Future Scenario: Praxis in Critical Race Theory in Higher Education and Student Affairs

Critical Race Theory (CRT) evolved as a response to the lack of change in racial disparities within the United States jurisprudence. This article provides a historical understanding of CRT, beginning with a synopsis of the tenets that form part of CRT. The article will then give an understanding of what leadership style supports the implementation of CRT. Finally, it will provide the reader with strategies to apply CRT in the work environment through self-work, intercultural competence and restorative practices

The Role of Critical Race Theory in Higher Education

Despite the substantial impact race has in generating inequities in society and educational institutions, race continues to be untheorized (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995). Critical race theory (CRT) is an analytical framework that stems from the field of critical legal studies that addresses the racial inequities in society. This article provides an analysis of CRT in the context of diversity and inclusivity in higher education. In addition, this article also draws from the work and research done by critical race theorists who support the use of CRT in education reform and research

Haunted by a Memory I Never Lived

I am haunted by a memory I never lived. My mother and father are sitting in their house in Brooklyn with my baby sister watching the 1969 moon landing. Born in 1971, I wasn’t there. But I spent my toddler years in the waning residue of excitement about the landing and listening to adults talk about where they had watched it. As a child, I was baffled by how vivid this event that occurred without me was to people of my parents’ age. Except for some surviving pictures of the living room, I never knew the house in which they saw Neil Armstrong take a giant leap for mankind. My father burned it down within a couple of years of purchasing it and collected the insurance on it, because, as he repeated anytime I asked him, “suddenly, within a matter of months, the street went from all white to all black,” or as he actually said in the Dominican-Spanish of his time, una balsa de morenos. My dad didn’t realize or didn’t want to admit that he was among the first blacks or morenos in the balsa to move into the area. So I, a man who spent his formative years after his parents’ divorce living in Washington Heights, Manhattan, as a border in the apartments of Dominican immigrants, am fascinated by that day. The moon shot. American flag in an alien world. A house in Brooklyn. New York City. My dad. Property owner. Less than a decade after immigrating as an exile from Trujillo’s dictatorship. The American Dream. Burnt to the ground because of the grimy, earthly meeting of U.S. racism and good old fashioned Latin American racial self-hatred

Medium-sized exotic prey create novel food webs: the case of predators and scavengers consuming lagomorphs

Food web interactions are key to community structure. The introduction of species can be seen as an uncontrolled experiment of the addition of species. Introduced species lead to multiple changes, frequently threatening the native biodiversity. However, little is known about their direct effect on the upper level of the food web. In this study we review empirical data on the predator prey relationship between the introduced lagomorphs and their consumers, and use meta-analytical tools to quantify the strength of their interactions. We expect that exotic lagomorphs will destabilize food webs, affect ecological processes and compromise the conservation of the invaded regions. We found 156 studies on the diet of 43 species of predators that consume lagomorphs as exotic preys in South America and Oceania. We found an average exotic lagomorphspredator link of 20% which indicates a strong interaction, given that the average for the strongest links with native prey (when lagomorphs are not included in the predator diet) is about 24%. Additionally, this last link decreases to 17% when lagomorphs are present. When lagomorphs arrive in a new environment they may become the most important resource for predators, producing an unstable equilibrium in the novel food web. Any disruption of this interaction could have catastrophic consequences for the native diversity by directly impacting predators or indirectly impacting native preys by apparent competition. Eradication or any change in their abundances should be carefully considered in conservation actions since those will have great impacts on predator populations and ultimately in the whole communitiesPeer reviewe

Efectos de radio-emisores de cola en cernícalos primilla adultos

[ENG]The behavior,b reeding successa nd survivalo f radio-taggeda nd non-radio-tagged (control) Lesser Kestrels (Falco naumanni) in southern Spain in 1989-1990 were compared. The copulation period, copulation rates and prey delivery rates to both mates and nestlings did not differ significantlyb etween radio-taggeda nd control individuals.I n addition, there were no differences in annual survival rates or breeding success between radio-tagged and control birds.[ESP]-Sec ompararon aspectosd e comportamiento,6 xito reproductor y supervivencia entre cernlcalosp rimillas (Falco naumanni) portadores de radiotransmisorese n la cola y otros marcados finicamente con anillas (controles) en el sur de Espafia en 1989-1990. E1 periodo de c6pulas, la frecuencia de las mismas, asi como las tasas de cebas de pareja y a los pollos no se diferenci6 significativamentee ntre los individuosp ortadoresd e radiotransmisoresy los controles.T ampoco se detectaron diferenciase n las tasasd e supervivenciaa nual y 6xito reproductivo entre los dos grupos comparados.Peer reviewe

Green capitalist economies through a focus on labour: enclosures, exploitation and class conflict in Senegal

The recent promotion of monetary incentives for preserving the environment is being interpreted as a means of advancing capitalist interests. Until present most research on this topic has concentrated on the strategies used by conservation organisations, private companies and development institutions, while little is known about how people working to make a living (hereafter “workers”) are experiencing the development of green economies. This thesis seeks to fill this gap. It studies how the conditions of workers’ labour are being shaped by the social relations of production enabling the development of nature-based tourism and forestry-related payment for ecosystem service (PES) projects in a group of villages in the Sine-Saloum delta, Senegal. Based on a six-month period of primarily qualitative fieldwork research and drawing conceptually on Marx’s critique of political economy, it explores three ways in which the social relations of capitalist production in this green economy have shaped labour conditions: a) the privatisation of 1800 hectares of mangrove forest through the creation of a tourism-oriented protected area; b) the activity of work in nature-based tourism and forestry-related PES projects; and c) workers’ mobilisations against exploitation and expropriation. The thesis shows how, through expropriation, exploitation and class conflict, the green economy benefits capitalist owners while separating workers from the ownership of their labour. Forest privatisation belongs to a broader process of primitive accumulation where workers enable capital accumulation through their adaptations to capital. Production in the green economy is based on social relations that perpetuate poverty, inequality and neo-colonial relations in neoliberal Senegal. The different contribution of nature-based tourism and PES projects to capital accumulation and the importance of class conflict, workers’ disagreement and hope in this case study emphasise the heterogeneity and unpredictability of green economies. Socially-committed researchers will benefit from integrating labour and the relations of production in their analyses

Determinación del contenido de K+ durante la maduración del fruto de fresa mediante técnicas electrofisiológicas y espectrometría atómica = Determination of K+ content during strawberry fruit ripening by electrophysiological techniques and atomic spectrometry

36 páginas.Trabajo Fin de Máster en Biotecnología Avanzada. Tutores: Dr. D. José Ángel Mercado Carmona; Dra. Dª. Lourdes Rubio Valverde. El ion potasio (K+) es el macronutriente más abundante en la célula vegetal y es fundamental para numerosas funciones de la planta, incluyendo el rendimiento y la calidad del fruto. Por ello, el estudio de su dinámica celular durante el desarrollo tiene una gran importancia, ya que puede ser un factor esencial que determine la vida poscosecha del fruto. El objetivo de este proyecto es determinar y comparar el contenido de potasio en distintos estadios de maduración del fruto de fresa. Para ello, se utilizaron frutos del cv. ‘Chandler’ control sin transformar y dos líneas de fresas (PG29 y 18A37) que contienen un gen de poligalacturonasa (FaPG1) en antisentido (PG29) o editado (18A37). Los frutos de estas líneas transgénicas muestran una vida postcosecha más prolongada que los frutos control. Para la cuantificación del K+ se utilizaron dos procedimientos distintos, a través de técnicas electrofisiológicas y espectrometría atómica (EAT). En el primer caso, se ha optimizado la medida del potencial de membrana de células del fruto de fresa con técnicas electrofisiológicas, se han estimado las concentraciones de potasio citosólico a partir del potencial de difusión, y se ha analizado la concentración de iones por EAT. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que el K+ citosólico disminuye conforme avanza la maduración del fruto en fresas control. Sin embargo, los frutos transgénicos en estadio verde contienen menos K+ citosólico que los frutos control. La concentración de potasio total en el tejido del receptáculo fue similar en fresas control y en transgénicas PG29, y en estos dos genotipos a lo largo de la maduración. Por el contrario, los niveles de Mn, Zn, Ca, Mg, Na, así como el carbono y el nitrógeno total presentan disminuciones significativas en el transcurso de este proceso. Los resultados obtenidos sugieren que hay una posible relación entre firmeza de fruto y contenido interno de K+, y éste a su vez, se ve modificado al inhibir el gen FaPG1. Como posibles perspectivas de investigación futuras, entre otras, sería de gran interés estudiar el papel que tiene la poligalacturonasa en la acumulación del potasio en fases tempranas de la maduración; el mecanismo por el cual el potasio podría viajar durante la maduración a otras partes del tejido del receptáculo, como la vacuola; y la causa de que a medida que progresa este proceso, la mayoría de los iones sufran una disminución.The potassium ion (K+) is the most abundant macronutrient in the plant cell and is essential for numerous plant functions, including yield and fruit quality. Therefore, the study of its cellular dynamics during development is of great importance, since it can be an essential factor that determines the postharvest life of the fruit. The objective of this project is to determine and compare the potassium content at different stages of ripening of the fruit of cv. ‘Chandler’ untransformed control strawberries and two strawberry lines (PG29 and 18A37) containing an antisense (PG29) or edited (18A37) polygalacturonase (FaPG1) gene. he fruits of these transgenic lines show a longer postharvest life than the control fruits. For the quantification of K+, two different procedures were used, through electrophysiological techniques and atomic spectrometry (EAT). In the first case, the measurement of the membrane potential of strawberry fruit cells has been optimized with electrophysiological techniques, cytosolic potassium concentrations have been estimated from the diffusion potential, and the ion concentration has been analyzed by EAT. The results obtained show that cytosolic K+ decreases as fruit ripening progresses in control strawberries. However, green-stage transgenic fruits contain less cytosolic K+ than control fruits. Total potassium concentration in receptacle tissue was similar in control and transgenic PG29 strawberries, and in these two genotypes throughout ripening. On the contrary, the levels of Mn, Zn, Ca, Mg, Na, as well as carbon and total nitrogen show significant decreases during this process. The results obtained suggest that there is a possible relationship between fruit firmness and internal K+ content, and this, in turn, is modified by inhibiting the FaPG1 gene. As possible future research perspectives, among others, it would be of great interest to study the role of polygalacturonase in the accumulation of potassium in early phases of maturation; the mechanism by which potassium might travel during maturation to other parts of the receptacle tissue, such as the vacuole; and the cause that as this process progresses, most of the ions suffer a decrease