Allyship and Social Support Networks: Examining Feelings of Safety and Confidence Among LGBTQ+ Sports Officials

For LGBTQ+ employees, research has indicated they feel othered, isolated, and unwelcome within their work communities. In other settings, social networks have been shown to provide stability and a sense of belonging that increases factors associated with mental health, such as self-care, stress moderation, and increased coping behaviors. Because of this, we examined the social networks of self-identified LGBTQ+ sports officials utilizing egocentric network analysis to better understand the influence of LGBTQ+ officials’ social networks on their feelings of safety and confidence and decisions to continue officiating. Participants responded to questions about people (alters) they considered to be allies in their role as a sports official. These responses yielded an egocentric network for each LGBTQ+ sports official. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine alter (Level 1) and ego (Level 2) attributes that explained variance in feelings of safety and confidence. Initial results indicate feelings of safety and confidence are explained by factors at both the alter (i.e., ally) and ego (i.e., individual) levels, highlighting the value of multilevel analyses to study sports officials’ experiences. Implications for helping sports administrators better understand the variables and impact allies can have on factors associated with the mental health and retention of LGBTQ+ sports officials are discussed

Exploring shared experiences as citizen sport diplomats: a collaborative self-ethnography

Research purpose: This study was a critical analysis of the lived experiences of three American university professors who served as volunteer citizen diplomats in a bi-lateral U.S. State Department sport exchange program with North Macedonian volleyball coaches. Research methods: With the aim of capturing the experience of serving as citizen sport diplomats and making sense of it to inform future practice, this research utilized a collaborative self-ethnography approach. This reflexive approach brings together: (a) analytic autoethnography as individuals themselves are engaged in the ethnography and study, and (b) collective ethnography as a team collects and makes sense of shared data regarding the same context and phenomena. Results and Findings: During the outbound exchange, we each created journal entries about our experiences, followed by daily discussion of entries, and highlighting possible emerging themes. This process was repeated nine times. The discussions were recorded and transcribed and we used a reflexive thematic approach to uncover the first three teams of Odyssey, Border Straddling, and Throwing Seeds/Planting Rows. Representative quotes for Brush Sets, the fourth theme, were identified using a deductive thematic analysis approach. Implications: Our findings revealed the need for future research to understand how planning, preparation, and resource allocation impacts the long-term success and sustainability of sport diplomacy exchanges. From a practical standpoint, each theme provides a framework for the required mental and physical resources of a sport diplomatic exchange and highlights that deep levels of transformational learning can occur during these programs

Artificial Fiction Imagining Literary Possibility Beyond the Human

Artificial Fiction: Imagining Literary Possibility Beyond the Human dreams boldly about literary possibility in this moment of AI’s technological and social immaturity. Through the wishful image of artificial fiction, this book explores the potential of new realisms, new modernisms and new genres that present new epistemologies, new ontologies and new pleasures and experiences for readers. While helping us to recognise and reimagine human-centredness in literary theory and practice, this book also \u27looks back\u27 at human fiction as a genre to consider what is distinctive and valuable about it, demonstrating that human fiction and artificial fiction have roles to play in imagining and learning to respect lives and experiences of every variety.https://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/mono/1200/thumbnail.jp

Gentes y maneras de hablar en el río Apaporis (Colombia): el caso de YAUNA, TANIMUCA y LETUAMA

El artículo ofrece una perspectiva histórica y lingüística sobre las relaciones entre las lenguas y pueblos conocidos como Yauna, Tanimuca y Letuama, enfocándose en el origen y significado de estos glosónimos y etnónimos. Hacemos un recorrido por el conocimiento académico sobre ellos y lo enriquecemos con el relato indígena de su historia sociolingüística, sus autodenominaciones y las denominaciones externas. Así, el artículo contribuye al desarrollo de una aproximación históricamente informada sobre los marcos de interpretación y categorización que se han consolidado para la comprensión académica del área cultural y lingüística del Noroeste Amazónico (o Gran Vaupés). Del mismo modo, ofrecemos un panorama de cambios sociales, políticos y sociolingüísticos en los siglos XX y XXI en el río Apaporis (Amazonas-Vaupés, Colombia) y su relación con las prácticas investigativas en antropología y lingüística en la región. Con este texto esperamos aportar, en especial, al conocimiento de la familia lingüística Tucano oriental, al igual que al lugar del pueblo Yauna y su lengua en el complejo cultural del Noroeste Amazónico

The Rise Of Artificial Intelligence AndThe Importance Of Media Literacy: Decoding AI-Generated News

With the rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence, people around the world are growing concerned about the quality of the content they receive -- especially the information they read in the news. Artificial Intelligence, “the development of computer systems capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as speech recognition, problem- solving, and pattern detection” (Climavision, 2024), are at the heart of these concerns. There are many forms of artificial intelligence. However, the study focuses explicitly on generative AI models, also referred to as Large Language Models (LLMs). A 2023 study surveying newsrooms nationwide reveals that Artificial Intelligence is used in 32% of content creation (Watson, 2024). As Artificial Intelligence becomes more and more prevalent in the journalistic sphere, it is imperative that people can correctly detect AI-generated text in order to better monitor the quality of the overall article. To test whether the average person can accurately and consistently distinguish between human and AI-generated news, this study asks participants to select from among articles authored by both humans and AI and identify their confidence level in this selection. The study also analyzes whether external factors such as education, socioeconomic status, and age impact their ability to distinguish between human and AI-authored news articles

Sociedade sob risco: monetarização, beleza e a economia íntima do dom entre os Rikbaktsa da Amazônia brasileira

Na virada do século XXI, salários, programas e políticas previdenciárias com aporte renda, voltados ao bem-estar social, começam a atingir povos indígenas brasileiros. Os poucos estudos etnográficos acerca da monetarização concordam sobre possíveis efeitos (deletérios) do dinheiro nas economias alimentares indígenas e relações entre parentes, sem enfatizá-los analiticamente, discussão central neste artigo. Minha análise parte do ano de 2000, quando o dinheiro timidamente adentrava a vida dos Rikbaktsa (Marco-Jê) do sudoeste amazônico, chegando à circulação contemporânea de quantias consideráveis no cotidiano de suas aldeias. A metodologia etnográfica se soma a um survey para estimar a dispersão do dinheiro, em contraste com uma compreensão nativa sobre critérios de cálculo e as magnitudes transacionadas entre os indígenas e sua conceitualização acerca dessas operações. Como analiso, o dinheiro, mercadorias e suas “comidas de verdade” (mydisahawy babata) são impelidos a circular em uma práxis orientada pelas noções de beleza e de risco, como denominadores paradigmáticos da calculabilidade das formas de valor transacionadas entre parentes e além. Em operações concebidas como ajudas, a comida dos brancos e o dinheiro são associados a uma ética relacional que envolve diferentes seres e domínios do cosmos e estimula, de maneira talvez inédita, a produção, o compartilhamento e a redistribuição de recursos vários. Acontecendo no intervalo entre a beleza e o risco e de maneira não prevista na epistemologia de programas centrados no dinheiro, essa intensa circulação e redistribuição de recursos vem impactando o balanço das relações e, em um exercício especulativo, da própria sociedade Rikbaktsa

A Deep Dive Into Integrals: From Riemann, Stieltjes, Lebesgue to Henstock–Kurzweil

Integration theory is broadly concerned with the existence of solutions to definite integrals over closed subintervals of the real line, and its power lies in the various techniques of integration, which enable integration of successively broader classes of functions. In this work, we establish a self–contained theory of integration in the sense of Riemann, Riemann–Stieltjes, Lebesgue, and Henstock–Kurzweil. Notably, our work utilizes the theory of Lebesgue integration developed by P. J. Daniell, which does not rely on measure theory and thus remains accessible at the undergraduate level. Our incentive for such an approach is to improve equitable access to advanced integration theory in undergraduate learning environments. This work remains grounded in the applications of integration theory, which span the disciplines of probability theory, complex analysis, quaternionic theory, and even quantum mechanics. Finally, we present the Vitali set indicator function and a novel proof that this function is not integrable in the sense of any of the integration techniques surveyed, thus crystallizing the limits of integration theory as it exists today.

Polymerization Kinetics and Polymer Characterization by Fluorogenic Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization (ATRP)

Controlling reaction kinetics with precision is vital for tailoring polymer properties such as molecular weight and dispersity; thus, reactions which are able to control and optimize for these characteristics are becoming increasingly important. Current methods that are able to reliably and carefully monitor polymerizations involve highly specialized, costly, and low-throughput instrumentation which all sacrifice the ability to monitor reaction kinetics in real-time. As an alternative to these complex and expensive setups, fluorogenic atom transfer radical polymerization (fluorogenic ATRP) is explored as a simple and accessible method for the direct, in situ, monitoring of polymerization kinetics and for the purposes of polymer molecular weight characterization. The Cooley Group has previously demonstrated that a fluorogenic monomer probe, anthracene methacrylamide (AnMA), will yield a fluorescent polymer upon co-polymerization, even at low concentrations of this monomer. The trace incorporation of anthracene methacrylamide into a variety of preexisting reactions allows for simple fluorescence measurements to act as a non-invasive technique to monitor the degree of polymerization and polymer molecular weight. This work details the testing and efficacy of this approach through reactions which copolymerize anthracene methacrylamide (and other fluorogenic monomers) into a variety of both established and emerging ATRP reactions to understand and define parameters for the relationship between observed polymer fluorescence and polymer characteristics. Additional work is also being done to characterize the polymers formed from these reactions, and a proof-of-concept surface-initiated polymerization application has been developed and is currently the subject of ongoing experimentation

Formation and extent of the Cretaceous West Mountains plutonic complex

The West Mountains plutonic complex is a series of intrusive bodies, presently located in Idaho, that formed during a continuous period of Early to mid-Cretaceous magmatism in the northwest North American Cordillera. Granitoids of the West Mountains plutonic complex were emplaced across the boundary between accreted terranes and Laurentia following the Jurassic accretion of the Blue Mountains Province. New U-Pb zircon crystallization dates from the West Mountains plutonic complex ranging from 130 to 109 Ma and new zircon εHf isotopic compositions ranging from +12.1 to +4.7 suggest the complex is older and compositionally distinct from the younger than 85 Ma peraluminous granites of the Idaho batholith to the east. Instead, metaluminous compositions and the timing of magmatism indicate the West Mountains plutonic complex is similar to the subduction-related intrusions of the Sierra Nevada and northwest Nevada regions. We present a model for the West Mountains plutonic complex as part of the ca. 130–85 Ma subduction-related Idaho arc. Using new data from the West Mountains plutonic complex, we characterize the tectonic history of the subduction-related Idaho arc as separate from the peraluminous parts of the Idaho batholith, which resulted from crustal melting. The existence of the Idaho arc supports models of a longitudinally continuous Early to mid-Cretaceous magmatic arc in the western United States. The Idaho arc, including parts of the West Mountains plutonic complex, experienced significant transpressional deformation and intrusive overprinting, resulting in a diminished spatial footprint relative to other Cretaceous magmatic centers. This deformation and associated exhumation resulted in the Idaho arc being a significant source of detrital zircons in the central North American Cordillera during mid-Cretaceous time

EDUC 3410/ENVI 3410: The Natural Environment and Well-Being

Course Description The course introduces students to the benefits of natural environments on human health and well-being. Topics of study include the historical and cultural traditions of human’s connections to nature, theoretical frameworks and mechanisms of human/nature connections, implementation of interdisciplinary research agendas, as well as implications for education, diversity, health policy, and urban planning. A significant portion of the course will take place in the field, where students will explore local and regional parks, nature-based educational settings, and the practice of forest therapy. While most field work will take place during the 3-hour course time frame, there will be one full-day field trip