College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University
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Service through Compassion
Get PDFAs our Service-Learning Project for our Community Psychology class, we have been volunteering at Catholic Charities located in Saint Cloud. We have worked to continue to promote the Charities goal of providing services to those in crisis and/or seeking help. We guided clients through the food shelf and informed them how much product they were allowed to have, cleaned the lobby of the Charity, helped clients carry their supplies to their vehicle, all while making sure they felt welcome. The purpose of this Charity is to provide relief for those that may be struggling to make ends meet. They do this by offering a fully stocked food shelf and clothing section
Examination of Gastrointestinal Symptoms, Stress, and Lifestyle Factors With the Consumption of Gluten and Inulin in Healthy Adults
Get PDFBackground: Gluten and inulin type fibers have been shown to impact satiety, breath hydrogen, GI symptoms, and properties of different food products. Stress is often thought to play a role in breath hydrogen and gastrointestinal symptoms. Additional lifestyle factors are often related to increased GI symptoms including fiber consumption, increased high-intensity exercise, higher rates of anxiety, and disrupted sleep behaviors.
Objective: The objective of this panel will be to describe the findings from a year-long study examining the impact of consumption of gluten and inulin (a FODMAP) on sensory attributes, satiety, gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, breath hydrogen, perceived stress, cortisol levels, and a variety of lifestyle factors including anxiety, diet, physical activity, and sleep.
Methods: A blinded, randomized, controlled crossover design was conducted with 24 non-IBS participants. Fasted participants consumed a control low FODMAP smoothie and treatment smoothies that consisted of the low FODMAP base (control) with gluten (5g) or inulin (5g). Cortisol and breath hydrogen were measured at baseline (0), 1, 2, and 3 hours. GI symptoms were measured at baseline (0), 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 12, and 24 hours. VAS was collected at baseline (0), 10 min, 30 min, 1, 1.5, 2, and 3 hours. Sensory analysis was completed after the first initial sips of smoothie consumption. Perceived stress, State and Trait Anxiety, and Physical activity were measured for each treatment. Dietary intake and Sleep were analyzed at one time point as these measures assessed behaviors over the past 30 days. Salimetrics ELISA assays were used to determine cortisol values. Variables were analyzed by the Area Under the Curve using the trapezoidal rule, Spearman rho correlation coefficients, and Repeated Measures ANOVA with significance set at p\u3c.05.
Results: Main findings include no differences in breath hydrogen measurements and very little changes in GI symptoms when consuming five grams of gluten or inulin. Lifestyle variables overall did not correlate with breath hydrogen or GI symptoms. There were significant differences found for cortisol values in the control versus inulin and control versus gluten treatment groups. Additional findings will be discussed in detail during the panel.
Conclusion: In healthy adults, consumption of five grams of gluten or inulin did not increase GI symptoms nor breath hydrogen levels indicating there is high tolerance of gluten consumption and inulin consumption. Lifestyle variables did not appear to play a large role in the relationship to GI symptoms. More research is needed to understand the relationship with cortisol and consumption of gluten or inulin
Evaluation Of Measurement Data Across Eight GIS Basemaps Using Drumlins: Combining Basemaps Is Optimal
Get PDFChoosing the best basemap for landform data collection and analysis is fundamental for accurate measurements and usability. Different types of basemaps may affect how we perceive relief through a map (Phillips et al., 1975); thereby, affecting the precision of data collected. This project collected length and azimuth data of 60 drumlins in Western, NY from four different, ArcGIS online (AGOL)-provided basemaps, as well as two parallel-to-strike and two perpendicular-to-strike hillshades (n=4). Testing the mean length (1,662m, ±529) and azimuth (171°, ±0.3) data for uniformity across basemaps determined if any basemap is more or less reliable for data collection. The Terrain map and 351° hillshade showed the lowest statistic values (t(59) = 1.84, p = .007, R2 = 0.4116). This was due to a poor direction of shading that caused visual loss of the drumlin tails. The least number of difference occurred between the USGS Topographic map and the USA Topographic map (t(59) = -0.01, p = .992, R2 = 0.9412), maps married in creation. The more traditional USGS/USA Topographic map is better for measurements of length and orientation due to the more established outline of landforms and less visual variability. Combining hillshade and topographic maps, however, can create an optimal representation of landforms for remote data collection. Choosing, or better yet, creating the correct basemap for an intended result can ensure readability and useability. It is essential that the creation of useful basemaps can keep up with the data being collected from advancing remote-sensing technologies
Queering Disaster Response: Best Practices for Intentional and Inclusive Disaster Response
Get PDFClimate change is causing an increase in the severity and frequency of extreme weather and climatic disasters. Indigenous, Persons of Color, Women, Queer, Trans, Two Spirit, and Disabled communities will be most impacted by the adverse impacts of these disasters. This disproportionate impact is being examined through vulnerability to adverse impacts. Vulnerability is accrued though pre-existing social, political, and or economic marginalization. Overton comments, “Disaster can thus be seen as social events that reveal the inequalities, vulnerabilities, and coping mechanisms that inform how people negotiate the ‘permanent disaster’ of daily life.” However, current methods of disaster relief and aid don’t center the populations that will be most impacted. Marginalized communities are absent, not voluntarily, from decision making spaces for planning disaster relief and aid. This paper aims to examine the adverse impacts of anthropogenic climate change induced disasters on vulnerable population specifically, Indigenous, Persons of Color, Women, Queer, Trans, Two Spirit, and Disabled communities. A case study of Hurricane Katrina will showcase how methods of humanitarian aid and disaster relief further impact of disasters and compound traumas. Finally, best practices for humanitarian aid that centers vulnerable communities will be explored
ArsR Family Regulator MSMEG_6762 Mediates the Programmed Cell Death by Regulating the Expression of HNH Nuclease in Mycobacteria
Get PDFProgrammed cell death (PCD) is the result of an intracellular program and is accomplished by a regulated process in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. Here, we report a programed cell death process in Mycobacterium smegmatis, an Actinobacteria species which involves a transcription factor and a DNase of the HNH family. We found that over-expression of an ArsR family member of the transcription factor, MSMEG_6762, leads to cell death. Transcriptome analysis revealed an increase in the genes’ transcripts involved in DNA repair and homologous recombination, and in three members of HNH family DNases. Knockout of one of the DNase genes, MSMEG_1275, alleviated cell death and its over-expression of programmed cell death. Purified MSMEG_1275 cleaved the M. smegmatis DNA at multiple sites. Overall, our results indicate that the MSMEG_6762 affects cell death and is mediated, at least partially, by activation of the HNH nuclease expression under a stress condition
Caregivers’ Self-Compassion and Bereaved Children’s Adjustment: Testing Caregivers’ Mental Health and Parenting as Mediators
Get PDFObjectives: Self-compassion, which involves mindfulness, self-kindness, and common humanity, has been found to be related to individuals’ mental health. Few studies have examined caregivers’ self-compassion in relation to parenting behaviors and child adjustment in addition to its relation to their own mental health. In the current study we examined caregivers’ self-compassion as a protective factor related to parentally bereaved children’s internalizing and externalizing problems and further tested whether these relations were mediated by caregivers’ mental health (complicated grief and psychological distress) and parenting.
Methods: The sample consisted of 74 caregivers (female = 78.4%) who participated in a larger study designed for bereaved families. At T1 (baseline) and T2 (20 weeks later), caregivers completed measures on demographic information, self-compassion, complicated grief, parental warmth, and consistent discipline, as well as child internalizing and externalizing problems.
Results: Findings supported that caregivers’ self-compassion was prospectively related to decreased internalizing and externalizing problems in bereaved children. Mediation analyses showed that the effect of self-compassion on externalizing problems was mediated by parental warmth and by consistent discipline. In addition, caregivers’ self-compassion was prospectively associated with decreased complicated grief and psychological distress of the caregiver.
Conclusions: These findings add to the knowledge on the benefits of self-compassion for bereaved families and suggest that caregivers’ self-compassion intervention may be a leveraging point to protect both bereaved caregivers from complicated grief and distress but also to strengthen parenting which leads to bereaved children’s adjustment
Lighting Ceremony for 16th Firing of Johanna Kiln
No full textThe 16th firing of the Johanna Kiln at The Saint John’s Pottery honor three artists who have been pivotal in the international wood-firing community.
It commemorates the efforts of Koie Ryoji, Chuck Hindes and Paul Krueger, all of whom have been closely associated with the studio and died since the last lighting in 2019.
Ryoji, a renowned Japanese ceramicist, was known internationally for his experimental approach to clay and was a frequent studio guest at Saint John’s University. Hindes built the ceramics program at the University of Iowa, is celebrated across the U.S. for helping integrate wood firing into academia and has left a creative legacy in his students – many of whom will participate in the kiln firing at SJU. And Krueger, a former Johnnies assistant wrestling coach, became close friends with master potter Richard Bresnahan. They collaborated on numerous pieces, with Krueger providing intricately designed and knotted reed handles for Bresnahan’s teapots and ceremonial cake platters, many of which are in public and private collections.
“These artists were dynamic, highly creative individuals who had a profound influence on the world of wood-firing and a deep and lasting impact on our community,” said Bresnahan, director at The Saint John’s Pottery and artist-in-residence at SJU. “Their work lives on in the vibrant community that gathers to ceremonially light and fire this kiln.”
Designed by Richard Bresnahan and constructed with the help of apprentices and volunteers, the Johanna Kiln can fire up to 12,000 works of pottery and sculpture. It is named in honor of S. Johanna Becker, OSB and is the largest wood-burning kiln of its kind in North America. The kiln takes at least six weeks to load and is typically fired in the fall.
Once the kiln doors are closed, the lighting ceremony begins. Hundreds of individuals from the Saint John\u27s community–monks, laypersons, and guests–gather to take part in the lighting ceremony. After a short prayer, the kiln area is ritually purified in the Japanese tradition with rice, salt, and sake. The Johanna Kiln is then lit with a handmade torch.
For ten consecutive days, sixty volunteers gather to stoke pieces of wood in several firing shifts that stretch around the clock. Upon completion of the firing, the kiln is sealed with recycled clay to slowly cool for two weeks. Finally, when the kiln is opened, the ceramics are carefully unloaded, cleaned, and prepared for everyday use
Chinese Indentured Labor during the Era of Abolition: Cuba, Peru, and the United States during the Mid-Nineteenth Century
No full textThis talk examines the experience of the tens of thousands of Chinese indentured laborers who went to Cuba, Peru, and the United States during the mid-nineteenth century as replacements or supplements for slaves. In particular, it explores how and why Cuba and Peru, despite their many differences, developed similar systems of Chinese indentured labor—ones in which supposedly free individuals labored like slaves—while an effort to copy this system failed in the U.S. South. Race, abolition, Chinese resistance, and international relations all interacted to shape the trajectory of Chinese indentured labor in these three places. Nevertheless, the strength (even if temporary), goals, and actions of the state helped determine the viability of this labor system.
Dr. Benjamin Narvaez is Associate Professor of History at the University of Minnesota, Morris, where he also serves as coordinator of the Latin American Area Studies program. He received his Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and his B.A. from Grinnell College. His research focuses on the history of Chinese migration to Latin America, especially Chinese indentured labor in nineteenth-century Cuba and Peru and Chinese immigration in early twentieth-century Costa Rica. His work has appeared in various journals, including the Journal of Social History, The Americas, and the New West Indian Guide, as well as edited volumes