The roots of black studies

The plight of the "desegregated Negro" serves as a perfect metaphor for the development of Black Studies in the United States. Histories of Black Studies often view its development as emerging from the Black Power Movement with no link to the Civil Rights Movement. Some of the new spaces, called Black Studies, began to challenge the legitimacy of the dominant culture. In the seven-year period from 1968 to 1975, over 500 academic units began offering a Bachelor's degree in Black Studies. The differences between white and black student activists are dramatically illustrated in events at the University of California at Berkeley. In April 1960, the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee was born, significantly changing the modern Civil Rights Movement. When the students fought for Black Studies at colleges and universities across the country their purpose was the same as that of the teachers in the Freedom Schools

Are there gender differences in perceived sexual self-efficacy among African-American adolescents?

Background: African American adolescents accounted for more than half of all HIV/AIDS cases in 2009. Behavioral Strategies are needed to help lessen the incidence of HIV/AIDS among this population. Purpose: The aim of his study was to examine sexual self-efficacy practices and beliefs among African American adolescents. We also examined gender differences between African American adolescents to better understand their perceptions of sexual self-efficacy, condom use intention, and other safer sex practices and beliefs. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 214 African American adolescents using survey instruments to examine their beliefs, perception and intentions on the use of condoms, sexual self-efficacy and safe sex practices. Participants were recruited though a mass media campaign and local youth serving organizations within Sedgwick County, KS. Results: Our findings indicate significant differences exist between genders in perception of sexual self-efficacy among African American adolescents. Females were found to have higher perceived sexual self-efficacy compared to males. Having high negotiation skills and a sexual partner who approved of condom use were significant predictors for high perceived sexual self-efficacy. Conclusions: African American adolescent females were more likely to have higher perceived sexual self-efficacy then African American male adolescents. Because of the dynamics that exist in male and female relationships and the mediating role sexual self-efficacy might play in engaging in safe sex practices, it is important to design gender specific interventions in order to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS and other STDS/STI’s

Identification of Novel Methane-, Ethane-, and Propane-Oxidizing Bacteria at Marine Hydrocarbon Seeps by Stable Isotope Probing

Marine hydrocarbon seeps supply oil and gas to microorganisms in sediments and overlying water. We used stable isotope probing (SIP) to identify aerobic bacteria oxidizing gaseous hydrocarbons in surface sediment from the Coal Oil Point seep field located offshore of Santa Barbara, California. After incubating sediment with ^(13)C-labeled methane, ethane, or propane, we confirmed the incorporation of ^(13)C into fatty acids and DNA. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis and sequencing of the 16S rRNA and particulate methane monooxygenase (pmoA) genes in ^(13)C-DNA revealed groups of microbes not previously thought to contribute to methane, ethane, or propane oxidation. First, ^(13)C methane was primarily assimilated by Gammaproteobacteria species from the family Methylococcaceae, Gammaproteobacteria related to Methylophaga, and Betaproteobacteria from the family Methylophilaceae. Species of the latter two genera have not been previously shown to oxidize methane and may have been cross-feeding on methanol, but species of both genera were heavily labeled after just 3 days. pmoA sequences were affiliated with species of Methylococcaceae, but most were not closely related to cultured methanotrophs. Second, ^(13)C ethane was consumed by members of a novel group of Methylococcaceae. Growth with ethane as the major carbon source has not previously been observed in members of the Methylococcaceae; a highly divergent pmoA-like gene detected in the ^(13)C-labeled DNA may encode an ethane monooxygenase. Third, ^(13)C propane was consumed by members of a group of unclassified Gammaproteobacteria species not previously linked to propane oxidation. This study identifies several bacterial lineages as participants in the oxidation of gaseous hydrocarbons in marine seeps and supports the idea of an alternate function for some pmoA-like genes

The retirement experiences of former elite female netball players

Research to date on retirement from sport has been dominated by the study of United States, male, collegiate sports. Studies within Australia, which has a substantially different community based sport system, are just commencing. This study provided an insight into retirement from sport as it was experienced by former Western Australian elite female netball players. Using a qualitative interpretive approach a three stage interview process was employed to capture the individual experiences of each of the 15 participants. The interviewees were also asked to recommend interventions or strategies that netball associations could employ to assist players in their transition out of elite netball. Inductive analysis of the data revealed three factors experienced by the athletes retiring from elite netball: (a) it was an individual experience; (b) it was a transition which included a phase of assimilation; and (c) the athlete identity remained after retirement. Schlossberg\u27s (1984) Model of the Individual in Transition was used to guide the study and analise the findings of this study. Nine strategies for implementation by the Netball Associations and players are provided

Participation in Youth Running Events: The Role of Parental Involvement and Satisfaction

An increasing number of running events are being targeted to youth and are adding to the growing road racing industry. Offering running events for children along with a lineup of races ranging from 5K runs to marathons for adults is a way for race organizers to expand their businesses, increase economic impact in their communities and meet the needs of the entire family. In addition to economic benefits, there are other benefits associated with running events for youth. Community running events provide one potential intervention to counter rising childhood obesity rates by increasing the levels of physical activity for youth. Parents are seen as important agents in the socialization processes that shape and influence youth physical activity decisions. Most sport participation decisions for youth are ultimately made by parents and because parents play a crucial role in the consumer decisions and activity choices of their children, this study focused on an investigation of parental factors influencing participation of children in youth running events. The purpose of this study was to examine parental involvement, satisfaction and behavioral intentions associated with a youth running event. Specifically, this study sought to determine if the level of parental involvement and satisfaction with a youth running event predicted behavioral intentions for their child’s future participation in running events. Additionally, the effects of parent gender and parent running status were explored. A sample of 366 parents of children who participated in a prominent children’s community running event was used to investigate the influence of parental involvement and satisfaction on behavioral intentions for their child to participate in future running events. The measurement scale for involvement included both an affective and a cognitive subscale. Using multiple linear regression to analyze the data, the overall model was found to be significant (F(3, 326) = 41.733, p \u3c .001), explaining 28% of the variance in behavioral intentions. Results indicated positive relationships between all independent variables (i.e., affective involvement, cognitive involvement and satisfaction) and the dependent variable of behavioral intentions. When comparing the model by gender, parental involvement and satisfaction were significant for female respondents whereas only satisfaction was significant for male respondents. When comparing the model by runner status, parental involvement and satisfaction were significant for parents who were runners; however, satisfaction was the only variable significant for parents who were non-runners. In all of the models, satisfaction was the strongest predictor of behavioral intentions. Based on these results, it is recommended that road race organizers market youth events to parents, particularly mothers. Marketing efforts should focus on ensuring parental satisfaction and include elements to make the event seem relevant and exciting to increase parental involvement and subsequent participation of children in future running events

The effect of video games on family communication and interaction

This study examined the effect of video games on communication and interaction between participants and their family members. These variables were measured using an online survey derived from the Family Communication Scale, the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, and the Anderson Video Game Questionnaire. A total of 480 18-year-old college students were recruited via email to complete the survey. Correlational and regression analyses revealed a significant negative relationship between the total amount of time an individual spent playing video games and the amount of parent communication and sibling communication. However, the relationship between video game usage and interaction with parents or siblings was not significant. A Chi-Square analysis revealed a significant difference in the type of games preferred by males and females, and indicated that males play more frequently than females

“Sing About Me”: Social Media Memorial and Inventory Form

Music is oftentimes where and how people live. It’s a dynamic experience of performance and reception that requires vigor, from the breath and muscle twitch of the singers and/or musicians to the hearing and processing of those melodies by the receiver. Music, then, is the perfect technology through which blackness is animated, even that of those presumed dead and gone. Songs of tribute for the deceased, including Nina Simone’s “Why? (The King of Love is Dead)” and, more recently, “Trayvon” by Pittsburgh emcee Jasiri X, are sonic memorials intended as life support for the memories and visions of loved ones as well as hopes of and for communities who face ongoing structural and physical brutalities. Some of the latest incarnations of this musical strategy are directly influenced by contemporary protest technologies. Musicians have picked up on and expanded upon the labors of social media, which have turned the changing same of state violence into rallying cries delivered in 140 characters or less, hashtags, and memes. Music as a method of communication, organization, and vision is meeting the call again from insurgent communities for new narratives and representations of the many people gone. In the transition from personal phone to globally-accessible social media, these events are amplified, drawing attention, gasps, outrage, studies, and curricula through the hashtags that organize them in public consciousness. Through the multisensory liveness of video, with its dramatic scenes and sounds, we might begin to hear another metamorphosis from the event to the video to the hashtag and back into an alternative sonic experience. The epistemo-archival impulse that energizes Black Twitter—the urgent need to reveal, to document, to record—has continued offline in an effort to collate and reanimate the women and men condensed in social media by technological necessity. Unbound by word count, contemporary Black musicians translate IP addresses into time signatures in order to organize the “noise” of the Twitterverse into a unique repertoire of continued debate and rebellion

New constraints on dark matter production during kination

Our ignorance of the period between the end of inflation and the beginning of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis limits our understanding of the origins and evolution of dark matter. One possibility is that the Universe's energy density was dominated by a fast-rolling scalar field while the radiation bath was hot enough to thermally produce dark matter. We investigate the evolution of the dark matter density and derive analytic expressions for the dark matter relic abundance generated during such a period of kination. Kination scenarios in which dark matter does not reach thermal equilibrium require $\langle \sigma v \rangle < 2.7\times 10^{-38} \,\mathrm{cm^3\,s^{-1}}$ to generate the observed dark matter density while allowing the Universe to become radiation dominated by a temperature of $3 \, \mathrm{MeV}$. Kination scenarios in which dark matter does reach thermal equilibrium require $\langle \sigma v \rangle > 3\times 10^{-26} \,\mathrm{cm^3\,s^{-1}}$ in order to generate the observed dark matter abundance. We use observations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Telescope and observations of the Galactic Center by the High Energy Stereoscopic System to constrain these kination scenarios. Combining the unitarity constraint on $\langle \sigma v \rangle$ with these observational constraints sets a lower limit on the temperature at which the Universe can become radiation dominated following a period of kination if ${\langle \sigma v \rangle > 3\times 10^{-31} \,\mathrm{cm^3\,s^{-1}}}$. This lower limit is between ${0.05 \, \mathrm{GeV}}$ and ${1 \, \mathrm{GeV}}$, depending on the dark matter annihilation channel.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure

Forest cover estimation in Ireland using radar remote sensing: a comparative analysis of forest cover assessment methodologies

Quantification of spatial and temporal changes in forest cover is an essential component of forest monitoring programs. Due to its cloud free capability, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an ideal source of information on forest dynamics in countries with near-constant cloud-cover. However, few studies have investigated the use of SAR for forest cover estimation in landscapes with highly sparse and fragmented forest cover. In this study, the potential use of L-band SAR for forest cover estimation in two regions (Longford and Sligo) in Ireland is investigated and compared to forest cover estimates derived from three national (Forestry2010, Prime2, National Forest Inventory), one pan-European (Forest Map 2006) and one global forest cover (Global Forest Change) product. Two machine-learning approaches (Random Forests and Extremely Randomised Trees) are evaluated. Both Random Forests and Extremely Randomised Trees classification accuracies were high (98.1–98.5%), with differences between the two classifiers being minimal (&#60;0.5%). Increasing levels of post classification filtering led to a decrease in estimated forest area and an increase in overall accuracy of SAR-derived forest cover maps. All forest cover products were evaluated using an independent validation dataset. For the Longford region, the highest overall accuracy was recorded with the Forestry2010 dataset (97.42%) whereas in Sligo, highest overall accuracy was obtained for the Prime2 dataset (97.43%), although accuracies of SAR-derived forest maps were comparable. Our findings indicate that spaceborne radar could aid inventories in regions with low levels of forest cover in fragmented landscapes. The reduced accuracies observed for the global and pan-continental forest cover maps in comparison to national and SAR-derived forest maps indicate that caution should be exercised when applying these datasets for national reporting