Cultivating Community: The role of the Winooski school system in creating positive relationships between city institutions and the refugee population

Schools serve as key institutions for absorbing newcomers into American society, as they provide resources, programming, and access points into a community for immigrant children and their families. In Winooski, Vermont, the public school building serves as a center for support and engagement for the refugee population, offering a variety of services to children and their parents. As demographics shift to include more foreign-born students, schools need to rethink classroom strategies and ways of engaging with families that best navigate cultural divides. My findings suggest that Winooski can be viewed as a model city for bridging the cultural divides inherent in refugee resettlement: various community institutions, in collaboration with the school system, provide services and support for refugee families, and the school serves as a center for support and community engagement. These processes can be examined through the social network concept of multiplexity. Put simply, community members know and trust each other in several different roles, increasing the capacity of the community to support one another and generate trust. At the center of this social network are the multicultural liaisons, who play a critical role in supporting refugees in communities, and enhance this network of trust. The research presented here highlights the unique processes in place that make Winooski a successful site for refugee resettlement, and recognizes the work of those in the community that dedicate themselves to increasing the level of acceptance and cultural understanding throughout the district and the community as a whole

Influence of Exercise Environment on Stress and Affect in Sedentary Adults: A Comparison of Indoor and Natural Environments

The national need for increased physical activity, especially among sedentary populations, has been well documented. The need now is for fitness programs to be more effective at encouraging individuals to adopt and maintain a physically active lifestyle. This study investigated the relationship between exercise environment, stress, affect, and Nature Relatedness. Because stress reduction has been seen as a benefit of being exposed to nature, stress and affect were assessed in sedentary adults at the beginning and end of short walks in an outdoor and indoor environment in an effort to determine which environment had the greater ability to reduce stress. Stress and affect were measured using salivary cortisol concentration and alpha-amylase activity, as well as surveys and questionnaires. Additionally, the link between Nature Relatedness and environmental preference was assessed. Ultimately, our results indicated that this population expressed a preference for exercising in the outdoor environment over the indoor environment

Balinese Family: Keluarga

In Balinese, this word means “family.” In Banjar Wani this word means “everyone,” because everyone feels like family. [excerpt

Potential inbreeding in a small population of a mass flowering species, Xanthorrhoea johnsonii (Xanthorrhoaceae): is your mother my father?

Xanthorrhoea johnsonii is a long lived slow growing perennial understorey species, that produces a large quantity of passively dispersed seed every 3-5 years. Reproductive maturity is not reached until 20-30 years of age. The temporal asynchrony of the flowering event in this population was analogous to geographic isolation through fragmentation. A small population of plants flowering in isolation provided the opportunity to examine outcrossing rates, genetic diversity and the paternity of progeny at a small spatial scale (0.2 ha). The geographic location and physical characteristics of the adult plants were recorded, and both adults and their seed were sampled for genetic analysis. Four microsatellite loci were screened for genetic diversity and spatial structure analysis. A population outcrossing rate was estimated, as well as the number of paternal parents required to resolve the progeny multilocus genotypes. High genetic diversity was found in both adults and progeny with an estimated 97% outcrossing rate. All maternal lines required several paternal contributors, with no evidence of dominant paternal genotypes. Pollen transfer occurred between both geographically close and distant plants

Sanctioning resistance to sexual objectification: An integrative system justification perspective

In this article, we describe an integrated theoretical approach for promoting resistance to the system of sexual objectification. Drawing from system justification and objectification theories, we propose a two-arm approach that would harness the system justification motive and adjust the lens of self-objectification in order to facilitate social change. We suggest that it is necessary to frame a rejection of the system of sexual objectification as a way to preserve (rather than threaten) the societal status quo. Further, we argue that it is critical to alter and expand the self-objectified lens through which many women come to view themselves in order to reduce their dependence on the system that constructs and sustains that lens. Although we recognize that multiple approaches and perspectives are needed, we argue that a disruption of the system at its ideological roots is essential to ultimately transcend sexual objectification as a cultural practice

Cutting words: Priming self-objectification increases the intention to pursue cosmetic surgery

We examined whether subtle exposure to sexually objectifying cues increases women’s intentions to have cosmetic surgery. Undergraduate women (N = 116) were randomly assigned to a condition in which they unscrambled sentences containing words associated with sexual objectification, non-self-objectifying physicality, or neutral content. Following a manipulation check of these primes, participants reported their body shame and intentions to have cosmetic surgery in the future. Results revealed that priming a state of self-objectification, compared to the two non-self-objectifying conditions, increased both body shame and intentions to have cosmetic surgery. In a mediational model, the link between self-objectification and intentions to have cosmetic surgery was partially mediated by body shame. Controlling for other key intrapersonal and social motives linked to interest in cosmetic surgery did not alter these patterns. These findings highlight the potential for the consumption of cosmetic surgery to stand as another harmful micro-level consequence of self-objectification that may be perpetuated via subtle exposure to sexually objectifying words, even in the absence of visual depictions or more explicit encounters of sexual objectification

ENDOGENOUS CONSUMER PREFERENCES AND KNOWLEDGE ABOUT NUTRITION

What are the important determinants of consumer demand and how have they been changing over the last decade? Understanding these factors is crucial for evaluating the benefits and costs of government regulations, such as labeling, intended to influence consumer food choice and, ultimately, public health; for assessing the competitiveness of U.S. agricultral producers and food processors as they choose product designs and marketing strategies; and for assessing the impact of changing consumer demand for food on the agricultural and food sectors of the U.S. economy. The objectives of this paper are to make a significant contribution to demand analysis by basing this understanding on the use of uniquely comprehensive data sets and theoretical/modeling techniques that evaluate demand on the brand level; and to build a comprehensive understanding of the relative importance of different determinants of consumer food choices in the decade from 1993-2002. The overall goal is to analyze what is driving consumer choices and the implications of these drivers for food and nutrition policy in the United States. A particular focus is the relative importance of advertising, other company marketing strategies, nutritional quality, privately and publicly provided nutritional information, and consumer dietary concerns and knowledge in determining consumer demand for food products.Agribusiness, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis,

Off-line processing: reciprocal interactions between declarative and procedural memories

The acquisition of declarative (i.e., facts) and procedural (i.e., skills) memories may be supported by independent systems. This same organization may exist, after memory acquisition, when memories are processed off-line during consolidation. Alternatively, memory consolidation may be supported by interactive systems. This latter interactive organization predicts interference between declarative and procedural memories. Here, we show that procedural consolidation, expressed as an off-line motor skill improvement, can be blocked by declarative learning over wake, but not over a night of sleep. The extent of the blockade on procedural consolidation was correlated to participants' declarative word recall. Similarly, in another experiment, the reciprocal relationship was found: declarative consolidation was blocked by procedural learning over wake, but not over a night of sleep. The decrease in declarative recall was correlated to participants' procedural learning. These results challenge the concept of fixed independent memory systems; instead, they suggest a dynamic relationship, modulated by when consolidation takes place, allowing at times for a reciprocal interaction between memory systems