Community at the Courts: Social and Community Interactions at Public Basketball Courts

Based on over 60 informal interviews conducted at two public basketball courts, this study utilizes grounded theory to trace class- and race-based differences in the social interactions occurring at both parks. By comparing social interactions between a white, middle class basketball court, and a black, lower class basketball court, I argue that social engagement is not be declining for all segments of society as some theorists suggest. Moreover, I argue that the relationships forged at the basketball court in a predominantly black, working-class neighborhood prove to be more meaningful and have deeper benefits than those forged at a basketball court in a white, middle-class neighborhood. I show that public places serve as a source of social status for participants of pick-up basketball and that social status stemming from pick-up basketball varies in importance based on the socioeconomic status of the participants. Further, I contend that public places in low-income neighborhoods can serve as a vehicle for establishing social networks in the surrounding community, affirming and maintaining status, and realizing personal fulfillment

Study of the state-of-the-art of the hermetic seals for secondary alkaline spacecraft cells Quarterly report, Sep. 20 - Dec. 20, 1967

Manufacturing methods, cost estimates, advantages, and limitations of various types of hermetic seals for secondary alkaline spacecraft cell

Stress and Health in College Students

Research has demonstrated that college students experience stress from sources such as poor self-care habits, educational demands, daily hassles, and perceived control over stressful situations. The present study examined perceived stress, health habits, and daily hassles and uplifts among 135 college freshmen. We hypothesized that students with lower stress levels would be male, would have better self-care habits, would experience fewer minor medical health issues, would have significantly higher academic performance, and would experience fewer daily hassles and more daily uplifts than students who experienced high perceived stress. Strong support was obtained for the hypothesis that students with low perceived stress had better health habits. Students with low perceived stress also experienced significantly fewer hassles and more uplifts per month. There were not any significant effects of perceived stress on grade point average, minor medical issues, or gender. The results could help college freshmen adjust to challenges of college by helping them understand some of the effects of stress and benefits of reducing that stress.No embarg

Indianapolis, Indiana: A prototype of Midland convergence

Conventional wisdom suggests that the dialects of American English are converging due to the influence of mass media and improved communication. Yet in fact, American regional dialects appear to be diverging from one another and these diverging regional dialects are expanding at the expense of smaller, distinctive speech islands within each region. One major, apparent exception to this pattern seems to be the American Midland, a region whose three largest urban centers ? St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati ? have been shown to exhibit unique dialect patterns which distinguish them from the more general pattern of the surrounding region. But another major Midland center, Indianapolis, Indiana, has been largely ignored by previous research. This paper examines the state of Indianapolis English with regards to three key Midland identifiers: the fronting of back vowels /ow/, /uw/ and /aw/; the transitional merger of the low-back vowels /o/ and /oh/; and the monophthongization of /ay/ before resonants. The results of this study suggest that Indianapolis does indeed follow the Midland regional pattern. First, the Indianapolis speakers all show back vowel fronting. Second, while Indianapolis does not have an unconditioned low-back merger, all of the youngest speakers showed a merger in some environment (before /l/, before /n/ or both) and only half of the oldest speakers did. Finally, while there is no overall /ay/ monophthongization in any environment in Indianapolis, /ay/ glides show significant reduction before resonants as compared to non-resonants across all age groups. Thus, Indianapolis is a Midland speech prototype representing the target of convergence for the larger urban centers

When The House Cramps In On Us And Your Black And White Cat

pages 114-11

Clonal Interference, Multiple Mutations, and Adaptation in Large Asexual Populations

Two important problems affect the ability of asexual populations to accumulate beneficial mutations, and hence to adapt. First, clonal interference causes some beneficial mutations to be outcompeted by more-fit mutations which occur in the same genetic background. Second, multiple mutations occur in some individuals, so even mutations of large effect can be outcompeted unless they occur in a good genetic background which contains other beneficial mutations. In this paper, we use a Monte Carlo simulation to study how these two factors influence the adaptation of asexual populations. We find that the results depend qualitatively on the shape of the distribution of the effects of possible beneficial mutations. When this distribution falls off slower than exponentially, clonal interference alone reasonably describes which mutations dominate the adaptation, although it gives a misleading picture of the evolutionary dynamics. When the distribution falls off faster than exponentially, an analysis based on multiple mutations is more appropriate. Using our simulations, we are able to explore the limits of validity of both of these approaches, and we explore the complex dynamics in the regimes where neither are fully applicable.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figure