Evaluating the Efficacy of a Mental Models Approach for Improving Occupational Chemical Risk Protection

Chemical risk protection in the workplace relies partly on informing workers about possible risks using material safety data sheets (MSDS). This article reports on phase 2 of a project (phase 1 reported in Cox et al.), which employed a mental models approach to improve on data sheets as communicative interventions for perchloroethylene in dry cleaning and rosin-based solder flux in the electronics industry within small businesses in the United Kingdom (small enterprises (SEs) < 25 employees in the workplace). It focuses on the efficacy of a multimethod evaluation strategy to assess (1) the capacity of a mental models approach to yield contextually relevant data for intervention design and (2) the effectiveness of the strategy itself in validating the mental models data. The evaluation was conducted using postal questionnaires and semi-structured verbal protocols to provide responses to the alternative intervention content and to prioritize risk messages. User discussion groups were then employed, particularly as a means of establishing whether contextual information could be obtained that would differ qualitatively from the kind elicited through individual (semi) structured methods. We conclude that the mental models approach as part of an iterative process including systematic multimethod evaluation is successful in supporting the design of relevant communications to the users of chemicals. The overall viability of communicative interventions in the context of health and safety in small businesses remains in question. Future research might aim to develop a more holistic approach to interventions in complex occupational contexts.     

Employment, family union and childbearing decisions in Great Britain

Summary.  The paper investigates the life-cycle relationship of work and family life in Britain based on the British Household Panel Survey. Using hazard regression techniques we estimate a five-equation model, which includes birth events, union formation, union dissolution, employment and non-employment events. We find that transitions in and out of employment for men are relatively independent of other transitions. In contrast, there are strong links between employment of females, having children and union formation. By undertaking a detailed microsimulations analysis, we show that different levels of labour force participation by females do not necessarily lead to large changes in fertility events. Changes in union formation and fertility events, in contrast, have larger effects on employment.     

Parents,Perceptions and Belonging: Exploring Flexible Working among UK Fathers and Mothers

This paper advances knowledge regarding how fathers and mothers perceive and experience flexible working opportunities. It does this through applying the theoretical concept ‘belonging’ to ‘Parsonian’ classifications of parenting and work. In so doing it makes transparent the misconceptions and inequities which exist among parents and their organizational environments. Focusing initially on a qualitative study of fathers’ experience of working flexibly, the paper shows how fathers felt marginalized from the possibilities of flexible work due to line managers’ assumptions that men belonged to an ‘instrumental’ economic provider group. The paper contributes a new angle to debate by articulating how fathers perceived employed mothers as belonging to an ‘expressive’ child‐oriented group, with privileged access to flexibility. However, drawing upon a study of maternity and flexible work we query fathers’ assumptions that flexibility was easily available to mothers, suggesting that fathers’ perceptions of maternal privilege were misconceived. While mothers were categorized as belonging within an ‘expressive’ group associated with childcare, they were nevertheless discouraged from accessing flexibility. Inequities between women and men (with regard to flexibility) thus appeared to be less significant than fathers supposed.     

Determination of a Tolerable Daily Intake of DDT for Consumers of DDT Contaminated Fish from the Lower Yakima River, Washington*

DDT, DDE, and DDD have been detected at elevated concentrations in sediments and fish of the Yakima River, its tributaries and drainages. An assessment was conducted to evaluate the public health significance of eating fish from the river. This was accomplished by establishing a daily intake level of DDT for the population of greatest concern, and comparing this level to a tolerable daily intake. The most sensitive and highly exposed group was determined to be breastfeeding infants. Infant daily intakes of DDT, based on estimated mother's DDT-breast milk levels, were compared to a recommended tolerable daily intake. Results indicate that mothers who frequently consume Yakima River bottom-feeding fish could have breast milk DDT concentrations sufficiently high to expose their infants to levels above the tolerable daily intake.     

‘Just teach us the skills please,we'll do the rest’: empowering ten‐year‐olds as active researchers

This paper discusses the outcomes of an initiative to empower ten‐year‐olds as active researchers. It debates some of the barriers that are commonly cited with regard to children of this age taking ownership of their own research agendas—power relations, competence, knowledge and skills—and challenges the status quo. It describes a study in which a group of ten‐year‐olds participated in a taught programme aimed at equipping them with the knowledge and skills to design their own research. This empowering process resulted in the children undertaking research projects of their own choosing, designed, carried out and reported entirely from their perspective. Reports from two of those projects are presented as part of this paper.     

School, Family and County Effects on Adolescents’ Later Life Chances

This paper explores the links between family, school and area background influences during adolescence and later adult economic outcomes. The empirical analysis is based on data covering the period 1979 to 1996, drawn from the 1979 US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. For a sample of individuals aged 14–19 in 1979, we estimate the association between family, school and area characteristics when growing up, on adult earnings capacity and poverty risk. We show that including all these influences jointly, family and school quality generally have significant associations with adult outcomes, but that area influences generally do not.Simon Burgess, Department of Economics, University of Bristol and CASE, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN, UK; e-mail: Simon.Burgess@bristol.ac.ukKaren Gardiner, Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath, Claverton Down Bath BA2 7AY, UK; e-mail: K.S.Gardiner@bath.ac.ukCarol Propper, Department of Economics, University of Bristol and CASE, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN, UK; e-mail: Carol.Propper@bristol.ac.uk     

Place-based urban ecology: A century of park planning in Seattle

This research responds to calls from within the field of urban ecology to explicitly incorporate humanities-based research in order to achieve robust interdisciplinarity. Our research provides an example of a place-based urban ecological analysis. We use this framework to analyze over a century of park planning and development within the city of Seattle. We identify four eras of park planning that are linked by a comprehensive 100-year park plan. This case study examines how the political, cultural, and economic aspects of park planning have produced and been influenced by long-term trends and historical contingencies. This research also offers practical insights for effective contemporary urban planning, emphasizing the need for flexible and adaptive long-term plans when confronted with unpredictable events, emerging political arrangements, changing cultural priorities, and shifting fiscal climates.     

Bayesian phylogenetic inference from animal mitochondrial genome arrangements

Summary. The determination of evolutionary relationships is a fundamental problem in evolutionary biology. Genome arrangement data are potentially more informative than deoxyribonucleic acid sequence data for inferring evolutionary relationships between distantly related taxa. We describe a Bayesian framework for phylogenetic inference from mitochondrial genome arrangement data using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. We apply the method to assess evolutionary relationships between eight animal phyla.