Community-Based Participatory Research with Traditional and Indigenous Communities of the Americas: Historical Context and Future Directions

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an investigative orientation that is gaining prominence in the fields of population and public health and among underserved community groups, such as traditional and indigenous peoples of the Americas. In this model, research questions are approached in a collaborative fashion with the community. The community of interest, not individual participants, is the research unit. Trained community members participate in the research process in an equitable fashion as full collaborators, not just as \u27research participants\u27. Academic and other scientists, on the other hand, are not just \u27objective investigators\u27 but also active learners in this process. Cultural information gleaned from the community is used to inform the research process. Thus, another characteristic of CBPR is that it is iterative. In the dissemination of the findings, an educational component is designed and implemented to serve the needs of the community. This article is a practical, not exhaustive, review of the historical context of CBPR, with a focus on the applications of this problem-solving orientation with traditional/indigenous peoples of the Americas. Research stages are outlined, and discussed are potential pitfalls to avoid and methods for collaborative problem-solving. Future directions for the use of CBPR among communities are promising. Indigenous and traditional populations throughout the Americas (rural, reserve, remote, and urban) continue to seek ways to express their cultural sovereignty, while partnering with institutions to solve community problems through science and education. As well, CBPR is receiving increased support in academic institutions as a viable research orientation for academicians, and through funding agencies that recognize the merit of its strengths

Relativity in the perception of emotion across cultures

Thesis advisor: Lisa Feldman BarrettA central question in the study of human behavior is whether or not certain categories of emotion, such as anger, fear and sadness (termed "discrete emotions"), are universally recognized in the nonverbal behaviors of others (termed the "universality of attribution hypothesis"). In this dissertation, the universality of attribution hypothesis was revisited in order to examine whether individuals from remote cultural contexts perceive the same mental states in nonverbal cues as individuals from a Western cultural context. The studies described in this dissertation removed certain features of prior universality studies that served to obscure the underlying nature of cross-cultural perceptions. In study 1, perception of posed emotional vocalizations by individuals from a US cultural context were compared to those of individuals from the Himba ethnic group, who reside in remote regions of Namibia and have limited contact with individuals outside their community. In contrast to recent data claiming to support the universality hypothesis, we did not find evidence that emotions were universally perceived when participants were asked to freely label the emotion they perceived in vocalizations. In contrast, our findings did support the hypothesis that affective dimensions of valence and arousal are perceived across cultural contexts. In the second study, emotion perceptions based on facial expressions were compared between participants from US and Himba cultural contexts. Consistent with the results of Study 1, Himba individuals did not perceive the Western discrete emotion categories that their US counterparts did. Our data did support the hypothesis that Himba participants were routinely engaging in action perception, rather than mental state inference. Across both cultural contexts, when conceptual knowledge about emotions was made more accessible by presenting emotion words as part of the task, perception was impacted. In US participants, perceptions conformed even more strongly with the previously assumed "universal" model. Himba participants appeared to rely more on mental state categories when exposed to concepts, but a substantial amount of cultural variation was still observed. Finally, in Study 3, perceptions of emotion were examined in a US cultural context after the focus of participants was manipulated, either onto mental states (broadly), emotions or behaviors. Perceptions of emotion did not differ substantially across these three conditions, indicating that within a US cultural context the tendency to infer mental states from facial expressions is somewhat inflexible. Overall, the findings of this dissertation indicate that emotion perception is both culturally and linguistically relative and that attempts to apply the Western cultural model for emotions as a universal one obscures important cultural variation.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Psychology

Assessing Student Perceptions of Indigenous Science Co-educators, Interest in STEM, and Identity as a Scientist: A Pilot Study

Minorities are underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce, post-secondary STEM education, and show high academic attrition rates. Academic performance and retention improve when culturally relevant support is provided. The interface of Western science and Indigenous science provides an opportunity for bridging this divide. We hypothesized that there would be regional (U.S.A. vs. Canada) differences amongst post-secondary students regarding these variables: perceptions of traditional Elders as STEM co-educators; interest in STEM; and self-identity as a scientist. We conducted a short-term longitudinal pilot study of an interdisciplinary, multi-institutional, and cross-cultural STEM course in the spring of 2013. This online STEM course was concurrently offered at mainstream and tribal universities in the U.S.A. and Canada. Pre- and post-course surveys were administered to participants (n=11). The outcome measures of interest were assessed, and group differences were tested by ANOVA (SPSS 21 software). Due to the limited sample size, the statistical power was low. We found no statistically significant results upon data analysis. In regards to region, however, we found that Canadian students showed a stronger trend to believe that traditional Elders are appropriate as post-secondary STEM co-educators as compared to U.S. students (p=.31). Students from the U.S. showed a weak trend to be more interested in STEM fields than Canadian students (p=.52). Finally, U.S. students showed a weak trend to self-identify as scientists more so than Canadian students (p=.77). In regards to race/ethnicity, we found that non-White students tended to consider traditional Elders appropriate post-secondary STEM co-educators (p=0.45); that White students tended to be more interested in STEM fields than non-White students (p=0.80); and that non-White students tended to self-identify as a scientist more so than White students (p=0.31). Despite the lack of statistically significant results from this pilot study, the observed trends suggest a need for more research. Do Indigenous science Elder educators merit involvement in novel pedagogical approaches and delivery modalities to reach minority students and to increase students’ interest in STEM? Next, we will conduct a quasi-experiment with a larger sample of university students, to assess the impact of traditional Elders as STEM co-educators in an online STEM course at tribal and mainstream universities in the U.S.A. and Canada

North American Bioactive Plants for Human Health and Performance

Native and naturalized bioactive plants of the Canadian and American temperate biome are examined for their health and performance enhancement properties. Some of these plants are now being used as natural health products, and many have a long history as traditional foods and/or medicines with indigenous groups. This paper reviews the medicinal/cultural uses and bioactive properties of selected plant families: the Holly family (Aquifoliaceae) as stimulants, the Celery family (Apiaceae) as normoglycemic aids and analgesics, the Ginseng family (Araliaceae) as energy- boosting aids, the Sunflower family (Compositae) as anti-inflammatory aids, and the Legume family (Fabaceae) and Nightshade family (Solanaceae) as functional foods. These North American plants show promising avenues for innovative health and performance enhancement aids and it is concluded that they should be investigated further for their bioactive properties

Convergence of Indigenous Science and Western Science Impacts Student\u27s Interest in STEM and Identity as a Scientist

Within the context of North American Indigenous culture, certain Elders are respected gatekeepers to Indigenous science, also known as traditional knowledge. Yet, while North American born minorities such as Black Americans, Amerindians, and Latin Americans may hail from cultures with a similar appreciation of their own Indigenous science Elders, these minority groups are especially underrepresented in Western science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)—both in academia and in the workforce. North American underrepresented minorities experience high attrition rates in academia generally, and in STEM specifically. Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission makes a call to action to Indigenize education to benefit all students. Herein lies an opportunity to investigate the impact of Indigenization of a Western science biochemistry course to assess the impact upon university students, both minority (non-White) and non-minority (White) in Anglophone North America (Canada and USA). The aim of the study is to investigate the impact of an Indigenized Western science online course upon student interest in STEM, student perception of the relevance of Elder co-instructors, and student identity as a scientist. A pedagogical quasiexperiment was conducted at North American tribal colleges and mainstream research-intensive universities, regarding an online science course taught either with or without Elder co-educators alongside PhD STEM-trained instructors. Student perceptions of the value of Elder co-educators did not differ across groups and remained unchanged after course delivery. Findings also show that after taking the course co-taught by Indigenous science Elder co-educators, students have significantly greater interest in STEM than those students not exposed to Elders’ teachings. Non-White students reported significantly less self-identification as a scientist than did White students at pre-course, but reported similar identity as a scientist to White students post-course. We attribute these findings to the impact of culturally competent course content to minority students especially. This work establishes the relevance of using online technology to Indigenize a Western science course taught internationally, and suggests the need for more investigative work toward the convergence of Indigenous science and Western science in academia

Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Students Learn About Natural Health Products from Different Information Sources

Natural health products (NHPs) include naturally derived botanical and nonbotanical products. Past research indicates a high prevalence of NHPs use amongst adults in the United States and Canada but does not clearly characterize NHPs use amongst students, ethnic variations of such use, or how users learn about NHPs. We hypothesize that there is a difference between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students in how they learn about NHPs. To investigate this question, we conducted a cross-sectional study at First Nations University of Canada and the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, during the fall of 2011. Aboriginal (n=214) and non-Aboriginal (n=749) students participated in the 28 question survey. Our results indicate that Aboriginal students who use NHPs are found in all age groups, are mostly female, are smokers and nonsmokers, and learn about NHPs from Elders and healers. Compared to nonAboriginal students, Aboriginal students rely significantly less on alternative and conventional health providers, electronic media, print media, and advertising as their sources of information about NHPs. Thus, Aboriginal students use Elders or healers as a primary source of information to learn about NHPs, as compared to non-Aboriginal students. Future work should investigate the role of Elder traditional educators to convey NHPs information directed specifically to Aboriginal university students

A branch-and-Benders-cut method for nonlinear power design in green wireless local area networks

We consider a problem arising in the design of green wireless local area networks. Decisions on powering-on a set of access points (APs), via the assignment of one power level (PL) to each opened AP, and decisions on the assignment of the user terminals (UTs) to the opened APs, have to be taken simultaneously. The PL assigned to an AP affects, in a nonlinear way, the capacity of the connections between the AP and the UTs that are assigned to it. The objective is to minimize the overall power consumption of the APs, which has two components: location/capacity dimensioning costs of the APs; assignment costs that depend on the total demands assigned to the APs. We develop a branch-and-Benders-cut (BBC) method where, in a non-standard fashion, the master problem includes the variables of the Benders subproblem, but relaxes their integrality. The BBC method has been tested on a large set of instances, and compared to a Benders decomposition algorithm on a subset of instances without assignment costs, where the two approaches can be compared. The computational results show the superiority of BBC in terms of solution quality, scalability and robustness

Optimal Access Point Power Management for Green IEEE 802.11 Networks

In this paper, we present an approach and an algorithm aimed at minimising the energy consumption of enterprise Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) during periods of low user activity. We act on two network management aspects: powering off some Access Points (APs), and choosing the level of transmission power of each AP. An efficient technique to allocate the user terminals to the various APs is the key to achieving this goal. The approach has been formulated as an integer programming problem with nonlinear constraints, which comes from a general but accurate characterisation of the WLAN. This general problem formulation has two implications: the formulation is widely applicable, but the nonlinearity makes it NP-hard. To solve this problem to optimality, we devised an exact algorithm based on a customised version of Benders’ decomposition method. The computational results proved the ability to obtain remarkable power savings. In addition, the good performance of our algorithm in terms of solving times paves the way for its future deployment in real WLANs.publishedVersio

Native/Aboriginal Students use Natural Health Products for Health Maintenance More so than Other University Students

Background and aim: University student use of Natural Health Products (NHP) for health maintenance (HealthM) is assessed in Canada. We hypothesize greater use of NHP by Native/Aboriginal and female students. Demographic predictor variables and the top ten NHP used are determined. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 963 students (n=212 Native/Aboriginal; n=751 non-Native/Aboriginal) was conducted. χ2 and Fisher’s exact tests analyzed group differences. Multiple logistic regressions determined predictor variables of NHP use. Results: Of 963 surveyed students, 268 (27.8%) used NHP for HealthM, while 695 students (72.2%) did not. More Native/Aboriginal students used commercial tobacco (47% vs. 13%, P\u3c0.001) and NHP (67% vs. 45%, P\u3c0.001) than non- Native/Aboriginal students. Gender was not associated with NHP use (P=0.527). Canadians used echinacea more than non-Canadians (Odds Ratio [OR]=4.96; 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 1.2-21.0). Ginger (OR=0.39; 95% CI: 0.2-0.78) and garlic (OR=0.28; 95% CI: 0.13-0.6) were popular amongst non-Canadians. Native/Aboriginal students used homeopathics (OR=39.9; 95% CI: 8.6-185.4) and rat root (OR=56.73; 95% CI: 6.91-465.8). Chamomile was less used by males (OR=0.33; 95% CI: 0.13-0.83) and used more by upperclassmen (OR=2.6 95% CI: 1.3-5.3). Conclusion: Homeopathics and rat root are popular amongst Native/Aboriginal students. Garlic and ginger are popular amongst non-Canadians than Canadian students; however, more Canadians used echinacea for HealthM than non-Canadians. Chamomile is less popular amongst males. Commercial tobacco is used more by Native/Aboriginal students. Predictors of NHP use are: Native /Aboriginal and upperclassman