Striving to Increase BIPOC Family Participation in Early Childhood Family Education

Boomer, A. U. (2023). Striving to Increase BIPOC Family Participation in Early Childhood Family Education. Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) is a public education program designed and available for all parents and families in Minnesota. Despite these intentions, many Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) families remain unaware of ECFE\u27s existence and its significance. The purpose of this study is to understand the current methodologies of parent education outreach and collaboration with other programs, in particular, BIPOC communities, and explore and process what efforts have been made to increase BIPOC participation in traditional ECFE parent education group classes (non-affinity groups) in Minnesota. The research also examines BIPOC participation in traditional ECFE classes and explores and discovers the types of support ECFE educators and coordinators need to reach the BIPOC communities. The research also details the history and purpose of parent education and the development of ECFE to uncover the importance of this support. Additional information includes the significance of parent involvement and parent education classes, ECFE’s outreach methodologies, the role and process of being parent educators, and barriers to reaching all its community members. The research design involved a qualitative research approach that included a survey and interviews. The survey data was collected from various districts, including urban, suburban, and rural areas with BIPOC residents. The interviewers were selected through the voluntary checklist on the survey. The survey and interviews allowed personal narratives to flourish and have individualized perspectives and reflections on the participants\u27 experiences while acknowledging the agreed expectations of their roles and responsibilities. The study revealed participants\u27 differing ideas and thoughts about outreach and increasing involvement for BIPOC families. The interview process honed in on the personal and specific issues that may occur in each region and the variety of processes of working to include more BIPOC families in their district. The study revealed major learnings of building trust, creating support, and involving committed staff to increase BIPOC family participation in Early Childhood Family Education

The War in Words: Reading the Dakota Conflict through the Captivity Literature

Review of: The War in Words: Reading the Dakota Conflict through the Captivity Literature, by Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola

Postcard: Old Sod Shanty

This black and white photographic postcard features a sod house. The house is in the center and other buildings and sod structures are to the left in the background. Prairie land surrounds the house. Written and printed text is below the sod house. Handwriting is at the top of the card.https://scholars.fhsu.edu/tj_postcards/2191/thumbnail.jp

PVN ACTIVITY IN CARDIAC SYMPATHETIC AFFERENT REFLEX (CSAR) CONTROL AND CARDIOVASCULAR FUNCTION

Regulation of blood pressure is essential in bodily health. Hypertension and hypotension can be associated with varying diseases that could potentiate further disease. From this, understanding the mechanisms that regulate blood pressure is important within medicine. In my study, I will be focusing on a cardiovascular reflex that is less well understood, the cardiac sympathetic afferent reflex (CSAR). In particular, this work will examine sex differences in this reflex in overall function and in the involvement of an area of the brain called the paraventricular nucleus (PVN). We will test the hypothesis that there will be a significant difference between male and female rats in regard to BK-induced CSAR response. We predict that males will have a greater blood pressure and heart rate in response to CSAR stimuli. Alongside this, male subjects will have greater paraventricular nucleus cFos staining compared to female subjects. To approach this study, we will use a random selection of genetically similar rats. The rats were instrumented to measure blood pressure and heart rate and to allow pericardial injection of a drug (bradykinin) that is known to activate the CSAR. iv Pericardial injection of bradykinin was observed to increase mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR) by 24 +/- 4 mmHg and 20 +/- 6 bpm in male rats. In females, we observed an increase in MAP and HR of 18 +/- 2 mmHg and 12 +/- 4 bpm. Thus, MAP and HR responses appeared attenuated in female rats. However, these differences did not reach statistical significance. We assessed PVN involvement by immunostaining for cFos, an immediate early response gene product. We observed cFos staining in the PVN indicative of neural activation in this area in both male and female rats. The degree of immunostaining was an average of 5.2 stained cells counted on each image collected, with a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 7 cells each image. Total area of staining averaged 4.486 square units per image, with a minimum area of 2.517 and a maximum area of 6.982. Average cell area staining was 0.8616 square units per cell, with a minimum of 0.567 and a maximum of 0.997 per cell. This work has uncovered new aspects regarding the CSAR. Learning of how this mechanism relates to blood pressure control can then be helpful in understanding the blood pressure regulation in humans, possible differences between males and females. Ultimately, this may lead to more effective medications relating to blood pressure management customized to gender

Successful technology consulting : the Boomer advantage

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aicpa_guides/1559/thumbnail.jp

Friendship for the Flawed: A Cynical and Pessimistic Theory of Friendship

When considering the value of friendship, most philosophers ignore the negatives. Most assume that humans need friends to flourish, and some argue that friendships can be good, no matter the risks entailed. This makes conversations about the value of friendship one-sided. Here, I argue that Cynics and Pessimists have an important view on friendship, despite it being ignored. They hold that: (a) friendship is unnecessary for flourishing, and (b) friendship presents ethical risks, especially to one’s own self-sufficiency. I defend these views. Then I conclude with reflections on why Cynics and Pessimists actually make great friends. By helping people to focus on vulgar human nature and the flaws that humans have, they create an unpretentious basis for friendship

What Race Terms Do: Du Bois, Biology, and Psychology on the Meanings of “Race”

This paper does two things. First, it interprets the work of W. E. B. Du Bois to reveal that the meanings of race terms are grounded by both a historical and an aspirational component. Race terms refer to a backward-looking component that traces the history of the group to its present time, as well as a forward-looking component that sets out values and goals for the group. Race terms thus refer to a complex cluster of concepts that involve biological, sociological, historical, moral, and political properties. Second, the paper defends W. E. B. Du Bois’s conservationist thesis about races, which holds that we should maintain race talk and racial distinctions. But instead of offering philosophical evidence, this paper defends the plausibility of the conservationist thesis with evidence from contemporary biology and psychology. It argues that, instead of eliminating race terms or concepts, we should conserve and revise them

Bacterial Abundance and Resistance in Ground Beef Varieties

Raw ground beef purchased at supermarkets across America have one thing in common: they harbor bacteria, some of which are drug resistant and can be detrimental to public health. To understand the impact of farming and processing practices on the quantity of bacteria and drug resistance, organic and regular beef were assessed using MacConkey media. Bacterial colonies were sorted according to lactose utilization, with positive colonies representing fecal E. coli. Lactose negative colonies were further characterized into one of two groups (fecal Hafnia-like or soil Pseudomonas) using a variety of metabolic tests (oxidase, sulfur, indole). Advanced metabolic testing showed that regular beef contained significantly more fecal E. coli-like bacteria, Hafnia-like bacteria and fecal Providencia-like bacteria than organic beef. Soil Pseudomonas was only isolated from regular beef. This procedure was repeated using MacConkey plates containing commonly used agricultural antibacterial drugs to assess the prevalence and types of drug-resistant bacteria. Bacteria resistant to penicillin, sulfamethazine, cefazolin, or ampicillin were found at significantly higher levels on regular beef than organic. Bacteria resistant to more than one of these drugs were only found on regular beef