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The History of Mental Health in Urban Schools: A Case Study of Crenshaw Middle School, Canton City School District
No full textThis independent study aims to take a deeper look into mental health programs in urban schools, using Crenshaw Middle School of the Canton City School District as a case study. Evidence for the case study includes oral histories completed with faculty and staff in different positions, as well as historical and academic research to better understand how other districts compare to Crenshaw Middle School. The main results reveal that urban schools have taken extensive strides to improve student mental health such as adding mental health professionals to their guidance services that are in the building every day, but still need to advance their mental health programs to best support their student body. Most importantly, schools need to incorporate a better early intervention program that has the means of getting every student who needs help into the mental health program. This study concludes that this is a topic that has gained little traction in the field of history, more research needs to be done to truly advance the study of student mental health
Regulating the Digital Frontier: A Comparative Analysis of Bitcoin Regulatory Policy in El Salvador and the Central African Republic
No full textThe increasing popularity of Bitcoin has had a significant impact on regulatory policies and national currency systems across the globe. In recent years, El Salvador, and the Central African Republic (CAR) have passed legislation to adopt Bitcoin as their national currency. This study examines the reasons behind the retention of this legislation in El Salvador and its repeal in the Central African Republic. The study is focused on answering the question: How did different regulatory approaches affect domestic innovation in El Salvador and the Central African Republic? To answer this question, four hypotheses were formulated to explore whether greater instances of corruption/ illegitimacy will lead to a lack of regulatory order or a lack of domestic innovation in each case. This study utilizes Mill’s (1843) Method of Difference to compare El Salvador and the Central African Republic, which share many similarities. The analysis creates variables from the literature and various database sources, including Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2022, The World Bank’s DataBank Worldwide Governance Indicator (WGI) 2023, and The Fragile States Index’s State Legitimacy Global Data Index (SLGDI) 2023 databases. The study aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the similarities and differences between these two countries and their respective governance structures by utilizing a coding system to translate quantitative information into qualitative results, providing insight into two cases. The findings partially confirm that corruption and illegitimacy may contribute to a lack of regulatory order. However, the findings rejected corruption and illegitimacy’s effects on domestic innovation, as the actual level exceeded initial projections in both cases. This research sheds light on the complex relationship between regulatory policy, corruption, illegitimacy, and domestic innovation in the context of Bitcoin adoption by sovereign nations
Playing For Power: Evaluating Sportswashing With a Case Studies Approach
No full textThis study sets out to investigate the debate about the real and perceived effects of sportswashing—the practice in which a state uses sports to deflect attention away from human rights violations in order to launder their reputation. Specifically, this study raises the following question: Does government investment in sportswashing result in economic and political gains or losses? Informed by the scholarship on soft power theory and sports diplomacy, I hypothesized that if a government invests in sportswashing, then this will lead this state to gain economically and politically. In particular, this study measured economic and political outcomes by examining changes in foreign direct investment (FDI) and arms imports. The case studies of Qatar and Saudi Arabia provided mixed results that do not provide clear evidence that government investment in sportswashing leads to universal effects. While my hypothesis did not appear to be supported by the data, the findings from the case studies still provide important insights about sportswashing and the limits of soft power in twenty-first century global politics
The Enduring Connection: Redlining, Race, and the Ongoing Disparities in Breast Cancer Mortality Rates Among Black Women
No full textThis senior thesis investigates the alarming gap in medical care for Black women, particularly in female health, focusing on breast cancer mortality in once-redlined areas. Motivated by the evident disparities in access to healthcare, greenspaces, health education, and proper nutrition in these areas, my research hypothesis posits an increased risk of breast cancer mortality for Black women residing in redlined areas. The literature review underscores the adverse health outcomes and reduced healthcare access in redlined neighborhoods, fueled by historical government-sponsored practices and a pervasive mistrust in the medical community among Black women. By employing an adaptation of the Grossman Health model, this study examines the unequal access to health-supportive resources—such as insurance policies, drug costs, greenspaces, healthier food options, and frequent doctor visits—experienced by women in redlined neighborhoods compared to their non-redlined counterparts. The methodology involves categorizing zip codes based on HOLC grade ratings, with regression models assessing the relationship between breast cancer mortality probability and residence in HOLC grade “A” and “D” zip codes for Black women. Findings reveal higher incidence rates for women in redlined areas, and a significant positive relationship emerges between being a Black woman and breast cancer mortality in redlined zip codes. The implications extend beyond statistical significance, prompting critical questions into the intersectionality of race, residential segregation, and healthcare access. The results underscore the pressing need for targeted interventions to address healthcare disparities faced by Black women in historically redlined areas, while emphasizing the vital comprehensive policies needed to rectify historical injustices and promote health equity
Assessing Soil Recovery Dynamics in the Aftermath of the Border 32 Wildfire
No full textWildfires are a change agent of natural systems and can prove beneficial by initiating ecological recovery through the removal of old organic detrital and resetting microbial populations. In this paper, we investigate if the first nine months of biological recovery of the Border 32 wildfire corresponds to changes in the underlying soil mineralogy during this period. Loss on ignition and eDNA extraction of the area suggest a linear trend of biological growth. The composition of the new microbiological community identified through PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) amplification in this study demonstrates a population initially dominated by bacteria. After six months, fungi appear and find a balance with bacteria. Archaea, while also present, did not follow the same trend. X-ray diffraction found that mineralogy dominated by quartz, anorthite, and biotite did not change over the recovery period. This was consistent with the igneous nature of the California batholith underlying the study location
The RNA Binding Protein, Nab2, Regulates the Expression of the Extracellular Matrix Binding Domain of Dystroglycan: Implications for Intellectual Disability and Muscular Dystrophy
No full textNab2, the D. melanogaster functional ortholog of human ZC3H14, is an RNA binding protein associated with intellectual disability and has been shown to regulate splicing of genes in the developing Central Nervous System (CNS). Correct splicing of genes throughout the body and in the CNS is crucial for organismal development. The spliceosome works in conjunction with RNA binding proteins to ensure pre-mRNA is properly processed into mature mRNA before being translated into functional protein. One specific gene that Nab2 has been shown to regulate is the muscular dystrophy associated protein, Dystroglycan (Dg). In this independent study project, we find that when Nab2 is knocked out of the fly, Dg protein expression patterns change so that isoform D, which contains a domain that binds to the extracellular matrix, is expressed at very low levels. As flies lacking Dg display similar brain maldevelopment patterns to those lacking Nab2, we also looked at the brain structure from flies that were heterozygous for both Nab2 and Dg but found no significant differences from wildtype flies, or flies that were heterozygous for Nab2 only. It is hypothesized that this is likely due to phenotypes arising from the combined impact Nab2 has on expression of around 500 RNAs, so knocking down expression of Nab2 and only one other related protein is not enough to produce phenotypes. Future projects will work to better understand the relationship between Nab2 and the genes mis-spliced in its absence, such as RBFOX1, which also regulates alternative splicing. Work like this will elucidate how many genes Nab2 is interacting with directly, versus how many genes are downstream in a Nab2-regulated pathway
The Effect of Genes in the Survival of Motor Neurons Complex in Drosophila Melanogaster Larval Locomotion: Potential Implications in Spinal Muscular Atrophy
No full textBurning Questions: Exploring the Effects of Prescribed Burns on Plant-Pollinator Interactions in Fragmented North American Tallgrass Prairies
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