College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University
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Death-Related Anxiety Associated with Riskier Decision-Making Irrespective of Framing: A Bayesian Model Comparison
Get PDFA commonly reported finding is that anxious individuals are less likely to make risky decisions. However, no studies have examined whether this association extends to death-related anxiety. The present study examined how groups low, moderate, and high in death-related anxiety make decisions with varying levels of risk. Participants completed a series of hypothetical bets in which the probability of a win was systematically manipulated. High-anxiety individuals displayed the greatest risk-taking behavior, followed by the moderate-anxiety group, with the low-anxiety group being most risk-averse. Experiment 2 tested this association further by framing outcomes in terms of losses, rather than gains. A similar pattern was observed with both positive and negative framing. In contrast to findings with trait anxiety, the present results suggest that death-related anxiety is positively associated with risky decision-making – an effect that holds regardless of how options are framed. Furthermore, the present study demonstrates that Bayesian modeling can provide very accurate predictions for economic decision-making behavior
Fethullah Gülen’s Gandhi-Inspired Muslim Peace Movement
No full textThe Turkish Muslim scholar and preacher Fethullah Gülen was one of Time Magazine\u27s Top 100 People in the World in 2013, mostly for inspiring the global Hizmet (service) movement, through which Turks built schools (especially science academies) in 130 different countries, organized interreligious events, and sponsored a wide range of social enterprises such as newspapers, relief agencies, and think tanks. By 2016, however, Gülen was labeled a terrorist by the Turkish government. People close to him have since lost their jobs (and assets), been imprisoned, and/or had to flee the country in a purge that continues. In this lecture, historian Jon Pahl, who published the first critical biography of Gülen in English in 2019, will uncover the authentic Fethullah Gülen, in contrast to the big lie about him from the government. Dr. Pahl will document how Gülen \u27s interreligious initiatives foster what he calls deep peace, in a trajectory that links Gülen back to Gandhi, and down to the Liberian Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee, and beyond
Women’s Rights in Kenya since Independence: The Complexities of Kenya’s Legal System and the Opportunities of Civic Engagement
Get PDFSince Kenya gained independence from Britain in 1963, women’s rights in the country have made slow gains and suffered some setbacks. However, the rights of women and their guaranteed participation in politics was outlined in Kenya’s 2010 Constitution. This paper will survey some of those gains as well as describe the social backlash experienced by women leaders who have been trailblazers in post-colonial Kenyan politics
Navigating the “COVID hangover” in physiology courses
Get PDFUndergraduate educators and students must navigate lingering aftereffects of the COVID pandemic on education in the 2021–2022 academic year even as COVID continues to impact delivery of undergraduate science education. This article describes ongoing difficulties for undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students and educators and suggests strategies and easy-to-use resources that may help educators navigate the “COVID hangover” and ongoing COVID-related disruptions
How Big Are Your Arms, O God?
Get PDFExpansive images and expressions of God invite us all to experience God’s steadfast, faithful, and unconditional love in our lives. Out of this deep sense of belovedness, we are called to embody God’s loving presence. “How Big Are Your Arms, O God?” urges a broader imagination of God’s compassion and a more inclusive expression of that love in this world. As both a proclamation and a reminder, this song explores our understanding of and response to “the breadth and length and height and depth…[of] the love of Christ” (Ephesians 3:18, NRSV)
Privatizing Retirement: The Case of the Female Chilean Worker
Get PDFChile has been called the “promised land” of Latin America, a First World country, and an economic miracle. Privatizing social security in Chile has often been hailed by economists as the key for their unprecedented economic growth and success within the past few decades—so much so that other countries have adopted similar pension models within their own countries. Somewhere along this path of astonishing economic growth, Chile, like other developed nations, has arrived at a point where it can no longer assume that the typical worker is a man. Yet as the gap continues to decrease between female and male labor force participation, the gap between female and male retirees remains ever present. In other words, the typical retiree is still a man. Because the calculation of retirement benefits is based on the idea of individual insurance, the uncontrollable economic, cultural, and demographic characteristics that shape the present reality of the Chilean woman are also shaping her future. Chile’s transition from a pay-as-you-go system to a system of individual accounts was economically sound and macroeconomically successful, yet I argue that it wasn’t pareto optimal, as the variable of gender was lost in the calculation of transition costs. Through constructing the economic profile of the average female Chilean worker—observing female wages, fertility, life expectancy, education, and retirement age—this study aims to replicate and demonstrate the gender pension differential that has existed under the privatized model of retirement in Chile since 1981 by means of simulation. Additionally, the results of this study of Chile’s past and present will bridge significant discussion into Chile’s future. Hypothetically having the ear of the Chilean Constitutional Congress, my research will foster suggestions for system design and policy changes, such as an increase in the female retirement age or expanding the benefits of maternity leave and childcare that could significantly improve the position of the average Chilean female retiree under a system of privatized retirement. This study is structured as follows; Section I provides relevant historical background on Chile’s systems of retirement, Section II is the literature review, Section III details the theoretical framework, Section IV explicates the empirical framework and analysis, Section V describes the data and summary statistics, and Section VI concludes with the results and discussion
Perceived Stress, Cortisol, Breath Hydrogen, and Gastrointestinal Symptoms After Consumption of Gluten and Inulin in Adults With and Without Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Get PDFPerceived Stress, Cortisol, Breath Hydrogen, and Gastrointestinal Symptoms After Consumption of Gluten and Inulin in Adults With and Without Irritable Bowel Syndrome. S.L. Stovern, L.P. Metelmann, J.R. Milstroh, and A.L. Evenson, PhD., RDN, CFS. Nutrition Department. College of Saint Benedict/Saint John\u27s University, Saint Joseph, MN.
Background: Stress is often thought to play a role in breath hydrogen and gastrointestinal symptoms.
Objective: Investigate the relationship between cortisol, perceived stress, breath hydrogen, and gastrointestinal symptoms after consumption of gluten and inulin in those with and without IBS.
Methods: A randomized, controlled crossover design was conducted with 24 non-IBS and 14 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. Perceived stress was measured for each treatment. Salimetrics ELISA assays were used to determine cortisol values. Variables were analyzed by the Area Under the Curve, Spearman rho, Repeated Measures ANOVA, and Simple Effect Tests with significance set at p\u3c0.05.
Results: Cortisol differed in the non-IBS group between control vs gluten treatments (MD=-0.313; p=0.004) and control vs inulin treatments (MD=-0.150; p=0.031), with control having lower cortisol concentrations. Perceived stress did not differ between treatments or IBS groups (p\u3e0.05). GI symptoms differed between gluten and inulin treatments in non-IBS group, with gluten producing fewer GI symptoms (MD=-4.362; p=0.013). IBS group had more total GI symptoms than non-IBS group for control (MD=73.219; p=0.001), gluten (MD=54.571; p\u3c0.001), and inulin (MD=56.338; p=0.032) treatments. There were no differences in breath hydrogen between treatments or groups (p\u3e0.05).
Conclusion: In this sample of participants, the restriction of gluten and inulin in the diet (at 5 grams) is not warranted for those with and without IBS, as neither treatment produced a significant increase in breath hydrogen or GI symptoms. In those with IBS, there were increased GI symptoms to start with, indicating more GI distress but not related to the consumption of gluten or inulin at the 5-gram level. While perceived stress did not differ between non-IBS and IBS groups, physiological stress (cortisol) was higher with gluten consumption in non-IBS participants. More research is needed as the relationship between cortisol, breath hydrogen, and GI symptoms is still unclear