Prospective Benefits Research Articles

Новые типы тандемных фотопреобразователей на основе сенсибилизированных и перовскитных солнечных элементов с центральным противоэлектродом

AbstractNovel types of tandem solar cells (TSC) based on dye-sensitized (DSC) and perovskite (PSC) solar cells including DSC/DSC and DSC/PSC configurations with a common counter electrode were fabricated and investigated. The measurements of PV parameters for tandem solar cells under AM1.5 light intensity conditions have shown that the highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 14.5% was obtained for the DSC/DSC tandem configuration. At the same time, investigations of DSC/PSC tandem solar cells demonstrated the prospective benefits of this tandem system for obtaining high PCE values.

Strategic advantages of high-rise construction

Traditional methods to assess the competitiveness of different types of real estate in the context of huge changes of new technological way of life don’t provide building solutions that would be correct from a strategic perspective. There are many challenges due to changes in the consumers’ behavior in the housing area. A multiplicity of life models, a variety of opportunities and priorities, traditions and new trends in construction should be assessed in terms of prospective benefits in the environment of the emerging new world order. At the same time, the mane discourse of high-rise construction mainly relates to its design features, technical innovations, and architectural accents. We need to clarify the criteria for economic evaluation of high-rise construction in order to provide decisions with clear and quantifiable contexts. The suggested approach to assessing the strategic advantage of high-rise construction and the prospects for capitalization of high-rise buildings poses new challenges for the economy to identify adequate quantitative assessment methods of the high-rise buildings economic efficiency, taking into account all stages of their life cycle.

The Road to Hell Is Paved with Good Intentions: Why Harm-Benefit Analysis and Its Emphasis on Practical Benefit Jeopardizes the Credibility of Research.

Simple SummaryThe European legislation on project evaluation of animal research has recently changed. Every procedure on live non-human vertebrates and cephalopods has to be approved in a project evaluation (harm–benefit analysis (HBA)) that weighs the inflicted harms on animals against potential prospective benefits. Recent publications on the HBA prioritise “societal benefits” that have a foreseeable, positive impact on humans, animals, or the environment over gaining knowledge (e.g., basic research). However, we argue that whether potential prospective societal benefits are realized is (a) impossible to predict and (b) exceeds the scope and responsibility of researchers. Furthermore, the emphasis on practical benefits has the drawback of driving researchers into speculation on the practical benefit of their research and, therefore, into promising too much. Repeated failure to deliver proclaimed practical benefits will lead to a loss of trust and credibility in research. The concepts of benefit and benefit assessment in the HBA, as well as the HBA itself, require re-evaluation in a spirit that embraces the value of knowledge in our society. Research projects should be measured by the quality of the research they perform and by the contributions they make to a specific field of research or research program. Only then can promises regarding benefits (in terms of knowledge) be kept and continued public trust ensured. Time and again, scientific knowledge has been utilized to great benefit for humans, animals, and the environment. The HBA, as it currently stands, tends to turn this idea upside down and implies that research is of value only if the resulting findings bring about direct practical benefits, which science itself can neither provide nor guarantee. The road to hell is, as the saying goes, paved with good intentions.It is our concern that European Union Directive 2010/63/EU with its current project evaluation of animal research in the form of a harm–benefit analysis may lead to an erosion of the credibility of research. The HBA assesses whether the inflicted harm on animals is outweighed by potential prospective benefits. Recent literature on prospective benefit analysis prioritizes “societal benefits” that have a foreseeable, positive impact on humans, animals, or the environment over benefit in the form of knowledge. In this study, we will argue that whether practical benefits are realized is (a) impossible to predict and (b) exceeds the scope and responsibility of researchers. Furthermore, we believe that the emphasis on practical benefits has the drawback of driving researchers into speculation on the societal benefit of their research and, therefore, into promising too much, thereby leading to a loss of trust and credibility. Thus, the concepts of benefit and benefit assessment in the HBA require a re-evaluation in a spirit that embraces the value of knowledge in our society. The generation of scientific knowledge has been utilised to great benefit for humans, animals, and the environment. The HBA, as it currently stands, tends to turn this idea upside down and implies that research is of value only if the resulting findings bring about immediate societal benefit.

Morphometric age and survival following kidney transplantation.

As patients with chronic kidney disease become older, there is greater need to identify who will most benefit from kidney transplantation. Analytic morphomics has emerged as an objective risk assessment tool distinct from chronologic age. We hypothesize that morphometric age is a significant predictor of survival following transplantation. A retrospective cohort of 158 kidney transplant patients from 2005 to 2014 with 1-year preoperative imaging was identified. Based on a control population comprising of trauma patients and kidney donors, morphometric age was calculated using the validated characteristics of psoas area, psoas density, and abdominal aortic calcification. The primary outcome was post-transplant survival. Cox regression showed morphometric age was a significant predictor of survival (hazard ratio, 1.06 per morphometric year [95% confidence interval, 1.03-1.08]; P<.001). Chronological age was not significant (hazard ratio, 1.03 per year [0.98-1.07]; P=.22). Among the chronologically oldest patients, those with younger morphometric age had greater survival rates compared to those with older morphometric age. Morphometric age predicts survival following kidney transplantation. Particularly for older patients, it offers improved risk stratification compared to chronologic age. Morphomics may improve the transplant selection process and provide a greater assessment of prospective survival benefits.

Indigenous Self-Determination and the Culinary Tourist

Some contrasting views exist about the prospective benefits of contemporary food tourism for indigenous communities. Some commentators view food tourism as a potential mechanism for reducing tourist stereotyping, bias, and negative images. Increased economic opportunities, employment, and development are commonly cited as potential benefits. However, critics have viewed these same experiences as a colonial revival. An unquestioned assumption that the food traditions, dishes, and cuisines of (usually economically and culturally marginal) indigenous populations should be available and presented for consumption evokes the colonial legacy. These colonial type assumptions, images, and experiences are being challenged deliberately and in a targeted manner. An increasing number of indigenous communities, including the New Zealand Māori, have chosen to rearticulate and re-present their culture in the context of the postcolonial period. For contemporary indigenous people, the culinary cultural field is often wider than simply supplying the touristically "exotic" or "authentic." It may provide a location to engage with various strategies for indigenous self-determination and the reappropriation of cultural capital. Such strategies may lead to outcomes catering to culinary tourist demands. Tourists seeking out Māori food will have difficultly gaining access, except in the case of the Wharekai (the Māori social space and part of the Marae meeting complex). This research note considers the relationship between the postcolonial legacy, culinary tourism, and indigenous selfdetermination, as it applies to first nation peoples' foodways, and specifically to the Māori. In doing so, it may contribute to developing new perspectives on food tourism and indigenous self-determination.

Prospective thinking and decision making in primary school age children.

In this study, we seek to widen our understanding of the developmental processes underlying bargaining behaviour in children addressing the concept of prospective thinking. We argue that the emergence of the capacity to think prospectively about future outcomes or behaviours in response to current actions is a required precedent to strategic decision making. To test this idea, we compared 6, 8 and 10 years old children’s performance on three tasks: the ultimatum game assessing fairness/inequality aversion, the marshmallow task, an intertemporal choice task evaluating the ability to delay gratification, and the dictator game assessing altruism. The children’s socio-demographic and cognitive variables were also evaluated. We hypothesized that development of strategic thinking in the ultimatum game is related to an increased ability to delay gratification − given that both tasks require looking at prospective benefits − and, crucially, not to altruism, which benefits from immediate selfless reward. Our results confirmed our hypothesis suggesting that increased strategic planning with age would also stem from the development of competencies like prospective thinking.

Sub-national technology policy and commerce: evaluating the impacts of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

In the last 20 years, state governments have funded a large number of science-based economic development programs. Remarkably, there have been few evaluations of either their economic impact or their prospects for economic impact. The 2004 decision by California voters to issue bonds to fund $3 billion of research on human pluripotent stem cells is an ideal case study for introducing an evaluation methodology for the progress by state programs in developing and transferring research results. In the process of evaluating the California stem cell initiative, we make three methodological contributions to the study of the impacts of sub-national science-based economic development programs. First, the following data sources are introduced as indicators of the prospective economic benefits of these programs: changes in targeted federal research funding, patenting, small business investment research grants, venture capital investment, new firm formations, and clinical trials. Second, the use of regional or industrial controls is introduced. In the case study of the California stem cell initiative the regional control is the comparison of the two dominant California stem cell research and firm clusters, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area, to the other dominant cluster, Boston. The biotechnology industry, as a whole, is used to control for exogenous shocks such as changes in the overall interest in new life science technologies. Third, because technology transfer is predicated upon commercialization, a value chain perspective can visualize commercialization obstacles. In this study, a stylized human stem cell therapy value chain is compared to the existing biotechnology value chain and the differences suggest areas where human stem cell therapies are likely to face difficulties. The discussion and conclusion evaluates the progress of the California stem cell initiative and suggests that the evaluation methodology developed can improve the evaluation and guidance of science-based economic development programs.

Predictive Model for Material Behavior Prediction

Predictive modeling is playing a major role in the manufacturing fields. In this paper a predictive model is demonstrated to predict composite materials behaviors in materials manufacturing industries. In recent times, the problem of prediction of properties of composite materials has attracted enormous attention from different communities such as statistics, soft computing, and engineering. This is due to prospective benefits of reduction in testing and inventory cost increase in the finding the properties of composite materials. Keywords: Predictive Modeling, Composite material, Regression, Solidification

Microgravity, Stem Cells, and Embryonic Development: Challenges and Opportunities for 3D Tissue Generation

Space is a challenging environment for the human body, due to the combined effects of reduced gravity (microgravity) and cosmic radiation. Known effects of microgravity range from the blood redistribution that affects the cardiovascular system and the eye to muscle wasting, bone loss, anemia and immune depression. About cosmic radiation, the shielding provided by the spaceship hull is far less efficient than that afforded at ground level by the combined effects of the Earth atmosphere and magnetic field. The eye and its nervous layer (the retina) are affected by both microgravity and heavy ions exposure. Considering the importance of sight for long-term manned flights, visual research aimed at devising measures to protect the eye from environmental conditions of the outer space represents a special challenge to meet. In this review we focus on the impact of microgravity on embryonic development, discussing the roles of mechanical forces in the context of the neutral buoyancy the embryo experiences in the womb. At variance with its adverse effects on the adult human body, simulated microgravity may provide a unique tool for understanding the biomechanical events involved in the development and assembly in vitro of three-dimensional (3D) ocular tissues. Prospective benefits are the development of novel safety measures to protect the human eye from cosmic radiation in microgravity during long-term manned spaceflights in the outer space, as well as the generation of human 3D-retinas with its supporting structures to develop innovative and effective therapeutic options for degenerative eye diseases.

Counterfactual simulations applied to SHRP2 crashes: The effect of driver behavior models on safety benefit estimations of intelligent safety systems

As the development and deployment of in-vehicle intelligent safety systems (ISS) for crash avoidance and mitigation have rapidly increased in the last decades, the need to evaluate their prospective safety benefits before introduction has never been higher. Counterfactual simulations using relevant mathematical models (for vehicle dynamics, sensors, the environment, ISS algorithms, and models of driver behavior) have been identified as having high potential. However, although most of these models are relatively mature, models of driver behavior in the critical seconds before a crash are still relatively immature. There are also large conceptual differences between different driver models. The objective of this paper is, firstly, to demonstrate the importance of the choice of driver model when counterfactual simulations are used to evaluate two ISS: Forward collision warning (FCW), and autonomous emergency braking (AEB). Secondly, the paper demonstrates how counterfactual simulations can be used to perform sensitivity analyses on parameter settings, both for driver behavior and ISS algorithms. Finally, the paper evaluates the effect of the choice of glance distribution in the driver behavior model on the safety benefit estimation. The paper uses pre-crash kinematics and driver behavior from 34 rear-end crashes from the SHRP2 naturalistic driving study for the demonstrations. The results for FCW show a large difference in the percent of avoided crashes between conceptually different models of driver behavior, while differences were small for conceptually similar models. As expected, the choice of model of driver behavior did not affect AEB benefit much. Based on our results, researchers and others who aim to evaluate ISS with the driver in the loop through counterfactual simulations should be sure to make deliberate and well-grounded choices of driver models: the choice of model matters.

Electrospun V2MoO8 as a cathode material for rechargeable batteries with Mg metal anode

With the increasing global demand for large-scale electrical energy storage, rechargeable Mg-based batteries are preferable due to their substantial prospective benefits in terms of raw abundance, theoretical capacity, and operational safety. Herein, we demonstrate for the first time V2MoO8 synthesized by a facile electrospinning method as a cathode material for rechargeable magnesium batteries with the electrolytes containing Mg2+ or Mg2+/Li+ ions. SEM and HRTEM indicate that the V2MoO8 sample presents wedged-shaped cuboid, 300–500nm (thickness) ×4–6µm (length) and its monoclinic phase structure provides a interlayer distance of 4.20Å. As cathode material, V2MoO8 is discharged/charged in a specially self-designed mould battery using Mg metal anode at current densities from 20 to 500mAg−1. It delivers a high initial discharge capacity of 312mAhg−1 with the initial coulombic efficiency of 87.2% at 20mAg−1 in 0.4M (PhMgCl)2-AlCl3/1.0M LiCl/THF electrolyte and presents good cycling and rate performance. XPS analysis reveals that both Mg2+ and Li+ ions take part in the cathode intercalation reaction, along with the valence changes of Mo/V ions. Additionally, a reversible capacity of ca. 210mAhg−1 is obtained in Mg2+ electrolyte with the 1st cycle efficiency of 94% at 60°C. The poor capacity retention is partially attributed to the irreversible phase change to amorphous state of V2MoO8.

Composite Valuation of Immaterial Damage in Flooding: Value of Statistical Life, Value of Statistical Evacuation and Value of Statistical Injury

This paper enriches existing valuation literature in a number of ways by presenting context-specific estimates of immaterial damage. First, it offers an estimation of value of statistical life (VOSL) in the context of a natural hazard (flooding). Next, as one of the contributions, alongside with less biased estimate of VOSL (euro 6.8 mln) it also provides estimates of the value of statistical injury (VOSI, euro 92,000), and of the value of statistical evacuation (VOSE, euro 2,400). Our estimated indicators are plausible and stay robust throughout various estimations. For flood protection policy in the Netherlands, a higher value of VOSL forthcoming from this research would imply 'underprotection' under current conditions. Another important finding concerns the composition of the total value of immaterial damages, where value of fatalities or value of evacuation may dominate depending on the prevailing floor risk circumstances. This implies that, first, VOSL is not an adequate proxy for immaterial damages since it understates prospective benefits of designated protective measures. Second, spatially differentiated composition of immaterial damages should be explicitly considered to guide policy decisions.

‘It was always the plan’: international study as ‘learning to migrate’

International student mobility has mainly been theorised in terms of cultural capital accumulation and its prospective benefits on returning home following graduation. Yet, despite a growing body of work in this area, most research on post‐study mobility fails to recognise that the social forces that generate international student mobility also contribute to lifetime mobility plans. Moreover, these forces produce at least four types of post‐study destination, of which returning ‘home’ is only one option. Our findings challenge the idea that a circular trajectory is necessarily the ‘desired’ norm. In line with wider migration theory, we suggest that return may even be seen as failure. Instead we advance the idea that cultural and social capital acquired through international studies is cultivated for onward mobility and may be specifically channelled towards goals such as an international career. We contribute a geographically nuanced conceptual frame for understanding the relation between international student mobility and lifetime mobility aspirations. By building on studies that highlight the role of family and social networks in international student mobility, we illustrate how influential familial and social institutions – both in the place of origin and newly encountered abroad – underpin and complicate students’ motivations, mobility aspirations and life planning pre‐ and post‐study. We argue for a fluidity of life plans and conclude by discussing how geographies of origin matter within students’ lifetime mobility plans.

Missing the "Target": Preventing the Unjust Inclusion of Vulnerable Children for Medical Research Studies.

The central purpose of medical research on children is to generate new knowledge that can improve children’s health, subject to ethical standards that promote justice. Incorporated in U.S. law, international law, and European Union law, the Justice Principle prohibits targeting in medical research, which is the selection of research subjects because of their manipulability and compromised position, rather than for reasons directly related to the problem being studied. Unfortunately, medical research studies involving children have too often violated the Justice Principle, by targeting children in a compromised position due to their health status and vulnerable to manipulability because of their race and class. For example, a U.S. physician implanted pacemakers in fifty-five healthy African-American children resulting in disability, while a drug company tested an unapproved antibiotic in Nigerian children suffering from meningitis causing the death of eleven children, although there was a proven therapy available to the children. To prevent the targeting of these children, I recommend the development of a Vulnerability and Equity Impact Assessment tool (VEIA) similar to the Health Equity Impact Assessment tool to determine whether it is just to select children from particular groups as research subjects. Specifically, the VEIA will measure the societal burdens borne by children as a result of their race, class, and/or health status that compromises their position and makes them vulnerable to manipulability, the potential risks of the research such as physical and psychological harm, and the prospective benefits from the research such as guaranteed access to the therapy if it works. The research study using children from particular groups should not be approved for funding and/or the drug should not be approved for use, unless based on the VEIA, the researcher shows that the benefits to children from these particular groups outweigh the burdens and the risks.

CETA without Blinders: How Cutting “Trade Costs and More” Will Cause Unemployment, Inequality, and Welfare Losses

Proponents of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) emphasize its prospective economic benefits, with economic growth increasing due to rising trade volumes and investment. Widely cited official projections suggest modest GDP gains after about a decade, varying from between 0.003% and 0.08% in the European Union and between 0.03% and 0.76% in Canada. However, all these quantitative projections stem from the same trade model, which assumes full employment and neutral (if not constant) income distribution in all countries, excluding from the outset any of the major risks of deeper liberalization. This lack of intellectual diversity and of realism shrouding the debate around CETA’s alleged economic benefits calls for an alternative assessment grounded in more realistic modeling premises. In this paper, we provide alternative projections of CETA’s economic effects using the United Nations Global Policy Model (GPM). Allowing for changes in employment and income distribution, we obtain very different results. In contrast to positive outcomes projected with full-employment models, we find CETA will lead to intra-EU trade diversion. More importantly, in the current context of tepid economic growth, competitive pressures induced by CETA will cause unemployment, inequality, and welfare losses. At a minimum, this shows that official studies do not offer a solid basis for an informed decision on CETA.

Carbon Supported IrRu4 Catalyst for the Cell Reversal Tolerant Anode in Automotive Pemfcs

Design of highly durable, electro-active and cost-effective catalyst to replace prevalent Pt has been a major issue to researchers in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) community. For past decades, the catalyst degradation, during the transient conditions, such as start-up/shut­down and cell reversal, in automotive fuel cells has gained large attention due to its irreversible consequences in the membrane electrode assembly (MEA). It was reported earlier that binary aIloy of Ir and Ru supported on carbon can be used for hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) catalysts for PEMFCs. Among various Ir:Ru atomic compositions, Ir:Ru=1:4 showed the best HOR activity, confirmed by rotating disk electrode (RDE) half-cell test. Furthermore, Ir and Ru are known to possess water oxidation properties, in other words, each can catalyze the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) from the water. Due to this OER-enabling feature, the Ir and Ru were often used as additives to promote the water oxidation over carbon oxidation reaction in order to protect the catalyst layer from the collapse when the catalyst layer was abruptly exposed to a high potential for various reasons. The Ir and Ru exhibit oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity to certain extent, however they typically show inferior ORR characteristics compared to the platinum so they are scarcely applied to the cathode catalysts in MEAs.In this presentation we propose to utilize multi­functional IrRu4 nanoparticles supported on carbon, IrRu4/C, as an anode catalyst for MEAs, particularly to be used in the fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). IrRu­4’s material costs only as high as 40% of widely used platinum. Therefore during the normal fuel cell operation, IrRu4/C can be used as anode electro-catalyst at a reduced cost while showing the Pt-similar performance. And during the transient conditions of FCEV operations, the MEA durability can be retained with IrRu4’s other interesting properties.IrRu4/C was synthesized by a simple impregnation method using metal salts and carbon support and a successive reduction in a hydrogen atmosphere at higher temperature. The synthesized catalysts were characterized with XRD, ICP, TGA, and TEM for physicochemical properties. And it underwent the RDE half-cell tests for various electrochemical activity measurements, such as HOR, OER, and ORR. IrRu4/C and Pt/C were each applied to the anode in the MEA, and the single-cell IV performance and anode polarization tests were carried out at various operating conditions (cell temperature, relative humidity, and back pressure). The cell reversal tolerance of IrRu4/C and commercial Pt/C anode MEAs was also measured by subjecting each MEA to the anode’s fuel starvation condition. The IrRu4/C anode catalyst showed Pt-anode comparable MEA performance and Pt-similar hydrogen oxidation catalytic activity. Moreover, IrRu4/C anode exhibited superior durability (~120 times better) over Pt/C anode under cell reversal condition. This is because during the cell reversal condition, IrRu4 promoted water oxidation reaction so that carbon oxidation reaction was avoided. For Pt anode MEA, since Pt has low OER activity, the catalyst layer oxidation took place to severely impact the MEA during the fuel starvation. The prospective benefits earned from this work, that is replacing Pt/C anode to IrRu4/C anode for a PEMFC in a FCEV are the following: firstly, the cost down of the MEA while preserving the performance, secondly the anode catalyst layer protection during the cell reversal, thirdly, although not studied in detail in this work, the cathode catalyst layer protection during the start-up/shut-down.

A robust method for suppressing motion-induced coil sensitivity variations during prospective correction of head motion in fMRI

Prospective motion correction is a promising candidate solution to suppress the effects of head motion during fMRI, ideally allowing the imaging plane to remain fixed with respect to the moving head. Residual signal artifacts may remain, however, because head motion in relation to a fixed multi-channel receiver coil (with non-uniform sensitivity maps) can potentially introduce unwanted signal variations comparable to the weak fMRI BOLD signal (~1%–4% at 1.5–3.0T). The present work aimed to investigate the magnitude of these residual artifacts, and characterize the regime over which prospective motion correction benefits from adjusting sensitivity maps to reflect relative positional change between the head and the coil. Numerical simulations were used to inform human fMRI experiments. The simulations indicated that for axial imaging within a commonly used 12-channel head coil, 5° of head rotation in-plane produced artifact signal changes of ~3%. Subsequently, six young adults were imaged with and without overt head motions of approximately this extent, with and without prospective motion correction using the Prospective Acquisition CorrEction (PACE) method, and with and without sensitivity map adjustments. Sensitivity map adjustments combined with PACE strongly protected against the artifacts of interest, as indicated by comparing three metrics of data quality (number of activated voxels, Dice coefficient of activation overlap, temporal standard deviation of baseline fMRI timeseries data) across the different experimental conditions. It is concluded that head motion in relation to a fixed multi-channel coil can adversely affect fMRI with prospective motion correction, and that sensitivity map adjustment can mitigate this effect at 3.0T.

Systematic thematic review of e-health research in the Gulf Cooperation Council (Arabian Gulf): Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates

Introduction The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC or ‘Arabian Gulf’), comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, is a political organization sharing a common history and culture. All GCC nations have made substantial investments in telecommunications and electronic health infrastructure since 2000. Methods We conducted a literature search in English and Arabic on peer-reviewed e-health research up to December 2014 originating in the GCC. The objective was to retrieve all research on e-health in the GCC and to categorize and analyse it qualitatively to reveal the current state of e-health research and development in the region. Inclusion criteria included peer-reviewed articles, books, book chapters, conference papers and graduate theses written on e-health in the GCC. Blogs, health websites and non-peer-reviewed literature were excluded. Results Three hundred and six articles were retrieved, categorized and analysed qualitatively to reveal the state of e-health research in the GCC. Both country-specific and GCC-wide major themes were identified using NVivo 10.0 qualitative software and summarized. The most common type of study was an overview (35.0%), with common study designs of case studies (26.8%) and descriptive articles (46.4%). Significant themes were: prospective national benefits from e-health, implementation and satisfaction with electronic health records, online technologies in medical education, innovative systems (case studies), and information security and personal health information. Discussion This is the first comprehensive analytical literature review of e-health in the GCC. Important research gaps were identified: few cost-benefit analyses, controlled interventional studies, or research targeting gender and religious issues were retrieved.

Study protocol for a randomized clinical trial of a fatherhood intervention for African American non-resident fathers: Can we improve father and child outcomes?

PurposeAfrican American (AA) fathers who live apart from their children face multiple obstacles to consistent and positive involvement with their children. Consequently, significant numbers of children are bereft of their father's positive involvement. Intervention research that is explicitly focused on promoting the positive involvement of non-resident AA fathers with their young children is limited. The purpose of this article is to describe the study protocol of a randomized trial (RCT) designed to test the Building Bridges to Fatherhood program against a financial literacy comparison condition; and discuss early implementation challenges. MethodsFathers (n=180) are recruited to attend 10 group meetings, reimbursed for transportation, given dinner and activity vouchers for spending time with their child, and incentivized with a $40 gift card at each data collection time point. Mothers are incentivized ($40 gift card) at data collection and must be amenable to father child interaction. Intervention targets include father psychological well-being, parenting competence, communication, problem-solving ability; father-mother relationship quality; and child behavioral and emotional/social development. ResultsTo date, 57 fathers have been randomized to study condition. Recruitment has been influenced by father and mother hesitancy and the logistics of reaching and maintaining contact with participants. Strategies to surmount challenges to father and mother recruitment and engagement have been developed. ConclusionsThe prospective benefits of positive father involvement to children, fathers and families outweigh the challenges associated with community-based intervention research. The findings from this RCT can inform the body of knowledge on engaging AA non-resident fathers in culturally relevant fatherhood programming.

Exploring the issue of naming rights of public sports facilities in Greece

Purpose The aim of this study was to conduct a primary examination of people’s perceptions toward the concept of selling of naming rights for publicly owned sports facilities in Greece to explore the possibilities for this sponsorship practice to be introduced in the future. Design/methodology/approach In all, 410 research participants filled out a questionnaire that focused on the level of acceptance, in relation to variations of agreements, and considering decision outcomes scenarios, as also on other naming rights parameters, such as sponsors’ fit features. A modification of methods used in previous research in the context of consumers’ price perceptions in sport was adopted to investigate the potential effects from the provision of decision outcomes messages. Findings The research findings indicated that, in terms of acceptance from the public, there might be grounds to implement this type of sponsorship. It is suggested that an optimal way of introducing the concept should be with marketing campaigns outlining the main purpose and the prospective benefits. Research limitations/implications Possibly, the participants perceived the prospect and scenarios provided as not very likely to happen and this might influence their responses. Future research should investigate the effects of other factors, such as attitudes toward commercialization, stadium identification and perceived financial status. Originality/value The study provides a basis for the consideration of naming rights as a sponsorship option for public sports facilities in Greece, and also offers a new perspective in the use of treatment messages as a tool for altering potential negative perceptions.