Scrutiny Instead of Silence. A Response to Respect Differences? Challenging Common Guidelines in Social Justice Education

Sensoy and DiAngelo (2014) argue for alternative behavioral guidelines than those currently being used in many social justice courses. Their alternative is to silence or constrain privileged voices so that marginalized voices have ample space to be heard and taken seriously. This raises the concern that silencing any group of persons runs too great a risk of alienating them to the point where their mistrust of the “other” is exacerbated rather than assuaged. This response suggests that, instead of silencing or even constraining privileged voices in the classroom, we may want to move toward developing in students the attitude that all claims and assertions, especially those that society often accepts as true without question, must undergo critical scrutiny. If we can teach students that a well-informed belief is one that is continually subject to critical analysis, and we can guide them in developing and understanding that our social positionality leads us to favor certain views and perspectives over others due, in large part, to the inequity in our social structures, perhaps we can open our students’ minds to the value and worth of marginalized claims and views

Maternalism as a Viable Alternative to the Risks Imposed by Paternalism. A Response to Paternalism, Obesity, and Tolerable Levels of Risk

In his paper, Michael Merry poses an interesting and important question: How can we navigate between two often opposing interests—that of protecting the welfare of our society’s children and that of protecting their liberties by avoiding paternalism? While Merry lays out his argument with clarity and insight into the risks and harm that state paternalism incurs, his discussion of such risks and his suggestions for possible resolutions are all bound within a paternalistic framework. Taking on a maternalistic, or more specifically, a caring, perspective may allow us to understand the issue more fully—that is, as part of the larger problem of oppression, and to offer alternative solutions that enable a society to care for the health and well-being of its children while avoiding the harms that paternalism imposes

Group Differences in Hot and Cool Executive Functioning Performance in College Students with and without a History of Child Maltreatment

We explored the degree to which a history of child maltreatment impacts performance in college settings. In recent studies, researchers have explored “hot” versus “cool” executive functioning (EF). Cool EF is comprised of cognitive processes in non-emotional settings and are known to play an important role in educational achievement. Hot EF is comprised of cognitive processes supported by emotional awareness. Given that child maltreatment is associated with emotional arousal difficulty, we explored the degree to which hot and cold EF tasks are differentially impacted by a history of child maltreatment. Our research approach involved modifying two traditional cool EF tasks (Tower of London and Go/No Go) in order to compare an individual’s performance in both the cool and heated version of the task. An important aspect of our study involved comparing the relative impact of a “social heating” (i.e., emotion faces) versus a “nonsocial heating” (monetary reward). We believed individuals with a maltreatment history would show relatively more difficulty with social heating. The data suggested that there were some sensible correlations between the subscales of a trauma questionnaire and other EF measures. Overall, we were unable to find clear group effects suggesting that a larger sample size would be beneficial

Observing Soil Changes Under Common Cropping Practices in Kentucky

Cropping production and tillage systems lead to loss of soil organic matter (SOM), lowering soil pH, and soil compaction in Kentucky. However, the magnitude of the changes varied among the soil properties. Therefore, the objective of this research was to evaluate the changes in SOM, soil pH, and soil compaction under different cropping systems like corn-soybean-tobacco rotation (Field #1), continuous corn field (Field #2), hemp field (Field #3), wheat field (Field #4), pasture with animal grazing (Field #5), and canola field (Field #6). The prominent soil textures in all fields are silt loam and silty clay loam. Disturbed soil samples were taken at the depth of 0-7 cm and 7-23 cm to measure SOM and soil pH. There were three replications from each field. The results indicated that the canola field which has been under no-till for over fifteen years had the highest SOM at an average of 4.2% in 0-7 cm. At similar depth, continuous cornfield had the second lowest amounts of SOM which was 2.8%. The canola field and the continuous cornfield had soil pH of 6.7 and 5.37, respectively indicating the highest and the lowest level of acidity. The averages of soil compaction from all fields were 159 psi in 0-7 cm, and 427 psi in 7-23 cm. The highest compaction was found in the field under animal grazing at 561 psi the lowest was under tobacco at 243.5 psi. The findings from this study revealed that SOM, soil pH, and soil compaction changed as affected by cropping practices

Analysis Of Working Conditions Of Support Staff In Public Secondary Schools In Nyamira County, Kenya.

Secondary school support staffs are less satisfied with their posts in general, their contracts and conditions of employment, working arrangements for their post, training and development opportunities available to them are always demoralizing them. Going by the foresaid conditions of work, this study was set to analyze of working conditions of support staff in public secondary schools in Nyamira County, Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The specific objective of the study was to: examine the working conditions of the support staff in public secondary schools. The study population consisted of 170 public secondary schools, 170 principals, 172 deputy principals and 170 BOM chairpersons with 1020 support staff, totaling to 1532. Simple random and stratified sampling techniques were used to select 16 secondary schools, out of which one principal, six support staff, one deputy principal and the BOM chairperson from each of the sampled schools were selected, making a total sample of 144 respondents for the study. The study established that support staff in Nyamira County work under very poor conditions. The findings reveals that support staff motivation depends on the working conditions set by the principal in a school also influence workers motivation to work. The study recommended that there should be salary increase to support staffs and that the yearly increment should be effected considering the fact that they were few and were doing too much work. Principals should avail adequate working tools

Diet Composition and Effects of Food Resources on Population Dynamics of the Eastern Newt at Kingfisher Pond: A Long-Term Study

Undergraduate Basi

Senior Conference 50, The Army We Need: The Role of Landpower in an Uncertain Strategic Environment

View the Executive SummaryThe United States Military Academy (USMA) Senior Conference is run annually by the Department of Social Sciences at the USMA on behalf of the Superintendent. This event allows distinguished representatives from the private sector, government, academia, the think-tank community, and the joint military services to discuss important national security topics. Senior Conference 2014, the 50th iteration of this event, explored emerging trends and their implications for the Army’s strategic contribution to national security. As policymakers strive to rebalance U.S. national security investments in a fiscally constrained environment, debates about the future roles and missions of the armed services have intensified. Though many questions related to the future role of military power remain unsettled, the Army will undoubtedly have an important role to play.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1463/thumbnail.jp

Internal transport barriers in the National Spherical Torus Experiment

In the National Spherical Torus Experiment [M. Ono , Nucl. Fusion 41, 1435 (2001)], internal transport barriers (ITBs) are observed in reversed (negative) shear discharges where diffusivities for electron and ion thermal channels and momentum are reduced. While neutral beam heating can produce ITBs in both electron and ion channels, high harmonic fast wave heating can also produce electron ITBs (e-ITBs) under reversed magnetic shear conditions without momentum input. Interestingly, the location of the e-ITB does not necessarily match that of the ion ITB (i-ITB). The e-ITB location correlates best with the magnetic shear minima location determined by motional Stark effect constrained equilibria, whereas the i-ITB location better correlates with the location of maximum ExB shearing rate. Measured electron temperature gradients in the e-ITB can exceed critical gradients for the onset of electron thermal gradient microinstabilities calculated by linear gyrokinetic codes. A high-k microwave scattering diagnostic shows locally reduced density fluctuations at wave numbers characteristic of electron turbulence for discharges with strongly negative magnetic shear versus weakly negative or positive magnetic shear. Reductions in fluctuation amplitude are found to be correlated with the local value of magnetic shear. These results are consistent with nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations predicting a reduction in electron turbulence under negative magnetic shear conditions despite exceeding critical gradients.X1128sciescopu