Naming Racism: A Conceptual Look at Internalized Racism in US Schools

Internalized racism describes the conscious and unconscious acceptance of a racial hierarchy where whites are consistently ranked above People of Color. Although scholars across multiple disciplines have discussed this concept, the role of schools in instilling and perpetuating internalized racism within Students of Color has very rarely been examined. This paper is a conceptual piece that utilizes a Critical Race Theory framework to acknowledge the racialized experiences within classroom pedagogy, curriculum, and unequal school resources. We examine how these factors can negatively affect racial group-identity and contribute to internalized racism for Students of Color. Because internalized racism works to sustain educational and social inequity, this paper also explores ways that schools can function to break this cycle

Best Possible Results in a Class of Inequalities, II

AbstractWe give a sufficient condition on a lower triangular infinite matrix A with nonnegative entries, and a positive sequence b = (bn), for an inequality of the form ||A(b|x|)||p ≤ K||x||p, x ∈ ℓp, to be best possible, in the sense that there is no positive sequence d = (dn) such that (dnb−1n) is a monotone unbounded sequence, and an inequality of the form above holds with b replaced by d. This condition permits easy proofs of "best possible" theorems that generalize a previous result concerning Hardy′s inequality

Livestock manures for crop production and soil improvement

Non-Peer Reviewe

Persistence of Various Alfalfa Populations in South Dakota Rangeland

Inclusion of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) in grasslands has long been valued to increase forage production and quality. Persistence of alfalfa in semiarid rangeland has generally been poor when non‐adapted and/or conventional hay‐type cultivars are utilized, however. Demand exists for alfalfa cultivars that establish readily and persist, particularly under grazing, in semiarid rangelands. A wild population of predominantly yellow‐flowered alfalfa (Medicago sativa subsp. falcata) was found growing and reproducing naturally in the Grand River National Grassland in northwestern South Dakota. This predominantly falcata alfalfa therefore demonstrates persistence in this semiarid environment. We initiated a study in May 2006 at the SDSU Antelope Livestock & Range Field Station near Buffalo, SD to evaluate persistence and vigor of eleven alfalfa populations transplanted into mixed‐grass prairie. Populations consisted of four predominantly falcata experimental populations (three are naturally selected and locally adapted; one is artificially selected), one pure falcata experimental population, one pure falcata cultivar, two pasture‐type cultivars, and three conventional hay‐type cultivars. Greenhouse grown seedlings were transplanted on 1 m‐centers within three exclosures (35 m X 35 m) divided into two sections; one exposed to grazing, the other protected from grazing. Grazing by cattle was initiated in August 2007. During the 2008 and 2009 growing seasons, intense grazing of alfalfa plants and associated vegetation occurred monthly for 1‐2 days. Survival, height, and canopy volume of grazed and protected alfalfa plants were measured before each grazing event. Despite a harsh winter with persistent ice cover, data from May 2009 revealed that falcata‐based populations had the highest survival under grazing (mean survival = 36%). Pasture‐type cultivars and conventional hay‐type cultivars experienced substantial mortality losses under grazing (mean survival = 8%). Low mortality and high vigor of all protected plant populations indicates that grazing weakened the grazed plants, greatly increasing the risk of winterkill and winter injury. These findings reveal that environmental adaptation, in addition to a degree of grazing tolerance, is necessary for persistence under grazing in this semiarid region. Populations that exhibit high persistence under both grazing and severe winter conditions offer great potential for being utilized in the northern Great Plains

Long‐term Production and Profitability from Grazing Cattle in the Northern Mixed GrassPrairie

Conventional wisdom among rangeland professionals has been that for long‐term sustainability of grazing livestock operations, rangeland should be kept in high good to low excellent range condition. Our objective was to analyze production parameters, economic costs, returns, and profit using data generated over a thirty‐four year period (1969‐2002) from grazing a Clayey range site in the mixed‐grass prairie of western South Dakota with variable stocking rates required to maintain pastures in low‐fair, good, and excellent range condition classes. Cattle weights were measured at turnout and at the end of the grazing season. Gross income per acre was calculated by multiplying total gain per acre times price using historical National Agricultural Statistics Services feeder cattle prices. Annual variable costs were estimated from a historical yearling cattle budget developed by South Dakota State University (SDSU) agricultural economists. All economic values were adjusted to a constant dollar using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index. Stocking rate, average daily gain, total gain, net profit, gross revenue, and annual costs per acre varied among range condition classes. Net income for low‐fair range condition ($11.18 per acre) and good range condition ($11.86 per acre) were not different, but both were greater (P \u3c 0.01) than excellent range condition ($ 9.31 per acre). Over the life of the study, real profit (adjusted for inflation) steadily increased (P \u3c 0.01) for the low‐fair and good treatments while it remained level for the excellent treatment. Neither drought nor wet springs impacted profit differently for the three treatments. These results support generally observed rancher behavior regarding range condition: to maintain their rangeland in a lower range condition than would be normally recommend by rangeland professionals. Ecosystem goods and services of increasing interest to society and associated with high range condition, such as floristic diversity, hydrologic function, and wildlife cover, come at an opportunity cost to the rancher

The Relationship Between Self-Reported Exercise Levels During Pregnancy and Labor Pains

Abstract Background: Physical activity is important to maintain overall health and wellness even during pregnancy. There are numerous benefits to exercise during pregnancy that include reduced back pain and lower risk of preeclampsia and gestational diabetes. Recent studies have shown an association between aerobic exercise and reduction in the intensity of labor pains. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the association among level of exercise level and the intensity of pain during active labor. Methods: Women up to 2 years postpartum were invited to complete an online survey about the frequency of exercise (none, occasionally, a few times a week, or most days of the week) and intensity (high, moderate, and light). To calculate exercise level, we used the formula exercise level = [(high x 3) + (moderate x 2) +(light x 1)]*Frequency. Participants also answered how intense their active labor pains were using a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the worst. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to evaluate data distribution and Spearman’s test to verify the correlations. Results: A cohort of 160 women aged between 22 to 47 years (mean age 32±.36 years, BMI 29 ±0.47) suggested no correlation between exercise intensity during pregnancy and pain intensity during active labor (p\u3e0.05). In addition, the mean exercise level was 20.17, the maximum being 69. The labor pain mean was 7.5, with the maximum being 10. For high exercise intensity, half of the population reported none. For moderate exercise intensity, the majority reported sometimes. For light exercise intensity, the majority claimed they exercised 2-3 days of the week. Conclusion:There was no correlation between exercise levels during pregnancy and labor pains. However, ACOG recommends that women include exercise in a healthy pregnancy to ease discomfort. Therefore, further research is needed to determine the role of exercise in labor pains with previous studies showing a linkage between exercise and pain during labor

Can lepton flavor violating interactions explain the LSND results?

If the atmospheric and the solar neutrino problem are both explained by neutrino oscillations, and if there are only three light neutrinos, then all mass-squared differences between the neutrinos are known. In such a case, existing terrestrial neutrino oscillation experiments cannot be significantly affected by neutrino oscillations, but, in principle there could be an anomaly in the neutrino flux due to new neutrino interactions. We discuss how a non-standard muon decay $\mu^+ \to e^+ \bar\nu_e \nu_\ell$ would modify the neutrino production processes of these experiments. Since $SU(2)_L$ violation is small for New Physics above the weak scale one can use related flavor-violating charged lepton processes to constrain these decays in a model independent way. We show that the upper bounds on $\mu \to 3e$, muonium-antimuonium conversion and $\tau \to \mu e e$ rule out any observable effect for the present experiments due to $\mu^+ \to e^+ \bar\nu_e \nu_\ell$ for $\ell=e,\mu,\tau$, respectively. Applying similar arguments to flavor-changing semi-leptonic reactions we exclude the possibility that the "oscillation signals" observed at LSND are due to flavor-changing interactions that conserve total lepton number.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, Latex; minor correction

Photon and Z induced heavy charged lepton pair production at a hadron supercollider

We investigate the pair production of charged heavy leptons via photon-induced processes at the proposed CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Using effective photon and Z approximations, rates are given for $L^+L^-$ production due to $\gamma \gamma$ fusion and $Z \gamma$ fusion for the cases of inelastic, elastic and semi-elastic $pp$ collisions. These are compared with the corresponding rates for production via the gluon fusion and Drell-Yan mechanisms. Various $\gamma \gamma$ and $Z \gamma$ differential luminosities for $pp$ collisions are also presented.Comment: 22 pages, RevTex 3.0, 6 uuencoded and compressed postscript figures included. Reference to one paper changed from the original preprint number to the published version. Everything else unchange

Uptake of silicon in barley under contrasting drought regimes

Purpose Silicon (Si) accumulation in plant tissues plays a vital role in alleviating biotic and abiotic stresses, including drought. Temperate regions are predicted to experience reductions in the quantity and frequency of rainfall events, potentially impacting plant Si uptake via the transpiration stream. Despite the importance for predicting plant responses to Si amendments, the effects of changes in rainfall patterns on Si uptake in cereals have not been characterised. Methods Five watering regimes were applied based on predicted precipitation scenarios, varying the quantity of water delivered (ambient, 40% or 60% reduction) and watering frequency (40% reduction in quantity, applied 50% or 25% of ambient frequency), and the effects on growth and leaf Si concentrations of a barley landrace and cultivar were determined. Results Reductions in the quantity of water reduced plant growth and yield, whereas reducing the watering frequency had little impact on growth, and in some cases partially ameliorated the negative effects of drought. Reductions in quantity of water lowered leaf Si concentrations in both the cultivar and landrace, although this effect was alleviated under the drought/deluge watering regime. The landrace had greater leaf Si concentration than the cultivar regardless of watering regime, and under ambient watering deposited Si in all cells between trichomes, whereas the cultivar exhibited gaps in Si deposition. Conclusion The impact of future reductions in rainfall on barley productivity will depend upon how the water is delivered, with drought/deluge events likely to have smaller effects on yield and on Si uptake than continuous drought

Recoil correction to the ground state energy of hydrogenlike atoms

The recoil correction to the ground state energy of hydrogenlike atoms is calculated to all orders in \alpha Z in the range Z = 1-110. The nuclear size corrections to the recoil effect are partially taken into account. In the case of hydrogen, the relativistic recoil correction beyond the Salpeter contribution and the nonrelativistic nuclear size correction to the recoil effect, amounts to -7.2(2) kHz. The total recoil correction to the ground state energy in hydrogenlike uranium (^{238}U^{91+}) constitutes 0.46 eV.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure (eps), Latex, submitted to Phys.Rev.