Impact of a Culturally-Relevant Support Program and Latinx Adolescents\u27 Help Seeking Services: An Academic-Latinx Community Service Partnership To Enhance Culturally Responsive Services for Latinx Immigrant Youth.

Latinxs, in general, report logistical barriers that contribute to utilizing fewer healthcare services and/or not knowing how to navigate the healthcare system. In addition to underutilizing healthcare services, Latinx immigrant youth also report higher levels of negative attitudes towards mental health. However, little is still known regarding factors that impact these attitudes with Latinx immigrant youth, as well as the community support efforts that are available to this specific group. Using a semi-structured interview on 12 Latinx immigrant youth, this master’s thesis explored: (1) the attitudes towards mental health, (2) attitudes towards mental health services, (3) and the experiences of participating in a local community-based program for Latinx immigrant youth. Results found that most participants (83%) held positive attitudes toward mental health and all participants (100%) described positive attitudes towards mental health services. In addition, all participants reported having positive experiences with a culturally-sensitive youth program that promotes psychological well-being while integrating to the United States and noted that it had benefited them socially, culturally, and psychologically. Given the rise of Latinxs in the U.S., and the stigma surrounding mental health attitudes, it is important to continue to explore this area to better serve Latinx immigrant youth and connect them to mental health services they may need. Also, it is important to have community programs, such as this local youth program, that provide support and meet the needs of Latinx immigrant youth

Effect of pH and level of concentrate in the diet on the production of biohydrogenation intermediates in a dual-flow continuous culture

Milk fat depression in cows fed high-grain diets has been related to an increase in the concentration of trans-10 C-18:1 and trans-10, cis-12 conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in milk. These fatty acids (FA) are produced as a result of the alteration in rumen biohydrogenation of dietary unsaturated FA. Because a reduction in ruminal pH is usually observed when high-concentrate diets are fed, the main cause that determines the alteration in the biohydrogenation pathways is not clear. The effect of pH (6.4 vs. 5.6) and dietary forage to concentrate ratios (F:C; 70:30 F:C vs. 30:70 F:C) on rumen microbial fermentation, effluent FA profile, and DNA concentration of bacteria involved in lipolysis and biohydrogenation processes were investigated in a continuous culture trial. The dual-flow continuous culture consisted of 2 periods of 8 d (5 d for adaptation and 3 d for sampling), with a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement of treatments. Samples from solid and liquid mixed effluents were taken for determination of total N, ammonia-N, and volatile fatty acid concentrations, and the remainder of the sample was lyophilized. Dry samples were analyzed for dry matter, ash, neutral and acid detergent fiber, FA, and purine contents. The pH 5.6 reduced organic matter and fiber digestibility, ammonia-N concentration and flow, and crude protein degradation, and increased nonammonia and dietary N flows. The pH 5.6 decreased the flow of C-18:0, trans-11 C-18:1 and cis-9, trans-11 CLA, and increased the flow of trans-10 C-18:1, C18:2n-6, C18:3n-3, trans-11, cis-15 C-18:2 and trans-10, cis-12 CLA in the 1 h after feeding effluent. The pH 5.6 reduced Anaerovibrio lipolytica (32.7 vs. 72.1 pg/10 ng of total DNA) and Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens vaccenic acid subgroup (588 vs. 1,394 pg/10 ng of total DNA) DNA concentrations. The high-concentrate diet increased organic matter and fiber digestibility, nonammonia and bacterial N flows, and reduced ammonia-N concentration and flow. The high-concentrate diet reduced trans-11 C-18:1 and trans-10 C-18:1, and increased C18:2n-6, C18:3n-3 and trans-10, cis-12 CLA proportions in the 1 h after feeding effluent. The increase observed in trans-10, cis-12 CLA proportion in the 1 h after feeding effluent due to the high-concentrate diet was smaller that that observed at pH 5.6. Results indicate that the pH is the main cause of the accumulation of trans-10 C-18:1 and trans-10, cis-12 CLA in the effluent, but the trans-10, cis-12 CLA proportion can be also affected by high levels of concentrate in the diet

Pile Performance Assessment under Induced Lateral Loading

This research work focuses on determining the internal force distribution in piles from displacement measurements when the piles no longer behave fully elastically. The method is based on the principle of virtual work (unit-load method) and allows the calculation of the bending moment distribution along piles, which is assumed to be the dominant internal force in bending. Four recent case studies were used, focusing either on liquefaction induced loading or on static induced plasticity. Comparison between the observed and calculated bending moments highlighted the method’s flexibility to derive accurate results in various soil conditions, length-size of experiment and load conditions. The method is also equally applicable to piles and to retaining walls. The maximum error between observed and calculated maximum bending moment ranged from 30% to less than 5% whereas the location of the maximum bending moment along the length of the pile was successfully calculated in all tests which stands promising for prediction of plastic hinges. The method can be used as a reliable-rapid tool to estimate the pile state following earthquake loading. This, in turn, can be used as a resilient and vulnerability indicator of the pile ability to resist further loading and continue to perform its function safely

Inelastic collisions in an exactly solvable two-mode Bose-Einstein Condensate

Inelastic collisions occur in Bose-Einstein condensates, in some cases, producing particle loss in the system. Nevertheless, these processes have not been studied in the case when particles do not escape the trap. We show that such inelastic processes are relevant in quantum properties of the system such as the evolution of the relative population, the self trapping effect and the probability distribution of particles. Moreover, including inelastic terms in the model of the two-mode condensate allows for an exact analytical solution. Using this solution, we show that collisions favor the generation of entanglement between the modes of the condensate as long as the collision rate does not exceed the natural frequency of the system

Noise-induced phase transitions: Effects of the noises' statistics and spectrum

The local, uncorrelated multiplicative noises driving a second-order, purely noise-induced, ordering phase transition (NIPT) were assumed to be Gaussian and white in the model of [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{73}, 3395 (1994)]. The potential scientific and technological interest of this phenomenon calls for a study of the effects of the noises' statistics and spectrum. This task is facilitated if these noises are dynamically generated by means of stochastic differential equations (SDE) driven by white noises. One such case is that of Ornstein--Uhlenbeck noises which are stationary, with Gaussian pdf and a variance reduced by the self-correlation time (\tau), and whose effect on the NIPT phase diagram has been studied some time ago. Another such case is when the stationary pdf is a (colored) Tsallis' (q)--\emph{Gaussian} which, being a \emph{fat-tail} distribution for (q>1) and a \emph{compact-support} one for (q<1), allows for a controlled exploration of the effects of the departure from Gaussian statistics. As done before with stochastic resonance and other phenomena, we now exploit this tool to study--within a simple mean-field approximation and with an emphasis on the \emph{order parameter} and the ``\emph{susceptibility}''--the combined effect on NIPT of the noises' statistics and spectrum. Even for relatively small (\tau), it is shown that whereas fat-tail noise distributions ((q>1)) counteract the effect of self-correlation, compact-support ones ((q<1)) enhance it. Also, an interesting effect on the susceptibility is seen in the last case.Comment: 6 pages, 10 figures, uses aipproc.cls, aip-8s.clo and aipxfm.sty. To appear in AIP Conference Proceedings. Invited talk at MEDYFINOL'06 (XV Conference on Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics and Nonlinear Physics

Political Talk, Conversation, Discussion, Debate, or Deliberation? An Interpersonal Political Communication Definition and Typology

Interpersonal communication is at the core of every form of human communication system, and the realm of political communication is no exception. Through interpersonal communication, individuals gain knowledge about the political world, understand the common goals and values of their political system, and learn how to participate in political tasks. As do many other research areas, interpersonal communication research faces numerous challenges. There is a lack of conceptual organization and precision about names and labels such as political talk, political conversation, public dialogue, political dialogue, political discussion, political debate, and political deliberation. Apparently, these expressions refer to the same idea: interpersonal communications that fall into the political realm. However, each term has a diverse epistemological, normative, and theoretical background and represents a different way of conceptualizing this idea. This essay suggests a general definition for interpersonal political communication and a matrix that organizes the existing academic knowledge about this topic

Twitter’s messages during a governor election: abundance of one-way, top-down and auto-referential communications and scarcity of public dialogue

This paper examined how a public dialogue between citizens and politicians was developed on Twitter within an electoral campaign. This study focused on analyzing the messages that circulated on the Twitter accounts of five candidates that ran for governor in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, in 2012. Twitter is one of the most popular social media platforms in the western democracies and recently has been an important communication channel in the political field, especially in electoral periods. The questions this study investigated includes: What is happening within Twitter in electoral competitions? How are the users communicating with the politicians? What kind of public dialogue can be found in these communication processes? These questions were tackled through qualitative textual analysis of messages that circulated through the Twitter accounts of five Mexican politicians that competed in an electoral campaign. The major finding indicates that there was a scarcity of public dialogue on Twitter during Jalisco’s local campaigns. Nevertheless there was evidence of an incipient public dialogue between candidates and citizens within Twitter interactions

¿Charla política, conversación, discusión, debate o deliberación?: Una definición y tipología de la comunicación política interpersonal

Interpersonal communication is at the core of every form of human communication system, and the realm of political communication is no exception. Through interpersonal communication, individuals gain knowledge about the political world, understand the common goals and values of their political system, and learn how to participate in political tasks. As do many other research areas, interpersonal communication research faces numerous challenges. There is a lack of conceptual organization and precision about names and labels such as political talk, political conversation, public dialogue, political dialogue, political discussion, political debate, and political deliberation. Apparently, these expressions refer to the same idea: interpersonal communications that fall into the political realm. However, each term has a diverse epistemological, normative, and theoretical background and represents a different way of conceptualizing this idea. This essay suggests a general definition for interpersonal political communication and a matrix that organizes the existing academic knowledge about this topic.La comunicación interpersonal es central para cualquier sistema de comunicación y el ámbito de la comunicación política no es la excepción. A pesar de la importancia de la comunicación interpersonal, el campo de la comunicación política ha asignado poca importancia al estudio de este tipo de comunicación. Por ello, la investigación sobre comunicación interpersonal enfrenta numerosos desafíos. En específico, existe una falta de organización y, por tanto, de precisión, en la distinción de conceptos como discurso político, conversación política, diálogo público, diálogo político, discusión política, debate político y deliberación política. Aparentemente, estas expresiones se refieren a la misma idea: comunicaciones interpersonales que caen en el ámbito político. Sin embargo, cada término tiene un trasfondo epistemológico, normativo y teórico diverso y representa una forma diferente de conceptualizar esta idea. Este trabajo sugiere una definición general de comunicación política interpersonal y una matriz que organiza la desorganización conceptual previamente mencionada.ITESO, A.C

Representations of Latinos in a Democratic Party Campaign in the United States: Identity Ownership, Narratives, and Values

In the 2016 United States presidential election, candidates Trump and Clinton embraced the demands of certain social groups and in this way, politically and symbolically, chose to “own” the social identities of these groups. Trump decided to attack the Latino community, while Clinton positioned herself as an advocate for this community. This article presents the results of a social narrative analysis of the values that Clinton and her team used to reach out to Latino communities during the 2016 election. The Spanish-language messages produced by the Democratic campaign compose the sample, which includes blog posts, Facebook posts, tweets, and television ads. Clinton’s campaign produced narratives about who the “good Latinos” are and, consequently, the “good immigrants” while at the same time promoting values such as globalism, cosmopolitanism, and multiculturalism. Paradoxically, these narratives and values failed to portray Latinos’ diversity because they left out this community’s historical, social, and cultural complexity.Durante las elecciones presidenciales de 2016 en Estados Unidos, los candidatos Trump y Clinton hicieron suyas las demandas de ciertos grupos sociales; de esta manera, política y simbólicamente se “apropiaron” de las identidades de estos grupos. Trump decidió atacar a la comunidad latina y Clinton se posicionó como defensora de esta comunidad. Este artículo presenta un análisis de las narrativas sociales que Clinton y su equipo utilizaron para comunicarse con las comunidades latinas en 2016. Los mensajes en español de esta campaña componen la muestra, que incluye artículos de blog, publicaciones de Facebook y Twitter, y anuncios de televisión. La campaña produjo narrativas y valores sobre quiénes son los “buenos latinos” y los “buenos inmigrantes”. Además, promovió valores como el globalismo, el cosmopolitismo y el multiculturalismo. Paradójicamente, estas narrativas y valores no lograron retratar la diversidad latina porque dejaron de lado la complejidad histórica, social y cultural de esta comunidad.ITESO, A.C

Stochastic Resonance: influence of a f−κf^{-\kappa} noise spectrum

Here, in order to study \textit{stochastic resonance} (SR) in a double-well potential when the noise source has a spectral density of the form $f^{-\kappa}$ with varying $\kappa$, we have extended a procedure, introduced by Kaulakys et al (Phys. Rev. E \textbf{70}, 020101 (2004)). In order to have an analytical understanding of the results, we have obtained an effective Markovian approximation, that allows us to make a systematic study of the effect of such kind of noises on the SR phenomenon. The comparison of numerical and analytical results shows an excellent qualitative agreement indicating that the effective Markovian approximation is able to correctly describe the general trends.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Euro.Phys.J.