Abortion in the United States' bible belt: organizing for power and empowerment

Over the last 30 years, conservative power in the United States, financed and organized by Christian fundamentalist sects, the Catholic Church, and conservative corporate and political leadership, has become more threatening and potentially destabilizing of progressive democratic principles and practices. Powerful interlocking political, financial and social forces are arrayed against women in many Southern and Western states. They are having destructive effects on women's ability to control their fertility and maintain bodily integrity and health. Poor women and women of color are disproportionately affected by restrictions on abortion services. Strategically developed interventions must be initiated and managed at every level in these localities. It is urgent to coordinate and empower individuals, multiple organizations and communities to engender effective changes in attitudes, norms, behavior and policies that will enable women to obtain reproductive health services, including abortion care. This paper describes contextual factors that continue to decimate U.S. women's right to health and, then, describes a community organizing-social action project in a number of US' states aimed at reversing the erosion of women's right to have or not to have children

Non-saturating magnetoresistance of inhomogeneous conductors: comparison of experiment and simulation

The silver chalcogenides provide a striking example of the benefits of imperfection. Nanothreads of excess silver cause distortions in the current flow that yield a linear and non-saturating transverse magnetoresistance (MR). Associated with the large and positive MR is a negative longitudinal MR. The longitudinal MR only occurs in the three-dimensional limit and thereby permits the determination of a characteristic length scale set by the spatial inhomogeneity. We find that this fundamental inhomogeneity length can be as large as ten microns. Systematic measurements of the diagonal and off-diagonal components of the resistivity tensor in various sample geometries show clear evidence of the distorted current paths posited in theoretical simulations. We use a random resistor network model to fit the linear MR, and expand it from two to three dimensions to depict current distortions in the third (thickness) dimension. When compared directly to experiments on Ag$_{2\pm\delta}$Se and Ag$_{2\pm\delta}$Te, in magnetic fields up to 55 T, the model identifies conductivity fluctuations due to macroscopic inhomogeneities as the underlying physical mechanism. It also accounts reasonably quantitatively for the various components of the resistivity tensor observed in the experiments.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

Education policy as an act of white supremacy: whiteness, critical race theory and education reform

The paper presents an empirical analysis of education policy in England that is informed by recent developments in US critical theory. In particular, I draw on ‘whiteness studies’ and the application of Critical Race Theory (CRT). These perspectives offer a new and radical way of conceptualising the role of racism in education. Although the US literature has paid little or no regard to issues outside North America, I argue that a similar understanding of racism (as a multifaceted, deeply embedded, often taken-for-granted aspect of power relations) lies at the heart of recent attempts to understand institutional racism in the UK. Having set out the conceptual terrain in the first half of the paper, I then apply this approach to recent changes in the English education system to reveal the central role accorded the defence (and extension) of race inequity. Finally, the paper touches on the question of racism and intentionality: although race inequity may not be a planned and deliberate goal of education policy neither is it accidental. The patterning of racial advantage and inequity is structured in domination and its continuation represents a form of tacit intentionality on the part of white powerholders and policy makers. It is in this sense that education policy is an act of white supremacy. Following others in the CRT tradition, therefore, the paper’s analysis concludes that the most dangerous form of ‘white supremacy’ is not the obvious and extreme fascistic posturing of small neonazi groups, but rather the taken-for-granted routine privileging of white interests that goes unremarked in the political mainstream

Discrimination as a One-Day Performance Critically Reviewing an Anti-racism Day at School

Peer reviewe

Emergent Orthotopic Liver Transplantation for Hemorrhage from a Giant Cavernous Hepatic Hemangioma: Case Report and Review

IntroductionCavernous hemangiomas represent the most common benign primary hepatic neoplasm, often being incidentally detected. Although the majority of hepatic hemangiomas remain asymptomatic, symptomatic hepatic hemangiomas can present with abdominal pain, hemorrhage, biliary compression, or a consumptive coagulopathy. The optimal surgical management of symptomatic hepatic hemangiomas remains controversial, with resection, enucleation, and both deceased donor and living donor liver transplantation having been reported.Case reportWe report the case of a patient found to have a unique syndrome of multiorgan cavernous hemangiomatosis involving the liver, lung, omentum, and spleen without cutaneous involvement. Sixteen years following her initial diagnosis, the patient suffered from intra-abdominal hemorrhage due to her giant cavernous hepatic hemangioma. Evidence of continued bleeding, in the setting of Kasabach-Merritt Syndrome and worsening abdominal compartment syndrome, prompted MELD exemption listing. The patient subsequently underwent emergent liver transplantation without complication.ConclusionAlthough cavernous hemangiomas represent the most common benign primary hepatic neoplasm, hepatic hemangioma rupture remains a rare presentation in these patients. Management at a center with expertise in liver transplantation is warranted for those patients presenting with worsening DIC or hemorrhage, given the potential for rapid clinical decompensation

Are normal narcissists psychologically healthy? Self-esteem matters

Five studies established that normal narcissism is correlated with good psychological health. Specifically, narcissism is (a) inversely related to daily sadness and dispositional depression, (b) inversely related to daily and dispositional loneliness, (c) positively related to daily and dispositional subjective well-being as well as couple well-being, (d) inversely related to daily anxiety, and (e) inversely related to dispositional neuroticism. More important, self-esteem fully accounted for the relation between narcissism and psychological health. Thus, narcissism is beneficial for psychological health only insofar as it is associated with high self-esteem. Explanations of the main and mediational findings in terms of response or social desirability biases (e.g., defensiveness, repression, impression management) were ruled out. Supplementary analysis showed that the links among narcissism, self-esteem, and psychological health were preponderantly linear

Cross-ethnic friendships, psychological well-being, and academic outcomes: Study of South Asian and White children in the UK

We examined whether two interpersonal processes, self-disclosure and affirmation of ideal self, mediated the relationship between cross-ethnic friendships and psychological well-being and academic outcomes. We conducted a cross-sectional survey with 484 secondary school children (243 White European, 241 South Asian British; Mage = 11.10, 220 boys, 264 girls) recruited from 35 multiethnic classrooms. Results of multilevel structural equation modeling revealed mediational effects of self-disclosure between cross-ethnic friendships and psychological well-being for only South Asian children. Affirmation also mediated the association between cross-ethnic friendships and both psychological well-being and academic outcomes for South Asian children. For White European children, affirmation mediated the association between cross-ethnic friendships and psychological well-being. Further analyses demonstrated that self-disclosure resulting from cross-ethnic friendship quality facilitated affirmation, which in turn promoted both sets of outcomes. Findings demonstrate that cross-ethnic friendships in multiethnic settings contribute to well-being through the generation of positive interpersonal processes

From Ideal to Practice and Back Again: Beginning Teachers Teaching for Social Justice

The five authors of this article designed a multicase study to follow recent graduates of an elementary preservice teacher education program into their beginning teaching placements and explore the ways in which they enacted social justice curricula. The authors highlight the stories of three beginning teachers, honoring the plurality of their conceptions of social justice teaching and the resiliency they exhibited in translating social justice ideals into viable pedagogy. They also discuss the struggles the teachers faced when enacting social justice curricula and the tenuous connection they perceived between their conceptions and their practices. The authors emphasize that such struggles are inevitable and end the article with recommendations for ways in which teacher educators can prepare beginning teachers for the uncertain journey of teaching for social justice