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Oregon State Rank Assessment for False Naked Wild-buckwheat (Eriogonum novonudum)
Get PDFOregon state conservation status assessment for False Naked Wild-buckwheat (Eriogonum novonudum) using NatureServe methodology, 2024
Integrating Rehabilitation Services into Routine Care of Rheumatoid Arthritis May Reduce the Inflammatory Response: A Hospital-Based Follow-Up Study in Taiwan
Get PDFBackground and Objectives:
For persons with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the accompanying systemic inflammatory conditions often insidiously damage extra-glandular organs, causing poor outcomes. Despite evidence manifesting the application of rehabilitation services (RSs), the association between RSs use and changes in the inflammatory response among persons with RA has not yet been established. With that in mind, this study aimed to evaluate changes in C-reactive protein (CRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) before and after long-term RSs use.
Materials and Methods:
For this two-group pre and posttest study, medical data of 4505 persons with RA aged 20–70 years between 2012 and 2017 were retrieved from an electronic medical record database held by a hospital in Taiwan. Of them, 1387 subjects were categorized as RSs users, who received RSs at least six times within the first year of RA onset. Generalized estimating equations analysis was then employed to compare the changes in ESR and CRP at baseline, and at 12, 18, 24, 30, and 36 months after RA onset.
Results:
After adjusting for inherent differences and mature impact, those receiving standard care plus RSs were found to have a lower CRP level than those without receiving RSs. This benefit was maintained within a 3-year follow-up period. Additionally, a slight but nonsignificant reduction in ESR existed over the same timeframe.
Conclusions:
Integrating RSs into conventional care may be helpful to modulate the inflammation for RA patients, but further research via randomized controlled trials is needed to validate the application of RSs
Salvation and Sweet Rolls: An Examination of Mormon Diet Books
Get PDFReligious diet books highlight the overlap between religious and diet cultures. This article examines the intersection of Mormonism, diet culture, and fatphobia through an analysis of Mormon diet books published between 1990 and 2015. The study explores how Mormon diet books leverage the Word of Wisdom (the LDS health code) to promote weight loss and reinforce religious obedience. By framing dietary compliance as a spiritual mandate, these texts link physical health and body size to moral and spiritual worthiness. This conflation of body and spirit, rooted in Mormon theology, amplifies fatphobia by promoting thinness as a sign of obedience and spiritual strength. The article employs content analysis to identify themes of obedience and missionary work within these diet books. It argues that while these books purport to offer health guidance, they ultimately propagate a problematic narrative that equates thinness with spiritual success and moral superiority. The study highlights the broader implications of such narratives, emphasizing how they contribute to fatphobia and impact individual and community perceptions of body size and health within Mormon culture
International Bestsellers and the Online Reconfiguring of National Identity
Get PDFInternational bestsellers are the ideal sites for examining the complicated relationship between literary culture and national identity. Despite the transnational turns in both literary studies and book history, place is still an important configurer of twenty-first-century book reception. Books are crucial to national identity and catalysts of nationalist movements. On an individual level, books enable readers to shape and maintain their own national identities. This Element explores how contemporary readers\u27 understandings of nation, race/ethnicity, gender, and class continue to shape their reading, using as case studies the online reception of three bestseller titles-Liane Moriarty\u27s Big Little Lies (Australia), Zadie Smith\u27s NW (UK), and Kevin Kwan\u27s Crazy Rich Asians (USA). In doing so, this Element demonstrates the need for and articulates a transnational conceptualisation of the relationship between reader identity and reception
¡Viva Puerto Rico! How Puerto Rico\u27s Political and Economic Status Has Affected Its Vulnerability to Natural Hazards
No full textUsing Hurricane Maria as a case study, this thesis examines Puerto Rico\u27s vulnerability to natural disasters and explores the intersections between colonial history, political status, and socioeconomic inequalities. Undertaking the island\u27s susceptibility to environmental crises based on centuries of colonial exploitation and dependence, along with restrictive U.S. policies. It is argued that policies like the Jones Act, Operation Bootstrap, and PROMESA perpetuate systemic neglect and undermine disaster preparedness. Due to these structural vulnerabilities, intensified by climate change, Puerto Rico is ill-equipped to recover from hurricanes. During Hurricane Maria, systemic governance failures, inadequate infrastructure, and insufficient federal aid exposed these deep-rooted inequities. Despite this, this thesis also points out the resilience of Puerto Rican communities and grassroots initiatives that reframe recovery as a path to self-sufficiency and sustainability. In doing the path of discourse has been altered to promote decolonial approaches to disaster recovery and systematic reforms that prioritize these goals. Thus, it contributes to the discussion of how colonial histories shape disaster vulnerabilities and how resilience must be reimagined for equity and self-determination
A Magical Symbiosis: The Advent of Witchcraft in the Age of Social Technology
Get PDFThis paper investigates the relationship between social media and witchcraft practitioners in online communities. After providing a landscape of how other researchers have studied similar phenomenon, interviews with anonymous witches who utilize online platforms such as TikTok and Instagram were conducted by the author. Using these testimonies in conjunction with the research of others, the author identifies trends and similar stories between American witches regarding Wicca, the commodification of the craft, and how witchcraft practice continues in the modern day
On Willing Surrender as Virtuous Self-Constitution
Get PDFOur cultural situation is to seek a moral form of self-constitution, rather than an ontological or epistemological foundation. Such a moral ground lies in the paradox of willing surrender of the will to do wrong or dysfunctional acts in order to enter temporally-extended processes of moral change. But the paradox of willing surrender of the will requires analysis. The propositional form of it cannot be sustained and must instead give way to willingness as an ongoing choice. The self-reflexivity of the will with which we accomplish this turns out to be a core activity of human activity that seeks openness to moral growth through humility. The paper suggests that self-constitution in this manner this is what freedom is for us and is therefore the source of our hope
PSU ESI Review (DOE-PSU-0000922-6)
Get PDFA guide to developing an Energy Service Interface (ESI) was created as part of the Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium 2.5.2 ESI project. The approach applies device-agnostic and service-oriented ESI principles and leverages documents such as the Interoperability Maturity Model and Common Grid Service Definitions to provide a methodology to review, develop, and update standards and profiles to engage distributed energy resources to provide grid services. This document evaluates the ESI developed by Portland State University’s Power Engineering Group under the Electric Grid of Things project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The evaluation explores the compliance of this specific implementation with the GMLC ESI principles to provide an example of an ESI profile and gap analysis
Revisiting Rockafellar’s Theorem on Relative Interiors of Convex Graphs with Applications to Convex Generalized Differentiation
Get PDFIn this paper we revisit a theorem by Rockafellar on representing the relative interior of the graph of a convex set-valued mapping in terms of the relative interior of its domain and function values. Then we apply this theorem to provide a simple way to prove many calculus rules of generalized differentiation for set-valued mappings and nonsmooth functions in finite dimensions. Using this important theorem by Rockafellar allows us to improve some results on generalized differentiation of set-valued mappings in [13] by replacing the relative interior qualifications on graphs with qualifications on domains and/or ranges
What Drives Housing Choices of Refugees and Immigrants?
Get PDFWhen newcomers to the US initially settle, if their chosen location does not meet their expectations or needs, that often propels them to relocate. To determine what helps drive those transition decisions, the researchers interviewed people if they fulfilled one of these requirements: They were members of the Dallas County community who were planning to move in the next five years. They had recently (within the past five years) moved from their initial residence following their arrival in Dallas County. They also had to be immigrants to or refugees in the US who were at least eighteen years old. Out of the 218 people initially interviewed, thirty-two participants qualified for the full interview. The participants were selected from a free community clinic in Dallas.
The researchers gave the thirty-two participants the open-ended prompt of, “Please discuss why you decided to move.” Based on the responses, the researchers concluded that three main themes drove transition decisions: The Multiple Dimensions of Home, The Neighborhood Experience, and Barriers and Bridges to Opportunity