Toxic Roots: The Remnants of White Minority Rule in Zimbabwe

Honorable Mention for Best Work of Criticism 2018 Northwest Undergraduate Conference in the Humanities This paper discusses the complex history of the intersection of sexuality and gender within Zimbabwe, specifically the chiShona tribe. It builds on the work of Zimbabwean anthropologist Josiah Taru, and African Studies scholar Tabona Shoko to uncover queer tribal identities and their position within precolonial chiShona tradition. This challenges efforts to naturalize homophobia in Zimbabwe in its current context. In relation, the role of colonial masculinity, power, and how it is interconnected in current political discourse is examined, problematized and complicated. Finally, the ways in which lesbian chiShona women challenge this discourse and lesbian invisibility is highlighted through the work of Tinashe Mupedzapasi. Colonization has left toxic roots within chiShona masculinity, sexuality, power dynamics, and gender identity reinforcing hierarchical understandings within chiShona culture. Yet non-normative identities persist. Thus, this project also addresses the critical question: can this discourse be decolonized

Educators\u27 Use of Data-Informed Decision Making

Data-driven decision making includes a set of skills that is necessary for educators to make decisions concerning the allocation of teacher time and financial resources. Without these skills teachers do not have the tools necessary to allocate resources in a way that enhances equity and increases student achievement

Interprofessional Use of Story Exchanges for Developing Intercultural Understanding

Storytelling can have profound implications for equity work through its ability to generate empathy, develop intercultural communication skills, and provide a creative lens for examining issues of power and privilege. In today’s diverse settings, professionals across disciplines need to be adept at intercultural communication. In this workshop, the facilitators will introduce Story Exchange, a method of interactive storytelling that has been used to develop empathy in school and community settings. We are interested in exploring whether this tool can help in developing deeper understanding of others’ experiences and increase awareness of the location and impact of identity, positionality, and intersectionality within personal and professional narratives. In small groups, participants will be asked to share a personal story related to identity, positionality, and/or intersectionality. We will debrief the story exchange process by asking participants to reflect on what was learned and how story exchange can be used as a tool for advancing equity and cultural responsiveness in professional practice. This workshop will benefit practitioners from various occupations and disciplines through introducing a tool that is accessible, adaptable, and engaging for encouraging inclusive practices and systemic change in schools, workplaces, and communities

The Influence of Organizational Culture on Lean Implementation in Healthcare

A stable organizational culture is necessary to sustain operations in healthcare organizations. In this paper, I explore the value of the Toyota Production System (TPS), also known as Lean Management, in healthcare organizations. Extant literature and empirical evidence have shown that lean has the potential to positively change the culture of a healthcare organization because it creates a foundational level of “Lean Thinking.” That said, my goals are to determine whether: 1) there is resistance to Lean implementation; and 2) a positive effect occurs in an organizational culture with a Lean environment and the specific mechanisms of this change. This literature review examines Lean thinking with lean resistance and opportunities, the idea of culture capability, and a new concept referred to as “systems approach.” Three views on lean thinking in healthcare are prevalent in the literature; 1) the idea that every person in the organization is of equal importance; 2) arguments for success are factors of engagement; and 3) resistance to Lean’s implementation. A more comprehensive review of this literature is needed to understand the topic, subtopics and questions

The Effect of Acupuncture on Pain in Inpatient Medicine

Background: Pain management has become a controversial topic. Opioids, which once held the promise of improving quality of life for millions of Americans, have resulted in an epidemic of addiction. As a result, national organizations are investigating alternative methods to treat pain, including acupuncture. The purpose of this review is to investigate the effect of acupuncture on the general symptom of pain, within the context of the controlled environment of inpatient medicine. Methods: An exhaustive search of MEDLINE-Ovid, CINAHL, and Web of Science was conducted using the search terms acupuncture, inpatient, and pain. Included studies measured pain scores before and after acupuncture treatments in U.S. inpatient medical settings. Additional inclusion criteria were study design (interventional studies, and cohort studies), English language, and publication type (peer-reviewed journals). Studies were excluded if they compared acupuncture treatment to sham, due to controversy surrounding sham. Studies were also excluded if they did not analyze effects of acupuncture separate from other alternative health modalities. Quality of publications were assessed using GRADE criteria. Results: Seven studies were included in this systematic review, meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria: two pre-post studies, four cohort studies, and one randomized control trial (RCT). All included studies showed acupuncture significantly reduced immediate pain in an inpatient setting, regardless of the underlying cause of pain. However, overall quality of evidence was low as a result of lack of control groups, lack of blinding, loss to follow up, reporting bias, and small sample size. Conclusion: Every study that met criteria for this review showed data promising for acupuncture’s capacity to decrease pain in an inpatient setting. However, study design flaws limited confidence in the data. Ultimately, further research is needed

Open Educational Resources: Opportunities, Challenges, Impact!

As always, Oregon Librarians are on the cutting edge of identifying our patrons’ crucial needs and creatively finding ways to remedy these needs. Providing our communities access to otherwise unobtainable resources that support growth and learning has always been among our shared goals as librarians. We know that by providing these resources, we are enhancing inclusive community engagement and providing a crucial contribution for both individuals and society as a whole. A pressing issue at hand that speaks to both individuals and our society is access to higher education. Oregon’s college students are facing increasing barriers to accessing a college education, opting to delay, or in many cases, permanently putting off attending college due to rising costs. K–12 schools also face seemingly endless budget constraints. Trimming the budget by aging out textbooks or limiting the purchase of textbooks to a “classroom only set” are budget strategies that often make it to the bargaining table. Surprisingly perhaps, it is not just the rising cost of tuition. The cost of textbooks has outpaced almost every other consumer good—including food, healthcare, and housing (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016). We can close this gap. Academic Librarians have found themselves embracing a new opportunity with the advent of Open Educational Resources (OER)

Origami Mathematics

In this paper we give a comprehensive introduction to the mathematical definitions and ideas used to analyze origami. An origami is defined as a two-dimensional plane projected into three dimensions by rotation about a set of creases. We represent this rotation using matrices, and discuss the implied restrictions on the movement of origami structures. Flat foldability conditions such as Kawasaki\u27s theorem determine whether local crease patterns can be folded at, and rigid foldability conditions determine their range of motion. We extend one existing at foldability theorem to include a broader class of structures. Origami has inspired designs for many engineering applications, such as efficient storage and impact damping. Metallic origami structures are useful for impact damping because they absorb energy by metallic deformation and can return to their original shapes. We create a design sketch for earthquake damping using origami, and outline how one might use the mathematical principles discussed in this paper to find an optimal design for this application

Trapped in Toxic Exposure: Mitigation Masking and the Emotional Geography of Residential Proximity to Expanding Industry

The purpose of this study was to introduce a citizen’s stakeholder perspective into research on environmental regulation and offending. The business operations of a steel recycling plant located in a residential neighborhood was analyzed to identify how their mitigation efforts have been used to justify continued business expansion, mask other aspects of environmental offending, and block citizen efforts to become stakeholders in the governance process. The concept of “mitigation masking” was introduced to reveal victim blaming governance processes. We surveyed the residence using the retrospective pre-then-post design in a two-block radius surrounding HI&M (N=17). We collected a convenience sample of public comment cards (n = 79) on two different occasions. This study adds to research on environmental offending by introducing a citizen narrative into the literature on environmental regulation and offending and exploring how mitigation masking pollutes citizen human agency

Personality and the Perception of Social Media Posts

Social media is becoming increasingly more popular with currently seven in ten American people having at least one social networking sites. As social networking becomes more popular, research is emerging about both the potential consequences and benefits from using these sites. There are numerous studies examining self-presentation, social comparison and the accuracy of impression management. One missing piece in the literature is looking at how different personality components influence online social networking. The purpose of this study is to examine those differences related to the type of post made as well as the perception of posts