Digital Commons Network^™

Brain Volume, Energy Balance, And Cardiovascular Health In Two Nonindustrial South American Populations, Hillard Kaplan, Paul L. Hooper, Margaret Gatz, Wendy J. Mack, E. Meng Law, Helena C. Chui, M. Linda Sutherland, James D. Sutherland, Christopher J. Rowan, L. Samuel Wann, Adel H. Allam, Randall C. Thompson, David E. Michalik, Guido Lombardi, Michael I. Miyamoto, Daniel Eid Rodriguez, Juan Copajira Adrian, Raul Quispe Gutierrez, Bret A. Beheim, Daniel K. Cummings, Edmond Seabright, Sarah Alami, Angela R. Garcia, Kenneth Buetow, Gregory S. Thomas, Caleb E. Finch, Jonathan Stieglitz, Benjamin C. Trumble, Michael D. Gurven, Andrei Irimia

ESI Publications

Little is known about brain aging or dementia in nonindustrialized environments that are similar to how humans lived throughout evolutionary history. This paper examines brain volume (BV) in middle and old age among two indigenous South American populations, the Tsimane and Moseten, whose lifestyles and environments diverge from those in high-income nations. With a sample of 1,165 individuals aged 40 to 94, we analyze population differences in cross-sectional rates of decline in BV with age. We also assess the relationships of BV with energy biomarkers and arterial disease and compare them against findings in industrialized contexts. The analyses test three …

New Embodiments Of Ancient Wisdom: How Green Spiritual Practices Of Simplicity Can Meaningfully Integrate Faith And Environmental Justice Among Emerging Adults, Falon Barton

DMin Project Theses

This March 2024 Doctor of Ministry Project thesis at Lipscomb University explores how green spiritual practices of simplicity provide opportunities for spiritual formation and missional participation, especially for emerging adults. This project synthesizes the biblical and theological foundations for creation care, overviews the sociology of emerging adulthood, offers a framework for Christian simplicity, and investigates how green spiritual practices of simplicity impact the lived experiences of average followers of Jesus. Through interviews with 20 participants between the ages of 18 and 35, this study outlines what green spiritual practices of simplicity are and offers an analysis of themes that demonstrate …

Review Of Wildland: The Making Of America’S Fury, William Droel

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Césaire, Mills, & De Beauvoir In Sociological Theory, Louis Edgar Esparza

The Journal of Social Encounters

The values and priorities of sociology as a discipline have changed dramatically over the past 70 years. Theories of race, class, and gender that had been excluded or marginalized in the positivist twentieth century now make up the classical core of social justice reading lists. Where did these central ideas germinate from? This article identifies and illustrates the influence of three representative theorists: Aime Césaire, C. Wright Mills, and Simone de Beauvoir. These three are commonly read for their incisive critiques of colonialism, capitalism, and patriarchy, respectively. Focusing mainly on a critical appraisal of their principal texts in these respective …

Peace Studies And The Limits To Growth, Selina Gallo-Cruz

The Journal of Social Encounters

150 Peace Studies and the Limits to Growth Selina Gallo-Cruz Scientists have issued increasingly dire warnings about the present and future danger posed by ecological overshoot. Peace scholars’ entrée into this discourse is often through a concern over extractive politics, a central locus for how conflicts are bound up in environmental destruction at the hands of the same industries responsible for ecological decline. Policy and practical responses to the urgent need to scale down production lag behind reality, however, and a global growth-based economy continues to prevail. Here, I explore the dilemmas faced by peace studies scholars who may want …

Fixing Prior Consultation For Indigenous Empowerment, Marcela Torres-Wong, Elia Méndez-García

The Journal of Social Encounters

Over the last three decades, extractive conflicts in Latin America have become increasingly violent. Hundreds of Indigenous activists have been murdered for defending their land against extractive interests. The international formula for addressing this type of conflict is for governments to conduct prior consultation procedures with Indigenous communities before affecting indigenous territories. However, the misuse of consultations by governments and companies to legitimize ecologically destructive projects has led a sector of Indigenous organizations to reject prior consultation, while others continue advocating for free, prior, and informed consent. We compare two cases of Indigenous communities from Oaxaca and Yucatán in Mexico …

Extractivism And Conflict: Comparative Study Of Serbia And The Drc, Borislava Manojlovic, Espoir Kabanga

The Journal of Social Encounters

This study explores how populations in Serbia and the DRC have been affected by and responded to natural resource extraction. Specifically, protests and other activist engagement were examined by surveying social movements’ participants from civil society and academia. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of inquiry were used. Data was collected from multiple sources, including academic and online sources pertaining to the topic of extractivism, and a survey of 71 participants. The results indicate that both Congolese and Serbian participants have grave concerns about extractivism and its impact on the environment, peace, stability, health, and well-being but differ in their ability …

The Soul Of A Leader: A Case Study In The Theory And Development Of A Reflective Instrument, Shelby Coble, Carson Reed

Discernment: Theology and the Practice of Ministry

This case study details the authors’ work to fulfill a consultative request from an elder group to do significant self‐reflection about their spiritual life and their practice of being good leaders. In response, the authors developed a rationale for considering resilience and spiritual vitality while exploring congregational leadership as vision work, relational work, and administrative work. With this theological grounding, the authors prepared an instrument that measures the capacity for resilience and spiritual vitality in the life of lay leaders. The instrument also creates reflection around three dimensions of leadership. The survey categories included: spiritual and personal life, a leader’s …

The Hermeneutics Of Nudging: The Reciprocity Between Transhumanism And Nudging, Ian Doherty

Graduate Student Research Symposium

This paper investigates and evaluates the implications of nudging someone toward transhumanism. Transhumanism offers a path to alleviate suffering and transcend our physical and mental limitations. Transhumanist technologies consist of alterations like genetic modification, neural implants, and molecular nanotechnology. These technologies are meant to give people full morphological freedom over their bodies. Although transhumanism remains a largely unknown movement, this is where nudge theory can help raise its prominence. Nudge theory aims to help people make better choices, and aid them in making better decisions related to their health and lifestyle. If paired correctly, transhumanism seems to be a perfect …

Trapped By The Past: A History And Translation Of An Equatoguinean Poet, Paul A. Guajardo

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Atrapado por el pasado (Trapped by the Past in English) is a collection of Spanish-language poetry and prose by the Equatoguinean poet Zankús Mázé Menemádjimol. Menemádjimol’s work has never received an English translation, and this thesis provides a poetic rendition of three of his poems. It also offers a brief historical introduction, literary overview, and commentary on the poems. While the main goal of this project is artistic and creative, it also aims to introduce readers to an oft-overlooked culture. Equatorial Guinea and the poet’s home island of Annobón are frequently ignored in the fields of both literature and history. …

Dreaming To Get Out The “Sunken Place”: Fantasy, Film, And The Inner-White- I(Eye), Jordan Battle

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since its inception during the transatlantic slave trade, blackness within the collective unconscious of Western society has been sutured to negative stereotypes, images, and feelings. In modern discourse on race and racism, the unconscious manifestations of anti-black racism adopted from cultural impositions, the impact of enslavement and colonization on the psyche of the subjugated, and the importance of the mind in revolutionary efforts are all too often undertheorized. Through an Afropessimist framework, this thesis uncovers the origination of the black imago in Western society, how and why it is habitually recreated, and how black theorists, artists, political activists, and others …

The Thrush Sings Me Home: What Is Killing The Birds Of My Heart?, Amy Boyd

Appalachia

Amy Boyd writes of her heartbreak seeing dead wood thrushes in her town. Habitat destruction and climate change will reduce these beautiful birds’ numbers by 80 percent over the next 60 years.

The Chanticleer, 2023-03-16, Coastal Carolina University

The Chanticleer Student Newspaper

The editorially independent student produced weekly newspaper of Coastal Carolina University.

Recognizing Exploitation And Rejecting Analogy: An Analysis Of The Meat-Commodity, Teddy Duncan Jr.

Between the Species

This paper is a two-part project. First, I reject the analogous relationship between the Holocaust and slaughterhouses (found in the anti-meat novel The Lives of Animals) and cross-species analogical thinking entirely; instead, I opt for modes of analysis that can examine the specific circumstances of animals within slaughterhouses. Secondly, I assert that a socio-economic Marxist analysis is the best prism in which to recognize the suffering of pre-slaughter animals and the causation of their suffering (the ostensibly necessary circulation and production of the meat-commodity).

The Grizzly, March 16, 2023, Layla Halterman, Marie Sykes, Tatiana Kent, Chase Portaro, Ava Compagnoni, Brian Tague, Katie Cressman

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Dean Schneider to Leave Ursinus: Announcement Raises Questions for Many Faculty Members • Maker's Club Promises Creative Fun for All Majors • Anarchy at Ursinus? • Meet the New President, Alisa Zenchenko '25 • Softball Season Back in Session • What Will Seniors Be Doing After Graduation? • Ursinus Spring Break Wrap-Up • Mayhem Defends the Intramural Basketball Den • Serving...in Florida

Program: 2023 Featured Lecture "Learning To Be Human In The School Of Christ", Daniel Lee Hill

Frank Pack Distinguished Christian Scholar Lecture Program

Program for the Eighteenth Annual Frank Pack Distinguished Christian Lecture Program with featured lecturer Dr. Daniel Lee Hill, Assistant Professor of Christian Theology at George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University.

Creating The Listener Language: A Constructed Language With Semantic Rhythms And Tones, Dallyn H. Mccracken

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Through creating a language that uses semantic rhythms to convey information in ways that typical intonation does not, I was able to see the benefits and drawbacks of strict semantic intonation. The Listener language replaces intonation with rhythms, and it uses rhythms in place of intonation in cases where intonation would generally be used in other languages, though it also uses rhythms in all other speech. Rhythms in the Listener language are grammatical, and speaking the language without the rhythms is considered to be ungrammatical. During the language construction process, there were several setbacks, both expected and unexpected. The Listener …

Gyno-Gerontological Discourse And The Dearth Of Old Women Narrators In British Fiction 1790-1860, Lavender Elisabeth Earnest

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the remarkable dearth of old woman narrators in British fiction between 1790 and 1860, both documenting their under-representation and explaining it as, in part, a product of a wave of medical discourse disparaging the physical and mental vitality of post-menopausal women. Regarding methodology, I perform a random sample upon a corpus of first-person novels published in the period and categorize each according to the gender and age of the narrator. This analysis exhibits, unsurprisingly, that most narrators in the dataset are either in the first half of their life, male, or both. Old women represent only a …

Deconstructing And Decolonizing Identities Of “Gender” And “Sex” When Viewed As Anti-Black: Black Narratives Outside Of The Binary, Didier Salgado

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

How is “Reality” experienced in the Black body? Is “Reality” an objective article which is outside of the realm of personal experience? Assigned sex is often assumed an objective biological phenomenon that exists everywhere and in all communities. Gender is often thought about as a socially constructed form of identity which is expressed in various ways. In this thesis, I critically examine the terror of “reality” on the Black body, looking at the ways that Black people who’ve experienced discomfort with gender and sex categories experience the “world” around them. Diving deeply into their own experiences and the meanings they …

Eco-Relational Aesthetics: Wandering Around Dualistic Ruins, Elena Mancioppi

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Social Media And Women Empowerment In Nigeria: A Study Of The #Breakthebias Campaign On Facebook, Deborah Osaro Omontese

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines how the March 2022 #BreakTheBias campaign on Facebook was used as an empowerment platform in Nigeria, where women experience gender disparity. Research on the role of social media in women’s empowerment in Nigeria is an area that has not been fully studied. Previous studies have looked at women’s empowerment mainly through an educational or political lens, neglecting how social media have also been effective in empowering women. Other researchers have studied how women utilize social media platforms for leisure, entertainment, and media sharing. In the present study, non-probability sampling was used to identify 20 posts that convey …

Second Language Acquiescence Of Multilingual Students In Tanzania, Ann E. Roemer

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications

This research, conducted at a major university in Tanzania, investigated the personal experiences of multilingual students vis-à-vis the government's language policy requiring Swahili as the language of instruction (LoI) at the primary level and English at the secondary level. The participants, who spoke 25 different languages as their L1, were placed into 49 different language groups and asked to write what they remembered about the language policy where they attended school. The data show that Gramsci's cultural hegemony is occurring in Tanzania. The 'common sense' is that people truly believe English is symbolic of prestige and power–even though few people …

Ic090: Bryant Boutwell Interview, Transcript, Friends Of The Texas Medical Center Library

2023 Oral History Project

See more at Friends of the Texas Medical Center Library Records and its finding aid.

Ic090: Ken Mattox Interview, Transcript, Friends Of The Texas Medical Center Library

2023 Oral History Project

See more at Friends of the Texas Medical Center Library Records and its finding aid.

Medicalization Of Sex In The Cold War, Adelaide Vergnolle

Historical Perspectives: Santa Clara University Undergraduate Journal of History, Series II

No abstract provided.

Swapping Supers: Analyzing Gender Swapped Superheroes In American Comic Books, Damian Fong

Historical Perspectives: Santa Clara University Undergraduate Journal of History, Series II

No abstract provided.

Paraquat, Parkinson's Disease, And Agnotology, Amit Ray, E. Ray Dorsey

Articles

This commentary examines the controversial relationship between paraquat, a widely used herbicide, and Parkinson's disease through the lens of agnotology—the deliberate production of ignorance for commercial gain. Despite numerous animal and epidemiological studies linking paraquat to Parkinson's disease, its use in the United States doubled from 2013 to 2018. The authors reveal how the manufacturer allegedly employed tactics similar to the tobacco industry, including attempts to discredit scientific researchers and suppress unfavorable findings. While over 30 countries have banned paraquat due to health risks, the EPA reauthorized its use in 2021. The paper argues that internal company documents and emerging …

Blind Luck: A Narrative Exploration Of French Sayings And Superstitions, Isabella North

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The goal of this Honors Thesis was to explore French superstitions and idioms through a fictional story. To facilitate the inclusion of a range of sayings and superstitious beliefs, the short story “Jamais Deux Sans Trois” is a borderline paranormal piece of fiction which is meant to call into question how the reader interprets the world. The story, written in French, revolves around a pair of best friends and their experiences with a series of events which may or may not be explained through the lens of superstitions, depending on which character is asked at which point in the story. …

Espacios E Imaginario En El Sueño De Mariana (2008) De Jorge Galán, Emilie Boyer

Alambique. Revista académica de ciencia ficción y fantasía / Jornal acadêmico de ficção científica e fantasía

En este artículo, se propone un estudio de la novela de ciencia ficción El sueño de Mariana (2008) de Jorge Galán a partir de los conceptos de “espacio” e “imaginario”. Demostramos, cómo, a través de un mundo donde los sueños posthumanistas se hicieron realidad, el imaginario, sinónimo de libertad, es el pretexto de opresión y marginalización de una parte de la población. Es entonces reemplazado por el desvanecimiento supuesto de los límites de la realidad a través de un uso engañoso de la imagen, como reproducción traidora de una realidad más auténtica. Gracias a una compleja representación del sueño, de …

The Future In Fragments: Three Critical Dystopian Works By Fernando Contreras Castro, Matthew Richey

Alambique. Revista académica de ciencia ficción y fantasía / Jornal acadêmico de ficção científica e fantasía

In the prologue to the 2014 edition of Cantos de las Guerras Preventivas, Costa Rican author Fernando Contreras Castro states that the novel, originally published in 2006, originated as a response to the ambiguously-defined military campaigns that dominated the global geopolitical landscape during the first decade of the 21st century. Contreras Castro further explains that the novel is an attempt at imagining near-future worlds from a distinctly Latin American perspective, while avoiding the currents of cyberpunk and paranoid fiction that dominated late 20th century science fiction writing in the United States. The novel also marks a significant departure from …