11289 research outputs found
Sort by
Psychological Treatment Behind the Walls:Insights from the Inside
Get PDFRepeated eras of mass incarceration, criminalization of marginalized communities, and substance use policies have created a revolving door of justice involved populations. The ever-increasing prison population has repeatedly become the largest contingency of mental health clientele for an overburdened mental health system. Those who work with formerly incarcerated individuals in the community often don’t know the unique set of challenges faced by practitioners within the system. Increased understanding and coordination of care can offer opportunities for sustained recovery and reduced levels of recidivism. In this presentation participants will learn about the unique insights on mental health treatment that can be gained from working within a prison environment. Participants will also learn about the systemic challenges and biases that are common barriers to facilitating psychological recovery inside the system. Discussions of how recovery from mental illness begins inside the system will be combined with a personal narrative of the presenter about the impact that change can have on both client and therapist. The role of advocacy, change agency, and personal ethics will be explored to encourage participants to reformulate their view of what recovery means and where recovery begins within the spectrum of justice involved populations. Learning Objectives 1. Examine the role of the institutionalization on mental illness 2. Analyze two complexities of the mental health care system within an institutional setting 3. Identify three factors that lead to change within the system of incarceration 4. Apply change agency for continuity of care following incarceratio
Dayside North-South Aligned Auroral Arcs
Get PDFObservations of North-South auroral arcs (or Sun-aligned) have been recorded for many years. Discrete North-South auroral arcs are located between 73-84° MLAT and are usually associated moderate auroral activity, low solar wind dynamic pressure, and a small IMF z-component. Some observations reported quasi-periodic poleward motions of North-South aligned dayside auroral arcs. This current statistical study contains nine years of All-Sky Camera images obtained from the Boreal Aurora Camera Constellation (BACC) from the Kjell Henriksen Observatory (KHO) in Longyearbyen, Svalbard (GEO: 78.148 N, 16.043 E; AACGM: 75.24 N, 111.21 E). The characteristics of discrete North-South dayside auroral arcs, including spatial and temporal occurrence frequency, intensity, motion, and solar wind conditions occurring during their formation are reported
A Genealogical Critique of the Postliberal Right in the United States: Reno, Spengler, Schmitt, Evola, Raspail and All the Vice President’s Men
No full textOver the last decade, the ideological family of postliberalism has become an incredibly potent political force in the United States. R.R. Reno, editor of First Things and a National Conservative (which is a form of postliberalism), contends in his book, Return of the Strong Gods, that postliberalism developed out of a dissatisfaction with the postwar liberal consensus and can serve as a third way between liberalism and the “dark gods” of fascism and racism. This claim merits evaluation; given postliberalism’s influence on prominent figures in the second Trump Administration, including Vice President JD Vance, uncovering the origin of the ideology provides needed context for the modern political landscape. This paper uses a genealogical critique to demonstrate postliberalism’s connection to its predecessor, ethnically-based classical nationalism in the vein of Oswald Spengler and Carl Schmitt. This understanding reveals postliberalism’s failure to properly acknowledge and shake off the sins of its ideological predecessors, which is essential for understanding the shift of the United States’s political right wing on issues including the power of the executive, identity, ethnicity and religion
Heavenly Persuasion: Understanding the Influence of Religious Messaging on Housing Policy Support
No full textNot in My Backyard (NIMBY) sentiments have become the subject of recent scholarship in an attempt to understand how they impact housing developments. The three alternative explanations for NIMBYism include opposition to developers, an expression of economic self-interest, and racially based symbolic politics. One area of literature that has been critically understudied is the impact religion has on attitudes towards affordable housing. This research seeks to add to the affordable housing development literature and fill the gap in Yes In God’s Backyard (YIGBY) research by testing the effects of religious messaging on college students. It seeks to answer the following question—if people are so opposed to affordable housing, how do we shift their attitudes to become more supportive? To examine the impact of religious messaging on attitudes towards affordable housing, a survey experiment was conducted on a sample of 188 Pepperdine students. Approximately half of the respondents were in the experimental group and were given a bible passage to read prior to answering questions about affordable housing and housing developments. Independent t-tests run on each dependent variable showed no statistically significant difference between the means of the control group and the experimental group. The results of OLS regressions for all respondents showed that the variables for religiosity and partisanship both had statistically significant relationships (
The Weapon of the State Legislature: The Impact of Hyper Preemption on Local Government Action
No full textHyper preemption laws in the United States have significantly changed the dynamics of state-local politics in recent decades, leading to a centralization of political power in state legislatures. After identifying 42 hyper preemption laws across 13 different policy areas, I investigate what factors explain the rise in these restrictive laws and detail their impact on local government autonomy. Through empirical analysis of non-institutional and institutional factors, I conclude that Republican control of the state legislature highly predicts whether a state has passed hyper preemption laws and the policy scope of those laws. These empirical findings suggest that non-institutional factors explain the passage and scope of hyper preemption, rather than more institutional factors. Across three case studies on hyper preemption, I also determine that Republican state legislatures use hyper preemption as a weapon against local governments, advancing their priorities at the expense of local government autonomy. These laws often establish debilitating punitive measures, target local officials, or preempt multiple policy areas, leaving local governments with little room to govern. Both my quantitative and qualitative findings show that hyper preemption remains a growing concern for local governments wishing to regulate and legislate on behalf of their citizenry
A Non-Parametric Test-Retest Analysis of Items from a Novel Self-Report Balance Confidence Inventory
No full textBalance confidence is a proven factor of health in geriatric and neurological populations (e.g., fall risk, functional mobility, quality of life). However, in healthy, younger-to-middle-aged adults, the measurement (and subsequently the understanding) of balance confidence is scant. The purpose of this study was to investigate the test-retest properties of 14 individual items from a novel, self-report balance confidence inventory. Using various recruitment techniques, a sample of non-pathological adults completed an electronic Qualtrics survey which included the newly developed balance confidence inventory (N=1,259; 18-62 years old, Mage=22.8, SD=5.5; 70% women). Thereafter, 27% of the sample completed the inventory a second time (i.e., retest; N=345; 18-52 years old, Mage=21.3, SD=4.4; 74% women). Participants were required to wait at least seven (but no more than 31) days to complete the inventory a second time. To examine the test-retest reliability of the 14 individual balance confidence inventory items, Svensson’s non-parametric methods for paired ordinal data were used. Per Svensson’s methodology, the calculated statistics were percent agreement, relative position, relative concentration, relative rank invariance, internal rank variance, augmented rank-order agreement coefficient, and coefficient of monotonic agreement. All analyses were completed in Excel and/or RStudio. Thirteen of the 14 items presented with consistent and stout test-retest properties. One item (i.e., parkour/freerunning) presented with mixed (but adequate) test-retest properties. Potential and future adopters should have strong confidence in the item-level test-retest properties of the newly introduced self-report balance confidence inventory. Additional research in line with the current investigation is advised (e.g., replication, different populations, extended test-retest intervals)
Synthesis of Dopamine Heptynamide as a Chemical Probe for Catechol Bioactivity
No full textCatechol-containing natural molecules are commonly found in foods, drinks, and drugs that we encounter everyday. Catechol-containing products have been associated with anti-inflammatory activity, and it is known that catechols will bind covalently to specific proteins. Catechols have a broad range of functions in biochemical processes; however their mechanisms of action are not clearly understood. The first objective of this research project is to synthesize a catechol-alkyne chemical probe, named dopamine heptynamide, from dopamine hydrochloride and 6-heptynoic acid. For the synthesis of dopamine heptynamide, 100 mg of 6-heptynoic acid was mixed with with 100 mg dopamine hydrochloride to form an amide bond with the use of EDC and Oxyma Pure as coupling reagents in DMF. The reaction takes place overnight at room temperature. Results obtained from proton NMR as well as thin layer chromatography suggest that formation of dopamine heptynamide was successful.
The second objective is to determine how dopamine heptynamide interacts with proteins of E. coli. The interaction of dopamine heptynamide in E. coli will give insight as to how chemical probes affect gut bacteria in humans. The synthesized probe will be introduced to an E. coli culture at a concentration of 4 µM. Once the cells have been lysed, a biotin-streptavidin immunoprecipitation will be used to isolate the protein binding to dopamine heptynamide. Click chemistry will be utilized to attach biotin to the alkyne of dopamine heptynamide, via the copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction. Streptavidin binds to biotin with a high specificity, making it ideal for use in immunoprecipitation to isolate the protein-chemical probe complex. Mass spectrometry will be used to identify the target protein. The results so far demonstrate a greener alternative to amide bond formation to form the catechol-alkyne chemical probe; however, further testing of the chemical probe in E. coli cells is necessary
Impact of submarine groundwater discharge on phytoplankton and coral reef productivity using 3D plume models from drone thermal infrared imagery
No full textIn oligotrophic coral reef ecosystems, nutrient concentrations are a major driver for productivity and ecosystem stability. While moderate nutrient levels support coral growth, excess nutrients can cause phytoplankton blooms and algal overgrowth, which in turn leads to competition over resources such as space and light. Maunalua Bay (O‘ahu, HI) has experienced dramatic urban development and increase in population over the last 100 years, which has affected the water quality in the nearshore coral reefs of the bay. The main source of land-based inorganic nutrients in Maunalua Bay is submarine groundwater discharge (SGD), which is a chronic freshwater vector for nutrients. SGD increases productivity of the algae that can withstand high nutrients and low salinity, leads to increases in biomass for some species, and decreases biodiversity. Our goal is to assess the effects of land-based nutrient loading on coral reefs via SDG. We are utilizing drones equipped with thermal infrared cameras to map the SGD, which is colder than surrounding coastal water, on a reef at night. To validate our thermal imagery, we collected water samples for inorganic nutrient analysis and water quality data (i.e., salinity, temperature, pH, Oxidation-Reduction Potential, Total Dissolved Solids) at the surface of the water column. From our nutrient data, we have found that increased nutrients from SGD, such as nitrate (p = 5.92*10-8; R2 = 0.423), phosphate (p = 6.12*10-6; R2 = 0.318), and silicate (p = 1.46*10-8; R2 = 0.451) have a statistically significant correlation with temperature. At lower nitrate/nutrient levels, increasing nitrate boosts productivity. At higher nitrate/nutrient levels, increasing nitrate reduces productivity of Bryopsis pennata, Pterocladiella sp. and Acanthophora spicifera. These conditions favor particular algal species which can lead to shifts in composition of the macroalgal community. Utilizing this data and 3D plume models of the SGD, we will be able to quantify the magnitude of its effects on benthic and water column phytoplankton productivity of coral reefs. Understanding the impact of nutrient-loading from SGD is vital for predicting ecosystem shifts, mitigating harmful algal overgrowth, and preserving biodiversity in the face of coastal development and climate change
