Education Pays 2016: The Benefits of Higher Education for Individuals and Society

Similar to previous editions, Education Pays 2016: The Benefits of Higher Education for Individuals and Society documents differences in the earnings and employment patterns of U.S. adults with different levels of education. It also compares healthrelated behaviors, reliance on public assistance programs, civic participation, and indicators of the well-being of the next generation.In addition to reporting median earnings by education level, this year's report also presents data on variation in earnings by different characteristics such as gender, race/ethnicity, occupation, college major, and sector. Education Pays 2016 also examines the persistent disparities across different socioeconomic groups in college participation and completion. The magnitude of the benefits of postsecondary education makes ensuring improved access for all who can benefit imperative.Our focus is on outcomes that are correlated with levels of educational attainment, and it is important to be cautious about attributing all of the observed differences to causation. However, reliable statistical analyses support the significant role of postsecondary education in generating the benefits reported

Suicide prevention through better understanding and identification of interpersonal risk factors and building strengths

Introduction: Suicide bears a significant public health impact worldwide, and there is a need for better identification of suicide risk and protective factors and more accurate prediction of its development. The aim of the present thesis was to promote suicide prevention through: (1) better understanding and identification of interpersonal risk factors for suicide, as outlined by a recent predictive model of suicide: the Interpersonal Psychological Theory of Suicide (IPTS; Joiner, 2005; Van Orden et al., 2010), and (2) building interpersonal strengths. Methods: A systematic review was conducted to identify support for the IPTS predictions regarding suicide ideation and suicide attempt. Based on the results of this review, several studies were conducted to fill critical gaps in the literature base. This included: (a) a latent class study of 1,321 adults to test the generalisability of the IPTS predictions in a community sample, (b) a longitudinal study in an Australian clinical sample (n = 331) to test the IPTS predictions over time in a high-risk population, (c) a study to develop and validate a new self-report measure for thwarted belongingness (TBS) against the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire Thwarted Belongingness subscale (INQ TB; Van Orden, Cukrowicz, Witte, & Joiner, 2012) and (d) a pilot study to investigate the feasibility of a university-based peer-support walking program in contributing to decreased interpersonal suicide risk in Australian university students. Results: The systematic review found mixed evidence across the theory’s main predictions. The effect of perceived burdensomeness on suicide ideation was the most tested and supported relationship. The theory’s other predictions, particularly in terms of critical interaction effects, were less strongly supported. Across studies testing the IPTS predictions (Chapters 3-5), the role and specificity of the two-way interaction between TB and PB on suicide ideation was supported in two community-based samples, but not supported cross-sectionally or longitudinally in a clinical sample. No support was found for the IPTS three-way interaction prediction. However, associations between the interpersonal risk factors and suicidality were consistently supported across the studies. Findings from the pilot controlled trial (Chapter 6) indicated that a university-based peer-support walking program contributed to increased levels of positive friendship social support (Cohen’s d = 0.82) and decreased levels of psychological distress (Cohen’s d = -0.32) in university students. Conclusions: Mixed findings regarding the two- and three-way IPTS interactions highlight the critical need for additional IPTS studies designed with the aim of overcoming existing methodological limitations before the full extent of the theory’s theoretical and clinical utility can be determined. Support for the interpersonal risk factors as main effects suggests that they may serve as valuable targets for suicide prevention and intervention more broadly. Future research utilising the best available and validated measures of the interpersonal risk factors is needed for better prediction of interpersonal suicide risk, and for use in the design and evaluation of connectedness-based suicide prevention/intervention programs to promote interpersonal strengths in the community

Motivating the Generations: Implications for the Higher Education Workplace

Motivated employees are an organization’s most valuable asset. Motivation boosts better performance and productivity on the part of workers, so determining the best ways to encourage employee motivation is significant. This thesis examines the ranked importance of motivational factors of salaried/professional and hourly/classified, full-time employees at the University of Southern Maine

Radio Polarisation Study of High Rotation Measure AGNs

As radio polarised emission from astrophysical objects traverse through foreground magnetised plasma, the physical conditions along the lines of sight are encrypted in the form of Rotation Measure (RM). We performed broadband spectro-polarimetric observations of high Rotation Measure (|RM| >~ 300 rad m-2) sources away from the Galactic plane (|b| > 10 deg) selected from the NVSS RM catalogue. The main goals are to verify the NVSS RM values, which could be susceptible to n{\pi}-ambiguity, as well as to identify the origin of the extreme RM values. We show that 40 % of our sample suffer from n{\pi}-ambiguity in the NVSS RM catalogue. There are also hints of RM variabilities over ~20 years epoch for most of our sources, as revealed by comparing the RM values of the two studies in the same frequency ranges after correcting for n{\pi}-ambiguity. At last, we demonstrate the possibility of applying QU-fitting to study the ambient media of AGNs.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures; Accepted by MDPI Galaxies; Conference Proceedings for the Polarised Emission from Astrophysical Jets meeting on June 12-16 2017, Ierapetra, Greec

Education Saving Incentives and Household Saving: Evidence from the 2000 TIAA-CREF Survey of Participant Finances

This paper examines the effects of education saving incentives on the level of private saving by households. Little is known about this subject. One explanation for this gap in the literature is that because education saving incentives are relatively new, data on education saving are not readily available. Using wealth data from a survey of TIAA-CREF participants, this paper attempts to estimate whether saving in education saving programs offsets other household saving. As in the extant literature of the impact of retirement saving programs on household saving, an empirical challenge is how to deal with the issue of saver heterogeneity. In this paper, two strategies are used to address this issue. The first strategy distinguishes savers from non-savers by whether households have an IRA or a supplemental pension plan. The second strategy uses the propensity score approach to control for unobserved heterogeneity in taste for saving. Results from both strategies suggest that education saving incentives in general do not offset other household saving and stimulate saving for households with high propensities to use education savings accounts.

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

The Purdue Journal of Service-Learning (PJSL), a multi-disciplinary Open Access journal, is published annually and is available in print and online. This journal is dedicated to students who conduct projects with strong service-learning and academic civic engagement aspects. By involving students in a scholarly writing activity and showcasing the opportunities available at Purdue, the journal promotes the use and effectiveness of the pedagogy of service-learning as a high-impact learning methodology

Do People’s Perceptions of Neighborhood Bikeability Match “Reality”?

Do people perceive the built environment the same as we objectively measure it? If not, what are the relative roles of the objective versus the perceived environment on bicycling behavior? This study, based on data from Portland, Oregon, explored the match or mismatch between the objective and perceived bicycling environment and how it affects people’s bicycling behavior. The descriptive analysis indicated a fair agreement between perceived and objective measures. Older adults, women having children, less-educated and lower-income persons, and those who bicycle less tended to perceive their high-bikeable environment (measured objectively) as being a low-bikeable environment. In addition to the socio-demographics, this study also found that the social environment can play a role in the relationship between the objective and perceived environment. Finally, results of this study indicated that both the actual and perceived built environment are associated with bicycling behavior, particularly for utilitarian bicycling. For recreational bicycling, the objective environment attributes measured in this study are not significant factors, while perceptions do matte

Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid 2021

In Trends in College Pricing, we report on the costs associated with one year of undergraduate study in the U.S. and how those costs have changed over time at the following types of institutions, or sectors:Public two-yearPublic four-yearPrivate nonprofit four-yearThe full report includes information on the following topics:Published prices: The prices colleges charge for tuition and fees and room and board.Net prices: What students actually pay after subtracting grant aid and tax credits.Institutional finances: How revenues and expenditures have changed over time.Enrollment and income: Where students are studying and how family income has changed over time

Decoding a Complex Visualization in a Science Museum -- An Empirical Study

This study describes a detailed analysis of museum visitors' decoding process as they used a visualization designed to support exploration of a large, complex dataset. Quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed that it took, on average, 43 seconds for visitors to decode enough of the visualization to see patterns and relationships in the underlying data represented, and 54 seconds to arrive at their first correct data interpretation. Furthermore, visitors decoded throughout and not only upon initial use of the visualization. The study analyzed think-aloud data to identify issues visitors had mapping the visual representations to their intended referents, examine why they occurred, and consider if and how these decoding issues were resolved. The paper also describes how multiple visual encodings both helped and hindered decoding and concludes with implications on the design and adaptation of visualizations for informal science learning venues.Comment: IEEE VIS (InfoVis/VAST/SciVis) 2019 ACM 2012 CCS - Human-centered computing, Visualization, Empirical studies in visualizatio