[Review of] Juan F. Perea, ed. Immigrants Out!: The New Nativism and the Anti-Immigrant Impulse in the United States

Immigrants Out! offers a response to nativist sentiment in the contemporary discussion of immigration policy. Individually, each chapter in this edited volume charts the development of contemporary nativist sentiment, while identifying the themes that have nurtured nativism historically. Some important relationships are identified between issue oriented politics and more general theses that emerge from nativist thought. For instance, in several passages English-only laws are described as a small, although highly symbolic, component of a broader ideology based on separatism and isolationism. Similarly, proposals to place restrictions on social welfare benefits for immigrants are linked to the more general curtailment of human rights. Moreover, the current trend toward heightened restrictions on immigration and naturalization is paralleled with restrictive immigration policies of the past

[Review of] Bruce E. Johansen, (ed.) The Encyclopedia of Native American Economic History

The Encyclopedia of Native American Economic History offers a unique perspective on economic development in North America, primarily because it constantly reminds the reader of the fundamental contradictions that this process has entailed. A view of economic processes fundamentally different from orthodox scholarly analysis emerges in many of the volume\u27s entries. In total a picture of economic activity is projected that links consumption, cultural conflict, social and ecological reproduction, and the transformation of group identity. This volume takes exploratory steps toward the development of alternative explanations of economic growth and change in society, particularly as these processes relate to the meaning of race and ethnicity. The book\u27s strongest sections are those that offer a multi-faceted view of the overlapping effects of political, social, and economic institutions on Native American groups. The volume includes several entries of this kind dealing with topics such as the legal status of Native American lands, agricultural development, environmental degradation, and the manner in which Native American groups have organized cultural and economic life historically

Municipal Property Acquisition Patterns in a Shrinking City: Evidence for the Persistence of an Urban Growth Paradigm in Buffalo, NY

The purpose of this article is to examine municipal property acquisition patterns in shrinking cities. We use data from the City of Buffalo’s municipal property auction records to analyze the spatial distribution of properties offered for sale in its annual tax foreclosure auction. In addition to these data, we examine demolition and building permit records. Our analysis suggests that cities like Buffalo follow strategies based on an urban growth paradigm when responding to abandonment. This paradigm operates under the assumption that growth is a constant and urban development is only limited by fiscal constraints, underdeveloped systems of urban governance, environmental degradation, and resistance by anti-growth coalitions. We recommend that planners in shrinking cities de-emphasize growth based planning and focus on rightsizing strategies. These strategies are based on the assumption that growth is not a constant. Consequently, urban revitalization is concentrated in a smaller urban footprint

[Review of] Kyeyoung Park. The Korean American Dream: Immigrants and Small Business in New York City

Kyeyoung Park illustrates how the Korean American dream emerges from a harsh reality. Park\u27s central argument is that Korean immigrant adjustment is driven by an ideology of self-help. Within the context of this ideology, Korean immigrants see a close connection between entrepreneurial activity and basic survival in America. It is argued that the primacy of establishing one\u27s own small business in order to generate stability and security has an overarching influence on the activities of individual Korean immigrants and the Korean American community in general. From this premise, Park describes how the preoccupation with entrepreneurship for subsistence shapes various spheres of life for Korean Americans. Chapters discuss how this ideological orientation sets the parameters for familial relations, gender roles, working conditions, political activities, and religious practices in the Korean community

Chiasma

Newspaper reporting on events at the Boston University School of Medicine in the 1960s

Behavioral Phenotyping of Juvenile Long-Evans and Sprague-Dawley Rats: Implications for Preclinical Models of Autism Spectrum Disorders.

The laboratory rat is emerging as an attractive preclinical animal model of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), allowing investigators to explore genetic, environmental and pharmacological manipulations in a species exhibiting complex, reciprocal social behavior. The present study was carried out to compare two commonly used strains of laboratory rats, Sprague-Dawley (SD) and Long-Evans (LE), between the ages of postnatal day (PND) 26-56 using high-throughput behavioral phenotyping tools commonly used in mouse models of ASD that we have adapted for use in rats. We detected few differences between young SD and LE strains on standard assays of exploration, sensorimotor gating, anxiety, repetitive behaviors, and learning. Both SD and LE strains also demonstrated sociability in the 3-chamber social approach test as indexed by spending more time in the social chamber with a constrained age/strain/sex matched novel partner than in an identical chamber without a partner. Pronounced differences between the two strains were, however, detected when the rats were allowed to freely interact with a novel partner in the social dyad paradigm. The SD rats in this particular testing paradigm engaged in play more frequently and for longer durations than the LE rats at both juvenile and young adult developmental time points. Results from this study that are particularly relevant for developing preclinical ASD models in rats are threefold: (i) commonly utilized strains exhibit unique patterns of social interactions, including strain-specific play behaviors, (ii) the testing environment may profoundly influence the expression of strain-specific social behavior and (iii) simple, automated measures of sociability may not capture the complexities of rat social interactions

Who\u27s your expert? Use of an expert opinion survey to inform development of American Psychiatric Association practice guidelines.

OBJECTIVE: For many clinical questions in psychiatry, high-quality evidence is lacking. Credible practice guidelines for such questions depend on transparent, reproducible, and valid methods for assessing expert opinion. The objective of this study was to develop and demonstrate the feasibility of a method for assessing expert opinion to aid in the development of practice guidelines by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). METHODS: A snowball process initially soliciting nominees from three sets of professional leaders was used to identify experts on a guideline topic (psychiatric evaluation). In a Web-based survey, the experts were asked to rate their level of agreement that specific assessments improve specific outcomes when they are included in an initial psychiatric evaluation. The experts were also asked about their own practice patterns with respect to the doing of the assessments. The main outcome measures are the following: number of nominated experts, number of experts who participated in the survey, and number and nature of quantitative and qualitative responses. RESULTS: The snowball process identified 1,738 experts, 784 (45 %) of whom participated in the opinion survey. Participants generally, but not always, agreed or strongly agreed that the assessments asked about would improve specified outcomes. Participants wrote 716 comments explaining why they might not typically include some assessments in an initial evaluation and 1,590 comments concerning other aspects of the topics under consideration. CONCLUSIONS: The snowball process based on initial solicitation of Psychiatry\u27s leaders produced a large expert panel. The Web-based survey systematically assessed the opinions of these experts on the utility of specific psychiatric assessments, providing useful information to substantiate opinion-based practice guidelines on how to conduct a psychiatric evaluation. The considerable engagement of respondents shows promise for using this methodology in developing future APA practice guidelines