Barriers to Food Security Experienced by Families Living in Extended Stay Motels

Families who are food insecure do not have regular access to food, access to enough food to satisfy their hunger, or have to resort to extraordinary measures to access food such as traveling to food pantries and other emergency food sources. This article focuses on low-income families with children who live in extended stay motels and experienced food insecurity. Families reported several indicators of food insecurity and discussed the barriers to food security they experienced as a result of living in a motel. Families reported that the locations of the motels, lack of transportation, the lack of storage space and kitchen appliances in the rooms presented barriers for them to regularly access and store enough food for their families. Despite receiving government assistance in the form of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, most families depended on food pantries or charities to supplement their food supply each month. The interviews revealed that economic resources are not the only barriers to food security and these barriers need to be taken into account when attempting to address food insecurity among disadvantaged populations such as families living in motels. Several strategies to alleviate food insecurity among this population are discussed

The Double-Edged Sword: Smallpox Vaccination And The Politics Of Public Health In Cuba

This dissertation tracks the introduction and development of smallpox vaccination in colonial Cuba from the early nineteenth century to the American occupation of 1898. Native (creole) medical practitioners utilized smallpox vaccination as an instrument for securing status as professionals and conceptualizing new identities in a colonial slave society. The smallpox vaccination program allowed licensed practitioners to create a medical monopoly, foster scientific standards and cultivate a medical ethic. Creole vaccinators initially identified with a colonial state that protected their professional interests as necessary for the maintenance of Cuba\u27s slave-based, agro-industrial sugar complex. By the end of the nineteenth century however, professional divestment and ethnic strife convinced fledgling medical professionals to mobilize their creole, scientific identities against Spanish colonial rule

Evolución de la migración de retorno en México: migrantes procedentes de Estados Unidos en 1995 y de 1999 a 2014

La migración de retorno es un fenómeno que ha existido desde sus inicios como parte de la dualidad que se plantea en la circularidad migratoria. Su evolución ha sido influenciada por diversos factores, tanto por el entorno social, político y económico, como por la decisión propia del migrante. No obstante, existen pocos estudios dedicados a observar y analizar los flujos de retorno, aunque debe reconocerse que recientemente el fenómeno ha cobrado un inusitado in-terés académico y político. Además, se conocen pocos avances respecto a la discusión teórica y empírica acerca del porqué regresan los migrantes. Las principales preocupaciones se han dado en los últimos años debido a la crisis económica de Estados Unidos y el recrudecimiento de las leyes de migración en dicho país. Existen diferentes perspectivas desde las cuales se puede analizar este fenómeno migratorio, como las causas de retorno, las vías por las cuales retorna el migrante (aérea o terrestre) y las características sociodemográficas del retornado, entre otros. El presente artículo se enfoca a analizar las principales razones o las causas por las cuales los mi-grantes retornan a México. La población objetivo para este estudio son los migrantes procedentes de Estados Unidos que arriban a México por vía terrestre

Systematic Monitoring of Wound Healing Using a Hand-held Near-Infrared Optical Scanner

According to the American Podiatric Medical Association, about 15 percent of the patients with diabetes would develop a diabetic foot ulcer. Furthermore, foot ulcerations leads to 85 percent of the diabetes-related amputations. Foot ulcers are caused due to a combination of factors, such as lack of feeling in the foot, poor circulation, foot deformities and the duration of the diabetes. To date, the wounds are inspected visually to monitor the wound healing, without any objective imaging approach to look before the wound’s surface. Herein, a non-contact, portable handheld optical device was developed at the Optical Imaging Laboratory as an objective approach to monitor wound healing in foot ulcer. This near-infrared optical technology is non-radiative, safe and fast in imaging large wounds on patients. The FIU IRB-approved study will involve subjects that have been diagnosed with diabetes by a physician and who have developed foot ulcers. Currently, in-vivo imaging studies are carried out every week on diabetic patients with foot ulcers at two clinical sites in Miami. Near-infrared images of the wound are captured on subjects every week and the data is processed using customdeveloped Matlab-based image processing tools. The optical contrast of the wound to its peripheries and the wound size are analyzed and compared from the NIR and white light images during the weekly systematic imaging of wound healing

Optical imaging for breast cancer prescreening

Breast cancer prescreening is carried out prior to the gold standard screening using X-ray mammography and/or ultrasound. Prescreening is typically carried out using clinical breast examination (CBE) or self-breast examinations (SBEs). Since CBE and SBE have high false-positive rates, there is a need for a low-cost, noninvasive, non-radiative, and portable imaging modality that can be used as a prescreening tool to complement CBE/SBE. This review focuses on the various hand-held optical imaging devices that have been developed and applied toward early-stage breast cancer detection or as a prescreening tool via phantom, in vivo, and breast cancer imaging studies. Apart from the various optical devices developed by different research groups, a wide-field fiber-free near-infrared optical scanner has been developed for transillumination-based breast imaging in our Optical Imaging Laboratory. Preliminary in vivo studies on normal breast tissues, with absorption-contrasted targets placed in the intramammary fold, detected targets as deep as 8.8 cm. Future work involves in vivo imaging studies on breast cancer subjects and comparison with the gold standard X-ray mammography approach

Approaches of Digital Pedagogies for the Appreciation and Preservation of Local Trans and Multilingual Cultural Heritages

In an effort to provide culturally and linguistically relevant Spanish as a Heritage Language (SHL) programs in the United States, several language programs have turned to creating digital language learning and teaching materials using various data sources, digital tools, methodologies, cultural practices, digital humanities platforms and projects, as well as Open Educational Resources (OER). This facilitates innovative knowledge production that preserves local translingual and multilingual cultural heritages and identities of Spanish HLLs from multiracial backgrounds in the US in analog and online spaces. Current initiatives in multilingual, decolonial, postcolonial Digital Humanities (DH) are pushing back against the aporias in the digital age through ethical production and representation of subjects, cultures, languages and stories that have been othered, marginalized, excluded or misrepresented (Risam, 2019: 141). Furthermore, SHL sociolinguists encourage the development of critical language and cultural awareness among Spanish HLL student populations. This approach allows students to “develop a consciousness of the political, social, and economic power structures that underlie language use and the distribution of the so-called prestige and non-prestigious varieties” and “validate(s) and express(es) the diversity of students’ cultures, including US-based heritage cultures” (Beaudrie & Wilson, 2022: 67). With this in mind, in this panel, experts in the fields of SHL, DH and OER will present an OER for introductory SHL classes that connects learning and teaching materials using digital technologies and tools while also centering personal, local, and regional cultural community knowledge of South Texas to encourage production of their own stories and resources in the digital cultural record and an appreciation and preservation of their trans and multilingual identities and cultural heritages. Additionally, this panel will discuss the steps being taken by the R1 HSI university funding the development of this OER to infuse open pedagogy principles across disciplines in order to cultivate deeper student engagement

Aspects of a Literacy of Infographics: Results from an Empirical-Qualitative Study

Over the past decade, infographics have become a ubiquitous genre—circulated in mass media, posted on walls in public spaces, shared on social media sites; and more recently, assigned as reading and writing assignments in academic classes. Their ubiquity and appeal as a visual representation of processes and data make them a promising genre for delivering instructional content and assessing student learning. However, few studies have explored the extent to which infographics are being used in disciplinary contexts and what conventions around this emergent genre are being enacted by those who interact with them. For these reasons, this dissertation was designed to include two concurrent studies—a questionnaire, surveying 80 upper-division undergraduate students, and a discourse-based interview study with seven doctoral, postdoctoral, and professional participants—in order to understand participants’ familiarity with infographic texts and whether infographics are mediated by particular features and/or types of knowledge indicative of a literacy of infographics. Qualitative coding and descriptive statistical analysis revealed general familiarity with infographics. Participants in both studies confirmed their common presence in various contexts, including academic ones, where interview participants tended to recognize infographics for their pedagogical affordances. However, undergraduates indicated low confidence in their ability to read/comprehend or create infographics and reported difficulty with particular elements of questionnaire exhibits. These results suggest that the literacy demands of infographic texts might be greater than other types of visual texts, challenging those of us in higher education to be more considerate of students’ literacy needs in our evaluation, selection, and uses of pedagogical materials, and more deliberate in the types of experimentation we do with infographic genres. The results from 80 questionnaire respondents and 7 interviews reinforce findings from other studies of data visualization literacy, suggesting that, despite their reported prevalence in participants’ informational, social, and academic lives, infographic texts are not straightforward texts that anyone can read or easily create with an infographic generator. The study’s findings also suggest a theoretical extension to Lave and Wenger’s (1991) Community of Practice theory and the boundary objects (Wenger, 1998) and corollary genres (Yates & Orlikowski, 2007) embedded within them. That is, the experimentation with infographics as boundary objects between disciplines and public or learning audiences, as well as their treatment as corollary genres in certain academic contexts, revealed a tension between pedagogical intensions, effective communication, and the traditional processes and practices in disciplines. Finally, this study serves as a case for those of us in higher education to evaluate rhetorical situations carefully and to consider infographic texts as presenting an opportunity to teach disciplinary processes and practices

Stressors and Coping Mechanisms among Extended-Stay Motel Residents in Central Florida

Not having a permanent home means living in a constant state of stress. Though much has been written about homelessness and its stressors, very little research has focused on the experiences of those living in liminal housing, such as extended-stay motels. As affordable housing units dwindle in the US, more individuals and families with children have moved into extended-stay motels. In this study, I explore stressors that low-income families living in extended-stay motels experience, as well as their coping mechanisms. Through semi-structured interviews with 18 families with children living in extended-stay motels in the Central Florida region, consistent financial and emotional stressors were identified among all families. Additionally, gender and the community feel of a motel impacts the magnitude of the stress, as well as the ability to cope. Findings from this study suggest that, although families in motels experience constant environmental stressors, community building among precariously housed families may create an informal safety net for the families and thus, alleviate the financial and emotional crisis

Rhesus macaques compensate for reproductive delay following ecological adversity early in life

Cayo Santiago is supported by the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP) of the National Institute of Health, grant 2 P40 OD012217, and the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), Medical Sciences Campus. L. L. was supported by the Edison STEM-NET Student Research Fellowship Program and in part by the Richard D. Green endowment at the CSULB College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. S. J. G. was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (award # T32GM138075).Adversity early in life can shape the reproductive potential of individuals through negative effects on health and life span. However, long-lived populations with multiple reproductive events may present alternative life history strategies to optimize reproductive schedules and compensate for shorter life spans. Here, we quantify the effects of major hurricanes and density dependence as sources of early-life ecological adversity on Cayo Santiago rhesus macaque female reproduction and decompose their effects onto the mean age-specific fertility, reproductive pace, and lifetime reproductive success (LRS). Females experiencing major hurricanes exhibit a delayed reproductive debut but maintain the pace of reproduction past debut and show a higher mean fertility during prime reproductive ages, relative to unaffected females. Increasing density at birth is associated to a decrease in mean fertility and reproductive pace, but such association is absent at intermediate densities. When combined, our study reveals that hurricanes early in life predict a delay-overshoot pattern in mean age-specific fertility that supports the maintenance of LRS. In contrast to predictive adaptive response models of accelerated reproduction, this long-lived population presents a novel reproductive strategy where females who experience major natural disasters early in life ultimately overcome their initial reproductive penalty with no major negative fitness outcomes. Density presents a more complex relation with reproduction that suggests females experiencing a population regulated at intermediate densities early in life will escape density dependence and show optimized reproductive schedules. Our results support hypotheses about life history trade-offs in which adversity-affected females ensure their future reproductive potential by allocating more energy to growth or maintenance processes at younger adult ages.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe