Digital Commons Network^™

Oncostatin M Modulation Of Lipid Storage, Carrie M. Elks, Jacqueline M. Stephens, Jacqueline M. Stephens

Faculty Publications

© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Oncostatin M (OSM) is a cytokine belonging to the gp130 family, whose members serve pleiotropic functions. However, several actions of OSM are unique from those of other gp130 cytokines, and these actions may have critical roles in inflammatory mechanisms influencing several metabolic and biological functions of insulin-sensitive tissues. In this review, the actions of OSM in adipose tissue and liver are discussed, with an emphasis on lipid metabolism.

Long-Term Forest Soil Warming Alters Microbial Communities In Temperate Forest Soils, Kristen M. Deangelis, Grace Pold, Begum D. Topcuoglu, Linda T. A. Van Diepen, Rebecca M. Varney, Jeffrey L. Blanchard, Jerry Melillo, Serita D. Frey

Faculty Publications

Soil microbes are major drivers of soil carbon cycling, yet we lack an understanding of how climate warming will affect microbial communities. Three ongoing field studies at the Harvard Forest Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) site (Petersham, MA) have warmed soils 5°C above ambient temperatures for 5, 8, and 20 years. We used this chronosequence to test the hypothesis that soil microbial communities have changed in response to chronic warming. Bacterial community composition was studied using Illumina sequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene, and bacterial and fungal abundance were assessed using quantitative PCR. Only the 20-year warmed site exhibited significant …

Impaired Gamma Delta T Cell-Derived Il-17a And Inflammasome Activation During Early Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection In Infants, Huaqiong Huang, Jordy Saravia, Dahui You, Aaron J. Shaw, Stephania A. Cormier

Faculty Publications

© 2015 Australasian Society for Immunology Inc. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection remains a significant global health burden disproportionately affecting infants and leading to long-term lung disease. Interleukin (IL)-17A has been shown to be involved in regulating viral and allergic lung inflammatory responses, which has led to a more recent interest in its role in RSV infection. Using a neonatal mouse model of RSV, we demonstrate that neonates fail to develop IL-17A responses compared with adult mice; the main immediate IL-17A contributor in adults were γδ T cells. Antibody neutralization of IL-17A in adult mice caused increased lung inflammation and …

New Genetic Loci Link Adipose And Insulin Biology To Body Fat Distribution, D. Shungin, T. W. Winkler, D. C. Croteau-Chonka, T. Ferreira, A. E. Locke, R. Mägi, R. J. Strawbridge, T. H. Pers, K. Fischer, A. E. Justice, T. Workalemahu, J. M.W. Wu, M. L. Buchkovich, N. L. Heard-Costa, T. S. Roman, A. W. Drong, C. Song, S. Gustafsson, F. R. Day, T. Esko, T. Fall, Z. Kutalik, J. Luan, J. C. Randall, A. Scherag, S. Vedantam, A. R. Wood, J. Chen, R. Fehrmann, J. Karjalainen, B. Kahali, C. T. Liu, E. M. Schmidt

Faculty Publications

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, we conducted genome-wide association meta-analyses of waist and hip circumference-related traits in up to 224,459 individuals. We identified 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (WHRadjBMI) and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P<5×10-8). Twenty of the 49 WHRadjBMI loci showed significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which displayed a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation, and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms.

Genetic Studies Of Body Mass Index Yield New Insights For Obesity Biology, A. E. Locke, B. Kahali, S. I. Berndt, A. E. Justice, T. H. Pers, F. R. Day, C. Powell, S. Vedantam, M. L. Buchkovich, J. Yang, D. C. Croteau-Chonka, T. Esko, T. Fall, T. Ferreira, S. Gustafsson, Z. Kutalik, J. Luan, R. Mägi, J. C. Randall, T. W. Winkler, A. R. Wood, T. Workalemahu, J. D. Faul, J. A. Smith, J. H. Zhao, W. Zhao, J. Chen, R. Fehrmann, K. Hedman, J. Karjalainen, E. M. Schmidt, D. Absher, N. Amin

Faculty Publications

Obesity is heritable and predisposes to many diseases. To understand the genetic basis of obesity better, here we conduct a genome-wide association study and Metabochip meta-analysis of body mass index (BMI), a measure commonly used to define obesity and assess adiposity, in up to 339,224 individuals. This analysis identifies 97 BMI-associated loci (P < 5 × 10-8), 56 of which are novel. Five loci demonstrate clear evidence of several independent association signals, and many loci have significant effects on other metabolic phenotypes. The 97 loci account for ∼2.7% of BMI variation, and genome-wide estimates suggest that common variation accounts for >20 % of BMI variation. Pathway analyses provide strong support for a role of the central nervous system in obesity susceptibility and implicate new genes and pathways, including those related to synaptic function, glutamate signalling, insulin secretion/action, energy metabolism, lipid biology and adipogenesis.

Predicting Protein Interface Residues Using Easily Accessible On-Line Resources, Surabhi Maheshwari, Michal Brylinski

Faculty Publications

© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. It has beenmore than a decade since the completion of the Human Genome Project that provided us with a complete list of human proteins. The next obvious task is to figure out how various parts interact with each other. On that account, we re- view 10methods for protein interface prediction, which are freely available as web servers. In addition, we comparatively evaluate their performance on a common data set comprising different quality target structures. We find that using experi- mental structures and high-quality homology models, structure-basedmethods outperformthose using only protein se- …

First Record Of The Invasive Asian Fish Tapeworm Bothriocephalus Acheilognathi In Honduras, Central America, Guillermo Salgado-Maldonado, Wilfredo A. Matamoros, Brian R. Kreiser, Juan Manuel Caspeta-Mandujano, Edgar F. Mendoza-Franco

Faculty Publications

This paper provides the first report of the invasive Asian fish tapeworm, Bothriocephalus acheilognathi Yamaguti, 1934, in Honduras. The cestode was found in Profundulus portillorum (Cyprinodontiformes: Profundulidae), which represents a new host record, and which is a member of a genus faced with a variety of conservation challenges, now potentially complicated by the presence of this pathogenic cestode. Nearly complete sequence data from the ITS-1 5.8S and ITS-2 regions corroborate the determination based on morphological characteristics. Several species of carp were introduced to Honduras for aquaculture purposes in the early 1980s and the presence of the Asian fish tapeworm in …

Biological Control Via "Ecological" Damping: An Approach That Attenuates Non-Target Effects, Rana D. Parshad, Kelly Black, Emmanuel Quansah, Matthew Beauregard

Faculty Publications

In this work we develop and analyze a mathematical model of biological control to prevent or attenuate the explosive increase of an invasive species population in a three-species food chain. We allow for finite time blowup in the model as a mathematical construct to mimic the explosive increase in population, enabling the species to reach “disastrous” levels, in a finite time. We next propose various controls to drive down the invasive population growth and, in certain cases, eliminate blow-up. The controls avoid chemical treatments and/or natural enemy introduction, thus eliminating various non-target effects associated with such classical methods. We refer …

Upregulation Of Mir21 And Repression Of Grhl3 By Leptin Mediates Sinusoidal Endothelial Injury In Experimental Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis, Sahar Pourhoseini, Ratanesh K. Seth, Suvarthi Das, Diptadip Dattaroy, Maria B. Kadiiska, Guanhua Xie, Gregory A. Michelotti, Mitzi Nagarkatti, Anna Mae Diehl, Saurabh Chatterjee

Faculty Publications

Sinusoidal endothelial dysfunction (SED) has been found to be an early event in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) progression but the molecular mechanisms underlying its causation remains elusive. We hypothesized that adipokine leptin worsens sinusoidal injury by decreasing functionally active nitric oxide synthase 3 (NOS)3 via miR21. Using rodent models of NASH, and transgenic mice lacking leptin and leptin receptor, results showed that hyperleptinemia caused a 4-5 fold upregulation of hepatic miR21 as assessed by qRTPCR. The upregulation of miR21 led to a time-dependent repression of its target protein Grhl3 levels as shown by western blot analyses. NOS3-p/NOS3 ratio which is controlled …

Convergence Of Soil Nitrogen Isotopes Across Global Climate Gradients, Joseph M. Craine, Andrew J. Elmore, Lixin Wang, Laurent Augusto, W. Troy Baisden, E. N. J. Brookshire, Michael D. Cramer, Niles J. Hasselquist, Erik A. Hobbie, Ansgar Kahmen, Keisuke Koba, J. Marty Kranabetter, Michelle C. Mack, Erika Marin-Spiotta, Jordan R. Mayor, Kendra K. Mclauchlan, Anders Michelsen, Gabriela B. Nardoto, Rafael S. Oliveira, Steven S. Perakis, Pablo L. Peri, Carlos A. Quesada, Andreas Richter, Louis A. Schipper

Faculty Publications

Quantifying global patterns of terrestrial nitrogen (N) cycling is central to predicting future patterns of primary productivity, carbon sequestration, nutrient fluxes to aquatic systems, and climate forcing. With limited direct measures of soil N cycling at the global scale, syntheses of the 15N:14N ratio of soil organic matter across climate gradients provide key insights into understanding global patterns of N cycling. In synthesizing data from over 6000 soil samples, we show strong global relationships among soil N isotopes, mean annual temperature (MAT), mean annual precipitation (MAP), and the concentrations of organic carbon and clay in soil. In both hot ecosystems …

Seasonal And Interannual Oxygen Variability On The Washington And Oregon Continental Shelves, S. Siedlecki, N. Banas, K. Davis, S. Giddings, B. Hickey, P. Maccready, Thomas Connolly, S. Geier

Faculty Publications

The coastal waters of the northern portion of the California Current System experience a seasonal decline in oxygen concentrations and hypoxia over the summer upwelling season that results in negative impacts on habitat for many organisms. Using a regional model extending from 43°N to 50°N, with an oxygen component developed in this study, drivers of seasonal and regional oxygen variability are identified. The model includes two pools of detritus, which was an essential addition in order to achieve good agreement with the observations. The model was validated using an extensive array of hydrographic and moored observations. The model captures the …

Gender Differences In Depression Across Parental Roles, Kevin Shafer, Garrett T. Pace

Faculty Publications

Prior research has focused on the relationship between parenthood and psychological well-being, with mixed results. Some studies have also addressed potential gender differences in this relationship, again yielding varied findings. One reason may be methodological choices pursued in these studies, including the lack of focus on combined parental roles (for example, biological parent and stepparent). The authors used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 (N = 6,276) and multinomial treatment models to address how combined roles influence depressive symptoms in mothers and fathers. Further, they explored potential gender differences. Their results indicated that having multiple parental roles …

Exposure To Electronic Cigarettes Impairs Pulmonary Anti-Bacterial And Anti-Viral Defenses In A Mouse Model, Thomas E. Sussan, Sachin Gajghate, Rajesh K. Thimmulappa, Jinfang Ma, Jung Hyun Kim, Kuladeep Sudini, Nicola Consolini, Stephania A. Cormier, Slawo Lomnicki, Farhana Hasan, Andrew Pekosz, Shyam Biswal

Faculty Publications

© 2015 Sussan et al. Electronic cigarettes (E-cigs) have experienced sharp increases in popularity over the past five years due to many factors, including aggressive marketing, increased restrictions on conventional cigarettes, and a perception that E-cigs are healthy alternatives to cigarettes. Despite this perception, studies on health effects in humans are extremely limited and in vivo animal models have not been generated. Presently, we determined that E-cig vapor contains 7x1011 free radicals per puff. To determine whether E-cig exposure impacts pulmonary responses in mice, we developed an inhalation chamber for E-cig exposure. Mice that were exposed to E-cig vapor contained …

Variants For Hdl-C, Ldl-C, And Triglycerides Identified From Admixture Mapping And Fine-Mapping Analysis In African American Families, Priya B. Shetty, Hua Tang, Tao Feng, Bamidele Tayo, Alanna C. Morrison, Sharon L.R. Kardia, Craig L. Hanis, Donna K. Arnett, Steven C. Hunt, Eric Boerwinkle, Dabeeru C. Rao, Richard S. Cooper, Neil Risch, Xiaofeng Zhu

Faculty Publications

Background - Admixture mapping of lipids was followed-up by family-based association analysis to identify variants for cardiovascular disease in African Americans. Methods and Results - The present study conducted admixture mapping analysis for total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides. The analysis was performed in 1905 unrelated African American subjects from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's Family Blood Pressure Program (FBPP). Regions showing admixture evidence were followed-up with family-based association analysis in 3556 African American subjects from the FBPP. The admixture mapping and family-based association analyses were adjusted for age, age2, sex, body mass index, …

A Moonlighting Function Of Mycobacterium Smegmatis Ku In Zinc Homeostasis?, Ambuj K. Kushwaha, Dinesh K. Deochand, Anne Grove

Faculty Publications

© 2014 The Protein Society. Ku protein participates in DNA double-strand break repair via the nonhomologous end-joining pathway. The three-dimensional structure of eukaryotic Ku reveals a central core consisting of a β-barrel domain and pillar and bridge regions that combine to form a ring-like structure that encircles DNA. Homologs of Ku are encoded by a subset of bacterial species, and they are predicted to conserve this core domain. In addition, the bridge region of Ku from some bacteria is predicted from homology modeling and sequence analyses to contain a conventional HxxC and CxxC (where x is any residue) zinc-binding motif. …

Genomic Variation In A Widespread Neotropical Bird (Xenops Minutus) Reveals Divergence, Population Expansion, And Gene Flow, Michael G. Harvey, Robb T. Brumfield

Faculty Publications

© 2014 Elsevier Inc. The demographic and phylogeographic histories of species provide insight into the processes responsible for generating biological diversity, and genomic datasets are now permitting the estimation of species histories with unprecedented accuracy. We used a genomic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) dataset generated using a RAD-Seq method to investigate the historical demography and phylogeography of a widespread lowland Neotropical bird (Xenops minutus). As expected, we found that prominent landscape features that act as dispersal barriers, such as Amazonian rivers and the Andes Mountains, are associated with the deepest phylogeographic breaks, and also that isolation by distance is limited …

Simulation Modelling Of High-Throughput Cryopreservation Of Aquatic Germplasm: A Case Study Of Blue Catfish Sperm Processing, E. Hu, Thunshun Warren Liao, Terrence R. Tiersch

Faculty Publications

Emerging commercial-level technology for aquatic sperm cryopreservation has not been modelled by computer simulation. Commercially available software (ARENA, Rockwell Automation, Inc. Milwaukee, WI) was applied to simulate high-throughput sperm cryopreservation of blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) based on existing processing capabilities. The goal was to develop a simulation model suitable for production planning and decision making. The objectives were to: (1) predict the maximum output for 8-h workday; (2) analyse the bottlenecks within the process, and (3) estimate operational costs when run for daily maximum output. High-throughput cryopreservation was divided into six major steps modelled with time, resources, and logic structures. …

Solving Conservation's Money Problems, Brian F. Snyder

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Ant Community Structure And Response To Disturbances On Coastal Dunes Of Gulf Of Mexico, Xuan Chen, Benjamin Adams, Cody Bergeron, Alexander Sabo, Linda Hooper-Bùi

Faculty Publications

Coastal dunes are complex and fragile ecosystems. The decrease in environmental stressors from sea to inland creates zonation patterns of habitats, which support high biodiversity. Although coastal dunes have been examined in primary succession studies for more than 100 years, invertebrates have received much less attention than other taxa. In this study, we examined ant community composition and its relationship with vegetation structure on dunes, and used ants as indicators to reveal the influence of anthropogenic disturbances on these habitats. Quadrat sampling, hand collecting, and beating plants were used to sample ants on coastal dunes fringing the northern Gulf of …

Sex Differences In Whole Body Gait Kinematics At Preferred Speeds, Dustin A. Bruening, R. Frimenko, C. Goodyear, A. Fullenkamp

Faculty Publications

Studies on human perception have identified pelvis and torso motion as key discriminators between male and female gaits. However, while most observers would advocate that men and women walk differently, consistent findings and explanations of sex differences in gait kinematics across modern empirical studies are rare. In the present study we evaluated sex differences in whole body gait kinematics from a large sample of subjects (55 men, 36 women) walking at self selected speeds. We analyzed the data through comparisons of discrete metrics and whole curve analyses. Results showed that in the frontal plane, women walked with greater pelvic obliquity …

Relative Abundance Of And Composition Within Fungal Orders Differ Between Cheatgrass (Bromus Tectorum) And Sagebrush (Artemisia Tridentate)-Associated Soils, Carolyn F. Weber, Gary M. King, Ken Aho

Faculty Publications

© 2015 Weber et al. Nonnative Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) is decimating sagebrush steppe, one of the largest ecosystems in the Western United States, and is causing regional-scale shifts in the predominant plant-fungal interactions. Sagebrush, a native perennial, hosts arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), whereas cheatgrass, a winter annual, is a relatively poor host of AMF. This shift is likely intertwined with decreased carbon (C)-sequestration in cheatgrass-invaded soils and alterations in overall soil fungal community composition and structure, but the latter remain unresolved. We examined soil fungal communities using high throughput amplicon sequencing (ribosomal large subunit gene) in the 0-4 cm and …

The Candidate Cancer Gene Database: A Database Of Cancer Driver Genes From Forward Genetic Screens In Mice, Kenneth L. Abbott, Erik T. Nyre, Juan Abrahante, Yen Yi Ho, Rachel Isaksson Vogel, Timothy K. Starr

Faculty Publications

Identification of cancer driver gene mutations is crucial for advancing cancer therapeutics. Due to the overwhelming number of passenger mutations in the human tumor genome, it is difficult to pinpoint causative driver genes. Using transposon mutagenesis in mice many laboratories have conducted forward genetic screens and identified thousands of candidate driver genes that are highly relevant to human cancer. Unfortunately, this information is difficult to access and utilize because it is scattered across multiple publications using different mouse genome builds and strength metrics. To improve access to these findings and facilitate metaanalyses, we developed the Candidate Cancer Gene Database (CCGD, …

South Asian Monsoon History Over The Past 60 Kyr Recorded By Radiogenic Isotopes And Clay Mineral Assemblages In The Andaman Sea, Sajid Ali, Ed C. Hathorne, Martin Frank, Daniel Gebregiorgis, Karl Stattegger, Roland Stumpf, Steffen Kutterolf, Joel E. Johnson, Liviu Giosan

Faculty Publications

The Late Quaternary variability of the South Asian (or Indian) monsoon has been linked with glacial‐interglacial and millennial scale climatic changes but past rainfall intensity in the river catchments draining into the Andaman Sea remains poorly constrained. Here we use radiogenic Sr, Nd, and Pb isotope compositions of the detrital clay‐size fraction and clay mineral assemblages obtained from sediment core NGHP Site 17 in the Andaman Sea to reconstruct the variability of the South Asian monsoon during the past 60 kyr. Over this time interval εNd values changed little, generally oscillating between −7.3 and −5.3 and the Pb isotope signatures …

Integrin Αiiβ3 Transmembrane Domain Separation Mediates Bi-Directional Signaling, Ping Hu, Bing Hao Luo

Faculty Publications

Copyright: © 2015 Hu Luo. January Integrins play an essential role in hemostasis, thrombosis, and cell migration, and they transmit bidirectional signals. Transmembrane/cytoplasmic domains are hypothesized to associate in the resting integrins; whereas, ligand binding and intracellular activating signals induce transmembrane domain separation. However, how this conformational change affects integrin outside-in signaling and whether the α subunit cytoplasmic domain is important for this signaling remain elusive. Using Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells that stably expressed different integrin αIIbβ3 constructs, we discovered that an αIIb cytoplasmic domain truncation led to integrin activation but not defective outside-in signaling. In contrast, preventing transmembrane …

A Pan-Arctic Synthesis Of Ch4 And Co2 Production From Anoxic Soil Incubations, Claire C. Treat, Susan M. Natali, Jessica G. Ernakovich, Colleen M. Iversen, Massimo Lupascu, Anthony David Mcguire, Richard J. Norby, Taniya Roy Chowdhury, Andreas Richter, Hana Santruckova, Christina Schadel, Edward A. G. Schuur, Victoria L. Sloan, Merritt R. Turestsky, Mark P. Waldrop

Faculty Publications

Permafrost thaw can alter the soil environment through changes in soil moisture, frequently resulting in soil saturation, a shift to anaerobic decomposition, and changes in the plant community. These changes, along with thawing of previously frozen organic material, can alter the form and magnitude of greenhouse gas production from permafrost ecosystems. We synthesized existing methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) production measurements from anaerobic incubations of boreal and tundra soils from the geographic permafrost region to evaluate large-scale controls of anaerobic CO2 and CH4 production and compare the relative importance of landscape-level factors (e.g., vegetation type and landscape position), soil …

Assign: Context-Specific Genomic Profiling Of Multiple Heterogeneous Biological Pathways, Ying Shen, Mumtahena Rahman, Stephen R. Piccolo, Daniel Gusenleitner, Nader N. El-Chaar, Luis Cheng, Stefano Monti, Andrea H. Bild, W. Evan Johnson

Faculty Publications

Motivation: Although gene-expression signature-based biomarkers are often developed for clinical diagnosis, many promising signatures fail to replicate during validation. One major challenge is that biological samples used to generate and validate the signature are often from heterogeneous biological contexts—controlled or in vitro samples may be used to generate the signature, but patient samples may be used for validation. In addition, systematic technical biases from multiple genome-profiling platforms often mask true biological variation. Addressing such challenges will enable us to better elucidate disease mechanisms and provide improved guidance for personalized therapeutics.

Results: Here, we present a pathway profiling toolkit, Adaptive Signature …

Insights Into Substrate Binding To The Oxygen-Evolving Complex Of Photosystem Ii From Ammonia Inhibition Studies, David J. Vinyard, Gary W. Brudvig

Faculty Publications

© 2014 American Chemical Society. Water oxidation in Photosystem II occurs at the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC), which cycles through distinct intermediates, S0-S4. The inhibitor ammonia selectively binds to the S2 state at an unresolved site that is not competitive with substrate water. By monitoring the yields of flash-induced oxygen production, we show that ammonia decreases the net efficiency of OEC turnover and slows the decay kinetics of S2 to S1. The temperature dependence of biphasic S2 decay kinetics provides activation energies that do not vary in control and ammonia conditions. We interpret our data in the broader context of previous …

Hessian Fly Larval Feeding Triggers Enhanced Polyamine Levels In Susceptible But Not Resistant Wheat, Subhashree Subramanyam, Nagesh Sardesai, Subhash C. Minocha, Cheng Zheng, Richard H. Shukle, Christopher B. Williams

Faculty Publications

Hessian fly (Mayetiola destructor), a member of the gall midge family, is one of the most destructive pests of wheat (Triticum aestivum) worldwide. Probing of wheat plants by the larvae results in either an incompatible (avirulent larvae, resistant plant) or a compatible (virulent larvae, susceptible plant) interaction. Virulent larvae induce the formation of a nutritive tissue, resembling the inside surface of a gall, in susceptible wheat. These nutritive cells are a rich source of proteins and sugars that sustain the developing virulent Hessian fly larvae. In addition, on susceptible wheat, larvae trigger a significant increase in levels of amino acids …

Men's Mental Health: A Call To Social Workers, Kevin Shafer, Douglas Wendt

Faculty Publications

Substantial attention is paid to the mental health needs of women and children by social work researchers, educators, and practitioners—and with good reason, as these are two vulnerable populations in U.S. society. However, the status of men's mental health; its resulting effect on individuals, families, and communities; and the various challenges associated with it are often overlooked by social workers. The authors document the prevalence of common mental health issues among men in the United States, the unique problems that men face, and help-seeking behaviors. They also discuss how social work is in an exceptional position to help men, and …

Imbalances And Inequities: The Structure Of Inquiry And Its Place In Rhetorical Studies, Kathleen F. Mcconnell

Faculty Publications

Inquiry’s place in rhetorical studies has long been contentious. Critics argue that academic professionalism and the rise of criticism and theory have diminished rhetoric as a pragmatic art. The recent trend in higher education toward greater restrictions on academic inquiry poses new problems for rhetorical studies, particularly where those restrictions exacerbate existing educational inequities. In the effort to address those inequities, a distinction needs to be made between old concerns with inquiry and the new issues any reorganization of inquiry will present. The generic support for inquiry that universities provide benefits rhetorical studies by lending structure to inquiry processes fraught …