A Phenomenological Exploration of Combat Veterans’ Experiences as They Transition to Civilian Employment Using Higher Education as Career Development

When enlisted combat arms military service members return from deployment and enter or reenter the American workforce, they often find it challenging to explain their Military Occupation Specialty (MOS) positions and associated responsibilities and accomplishments to employers. Particularly in an economy that has gone from being prosperous to becoming stagnant and recessed in recent years, veterans have returned from military service to find increased competition for fewer jobs that are mostly at the lower end of the skill requirements and pay scale. Many service members have utilized higher education as career development to mitigate the transition from being a military service member to being a civilian employee. The purpose of this study was to explore, using hermeneutic phenomenology, the lived experiences and feelings of combat arms veterans about the transition process from higher education to the civilian work environment while allowing veterans to share their feelings about their experiences in their own words. The aim of this research was to better understand the veterans’ perceptions of their career development transition to civilian employment in order to identify strategies to assist them through the transition and into civilian employment. Seven veterans of military service in the infantry were identified with purposeful sampling from the population of OEF/OIF veterans with combat arms MOSs pursuing higher education at a large southwestern university. Because there is no direct civilian employment correlate for the combat arms MOS, it necessitates that the participants identify new career directions. Participants were at least junior level in their education at the time of interview. Each participant was interviewed twice face-to-face with hermeneutic interviews conducted three weeks apart. Themes that emerged from my review of the research data are reflective of the phenomena occurring within the veteran participants’ career development experiences as they move through and move out of higher education into civilian employment. The themes that emerged from the participants’ stories of their experiences share common roots of power and have intertwining branches: new structures, new systems, and new relationships that impact the veterans’ career development. Feelings of fear and hope about their career development and future civilian employment are part of the veterans’ career transition process and experiences as illustrated in the data. This process and the constructs brought into relief from analysis provide the answers to the research questions posited about infantry veterans’ experiences using higher education as career development for civilian employment. While they expressed a clear understanding of their skills and capabilities gained through military service that they believed should be of value in civilian employment, the participants also acknowledged their concerns and worries that their experiences and abilities to contribute in civilian employment would not be recognized

Notch/Wnt signalling and the hepatic progenitor response in hepatocellular regeneration

Chronic liver disease remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality globally. Transplantation is the only effective treatment for end-stage disease but is limited by organ availability, surgical complications and risks of long term immunosuppression. Novel therapies for advanced disease are therefore required. The liver has a remarkable capacity to regenerate through division of mature hepatocytes, however in chronic or severe disease hepatocyte replication fails, senescence occurs and liver failure ensues. Ductular reactions (DRs), containing hepatic progenitor cells capable of repopulating the parenchyma, arise in chronic liver injury when hepatocyte regeneration is impaired. Enhancing this endogenous repair mechanism is a key therapeutic goal. Notch and Wnt are key signals required for liver regeneration, however to date they have principally been characterised in end-point disease and the temporal kinetics of these signalling pathways not known. I sought to identify if these signals control expansion of DRs after hepatocyte injury and whether they can be therapeutically manipulated. I examined the dynamics of Notch and Wnt activity using a genetic model of hepatocellular injury and ductular-mediated regeneration whereby induction of injury could be timed, synchronising the regenerative response. Using lineage tracing, small molecules, blocking antibodies and genetic loss of function experiments I defined distinct time-sensitive Notch and Wnt signatures where early regeneration is driven by Notch and the later response by Wnt. I demonstrated that inhibition of Notch1 and Notch3 but not Notch2 reduces the generation of DRs. I identified that DRs were a source of potent growth hormone IGF1 and this production was Wnt driven. Notch driven expression of IGF1-receptor within DRs identified this axis as a node for cooperation between Notch and Wnt signals. Blocking the IGF1 axis prevented DR expansion, which conversely could be enhanced by administration of recombinant IGF1. Here, I functionally defined complex temporal dynamics controlling of DRs and identified therapeutic pathways to enhance liver regeneration

Engaging Military Friendly in Organizations: An Empirical-based Definition

Employers interested in hiring military veterans are increasingly using the “military friendly” or “veteran-friendly” labels to promote their organizations to job-seeking veterans. The terms, while inviting to veterans, lack definition and consistency across organizations, leading to ambiguity about what it means to be military or veteran friendly. This research sought to understand how the labels are being supported through corresponding initiatives and, more generally, identify commonalities across employers. A thematic analysis of programs and services used by 31 employers—recognized as being military or veteran friendly by an external agency—revealed four themes. The themes suggested an emphasis on early career transitions for veterans entering the job market. Combined, these findings offer a starting point for understanding how organizations demonstrate their friendliness toward military veterans. Employers interested in formalizing or advancing their support of veteran hires can look to the study’s findings as a reference for currently-recognized military friendly organizations. This paper offers an introduction into veteran transition issues, explores foundational descriptions of military friendly, outlines the study’s methodology and findings, and provides a series of implications. Additionally, based on the findings, the authors provide a model and working definition of military friendly organizations

What predicts persistent early conduct problems? Evidence from the Growing Up in Scotland cohort

Background: There is a strong case for early identification of factors predicting life-course-persistent conduct disorder. The authors aimed to identify factors associated with repeated parental reports of preschool conduct problems. Method: Nested caseecontrol study of Scottish children who had behavioural data reported by parents at 3, 4 and 5 years. Results: 79 children had abnormal conduct scores at all three time points ('persistent conduct problems') and 434 at one or two points ('inconsistent conduct problems'). 1557 children never had abnormal scores. Compared with children with no conduct problems, children with reported problems were significantly more likely to have mothers who smoked during pregnancy. They were less likely to be living with both parents and more likely to be in poor general health, to have difficulty being understood, to have a parent who agrees that smacking is sometimes necessary and to be taken to visit other people with children rarely. The results for children with persistent and inconsistent conduct problems were similar, but associations with poverty and maternal smoking were significantly less strong in the inconsistent group. Conclusion: These factors may be valuable in early identification of risk of major social difficulties

Estimating Contrail Climate Effects from Satellite Data

An automated contrail detection algorithm (CDA) is developed to exploit six of the infrared channels on the 1-km MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra and Aqua satellites. The CDA is refined and balanced using visual error analysis. It is applied to MODIS data taken by Terra and Aqua over the United States during 2006 and 2008. The results are consistent with flight track data, but differ markedly from earlier analyses. Contrail coverage is a factor of 4 less than other retrievals and the retrieved contrail optical depths and radiative forcing are smaller by approx.30%. The discrepancies appear to be due to the inability to detect wider, older contrails that comprise a significant amount of the contrail coverage. An example of applying the algorithm to MODIS data over the entire Northern Hemisphere is also presented. Overestimates of contrail coverage are apparent in some tropical regions. Methods for improving the algorithm are discussed and are to be implemented before analyzing large amounts of Northern Hemisphere data. The results should be valuable for guiding and validating climate models seeking to account for aviation effects on climate

Properties of Linear Contrails Detected in 2012 Northern Hemisphere MODIS Imagery

Observation of linear contrail cirrus coverage and retrieval of their optical properties are valuable data for validating atmospheric climate models that represent contrail formation explicitly. These data can reduce our uncertainty of the regional effects of contrail-generated cirrus on global radiative forcing, and thus improve our estimation of the impact of commercial aviation on climate change. We use an automated contrail detection algorithm (CDA) to determine the coverage of linear persistent contrails over the Northern Hemisphere during 2012. The contrail detection algorithm is a modified form of the Mannstein et al. (1999) method, and uses several channels from thermal infrared MODIS data to reduce the occurrence of false positive detections. A set of contrail masks of varying sensitivity is produced to define the potential range of uncertainty in contrail coverage estimated by the CDA. Global aircraft emissions waypoint data provided by FAA allow comparison of detected contrails with commercial aircraft flight tracks. A pixel-level product based on the advected flight tracks defined by the waypoint data and U-V wind component profiles from the NASA GMAO GEOS-4 reanalysis has been developed to assign a confidence of contrail detection for the contrail mask. To account for possible contrail cirrus missed by the CDA, a post-processing method based on the assumption that pixels adjacent to detected linear contrails will have radiative signatures similar to those of the detected contrails is applied to the Northern Hemisphere data. Results from several months of MODIS observations during 2012 will be presented, representing a near-global climatology of contrail coverage. Linear contrail coverage will be compared with coverage estimates determined previously from 2006 MODIS data

Schoolwide Application of Positive Behavior Support in an Urban High School:. Journal Of Positive Behavior Interventions

Abstract: The nuances of the application of schoolwide positive behavior supports (PBS) in an urban high school setting were investigated. Impact of implementation was measured using qualitative interviews and observations, including the School-wide Evaluation Tool (SET), Effective Behavior Support Survey, Student Climate Survey, and office disciplinary referrals. The results indicated that schoolwide PBS was implemented in an urban high school setting with some success. The overall level of implementation of PBS reached 80% as measured by the SET. Staff and teachers increased their level of perceived priority for implementing PBS in their school. A decrease in monthly discipline referrals to the office and the proportion of students who required secondary and tertiary supports was noted. These findings seem to indicate that PBS may be an important process for improving outcomes for teachers and students in urban high school settings

Notch-IGF1 signalling in biliary epithelial cells drives their expansion and inhibits hepatocyte differentiation

[no abstract available

Observations and Hypotheses Related to Low to Middle Free Tropospheric Aerosol, Water Vapor and Altocumulus Cloud Layers within Convective Weather Regimes: A SEAC4RS Case Study

The NASA Studies of Emissions and Atmospheric Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys (SEAC4RS) project included goals related to aerosol particle life cycle in convective regimes. Using the University of Wisconsin High Spectral Resolution Lidar system at Huntsville, Alabama, USA, and the NASA DC-8 research aircraft, we investigate the altitude dependence of aerosol, water vapor and Altocumulus (Ac) properties in the free troposphere from a canonical 12 August 2013 convective storm case as a segue to a presentation of a mission-wide analysis. It stands to reason that any moisture detrainment from convection must have an associated aerosol layer. Modes of covariability between aerosol, water vapor and Ac are examined relative to the boundary layer entrainment zone, 0 ∘C level, and anvil, a region known to contain Ac clouds and a complex aerosol layering structure (Reid et al., 2017). Multiple aerosol layers in regions warmer than 0 ∘C were observed within the planetary boundary layer entrainment zone. At 0 ∘C there is a proclivity for aerosol and water vapor detrainment from storms, in association with melting level Ac shelves. Finally, at temperatures colder than 0 ∘C, weak aerosol layers were identified above Cumulus congestus tops (∼0 and ∼-20 role= presentation style= box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; line-height: normal; word-spacing: normal; overflow-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; border: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; position: relative; \u3e∼−20 ∘C). Stronger aerosol signals return in association with anvil outflow. In situ data suggest that detraining particles undergo aqueous-phase or heterogeneous chemical or microphysical transformations, while at the same time larger particles are being scavenged at higher altitudes leading to enhanced nucleation. We conclude by discussing hypotheses regarding links to aerosol emissions and potential indirect effects on Ac clouds

Properties of individual contrails: a compilation of observations and some comparisons

Mean properties of individual contrails are characterized for a wide range of jet aircraft as a function of age during their life cycle from seconds to 11.5 h (7.4-18.7 km altitude, -88 to -31 degrees C ambient temperature), based on a compilation of about 230 previous in situ and remote sensing measurements. The airborne, satellite, and ground-based observations encompass exhaust contrails from jet aircraft from 1972 onwards, as well as a few older data for propeller aircraft. The contrails are characterized by mean ice particle sizes and concentrations, extinction, ice water content, optical depth, geometrical depth, and contrail width. Integral contrail properties include the cross-section area and total number of ice particles, total ice water content, and total extinction (area integral of extinction) per contrail length. When known, the contrail-causing aircraft and ambient conditions are characterized. The individual datasets are briefly described, including a few new analyses performed for this study, and compiled together to form a "contrail library" (COLI). The data are compared with results of the Contrail Cirrus Prediction (CoCiP) model. The observations confirm that the number of ice particles in contrails is controlled by the engine exhaust and the formation process in the jet phase, with some particle losses in the wake vortex phase, followed later by weak decreases with time. Contrail cross sections grow more quickly than expected from exhaust dilution. The cross-section-integrated extinction follows an algebraic approximation. The ratio of volume to effective mean radius decreases with time. The ice water content increases with increasing temperature, similar to non-contrail cirrus, while the equivalent relative humidity over ice saturation of the contrail ice mass increases at lower temperatures in the data. Several contrails were observed in warm air above the Schmidt-Appleman threshold temperature. The "emission index" of ice particles, i.e., the number of ice particles formed in the young contrail per burnt fuel mass, is estimated from the measured concentrations for estimated dilution;maximum values exceed 10(15) kg(-1). The dependence of the data on the observation methods is discussed. We find no obvious indication for significant contributions from spurious particles resulting from shattering of ice crystals on the microphysical probes