Exploring Ways that Women Veterans Describe Their Experience of Transition into the Civilian World of Work

This research was a qualitative study, grounded in feminist research methodology that explored the experiences of women veterans\u27 transition into the civilian world of work. This study explored facets that participants found to be helpful, as well as inhibitive of growth in their transition into the civilian world of work. Eight women veterans participated in two separate in-depth interviews focused on how they described their ongoing transition into the civilian world of work. They also offered recommendations for how to best support female veterans in their journey that begins when they exit the military. While each woman\u27s story of transition was unique, there were commonalities to the challenges they faced and what they found helpful. Feminist theory guided the data analysis process, which entailed constant comparative coding until no new patterns emerged from the data. Data analysis resulted in three primary themes, each consisting of three sub-themes. The findings suggest that participants perceive significant differences between military and civilian culture, which can contribute to feeling disconnected to others in the civilian work culture. Results also suggested that increased knowledge of military culture and a greater understanding of veteran\u27s experiences may be helpful for counselors, friends, family, and community in providing effective support for women veterans in their transition into the civilian world of work. Implications for advocacy, practice, and counselor, and future research were provided

Review Essay

Review of John Beversluis, C. S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion. Revised and Updated (Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2007). 363 pages. $21.98. ISBN: 9781591025313

SYNTHESIS AND SPECTROSCOPIC CHARACTERIZATION OF NANOSTRUCTURED THERMOELECTRIC MATERIALS

Bismuth in the bulk form is a semimetal with a rhombohedral structure. It has a small band overlap between the conduction and valence bands and a highly anisotropic electron effective-mass tensor. Thermoelectric materials, in which one of the three dimensions is in the nanometer regime, exhibit unique quantum confinement properties and have generated much interest in recent years. Theoretical investigations have suggested that nanowires with diameters ≤ 10 nm will possess a figure-of-merit ZT \u3e 2. Prior to this study, it has been shown that Bi nanowires with small enough diameters (~10 nm), prepared via the pulsed laser vaporization method, undergo a transition from a semimetal with a small band overlap to a semiconductor with a small indirect band gap. Infrared absorption and UV-visible measurements were used to confirm this semimetal-to-semiconductor phase transition. In this thesis, we report the synthesis and optical characteristics of a variety of various potential thermoelectric materials including bismuth, nickel sulfide and cadmium sulfide. The infrared absorption in our Bi nanorods is blue-shifted in energy when compared to the corresponding spectra in bulk Bi, and when cooled down to liquid nitrogen temperatures, group theory suggests a strong temperature dependence in the Bi band structure. We also find that the Bi nanorod suspension displays excellent optical limiting properties at both 532 and 1064 nm excitations in the nanosecond laser pulse regime. We have also synthesized nickel sulfide nanoparticles with an average size of 5 nm by a one-step solid phase reaction. The intensity-dependent nonlinear transmission study was carried out using a 7 ns Nd:YAG laser at 532nm using Z-scan, and the nonlinear scattering was found to be the dominant mechanism for the observed response. Importantly, the modified Z-scan method allowed us to measure two competing mechanisms simultaneously - the optical limiting and saturable absorption in surface-modified nickel sulfide nanoparticles suspensions

Review of C.S. Lewis and Philosophy as a Way of Life

Victor Reppert: Review of Adam Barkman, C. S. Lewis and Philosophy as a Way of Life (Allentown, Pennsylvania, 2009). 624 pages. $45.00. ISBN 9780972322164

Laser-assisted synthesis and optical properties of bismuth nanorods

Bismuth in the bulk form is a semimetal with a rhombohedral structure. It has a small band overlap between the conduction and valence bands and a highly anisotropic electron effective-mass tensor. Thermoelectric materials, in which one of the three dimensions is in the nanometer regime, exhibit unique quantum confinement properties and have generated much interest in recent years. Theoretical investigations have suggested that nanowires with diameters \u3c10 nm will possess a figure-of-merit ZT\u3e2. Prior to this research, it has been shown by the Dresselhaus group at MIT that Bi nanowires with small enough diameters (~50 nm), prepared via the template-method, undergo a transition from a semimetal with a small band overlap to a semiconductor with a small indirect band gap. Infrared absorption, temperature-dependent electrical resistance and magneto-resistance measurements were used to confirm this semimetal-to-semiconductor phase transition. In this thesis, we report the synthesis of ~10 nm diameter Bi nanorods using a pulsed laser vaporization method that was previously developed for preparing single-wall carbon nanotubes. The high resolution transmission electron microscopy images of our Bi nanorods show a crystalline Bi core oriented along \u3c012\u3e direction, and coated with a thin amorphous bismuth oxide layer. The infrared absorption and the surface plasmon peaks in our Bi nanorods are blue-shifted in energy when compared to the corresponding spectra in bulk Bi, and relative to those reported by the Dresselhaus group in 45 - 200 nm diameter Bi nanowires

A banished Adam : Mark Twain and the father of the human race

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on September 12, 2008)Thesis (M.A.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2008.While Mark Twain has long been viewed as irreligious, scholarship in recent years has underscored the fact that Christianity, the God of the Bible, and the Presbyterianism of his youth play an integral part in his work. Appearing with particular frequency is the story of Adam and his Fall; although Twain did not believe in the literal existence of Adam, the story of the Fall resonated deeply with him and appears again and again in his works. At times, Twain uses Adam for merely comic effects, but in his in depth treatments of the Fall, Twain uses Adam as a symbol for the entire human race, through whom he can celebrate, lament, and rage about the human condition, which he saw as subject to a controlling determinism. While Twain's Adamic works have long been overlooked and under appreciated, this neglect is unwarranted. In fact, these works, while failing to reach the artistic heights of some of his more well-known writings, can be viewed as the intersection of some of the questions Twain felt were most important. This work examines Twain's religious and philosophical development over the course of his life and how these two elements affect his extensive treatment of the story of the Fall of Man. Particularly, Twain's use of Adam reflects the influence of his childhood Calvinism, the deterministic ideas present in his treatise, What Is Man?, and his lifelong obsession with the question of human origins.Includes bibliographical reference