Recognizing and reducing microaggressions in online courses

Microaggressions are brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to a target group. They impair classroom performance by creating emotional turmoil and depleting psychological resources for multicultural students. This presentation discusses how to recognize and manage this disruptive online communication

Microaggressions Among Online Graduate Students

Microaggressions are brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to a target group. This study analyzes empirical data taken from a graduate multicultural course taught online. The study explores the various ways interactions between adult students demonstrate forms of microaggressions

Minority public administrators: managing organizational demands while acting as an advocate

Building on the work of Adam Herbert, this research examines how minority managers navigate the pressures of their organization versus the pressures of their community. Organizational socialization suggests that the socialization process will introduce employees to the goals and priorities of the organization and result in similar behaviors among managers. However, social identities (i.e., race, gender) also significantly influence the values, attitudes, and behaviors of a public servant. Navigating these two competing pressures, minority managers often experience role conflict in their work. We theoretically explore and empirically examine how race affects minority managers’ perceptions, networking behaviors, and hiring outcomes. We test our hypotheses using 6 years of school superintendent survey data. We find that racial minority managers behave in similar ways to their White peers as they have similar perceptions of their role in the organization and engage in professional networking behavior at similar rates. However, minority managers separately address the interests of their same-race minority community by hiring same-race street-level bureaucrats. As public organizations have grown increasingly diverse, this research revisits the experiences of minority public administrators and contributes to our understanding of how race and social identities contemporarily influence public managerial behaviors

Cardiovascular and cortisol reactions to acute psychological stress and cognitive ability in the Dutch Famine Birth Cohort Study

Objective: Recently, in analyses of data from a large community sample, negative cross-sectional and prospective associations between cardiac stress reactivity and obesity were observed. The present study re-examined the association between cardiovascular reactivity and adiposity in the Dutch Famine Birth Cohort, with the additional aim of examining the association between cortisol reactivity and adiposity. Methods: Blood pressure, heart rate, and salivary cortisol were measured at rest and in response to standard laboratory stress tasks in 725 adults. Height, weight, waist and hip circumference, and skin fold thickness were measured. Four to seven years later 460 participants reported current height and weight. Obesity was defined as a BMI > 30kg/m2. Results: Cross-sectional analyses revealed negative associations between all measures of adiposity and heart rate reactivity; those with a greater BMI (ß = -0.39 bpm), waist-hip ratio (ß = -0.15 bpm), and triceps and subscapular skin fold thicknesses (ß = -1.0 bpm and -1.8 bpm), or categorized as obese (-3.9 bpm) displayed smaller cardiac reactions to acute stress (all p <.001). With the exception of waist-hip ratio, the same negative associations emerged for cortisol reactivity (all p ≤ .01). In prospective analyses, low cardiac reactivity was associated with an increased likelihood of becoming or remaining obese in the subsequent 4-7 years (OR 1.03, p = .01). All associations withstood adjustment for a range of possible confounders. Conclusions: The present analyses provide additional support for the hypothesis that it is low not high cardiac and cortisol stress reactivity that is related to adiposity

Comparison of Laser Ablation, Foam Sclerotherapy and Surgery (CLASS) Trial

This article is freely available via Open Access. Click on the Publisher URL to access it via the publisher's site.The project was funded by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme (Project number: 06/45/02).published version, accepted version (12 month embargo), submitted versio

Geochemical impact of urban development on fragile freshwater wetlands

Urbanization is associated with increased cover of impervious surfaces, which poses significant challenges to freshwater ecosystems globally. Implications of catchment urbanization include altered natural hydrology, erosion, weed invasions and modified water chemistry. Blue Mountains Upland Swamps are sensitive freshwater ecosystems located in the Blue Mountains region in south-eastern Australia. They have high conservation value as they are located within a World Heritage Area, are a listed 'endangered ecological community' in Australia and contain endemic and endangered flora and fauna. Water chemistry was assessed in four naturally vegetated and four urban swamps. Urban swamps had higher impervious cover and modified water chemistry, with elevated pH, electrical conductivity and major ions compared to non-urban swamps. Water in urban swamps had elevated calcium, potassium and bicarbonate compared to non-urban catchments, by 19.8, 5.2 and 10.3 times respectively. Although further research is needed, we hypothesize that common concrete materials, particularly drainage infrastructure, strongly influenced differences between urban and nonurban catchments. This adds to growing international research highlighting the potential role of concrete in modifying urban water chemistry due to gradual dissolution and mobilization of ions. In an increasingly urban world, consideration of the ecological consequences of urbanization is required to guide future management approaches

Atypical use of audience response system provides opportunity to formatively assess faculty teaching and improve learning outcomes

In response to curricular reform, a particularly effective new approach was developed for a course offered at all nine IUSM centers. Participants will learn about interdisciplinary planning, implementation of a "Grand Rounds" approach, novel use of audience response system for retrieval practice and formative assessment of teaching methods, and how Bloom scale ratings relate to student engagement and focus

Signatures of urbanization in Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone (THPSS) of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area

Urban freshwater ecosystems exhibit distinct patterns of elevated major ions (calcium, potassium and bicarbonate) and metals, referred to as the ‘urban geochemical signature’. However, the implications of this urban fingerprint at the water-sediment interface within sensitive freshwater systems are not well-known. Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone are unique freshwater wetlands found within and surrounding the high-conservation value Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area and are a listed ‘endangered ecological community’ in Australia. Water and sediment chemistry were assessed within four urban and four naturally vegetated swamp catchments, through field monitoring and novel laboratory techniques (including X-ray diffraction). Urban swamps had distinct elemental signatures compared to naturally vegetated swamps. Urban swamp water displayed increased pH, elevated ionic strength, major ions (calcium and bicarbonate) and metals (strontium, barium, manganese and iron). Urban swamp sediment had higher calcium, with calcium hydroxide detected at two urban sites. Urban development and concrete drainage infrastructure in swamp catchments modify natural hydrology and water chemistry. Findings suggest swamp sediments may act as sinks of metals and alkalinity, with urbanization remaining a potential source. However, the consequences for high-conservation value systems are not well understood. As urbanization continues to expand, this has implications for fragile freshwater environments worldwide