Reactions of Faith Groups to Hate Speech on Campus and Subsequent University Responses

Nationally, hate crimes committed against an individual because of their faith have been on the rise since 2014. In Northwest Ohio alone, the incidence of reported hate crimes as doubled. This study focused on students of many different faiths who have experienced hate speech on Bowling Green State University\u27s campus. It also addressed past university responses to these incidents and whether students felt supported by these efforts. Two research questions were addressed in this study: Have students experienced hate speech on campus that was directly linked to their religious preference? Does Bowling Green State University need to change its reaction towards hate speech on campus? The study was conducted using three focus groups, which placed an emphasis on civil discourse. A series of six questions were asked during the focus groups. Participants were all undergraduate students from Bowling Green State University and came from varied religious backgrounds. Of the nine participants, two students who identified themselves as members of religious minorities had experienced bias incidents because of their faith. However, neither participant identified these incidents as hate speech, as they felt the intent of the comments was not to harm. Overall, the participants believed that the university has taken appropriate action when hate speech has appeared on campus. Despite this positive reaction, participants had three suggestions for the University to improve its policies: emails sent by the administration about major religious holidays, a mandatory diversity training module for first-year students, and a class or discussion series on civil discourse

I am the Robot. Are You?

I was originally inspired by a previous project in a 3D modeling class. For my final project, I designed two robots; male and female; who’s naked bodied reflected the presence of technological communications in society and lack of face-to-face interactions. I displayed the robots in a variety of sexual positions, which appear cute or sweet to the viewer because of the toon-shader effect. The toon-shader effect makes the 3D models look like cartoons. I loved combining the idea of technology, robotics, and sex into one. To this day, the poster of the robots in my room always gets a response. I took this idea and decided to expand upon it for my visual arts thesis by creating a more detailed female robot, which would embody my views on the perception of women in society and how I feel that I fit in to these perceptions. Aspects of the robot reflect my views on what I believe the perfect woman would be. In my mind she is strong yet feminine and delicate. She is powerful and takes charge of her own life. She is carefree and unaffected by the opinions of others. She is hardworking and street smart. These are all characteristics that I have and others I aspire to attain. The scenes I have created are parodies on gender roles, shared life experiences, controversial topics or genres, and otherwise taboo scenarios

Accountable Care as a Health Reform Tool in Oregon and Massachusetts

Over the past few years, Oregon and Massachusetts both established accountable care programs to help improve health care quality and reduce costs. However, some analysts remain skeptical regarding the ability of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) or other accountable care entities to rein in costs. Oregon and Massachusetts provide a laboratory for evaluating whether ACOs deliver the outcomes desired, which is especially important as millions of Americans gain access to health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) next year. This analysis examines each state’s approach. As the nation grapples with health care policy challenges, accountable care emerged as a possible tool to give providers more responsibility for health care quality and cost. In ACOs, groups of providers come together to give coordinated, high quality care to their patient population. ACO participating providers may be paid in a variety of different ways, including fee-for-service, global payments, quality incentives, and shared savings. This is a member briefing, American Health Lawyers Association, Accountable Care Organization Task Force

Shared Decision Making: Where Evidence Based Medicine Meets Patient-Centered Care

Shared Decision Making bridges patient-centered care with evidence based medicine, while at the same time highlighting the tensions between them. Shared decision making, a structured form of patient-centered communication, includes information exchange, deliberation and consensus building and is advocated in clinical situations where the evidence leaves room for more than one medically reasonable choice. Based on the ethical principal of patient autonomy, the central tenants of shared decision making are: understanding the patient from a bio-psychosocial perspective, empowering the patient to be an active participant in the decision making process, and incorporating patients’ values and preferences into the decision. In the context of chronic disease care the provider patient relationship becomes a paramount. Shared decision making has been shown to increase patient knowledge, decrease consultation time, improve patient satisfaction, and reduce decisional conflict. However translating shared decision making into clinical practice remains difficult. A complex intervention, implementation requires provider behavior change as well as skills training for the competencies of shared decision making which includes patient-centered communication and conveyance of risk. Decision support interventions, especially through the use of decision aids, assist the process of shared decision making. Assessing quality in patient-centered decision making remains a challenging task. Quality monitoring programs using current performance measures fail to account for patient-centered care and are even at odds with it. Clear definitions of high quality decision making and patient-centered measures need to be developed and operationalized for use in quality monitoring in clinical practice in order to including patient centered decision making in measurement of quality care. Financial incentives such as pay for performance need to be realigned to support patient-centered care and to encourage patient-centered decision making. Practice guidelines need to be made more patient-centered by making preference sensitive decision points explicit and including tools of shared decision making, such as decision aids, directly into their content. Broader systemic changes are needed to create a system that values and rewards patient-centered care and shared decision making.Master of Public Healt

Chronological Aging of the Yeast Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Is Linked to a Differentiation Program Converting Quiescent Cells into Non-Quiescent Cells

A diet known as caloric restriction is known to extend longevity of chronologically aging yeast. In studies described in this thesis, I elucidated how this longevity-extending dietary regimen influences differentiation of a population of chronologically aging yeast cells into subpopulations of quiescent and non-quiescent cells. My studies have identified two differentiation programs that define longevity of chronologically aging yeast. One of these differentiation programs progresses in yeast cultured under caloric restriction conditions, whereas another program functions in yeast not limited in calorie supply. My findings imply that each of the two differentiation programs defines longevity of chronologically aging yeast by linking cellular aging to cell cycle regulation, maintenance of a quiescent state, and entry into and progression through a non-quiescent state. I also investigated how lithocholic acid (a potent natural anti-aging compound), the pro-aging Ras family GTPase/cAMP/protein kinase A signaling pathway (one of the key regulators linking carbon source availability to cell growth and metabolism) and trehalose (a non-reducing disaccharide) regulate the two longevity-defining differentiation programs that I have discovered in studies described here. Based on my findings, here I propose a model of how lithocholic acid, the Ras family GTPase/cAMP/protein kinase A signaling pathway and trehalose define longevity of chronologically aging yeast by regulating various stages of the two differentiation programs linking cellular aging to cell cycle regulation, maintenance of a quiescent state, and entry into and progression through a non-quiescent state

Brief for Respondents. County of Los Angeles v. Mendez, 137 S.Ct. 1539 (2017) (No. 16-3690), 2017 WL 696103

QUESTIONS PRESENTED 1. Does the legal framework set out in Grnham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989), apply to actions by police that foreseeably create a need for the use of force? 2. In an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, where a house search that violates the Fourth Amendment results in the shooting of an innocent resident who did not know that the intruders were sheriff’s deputies, does a resident’s nonculpable response to the intrusion constitute a superseding cause that bars relief for the residents’ injur

Do Exergames Allow Children To Achieve Physical Activity Intensity Commensurate With National Guidelines?

The purpose of this study was to determine if two popular exergames, Wii Fit™ and EA Sports Active™, both games for the Nintendo Wii™ console, help children achieve intensity consistent with recommended physical activity guidelines. Thirty children (19 males and 11 females, Mean age = 9.4 ± 1.8 years) participated in this study by playing each game during one research session. During the session participants wore a heart rate monitor and accelerometer to measure exercise intensity. Perceived exertion (RPE) was measured with the children’s run/walk OMNI scale. All three measures of exercise intensity (heart rate, accelerometer counts, and RPE) found that the EA Sports Active™ game session elicited higher exercise intensity. However, heart rate data found both games to achieve moderate intensity (65-68% age-predicted HRmax). When using heart rate as an indicator of exercise intensity it appears that both exergames were of sufficient intensity to achieve physical activity guidelines. Future studies should continue to investigate the utility of exergaming in helping children to become more physically active