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Addressing Barriers to Racial Health Disparity Policy Change Advocacy: Exploring White Defensiveness Strategies
Get PDFEfforts to effect racial health disparity (RHD) policy change are urgent, necessary, and subject to a key barrier: defensiveness among White privileged audiences. Within the literature to date, such defensiveness is under-investigated, and when examined, is typically conceived of as an individual cognitive outcome—a message effect—rather than a communication interaction. Yet policy change advocacy efforts, ranging from community organizing to change campaigns, necessitate communication interactions between advocates and privileged policy change audiences, such as neighborhood groups or policymakers themselves. This defensiveness conceptualization, focused on individual cognitions, therefore limits our understanding of interactive communication barriers in RHD policy advocacy processes. To address this limitation, our research conceives of defensiveness using the privileged identity exploration (PIE) model, developed by Watt in 2007, which posits that defensiveness strategies are used as part of an interactive communication process when people are asked to reflect on their own privilege. Defensiveness strategies, as described by Watt and colleagues in 2021 and 2023, are normal communicative reactions to protect one’s self-identity from threatening information; the PIE models eight such strategies. RHD information invokes racial privilege, therefore eliciting defensiveness. Using a thematic analysis of semi-structured qualitative interviews with White young adults from the Chicago (U.S.) area (N = 27), we identify defensiveness strategies relative to COVID-19 RHDs. Using the PIE as a lens to understand the data, we find some strategies lacking, some similar but differently nuanced, and identify a novel strategy among our participants, suggesting message tailoring opportunities. We describe implications for future research and practice
Investigating Potential Alzheimer\u27s Disease Therapies through an Agent-Based Model of Impaired Microglia MetabolismModeling Impaired Microglia Metabolism
No full textAlzheimer’s disease is the leading cause of dementia globally and is marked by amyloid-β plaque accumulation, decreased brain pH, disrupted metabolism, and increased permeability of the blood-brain barrier. Microglia, the resident immune cells of the central nervous system, are essential for maintaining brain homeostasis and are critically involved in the progression of AD. While microglia can initiate protective immune responses to injury and disease, dysregulated microglial metabolism may contribute to the exacerbation of Alzheimer\u27s pathology. To investigate potential therapeutic strategies, we developed an agent-based model simulating the effects of exercise and metabolic enhancement on dysfunctional microglia. Our findings suggest that these interventions can reduce amyloid-β plaque accumulation and slow the blood brain barrier breakdown; however, they may also unintentionally lower brain pH, highlighting a trade-off that warrants further investigation
Philharmonia Orchestra Concert: February 19, 2025
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February 19, 2025
Wednesday Evening
7:30 p.m
Symphonic Winds: February 12, 2025
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February 12, 2025
Wednesday Evening
8:00 p.m
Sophomore Recital: March 1, 2025
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March 1, 2025
Saturday Afternoon
3:00 p.m
Junior Recital: March 23, 2025
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March 23, 2025
Sunday Afternoon
3:30 p.m
Graduate Recital: March 23, 2025
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March 23, 2025
Sunday Evening
6:30 p.m
Graduate Recital: March 29, 2025
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March 29, 2025
Saturday Evening
6:30 p.m
Sophomore Trombone Quintet Recital: March 28, 2025
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March 28, 2025
Friday Evening
7:30 p.m