The Influence of Campus Facilities on the Satisfaction and Retention of Students in a Higher Education Setting

The goal of this quantitative study was to provide insight into the influence of facilities on satisfaction and retention of students in a single higher education setting, St. Cloud State University (SCSU). I used a survey research design with current undergraduate and graduate students to examine relationships among various aspects of facility design, student satisfaction, and student intention to persist to graduation. The survey was used to explore (a) the influence of specific campus facilities on students’ current level of satisfaction and intention to continue enrollment; (b) specific types of facilities most affecting student choice and satisfaction; and (c) how student perceptions, expectations, and satisfaction were related to various student demographic characteristics. The questionnaire also was used to gather the following student demographic information: (a) student classification (i.e., year in school), (b) major area of study, (c) housing status (i.e., on or off campus), (d) grade point average, (e) gender, (f) race and ethnicity, and (g) age. These individual characteristics were important in assessing how student perceptions, expectations, and satisfaction of facilities were related to various student characteristics. As established by this research, the availability of essential facilities (e.g., academic, residential life, athletics, recreation, student unions, libraries, and attractive campus) plays a part in student satisfaction, engagement, and, ultimately, academic success and retention. Specifically, academic and library facilities were highly ranked by respondents (87% and 86%, respectively) as important or very important for continued education (retention) and satisfaction. Sixty-four percent of respondents agreed SCSU provided them with an environment of accommodations and inclusion in which they felt a sense of satisfaction that their education goals were being met as they worked toward completing their degree programs. Demographic details of these two critical questions and all other survey responses are described in Chapter 4

Rape myth in true and false rape allegations

Police records of 38 rape allegations, evenly split into maintained-as-true and withdrawn-as-false categories were compared with 19 generated-false statements from recruited participants. The Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (IRMAS) was used to assess the attitudes of the participants and a content analysis derived from IRMAS was used to compare the three categories of allegation. Rape myths were present in all three allegation types. The two categories of false allegation both contained more rape myths than the true allegations but no differences were found between the generated and withdrawn false allegations. High scorers in IRMAS also produced more violent false accounts. In addition to these findings, this study provides support for the further examination of rape myths in both false and true statements and use of generated allegations as proxies for real false statements

Representation in Westminster in the 1990s : The ghost of Edmund Burke

Why are 'trustee' notions of representation still invoked in the UK House of Commons in the 1990s? In answering this question this article analyses the premises of Burkean theory and the arguments that these premises are of little relevance in the late twentieth century. Despite these dismissals of trusteeship, Burkean ideas are still articulated in the Commons some 200 years after they were first voiced. The idea of trusteeship can prove extremely useful to justify the actions of representatives when those actions conflict with constituency 'opinion', party policy or the wishes of interest groups. Examples of the occasions when Burkean notions have been invoked in the 1990s are provided

In search of lost time: When people start an exercise program, where does the time come from? A randomized controlled trial

The objective of this study was to investigate changes in use of time when undertaking a structured exercise program.This study used a randomized, multi-arm, controlled trial design.A total of 129 insufficiently active adults aged 18-60 years were recruited and randomly allocated to one of three groups, a Moderate or Extensive six-week exercise group (150 and 300 additional minutes of exercise per week, respectively) or a Control group. Prescribed exercise was accumulated through both group and individual sessions. Use of time was measured at baseline and end-program using the Multimedia Activity Recall for Children and Adults, a computerized 24-h recall instrument. Daily minutes of activity in activity domains and energy expenditure zones were determined.Relative to changes in the control group, daily time spent in the physical activity [F (2, 108)=20.21,

Pasture age impacts soil fungal composition while bacteria respond to soil chemistry

Pasture is a globally important managed habitat providing both food and income. The way in which it is managed leads to a wide range of impacts on soil microbial communities and associated soil health. While there have been several studies comparing pasture farming to other forms of land use, we still have limited understanding of how the soil microbial communities vary between pasture farms and according to management practices. Here we present the results of a field survey across 56 UK livestock farms that are managed by members of the Pasture fed Livestock Association, using amplicon sequencing of the 16S and ITS regions to characterise the soil bacterial and fungal community within fields that have been under pasture for differing durations. We show that grazing management intensity has only limited effects upon microbial community structure, while the duration of pasture since ploughing (ranging from 1 year to over 100 years) impacted the fungal community structure. The impact of management duration was conditional upon soil physicochemical properties, particularly pH. Plant community effects on upon soil bacterial and fungal composition appear to also interact with the soil chemistry, highlighting the importance of plant-soil interactions in determining microbial community structure. Analyses of microbial indicators revealed proportionally more fungal taxa that responded to multiple ecosystem health associated properties than bacterial taxa. We also identified several fungal taxa that both acted as indicators of soil health related properties within our dataset and showed differentiation between grassland types in a national survey, indicating the generality of some fungal indicators to the national level. Members of the Agaricomycetes were associated with multiple indicators of soil health. Our results show the importance of maintaining grassland for the development of plant-soil interactions and microbial community structure with concomitant effects on soil and general ecosystem health

Soil bacterial and fungal communities show within field heterogeneity that varies by land management and distance metric

Increasing interest in the use of microbial metrics to evaluate soil health raises the issue of how fine-scale heterogeneity can affect microbial community measurements. Here we analyse bacterial and fungal communities of over 100 soil samples across 17 pasture farms and evaluate beta diversity at different scales. We find large variation in microbial communities between different points in the same field, and if Aitchison distance is used we find that within-field variation is as high as between-farm variation. However, if Bray-Curtis or Jaccard distance are used this variation is partially explained by differences in soil pH and vegetation and is higher under mob grazing for fungi. Hence, field scale variation in microbial communities can impact the evaluation of soil health

Climate vulnerability assessment for Pacific salmon and steelhead in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem.

Major ecological realignments are already occurring in response to climate change. To be successful, conservation strategies now need to account for geographical patterns in traits sensitive to climate change, as well as climate threats to species-level diversity. As part of an effort to provide such information, we conducted a climate vulnerability assessment that included all anadromous Pacific salmon and steelhead (Oncorhynchus spp.) population units listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Using an expert-based scoring system, we ranked 20 attributes for the 28 listed units and 5 additional units. Attributes captured biological sensitivity, or the strength of linkages between each listing unit and the present climate; climate exposure, or the magnitude of projected change in local environmental conditions; and adaptive capacity, or the ability to modify phenotypes to cope with new climatic conditions. Each listing unit was then assigned one of four vulnerability categories. Units ranked most vulnerable overall were Chinook (O. tshawytscha) in the California Central Valley, coho (O. kisutch) in California and southern Oregon, sockeye (O. nerka) in the Snake River Basin, and spring-run Chinook in the interior Columbia and Willamette River Basins. We identified units with similar vulnerability profiles using a hierarchical cluster analysis. Life history characteristics, especially freshwater and estuary residence times, interplayed with gradations in exposure from south to north and from coastal to interior regions to generate landscape-level patterns within each species. Nearly all listing units faced high exposures to projected increases in stream temperature, sea surface temperature, and ocean acidification, but other aspects of exposure peaked in particular regions. Anthropogenic factors, especially migration barriers, habitat degradation, and hatchery influence, have reduced the adaptive capacity of most steelhead and salmon populations. Enhancing adaptive capacity is essential to mitigate for the increasing threat of climate change. Collectively, these results provide a framework to support recovery planning that considers climate impacts on the majority of West Coast anadromous salmonids