Understanding the Benefits of Latino Giving Circles: An Emancipatory Research Study

This dissertation shows how Latino giving circle members understand their philanthropy and how participation affects their well-being, civic engagement, and philanthropic activities by focusing on giving circles’ composition, members’ goals, and perceived benefits. I used an emancipatory research paradigm with Latino-focused critical race theory, LatCrit, to study the Latino Giving Circle Network (LGCN). A survey was used for data collection, and research platicas were employed in the survey’s analysis; both were selected and designed centering Latinos to overcome challenges in researching Latinos. Demographic findings reveal a range of Latino experiences. Sixty-six percent reported Mexican ancestry, compared to 83% of California Latinos, showing diversity in Latino ancestry. Thirty-four percent were foreign-born and 41% were first-generation, conveying transnational roots that challenge notions that philanthropy comes from assimilation. Seventy-three percent reported earning more than California’s median income, which was likely related to LGCN’s overrepresentation of those 30–59 years of age (82% for LGCN versus 41% for California), employment rate (81% for LGCN versus 47% for California), marriage rate (65% LGCN versus 47% for California), and educational attainment (42% bachelors and 38% masters for LGCN versus 35% bachelors for California). These numbers show LGCN members come from working, middle class families and are active in their communities. The study also examined variables that may contribute to Latinos’ motivations for joining and staying in giving circles. Latinos enter and stay engaged in philanthropy to (a) make changes in their communities, (b) pool resources to increase their impact, and (c) be part of a movement. Ancestry did not relate to different motivations for joining or staying, although members’ immigrant generation showed similarities in joining and differences in staying. Both variables showed similarities that elevate Pan-American values and expressions of philanthropy, with more recent immigrants sharing how giving circles aligned with giving in their or their parents’ countries of origin. In considering benefits to members and their communities, findings showed how giving circles support members’ capacity to (a) affect social change, (b) build community, and (c) inspire impactful philanthropy. These benefits contribute to the understanding of giving circles’ effect on civic engagement levels and add to their influence on wellness, community building, and philanthropic strategies. Findings indicated the impact of giving circles needs to be understood at both the individual and community levels

Regulation of Mitochondrial Division by the Drp1 Receptors

Mitochondria can remodel their membranes by fusing or dividing. These processes are required for the proper development and viability of multicellular organisms. At the cellular level, fusion is important for mitochondrial Ca2+ homeostasis, mitochondrial DNA maintenance, mitochondrial membrane potential, and respiration. Mitochondrial division, which is better known as fission, is important for apoptosis, mitophagy, and for the proper allocation of mitochondria to daughter cells during cellular division. The functions of proteins involved in fission have been best characterized in the yeast model organism Sarccharomyces cerevisiae. Mitochondrial fission in mammals has some similarities. In both systems, a cytosolic dynamin-like protein, called Dnm1 in yeast and Drp1 in mammals, must be recruited to the mitochondrial surface and polymerized to promote membrane division. Recruitment of yeast Dnm1 requires only one mitochondrial outer membrane protein, named Fis1. Fis1 is conserved in mammals, but its importance for Drp1 recruitment is minor. In mammals, three other receptor proteins—Mff, MiD49, and MiD51—play a major role in recruiting Drp1 to mitochondria. Why mammals require three additional receptors, and whether they function together or separately, are fundamental questions for understanding the mechanism of mitochondrial fission in mammals. We have determined that Mff, MiD49, or MiD51 can function independently of one another to recruit Drp1 to mitochondria. Fis1 plays a minor role in Drp1 recruitment, suggesting that the emergence of these additional receptors has replaced the system used by yeast. Additionally, we found that Fis1/Mff and the MiDs regulate Drp1 activity differentially. Fis1 and Mff promote constitutive mitochondrial fission, whereas the MiDs activate recruited Drp1 only during loss of respiration. To better understand the function of the MiDs, we have determined the atomic structure of the cytoplasmic domain of MiD51, and performed a structure-function analysis of MiD49 based on its homology to MiD51. MiD51 adopts a nucleotidyl transferase fold, and binds ADP as a co-factor that is essential for its function. Both MiDs contain a loop segment that is not present in other nucleotidyl transferase proteins, and this loop is used to interact with Drp1 and to recruit it to mitochondria.</p

Página de artista : Valeria Conte Mac Donell, Mónica Millán, Elena Loson

Esta sección presenta una serie de producciones artísticas que —en primera persona— invitan a la interpretación de sus potentes tramas poéticas prescindiendo del análisis crítico que pretenda ordenarlas. Para ello, nos valemos de una selección del registro visual de sus presentaciones, de breves descripciones que las contextualizan y de una versión abreviada de las trayectorias de sus autoras.Facultad de Arte

Integrating Engineering, Modeling, And Computation Into The Biology Classroom: Development Of Multidisciplinary High School Neuroscience Curricula

The YESS program is a three-week summer residential course that brings together extraordinarily talented high school students from underrepresented minority groups to study at the California Institute of Technology. The YESS program is intended for students who exhibit an interest in engineering and science, and wish to engage in collaborative learning. During the three-week program, students take science courses and are exposed to laboratory tours, faculty lectures, and college admissions workshops. The neuroscience course for the 2008 YESS program was an intensive survey of many different fields, and used lectures, demonstrations and laboratory activities to teach topics such as brain anatomy, Drosophila melanogaster pain perception, electrophysiology, recombinant DNA technology, neuronal modeling, the molecular basis of learning and systems neuroscience. Neuroscience is a branch of biology, yet neuroscientists are typically highly diversified scientists and engineers. Neuroscience spans a wide array of disciplines that include engineering, mathematics, computer science, biophysics and medicine. The diversity found in the neurosciences evolved naturally because of the fields’ need for creative problem solving concerning the technical difficulties that plague experimentation with the brain. The California Institute of Technology’s neuroscience researchers have synergistic relationships between engineers and scientists of various disciplines, and together, they advance our knowledge in this field. In line with the efforts of our institution, we created a neuroscience curriculum that shows the interplay between engineering and biology, taking care to keep the material accessible for a gifted high school audience. The creation and implementation of a multi-disciplinary neuroscience curriculum for the YESS program is the focus of this paper. Specifically, we will address how we integrated engineering, mathematical modeling and computation into the curriculum as a tool for communicating intellectually rigorous ideas concerning the neurosciences. We assessed our curriculum using a system of pre- and post-examinations. By combining the results of these assessments with student surveys and feedback, we conclude that the integration of engineering, modeling and computation was an effective way to teach neuroscience. The modules we describe here, can be adapted by other educators in K-12 advanced science courses as a vehicle for introducing engineering concepts or in an engineering course as demonstratives of engineering applications in the life sciences

Integrating Engineering, Modeling, And Computation Into The Biology Classroom: Development Of Multidisciplinary High School Neuroscience Curricula

The YESS program is a three-week summer residential course that brings together extraordinarily talented high school students from underrepresented minority groups to study at the California Institute of Technology. The YESS program is intended for students who exhibit an interest in engineering and science, and wish to engage in collaborative learning. During the three-week program, students take science courses and are exposed to laboratory tours, faculty lectures, and college admissions workshops. The neuroscience course for the 2008 YESS program was an intensive survey of many different fields, and used lectures, demonstrations and laboratory activities to teach topics such as brain anatomy, Drosophila melanogaster pain perception, electrophysiology, recombinant DNA technology, neuronal modeling, the molecular basis of learning and systems neuroscience. Neuroscience is a branch of biology, yet neuroscientists are typically highly diversified scientists and engineers. Neuroscience spans a wide array of disciplines that include engineering, mathematics, computer science, biophysics and medicine. The diversity found in the neurosciences evolved naturally because of the fields’ need for creative problem solving concerning the technical difficulties that plague experimentation with the brain. The California Institute of Technology’s neuroscience researchers have synergistic relationships between engineers and scientists of various disciplines, and together, they advance our knowledge in this field. In line with the efforts of our institution, we created a neuroscience curriculum that shows the interplay between engineering and biology, taking care to keep the material accessible for a gifted high school audience. The creation and implementation of a multi-disciplinary neuroscience curriculum for the YESS program is the focus of this paper. Specifically, we will address how we integrated engineering, mathematical modeling and computation into the curriculum as a tool for communicating intellectually rigorous ideas concerning the neurosciences. We assessed our curriculum using a system of pre- and post-examinations. By combining the results of these assessments with student surveys and feedback, we conclude that the integration of engineering, modeling and computation was an effective way to teach neuroscience. The modules we describe here, can be adapted by other educators in K-12 advanced science courses as a vehicle for introducing engineering concepts or in an engineering course as demonstratives of engineering applications in the life sciences