Dangerous Liminalities, Constructed Criminalities: A Comparative Analysis of Urban and Suburban/Rural Youth Violence Narratives

Humanities: 1st Place (The Ohio State University Edward F. Hayes Graduate Research Forum)Throughout the 1990s in the United States, a series of suburban school shootings perpetrated by young, white males disrupted contemporary perceptions of American youth, often a population configured in terms of ideal whiteness. While scholars from a variety of disciplines have expressed an interest in the ways in which the media portrays real life violence and offered critiques of portrayals of race and gender as homogenously white and male, there is scant analysis of fictional accounts of school shootings and school violence despite the increasing availability of these narratives across broad audiences. Following the numerous school shootings throughout the 1990s, several films, adult and young adult novels, television episodes, memoirs, and a variety of non-fiction texts emerged as forms of social commentary on school violence. Each of these representations focuses on adolescent protagonists who experience or perpetrate school violence in suburban or rural settings (i.e. primarily white locations). The central research question of this paper asks: if the media have a specific role and purpose in sensationalizing crime and violence, what then is the specific role and purpose of the fictional narratives that also emerge in response to the social and political anxieties concerning white youth violence? The very presence of these fictional representations suggests the question of their cultural work and what their portrayals signify as a grouping of narratives. Despite the decreasing numbers of homicides perpetrated by youth and committed against youth on school grounds in the last two decades, popular cultural portrayals of youth violence in schools have increased exponentially during this time. Interestingly, previous to the year 2000, the majority of school violence novels, films, and television representations featured youth of color in narratives that focused on gang violence and encouraged the pursuit of education to escape dangerous neighborhoods. Post-2000, however, there has been a rise in "rampage" shooting representations with numerous novels, television episodes, films, and young adult novels portraying white males shooting classmates and teachers in suburban and rural areas. These post-2000 representations continue through the present with the most recent being a 2009 film, April Showers, written and directed by Andrew Robinson, a survivor of the Columbine High School Massacre. In these fictional portrayals of youth violence, male perpetrators are frequently characterized in connection to their racial identities, resulting in racially disparate narratives that frame youth of color as engaging in a "culture of violence" that is both inevitable and directly tied to their race and community, whereas white youth perpetrators are labeled as "evil" or as psychologically disturbed and are thus disconnected from their race and set apart from their communities. While urban violence is assumed to be endemic and can thus only be eradicated through incarceration, the importance of explaining away white youth violence is central to the anxieties that proliferate in response to rampage school violence. I argue in this paper that these representations have direct implications for the ways in which youth are either characterized as American citizens or denied a citizenship identity based on their actions and the actions of those around them; these narratives communicate particular messages regarding who is a threat to democracy and who can be educated to be a harmless and productive citizen. To further contextualize the similarities and differences between these racially segregated sub-genres of education narratives that focus on youth violence, in this paper I offer a short literature review of the scholarship surrounding popular culture representations of minority youth in urban settings in order to contextualize post-2000 white youth violence narratives within already present narratives of youth violence. Following this discussion, I propose a comparative taxonomy of urban and suburban/rural education representations as a tool to categorize youth violence narratives as well as attempt to understand these narrative sub-genres as historically, politically, and socially embedded. I then utilize this taxonomy to categorize over 50 youth violence narratives ranging from 1955-2009. I conclude my paper with an application of this taxonomy that places two representative film narratives, the urban school violence film, 187 (1997), and the suburban/rural school violence film Elephant (2003), in conversation with one another through an analysis of the films themselves in addition to in-depth reception studies. Scholars have claimed that narratives of adolescence engage adult audiences specifically through their messages about the future of society, but the repeated portrayals of deviant youth in narratives of school violence imply an inability to understand where youth belong in larger society. The narratives in my study illustrate that when white crime occurs among youth through violence, the innocence of youth and whiteness are both called into question, bringing about what scholars across disciplines have described as a "moral panic." A cultural paranoia grows out of rampage shootings, in part, because the potential victimhood that whites fear within urban areas has transitioned to white schools and suburban settings. Indeed, the moral panic that results from rampage violence in white, suburban and rural areas can find its foundation in the cultural and political anxieties surrounding perceptions of urban juvenile crime in the 1980s and 1990s. In order to offer reassurance to white audiences, fictional narratives of youth violence that reference real-life violent acts must provide justifications and explanations for white violence that is framed as unexpected and shocking. Thus, those who can reframe and explain rampage violence perpetrated by white youth hold the power of reclaiming the innocence of youth, whiteness, and, most importantly, white youth.A five-year embargo was granted for this item

SoTL and the Institutional Review Board: Considerations before navigating the application process for classroom research in higher education

One of the more challenging areas of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research can be navigating the components of human subjects research protections implemented by the Institutional Review Board (IRB). The authors of this article, a faculty developer and a current and former research compliance coordinator, discuss the history of IRB in relation to SoTL research and explicate some of the foundational components of IRB protocols for SoTL projects. In particular, the authors explore what constitutes “research” for SoTL projects, explain the different IRB types of review, and offer some sample SoTL projects with respect to their IRB implications

Physician Executive Leadership: Student-Led Curriculum to Fill Gaps in Traditional Medical Education

Students at Sidney Kimmel Medical College (SKMC) have identified a gap in the traditional medical curriculum surrounding topics such as telehealth, the patient experience, health policy, medical malpractice, and health care entrepreneurship and innovation, and in response have initiated a student-centered, student-led, student-driven program called Physician Executive Leadership (PEL). PEL provides students with a variety of avenues to engage with these topics, such as lectures from leaders in each of these fields, easy access to weekly news articles on current events in health care, targeted review sessions on the US health care system, and the opportunity to voice and develop ideas through an online publication. To identify the gaps in medical education PEL is best suited to fill, we administered a survey to 174 students at Sidney Kimmel Medical College.The survey contained 20 multiple-choice questions to assess general knowledge on health insurance and reimbursement, health care policy and reform, and care quality and patient experience. It also included a subjective self-assessment of students’ understanding of and interest in these topics. Overall, we found that although the traditional medical school curriculum improved students\u27 understanding of these topics from year to year, it is not sufficient on it\u27s own: on average, students failed to achieve a passing score of 70% in any of the categories tested. Further illustrating the importance of this program, students self-identified a gap between their current level of understanding and what they want to know. Please visit our website www.physicianexecutiveleadership.com to learn more!https://jdc.jefferson.edu/pel/1000/thumbnail.jp

Repairing a Damaged Powered Air-Purifying Respirator (PAPR) Battery Component Component with 3-D Printing

A team from the Thomas Jefferson University Health Design Lab worked with local engineers at FKB to create a 3-D replacement model for the faulty component A new component was designed to function with existing battery components The new component was created using a desktop fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3-D printer with polylactic acid (PLA) filamen

Maintaining Powered Air-Purifying Respirator (PAPR) Supply through Repair of Damaged Hose Units by 3D Printing

What’s the Problem? Powered air-purifying respirators (PAPRs) are a type of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that serves an essential line of defense against the spread of COVID-19 and other airborne pathogens. Demand for PAPRs are at a premium during a time where supply chains have been disrupted. The hose component of the 3M™ Air-Mate™ PAPR has a fragile interface with the hood, leading to damage and rendering the PAPR unit unsafe for continued use. PAPR units are on backorder, as are their components. Given the acute need for functional PAPRs other approaches for repair were explored

An assessment of emotional intelligence in emergency medicine resident physicians.

OBJECTIVES: To define the emotional intelligence (EI) profile of emergency medicine (EM) residents, and identify resident EI strengths and weaknesses. METHODS: First-, second-, and third-year residents (post-graduate years [PGY] 1, 2, and 3, respectively) of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital\u27s EM Program completed the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i 2.0), a validated instrument offered by Multi-Health Systems. Reported scores included total mean EI, 5 composite scores, and 15 subscales of EI. Scores are reported as means with 95% CIs. The unpaired, two-sample t-test was used to evaluate differences in means. RESULTS: Thirty-five residents completed the assessment (response rate 97.2%). Scores were normed to the general population (mean 100, SD 15). Total mean EI for the cohort was 103 (95%CI,100-108). EI was higher in female (107) than male (101) residents. PGY-2s demonstrated the lowest mean EI (95) versus PGY-1s (104) and PGY-3s (110). The difference in PGY-3 EI (110; 95%CI,103-116) and PGY-1 EI (95, 95%CI,87-104) was statistically significant (unpaired t-test, p CONCLUSIONS: The EQ-i offers insight into training that may assist in developing EM residents, specifically in self-regard, assertiveness, and self-expression. Further study is required to ascertain if patterns in level of training are idiosyncratic or relate to the natural maturation of residents

An assessment of emotional intelligence in emergency medicine resident physicians.

Objectives: To define the emotional intelligence (EI) profile of emergency medicine (EM) residents, and identify resident EI strengths and weaknesses. Methods: First-, second-, and third-year residents (post-graduate years [PGY] 1, 2, and 3, respectively) of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital\u27s EM Program completed the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i 2.0), a validated instrument offered by Multi-Health Systems. Reported scores included total mean EI, 5 composite scores, and 15 subscales of EI. Scores are reported as means with 95% CIs. The unpaired, two-sample t-test was used to evaluate differences in means. Results: Thirty-five residents completed the assessment (response rate 97.2%). Scores were normed to the general population (mean 100, SD 15). Total mean EI for the cohort was 103 (95%CI,100- 108). EI was higher in female (107) than male (101) residents. PGY-2s demonstrated the lowest mean EI (95) versus PGY-1s (104) and PGY-3s (110). The difference in PGY-3 EI (110; 95%CI,103-116) and PGY-1 EI (95, 95%CI,87-104) was statistically significant (unpaired t-test, p\u3c0.01). Highest composite scores were in interpersonal skills (107; 95%CI,100 -108) and stress management (105; 95%CI,101-109). Subscale cohort strengths included self-actualization (107); empathy (107); interpersonal relationships (106); impulse control (106); and stress tolerance (106). Lowest subscale score was in assertiveness (98). Self-regard (89), assertiveness (88), and independence (90) were areas in which PGY -2s attained relatively lower scores (unpaired t-test, p\u3c0.05) compared to their peers and the general population. PGY-3’s scored highest in nearly all subscales. Conclusions: The EQ-i offers insight into training that may assist in developing EM residents, specifically in self-regard, assertiveness, and self-expression. Further study is required to ascertain if patterns in level of training are idiosyncratic or relate to the natural maturation of residents

Recovering Protein-Protein and Domain-Domain Interactions from Aggregation of IP-MS Proteomics of Coregulator Complexes

Coregulator proteins (CoRegs) are part of multi-protein complexes that transiently assemble with transcription factors and chromatin modifiers to regulate gene expression. In this study we analyzed data from 3,290 immuno-precipitations (IP) followed by mass spectrometry (MS) applied to human cell lines aimed at identifying CoRegs complexes. Using the semi-quantitative spectral counts, we scored binary protein-protein and domain-domain associations with several equations. Unlike previous applications, our methods scored prey-prey protein-protein interactions regardless of the baits used. We also predicted domain-domain interactions underlying predicted protein-protein interactions. The quality of predicted protein-protein and domain-domain interactions was evaluated using known binary interactions from the literature, whereas one protein-protein interaction, between STRN and CTTNBP2NL, was validated experimentally; and one domain-domain interaction, between the HEAT domain of PPP2R1A and the Pkinase domain of STK25, was validated using molecular docking simulations. The scoring schemes presented here recovered known, and predicted many new, complexes, protein-protein, and domain-domain interactions. The networks that resulted from the predictions are provided as a web-based interactive application at http://maayanlab.net/HT-IP-MS-2-PPI-DDI/

CCNE1 and survival of patients with tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma: An Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis consortium study

BACKGROUND: Cyclin E1 (CCNE1) is a potential predictive marker and therapeutic target in tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC). Smaller studies have revealed unfavorable associations for CCNE1 amplification and CCNE1 overexpression with survival, but to date no large-scale, histotype-specific validation has been performed. The hypothesis was that high-level amplification of CCNE1 and CCNE1 overexpression, as well as a combination of the two, are linked to shorter overall survival in HGSC. METHODS: Within the Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis consortium, amplification status and protein level in 3029 HGSC cases and mRNA expression in 2419 samples were investigated. RESULTS: High-level amplification (>8 copies by chromogenic in situ hybridization) was found in 8.6% of HGSC and overexpression (>60% with at least 5% demonstrating strong intensity by immunohistochemistry) was found in 22.4%. CCNE1 high-level amplification and overexpression both were linked to shorter overall survival in multivariate survival analysis adjusted for age and stage, with hazard stratification by study (hazard ratio [HR], 1.26; 95% CI, 1.08-1.47, p = .034, and HR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.05-1.32, p = .015, respectively). This was also true for cases with combined high-level amplification/overexpression (HR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.09-1.47, p = .033). CCNE1 mRNA expression was not associated with overall survival (HR, 1.00 per 1-SD increase; 95% CI, 0.94-1.06; p = .58). CCNE1 high-level amplification is mutually exclusive with the presence of germline BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants and shows an inverse association to RB1 loss. CONCLUSION: This study provides large-scale validation that CCNE1 high-level amplification is associated with shorter survival, supporting its utility as a prognostic biomarker in HGSC

Genetic effects on gene expression across human tissues

Characterization of the molecular function of the human genome and its variation across individuals is essential for identifying the cellular mechanisms that underlie human genetic traits and diseases. The Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project aims to characterize variation in gene expression levels across individuals and diverse tissues of the human body, many of which are not easily accessible. Here we describe genetic effects on gene expression levels across 44 human tissues. We find that local genetic variation affects gene expression levels for the majority of genes, and we further identify inter-chromosomal genetic effects for 93 genes and 112 loci. On the basis of the identified genetic effects, we characterize patterns of tissue specificity, compare local and distal effects, and evaluate the functional properties of the genetic effects. We also demonstrate that multi-tissue, multi-individual data can be used to identify genes and pathways affected by human disease-associated variation, enabling a mechanistic interpretation of gene regulation and the genetic basis of diseas