Political implications of U.S. public attitudes toward immigration on the immigration policymaking process

Three developments in U.S. public attitudes have emerged since the 2001 terrorist attacks. First, Americans have shifted their thinking about the salience or importance of immigration issues. Second, they have changed their level of attentiveness to immigration as a national problem. Third, as awareness of immigration issues and divisiveness in political parties have increased, they have begun to use immigration as an evaluative criterion for vote choice. ; This study analyzes the causes and implications of these shifts in public attitudes toward immigration on the U.S. political landscape. Specifically, I address how changes in public attitudes have political implications for the 2006 midterm elections and on current policy reform efforts. Real-world conditions shape U.S. immigration policy and the country’s ability to control unwanted migration. The impact of these real-world conditions cannot be understood without taking into consideration the role of U.S. public attitudes in the policy process. I argue that the impact of these real-world conditions on immigration is mediated by public perceptions of these factors.Emigration and immigration ; Public policy

Community Development Corporations and Public Participation: Lessons from a Case Study in the Arkansas Delta

In this paper, I focus on the role of community development corporations (CDCs) in fostering public participation in the local political process. Using survey and interview data gathered from CDCs operating in the Mississippi Delta region of Arkansas, I show that the CDC is an important intermediary between the citizens and the local political arena. While, according to this study\u27s findings, the CDCs\u27 long-term goal is to develop a lasting sense of efficacy among CDC participants, leading to direct political participation by citizens, the nature of CDC funding does not fully support these efforts. As a result, these critical activities remain at the fringes of their official mission. By focusing on short-term outcomes rather than long-term development process, the money spent to improve the CDC constituency\u27s capacity appears to miss its target. The results of the current study 1) shed light on the disconnect between the needs of CDCs and the objectives of funding agencies; and 2) help community practitioners interested in community development to better understand challenges related to engaging citizens in local issues and facilitating citizen participation in ways that enhance collective efficacy in poor communities

Pathologies of the Poor: What do the War on Drugs and Welfare Reform Have in Common?

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) authorized drug testing of welfare recipients as a criterion for assistance eligibility. This raises the question of a possible confluence of War on Drugs and Welfare Reform policies, as indicated by continuity in policymakers’ rhetoric. We examine federal-level policymakers’ debates surrounding the authorization of drug testing welfare recipients. The analysis reveals that themes of social pathology were present in both policy areas. Crime, drug addiction, welfare dependency, and drug testing themes are comparable in both debates. Teen pregnancy, out-of-wedlock birth, and female-headed households themes were more prevalent in Welfare Reform debates, with the exception of drug-addicted newborns, which crossed both policy streams

Immigrants, Markets, and Rights: The United States As an Emerging Migration State

In the pages that follow, we will develop the concept of the migration state and examine U.S. immigration trends from the late nineteenth century up to 2003 in light of labor market dynamics and the business cycle. We then look at the emergence of the United States as a migration state and the rise of rights-based politics and rights-markets coalitions in the period from 1945 to 1990. These coalitions in the U.S. Congress are key to understanding immigration policy outputs and outcomes. The argument can be generalized to cover other liberal democracies in Western Europe, Canada, and Australia

First International Microgravity Laboratory

This colorful booklet presents capsule information on every aspect of the International Microgravity Laboratory (IML). As part of Spacelab, IML is divided into Life Science Experiments and Materials Science Experiments. Because the life and materials sciences use different Spacelab resources, they are logically paired on the IML missions. Life science investigations generally require significant crew involvement, and crew members often participate as test subjects or operators. Materials missions capitalize on these complementary experiments. International cooperation consists in participation by the European Space Agency, Canada, France, Germany, and Japan who are all partners in developing hardware and experiments of IML missions. IML experiments are crucial to future space ventures, like the development of Space Station Freedom, the establishment of lunar colonies, and the exploration of other planets. Principal investigators are identified for each experiment

An Examination of the Characteristics and Perceptions of School Resource Officers in Rural and Urban Oklahoma Schools

Fueled by concerns about school violence, the number of School Resource Officers (SROs) in the United States has soared. SROs are law enforcement officers who work in elementary and secondary schools and who are tasked to increase school safety. As of 2016, 48 percent of US public schools had SROs, compared to less than one percent in the 1970s, yet there are few studies that measure their effects. In particular, the literature largely ignores rural/urban differences. This study uses survey data from SROs working in public schools in Oklahoma to understand their roles and to determine if there are differences between rural and urban SROs. We look at jurisdiction and school characteristics as well as SRO perceptions of disciplinary practices, school climate, referrals, and community involvement. Identifying variability in these areas is a requisite first step in understanding the effect of the SRO on school safety

Modulation of Resting Connectivity Between the Mesial Frontal Cortex and Basal Ganglia.

Background: The mesial prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex, and the ventral striatum are key nodes of the human mesial fronto-striatal circuit involved in decision-making and executive function and pathological disorders. Here we ask whether deep wide-field repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) targeting the mesial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) influences resting state functional connectivity. Methods: In Study 1, we examined functional connectivity using resting state multi-echo and independent components analysis in 154 healthy subjects to characterize default connectivity in the MPFC and mid-cingulate cortex (MCC). In Study 2, we used inhibitory, 1 Hz deep rTMS with the H7-coil targeting MPFC and dorsal anterior cingulate (dACC) in a separate group of 20 healthy volunteers and examined pre- and post-TMS functional connectivity using seed-based and independent components analysis. Results: In Study 1, we show that MPFC and MCC have distinct patterns of functional connectivity with MPFC-ventral striatum showing negative, whereas MCC-ventral striatum showing positive functional connectivity. Low-frequency rTMS decreased functional connectivity of MPFC and dACC with the ventral striatum. We further showed enhanced connectivity between MCC and ventral striatum. Conclusions: These findings emphasize how deep inhibitory rTMS using the H7-coil can influence underlying network functional connectivity by decreasing connectivity of the targeted MPFC regions, thus potentially enhancing response inhibition and decreasing drug-cue reactivity processes relevant to addictions. The unexpected finding of enhanced default connectivity between MCC and ventral striatum may be related to the decreased influence and connectivity between the MPFC and MCC. These findings are highly relevant to the treatment of disorders relying on the mesio-prefrontal-cingulo-striatal circuit

Are Zinc-Finger Domains of Protein Kinase C Dynamic Structures That Unfold by Lipid or Redox Activation?

Protein kinase C (PKC) is activated by lipid second messengers or redox action, raising the question whether these activation modes involve the same or alternate mechanisms. Here we show that both lipid activators and oxidation target the zinc-finger domains of PKC, suggesting a unifying activation mechanism. We found that lipid agonist-binding or redox action leads to zinc release and disassembly of zinc fingers, thus triggering large-scale unfolding that underlies conversion to the active enzyme. These results suggest that PKC zinc fingers, originally considered purely structural devices, are in fact redox-sensitive flexible hinges, whose conformation is controlled both by redox conditions and lipid agonists. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 14, 757-766.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90473/1/ars-2E2010-2E3773.pd