One Year Out: Experiences of Prisoners Returning to Cleveland

Presents findings from a longitudinal study of prisoner reentry, documenting the lives of nearly three hundred former prisoners and their ability to find stable housing, reunite with family, secure employment, and avoid substance use and recidivism

Student Expectations and Reflections of a Study Away Course Experience to Washington, D.C.

Active, out-of-the-class learning experiences have proven to provide students with a variety of benefits. One way to offer these valuable experiential education opportunities this is through study away to international or domestic destinations. The purpose of this study was to explore students’ perceptions of a study away course experience to Washington, D.C. This course was a collaborative effort between two universities. Twenty-two students participated in the study away experience and 21 completed pre- and post-trip questionnaires to determine their expectations and reflections of the experience. Through qualitative analysis of students’ open-ended responses, emergent themes were identified. Students expected to gain a new experience, network with others, and have an enjoyable trip. Post-trip reflections revealed students gained a great deal more than they anticipated, both personally and academically. Recommendations for practice and research are provided

Understanding the Mechanisms Responsible for the Positive Impact of After-School Programs

After-school programs have gained considerable attention for their potential to reduce delinquency after school. The current study assessed the factors related to effective after-school programming utilizing survey data from a recent evaluation of after-school programs. Program participation was responsible for reducing property, violent, and general offending, but not substance use. Further analysis concluded that the hypothesized increase in parental supervision, increase in positive peer influence, and reduction in unsupervised time were insufficient to explain the ability of after-school programs to elicit behavioral improvements. After-school programs were also found to be equally effective for youth from high and low income families

Appealing to Different Appetites? A Comparative Analysis of Visitors and Residents to a Culinary Festival

This study presents a comparative analysis of visitors and local residents attending selected events at a month-long culinary festival. The primary purposes of this study were to compare the motivations, spending behaviours, and satisfaction levels of these two groups. Consideration was also given to the information sources used to learn about the Festival Findings are based on an on-line survey of festival attendees; in total 460 surveys were collected and used. Research findings highlighted differences between visitor and resident groups with respect to motivations for attending a culinary events, spending behaviours and information sources used. An examination of satisfaction rating revealed significant variance across individual events. These results offer valuable insights for culinary festival organizers and marketers, who may wish to consider the differing motivations and information sources used by these two groups when developing advertising campaigns and on-site food and shopping experiences

Effect of Instruction Method on Competency and Perception of Proloquo2Go

This study investigated three approaches to learning the basics of Proloquo2Go in order to assess the effectiveness of the instructional method and its effect on the participants’ attitude toward AAC.With the establishment of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), more children with severe communication disorders are being educated in public school general education classrooms. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices are often the primary means of communication for nonverbal students and have been shown to improve the communication, language, and literacy skills of children with such deficits.Teacher’s attitudes toward the use and effectiveness of AAC has been found to be negative. Does instructional method affect the speed at which novel users demonstrate competency in Proloquo2Go? Does the type of training influence the attitude of novel users toward AAC

Reaping the Harvest: Developing the Idaho Harvester

Social media platforms like Tumblr offer a quick, easy, and popular way for archives to conduct outreach and engage users with collections without requiring technical expertise like computer programming and web design. However, as the University of Idaho Library, Special Collections and Archives Department discovered after years of using Tumblr for online outreach, there are significant disadvantages to using a third-party social media platform. Unable to control the discoverability, display, and preservation of blog posts, it became clear that Tumblr was no longer serving the department’s evolving needs, necessitating an alternative solution moving forward. Special Collections & Archives partnered with the library’s Data and Digital Services Department to develop a custom self-hosted platform for sharing archival collections and staff institutional knowledge. This platform, the Idaho Harvester, combines the useful functions of a blog with those of a digital collection to ensure the digitization and research conducted for outreach is easily discoverable and effectively preserved. This article describes the disadvantages of a third-party social media platform for archival outreach and the benefits of a self-hosted platform like the Idaho Harvester to demonstrate the need for a multi-platform approach to online archival outreach. Although working with a self-hosted platform like the Idaho Harvester requires more technical skills than working with a social media platform like Tumblr, we argue that it meets the goals of discoverability, display, and preservation better than Tumblr or other social media platforms. As archival work becomes increasingly digital, this case study serves as an example of how archival outreach demands have evolved over time and how to assess online outreach tools and develop a multi-platform approach that works for archives’ unique and evolving needs

Motivations and Preferred Activities of Tourists to Rural Destinations: A Comparative Analysis of Rural and Urban Residents

The primary purposes of this study were to identify the perceived importance of motivations and activities for travel to a rural destination, and to determine whether these variables were influenced by the tourist’s place of residence. The study is based on an on-line survey completed by 1,048 individuals. A series of independent t-tests were used to determine whether there were differences in the motivations and preferred activities of rural residents versus urban residents, while canonical correlation analysis revealed relationships between the two sets of variables (motivations and activities). Findings suggest that rural destinations appeal to both rural and urban residents. In some instances, differences with regards to the motivations and activity preferences of these two groups were identified. Correlations between the motivations and activity preferences of respondents also suggest that rural tourists are interested in activities that are aligned with their initial motivations for deciding to travel to a rural area

Reducing the burden of rural water supply through greywater reuse: A case study from northern Malawi

Greywater reuse has potential for non-potable applications that conserve freshwater resources in water-stressed areas especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The feasibility of reusing greywater for domestic activities in a rural area of Malawi, Africa, was evaluated from microbiological and public acceptance perspectives. Median Escherichia coli concentrations for eight domestic greywater sources (handwashing, laundry, runoff from a tap apron, bathing, cleaning a home/kitchen, cleaning a water collection container, washing plates and soaking vegetables) ranged from 100 to \u3e20, 000 colony forming units (cfu)/100 ml. Twenty-four of 47 greywater samples tested (51%) met the World Health Organization guideline for unrestricted use of greywater for irrigation. Pertinently, 80% (4/5) and 60% (3/5) of greywater samples from handwashing stations and bathing had E. coli less than the WHO guideline. Users reported greatest acceptance of reusing greywater for growing food and washing clothes, especially when the greywater source was bathing. Acceptance was closely tied to a household\u27s economic standing, geographic location, and first-hand knowledge of reusing greywater. Greywater reuse practices in rural areas, especially targeting bathing water as suitable from bacteriological and user perception criteria, can help mitigate the impacts of water stress in sub-Saharan Africa

Toward Complete Characterization: Prospects for Directly Imaging Transiting Exoplanets

High contrast direct imaging of exoplanets can provide many important observables, including measurements of the orbit, spectra that probe the lower layers of the atmosphere, and phase variations of the planet, but cannot directly measure planet radius or mass. Our future understanding of directly imaged exoplanets will therefore rely on extrapolated models of planetary atmospheres and bulk composition, which need robust calibration. We estimate the population of extrasolar planets that could serve as calibrators for these models. Critically, this population of "standard planets" must be accessible to both direct imaging and the transit method, allowing for radius measurement. We show that the search volume of a direct imaging mission eventually overcomes the transit probability falloff with semi-major axis, so that as long as cold planets are not exceedingly rare, the population of transiting planets and directly imageable planets overlaps. Using current extrapolations of Kepler occurrence rates, we estimate that ~8 standard planets could be characterized shortward of 800 nm with an ambitious future direct imaging mission like LUVOIR-A and several dozen could be detected at V band. We show the design space that would expand the sample size and discuss the extent to which ground- and space-based surveys could detect this small but crucial population of planets.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, Accepted for publication in A