Perspectives of Social Justice Activists: Advocating Against Native-themed Mascots, Nicknames, and Logos

This study investigated perspectives of social justice activists who directly advocate for the elimination of Native-themed mascots, nicknames, and logos. Using Consensual Qualitative Research methodology, the research team analyzed transcripts of interviews conducted with eleven social justice activists to generate themes, categories, and domains within the data. Five domains emerged: (a) deleterious impact of Native-themed mascots, nicknames, and logos; (b) components of identity preservation among supporters; (c) reasons why some American Indians might support Native-themed mascots, nicknames, logos; (d) frontline advocacy efforts; and (e) coping strategies for advocates. Results provided insights into the sociopsychological processes which operate—among both non-Indians and Indians—to allow the misappropriation of American Indian culture, symbols, and imagery in sport to continue to exist in society. Findings can help counseling psychologists better understand the lived experience of social justice activists, while also highlighting ways that our field can support efforts to eliminate race-based mascots, nicknames, and logos

Ultra-deep sequencing reveals the mutational landscape of classical Hodgkin lymphoma

UNLABELLED: The malignant Hodgkin and Reed Sternberg (HRS) cells of classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) are scarce in affected lymph nodes, creating a challenge to detect driver somatic mutations. As an alternative to cell purification techniques, we hypothesized that ultra-deep exome sequencing would allow genomic study of HRS cells, thereby streamlining analysis and avoiding technical pitfalls. To test this, 31 cHL tumor/normal pairs were exome sequenced to approximately 1,000× median depth of coverage. An orthogonal error-corrected sequencing approach verified \u3e95% of the discovered mutations. We identified mutations in genes novel to cHL including: CDH5 and PCDH7, novel stop gain mutations in IL4R, and a novel pattern of recurrent mutations in pathways regulating Hippo signaling. As a further application of our exome sequencing, we attempted to identify expressed somatic single-nucleotide variants (SNV) in single-nuclei RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) data generated from a patient in our cohort. Our snRNA analysis identified a clear cluster of cells containing a somatic SNV identified in our deep exome data. This cluster has differentially expressed genes that are consistent with genes known to be dysregulated in HRS cells (e.g., PIM1 and PIM3). The cluster also contains cells with an expanded B-cell clonotype further supporting a malignant phenotype. This study provides proof-of-principle that ultra-deep exome sequencing can be utilized to identify recurrent mutations in HRS cells and demonstrates the feasibility of snRNA-seq in the context of cHL. These studies provide the foundation for the further analysis of genomic variants in large cohorts of patients with cHL. SIGNIFICANCE: Our data demonstrate the utility of ultra-deep exome sequencing in uncovering somatic variants in Hodgkin lymphoma, creating new opportunities to define the genes that are recurrently mutated in this disease. We also show for the first time the successful application of snRNA-seq in Hodgkin lymphoma and describe the expression profile of a putative cluster of HRS cells in a single patient

Racism in the electronic age: Role of online forums in expressing racial attitudes about American Indians. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology

This study investigated racial attitudes about American Indians that are electronically expressed in newspaper online forums by examining the University of North Dakota's Fighting Sioux nickname and logo used for their athletic teams. Using a modified Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) methodology to analyze over 1,000 online forum comments, the research team generated themes, domains, and core ideas from the data. The core ideas included (a) surprise, (b) power and privilege, (c) trivialization, and (d) denigration. The findings indicated that a critical mass of online forum comments represented ignorance about American Indian culture and even disdain toward American Indians by providing misinformation, perpetuating stereotypes, and expressing overtly racist attitudes toward American Indians. Results of this study were explained through the lens of White power and privilege, as well as through the framework of two-faced racis