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Most individuals spend more than half their lives as single due to divorce, widowhood, and remaining single (Simpson, 2016). Singlehood, in general, has meant not being in a heterosexual relationship. Historically, lesbian women have been considered single because their relationships were not legally recognized. Single women and lesbian women have had more choices to live outside heterosexual marriage, financially and with social acceptability, in the later portion of the 20th century and in the early 21st century than previously. Single sexual minority women of the baby boom came of age during this time and are beginning to plan for and enter into old age. This study used qualitative methods to study how single sexual minority women of the baby boom cohort defined family and planned for their later years. Women from the baby boom cohort who are currently single and identify as a sexual minority were connected to their family of origin and extended families in their youth, focused on romantic relationships during adulthood, and currently identify their family as biological and chosen family. The women had formal and informal plans for their future as they continue to age. Limitations, future directions, and implications are also discussed. / Ph. D. / Within the United States, most individuals spend more than half their lives as single. Singlehood, in general, has meant not being in a heterosexual relationship. Historically, lesbian women have been considered single because their relationships were not legally recognized. Single and sexual minority women are recently more able financially and with social acceptability, to live outside heterosexual marriage. Single sexual minority women of the baby boom came of age during this time and are beginning to plan for and enter into old age. This study used interviews to research how single sexual minority women of the baby boom cohort defined family and planned for their later years. Women from the baby boom cohort who are currently single and identify as a sexual minority were connected to their immediate family and extended families in their youth, focused on romantic relationships during adulthood, and currently identify their closest circle as biological and chosen family. The women had formal and informal plans for their future as they continue to age with a desire to remain independent for as long as possible. Discussions around sexuality in relation to singlehood also emerged during the interviews.

Many smaller ports in Cornwall and Devon (CAD) are situated in environmentally sensitive habitats and generate benefits for stakeholders and local communities. Such ports are often embedded in tourist based economies. Increasing environmental legislation is placing a strain on the resources of smaller ports making compliance a threat to profitability and thus the future of some ports and local economies. Over-reliance on environmental management systems (EMS) across the ports industry has predominated over the importance of holistic sustainability. This project develops and disseminates a port sustainability management system (PSMS) in CAD, assisting ports to plan marine and maritime operations more sustainably, to facilitate mitigation of potential risks, to increase knowledge and awareness of port sustainability, and to promote the adoption of a proactive stance towards sustainable port management. A constructivist philosophy suited a multiple methods research design which included ethnographic content analysis (ECA), statistical verification of qualitative coding, nine scoping interviews, and eight semi-structured interviews during the main phase of data collection. The seven Harbour Masters (HMs) in this phase represented all port governance types found in the UK. Charmaz’s grounded theory (GT) methodology guided the collection and analysis of primary data between August 2012 and February 2013 to create new theory using an inductive constructivist approach. Validation by fifteen of the thirty local HMs during industry testing revealed numerous advantages and benefits of deploying PSMS which is estimated to generate £50,000 worth of benefits per port annually, and £3,865,005 for the 15 participating ports over 5 years. A new model of smaller port sustainability has emerged. PSMS has eleven pillars of sustainability which underpin the spectrum of port operations. Within this model, each pillar is equally important in contributing to the overall sustainability of a port, and neglect of one could jeopardise sustainability overall and potentially cause a chain reaction with other pillars.

Racial and ethnic diverse populations experience discrimination in educational and career attainment and remain underrepresented in the counseling profession. The current literature provides limited guidance for the counseling profession and academic institutions for successfully recruiting racial and ethnic minority students in a master's level counselor training program. Social Constructivist theory and Adlerian/ Individual Psychology are the theoretical foundations of the study. This constructivist grounded theory study sought to understand the career decision-making process of African Americans choosing to enter in the counseling profession and the influence of racial and ethnic identity on this decision-making process. Utilizing semistructured interviews via video-conferencing; 43 self-identified African Americans were commissioned to co-create an iterative career decision-making theory that informs recruitment and retention of African Americans to the counseling profession. Following the Charmaz's (2014) approach to data analysis; 15 themes which support the development of Embracing Ujima an interpretive theory of African Americans choosing to join the counseling profession—that informs a framework of recruitment and retention of African Americans to the counseling profession. The implications for social change include closing the knowledge gaps and informing counselor training institutions of the importance of physical representation, a sense of belonging, developing early career pipelines, and positioning counselor educators as the chief career development professionals for the field of counseling.

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<p>  </p> <p>The dissertation study presented here explores what higher education instructors believe about problem-solving. Beliefs about problem-solving pedagogy and the influences that change pedagogical approaches in the post-secondary realm of physics education require more robust exploration. The level of change that occurs through the day-to-day teaching cycle and the support that garners improvement are essential aspects of teaching in higher education that need robust understanding.</p> <p>Insight into higher education could illuminate the transitional experience of students between high school and college-level physics. This study explores the beliefs of Indiana college and high school educators, all of whom teach college-level physics content, and probed how those beliefs shaped higher education instructional strategies and teaching philosophies. The study was conducted using a Constructivist Grounded Theory approach.</p> <p>The findings show that physics educators in college and high school learning environments lacked support explicitly geared toward them and physics. All the educators included in the study taught college-level physics. Four of the six participants were the only ones teaching physics in their schools. Despite the isolation, all participants noted the importance of peer-to-peer learning for themselves and their students, noting interactions with exterior training opportunities (e.g., educational conferences or online educator communities). However, the most crucial source of change in their teaching beliefs and approaches that the participants noted was the feedback they received from students.</p>

This qualitative research maps the attitudes of the cosmetic surgery tourism stakeholders towards the phenomenon from their ethical, cultural and psychological aspects. Utilitarianism, media culture and mental health state that leads to the decision to experience cosmetic tourism, inform the investigation of the aforementioned aspects. There is a pronounced socio-cultural pressure affecting the motive to travel for cosmetic services, combined with the mental health issues ascending largely from culturally prescribed norms. The authors, by utilizing the constructivist genre of grounded theory, established conclusive evidence that a certain amount of emotional well-being does stem from cosmetic surgery, as long as the societal beauty standards are not solely what drove this decision, in the long run. Thus, the postoperative eudaimonia is temporary, and in order to gain physical and psychological benefits from this medical tourism experience in the long term, a positive aging shift in the perception and operations of cosmetic surgery tourism is deemed as necessary, as the findings of this research demonstrate. Finally, future research opportunities should be directed towards the implications of cosmetic surgery tourism on evolution and the establishment of biohacking as a large share of the offered cosmetic tourism services.

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