7 Things Churches Can Do to Make Queer People Feel Welcome

For as long as I can remember, the church, for me, has been a place characterized by shame and hurt. I remember Christian high school friends telling me that I would go to hell for being Queer. I remember hearing sermons from televangelists about the evils of homosexuality, and church leaders pressuring youth leaders to cast out their Queer members. I\u27ve heard more talk of love the sinner, hate the sin, and God didn\u27t make gay, than anyone should, and I\u27ve even received personalized hate mail declaring that God hates dykes. [excerpt

Brown Booby Family Units: Comparing Mothers, Fathers, and Chicks through Stable Isotopes

Seabird behavior and diet is important to study in order to determine where to focus conservation efforts in a rapidly changing climate. A primary aim of my project is to understand how brown booby family members from a breeding colony on Islas Marietas, Mexico relate to each other isotopically and in terms of their diet. Comparing the family units (mother, father, and chick from the same nest) of these seabirds and sex trends overall will help develop the big picture to determine the best conservation efforts for this species. I also aim to improve our ability to compare seabird plasma samples that were prepared for isotope analysis in different ways. For this experiment, I compared lipid-extracted and non-lipid-extracted plasma samples from the same individuals in order to calculate a correction curve for d13C values. This equation can be used in the future instead of Soxhlet extraction to save time and expense

Nurse-led positive psychology intervention is feasible in patients with heart failure

Introduction:  Prevalence of heart failure (HF) in the US is projected to rise 46% by 2030, resulting in more than 8 million people with HF.  Negative psychologic states including depression and pessimism (negative future expectations) have been linked with poor cardiovascular outcomes, including HF.  Despite the fact that optimism (positive future expectations) and other positive affective states have been associated with superior outcomes, there has been little focus on interventions designed to increase positive psychological states in patients with HF. Objective: To test the acceptability and feasibility of a nurse-led positive psychology intervention, Best Possible Self (BPS). Methods: A convenience sample of patients with HF were enrolled at an academic medical center in Kentucky. Baseline data including demographics, clinical information and optimism score was measured using the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R). The LOT-R is a validated and reliable measure of dispositional optimism, and scores range between 6-30, with higher scores indicating higher levels of optimism. The BPS intervention is relatively simple and does not require a psychologist to administer.  The intervention requires participants to write/verbalize their imagined self in the future in terms of physical health or social relationships.  The participants were asked to repeat the activity at home to prompt positive emotions and thoughts about oneself. Participants were contacted by telephone at 1 and 4 weeks to verify practice of the intervention. Results: We approached 87 patients (inpatients and outpatients) to enroll 60 participants, with a yield rate of 69%.  Our sample was 62 + 13 years of age, 46.7% male and 76% Caucasian. The mean LOT-R score from our sample was 22.3 + 5.1 (range 6-30); the mean optimism subscale score was 12.0 + 2.6 (range 3-15). The nurse-led intervention was determined to be feasible as 62% practiced the intervention at home, and acceptable with an attrition rate of 20% at 4 weeks. Conclusion: Our data indicate that patients with heart failure are willing to participate and accept a nurse-led positive psychology intervention. These data will inform the development of a larger scale study to test positive psychology interventions on optimism scores and health-related outcomes

The Family History of Erin Taylor

Erin Taylor authored this family history as part of the course requirements for HIST 550/700 Your Family in History offered online in Spring 2020 and was submitted to the Pittsburg State University Digital Commons. Please contact the author directly with any questions or comments: [email protected]

The Community Safety Net and Prescription Drug Access for Low-Income, Uninsured People

Examines strategies adopted by hospitals and community health centers to maintain access to affordable brand name and generic prescription drugs. Based on site visits to twelve nationally representative communities

Materializing poverty: how the poor transform their lives

Poverty is generally defined as a lack of material resources. However, the relationships that poor people have with their possessions are not just about deprivation. Material things play a positive role in the lives of poor people: they help people to build social relationships, address inequalities, and fulfill emotional needs. In Materializing Poverty, anthropologist Erin Taylor explores how residents of a squatter settlement in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, use their material resources creatively to solve everyday problems and, over a few decades, radically transform the community. Their struggles show how these everyday engagements with materiality, rather than more dramatic efforts, generate social change and build futures

Abajo el puente: place and the politics of progress in Santo Domingo

In recent years there has been substantial research on Dominican migration and transnationalism, yet these studies have largely overlooked both the manner in which globalisation generates new localisations, and the continuing salience of the state as a mediator between the global and the local. Based upon fieldwork in La Ciénaga, a poor barrio of Santo Domingo, this thesis argues that emplacement, rather than transnationalism, is paradigmatic of the experiences of poor Dominicans and provides their primary source of unity. Race, ethnicity, and social class have long been promoted as structuring the experiences of Caribbean people, but my analysis suggests that these operate more as sources of differentiation than of identification in Santo Domingo’s barrios. I examine the strategies and practices residents deploy to create value in place, overcome their localisation, and achieve progreso (progress) within the bounds of the state. These include transforming the material environment and its symbolic meanings, elaborating certain social hierarchies and contesting others, and developing locality-based political organisations. In the Caribbean, it has been usual for studies of cultural oppositions or dualisms to effectively constitute a different genre to studies of class, race, and globalization. My ethnography indicates that this distinction is false. Residents of La Ciénaga deploy cultural oppositions and notion of difference to define a place in the social hierarchies of the barrio and city, while simultaneously recognising the moral value and identical structural position of those around them. Popular politics in Santo Domingo are characterised by this tension between social stratification and the elaboration of cultural value in place. This thesis develops a political and social economy of value that addresses both the bases of stratification in the sphere of production and the ways in which projects of self-creation, such as through consumption, allow for the elaboration of cultural value and meaning for individuals and social groups. Given the importance of locality to popular politics, I argue that this integrated approach is necessary to any assessment of the transformative potential of community organisations and other political movements in Santo Domingo

Current Practices of Speech-Language Pathologists in Treating Presbyphonia

The purpose of the research was to determine the current practices of Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) who treat presbyphonia, deterioration of the voice resulting from age-related changes in the larynx, observed mostly in elderly males. Recent research indicates voice therapy may hold promise for treatment of presbyphonia. However, concern exists for finding the best method of voice therapy for this condition. Several physiologic methods have been shown efficacious in the treatment of voice disorders, yet only one physiologic treatment has been examined in the treatment of presbyphonia. Information about SLPs’ treatment choices will expand the knowledge base of the field. The online survey was emailed to members in the American Speech-Language Hearing Association’s Special Interest Group 3: Voice and Voice Disorders. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to analyze the results of the survey, which indicated that the majority of SLPs who completed the survey use physiologically-based methods to treat presbyphonia. The most commonly identified methods were Vocal Function Exercises and Resonant Voice Therapy

Improving red snapper management and seafood transparency in the Southeastern United States

Robust, accurate data about fish harvest is essential to developing sustainable policies that protect stocks while supporting the fishing and seafood industries. Unfortunately, there are large gaps in knowledge regarding how many fish are caught and what happens to those fish once they reach the dock. My thesis addresses two issues facing the snapper grouper fishery in the Southeastern United States: lack of data in recreational fisheries and the rate of seafood mislabeling. First, I investigated the rate of seafood mislabeling of red snapper using DNA barcoding. I found 72.6% of samples were mislabeled, indicating widespread mislabeling of red snapper on the South Atlantic coast. Second, I surveyed recreational anglers to assess perceptions of electronic reporting and found positive views of using apps and websites to report catch. These results inform fishers, consumers, and managers, and help facilitate the development of sustainable fisheries policies.Master of Scienc