The Damaging Effects of Intersectionality and Layers of Oppression on United States Female Soccer Players

Black athletes face structural and overt racism in all sports across the country, in which the majority of White Americans either chooses to ignore or sometimes even use to victimize certain athletes. They are discriminated against because of the color of their skin, despite achieving the same levels of success and fame as their white competitors. Black athletes must work harder than white athletes for the same end goal, not because of any sort of athletic disadvantage, but because of racial injustice and intolerance. Soccer is a prime example of how Black athletes face racism in sport. Black female soccer players, however, face many more layers of oppression compared to not only Black male soccer players, but also their female counterparts. The lack of representation and involvement of Black female athlete in the sport of soccer shows the repercussions of these layers of oppression. The sport of soccer favors male athletes and their success, caters to middle- and upper-class families and individuals, and structural racism within athletics prefers white athletes

Simultaneous Coherent Structure Coloring facilitates interpretable clustering of scientific data by amplifying dissimilarity

The clustering of data into physically meaningful subsets often requires assumptions regarding the number, size, or shape of the subgroups. Here, we present a new method, simultaneous coherent structure coloring (sCSC), which accomplishes the task of unsupervised clustering without a priori guidance regarding the underlying structure of the data. sCSC performs a sequence of binary splittings on the dataset such that the most dissimilar data points are required to be in separate clusters. To achieve this, we obtain a set of orthogonal coordinates along which dissimilarity in the dataset is maximized from a generalized eigenvalue problem based on the pairwise dissimilarity between the data points to be clustered. This sequence of bifurcations produces a binary tree representation of the system, from which the number of clusters in the data and their interrelationships naturally emerge. To illustrate the effectiveness of the method in the absence of a priori assumptions, we apply it to three exemplary problems in fluid dynamics. Then, we illustrate its capacity for interpretability using a high-dimensional protein folding simulation dataset. While we restrict our examples to dynamical physical systems in this work, we anticipate straightforward translation to other fields where existing analysis tools require ad hoc assumptions on the data structure, lack the interpretability of the present method, or in which the underlying processes are less accessible, such as genomics and neuroscience

Effects of a synthetic bioactive peptide on neurite growth and nerve growth factor release in chondroitin sulfate hydrogels.

Previous work has revealed robust dorsal root ganglia neurite growth in hydrogels of chondroitin sulfate. In the current work, it was determined whether addition of a synthetic bioactive peptide could augment neurite growth in these matrices via enhanced binding and sequestering of growth factors. Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching studies revealed that addition of peptide slowed nerve growth factor diffusivity in chondroitin sulfate gels, but not in control gels of hyaluronic acid. Furthermore, cultures of chick dorsal root ganglia in gels of hyaluronic acid or chondroitin sulfate revealed enhanced growth in chondroitin sulfate gels only upon addition of peptide. Taken together, these results suggest a synergistic nerve growth factor-binding activity between this peptide and chondroitin sulfate

Into the American Civil War: Thoughts on the Character of the Nation-Building Event

Streaming video requires Flash Player, RealPlayer, or Windows Media Player to view.Brooks spoke about how to understand events in the public sphere when looking at the American Civil War in the early 1850's. Specifically, he examines texts from Harriet Beecher Stowe that were published as part of the anti-slavery cause.The Ohio State University. Humanities Institute Public Sphere and Modern Social Imaginaries working groupThe Ohio State University. Department of EnglishThe Ohio State University. Department of Germanic Languages and LiteraturesThe Ohio State University. Department of HistoryThe Ohio State University. Department of Political Science DepartmentThe Ohio State University. Department of Spanish and PortugueseThe Ohio State University. Department of Women’s StudiesOhio State University. Mershon Center for International Security StudiesEvent Web page, streaming video, event photo

Analysis of anthropogenic effects on topsoil throughout the California Polytechnic State University campus in San Luis Obispo

Soils reflect the health of a landscape, and in many cases carry the burden of anthropogenic activity, continually changing in characteristics such as pH, soil texture, soil structure, carbon:nitrogen ratios (C:N), and chemical composition. In a study sampling six different soils on the California Polytechnic State University campus in San Luis Obispo, these five soil characteristics were tested for and the results were determined. Soil samples consist of the top 5-10 cm of soil profiles, with sample sites varying according to degree of human contact; the locations the samples were taken from are as follows: (1) Walters Creek Ranch pasture, which is situated on Highway 1 across from Cuesta College; (2) the wooded area next to the Cal Poly “P”; (3) the footpath/bike path going to and from Cal Poly campus and the Poly Canyon Village student housing development; (4) the pre-dug soil pits on the hillside, adjacent to the “P” (periodically used for soil science and soil morphology courses); (5) the bike path behind the parking structure on Grand Avenue next to the Performing Arts Center; (6) the footpath in the parking lot behind the red brick dormitories

Le Donne di Dante: An Historical Study of Female Characters in The Divine Comedy

This thesis explores the characterizations of women in Dante’s Divine Comedy and uses this information to assess Dante’s opinion of women, including their behaviors, traits, and roles in society. It approaches The Comedy from a specific historical angle and requires a basic knowledge of the poem in order to understand some of the references. The entire text incorporates historical sources and evidence to support these interpretations of women in The Comedy, as they demonstrate why and how Dante might have characterized women in the way he did. Many of the arguments are supported by the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas and several texts by Aristotle, as both of these writers influenced Dante’s writing. The first chapter examines the women of the Inferno, especially those punished for lust, and determines that Dante considered women to be less reasonable and more susceptible to temptation than men. This chapter also highlights Dante’s use of the defiled female body to portray the perversion that results from sin as well as the dangers of female sexuality. The second chapter looks at the women of Purgatorio and deduces that Dante placed immense power in feminine prayer. Most of the evidence for this argument comes from the fact that several male souls in Purgatory emphasize the importance of the prayers from their female relatives in shortening their stay in Purgatory. The third chapter studies the women of Paradiso and shows that Dante believed that women possessed free will that allowed them to resist temptation and make rational decisions. This chapter also shows that Dante had a high regard for mothers, as is evident by his worship of the Virgin Mary. It also shows that Dante advocated separate social spheres for men and women and endowed each sex with a different set of appropriate virtues. The final chapter focuses on Beatrice and shows that, although Dante believed women inherently lacked the courage, strength, and intelligence of men, they possessed the capacity for revelation, which they could use not only to help themselves understand divine truth but also reveal these truths to others. Overall, the paper concludes that, although Dante agreed with many of his contemporaries that women were physically and mentally weaker than men and that they should not take up the same social functions as men, he believed that, in the afterlife, men and women could achieve equality and that, due to their immense spiritual power, women could potentially become perfect

The Relationship of Consideration and Structure Leadership Styles to Employee Job Satisfaction in Nonprofit Child Care Organizations

This study examined the relationship between leadership style, as measured by the Leadership Opinion Questionnaire, and job satisfaction, global job satisfaction, and satisfaction with supervision, as measured by the Job Satisfaction Survey. Past research suggests that leaders with a considerate style of leadership are associated with greater job satisfaction compared to leaders who initiate structure. Although many studies of leadership style have been conducted in for-profit organizations, the objective of this research was to better understand the relationship of leadership style to job satisfaction in nonprofit child care centers. Eight directors in nonprofit child care centers in Rochester, New York, completed the Leadership Opinion Questionnaire, which posits a two-factor construct of leadership. Child care workers (N=94) completed the Job Satisfaction Survey. All participating directors were White, college-educated females, and all child care workers were female, with varying educational and cultural backgrounds. Although the relationship between consideration and job satisfaction was not supported, significant relationships were found between a structured leadership orientation and global job satisfaction (r = .597, p \u3c .01) as well as satisfaction with supervision (r = .207, p \u3c .05). A post hoc analysis revealed a significant difference (t = 3.36, df = 8, p \u3c. 003) between satisfaction with supervision and leadership structure (LC-HS versus HC-LS). The findings demonstrated that leadership in nonprofit child care organizations does not follow the leadership trends in other for-profit agencies. The findings suggest that child care directors should attend leadership programs that develop a style high in structure to increase child care worker job satisfaction

Environmental influences on adherence to self-management behaviors and glycemic control in African American patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic illness effecting approximately 20.8 million individuals in the United States. Minorities are adversely affected, with age-adjusted prevalence 1.7 times higher in African Americans than Caucasians. Type 2 diabetes is significantly affected by behavioral and environmental risk factors, including the presence of co-occurring diseases (i.e., hypertension, hyperlipidemia), obesity, age, and lack of physical activity, and each of these risk factors is more prevalent among African Americans. The treatment of diabetes is largely self-managed, with patients and their families handling 95% of their own care. Adherence to the multi-component diabetic treatment regimen requires daily care, often occurring in more than one environment. While many studies have attempted to address the impact of social support on the self-management behavior of diabetics, few have tried to assess both intra-individual and environmental influences of support on the adherence. There is a paucity of research concerning the diabetic self-care treatment regimen and social support in an African American population, or addressing the disproportionate effect of environmental influences on African Americans. The current study sought to address this gap in the literature by using the Chronic Illness Resources Survey, a measure of multilevel support resources, to assess environmental influences of social support on African American patients’ adherence to self-management behaviors. The current study also sought to address common methodological concerns, including the addition of glycemic control (HbA1c) as an outcome measure and control for social desirability