An exploration of women\u27s mentoring : graduate students\u27 perspective

There is evidence that graduate students are in a unique position to benefit from both career and psychOsocial mentoring. A great deal is known about career mentoring functions in graduate school, but less is known about the psychosocial functions and particularly about the psychosocial influences of mentoring within female mentoring pairs, a population which studies suggest may be different from any other mentoring combination. The purpose of this study was to explore the mentoring experiences of women graduate students in mentoring relationships with women professors. The study focused on the potential impact of this mentoring relationship on the psychosocial development of fem£de graduate students. Through in-depth interviews with eight female graduate students, general themes were derived that revealed the nature of the experiences shared between these women and their mentors. The study attempted to address three research questions: How do participants define mentoring relationships? How do these women mentees describe their mentoring experiences? What do the participants\u27 experiences suggest about the psychosocial mentoring of women? In response to the first research question two primary themes emerged, A Sense of Authenticity and Opportunities for Development. It was through these two themes that women defined mentoring relationships. Four themes emerged in response to the second research question. These themes were: 1) A Sense of Connection, 2) Relationship of Growth, 3) The Calm During the Storm, and 4) The Safety Net. The themes emerged from the interviews as descriptive of the participants\u27 experiences of their female/female mentoring relationships. The findings related to the third research question suggest a number of things about the psychosocial mentoring of women. It is evident from the interviews that this type of mentoring was occurring in these relationships, and that mentoring was associated with growth for the participants. The mentoring which occurred for the participants in this study was related to the similarities between the participant and her mentor, and the comfort level that surrounded the relationship. A third finding suggested that the psychosocial mentoring of the women involved in the study was not dependent on factors such as age, frequency of contact, or length of the mentoring relationship

Food waste can be diverted from landfill and utilised via anaerobic digestion (AD) to produce biogas. The liquid by-product of AD is commonly referred to as digestate, and this can be an organic certifiable biofertilizer. Digestate in Europe is frequently used in agriculture, though is not commonly used in the urban retail market. Biochar is another organic matter which can adsorb and retain the nutrients, and also could decrease the adverse effects of high nitrogen content of soil

Soil information is critical for efficient and sustainable agricultural management. However, there is typically a hiatus between soil information which government agencies charged with supporting agriculture develop and deliver, and the information land managers can easily use for management in the paddock. This hiatus is largely due to (1) differences in the spatial scale of information needed by these different groups, and (2) communication-style inhibiting soil science information into management advice. We outline and evaluate a ‘three factor functional soil classification’ based on soil texture, depth, and gravel content for south-western WA, referred to as Profile Texture Classes (PTC)

Path, place, and cover : observations in three Italian towns

Thesis. 1979. M.Arch--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH.Bibliography: p. 104-107.by Karen Barned, Mary Griffin.M.Arc

A Process for Technology Prioritization in a Competitive Environment

This slide presentation reviews NASA's process for prioritizing technology requirements where there is a competitive environment. The In-Space Propulsion Technology (ISPT) project is used to exemplify the process. The ISPT project focuses on the mid level Technology Readiness Level (TRL) for development. These are TRL's 4 through 6, (i.e. Technology Development and Technology Demonstration. The objective of the planning activity is to identify the current most likely date each technology is needed and create ISPT technology development schedules based on these dates. There is a minimum of 4 years between flight and pacing mission. The ISPT Project needed to identify the "pacing mission" for each technology in order to provide funding for each area. Graphic representations show the development of the process. A matrix shows which missions are currently receiving pull from the both the Solar System Exploration and the Sun-Solar System Connection Roadmaps. The timeframes of the pacing missions technologies are shown for various types of propulsion. A pacing mission that was in the near future serves to increase the priority for funding. Adaptations were made when budget reductions precluded the total implementation of the plan

Service-Learning: A Venue for Enhancing Pre-ServiceEducators’ Knowledge Base for Teaching

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning research examining the impact of service-learning on student’s personal qualities has shown positive results. Findings indicate that students participating in high quality service-learning programs show increases in their perceptions of self-efficacy, civic responsibility, social justice, and diversity awareness. Less information regarding the effect of participation in service-learning on student’s intellectual and knowledge outcomes is known. This case study examined the influence of participation in a service-learning program on pre-service educators’ knowledge base for teaching. Participants included 31 undergraduate physical education majors enrolled in a Motor Skill Development for Children course at a large state university in the southwestern United States. Findings from multiple data sources (i.e., journals, interviews, and observations of instruction) revealed that pre-service educators participating in a service-learning program enhanced their pedagogical content knowledge. Teacher education programs should enhanced their pedagogical content knowledge. Teacher education programs should enhanced their pedagogical content knowledge. Teacher education programs should consider implementing service-learning programs within the curriculum to benefit pre-service educators’ knowledge base for teaching

Beyond Chalk and Talk: The Law Classroom of the Future

Law schools are rethinking the traditional Langdellian classroom as they construct the law classroom of the future. Although the reform of legal education has long been heralded, law schools are now on the cusp of actual change. Carnegie\u27s Educating Lawyers and the Clinical Legal Education Association\u27s Best Practices for Legal Education are promoting a rethinking of the law classroom. Also encouraging the examination of legal education are changes in the incoming student population, such as the influx of students from the Millennial Generation; technological innovations; and shifting realities and economics of law practice, such as the increased focus on efficiency and collaboration. These changes are informed by recent developments in adult learning theory, neuroscience, and cognitive psychology. All of these sources lead to the conclusion that learning is best when students are self-regulating, engaged, and motivated learners, and when the learning process is active, experiential, collaborative, and reflective. One of the best ways to cultivate and develop this learning environment is to have students write a variety of assignments and receive content-specific feedback in a variety of courses. To that end, this article serves as both inspiration and a resource for the law classroom of the future. The critical component is the inclusion of writing exercises that engage the students and enhance student learning to better prepare students for the practice of law. The featured exercises are drawn primarily from the authors\u27 experiences teaching civil procedure, professional responsibility, and trusts and estates. The exercises range from in-class exercises that take as little as five minutes of class time to extended projects to be completed outside of the classroom. We will highlight the theoretical underpinnings, transferability of these exercises to other courses, and manner of assessment. Each exercise is designed to be academically rigorous, foster the development of self-regulated learners, and reflect the realities of current law practice

The Potential Role of Behavioural Flexibility in Dogs and Dog Adopters in the Success of Shelter Dog Rehoming

Unwanted and homeless dogs are an international problem. However, the way in which the dog-owner relationship and the rehoming process itself are commonly conceptualised in relevant research seems to assume that this relationship is a static one; the fundamental characteristics of it being an intimate dynamic relationship have either largely not been considered or have been ignored. Because the dog-owner relationship is intrinsically dynamic, conflict within the relationship, stemming from the demands of the domestic environment, can be expected to arise at some point. Therefore, the ability to resolve conflict may be a very important characteristic; key to this is behavioural flexibility. This thesis hypothesises that the ability of a dog to effectively “fit in” to this environment is determined by its ability to cope with these demands, which may be predicted from their behavioural flexibility, so assessing it in dogs and potential adopters could be useful in the rehoming process. Rehoming practices currently being used by shelters were qualitatively analysed. Ten themes emerged from the types of information organisations gathered during the adopter screening process; 37 characteristics were identified as “most important”; 31 of those could lead an adopter being deemed unable to adopt a dog. Evidence was found in the academic literature to support the inclusion of 12 of these characteristics. Nine themes emerged from the types of information respondents gathered from pre-adoption dog screening assessments; within those themes, 71 sub-themes were created. Of those, 42 characteristics (subthemes and one theme) were identified as being “most important”, 28 of which could lead a dog to be deemed unadoptable. Evidence in the scientific literature to support the inclusion of the 71 sub-themes and one theme was found for eight of them. Organisations invest considerable resources into screening dogs and potential adopters, but there seems to be little scientific rationale for this. To assess flexibility in humans, measures used to place human foster children into homes were adapted to be relevant to the dog-owner relationship, which were then administered to three samples: long-term dog owners, dog relinquishers, and dog adopters. One of the measures was unreliable and unable to distinguish between the long-term dog owner and relinquisher populations. The other measure contained six reliable items, which were able to mathematically separate long-term dog owners from dog relinquishers. These results suggest that long-term dog owners are more flexible than relinquishers in some areas of their expectations of dog behaviour, namely of a dog’s ability to adapt. A testing battery was created to understand in what ways two dog populations (those that are currently in a shelter and long-term owned dogs) differ in terms of their flexibility, based on six factors hypothesised to comprise behavioural flexibility in dogs. The two populations of dogs were tested using two testing means (i.e. by the principal investigator and by a citizen science approach). Two potential confounds, dog weight and testing means, were found to be associated with test outcomes for one entire test and several items on other tests. Four total items from the remaining three tests were used together to attempt to classify dogs into the correct population. Only two items from one test were able to classify dogs into the correct population, but they were unable to classify the origins of the long-term owned dogs, so it was determined that for the purposes of this research all tests were unreliable. Consequently, dogs who had remained in homes could not be compared with shelter dogs. Despite this, the results raise important considerations for dog assessments generally. The role of dog weight has not been considered as a potential confound in dog assessments, but it may be that dogs of different sizes are fundamentally experiencing the world differently; thus, the same testing protocol may not be appropriate for all dogs. Similarly, it should not necessarily be assumed data collected via a citizen science approach can be combined with data collected by trained investigators. Behavioural flexibility may be an important aspect of the dog-owner relationship, due to its close personal nature, coupled with all of the varied demands that a dog faces in a home environment. However, evidence suggests that future research should primarily focus on investigating flexibility in humans, as it is ultimately the owner who decides to terminate the relationship and relinquish the dog, and this is the area that yielded the most encouraging results in this thesis. There are two key additional foci for future research: longitudinal research to follow dogs from arrival at the shelter until at least one year post-adoption in order to determine what practices and policies pre-adoption are most beneficial to the success of the placement, and the development of a validated tool to assess dogs’ quality of life, which could be used to assess the success of the placement from the dog’s perspective

Are Ironstone Gravel Soils in Southwest Western Australia: All the Same?

Ironstone gravel soils are widespread, locally common, and important for cropping in Western Australia (WA). The spatial extent of these soils is reasonably well known, but geographic differences and distinct subgroups of gravel soils are not. We present a novel approach to map ironstone gravel layers and associated fine earth texture classes to improve understanding of gravel soil characteristics and distribution across southwestern WA

Protective Coverall Design Development and Testing

The purpose of this study was to improve the design and function of a disposable, level-one protective coverall for a Fortune 500 company. This research used the design process in conjunction with product benchmarking, on-site observational studies, user feedback, 3D body scan technology, fit tests, and expert evaluation to develop a coverall that is superior to the company\u27s current offering

Demonstrating the value of the RN in ambulatory care

During 2003, an estimated 906 million visits were made to physician offices in the United States (Hing, Cherry, & Woodwell, 2005). Overall, 42% of visits to outpatient settings were attended by a registered nurse (Middleton & Hing, 2005). Despite ambulatory care being the fastest growing site for care, it is the least studied. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the role of the RN in ambulatory care and describe the direct and indirect economic value of RNs in ambulatory care settings