AAA

WASP SUBURBS VS THE INNER CITY

Low-poverty US communities may eliminate cervical cancer by 2030 but high-poverty communities may lag behind

The HPV vaccine has made near-elimination of cervical cancer possible, but health care disparities may delay this milestone

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR CANCER RESEARCH

Bottom Line: A predictive model estimated that cervical cancer may be virtually eliminated in the United States by 2030 in communities with low poverty rates, but not until 2044 in communities with high poverty rates.

Journal in Which the Study was Published: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Author: Jennifer Spencer, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin, who performed this work as a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Background: Approximately 14,000 cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed per year in the U.S., resulting in an estimated 4,000 annual deaths. Over 90 percent of cervical cancers are caused by infection with certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted infection that can also cause anal, penile, vaginal, vulvar, and oropharyngeal tumors.

HPV vaccines have been available since 2006 and currently protect against nine HPV types, including seven of the 14 known to increase cancer risk. A full vaccination regimen is recommended for all adolescents and consists of two doses for children aged nine to 15 or three doses for individuals aged 15 to 26. Because the vaccine is over 90 percent effective at preventing HPV-related cancers, vaccination efforts could lead to “near-elimination” of cervical cancer, a threshold the World Health Organization defines as fewer than four cases per 100,000 individuals.

Because most cervical cancers occur in patients older than 30, and the first adolescents to be vaccinated are only beginning to enter that age range, scientists cannot yet quantify the effects of widespread vaccination efforts. It can therefore be difficult to determine where disparities exist and design plans to mediate them. For this, researchers like Spencer have turned to predictive models.

How the Study was Conducted: Spencer and her colleagues created a model of HPV spread and progression, based on previous models used to understand sexually transmitted diseases. Their model accounted for the risk of HPV transmission among vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, the probability of HPV progressing to cervical cancer, the rates of cervical cancer screening, and the odds of effective cancer treatment.

The researchers developed two versions of the model—one of a hypothetical county in the lowest poverty quartile and one of a county in the highest poverty quartile. They acquired immunization data for low- vs. high-poverty areas from the National Immunization Survey-Teen (NIS-Teen), screening and follow-up data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), and HPV prevalence data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

The models that best matched existing data for the low- and high-poverty scenarios were then used to simulate cervical cancer rates through 2070. The researchers ran the simulation using the current vaccine initiation rate (anyone who has received at least one dose) of approximately 70 percent in both high- and low-poverty counties, as well as the national target vaccination rate of 80 percent.

Results: The models predicted that low-poverty areas will reach the cervical cancer near-elimination threshold by 2030, while high-poverty areas won’t reach this threshold until 2044. This resulted in an estimated 21,604 excess cervical cancer cases in high-poverty areas over the next 50 years. However, the absolute disparity in cervical cancer rates is expected to decrease from an estimated 2.5 excess cases per 100,000 women in high-poverty areas in 2006 to an excess 1.0 case per 100,000 women in high-poverty areas in 2070. The model did not predict that cervical cancer would be eliminated much sooner in either area if vaccination rates reached 80 percent, but that such efforts would decrease the number of excess cases in high-poverty counties by around 1,000 over the next 50 years.

Spencer does not believe that these disparities are due to differences in vaccination rates, as the study showed similar vaccination rates in high-poverty and low-poverty areas. Instead, the study confirmed known differences in cervical cancer screening rates between high- and low-poverty counties and additionally found that high-poverty counties have a higher prevalence of cancer-causing HPV types that aren’t covered by the vaccine—18.3 percent compared to 8.9 percent in low-poverty counties. Spencer believes that these factors may contribute to the disparities.

Author’s Comments: “Other studies have predicted that, as a whole, the U.S. will hit the elimination target in the middle of that range,” Spencer said. “The fact that some places will hit it a decade before other places is a little bit of a gut punch.”

“Vaccination can do a lot of good, but it’s unlikely that the disparities can be addressed through just vaccination,” she added. “The next step is to identify what policies we can use to close these gaps in the future.”

Study Limitations: Limitations of this study include the fact that the model only accounted for heterosexual transmission, and it did not factor in infections with more than one type of HPV, which could alter vaccine efficacy predictions. Additionally, the authors acknowledge that, in the coming years, an improved understanding of disease progression following HPV infection and cervical cancer carcinogenesis could affect the accuracy of these predictions.

###

Funding & Disclosures: This study was funded by the University of North Carolina’s Cancer Care Quality Training Program and the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center Training in Oncology Population Sciences Program. Spencer declares no conflicts of interest.

---

JOURNAL

Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention

DOI

10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-21-0307 

ARTICLE TITLE

Reducing Poverty-Related Disparities in Cervical Cancer: The Role of HPV Vaccination

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

9-Sep-2021

COI STATEMENT

Spencer declares no conflicts of interest.

REVOLUTION IS AGAINST BOREDOM

Too much free time may be almost as bad as too little

Using excess discretionary time on productive activities can help bolster well-being, study says

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

As an individual’s free time increases, so does that person’s sense of well-being – but only up to a point. Too much free time can be also be a bad thing, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

“People often complain about being too busy and express wanting more time. But is more time actually linked to greater happiness? We found that having a dearth of discretionary hours in one’s day results in greater stress and lower subjective well-being,” said Marissa Sharif, PhD, an assistant professor of marketing at The Wharton School and lead author of the paper. “However, while too little time is bad, having more time is not always better.”

The research was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Researchers analyzed the data from 21,736 Americans who participated in the American Time Use Survey between 2012 and 2013. Participants provided a detailed account of what they did during the prior 24 hours -- indicating the time of day and duration of each activity – and reported their sense of well-being. The researchers found that as free time increased, so did well-being, but it leveled off at about two hours and began to decline after five. Correlations in both directions were statistically significant.

The researchers also analyzed data from 13,639 working Americans who participated in the National Study of the Changing Workforce between 1992 and 2008. Among the survey’s many questions, participants were asked about their amount of discretionary time (e.g., “On average, on days when you’re working, about how many hours [minutes] do you spend on your own free-time activities?”) and their subjective well-being, which was measured as life satisfaction (e.g., “All things considered, how do you feel about your life these days? Would you say you feel 1=very satisfied, 2=somewhat satisfied, 3=somewhat dissatisfied, or 4=very dissatisfied?”)

Once again, the researchers found that higher levels of free time were significantly associated with higher levels of well-being, but only up to a point. After that, excess free time was not associated with greater well-being.

To further investigate the phenomenon, the researchers conducted two online experiments involving more than 6,000 participants. In the first experiment, participants were asked to imagine having a given amount of discretionary time every day for at least six months. Participants were randomly assigned to have a low (15 minutes per day), moderate (3.5 hours per day), or high (7 hours per day) amount of discretionary time. Participants were asked to report the extent to which they would experience enjoyment, happiness and satisfaction.

Participants in both the low and high discretionary time groups reported lower well-being than the moderate discretionary time group. The researchers found that those with low discretionary time felt more stressed than those with a moderate amount, contributing to lower well-being, but those with high levels of free time felt less productive than those in the moderate group, leading them to also have lower well-being. 

In the second experiment, researchers looked at the potential role of productivity. Participants were asked to imagine having either a moderate (3.5 hours) or high (7 hours) amount of free time per day, but were also asked to imagine spending that time in either productive (e.g., working out, hobbies or running) or unproductive activities (e.g., watching television or using the computer). The researchers found participants with more free time reported lower levels of well-being when engaging in unproductive activities. However, when engaging in productive activities, those with more free time felt similar to those with a moderate amount of free time.   

“Though our investigation centered on the relationship between amount of discretionary time and subjective well-being, our additional exploration into how individuals spend their discretionary time proved revealing,” said Sharif. “Our findings suggest that ending up with entire days free to fill at one’s discretion may leave one similarly unhappy. People should instead strive for having a moderate amount of free time to spend how they want. In cases when people do find themselves with excessive amounts of discretionary time, such as retirement or having left a job, our results suggest these individuals would benefit from spending their newfound time with purpose.” 

Article: “Having Too Little or Too Much Time is Linked to Lower Subjective Well-Being,” by Marissa Sharif, PhD, University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, and Cassie Mogilner, PhD, and Hal Hershfield, PhD, University of California Los Angeles. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, published online Sept. 9, 2021.

Contact: Marissa Sharif, PhD, can be reached via email at masharif@wharton.upenn.edu. 

---

JOURNAL

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Having Too Little or Too Much Time is Linked to Lower Subjective Well-Being

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

9-Sep-2021

1. The Right To Be Lazy

   www.slp.org/pdf/others/lazy_pl.pdf · PDF file

   The Right To Be Lazy BEING A REPUDIATION OF THE “RIGHT TO WORK” OF 1848 By Paul Lafargue Translated and adapted from the French by Dr. Harriet Lothrop. Published by …

2. The Abolition of Work | The Anarchist Library

3. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/bob-black-the-abolition-of-work

4. 1. 2020-11-28 · Bob Black The Abolition of Work No one should ever work. Work is the source of nearly all the misery in the world.

Social groups, status play large role in health controversies

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INDIANA UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: ELAINE HERNANDEZ view more 

CREDIT: INDIANA UNIVERSITY

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on the way people make decisions about their health and the influence that the people in our lives have on those decisions.

A study by Indiana University researchers found that when people encounter health controversies -- such as whether to drink alcohol during pregnancy or whether to get the COVID-19 vaccine -- the social networks they belong to can play a major role in their decision-making. Their individual socioeconomic status plays a role as well.

Health controversies occur when there is widespread questioning of medical recommendations. Thus, these findings emphasize the importance of clear and effective public communication about health risks.

The study was published in Social Science & Medicine and looked at first-time, pregnant individuals and the case of light/moderate prenatal alcohol consumption. Researchers used surveys and in-depth interviews with these individuals and their health care professionals.

"As the COVID-19 pandemic has made clear, health behaviors are easily politicized, leading to misinformation and inconsistent social norms," said Elaine Hernandez, the study lead and an assistant professor of sociology in the IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences. "People rely on their networks when making decisions, but we found that their experiences were unequal: Higher-status people faced fewer consequences for resisting medical guidelines."

The study found that in terms of health controversies, when people in their network agreed about how to behave, people followed this agreed-upon social norm. For example, if pregnant individuals received anti-drinking messages from health care providers and people in their network, they uniformly conformed regardless of their own opinions. A disproportionate number of individuals in this group had not completed four-year college degrees.

On the other hand, individuals with bachelor's or advanced degrees were more likely to receive inconsistent messages about prenatal alcohol consumption and felt empowered to question medical recommendations both in formal and informal settings.

"Individuals from higher social positions tend to have social ties with physicians, reducing their perceived social distance and empowering them to question advice," Hernandez said. "The opposite is true for individuals from lower social positions, who perceive a larger social distance and experience more scrutiny and policing for disobeying medical guidelines."

As with current health controversies, health care professionals in the study also disagreed with each other. During interviews, some of them acknowledged that when pressed, they were often willing to support light/moderate drinking during pregnancy, despite what the official medical guidelines say.

The study also found that strong ties exert considerable social control regarding health controversies. For instance, all individuals whose partners strongly discouraged drinking avoided alcohol or stopped drinking, even if they would have preferred to continue drinking alcohol and thought that doing so was unlikely to cause harm. Those whose partners encouraged drinking felt empowered to drink within certain settings, particularly when others encouraged drinking during pregnancy, as well.

These findings help explain how social norms and social status can influence whether people question or even ignore medical recommendations. They emphasize the need for clear, effective health guidelines, Hernandez said. They also emphasize the need for health care professionals to avoid unequal policing of lower-status patients by using consistent protocols and to consider the influence of network norms, particularly when it comes to controversial health risks.

"When the people around us aren't following the rules, it's much easier to ignore those rules ourselves -- particularly if we have the kind of social and economic power that makes us more immune to public scrutiny for the choices that we make," said Jessica Calarco, an associate professor of sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences and co-author on the study.

###

---

JOURNAL

Social Science & Medicine

DOI

10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114319 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Health decisions amidst controversy: Prenatal alcohol consumption and the unequal experience of influence and control in networks

 

Culture determines the likelihood of unhappy employees becoming entrepreneurs

Dissatisfied employees are more likely to want to start their own businesses – but only in countries with low uncertainty avoidance and high social acceptance of entrepreneurship.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

XI'AN JIAOTONG-LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: INTERACTION OF UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE, JOB SATISFACTION AND ENTREPRENEURIAL LEGITIMACY ON ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION. view more 

CREDIT: RESEARCHERS.

A new study by a team of researchers from Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) and Shanghai University in China has found that the level of entrepreneurial intention among dissatisfied employees is greatly affected by their cultural context. 

Dr Jie Li, of XJTLU’s International Business School Suzhou, says studies in the past have shown a positive correlation between job dissatisfaction and entrepreneurial intent, but focusing on only job satisfaction doesn’t tell the whole story. 

“In our study, we found that cultural context plays a big role,” he says. “In societies that support and value entrepreneurial ventures, as well as countries where people are more likely to take risks and are more comfortable with change, there’s a far stronger link between job satisfaction and the intention to start a business.” 

In countries where the opposite is true – low legitimacy of entrepreneurial ventures and a higher rate of uncertainty avoidance – job dissatisfaction rarely translates to entrepreneurship. 

For example, in Japan, which has both a high rate of uncertainty avoidance and low entrepreneurial legitimacy, there are very low rates of entrepreneurial intent. Conversely, people in Colombia have relatively low uncertainty avoidance, have a higher regard for entrepreneurial ventures, and have high entrepreneurial intent rates. 

Wage slaves

Dr Li was inspired, in part, by jokes about, and self-deprecation of, office workers in China. “They call themselves ‘wage slaves,” continues Dr Li. “Although they are expressing that they’re dissatisfied with their jobs, most of them just complain and continue to stay in their current organisations.” 

Thus, Dr Li wanted to investigate what factors could influence those dissatisfied employees’ decisions to start their own business. He read the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) reports and found that entrepreneurial adoption rates vary significantly across countries, so he wanted to explore what macro factors could explain this phenomenon.

The sample for this study was drawn from two international databases: the APS GEM 2013 and the GLOBE project. The latter employs a large group of investigators from all over the world and investigates the relationship between culture and leadership. 

GEM collects annual survey data from at least 2,000 randomly selected adults from each participating country. Many participants are employees – and haven’t declared entrepreneurial intentions – when they participate in this survey. GEM teams collect participants’ attitudes towards entrepreneurial activities. Participants respond regarding their attitudes towards their job environments and work lives only. However, the 2013 Adult Population Survey (APS) from GEM contains job satisfaction measurement, which is why he used this data source. 

Support and legitimacy

Entrepreneurship is an integral part of economic growth, and Dr Li explains that understanding the societal barriers to starting new businesses is crucial. 

“To boost start-up activities, policymakers should first stimulate the public’s entrepreneurship intention. Whether people have the passion and willingness to start a business depends on two factors: their desire for entrepreneurship and the social environment for entrepreneurship and innovation. Owing to the powerful and absolute role played by entrepreneurial legitimacy, improving the legitimacy of entrepreneurship is an effective way,” concludes Dr Li.

---

JOURNAL

International Small Business Journal Researching Entrepreneurship

DOI

10.1177/02662426211018831 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

The influence of job satisfaction on entrepreneurial intention: A cross-level investigation

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

16-Jun-2021

 

Surprisingly high emissions from fuel-powered auxiliary heaters in cars

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND

Heaters, sold under such well-known brand names as Webasto and Eberspächer, among others, are used in both passenger cars and heavy-duty vehicles to preheat the engine and provide additional cabin heating while driving. Emissions from heaters are not regulated, although they are widely used in especially colder regions, such as Finland. Therefore, they can have a significant impact on local air quality, and even on regional or global emissions budgets.

Researchers from Tampere University and the University of Eastern Finland studied the emissions of a total of eight selected vehicles equipped with an additional heater, either diesel or gasoline, depending on the car's propulsion power. Tests were carried out in collaboration with Dekati Ltd.

Postdoctoral Researcher Panu Karjalainen from Tampere University says that the results of the study show that the particulate emissions of auxiliary heaters can be up to a thousand times higher than the particulate emissions of idling gasoline vehicles. This raises the question of whether the use of heaters is justified with regard to the objective of reducing overall vehicle emissions. In addition, auxiliary fuel-fired heaters have been proposed as a solution for heating the cabin of electric vehicles so that it does not consume power from the battery, which in turn shortens the distance that a vehicle can drive on a single charge.

The researchers found that both gasoline and diesel heaters produced the highest particle concentrations immediately after start-up and shutdown. During the steady heating period, the particulate concentration in the emission remained at a constant level, which, however, was significantly higher than the emission from the idling of the car. In particular, in the case of diesel engines complying with the Euro 5b emission standard, all of which are equipped with a diesel particulate filter, emissions from auxiliary heaters are emphasized in relation to the very low particulate concentrations in the exhaust pipes. The results raise the question of whether the use of heaters is justified in view of emission reduction.

However, Senior Researcher Santtu Mikkonen from the University of Eastern Finland points out that the study does not take a position on the effect of additional heaters on engine cold-start emissions or the reduction of engine wear. Therefore, more research is needed to better investigate emissions and their environmental impact, and to make recommendations on the use and development of heaters.

For further information, please contact:

Postdoctoral Researcher Panu Karjalainen, University of Tampere, Laboratory of Aerosol Physics, panu.karjalainen@tuni.fi, tel. 045-3592979

Senior Researcher Santtu Mikkonen, University of Eastern Finland, Department of Applied Physics, santtu.mikkonen@uef.fi, tel. 040-3552319

 

Reference: (link https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/12/9/1105)

Karjalainen, Panu, Markus Nikka, Miska Olin, Sampsa Martikainen, Antti Rostedt, Anssi Arffman, and Santtu Mikkonen. 2021. "Fuel-Operated Auxiliary Heaters Are a Major Additional Source of Vehicular Particulate Emissions in Cold Regions" Atmosphere 12, no. 9: 1105. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12091105

---

JOURNAL

Atmosphere

DOI

10.3390/atmos12091105 

ARTICLE TITLE

Fuel-Operated Auxiliary Heaters Are a Major Additional Source of Vehicular Particulate Emissions in Cold Regions

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

26-Aug-2021

New flood risk prediction tool to MapOut disaster mitigation plans

Visualizing flood risk easily could help informed policy making and scientifically accurate sustainable planning to benefit vulnerable communities

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CACTUS COMMUNICATIONS

 

IMAGE: EFFECTIVE FLOOD MANAGEMENT NEEDS RISK INFORMATION IDENTIFYING AREAS THAT ARE VULNERABLE TO FLOODING IN THE AFTERMATH OF HEAVY RAINS view more 

CREDIT: INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY BOMBAY

India reports the second-highest flood damages in the world, with over 1600 people affected by floods annually. Uncontrolled growth, poor planning and infrastructure, and the effects of climate change have added to complexities involved in preventing and mitigating flood related damage. In recent years, the frequency and severity of floods has increased, making it even more important to adopt new measures and strengthen existing ones to prevent floods.

The key to flood prevention is obtaining accurate and timely flood risk information. Flood risk consists of two components—hazard and vulnerability. Hazard accounts for factors like regional rainfall, flood inundation, and weather phenomena such as cyclones, whereas vulnerability includes both physical vulnerability and socio-economic vulnerability. Web-based platforms are ideal for generating this information because they are inexpensive, reliable, and instantaneously available even in remote areas. However, most existing web-based flood information systems use highly technical jargon that only researchers can understand. This is a major problem in countries with low literacy levels, like India. Furthermore, these portals do not account for socio-economic vulnerability either, a factor that is paramount for infrastructure planning involving rural societies.

Realizing the urgent need for an accessible online tool, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India have developed WebFRIS, the first flood risk information system to provide socio-economic vulnerability analysis. Published in Journal of Environmental Management, WebFRIS, or Web Flood Risk Information System, aims to simplify flood risk information and communicate it to a wide audience, including governmental bodies and local citizens. According to Professor Subhankar Karmakar from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India, who led the study that formed part of the PhD work of the first author, Dr. Mohit Mohanty, “WebFRIS provides precious ground-level information to the disaster management authority. This can enable formulation of more targeted solutions and strategies and enhance the opportunity for effective flood mitigation, thereby increasing social capacity and resilience.”

For the development of WebFRIS, Prof. Karmakar and his team focused on Jagatsinghpur, a district in the Indian state of Odisha. Jagatsinghpur­—a part of the Mahanadi River delta—is one the most severely flood-affected regions in the country. The lack of on-ground hydrological and meteorological information for risk prediction and modeling in Jagatsinghpur has ensured that, despite a plethora of flood management measures, the district has been unable to combat the impacts of flooding. Prof. Karmakar and team first used mathematical models and statistical data to calculate the flood hazard and vulnerability of the region and quantify flood risk. They then designed a web platform to store and visualize all the flood-related data in the form of maps. Finally, to ensure that non-technical audiences could easily understand the data, they translated the measures of flood risk into qualitative information, classifying the risk into color-coded categories from very low to very high.

Their efforts have resulted in a powerful, interactive, user-friendly web tool that can provide data on flood hazard, socioeconomic vulnerability, and flood risk for individual villages in the Jagatsinghpur district. WebFRIS is expected to impart crucial knowledge on flood risk management to local governmental bodies, town planners, flood experts, and even general citizens. Moreover, the generic nature of the platform means that it can also be applied to study inter-related issues such as environmental protection, land-use planning, and community resilience building. “WebFRIS is an effective planning tool for environmental management. Using WebFRIS can help make decisions on whether to invest in infrastructure, residential buildings, or farming, and elucidates the anticipated risk of each choice,” says Prof. Karmakar.

The concept and framework behind WebFRIS can be adapted to design similar platforms for other flood prone regions of the world. By moving the focus away from flood forecasting to long-term flood risk management, tools like WebFRIS can not only help save lives, but also help prevent economic damage and work towards the upliftment of vulnerable communities. “If we integrate flood risk maps in early warning systems, communities that live in high-alert regions can be prioritized during flooding, which can improve the community’s preparedness for natural hazards in the long run,” concludes Prof. Karmakar.

Flood risk prediction is not an accurate science. But ingenious tools like WebFRIS will certainly shift the odds in favor of disaster managers in developing nations like India.

***

Reference

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112456

Authors: Mohit Prakash Mohanty, Subhankar Karmakar

Affiliations: Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India

 

About Prof. Subhankar Karmakar from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

Professor Subhankar Karmakar received his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science, India in 2006. He has been associated with the Environmental Science and Engineering Department (ESED), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India for nearly 14 years. Prof. Karmakar has published over 80 papers and 8 book chapters. His research interests are hydroclimatic extremes, environmental and water resources systems engineering, environmetrics, and uncertainty modelling and decision science for environmental systems. His many accolades include a Fast Track Project Grant from the Department of Science and Technology, India, a BOYCAST fellowship to conduct research at Duke University, USA, Prof. S P Sukhatme Award for Excellence in Teaching at IIT Bombay, and IITB-IRCC Research Excellence Award.

---

JOURNAL

Journal of Environmental Management

DOI

10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112456 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

WebFRIS: An efficient web-based decision support tool to disseminate end-to-end risk information for flood management

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

15-Jun-2021