Environmental Justice & Human Rights in the United States

The following discussion of environmental justice and human rights in the United States provides case studies of: the successful legal advocacy by AEHR attorneys in support of organized African American communities struggling for environmental justice; an analysis of the human rights violations arising from the deep flaws in the U.S. environmental regulatory system; and community-led advocacy in the United States that brings together environmental justice and human rights

How Black LGBQ Youths’ Perceptions of Parental Acceptance and Rejection are Associated with their Self-Esteem and Mental Health

Parent-child relationships can both positively and negatively impact the psychological well-being and mental health of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) youth and young adults. Yet, few studies have examined the role of parental acceptance and parental rejection among Black LGBQ youth. In order to fill this gap, this dissertation study examined the views of a convenience sample of 110 Black LGBQ youth (ages 14-21). Using Attachment Theory (Bowlby, 1969/1982), Intersectionality Theory (Crenshaw, 1989), and the Minority Stress Model (Meyer, 1995), the primary aim of this web-based, cross-sectional, prospective dissertation study was to understand how Black LGBQ youth and young adults' self-reports of parental acceptance and rejection are associated with their Black racial and LGBQ sexual identity development, and how they are associated with the following two mental health outcomes: 1) depressive symptoms and 2) self-esteem. The following two predictor variables were measured: 1) Black racial identity using the Cross Racial Identity Scale (CRIS); 2) Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Queer sexual identity using the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Identity Scale (LGBIS). The proposed mediator, parental acceptance/rejection, was evaluated by assessing participants' perceptions of: 1) global parental acceptance/rejection using the Child Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire -- Short Form (PARQ-C), and 2) sexual identity specific parental acceptance/rejection using the Perceived Parental Rejection Scale (PPRS). The two outcome variables were measured by: 1) depressive symptoms using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), and 2) self-esteem using the Rosenberg Self- Esteem Scale (RSES). A series of stepwise regression analyses were conducted to examine how Black racial identity and LGBQ sexual identity, as well as salient demographic variables, were associated with depressive symptoms and self-esteem. A mediation analysis, using Preacher and Hayes' method (2008), was used to evaluate direct and indirect effects. Additionally, a series of t-tests and ANOVAs were conducted to examine the associations between depressive symptoms and self-esteem and salient demographic variables (age, gender, ethnicity, level of outness across three domains, family SES/class, and levels of parent's religiosity, as reported by youth). While participants' ages ranged from 14 to 21 years old, most were between 19 and 21 (n=75; 68.18%), most selfidentified racially as either Black (79%), Biracial (14%) or Multiracial (5%), and most selfidentified ethnically as African-American (76%). More than half were female (64%), and there was a relatively even percentage of sexual identities which included: 24.5% lesbian (n=27), 24.5% gay (n=27), 20% bisexual (n=22), 20% queer (n=22), and 12% other non-heterosexual (n=12). More than half (60%) reported being "completely out" to their families (or to at least to 1 parent/caregiver); approximately half (49%) reported they were not "out in their religious community (at church or place worship); and most (92%) were either "completely or somewhat out" in the world (in most all aspects of their lives). 40% identified as not religious/atheist/ agnostic, and 31% identified as Christian. Approximately half (55%) were either in college, had received "some college," or graduated college with either an Associate's or Bachelor's degree and 43.6% had some high school, or a high school diploma or General Education Development (GED, diploma equivalent). Participants' perception of global parental acceptance/rejection was not a significant mediator between racial or sexual identity, and depressive symptoms and self-esteem. Instead, sexual identity-specific parental acceptance/rejection was a partial, and in one model, was a full significant mediator for youth in the earlier pre-encounter self-hatred stage of racial identity (having negative feelings about being Black), and the earlier acceptance concerns (worrying about being accepted as a LGBQ person) and identity uncertainty (being more unsure or insecure about one's sexual identity) of sexual identity development. Results suggest when Black LGBQ youth are in the earlier sexual identity stages of acceptance concerns and identity uncertainty, and perceive more negative reactions from their mothers about being LGBQ or more overall rejection of their sexual identities, they are at increased risk of experiencing depressive symptoms and having lower self-esteem. Thus, results suggest it is important to have at least one parent (mothers in this study) who is accepting of his or her child "coming out" as LGBQ, especially during the earlier stages of sexual identity development. Clinicians working with Black LGBQ youth, especially who present with depressive symptoms and/or lower selfesteem, should assess the youths' sexual identity stages, and partner with parents to help youth develop more positively. Clinicians need to ask about experiences at home for Black LGBQ youth and help them strengthen or repair attachment to their parents, especially during the "coming out" process. Family therapists and providers who are treating Black LGBQ youth and families should have more open conversations about the positive impact of acceptance and the potential detrimental impact of rejection. Future research should focus on transgender, gender non-conforming, genderqueer, gender variant, or otherwise non gender-binary (trans*) youth and their families. Future studies should survey larger samples of LGBQ youth and examine more outcome variables (e.g., suicidality, anxiety) and include LGBQ youth and their parents/caregivers. Specifically for Black and other families of color, future research should examine the role that religion and spirituality plays in the acceptance/rejection process of LGBQ youth. Finally, new measures should be developed, or existing measures revised, to better capture the complex identities for Black LGBQ youth growing up today.Ph.D., Couple and Family Therapy -- Drexel University, 201

The neurodiversity concept was developed collectively:An overdue correction on the origins of neurodiversity theory

This letter discusses the origins of the concept and theory of neurodiversity. It is important to correctly attribute concept and theories to the people who developed them. For some time, the concept of neurodiversity has primarily been attributed to one person, Judy Singer. We consider the available evidence and show that the concept and theory in fact has multiple origins. We draw particular attention to recent archival findings that show the concept of 'neurological diversity' was being used years earlier than previously thought. 'Neurodiversity' means the same thing as 'neurological diversity' and does not change the theory in any way. We conclude that both the concept of neurological diversity or neurodiversity, and the body of theory surrounding it, should be understood as having been collectively developed by neurodivergent people.</p

Assessing the Temperature Dependence of Narrow-Band Raman Water Vapor Lidar Measurements: A Practical Approach

Narrow-band detection of the Raman water vapor spectrum using the lidar technique introduces a concern over the temperature dependence of the Raman spectrum. Various groups have addressed this issue either by trying to minimize the temperature dependence to the point where it can be ignored or by correcting for whatever degree of temperature dependence exists. The traditional technique for performing either of these entails accurately measuring both the laser output wavelength and the water vapor spectral passband with combined uncertainty of approximately 0.01 nm. However, uncertainty in interference filter center wavelengths and laser output wavelengths can be this large or larger. These combined uncertainties translate into uncertainties in the magnitude of the temperature dependence of the Raman lidar water vapor measurement of 3% or more. We present here an alternate approach for accurately determining the temperature dependence of the Raman lidar water vapor measurement. This alternate approach entails acquiring sequential atmospheric profiles using the lidar while scanning the channel passband across portions of the Raman water vapor Q-branch. This scanning is accomplished either by tilt-tuning an interference filter or by scanning the output of a spectrometer. Through this process a peak in the transmitted intensity can be discerned in a manner that defines the spectral location of the channel passband with respect to the laser output wavelength to much higher accuracy than that achieved with standard laboratory techniques. Given the peak of the water vapor signal intensity curve, determined using the techniques described here, and an approximate knowledge of atmospheric temperature, the temperature dependence of a given Raman lidar profile can be determined with accuracy of 0.5% or better. A Mathematica notebook that demonstrates the calculations used here is available from the lead author

Physiological responses to a five-day adventure race:Continuous blood glucose, hemodynamics and metabolites the 2012 GODZone field-study

Background/Objective: Adventure racing is an ultra-endurance activity that imposes a unique multifaceted stress on the human body. The purpose of this field study was to examine the physiological responses to a 5-day adventure race. Methods: Eight competitors, two teams (1 female each) in the 2012 GODZone adventure race volunteered. Competitors trekked, cycled and paddled ∼326 km in ∼116 hours. Continuous glucose was measured the day before and throughout. Body mass, urinary solutes, and blood pressure and heart rate during resting, standing, and repeated squat-stand conditions, were assessed pre and post. Results: Despite no changes in mean blood glucose levels, there was increased glycemic variability (Standard deviation glucose; Pre: 0.5 ± 0.1 vs Race: 1.0 ± 0.2 mmol/L, p = 0.02) and periods of hypoglycemia (i.e., Min glucose Pre: 4.1 ± 0.3 vs Race: 3.6 ± 0.5 mmol/L, p = 0.05) during the race. After the race, the blood pressure during resting, standing and squat-stand conditions was significantly lower, by 14 ± 14 mmHg, 16 ± 15 mmHg and 18 ± 15 mmHg (all p < 0.05), respectively, with no change in heart rate. During five-days of adventure racing there is increased glycemic variability and more frequent periods of low blood glucose levels. Additionally, following the race pronounced hypotension is observed in competitors. Conclusion: We observed more frequent glucose fluctuations, lower glucose levels and significant perturbations in blood pressure control. Further research is warranted to examine the long-term impact of adventure racing on metabolic and cardiovascular function. Keywords: Ultraendurance, Glucose, Exercise, Adventure racing, Orthostati

Promoting social and environmental justice to support Indigenous partnerships in urban ecosystem restoration

Urban ecological restoration typically employs western science approaches to restore degraded ecosystems. As yet, few restoration groups acknowledge the history of these degraded urban sites, despite connections, past and present, that root Indigenous Peoples (and others) in these lands. Here, we promote partnership with Indigenous communities from project inception and present two successful case studies from Aotearoa New Zealand. We specifically note that partnering and building relationships with Indigenous communities in restoration efforts require recognition of power inequalities and injustices. We consider success to include both restoration of ecological function and biodiversity and reconnection of all communities to urban ecosystems

International trauma-informed practice principles for schools (ITIPPS): Expert consensus of best-practice principles

Recognition that schools should be responsive to children who are impacted by adversity and trauma is burgeoning internationally. However, consensus regarding the necessary components of a trauma-informed school is lacking. This research developed expert-informed and internationally relevant best-practice trauma-informed principles for schools. A four-phase methodology included (i) identification of school-relevant trauma-informed practice programs, (ii) inductive thematic analysis of the main concepts underlying programs, (iii) phrasing of draft Principles and (iv) Principle revision and finalisation via a two-round Delphi survey with international experts. Excellent agreement by experts on the importance of all Principles was achieved (round 1 ≥ 86.4%, 2 ≥ 92.3%). The final ‘International Trauma-Informed Practice Principles for Schools’ (ITIPPS) include four Overarching (A–D) and 10 Practice Principles (1–10). Summarised, these include that the school: (A) is student focussed; (B) models compassion and generosity; (C) is understanding and responsive; (D) incorporates recognition of their First Nations peoples in the school’s ethos: (1) prioritises safety and wellbeing; (2) models positive relationships; (3) provides a positive culture and connects; (4) consults and collaborates; (5) supports vulnerable students; (6) teaches social and emotional learning; (7) provides trauma-informed practice training; (8) is predictable yet flexible; (9) identifies and nurtures strengths and (10) reflects, changes and grows. The ITIPPS provide clear guidance for education sectors, schools and other settings about appropriate learning environments for children and young people impacted by trauma. Research is now underway in Western Australian schools to pilot test the feasibility and impact of using the ITIPPS within a framework (thoughtfulschools.org.au) to establish trauma-informed schools

Classification of animal dive tracks via automatic landmarking, principal components analysis and clustering

The BRS study was financially supported by the United States (U.S.) Office of Naval Research (www.onr.navy.mil) Grants N00014‐07‐10988, N00014‐07‐11023, N00014‐08‐10990; the U.S. Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (www.serdp.org) Grant SI‐1539, the Environmental Readiness Division of the U.S. Navy (http://www.navy.mil/local/n45/), the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Submarine Warfare Division (Undersea Surveillance), the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (National Marine Fisheries Service, Office of Science and Technology) (http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/), U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Ocean Acoustics Program (http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/acoustics/), and the Joint Industry Program on Sound and Marine Life of the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (www.soundandmarinelife.org).The behaviour of animals and their interactions with the environment can be inferred by tracking their movement. For this reason, biologgers are an important source of ecological data, but analysing the shape of the tracks they record is difficult. In this paper we present a technique for automatically determining landmarks that can be used to analyse the shape of animal tracks. The approach uses a parametric version of the SALSA algorithm to fit regression splines to 1‐dimensional curves in N dimensions (in practice N = 2 or 3). The knots of these splines are used as landmarks in a subsequent Principal Components Analysis, and the dives classified via agglomerative clustering. We demonstrate the efficacy of this algorithm on simulated 2‐dimensional dive data, and apply our method to real 3‐dimensional whale dive data from the Behavioral Response Study (BRS) in the Bahamas. The BRS is a series of experiments to quantify shifts in behavior due to SONAR. Our analysis of 3‐dimensional track data supports an alteration in the dive behavior post‐ensonification.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Genomic surveillance of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. in hospital sink drains and patients

Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. are important human pathogens that cause a wide spectrum of clinical disease. In healthcare settings, sinks and other wastewater sites have been shown to be reservoirs of antimicrobial-resistant E. coli and Klebsiella spp., particularly in the context of outbreaks of resistant strains amongst patients. Without focusing exclusively on resistance markers or a clinical outbreak, we demonstrate that many hospital sink drains are abundantly and persistently colonised with diverse populations of E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Klebsiella oxytoca, including both antimicrobial-resistant and susceptible strains. Using whole genome sequencing (WGS) of 439 isolates, we show that environmental bacterial populations are largely structured by ward and sink, with only a handful of lineages, such as E. coli ST635, being widely distributed, suggesting different prevailing ecologies which may vary as a result of different inputs and selection pressures. WGS of 46 contemporaneous patient isolates identified one (2%; 95% CI 0.05-11%) E. coli urine infection-associated isolate with high similarity to a prior sink isolate, suggesting that sinks may contribute to up to 10% of infections caused by these organisms in patients on the ward over the same timeframe. Using metagenomics from 20 sink-timepoints, we show that sinks also harbour many clinically relevant antimicrobial resistance genes including blaCTX-M, blaSHV and mcr, and may act as niches for the exchange and amplification of these genes. Our study reinforces the potential role of sinks in contributing to Enterobacterales infection and antimicrobial resistance in hospital patients, something that could be amenable to intervention