University at Albany, State University of New York
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Chromosome 7 Microdeletions: A Literature Review
Get PDFMicrodeletions, deletions of part of a chromosome that are too small to be detected by light microscopy using conventional cytogenetic methods, have become a hot topic for geneticists over the past decade or so. Occurring in around one in every 4000 live births, some of these microdeletions do not allow for a viable offspring, while others have distinctive developmental consequences. Many of the genes on chromosome 7 play a large role in the early development of the head, face, and limbs and more generally on cell growth and division (Bethesda 2022). This research study reviews known microdeletions on the seventh chromosome and the impact they have on individuals. Comparisons were made between five different microdeletion disorders (7p11.23, 7p22.1, 7q31.1, 7p22.3, and 7q11.22), including prominence and characteristics of each microdeletion individually. It was found that most of these deletions were associated with distinct facial features (4/5), short stature (3/5), behavioral problems (4/5), were linked with other health problems (3/5), and occurred de novo (3/5), and all of these deletions were linked to intellectual disabilities. By knowing more on these conditions, it can be properly diagnosed more frequently, such as by detecting the distinct facial features in the pre-natal stage. Lastly, though treatment is very much in its beginning stages, somatic gene therapy can be used to change the DNA in the cells of the adults or children who have these conditions, as this technique goes directly toward the cause of the problem, rather than trying to treat the symptoms
‘Making of a Woman Minister’ Rev. Annis Ford Eastman and Elmira, New York
Get PDFThis paper explores the life and career of one of the United States’ first female ministers, Rev. Annis Ford Eastman (1852-1910). Remembered today as being the author of Mark Twain’s eulogy and as the mother of American writer Max Eastman and co-author of the Equal Rights Amendment Crystal Eastman, the Reverend Eastman had a career that was exceptional in its own right. Reverend Eastman was ordained when it was practically unheard of for a woman to preach. Not only was she ordained but she was invited to speak at national conferences and was frequently published in religious and civic journals. Despite her skills as an orator, author, and theologian, her career was actualized, in part, because of her relationship with her husband, Rev. Samuel Eastman. Another contributing factor to her ordination was its location. The Eastmans moved around New York State’s Burned-Over District before settling in Elmira, just north of the Pennsylvania border. While the Burned-Over District had a rightful reputation for militant progressivism, Elmira was unique in its political situation. Mid-nineteenth-century Elmira was a hotbed for radical religious and political thought under the control of a politically progressive railroad tycoon. Annis Eastman’s career reached its peak in the 1890s, as the United States transitioned between the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era. Her position as a woman minister and the politics that she espoused given her platform are emblematic of that shift
School Discipline, the Little Rock Crisis, and Aaron v. Cooper
Get PDFThe Little Rock Crisis was a monumental event within the larger story of school desegregation and the civil rights movement. Governor Orval Faubus sent the Arkansas National Guard to Little Rock Central High September 1957 in the efforts of preventing integration. After much back and forth between the governor and president, Eisenhower then sent federal troops from the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Brown v. Board decision of 1954. In the background of the constitutional crisis, and amongst the troops in the building, the school administration dealt with backlash from angered segregationists both inside and outside the school. During the 1957-1958 school year, the nine Black students were harassed and tormented, the presence of the troops proved to be a distraction, and school property was continuously vandalized by segregationist students who did much to impair the integration efforts- in hopes the administration would abandon them. However, amidst all the incidents, few of the offending students were disciplined or punished adequately, and even less were suspended for longer than ten days. The school board then petitioned the federal district court asking for a delay of integration based on the adverse effects that the situation had on the educational program; they specifically cited the increased vandalism, financial burdens on the district, and the personal effects on the students and teachers. This case was known as Aaron v. Cooper (1958). Already heavily involved in the Little Rock Crisis, the Little Rock branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), led by Daisy Bates, backed the effort to continue integration. The NAACP argued that the district could have avoided most of the problems used to justify the request for the delay, had the administrators been more strict in their enforcement of the disciplinary policy against students acting out about integration. Ultimately the delay was 2 granted to the school board, and the case stood as an affirmation to segregationists that integration could be stopped if there was enough disruptive opposition. The NAACP immediately appealed the decision. The case progressed all the way to the Supreme Court as Cooper v. Aaron (1958), where they struck down the previous decision and asserted that the rights of the Black children could not be yielded due to the disorder resulting from the actions of the state government. Overlooked in the larger story, I intend to expand the current understanding of the Little Rock Crisis by examining the details of the discipline argument within the Aaron v. Cooper (1958) case, and the discipline environment within the school. In the case, the NAACP brought in two school administration experts to testify on their behalf, but the judge later discredited their testimony, along with one of the members of Central High’s administration that agreed with the NAACP’s argument. I will analyze the testimonies of the experts and two of the administrators, then compare them with how they were interpreted in the case opinion, and what the school environment actually looked like. This will reveal a new perspective on the Little Rock Crisis, one that shows a clear failure on the part of the school administration, a larger picture of the environment inside the walls of the school, and the misconstrued and biased case opinion of the district court
Examining Diachronic Use of Exotic Lithic Material from a Multicomponent Archaeological Site on Newfoundland, Canada
Get PDFNewfoundland has been home to several different cultural groups such as the Maritime Archaic, different Paleo-Eskimo groups, the Beothuk, and many others. These cultures are all unique in their own ways and the majority have been documented using the exotic material, Ramah chert. This material is typically found within seabed’s or within deep lakes because of the continuous sediment deposit. The excavation and lab analysis have emphasized the continuous use of this material over time. This can be attributed to several factors such as cultural significance or durability. This paper will mainly touch on the culturally significant aspects because of the rarity of the material and the extensive measures it takes to gain access to the material overall
The Politics of Naming a Field: Evolution, Controversies, and Strategies around What We Call “Women’s Studies”
Get PDFThe name “Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies,” WGSS, is a name rooted in politics and the academy, evidenced by the evolution of the phrasing even in the field’s relatively short history. In an environment where WGSS is under attack from both neo-fascist policies and neo-liberal budget cuts, we must be certain to put our best, most representative foot forward. This project explores (1) the state of the field’s name today and how it has evolved, (2) why this nomenclature is unstable and contradictory, and (3) what the politics of naming reveal about the changes in the field, the challenges it has faced, and, perhaps, the opportunities that might be available for the field to not only survive but thrive within the academy
Phenomenological Study of Talented Young People in Ballet in South Korea
Get PDFTalent development occurs throughout an individual’s everyday life in a complex, evolving, and dynamic way. Focusing on the developmental perspective of human talent, this study aimed to comprehensively explore the long-term learning paths of students majoring in ballet in Korea. Six research questions were investigated regarding individual talent profiles in ballet, psychological and social stressors, the role of family and home, peer relationships, educational environments, and socio-cultural context. This qualitative study conducted in-depth interviews with 20 undergraduates and 14 parents about the students’ experiences in ballet. Through reflexive thematic analysis based on a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, six themes emerged as results: jagged profiles of individual talent in ballet, close connections between physical and mental stress, wraparound parental support, effective school curriculum and competent teachers, mixed feelings of rivalry and camaraderie among ballet peers, and culturally specific norms and priorities. The findings support conceptual changes in the definition of talent as an individual profile with a combination of multiple aptitudes and dispositions. The findings imply that the talent development process overlaps with various dimensions of a person’s daily life through multi-directional interactions between the person and environmental layers. The findings provide rich information about ballet education in Korea from an ecological perspective that supports the dynamics and complexity of talent development. This study provides more practical suggestions for parents, teachers, and policymakers on supporting artistically and physically talented students in pursuing their careers in safer, healthier, and higher-quality environments
Optimizing the Community Health Worker (CHW) Program in Belize and Understanding its Unique Intermediary Position within the Health System: Perspective from the World Health Organization (WHO) Health Systems Approach
Get PDFHuman resources for health (HRH) are the backbone of a well-functioning and resilient health system. Issues related to HRH recruitment, retention, planning, leadership and governance have been amplified by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and have posed additional and unprecedented challenges in many countries. Community health workers (CHWs) in particular, are uniquely positioned to be frontline health care workers (HCWs) that are considered a vital link between communities and the formal health system. Globally, the benefits of CHW programs have been well documented, and there is substantial evidence of the efficacy and effectiveness of these programs. However, countries are still working to formalize, sustain and embed CHWs into the wider health workforce and system.
In Belize, much of the country’s health gains can be attributed to CHWs who continue to support and link formal health services to the broader community. As a significant element of the primary health care (PHC) initiative, the national community health worker program, established in 1982, aims to improve population health and access to essential health services. With over 40 years after the launch of the CHW program, and a decade since the last revision, there has been no published systematic assessment of the CHW program and its intermediary position within the Belizean health system. The overall objective of this study was to assess the national CHW program in Belize and to provide specific recommendations on how to optimize the program, within the context of the World Health Organization (WHO) health systems approach.
The building blocks of the WHO Health Systems Framework and the programmatic components of the Community Health Worker Assessment and Improvement Matrix (CHW AIM) are two tools integrated into the conceptual framework that guided this research study. An exploratory qualitative case study using a health policy and systems research (HPSR) approach was conducted through an extensive desk review and semi-structured key informant interviews (KIIs). The content analysis method was used to analyze all data. The study was conducted in 2023 and 2024 after the approval from the dissertation committee and the Institutional Review Boards (IRB) of both the Ministry of Health and Wellness in Belize (MOHW) and the University at Albany, State University of New York.
The findings of this study indicate that Belize’s health system has significantly influenced the CHW program through strategic structural changes, policy directives, service delivery models, and resource allocation, as part of the broader health sector reform aimed at improving primary health care. This research also elucidates the influence of the WHO health system building blocks on the core components of the CHW program. Evidence suggests that these building blocks have positively influenced the program by providing a necessary framework and strategic direction for the MOHW. They have facilitated the integration of the program into various health policies and plans, while also fostering community ownership and partnerships. Despite these positive impacts, setbacks remain in several of the building blocks, including budget allocation, the availability of medications and supplies, the referral system and coordination with local health facilities, health workforce planning, and the utilization of community-level data. Additionally, findings emphasize the need for developing and implementing dedicated community health policies and plans to better support the program. These findings highlight opportunities for enhancements and underscore the complex and multifaceted influence of the health system on the CHW program in Belize. Consequently, they inform targeted recommendations to optimize the functionality and performance of the program, with the aim of creating a more effective, integrated, and resilient health system
The Effect of Presenting Concerns on Providers’ Assessment of Patients\u27 Suicide Risk
Get PDFObjective: Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S. with nearly 50,000 people per year dying by suicide. Public health approaches to suicide prevention focus on screening people in primary and mental health care settings and offering treatment to those who screen positive. Research shows that mental health providers may not recognize risk factors for suicide and miss opportunities to screen patients who may be at risk. Providers’ mental representations of suicide risk may be influencing their perception of patient risk and contributing to low screening rates. This study used an experimental vignette case design to examine providers interpretation of patient risk level based on the presenting concern of the patient. Methods: A large sample (N=436) of mental health providers and graduate students in mental health fields participated in this study. Participants were mostly women, mostly psychologists, and were distributed across the United States. Participants were randomly presented one of two conditions, a patient presenting with pain and anxiety, or a patient presenting with anxiety and were asked to rate four factors of the vignette patient’s suicide risk: perceived distress, risk of suicide ideation and behavior, and resilience. While the sample was randomized, there was an administrative error in distribution that lead to unequal randomization and thus results should be interpreted cautiously. A series of ANOVAs were used to examine between group differences for the four factors of suicide risk. Results: There were significant differences between groups for three of the four factors of suicide risk, perceived distress, risk of suicide ideation and behavior but not resilience which provides support for 3 of 4 study hypotheses. Conclusions: The study found that providers did perceive patient’s risk to be higher when the patient presented with both pain and anxiety, compared to anxiety alone. These results are encouraging because they demonstrate that providers do consider a patient to be at higher risk for death by suicide when the patient has high levels of pain. These findings should be replicated in future studies
Understanding How Laypeople Perceive Sexual Harassment Claims from Non-Typical Claimants
Get PDFOver the past four decades, scholars have generated a wealth of knowledge on the topic of sexual harassment. However, in much of this research, findings may have resulted from participants assuming that the target in question was a “typical” sexual harassment victim (i.e., a White, straight, cisgender woman who is traditionally feminine and conventionally attractive; Kaiser et al., 2022). As a result, the generalizability of this research is inherently limited, as it may not accurately reflect how sexual harassment is perceived when it is aimed at a person who does not possess the attributes typically associated with sexual harassment targets. This dissertation, which contains a total of eight studies from three manuscripts, examines how non-typical sexual harassment claimants are perceived relative to typical claimants. All three manuscripts focus on sexual harassment claimants who could be labeled as typical or non-typical targets based on their social identities. The first manuscript is comprised of three studies that assess third-party perceivers’ assumptions about the motivations behind a sexual harassment incident (Studies 1-2), the most appropriate consequences for the harasser (Studies 2-3), and assumptions about the most likely form of harassment (Study 3) as a function of whether the claimant was a transgender woman, a lesbian woman, or a woman with no additional identifying information (and thus assumed to be straight and cisgender). The second manuscript contains three studies, all of which asked participants to speculate the form of harassment experienced by a claimant based on her race (Black or White) and gender identity (transgender or cisgender woman). Across these two manuscripts, a claimant’s gender identity and sexual orientation systematically impacted the assumptions perceivers made about the harassment motivations and forms. Specifically, participants tended to assume that transgender women were likely to experience harassment motivated by prejudice and power and that harassment would likely take the form of gender iii harassment. In contrast, lesbian and straight cisgender women were assumed to experience harassment primarily motivated by attraction and power and that it would likely take the form of unwanted sexual attention. A claimant’s race, however, had little impact on assumptions about the form of harassment the claimant was thought to have experienced. Despite some differences, perceivers’ suggestions for the consequences the harasser should face did not vary based on the claimants’ identities. Finally, the third manuscript features two studies that explore how claims may be evaluated based on whether the form of harassment (unwanted sexual attention or gender harassment) matches expectations for the claimant’s gender identity (transgender or assumed cisgender woman). Findings showed that whether the harassment form and claimant gender identity matched did not impact claim evaluations. Rather, transgender women claimants were viewed more negatively than assumed cisgender claimants, regardless of the harassment form described. Taken together, these eight studies establish that perceivers may have very different opinions about sexual harassment depending on whether the claimant is a typical or non-typical harassment target. I further propose that the present findings raise new questions for future research, such as why perceptions vary, how perceivers arrive at their judgments, and what impact perceivers’ and harassers’ identities have on perceptions of sexual harassment
A Foundation for Transformative Learning Practices in Higher Education
Get PDFHigher education institutions in the United States have an ongoing rhetoric of claiming that they offer students educational experiences that build skills and prepare them for a career. However, reports from employers and students indicate that many schools are struggling to do so, and research imperative skills like critical thinking have wide construct definitions that can be difficult for institutions to work with. Transformative learning theory (TLT) is a theoretical practice and pedagogy that could support institutions by providing both a pedagogical foundation of what should occur in a classroom and a series of steps for what transformative learning looks like. The purpose of this mixed-methods meta-analysis of forty-four doctoral dissertations and master’s theses was to review a collection of TLT observations and interventions that maintained the strong construct consistency of the TLT domain to determine what academic outcomes, characteristics, scopes, and commonalities existed in successful TLT interventions. This could then be used to create a template or lesson plan for institutions. Studies showed that interventions had consistently positive outcomes, although results found were mostly non-significant due to a lack of quantitative and experimental data in the discipline. Instead, the gaps found in the data presented by studies during the meta analysis are used to determine quantitative gaps in the literature and identify what later studies can do to promote TLT as a worthwhile pedagogical practice for higher education institutions