Veteran Transition from Combat to Campus: A Mixed-Methods Study

The current research was carried out to investigate the overall satisfaction and benefits concerning student veteran programs at a public university located in southcentral Kentucky and the possible correlation of effectiveness within the supportive transitioning assistance programs for student veterans. The study included survey(s) distributions to administrators of veteran programs and student veterans. The descriptive investigative study involved both aspects of quantitative and qualitative design, hence categorizing the study as mixed-methods. Descriptive research design is considered a scientific method which involves observing and/or describing behavior regarding the subject without influencing it in any way. Surveys were used during this study to create a confidential and non-biased atmosphere. Student veteran information was limited, yet the information provided was honored and is shared for possible future study. Most administrators of student veteran programs participated in the study; however, there appears to be some inconsistency in the information provided based on survey questions. Therefore, a bias is probable due to the administrator’s position in particular student veterans’ programs. The findings indicate administrators need to become more familiar with the services on campus provided for student veterans, and there may be a lack of communication between departments that serve student veterans. Congruently, there is a possibility of bias among the administrators, according to the student veterans’ department for which they work. Also, the student veterans who participated in the study expressed a concern that information about student veteran services is not provided as well as it could be

Organic food: what we know (and do not know) about consumers

This paper reports on the latest contributions to over 20 years of research on organic food consumers. There is a general consensus in the literature on the reasons why people buy organic food. However, there is also a gap between consumers’ generally positive attitude toward organic food and their relatively low level of actual purchases. Product differentiation based on intangible features, such as credence attributes such as organic, in fast-moving consumer goods categories is enjoying rapid growth. However, there are many difficulties with research in this area, including the errors inherent in research that relies on consumer self-reporting methodologies. Further, in relation to organic food, there is a divergence between consumers’ perception of its superior health features and scientific evidence. Fresh fruits and vegetables are of vital importance to the organic sector as they are the entry point for many customers and account for one-third of sales. Further, although there is a small proportion of dedicated organic food buyers, most sales come from the majority of buyers who switch between conventional and organic food purchases. This paper identifies the practical implications for generic organic food marketing campaigns, as well as for increasing sales of specific products. It concludes with suggested priorities for further research

Possibility in impossibility?: working with beginning teachers of English in times of change

Beginning teachers of English are entering a profession in which their subject is increasingly framed according to prescriptive models of literacy. This is happening at a time of shift away from university ITE provision towards schoolled training. We offer a spatialised theorisation of the ways in which beginning teachers of English have drawn from the balance of practical and theoretical approaches encountered in their qualifying year to engage with tensions between policy and practice. We suggest that university ITE provides important interstitial spaces in which they can explore some of these tensions and navigate pedagogies, principles and values. In doing so, they are negotiating alternatives, which, we argue, represent powerful potential for their future within the profession

Possibility in impossibility?: working with beginning teachers of English in times of change

Beginning teachers of English are entering a profession in which their subject is increasingly framed according to prescriptive models of literacy. This is happening at a time of shift away from university ITE provision towards schoolled training. We offer a spatialised theorisation of the ways in which beginning teachers of English have drawn from the balance of practical and theoretical approaches encountered in their qualifying year to engage with tensions between policy and practice. We suggest that university ITE provides important interstitial spaces in which they can explore some of these tensions and navigate pedagogies, principles and values. In doing so, they are negotiating alternatives, which, we argue, represent powerful potential for their future within the profession

Application of x-ray phase imaging in the estimation of tissue optical scattering

The ability to non-invasively estimate the optical properties of biological tissues in vivo would enable the advancement of quantitative optical based techniques such as photoacoustic imaging. It has, to date, proven difficult to make such an estimation for large three-dimensional tissue sections and small animals using optical approaches. To overcome this limitation, the correlation between the optical scattering properties, and the dark field x-ray phase contrast (XPCi), or ‘x-ray scattering’ signal has been investigated. To do this, phantoms with unknown x-ray scattering, but controlled optical scattering were designed, and manufacturing methods developed, to enable simultaneous manufacture of phantoms suitable for either x-ray or optical imaging. Phantoms consisted of agarose, gel wax or silicone embedded with either TiO2 powder or silica microspheres. The x-ray phantoms were imaged using the edge illumination (EI) system at UCL. Due to the very low scattering and high absorption of many of the samples, along with the imperfect absorption of the masks in the EI system, existing scatter retrieval methods were unable to accurately determine the scattering properties of the phantoms. A novel, more sensitive x-ray scatter retrieval method was thus developed to overcome these problems. The optical scattering of phantoms was retrieved using a spectrophotometer combined the inverse adding doubling method. The optical and x-ray scattering of the phantoms was thus compared which did not reveal any correlation between the two. In order to assess a correlation between optical and x-ray scattering in biological tissue, Optical coherence tomography (OCT) was investigated as a method of determining the optical scattering properties. Along with the use of a controlled ‘calibration phantom’, the optical properties of such tissues were determined. Finally, biological tissue samples were imaged using both OCT and EI-XPCi, and the optical and x-ray scattering properties compared, with no correlation observed

Improving workforce environmental behaviour: a case study of the construction industry

With businesses under increasing legislative and public pressure to improve their environmental performance, this research sought to address the issues surrounding changing employee environmental behaviour. Tingdene Homes, a park home manufacturer in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire was the case study company for this research. The research made use of different Interventionist techniques to influence employee behaviovr namely; formal training session, the formation of an environmental team and environmental posters. The impact from this blended approach was measured through a mixture of quantitative and qualitative research methods. Questionnaires were utilised at the beginning of the research to determine baseline attitudes and behaviours, and towards the end of the research to see if attitudes and behaviours had changed. Qualitative measures such as ethnography and narrative Interviews were also used to give a more in-depth view of employee attitudes and behaviours. In order to validate the impact from the Interventionist techniques, waste data along with recyclables recovered and electricity and gas consumption figures were used. What was found was that the interventionist techniques had positively Influenced employee behaviour, resulting in reductions in waste production, increased recyclables recovery, and reductions in gas and electricity consumption. This resulted in the case study company experiencing cost savings in excess of £55,000 over the course of the research. It is argued that the blended interventionist techniques approach was successful at Improving employee environmental behaviour, and is a cost effective approach that could be utilised by other businesses

The relative contributions of facial shape and surface information to perceptions of attractiveness and dominance

Although many studies have investigated the facial characteristics that influence perceptions of others’ attractiveness and dominance, the majority of these studies have focused on either the effects of shape information or surface information alone. Consequently, the relative contributions of facial shape and surface characteristics to attractiveness and dominance perceptions are unclear. To address this issue, we investigated the relationships between ratings of original versions of faces and ratings of versions in which either surface information had been standardized (i.e., shape-only versions) or shape information had been standardized (i.e., surface-only versions). For attractiveness and dominance judgments of both male and female faces, ratings of shape-only and surface-only versions independently predicted ratings of the original versions of faces. The correlations between ratings of original and shape-only versions and between ratings of original and surface-only versions differed only in two instances. For male attractiveness, ratings of original versions were more strongly related to ratings of surface-only than shape-only versions, suggesting that surface information is particularly important for men’s facial attractiveness. The opposite was true for female physical dominance, suggesting that shape information is particularly important for women’s facial physical dominance. In summary, our results indicate that both facial shape and surface information contribute to judgments of others’ attractiveness and dominance, suggesting that it may be important to consider both sources of information in research on these topics