Changing Education Paradigms - Does the current educational system need to be updated?

Very interesting video about updating the education system.

Also absolutely amazing design and imagery!

Stop or Speed Through a Yellow Light? That Is the Question

Engineering graduate student Zhixia Li was attracted to UC because of the real-world education and experience the university provides. In return, he’s headed a real-world project that every driver can relate to: the "yellow light dilemma." Are you, as a driver, more likely to stop or speed through a yellow light?

In return, he’s headed a real-world project that every driver can relate to. It’s a project on which he has presented and published nationally, and it looks at what he calls the “yellow light dilemma.” Are you, as a driver, more likely to stop or to speed through a yellow light?

Here’s what he found when conducting research, in cooperation with the Ohio Department of Transportation, at intersections in Akron, Cleves and Fairfield, Ohio: Certain factors make it more likely that you’ll opt to speed through an intersection rather than stop at the light.

The results of his research with his advisor Prof. Heng Wei, “Analysis of Drivers' Stopping Behaviors Associated with the Yellow Phase Dilemma Zone — An Empirical Study in Fairfield, OH,” will be presented at the 2010 American Society of Highway Engineers National Conference on June 9-13, 2010, in Cincinnati, at the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza.

So what are the factors that make us run the yellow? These include

• Lane position: Drivers in the right lane are 1.6 times more likely to speed through a yellow light as compared to drivers in the left lane.
• Type of vehicle: Drivers in heavy trucks are more likely to “pass through” a yellow light versus drivers of automobiles, SUVs, vans or pickup trucks.
• Travel speed and speed limit: The greater the traveling speed of a vehicle at the onset of a yellow light, the more likely that vehicle is to pass through a yellow light. Another finding: the higher the posted speed limit, the more likely vehicles are to pass through a yellow light.
• Timing of light: Yellow lights are typically set to persist between 3 to 5 seconds (Ohio law dictates 5 seconds). Drivers coming upon an intersection where the yellow light persists longer are more likely to pass through the yellow light. For each “additional” second a yellow light persists, drivers are more than three times as likely to pass through an intersection. So, for example, a driver is more than three times as likely to pass through a yellow light set to persist for 5 seconds versus a yellow light set to persist for 4 seconds. Ditto for a yellow light that persists for 4 seconds versus a yellow light that persists for 3 seconds.

Li's research has won many awards, including the 2009 Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Daniel B. Fambro Best Student Paper Award (one winner internationally); first place, 2009 ITE Great Lakes District Student Paper Competition (Great Lakes District includes Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and West Virginia); and the 2009 Ohio Transportation Consortium (OTC) Best Graduate Student Paper Award.

This UC research will help traffic engineers consider and test safety and traffic efficiency measures, including the positioning of sensors that time traffic lights.

And it just might help drivers consider their own actions when in the yellow light dilemma zone.

By: Wendy Beckman
Phone: (513) 556-1826

Video conferencing with family members enriches the lives of nursing home residents

Initiative could easily be replicated in other residential care settings

Nursing home residents who used videoconferencing to keep in touch with family members felt it enriched their lives, according to a study in the June issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing.

Thirty-four residents from ten nursing homes took part in the study. The 18 women and 16 men had an average age of 75.

All of them said the experience enriched their lives, just under two-thirds said it was the second-best option to family visiting and a third said it gave them a true picture of family life.

"A trained research assistant helped the residents speak to their spouse, child or grandchild using SKYPE or MSN" explains co-author Professor Yun-Fang Tsai, Chair of the School of Nursing at Chang Gung University in Taiwan. "At the end of the three-month study period, all the participants took part in in-depth interviews."

The average videoconferencing session lasted just under 12 minutes. Twelve per cent took place daily, 47 per cent weekly, 23 per cent monthly and 18 per cent occasionally.

The residents were very positive about the experience. They said it gave them a chance to be part of family life, see relatives who had moved abroad and allay anxieties if relatives were unable to visit. Comments included:

• "It is a fun and helpful activity. Although it took me a little time to interact with my family I feel fabulous every time after talking with my son. Sometimes he plays a song I like on the violin, which he would never bring here. He also shared some photos with me, the pets in the house and so on."
• "My daughter-in-law owns a pet store. She always shows me what's new in her store, such as a new pet. It's really interesting."
• "If my family could come to visit me in person, that would be the best way since I can see them more clearly…But they are very busy and have no time to visit every day. This may sometimes replace their in-person visits."
• "My son lives in America and has his own business. He only has time to visit me once or twice a year. Via videoconference, I have the chance to see my son, grandson and so on."
• "I feel less anxiety. If my son does not visit some week I would not be anxious, worrying about the status of his family and clamouring to go home. This is better than the telephone for I can see the real thing. I wouldn't think my son is lying to me that everyone in the family is OK. I can see their rosy faces, which are very believable and real."
• "Since my son emigrated to America my grandson seldom comes back to Taiwan due to his school life. Via the videoconference programme I can see how tall he has become."

Some of the residents felt slightly anxious or self-conscious about using the equipment as they were unfamiliar with computers and found it strange to see their family on a screen rather than in person. Comments included:

• "When I first used the setup, it felt very strange to talk with a computer even though my son was on the other side."
• "Sometimes I have no idea what to say, but it is fine since I can see my children. That part is good."
• "I hope I can deal with my teeth. It would help me to say more. Otherwise my dental problems would interfere with my family understanding what I am saying."

"We were very pleased with the positive reactions this initiative received" says Professor Tsai. "In fact, the researchers often arrived to find the residents had been waiting for them for half an hour, keen to ensure they didn't miss their slot!

"It proved a simple way to enrich the lives of people in nursing homes and enable them to be part of family life. We would also be keen to see this expanded so that families could also become part of their relative's nursing home life.

"Residents needed some time to get used to the programme, and had to have help to use the equipment, but the benefits were considerable and could easily be replicated in a wide range of residential care settings."

Contact: Annette Whibley
wizard.media@virgin.net
Wiley-Blackwell

Virginity rates among students by major

Cool chart that shows the virginity rates among students at Wellesley College according to the student's major. I found some things particularly interesting:

1. 0% of students with 'studio arts' major are virgins

2. Virginity rates for Anthropology majors (20%) is much lower than virginity rates for Spanish, English and French majors (43%, 50% and 50% respectively)

3. This shows that the geekier subjects such as Mathamatics (83% virginity rates) dont get laid as much. To be fair this isnt much of a surprise but still makes me think life could have been alot worse if I made different choices at school!

Source: Counterpoint magazine at Wellesley College

Shyness negatively affects marital quality

Los Angeles, CA (May 18, 2010) Shyness can influence the quality of an ongoing relationship – even one as important as marriage – according to a study in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (published by SAGE).

A key question in psychology, and everyday life is the extent to which a person's personality determines the shape and quality of his or her social relationships. In two studies, the research explored the specific impact of shyness on marital quality.

In one of the studies, researchers Levi Baker and James K. McNulty found that shyness was linked both to more severe marital problems among newlyweds and to overall lower marital quality. Shyer people reported more problems with issues like trust, jealousy, money, and household management. In the second study, the researchers explicitly showed that it was prior shyness that was linked to marital difficulties later—even declines in marital satisfaction—and not early marital difficulties that were linked to later shyness.

The authors suggest that shyness makes it more difficult for people to enter into social relationships and, because shy people feel more social anxiety, they are less confident in dealing with the inevitable problems that marriage entails.

"There is hope even though shyness itself might be resistant to change," write the authors. "People can be taught to have more efficacy in how to resolve the specific marital problems they face. As a consequence, any marital difficulties prompted by personality can be prevented by explicit training on dealing with marital problems."

Contact: Jim Gilden
media.inquiries@sagepub.com
SAGE Publications

Study finds macho men a liability on roads

University of Montreal research on hyper-masculinity and driving

"Catch that car!," was the instruction given to 22 men sitting in a driving simulator. The more "macho" the man, the more risks he took on the road, according to a study by Julie Langlois, a graduate student at the University of Montreal Department of Psychology, who presented her findings at the annual conference of the Association francophone pour le savoir (ACFAS).

"Our hypothesis was that hyper-masculine drivers, often referred to as macho, were more likely to take risks in order to catch a car," says Langlois. "We didn't tell test subjects to disobey the law, yet they knew others had accomplished the same task in seven minutes."

So what is a macho man? In 2004, an American researcher developed the Auburn Differential Masculinity Inventory, a questionnaire to identify such men. It comprised 60 statements such as "men who cry are weak," or "generally speaking, men are more intelligent than women." Men had to answer questions on a scale of one (strongly disagree) to five (strongly agree).

Results of the car simulator exam highlighted men's slight tendency for risk. Still, it was during interviews that a link between macho men and speed revealed itself. "Previous studies had shown that hyper-masculine men were more aggressive on the road," says Langlois. "But we wanted to take it further."

"Some men develop a passion for driving that can verge on the obsessive," says Langlois. "They consider cars to be an extension of themselves and they become extremely aggressive if they are honked at or cut off."

During testing, some participants disregarded how they were being evaluated on their degree of masculinity and caught the car within five minutes. Others caught the car in 12 minutes and were much less dangerous on the road.

Langlois' study found that aggressive behavior is deeply rooted in the male stereotype. Aggressive driving allows some men to express their masculinity, which could serve as a predictor of dangerous driving. Cars are often a vehicle by which character traits are expressed and preventing risky behavior is an issue of public safety.

Contact: Sylvain-Jacques Desjardins
sylvain-jacques.desjardins@umontreal.ca
514-343-7593
University of Montreal

New study finds racial wealth gap quadrupled since mid-1980s

National data reveal the effects of policies that benefit the wealthiest, persistent discrimination in housing, credit and labor markets.

WALTHAM, Mass. – The wealth gap between white and African-American families increased more than four times between 1984-2007, and middle-income white households now own far more wealth than high-income African Americans, according to an analysis released on Monday by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy (IASP) at Brandeis University.

IASP, in a research brief, also reported that many African Americans hold more debt than assets and at least 25 percent of African-American families had no assets to turn to in times of economic hardship. The fourfold increase in the wealth gap, it said, reflects public policies, such as tax cuts on investment income and inheritances, which benefit the wealthiest and persistent discrimination in housing, credit and labor markets.

"Our study shows a broken chain of achievement. Even when African Americans do everything right -- get an education and work hard at well-paying jobs -- they cannot achieve the wealth of their white peers in the workforce, and that translates into very different life chances," said Thomas Shapiro, IASP director and co-author of the research brief.

"A U-turn is needed. Public policies have and continue to play a major role in creating and sustaining the racial wealth gap, and they must play a role in closing it," said Shapiro, author of The Hidden Cost of Being African American: How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality and the co-author of Black Wealth/White Wealth.

Wealth, what you own minus what you owe, allows people to start a business, buy a home, send children to college and ensure an economically secure retirement. Using economic data from the same nationally representative set of families from 1984 to 2007, the IASP analysis found that the real wealth gains and losses over the time demonstrate an escalating racial gap.

Over those 23 years, it said, the racial wealth gap increased by $75,000 – from $20,000 to $95,000. Financial assets, excluding home equity, among white families grew from a median value of $22,000 to $100,000 during that period while African Americans saw very little increase in assets in real dollars and had a median wealth of $5,000 in 2007.

Summing up all assets and debt, one in 10 African Americans owed at least $3,600 in 2007, nearly doubling their debt burden in real terms since 1984, IASP said.

The growth of the racial wealth gap significantly affects the economic future of American families, it said. The current gap is so large that it would pay tuition at a four-year public university for two children, purchase or make a solid down payment on a house, or provide a nest egg to draw upon in times of job loss or crisis.

"The gap is opportunity denied and assures racial economic inequality for the next generation," said Tatjana Meschede, a co-author of the policy brief.

Notably, IASP's analysis found that by 2007, the average middle-income white household had accumulated $74,000 in wealth, an increase of $55,000 over the 23-year period, while the average high-income African-American family owned $18,000, a drop of $7,000. That resulted in a wealth gap of $56,000 for an African-American family that earned more than $50,000 in 1984 compared to a white family earning about $30,000 that same year.

Those figures, IASP said, make it clear that higher income alone will not lead to increased wealth, security and economic mobility for African Americans. Consumers of color face a gauntlet of barriers -- in credit, housing and taxes -- that dramatically reduce the chances of economic mobility, it said.

Indeed, the data indicate that the general trend in lending, in which consumers of color pay more for accessing credit, increases their debt and blocks opportunities to move forward, putting them at a severe economic disadvantage. These are concerns that must be addressed through the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, now being debated in Congress, and other policy changes, IASP said.

"The data suggests we need renewed attention to public policies that provide real opportunities for advancement by reducing barriers to mobility inherent in our tax system and increasing transparency, regulation and access in our housing and credit markets," said Laura Sullivan, another co-author.

Several factors help explain why improving targeted public policies would reduce the racial wealth gap and lessen the increased reliance on debt. One factor is that over the period studied there was an increasing dependence on credit markets to make ends meet. Among those with no financial assets, credit is often an emergency resource to help cover a job loss or medical emergency.

A second factor is that deregulation of the lending market brought a proliferation of high-cost credit, including securitized subprime and predatory loans, payday lending and check-cashing stores. Consumers of color were targeted in this market and resorted more frequently to credit cards and other forms of high-cost debt in the absence of assets or extended family resources to draw upon.

"The data make a critical contribution to the debate today about how to ensure greater economic security and opportunity for all our citizens. A racial wealth gap affects all of us because it means that a large portion of the population cannot contribute to building the wealth and strength of our nation, and that is a drain on us all," said Meizhu Lui, director of the Insight Center for Community Economic Development's "Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative."

Contact: Laura Gardner
gardner@brandeis.edu
781-736-4204
Brandeis University