scholarly journals The Virginia Commercial Greenhouse Industry—Current Practices and Future Needs Assessment

2004 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-114
Author(s):  
Holly L. Scoggins ◽  
Joyce G. Latimer ◽  
Victoria T. Barden

This report summarizes responses to a survey of Virginia's commercial greenhouse industry, conducted in 2000-01. The survey included questions about interests and needs of growers to assist Virginia Tech Horticulture faculty and staff in planning educational and research programming. Respondents were asked about current cultural practices, future plans for automation and technology, and impact of issues facing the greenhouse industry such as regulations and labor. The 273 responses were categorized based on the amount of heated greenhouse space: small, medium, large, or other (including part-time). Following analysis of the responses, focus groups were conducted across Virginia to further discuss issues raised in the survey.

2019 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-55
Author(s):  
Thaddaus Hellwig ◽  
Charlene R Williams ◽  
Christi Jen ◽  
Joshua N Raub ◽  
Michael Scalese ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. e50-e51
Author(s):  
Daniel Bierstone ◽  
Brian Hummel ◽  
Dennis Newhook ◽  
Radha Jetty

Abstract Primary Subject area Public Health and Preventive Medicine Background It is well established that significant health disparities continue to affect Canadian Indigenous children living both in remote and urban areas. A critical component of health promotion is health knowledge dissemination. A 2011 Health Council of Canada study identified the need for better community knowledge of parenting and child health as intervention targets among Indigenous communities across Canada. Objectives In the present study, we aimed to explore the perspectives of Inuit parents and caregivers in one urban setting (Ottawa, Ontario) on the dissemination of child health knowledge specifically, with the intention of guiding future community-based child health promotion initiatives. Design/Methods Ottawa, being home to the largest Inuit population living outside Inuit Nunangat, provided an ideal study location. Many Inuit report relocating to Ottawa for employment, education, or for greater access to heath services. We therefore partnered with the Ottawa-based Inuuqatigiit Centre for Children, Youth, and Families, to design and conduct a needs assessment through a series of focus groups. Focus groups explored participants’ current sources of child health knowledge, child health topics of interest, and preferred formats for child health knowledge dissemination. Focus groups were held at Inuuqatigiit and included a meal of country food shared by study participants and research team members to support relationship-building and engagement. Focus groups were analyzed using an inductive approach to qualitative thematic analysis. Results 24 Inuit parents and caregivers participated in 4 focus groups. Factors affecting preferred sources of health knowledge included trustworthiness, fear of discrimination, cultural differences, and having a holistic approach. Participants identified several child health issues that should be the focus of future child health knowledge sharing initiatives, in particular those in which a sense of cultural dissonance was felt between traditional and Western approaches. In-person and online/interactive sessions were preferred over written materials. Many participants agreed that child health knowledge-sharing initiatives should be designed and delivered with involvement of the community. Participants also emphasized the importance of synthesizing traditional knowledge of Elders with that of health professionals. Conclusion There is a need for better child health knowledge dissemination strategies among the Ottawa Inuit community as a crucial aspect of health promotion. Special considerations when designing such initiatives must be given to historical dynamics of trust and mistrust of the health professions, to addressing cultural differences, and to the role of community members in the design and implementation of initiatives.


2022 ◽  
pp. 289-317
Author(s):  
Cassandra R. Decker ◽  
Merci Decker

Responsive research serves as an alternative platform to address issues of human rights violations, ACEs, structural violence, and systemic poverty in particular as it relates to educational opportunities. This chapter identifies four step-by-step processes that can be used when conducting community-led research and education. Activist anthropology, studying up, studying through, and financial implications of debt foreground earlier efforts made by anthropologists to use their research as a way to examine how policy decisions shape cultural practices and impact the livelihood of specific communities. These efforts are expanded upon by examining the controversy, pitfalls, and rewards found within the epistemological paradigms and research methodologies. The second half of the chapter identifies four pathways researchers can use when engaging in activist anthropology: teaching to a goal; responsive mapping to uncover mystical barriers; community building as the goal for focus groups, interviews, and surveys; and responsive programs and events.


2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (e1) ◽  
pp. e9-e17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah A Collins ◽  
Ronen Rozenblum ◽  
Wai Yin Leung ◽  
Constance RC Morrison ◽  
Diana L Stade ◽  
...  

Objective: To describe current practices and stakeholder perspectives of patient portals in the acute care setting. We aimed to: (1) identify key features, (2) recognize challenges, (3) understand current practices for design, configuration, and use, and (4) propose new directions for investigation and innovation. Materials and Methods: Mixed methods including surveys, interviews, focus groups, and site visits with stakeholders at leading academic medical centers. Thematic analyses to inform development of an explanatory model and recommendations. Results: Site surveys were administered to 5 institutions. Thirty interviews/focus groups were conducted at 4 site visits that included a total of 84 participants. Ten themes regarding content and functionality, engagement and culture, and access and security were identified, from which an explanatory model of current practices was developed. Key features included clinical data, messaging, glossary, patient education, patient personalization and family engagement tools, and tiered displays. Four actionable recommendations were identified by group consensus. Discussion: Design, development, and implementation of acute care patient portals should consider: (1) providing a single integrated experience across care settings, (2) humanizing the patient-clinician relationship via personalization tools, (3) providing equitable access, and (4) creating a clear organizational mission and strategy to achieve outcomes of interest. Conclusion: Portals should provide a single integrated experience across the inpatient and ambulatory settings. Core functionality includes tools that facilitate communication, personalize the patient, and deliver education to advance safe, coordinated, and dignified patient-centered care. Our findings can be used to inform a “road map” for future work related to acute care patient portals.


Author(s):  
Jennilyn C. Mina ◽  
Januaryn Jose B. Aydinan ◽  
Romeo B. Campos ◽  
Shirley P. Aye-eo

To define and evaluate the areas of consideration concerning in identifying the critical factors that top universities in Nueva Ecija, Philippines can be used for triangulating the courses of actions that can be applied to improve the current practices of universities towards its combat to the COVID–19 disease is the primary objective of this study. The researchers used a descriptive design of methodology by using questionnaire–checklist to scientifically describe the situation, problems, phenomenon, or program, or provide information about certain issues related to the virus outbreak. The respondents of the study were faculty and staff of five established universities in Nueva Ecija, Philippines wherein the researchers employed a non–probability sampling technique to be logically assumed as the representative of the entire population. The results of the study shown that the top universities in Nueva Ecija have made efforts to ensure the safety of university workers by complying with the Inter–Agency Task Force (IATF) protocols. It can be inferred, in reality, that there are some areas that must be improved especially when it comes to ensuring the welfare of the personnel who are still reporting to work even in this time of the pandemic. The researchers suggested an enhancement plan that can be adapted by these universities to resolve the concerns of the faculty and staff especially in reducing the spread of the virus without sacrificing the day–to–day transactions of the academic institutions.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Shivani Bothra

<p>How do Jains, adherents of one of the oldest minority religions in India, maintain their identity and protect their way of life when surrounded by non-Jain religions? Even more striking, how do Jains in the United States, where they constitute a minority within the Indian minority, maintain their traditions amidst a multi-cultural American society? Seeking upward mobility, Jains in post-independence India, have migrated locally, regionally, and internationally and these migrations have disrupted their social, religious, and cultural practices. My thesis looks at the ways in which Jains have addressed these disruptions. I analyse how they have restructured their traditional religious education, transforming it in a variety of ways, producing a range of contemporary Jain religious schools for children, both in India and the United States.  I argue that these new religious schools serve an important function in maintaining ancient Jain traditions, but have, at the same time, initiated significant structural as well as curricular changes that have transformed some of those traditions: widening the gap between Jain children and Jain mendicants, and reallocating authority within the Jain community by enabling laywomen to shape the curriculum and to teach in part-time religious schools, to name a few. The thesis pays attention to these changes, the reasons for the changes, and their consequences.  Using in-depth curriculum analysis and formal interviews, I examine contemporary Jain religious schools for children in the image-worshipping Digambar tradition and the non-image worshipping Shvetambar Terapanth tradition in India, and in mixed traditions in the United States. These Jain schools are growing exponentially in number and popularity within India and America, but have largely remained unexamined. This study aims to fill an important gap by closely analysing the rituals, leadership, and curricula of these new religious schools and their role in shaping modern Jain traditions.</p>


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