Infographic: Black Unicorns - Pre-College Access to STEM and Non-Revenue Sports

This infographic was created to support the article titled Black Unicorns: STEM Access for Black Student-Athletes in Non-Revenue Sports. The article is for the 3rd Annual Conference of CoNECD - Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity. The infographic covers Black students\u27 pre-college access to non-revenue generating sports and STEM. Suggested recommendations are included

Utilization of a Community-based Participatory Approach to Design and Implement a Peer-led Parenting Pilot Intervention to Influence Child Nutritional and Physical Activity Behaviors

Parents and primary child guardians within the household play critical roles in shaping their children’s nutritional and physical activity behaviors, which are among the individual-level determinants of childhood obesity and other chronic conditions. There are well-established correlations between race, socioeconomic status and the risk for obesity calling for both contextually- and individual-centered interventions that are community-driven. The Using Quality Parenting (UQP) pilot intervention was a peer-led, parenting education intervention developed in collaboration with community residents in Atlanta, Georgia to influence child nutritional and physical activity behaviors in African American low socioeconomic status communities. A community-based participatory research (CBPR) framework was used to conduct a mixed-methods needs assessment designed to the UQP curriculum. The UQP program targeted parents of children ages 6-14. The overarching aim was to increase quality parenting and address community identified child obesity disparities and inequities in early and middle childhood. The topics pertaining to parenting to children’s health/well-being addressed by the UQP included nutrition, physical activity, socio-emotional development, positive parenting, coping skills, child advocacy, and community development. Analyses were conducted using PSAW 18 statistical software. Descriptive statistics, including frequencies, means, standard deviations, and ranges for the individual survey items were conducted. A t-test was performed comparing pre- and post-program participation. A repeated measure analysis of variance was conducted on the items that demonstrated a significant t-test. The analytic sample was composed of 46 African American parents, with over 50% of the sample earning an annual household income of $25,000 or less. Participating parents reported significantly higher levels of water consumption for their children post-program in comparison to pre-test reports (p = .010). Additionally, based on t-test analyses, parents reported that their children consumed significantly higher levels of proteins, grains, fruits and vegetables at each meal, post-program (p=0.03). These findings highlight the potential efficacy of community-informed, parent-led interventions in improving health disparities and related outcomes for children

The Atomic to Molecular Transition and its Relation to the Scaling Properties of Galaxy Disks in the Local Universe

We extend existing semi-analytic models of galaxy formation to track atomic and molecular gas in disk galaxies. Simple recipes for processes such as cooling, star formation, supernova feedback, and chemical enrichment of the stars and gas are grafted on to dark matter halo merger trees derived from the Millennium Simulation. Each galactic disk is represented by a series of concentric rings. We assume that surface density profile of infalling gas in a dark matter halo is exponential, with scale radius r_d that is proportional to the virial radius of the halo times its spin parameter $\lambda$. As the dark matter haloes grow through mergers and accretion, disk galaxies assemble from the inside out. We include two simple prescriptions for molecular gas formation processes in our models: one is based on the analytic calculations by Krumholz, McKee & Tumlinson (2008), and the other is a prescription where the H_2 fraction is determined by the kinematic pressure of the ISM. Motivated by the observational results of Leroy et al. (2008), we adopt a star formation law in which $\Sigma_{SFR}\propto\Sigma_{H_2}$ in the regime where the molecular gas dominates the total gas surface density, and $\Sigma_{SFR}\propto \Sigma_{gas}^2$ where atomic hydrogen dominates. We then fit these models to the radial surface density profiles of stars, HI and H_2 drawn from recent high resolution surveys of stars and gas in nearby galaxies. We explore how the ratios of atomic gas, molecular gas and stellar mass vary as a function of global galaxy scale parameters, including stellar mass, stellar surface density, and gas surface density. We elucidate how the trends can be understood in terms of three variables that determine the partition of baryons in disks: the mass of the dark matter halo, the spin parameter of the halo, and the amount of gas recently accreted from the external environment.Comment: Made some minor changes according to the reviewer's suggestion. Accepted by MNRA

Dwarf galaxy formation with H2-regulated star formation

We describe cosmological galaxy formation simulations with the adaptive mesh refinement code Enzo that incorporate a star formation prescription regulated by the local abundance of molecular hydrogen. We show that this H2-regulated prescription leads to a suppression of star formation in low mass halos (M_h < ~10^10 M_sun) at z>4, alleviating some of the dwarf galaxy problems faced by theoretical galaxy formation models. H2 regulation modifies the efficiency of star formation of cold gas directly, rather than indirectly reducing the cold gas content with "supernova feedback". We determine the local H2 abundance in our most refined grid cells (76 proper parsec in size at z=4) by applying the model of Krumholz, McKee, & Tumlinson, which is based on idealized 1D radiative transfer calculations of H2 formation-dissociation balance in ~100 pc atomic--molecular complexes. Our H2-regulated simulations are able to reproduce the empirical (albeit lower z) Kennicutt-Schmidt relation, including the low Sigma_gas cutoff due to the transition from atomic to molecular phase and the metallicity dependence thereof, without the use of an explicit density threshold in our star formation prescription. We compare the evolution of the luminosity function, stellar mass density, and star formation rate density from our simulations to recent observational determinations of the same at z=4-8 and find reasonable agreement between the two.Comment: replaced with version published in Ap

Cancer Control Plannersʼ Perceptions and Use of Evidence-Based Programs

The Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network (CPCRN) surveyed 282 cancer control planners to inform its efforts to increase the use of evidence-based cancer control programs (EBPs; programs that have been scientifically tested and successfully changed behavior). Respondents included planners from organizations in state Comprehensive Cancer Control coalitions as well as other governmental and non-governmental organizations, and community-based coalitions. Respondents provided information about personal and organizational characteristics, their cancer control programs, their attitudes toward EBPs, and their awareness and use of Web-based resources for EBPs. Although findings showed strong preferences for cancer control programs that have been shown to work, less than half of respondents (48%) had ever used EBP resources. Regardless of whether they had used EBP resources, almost all respondents (97%) indicated that further training would help them and their organization adopt and adapt EBPs for use in their communities. The most frequently endorsed training needs were finding and securing additional resources (such as funding and technical assistance), followed by adapting EBPs for cultural appropriateness. The CPCRN consortium is using these findings to develop a Web-based interactive training and decision support tool that is responsive to the needs identified by the survey respondents

A modified star formation law as a solution to open problems in galaxy evolution

In order to reproduce the low mass end of the stellar mass function, most current models of galaxy evolution invoke very efficient supernova feedback. This solution seems to suffer from several shortcomings however, like predicting too little star formation in low mass galaxies at z=0. In this work, we explore modifications to the star formation (SF) law as an alternative solution to achieve a match to the stellar mass function. This is done by applying semi-analytic models based on De Lucia & Blaizot, but with varying SF laws, to the Millennium and Millennium-II simulations, within the formalism developed by Neistein & Weinmann. Our best model includes lower SF efficiencies than predicted by the Kennicutt-Schmidt law at low stellar masses, no sharp threshold of cold gas mass for SF, and a SF law that is independent of cosmic time. These simple modifications result in a model that is more successful than current standard models in reproducing various properties of galaxies less massive than 10^{10}Msun. The improvements include a good match to the observed auto-correlation function of galaxies, an evolution of the stellar mass function from z=3 to z=0 similar to observations, and a better agreement with observed specific star formation rates. However, our modifications also lead to a dramatic over-prediction of the cold mass content of galaxies. This shows that finding a successful model may require fine-tuning of both star formation and supernovae feedback, as well as improvements on gas cooling, or perhaps the inclusion of a yet unknown process which efficiently heats or expels gas at high redshifts.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, accepted by MNRA

Cancer Control Plannersʼ Perceptions and Use of Evidence-Based Programs

The Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network (CPCRN) surveyed 282 cancer control planners to inform its efforts to increase the use of evidence-based cancer control programs (EBPs; programs that have been scientifically tested and successfully changed behavior). Respondents included planners from organizations in state Comprehensive Cancer Control coalitions as well as other governmental and non-governmental organizations, and community-based coalitions. Respondents provided information about personal and organizational characteristics, their cancer control programs, their attitudes toward EBPs, and their awareness and use of Web-based resources for EBPs. Although findings showed strong preferences for cancer control programs that have been shown to work, less than half of respondents (48%) had ever used EBP resources. Regardless of whether they had used EBP resources, almost all respondents (97%) indicated that further training would help them and their organization adopt and adapt EBPs for use in their communities. The most frequently endorsed training needs were finding and securing additional resources (such as funding and technical assistance), followed by adapting EBPs for cultural appropriateness. The CPCRN consortium is using these findings to develop a Web-based interactive training and decision support tool that is responsive to the needs identified by the survey respondents