Smart metering of domestic energy use allows consumer feedback through in-home displays (IHDs), websites or smart phone apps. Research has illustrated the need for additional 'sense-making' information to help households make informed energy-related decisions. This study investigates how household members respond when energy consumption data is integrated with information on indoor environmental conditions (IECs) and coupled with advice on energy saving actions. An integrated system of energy meters and IEC sensors was trialled in 19 predominantly social housing properties in the Midlands (England). Households were provided with a tablet computer and feedback was provided via a dedicated 'Energy Dashboard' web-based software application (app). The app was designed in collaboration with the social housing provider to display electricity and gas consumption data as well as data on three IECs: relative humidity, carbon dioxide and temperature. This paper draws on the findings from two rounds of semi-structured interviews with participants. All respondents using the app reported that they made use of the IEC data within the sensemaking process, finding temperature and humidity to be useful in linking energy consumption, activities and household conditions. Interpretation of IEC data tended to increase with time as understanding increased. However, different users 'noticed', 'interpreted' and 'enacted' information differently as they integrated this with other sources of information, such as feedback from household members and experiential knowledge. The findings suggest that, whilst incorporating greater contextual information, such as IECs, into feedback displays can help users make sense of domestic energy consumption, the outcomes of the sense-making process will be different for different households. Nevertheless, the provision of such information appears to support householders to make decisions about their energy management that they feel appropriate for their household's wellbeing needs, within the bounds of their agency.
Climate change is adversely impacting the burden of diarrheal diseases. Despite significant reduction in global prevalence, diarrheal disease remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among young children in low- and middle-income countries. Previous studies have shown that diarrheal disease is associated with meteorological conditions but the role of large-scale climate phenomena such as El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and monsoon anomaly is less understood. We obtained 13 years (2002–2014) of diarrheal disease data from Nepal and investigated how the disease rate is associated with phases of ENSO (El Niño, La Niña vs ENSO Neutral) monsoon rainfall anomaly (below normal, above normal vs normal), and changes in timing of monsoon onset, and withdrawal (early, late vs normal). Monsoon season was associated with a 21% increase in diarrheal disease rates (Incident Rate Ratios (IRR): 1.21; 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 1.16 -1.27). El Niño was associated with an 8% reduction in risk while the La Niña was associated with a 32% increase in under five diarrheal disease rates. Likewise, higher-than-normal monsoon rainfall was associated with increased rates of diarrheal disease, with considerably higher rates observed in the mountain region (IRR 1.51, 95% CI: 1.19–1.92). Our findings suggest that under-five diarrheal disease burden in Nepal is significantly influenced by ENSO and changes in seasonal monsoon dynamics. Since both ENSO phases and monsoon can be predicted with considerably longer lead time compared to weather, our findings will pave the way for the development of more effective early warning systems for climate sensitive infectious diseases.
Thepurpose of this article is to suggest that dogmatic theology is best practised through description of the world. Its method is to marry two unlikely characters: Karl Bardi, Swiss Reformed theologian, and Michel Foucault, French atheist philosopher and historian. The thesis we propose can be presented directly. Barth is well known for insisting, in his ethics lectures in Münster and Bonn (1928/29 and 1930/31 respectively) and volume II of hisChurch Dogmatics, that ethics is dogmatics. Foucault famously rejected ethics which makes universal normative claims in favour of producing descriptions of historical phenomena and letting the reader make moral judgments accordingly. His method, we suggest, understands ethics as ethnography. We have taken these two ways of thinking together and excluded the middle term: ethics. This has yielded the abbreviated form: ethnography is dogmatics.
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