Toxic Masculinity: An Outcome of Colonialism and its Effects on the Latinx/Chicanx LGBTQ+ Community

This research examines masculinity in the Latinx community within the U.S. Much of the theory behind masculinity involves discussing toxic masculinity and machismo. To do this, I look at film, poetry, and literature to discuss how toxic masculinity affects Queer Latinxs. Although this research focuses on fictional characters and the analysis of fictional works, these characters’ stories do not fall far from current LGBTQ+ Latinxs who may be experiencing the same issues. I examine La Mission, Mosquita y Mari, Gun Hill Road, “I am Joaquin,” “La Loca de la Raza Cosmica,” Rain God, and What Night Brings. These pieces work well with one another to show how gay Latino men, Latina lesbian women, and transgender Latina women are affected by toxic masculinity, internalized homophobia and transphobia. With this research I hope to show how the way we construct masculinity as a society, should be reconfigured to something more positive; I also hope to eliminate homophobia and transphobia, as well as violence and hate crimes towards the LGBTQ+ community

Effect of homogenisation on milk fouling in a tubular heat exchanger : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment for the requirements for the degree of Master of Food Engineering, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Fouling of equipment surfaces in milk processing has been a costly problem for many years. In spite of an increasing body of knowledge of the fouling mechanism, the problem is not fully understood yet. Recent investigations suggest that the role of fat in whole milk fouling seems to be very important. The state and form of the fat globules, processing conditions as well as the orientation of heating surfaces may affect the fouling mechanism. Homogenisation of milk is known to cause disruption of fat globules and prevent creaming. The present work aimed to investigate the effect of homogenisation on the rate of fouling, composition and structure of fouling layers. Homogenised and un-homogenised milk were used as test fluids. Milk was heated from 4°C to 60°C in a plate heat exchanger then to 70°C and 80°C in a double pipe heat exchanger consisted of a horizontal and a vertical tube. The fouling rate in the double pipe heat exchanger was calculated and expressed as the rate of increase of the overall resistance to heat transfer, normalised using the initial heat transfer coefficient at the beginning of the run. Composition analysis of fouling layers was carried out using standard methods of moisture, ash, fat and protein tests. Resistance to deformation analysis was performed using texture tests; coverage measurement was determined by digital image analysis. Within the experimental conditions used in this work, the effect of homogenisation on the fouling rate could not be ascertained conclusively because of large variations in the values obtained but it had a significant effect in the composition of fouling layers. In all experimental runs, the amount of fat in the fouling layer was higher for un-homogenised milk compared to homogenised milk. In fact, the fat contents of fouling layers were found to be very high (between 30%-60% on a dry weight basis), which agrees with observations of other researches in New Zealand. The coverage and thickness of fouling layers were more influenced by the orientation of heated surfaces than by homogenisation. The strength of fouling layers is affected by their thickness, which decreases with increasing milk temperature

Helping with Domestic Violence: Legal Barriers to Serving Teens in Illinois

In the spring of 1999 the Center for Impact Research (CIR) and the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health conducted a study looking at the prevalence of domestic violence among teen mothers receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families in Chicago.1 In a sample of 474 teen mothers on the south and west sides of Chicago, CIR found that 55% of the young women had experienced some level of domestic violence at the hands of their boyfriends in the previous 12 months. The study also found a strong association between domestic violence and birth control sabotage, where teen girls' attempts to use birth control were undermined or thwarted by their partners.In qualitative interviews it became apparent that many of these low-income teen mothers were experiencing severe difficulties with escaping domestic violence due to a lack of temporary or permanent housing opportunities. CIR subsequently began to conduct research with the goal of identifying the legal and regulatory barriers to serving teen victims of domestic violence

Toxic Masculinity: An Outcome of Colonialism and its Effects on the Latinx/Chicanx LGBTQ+ Community

This research examines masculinity in the Latinx community within the U.S. Much of the theory behind masculinity involves discussing toxic masculinity and machismo. To do this, I look at film, poetry, and literature to discuss how toxic masculinity affects Queer Latinxs. Although this research focuses on fictional characters and the analysis of fictional works, these characters’ stories do not fall far from current LGBTQ+ Latinxs who may be experiencing the same issues. I examine La Mission, Mosquita y Mari, Gun Hill Road, “I am Joaquin,” “La Loca de la Raza Cosmica,” Rain God, and What Night Brings. These pieces work well with one another to show how gay Latino men, Latina lesbian women, and transgender Latina women are affected by toxic masculinity, internalized homophobia and transphobia. With this research I hope to show how the way we construct masculinity as a society, should be reconfigured to something more positive; I also hope to eliminate homophobia and transphobia, as well as violence and hate crimes towards the LGBTQ+ community

Local descriptors for visual SLAM

We present a comparison of several local image descriptors in the context of visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). In visual SLAM a set of points in the environment are extracted from images and used as landmarks. The points are represented by local descriptors used to resolve the association between landmarks. In this paper, we study the class separability of several descriptors under changes in viewpoint and scale. Several experiments were carried out using sequences of images in 2D and 3D scenes

Interest point detectors for visual SLAM

In this paper we present several interest points detectors and we analyze their suitability when used as landmark extractors for vision-based simultaneous localization and mapping (vSLAM). For this purpose, we evaluate the detectors according to their repeatability under changes in viewpoint and scale. These are the desired requirements for visual landmarks. Several experiments were carried out using sequence of images captured with high precision. The sequences represent planar objects as well as 3D scenes

PERCEIVED FINANCIAL STRAIN AND ITS EFFECTS ON COLLEGE STUDENTS’ WELFARE

This study examined the relationship between perceived financial strain and the physical, mental/emotional, and social well-being of students in college. The quantitative study used online surveys to gather data from ninety-eight college participants. The data gathered from the surveys suggests there is a relationship between perceived financial strain and student well-being. Students reported an impact on their friend, peer, and familial relationships and reported higher levels of worry, sadness, and frustration. In addition, all three categories of student well-being were associated with overall perceived financial strain, indicating as financial stress increased, it affected physical, mental/emotional, and social well-being. Results indicate that colleges and universities should provide additional resources and seek solutions to decrease their student’s perceived financial strain and the negative impacts associated with said strain. Recommendations include case management for students with expressed financial needs, campus advocacy, and resource linkage. Researchers recommend promoting financial literacy and the implementation of disconnect days or university hour to allow the students a designated time blocked hour to access the gym or meet their basic food needs by accessing the on-campus food pantry and other resources. Further recommendations to decrease financial stress include promoting mindfulness and hosting family workshops with topics centered on healthy communication, conversations for first generation families, and the university hosting no cost events in the community for the student and their families

Trust and accountability in times of pandemics

La pandemia de COVID-19 llegó en un contexto de creciente polarización política y desconfianza en las instituciones políticas en muchos países. ¿Pudieron las deficiencias en la gestión de la pandemia erosionar la confianza en las instituciones públicas? ¿Interfirió la ideología de los ciudadanos en la forma en que procesaban la información sobre el desempeño de los Gobiernos? Para investigar ambas cuestiones, en noviembre de 2020 llevamos a cabo en España un experimento online prerregistrado. A los encuestados del grupo de tratamiento les proporcionamos información sobre el número de rastreadores de contactos en su comunidad autónoma, una política clave bajo el control de los Gobiernos autonómicos. Encontramos que las personas sobrestiman en gran medida el número de rastreadores de su región. Cuando proporcionamos el número real de rastreadores, encontramos lo siguiente: una pérdida de la confianza en los Gobiernos; una reducción en la voluntad de financiar instituciones públicas, y una disminución de la aceptación de la vacuna contra el COVID-19. También encontramos que los individuos cambian endógenamente su atribución de responsabilidades al recibir el tratamiento. En las regiones donde los Gobiernos regionales y central están gobernados por diferentes partidos, los simpatizantes del Gobierno regional reaccionan a las malas noticias sobre la gestión del Gobierno atribuyendo una mayor responsabilidad al Gobierno central. A esto lo llamamos «efecto de blame-shifting». En estas regiones, la información negativa no se traduce en una menor intención de voto para el Gobierno regional. Estos resultados sugieren que la rendición de cuentas puede ser particularmente difícil en entornos con alta polarización política y donde las áreas de responsabilidad no están claramente delimitadas.The COVID-19 pandemic took place against the backdrop of growing political polarization and distrust in political institutions in many countries. Did deficiencies in government performance further erode trust in public institutions? Did citizens’ ideology interfere with the way they processed information on government performance? To investigate these two questions, we conducted a pre-registered online experiment in Spain in November 2020. Respondents in the treatment group were provided information on the number of contact tracers in their region, a key policy variable under the control of regional governments. We find that individuals greatly over-estimate the number of contact tracers in their region. When we provide the actual number of contact tracers, we find a decline in trust in governments, a reduction in willingness to fund public institutions and a decrease in COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. We also find that individuals endogenously change their attribution of responsibilities when receiving the treatment. In regions where the regional and central governments are controlled by different parties, sympathizers of the regional incumbent react to the negative news on performance by attributing greater responsibility for it to the central government. We call this the blame shifting effect. In those regions, the negative information does not translate into lower voting intentions for the regional incumbent government. These results suggest that the exercise of political accountability may be particularly difficult in settings with high political polarization and areas of responsibility that are not clearly delineated