The Impact of Bystander Intervention Education on Greek Life Affiliated Students\u27 Efficacy in Addressing Sexual Violence on Campus

Sexual violence is one of the leading health and safety concerns on college campuses, and the social Greek Life community is just one organization that has seen high incidents of sexual violence perpetuated within the community. This study was designed to examine what the impact of education in bystander intervention would have on Greek Life students\u27 ability to identify risk factors for sexual violence, and intervene in a situation should they encounter it. Using a qualitative approach, the researcher interviewed five students affiliated with a social sorority or social fraternity on campus. Participants were interviewed twice; once at the beginning of the study, and again after attending and participating in a presentation on sexual violence and bystander intervention facilitated by the health education center on campus. Results indicated students felt prepared to both identify risk factors for sexual violence, and effectively intervene in a situation of potential or active sexual violence, while also being mindful of their own safety. Participants provided responses to proposed scenarios and how they would intervene in a situation of sexual violence, and participants also shared their ideologies formed due to socialized norms of women and sexuality that could hinder their response

The Impact of Bystander Intervention Education on Greek Life Affiliated Students\u27 Efficacy in Addressing Sexual Violence on Campus

Sexual violence is one of the leading health and safety concerns on college campuses, and the social Greek Life community is just one organization that has seen high incidents of sexual violence perpetuated within the community. This study was designed to examine what the impact of education in bystander intervention would have on Greek Life students\u27 ability to identify risk factors for sexual violence, and intervene in a situation should they encounter it. Using a qualitative approach, the researcher interviewed five students affiliated with a social sorority or social fraternity on campus. Participants were interviewed twice; once at the beginning of the study, and again after attending and participating in a presentation on sexual violence and bystander intervention facilitated by the health education center on campus. Results indicated students felt prepared to both identify risk factors for sexual violence, and effectively intervene in a situation of potential or active sexual violence, while also being mindful of their own safety. Participants provided responses to proposed scenarios and how they would intervene in a situation of sexual violence, and participants also shared their ideologies formed due to socialized norms of women and sexuality that could hinder their response

Toward Eternity: Elizabeth\u27s Experience of Suffering and Hope

Elizabeth Seton’s response to suffering is examined to help us respond to suffering in our own lives. There were three “clusters of sufferings” in her life, which correspond to the three periods of her life, childhood and adolescence, marriage and young womanhood, and mature womanhood. Each cluster of sufferings helped prepare her for the challenges of the next phase of her life. Three perspectives are used to interpret Elizabeth’s experience: human wisdom (in the form of Erik Erikson’s psycho-social theory of human development), Scripture (particularly “Israel’s journey of gift and conversion”), and tradition (the theology of the Dark Night in John of the Cross)

An Environmental Anthropology of Modeling and Management on the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

In the last few decades, computational models have become an essential component of our understanding of complex environmental processes. In addition, they are increasingly used as tools for the management of large-scale environmental problems like climate change. As a result, understanding the role that these models play in the socioecological process of environmental management is an important area of inquiry for an environmental anthropology concerned with understanding human-environment interactions. In this dissertation, I examine these roles through an ethnographic study of computational environmental modeling in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The Chesapeake Bay region is an excellent place to investigate modeling and management because, for over thirty years, it has been the site of a watershed-scale effort to reduce nutrient pollution (nitrogen, phosphorous, and sediment) to the Chesapeake Bay. In order to carry out this management process, the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) was created as a partnership between the federal government and seven watershed jurisdictions. In addition, modelers at the CBP have been developing a complex computational model of the watershed known as the Chesapeake Bay Modeling System (CBMS) in order to identify and track the sources and effects of nutrient pollution on the estuary. In this dissertation, I explore the role of the CBMS and other models in our understanding and management of nutrient pollution in the region through three articles written for publication in peer-reviewed journals, each of which addresses the question in a different way. The first discusses the ways that the process of building and implementing a computational model is affected by its inclusion in a management institution. The second describes the ways that the computational models themselves are affected by the management contexts in which they are developed and deployed. The third examines the various roles that they play in building and maintaining the relationships that underlie the management process. Together, these articles shed light on the ways that computational models mediate human-environment interactions by way of environmental management, and will help to plan more inclusive and effective modeling and management approaches in the future

Phosphoethanolamine Transferase LptA in Haemophilus ducreyi Modifies Lipid A and Contributes to Human Defensin Resistance In Vitro

Haemophilus ducreyi resists the cytotoxic effects of human antimicrobial peptides (APs), including α-defensins, β-defensins, and the cathelicidin LL-37. Resistance to LL-37, mediated by the sensitive to antimicrobial peptide (Sap) transporter, is required for H. ducreyi virulence in humans. Cationic APs are attracted to the negatively charged bacterial cell surface. In other gram-negative bacteria, modification of lipopolysaccharide or lipooligosaccharide (LOS) by the addition of positively charged moieties, such as phosphoethanolamine (PEA), confers AP resistance by means of electrostatic repulsion. H. ducreyi LOS has PEA modifications at two sites, and we identified three genes (lptA, ptdA, and ptdB) in H. ducreyi with homology to a family of bacterial PEA transferases. We generated non-polar, unmarked mutants with deletions in one, two, or all three putative PEA transferase genes. The triple mutant was significantly more susceptible to both α- and β-defensins; complementation of all three genes restored parental levels of AP resistance. Deletion of all three PEA transferase genes also resulted in a significant increase in the negativity of the mutant cell surface. Mass spectrometric analysis revealed that LptA was required for PEA modification of lipid A; PtdA and PtdB did not affect PEA modification of LOS. In human inoculation experiments, the triple mutant was as virulent as its parent strain. While this is the first identified mechanism of resistance to α-defensins in H. ducreyi, our in vivo data suggest that resistance to cathelicidin LL-37 may be more important than defensin resistance to H. ducreyi pathogenesis

Massive Stars In The W33 Giant Molecular Complex

Rich in H II regions, giant molecular clouds are natural laboratories to study massive stars and sequential star formation. The Galactic star-forming complex W33 is located at = ∼ ◦ l 12.8 and at a distance of 2.4 kpc and has a size of ≈10 pc and a total mass of ≈(0.8−8.0) × 105 M⊙. The integrated radio and IR luminosity of W33—when combined with the direct detection of methanol masers, the protostellar object W33A, and the protocluster embedded within the radio source W33 main—mark the region as a site of vigorous ongoing star formation. In order to assess the long-term star formation history, we performed an infrared spectroscopic search for massive stars, detecting for the first time 14 early-type stars, including one WN6 star and four O4–7 stars. The distribution of spectral types suggests that this population formed during the past ∼2–4 Myr, while the absence of red supergiants precludes extensive star formation at ages 6–30 Myr. This activity appears distributed throughout the region and does not appear to have yielded the dense stellar clusters that characterize other star-forming complexes such as Carina and G305. Instead, we anticipate that W33 will eventually evolve into a loose stellar aggregate, with Cyg OB2 serving as a useful, albeit richer and more massive, comparator. Given recent distance estimates, and despite a remarkably similar stellar population, the rich cluster Cl 1813–178 located on the northwest edge of W33 does not appear to be physically associated with W33

Divergent amino acid and sphingolipid metabolism in patients with inherited neuro-retinal disease

OBJECTIVES: The non-essential amino acids serine, glycine, and alanine, as well as diverse sphingolipid species, are implicated in inherited neuro-retinal disorders and are metabolically linked by serine palmitoyltransferase (SPT), a key enzyme in membrane lipid biogenesis. To gain insight into the pathophysiological mechanisms linking these pathways to neuro-retinal diseases we compared patients diagnosed with two metabolically intertwined diseases: macular telangiectasia type II (MacTel), hereditary sensory autonomic neuropathy type 1 (HSAN1), or both. METHODS: We performed targeted metabolomic analyses of amino acids and broad sphingolipids in sera from a cohort of MacTel (205), HSAN1 (25) and Control (151) participants. RESULTS: MacTel patients exhibited broad alterations of amino acids, including changes in serine, glycine, alanine, glutamate, and branched-chain amino acids reminiscent of diabetes. MacTel patients had elevated 1-deoxysphingolipids but reduced levels of complex sphingolipids in circulation. A mouse model of retinopathy indicates dietary serine and glycine restriction can drive this depletion in complex sphingolipids. HSAN1 patients exhibited elevated serine, lower alanine, and a reduction in canonical ceramides and sphingomyelins compared to controls. Those patients diagnosed with both HSAN1 and MacTel showed the most significant decrease in circulating sphingomyelins. CONCLUSIONS: These results highlight metabolic distinctions between MacTel and HSAN1, emphasize the importance of membrane lipids in the progression of MacTel, and suggest distinct therapeutic approaches for these two neurodegenerative diseases