Times Of Recession Research Articles

The hidden value of in-between spaces for children’s self-directed play within outdoor school environments

Despite the important role of outdoor school environments in children’s recess, school ground design does not often manage to support children’s self-directed play. This paper argues for the value of so called ‘in-between spaces’ for children in outdoor school environments that has not been studied sufficiently from their perspectives. Employing a socio-ecological framework, this participatory qualitative study used three methods to identify the multiple environmental characteristics of in-between spaces that support children’s self-directed play. Sixty behaviour mapping sessions, 78 walking tours, and 18 focus groups were completed with children aged 8–10 during school recess. The context–sensitive data were collected in three public primary school grounds in Sydney, Australia. Using inductive thematic analysis, the physical, social and organisational characteristics of children’s chosen in-between spaces were identified. The results revealed that children’s preferred in-between spaces included small enclosures, edges and natural settings with affordances supporting their self-directed play. These spaces offered children an opportunity to redress gender imbalance and mitigate the impact of overcrowding, problems that often inhibited children’s self-directed play in the formal spaces of school grounds. Despite children’s interest in in-between spaces, they were not valued in school grounds and were often characterised as out-of-bounds where children were not allowed during the recess time. The discussion argues for the value of in-between spaces where children can find the support of all the environmental characteristics to operate their self-directed play. School design and school policy should recognise these spaces for their spatial value for children’s play in schools.

The response of CO[formula omitted] emissions to the business cycle: New evidence for the U.S.

This paper investigates the response of CO2 emissions to the business cycle for the U.S. on a monthly basis between 1973 and 2015. Using a rolling-regression approach, we find that the emissions elasticity with respect to GDP is not constant over time, irrespective which filtering method, such as the Hodrick-Prescott, the Baxter-King, the Christiano-Fitzgerald or the Butterworth filter has been employed. In order to check whether or not emissions react differently during normal and recession times, next, we employ a Markov-switching approach. We find, first, that emissions are significantly more elastic during recessions than in normal times. Second, depending on the filtering method, we also obtain parameter estimates of the emissions elasticity above one in recession times and below one in normal times. The results are also robust against including monetary policy also in times of the zero lower bound. Thus, environmental policy instruments not turning out to be sub-optimal should account for this asymmetric response of emissions due to changes in GDP.

Surge flow Performance for Furrow Irrigation under Upper Egypt Conditions

The current study was conducted at The Experimental Farm, Fac. of Agric., Al-Azhar Univ., Assuit, Egypt (27° 12- 16.67= N latitude, 31° 09- 36.86= E longitude and at 51 m altitude) during the winter season of 2018 (September to December). The research work aimed to assess the performance of surge irrigation compared to the continuous one by measuring the advance rate of the wetting front, inflow/ outflow rates, distribution uniformity, application efficiency, suitable furrow length and surge numbers. Surge flow irrigation leads to a decrease in advance time compared to continuous flow. The reduction percentages in advance and recession time are more pronounced under low discharge rate and long furrow length. Surge flow irrigation used less amounts of water than continuous one. Surge flow could save almost one third of the applied water by continuous flow especially into long furrow with 5 surges of medium discharge rate. The larger discharge coupled with large furrow resulted in the maximum water saving of about 28% among all the other combinations. For all possible combinations, the volume ratio remained less than one indicating that less total water is required to complete the advance phase in surged irrigation compared to continuous one. Surge flow showed higher application efficiency than that of continuous one. The higher application efficiency (83%) was observed under 5 surges flow into 100 m furrow length with 1.2 L/S discharge rate. Water losses by deep percolation were more pronounced in short furrow length than that of long one and they were minimized by surge flow. Surge flow realized higher distribution uniformity (DU) than that of continuous one.

휴게시간의 문제점과 개선방안에 대한 보육교사의 인식

휴게시간의 문제점과 개선방안에 대한 보육교사의 인식

Quantitative Easing In Accelerating the Economic Growth Rate – Indian Perspective

The present situation of Indian economy is worse. The GDP growth rate is 5% which is very low compared to last five years trend. After a record fell down of short-term interest rates of commercial banks (below one percent), the Reserve bank of India has turned to quantitative easing (QE) to hold up economic growth. It is used by the government to amplify the supply of money in the economy. It leads to an increase in lending by commercial banks and spending by customers subsequently. On the other hand, these policies will boomerang greatly on economy and leads to extraordinarily high levels of inflation. If commercial banks fail to afford excess reserves, it may direct to unhinge in the money market. Simply it jeopardizes the entire economic system. To come out from this, Reserve Bank of India injects a fixed quantity of money into the economy by massive and unprecedented purchasing of financial assets from commercial banks and private entities. This leads to an increase in banks reserves. Quantitative easing is not a new word to the economic world; it is most popular from the times of great recession in US economy. There has been an explode of research on QE and its effects. Past studies tremendously agree that QE helps in ease financial conditions and there is no reason to doubt that it supports economic growth. It is not only very powerful in times of financial crisis, but also has a momentous effect in normal times. By and large, this research paper focuses on finding the reasons behind the slowdown of growth rate of Indian economy and provides the likely solutions to come out from the crisis.

School-based intervention that integrates nutrition education and supportive healthy school food environment among Malaysian primary school children: a study protocol

BackgroundMalnutrition among school children may contribute to adverse health consequences such as non-communicable diseases, poor cognitive performance, psychological distress and poor quality of life that may persist into adulthood. In order to prevent childhood malnutrition, an intervention programme that integrates nutrition education and healthy school food environment is needed to provide nutrition information and reinforce the skills on healthy eating behaviours in schools. This paper describes a study protocol of a school-based intervention programme that integrates nutrition education and healthy school food environment, namely School Nutrition Programme (SNP). The SNP is a primary prevention programme that promotes healthy lifestyle among primary school children in light of the high prevalence of malnutrition in Malaysian children.Methods/designThis quasi-experimental study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the SNP between intervention and comparison groups before and after the SNP, and after a 3-month follow-up. The SNP consisted of two main components, whereby three nutrition education sessions were implemented by trained teachers using three standardised modules, and healthy school food environment was implemented by the canteen food handlers with the provision of healthy menu to children during school recess times. Children from intervention group participated in the SNP, in addition to the standard Physical and Health Curriculum. The comparison group attended only the standardised Physical and Health Curriculum and the school canteen food handlers were reminded to follow the standard canteen guidelines from the Ministry of Education Malaysia. The assessment parameters in evaluating the effectiveness of the programme were knowledge, attitude and practice on nutrition, eating behaviours, physical activity, body composition, psychological distress, cognitive performance and health-related quality of life. Assessments were conducted at three time points: pre-intervention, post-intervention and 3-month follow-up.DiscussionIt was hypothesised that the SNP would be effective in promoting healthy lifestyle among school children, and further contributes in preventing malnutrition problem, enhancing cognitive performance and improving health-related quality of life among school children. Findings of the present study can be expanded to other schools in future on ways to improve nutrition education and healthy school food environment.Trial registrationUMIN Clinical Trial Registration UMIN000032914 (Date of registration: 7th June 2018, retrospectively registered).Protocol version16th September 2019 & Version 4

Assessment of straight and meandering furrow irrigation strategies under different inflow rates

This paper reports the effect of straight furrow (SF) and meandering furrow (MF) irrigation strategies, as well as inflow rate, on infiltration and hydraulic parameters including advance time, recession time, and runoff hydrograph. The performance of SF and MF irrigation in terms of runoff ratio, deep percolation, and application efficiency was evaluated in 6 furrow fields at Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Iran. The required data were collected from the farm, consisting of free drainage furrows with length 70 m, top width 0.8 m, depth 0.25 m, and slope 0.2%. The advance and recession times were significantly longer in MF than SF irrigation. The infiltration was estimated by Lewis-Kostiakov equation. The infiltration coefficients were calculated: The values of k were higher and of a were lower in MF furrows than in SF furrows. The average runoff ratio and application efficiency for the SF irrigation events were 50.53% and 49.07%, respectively, while those of the MF irrigation events were 7.04% and 52.94%, respectively. Based on the results, the velocity of water advance in MF irrigation is decreased and, thus, the runoff, erosion losses, mass of fertilizer lost and surface water contamination were reduced. Using a lower inflow rate and appropriate irrigation time leads to better management outcomes in irrigation systems.

Greek political advertising in retrospect: a longitudinal approach

Drawing on the theory of affective intelligence, the present study considers the prolonged recession in Greece as a major event that increased the levels of people’s anxiety and propelled changes in political communication. The purpose of the study was to analyze the tone and the emotional appeals of 584 political advertisements aired over a decade of economic, social and political turmoil. A comparison of the pre-recession (2004–2009) to the recession period (2010–2015) highlighted that comparative advertising among major political parties increased in times of recession. Variations in the emotional appeals were also identified with major parties focusing on negative emotions, whereas minor parties relied mostly on joyful appeals and the use of humor. The findings indicated that during the recession, campaign strategies seem to aim at the manipulation of people’s emotions, alternating between positive and negative tone of advertisement and between the emotional appeals of joy, humor, anger and fear.

Comparing Sentiment- and Behavioral-Based Leading Indexes for Industrial Production: When Does Each Fail?

We apply a relatively novel leading–lagging (LL) method to four leading and one lagging indexes for industrial production (IP) in Germany. We obtain three sets of results. First, we show that the sentiment-based ifo index performs best in predicting the general changes in IP (−0.596, range −1.0 to 1.0, −1.0 being best). The ZEW index is very close (−0.583). In third place comes, somewhat unexpectedly, the behavioral-based unemployment index (−0.564), and last comes order flow, OF (−0.186). Second, we applied the LL method to predefined recession and recovery time windows. The recessions were best predicted (−0.70), the recoveries worst (−0.32), and the overall prediction was intermediate (−0.48). Third, the method identifies time windows automatically, even for short time windows, where the leading indexes fail. All indexes scored low during time windows around 1997 and 2005. Both periods correspond to anomalous periods in the German economy. The 1997 period coincides with “the great moderation” in the US at the end of a minor depression in Germany. Around 2005, oil prices increased from $10 to $60 a barrel. There were few orders, and monetary supply was low. Our policy implications suggest that the ZEW index performs best (including recessions and recoveries), but unemployment and monetary supply should probably be given more weight in sentiment forecasting.

Show me how to live: Firms' financial conditions and innovation during the crisis

This work evaluates how firms' financial conditions influence the relationship between firms' innovation and their survival during the recent economic crises. By using an original and integrated sample of 6542 Italian manufacturing firms, we show that, in general, innovation still grants a survival premium during recession times even when financial conditions moderate the relationship innovation-survival. We argue that firms' financial conditions do not eliminate the innovation premium in terms of survival, even if they reduce it. Firms introducing any kind of innovation and, in particular process innovations, still have higher probabilities than non-innovators to survive the crises even when their financial structure is taken into consideration. The reduction in the survival premium depends crucially on the financial variables considered. Leverage reduces most the innovation premium while the share of long-term debt reduces less – and in a certain case even increases – the survival premium from innovation.

SOIL CONSERVATION SERVICE (SCS) AS A TOOL FOR PROPER DESIGN OF COTTON-FURROW IRRIGATION IN CLAY SOIL

Flood surface irrigation is the main watering system in Egypt and worldwide. Proper design of such system is the milestone for up-grading and improving surface irrigation as for other irrigation systems. In this regard, the said Soil Conservation Service (S.C.S) developed by the soil reclamation bureau, USA was the used tool in the evaluating and assessment of the implemented or the practiced parameters, which executed in cotton furrow irrigation system design in the Northern Nile Delta area. The field trial was conducted during the two growing summer cotton seasons 2017 and 2018 at the experimental farm of Sakha Agricultural Research Station, North Nile Delta area. Combined effects of different land leveling (i.e. traditional, precession (dead level =zero level), 0.05 and 0.10%) and irrigation inflow rates. (2.0, 2.7 and 3.3 Lps/m widths) were used. The stated treatments were implemented at fixed furrow length and width of 40.0 m and 0.75 m. respectively. The comparing elements between design created by SCS and the actual practiced measures were: furrow inflow rate (Lps/m), irrigation time (min.), advance time (min.), recession time (min.), opportunity time (min.), depth applied (mm), deep percolation (mm), deep percolation ratio and irrigation application efficiency (IAE).Moreover, extensive economic evaluation was done regarding seed cotton yield, total return, benefit/cost ratio and the specific cost. Analysis of obtained data revealed that application efficiency is acceptable for inflow rate at 2.0 Lps/m width along with precession land leveling of 0.05 or 0.10%, providing the importance of using SCS in design furrow irrigation system in the clayey soils at North Nile Delta. Moreover, maximum water well land productivity were observed under the stated treatment (2.0 Lps/m width with 0.05 or 0.10% land leveling)

Thinking Tomorrow Today: Planning for Uncertainty and Building Organisational Culture that Can Walk the Talk

Thinking tomorrow, today is about generating and manipulating ideas proactively and progressively. The critical issue is about expanding the scope of understanding all the facets of the organisational activities, and maintaining same approach and strategy through the future in a sustained manner. Manager’s ability should be screened on the basis of their pro-activeness and innovativeness in the management of thoughts that would foster the organisational advancement and effectiveness. This study is based on a case study design using secondary sources of data from a tertiary educational institution through an in-depth study and analysis of its organisational culture. Many of the early studies of this occurrence identified strong support for the idea that organisational culture and performance were indistinguishably linked. Recommendations given include the use of competitive and time effective management process to review, update, integrate, implement visions, decisions, and plans for tomorrow, whether in expansionary or recessionary times

Relevance of Quantitative Easing Model to Heal the Sick Indian Economy

The present situation of Indian economy is worse. The GDP growth rate is 5% which is very low compared to last five years trend. After a record fell down of short-term interest rates of commercial banks (below one percent), the Reserve bank of India has turned to quantitative easing (QE) to hold up economic growth. It is used by the government to amplify the supply of money in the economy. It leads to an increase in lending by commercial banks and spending by customers subsequently. On the other hand, these policies will boomerang greatly on economy and leads to extraordinarily high levels of inflation. If commercial banks fail to afford excess reserves, it may direct to unhinge in the money market. Simply it jeopardizes the entire economic system. To come out from this, Reserve Bank of India injects a fixed quantity of money into the economy by massive and unprecedented purchasing of financial assets from commercial banks and private entities. This leads to an increase in banks reserves. Quantitative easing is not a new word to the economic world; it is most popular from the times of great recession in US economy. There has been an explode of research on QE and its effects. Past studies tremendously agree that QE helps in ease financial conditions and there is no reason to doubt that it supports economic growth. It is not only very powerful in times of financial crisis, but also has a momentous effect in normal times. By and large, this research paper focuses on finding the reasons behind the slowdown of growth rate of Indian economy and provides the likely solutions to come out from the crisis.

Experiences of workers with disabilities receiving supported employment services in Greece.

People with disabilities (PwDs) are under-represented in the workforce, especially during times of economic recession. Supported employment is recognized as an effective practice for promoting work inclusion of PwDs, including people with intellectual disabilities (IDs). This study aimed at exploring the experiences of workers with ID or mental health conditions who received supported employment services in Greece. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine workers with ID and five with mental health conditions. The thematic analysis revealed that emotional pressure was experienced by the participants with mental health conditions and those with ID during the job search and the adaptation period, respectively. On-the-job training was available for the participants with ID and assistance in finding suitable job opportunities was given to those with mental health conditions. All participants highlighted the importance of maintaining employment. The findings can inform efforts on developing employment services targeting social and work inclusion for PwDs.

The importance of financial recession for mental health among students: short- and long-term analyses from an ecosocial perspective.

Background and aim: Referring to the ecosocial theory and utilising the ‘natural experiment’ setting provided by the global recession at the beginning of 1990s, the aim of our study was to analyse the short- and long-term associations between trade and mental health in young students followed until mid-adulthood.Method: The study was based on two prospective cohort studies, the older and the younger Northern Swedish Cohort which both consisted of all pupils in a middle-sized industrial town in Northern Sweden. At age 21, the younger cohort entered the labour market during the deep recession of the early 1990s, while the older cohort entered the labour market during the boom of the 1980s. Both cohorts were followed up with a high response rate in mid adulthood. For this study, all students were selected at age 21.Results: At age 21, those who studied during recession had more depressive and functional somatic symptoms than those who studied during boom. The cohort differences did not remain over age: by the follow-up in early middle age the differences between the cohorts were non-significant, most notably due to decreased depressive symptoms in the younger cohort and increase of functional somatic symptoms in the older cohort.Conclusions: The short-term mental health consequences of the business cycle seem to be more extensive than limited only to those who are unemployed, even though the possible long-term consequences seem to be more complex. Thus, the macrolevel had a great short-term impact on the individual level in relation to the microlevel setting of university/school. The chronosystem was also of major importance. Future research would benefit from taking the context into account.Significance for public healthAlthough those who study at age 21 may be considered as a relatively healthy and advantaged population group in the long run, our results provide evidence for the significance of recession for mental health, not only among those suffering from concrete job loss but across all population groups. Students’ mental health should be given high priority during times of financial crisis. Mental health services for students should receive increased resources during times of recession. Even if young people may be reluctant to study after school during a financial crisis, it seems to be beneficial for their mental health in a long-term perspective. So, for them poorer mental health does not seem to be dangerous in the long run. Students surveys should pay special attention to understanding the relation between macroeconomic conditions and individual mental health symptoms.

The Effect of Doubling the Amount of Recess on Elementary Student Disciplinary Referrals and Achievement Over Time

ABSTRACTResearch demonstrates children’s attention, working memory, and behavior improve following a recess or activity break. Longer periods of inactivity are associated with higher levels of inattention; children who are less active have higher rates of disciplinary infractions. Thus, providing physical activity breaks may positively impact student achievement and behavior. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of doubling recess time on elementary students’ academic achievement and disciplinary referrals over two school years. Participants were 728 K to 6th-grade students from one school in the southeastern United States who transitioned from one 15-minute recess break to two 15-minute recess breaks per school day the following year. Discipline referrals were recorded and coded by type. Academic achievement reflected students’ math and reading performance on the Measure of Academic Progress, the Reading Inventory, and the Math Inventory. Results show the number of discipline referrals increased with the additional daily recess, and math test scores improved. Given the differential effects on student disciplinary referral and academic achievement outcomes, implications are discussed for school personnel in light of these findings.

Physical Activity and Social Interactions of Rural Elementary Children during Recess

Recess is an important part of the school day for elementary children. It provides a natural opportunity for children to engage in physical activity, it also allows for young children to develop social skills. There is little research examining physical activity and social interactions among rural elementary children. The purpose of this study was to investigate levels of physical activity, activity type, group size, and social interactions of 3rd and 4th grade students attending a rural elementary school. Students (N=67) were observed during morning recess (25 minutes) using the System for Observing Children’s Activity and Relationships during Play (SOCARP). The data were analyzed using multiple independent samples t-tests with Bonferonni adjustments. Initial results showed no significant differences between grade and gender groups in each observation category. Upon further investigation, differences were observed. The results of this study were contradictory and mixed when compared to other studies indicating that other factors such as supervision, equipment, culture and playground markings that may play a significant role in activity levels in children during recess. This study has added to the literature regarding elementary children’s physical activity, activity type, group size, and social interactions during recess time. It also adds to the limited literature involving the use of the SOCARP instrument.

Identification of flow components with the trigonometric hydrograph separation method: a case study from Madjez Ressoul catchment, Algeria

Madjez Ressoul catchment constitutes an important source of fresh water and arable land in northeastern Algeria. In order to achieve better management of the catchments’ natural resources, specifically water, an advanced flood recession analysis was conducted, using the recession analysis-based trigonometric approach, which was based completely on a mathematical solution. This approach provides very useful results for the master recession curves construction. The advantage of this method in the hydrograph separation is both its non-subjectivity related to the user, and then its viability for initial use in the hydrograph separation field. Results in this real case give a better indication of groundwater flow during different drought periods, using many assessed parameters of initial discharge and relative recession time. A particular review of existing hydrograph separation techniques is used to situate the recession analysis and show its case of application relative to other techniques.

Study on the Risk Factors of Injuries Resulting in Hospitalization in Primary School Students

Objective: To develop effective prevention measures against serious injuries in primary school students, the involved factors of serious injuries inside school were surveyed. Methods: Our study examined the data from primary schools of 7 prefectures in Japan. The study period was one year, from April 2007 to March 2008, and the 70,701 cases of school injuries which required medical treatment in medical institution were examined. The involved factors that infl uence hospitalization were investigated by logistic regression analysis. Results: 1) Among the total number of injuries (70,701), 882 (1.2%) cases required hospitalization. 2) The injuries that needed hospitalization occurred the most frequently during recess. 3) Among the 207 cases of hospitalization-required injuries that occurred when the lower grade students were outside the school building in the school area during recess, 134cases (64.7%) happened while they were using playground equipment. The incidence of hospitalization was signifi cantly higher (3.30 fold) than when no playground equipment was in use. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate the importance to implement safety measures related with the use of playground equipment during recess time to prevent serious injuries of students, especially when they are not under the supervision of teachers. Furthermore, it is necessary to guide the lower grade students concerning the risk of fall from playground equipment such as monkey bar and climber.

Residual Stress in HVOF Thermally Sprayed WC-10Co-4Cr Coating in Landing Gear Application

Type “N” Almen strips were HVOF thermally sprayed WC-10%Co-4Cr coating with spraying parameters used for landing gear coating production. The Almen strips were coated at variable passes and different cooling conditions. Deflections of Almen strip specimens were measured, and the coating residual stresses were calculated. With the same facility and spraying parameters, in situ coating property sensor was also used to continuously monitor the curvature of beam specimens being coated during and after coating deposition to evaluate coating deposition stress and final residual stress. The experiments, together with micro-hardness test, reveal that peening action occurred in the current HVOF spraying is limited, and the residual stress in the coating is dominated by quenching stress and cooling stress. In this study, the substrate temperature of specimens was adjusted by cooling air flow and torch recess time in between spraying passes. The coating residual stress demonstrates to apparently relate the substrate temperature because it significantly affects the cooling stress. Since the spraying parameters are frozen in industrial coating production, the cooling condition is a feasible approach for tailoring the coating residual stress.