Forum on Public Policy Religious, Civic, and Interpersonal Capital: Catholic Sisters in One Community's Response to Migrant Families

Abstract How do communities organize public response to the challenges of diversity? My research uses archival data, content analysis, and interviews with Catholic sisters and other leaders across a spectrum of religious and civic organizations serving migrant families in a medium-sized city in the Midwestern United States. Earlier analysis revealed that the traditional charisms of Catholic women"s congregations and Catholic sisters" embeddedness in inter-congregational networks incite their ministries to migrant families today. In this paper I substantiate that, even in the face of declining demographics, Catholic sisters and their congregations have leveraged social networks across Catholic archdiocese and other faiths, as well as business, education, government, journalism, philanthropic, and social service organizations into critical policyrelevant social capital on behalf of migrant families. My research in Bluffton 1 offers implications for communities seeking to serve the common good in the twenty-first century. Yet the work of securing the position of migrant families in Bluffton remains unfinished. Hence, I pose questions involving what communities may need to do to maintain the momentum for addressing critical social problems in the twentyfirst century

Families with Futures: A Survey of Family Studies for the 21st Century

Families With Futures,offers a fresh approach to the study of families in everyday life. Learners are presented with an opportunity to explore not only what was but what could be for today\u27s families, through a positive prism—families as dynamic, evolving organisms, and the family members as creative and resilient.https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/education_books/1005/thumbnail.jp

Families with Futures: Family Studies into the 21st Century (Second Edition)

Noted for its interdisciplinary approach to family studies, Families with Futures provides an engaging, contemporary look at the discipline\u27s theories, methods, essential topics, and career opportunities. Featuring strong coverage of theories and methods, readers explore family concepts and processes through a positive prism. Concepts are brought to life through striking examples from everyday family life and cutting-edge scholarship. Throughout, families are viewed as challenged but resilient.https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/education_books/1000/thumbnail.jp

Inherited Retinal Dystrophy in Southeastern United States: Characterization of South Carolina Patients and Comparative Literature Review

Inherited retinal dystrophies (IRDs) are a group of rare diseases involving more than 340 genes and a variety of clinical phenotypes that lead to significant visual impairment. The aim of this study is to evaluate the rates and genetic characteristics of IRDs in the southeastern region of the United States (US). A retrospective chart review was performed on 325 patients with a clinical diagnosis of retinal dystrophy. Data including presenting symptoms, visual acuity, retinal exam findings, imaging findings, and genetic test results were compiled and compared to national and international IRD cohorts. The known ethnic groups included White (64%), African American or Black (30%), Hispanic (3%), and Asian (2%). The most prevalent dystrophies identified clinically were non-syndromic retinitis pigmentosa (29.8%), Stargardt disease (8.3%), Usher syndrome (8.3%), cone-rod dystrophy (8.0%), cone dystrophy (4.9%), and Leber congenital amaurosis (4.3%). Of the 101 patients (31.1%) with genetic testing, 54 (53.5%) had causative genetic variants identified. The most common pathogenic genetic variants were USH2A (n = 11), ABCA4 (n = 8), CLN3 (n = 7), and CEP290 (n = 3). Our study provides initial information characterizing IRDs within the diverse population of the southeastern US, which differs from national and international genetic and diagnostic trends with a relatively high proportion of retinitis pigmentosa in our African American or Black population and a relatively high frequency of USH2A pathogenic variants

ON R

Capitalizing on the all-sky coverage of {\it WISE}, and the 35\% and 50\% sky coverage from SDSS and Pan-STARRS, respectively, we explore the efficacy of $m_{R}$ (optical) - $m_{3.4 \mu m}$ (mid-infrared), hereafter $R-W1$, as a color diagnostic to identify obscured supermassive black hole accretion in wide-area X-ray surveys. We use the $\sim$16.5 deg$^2$ Stripe 82 X-ray survey data as a test-bed to compare $R-W1$ with $R-K$, an oft-used obscured AGN selection criterion, and examine where different classes of objects lie in this parameter space. Most stars follow a well-defined path in $R-K$ vs. $R-W1$ space. We demonstrate that optically normal galaxies hosting X-ray AGN at redshifts $0.54$ color-cut, while they typically are not selected as AGN based on their $W1-W2$ colors. Additionally, different observed X-ray luminosity bins favor different regions in $R-W1$ parameter space: moderate luminosity AGN ($10^{43}$ erg s$^{-1} < L_{\rm 0.5-10 keV} < 10^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$) tend to have red colors while the highest luminosity AGN ($L_{\rm 0.5-10 keV} > 10^{45}$ erg s$^{-1}$) have bluer colors; higher spectroscopic completeness of the Stripe 82X sample is needed to determine whether this is a selection effect or an intrinsic property. Finally, we parameterize X-ray obscuration of Stripe 82X AGN by calculating their hardness ratios (HRs) and find no clear trends between HR and optical reddening. Our results will help inform best-effort practices in following-up obscured AGN candidates in current and future wide-area, shallow X-ray surveys, including the all-sky {\it eROSITA} mission.Comment: accepted for publication to ApJ; 17 pages (emulateapj style), 21 figures, 3 table