Queerituality : Reforming What it Means to be a Religious Queer

College settings often place students in a petri dish where they are able to reflect on their innermost identities, values, and how they come to know the world around them. Through intentional efforts, student affairs professionals can create spaces where students are able to explore identities that society often states as being mutually exclusive. There is a body of research to help student affairs practitioners support queer-identified students developmentally (e.g. Cass’ Identity Model, Fassinger’s Model of Gay and Lesbian Identity Development, and D’Augelli’s Model of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Identity Development). The topic of spirituality as it relates to queer students has been under-researched (Buchanan, Dzelme, Harris, & Hecker, 2001; DuMontier, 2000; Love, Bock, Jannarone, & Richardson, 2005; Stevens, 2004). Recent research has emerged providing a model to understand the complexity of multiple dimensions of identity and to infuse meaning-making as a part of identity development (Abes & Jones, 2004; Abes, Jones, & McEwen, 2007; Jones & Abes, 2013; Jones & McEwen, 2000). As we move forward, something to be considered is the way queer students shape their identity in the context of heteronormativity. The present models work well, but fail to understand the student experience in a world where queer students subvert heteronormativity in order to more fully realize their own identity (Abes & Kasch, 2007; Jones & Abes, 2013). In this article the author examines the ways in which queer students reform their queer and religious identities, grounding the discussion in queer theory, and examining the role of queer authorship as a developmental understanding of “queerituality”

Affirmative Action Programs: Is the Sun Setting on Racial Preferences?

Affirmative Action programs originally were meant to create equal opportunities for historically marginalized students across institutions in the post-Civil Rights era (Backes, 2012; Kellough, 2006). Administrators in the United States grapple with the implementation of programs to increase the number of women and students of color into colleges and universities. The legality of these programs are under scrutiny; the Supreme Court heard two cases in 2013 involving affirmative action programs (Jaschik, 2013a). One involved the University of Texas when they denied Abigail Fisher admission in 2008. Another involved the state of Michigan barring state universities and colleges from considering issues such as race or ethnicity in admissions. This article takes a legal standpoint of the development of the Supreme Court’s stance on affirmative action and explores policy implications

ANALYSIS OF FOOD STAMP PROGRAM PARTICIPATION AND FOOD EXPENDITURES

A two equation model is developed to examine jointly the determinants of household food stamp program participation and program effects on food expenditures. The model is unique in that it postulates that the participation decision is based on a cost-benefit ratio, selected socioeconomic characteristics, and the potential for increasing both food and nonfood expenditures. Data from the 1977-78 USDA Nationwide Food Consumption Survey Supplemental Low Income Sample is used to estimate the model. Findings suggest that households, in making the participation decision place equal value on the potential for increasing their food and nonfood expenditures. However, at the margin, bonus stamp income is found to have more than twice the impact of money income on food expenditures. The model's potential for policy analysis is also examined.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

BOX-COX TRANSFORMATIONS AND ERROR TERM SPECIFICATION IN DEMAND MODELS

This paper analyzes the influence of error-term specification and functional form on a quarterly demand model for beef. The Box-Cox transformation is used to generalize the functional form while the equation error term is postulated to be both heteroskedastic and autoregressive. Results indicated that both functional form and error-term specification can play a major role in elasticity estimation, elasticity behavior, and hypothesis testing.Demand and Price Analysis,

AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH TO DEFINING AND ASSESSING POVERTY THRESHOLDS

This paper introduces a new method for defining poverty lines based on an individual' s self-evaluation of the household's present situation. The proposed method focuses on the minimum household income necessary to purchase food supplies evaluated by society to be barely adequate. The method is especially useful for evaluation and comparing poverty thresholds derived from different methods. It is also valuable for comparing the official U.S. poverty guidelines across households of different sizes. The approach can be extended to include estimation of thresholds differentiated by various household characteristics and comparison of thresholds across these characteristics.Food Security and Poverty,

Introducing spatial information into predictive NF-kappa B modelling - an agent-based approach

Nature is governed by local interactions among lower-level sub-units, whether at the cell, organ, organism, or colony level. Adaptive system behaviour emerges via these interactions, which integrate the activity of the sub-units. To understand the system level it is necessary to understand the underlying local interactions. Successful models of local interactions at different levels of biological organisation, including epithelial tissue and ant colonies, have demonstrated the benefits of such 'agent-based' modelling [1-4]. Here we present an agent-based approach to modelling a crucial biological system the intracellular NF-kappa B signalling pathway. The pathway is vital to immune response regulation, and is fundamental to basic survival in a range of species [5-7]. Alterations in pathway regulation underlie a variety of diseases, including atherosclerosis and arthritis. Our modelling of individual molecules, receptors and genes provides a more comprehensive outline of regulatory network mechanisms than previously possible with equation-based approaches [8]. The method also permits consideration of structural parameters in pathway regulation; here we predict that inhibition of NF-kappa B is directly affected by actin filaments of the cytoskeleton sequestering excess inhibitors, therefore regulating steady-state and feedback behaviour

Energy expenditure of “Kinect™” exergaming in schoolchildren

With declining levels of physical activity and increasing body mass indexes recent research has proposed that active video gaming could be a potential tool in the fight against childhood obesity. This study was designed to evaluate the energy and physiological costs of the latest technology of active gaming, Kinect™ for the Xbox360®, in healthy schoolchildren. The hypothesis was that energy expenditure would be significantly greater when children engaged in activity promoting video games using Kinect™ compared to both traditional sedentary video gaming and rest. Energy expenditure, heart rate and oxygen consumption were measured in 18 healthy schoolchildren (10 boys and 8 girls) aged 11 to 15 years during rest, whilst playing a traditional non-active video game and also whilst playing two activity promoting Kinect™ video games. Participants played each game for 15 minutes in a fixed order and measurements were made by indirect calorimetry using the Cosmed K4 b² metabolic cart. Repeated measurement mixed-model analysis was conducted to compare the physiological costs and energy expenditures across conditions with multiple post hoc comparisons. Mean heart rates, oxygen and energy costs all increased significantly (p < .05) during activity promoting video game play compared to rest and sedentary gaming. Mean heart rate increased by 53% above rest (77.4 ± 14.6 bpm) during a dance simulation game (118.3 ± 17.8 bpm) and by 70% during a boxing game (131.3 ± 15.3 bpm). Mean energy expenditures of 3.00 ± 1.03 kcal•min–1 and 4.35 ± 1.55 kcal•min–1 were demonstrated during “Dance Central” and “Kinect Sports Boxing”, 150% and 263% greater than resting values (1.20 ± 0.25 kcal•min–1) and 103% and 194% higher than during sedentary gaming (1.48 ± 0.33 kcal•min–1). Activity levels of 2.91 and 4.02 child-specific METs were achieved when playing the Kinect™ dance and boxing game. Active gaming using Kinect™ on the Xbox360® significantly increased energy expenditure compared to rest and almost tripled when compared to traditional sedentary gaming. In our sample, Kinect™ active gaming expended up to the equivalent of 261 kcal•h–1, 172 kcal•h–1greater than sedentary gaming. Such expenditure could potentially help bridge the ‘energy gap’ that is thought to be responsible for the increasing incidence of obesity seen in children and adolescents

INFORMATIONAL EFFECTS OF NUTRIENT INTAKE DETERMINANTS ON CHOLESTEROL CONSUMPTION

Nutrient information and dietary data for a sample of U.S. household meal planners are used to estimate the direct and indirect effects of various dietary determinants on cholesterol intake. Holding sociodemographic and household characteristics constant, greater nutrition information translates to significantly lower intake of dietary cholesterol. Evidence supports the hypothesis that schooling promotes better health behavior through greater acquisition and use of health information. Blacks and Hispanics stand to benefit from nutrition education programs to increase their awareness of diet-health relationship. A low-calorie diet decreases the intake of cholesterol more than a low-fat diet.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

An investigation of the visual sampling behaviour of human observers

Visual sampling behavior of human observers for aerospace vehicle design application

USDA's Healthy Eating Index and Nutrition Information

A comprehensive model is developed to measure the extent that nutrition knowledge and diet-health awareness, among other factors, influence an individual's Healthy Eating Index (HEI), USDA's measure of overall diet quality. This is the first study that rigorously attempts to examine variation in the index across population groups by controlling for personal and household characteristics and nutrition information levels, as well as test for the endogeneity of nutrition information. Results indicate that one's level of nutrition information has an important influence on one's HEI and that nutrition information and the HEI are simultaneously determined. Other factors explaining variations in HEI's across individuals are income and education levels, race, ethnicity, and age. Evidence supports the hypothesis that higher education promotes more healthful food choices through better acquisition and use of health information.diet quality, Healthy Eating Index, nutrient demand, nutrition knowledge, health inputs, health production, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,