Practice chains of production and consumption : mediatized practices across social fields

The argument developed in this paper is that a focus on practice provides some resolutions to methodological problems facing Bourdieuian scholarship in education. In order to develop Bourdieu's work on practice to account for the interactions between practices, this paper presents a conceptualization of practice as chains of production and consumption. The first part of the paper reviews the account of practice offered by Bourdieu both embedded in practice games and as field effects. The second part of the paper introduces practice chains of production and consumption as a way to conceptualize practice by drawing on a case involving print journalists' involvement with policy makers over the course of an Australian policy review. The final section presents a discussion of this conceptualization and highlights the potential of the concept for further research in understanding the processes of educational policy development.

Family correlates of fruit and vegetable consumption in children and adolescents : a systematic review

Objectives To review associations between the family environment and young people’s fruit and vegetable consumption.

Design A systematic review. Published English-language (n 60) papers were identified using electronic databases and manual searches of personal files and reference lists. Observational research reporting a measure of fruit/vegetable intake for children (aged 6–11 years) and/or adolescents (aged 12–18 years) and at least one potential family correlate of dietary intake was included.

Results Parental modelling and parental intake were consistently and positively associated with children’s fruit and fruit, juice and vegetable (FJV) consumption. There were also positive associations between home availability, family rules and parental encouragement and children’s fruit and vegetable consumption. Parental intake was positively associated with adolescents’ fruit and vegetable consumption. There were also positive associations between parental occupational status and adolescent fruit consumption and between parental education and adolescents’ FJV consumption.

Conclusions Our findings highlight the importance of targeting the family environment for the promotion of healthy eating behaviours among children and adolescents. Future interventions should encourage parents to be positive role models by targeting parental intake and to create a supportive home environment through increased encouragement and availability of fruits and vegetables and employing rules to govern eating behaviours. For adolescents, indicators of family circumstances (e.g. parental education) should be used to identify target groups for interventions aimed at promoting healthy eating.

Sweet preferences and sugar consumption of 4- and 5-year-old children : role of parents

We investigated the relationships in children between rules that restrict consumption of mono- and disaccharides (MDS), consumption of MDS and preferences for sucrose-containing orangeade. The background ideas of restriction rules we also investigated. To this end, 44 children (5.1 ^ 0.5 years) performed a rank-order and paired-comparison test of preference for five orangeades, which differed in sucrose concentration (0.14, 0.20, 0.29, 0.42, 0.61 M sucrose). Parents filled out a questionnaire concerning restriction rules and their children’s consumption of MDS-containing foods. Stronger restriction rules were related to a lower consumption of beverages that contained MDS and to a lower consumption of MDS-containing foods during breakfast and lunch. The most freedom to choose foods that contain MDS was given during the afternoon. Fifty-five percent of the children who were highly restricted showed a preference for the highest concentration of sucrose in orangeade. None of these children preferred the orangeade with the lowest concentration of sucrose. While 19% of the children who were little restricted preferred the beverage with the lowest concentration of sucrose, 33% preferred the beverage with the highest concentration. These parents generally believed that sugar has a bad effect on health and had similar background ideas concerning restriction
rules.

Social ideological influences on food consumption and BMI

Social ideologies appeared to influence dietary behaviour, physical activity and BMI. These influences varied through different pathways in younger and older baby boomers. Studies provide insight into the segmentation of baby boomer population in relation to concrete social ideologies that could be used for policy development and effective health promotion.

The role of alcohol consumption in recovering drug users

This thesis found that alcohol consumption by illicit drig users has not been well researched. A qualitative study found alcohol was used as a substitute and believed to be related to illicit substance use. While the quantitative study generated no overall consensus, the research highlighted the need to conduct additional studies into substance abuse. The portfolio explored the relationship between maltreatment and the development of Reactive Attachment Disorder through four case studies of child clients.

Psychological study of consumer novelty seeking and mass media consumption

The thesis integrates theory from psychology and marketing, finding that those with an innate desire to seek out information on new products / brands are motivated to do so by aspects of regulatory focus, needs for uniqueness, and their susceptibility to interpersonal influence. In turn, these people consume more media and have higher information exposure.

A note on the long-run elasticities from the energy consumption-GDP relationship

The goal of this paper is to examine the long-run elasticities of the impacts of energy consumption on GDP and GDP on energy consumption. The energy consumption–GDP relationship is amongst the most popular relationships examined in the energy economics literature. The bulk of the extant literature has assumed a positive relationship between energy consumption and real GDP. Our analysis shows that in only around 60% of the countries considered the relationship is positive.

Reducing energy consumption of vehicle air conditioning system by an energy management system

This paper presents an energy management system to reduce the energy consumption of a vehicle when its air conditioning system is in use. The system controls the mass flow rate of the air by dynamically adjusting the blower speed and air-gates opening under various heat and loads circumstances. Simulations were conducted for a travelling vehicle operating the air conditioning system without and with the developed energy management system. The results show that the comfort temperature within the cabin room is achieved for reduced amount of energy consumption.

Strategies to reduce sodium consumption : a food industry perspective

The global high prevalence of hypertension and cardiovascular disease has raised concerns regarding the sodium content of the foods which we consume. Over 75% of sodium intake in industrialized diets is likely to come from processed and restaurant foods. Therefore international authorities, such as the World Health Organisation, are encouraging the food industry to reduce sodium levels in their products. Significant sodium reduction is not without complications as salt plays an important role in taste, and in some products is needed also for preservation and processing. The most promising sodium reduction strategy is to adapt the preference of consumers for saltiness by reducing sodium in products in small steps. However, this is a time-consuming approach that needs to be applied industry-wide in order to be effective. Therefore the food industry is also investigating solutions that will maintain the same perceived salt intensity at lower sodium levels. Each of these has specific advantages, disadvantages, and time lines for implementation. Currently applied approaches are resulting in sodium reduction between 20-30%. Further reduction will require new technologies. Research into the physiology of taste perception and salt receptors is an emerging area of science that is needed in order to achieve larger sodium reductions.