Not \u27Just My Problem to Handle\u27: Emerging Themes on Secondary Trauma and Archivists

This article reports on the findings of a survey issued to Canadian archivists regarding their understanding and experiences of secondary trauma. As exploratory research, the article summarizes findings of the survey and identifies emerging themes based on qualitative analysis of the open-ended questions. Emerging themes relate to the difficulty of defining what constitutes a traumatic record; working with donors and researchers; the effects of organizational culture and archival professional norms; the impact of precarious labor on experiences of trauma; and the role of archival education programs and professional associations in preparing and supporting archivists to work with difficult materials. The article concludes by outlining an agenda for future research

Surveying Sydney rail commuters’ willingness to change travel time

This paper reports an analysis of Sydney commuters‟ stated willingness to change their time of travel during the morning peak period in response to fare discounts and/or faster trip incentives. The aim of the study was to evaluate the peak spreading potential in an empirical case study of a Sydney urban rail corridor. Peak spreading is here understood to mean shifting the travel times of some passengers out of the most congested part of the peak. Survey results confirmed that differentiated service and fare policy measures offer peak spreading potential. In addition findings which are helpful in shaping peak spreading policies emerged, including the need for targeted measures, given that peak spreading potential sharply declines as displacement intervals increase. Work commitments emerged as a major barrier to peak spreading. Finally, it was found that a policy that would focus on morning peak demand management is also likely to address afternoon peak issues

Barriers to Post-Secondary Success

This study reviews factors that prior studies have identified or failed to consider as barriers to post-secondary success. The three main areas include academic success for Latinx students after high school, organizational systems and their impact on African-American students’ postsecondary readiness, and what workers think of their high school education with regards to career preparedness. Five factors are identified as major barriers for Latinx students to continue in a higher education system. A survey of former students from Saint Louis, Missouri, and Dallas, Texas, metroplex area identified 56 Latinx students that participated in an initial survey. This led to a follow-up survey with 16 former students from the first group. Four Latinx students were selected to be part of a face-to-face interview where the qualitative study of this project was derived. College Preparation Programs play a major role in the success of post-secondary education opportunities. The lack of these successful programs is responsible for some of the barriers to post-secondary success that inner-city minority students may face while trying to transition from high school and on to Colleges and Universities. Further exploration of perspectives of high school graduates on college preparation programs have led to the creation of a survey of former St. Louis City Public Schools high school graduates. The survey collected 20 student perspectives. The absence of research on post-secondary education success from the perspective of workers led to a nationwide online survey of workers in the construction industry that produced 175 responses. The survey was followed up with 12 more detailed interviews with construction workers in the St. Louis area. Together the survey and interviews identified whether construction workers believe their high school education prepared them for success in their choice careers, and whether they are preparing current students better, or worse, and what secondary education systems need to do differently to improve students\u27 success in this industry. The authors hope that their studies will help to provide insights to enlightenment for curriculum changes needed to support post-secondary success for underserved and minority populations

Survival Voting and Minority Political Rights

The health of American democracy has literally been challenged. The global pandemic has powerfully exposed a long-standing truth: electoral policies that are frequently referred to as convenience voting are really a mode of survival voting for millions of Americans. As our data show, racial minorities are overrepresented among voters whose health is most vulnerable, and politicians have leveraged these health disparities to subordinate the political voice of racial minorities. To date, data about racial disparities in health has played a very limited role in assessing voting rights. A new health lens on the racial impacts of voting rules would beneficially inform—and perhaps even fundamentally alter—how we address several common voting rights issues. A new focus on the disparate health effects of voting rules, grounded in the kind of solid empirical evidence we provide, could reinvigorate the Voting Rights Act (VRA) by providing new avenues for assessing voting rights, for litigating and judging voter suppression claims under section 2, and even informing a new coverage formula in a modified section 5. This evidence arrives at a critical juncture for the VRA which has been stripped of much of its bite by the Supreme Court and is currently being debated in Congress. The clear and compelling story told by our data are a clarion call to legislators, courts, and litigators to reconceptualize and strengthen voting rights by accounting for the barriers that health disparities pose to minority access to the ballot

Disaster Vulnerability

Vulnerability drives disaster law, yet the literature lacks both an overarching analysis of the different aspects of vulnerability and a nuanced examination of the factors that shape disaster outcomes. Though central to disaster law and policy, vulnerability often lurks in the shadows of a disaster, evident only once the worst is past and the bodies have been counted. The COVID-19 pandemic is a notable exception to this historical pattern: from the beginning of the pandemic, it has been clear that the virus poses different risks to different people, depending on vulnerability variables. This most recent pandemic experience thus provides a useful vantage point for analyzing vulnerability. Drawing on empirical data from the pandemic and experiences from past disasters, this Article identifies and discusses the policy implications of three dimensions of disaster vulnerability: the geography of vulnerability, competing or conflicting vulnerabilities, and political vulnerability. First, it explores the geography of vulnerability, using statistical analysis and geographic information system (GIS) mapping. The Article presents an innovative COVID-19 vulnerability index that identifies the country’s most vulnerable counties and the leading driver of vulnerability for each county. It demonstrates how this index could have informed voter accommodations during the 2020 elections and mask mandates throughout the pandemic. The Article also shows how, going forward, similar modeling could make disaster management more proactive and better able to anticipate needs and prioritize disaster mitigation and response resources. Second, this Article explores competing or conflicting vulnerabilities––situations where policy-makers must prioritize one vulnerable group or one aspect of vulnerability over another. To illustrate this, it considers two other policy challenges: school closures and vaccine distribution. Finally, the Article explores political vulnerability, analyzing how disasters make already-vulnerable groups even more vulnerable to certain harms, including political neglect, stigmatization, disenfranchisement, and displacement. In sum, this Article draws upon the costly lessons of COVID-19 to suggest a more robust framework for policy-makers to assess and respond to vulnerability in future disaster

Extensive loss of translational genes in the structurally dynamic mitochondrial genome of the angiosperm Silene latifolia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mitochondrial gene loss and functional transfer to the nucleus is an ongoing process in many lineages of plants, resulting in substantial variation across species in mitochondrial gene content. The Caryophyllaceae represents one lineage that has experienced a particularly high rate of mitochondrial gene loss relative to other angiosperms.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, we report the first complete mitochondrial genome sequence from a member of this family, <it>Silene latifolia</it>. The genome can be mapped as a 253,413 bp circle, but its structure is complicated by a large repeated region that is present in 6 copies. Active recombination among these copies produces a suite of alternative genome configurations that appear to be at or near "recombinational equilibrium". The genome contains the fewest genes of any angiosperm mitochondrial genome sequenced to date, with intact copies of only 25 of the 41 protein genes inferred to be present in the common ancestor of angiosperms. As observed more broadly in angiosperms, ribosomal proteins have been especially prone to gene loss in the <it>S. latifolia </it>lineage. The genome has also experienced a major reduction in tRNA gene content, including loss of functional tRNAs of both native and chloroplast origin. Even assuming expanded wobble-pairing rules, the mitochondrial genome can support translation of only 17 of the 61 sense codons, which code for only 9 of the 20 amino acids. In addition, genes encoding 18S and, especially, 5S rRNA exhibit exceptional sequence divergence relative to other plants. Divergence in one region of 18S rRNA appears to be the result of a gene conversion event, in which recombination with a homologous gene of chloroplast origin led to the complete replacement of a helix in this ribosomal RNA.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These findings suggest a markedly expanded role for nuclear gene products in the translation of mitochondrial genes in <it>S. latifolia </it>and raise the possibility of altered selective constraints operating on the mitochondrial translational apparatus in this lineage.</p

Ventricular Pacing in Children

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75351/1/j.1540-8159.1982.tb06565.x.pd

Members of the KCTD family are major regulators of cAMP signaling

Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) is a pivotal second messenger with an essential role in neuronal function. cAMP synthesis by adenylyl cyclases (AC) is controlled by G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling systems. However, the network of molecular players involved in the process is incompletely defined. Here, we used CRISPR/Cas9-based screening to identify that members of the potassium channel tetradimerization domain (KCTD) family are major regulators of cAMP signaling. Focusing on striatal neurons, we show that the dominant isoform KCTD5 exerts its effects through an unusual mechanism that modulates the influx of Zn2+ via the Zip14 transporter to exert unique allosteric effects on AC. We further show that KCTD5 controls the amplitude and sensitivity of stimulatory GPCR inputs to cAMP production by Gβγ-mediated AC regulation. Finally, we report that KCTD5 haploinsufficiency in mice leads to motor deficits that can be reversed by chelating Zn2+ Together, our findings uncover KCTD proteins as major regulators of neuronal cAMP signaling via diverse mechanisms

Metabolically exaggerated cardiac reactions to acute psychological stress: The effects of resting blood pressure status and possible underlying mechanisms

The study aimed to: confirm that acute stress elicits metabolically exaggerated increases in cardiac activity; test whether individuals with elevated resting blood pressure show more exaggerated cardiac reactions to stress than those who are clearly normotensive; and explore the underlying mechanisms. Cardiovascular activity and oxygen consumption were measured pre-, during, and post- mental stress, and during graded submaximal cycling exercise in 11 young men with moderately elevated resting blood pressure and 11 normotensives. Stress provoked increases in cardiac output that were much greater than would be expected from contemporary levels of oxygen consumption. Exaggerated cardiac reactions were larger in the relatively elevated blood pressure group. They also had greater reductions in total peripheral resistance, but not heart rate variability, implying that their more exaggerated cardiac reactions reflected greater β-adrenergic activation