University of Rhode Island

About: University of Rhode Island is a education organization based out in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Bay. The organization has 11464 authors who have published 22770 publications receiving 841066 citations. The organization is also known as: URI & Rhode Island College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts.

Character strengths in fifty-four nations and the fifty US states

Abstract: In a web-based study of 117,676 adults from 54 nations and all 50 US states, we investigated the relative prevalence of 24 different strengths of character. The most commonly-endorsed strengths in the USA were kindness, fairness, honesty, gratitude, and judgment, and the lesser strengths included prudence, modesty, and self-regulation. The profile of character strengths in the USA converged with profiles based on respondents from each of the other nations. Except for religiousness, comparisons within the US sample showed no differences as a function of state or geographical region. Our results may reveal something about universal human nature and/or the character requirements minimally needed for a viable society.

A Thermodynamic Approach for Assessing the Environmental Exposure of Chemicals Absorbed to Microplastic

Abstract: The environmental distribution and fate of microplastic in the marine environment represents a potential cause of concern. One aspect is the influence that microplastic may have on enhancing the transport and bioavailability of persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic substances (PBT). In this study we assess these potential risks using a thermodynamic approach, aiming to prioritize the physicochemical properties of chemicals that are most likely absorbed by microplastic and therefore ingested by biota. Using a multimedia modeling approach, we define a chemical space aimed at improving our understanding of how chemicals partition in the marine environment with varying volume ratios of air/water/organic carbon/polyethylene, where polyethylene represents a main group of microplastic. Results suggest that chemicals with log KOW > 5 have the potential to partition >1% to polyethylene. Food-web model results suggest that reductions in body burden concentrations for nonpolar organic chemicals are likely to occur ...

New Literacies: A Dual-Level Theory of the Changing Nature of Literacy, Instruction, and Assessment:

Abstract: This chapter suggests that a dual-level theory of new literacies is a useful approach to theory building in a world where the nature of literacy continuously changes. It begins by making a central point: Social contexts have always shaped both the function and form of literate practices and been shaped by them in return. The chapter discusses the social context of the current period and explain how this has produced new information and communication technologies, and the new literacies that the technologies demand. It explores several lowercase new literacies perspectives that are emerging. The chapter argues that a dual-level New Literacies theory is essential to take full advantage of this important and diverse work. It presents one lowercase theory of new literacies, the new literacies of online research and comprehension, to illustrate how a dual-level theory of new literacies can inform new literacies research that takes related but different theoretical perspectives.

Blue Water Crime: Deterrence, Legitimacy, and Compliance in Fisheries

Abstract: This study adds to the limited body of empirical evidence on the effect that legitimacy and deterrence have on compliance behavior. The theoretical models of compliance behavior tested include the basic deterrence model, which focuses on the certainty and severity of sanctions as key determinants of compliance, and models which integrate economic theory with theories from social psychology to account for legitimacy, deterrence, and other motivations expected to influence indiv duals' decisions whether to comply. Probit and Tobit econometric estimators are used to examine the compliance behavior of 318 Peninsular Malaysian fishermen who face a regulation banning them from fishing in a zone along the coast. The results of the empirical analysis provide additional evidence on the relationship of deterrence and legitimacy to compliance. The findings are also used to draw implications for compliance policy for regulated fisheries. According to normative compliance theory, people tend to obey laws made and implemented by authorities perceived to be legitimate. A key determinant of perceived legitimacy, according to the procedural justice literature, is the fairness built into the procedures used to develop and implement laws and regulations.l Paternoster et al. (1997) note that while there are numerous theoretical perspectives suggesting that legitimacy is an important determinant of compliance, the empirical evidence making that connection is meager.2 Our study adds to this limited body of empirical evidence. The subjects of our study are fishermen. Fishermen are excellent subjects for the study of compliance. They are subject to numerous regulations that constrain their opportunities to earn income, and temptations and opportunities for offending repeatedly occur.3 Passion, inadvertence, and accident rarely cause a fishery violation; most are the result of deliberate choice. The behavior of fishermen offers good evidence on which to test the role deterrence, legitimacy, and other factors play in explaining compliance. Studying the compliance behavior of such regulated economic agents as fishermen is important for other reasons. Achieving compliance in regulated industries is both costly and difficult. Expenditures on enforcement commonly constitute the largest cost element in governmental regulatory programs. The viability of environmental protection and resource management programs is often threatened by low rates of compliance and high enforcement costs. This raises questions whether there are ways to improve the cost effectiveness of traditional enforcement and whether there are ways to secure compliance without heavy reliance on costly enforcement. Central to improving the cost effectiveness of enforcement and compliance programs is understanding the compliance behavior of the economic agents subject to regulations. To this end, we present tests of alternative models of compliance behavior. The models tested include the basic deterrence model, which focuses on the certainty and severity of sanctions as key determinants of compliance, and models which integrate economic theory with theories from social psychology to account for both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations influencing individuals' decisions whether to comply.4 The tests are conducted on data from interviews with fishermen in Peninsular Malaysia (selfreports of violations). Becker (1968) was the first to develop a formal theoretical framework for explaining criminal activity. Following Smith (1966 [1759], 1985 [1776]) and Bentham (1967 [1789]), Becker assumes that criminals behave basically like other individuals in that they attempt to maximize utility subject to a budget constraint. In Becker's model, an individual commits a crime if the expected utility from committing the crime exceeds the utility from engaging in legitimate activity.5 The basic deterrence framework used in these studies assumes that the threat of sanctions is the only policy mechanism available to improve compliance with regulations. …