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Others: A Magazine of the New Verse and the Correspondences with Amy Lowell
No full textThis edition presents the correspondences between Imagist poet, Amy Lowell, and main editor Alfred Kreymborg and associate editor William Carlos Williams from the span of an entire decade, 1915-1925. These showcase the relationship between her and those involved in the little magazine Others: A Magazine of the New Verse, which ran for only four of those years, from 1915-1919, with interests of publishing, at the time, unknown authors, outside of the already-known literary circles of the period, hence Others and what made Lowell ultimately decide to cease any involvement in its further editions and anthologizing of any kind after 1916
Exploring the Relationship of Social Dominance Orientation, Symbolic Ableism, and Support for Mitigation Implementation with Exposure to a Health Threat
Get PDFSocial Dominance Theory (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999) proposes that groups of individuals in society are organized in social hierarchies that place dominant groups at the top of the hierarchy and subordinate, disadvantaged groups at the bottom. Research on prejudice, discrimination, and intergroup relations has largely focused on sexism and arbitrary-set hierarchies (e.g., race), leaving the idea of a health hierarchy largely neglected. Recently, Raoul (2023) presented the theoretical framework of a health-based social hierarchy, and the present study is an application of this framework. The aims of this study were to a) replicate previous findings by Raoul (2023) that found significant associations between Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) and symbolic ableism and support for hierarchy-attenuating and hierarchy-enhancing policies, and b) explore the relationship between SDO and support for mitigation implementation, with the prediction that the health threat manipulation utilized in this study could weaken these associations. Participants were recruited online on CloudResearch Connect (n=391). Standardized SDO composite scores were significantly associated with all but one outcome measure. In sum, higher SDO was associated with higher symbolic ableism, higher support for hierarchy-enhancing policy, lower support for hierarchy-attenuating policies, lower overall mitigation support, and lower concern for the health of others. Threat condition assignment and the SDO by Threat interaction were not associated with any of the outcomes, indicating that the health threat manipulation was unsuccessful. Finally, symbolic ableism significantly mediated, at least partially, the relationship of SDO on mitigation support. The results of this study provide valuable insight from an ableism and health hierarchy perspective by further supporting the evidence that such a hierarchy exists in society
Establishing Metrics to Encourage Broader Use of Atomic Requirements – A Call for Exchange and Experimentation
Get PDFThere are seemingly many advantages to being able to identify, document, test, and trace single or “atomic” requirements during system development and maintenance. Ongoing work with Agile development has focused on “user stories” that can capture individual features for implementation. However, it is still difficult to evaluate the quality of such requirements and teaching their creation is difficult.
Based on a working definition of atomic requirement, this paper proposes a set of metrics for their evaluation. Ten metrics designed to measure atomic requirements are presented here: five used on individual requirements statements and five applied to a requirements document or set of requirement statements.
Example metrics for individual requirements include Requirement Atomic Completeness and Requirement Atomic Verifiability. Requirement Traceability is a proposed metric for a set of atomic requirements (such as a traditional requirements specification document.)
Further work is needed to make the suggested metrics more consistent and precise, including exploring the use of tools that may automate some of the measures. However, a first step is to refine the metrics themselves and ensure they adequately measure atomic requirement quality.
Hence this note shares the proposed metrics to encourage discussion and to recommend experimentation. The author is applying the metrics in software engineering courses doing team software development.
The goal is the eventual acceptance of a set of requirements metrics specifically designed to evaluate atomic requirements. Better metric definitions may lead to wider utilization of atomic requirements and improved requirements engineering in general
Challenges and Practices of Deep Learning Model Reengineering: A Case Study on Computer Vision
Get PDFMany engineering organizations are reimplementing and extending deep neural networks from the research community. We describe this process as deep learning model reengineering. Deep learning model reengineering — reusing, replicating, adapting, and enhancing state-of-the-art deep learning approaches — is challenging for reasons including under-documented reference models, changing requirements, and the cost of implementation and testing
Mapping Capital Ratios to Bank Lending Spreads: The Role of Efficiency and Asymmetry in Performance Indices
Get PDFBeyond the 2007–2008 financial crisis, the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank and the acquisition of Credit Suisse by the Swiss investment bank UBS Group AG in 2023 have brought fresh attention to the need for new regulatory capital, liquidity risk management, and leverage requirements. To meet tightened capital requirements, banks have to increase their capital ratios either by increasing equity or by decreasing risk-weighted assets. Both options lead to banks’ performance deterioration. One remedy for banks to recover is raising their lending spread. A critical question is how much the lending spread should be increased to offset the drop in the bank’s financial performance level. In this study, we focus on the asymmetries and efficiency consequences of performance indices such as economic value added (EVA) and the more commonly used return on equity (ROE) in determining the loan spread. Using data on the largest U.S. banks over the period 2018–2022, our results show that the ROE rule significantly overestimates the magnitude of the lending spreads required to offset the negative financial consequences of increases in capital ratios. The EVA approach, on the other hand, prescribes on average a significantly lower lending spread of 0.4505 basis points against a lending spread of 21.0441 basis points associated with the use of the ROE approach. The efficiency and the level of lending spreads should enable banks to maintain their competitive advantages in the loan markets impacting overall economic productivity and growth
Well-being in the context of Indigenous heritage management: A Hach Winik perspective from Metzabok, Chiapas, Mexico
Get PDFIn this article, we examine what local well-being means in the contexts of collaborative heritage management and national development in Mexico. Driven by the request of Lacandon Mayas (including the second author) who live in Puerto Bello Metzabok, Chiapas, Mexico, in 2018, we engaged in archeological consolidation and heritage management to promote local tourism and sustainable economic development. This collaboration raised a series of ethical and practical questions of how to engage with the Eurocentric project of development. Addressing these issues has become critical, as the Mexican president\u27s signature infrastructure project, Tren Maya (Maya Train), is designed to promote nationwide development via increased cultural heritage tourism in Chiapas and southern Mexico. Through critical reflection on experiences with Metzabok community members, we address Eurocentrism and colonialism by enacting a Lacandon (i.e., Hach Winik) buen vivir. This form of well-being is relational and communal and creates a common good that includes more-than-humans. Via this critical perspective, we argue that a decolonial project can use the tools of development as an initial step in creating Indigenous well-being
Development of Targeted, Statin Loaded Nanoparticle Delivery Systems
Get PDFStatins lower endogenous production of cholesterol through their inhibition of the mevalonate pathway. Lipophilic statins in particular exhibit anti-inflammatory effects at supraphysiological doses by preventing downstream signaling through small molecule GTPases. Interest lies in development of statins as anti-inflammatory therapeutics, however, achieving effective doses locally incurs serious off-target effects. Our goal was to develop and optimize a targeted delivery system to traffic these drugs to inflamed sites and unload the drug at effective concentrations while avoiding systemic exposure. Lipophilic statins (lovastatin, simvastatin, and atorvastatin) were incorporated into polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) due to their hydrophobicity. We have shown that statins released from NPs are converted into active, hydrophilic metabolites in the body. As such, a parallel strategy was implemented to load statin-hydroxy acids into the core of extracellular vesicles. The surface of both loading strategies were enriched with targeting ligands harvested from monocyte plasma membranes to facilitate preferential migration towards sites of inflamed vasculature. Following synthesis, both nanoformulations were characterized for physical characteristics, such as size and drug loading, followed by analysis of release kinetics. Statin treatment inhibits RhoA activation and subsequent intercellular signaling involved in inflammation. To assess efficacy of each nanoformulation, in vitro assays were performed to assess downstream RhoA GTPase activation and localization in inflamed endothelial cells. Intracellular RhoA content was measured as a functional measure of efficacy of statin-loaded nanoformulations compared with free drug treatment
The Role of Religion in Illness Meaning Making and Coping Among Sub-Saharan African Christian Immigrants (SSACI) in the US
No full textReligion serves an important role in meaning-making and coping among people across various religious backgrounds and traditions. For religious people, religion not only serves as a framework for making sense of the world and everyday experience, but more so, in the face of aversive events, it provides a hermeneutical tool for reinterpreting such negative events in a more positive light to make them bearable. This study explored the role of religion in illness meaning making and coping among SSACI in the United States to understand the influence of religion on their illness behavior. To achieve this aim, a phenomenological qualitative study of SSACI was conducted. Thirteen (13) participants (5 Catholics, 7 Evangelicals, and 1 Baptist) were interviewed to collect data. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings showed that all the participants turned to their religion as a meaningful resource for making sense of their illness. None reported religious alienation, albeit when confronted by life threatening illness, many had initially struggled spiritually by questioning their faith and relationship with God. The emerged themes suggested that this period of spiritual struggle was short-lived and transitory, and paved way for a crucial process of reattribution and reinterpretation of illness experience in a more positive way. In so doing, the participants used religious meaning-making framework to enhance their coping and thus brought about transformation and growth in their religious life and faith commitment. Consequent upon all this, this thesis argued that the need for spiritual care especially for religious minority groups need not be peripheral but central to their health care management. It called for health care policies oriented toward wholistic care
A DACA Initiative: Transformative Organizational Change at the School of Medicine
Get PDFThe purpose of this revelatory case study is to explore how the DACA Initiative (DI) transformed the School of Medicine (SOM) beyond just changing student demographics. In this research, I specifically explored if, through the DI, SOM organizationally changed enough to be considered transformative change in its efforts to enhance the acceptance and support of DACA medical students. In addition, I looked at the evolution of the financial operations at SOM to support DACA medical students. The research questions that guided this study were: As a result of the DI, did the organizational changes implemented by SOM to accept and support DACA medical students result in transformative change for SOM? What makes DACA students feel welcomed at an institution and how did SOM evolve to make them feel welcomed? Data was collected from focus groups and interviews that explored what the DI means to different SOM stakeholders: DACA alumni, and key personnel from leadership and administrators. In addition, individual interviews were conducted with three of the five financial institutions that loaned money to SOM DACA medical students for medical school tuition. Transformative Organizational Change theory and Institutional Culture and Context framework were combined to allow me to look at both the change that is occurring and the location of that change within the organization. The research uncovered SOM\u27s journey embracing DACA students and showcases resilience and commitment to diversity, though commitment levels vary within the university. Potential discrepancies between public support and private hesitations raise questions about true dedication to inclusivity, urging transparency and consistent communication from the University. As competition to attract DACA students into professional programs increases, sustaining support and evolving initiatives beyond recruitment become essential for long-term success