The influence of citizen disaster communication on perceptions of neighborhood belonging and community resilience

The Citizen Disaster Communication Assessment (CDCA) measures individual disaster communication activities that are intended to help communities cope across all phases of a disaster. Using the CDCA, this study examined associations among citizen disaster communication, neighborhood belonging, and community resilience using three different samples representing different disaster phases (Pre-event, Event, Post-event). Results indicate that more citizen disaster communication was associated with stronger perceptions of neighborhood belonging and community resilience at the Event and Post-event phases. In terms of specific citizen disaster communication processes that proved important, communication to correct disaster rumors and share stories was associated with greater feelings of belonging. Communication intended to confirm disaster information and tell stories was associated with stronger community resilience perceptions. Overall, results (a) confirm that citizen disaster communication is an important part of the disaster response and recovery ecosystem and (b) offer evidence of concurrent validity for the CDCA.     

The Representation of Altruistic and Egoistic Motivations in Popular Music over 60 Years

Content analyses examining the values expressed in popular music have been predominantly ad hoc, limited to antisocial themes, and lacking a comprehensive theoretical coding scheme. We applied a content analytic scheme based in the model of intuitive morality and exemplars (MIME) to examine altruistic and egoistic values in popular music over 60 years. Findings show (a) more frequent representation of egoistic than altruistic motivations, and (b) the profusion of egoistic motivations focused mostly on romantic (in adult-targeted music) but also platonic (in child-targeted music) relationships.     

Talking Shape: Parental Language With Electronic Versus Traditional Shape Sorters

As the traditional toys of the past are quickly being replaced with electronically “enhanced” toys, it is important to understand how these changes impact parent–child interactions, especially in light of the evidence that the richness and variety of these interactions have long‐term effects on diverse areas of cognition (Hart & Risley, 1995). Here, we compared the quantity and quality of the language children hear during play with either a traditional (nonelectronic) or an electronic shape sorter designed to teach children about geometric shapes. Spatial toys and spatial language, in particular, were explored since recent work has established that parents' use of spatial language links to children's short‐ and long‐term performance on spatial tasks (Pruden, Levine, & Huttenlocher, 2011), and that spatial skills are relevant to success in learning mathematics and science (Newcombe, 2010). Traditional toys prompted more parental spatial language and more varied overall language than did electronic toys.     

Helping Struggling Students in Introductory Biology: A Peer-Tutoring Approach That Improves Performance,Perception, and Retention

The high attrition rate among science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors has long been an area of concern for institutions and educational researchers. The transition from introductory to advanced courses has been identified as a particularly “leaky” point along the STEM pipeline, and students who struggle early in an introductory STEM course are predominantly at risk. Peer-tutoring programs offered to all students in a course have been widely found to help STEM students during this critical transition, but hiring a sufficient number of tutors may not be an option for some institutions. As an alternative, this study examines the viability of an optional peer-tutoring program offered to students who are struggling in a large-enrollment, introductory biology course. Struggling students who regularly attended peer tutoring increased exam performance, expert-like perceptions of biology, and course persistence relative to their struggling peers who were not attending the peer-tutoring sessions. The results of this study provide information to instructors who want to design targeted academic assistance for students who are struggling in introductory courses.     

App for the calculation of blood lactate markers

A new free app is available for the objective analysis of the blood lactate response to incremental exercise developed using Open-source R software.     

Effective body water and body mass changes during summer ultra-endurance road cycling

Because body mass change (ΔM_b) does not represent all water losses and gains, the present field investigation determined if (a) ΔM_b equalled the net effective body water change during ultra-endurance exercise and (b) ground speed and exercise duration influenced these variables. Thirty-two male cyclists (age range, 35–52 years) completed a 164-km event in a hot environment, were retrospectively triplet matched and placed into one of three groups based on exercise duration (4.8, 6.3, 9.6 h). Net effective body water loss was computed from measurements (body mass, total fluid intake and urine excreted) and calculations (water evolved and mass loss due to substrate oxidation, solid food mass and sweat loss), including (ΔEBW_gly) and excluding (ΔEBW) water bound to glycogen. With all cyclists combined, the mean ΔM_b (i.e. loss) was greater than that of ΔEBW_gly by 1200 ± 200 g (P = 1.4 × 10^–18), was similar to ΔEBW (difference, 0 ± 200 g; P = .21) and was strongly correlated with both (R² = .98). Analysis of equivalence indicated that ΔM_b was not equivalent to ΔEBW_gly, but was equivalent to ΔEBW. Due to measurement complexity, we concluded that (a) athletes will not calculate the effective body water calculations routinely and (b) body mass change remains a useful field-expedient estimate of net effective body water change.