Learning Cultural Humility Through Stories and Global Service-Learning

Service-learning experiences are often utilized by nursing programs in efforts to increase the cultural competence of nursing students. Through the use of sharing story, the concepts of cultural competence and cultural humility can be explained for students preparing for upcoming intercultural experiences. This case study describes the experience of nursing students and university faculty on their first service-learning trip to rural Kenya and how the intercultural issues were navigated there as students developed characteristics of cultural humility. This story is now being shared in preparations for subsequent international trips with nursing students and can be a model for programs wanting to prepare for service-learning experiences

Playing with World War II: A Small-Scale Study of Learning in Video Games

Out of all the K-12 disciplines, History is positioned to benefit the most from integrating games into the classroom because while school-based history is considered to be the most boring subject amongst today’s young people (Loewen, 1995), history-themed video games continue to be best-sellers. This article explores how mediated action theory, in particular Wertsch’s (1998) ideas regarding mastery and appropriation, can yield particular insights around the different kinds of learning that can happen by playing history-themed video games. The data used here was collected as part of a small-scale case study that asked four self-proclaimed “history gamers” to talk about this perceived connection between their play of WWII games and learning history. I provide an overview of mediated action and make a case for its suitability as an analytical framework to examine game-based learning, with a special focus on mastery and appropriation as defined by Wertsch (1998). This will be followed by case-specific findings on how players of WWII FPS games can appropriate these games to learn about WWII history. Suggestions on future research trajectories on history-themed games and game-based learning, as well as other uses of mediated action theory, will be discussed at the end

Slip inversion along inner fore-arc faults, eastern Tohoku, Japan

The kinematics of deformation in the overriding plate of convergent margins may vary across timescales ranging from a single seismic cycle to many millions of years. In Northeast Japan, a network of active faults has accommodated contraction across the arc since the Pliocene, but several faults located along the inner fore arc experienced extensional aftershocks following the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake, opposite that predicted from the geologic record. This observation suggests that fore-arc faults may be favorable for stress triggering and slip inversion, but the geometry and deformation history of these fault systems are poorly constrained. Here we document the Neogene kinematics and subsurface geometry of three prominent fore-arc faults in Tohoku, Japan. Geologic mapping and dating of growth strata provide evidence for a 5.6–2.2 Ma initiation of Plio-Quaternary contraction along the Oritsume, Noheji, and Futaba Faults and an earlier phase of Miocene extension from 25 to 15 Ma along the Oritsume and Futaba Faults associated with the opening of the Sea of Japan. Kinematic modeling indicates that these faults have listric geometries, with ramps that dip ~40–65°W and sole into subhorizontal detachments at 6–10 km depth. These fault systems can experience both normal and thrust sense slip if they are mechanically weak relative to the surrounding crust. We suggest that the inversion history of Northeast Japan primed the fore arc with a network of weak faults mechanically and geometrically favorable for slip inversion over geologic timescales and in response to secular variations in stress state associated with the megathrust seismic cycle.Funding was provided by a grant from the National Science Foundation Tectonics Program grant EAR-0809939 to D.M.F. and E.K., Geologic Society of America Graduate Research Grants, and the P.D. Krynine Memorial Fund. The authors thank Gaku Kimura, Kyoko Tonegawa, Hiroko Watanabe, Jun Kameda, and Asuka Yamaguchi for scientific and logistical support, and Kristin Morell for comments on early versions of the manuscript. We also thank Yuzuru Yamamoto and Kohtaro Ujiie for their detailed reviews and suggestions for improvement to the manuscript. The authors acknowledge the use of the Move Software Suite granted by Midland Valley's Academic Software Initiative. Geologic, structural, stratigraphic, and chronologic data used herein are accessible in manuscript figures, and in the citations therein. Input geologic data for trishear kinematic modeling can be accessed in Table 1 and in the supporting information. (EAR-0809939 - National Science Foundation Tectonics Program grant; Geologic Society of America Graduate Research Grants; P.D. Krynine Memorial Fund

Intervention for Inclusivity: Gender Politics and Indie Game Development

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between the indie identity, independence as a rhetoric, principles of interventionist work, and different models for creating a more inclusive industry. Through clashing understandings of the needs of aspiring game developers indie culture can serve to reify dominant narratives of the mainstream industry, including discourses that hinder female participation therein. However, there are successful models in which we can observe other, more inclusive, modes of welcoming previously marginalized and excluded groups, which can be taken up in other contexts for diversifying local indie game development

Heme Oxygnase-1 Produced by a Human Monocytic Cell Line (U-937) After Exposure to Brevetoxin (PbTx-2)

In lieu of an abstract, below is the first paragraph of the paper. Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) along the west coast of Florida are the result of a large proliferation of the dinoflagellate Karenia brevis. The harmful nature of these algal blooms is the result of potent neurotoxins, specifically referred to as brevetoxins, which are released from K. brevis. PbTx-2 is one of the most abundant brevetoxins during HABs of K brevis and results in extreme mortality of marine wildlife and health implications for humans such as Neurotoxic Shellfish Poisoning (NSP) and immunosuppression. The cellular response to PbTx-2 is not as well known, which was the focus of this research. Oxidative stress, in the form of depleted glutathione and elevated levels of hydrogen peroxide, peroxidase, and/or heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), is a common defensive response of human cells to a toxin. It was hypothesized that human cells would produce an elevated level of HO-1 in the presence of PbTx- 2 in comparison to cells without PbTx-2. The purpose of this research was to quantify the amount of HO-1 produced by a human monocytic cell line (U-937) when treated with PbTx-2 and use this as an indicator of the level of oxidative stress. Results supported that human cells did undergo oxidative stress in the presence of PbTx-2 and produced an elevated level of HO-1

“Drugs was My Solution -- My Problem was Life”: Heroin Addiction and the Life Course Perspective

Heroin and other opiate dependencies affect individual users, interpersonal relationships, and communities. The purpose of this qualitative study was to better understand risk factors of heroin dependence by examining the life course paths of individuals who have been through addiction, treatment, and are currently in recovery. In-depth interviews were conducted with five participants in recovery. Participant narratives suggest that early childhood experiences, specifically parental abuse and social rejection, combined with substance abuse as a model for coping, influenced the development of addiction. Social support and self-awareness during and after treatment were effective components of sustaining recovery

Fellow Traveller Versus Moral Stranger: How Overall Views of Offenders Impact on Punishment and Rehabilitation Decisions

Theoretical discussions have proposed that opinions relating to offenders can be viewed along a continuum, with the moral stranger at one end and the fellow traveller at the other (Connolly & Ward, 2008). At the very basic level the moral stranger is the offender who is a bad person, while the fellow traveller is the offender who has done a bad thing. It is proposed that where an individual’s view of offenders sits on the continuum will help determine punishment and rehabilitation decisions that they make about offenders. It is further proposed that these views are influenced by outside factors such as the way that the media portrays offenders. The media is an important source of information on crime and offenders (Gilliam & Iyengar, 2000; Klite, Bardwell, & Salzman, 1997), and so the way that the media write about offenders can influence the public’s opinions about offenders. The moral stranger and the fellow traveller are theoretical concepts at present, so the aim of the current research was to investigate these concepts in an empirical context. Firstly, Studies 1 and 2 presented crime vignettes written from either the moral stranger perspective or the fellow traveller perspective and then investigated what punishment and rehabilitation differences there were. Study 3 then developed a measure to evaluate individuals’ opinions about offenders, to create an empirical basis for the existing theory. The Opinions about Criminal Offenders (OCO) Scale was developed in Study 3. Study 4 then tested the psychometric properties of this Scale, and through further factor analysis the scale was pared down to 12-items made up of four subscales. Study 5 then brought together the empirical work from Studies 1 and 2 and the developed measure from Studies 3 and 4. Participants were presented with two vignettes, one written from a subjective view and the other from an objective view. They were also given the 12-item OCO Scale. Structural Equation Modelling was then used to extend the work of Studies 1 and 2, and to further develop the decision making process individuals go through. Results indicated that each subscale of the OCO predicted different judgements made about the offender, in terms of his characteristics and likelihood of reoffending, and that these judgements then predicted different judgements about the outcome of the offence, including punishment motive. These studies, together, show that the moral stranger and fellow traveller concepts do exist, as a continuum, and the development of the OCO Scale showed that there is utility in the scale in terms of the type of judgements made about an offender and an offence. The current study was conducted with a sex offence in the vignettes and so further research needs to extend this by using different offence types and different offender characteristics, to investigate how generalisable these findings are

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Parental Warmth: A Mixed Methods Analysis of Adversity and Parenting Behavior With a Community Sample of Mothers

Parenting is an important and complex experience that drives a child’s healthy development and well-being as an adult. Parenting has strong implications for child outcomes, and the link between a history of adversity and unsupportive parenting practices as an adult has been well-established in research. The effects of childhood adversity on supportive parenting, however, are still unclear. Parental warmth is a key component of supportive practices, but little is known about how exposure to adverse childhood experiences can impact warmth-related parenting behaviors. In order to investigate this relationship further, 84 mothers and their 3 to 5 year-old children participated in parent-child interactions and self-report measures. Data from the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Questionnaire (ACE-Q; Felitti et al., 1998) and related variables of importance were analyzed using a mixed methods approach with quantitative statistical analyses and qualitative analysis of non-participant observations. This study aimed to closely understand the relationship between ACEs and parental warmth by operationalizing ACEs in three distinct ways, assessing related parenting behaviors, discovering differences among mothers with high ACE scores, and exploring data synergistically guided by qualitative analysis. Findings from this study indicate that more exposure to adverse childhood events is related to fewer warm behaviors as a parent, and that socio-emotional factors may play an influential role in this association