"Our collective purpose is to describe and discuss trends over the past 2 decades that have had a significant impact on student affairs practice. This review is not exhaustive nor is it inclusive. There are any number of issues we could have chosen to address but did not. These include organizational changes, changes in professional associations, and "big picture" changes in the landscape of American higher education. We chose, instead, to address six broad topics that encompass the bulk of the foci of the NDSS series from 1997 through 2014: (a) student affairs practice, (b) students, (c) assessment, (d) digital technologies, (e) finance, and (f) staff preparation and development.."--Editor's notes.

Student affairs has changed greatly in the almost twenty years that the series editors have been managing New Directions for Student Services. This volume provides a look back at this period of time from 1997 through 2014 with topical chapters focused on: trends in student affairs during the past two decades, changes in students and the most effective student affairs responses, progress and recommendations for assessment in student affairs, and challenges with and skills needed for digital technologies, finance and budgets, and staff preparation. The volume concludes with a look into the future of student affairs practice based in part on the lessons learned from looking at the recent past. This is the 151st volume of this Jossey-Bass higher education quarterly series. An indispensable resource for vice presidents of student affairs, deans of students, student counselors, and other student services professionals, New Directions for Student Services offers guidelines and programs for aiding students in their total development: emotional, social, physical, and intellectual.

The fiftieth anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision (1954) called us as student affairs professionals to reconsider and reaffirm our commitment to social justice. This issue is a call to action to student affairs professionals who are working as social justice allies, those with a commitment to make their college campuses a place where all community members are respected, validated, and fostered in developing their full potential. This issue encourages the development of ally attitudes and action in both students and student affairs colleagues. It first presents the conceptual foundation for social justice ally development and then covers in depth the strategies for the development of social justice behaviors in specific dominant group members. In each case, we have intentionally enlisted voices of authors who identify with the dominant and target groups on which the chapter focuses. This is the 110th volume of the Jossey-Bass higher education quarterly report series New Directions for Student Services. An indispensable resource for vice presidents of student affairs, deans of students, student counselors, and other student services professionals, New Directions for Student Services offers guidelines and programs for aiding students in their total development: emotional, social, physical, and intellectual.

This volume represents a breakthrough discussion of the research issues surrounding innovative pedagogies. Using service-learning as its focus, it explores ways in which researchers and evaluators can study a teaching and learning approach that has multiple goals, including both academic and affective development. The chapter authors show how to study a topic that is multilayered, complex, and involves the ways in which individuals make meaning of their experiences. Seven challenges that researchers need to grapple with in studying service-learning are identified and addressed: defining service-learning; basing service-learning research on strong theoretical foundations; refining service-learning research design and methodology; interpreting service-learning results; disseminating service-learning research findings; improving service-learning practice; and building funding to support service-learning research. In addition, practical recommendations are provided for professionals involved in doing research on service-learning and more broadly on any form of experiential education, community service and development, or educational reform. Studying Service-Learning: Innovations in Education Research Methodology is an essential resource for researchers who are interested in studying innovative teaching and learning strategies and for students who are learning about a range of research methodologies.

Animal genetics is a foundational discipline in the fields of animal science, animal breeding, and veterinary sciences. While genetics underpins the healthy development and breeding of all living organisms, this is especially true in domestic animals, specifically with respect to breeding for key traits. Molecular and Quantitative Animal Genetics is a new textbook that takes an innovative approach, looking at both quantitative and molecular breeding approaches. The bookprovides a comprehensive introduction to genetic principles and their applications in animal breeding. This text provides a useful overview for those new to the field of animal genetics and breeding, covering a diverse array of topics ranging from population and quantitative genetics to epigenetics and biotechnology. Molecular and Quantitative Animal Genetics will be an important and invaluable educational resource for undergraduate and graduate students and animal agriculture professionals. Divided into six sections pairing fundamental principles with useful applications, the book's comprehensive coverage will make it an ideal fit for students studying animal breeding and genetics at any level.

The LNCS journal Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems focuses on data management, knowledge discovery, and knowledge processing, which are core and hot topics in computer science. Since the 1990s, the Internet has become the main driving force behind application development in all domains. An increase in the demand for resource sharing across different sites connected through networks has led to an evolution of data- and knowledge-management systems from centralized systems to decentralized systems enabling large-scale distributed applications providing high scalability. This, the 47th issue of Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems, constitutes a special issue focusing on Digital Ecosystems and Social Networks. The 9 revised selected papers cover topics that include Social Big Data, Data Analysis, Cloud-Based Feedback, Experience Ecosystems, Pervasive Environments, and Smart Systems.

After its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, many wondered whether the law and literature movement would retain vitality. This collection of essays, featuring twenty-two prominent scholars from literature departments as well as law schools, showcases the vibrancy of recent work in the field while highlighting its many new directions. New Directions in Law and Literature furnishes an overview of where the field has been, its recent past, and its potential futures. Some of the essays examine the methodological choices that have affected the field; among these are concern for globalization, the integration of approaches from history and political theory, the application of new theoretical models from affect studies and queer theory, and expansion beyond text to performance and the image. Others grapple with particular intersections between law and literature, whether in copyright law, competing visions of alternatives to marriage, or the role of ornament in the law's construction of racialized bodies. The volume is designed to be a course book that is accessible to undergraduates and law students as well as relevant to academics with an interest in law and the humanities. The essays are simultaneously intended to be introductory and addressed to experts in law and literature. More than any other existing book in the field, New Directions furnishes a guide to the most exciting new work in law and literature while also situating that work within more established debates and conversations.