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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the experiences with me-search among scholars in the field of education, defined as the conduct of research about one’s own identity or in one’s own setting.

Centered around the tensions inherent in the training received around objectivity and subjectivity, these individuals discuss how they came to conduct me-search and the challenges inherent in it, with a particular focus on the teaching and advising of students conducting this kind of qualitative work.

Applying Richardson and St. Pierre’s (2005) concepts of writing stories, the following reflections provide a grounding of the “me” in methodology, with an eye toward using this methodology to create social change.

While this is a common research approach, relatively little guidance exists on the practice of “me-search”, particularly for young scholars.

Incarceration provides an opportunity for screening and treatment of sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBIs) in high-risk groups. The purpose of this paper is to determine positivity rates of STBBI screening within correctional facilities using opt-in strategies and estimate the proportion of admissions tested.

A cross-sectional, retrospective review of testing data from January 2012 to August 2015 from three provincial correctional facilities located in Alberta, Canada was completed. Analysis variables included STBBI, gender, facility, collection year and age. STBBI-stratified analysis was performed to identify correlates for positivity using univariate and logistic regressions.

Overall prevalence of chlamydia was 11.2 percent and gonorrhea was 3.5 percent; correlates for both were younger age and facility type. The syphilis prevalence rate was 3.2 percent; correlates included being female, older age, adult facilities, with later years being protective. In total, 14 (0.3 percent) newly diagnosed HIV cases were found, prevalence increased with age. HBV prevalence was 1.7 percent with no significant correlations. Nearly one-tenth (n=422) of those screened for HCV antibody were positive; all variables were significantly correlated. Overall estimates of the proportion of admissions tested by STBBI were low and ranged from 4.8 to 16.1 percent.

This study found high rates of STBBI in correctional facilities and showed that only a small proportion of the population was tested using an opt-in strategy. Shifting to an “opt-out” strategy may be warranted.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of gender in the relationships between employee’s work experience and their chances of obtaining a job promotion.

Five hundred middle to lower management Pakistan employees from service industries were surveyed. Measures used to obtain data included work experience, job promotions and gender. Gender was dummy coded. Moderation analyses via SPSS was used to investigate the moderating effect of gender in the relationship between employee’s work experience and job promotions.

The results indicated that work experience was positively associated with job promotion. However, the results indicated that gender fully moderated the relationship between work experience and job promotion. Specifically, female employees were less likely to get promoted compared to male employees despite having similar work experiences.

Drawing together the human capital theory, social role theory and cultural factors, this study highlighted the socioeconomic/cultural barriers’ impact on Pakistani women’s career ascendance.

There is a lack of empirical evidence about career ascendance among Pakistani women. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to conduct and provide empirical evidence so that relevant agencies within Pakistan can develop more gender-equitable promotional policies and processes.

This study responded to the call for more empirical investigation of career ascendancy among women in developing countries. While this issue has been discussed in many developed western countries, there is a lack of empirical evidence in Muslim Pakistan.

The purpose of this paper is to report findings from two studies that compare the nature (construct validity) and relative effects (incremental predictive validity) of environmentally specific transformational leadership (ETFL) to general transformational leadership.

The nature of ETFL was investigated in an empirical study based on a sample of 185 employees. The relative effects of ETFL were examined in an experimental study based on a sample of 155 university students.

A confirmatory factor analysis showed that environmentally specific and general transformational leadership are empirically distinct but related. Findings from the experimental study revealed that compared to general transformational leadership and a control condition, participants exposed to ETFL he confederate leader’s environmental values and priorities more highly and engaged in higher levels of pro-environmental behaviors.

Questions concerning ecological and external validity arise out of the experimental study. Future research should contrast the relative effects of environmentally specific and general transformational leadership across various organizational and cultural conditions. Limitations associated with demand characteristics are also of concern in the experimental study. Future research should include an environmental focus in the control condition to exclude any possible threats related to demand characteristics.

Results from these two studies provide useful information regarding within-organization environmental leadership training by suggesting that maximal individual and organizational environmental change may best be achieved by training leaders to be as specific as possible regarding their values, priorities and goals.

This research suggests that leaders should engage in ETFL behaviors to have the greatest positive impact on corporate environmental sustainability, and by extension, climate change.

In two separate studies, the construct and incremental predictive validity of ETFL were assessed.

Interactions of different additive types for antiwear/friction modification on surfaces can be synergistic or antagonistic in nature. This paper aims to investigate whether there are interactions between different additives in the adsorption process and whether they synergistic or antagonistic. The yielded correlations will be validated with tribological experiments to answer the question whether synergistic effects in adsorption also lead to synergistic effects in wear reduction.

In a representative study, zinc dialkyl-dithiophosphate and dithiophosphate were elaborated in combination with two different friction modifiers, a glycerol monooleate and an organic friction modifier. As base oils, mineral oil and poly alpha olefine were used. The adsorption behavior was studied via quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation using Fe₂O₃ coated quartz crystals. The tribological performance was evaluated in a ball-on-three disk tribometer. White light interferometry was used to determine the wear volume and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy depth profiles of the tribofilms were obtained on selected systems.

The combination of dithiophosphate and an organic friction modifier (OFM) revealed a synergistic effect in terms of wear. If the initially formed films are viscoelastic, the third body formation during a tribo experiment is more pronounced and thereby wear can be reduced. As a mechanism, the adsorption of the OFM on the formed antiwear layer is proposed.

Correlating the analytical findings with performance experiments provides further understanding of the interactions between different constituents and their implications on film formation processes and wear reduction mechanisms.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-07-2019-0293/

There is growing interest in and evidence for the benefits of connecting with nature for people living with dementia, sometimes known as “green care”, including reduced stress, improved sleeping and even enhanced cognition. However, many people living with dementia are denied such opportunities, often because of practitioner perceptions of risk and poor design of outdoor spaces. This paper reports on the evaluation of a project that worked with national providers to give people living with dementia opportunities and support to access the natural environment.

The evaluation adopted a mixed-methods approach, using a combination of bespoke and commonly used tools and in-depth case study work to identify the facilitators and challenges to delivering the project and explore the experiences of activity participants.

Qualitative measures indicated a significant improvement in mental well-being for participants with dementia and family carers following attendance at activity sessions. Research interviews indicated that participants enjoyed activities based on connecting with nature. Being outdoors was a major factor in the experience, along with taking part in activities that were meaningful and opportunities for social interaction.

This paper provides evidence for the benefits of connecting with nature for people living with dementia. This paper concludes that access to the outdoors is not a luxury, it is a basic human right and one which has become increasingly important in light of restrictions that have emerged as a result of the COVID19 pandemic.

This paper aims to provide a better understanding of the prolonged consumption journey and how they are sustained by service providers’ use of habit-boosting strategies. Existing research is critically evaluated, and a research agenda is provided to inspire and guide future research.

This paper develops a conceptual framework that integrates habit and transformative consumer intervention theories with customer journey literature to explain the role of habit in sustaining prolonged consumption journeys. Habit-boosting strategies are introduced as mechanisms for service providers to facilitate their customers’ prolonged consumption journeys.

This paper argues that habit strength is a limited operant resource that often lacks resource integration efficiency and hinders customers’ abilities to sustain prolonged consumption journeys. Four distinct habit-boosting strategies are identified that provide the potential for service providers to facilitate their customers’ prolonged consumption journeys.

This study presents a typology of habit-boosting strategies and a research agenda that discusses a range of practically relevant and theoretically insightful contributions.

Strategies to enable alternative urban food systems cannot be developed alone by those involved with the production and distribution aspects of food systems. It is important for architects, landscape designers and planners to be part of the process of conceiving and implementing innovative food-system thinking. Environmentally focused building standards and models for sustainable communities can easily incorporate farmers' markets, greenhouses, edible landscapes, permeable paving, green roofs, community gardens, and permaculture and other food-related strategies that complement energy generation and conservation, green roofs, living walls, and other approaches that have been more commonly part of sustainable built-environment initiatives.

Recently, architecture faculty and students at Ryerson University in Toronto and at a number of other universities have been exploring the intersection of these disciplines and interests. This paper will show how Ryerson tackled agricultural and food issues as design challenges in projects that included first-year community investigations, student-run design competitions, third-year studio projects and complex final-year thesis projects. These projects that dealt with food issues proved to be excellent entry points for addressing a range of design challenges including social inclusion, cultural context, community design and sustainable building practices.

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to make the case for the value of fostering collaborative sensemaking in responding to literature. Drawing on examples of classroom interactions in 6th-, 8th-, 11th- and 12th-grade classrooms, it proposes methods for teachers to foster collaborative sensemaking.

Drawing on theories of “participatory sensemaking” (Fuchs and De Jaegher, 2009), transactional literary response (Rosenblatt, 1994) and “comprehension-as-sensemaking” pedagogy (Aukerman, 2013), this paper conceptualizes collaborative sensemaking to illustrate how teachers foster making sense of texts through sharing responses based on lived-world experiences, understanding the use of literary techniques and understanding events in students’ own lives.

Given that this is not an empirical study, there are no findings. The discussion of students’ sensemaking practices in responding to classroom texts, suggests the importance of teachers creating open-ended response events in which students collaboratively support each other in making sense of characters’ actions and events, as opposed to having to conform to teachers’ predetermined agendas.

Analysis of the classroom discussions suggests the importance of building students’ trust in the process of sensemaking itself, fostering adoption of alternative perspectives as central to sensemaking and using activities for students’ translating or rewriting events in texts to co-create texts with authors.

This paper explores the importance of teachers engaging students in open-ended, sensemaking response events based on attending to “in-between,” dialogic meanings through sharing emotions, alternative perspectives and related experiences to enhance students’ engagement in responding to literature.

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the responses to it that were required from frontline healthcare providers and others working in healthcare settings including environmental, clerical, and security staff, has challenged our healthcare systems in unprecedented ways. The threats to the financial, physical, and psychological well-being of healthcare professionals – many of whom entered the field due at least in part to a deep commitment to caring for and helping others – will have profound and long-lasting personal and professional impacts. Early in the pandemic response, healthcare professionals knew little about the risks they, their patients, and their loved ones faced from COVID-19 as they operated under crisis standards of care and without adequate supplies of personal protective equipment. As the pandemic response progressed, the lack of clear, science-based guidance, and the politicization of the pandemic presented new medical, ethical, and moral dilemmas. New psychological support mechanisms, including crisis counseling and evidence-based interventions, are needed for all workers in healthcare settings, regardless of their job role.