On Man

There is an all-pervasive assault, especially in schools, on gen­dered language. Increasingly, it is not acceptable to say he or she, him or her, et cetera (Martyna, 1980). These terms are seen as exclusionary to any and every unspecified party. Instead, students are required to say one, person, s/he or some other non-specific,arbitrary, gender-neutral term. The epicenter of the assault, posited as the pinnacle of linguistic evil, is the term man. Man, the assailants say, only denotes males. Females are the excluded party, and thus the use of the term is sexist (Kleinman, 2007). The solution, then, is to reject the use of the term for some substitute (APA)

An Examination of Underrepresentation in Florida, Indiana, and Washington

Black, Latinx, and Native American students are underrepresented in gifted education programs across the United States. This underrepresentation is one way in which the excellence gap manifests in gifted education. In turn, the underlying causes for underrepresentation are debated by scholars. This dissertation examines the issue of underrepresentation through three case studies. In all case studies, a generalized linear mixed model is used as the framework to analyze publicly available data acquired from the associated state departments of education. The first case study examines underrepresentation in the state of Florida. In this study, the influence of socioeconomic status on rates of representation between the 2011-2016 academic years are examined. The results from this case study suggest that the representation of Black students from low SES homes for gifted services was 68% higher than the non-SES adjusted likelihood of identification. In contrast, the representation for Latinx and Native American students decreased by 44% and 49% respectively. The second case study examines underrepresentation in the state of Indiana. In this study, the influence of multiple criteria on rates of representation between the 2006-2016 academic years are examined. The results from this case study suggest that multiple criteria increased rates of representation in gifted programs by 10% to 20% in comparison to using only intelligence tests. Finally, the third case study examines underrepresentation in the state of Washington. In this study, the influence of early identification on rates of representation between the 2002-2012 academic years are examined. The results from this case study suggest that identification in early elementary years increased proportional representation by 10%. These three case studies contribute to the overall body of literature on underrepresentation. The overall message is that the issues of underrepresentation are nuanced. In particular, how socioeconomic status, multiple criteria, and early identification relate to Black, Latinx, and Native American students is not the same across all three groups. Regardless, the dissertation provides a clearer picture to the issue of underrepresentation in gifted education

Youth Aptitude as a Predictor of Adulthood Income

I examine the relationship between youth aptitude and adulthood income. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of the Youth 1979 cohort and OLS regression analysis, I test the hypothesis that a higher 1981 Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT) score is directly related to a higher income in 2010, ceteris paribus. First, a single regression equation is run for educational attainment subgroups at the time of taking the AFQT. Second, a regression equation including total lifetime educational attainment, and one that excludes it, are run to examine potential co-linearity between AFQT score and educational attainment. The results show that AFQT is significant and positively related to adulthood income

The Effects of Background Factors on AFQT Score

The introduction of the National Longitudinal Survey of the Youth (NLSY) 1979 and 1997 cohorts made Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT) score data widely available and has thus dramatically increased its use in academic research. However, there is strong evidence that a wide variety of background factors, such as poverty status, race, and parent’s education level, affect AFQT score. Human capital theory, in conjunction with the pathways framework, suggests that these background factors have both direct and indirect effects on AFQT score. The focus of this research is measuring some of the important direct and indirect pathways through which background factors affect AFQT score. The purpose of measuring these pathways is to identify the effects that some background factors have on AFQT score, thus elucidating how AFQT score is determined by some background factors

Review of \u3cem\u3eStill the Promised City?: African-Americans and New Immigrants in Postindustrial New York.\u3c/em\u3e Roger Waldinger. Reviewed by Charles Jaret, Georgia State University

Roger Waldinger. Still the Promised City?: African-Americans and New Immigrants in Postindustrial New York. New York. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996. $35.00 hardcover

\u3cem\u3eSociology and the Race Problem: Failure of a Perspective.\u3c/em\u3e James B. McKee. Reviewed by Charles Jaret, Georgia State University.

James B. McKee, Sociology and the Race Problem: The Failure of a Perspective. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1993. $39.95 hardcover,$16.95 papercover

Elucidating the Functional Location of Platelet-Derived Growth Factor Receptor Alpha, Creation of a Review Chapter on the use of Zebrafish in Studying Congenital Heart Defects, and using 3D Printing to Create Laboratory Tools

Congenital heart defects (CHDs) are currently the most prevalent form of birth defect in the United States. Their combined frequency and severity make necessary a deeper understanding of the molecular underpinnings guiding heart formation. The first major step in cardiac morphogenesis, cardiac fusion, involves the medial movement of bilateral populations of myocardial precursor cells to the embryonic midline, where they merge to form the primitive heart tube. Although crucial to subsequent organogenesis, the precise mechanisms governing cardiac fusion remain unknown. Previous studies have found that a mutation in platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha (pdgfra), called refuse-to-fuse (ref), results in a lack of proper cardiac fusion in both mouse and zebrafish, implying a regulatory role for pdgfra in cardiac fusion. However, the specific tissue that pdgfra functions within (myocardium, endocardium, or endoderm) remains unknown. This study details the creation of two transgenic constructs by means of the Gateway multi-site recombination system, Tg(Bact:loxp-BFP-loxp-Ra-2a-mcherry) and Tg(Nkx2.5:Cre-pA) for the purpose of elucidating the functional location of pdgfra during cardiac fusion. These constructs will allow pdgfra to be expressed in either the myocardium, endocardium, or endoderm, in mutant ref embryos. Thus, allowing us to test whether pdgfra expression in the myocardium, endocardium, or endoderm, can rescue the ref mutant phenotype. In addition to work identifying the functional location of pdgfra, another project undertaken during my time in the Bloomekatz lab involved the creation of a review chapter, covering the use of zebrafish as a model organism to study CHDs. In this endeavor three figures were created, depicting the molecular contractile mechanisms in a sarcomere, an example of zebrafish being used to model a genetic disease involving the gene titin (ttn), and the physiological similarities shared between humans and zebrafish. The review chapter has been accepted and is pending publication. Lastly, my work in the Bloomekatz lab involved multiple 3D printing projects to create confocal microscope slide holders, a feeding gun apparatus, and gel electrophoresis combs

SPECulative Housing

The purpose of this thesis is to understand architecture as a semiotic sign system with the ability to communicate information through form; constructing a rich, meaningful built environment. A study of the history of this language and the meaning of form within suburban contexts indicates the disassociation between the complexities of the lie of the contemporary middle class and the architecture in which they live