The important relationship between socioeconomic decline, masculinity, and guns

Recent events have reopened the debate over the role of guns in U.S. society, at a time when many states are expanding gun laws through open and concealed carry measures. How can we account for the popularity of guns in America, especially among men? Jennifer Carlson investigated this question by interviewing, and spending time with, gun-owning men in Michigan. She found that for these men, protecting their family and community was an important part of their gun ownership, a role which is has become even more important in light of their decline as breadwinners in a difficult economic climate

Beyond Law and Order in the Gun Debate: Black Lives Matter, Abolitionism, and Anti-Racist Gun Policy

In 2020, millions of Americans mobilized for racial justice and police accountability under the banner of the Black Lives Matter movement. The diverse range of their demands notwithstanding, activists overwhelmingly called for the decentering (if not also defunding) of police as the go-to institution for solving problems of crime, broadly reflecting the anti-racist politics embraced by the contemporary criminal justice abolition movement. Recognizing that American gun policy has often deepened the reach of the criminal justice system amid the war on crime's broad ambit, this article considers how abolitionist approaches -- and the broader scholar-activist work in which they are embedded -- challenge the traditional coordinates of gun politics and gun policy and provide a framework for forging an anti-racist gun politics. Putting criminal justice abolitionism into conversation with existing community-led efforts that decenter the criminal justice apparatus in gun violence prevention, this essay examines gun abolitionism as a means of revamping dominant visions of safety and justice from an anti-racist perspective -- and reformulating the leading approaches to gun policy accordingly

Relative Sensitivities of Diatoms to Selected Heavy Metals

Baseline data, including diatom community structure, metal concentrations of water, sediments and periphyton of the Embarras River were determined previously (Vaultonburg, 1991). Data on diatom community structure in conjunction with efforts to identify relative sensitivity of diatoms may be useful in establishing an effective method for biomonitoring metal pollution in the Embarras River and other aquatic systems. The main objectives of this project were: i) develop a bioassay method; ii) evaluate relative toxicities of several metals towards diatoms; and, iii) evaluate relative sensitivities of diatoms toward dissolved metals. Unialgal cultures of Cyclotella meneghiniana, Navicula vaucheriae, and Nitzschia palea were isolated from Embarras River water and associated substrata (e.g. mud, stones, twigs). Standard 14-day, non-renewal bioassay procedures were used to investigate the effects of various concentrations of Al, Cu, Ni, and Zn on diatom population growth and survival. Copper was found to be the most toxic metal to all three diatoms with EC50 values of 5-10 μM. Nickel EC50 values were 18 μM for N. palea, and 10-12.5 μM for C. meneghiniana and N. vaucheriae. Zinc was found to be less toxic than Ni with an EC50 of 17 μM for C. meneghiniana and 50-100 μM for N. vaucheriae and N. palea. Aluminum was the least toxic to all diatoms with EC50 values of 150 μM for C. meneghiniana, 360 μM for N. vaucheriae and 500-1000 μM for N. palea. All three species appear to be equally sensitive to Cu. Cyclotella meneghiniana was found to be the most sensitive to Al and Zn. Both C. meneghiniana and N. vaucheriae were more sensitive to Ni than was N. palea

Relative Sensitivities of Diatoms to Selected Heavy Metals

Baseline data, including diatom community structure, metal concentrations of water, sediments and periphyton of the Embarras River were determined previously (Vaultonburg, 1991). Data on diatom community structure in conjunction with efforts to identify relative sensitivity of diatoms may be useful in establishing an effective method for biomonitoring metal pollution in the Embarras River and other aquatic systems. The main objectives of this project were: i) develop a bioassay method; ii) evaluate relative toxicities of several metals towards diatoms; and, iii) evaluate relative sensitivities of diatoms toward dissolved metals. Unialgal cultures of Cyclotella meneghiniana, Navicula vaucheriae, and Nitzschia palea were isolated from Embarras River water and associated substrata (e.g. mud, stones, twigs). Standard 14-day, non-renewal bioassay procedures were used to investigate the effects of various concentrations of Al, Cu, Ni, and Zn on diatom population growth and survival. Copper was found to be the most toxic metal to all three diatoms with EC50 values of 5-10 μM. Nickel EC50 values were 18 μM for N. palea, and 10-12.5 μM for C. meneghiniana and N. vaucheriae. Zinc was found to be less toxic than Ni with an EC50 of 17 μM for C. meneghiniana and 50-100 μM for N. vaucheriae and N. palea. Aluminum was the least toxic to all diatoms with EC50 values of 150 μM for C. meneghiniana, 360 μM for N. vaucheriae and 500-1000 μM for N. palea. All three species appear to be equally sensitive to Cu. Cyclotella meneghiniana was found to be the most sensitive to Al and Zn. Both C. meneghiniana and N. vaucheriae were more sensitive to Ni than was N. palea

Unruly energies : provocations of renewable energy development in a northern German village

textThis dissertation asks how inhabitants of a sustainable village are living out Germany’s transition from nuclear to renewable energy. The sustainable village remains a locus of optimistic attachments for renewable energy advocates, who argue that a decentralized power grid will enable people to more directly participate in power production and politics as “energy citizens.” Yet while rural areas have become sites of speculation, innovation and growth, few rural-dwellers are enfranchised in (or profiting from) the technoscientific projects in their midst. I draw upon 13 months of fieldwork in a northern German village transformed by wind turbines, photovoltaics and biofuels to consider why, asking what kinds of public life flourish in the absence of democratic engagement with renewable technologies. This ethnography engages the village as multiply constituted across domains of everyday life, including transit, farming, waste management, domestic life, and social gatherings. I found that environmental policy, everyday practices, and the area’s material histories combined to produce ontologies—senses of what exists—that circumscribe citizen participation in the energy sector, affording more formal opportunities to men than to women, and privileging farmers’ interests in plans that impacted the larger community. These findings illuminate how many villagers become ambivalent toward the project of the energy transition and disenfranchised from its implementation. Yet many who were excluded from formal participation also engaged with renewable technologies as they sensed out their worlds, using tropes of sustainable energy and technoscientific materials to place themselves in this emerging energy polity. Their everyday worldmaking brimmed with what I call unruly energies, structures of feeling that registered more as affects than as discourse. In the village, these took form as sensory disturbances, disquiet among neighbors, technoscientific optimism and skepticism toward environmental policy. These affective modes of attention, investment and participation were vital aspects of public life that shaped the transition’s unfolding. They exceeded liberal models of renewable energy citizenship, which presume that socioeconomic interest and environmental commitment are universal among citizens. In this way, unruly energies compel more nuanced attention to the multiple, contingent, site-specific ways in which citizenship takes form in the making of eco-capitalist energy infrastructure.Anthropolog

Breaking the Barriers to Specialty Care: Practical Ideas to Improve Health Equity and Reduce Cost - Helping Patients Engage in Specialty Care

Tremendous health outcome inequities remain in the U.S. across race and ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, socio-economic status, and geography—particularly for those with serious conditions such as lung or skin cancer, HIV/AIDS, or cardiovascular disease.These inequities are driven by a complex set of factors—including distance to a specialist, insurance coverage, provider bias, and a patient's housing and healthy food access. These inequities not only harm patients, resulting in avoidable illness and death, they also drive unnecessary health systems costs.This 5-part series highlights the urgent need to address these issues, providing resources such as case studies, data, and recommendations to help the health care sector make meaningful strides toward achieving equity in specialty care.Top TakeawaysThere are vast inequalities in access to and outcomes from specialty health care in the U.S. These inequalities are worst for minority patients, low-income patients, patients with limited English language proficiency, and patients in rural areas.A number of solutions have emerged to improve health outcomes for minority and medically underserved patients. These solutions fall into three main categories: increasing specialty care availability, ensuring high-quality care, and helping patients engage in care.As these inequities are also significant drivers of health costs, payers, health care provider organizations, and policy makers have a strong incentive to invest in solutions that will both improve outcomes and reduce unnecessary costs. These actors play a critical role in ensuring that equity is embedded into core care delivery at scale.Part 4: "Helping Patients Engage in Specialty Care"Specialty care actors are increasingly addressing the social determinants of health with community outreach, patient navigation, and patient support services

Breaking the Barriers to Specialty Care: Practical Ideas to Improve Health Equity and Reduce Cost - Ensuring High-Quality Specialty Care

Tremendous health outcome inequities remain in the U.S. across race and ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, socio-economic status, and geography—particularly for those with serious conditions such as lung or skin cancer, HIV/AIDS, or cardiovascular disease.These inequities are driven by a complex set of factors—including distance to a specialist, insurance coverage, provider bias, and a patient's housing and healthy food access. These inequities not only harm patients, resulting in avoidable illness and death, they also drive unnecessary health systems costs.This 5-part series highlights the urgent need to address these issues, providing resources such as case studies, data, and recommendations to help the health care sector make meaningful strides toward achieving equity in specialty care.Top TakeawaysThere are vast inequalities in access to and outcomes from specialty health care in the U.S. These inequalities are worst for minority patients, low-income patients, patients with limited English language proficiency, and patients in rural areas.A number of solutions have emerged to improve health outcomes for minority and medically underserved patients. These solutions fall into three main categories: increasing specialty care availability, ensuring high-quality care, and helping patients engage in care.As these inequities are also significant drivers of health costs, payers, health care provider organizations, and policy makers have a strong incentive to invest in solutions that will both improve outcomes and reduce unnecessary costs. These actors play a critical role in ensuring that equity is embedded into core care delivery at scale.Part 3: "Ensuring High-Quality Specialty Care"New efforts to mitigate provider implicit bias, establish culturally-competent care, and leverage quality improvement approaches help identify and eliminate disparities in care