Social Ties, Disorder and Distress: A Qualitative Examination of the Protective Effects of Social Capital in Neighborhoods

This paper is examines how social ties mediate the negative impact of neighborhood disorder by changing people’s perceptions of their neighborhood. It draws on and helps to advance an understanding of social capital as a protective cognitive resource that people use to frame their understandings of their local environments. This paper extends current research about the importance of social capital as a protective factor at the neighborhood level while taking advantage of a unique research setting, a Habitat for Humanity neighborhood, to begin to uncover how social capital operates at the micro-level to produce positive effects. We find that social networks operate as a resource which impacts the way people perceive and interpret agreed upon problems

Thermodynamic Computing

The hardware and software foundations laid in the first half of the 20th Century enabled the computing technologies that have transformed the world, but these foundations are now under siege. The current computing paradigm, which is the foundation of much of the current standards of living that we now enjoy, faces fundamental limitations that are evident from several perspectives. In terms of hardware, devices have become so small that we are struggling to eliminate the effects of thermodynamic fluctuations, which are unavoidable at the nanometer scale. In terms of software, our ability to imagine and program effective computational abstractions and implementations are clearly challenged in complex domains. In terms of systems, currently five percent of the power generated in the US is used to run computing systems - this astonishing figure is neither ecologically sustainable nor economically scalable. Economically, the cost of building next-generation semiconductor fabrication plants has soared past $10 billion. All of these difficulties - device scaling, software complexity, adaptability, energy consumption, and fabrication economics - indicate that the current computing paradigm has matured and that continued improvements along this path will be limited. If technological progress is to continue and corresponding social and economic benefits are to continue to accrue, computing must become much more capable, energy efficient, and affordable. We propose that progress in computing can continue under a united, physically grounded, computational paradigm centered on thermodynamics. Herein we propose a research agenda to extend these thermodynamic foundations into complex, non-equilibrium, self-organizing systems and apply them holistically to future computing systems that will harness nature's innate computational capacity. We call this type of computing "Thermodynamic Computing" or TC.Comment: A Computing Community Consortium (CCC) workshop report, 36 page

Navigating Religious Identity and Diversity Among Gen Z in a Post-Pandemic World

The future of the religion lies with young people, whose lives are now riddled with uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this presentation, Dr. Josh Packard will draw from Springtide Research Institute’s annual State of Religion & Young People study to explain the spiritual lives of Gen Z and how we need to re-think everything when it comes to how we engage the most diverse generation in history. Rev. Neil Ellingson will moderate the Q & A period. Dr. Josh Packard is Executive Director of Springtide Research Institute, which maintains the largest dataset on young people and their spirituality in the U.S. Josh has a doctorate in sociology from Vanderbilt and he’s the author of several books including Meaning Making: 8 Values that Drive America’s Newest Generations and Church Refugees: Why People are Done with Church but Not their Faith. Josh is a sought-after speaker and author and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, CBS, USA Today, and more. Pastor Neil Ellingson is Associate Chaplain in Campus Ministry at the University of St. Thomas. An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, Ellingson holds a B.A. from Harvard University and a Master of Divinity degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He founded Root and Branch, a “dinner church” in Chicago, which continues to flourish. Sponsored and organized by the Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies in collaboration with the Department of Theology, Campus Ministry, Student Diversity & Inclusion Services, and the Office of Human Resources at the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota, USA) with generous support from the Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation of Minnesota

Social Ties, Disorder and Distress: A Qualitative Examination of the Protective Effects of Social Capital in Neighborhoods

This paper is examines how social ties mediate the negative impact of neighborhood disorder by changing people’s perceptions of their neighborhood.   It draws on and helps to advance an understanding of social capital as a protective cognitive resource that people use to frame their understandings of their local environments.  This paper extends current research about the importance of social capital as a protective factor at the neighborhood level while taking advantage of a unique research setting, a Habitat for Humanity neighborhood, to begin to uncover how social capital operates at the micro-level to produce positive effects.  We find that social networks operate as a resource which impacts the way people perceive and interpret agreed upon problems

Overweight and stunting in migrant Hispanic children in the USA

Obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) and metabolic syndrome (MS) are common in patients with heart failure (HF). Studies investigating the association between known biomarkers and adiposity in patient populations are limited. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between C-reactive protein (CRP) and leptin with adiposity in a sub-group of overweight/obese patients with HF, DM and/or MS. A total of 36 patients (mean age, 56.72±9.78 years; ranging between 27 and 76 years of age; 80.6% male; 52.8% Caucasian) were enrolled and their height, weight, waist circumference and body composition (e.g. percentage body fat and lean mass), as well as the levels of CRP and leptin, were assessed. The results demonstrated that there was a significant association between CRP and leptin, CRP and body mass index (BMI) and gender and percentage body fat (