(In)difference to survivors: The anti-violence comics project

Sexualized violence prevention at the university level can sometimes leave out the perspectives and needs of marginalized groups. Ethics should always serve to temper any endeavors to work with marginalized groups. Any endeavor into the field requires methods and frameworks that serve not only the needs of the researcher but also the knowledge builders involved. Postmodern ethnography articulates a need for contesting a positivist understanding of knowledge through use of alternative methods like novelized fiction, autobiography, documentary, and visual art. In conjunction, intersectional theory forces us to consider our place as researchers and the larger power dynamics within our culture. Through the use of ethnofiction and the comic art medium, the project was able to express some of the needs of marginalized groups without putting any would-be knowledge builder at risk. Ethnofiction uses traditional ethnographic methods to inform and shape fiction that can provide more texture and richness than academic forms of dissemination, a reconsideration of ethnography. The anti-violence comics project found that comics have the potential to reach wider audiences than institutionally based forms of knowledge. Comics have the power to invoke aesthetic responses within a reader and provide enough abstraction to allow the reader to identify with the characters depicted within. The research project found that there is great potential in interdisciplinary work between the arts and the social sciences

IC 4663: the first unambiguous [WN] Wolf-Rayet central star of a planetary nebula

We report on the serendipitous discovery of the first central star of a planetary nebula (PN) that mimics the helium- and nitrogen-rich WN sequence of massive Wolf–Rayet (WR) stars. The central star of IC 4663 (PN G346.2−08.2) is dominated by broad He II and N V emission lines which correspond to a [WN3] spectral type. Unlike previous [WN] candidates, the surrounding nebula is unambiguously a PN. At an assumed distance of 3.5 kpc, corresponding to a stellar luminosity of 4000 L⊙, the V= 16.9 mag central star remains 4–6 mag fainter than the average luminosity of massive WN3 stars even out to an improbable d= 8 kpc. The nebula is typical of PNe with an elliptical morphology, a newly discovered asymptotic giant branch (AGB) halo, a relatively low expansion velocity (vexp= 30 km s−1) and a highly ionized spectrum with an approximately solar chemical abundance pattern. The [WN3] star is hot enough to show Ne VII emission (T*= 140 ± 20 kK) and exhibits a fast wind (v∞= 1900 km s−1), which at d= 3.5 kpc would yield a clumped mass-loss rate of forumla= 1.8 × 10−8 M⊙ yr−1 with a small stellar radius (R*= 0.11 R⊙). Its atmosphere consists of helium (95 per cent), hydrogen (<2 per cent), nitrogen (0.8 per cent), neon (0.2 per cent) and oxygen (0.05 per cent) by mass. Such an unusual helium-dominated composition cannot be produced by any extant scenario used to explain the H-deficiency of post-AGB stars. The O(He) central stars share a similar composition and the discovery of IC 4663 provides the first evidence for a second He-rich/H-deficient post-AGB evolutionary sequence [WN] →O(He). This suggests that there is an alternative mechanism responsible for producing the majority of H-deficient post-AGB stars that may possibly be expanded to include other He-rich/H-deficient stars such as R Coronae Borealis stars and AM Canum Venaticorum stars. The origin of the unusual composition of [WN] and O(He) central stars remains unexplained

Major-Based Peer Mentoring: A Process Evaluation of a College-Wide Program Scale Up

This poster presents findings and recommendations based on a process evaluation of an AY 2019-20 CAHSS scale up of major-based peer mentoring. The evaluation is based on field notes and interviews with peer mentors, students in participating departments, and Department leaders. Major-based peer mentors serve as campus/community resource bridges, a source of street knowledge on being a successful HSU student, and a conduit for major academic integration. PMs deliver support through office hours in the academic office, 1-to-1 appointments, and planned department events. This model is informed by: (1) research on cultural and social capital in higher education; (2) student success research on the unique needs for academic and career integration in the middle years; and (3) critical theories of student integration that center minoritized students in particular, and first-generation students more broadly, while supporting all students.https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/ideafest_posters/1265/thumbnail.jp

Featured Student Project/Poster Presentations

https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/ideafest_posters/1301/thumbnail.jp

Planning cancer control in Latin America and the Caribbean

Non-communicable diseases, including cancer, are overtaking infectious disease as the leading health-care threat in middle-income and low-income countries. Latin American and Caribbean countries are struggling to respond to increasing morbidity and death from advanced disease. Health ministries and health-care systems in these countries face many challenges caring for patients with advanced cancer: inadequate funding; inequitable distribution of resources and services; inadequate numbers, training, and distribution of health-care personnel and equipment; lack of adequate care for many populations based on socioeconomic, geographic, ethnic, and other factors; and current systems geared toward the needs of wealthy, urban minorities at a cost to the entire population. This burgeoning cancer problem threatens to cause widespread suffering and economic peril to the countries of Latin America. Prompt and deliberate actions must be taken to avoid this scenario. Increasing efforts towards prevention of cancer and avoidance of advanced, stage IV disease will reduce suffering and mortality and will make overall cancer care more affordable. We hope the findings of our Commission and our recommendations will inspire Latin American stakeholders to redouble their efforts to address this increasing cancer burden and to prevent it from worsening and threatening their societies.SCOPUS: re.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe