Looking Outward: Archival Research as Community Engagement

This article examines archival research as a generative community literacy practice. Through the example of a community-based project centered on archival research, I examine the increased possibility the archives hold as a site for rhetorical invention based on collaboration that includes contemporary community members and the recovered rhetoric of historical figures. I argue that archival research as community literacy practice creates conditions for a communal form of literacy sponsorship and offer a framework for approaching the archives

The Revenues-Expenditures Nexus: Evidence from Local Government Data

This paper examines the intertemporal linkages between local government expenditures and revenues. In the terminology that has become standard in the literature on vector autoregression analysis, the issue is whether revenues Granger-cause expenditures, or expenditures Granger-cause revenues. The main results that emerge from an analysis of fiscal data from 171 municipal governments over the period 1972-1980 are that: 1) one or two years are sufficient to summarize the relevant dynamic interrelationships; 2) there are important intertemporal linkages between expenditures, taxes and grants; and 3) past revenues help predict current expenditures, but past expenditures do not alter the future path of revenues. This last finding is contrary to results that have emerged from previous analyses of federal fiscal data, and hence suggests the need for additional research on the differences in the processes generating local and federal decisions.

Towards a (Truly) Anti-Racist Writing Center

Anti-racist writing center research is a recent and critical field of study; however, in practice, it is often trivialized and used in antithetical ways. My research argues anti-racist practice should be one of the primary concerns of a writing center. Further, my research addresses a gap in anti-racist approaches by incorporating emotional labor research to identify the ways in which marginalized consultants are expected to perform emotional labor in the space. I analyze non-consensual or involuntary emotional labor, and how it contributes to burnout, isolation, and lack of job satisfaction for consultants of color and other marginalized communities. I use previous scholarship on emotional labor as well as my own experiences as a consultant of color in order to examine what strategies can be used to interrupt the practice of involuntary emotional labor and create a truly anti-racist center

Shared Landscapes, Contested Borders: Locating Disciplinarity in an MA Program Revision

It is not unusual to consider a discipline spatially as a space defined or touched by a particular characteristic or force (Wardle and Downs, this collection, emphasis added). This conceptualization makes visible the metaphor at play here: territories are demarcated and differentiated from neighboring environments by borders that can be more or less visible. In this chapter, we use our experience as faculty members invested in a substantive revision of an MA program revision to explore how that process of delineation opens up new questions about disciplinarity. We sought to create a generous curricular space within an MA degree, one that accounted for our own disciplinary expertise, the needs and interests of our students, and the vision of our university. As we did so, we were also constructing a curricular map of what Rhetoric and Composition looks like in the locus of situated, locally responsive, socially productive, problem-oriented knowledge production that MA-granting institutions might provide (Vandenberg and Clary-Lemon 2010, 258)

Spatial and temporal variability in the δ18Ow and salinity compositions of Gulf of Maine coastal surface waters

Hydrographic variability and dynamics in the Gulf of Maine are examined through the investigation of δ18Ow and salinity properties of coastal surface waters. Data from Gulf of Maine waters sampled over a decade, from 2003 to 2015, including a suite of samples that were collected monthly from April 2014 to March 2015, are presented. These water samples fall on a mixing line between Maine River Water (MRW) and Scotian Shelf Water (SSW). However, slope waters likely also contribute to these surface waters. The seasonal variability in water samples collected during 2014 and 2015 indicates the strong influence of river runoff on coastal Gulf of Maine surface water properties. The coastal surface Gulf of Maine mixing line presented in this paper is a needed baseline for reconstructing hydrographic variability in bicarbonates using oxygen isotopes

The Cultivation Approach to Place-Based Philanthropy: Evaluation Findings from the Clinton Foundation’s Community Health Transformation Initiative

Cultivation is a decentralized approach to place-based philanthropy where the foundation seeks to activate local stakeholders and assist them in translating their ideas into action. Rather than convening a strategic planning process, cultivation presumes that the seeds of high-payoff solutions are already circulating somewhere in the community. The foundation’s role is to support local stakeholders in developing and implementing their own ideas in ways that produce meaningful impacts. This article describes the cultivation approaches taken by the Clinton Foundation, Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, and The Colorado Health Foundation, and presents findings from an evaluation of the Clinton Foundation’s Community Health Transformation model. Building on the results of this evaluation and our experience with all three foundations, we assess the potential of the cultivation approach and indicate how it complements collective impact. We also introduce a taxonomy of the six roles foundations play in place-based philanthropy, which is useful in clarifying intent and theory of change

Evolution of an ancient protein function involved in organized multicellularity in animals.

To form and maintain organized tissues, multicellular organisms orient their mitotic spindles relative to neighboring cells. A molecular complex scaffolded by the GK protein-interaction domain (GKPID) mediates spindle orientation in diverse animal taxa by linking microtubule motor proteins to a marker protein on the cell cortex localized by external cues. Here we illuminate how this complex evolved and commandeered control of spindle orientation from a more ancient mechanism. The complex was assembled through a series of molecular exploitation events, one of which - the evolution of GKPID's capacity to bind the cortical marker protein - can be recapitulated by reintroducing a single historical substitution into the reconstructed ancestral GKPID. This change revealed and repurposed an ancient molecular surface that previously had a radically different function. We show how the physical simplicity of this binding interface enabled the evolution of a new protein function now essential to the biological complexity of many animals

Dual Task Costs of Oral Reading for Young versus Older Adults

A digital pursuit rotor was used to monitor oral reading costs by time-locking tracking performance to the auditory wave form produced as young and older adults were reading out short paragraphs. Multilevel modeling was used to determine how paragraph-level predictors of length, grammatical complexity, and readability and person-level predictors such as speaker age or working memory capacity predicted reading and tracking performance. In addition, sentence-by-sentence variation in tracking performance was examined during the production of individual sentences and during the pauses before upcoming sentences. The results suggest that dual tasking has a greater impact on older adults’ reading comprehension and tracking performance. At the level of individual sentences, young and older adults adopt different strategies to deal with grammatically complex and propositionally dense sentences

Association of combination statin and antihypertensive therapy with reduced Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia risk

Background Hyperlipidemia and hypertension are modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD). Approximately 25% of adults over age 65 use both antihypertensives (AHTs) and statins for these conditions. While a growing body of evidence found statins and AHTs are independently associated with lower ADRD risk, no evidence exists on simultaneous use for different drug class combinations and ADRD risk. Our primary objective was to compare ADRD risk associated with concurrent use of different combinations of statins and antihypertensives. Methods In a retrospective cohort study (2007-2014), we analyzed 694,672 Medicare beneficiaries in the United States (2,017,786 person-years) who concurrently used both statins and AHTs. Using logistic regression adjusting for age, socioeconomic status and comorbidities, we quantified incident ADRD diagnosis associated with concurrent use of different statin molecules (atorvastatin, pravastatin, rosuvastatin, and simvastatin) and AHT drug classes (two renin-angiotensin system (RAS)-acting AHTs, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) or angiotensin-II receptor blockers (ARBs), vs non-RAS-acting AHTs). Findings Pravastatin or rosuvastatin combined with RAS-acting AHTs reduce risk of ADRD relative to any statin combined with non-RAS-acting AHTs: ACEI+pravastatin odds ratio (OR) = 0.942 (CI: 0.899-0.986, p = 0.011), ACEI+rosuvastatin OR = 0.841 (CI: 0.794-0.892, p< 0.001), ARB+pravastatin OR = 0.794 (CI: 0.748-0.843, p< 0.001), ARB+rosuvastatin OR = 0.818 (CI: 0.765-0.874, p< 0.001). ARBs combined with atorvastatin and simvastatin are associated with smaller reductions in risk, and ACEI with no risk reduction, compared to when combined with pravastatin or rosuvastatin. Among Hispanics, no combination of statins and RAS-acting AHTs reduces risk relative to combinations of statins and non-RAS-acting AHTs. Among blacks using ACEI+rosuvastatin, ADRD odds were 33% lower compared to blacks using other statins combined with non-RAS-acting AHTs (OR = 0.672 (CI: 0.5480.825, p<0.001)). Conclusion Among older Americans, use of pravastatin and rosuvastatin to treat hyperlipidemia is less common than use of simvastatin and atorvastatin, however, in combination with RAS-acting AHTs, particularly ARBs, they may be more effective at reducing risk of ADRD. The number of Americans with ADRD may be reduced with drug treatments for vascular health that also confer effects on ADRD.Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]