A Critical Discourse Analysis of Middle-Class African American Parents\u27 Racial Socialization Parenting Behavior with Their 3 and 4-year-old Sons

All parents, whether they are aware of it or not, engage in racial socialization. For African American parents in the United States (U.S.), however, a degree of urgency exists that exceeds what is typical for European American parents (Neblett, Smalls, Ford, Nguyen, & Sellers, 2009; Stevenson & Arrington, 2009). The purpose of this qualitative study was to learn directly from middle-class African American families about how they engaged double consciousness (Du Bois, 1903/1994) as they racially socialized their 3 and 4-year-old sons. Specifically, I wanted to learn about the discourses influenced by intersections of class, race, and gender that they used to educate their sons about 1) how they may be viewed in a racist society, and 2) to ensure positive development. The study is framed by critical race theory (Bell, 2007; Delgado & Stefancic, 2012; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995), intersectionality (Cooper 1892/1988; Crenshaw, 1995), and community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005; Yosso & Garcíá, 2007). I collected multiple forms of data from five families over twelve weeks. The study was designed using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). In particular, an integrated design using Fairclough’s (2013) explanatory critique and thematic analysis in order to best identify how middle-class African American parents racially socialize their young sons. Two questions guided this research study: a) what factors (e.g., stereotypes, ideologies, values, beliefs, age, gender, socioeconomic status, etc.) influence how middle-class African American parents racially socialize their sons; and b) what genres do middle-class African American parents use to racially socialize their 3 and 4-year-old sons? I found that factors that influenced how parents racially socialized their sons are discriminatory stereotypes grounded in United States history; institutional and structural racism; the age of their child; the gender of their child, and the parent gender; the social class status of the parent during their upbringing; the current family social class status; and cultural resources that the family could access. The language-based and non-language-based genres that the parents used to racially socialize their sons were books, toys, artwork, and conversations. Scholarly and practical implications and recommendations for future research are provided

Mammals of Southwestern Minnesota

Ranges of the 45 wild mammals occuring in southwestern Minnesota are discussed and documented. Eight other species that either formerly occurred in the area or might exist but have not yet been documented also are considered. Seven species are recorded from southwestern Minnesota for the first time: Scalopus aquaticus, Myotis keenii, Lasionycteris noctivagans, Marmota monax, Spermophilus franklinii, Tamiasciurus hudsonicus, and Rattus norvegicus

On Vague Computers

Vagueness is something everyone is familiar with. In fact, most people think that vagueness is closely related to language and exists only there. However, vagueness is a property of the physical world. Quantum computers harness superposition and entanglement to perform their computational tasks. Both superposition and entanglement are vague processes. Thus quantum computers, which process exact data without "exploiting" vagueness, are actually vague computers

Patellofemoral Joint Stress During Uphill and Downhill Running in Healthy

Subjects: Twenty recreational runners participated (mean age of 24.9 years). Methods: Kinematics and kinetics of the trunk and lower extremity were obtained at 3 conditions: level, 6° uphill, and 6° downhill, at a speed of 2.3 m/s. PFJ stress was determined using a biomechanical model that incorporates knee flexion angle and knee extensor moment as subject-specific input variables. The model output consisted of PFJ reaction force, PFJ stress, and PFJ contact area. One-way ANOVAs with repeated measures and post-hoc t-tests with a Bonferroni adjustment were used to compare outcome variables across the 3 conditions. Results: Peak PFJ stress during downhill running was significantly higher than the level and uphill conditions (P \u3c 0.001). There was not a difference in peak PFJ stress between level and uphill conditions (P = 1.000). Conclusion: The higher stress observed in downhill running was driven by an increase in PFJ reaction force as the result of elevated knee extensor moment and decreased trunk flexion angle. The similar stress level observed in level and uphill running was caused by similarities in PFJ reaction force and minimal differences in PFJ contact area between the 2 conditions. Clinical Relevance: As downhill running increases peak PFJ stress when compared to level and uphill running, alterations in running slope should be considered when treating runners with PF

Spectral ergodicity and normal modes in ensembles of sparse matrices

We investigate the properties of sparse matrix ensembles with particular regard for the spectral ergodicity hypothesis, which claims the identity of ensemble and spectral averages of spectral correlators. An apparent violation of the spectral ergodicity is observed. This effect is studied with the aid of the normal modes of the random matrix spectrum, which describe fluctuations of the eigenvalues around their average positions. This analysis reveals that spectral ergodicity is not broken, but that different energy scales of the spectra are examined by the two averaging techniques. Normal modes are shown to provide a useful complement to traditional spectral analysis with possible applications to a wide range of physical systems.Comment: 22 pages, 15 figure

Improved ex vivo method for microbiocidal activity across vertebrate species

The field of ecoimmunology is currently undergoing rapid expansion, whereby biologists from a wide range of ecological disciplines are increasingly interested in assessing immunocompetence in their study organisms. One of the key challenges to researchers is determining what eco-immune measures to use in a given experiment. Moreover, there are limitations depending on study species, requirements for specific antibodies, and relevance of the methodology to the study organism. Here we introduce an improved ex vivo method for microbiocidal activity across vertebrate species. The utility of this assay is that it determines the ability of an organism to remove a pathogen that could be encountered in the wild, lending ecological relevancy to the technique. The applications of this microbiocidal assay are broad, as it is readily adaptable to different types of microbes as well as a wide variety of study species. We describe a method of microbiocidal analysis that will enable researchers across disciplines to effectively employ this method to accurately quantify microbial killing ability, using readily available microplate absorbance readers

Malay muslim religious ideology : representations of gendered beauty ideals in women’s magazines

Responding to Drenten and McManus (2016) call on the lack of scholarship on the intersections of macromarketing and religion, this article uses magazines to demonstrate how beauty discourses reinforce or contest religious ideology in Malaysia. We draw from institutional logics to show how magazine discourses present macrolevel belief systems that can both shape and constrain the micro level behaviour of women. We identify three dialectical tensions of gendered beauty ideals as firstly both something that is embraced and something that is imposed; secondly it is collectively and individually displayed in fashion and thirdly offers contradictory discourses over blending-in versus standing-out in physical appearance. This study supplements the very limited literature on how the media as an institutional and social structure injects religious ideology to gendered representations of beauty ideals. © The Author(s) 2020