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Cultural Identity Construction among Political Refugee Students: The Case of Eritrean College Students in the Midwest
Get PDFThe global migration across the globe appears to justify the need for theorizing refugee education, as students are part of the migration. The United States is one of the largest refugee recipients in the world (UNHCR, 2018), and a great number of refugee students go to school, even though the enrollment rate of those in postsecondary institutions is not clear due to different methods of categorizing immigrant students who enter U.S. higher education institutions. Asylees and refugees are all categorized under the term ‘immigrant,’ though they have different economical and immigration statuses (Yi & Kiyama, 2018). Even though various studies have been conducted to theorize refugee education with a focus on identity formation of refugee students, most of them have focused on school rather than college level. Studies focused on refugee students’ identity construction emphasize how refugees learn new skills to build up their self-esteem, join a new society, and use their native language and reflect their cultural identities in school (Uptin , 2013; Erden, 2017; Saleh, 2018).
There are a few studies that examined the schooling experiences of refugee students in postsecondary institutions (e.g., Felix, 2016), but little is known about how Eritrean political refugee students negotiate and renegotiate their cultural identity in postsecondary institutions in the Midwest and how schooling shapes their cultural identity. This dissertation study employed case study methodology to explore an in-depth case of how Eritrean political refugee students negotiate and renegotiate their cultural identity in the postsecondary institution landscape. Thus, the case, in this research, was defined as political refugees; more specifically, the case was defined as the ways the political refugee students negotiated and renegotiated their cultural identity. The case was bounded by the 2022-2023 academic year, by Eritrean political refugees participating in the experience, their college and curricula contexts, and the multicultural education policy. Data were gathered through semi-structured interview and focus-group discussion.
Through the theories of cultural reproduction, acculturation/assimilation, biculturalism and transculturalism, six themes were identified. These themes included: 1) negotiating and renegotiating cultural identity, 2) maintaining cultural identity, 3) home culture versus college culture, 4) reflecting refugees’ cultural identity in school, 5) impact of cultural identity on schooling, and 6) culturally related teaching methodology. In relation to the research question of how Eritrean political refugee students negotiate and renegotiate their cultural identity in postsecondary institutions in the Midwest, the participants identified themselves as culturally Eritrean students and thought they were different from the rest of the student populations due to their cultural identity. The participants did not feel a sense of bilingual identity and were not in a position to negotiate and renegotiate their cultural identity, though they admitted that they were pulled to fit in the social, economic, and political structures of the host country. With respect to the research question of how postsecondary schooling experiences shape the cultural identity of Eritrean political refugee students in the Midwest, the college education was shown to have little to do with participants’ cultural identity. The participants did not see their identities, histories, values, and cultural practices in the postsecondary institution in the Midwest. Finally, the study recommends not only the integration of culturally responsive pedagogy to the college education system to make the curriculum inclusive so that the refugee students feel a sense of belongingness, but also having a unique support system for college refugee students, as their learning experiences are different from the rest of the student populations
Sulfamate-Tethered Aza-Wacker Cyclization Strategy for the Syntheses of 2-Amino-2-deoxyhexoses: Preparation of Orthogonally Protected d-Galactosamines
No full textThis document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in The Journal of Organic Chemistry, Copyright © 2023 American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.joc.2c02346.We present a new strategy for the assembly of protected d-galactosamine synthons. Our route uses a sulfamate-tethered aza-Wacker cyclization as a key step and commences from d-erythrono-1,4-lactone. This stands in contrast to most literature syntheses of 2-amino-2-deoxyhexose derivatives, as these generally employ glycals or hexoses as starting materials. This strategy may serve as a template for the assembly of many other 2-amino-2-deoxyhexoses with protection patterns difficult to access by conventional methods
Built Environment and Population Health in Small-Town America (Supplementary materials)
No full textThese tables are supplementary materials for the book Rashid, M. Built Environment and Population Health in Small-Town America. Baltimore, MD. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023.
Table 8.1: Correlations between lifestyles and city size, density, availability of key destination and facilities, and land use types and mix in the sample of small Kansas cities
Table 8.2: Correlations between lifestyles and street properties in the sample of small Kansas cities
Table 10.1: Correlations between health indicators and city size, density, availability of key destinations and facilities, and land use types and mix in the sample of small Kansas cities
Table 10.2: Correlations between health indicators and street properties in the sample of small Kansas citie
Spatiotemporal Imaging of Zinc Ions in Zebrafish Live Brain Tissue Enabled by Fluorescent Bionanoprobes
Get PDFThe zebrafish is a powerful model organism to study the mechanisms governing transition metal ions within whole brain tissue. Zinc is one of the most abundant metal ions in the brain, playing a critical pathophysiological role in neurodegenerative diseases. The homeostasis of free, ionic zinc (Zn2+) is a key intersection point in many of these diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. A Zn2+ imbalance can eventuate several disturbances that may lead to the development of neurodegenerative changes. Therefore, compact, reliable approaches that allow the optical detection of Zn2+ across the whole brain would contribute to our current understanding of the mechanisms that underlie neurological disease pathology. We developed an engineered fluorescence protein-based nanoprobe that can spatially and temporally resolve Zn2+ in living zebrafish brain tissue. The self-assembled engineered fluorescence protein on gold nanoparticles was shown to be confined to defined locations within the brain tissue, enabling site specific studies, compared to fluorescent protein-based molecular tools, which diffuse throughout the brain tissue. Two-photon excitation microscopy confirmed the physical and photometrical stability of these nanoprobes in living zebrafish (Danio rerio) brain tissue, while the addition of Zn2+ quenched the nanoprobe fluorescence. Combining orthogonal sensing methods with our engineered nanoprobes will enable the study of imbalances in homeostatic Zn2+ regulation. The proposed bionanoprobe system offers a versatile platform to couple metal ion specific linkers and contribute to the understanding of neurological diseases
Application of the Nicoya OpenSPR to Studies of Biomolecular Binding: A Review of the Literature from 2016 to 2022
Get PDFThe Nicoya OpenSPR is a benchtop surface plasmon resonance (SPR) instrument. As with other optical biosensor instruments, it is suitable for the label-free interaction analysis of a diverse set of biomolecules, including proteins, peptides, antibodies, nucleic acids, lipids, viruses, and hormones/cytokines. Supported assays include affinity/kinetics characterization, concentration analysis, yes/no assessment of binding, competition studies, and epitope mapping. OpenSPR exploits localized SPR detection in a benchtop platform and can be connected with an autosampler (XT) to perform automated analysis over an extended time period. In this review article, we provide a comprehensive survey of the 200 peer-reviewed papers published between 2016 and 2022 that use the OpenSPR platform. We highlight the range of biomolecular analytes and interactions that have been investigated using the platform, provide an overview on the most common applications for the instrument, and point out some representative research that highlights the flexibility and utility of the instrument
Methylated histones on mitotic chromosomes promote topoisomerase IIα function for high fidelity chromosome segregation
Get PDFDNA Topoisomerase IIα (TopoIIα) decatenates sister chromatids, allowing their segregation in mitosis. Without the TopoIIα Strand Passage Reaction (SPR), chromosome bridges and ultra-fine DNA bridges (UFBs) arise in anaphase. The TopoIIα C-terminal domain is dispensable for the SPR in vitro but essential for mitotic functions in vivo. Here, we present evidence that the Chromatin Tether (ChT) within the CTD interacts with specific methylated nucleosomes and is crucial for high-fidelity chromosome segregation. Mutation of individual αChT residues disrupts αChT-nucleosome interaction, induces loss of segregation fidelity and reduces association of TopoIIα with chromosomes. Specific methyltransferase inhibitors reducing histone H3 or H4 methylation decreased TopoIIα at centromeres and increased segregation errors. Methyltransferase inhibition did not further increase aberrant anaphases in the ChT mutants, indicating a functional connection. The evidence reveals novel cellular regulation whereby TopoIIα specifically interacts with methylated nucleosomes via the αChT to ensure high-fidelity chromosome segregation
Early Release Science of the exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRISS
Get PDFThe Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-39b has been the subject of extensive efforts to determine its atmospheric properties using transmission spectroscopy1,2,3,4. However, these efforts have been hampered by modelling degeneracies between composition and cloud properties that are caused by limited data quality5,6,7,8,9. Here we present the transmission spectrum of WASP-39b obtained using the Single-Object Slitless Spectroscopy (SOSS) mode of the Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) instrument on the JWST. This spectrum spans 0.6–2.8 μm in wavelength and shows several water-absorption bands, the potassium resonance doublet and signatures of clouds. The precision and broad wavelength coverage of NIRISS/SOSS allows us to break model degeneracies between cloud properties and the atmospheric composition of WASP-39b, favouring a heavy-element enhancement (‘metallicity’) of about 10–30 times the solar value, a sub-solar carbon-to-oxygen (C/O) ratio and a solar-to-super-solar potassium-to-oxygen (K/O) ratio. The observations are also best explained by wavelength-dependent, non-grey clouds with inhomogeneous coverageof the planet’s terminator
Mapping the global distribution of invasive pest Drosophila suzukii and parasitoid Leptopilina japonica: Implications for biological control
Get PDFInsect pest invasions cause significant damage to crop yields, and the resultant economic losses are truly alarming. Climate change and trade liberalization have opened new ways of pest invasions. Given the consumer preference towards organic agricultural products and environment-friendly nature of natural pest control strategies, biological control is considered to be one of the potential options for managing invasive insect pests. Drosophila suzukii (Drosophilidae) is an extremely damaging fruit pest, demanding development of effective and sustainable biological control strategies. In this study, we assessed the potential of the parasitoid Leptopilina japonica (Figitidae) as a biocontrol agent for D. suzukii using ecological niche modeling approaches. We developed global-scale models for both pest and parasitoid to identify four components necessary to derive a niche based, target oriented prioritization approach to plan biological control programs for D. suzukii: (i) potential distribution of pest D. suzukii, (ii) potential distribution of parasitoid L. japonica, (iii) the degree of overlap in potential distributions of pest and parasitoid, and (iv) biocontrol potential of this system for each country. Overlapping suitable areas of pest and parasitoid were identified at two different thresholds and at the most desirable threshold (E = 5%), potential for L. japonica mediated biocontrol management existed in 125 countries covering 1.87 × 107 km2, and at the maximum permitted threshold (E = 10%), land coverage was reduced to 1.44 × 107 km2 in 121 countries. Fly pest distributional information as a predictor variable was not found to be improving parasitoid model performance, and globally, only in half of the countries, >50% biocontrol coverage was estimated. We therefore suggest that niche specificities of both pest and parasitoid must be included in site-specific release planning of L. japonica for effective biocontrol management aimed at D. suzukii. This study can be extended to design cost-effective pre-assessment strategies for implementing any biological control management program
ASSESSMENT OF ULTRA-HIGH TOUGHNESS STEEL FOR HIGHWAY BRIDGES
No full textTwo- and three-girder bridge systems offer initial cost benefits, but federal regulations classify many of their elements as nonredundant steel tension members (NSTM), formerly called as fracture critical (FC) members, due to concerns over potential failures. This NSTM status necessitates costly biennial "arm’s length" inspections to mitigate fracture risks. In search for alternatives, ultra-high toughness (UHT) steels have emerged as promising candidates, potentially eliminating the need for the NSTM classification. In the current study, three distinct UHT steels were identified for evaluation. The initial phase of the research involved evaluating the effect of interpass temperature on weld metal behavior. This was followed by the initial material characterization, where Charpy V-Notch (CVN) impact tests were conducted on the base metal, weld metal, and heat-affected zone of each steel to assess their impact toughness. The findings from the CVN tests of the candidate steels have been documented, shedding light on the material’s behavior and its potential for future bridge constructions. This investigation sets the groundwork for further in-depth research into the broader applications and benefits of UHT steels in bridge systems