Conversion Theory Through the Cognitive Science of Religion Lense in a Christian-Muslim Context

The Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) in recent years is beginning to become more popular. This project evolves around the development of the field as well as critiques of the field. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of CSR, it lends an interesting way to understand religion as well as religious experiences. One of those religious experiences, conversion, is examined and explored through the use of conversion narratives from western women who were formally Christian but converted to Islam. Many themes arise out of this research that paves the way for trying to understand religious experiences. Overall, the project focuses on interpreting the conversion narratives to gain a better understanding of religious conversions for the sake of anthropology, philosophy, and cognitive psychology

Sociocultural variability in the Latino population: Age patterns and differences in morbidity among older US adults

BACKGROUND—The US Latino population is rapidly aging and becoming increasingly diverse with respect to nativity and national origin. Increased longevity along with medical advancements in treatment have resulted in a higher number of older Latinos living with morbidity. Therefore, there is a need to understand variability in Latino health among older adults. OBJECTIVES—This paper documents mid- and late-life health differences in morbidity by race/ethnicity, nativity, and country of origin among adults aged 50 and older. METHODS—We use data from the 2000–2015 National Health Interview Survey to calculate age-and gender-specific proportions based on reports of five morbidity measures: hypertension, heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes among non-Latino Whites and seven Latino subgroups. RESULTS—The foreign-born from Mexico, Cuba, and Central/South America, regardless of gender, exhibit an immigrant advantage for heart disease and cancer in comparison to non-Latino Whites across all age categories. Conversely, island-born Puerto Ricans are generally characterized with higher levels of morbidity. Similarly, US-born Puerto Ricans and Mexicans exhibit morbidity patterns indicative of their minority status. Latinos, regardless of gender, were more likely to report diabetes than non-Latino Whites. Hypertension and stroke have significant variability in age patterns among US-and foreign-born Latinos. CONCLUSION—Recognizing the importance of within-Latino heterogeneity in health is imperative if researchers are to implement social services and health policies aimed at ameliorating the risk of disease. CONTRIBUTION—Considering intersectional ethnic, nativity, and country-of-origin characteristics among older Latinos is important to better understand the underlying causes of racial/ethnic disparities in morbidity across the life course

Parental Chronic Illness: Current Limitations and Considerations for Future Research

For the past fifty years, researchers investigating the impact of parental chronic illness or disability on the family have consistently noted the limited work in this area. Citations spanning several decades are included here to deliberately underscore this fact. The purpose of this article is to highlight this ongoing limitation, as well as a number of ongoing points of disagreement. To this end, issues of insufficient research, contested methodologies, assumptions of pathology, and the divided nature of existing research will be presented. Concerning the latter, for years, studies have appeared in two contradictory perspectives: those which view the families and children of chronically ill parents as at risk, and those who find these families and children developing normally despite profound, atypical stressors. These points seem mutually exclusive, but with current research it is difficult to determine how or where these distinctions occur

Reducing Disparities in the Burden of Cancer: The Role of Patient Navigators

Many racial and ethnic minority patients with cancer face barriers related to access to health care and information. Patient navigators, say the authors, could help to overcome these barriers

Chemical Abundances in Field Red Giants from High-Resolution H-Band Spectra using the APOGEE Spectral Linelist

High-resolution H-band spectra of five bright field K, M, and MS giants, obtained from the archives of the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS), are analyzed to determine chemical abundances of 16 elements. The abundances were derived via spectrum synthesis using the detailed linelist prepared for the SDSS III Apache Point Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), which is a high-resolution near-infrared spectroscopic survey to derive detailed chemical abundance distributions and precise radial velocities for 100,000 red giants sampling all Galactic stellar populations. Measured chemical abundances include the cosmochemically important isotopes 12C, 13C, 14N, and 16O, along with Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu. A comparison of the abundances derived here with published values for these stars reveals consistent results to ~0.1 dex. The APOGEE spectral region and linelist is, thus, well-suited for probing both Galactic chemical evolution, as well as internal nucleosynthesis and mixing in populations of red giants using high-resolution spectroscopy.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. 42 pages, 12 figure

Plant-microbe eco-evolutionary dynamics in a changing world

Both plants and their associated microbiomes can respond strongly to anthropogenic environmental changes. These responses can be both ecological (e.g. a global change affecting plant demography or microbial community composition) and evolutionary (e.g. a global change altering natural selection on plant or microbial populations). As a result, global changes can catalyse eco-evolutionary feedbacks. Here, we take a plant-focused perspective to discuss how microbes mediate plant ecological responses to global change and how these ecological effects can influence plant evolutionary response to global change. We argue that the strong and functionally important relationships between plants and their associated microbes are particularly likely to result in eco-evolutionary feedbacks when perturbed by global changes and discuss how improved understanding of plant-microbe eco-evolutionary dynamics could inform conservation or even agriculture.</p

Acculturation, Gender, and Active Life Expectancy in the Mexican-Origin Population

Objective—This study examines the potential effects of nativity and acculturation on active life expectancy (ALE) among Mexican-origin elders. Method—We employ 17 years of data from the Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly to calculate ALE at age 65 with and without disabilities. Results—Native-born males and foreign-born females spend a larger fraction of their elderly years with activities of daily living (ADL) disability. Conversely, both foreign-born males and females spend a larger fraction of their remaining years with instrumental activities of daily life (IADL) disability than the native-born. In descriptive analysis, women with low acculturation report higher ADL and IADL disability. Men manifest similar patterns for IADLs. Discussion—Although foreign-born elders live slightly longer lives, they do so with more years spent in a disabled state. Given the rapid aging of the Mexican-origin population, the prevention and treatment of disabilities, particularly among the foreign born, should be a major public health priority

The PROMIS satisfaction with social participation measures demonstrated responsiveness in diverse clinical populations

To conduct a longitudinal evaluation of PROMIS® Social Function measures (Satisfaction with Participation in Social Roles, and Satisfaction with Participation in Discretionary Social Activities) in English-speaking people with chronic health conditions