A Comparison of White Male College Students Attending an Urban Black University and an Urban White University: White Racial Identity and Perceived Comfort With Blacks

The purpose of this study was to determine the difference in White Racial Identity and degree of tolerance for Blacks between two samples of White male undergraduate students attending an urban Black university and those attending an urban White university. The theoretical framework for this study was based in Social Contact Theory as a contributor to racial tolerance and Racial Identity Development Theory as a factor in human growth toward increasing acceptance of diversity. This was a quasi-experimental post-hoc design using intact groups. The study analyzed the responses of 182 White male undergraduates using three instruments. A Background Questionnaire, designed by the researcher, collected data on the age, military service, parents\u27 education, length of enrollment, racial composition of high school, financial aid and upbringing of the respondents. Two additional tools, designed specifically to measure stage of White Racial Identity, the WRIAS/SAS, and level of tolerance, the Situational Attitude Scale, were also completed by respondents. Three hypotheses were tested to address the question of whether White male students attending a historically Black university differ in their comfort with Blacks and their level of White Racial Identity development from those attending a predominantly White university. The procedures for this research involved a mail survey sent to all participants, who were eligible to win a monetary award for their participation. Surveys were coded and analyzed using frequency analyses, t-tests to assess variance in mean scores on each stage of White Racial Identity, and a linear regression analysis to determine the relationship between background and level of tolerance. Findings supported the hypotheses that White males attending the historically Black university were at higher stages of White Racial Identity and had higher levels of tolerance than their counterparts at the predominantly White university

Battles for Indigenous self-determination in the neoliberal period: a comparative study of Bolivian Indigenous and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ resistance.

Indigenous self-determination is a spectre haunting colonial settler states. Struggles for land, cultural rights and sovereignty challenge governments built on dispossession, plunder and genocide. As the neoliberal phase of capitalism and its push for greater resource extraction pushes the planet to ecocide, Indigenous communities and their environmental ontologies offer solutions to catastrophic ecological and social crisis. This comparative thesis examines campaigns for Indigenous sovereignty in Bolivia and Australia and briefly explores the topic of Indigenous-led answers to the climate crisis. This study is inspired by a visit to Bolivia in 2006 and a motivation to deepen an understanding around Indigenous struggles in Australia. Bolivia is a focal point for this research because its ‘government of the social movements’ (Achtenberg 2015, para 6) is an experiment in Indigenous emancipation. In Australia, Aboriginal activists Pat Eatock and Ray Jackson encouraged my research around local campaigns. Engaging and convincing, Aunty Pat and Uncle Ray lived by a ‘political commitment to take up the side of the oppressed and exploited’ (Kinsman 2008, para 4). A good deal of intellectual and activist work on Indigenous self-determination employs a contrastive framework. Drawing out similarities and differences across nation-state boundaries clarifies colonial strategies and strengthens a global solidarity response. However, there is a scholarship emphasis towards the global north due to the domination of imperialist narratives. This explains why self-determination studies within Australia do not feature research on Bolivia’s sovereignty model. The research fills a gap within scholarly texts, because, as yet, no comparison between Bolivian Indigenous resistance and Indigenous Australian struggles exists. Research road map This investigation starts with an introduction, delves into the research’s theoretical and methodological approach, divides into three chapters and concludes. Each chapter compares Bolivia and Australia’s three structural pillars that form the basis of Indigenous self-determination: land, cultural rights and self-governance bodies. The concluding chapter assesses and compares the strengths and weaknesses of First Nation struggles in each country. The research finds that Indigenous sovereignty battles have benefited from coalitions between Indigenous and socialist forces in ‘black-red’ alliances (coalitions between Indigenous, communists and socialist forces) (Townsend 2009, p.5). Finally, an emancipatory vision of Indigenous self-determination, based on battle models within Australia and Bolivia, is proffered. Theoretical framework and methodological approach This investigation fuses Indigenous cosmological tenets and a Marxist philosophical framework. It engages a participatory activist research methodology through engagement with and interviews from Indigenous and mestizo activists and scholars. The research finds commonality between Marxist philosophical foundations and aspects of Indigenous ontologies. Marxism was the theoretical child of Western liberal thought, which hosted a range of pro-colonial positions. In comparison, Karl Marx critiqued colonialism’s enslavement of Aboriginal people (Marx 1867 p. 531). Marx and Friedrich Engels developed Marxism’s philosophical and scientific tenets — dialectics and materialism - arguing the material world is primary and provable. Marxism’s dialectics notes ‘an interconnected, eternal motion existing within all phenomena’ (Engels 1873-1886, para 1) (Marx and Engels 1869, para 4) (Engels 1896, para 4, 5). That is, A equals A, and non-A. Dialectics is built upon in Indigenous Bolivian Aymara philosophies. Aymaran ‘trivalent logic’ is the Indigenous Bolivia’s hyper-dialectical cosmological tenet. Trivalent logic advances the Marxist dialectic, through adding one more recognised dimension. The Aymaran ‘plurivalence’ is neither formalistic nor absolutist. It is neither A nor B, but can be A, B, or C. Another commonality between Marxism and Indigenous cosmologies are their ecological positions. The emphasis on a communitarian ethic in both Marx’s writings and Indigenous approaches point to additional parallelisms. However, a key contrasting tenet of Marxism to Indigenous spirituality, is its scientific approach – it’s materialism. However, this study concludes that a Marxist approach and Indigenous cosmologies host more similar ideas and concepts than oppositional ones, and so fuses both frameworks. The participatory action research method situates this study within an empowerment frame. Colonisation attempts to silence Indigenous people. Therefore, this study features the judgements of Murri elder Ken Canning, active in the Sydney based Indigenous Social Justice Association, alongside Gumbaynggirr man Roxley Foley, and Zachary Joseph Wone, from the Kabi Kabi Nation of the Dundaburra clan. All the Bolivian interviewees, Enrique Castana Ballivian, Odalis Zuazo and Pablo Regalsky work within Indigenous communities, or publish articles about land management and Indigenous rights. Complications in comparisons This research uncovers a difficulty in comparing self-determination battles in Australia and Bolivia. Bolivia was colonised by Spain, Australia, by Britain. Bolivia holds the highest percentage of indigenous people of any nation in the Western hemisphere – 42% (Fontana 2013 para 3), (TeleSur 2015, para 2). Yet only 2.8% of the population identify as Indigenous in Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2017, para 1). Australia is a rich imperialist country, while Bolivia is part of the exploited, impoverished third world. However, this study reveals, Indigenous Australian and Bolivian communities confront common enemies. Imperialism’s profit motive targets homelands, kinships and organisations. In this, the two resistance struggles interlink. Struggles for land in Bolivia and Australia An examination of Bolivia and Australia’s land rights battles in the neoliberal phase uncover more differences than similarities. Bolivia’s struggles proved more powerful, ending with the election of President Evo Morales, who leads an Indigenous government. However, a constant between the two nations struggles was the critical role of the black-red alliances. In Australia, the modern land rights movement was sparked by Aboriginal labourers strike in 1946–1949, in the Pilbara, Western Australia - assisted by non-Aboriginal communist Don McLeod. Then, in 1966, Aboriginal communities in Gurindji led the longest strike in Australia’s history, winning nine years later. Frank Hardy, Communist Party member, was a critical ally in the struggle. Following these seminal fights, Aboriginal people have won some control over 33% of Australia’s land mass. In Australia’s neoliberal period, land rights were attacked. Firstly, through the Northern Territory (NT) Intervention in 2007, then in 2015, with attempts to close remote Aboriginal communities in Western Australia (WA) and South Australia (SA). The ‘Stop the NT Intervention’ movement was not successful, but mass protests in 2015, led by the #sosblakaustralia movement stopped the closures of remote communities. Both the Indigenous rights movement and black-red alliances have not been strong enough to assuage neoliberalism’s assault on land rights. While 33% of land in Australia has been re-won, in some form, to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, the majority of land to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders is in remote and arid lands. In comparison, Bolivia’s land rights movements and black-red alliances in the neoliberal phase proved incredibly hardy. On the back of strong movements: The Coca, Gas and Water Wars, Indigenous Aymara Evo Morales was elected in 2005. Sections of the government proposed a ‘communitarian socialist’ Bolivia and Morales’s agrarian revolution handed 9600 square miles of state-owned land to Indigenous communities. However, Bolivia’s pro-Indigenous land reform and pachamama (mother-earth) approach was questioned by a proposal build a highway through the Isiboro Secure National Park and Indigenous Territory (TIPNIS) in 2011. Various Non-Government Organisations (NGO) charged Morales with coercion and ignoring Indigenous wishes. On the other side of the debate, Vice-President Alvero Garcia Linera argued anti-government NGOs led a green imperialist intervention against the TIPNIS project. After withdrawing from the highway’s timeframe and consulting with communities, a number of TIPNIS opponents withdrew their opposition. Struggles for cultural rights in Australia and Bolivia Spanish and British colonial projects both attempted ethnocide against thirty-six Bolivian communities and five hundred distinct First Nations in Australia. Britain sought to physically eliminate Indigenous people, but when resistance proved too robust, they began a cultural war through protectionist policies and an assimilation wave. By comparison, Spain’s strategy was to attempt genocide against Indigenous Incas, then co-opt a layer of compliant Incan nobility to enslave remainder Indigenous population. In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander campaigning in the 1960s forced the end of assimilationist policies with Freedom Rides, the resilient Tent Embassy in Canberra and an urban expansion in Redfern leading a powerful cultural revival. In the neoliberal phase, governments in Australia are leading a second assimilation phase. A culture war decrying a ‘black armband’ view of history included the abolition of the national Indigenous self-governance body Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) and $534 million in cuts from Indigenous services in 2014. Despite these obstacles, communities fought off a government-funded ‘Constitutional Recognition’ campaign. However, school history textbooks continue to portray Australia in a colonial white frame. Language reclamation battles have only elicited incremental progress. Comparatively, under the Morales government, Bolivia’s Indigenous cultural rights have progressed. The Bolivian government established a ‘Vice Ministry for Decolonization’. The new constitution acknowledges thirty-six recognized indigenous peoples, compels universities to teach Indigenous languages and memorializes anti-colonial warriors. On increasing Indigenous identification, the government has received a set-back. However, on balance, the MAS government is advancing a decolonizing program. Struggles for self-governance Winning self-governance structures in an anti-colonial frame is critical for Indigenous self-determination. The research uncovers socialists have developed autonomy structures for minority governance that aid Indigenous self-governance projects. From the Russian Bolshevik federated structure model, to Bolivia’s plurinationalism and Indigenous native peasant autonomy structures (AIOCs), socialists have, and are experimenting with democratic structures that benefit to Indigenous and ethnic minorities. However, in Bolivia, there appears to be a retreat from an AIOC model, as Indigenous autonomies do not feature in the 2025 government strategy document. In Australia, British genocide policies weakened First Nations governance, but nation-wide resistance organisations developed from the 1920s. By the 1970s Aboriginal communities had won elected national representation and localised land councils. In the neoliberal phase ATSIC was established – but the government disbanded it in 2004. Militant, national alliances such as the Freedom Summit, Grandmothers Against Removal, #sosblak and Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance (WAR) formed to fight land grabs and a re-assimilation push. The research discovers a weaker self-governance movement in Australia compared to Bolivia. Additionally, Australia’s socialist movement is more fragile– although a number of Aboriginal militants joined the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in the 20th century. This study concludes that two organisations, Socialist Alliance and Solidarity, assist Aboriginal campaigns in the 21st century. Aboriginal activists stand as Socialist Alliance candidates in state and federal elections. Socialists in Australia only gather 1.5–5% in state and federal elections. However, three socialists at the local council level have been elected with 30–55% of the vote. In comparison, openly socialist Bolivian presidential candidate Evo Morales wins 65% of the national vote. Conclusions This comparative study discovers strong Indigenous self-determination battles and structures in Bolivia, and weaker ones in Australia. Australian Indigenous resistance offers a rich experience of decolonising lessons to Bolivia’s Indigenous struggles. Equally, Bolivia’s empowerment structures hold encouraging insights. This research concludes that neoliberalism’s strength, a small Indigenous population and the weakness of progressive forces, leave the battle for a pan-Aboriginal republic at an embryonic stage. In contract, Bolivia’s Plurinational project is empowering Indigenous people with land, cultural rights and governance structures. While under pressure due to its positioning in the global capitalist market, Bolivia’s revolution is building Andean capitalism and an Indigenous nationalist model, with a communitarian socialist trajectory. This tension of having to operate within imperialism, I contend, do not detract from Bolivia’s positive example of a Indigenous sovereignty model. The study concludes that vying for state power hosts contradictions for Indigenous self-determination battles. However, Bolivia’s example shows that building Indigenous power from within and separate from the state, has benefited the majority of its people. Black-red alliances have been critical in both Bolivia and Australia’s battles for land, culture and governance rights. Indeed, Bolivia’s Plurinational structures can be viewed as a continuation of a socialist democratic principle. Bolivia points to a pathway for Indigenous emancipation in Australia. A multi-national, pan-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander anti-corporate republic offers a powerful decolonising frame. Through songlines and memorias, heroic wars, embassies and sovereignty plans, these autonomist models are providing robust self-determination prototypes

Processes underlying the nutritional programming of embryonic development by iron deficiency in the rat

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Carbon and Nitrogen Stable Isotopic Patterns in South Florida Coastal Ecosystems: Modern and Paleoceanographic Perspectives

Long term management plans for restoration of natural flow conditions through the Everglades increase the importance of understanding potential nutrient impacts of increased freshwater delivery on coastal biogeochemistry. The present study sought to increase understanding of the coastal marine system of South Florida under modern conditions and through the anthropogenic changes in the last century, on scales ranging from individual nutrient cycle processes to seasonal patterns in organic material (OM) under varying hydrodynamic regime, to century scale analysis of sedimentary records. In all applications, carbon and nitrogen stable isotopic compositions of OM were examined as natural recorders of change and nutrient cycling in the coastal system. High spatial and temporal variability in stable isotopic compositions were observed on all time scales. During a transient phytoplankton bloom, ä15N values suggested nitrogen fixation as a nutrient source supporting enhanced productivity. Seasonally, particulate organic material (POM) from ten sites along the Florida Reef Tract and in Florida Bay demonstrated variable fluctuations dependent on hydrodynamic setting. Three separate intra-annual patterns were observed, yet statistical differences were observed between groupings of Florida Bay and Atlantic Ocean sites. The POM ä15N values ranged on a quarterly basis by 7‰, while ä13C varied by 22‰. From a sediment history perspective, four cores collected from Florida Bay further demonstrated the spatial and temporal variability of the system in isotopic composition of bulk OM over time. Source inputs of OM varied with location, with terrestrial inputs dominating proximal to Everglades freshwater discharge, seagrasses dominating in open estuary cores, and a marine mixture of phytoplankton and seagrass in a core from the boundary zone between Florida Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Significant shifts in OM geochemistry were observed coincident with anthropogenic events of the 20th century, including railroad and road construction in the Florida Keys and Everglades, and also the extensive drainage changes in Everglades hydrology. The sediment record also preserved evidence of the major hurricanes of the last century, with excursions in geochemical composition coincident with Category 4-5 storms

Experiences of former foster carers

At the same time as the number of children needing out of home care has increased, the number of people available to provide foster care for children, particularly non-relative foster care, is declining. In Australia, this has been attributed to a number of factors including the ageing of the population and the increased participation of women, the traditional carers, in the workforce (McHugh et al., 2004). Within this context, the Foster Care Association of the ACT Inc (FCA of the ACT) commissioned the Institute of Child Protection Studies to carry out a small research project which aims to better understand the reasons why ACT foster carers cease foster caring during the period January 2004 and April 2007. In this research project we highlight how the foster carers experienced and made sense of the way in which their foster caring finished. By understanding these experiences potentially the systems that care for children can make changes that better support foster carers and ultimately ensure better outcomes for children. See also: [https://apps.aifs.gov.au/cfcaregister/projects/1241] Protecting Australia's Children: Research and Evaluation Register, 1995-201

A River Runs Through It: Imagining the future of the Glasgow City Region & the Clyde Valley: A Design Sprint

The Clyde and its tributaries run through the eight local authorities of the Glasgow City Region that together have a population of just under 2 million (1.87m) making up nearly 40% (37%) of Scotland’s population. As a holistic ecosystem, the Clyde and its tributaries is today a widely unappreciated waterway network throughout the entire city-region. In the vocabulary of the Resilient City Network (Rockefeller Foundation), the River Clyde has the potential to create both ‘stress’ and ‘shock’ in the metropolitan city-region of Glasgow, primarily as a result of flood risk which manifests in two ways: the first from downstream flow following serious precipitation events, and the second from upstream flow associated with increased sea levels as a consequence of climate change. There is a clear and present need to address both flows and ‘space’ for the river. There have been a number of initiatives for the river, but there has never been a single piece of visioning work that seeks to consider the future of the river as a rural and urban ecosystem from its source to the sea, that relates to the settlement pattern through which it passes, in concert with the strategic challenges of the transportation networks, and the networks of vacant and derelict land and stranded assets lying within the post-industrial metropolitan area of the Glasgow city region

Does the use of educational technology and multi-modal learning experiences assist children in the development of early letter formation and handwriting skills, especially those with cross lateral preference?

Objective: This study investigated the prevalence of cross lateral preference (CLP) amongst young children. This study also explored whether the use of educational technology and the use of specific software can assist young children in the development of early letter and number formation, especially those identified as displaying CLP. Method: The study included fifty children aged 4-5 years, divided into two groups; the experimental group and the control group. The lateral preferences of hand, foot, eye and ear of both groups were assessed through the use of individual performance based assessments. The experimental group had daily access to the software on an interactive table for a period of eight weeks whilst the control group had no access to the software. Results: The prevalence of CLP amongst fifty 4-5 year olds was found to be 100% when all four indices of hand, foot, eye and ear were considered. The results from the univariate ANOVA analysis showed a statistically significant result for the experimental group only in respect of letter formation. No statistical evidence was found to suggest a relationship exists between attainment and CLP. Conclusions: The prevalence of CLP amongst fifty 4-5 year olds is much higher than previously reported, especially when the four indices of hand, foot, eye and ear are considered. The use of the specific software on the interactive table was successful in assisting young children with early letter formation

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The effect of feeding a low iron diet prior to and during gestation on fetal and maternal iron homeostasis in two strains of rat

Background Iron deficiency anaemia during pregnancy is a global problem, with short and long term consequences for maternal and child health. Animal models have demonstrated that the developing fetus is vulnerable to maternal iron restriction, impacting on postnatal metabolic and blood pressure regulation. Whilst long-term outcomes are similar across different models, the commonality in mechanistic events across models is unknown. This study examined the impact of iron deficiency on maternal and fetal iron homeostasis in two strains of rat. Methods Wistar (n=20) and Rowett Hooded Lister (RHL, n=19) rats were fed a control or low iron diet for 4 weeks prior to and during pregnancy. Tissues were collected at day 21 of gestation for analysis of iron content and mRNA/protein expression of regulatory proteins and transporters. Results A reduction in maternal liver iron content in response to the low iron diet was associated with upregulation of transferrin receptor expression and a reduction in hepcidin expression in the liver of both strains, which would be expected to promote increased iron absorption across the gut and increased turnover of iron in the liver. Placental expression of transferrin and DMT1+IRE were also upregulated, indicating adaptive responses to ensure availability of iron to the fetus. There were considerable differences in hepatic maternal and fetal iron content between strains. The higher quantity of iron present in livers from Wistar rats was not explained by differences in expression of intestinal iron transporters, and may instead reflect greater materno-fetal transfer in RHL rats as indicated by increased expression of placental iron transporters in this strain. Conclusions Our findings demonstrate substantial differences in iron homeostasis between two strains of rat during pregnancy, with variable impact of iron deficiency on the fetus. Whilst common developmental processes and pathways have been observed across different models of nutrient restriction during pregnancy, this study demonstrates differences in maternal adaptation which may impact on the trajectory of the programmed response

Sickle cell, habitual dys-positions and fragile dispositions: young people with sickle cell at school

The experiences of young people living with a sickle cell disorder in schools in England are reported through a thematic analysis of forty interviews, using Bourdieu’s notions of field, capital and habitus. Young people with sickle cell are found to be habitually dys-positioned between the demands of the clinic for health maintenance through self-care and the field of the school, with its emphases on routines, consistent attendance and contextual demands for active and passive pupil behaviour. The tactics or dispositions that young people living with sickle cell can then employ, during strategy and struggle at school, are therefore fragile: they work only contingently, transiently or have the unintended consequences of displacing other valued social relations. The dispositions of the young people with sickle cell are framed by other social struggles: innovations in school procedures merely address aspects of sickle cell in isolation and are not consolidated into comprehensive policies; mothers inform, liaise, negotiate and advocate in support of a child with sickle cell but with limited success. Reactions of teachers and peers to sickle cell have the enduring potential to drain the somatic, cultural and social capital of young people living with sickle cell