Navigating Multiple Worlds: A Grounded Theory of Latina Students' Identity as Latina First-Generation College Students

The purpose of this study was to explore Latina students' identity as Latina first-generation college students. Constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006) was used to explore two research questions: (a) For Latina students who are the first in their family to go to college, what is their understanding of being a Latina first-generation college student? (b) What strengths do Latina first-generation college students associate with being a Latina first-generation college student? A grounded theory of Latina students' identity as Latina first-generation college students was an outcome of this study. Two interviews were conducted with 12 Latina first-generation college students enrolled at the University of Maryland. Participants were considered first-generation college students if their parents' educational background did not exceed high school in the U.S. or some postsecondary education outside of the U.S., and if a sibling had not preceded them in attending college. Participants were racially/ethnically diverse, with the majority of students identifying as Central and South American. The metaphor, navigating multiple worlds, particularly the Family Environment and the University Environment, describes the negotiation of experiences that inform Latina students' identity as Latina first-generation college students. Core identities of Race/Ethnicity, Gender, Role as College Student, and Role within Family represent multiple and intersecting dimensions salient to Latina students' identity as Latina first-generation college students. Latina first-generation college students negotiated Latino/a Values and Expectations, "American" Values and Expectations, College and Family Responsibilities, Pioneering Higher Education, Responsibility to Give Back to Family and Latino/a Community, and Pressure and Pride. Living at the intersection of multiple worlds, including experiences as "the first" to attend an institution of higher education and engaging both in Latino/a culture and in "American" culture, contributed to the pressure that Latina first-generation college students experience. Latina students also received support from these distinct environments that enabled the participants to engage in culturally and educationally distinct worlds. Participants associated six strengths with being Latina first-generation college students: Family, Latino/a Culture, Spanish Language/Being Bilingual, Determination, Support Network - Prior to College and During College, and Sense of Responsibility to Help Others. This study has implications for research, theory, and practice

Situación actual y prespectivas de la exportación de la carne de cuy (Cavia porcellus)

Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina. Facultad de Zootecnia. Departamento Académico de Producción AnimalEl Perú es uno de los principales países en producción y consumo de carne de cuy a nivel mundial por su bajo costo de producción en crianzas familiares y semi-comerciales. La carne de cuy ha sido exportada, debido principalmente a la importante migración de latinos a países como los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica, quienes al margen de valorar las características y composición nutricional de dicho producto, tienen costumbre ancestral de preferirla; sin embargo, durante los últimos años se ha apreciado significativas fluctuaciones, de acuerdo a la situación y coyuntura del mercado y del aparato productivo, sin lograr un verdadero despegue para esta actividad. Actualmente, esta actividad sigue contando con aparente potencial; sin embargo, aún no se ha presentado la homogenización del producto, ni penetrado en los posibles y diversos mercados; al momento la exportación tiene como destino principal Estados Unidos, permaneciendo como potenciales países tales como China y países asiáticos en general; así como otros países de la comunidad Europea, donde la presencia de sudamericanos de ascendencia andina es importante. La exportación se realiza principalmente a las colonias peruanas y ecuatorianas, en Estados Unidos, pero también colombiana y boliviana en menor grado, quienes en conjunto consumen este producto en fechas especiales, configurando un mercado específico. Mediante la identificación de la ubicación de este segmento o nicho, así como de sus hábitos respecto al consumo de esta carne, estaríamos identificando el mercado objetivo. Asimismo, es posible ampliar este mercado valiéndose de las características especiales de la carne de cuy. Las exportaciones de carne de cuy, que empezaron en los años 90´s, han sido impulsadas desde el año 2000, por intervención de los exportadores y a través de la prensa escrita y televisiva de los países andinos, presentando una caída en el 2009, una recuperación posterior a dicho año, así como una nueva caída en el 2013, seguida de muy bajas cantidades, presentadas preliminarmente en el presente año; lo que se acompañada de una significativa disminución de empresas exportadoras de este producto, y el poco interés por parte de otras empresas y criadores debido a las exigencias en cuanto a características del producto y altos volúmenes en corto tiempo, quedando al momento solo una empresa en Perú dedicándose a esta actividad.Trabajo de suficiencia profesiona

From Idea to Initiative: Real-Time Learning for a Funder Collaborative on Nonprofit Strategic Restructuring

Evaluation and learning is often seen as a high-stakes, formalized process of comparing an effort at its conclusion against some standard or benchmark. More recently, formative and developmental approaches to evaluation have been created to accommodate the need for more adaptability and ambiguity in an effort. The Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative, a multiyear collaboration of 17 funders in Los Angeles County, California, supports nonprofit organizations to collaborate and restructure in a variety of forms. As the initiative evolved, its evaluation and learning system had to have the ability to evolve with it. Real-time learning informed initiative design and refinement, aligned funders on the definition of success, spurred exploration of a grantee peer-learning network, and developed a vetted consultant list and key strategic partners. This article presents key design aspects of the initiative’s evaluation and learning system, describes how it evolved over time, and shares key evaluation insights and learnings. It also explores the nuances of learning and evaluation in a large collaborative, including what the initiative has done to balance learning and accountability, and quickly move from learning to insight to action

Text Messages to Facilitate the Transition to Web-First Sequential Mixed-Mode Designs in Longitudinal Surveys

This article is concerned with the transition of a longitudinal survey from a single-mode design to a web-first mixed-mode design and the role that text messages to sample members can play in smoothing that transition. We present the results of an experiment that investigates the effects of augmenting the standard contact process of letters and emails with text messages, inviting the sample members to complete a web questionnaire and reminding them of the invite. This experiment was conducted in a subsample of Understanding Society, a household panel survey in the United Kingdom, in the wave that transitioned from a CAPI-only design to a sequential design combining web and CATI. In the experiment, a quarter of the sample received the usual letters and emails, while the rest received between one and three text messages with a personalized link to the questionnaire. We examine the effects on response rates, both at the web phase of a sequential design and at the end of the fieldwork after a CATI follow-up phase, exploring various mechanisms that might explain the increase in response rates. We also look at the effects on the device used to complete the survey and field efforts needed at the CATI stage. The findings indicate that text messages did not help significantly increase response rates overall, although some subgroups benefited from them. Text messages were effective in reaching panel members who had not provided an email or postal address before. Likewise, the text messages increase web completion among younger panel members and those with an irregular response pattern. Moreover, we only observed a slight and nonsignificant effect on smartphone use and no effect on the web household response rate, which is a proxy for fieldwork efforts

Text messages to incentivise response in a web-first sequential mixed-mode survey

This article reports research exploring the benefits of adding text messages to the contact strategy in the context of a sequential mixed-mode design where telephone interviewer administration follows a web phase. In a web-first mixed-mode survey, supplementing the contact strategy with text messages can help increase the response rate at the web phase and, consequently, reduce fieldwork efforts at the interviewer-administered phase. We present results from a survey experiment embedded in wave 11 of Understanding Society in which the usual contact strategy of emails and letters was supplemented with text messages. Effects of the text messages on survey response and fieldwork efforts were assessed. In addition, we also investigated the impact of SMS on the device selected to complete the survey, time to response, and sample balance. The results show a weak effect of the SMS reminders on response during the web fieldwork. However, this positive effect did not significantly reduce fieldwork effort

Target eccentricity and form influences disparity vergence eye movements responses: A temporal and dynamic analysis

This study sought to investigate whether stimulation to the fovea or the parafovea with different color combinations influenced the temporal and dynamic features of 4° disparity vergence step responses. Twelve unique types of stimuli were displayed within a haploscope presented along the participant’s midsagittal plane. Vergence eye movement responses from fifteen naive participants were recorded using video-based infrared eye tracking instrumentation. Latency and peak velocity from left and right eye movement responses were quantified. Results show that the type of stimulus projection (foveal versus parafoveal) significantly (p<0.001) influences the vergence response latency but did not impact peak velocity. Vergence responses to eccentric circles with 6° eccentricity targeting the parafovea resulted in a significantly faster response latency compared to vergence responses to a cross with 2° eccentricity stimuli targeting the fovea. Results have implications for the stimulus design of a variety of applications from virtual reality to vision therapy interventions

Sample composition and representativeness on Understanding Society

In this article we provide an overview of the sample design of Understanding Society and the consequent nature of design weights and of the procedures that we implement in order to maximise participation by sample members and to produce nonresponse adjustments to the design weights. We then present some indicators of sample representativeness at the initial wave and of the impact that subsequent sample attrition has on this before concluding with some reflections on the nature of representativeness and estimation methods in the context of a highly complex sample design and complex pattern of missing data arising from nonresponse

Correlations Between Parental Inbred Lines and Derived Hybrid Performance for Grain Filling Traits in Maize

Individual kernel weight (KW) is largely genetically determined, and its variability is achieved through different combinations of rate and duration of kernel growth. Genetic variability for grain-filling patterns has been observed among inbred lines and commercial hybrids, and there is current interest on dissecting its genetic basis. However, suitable grain filling phenotyping protocols are still to be determined, such as the value to study traits at the inbred or hybrid levels. The objective of our study was to evaluate the correlation between parental inbred line and derived hybrid performance for several grain-filling traits in maize (Zea mays L.). We hypothesized that there would be high correlations due to the relative high heritability of grainfilling traits. Three trials were conducted (two in Argentina and one in the United States) with commercial relevant germplasm (totaling 25 parental inbreds and 31 single-cross hybrids). Traits were KW, kernel growth rate (KGR), grainfilling duration (GFD), maximum water content (MWC), moisture concentration at physiological maturity (MCPM), and kernel desiccation rate (KDR) during the effective grain filling. Both heterosis and correlations between midparental value and hybrid performance were significant (p < 0.05) for all traits (r values of 0.63, 0.71, 0.81, 0.83, 0.61, and 0.71 for KW, KGR, GFD, MWC, KDR, and MCPM, respectively). Our results confirm that studying inbred lines for grain-filling traits generates valuable information for derived hybrid performanceFil: Alvarez Prado, Santiago. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Cs.agrarias. Departamento de Producción Vegetal; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Gambin, Brenda Laura. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Cs.agrarias. Departamento de Producción Vegetal; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Novoa, A. Daniel. Nidera S. A; ArgentinaFil: Foster, Daniel. Syngenta Seeds; Estados UnidosFil: Senior, M. Lynn. Syngenta Biotechnology,; Estados UnidosFil: Zinselmeier, Christopher. Syngenta Seeds; Estados UnidosFil: Otegui, Maria Elena. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía; ArgentinaFil: Borras, Lucas. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Cs.agrarias. Departamento de Producción Vegetal; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Hydrographic conditions near the coast of northwestern Baja California : 1997–2004

Author Posting. © The Authors, 2006. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Continental Shelf Research 26 (2006): 885-901, doi:10.1016/j.csr.2006.01.017.The effects of the 1997-98 and 2002-04 El Ni˜no on the upper waters in the con- tinental shelf and slope regions off northwestern Baja California are explored with data from eight cruises taken in late spring from 1998 to 2004 and the summers of 1997 and 1998. Geostrophic velocities were calculated referenced to a specific vol- ume anomaly surface separating the southward flowing California Current waters from the waters advected to the north by the California Undercurrent. The result- ing fields show equatorward flow near the surface except in the summer of 1997, when a poleward jet was found in the upper 40 dbars. This shallow jet advected anomalously warm and salty waters characteristic of the 1997-98 El Ni˜no, with its core found within 20-30 kms from the coast. By spring of 1998, the waters brought into the region by the jet had mixed across the pycnoline with the salty California Undercurrent waters below, resulting in high salinity levels on the density surfaces corresponding to the otherwise fresh California Current waters (25-26¾t). By con- trast, the 2002-04 El Ni˜no stands out for the very fresh and cold waters found on the same density surfaces in late spring of 2003 and 2004, marking a pronounced presence of subarctic waters. The fresh conditions found on the latter years repre- sent a nearshore expresion of the anomalous intrusion of subarctic waters observed 50-150 km from the coast of Southern California and Punta Eugenia, reported from July 2002 until April 2003. Our results suggest that the presence of this intrusion has continued to influence the region at least until May 2004.This work was supported by the US NSF (OCE-9986627 and OCE-0083976)

Shifting attention in viewer- and object-based reference frames after unilateral brain injury

The aims of the present study were to investigate the respective roles that object- and viewer-based reference frames play in reorienting visual attention, and to assess their influence after unilateral brain injury. To do so, we studied 16 right hemisphere injured (RHI) and 13 left hemisphere injured (LHI) patients. We used a cueing design that manipulates the location of cues and targets relative to a display comprised of two rectangles (i.e., objects). Unlike previous studies with patients, we presented all cues at midline rather than in the left or right visual fields. Thus, in the critical conditions in which targets were presented laterally, reorienting of attention was always from a midline cue. Performance was measured for lateralized target detection as a function of viewer-based (contra- and ipsilesional sides) and object-based (requiring reorienting within or between objects) reference frames. As expected, contralesional detection was slower than ipsilesional detection for the patients. More importantly, objects influenced target detection differently in the contralesional and ipsilesional fields. Contralesionally, reorienting to a target within the cued object took longer than reorienting to a target in the same location but in the uncued object. This finding is consistent with object-based neglect. Ipsilesionally, the means were in the opposite direction. Furthermore, no significant difference was found in object-based influences between the patient groups (RHI vs. LHI). These findings are discussed in the context of reference frames used in reorienting attention for target detection