Hacia el ranchito: Mexican immigrants, farming and sustainable rural livelihoods in Iowa

Latinos are the fastest growing ethnicity of farmers in Iowa and across the U.S., and 3.7 percent of Iowa\u27s total population. This case study of four Mexican immigrant farmers explores why and how they farm in Iowa, and how agricultural institutions can support them. I conducted in-depth interviews and observation, using the Sustainable Rural Livelihoods framework in analysis. These farmers learned as children to tend livestock and butcher animals for home consumption. Each bought a small Iowa farmstead by assembling social, human and limited financial capital. They work off-farm fulltime, while on-farm producing meat, dairy, and/or vegetables for home consumption, and selling slaughter animals through networks of co-workers, friends and family. They are disconnected from farm agencies, and desire information in Spanish on regulations, production and marketing. This study suggests potential to develop institutional linkages that strengthen local food systems by building on Mexican immigrant farmer knowledge, practice and networks

An examination of the Health Belief Model when applied to Diabetes mellitus.

Previous research studies which have used Health Belief Model (I-IBM) dimensions in order to understand health outcomes have many problems which prevent clear and reliable conclusions about their results. Studies about diabetes-related health beliefs have proved to be no exception to this rule. The research presented here is an attempt to address some of these problems which include the lack of satisfactory scales to measure diabetes-related health beliefs, the use of heterogeneous samples of patients with different disease and regimen types, and the lack of prospective studies in which health beliefs are used to predict outcomes in the future. Another major problem which applies to all HBM research is that the relationships between the various dimensions of the model have not been determined. As such, the HBM is not a model at all but a catalogue of variables. The present research aimed to specify the relationships between the components of the HBM and attempted to integrate self-efficacy and locus of control beliefs in order to extend the model and improve the amount of outcome variance explained. Scales to measure diabetes-specific health beliefs were developed from the responses of 187 tablet-treated outpatients with Type II diabetes. Health beliefs were examined, on the one hand, in relation to other psychological and behavioural variables, and on the other, for their sensitivity to change after educational and treatment interventions. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal study designs were employed. The relationships between the HBM components themselves were explored in a linear and non-linear fashion

Then And Now: A Longitudinal Study Of Attitudes Toward Women As Managers

This paper reports the results of a longitudinal study comparing the attitudes of business undergraduate students toward women as managers.  Survey results from 1981, 2000, and 2010 are compared.  For all three time periods, females report significantly more positive attitudes toward women as managers than males.  Comparing the same sex survey groups, the females of 2000 are significantly more positive toward women as managers than their 1981 counterparts.  There is no difference in attitudes when the results from 2000 and 2010 are compared.  The attitudes of the males in 2000 are not significantly different from their 1981 comparison group.  However, a significant difference in attitudes is found when the results from 2000 and 2010 are compared

The Relation of Oral and Silent Reading with Reading Comprehension Through the Use of Eye-Tracking

Although eye-tracking measures demonstrate the ability to provide unique contributions to reading research, use of these tools among child populations remains sparse and only one other study has explored the role of reading modality on eye movement behaviors among developing readers using structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques. To address these concerns, this study utilized an eye-tracking tool to examine reading fluency and comprehension skills during oral and silent reading among 490 students in fourth and fifth grade. ANOVAs were used to examine grade and modality differences in eye movement behaviors. Grade level and reading modality significantly impacted participants’ rereading duration, number of gazes per word, and probability of committing interword regressions. Specifically, during silent reading, fourth graders exhibited fewer gazes per word compared to students in fifth grade. Shorter rereading durations were found among fifth graders when reading silently whereas they engaged in more interword regressions during oral reading. SEM analytic approaches were used to examine the factor structure of eye movements, which yielded a unidimensional latent factor in this sample consisting of single-fixation duration, first-fixation duration, and rereading duration. To better understand reading development, further studies should consider the factor structure of eye movements during oral and silent reading, and how these processes impact reading comprehension skills

Interventions for resilience in educational settings: challenging policy discourses of risk and vulnerability

‘Resilience’ has become a popular goal in research, social policy, intervention design and implementation. Reinforced by its conceptual and political slipperiness, resilience has become a key construct in school-based, universal interventions that aim to develop it as part of social and emotional competence or emotional well-being. Drawing on a case study of a popular behavioural programme used widely in British and American primary schools, this paper uses a critical social understanding that combines bio-scientific and social constructionist ideas in order to evaluate key challenges for policy, research and practice framed around resilience. The paper argues that although critical social perspectives illuminate important contemporary manifestations of old problems with behavioural interventions, and challenge narrow, moralising definitions of ‘risk’ and ‘vulnerability’, they coalesce with behavioural perspectives in a search for better state-sponsored responses to the shared question of how to build resilience amongst ‘vulnerable’ groups and individuals. Instead, we argue that critical sociologists need to resist responses that offer more sophisticated behavioural interventions and generate new forms of governance and subjectivity

Archaeological test pit excavations at Meldreth, Cambridgeshire

This report presents the results of a programme of archaeological excavation of 32 1m2 ‘test pits’ in the Cambridgeshire village of Meldreth carried out in summer 2013. The programme was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) through its ‘All Our Stories’ programme and supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Connected Communities theme which funded the Cambridge Community Heritage programme at the University of Cambridge in 20012-13. Over three weekends, more than 300 residents of the village of Meldreth and the local area took part in the excavations in 32 different locations throughout the present village. The results provided new evidence for the development of the area now occupied by the village, which mostly lies alongside a small stream, from the prehistoric period onwards. Parts of the area appears to have been quite intensively used by humans in the prehistoric period, with unusually large volumes of Bronze Age pottery recovered from at least four different sites likely to be indicative of settlement and/or burial. Pottery of Roman date favours the south of the present village, and suggests settlement took the form of a dispersed scatter of small settlements such as farmsteads surrounded by arable fields to the north. No evidence was found for any activity dating to the period between the 5th –9th centuries AD, but Saxo-Norman pottery was found widely, with particular concentrations on the manorial site of Topcliffe as well as in the south of the village around Flambards moated site. The absence of any Thetford ware from Meldreth suggests that this activity is likely to be post-Conquest in date and that the medieval settlement originates in this period rather than earlier. The high medieval period sees the settlement extend westwards, probably laid out in the 12th or 13th century over former arable, with apparently new settlement sites founded at Chiswick and North End. This growth ceases in the late medieval period, although Meldreth does not appear to be as badly affected in this period of widespread demographic and settlement contraction as many settlements in the eastern region. In the post-medieval period, however, the test pit data indicates that Meldreth stagnated, with the southern end of the settlement particularly badly affected

Sticktion: Assessing Memory for the Customer Experience

In the quest for better service design, hospitality and service firms have often been frustrated to find that service experiences that are based on what customers say they want are not always successful. A psychological analysis of this phenomenon suggests the following premises: (1) Customers’ memory of an experience fades quickly; (2) customers’ memory of an experience comprises many sub-experiences; (3) customers’ memories of experiences are multidimensional and unintuitive; and (4) consumers cannot accurately predict what they will learn or remember. The goal of an experience design is to create a series of sub-experiences that will “stick” with the customer. This “sticktion” analysis is applied to the practical challenge of redesigning the customer experience at Pizza Hut UK. This consumer research provides a test of the four premises and an application of the underlying sticktion principles. Surveys of Pizza Hut customers found that the existing experience had its bright spots but was generally forgettable. Not only could customers not predict what they would remember about the experience, but one week after visiting the restaurant, the customers also filled in memory gaps with details that did not appear on their initial description of the visit. Even more troublesome was the fact that the invented details tended to be negative. To fill these gaps, the researchers tested specific aspects of the experience that would “stick” and included those in the new restaurant concepts. Using this approach, the chain was able to roll out new concepts that met with initial favorable results

The Red, White and Blue Scare: A Study of American Military Policies in Vietnam and the My Lai Massacre

The My Lai Massacre was a mass murder of Vietnamese civilians by U.S. soldiers on March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War. A company of American soldiers entered the small village of My Lai 4, located in Quang Ngai Province, and began indiscriminately killing over 500 noncombatant men, women, children, and infants. The massacre, when revealed to the public in November 1969, sparked outrage and condemnation both in Vietnam and internationally. The event had a significant impact on U.S. public opinion regarding the war and is widely considered one of the defining moments of the conflict. In the aftermath of the massacre, several soldiers were court-martialed, but only one received a murder conviction, Lieutenant William F. Calley, though many others were never held accountable. Today, the My Lai Massacre is widely remembered as a dark chapter in American history and is widely studied as a cautionary tale about the dangers and costs of war, and the importance of holding those in power accountable for their actions. My senior thesis project will look specifically at the public\u27s response to the massacre, the chain of command\u27s culpability in the crimes, and how preserving the memory of the event is essential for ensuring that the mistakes of our past are learned from and prevented from plaguing our future

How Co-Production and Authenticity Affect: Experience Design Management

Two keys to profitable operation are ensuring that customers have a memorable experience and developing a relationship that matches their needs. Meeting at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, experts in experience management from industry and academe focused on ways to improve customers’ experience in a way that makes it memorable, with a goal of fostering a mutually beneficial lasting relationship. Focusing on the elements of the relationship between consumers and their favorite brands, participants in the experience management roundtable considered the most effective approaches to improve customer relationship management. One important tactic is to provide experiential clues that help customers to remember their experiences in a favorable light. This type of “sticky” recollection fends off the human tendency to invent negative details to fill gaps in memory. One useful way to view the nature of the relationship between customers and a brand is to gauge the levels of love and respect between the parties. In this framework, a brand needs to match customers’ desires for both of those relationship aspects. Customers who feel high levels of both love and respect for a brand are likely to be lucrative long-term patrons

A Worlde of Wordes: Dictionaries and the Rise of Middle English Lexicography

From the first vision and first articulation of plans for national and period dictionaries of English to the completion of the Middle English Dictionary, decades, even lifetimes, have passed. Begun tentatively at Oxford and Cornell Universities, the project got underway in earnest at the University of Michigan in 1930. Seventy-one years later the last fascicle was sent to the publisher and thirteen volumes comprised of 55,000 entries and over 900,000 quotations were completed. "A Worlde of Wordes" honors the men and women, the process, and the scholarship responsible for this feat.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/120289/1/worlde_of_wordes_01.pd