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US Food Waste
Full text linkThis essay touches on the food waste problem we have in the US and various ways to help reduce the issue at hand
The Illusion of “El Chingon”: A Scoping Review on How Machismo Affects Mental Health and Behavior
Full text linkMachismo is a set of cultural values tethered to the gender binary, defined by the specific gender roles and expectations that men have to act upon. These ideals create a male archetype based on aggression, stoicism, superiority, and the enabling of sexist attitudes. Research has shown that rigid hypermasculine attitudes have a negative effect on mental health (e.g., depression and anxiety symptoms) and behavior (e.g., aggression and substance abuse). However, given its cultural context, much less is known about how machismo may manifest based on different demographic variables. Therefore, the goal of this scoping review was to understand the relation between machismo and mental and behavioral health outcomes among diverse samples.
Empirical studies were identified using two databases, EBSCO and Copley Database, and were carefully assessed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic and Meta Analysis extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines.
There were 20 studies extracted for final review. Majority of studies investigated the relation between machismo and behavioral health (n = 16), with very few links to mental health (n = 4). Majority of the studies included Latine samples (n = 16), very few female samples (n = 2).
Overall, results highlight the link between machismo and behavioral health. Although past literature has identified a link between machismo and mental health, the existing work is limited. This review emphasizes the need to address gaps in the current understanding of machismo. The findings may help inform future work examining the health implications of machismo across diverse communities
Behavioral responses of the California Two-Spot Octopus Octopus bimaculoides to changes in color and sound
Full text linkRecreational and commercial boat activity, military and construction operations, and seismic surveys among other human activities produce excessive sound that is classified as anthropogenic noise. Because the intensity and frequency of anthropogenic noise is often higher than that of natural underwater acoustic stimuli, marine animals may experience physiological damage to their sound-detecting organs which in turn, affects their communication and orientation abilities. In our study, we aimed to analyze the differences in behaviors exhibited by the California two-spot octopus (Octopus bimaculoides) when exposed to various volumes of noise at 54 Hz. To further investigate behavioral changes under varying conditions, we exposed the octopus to 3 different colored environments: orange, yellow and brown. We used a previously published behavior log to quantify octopus behaviors during 10-min exposures to combined sound and color treatments. Of the 9 behaviors we recorded, changes in respiration and color were the two most common behaviors recorded during our experiments. While there were no significant differences in behavior by color and noise treatment, respiratory change decreased with noise volume in the orange and yellow treatments, and was overall higher in the brown treatments. Additionally, color change was less frequent under varying noise conditions during the brown color treatment than under orange or yellow treatments. More replication is necessary to comprehend the impacts of noise on O. bimaculoides behavior, but this study was a first step towards developing an experimental protocol for future work. Such studies could help us better understand how anthropogenic noise affects the behavior of marine animals, especially invertebrates, which have been historically under-studied compared to mammals and fishes
Where Pipes Meet the Water: Urban Infrastructure in Tijuana
Full text linkTijuana\u27s rapid urban growth and industrial development have placed significant pressure on its water infrastructure, resulting in ongoing pollution concerns in the Tijuana River Watershed and elsewhere in and beyond the city. In many areas of the city, rapid urban growth has outpaced the building of critical infrastructure like sewage and stormwater systems. These factors have left neighborhoods at risk for a long time. At the same time, industrial growth has often relied on old infrastructure or happened without the right systems in place. Although poor water quality has been a problem for years, few studies have used spatial analysis to connect the locations of sewage, water, and stormwater infrastructure with polluted areas. In this research, sewage lines, stormwater systems, water networks, pollution sites, and patterns of urban development are mapped across the city to explore the relationship between water contamination, urban infrastructure, and urban development. Using ArcGIS, spatial data on sewer lines, stormwater networks, water pipes, electrical transmission lines, waterways, vegetation, airports, industrial zones, and wastewater treatment plants were mapped alongside locations where pollution occurred in the last five years. The map shows that areas near maquiladoras, foreign-run and owned factories in México that export their product to the country of that company, as well as low-lying zones like riverbeds and canyons, tend to have the highest levels of water contamination. These include biological pollutants, such as fecal coliform and E.coli, as well as potential industrial chemicals, including Mercury and Lead. These pollutants may be connected to the fact that sewer and water systems share some infrastructure. This could be because pipes are old, not well-maintained, or the drainage systems are inadequate. However, more research is needed to confirm this link. Many industrial zones are situated near bodies of water and intersected by sewer and water lines, which increases the risk of cross-contamination through runoff, leakage, infrastructure failure, and often illegal dumping activity. This project illustrates the value of mapping infrastructure to understand better how inadequate and failing systems in specific locations might disproportionately affect communities already dealing with public health challenges, such as limited access to clean water, exposure to air pollution, and a lack of healthcare resources. These impacts often overlap with broader social and economic vulnerabilities, including the prevalence of informal or inadequate housing, underemployment, and lack of political representation, making it even harder for these communities to demand long-term, expensive, and governmentally complex solutions. At the same time, industrial expansion has relied on outdated infrastructure or developed without adequate systems in place. The findings of this research highlight why spatial mapping should be part of the discussion taking place regarding pollution in the Tijuana River Watershed
The Consequences of Workplace Racial Discrimination: A Scoping Review
Full text linkRacial discrimination has been consistently associated with negative mental health outcomes among marginalized communities. Racial discrimination within the workplace has shown to be detrimental to mental well-being and behavioral outcomes, however, there is much less work investigating these links. Therefore, this scoping review aimed to understand the association between workplace racial discrimination and mental and behavioral health outcomes.
Empirical articles were identified using Google Scholar and PsycINFO. The extracted data included, design of the study, the number of participants, ethnicity or race, type of discrimination, mental or behavioral outcome, and the results produced by the data. For the final review, articles (n = 23) were identified. Many studies explored the role of racial workplace discrimination and mental health (n = 20), with few articles examining the link between racial workplace discrimination and behavioral health (n = 3). Articles included Latine samples (n = 6), with most including Black, Afro-Caribbean, and African American communities (n = 17). Additionally, few articles focused on youth (n = 2) or women of color (n = 2).
In conclusion, the Latine community remains underrepresented in this body of research, even though there is evidence connecting workplace racial discrimination to certain outcomes, according to preliminary results. This work emphasizes the importance of identifying gaps in the current research surrounding racial discrimination. The findings may help inform future research on workplace racial discrimination, particularly among the Latine community, which is an underrepresented group in this work, and ultimately support the development of more inclusive workplace policies
Student Work in the Evolving Library Landscape
No full textThis presentation shares a work-in-progress from the Technical Services department at the University of San Diego Copley Library as we work to retool our student worker program to center student skills and interests, provide a job experience that is fulfilling and transferable, and act as a gateway for future potential librarians.
Student workers are integral to library operations, and student positions are valued both by the library and by the students themselves. For many students, working at the library may be one of their first jobs. However, resources related to supervising and mentoring student workers are typically centered around student workers in Access or Public Services, and more guidance is required around fostering a welcoming, rewarding, and transparent experience for students employed in other areas of the library. As a job provider, the library has a responsibility to create a job experience that yields career literacy, leverages library operations as opportunities for professional learning, and empowers students to own their work at the library
Meyer, Pierce, and the Formation of Persons
No full textThis essay, written for a conference marking the centennial of the Supreme Court’s decisions in Meyer v. Nebraska (1923) and Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925), suggests that both the ongoing importance and the frustrating elusiveness of these decisions reflect the fact that questions of the formation of persons– as contrasted with matters of the expression or manifestation of personhood– are of crucial importance in the protection of liberty and yet are difficult to grasp and address within constitutional and liberal premises. In this predicament, the decisions dealt with the problem of formation of personhood by embracing what may be the only available solution within the liberal and American constitutional system– namely, a sort of anti-monopoly principle
Defederalizing Opioid Addication Care
Full text linkLack of access to evidence-based care for drug addiction is an urgent problem amid a decades-long overdose crisis that kills more than one hundred thousand Americans a year. Opioid addiction is the primary driver of overdoses today, and medicines exist to treat such addiction that can dramatically improve quality of life while reducing the risk of deadly overdose by more than half. Yet fewer than one in four of the nine million Americans who need such evidence-based medical care for their addiction receive it. Chief among barriers to access are restrictive and burdensome federal requirements limiting the use of narcotic medications in addiction treatment to a small class of specially licensed providers and forcing punitive standards of care on those providers. While scholars have proposed numerous substantive reforms to this licensure regime and its standards that could revolutionize access to care, making significant changes to the one-size-fits-all regulatory regime has proven difficult.
This Article argues that the solution to the nation’s addiction treatment problem is not substantive but structural and makes the normative and legal case for defederalizing addiction care. Medical care for addiction is unique in the law of American health care in its partial federalization. Whereas health care licensure and practice standards are ordinarily governed by states and evolve over time, the Narcotic Addict Treatment Act (NATA) of 1974 partially federalized addiction treatment by creating a unique federal system of medical licensure and standard-setting for addiction care using narcotic drugs that is controlled by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). NATA’s federalization of core forms of addiction treatment, and so partial federalization of addiction care more generally, has not previously been addressed from a federalism perspective. The Article argues that federalization has contributed to the ossification of addiction treatment. Whatever one thinks of the DEA’s and SAMHSA’s judgment on the substance of individual policies, the partially federalized structure of addiction policymaking creates a structural catch-22. It prevents substantial change unless multiple distinct federal and state actors are each persuaded by evidence change will be beneficial, but it also imposes a one-size-fits-all system in which developing evidence about alternatives to the status quo is all but impossible.
While scholars’ assumption that major substantive addiction treatment reform would require difficult-to-obtain federal legislation may be correct, the same is not true of structural change. The Article identifies a novel legal route through which interested states could use underappreciated administrative waiver flexibilities to defederalize addiction treatment for their residents without legislation. If the DEA, SAMSHA, or the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy were willing—or were forced using post-Loper Bright administrative law—to permit states to make use of the statutory flexibilities the Article describes, states could be empowered to effectuate major addiction treatment policy change for their own residents while building an evidence base to inform revolutionary improvements in other states or nationwide
Precarious Privilege: Exploring the Intersection of White Teacher Habitus and Social Justice in International Schools
Full text linkThis qualitative study explored the underresearched phenomenon of White teacher allyship within an emergent diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) movement in international schools. Gaining momentum in 2020 as a digital, postcolonial counterstory, the movement exposed structural inequities and racism across the international school ecosystem. Applying an antiracist reading of Bourdieu’s (1977) theory of practice, the study analyzes how White teachers (n = 8) from diverse international contexts understand, experience, and assess their participation in DEIJ activities. Thematic analysis of interview data corroborated the digital voices, explicitly identifying White supremacy as a key force shaping the field’s doxa. The study found that DEIJ discourse energized a reactive orthodoxy that obstructed DEIJ initiatives—introducing to the field a new antagonistic dialectic between reformers and guardians of the status quo. Experiences with hysteresis among participants suggests racial and gender privilege was rendered precarious at the level of the individual habitus. Novel contributions to the field include an expanded, critical deployment of Bourdieusian thinking tools, alongside the possible emergent constructs of DEIJ literacy capital and racial resilience capital as future research agendas. Acknowledging the researcher’s positionality and the study’s limitations (i.e., small homogenous sample, temporal lag), this research highlights how Whiteness obstructs both social justice and social justice research in the context of international schools. The study aims to inform equity initiatives in international schools by examining White allies’ experiences, bridging discourse between academics and activists, and recommending strategic investment in DEIJ literacy to deepen racial resilience and foster meaningful change