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This paper describes a project in which faculty collaborated with two agencies to facilitate student learning about communication with elders. Data on student learning was collected via survey, focus groups, and reflective writing. Survey results showed that the five most important benefits students rated themselves as gaining from the service-learning experience were volunteering to help others, improving oral communication skills, helping others, developing new skills, and developing awareness of social problems. Themes derived from focus group interviews were "you learn how to act" and "a different dimension of a person." Analysis of data revealed that service-learning helps beginning nursing students improve oral communication skills with elders, develop sensitivity to aging issues, and make the transition to a clinical course focused on aging.

Identifies key elements in a Florida university's year-long search and selection process for a provost. Highlights three narrative views of the process as integrated, differentiated, and fragmented. Concludes that search-committee members used differing interpretations as rhetorical resources for performing arguments to various audiences. (SR)

This article chronicles a year-long investigation into one university's search for a provost. Utilizing a communication approach to organizational decision making, we identify key elements in the search and selection process and explore them from multiple perspectives. Specifically, we employ Martin's (1992) typology of approaches to organizational culture to highlight three narrative views of the process as integrated, differentiated, and fragmented. We conclude that search committee members use differing interpretations as rhetorical resources for performing arguments to various audiences. State 'sunshine laws' and assumptions about rationality and social hierarchy were elements of a broader 'cultural nexus' of influences on the decision process. Key words: Decision Making, Sunshine Laws, Organizational Communication, Search Committees, Field Research, Ethnography, Organizational Culture.

Abstract Background Remote sensing technology provides detailed spectral and thermal images of the earth's surface from which surrogate ecological indicators of complex processes can be measured. Methods Remote sensing data were overlaid onto georeferenced entomological and human ecological data randomly sampled during April and May 2001 in the cities of Kisumu (population ≈ 320,000) and Malindi (population ≈ 81,000), Kenya. Grid cells of 270 meters × 270 meters were used to generate spatial sampling units for each city for the collection of entomological and human ecological field-based data. Multispectral Thermal Imager (MTI) satellite data in the visible spectrum at five meter resolution were acquired for Kisumu and Malindi during February and March 2001, respectively. The MTI data were fit and aggregated to the 270 meter × 270 meter grid cells used in field-based sampling using a geographic information system. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was calculated and scaled from MTI data for selected grid cells. Regression analysis was used to assess associations between NDVI values and entomological and human ecological variables at the grid cell level. Results Multivariate linear regression showed that as household density increased, mean grid cell NDVI decreased (global F-test = 9.81, df 3,72, P-value = 2 = 0.26). Given household density, the number of potential anopheline larval habitats per grid cell also increased with increasing values of mean grid cell NDVI (global F-test = 14.29, df 3,36, P-value = 2 = 0.51). Conclusions NDVI values obtained from MTI data were successfully overlaid onto georeferenced entomological and human ecological data spatially sampled at a scale of 270 meters × 270 meters. Results demonstrate that NDVI at such a scale was sufficient to describe variations in entomological and human ecological parameters across both cities.

Keeping your head above water. Many nonprofit organizations try to do just that by looking for ways to keep up with technological change and compete with salaries in the private [...]

Jobs that involve the use of certain common solvents may put people at risk for developing Parkinson disease at an earlier age and having more severe symptoms throughout the course [...]