Racialized Educational Opportunities: The School-To-Prison Pipeline and Possible Solutions

The development and implementation of school discipline policies and practices along with educational policy reforms across the United States, has dramatically shifted and fueled numerous inequities in education. Punitive school discipline policies along with the inequitable implementation of these policies have fueled the vicious cycle known as the school-to-prison pipeline (SPP). Specifically, the SPP is a phenomenon wherein predominately students of color are more likely to be suspended or expelled for minor infractions, relative to white students. This paper will present potential disruptions to the SPP that are currently being implemented in educational settings that were shared at the inaugural Collaboration on Race, Inequality, and Social Mobility in America (CRISMA) conference, in March 2019 at Washington University in St. Louis

Understanding race, mental health, and social justice among Black college students

Within the past decade, there has been increased attention to discrimination and racism toward communities of color. In response, many Black and African American adults engage in activism and civic disruption (Szymanski, 2012) to fight against societal structures that oppress marginalized communities. Conversely, activism can be physically and emotionally taxing, especially for people of color who engage in activism related to their racial/ethnic identity (Linder et al., 2019). At the collegiate level, there is a lack of research about the mental wellness of Black students who experience a hostile campus racial climate and advocate for changes at their university. Utilizing a Constructivist Grounded Theory approach with a critical ideology and radial healing framework, this study explored how Black students engaged in identity-based activism take care of themselves when they experience general, race-related, and social justice-related stressors. Findings reveal that Black college students who engage in social justice experienced stressors due to institutional factors, like a hostile campus racial climate, and factors related to student life, such as navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and systemic racism. Furthermore, Black students are shifting the existing mental health stigma and are open to mental health support. Due to a lack of university support and access to Black and African American counselors, Black students seek help from their community and utilize self-coping strategies to support their well-being.Includes bibliographical references

Metalinguistic Language Development and Literacy Success in First Grade Children with Language Impairment

Purpose. This study explores how the development of meaning (morphology), spelling patterns (orthography), and sound patterns (phonology) are related to literacy success in young elementary school children with and without language impairment. Significance. Young school-age children with language impairment (LI) are at risk for experiencing a literacy deficit (Catts, Adlof, Hogan & Weismer, 2005). The basic foundational skills required to read and write language are also those required to understand and produce spoken language. Phonological awareness is one language skill that is highly predictive of literacy success (Catts, Fey, Zhang, & Tomblin, 2001), however, it is not the only skill that affects reading and writing development. Recently, the language abilities of orthographic knowledge and morphological awareness were found related to literacy success in children with and without LI (e.g., Wolter & Apel, 2010; Wolter, Wood, & D’zatko, 2009). Orthographic knowledge refers to the ability to actively, store, and access complete letter patterns/representations of written words in memory. Morphological awareness can be defined as the conscious awareness of the meaningful units of words (e.g., base word / suffix). Thus, this research sought to determine whether these skills uniquely influence reading and spelling abilities in elementary children with and without LI and whether differences exist between these groups of children. Methodology. Children in kindergarten and 1st-grade with and without LI completed measures of phonological, morphological, and orthographic awareness as well as a battery of reading and writing tests. Statistical analyses revealed the children with LI performed significantly different than those with typical language on orthographic knowledge or morphological awareness measures. In addition, phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, and morphological awareness appeared to be related to reading and spelling in both groups of children. Future research and clinical implications will be discussed

Biological Aging in Childhood and Adolescence Following Experiences of Threat and Deprivation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Life history theory argues that exposure to early life adversity (ELA) accelerates development, although existing evidence for this varies. We present a meta-analysis and systematic review testing the hypothesis that ELA involving threat (e.g., violence exposure) will be associated with accelerated biological aging across multiple metrics, whereas exposure to deprivation (e.g., neglect, institutional rearing) and low-socioeconomic status (SES) will not. We meta-analyze 54 studies (n = 116,010) examining associations of ELA with pubertal timing and cellular aging (telomere length and DNA methylation age), systematically review 25 studies (n = 3,253) examining ELA and neural markers of accelerated development (cortical thickness and amygdala-prefrontal cortex functional connectivity) and evaluate whether associations of ELA with biological aging vary according to the nature of adversity experienced. ELA overall was associated with accelerated pubertal timing (d =-0.10) and cellular aging (d =-0.21), but these associations varied by adversity type. Moderator analysis revealed that ELA characterized by threat was associated with accelerated pubertal development (d 0.26) and accelerated cellular aging (d =-0.43), but deprivation and SES were unrelated to accelerated development. Systematic review revealed associations between ELA and accelerated cortical thinning, with threatrelated ELA consistently associated with thinning in ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and deprivation and SES associated with thinning in frontoparietal, default, and visual networks. There was no consistent association of ELA with amygdala-PFC connectivity. These findings suggest specificity in the types of early environmental experiences associated with accelerated biological aging and highlight the importance of evaluating how accelerated aging contributes to health disparities and whether this process can be mitigated through early intervention

Probing the Transition to Dataset-Level Privacy in ML Models Using an Output-Specific and Data-Resolved Privacy Profile

Differential privacy (DP) is the prevailing technique for protecting user data in machine learning models. However, deficits to this framework include a lack of clarity for selecting the privacy budget $\epsilon$ and a lack of quantification for the privacy leakage for a particular data row by a particular trained model. We make progress toward these limitations and a new perspective by which to visualize DP results by studying a privacy metric that quantifies the extent to which a model trained on a dataset using a DP mechanism is ``covered" by each of the distributions resulting from training on neighboring datasets. We connect this coverage metric to what has been established in the literature and use it to rank the privacy of individual samples from the training set in what we call a privacy profile. We additionally show that the privacy profile can be used to probe an observed transition to indistinguishability that takes place in the neighboring distributions as $\epsilon$ decreases, which we suggest is a tool that can enable the selection of $\epsilon$ by the ML practitioner wishing to make use of DP.Comment: Approved for Public Release; Distribution Unlimited. PA #:AFRL-2022-363

The role of CD8 + T lymphocytes in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic review

© 2020, The Author(s). Objective and design: This systematic review aims to establish the role of CD8 + T lymphocytes in COPD. Methods: Forty-eight papers published in the last 15years were identified for inclusion. Results: CD8 + T-cells are increased in the lungs of patients with COPD (17 studies, 16 positive) whereas in the circulation, findings were inconclusive. Activation of CD8 + T-cells was enhanced in lungs (four studies, three positive) but cell phenotype was unclear. There was substantial evidence of a higher proportion of type 1 CD8 + (Tc1) cells in COPD (11 studies, 9 positive), though the population of type 2 (Tc2) cells was also increased (5 studies, 4 positive). CD8 + T-cells in COPD exhibited greater expression of cytotoxic proteins (five studies, five positive). Studies assessed a variety of questions so evidence was insufficient to draw firm conclusions. The role of CD8 + T-cells at acute exacerbation of COPD and also their contribution to alveolar destruction can only be hypothesised at this stage. Conclusions: Not only is the number of CD8 + T-cells increased in COPD, these cells have increased capacity to exert effector functions and are likely to contribute to disease pathogenesis. Several mechanisms highlighted show promise for future investigation to consolidate current knowledge

HIV-1 Nef disrupts MHC-I trafficking by recruiting AP-1 to the MHC-I cytoplasmic tail

To avoid immune recognition by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 Nef disrupts the transport of major histocompatibility complex class I molecules (MHC-I) to the cell surface in HIV-infected T cells. However, the mechanism by which Nef does this is unknown. We report that Nef disrupts MHC-I trafficking by rerouting newly synthesized MHC-I from the trans-Golgi network (TGN) to lysosomal compartments for degradation. The ability of Nef to target MHC-I from the TGN to lysosomes is dependent on expression of the μ1 subunit of adaptor protein (AP) AP-1A, a cellular protein complex implicated in TGN to endolysosomal pathways. We demonstrate that in HIV-infected primary T cells, Nef promotes a physical interaction between endogenous AP-1 and MHC-I. Moreover, we present data that this interaction uses a novel AP-1 binding site that requires amino acids in the MHC-I cytoplasmic tail. In sum, our evidence suggests that binding of AP-1 to the Nef–MHC-I complex is an important step required for inhibition of antigen presentation by HIV

IMPROVING EDUCATION ACCESS & QUALITY ACROSS TITLE I SCHOOLS IN DURHAM COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA THROUGH A NUTRITION-BASED CURRICULUM AND SCHOOL-BASED FARMERS MARKET PROGRAM

Higher levels of education have been seen to influence health. The social determinants of health that include education can have a range of effects on society. Health literacy is the ability of individuals to find and access health resources. Access to and quality of education can develop health literacy in communities, which affects local health disparities. The goal of this capstone project is to comprehend how education quality in Durham County, North Carolina's school-age population could be affected by a school-based nutrition and farmer's market program. The proposed intervention will prioritize students in Grades 5 through 8 in Title I Schools in Durham County, North Carolina.Master of Public Healt

Understanding Biofilm-Phage Interactions in Cystic Fibrosis Patients Using Mathematical Frameworks

When planktonic bacteria adhere together to a surface, they begin to form biofilms, or communities of bacteria. Biofilm formation in a host can be extremely problematic if left untreated, especially since antibiotics can be ineffective in treating the bacteria. Certain lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis can cause the formation of biofilms in the lungs and can be fatal. With antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the use of phage therapy has been introduced as an alternative or an additive to the use of antibiotics in order to combat biofilm growth. Phage therapy utilizes phages, or viruses that attack bacteria, in order to penetrate and eradicate biofilms. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of phage therapy against biofilm bacteria, we adapt an ordinary differential equation model to describe the dynamics of phage-biofilm combat in the lungs. We then create our own phage-biofilm model with ordinary differential equations and stochastic modeling. Then, simulations of parameter alterations in both models are investigated to assess how they will affect the efficiency of phage therapy against bacteria. By increasing the phage mortality rate, the biofilm growth can be balanced and allow the biofilm to be more vulnerable to antibiotics. Thus, phage therapy is an effective aid in biofilm treatment