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Benthic community change and stress-tolerant coral at a high-latitude coral community in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico
Full text linkHigh-latitude coral communities exist in variable environmental conditions and provide an opportunity to study the response of biological communities to changing environmental conditions. A 30-year monitoring dataset, initiated in 1993, was used to investigate how biological communities have changed in relation to environmental parameters over time. During the study period, major components of the sessile benthic community underwent periods of stability and significant phase shifts, where hydrocoral and sponge cover declined while macroalgal cover increased, with no recovery to observed historical states in more than a decade. However, despite the significant changes in major components of the benthic community, scleractinian coral cover and community composition have remained remarkably unchanged, albeit low (4%). This stability suggests the coral community had a degree of tolerance to environmental stress over a thirty-year period. Through gradient forest analysis, mean temperature and reduced water clarity were the environmental variables associated with changes in the benthic community. High-latitude reefs may act as sentinel sites for future coral resilience research, helping to inform coastal and offshore resource protection and management
Canton and Carthage Railroad Train, Canton, Mississippi
Full text linkThis photo postcard shows train engine 102 is shown parked on the rails in front of the train station. Canton and Carthage, Canton, Miss is written on the back of the postcard above an ink stamp that reads C. W. Whitbeck with Witbeck\u27s address in Brookhaven, Mississippi.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/mss-lampton-images-ms-pine-belt/1362/thumbnail.jp
The Impact of Cooperative Extension Programs on Late Life Mental Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review
Full text linkRural-dwelling older adults have greater mental health disparities with higher rates of depression and anxiety compared to their urban counterparts; however, reaching these communities to understand and address the specific psychological needs of rural-dwelling older adults remains a barrier for gerontologists. Due to the extensive reach of the Cooperative Extension System, university Extension systems are primed to facilitate connections between researchers and rural communities to improve mental health outcomes for older adults. Despite the potential benefits of such partnerships, Extension is largely unknown and underutilized by gerontological researchers, leaving many older adults disconnected from resources available through land-grant universities that could improve their mental health outcomes. To better understand the benefits of such partnerships, we conducted a systematic review of gerontological articles that utilized Extension to reach and positively impact rural older adult mental health concerns. Using the published methods and results from 10 articles rendered from the systematic review process, we highlight the beneficial partnerships and characteristics important for collaborative relationships between researchers and Extension systems. This review will contribute to gerontological research by identifying an underutilized partnership that can benefit researchers, Extension systems, and the mental health outcomes of older adults
A Comprehensive Nutrition Education Program Promotes Behavior Change and Perception of Food Access Across the Older Adult Age Span
Full text linkStrategies to promote healthy behaviors among older adults are needed to mitigate vulnerabilities to negative health outcomes, especially for those with low income. Healthy Eating and Staying Active as We Age (HESA), a nine-lesson educational series for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-eligible older adults, was created to promote health among aging audiences. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the behavior change of older adults following participation in HESA, which covers food resource management, nutrition, food safety, and physical activity behaviors, as well as perceived food affordability and accessibility, and to determine if HESA is appropriate across the age span of older adults. Pre- and post-evaluation data from HESA participants were collected at the first and last sessions of the HESA series. Paired samples t-tests were used to determine differences in outcome measures from pre- to post-HESA participation. There were statistically significant improvements in mean self-reported behaviors for all outcomes (p \u3c 0.001). There were no differences in mean self-perceived behavior changes between age groups. Based on these results, HESA is a promising curriculum that addresses key needs among this vulnerable population of older adults
The Rural Affinity Advantage: Reimagining Schools as Entrepreneurship Incubators
Full text linkThis article, which combines research with lived experience, discusses how youth entrepreneurship education stands as a promising pedagogy in rural contexts. The author situates the research by sharing experiences teaching in rural schools at a time of declining enrollment and rampant outmigration. The article then explores educational pathways, through entrepreneurship education, that rural educators may follow to contribute to the cause of rural sustainability. Entrepreneurialism is positioned as a useful set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that rural youth can use to better dictate the terms of their future, and schools are envisioned as entrepreneurship incubators
Organizing Identities: The Power of Technofeudalism in a Precarious World – Milei, Youth Precarity, and Post-partisan (“Anti-Everything”) Identities in Contemporary Argentina
No full textThis article explains why an anti-state radical-right agenda can become politically effective in contemporary Argentina by shifting the focus from ideology to the organization of identities. Drawing on survey evidence (ENCResPA, 7,130 online cases collected in 2022) and a corpus of anonymized semi-structured interviews with young people (2024–2025), I argue that Milei’s appeal is best understood as a form of negative politicization: a post-partisan stance built around rejection of mediation (parties, unions, experts, public institutions) and condensed moral narratives (“caste,” “cuts,” “freedom”). I identify an “Anti-Everything/Anti-Todo” identity as an electorally available and affectively intense orientation that travels efficiently in platform environments, where algorithmic ranking and recommendation structures attention through visibility and repetition, reinforces certainty, and compresses shared reality into segmented moral worlds. Linking comparative work on inequality and democratic erosion with Azmanova’s framework on precarity, I show how insecurity and time scarcity shorten horizons of expectation and make “shock” politics feel plausible. Finally, I propose organization—understood as the power to structure visibility, credibility, incentives, and futures—as the superstructure of contemporary domination. In this frame, technofeudalism and intellectual monopoly (including Rikap’s sovereignty-oriented agenda) point to a democratic response that is institutional rather than nostalgic: rebuilding conditions of life and conditions of truth through anti-precarity policies and public digital infrastructures
Borderlands, Nepantla and Interdependence: Some Notes about Onto-epistemology in Gloria Anzaldúa’s Work
No full textThe purpose of this piece is to introduce some of the key concepts in Gloria Anzaldúa’s work. A Chicana feminist philosopher, Anzaldúa was born in a little town in Texas in 1942 and passed away in 2004. I am going beyond her idea of borderlands to point out that her idea of Nepantla offers multiple options for approaching our social reality, such as tracing diagnoses and evaluating the social conditions for the constitution of an emancipatory political subjectivity. Nepantla constitutes an analytical way for understanding the plurality of gender experience as well as a path of knowledge in the process of decolonizing our bodies. According to that, my thesis argues that Anzaldúa’s work can be useful to grasp a better understanding of the persistent effects of the colonizing process. We can say that the treatment of migrants in the EU and USA reflects the dichotomies in the assumption of a shared colonial past. This phenomenon, which permeates plural societies, is anchored in an individual ontology that hinders a joint review of the ways in which we have constituted ourselves as individuals and as collective subjects, but also as otherness. On the contrary, Nepantla or the space in between, lets us deepen an ontology of interdependence that does not elude conflict, but seriously considers overlapping social phenomena. It is a tool that can give us the chance of coming together to create other meanings, to imagine another world, and to constitute a different political kinship
DEM simulations for tractive performance of rigid wheel in granular media
No full textAccurately predicting vehicle mobility in granular media is essential for evaluating off-road mobility in agriculture, defense, and planetary exploration. Traditional empirical models often fail in capturing complex micromechanics of soil deformation, especially under dynamic conditions such as high slips and maneuvering. This study demonstrates the value of the discrete element method (DEM) in modeling wheel-soil interactions with higher fidelity. Using Altair EDEM and pre-calibrated GEMM materials, simulations were conducted for a range of forward (-5.9% to 54.8%) and side slip angles (3°, 6°, 12°) in dry sand. DEM enabled detailed analysis of sinkage, traction forces, and lateral loads, revealing trends consistent with experimental data. By illustrating DEM’s strengths and limitations in capturing tire-soil interactions, this work aims to support its use as a powerful tool for advancing vehicle design and simulation
The effects of bullying victimization and bullying perpetration on academic, social, and emotional self-efficacy among adolescents
No full textBullying remains a persistent challenge in schools and has been linked to diminished perceptions of capability across multiple domains. This quantitative, cross-sectional study examined how bullying victimization and bullying perpetration relate to domain-specific self-efficacy, academic, social, and emotional, among students in grades 4-12 in the southern United States. Students (N = 81) completed the Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument (APRI-BT) measuring victimization and perpetration across verbal, social, and physical behaviors. Students also completed the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (SEQ-C) measuring domain-specific self-efficacy. Analyses included descriptive statistics, internal consistency estimates, bivariate correlations, and hierarchical multiple regressions. Moderation by parental education and socioeconomic status were also tested. Associations were generally weak to modest. Bullying victimization was most consistently related to lower social self-efficacy, while patterns for emotional self-efficacy were less consistent. Bullying perpetration effects were modest overall but clearest for academic self-efficacy. Several effects were diminished after covariates were entered, and moderation by parental education or socioeconomic status were not consistent across models. Findings underscore the value of analyzing bullying behaviors by subtype alongside domain-specific beliefs. The links between everyday peer experiences and self-efficacy are not global but domain dependent. Results support targeting interventions to the most affected domains including social skills and peer-support structures for bullying victimization related social efficacy, and academic supports where perpetration co-occurs with academic risk. Future research should consider longitudinal and multi-informant designs to test reciprocity and reduce shared-method bias
Analysis of trends from mass concrete case studies
No full textWhile conventional mass concrete is well understood, high strength and ultra high performance concrete present unique challenges when placed in large volumes. This thesis compiles and analyzes thermal data from mass high strength and ultra high performance concrete placements collected over the past eight years by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in support of military construction projects. The datasets span a wide range of material types and volumes. The analysis identifies trends in temperature development, temperature differentials, and the influence of mixture constituents on heat generation. This thesis contributes to the improved understanding of thermal behavior in mass concrete. The findings provide a technical basis for updating design and construction guidance related to thermal control of high-performance concretes