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Nelson, others call for funding for CDC to study gun violence

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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) joined 33 other Democratic senators Friday in urging leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee to include $50 million in next year’s Department of Health and Human Services spending bill for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to study the causes and prevention of gun violence.

“Every year, we lose more than 33,000 lives due to gun violence, and more than 81,000 people suffer injuries from firearms,” the lawmakers wrote. “It has become increasingly clear that gun violence in America is going to continue unabated until Congress takes meaningful action.”

The senators said the $50 million would be used to fund “approximately 10 to 20 studies on the topic of gun violence.”

A PDF copy is available here.

UNF Psychology Study Reveals Certain Cultures Short in Everyday Patience

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Patience in everyday life is a strong predictor of health and well-being. Dr. Dominik Guess, a University of North Florida psychology professor, conducted a European study regarding patience in everyday life. It reveals there are cultural differences as to when people get impatient and the reactions they show.

A Southside resident, Guess conducted his research while he was on a Marie-Curie Fellowship at the University of Bamberg in Germany. The study was conducted in France, Germany and Romania and was performed in conjunction with Guss’ colleagues Drs. Claus-Christian Carbon and Astrid Schütz as well as psychology undergraduate students Katrin Wanninger, Doris Hauth and Franziska Wiltsch, all from the University of Bamberg.

The results, recently published in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, revealed people are more patient in certain situations than in others and that people from different cultures show different impatience reactions. The study also uncovered that in some cultures, people are more impatient than in others. These findings could be important for visitors traveling abroad, as expressing anger, for example, is culturally common in France and Germany.

The students observed over 800 people in the larger European cities of Paris, Berlin and Bucharest and the smaller cities of Rouen, Bamberg and Buzau in three daily life situations: waiting at an ATM machine, standing in a supermarket line and listening to a long phone survey.

The students waited at ATM machines and paid in supermarket lines but prolonged the process through clumsy behavior. Before starting a telephone survey, they read a long introduction of approximately 2 minutes. Then, they recorded the time when people waiting behind them or listening to the phone introduction got impatient, noting the kind of impatience reactions. For example, someone asking, “How long will this take?” or an individual stamping loudly with their foot on the ground, making a face, rolling their eyes or clicking their tongue.

Surprisingly, Germans were the most patient at ATM machines, possibly displaying more self-control, compared to French and Romanians. This assumption was supported by the fact that the French and Romanians left the ATM lines more often than Germans. In the ATM situation, the French displayed more angry facial expressions and left the situation more often compared to Germans and Romanians. In the supermarket, Germans showed more angry facial expressions compared to French and Romanians, while Germans showed the most impatient reactions in the telephone survey. Germans appear more patient with potential technical difficulties at ATM machines but impatient in social interactions.

In the telephone survey, people who were called sometimes said “Get to the point” or “Skip this introduction and start the questions.” About 20 percent of all people contacted put the phone down right away, as marketing calls or phone surveys in Europe aren’t as common as in the United States. The Romanians, compared to the French and Germans, said “I’m sorry” more often than the others.

Surprisingly, there were no differences between big and small cities; although people in bigger cities have a faster pace of life, they’re also used to more traffic and accidents, for example, as compared to daily life in smaller cities. The full results of the study, can be found in the Journal of Cross-Psychology website.

During his more than 10 years at UNF, Guess has worked to broaden the types of courses offered by the Department of Psychology, developing and teaching five new courses, including organizational behavior and culture, ethics and mental health. He was also one of the department’s first faculty to develop a distance learning course. Last year, he was selected as the recipient of the John A. Delaney Endowed Presidential Professorship, while in 2016, Guess was presented the Distinguished Professor Award.

His research interests include complex problem solving and dynamic decision making, planning and creativity, metacognition and cross-cultural studies. Guess has conducted multiple international research studies, including one regarding cultural influences on dynamic decision making that included research in Brazil, Germany, India and the Philippines through a grant from the National Science Foundation.

He earned a doctorate of philosophy in psychology from the Institute of Theoretical Psychology, General Psychology and Methodology at Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg in Bamberg, Germany. He also received a master’s and bachelor’s degree in psychology from Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg.

Polk County lakes researched as source of biofuel

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Students at Florida Polytechnic University are looking into ways of creating a source of biofuel by using algae known as diatoms, which are found in Polk County lakes.

The search for viable alternatives to fossil fuels is a hot topic worldwide with biofuel being one possible solution. This study, headed by professor of biology Dr. Melba Horton, seeks to determine the viability of using endemic diatoms from local lakes for various technological applications, including as a source of renewable energy.

Polk County Parks and Recreation provided students with water samples from more than 50 lakes around the county. The diatoms they found were grown and harvested in both indoor and outdoor photobioreactors. After periods of 15 and 30 days, results of a preliminary extraction showed a yield of more than 30 percent, which is on par with other biofuel sources, but with the promise of better cost efficiency.

“Algae is already used for biofuel, but it is still very expensive,” said Horton. “This option with endemic diatoms would make producing biofuel less costly considering the local supply and availability of the resource.”

The research, funded by Florida Industrial and Phosphate Research Institute (FIPR), utilizes space saving photobioreactors for mass production of the diatoms, which can also be used for agricultural applications. Diatoms are known for their porous silica shells. Once mass produced, they can be added to improve dewatering of clay settling areas from phosphate mining operations in Florida.

“The main goal we want to accomplish with this research is to grow the diatoms and utilize them for the dual purpose of producing biofuel, and also to mix them with the clays that have limited land use potential, so that these lands can be more productive,” said Gary Albarelli, FIPR representative.

This Florida Poly research explores other technological applications of diatoms, including the use of its silica wall to capture and store methane gas, as well as biomedical and electrical purposes.

Linking Societal Violence to Video Games Reinforces Myths and Distracts from Key Issues

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Statements by Policy Makers and Media Linking Societal Violence
to Video Games Reinforces Myths and Distracts from Key Issues

Stetson University Professor Helps Lead Effort to Caution Journalists
Against Spreading Misinformation Regarding Violent Video Games

As students across the country get ready to put down their textbooks and pick up video game controllers, some parents may worry because they have heard media reports that violent video games cause real-world aggression. But this link is not based on facts, according to Stetson University Professor, Christopher Ferguson, Ph.D., who has extensively studied violent video games and aggressive behaviors and found there is no evidence to support a correlation.
“For many years, journalists and government officials would point to violent video games as a contributing factor in mass homicides, particularly in cases where the perpetrator is a young male, but this is not supported by the evidence,” said Ferguson. “Most children and teens play video games without exhibiting violent behavior, and spikes in sales of violent video games actually corresponds to decreased rates of violent crime.”

Stetson University Professor, Christopher Ferguson, Ph.D.

Recently, Division 46 of the American Psychology Association (Society for Media Psychology and Technology) released a statement cautioning journalists and government officials against this conclusion. In the statement, Societal Violence and Video Games: Public Statements of a Link are Problematic, Division 46 discusses the lack of evidence to support this connection and that it may distract from addressing issues known to contribute to real-world violence.
Ferguson helped to lead the effort to caution against public statements that conclude a link between violent video game play and perpetrating acts of violence in real-world situations.  Ferguson, a clinical psychologist and author of “Moral Combat: Why the War on Violent Video Games is Wrong,” has conducted extensive research on the issue over the past decade and found no evidence to support a correlation.
Division 46 also cautions that identifying violent video games as the cause of violent crime
may distract from addressing issues that are known to contribute to real-world violence such as poverty, lack of treatment options for mental health, and educational and employment disparities. In the statement, Division 46 also provides six recommendations that will assist officials and journalists when informing the public of issues regarding violence and video games.
These recommendations include that public officials and news media avoid stating explicitly or implicitly that criminal offenders were caused by violent media including the use of language such as “it was as if they were playing a video game” or “the offender was obsessed with video games.” The full list of recommendations can be found in the Division 46 statement.

Study shows exercise, sleep are keys to keeping employees from bringing home work frustrations

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A brisk walk or a long swim may be the key to preventing a bad day at the office from spilling over into the home.
A recent university study that tracked participants’ sleep patterns and daytime physical movements found employees who recorded an average of more than 10,900 steps each day were less likely to perpetuate abuse at home than those recording fewer than 7,000.
“Research shows employees who are mistreated at work are likely to engage in similar behaviors at home,” said University of Central Florida’s College of Business management professor Shannon Taylor, who teamed up with researchers from Illinois and Wisconsin for the study. “If they’ve been belittled or insulted by a supervisor, they tend to vent their frustration on members of their household. Our study shows that happens because they’re too tired to regulate their behavior.”
The study concludes sleep and exercise are intervention points that can be leveraged to prevent the spread of harmful behavior. Study participants included 118 MBA students with full-time jobs who took a survey and then wore activity monitors for a week. A follow-up survey was then sent to the participants’ cohabitants.
Taylor said the study found that burning an additional 587 calories can reduce the harmful effects of mistreatment and help prevent it from carrying into the home. For the average American man, these gains can be achieved with an hour of swimming or a brisk 90-minute walk.
“The findings are particularly compelling given recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and the American Heart Association to walk between 8,000 and 10,000 steps per day,” Taylor said. “I also think the study gives us a new perspective on the importance of getting an adequate amount of sleep and exercise. It’s not just good for you, it’s good for your spouse, too.”
Taylor is an associate professor and Ph.D. program coordinator in the management department at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. His research examines rude, abusive, and unethical behaviors of employees and leaders. His work has appeared in journals in business and applied psychology and has been featured by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fox News and NPR. He also serves as research director at Knowtro Inc.