Family identity construction: an interpretation of the Lunar New Year's Eve dinner consumption ritual

PurposeFamily dinner on Lunar New Year's Eve is the most important and most ritualized feast for families in China. It is the time for the entire family to reunite. Families gather together to reflect their past and talk about the future. Through the lens of consumer culture theories, this study explores how Chinese consumers construct family identity.Design/methodology/approachBased on constant comparative analysis of primary data including in-depth interviews and participant observation, and secondary data including historical archives, cultural tracing, documentary reports and essays, the authors deconstruct the consumption rituals of family dinner on Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve. The authors focus on four aspects, including participants, place, time and related activities, and analyze Chinese consumers' ritual experiences.FindingsThe authors’ findings show how young consumers construct and strengthen individual self-identity, relational identity and family identity in various ways through consumption and ritual practices during Chinese Lunar New Year celebration.Originality/valueThe study of family dinner on Lunar New Year's Eve helps the authors understand contemporary consumer culture in three aspects. First, it helps the authors understand the relationship between consumption and culture. Second, the study shows the changes and continuities of consumption rituals. Third, the research highlights the experience of “home” among contemporary Chinese consumers.

Significance of the local anthropogenic effects in the dynamics of wild geese wintering on the Ramsar Site Lakes by Tata (Wetland City Tata)

The Old Lake of Tata, an important wild goose roosting site in Central Europe, is unique in its location being in the middle of a city with a population of 24,000. Consequently, the site is subject to intensive human disturbances. Goose migration and wintering on the lake was studied for over 37 years (1984–2021). In addition to weather, hydrological, and feeding conditions, particular attention was focused on human influences (which were deemed generally disruptive, but also beneficial in some cases) that can induce significant changes in the population dynamics of the 30,000–50,000 wild geese from 13 species wintering here. Almost without exception, the largest observed changes in the abundance of wild geese roosting overnight on the Old Lake are due to anthropogenic effects. In the majority of cases, the most significant population changes are due to impacts associated with the operation and upkeep of the lake and the New Year’s Eve fireworks. As a result, the winter operation of the Old Lake has been regulated by the Wild Goose Preference Mode since 2011, and the City of Tata has banned the use of fireworks during the winter period since 2018. Consequently, the conditions for wild goose migration have improved significantly. However, the situation of the Old Lake is still quite fragile and more conservation measures are needed to protect it further.

No government mouthpieces: Changes in the framing of the “migration crisis” in German news and infotainment media

This study investigates the German media’s framing of the 2015–2016 “migration crisis” and their support and criticism of the initial open-door policy. A standardized content analysis examines changes in media frames following the key event of assaults on New Year’s Eve (NYE) 2015. It is analyzed how changes in coverage differed between public broadcasting news and infotainment formats (talk and satirical shows) and how they were related to governmental communication. The findings contradict ideas of a state-conforming and uniform coverage of the “migration crisis.” Media coverage did not parallel the governmental switch from support for the open-door policy to ambivalence after the NYE incidents but challenged governmental communication with critical counter frames. Regarding support for the open-door policy, the news media showed some parallels to the government’s frames; however, the infotainment media deviated in their frame agenda from the news media and thus contributed to diversity in media discourse.

Increase of nitrooxy organosulfates in firework-related urban aerosols during Chinese New Year's Eve

Little is known about the formation processes of nitrooxy organosulfates (OSs) by nighttime chemistry. Here we characterize nitrooxy OSs at a molecular level in firework-related aerosols in urban Beijing during Chinese New Year. High-molecular-weight nitrooxy OSs with relatively low H / C and O / C ratios and high unsaturation are potentially aromatic-like nitrooxy OSs. They considerably increased during New Year's Eve, affected by the firework emissions. We find that large quantities of carboxylic-rich alicyclic molecules possibly formed by nighttime reactions. The sufficient abundance of aliphatic-like and aromatic-like nitrooxy OSs in firework-related aerosols demonstrates that anthropogenic volatile organic compounds are important precursors of urban secondary organic aerosols (SOAs). In addition, more than 98 % of those nitrooxy OSs are extremely low-volatility organic compounds that can easily partition into and consist in the particle phase and affect the volatility, hygroscopicity, and even toxicity of urban aerosols. Our study provides new insights into the formation of nitrooxy organosulfates from anthropogenic emissions through nighttime chemistry in the urban atmosphere.

Air Quality during New Year’s Eve: A Biomonitoring Study with Moss

Mosses are one of the best bioindicators in the assessment of atmospheric aerosol pollution by heavy metals. Studies using mosses allow both short- and long-term air quality monitoring. The increasing contamination of the environment (including air) is causing a search for new, cheap and effective methods of monitoring its condition. Once such method is the use of mosses in active biomonitoring. The aim of the study was to assess the atmospheric aerosol pollution with selected heavy metals (Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Hg and Pb) from the smoke of fireworks used during New Year’s Eve in the years 2019/2020 and 2020/2021. In studies a biomonitoring moss-bag method with moss Pleurozium schreberi (Willd. ex Brid.) Mitt. genus Pleurozium was used. The research was conducted in the town Prószków (5 km in south direction from Opole, opolskie voivodship, Poland). The moss was exposed 14 days before 31 December (from 17 to 30 of December), on New Year’s Eve (31 December and 1 January) and 2 weeks after the New Year (from 2–15 January). Higher concentrations of analysed elements were determined in samples exposed during New Year’s Eve. Increases in concentrations were demonstrated by analysis of the Relative Accumulation Factor (RAF). The results indicate that the use of fireworks during New Year’s Eve causes an increase in air pollution with heavy metals. In addition, it was shown that the COVID-19 induced restrictions during New Year’s Eve 2020 resulted in a reduction of heavy metal content in moss samples and thus in lower atmospheric aerosol pollution with these analytes. The study confirmed moss usefulness in monitoring of atmospheric aerosol pollution from point sources.

SEED Program: The development of a program that has enabled the learning and growth of staff in the response to a community crisis.

This paper aims to share a program that took a whole-hospital approach in considering the wellbeing of staff at a time of recovery following the 2019–2020 bushfires. The SEED Program enlisted a person-centred participatory methodology that was embedded within a transformational learning approach. This methodology included collaboration, authentic participation, critical reflection, critical dialogue and listening where the staff voice was the driving factor in the development of strategies for recovery. The SEED Program resulted in the development of five initiatives that included four strategies and a celebration event where staff celebrated their New Year’s Eve in February 2020. The four strategies included the establishment of a quiet room, coffee buddies, Wellness Warriors and 24/7 Wellness. The outcomes from the SEED Program resulted in the development of a more person-centred culture and transformation of staff perspectives in how they understood their role in their learning and learning of others in recovery and support at a time of crisis. The key learnings were the effect of authentic collaboration, the benefit from enabling authentic leadership at all levels within a hospital, and the power of a staff connection to the ‘CORE’ values of the hospital and Local Health District. In conclusion, the staff involved hold the hope that others may benefit from their experience of transformational learning in creating more person-centred workplace cultures while supporting each other to move forward during a crisis. The limitation of the SEED Program was that it was a bespoke practice innovation designed in the moment, responding to an identified need for the staff following a crisis in the local community rather than a formal research approach to meeting the needs of this group of staff.

The end of ‘Welcome Culture’? How the Cologne assaults reframed Germany’s immigration discourse

Controversy over immigration and integration intensified in German news media following Chancellor Merkel’s response to the refugee crisis of 2015. Using multidimensional scaling of word associations in reporting across four national news publications in conjunction with key event, moral panic and framing theories, we argue that reporting of events at Cologne station on New Year’s Eve 2015–2016 reframed debate away from terror-related concerns and towards anxieties about the sexual predation of dark-skinned males, thus racializing immigration coverage and resonating with a long history of Orientalist stereotyping. We further identify an increased clustering of ‘race’, gender, religion, crowd-threat and national belonging terms in reporting on sexual harassment incidents following Cologne, suggesting an increased criminalization of immigration discourse. The article provides new empirically based insights into the dynamics of news media reporting on migrants in Germany and contributes to scholarly debates on media framing of migrants, sexuality and crime.

Development of a Mobile Edge Device and an Information System to Analyze Particulate Matter Distribution as a mHealth Service

Particulate matter is an air pollutant consistent of very small particles that are suspended in the air. Shortterm exposure may result in respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath, throat and nose irritation, chest tightness, coughing, in addition to eye irritation. The research aimes at creating a prototype of a mobile sensor system that can be used to analyze the particulate matter pollution on a location and on a time scale to measure the degree of pollution in the city. The engineering requirement to construct the edge device includes temperature (humidity) sensor, particulate matter sensor, GPS module, and an LCD for displaying the current sensor values. The health data of the mobile edge device can be analyzed through a developed analytics system, which allows the user to identify and avoid pollution sources. For the implementation of the web service the framework ReactJS, NodeJS with Express.js, and the database MongoDB are being used. The mHelath service is evaluated through field trials: New Year’s Eve, various source identifications, and a demonstration through a journey from the subway station to the university. The paper outlines a mHealth service, which can collect data records of the surroundings and analyze the particulate matter in an information system to visualize risk locations of a user.