The relationship of school structure and support to suspension rates for black and white high school students

This study examined the relationship between structure and support in the high school climate and suspension rates in a statewide sample of 199 schools. School climate surveys completed by 5,035 ninth grade students measured characteristics of authoritative schools, defined as highly supportive, yet highly structured with academic and behavioral expectations. Multivariate analyses showed that schools low on characteristics of an authoritative school had the highest schoolwide suspension rates for Black and White students after statistically controlling for school demographics. Furthermore, schools low on both structure and support had the largest racial discipline gaps. These findings highlight the characteristics of risky settings that may not meet the developmental needs of adolescents and may contribute to disproportionate disciplinary outcomes for Black students

The sleep-inducing lipid oleamide deconvolutes gap junction communication and calcium wave transmission in glial cells.

Oleamide is a sleep-inducing lipid originally isolated from the cerebrospinal fluid of sleep-deprived cats. Oleamide was found to potently and selectively inactivate gap junction-mediated communication between rat glial cells. In contrast, oleamide had no effect on mechanically stimulated calcium wave transmission in this same cell type. Other chemical compounds traditionally used as inhibitors of gap junctional communication, like heptanol and 18beta-glycyrrhetinic acid, blocked not only gap junctional communication but also intercellular calcium signaling. Given the central role for intercellular small molecule and electrical signaling in central nervous system function, oleamide- induced inactivation of glial cell gap junction channels may serve to regulate communication between brain cells, and in doing so, may influence higher order neuronal events like sleep induction

Cumulative effects of bullying and racial discrimination on adolescent health in Australia

This study examined how cumulative exposure to racial discrimination and bullying victimization influences the health of Australian adolescents (n=2802) aged 10-11 years (19.3% visible ethnic minorities (non-White, non-Indigenous); 2.6% Indigenous) using data from 3 waves (2010-2014) of the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). Cumulative exposure to racial discrimination and bullying victimization had incremental negative effects on socioemotional difficulties. Higher accumulated exposure to both stressors across time was associated with increased BMI z-scores, and risk of overweight/obesity. Studies that examine exposure to single risk factors such as bullying victimization or racial discrimination at 1 time point only are likely to miss key determinants of health for adolescents from stigmatized racial/ethnic backgrounds and under-estimate their stressor burden

Think socially but act publicly: Refocusing CSR as corporate public responsibility

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Current literature has identified many different definitions for the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR). As a result, many organizations fail to implement and measure CSR strategically. This study reviews the different theories and concepts within CSR and suggests that the current scope of CSR activities is too large that organizations are unable to find a tangible link between CSR and their bottom line. Using two case examples, this study proposes refocusing the concept of CSR as corporate public responsibility (CPR) based on which organizations utilize the concept of publics to prioritize the groups to which they must fulfill their responsibilities before attending to society as a whole. Because organizations are constrained by limited resources, the concept of CPR allows them to invest their resources more strategically. The concept also addresses the limitations of existing theories. The practical implications of this concept will be discussed in detail

Learning about managing the business in the hospitality industry

This research examines the learning experiences of General Managers (GMs) in the hospitality industry, a sector much neglected in terms of research into management learning and human resource development. Our research focused on four large hospitality organizations (two hotels and two contract catering companies) and adopted an approach that integrates multiple data collection strategies in supporting our qualitative case studies. Data were collected by using document analysis plus detailed, qualitative interviews with 21 general managers, of whom seven were subsequently observed at work and observation notes generated. Data analysis revealed that the participants learned to manage the business primarily through experience, a process consisting of four key stages: Being Challenged, Information Searching, Information Transformation, and Testing. Reflective thinking plays a central role in their learning, taking the form of “actions” involving association, integration and validation, and of “products” involving content, process and context reflections. We argue that the way hospitality managers learn, while sharing the learning approaches taken by other professionals, differs in that these managers’ learning is more highly contextualized

The masked demos: Associational anonymity and democratic practice

The increased use of anonymous digital platforms raises substantive concerns about accountability in digital spaces. However, contemporary evaluations of anonymity focus too narrowly on its protective function: its ability to protect a diversity of speakers and ideas. Drawing on two examples of anonymous political engagements – Publius’s writing of the Federalist Papers and college students’ use of the social media platform Yik Yak – we develop an account of anonymity’s associational function: the processes by which people generate and negotiate collective identities, discussions, and actions in wider publics. As we argue, anonymity’s associational function can (1) generate conditions under which individuals develop collective interests and identities to foster collective action, and (2) enable novel interactions between these individuals and communities and the larger publics of which they are part. We conclude with a discussion of how attention to associational anonymity can contribute to a more nuanced account of democracy in practice

Post break-up tectonic inversion across the southwestern cape of South Africa: new insights from apatite and zircon fission track thermochronometry

The south-west African margin is regarded as an example of a passive continental margin formed by continental rifting following a phase of lithospheric extension and thinning. Recent attention focused on this margin has included theoretical modelling studies of rift processes, plate kinematic studies of the opening geometry and timing, and empirical studies focused on documenting the crustal structure and offshore sedimentary record. Here, we examine the onshore geomorphic and tectonic response to rifting and breakup, with a specific focus on the SW Cape of South Africa. We present 75 new apatite and 8 new zircon fission track analyses from outcrop samples and onshore borehole profiles along the western margin of South Africa. The data are used to derive robust thermal histories that record two discrete phases of accelerated erosional cooling during the Early Cretaceous (150-130 Ma) and Late Cretaceous (100-80 Ma), respectively. Both periods of enhanced erosion are regional in extent, involved km-scale erosion, and extend well inland of the current escarpment zone, albeit with spatially variable intensity and style. The Late Cretaceous episode is also expressed more locally by tectonic reactivation and inversion of major faults causing km-scale differential displacement and erosion. The new AFT data do not exclude the possibility of modest surface uplift occurring during the Cenozoic, but they restrict the depth of regional Cenozoic erosion on the western margin to less than c. 1 km. The inferred pattern and chronology of erosion onshore is consistent with the key features and sediment accumulation patterns within the offshore Orange and Bredasdorp basins. It is suggested that the Late Cretaceous event was triggered by a combination of regional dynamic uplift augmented along the western margin and in the SW Cape by local tectonic forces arising from dextral displacement of the Falkland Plateau along the Falkland-Agulhas Fracture Zone