Digital Commons Network^™

Rapamycin Rescues Vascular, Metabolic And Learning Deficits In Apolipoprotein E4 Transgenic Mice With Pre-Symptomatic Alzheimer’S Disease, Ai-Ling Lin, Jordan B. Jahrling, Wei Zhang, Nicholas Derosa, Vikas Bakshi, Peter Romero, Veronica Galvan, Arlan Richardson

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Apolipoprotein E ɛ4 allele is a common susceptibility gene for late-onset Alzheimer's disease. Brain vascular and metabolic deficits can occur in cognitively normal apolipoprotein E ɛ4 carriers decades before the onset of Alzheimer's disease. The goal of this study was to determine whether early intervention using rapamycin could restore neurovascular and neurometabolic functions, and thus impede pathological progression of Alzheimer's disease-like symptoms in pre-symptomatic Apolipoprotein E ɛ4 transgenic mice. Using in vivo, multimodal neuroimaging, we found that apolipoprotein E ɛ4 mice treated with rapamycin had restored cerebral blood flow, blood–brain barrier integrity and glucose metabolism, compared …

This Year Show Compassion – For Others And Yourself, Yolanda Hood

UCF Forum

This is the year of melting.

Los Problemas De Las Fronteras Humanitarias, Miriam Ticktin

Publications and Research

Resumen:

Este texto plantea un análisis crítico del papel de los discursos y prácticas humanitaristas en nuestra concepción de la migración y en las políticas públicas desarrolladas en relación a la movilidad poblacional a través de las fronteras internacionales. Se parte de la premisa de que el humanitarismo, aunque fuera bien intencionado, puede tener efectos perniciosos sobre la situación que se vive en las fronteras, especialmente si acaba por sustituir a la justicia y a los derechos que tienen los emigrantes. Para estudiar esta paradoja, el texto analiza, sucesivamente, varios problemas asociados a la acción humanitaria: el problema con la …

‘Tell Your Own Story’: Manhood, Masculinity And Racial Socialization Among Black Fathers And Their Sons, Quaylan Allen

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This study examines how black fathers and sons in the U.S. conceptualize manhood and masculinity and the racial socializing practices of black men. Drawing upon data from an ethnography on Black male schooling, this paper uses the interviews with fathers and sons to explore how race and gender intersect in how Black males make meaning of their gendered performances. Common notions of manhood are articulated including independence, responsibility and providership. However, race and gender intersect in particular ways for black men. The fathers engaged in particular racial socializing practices preparing their sons for encounters with racism. Both fathers and sons …

A Longitudinal Study Of Human Exposure To Potential Nuclear Power Plant Risk, Dean Kyne, Jason T. Harris

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study constructs a potential risk index (PRI) for the 65 U.S.-based commercial nuclear power plant (NPP) sites in relation to their surrounding populations. Four risk levels are defined: low risk, moderate risk, high risk, and very high risk. Discrepancies that exist in the sociodemographic characteristics of the host communities’ populations are examined as sorted by risk-level category. It is found that a greater percentage of minority groups are exposed to the highest levels of risk. In addition, percent “Hispanic” and percent “Other,” a grouping that includes multiracial, mixed, interracial, as well as Hispanic and Latino groups (for example, Mexican, …

The Good, The Bad And The Quintessential Christmas Music, Heather Gibson

UCF Forum

There are two types of people: those like myself, who the day after Thanksgiving turn their radio to the all-Christmas music station, and the rest of you Grinchy McGrinchersons.

Which Came First, People Or Pollution? A Review Of Theory And Evidence From Longitudinal Environmental Justice Studies, Paul Mohai, Robin Saha

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

A considerable number of quantitative analyses have been conducted in the past several decades that demonstrate the existence of racial and socioeconomic disparities in the distribution of a wide variety of environmental hazards. The vast majority of these have been cross-sectional, snapshot studies employing data on hazardous facilities and population characteristics at only one point in time. Although some limited hypotheses can be tested with cross-sectional data, fully understanding how present-day disparities come about requires longitudinal analyses that examine the demographic characteristics of sites at the time of facility siting and track demographic changes after siting. Relatively few such studies …

Police Perceptions Of Their External Legitimacy In High And Low Crime Areas Of The Community, Justin Nix

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Until recently, police legitimacy research has primarily focused on citizen perceptions of the police. However, it may be that the police believe citizens associate other factors, such as distributive justice or performance, with legitimacy. The present study adds to the literature by surveying a nationally representative sample of U.S. police officers about how they believe citizens residing in high and low crime areas of the community evaluate police in terms of legitimacy. Findings suggest that respondents believe procedural justice and distributive justice are important to citizens of both areas in terms of generating trust. At the same time, respondents believe …

Police Contacts And Attitudes Toward Police: A Study Of Race And Policing, Gary Portway

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The way in which police officers engage with general society is often under meticulous watch by countless amounts of citizens. The United States – at an unprecedented point in regards to technological advancement and education – expedites such meticulous watch in a way that it often becomes noticeable criticism. Strategies of policing such as New York City’s “stop-and-frisk” policy have ignited much criticism of police, and have caused the need for many general improvements to the way in which police facilitate. Since the structure of policing often shifts based on changes within general society, it has become a common standard …

A Holiday Greeting That Applies To Everyone, Terri Susan Fine

UCF Forum

The Thanksgiving holiday season brought with it interesting discussions about “the holidays” – so many holidays are celebrated by people of different cultures, religious backgrounds and nations of origin.

2014 Data Indicate That Four In Ten Children Live In Low-Income Families, Jessica A. Carson, Andrew P. Schaefer, Marybeth J. Mattingly

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, authors Jessica Carson, Andrew Schaefer, and Marybeth Mattingly use American Community Survey data to explore child poverty rates across the United States by region, state, and place type (rural, suburban, and city). They also examine data on children who are deeply poor (those in families with incomes below half of the poverty line), as well as low-income children (those in families with incomes less than twice the poverty line). They report that in 2014, more than four in ten children (44.1 percent) lived in low-income families. More than one-fifth of children (21.7 percent) were poor, and nearly …

Gender And Attitudes About Mental Health Help Seeking: Results From National Data, Douglas Wendt, Kevin Shafer

Faculty Publications

Men often express less emotion than women do, are hesitant to express weakness, and seek professional help much less frequently than do their female counterparts. The lack of help seeking is common across characteristics such as age, race, ethnicity, and nationality. Authors used data from the 2006 General Social Surveys mental health module to suggest that the gender gap in help seeking may be rooted in attitudes regarding help-seeking behaviors generally. Using structural equation modeling, we linked vignette type (depression and schizophrenia) to the endorsement of help seeking from informal and formal sources. Men showed similar support for informal help …

Deaths Exceed Births In Most Of Europe, But Not In The United States, Kenneth M. Johnson, Layton M. Fields, Dudley L. Poston Jr.

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, authors Kenneth Johnson, Layton Fields, and Dudley Poston, Jr. present important new findings about the diminishing number of births compared to deaths in Europe and the United States from their recent article in Population and Development Review. Their research focuses on the prevalence and dynamics of natural decrease in subareas of Europe and the United States in the first decade of the twenty-first century using counties (United States) or county-equivalents (Europe). The authors report that 58 percent of the 1,391 counties of Europe had more deaths than births during that period compared to just 28 percent …

How The Black Lives Matter Movement Can Improve The Justice System, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

This op-ed piece argues that because the criminal justice system's loss of moral credibility contributes to increased criminality and because blacks are disproportionately the victims of crimes, especially violent crimes, the most valuable contribution that the Black Lives Matter movement can make is not to tear down the system’s reputation but rather to propose and support reforms that will build it up, thereby improving its crime-control effectiveness and reducing black victimization.

Freedom Rides (Sc 2966), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2966. “Official Application for Freedom Riders,” a parody application for civil rights activists intending to protest segregation in Southern interstate bus terminals, to be submitted to George Rockwell, Hell Raiders, Inc., Arlington, Virginia, asks for data such as “Address” (“Place where body can be sent”); “Do you bleed easily?”; “State how you prefer to defend yourself” (Fisticuffs, Hand Grenade, etc.); and “State your wish for the following” (Rope neck size, bullet caliber, coffin color, etc.)

Fearless Friday: Samantha Lee, Samantha R. Lee

SURGE

Samantha Lee ’16 is SURGE’s Fearless Friday leader for this week!

Sam is a Psychology Major with a minor in Religion. Her home is not too far from Gettysburg, just up the way on route 15 in Mechanicsburg. Her graduation is right around the corner, as she’s a senior graduating early in December. [excerpt]

Perceptions And Perspectives: Testing For Associations Between Perceptions Of Inequality, Autonomy, Morality And Support For Redistribution Among Bsu Students, Lucas A. Fagundes

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Despite claims that we exist in an “Age of Acquiescence” (Fraser, 2015) to historically high levels of inequality, Americans across wage, gender, and political leaning all desire a more equal distribution of wealth (Norton & Ariely, 2011). However, this apparent consensus doesn’t necessarily translate into support for redistribution, at least in terms of greater taxation. Rather, according to recent findings by Northwestern University Professor Leslie McCall, Americans prefer instead to address wealth inequality through the expansion of opportunity (McCall, 2011). It may be that as individual perceptions of autonomy and the availability of opportunity increases, support for traditional redistribution decreases, …

Campus Community Readiness To Engage Measure: Its Utility For Campus Violence Prevention Initiatives—Preliminary Psychometrics, Katie Edwards, Mary M. Moynihan, Kara Anne Rodenhizer-Stampfli, Jennifer M. Demers, Victoria Banyard

Peer-Reviewed and Other Publications

The researchers present preliminary psychometric information on a recently developed measure—the Campus Community Readiness to Engage Measure (CCREM)—which was developed as a tool for campuses to determine their readiness to address sexual assault (SA) and relationship abuse (RA). Participants were 353 community leaders and administrators at 131 colleges and universities across New England. Factor analytic results demonstrated that the CCREM had three factors for both SA and RA: denial (the campus community is unwilling to acknowledge that SA and RA are issues for the community), initiation (the campus community is beginning to create efforts to address SA and RA and …

Online Sexual Activity Experiences Among College Students: A Four-Country Comparison, Nicola Döring, Kristian Daneback, Krystelle Shaughnessy, Christian Grov, E. Sandra Byers

Publications and Research

The purpose of this study was to compare male and female college students in four countries (Canada, Germany, Sweden, and the U.S.) on their lifetime experiences (prevalence) and frequency of recent experiences with six types of online sexual activities (OSA): sexual information, sexual entertainment, sexual contacts, sexual minority communities, sexual products, and sex work. Participants (N = 2690; M age, 24.65 years; 53.4 % women, 46.6 % men) were recruited from a university in each of the countries to complete an online survey that included background and demographic questions, and questions about OSA. Most participants reported experience with accessing …

Breaking The Cycle Of Incarceration: Strategies For Successful Reentry Final Report For Labyrinth Outreach Services For Women, Carolyn Moe, Brian Titzler, Melissa Johnson-Gross, Darek Conley, Emily Blankenberger, Kirk Richardson, Bethan Owen, Caleb Griffen, Andrew Kuka, George Stanton, Lauren Troxtel, Eliud Uresti, John Thornburg, Nicholas Anthony Canfield, Patricia Longwood, Jessica Linder, Amanda Britenstein

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

Working with a local reentry organization, Labyrinth Outreach Services to Women, the purpose of this study was to gather information about opportunities and barriers related to two aspects of their program: employment services and establishment of a microbusiness. Information was obtained through a 22-item questionnaire given to a sample of local businesses, key informant interviews, and secondary data analysis. Thirty-nine businesses in the Bloomington-Normal area responded to the questionnaire via on-line and paper survey methods, nine face-to-face interviews were conducted, along with three case studies of similar reentry microbusiness programs and a review of current literature. Stigmas of formerly incarcerated …

Generosity Creates Its Own Ripple Effect, Traci Evison

UCF Forum

Sometimes we see an inspirational snippet of film on YouTube, hear an NPR broadcast or listen to a Ted Talk that materializes into action at what seems to be a random point in the future.

School Shootings And Moral Panics: Differences In Media Framing Based On Race, Class, And Socioeconomic Status, Kelly Ann Lavoie

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Media coverage of school shooting incidents are constructed using various frames that differ depending on the race, class, and socioeconomic status of the victims, perpetrators, and their communities. Moral panics have arisen as a result of these frames, having been constructed to instigate fear and affect policy in ways that can have negative effects on both students in general and, in particular, minority students in urban schools. In this study, I analyzed the framing language used in news content, the demographic information of the schools in which shootings occurred, and the amount of coverage afforded to the incidents. This content …

From A Chat In The Parlor To Viral Music Videos: An Analysis Of Music As A Social Occasion, Emma Plotnik

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Imagine an intimate room filled with people playing cards and casually chatting, while one of Chopin’s piano sonatas plays elegantly in the background. This scenario is characteristic of the atmosphere surrounding Classical and Romantic European salons. Salons served as havens of musical discourse from the Baroque era to the early twentieth century. However, with the advancement of technology from the mid-twentieth century to the present, there has been a decline, or, arguably, even a cessation of salon life.

The aim of this project was to recreate the salon environment through the generation of the online discussion forum, "Music Soirée." To …

Fearless Friday: Chentese Stewart-Gartner, Christina L. Bassler

SURGE

This week, SURGE is proud to showcase the wonderful work of Chentese Stewart-Garner!

Chentese is a sociology major with a minor in education. She’s a sophomore and originally hails from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Currently, Chentese is the program coordinator for the Black Student Union, serves as the public relations liaison for the African Student Association, is a Diversity Peer Educator on campus, and works hard as a Career Outreach Assistant for the Center for Career Development. [excerpt]

Services For People With Intellectual And/Or Developmental Disabilities In The U.S. Territories, John Butterworth, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

The following report represents an expansion of the data collection activities mandated by a 2012 Administration of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AIDD) Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). Prior to 2012, the AIDD funded data projects, Access to Integrated Employment, Family and Individual Information Systems project (FISP), Residential Information Systems Project (RISP) and the State of the States in Developmental Disabilities only collected data from the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The 2012 FOA requested that three of the AIDD data projects work together to include the five U.S. Territories (American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, …

Prescription Drug Diversion: Predictors Of Illicit Acquisition And Redistribution In Three U.S. Metropolitan Areas, Shana Harris, Valentina Nikulina, Camila Gelpi-Acosta, Cory Morton, Valerie Newsome, Alana Gunn, Heidi Hoefinger, Ross Aikins, Vivian Smith, Victoria Barry, Martin J. Downing Jr.

Publications and Research

Objective: Prescription drug diversion, the transfer of prescription drugs from lawful to unlawful channels for distribution or use, is a problem in the United States. Despite the pervasiveness of diversion, there are gaps in the literature regarding characteristics of individuals who participate in the illicit trade of prescription drugs. This study examines a range of predictors (e.g., demographics, prescription insurance coverage, perceived risk associated with prescription drug diversion) of membership in three distinct diverter groups: individuals who illicitly acquire prescription drugs, those who redistribute them, and those who engage in both behaviors.

Methods: Data were drawn from a cross-sectional Internet …

Why Do The Children Flee? Public Security And Policing Practices In Central America, Mary Fran T. Malone

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, author Mary Fran Malone discusses the security crisis in Central America and successful policing strategies for confronting this crisis. She reports that Central Americans’ experiences and perceptions of crime are linked to an increased likelihood of migration. In 2014, approximately 57,000 unaccompanied minors traveled from Central America to Mexico, continuing north to cross the U.S. border illegally. The large numbers of people fleeing Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras testify not only to the violence of illicit markets but also to the failure of these countries’ governments to fulfill their most important task—protecting the lives of their citizens. …

The Importance Of Reproduction In Evidence Based Policing: A Comment, Laura Huey

Sociology Publications

In the following comment, the author examines the importance of reproduction in evidence based policing. Moreover, she argues that failure to reproduce studies – including through the use of varied methodologies – is antithetical to the development of a solid evidence base upon which to ground effective and efficient community safety practices.

Blacks In Massachusetts: Comparative Demographic, Social And Economic Experiences With Whites, Latinos, And Asians, James Jennings, Barbara Lewis, Richard O’Bryant, Rachel Bernard, Linda Sprague Martinez, Russell Williams

William Monroe Trotter Institute Publications

This report describes the social and economic, and education status of Blacks in Massachusetts, within a comparative framework with Whites, Asians, and Latino/as. A range of population, household, and economic variables are highlighted under the following categories: Population Characteristics; Families and Households; Education and Schooling; Housing; Health Characteristics; Labor Force, Occupations and Employment; and Income and Poverty. The information presented in this report is based on data from the 2010 Decennial Census; the American Community Survey 2009 – 2013 5 Year Estimates; the American Community Survey 2009-2013 5-Year Estimates Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) as well as PUMS for the …

Back To The Future: Student Time Period Analyses, Jordan Barge, Sarah Ebert, Anna Gaskin, Renay Gladish, Quinn Hamilton, Morgan Hanson, Hannah Markham, Mark Mclean, Callie Smith, Bertha Vega, Shelby Watkins, Jamie Weihe, Jillian Whitney

Student Publications

This newsletter began with the Fall 2015 Honors English class. These students were challenged to initiate research over a topic they thought was interesting and show how it related to our campus, Stephen F. Austin State University. It is our hope that this cumulative research will help readers look at SFA a little differently.