Changing Schools, Growing Teachers, Creating Spaces for Equitable Learning: Toward a Systemic Re-envisioning of Educational Practices

Abstract

Systemic and seismic changes across multiple dimensions of schooling are needed to create equitable schools. We highlight a promising set of intentional and illustrative practices at one university that illustrate how equity can be highlighted across educational systems. While our efforts are ongoing, we explore a commitment to equity and social justice across: (1) A professional development school network. (2) An elementary education program. (3) Focal classrooms committed to equity practices. (4) Teacher education courses embedded in schools. This paper draws on data collected at each systemic level listed above. We use these data to illustrate the importance of intentional and simultaneous efforts to change practices across classrooms, schools, teacher professional development spaces, and teacher education courses. While our efforts are ongoing and inevitably incomplete, we maintain that this systemic confluence contributes to comprehensive and sustainable structures that support more equitable learning experiences for children, teachers, preservice teachers, and university faculty.

Food and social media: a research stream analysis

Abstract

Interest in food and online communication is growing fast among marketing and business scholars. Nevertheless, this interest has been not exclusive to these areas. Researchers from different disciplines have focused their research on different concepts, target populations, approaches, methodologies, and theoretical backgrounds, making this growing body of knowledge richer, but at the same time difficult to analyze. In order to have a broader overview of this topic, this study analyzes the existent literature regarding food and social media in social sciences in order to identify the main research streams and themes explored. With this purpose, the present paper uses bibliometric methods to analyze 1356 journal articles by means of factor and social network analysis. The study contributes by revealing 4 clusters containing 11 dominant research streams within the social sciences, determining the linkages among the main research discourses, and recommending new future topics of research.

Archaeology of the Silk Road: Challenges of Scale and Storytelling

Abstract

Invented in the 19th century as an allegory for large-scale human interaction across Eurasia, the idea of “the Silk Road” continues to shape archaeological investigations of trade, travel, cultural exchange, and mobility in the region between the Near East and East Asia. Though long used to refer to trade between the ancient and late medieval periods, the framework of the Silk Road has grown increasingly popular and is used to orient research on mobilities of much earlier periods, as well as to frame movement and exchange at the molecular level, including of human genes. This article reviews the shared challenges confronted by Silk Road archaeologists and explores the narratives about human culture that have been tied up in the Silk Road metaphor from the beginning. Through a review of recent work on and along the Silk Road, I trace common narratives and shared scalar challenges across archaeologies of landscape, material culture, gender, mobile lifeways, and isotopic and genetic assemblages, and examine tensions between globality and locality within Silk Road cultural heritage and the implications of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Critical roles of tubular mitochondrial ATP synthase dysfunction in maleic acid-induced acute kidney injury

Abstract

Maleic acid (MA) induces renal tubular cell dysfunction directed to acute kidney injury (AKI). AKI is an increasing global health burden due to its association with mortality and morbidity. However, targeted therapy for AKI is lacking. Previously, we determined mitochondrial-associated proteins are MA-induced AKI affinity proteins. We hypothesized that mitochondrial dysfunction in tubular epithelial cells plays a critical role in AKI. In vivo and in vitro systems have been used to test this hypothesis. For the in vivo model, C57BL/6 mice were intraperitoneally injected with 400 mg/kg body weight MA. For the in vitro model, HK-2 human proximal tubular epithelial cells were treated with 2 mM or 5 mM MA for 24 h. AKI can be induced by administration of MA. In the mice injected with MA, the levels of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine in the sera were significantly increased (p < 0.005). From the pathological analysis, MA-induced AKI aggravated renal tubular injuries, increased kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) expression and caused renal tubular cell apoptosis. At the cellular level, mitochondrial dysfunction was found with increasing mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) (p < 0.001), uncoupled mitochondrial respiration with decreasing electron transfer system activity (p < 0.001), and decreasing ATP production (p < 0.05). Under transmission electron microscope (TEM) examination, the cristae formation of mitochondria was defective in MA-induced AKI. To unveil the potential target in mitochondria, gene expression analysis revealed a significantly lower level of ATPase6 (p < 0.001). Renal mitochondrial protein levels of ATP subunits 5A1 and 5C1 (p < 0.05) were significantly decreased, as confirmed by protein analysis. Our study demonstrated that dysfunction of mitochondria resulting from altered expression of ATP synthase in renal tubular cells is associated with MA-induced AKI. This finding provides a potential novel target to develop new strategies for better prevention and treatment of MA-induced AKI.

Beyond Systems of Oppression: The Syndemic Affecting Black Youth in the US

Abstract

Adolescence is a challenging time fraught with developmental changes that influence sociocultural identity, psychosocial and biological development. Integrating a sense of ethnic identity into one’s personal identity is an important task for Black youth during this developmental stage as it impacts aspirations, ideology, and interpersonal identity. Black youth are not only navigating this critical stage but doing so while traversing issues related to a syndemic of injustice rooted in anti-Black racism that permeates the very fabric of our society. This manuscript describes the syndemic of injustice framework as it relates to the ways in which anti-Black racism contributes to experiences of structural, symbolic and interpersonal violence for Black youth and how these experiences of violent oppression ultimately influence the developmental processes involved in identity formation for Black youth. Implications for social work practice are discussed.

Relationship between fungal bioaerosols and biotic stress on crops: a case study on wheat rust fungi

Abstract

This study proposes the relationship between fungal bioaerosols and biotic stress on crops using a case study on wheat leaf rust reported from northern India. We sampled and quantified the size-resolved fungal bioaerosols using the next-generation sequencing technique from a wheat crop field during winter. Puccinia recondita, the fungal pathogen that causes wheat leaf rust, was identified during the study period. The pathogen is known for its frequent and widespread occurrence of new variants that causes disease-resistant crop varieties susceptible to infections. This reveals the need for frequent and systematic monitoring to prevent rust infection. In the current study, the size-resolved fungal bioaerosol characterization was linked to the dispersal properties of the fungal propagules, and using a theoretical dispersion model, originating source and the areas of high risk for wheat leaf rust infection were identified. Our findings may serve as a vital reference for crop pathologists, agro technologists, environmentalists, and policymakers to expand the investigation on the biotic stress caused by the invasion of fungal bioaerosols on various crops and to implement preventive measures to ensure global food security.

Archaeological Research in the Canary Islands: Island Archaeology off Africa’s Atlantic Coast

Abstract

Island archaeology is a well-established field within the wider discipline, but African contributions to it remain scarce. The Canary Islands are unusual in the broader African context for their relatively long history of occupation (~2000 years) and the intensity with which archaeological research has been, and is, undertaken there. Much of that research, however, has focused on specifically Canarian issues, including efforts to demonstrate connections between the islands’ initial settlement and the Classical Mediterranean world. Relatively little of it has been conducted within the broader comparative framework that an island archaeology perspective provides. Additionally, much of the Canarian literature is not directly accessible to non-Hispanophones. In response, I synthesize what is currently known about the archaeology of the Canary Islands, focusing on determining when, how, and by whom they were first settled; the impacts of human settlement on their environments; inter-island variability in precolonial subsistence, social, and political trajectories; and the record left by European contact and subsequent colonization, which began in the 14th century AD. As well as pointing to further opportunities for research within the archipelago, I simultaneously map out several areas where archaeological work there could contribute to wider debates in island archaeology as a whole.

Building Inclusive, Multicultural Early Years Classrooms: Strategies for a Culturally Responsive Ethic of Care

Abstract

The aim of this study is to contribute to the understanding of culturally responsive care in multicultural Early Years classrooms. Through an exploration of teachers’ narratives in an Indian school, the study highlights the tools and strategies used by teachers to promote an ethic of care among a diverse student population of over 16 languages, 5 religions, and 35 ethnic communities. The study identifies three key categories of care practices: affirming and attuning, diffusing and soothing, and anchoring and building. Overall, the findings suggest that teachers employ a range of relational and aesthetic strategies to promote equality, collaborate with students in inclusive policies, and preserve marginalised cultural heritage. They also narrate folktales and mythology to reject exclusionary discipline and model peaceful responses to conflict. Finally, teachers build a shared classroom identity and cultivate students' capacities for care. This study aims to contribute to the theory and practice of an ethic of care in Early Years education and offer culturally responsive pedagogical tools for inclusive and peace-promoting classrooms.

Leveraging natural language processing techniques to explore the potential impact of the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)

Abstract

Debates on controversial policies often stimulate extensive discourse, which is difficult to interpret objectively. Political science scholars have begun to use new textual data analysis tools to illuminate policy debates, yet these techniques have been little leveraged in the international business literature. We use a combination of natural language processing, network analysis and trade data to shed light on a high-profile policy debate—the EU’s recently enacted Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). We leverage these novel techniques to analyze business inputs to the EU’s public consultation, differentiating between different types of organizations (companies, trade associations, non-EU actors) and nature of impact (direct, indirect, potential). Although there are similarities in key concerns, there are also differences, both across sectors and between collective and individual actors. Key findings include the fact that collective actors and indirectly affected sectors tended to be less concerned about the negative impacts of the new measure on international relations than individual firms and those directly affected. Firms’ home country also impacted on their positions, with EU-headquartered and foreign-owned companies clustering separately. Our research highlights the potential of natural language processing techniques to help better understand the positions of business in contentious debates and inform policy making.

Microstructural Impacts on the Oxidation of Multi-Principal Element Alloys

Abstract

The impacts of thermal treatment on the precipitate morphology and oxidation behavior of a dual-phase (FCC + L12) multi-principal element alloy (MPEA), Ni45Co17Cr14Fe12Al7Ti5, was studied at 1000 °C via isothermal and cyclic testing. Thermogravimetric analysis and subsequent characterization revealed that smaller precipitates had an increased capacity to form protective sub-surface oxide layers which mitigated total mass gain. The smaller-precipitate-containing samples exhibited a decrease in thickness of the primary Cr2O3 scale and parabolic growth rate. Mechanistically this behavior is believed to stem from the increased growth rate of initial Al2O3 nuclei and decreased inter-precipitate spacing which results in faster lateral diffusion and agglomeration.