Networks of Transformative Resistance: How Community College Educators Support Students with an Undocumented Status

Students with an undocumented or DACA status continue to fight for access to higher education across the U.S. Their struggle is particularly courageous in Arizona, where these student populations are forced to pay nonresident tuition and subjected to laws that separate, detain, and deport immigrants with an undocumented status. Student Services Professionals (SSPs) at community colleges, where most students with an undocumented status attend, can support or block these student populations from accessing college because of their roles in recruitment, orientation, and retention. In contrast to literature that centers educators’ individual work to support students with an undocumented or DACA status, I seek to understand how community college SSPs use social networks to support these student populations in Arizona. I conducted a qualitative case study design that centered SSPs’ social networks. I grounded my methodological approach in Social Network Analysis (SNA) which helped visualize individuals and strength of relations in SSPs’ networks. I used the Critical Agency Network Model (Kiyama, Lee, & Rhoades, 2012) and concept of transformational resistance (Solórzano & Delgado Bernal, 2001) in the conceptual framework that guided my research. My findings indicate that to be in a network which supports students with an undocumented or DACA status, network actors must show visible and explicit support for the students. Networks are built among actors who have strong ties based on trust and a shared resistance to policies harming these student populations. Networks, especially with actors external to the college, offered places of support, care, and knowledge sharing for SSPs. The more SSPs were engaged in transformative resistance efforts in their networks, the lower they perceived their personal risk in supporting students with an undocumented or DACA status

What Happens to the Bad Apples: An Empirical Study of Suspensions in New York City Schools

The article presents information on the need of improving the social condition and opportunity of low income group with reference to the public school system. The increase in the number of suspended students, importance of classroom management and the disruptive behavior of students is discussed. The educational environment, extended due process rights of students and the related educational legislation and regulations is also discussed

Nuclear Organization and Dynamics of 7SK RNA in Regulating Gene Expression

We have identified 7SK RNA to be enriched in nuclear speckles. Knock-down of 7SK results in the mislocalization of nuclear speckle constituents, and the transcriptional up-regulation of a reporter gene locus. 7SK RNA transiently associates with the locus upon transcriptional down-regulation correlating with the displacement of pTEF-b

Ribonucleoprotein Assembly Defects Correlate with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Severity and Preferentially Affect a Subset of Spliceosomal snRNPs

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a motor neuron disease caused by reduced levels of the survival motor neuron (SMN) protein. SMN together with Gemins2-8 and unrip proteins form a macromolecular complex that functions in the assembly of small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs) of both the major and the minor splicing pathways. It is not known whether the levels of spliceosomal snRNPs are decreased in SMA. Here we analyzed the consequence of SMN deficiency on snRNP metabolism in the spinal cord of mouse models of SMA with differing phenotypic severities. We demonstrate that the expression of a subset of Gemin proteins and snRNP assembly activity are dramatically reduced in the spinal cord of severe SMA mice. Comparative analysis of different tissues highlights a similar decrease in SMN levels and a strong impairment of snRNP assembly in tissues of severe SMA mice, although the defect appears smaller in kidney than in neural tissue. We further show that the extent of reduction in both Gemin proteins expression and snRNP assembly activity in the spinal cord of SMA mice correlates with disease severity. Remarkably, defective SMN complex function in snRNP assembly causes a significant decrease in the levels of a subset of snRNPs and preferentially affects the accumulation of U11 snRNP—a component of the minor spliceosome—in tissues of severe SMA mice. Thus, impairment of a ubiquitous function of SMN changes the snRNP profile of SMA tissues by unevenly altering the normal proportion of endogenous snRNPs. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that SMN deficiency affects the splicing machinery and in particular the minor splicing pathway of a rare class of introns in SMA

Underwater Virtual Reality System for Neutral Buoyancy Training: Development and Evaluation

During terrestrial activities, sensation of pressure on the skin and tension in muscles and joints provides information about how the body is oriented relative to gravity and how the body is moving relative to the surrounding environment. In contrast, in aquatic environments when suspended in a state of neutral buoyancy, the weight of the body and limbs is offloaded, rendering these cues uninformative. It is not yet known how this altered sensory environment impacts virtual reality experiences. To investigate this question, we converted a full-face SCUBA mask into an underwater head-mounted display and developed software to simulate jetpack locomotion outside the International Space Station. Our goal was to emulate conditions experienced by astronauts during training at NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Lab. A user study was conducted to evaluate both sickness and presence when using virtual reality in this altered sensory environment. We observed an increase in nausea related symptoms underwater, but we cannot conclude that this is due to VR use. Other measures of sickness and presence underwater were comparable to measures taken above water. We conclude with suggestions for improved underwater VR systems and improved methods for evaluation of these systems based on our experience