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Home > Events > FAC

Faculty Authors and Creators Reception

 

In celebration of GovState's community of scholars and creators, the Provost's Office, University Library, and Faculty Senate are collaborating to showcase excellence in grant writing, creative works, and scholarly publishing at the 2025 Faculty Authors and Creators Reception to be held on May 8th, 2025, from 1-3PM, in the University Library.

This showcase will include all published, produced, and awarded works by GovState Faculty, Staff, and Adminitration, dated 2019 to Present.

This is the first such authors and creators reception at GovState since April 2019, and it will serve to celebrate recent and current faculty scholars and creators while relaunching the annual Faculty Authors and Creators Receptions.

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  • Influence of Miscanthus Floridulus on Heavy Metal Distribution and Phytoremediation in Coal Gangue Dump Soils: Implications for Ecological Risk Mitigation by Jiaolong Wang, Yan Jiang, Yuanying Peng, Xiaoyong Chen, Wende Yan, Xiaocui Liang, Qian Wu, and Jingjie Fang

    Influence of Miscanthus Floridulus on Heavy Metal Distribution and Phytoremediation in Coal Gangue Dump Soils: Implications for Ecological Risk Mitigation

    Jiaolong Wang, Yan Jiang, Yuanying Peng, Xiaoyong Chen, Wende Yan, Xiaocui Liang, Qian Wu, and Jingjie Fang

    Coal gangue dumps, a byproduct of coal mining, contribute significantly to heavy metal contamination, impacting soil and water quality. In order to assess the levels of heavy metal contamination in soils at different stages of abandonment, this study investigated the role of Miscanthus floridulus (M. floridulus) in the spatial distribution and remediation of six heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Mn, Ni, Cu, and Pb) in coal gangue dump soils abandoned for 0, 8, and 12 years in Pingxiang City, Jiangxi Province, China. Fieldwork was conducted at three sites operated by the Pingxiang Mining Group: Anyuan (active, barren), Gaokeng (8 years, natural vegetation), and Qingshan (12 years, partially remediated). Anyuan remains largely barren, while Gaokeng supports natural vegetation without formal remediation. In contrast, Qingshan supports diverse plant species, including M. floridulus, due to partial remediation. Using a randomized design, root exudates, heavy metal concentrations, and soil properties were analyzed. The results showed that Cd poses the highest ecological risk, with concentrations of 64.56 mg kg−1 at the active site, 25.57 mg kg−1 at the 8-year site, and 39.13 mg kg−1 at the 12-year site. Cu and Pb showed accumulation, while Cr and Mn decreased over time. Root exudates from M. floridulus enhanced metal bioavailability, influencing Cd, Cr, and Ni concentrations. These findings highlight the importance of rhizosphere processes in metal mobility and inform sustainable remediation strategies for post-mining landscapes.

  • “Griefworks”: Integrating Emotional Processing and Meaning-Making into Grief Therapy by Ileana Ungureanu and Cadmona A. Hall

    “Griefworks”: Integrating Emotional Processing and Meaning-Making into Grief Therapy

    Ileana Ungureanu and Cadmona A. Hall

    In recent years, we experienced a global pandemic, which forced us to face grief in myriad ways. To stress the magnitude of our collective experience in the past years, the scientific community decided it is time to introduce another diagnosis for grief (prolonged grief disorder) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR), specifically to address what is expected to be a common occurrence for years to come as a result of the loss, grief, and trauma we experienced during the COVID-19 years. With this ever-growing need in mind, we want to present a model of working with grief addressing two aspects of processing loss that we found paramount for successful outcomes in therapy: emotional processing and cognitive/meaning-making. To exemplify the two components of grief work, we created a composite case with aspects from different real cases we have worked with over the years.

  • Moore: Attribution and Income Realization by Alice Keane and Brian McKenna

    Moore: Attribution and Income Realization

    Alice Keane and Brian McKenna

    In the early 2000s, Charles and Kathleen Moore contributed $40,000 to help a friend establish KisanKraft Machine Tools Private Ltd., an Indian corporation. In exchange, they received about 13 percent of KisanKraft’s common shares. The corporation was established to supply farmers in India’s most impoverished regions with basic tools and equipment readily available in the United States but not in India. Under the IRC, the Moores were shareholders in a U.S. controlled foreign corporation. The mandatory repatriation tax (MRT) was enacted as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017. The MRT targeted U.S. persons who own shares of a CFC and imposed a one-time tax based on the CFC’s undistributed accumulated earnings as the United States shifted its approach to taxing foreign earnings from worldwide to territorial. When the MRT was enacted, the Moores became responsible for tax on their proportional share of KisanKraft’s undistributed earnings. They declared an additional $132,512 as taxable 2017 income and paid an additional $14,729 in tax. The Moores filed a claim for refund and later a lawsuit in federal district court. The district court entered judgment for the government in 2020. The Moores appealed to the Ninth Circuit, which affirmed the district court in 2022. The Moores sought a writ of certiorari from the Supreme Court, presenting the question: “Whether the Sixteenth Amendment authorizes Congress to tax unrealized sums without apportionment among the states,” and the Court granted certiorari in 2023. On June 20, 2024, the Supreme Court held that the MRT was constitutional. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the five-person majority opinion, which did not address whether the 16th Amendment authorizes Congress to tax unrealized sums without apportionment. Rather, the majority held that the 16th Amendment allowed Congress to attribute income realized by the CFC KisanKraft to the Moores, the 13 percent shareholders. The 7-2 decision included two concurring opinions and a dissenting opinion. This article examines the issues addressed by the Supreme Court in Moore.

  • Barriers and Facilitators to Quality Healthcare for African Americans with Incarceration Histories by Vickii Coffey, Zainab Shah, Esther Jenkins, Shirley Spencer, Mary Muse, Carolyn Rodgers, Joseph Strickland, and DIane Morse

    Barriers and Facilitators to Quality Healthcare for African Americans with Incarceration Histories

    Vickii Coffey, Zainab Shah, Esther Jenkins, Shirley Spencer, Mary Muse, Carolyn Rodgers, Joseph Strickland, and DIane Morse

    Background Prior research has shown that African American men and women are more likely to receive lower quality healthcare compared to their white counterparts, which is exacerbated in jail and prison healthcare systems. Objective The purpose of this study is to explore barriers and facilitators to quality healthcare among African American men and women released from Illinois State Prisons or Cook County Jail by examining their opinions and experiences with overall healthcare and cancer screening during and after incarceration.

  • Career Sponsorship as a Professional Practice for Participation in Professional Development Programs by Deborah Baness King, Matthew Cooney, and Beverly A. Schneller

    Career Sponsorship as a Professional Practice for Participation in Professional Development Programs

    Deborah Baness King, Matthew Cooney, and Beverly A. Schneller

    There are numerous opportunities for aspiring college presidents to participate in formal leadership development programs created by professional organizations dedicated to leadership in higher education. These formal leadership programs serve a variety of leaders in the presidential pipeline, including aspiring presidents in senior leadership positions and mid-level academic leaders. Participation in these programs is well-documented; however, participation in these programs can be stifled without a targeted professional development plan.

  • City Time: On Being Sentenced to Rikers Island by David Campbell and Jarrod Shanahan

    City Time: On Being Sentenced to Rikers Island

    David Campbell and Jarrod Shanahan

    While most people behind bars at Rikers Island are detainees awaiting the settlement of their cases, a smaller population have already been convicted and are serving sentences deemed too short for the state prison system. These stints are called “city time.” The sentences range from a few days to a year, and are generally served within large, open dormitories lacking in privacy and sanitation. Within these spaces, incarcerated people reproduce an elaborate set of rules, rituals, and relationships, as a means both of survival and of giving meaning to the time taken from them.
    Written by David Campbell and Jarrod Shanahan, who both served sentences at Rikers, City Time reflects its authors’ personal experiences and observations of short-stay incarceration to present a nuanced and vivid account of a social world kept locked away from the public eye. The authors reconstruct the daily realities of sanitation, nourishment, recreation, work, and other necessary activities, and emphasize the complex interpersonal relationships that emerge in response to city time. Simultaneously, they paint a grim and urgent picture of structural racism, class violence, and the disastrous lack of mental health and substance abuse resources for poor New Yorkers, who are shuttled in and out of city time sentences as “frequent flyers.”
    Beginning with the authors’ own processes of intake, and ending with the ritual of late-night release, City Time takes readers behind the splashy headlines to depict, in intimately human terms, the rich and variegated social world unfolding, at this very moment, on Rikers Island.

  • Glass Hospitals: Transparency and Trustworthy Interpretation in Medical and Healthcare Expertise by Ben Almassi

    Glass Hospitals: Transparency and Trustworthy Interpretation in Medical and Healthcare Expertise

    Ben Almassi

    In their recent article in this journal, Giubilini, Gur-Arie, and Jamrozik argue that there is more to expertise than individual healthcare professionals’ knowledge of their fields. To be an expert is to be recognized as a credible authority, they explain, and being a credible authority necessitates trust. Among the core ethical principles they identify for trustworthy experts in medicine and healthcare are honesty, humility, and transparency. Here I aim to affirm these authors’ linkage of expertise and trust by decoupling both from a presumptive norm of transparency. My suggestion is not that medical or healthcare experts should lie or deceive, but that articulating their credible authority in terms of transparency mischaracterizes things. We see this in several ways: through the negative epistemic effects of a general norm of expert transparency, the importance of discretion in healthy trust relations, and the need for relationally responsive interpretation in how medical and health experts communicate with different patients and publics across social-epistemic difference.

  • Intercropping Improves the Yield by Increasing Nutrient Metabolism Capacity and Crucial Microbial Abundance in Root of Camellia oleifera in Purple Soil by Yuanzheng Gu, Jing Jiao, Haobo Xu, Yazhen Chen, Xinxing He, Xiaohong Wu, Jun Wang, Xiaoyong Chen, Hanjie He, and Wende Yan

    Intercropping Improves the Yield by Increasing Nutrient Metabolism Capacity and Crucial Microbial Abundance in Root of Camellia oleifera in Purple Soil

    Yuanzheng Gu, Jing Jiao, Haobo Xu, Yazhen Chen, Xinxing He, Xiaohong Wu, Jun Wang, Xiaoyong Chen, Hanjie He, and Wende Yan

    Intercropping system influences the endophytic microbial abundance, hormone balance, nutrient metabolism and yield, but the molecular mechanism of yield advantage in Camellia oleifera intercropping with peanut is not clear. In this study, the C. oleifera monoculture (CK) and C. oleifera-peanut intercropping (CP) treatments in purple soil were conducted, and the physicochemical properties, gene expressions, signal pathways and crucial microbial abundances were investigated to reveal the molecular mechanism of the yield advantage of intercropped C. oleifera. The results showed that the intercropping system increased in contents of pigment, carbohydrate, available nitrogen and phosphorus in leaf and root, as well as the abundances of Burkholderia, Ralstonia, Delftia, Pseudoalteromonas and Caulobacter, enhanced the relative expression levels of CoSPS, CoGBE, CoGlgP, CoGBSS/GlgA genes to promote sugar metabolism, decreased the relative expression levels of CoASA, CoTSB, CoPAI, CoTDC and CoCYP71A13 genes for inhibiting IAA biosynthesis and signal transduction, as well as microbial diversity, Fusarium, Albifimbria and Coniosporium abundances in root, ultimately improved the fruit yield of C. oleifera. These findings indicate that intercropping system improves the fruit yield by enhancing the nutrient metabolism capability and crucial microbial abundances in root of C. oleifera in purple soil.

  • Perceptions Toward Wrongful Convictions and Needed Reforms in the Criminal Justice System: Does Working Experience in Law Enforcement Matter? by Natalia Ermasova, Erica Ceka, Aubrey Adams, and Lisa Jackson

    Perceptions Toward Wrongful Convictions and Needed Reforms in the Criminal Justice System: Does Working Experience in Law Enforcement Matter?

    Natalia Ermasova, Erica Ceka, Aubrey Adams, and Lisa Jackson

    This study proposes to investigate how public views on the wrongful conviction issue are connected with the perceived need for criminal justice reform and whether the professional experience in law enforcement influences these perceptions. This study employs a qualitative research design, deriving its conclusions from the comparative analysis of the survey responses concerning the issue of wrongful convictions and the criminal justice system collected from 45 law enforcement professionals and 35 individuals without such experience. The comparative results reveal that for the respondents without working experience in law enforcement, racial/ethnical bias was one of the most substantial issues of wrongful convictions, while for the respondents with working experience in law enforcement, the main issue was connected to the harmful effect of such cases on the victims, their families, and society. The respondents from both groups believe that there is a need for criminal justice reform, particularly in several specific directions, including the justice system itself, legal defense, policing, investigation, diversity in the justice system, DNA technology, jury selection, training for law enforcement, prosecution, and defense attorney. However, there are notable differences between the groups in their ranking of the focus areas. The differences between the groups with different backgrounds and perspectives on the issue suggest that the development and implementation of the reform initiatives may require tailored approaches to address the specific concerns of each group.

  • Performativities of Queerness in Communication Studies: Three Temporal Cautions by Dustin Bradley Goltz and Jason Zingsheim

    Performativities of Queerness in Communication Studies: Three Temporal Cautions

    Dustin Bradley Goltz and Jason Zingsheim

    This chapter is framed around three areas of caution for the disruptive potentials of queer communication scholarship. Invested in the ongoing work of queering and keenly aware of how queerness is continually at risk of becoming patterned, conventional, and routinized, this chapter details three troubling questions or provocations related to temporality and age that function to upset the performativity of queerness.

  • Preferences for Intuition and Deliberation in Decision-Making in the Public Sector: Cross-Cultural Comparison of China, Taiwan, the Philippines, and the USA by Frithiof Svenson, Natalia Ermasova, Fatih Çetin, and Markus A. Launer

    Preferences for Intuition and Deliberation in Decision-Making in the Public Sector: Cross-Cultural Comparison of China, Taiwan, the Philippines, and the USA

    Frithiof Svenson, Natalia Ermasova, Fatih Çetin, and Markus A. Launer

    This paper explores hypotheses based on Hofstede’s cultural framework showing that decision-makers’ culture impacts their implicit choice. How people make decisions is tested through the behavioral dimension preference for intuition/preference for deliberation based on data from 1,233 employees in China, Taiwan, the Philippines, and the USA. This study reveals significant variation in individuals’ intuitive and affective decision-making in the public sector across different countries. Individuals’ deliberative decision-making is impacted by long-term orientation and uncertainty avoidance. The study finds that Eastern countries (China, the Philippines, and Taiwan) have higher scores for intuitive/affective decision making than the Western countries (the USA).

  • Risk of Suicide Among Patients With Major Physical Disorders Considering Comorbidities of Mental Disorders: An Instrumental Variable Analysis by Ning Lu, Tzu-Jung Wen, and Kuo-Cherh Huang

    Risk of Suicide Among Patients With Major Physical Disorders Considering Comorbidities of Mental Disorders: An Instrumental Variable Analysis

    Ning Lu, Tzu-Jung Wen, and Kuo-Cherh Huang

    Suicide is an important health concern. Excepting cancer, the association between physical disorders and suicidal risk is comparatively less explored. Instrumental variable analysis has been suggested as a powerful technique to deal with possible bias caused by unmeasured confounders in observational research. This population-based study set out to assess the suicidal risk of patients with major physical disorders by employing the instrumental variable analysis. Data were retrieved from the National Health Insurance Research Database and the Death Certification Registry in Taiwan (years 2010-2018). The Cox proportional hazards model with an instrumental variable estimator was performed, adjusting for comorbidities of mental disorders and other covariates. Analytical results showed that compared to their counterparts, patients with major physical disorders had an elevated risk of death by suicide within one year and three years after diagnosis of physical illness. Only did epilepsy not demonstrate a statistically significant impact on the risk of suicide.

  • Scholarship for the Nursing Discipline by Catherine Tymkow

    Scholarship for the Nursing Discipline

    Catherine Tymkow

    The AACN's Essentials framework is an integral part of nursing education that outlines the competencies expected for nursing practice but can be difficult to incorporate. Zaccagnini & White's Core Competencies for Advanced Practice Nursing: A Guide for DNPs, Fifth Edition continues to be the must-have resource for students to understand what it means to be a DNP and achieve mastery of the revised AACN Essentials. The practical framework features chapters aligned to each of the Essentials and weaves in concepts, covering all the necessary DNP information, providing students and faculty with a pragmatic blueprint to follow in their DNP programs.

  • Skyscraper Jails: The Abolitionist Fight Against Jail Expansion in New York City by Jarrod Shanahan and Zhandarka Kurti

    Skyscraper Jails: The Abolitionist Fight Against Jail Expansion in New York City

    Jarrod Shanahan and Zhandarka Kurti

    In Skyscraper Jails, scholars and organizers Jarrod Shanahan and Zhandarka Kurti detail how progressive forces in New York City appropriated the rhetoric of social movements and social justice to promise “downsized” and “humane" jails. The principal advocates of these new jails were not right-wing politicians, but prominent city activists and progressive non-profit organizations.
    As the political coalition that campaigned for the new jails fans out across the United States, the story at the heart of Skyscraper Jails is at once a case study and a cautionary tale for what will be coming to cities and towns across the United States and beyond.

  • Social Work Child Welfare Practice: A Culturally Responsive Applied Approach by Giesela Grumbach, JoDee Keller, and Yolanda Jordan

    Social Work Child Welfare Practice: A Culturally Responsive Applied Approach

    Giesela Grumbach, JoDee Keller, and Yolanda Jordan

    With the aim of transforming flawed child welfare practices and policies into a more equitable system, this comprehensive, practice-based text delves into contemporary child welfare practice from antiracist, social justice, and decolonial perspectives. Incorporating first-hand knowledge of day-to-day practice, the book examines the many roles of professional child welfare workers, foundational skills they need to work in the field, the challenges and promises of trauma-informed practice, how to maintain a dedicated workforce, and strategies for reshaping the system. This book covers child welfare practice thoroughly, from reporting to investigating and everything in between. It also explores relevant policies, signs of abuse/neglect, building relationships, anti-racist approaches, and the importance of cultural sensitivity. Throughout, it emphasizes the trauma experienced by children and families involved in the system and the impact on child welfare professionals. Learning objectives, reflection boxes, discussion questions, and additional resources are included in every chapter to provide opportunities for students to apply concepts. Additionally, case studies in most chapters offer practical applications to real-world situations. To accompany the book, qualified instructors have access to an Instructor Manual, Sample Syllabus, Test Bank, chapter PowerPoints, and supplemental videos covering topics such as careers, engagement, and foster care.

  • Soil Aggregation, Aggregate Stability, and Associated Soil Organic Carbon in Huron Mountains Forests, Michigan, USA by Xiaoyong Chen, Timothy Gsell, John A. Yunger, Lynda Randa, Yuanying Peng, and Mary E. Carrington

    Soil Aggregation, Aggregate Stability, and Associated Soil Organic Carbon in Huron Mountains Forests, Michigan, USA

    Xiaoyong Chen, Timothy Gsell, John A. Yunger, Lynda Randa, Yuanying Peng, and Mary E. Carrington

    Soil organic carbon (SOC) plays a critical role in regulating the global carbon (C) cycle, with forest soils serving as significant C sinks. Soil aggregate stability and the distribution of SOC in different aggregate fractions would be affected by different forest types. In this study, we investigate the distribution and dynamics of SOC within different soil aggregate fractions across three main forest types in the Huron Mountains, Michigan, USA: white birch–eastern hemlock mixed forest, eastern-hemlock-dominated forest, and sugar maple forest. We hypothesize that variations in species composition and soil depth influence SOC storage and aggregate stability through mechanisms such as root interactions, microbial activity, and soil structure development. Soil samples were collected from three depth intervals (0–20 cm, 20–40 cm, and 40–60 cm) and analyzed for aggregate size distribution and SOC content. The results showed that aggregate size distribution and SOC stocks differ significantly across forest types, with the white birch–eastern hemlock mixed forest exhibiting the highest proportion of large aggregates (>1.0 mm), which contribute to more stable soil structures. This forest type also had the highest total aggregate mass and mean weight diameter, indicating enhanced soil stability. In contrast, sugar maple forest displayed a greater proportion of smaller aggregates and a lower macroaggregate-to-microaggregate ratio, suggesting fewer stable soils. SOC stocks were closely linked to aggregate size, with macroaggregates containing the highest proportion of SOC. These differences in SOC distribution and soil aggregate stability can be attributed to several underlying mechanisms, including variations in plant root interactions, microbial activity, and the physical properties of the soil. Forests with diverse species compositions, such as the white birch–eastern hemlock mixed forest, tend to support more complex root systems and microbial communities, leading to improved soil aggregation and greater SOC storage. Additionally, forest management practices such as selective thinning and mixed-species planting contribute to these processes by enhancing soil structure, increasing root biomass, and promoting soil microbial health. These interactions play a crucial role in enhancing C sequestration and improving soil health. Our findings emphasized the importance of forest composition in influencing SOC dynamics and soil stability, offering insights into the role of forest management in C sequestration and soil health. This study provided a reference to a deeper understanding of SOC storage potential in forest ecosystems and supports the development of sustainable forest management strategies to mitigate climate change.

  • Thinning Intensity Enhances Soil Multifunctionality and Microbial Residue Contributions to Organic Carbon Sequestration in Chinese Fir Plantations by Ting He, Junjie Lei, Yuanying Peng, Ruihui Wang, Xiaoyong Chen, Zongxin Liu, Xiaoqian Gao, Peng Dang, and Wende Yan

    Thinning Intensity Enhances Soil Multifunctionality and Microbial Residue Contributions to Organic Carbon Sequestration in Chinese Fir Plantations

    Ting He, Junjie Lei, Yuanying Peng, Ruihui Wang, Xiaoyong Chen, Zongxin Liu, Xiaoqian Gao, Peng Dang, and Wende Yan

    Soil multifunctionality is essential for the enhancement of soil carbon sequestration, but disturbances such as thinning practices can influence soil microbial activity and carbon cycling. Microbial residues, particularly microbial residue carbon (MRC), are important contributors to soil organic carbon (SOC), but the effects of thinning intensity on MRC accumulation remain poorly understood. This study evaluated the impact of four thinning treatments—control (CK, 0%), light-intensity thinning (LIT, 20%), medium-intensity thinning (MIT, 30%), and high-intensity thinning (HIT, 45%)—on soil multifunctionality in Chinese fir plantations five years after thinning. Soil nutrient provision, microbial biomass, enzyme activity, and microbial residue carbon were assessed. The results showed that thinning intensity significantly affected soil nutrient provision and microbial biomass, with MIT and HIT showing higher nutrient levels than CK and LIT. Specifically, MIT’s and HIT’s total nutrient provision increased by 0.04 and 0.15 compared to that of CK. Enzyme activity was highest in LIT (+0.89), followed by MIT (+0.07), with HIT showing a decline (−0.84). Microbial biomass, including bacterial PLFAs (B-PLFAs), fungal PLFAs (F-PLFAs), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), and nitrogen (MBN), was highest in CK and MIT, and lowest in HIT, with MIT showing a 0.13 increase compared to CK. Microbial residue carbon (MRC) accumulation was positively correlated with soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), available nitrogen (AN), and easily oxidized organic carbon (EOC). The highest MRC content in the 0–20 cm soil layer was observed in MIT and CK (10.46 and 11.66 g/kg, respectively), while the MRC in LIT and HIT was significantly lower, reduced by 24% and 12%, respectively. These findings highlight the significant role of thinning intensity in microbial activity and carbon cycling. Medium-intensity thinning (MIT, 30%) was identified as the most effective approach for promoting microbial biomass and enhancing carbon cycling in Chinese fir forest soils, making it an optimal approach for forest management aimed at increasing soil carbon sequestration.

  • Variation Patterns of Fine Root Biomass, Production, and Turnover Rates in Four Subtropical Forests of China by Jingjie Fang, Xiaoxin Feng, Yuanying Peng, Jun Wang, Xiaohong Wu, Wende Yan, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Variation Patterns of Fine Root Biomass, Production, and Turnover Rates in Four Subtropical Forests of China

    Jingjie Fang, Xiaoxin Feng, Yuanying Peng, Jun Wang, Xiaohong Wu, Wende Yan, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Fine roots (diameter ≤ 2 mm) play a critical role in regulating soil organic carbon storage and nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems. However, the variability in fine root biomass, production, and turnover rates across different forest types remains poorly understood. This study investigates fine root dynamics, including biomass, distribution, and turnover, across four major monoculture plantation forests in subtropical China: Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook), Masson pine (Pinus massoniana Lamb.), Chinese sweet gum (Liquidambar formosana Hance), and camphor tree (Cinnamomum camphora (L.) J. Presl). Using a sequential coring method, soil samples were collected monthly to monitor live and dead fine root biomass across different soil depths (0–15 cm, 15–30 cm, 30–45 cm, and 45–60 cm). Fine root production and turnover rates were estimated using three methods: Max–Min, Integral and Decision Matrix. The results showed that fine root biomass was highest in the camphor tree forest (1.96 t ha−1), followed by Masson pine (1.12 t ha−1), Chinese fir (0.89 t ha−1), and Chinese sweet gum (0.83 t ha−1). Approximately 90% of the total fine root biomass was composed of live roots across all forest types, highlighting their significant role in nutrient uptake. Both live and dead fine roots were predominantly concentrated in the upper 0–30 cm soil layer, with a notable decline in biomass in deeper layers. Fine root biomass production was highest in the camphor tree forest (2.66–2.90 t ha−1 a−1), followed by Masson pine (1.16–1.83 t ha−1 a−1), Chinese fir (0.87–0.97 t ha−1 a−1), and Chinese sweet gum (0.87–0.93 t ha−1 a−1). Turnover rates were highest in the camphor tree forest (1.25–1.36 a−1), followed by Masson pine (0.96–1.51 a−1), and both Chinese fir and Chinese sweet gum (0.94–1.05 a−1 and 0.97–1.04 a−1, respectively). This study identifies significant differences in fine root dynamics among subtropical forest types, providing baseline data critical for optimizing forest management, particularly in urban and peri-urban areas. These insights can enhance reforestation efforts, ecosystem resilience, and sustainable forest productivity.

  • What’s Holding You Back? Development of the Multi-Facet Organizational Constraints Scale (MOCS) by Nathan A. Bowling, Jesse S. Michel, Md Rasheduel Islam, Michael A. Rotch, Stephen H. Wagner, and Lucian Zelazny

    What’s Holding You Back? Development of the Multi-Facet Organizational Constraints Scale (MOCS)

    Nathan A. Bowling, Jesse S. Michel, Md Rasheduel Islam, Michael A. Rotch, Stephen H. Wagner, and Lucian Zelazny

    Organizational constraints—which include any workplace condition that undermines a worker’s ability to perform his or her job tasks—are an important type of work stressor. Previous research has typically assessed organizational constraints as a global (i.e., unidimensional) construct. In the current paper, we argue that a facet (i.e., multidimensional) approach to assessing organizational constraints would complement the global approach in important ways. A facet approach, for instance, would provide researchers with new insights into the fundamental nature of the organizational constraints construct, and it would provide practitioners with specific, actionable information that they could use to inform organizational policies and interventions. With these potential benefits of the facet approach in mind, we developed the Multi-Facet Organizational Constraints Scale (MOCS)—a self-report measure that yields 16 separate facet-level scores. Across seven samples (total N = 1,600), we found that the MOCS had desirable psychometric properties: It yielded high levels of internal-consistency and test–retest reliability, it produced an interpretable factor structure, and we observed evidence supporting the MOCS’s construct validity. By providing a means of assessing organizational constraints facets, the current research has both theoretical and practical implications for various research areas within applied psychology, including occupational stress, organizational culture, employee training, and leadership.

  • A Problem-Solving Approach Aimed at Helping Calculus I Students Solve Related Rates Problems by Valentina Postelnicu and George Tintera

    A Problem-Solving Approach Aimed at Helping Calculus I Students Solve Related Rates Problems

    Valentina Postelnicu and George Tintera

    After analyzing our Calculus I students’ performance on a related rates problem from a final exam, we designed a teaching experiment aimed at improving our students’ performance at problem solving. For our analysis, we used two frameworks – one specific to related rates problems and Polya’s general framework for problem solving. The analysis of student work on a final exam problem (N = 57) and interviews with 10 students revealed difficulties understanding the problem and making connections between data and unknowns. The results informed a teaching experiment the following semester when a different group of students (N = 13) used Polya’s approach to problem solving. The students solved and discussed related rates problems in geometric contexts, wrote their algorithms, and were assessed by a related rates problem on the final exam. All 13 students understood the problem, used diagrams, and all but one, established a meaningful relation with quantities from the problem. Having students create their algorithms seems to be a promising strategy in the teaching and learning of related rates problems.

  • Fortifying the Digital Frontier: Exploring Innovations and Challenges in Cybersecurity by Mohammed A. Salam, Rich P. Manprisio, and Sri Charan Bonigala

    Fortifying the Digital Frontier: Exploring Innovations and Challenges in Cybersecurity

    Mohammed A. Salam, Rich P. Manprisio, and Sri Charan Bonigala

    Cybersecurity has become a paramount concern in today's digital globe, demanding robust and innovative measures. This paper explores the newest advancements and persistent challenges in cybersecurity, focused on advanced encryption methods, artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain technology, and quantum computing. These technologies build up to threat detection, secure transactions, and expand future-proof cryptographic methods. Additionally, the paper examines the evolving danger panorama, the human factor, regulatory issues, and resource constraints, imparting insights into future cybersecurity studies and practices. Addressing these demanding situations calls for continuous innovation, proactive defense techniques, and cross-zone collaboration to support the virtual frontier and ensure a secure digital environment.

  • Inclusive Early Childhood Teacher Education: A Paradigm for Envisioning and Enacting by Leanne Evans, Tatiana Joseph, Maggie Bartlett, and Sara Jozwik

    Inclusive Early Childhood Teacher Education: A Paradigm for Envisioning and Enacting

    Leanne Evans, Tatiana Joseph, Maggie Bartlett, and Sara Jozwik

    This article describes the processes and timeline of developing our Inclusive Early Childhood Teacher Education Program (IECTE). In doing so, we describe collaborations that have a dynamic unfolding that took place over 10 years and united early childhood education (ECE), early intervention/early childhood special education (EI/ECSE), and bilingual/English as a second language (ESL) programming. Foundational to our collaborative work is the transformation that occurred within these individual areas of teacher education that eventually led us to the evolving paradigm of inclusivity in early childhood education. In our IECTE work we detail our paradigm of critical inclusivity that includes three tenets: (1) a dialogic approach, (2) curriculum revision, (3) student guidance, and (4) mentoring support. We conclude by offering implications for continuous growth through descriptions of radical collaboration and advocacy in inclusive early childhood settings, such as intervention agencies, Head Start programs, childcare centers, community programs, and public schools.

  • Book Review: Stakeholder Engagement by Aimee L. Franklin by Erica Ceka

    Book Review: Stakeholder Engagement by Aimee L. Franklin

    Erica Ceka

    Book Review:
    Stakeholder Engagement by Aimee L. Franklin
    Springer Cham

  • Drought-Induced Alterations in Carbon and Water Dynamics of Chinese Fir Plantations at the Trunk Wood Stage by Yijun Liu, Li Zhang, Wende Yan, Yuanying Peng, Hua Sun, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Drought-Induced Alterations in Carbon and Water Dynamics of Chinese Fir Plantations at the Trunk Wood Stage

    Yijun Liu, Li Zhang, Wende Yan, Yuanying Peng, Hua Sun, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Over the past three decades, China has implemented extensive reforestation programs, primarily utilizing Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook) in southern China, to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and counter extreme climate events. However, the effects of drought on the carbon sequestration capacity of these forests, particularly during the trunk wood stage, remain unclear. This study, conducted in Huitong, Hunan, China, from 2008 to 2013, employed the eddy covariance method to measure carbon dioxide (CO2) and water fluxes in Chinese fir forests, covering a severe drought year in 2011. The purpose was to elucidate the dynamics of carbon and water fluxes during a drought year and across multi-normal year averages. The results showed that changes in soil water content (−8.00%), precipitation (−18.45%), and relative humidity (−5.10%), decreases in air temperature (−0.09 °C) and soil temperature (−0.79 °C), and increases in vapor pressure deficit (19.18%) and net radiation (8.39%) were found in the drought year compared to the normal years. These changes in environmental factors led to considerable decreases in net ecosystem exchange (−40.00%), ecosystem respiration (−13.09%), and gross ecosystem productivity (−18.52%), evapotranspiration (−12.50%), and water use efficiency (−5.83%) in the studied forests in the drought year. In this study, the occurrence of seasonal drought due to uneven precipitation distribution led to a decrease in gross ecosystem productivity (GEP) and evapotranspiration (ET). However, the impact of drought on GEP was greater than its effect on ET, resulting in a reduced water use efficiency (WUE). This study emphasized the crucial role of water availability in determining forest productivity and suggested the need for adjusting vegetation management strategies under severe drought conditions. Our results contributed to improving management practices for Chinese fir plantations in response to changing climate conditions.

  • Effects of Litter Removal and Biochar Application on Soil Properties in Urban Forests of Southern China by Tianyi Yan, Xin Liu, Wende Yan, Junjie Lei, Yuanying Peng, Xiang Zhang, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Effects of Litter Removal and Biochar Application on Soil Properties in Urban Forests of Southern China

    Tianyi Yan, Xin Liu, Wende Yan, Junjie Lei, Yuanying Peng, Xiang Zhang, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Urban forests are crucial components of cities, serving as vital ‘green lungs’ that embody urban civilization and sustainability. Despite their significance in maintaining the urban environment and ecological functions, management practices for urban forests can be unreasonable at times. This study investigated the impact of two common practices, litter removal and biochar application, on soil properties in an urban forest in Changsha city, China. The aim was to understand how these practices affect soil carbon, nutrients, and microbial activity in urban settings. The results showed that soil water content (SWC), pH, available phosphorus (AP), and soil microbial biomass carbon (SMBC) were significantly reduced in areas where litter was removed compared to areas where litter was retained. Conversely, biochar application led to a significant increase in SWC, pH, AP, and SMBC. The treatment alone had no significant effects on total nitrogen (TN), soil organic carbon (SOC), and soluble soil organic carbon (SSOC) in the examined urban forests. However, the SOC and SSOC contents significantly increased over time with biochar application. Our results demonstrated that the influences of litter removal and biochar application on soil property were attributed to the regulation of AP and SMBC in the studied urban forests. This study provides a scientific basis and reference for understanding the sustainable management of urban environments and guiding future conservation efforts in urban greening spaces.

  • Effects of Fertilization and Planting Modes on Soil Organic Carbon and Microbial Community Formation of Tree Seedlings by Sutong Fan, Yao Tang, Hongzhi Yang, Yuda Hu, Yelin Zeng, Yonghong Wang, Yunlin Zhao, Xiaoyong Chen, Yaohui Wu, and Guangjun Wang

    Effects of Fertilization and Planting Modes on Soil Organic Carbon and Microbial Community Formation of Tree Seedlings

    Sutong Fan, Yao Tang, Hongzhi Yang, Yuda Hu, Yelin Zeng, Yonghong Wang, Yunlin Zhao, Xiaoyong Chen, Yaohui Wu, and Guangjun Wang

    Biochar and organic fertilizer can significantly increase soil organic carbon (SOC) and promote agricultural production, but it is still unclear how they affect forest SOC after. Here, low-quality plantation soil was subjected to four distinct fertilization treatments: (CK, without fertilization; BC, tea seed shell biochar alone; OF, tea meal organic fertilizer alone; BCF, tea seed shell biochar plus tea meal organic fertilizer). Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook and Cyclobalanopsis glauca (Thunb.) Oersted seedlings were then planted in pots at the ratios of 2:0, 1:1, and 0:2 (SS, SQ, QQ) and grown for one year. The results showed that the BCF treatment had the best effect on promoting seedling growth and increasing SOC content. BCF changed soil pH and available nutrient content, resulting in the downregulation of certain oligotrophic groups (Acidobacteria and Basidiomycetes) and the upregulation of eutrophic groups (Ascomycota and Proteobacteria). Key bacterial groups, which were identified by Line Discriminant Analysis Effect Size analysis, were closely associated with microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and SOC. Pearson correlation analysis showed that bacterial community composition exhibited a positive correlation with SOC, MBC, available phosphorus, seedling biomass, and plant height, whereas fungal community composition was predominantly positively correlated with seedling underground biomass. It suggested that environmental differences arising from fertilization and planting patterns selectively promote microbial communities that contribute to organic carbon formation. In summary, the combination of biochar and organic fertilizers would enhance the improvement and adaptation of soil microbial communities, playing a crucial role in increasing forest soil organic carbon and promoting tree growth.

  • Promoting Growth Mindset in the Mathematics Classroom by Gabriela Dellamorte and J. Christopher Tweddle

    Promoting Growth Mindset in the Mathematics Classroom

    Gabriela Dellamorte and J. Christopher Tweddle

    Teachers often encounter students with a fixed mindset who believe they cannot learn mathematics. Part of the reason many students believe they cannot learn mathematics is that many students do not experience mathematics as uncertainty, explorations, conjectures, interpretations, and patterns. As educators in the mathematics classroom, our practices can foster a growth mindset and change our students’ conceptions of mathematics. We can help them to respect and value their mistakes by creating a culture where “Mistakes are expected, respected, inspected, and corrected” (Boaler 2016, para. 6). For students to make mistakes, we must provide them with challenging work where they can experience productive struggle, which will inherently provide teachers with the opportunity to praise students’ effort and not their ability. Additionally, it will lessen their discomfort with failure. We must not use tricks to guide our lessons and focus on conceptual understanding. When we use productive struggle in our classrooms, we provide the students with an opportunity to build on or amend their prior knowledge and thus, create new knowledge that they can use in future mathematics classes.

  • Preparing Inclusive Early Childhood Educators (PIECE): A Conceptualization of Multilingualism, English Learning, and Inclusivity by Leanne M. Evans, Tatiana Joseph, and Sara Jozwik

    Preparing Inclusive Early Childhood Educators (PIECE): A Conceptualization of Multilingualism, English Learning, and Inclusivity

    Leanne M. Evans, Tatiana Joseph, and Sara Jozwik

    The purpose of this article is to share the examination of inclusivity as a paradigm for fostering authenticity and agency (Moore, 2017) among teacher candidates. This framing challenges the notion of inclusion as a tool of meritocracy used to manage learners through expectations that uphold monolingualism, decenter racial histories, and rely on rigid behavior plans. In this work, the authors interrogate the impact inclusion as assimilation has on English learners' authentic ways of knowing and being. Thus, they present a conceptualization of spaces of difference (Agbenyaga & Klibthong, 2012) within the context of an Inclusive Early Childhood Teacher Education (IECTE) program and the objectives of the Preparing Inclusive Early Childhood Educators (PIECE) project. With its rigorous coursework, clinical experiences, multi-tiered mentorship, and practice-based professional development, the PIECE project aims to develop inclusive early childhood educators at the preservice and in-service levels. Infused throughout the PIECE project is an emphasis on cultivating the knowledge and skills needed to provide high-quality instruction that improves educational outcomes for English learners (ELs). Frameworks of transformative theory and intersectionality perspectives provided the authors with a grounding for the work within the PIECE project community of learners (i.e., teacher candidates, teacher educators, and school district partners). This article summarizes critical concepts of inclusivity centered in the PIECE project work. These concepts include (1) understanding oneself to look beyond; (2) disrupting notions of normalcy and naturalized language; and (3) reconceptualizing inclusivity as a social justice act.

  • Book Review: Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò - Reconsidering Reparations by Ben Almassi

    Book Review: Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò - Reconsidering Reparations

    Ben Almassi

    Book Review: Reconsidering Reparations by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

  • River City Cuts Back: A Balancing Act Simulation by Erica Ceka, Frankline Muthomi, and Kurt Thurmaier

    River City Cuts Back: A Balancing Act Simulation

    Erica Ceka, Frankline Muthomi, and Kurt Thurmaier

    This case presents the typical scenario in a medium-sized municipality when it appears the economy is headed into a recession. The organization must make spending choices while also considering city council priorities. In this case, Karl Meier, the chief financial officer of River City, has just received some updated economic forecasts at a recent professional development conference. He calls upon his principles of cutback budgeting and citizen engagement to position the organization for the next fiscal year. The expected budget deficit is about $7.5 million. River City will need to consider both revenues and expenditures to achieve a projected budget balance, mindful of the council’s strategic goals and priorities. Students assume a budgeting actor role and use the Balancing Act simulation to propose a balanced budget to the city council reflective of the budgeting actor’s community perspective.

  • Temporal Variations in Aboveground Biomass, Nutrient Content, and Ecological Stoichiometry in Young and Middle-Aged Stands of Chinese Fir Forests by Zhiqiang Li, Can Mao, Qinxiang Wu, Yuanying Peng, Jun Wang, Bin Zhang, Sheng Zhang, Ziaocui Liang, Wende Yan, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Temporal Variations in Aboveground Biomass, Nutrient Content, and Ecological Stoichiometry in Young and Middle-Aged Stands of Chinese Fir Forests

    Zhiqiang Li, Can Mao, Qinxiang Wu, Yuanying Peng, Jun Wang, Bin Zhang, Sheng Zhang, Ziaocui Liang, Wende Yan, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Understanding the ecological dynamics of forest ecosystems, particularly the influence of forest age structure on soil carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) content, is crucial for effective forest management and conservation. This study aimed to investigate the nutrient storage and ecological stoichiometry across different-aged stands of Chinese fir forests. Soil samples were collected from various depths (0–15 cm, 15–30 cm, and 30–45 cm) across four age groups of Chinese fir forests (8-year-old, 12-year-old, 20-year-old, and 25-year-old) in the Forest Farm, Pingjiang County, China. Soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) were measured, and their stoichiometries were calculated. The results showed that both individual tree biomass and stand biomass, along with SOC, TN, and TP content, increased with stand age, highlighting the significant importance of stand age on biomass production and nutrient accumulation in forests. Specifically, soil C and P contents significantly increased as the forest aged, while variation in N content was relatively minor. Soil C/N and C/P ratios exhibited variation corresponding to forest age, suggesting alterations in the ecological stoichiometry characteristics of the forests over time. These findings are crucial for understanding the dynamics of ecosystem functioning and nutrient cycling within Chinese fir forests and provide a solid scientific basis for the effective management and conservation of these vital forest ecosystems.

  • Assessments of Municipalities’ Fiscal Health: Comparative Analysis of State Online Dashboard Systems by Natalia Ermasova and Tatyana Guzman

    Assessments of Municipalities’ Fiscal Health: Comparative Analysis of State Online Dashboard Systems

    Natalia Ermasova and Tatyana Guzman

    This research provides a comparative analysis of eight state online dashboard systems that track and assess fiscal health of local governments in California, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Washington, and Utah. The eight chosen states represent a population of states that both monitor local government fiscal health and run an online dashboard system The goal of this article is to offer practical guidance for practitioners on states’ online dashboard systems used to assess municipal fiscal health and provide a list of top best practices. Specifically, we address such questions as (1) who should administer the online dashboard systems, (2) what financial indicators should be present, (3) what environmental factors should be incorporated, (4) how many years of prior financial data should be included, (5) what financial stress risks should be accounted for, (6) what supplementary resources for use of systems should be present, and (7) which entities should collaborate in establishing and managing online dashboard systems.

  • Redefining Learning Paradigms: Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Modern Classrooms by Rich P. Manprisio, Mohammed Abdul Salam, Salman Rabrez Mohmad, and Sai Vikith Medasani

    Redefining Learning Paradigms: Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Modern Classrooms

    Rich P. Manprisio, Mohammed Abdul Salam, Salman Rabrez Mohmad, and Sai Vikith Medasani

  • Book Review: Failures of Forgiveness by Myisha Cherry by Ben Almassi

    Book Review: Failures of Forgiveness by Myisha Cherry

    Ben Almassi

    Book Review: Failures of Forgiveness by Myisha Cherry

  • Book Review: Lessons of the Pandemic: Disruption, Innovation, and What Schools Need to Move Forward by David T. Marshall and Tim Pressley by Giesela Grumbach and Cheri Gibbs

    Book Review: Lessons of the Pandemic: Disruption, Innovation, and What Schools Need to Move Forward by David T. Marshall and Tim Pressley

    Giesela Grumbach and Cheri Gibbs

    Book Review: Lessons of the Pandemic: Disruption, Innovation, and What Schools Need to Move Forward by David T. Marshall and Tim Pressley

  • Establishing an Agenda for Public Budgeting and Finance Research by Natalia Ermasova and et. al

    Establishing an Agenda for Public Budgeting and Finance Research

    Natalia Ermasova and et. al

    Public budgeting and finance is a discipline that encompasses communities of research and practice. Too often, however, these communities fail to engage each other, instead choosing to operate independently. The result is that the research being conducted fails to address the questions of the day and our governments’ challenges. In this article, we come together as a community of academics and practitioners to establish an agenda for where future research should be conducted. This agenda aims to align the research being undertaken within the academic community with the needs of those working in the community of practice. After establishing ten areas where research is needed, we followed a ranked-choice voting process to establish a prioritization for them. Based on the outcome of this process, the two primary areas where research is currently needed most are the fiscal health of our governments and the implementation of social equity budgeting.

  • Showing Up and Opening Up: Conducting Research With and About Refugee Resettlement Organizations by Fatima Sattar and Christopher Strunk

    Showing Up and Opening Up: Conducting Research With and About Refugee Resettlement Organizations

    Fatima Sattar and Christopher Strunk

    This article uses research conducted with and about refugee resettlement agencies in traditional and nontraditional destinations to critically assess the opportunities and constraints that social scientists encounter when conducting research on refugee incorporation experiences. Drawing on ethnographic field notes and reflections from two qualitative research projects in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest examining refugee incorporation postresettlement, we analyze how the geographic and institutional contexts in the case studies impacted research outcomes and differences in refugee participants’ showing up and opening up during data collection. We describe how the priorities of refugee resettlement agencies, along with the social locations and positionality of researchers, shaped our relationships and negotiations with institutional gatekeepers, as well as how refugee participants responded to the research. We show how conducting community-based research can introduce overlapping and conflicting reciprocal moral obligations between researchers, refugee participants, and refugee-serving organizations that ultimately shape the research process, decisions, and outcomes.

  • The Professional Habit of Self-Reflection for School Social Workers by Tiffany Nelson, Giesela Grumbach, and Annette Johnson

    The Professional Habit of Self-Reflection for School Social Workers

    Tiffany Nelson, Giesela Grumbach, and Annette Johnson

    Throughout the course of a school day, school social workers collaborate as team members but also work in isolation to assess, intervene, and engage students and their families in addressing the social-emotional, behavioral, and mental health needs that affect student academic outcomes. In performing their roles and responsibilities, school social workers engage in navigating complex situations and must rely on their professional identity. Engaging in self-reflection allows them to recognize their strengths; acknowledge the influence of their personal and professional values on their thoughts, feelings, and actions; and address gaps in their knowledge and skills. This article will provide school social work interns, practitioners, field instructors, and educators with two self-reflective tools to include in their practice that can be implemented weekly or as situations occur. It will also illustrate how these tools may be used throughout the education, training, and practice of a school social worker.

  • Health Education: The Power of the Podcast by Nancy J. MacMullen, Shirley Comer, Linda F. Samson, Tareylon Chairse, and Tonya S. Roberson

    Health Education: The Power of the Podcast

    Nancy J. MacMullen, Shirley Comer, Linda F. Samson, Tareylon Chairse, and Tonya S. Roberson

    Various strategies have been utilized by nurses to bring health education to community members. Role play, radio, and television (public service announcements), face to face meetings, printed literature and focus group are some of the strategies that have been used with varying degrees of success. Advances in technology have increased the types of tools available to offer health education. Social media has been used to bring information to a variety of types of community members. Zoom, GoToMeeting, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok are some of the newest technological and social media platforms employed to communicate health education and information. The Podcast in various formats is one of the newest techniques to bring accessible education to communities of interest.

  • ASHA Minority Student Leadership Program: A Student’s Perspective by Angela M. Riccelli and Danielle Osmelak

    ASHA Minority Student Leadership Program: A Student’s Perspective

    Angela M. Riccelli and Danielle Osmelak

    Xochitl Regalado, a graduate student at Governors State University (GSU), was selected to participate in ASHA’s Minority Student Leadership Program (MSLP), class of 2023. Xochitl was one of forty undergraduate seniors, graduate, and clinical doctoral students who was selected out of a competitive national selection process to participate in the MSLP. Per ASHA, the MSLP is a leadership development program for communication sciences and disorders (CSD) program students in order to recruit and retain racial/ethnic minorities that have been historically underrepresented in the field of CSD and to provide educational programming to build and enhance leaderships skills, while learning about how ASHA works. Now in her second year of graduate school, Xochitl, holds several titles, including President of the National Student Speech Language & Hearing Association (NSSLHA), Changemaker Fellow of the Great Lakes FAST Fund Consortium, and Library Assistant at GSU. She strives to make a lasting impact across campus and is highly motivated to support and encourage individuals to find their voice. Recently, Xochitl sat down for an interview with her professors, Dr. Danielle Osmelak and Dr. Angela Riccelli, to talk about the opportunity that took her to Boston, Massachusetts, and reflect on her once-in-lifetime experience.

  • Impact of Intercropping on Nitrogen and Phosphorus Nutrient Loss in Camellia oleifera Forests on Entisol Soil by Yi Zhang, Junjie Lei, Yuanying Peng, Xiaoyong Chen, Bowen Li, Yazhen Chen, Yichen Xu, Taimoor Hassan Farooq, Jun Wang, and Wende Yan

    Impact of Intercropping on Nitrogen and Phosphorus Nutrient Loss in Camellia oleifera Forests on Entisol Soil

    Yi Zhang, Junjie Lei, Yuanying Peng, Xiaoyong Chen, Bowen Li, Yazhen Chen, Yichen Xu, Taimoor Hassan Farooq, Jun Wang, and Wende Yan

    Soil and water loss represent a significant environmental challenge in purple soil cropland in China. However, the quantity and mechanism of nutrient loss from purple soil remain unclear. To understand water and soil conservation and address nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) mitigation in Camellia oleifera forest stands on purple soil slope farmland, this study aimed to explore the resistance control effect of forest stands on N and P loss in such agricultural landscapes. In the study, a runoff plot experiment was conducted in purple soil slope farmland. The experiment included three distinct treatments: intercropping of oil tea (Camellia oleifera) and ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.), Camellia oleifera monoculture, and barren land served as the control treatment (CK). Water samples were collected and analyzed from the soil surface runoff and the middle soil layer at a depth of 20 cm (interflow) in three treatment plots under natural rainfall conditions in 2023. Various nutrient components, including total nitrogen (TN), dissolved nitrogen (DN), nitrate nitrogen (NO3−-N), ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N), particulate nitrogen (PN), total phosphorus (TP), dissolved phosphorus (DP), phosphate (PO4+-P), and particulate phosphorus (PP), were measured in the water samples. The results indicated that intercropping effectively mitigated the loss of various forms of N and P in both surface runoff and interflow within purple soil slope farmland. Compared to the CK, the ryegrass intercropping reduced TN and TP loss by 29.3%–37.3% and 25.7%–38.9%, respectively. The ryegrass intercropping led to a decrease in the average total loss of TN, DN, NO3—N, and NH4+-N by 63.0, 24.3, 4.5, and 6.8 g/ha, corresponding to reductions of 33.3%, 47.6%, 58.3%, and 49.1%, respectively, compared to the CK. The average total loss of TP, DP, and PP decreased by 4.4, 1.8, and 1.4 g/hm2 in the intercropping, reflecting reductions of 32.3%, 31.3%, and 31.1%, respectively. The most significant proportion was observed in PN and PP within the runoff water solution, accounting for 53.3%–74.8% and 56.9%–61.0% of the TN and TP, respectively. These findings establish a foundation for purple soil and water conservation. The research provides valuable insights for land management and policymakers in developing erosion prevention and control programs for sloping cultivated land with Camellia oleifera forests in purple soils. Additionally, it offers guidance for soil and water conservation and prevention of surface source pollution in purple soil regions.

  • IoT Based Antenna Positioning System by Mohammed A. Salam, Mohammad Arshad Ali, Suresh Palarimath, and Mohammed Maqsood

    IoT Based Antenna Positioning System

    Mohammed A. Salam, Mohammad Arshad Ali, Suresh Palarimath, and Mohammed Maqsood

    Antennas are fundamental to every form of wireless communication system. Antenna placement is crucial for successful wireless communication, according to satellites and transmitters. So, to enable the use of IoT for remote antenna deployment, this paper provides an IoT-based antenna placement solution. In this case, this paper examines the transmitted orientation of each antenna over the Internet of Things using a sensor-based system that includes a motor on each antenna. When a satellite's or transmitting station's orientation changes, it is necessary to reposition the antenna. The receiving antennas might be located in different parts of the world, at great distances from each other. So, extremely long-distance antenna placement is within the realm of possibility because of modern technology. Online visibility of antenna sites is available to the operator in charge of the IoT. The antenna monitoring GUI system is utilized by the IoT. With IoT-based antenna placement solution technology, the antenna's orientation can be monitored and updated coordinates provided to the motor, allowing it to position the antenna correctly.

  • A Call for Social Work Educators to Confront and Dismantle Systemic Racism Within Social Work Programs by Shonda Lawrence and Tiffany D. Baffour

    A Call for Social Work Educators to Confront and Dismantle Systemic Racism Within Social Work Programs

    Shonda Lawrence and Tiffany D. Baffour

    The second volume of a two-part Special Issue of a Trilogy on race and racism amplifies the narratives, experiences, and truths of social work faculty and students who are working to confront and dismantle systemic racism in social work programs and departments globally. Counter-storytelling, using teaching and learning as its central theme, is used to first name racist and colonizing practices and then offer strategies to improve institutional change efforts. Sustainable anti-racist efforts in social work education can be improved by incorporating knowledge, skills, strategies, and lessons learned throughout this Special Issue.

  • Assessing the Safety and Efficacy of DIY-homemade Sunscreens with Natural, Aromatic and Herbal Ingredients by Onur Kenan Ulutas, Figen Karadogan, Senum Akgul, and Zeynup Gizem Yildiz

    Assessing the Safety and Efficacy of DIY-homemade Sunscreens with Natural, Aromatic and Herbal Ingredients

    Onur Kenan Ulutas, Figen Karadogan, Senum Akgul, and Zeynup Gizem Yildiz

    Sunscreen products are widely used during the summer months to protect against increased sunlight exposure. While there have been advancements in the effectiveness and safety of commercial sunscreens, there is a growing interest in "completely natural" and homemade skincare products, including sunscreens. These homemade alternatives often incorporating aromatic and medicinal herbal preparations, are being touted as safe alternatives on online social media platforms and alternative health websites. It is essential to recognize that scientific research has primarily focused on evaluating the effectiveness and safety of commercially available sunscreen products. Concerns have arisen regarding the potential risks associated with non-commercial sunscreens, particularly those labeled as "homemade" or "completely natural." Therefore, it is crucial to investigate whether these DIY sunscreen products, advertised as natural and additive-free, pose any health threats due to their inadequate sun protection properties. This study aims to examine the formulations of these proposed homemade sunscreen products, specifically evaluating their durability, protection against ultraviolet A and B (UVA and UVB) radiation, and average sun protection factor (SPF) values from a toxicological perspective. Emphasizing the importance of safety in sunscreen products is paramount, as the use of unsafe sunscreens can lead to serious health risks, including skin cancer, premature aging, and other skin disorders.

  • Speech-language Pathologists’ Experience with Nursing Initiated Texture Modified Diets in Health Care Settings by Naomi Gurevich and Danielle Osmelak

    Speech-language Pathologists’ Experience with Nursing Initiated Texture Modified Diets in Health Care Settings

    Naomi Gurevich and Danielle Osmelak

    Texture modified diets (TMDs) are among the most widely used compensatory measures for managing dysphagia. TMDs are associated with significant risks involving nutrition, hydration, and quality of life. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are trained to evaluate and treat people with dysphagia and to assess client-specific appropriateness of TMDs. However, patients are regularly placed on TMDs by nursing staff without formal training in dysphagia and without SLP consult (Gurevich et al., 2021).

  • 10 Powerful Strategies to Support Literacy Using Bilingual Books / 10 estrategias poderosas para apoyar la alfabetización con libros bilingües by Valerie Butron and Rita Guzman

    10 Powerful Strategies to Support Literacy Using Bilingual Books / 10 estrategias poderosas para apoyar la alfabetización con libros bilingües

    Valerie Butron and Rita Guzman

    Bilingual books are powerful! Explore these 10 practical and evidence-based strategies to help your students develop proficiency in both languages. Teachers can support literacy development through engaging and thoughtful use of bilingual books.

  • Activism: Reflecting on Human Impact by Amy Kelly, Katy Hisrich, and Kimberly Peterz

    Activism: Reflecting on Human Impact

    Amy Kelly, Katy Hisrich, and Kimberly Peterz

    Teaching and learning through Hollywood, or commercial, film and television productions is anything but a new approach and has been something of a mainstay in the classroom for nearly a century. However, purposeful and effective instruction through film is not problem-free and there are many challenges that accompany classroom applications of Hollywood motion pictures. In response to the problems and possibilities associated with teaching through film, we are developing a collection of practical, classroom-ready lesson ideas that might bridge gaps between theory and practice and assist teachers endeavoring to make effective use of film in their classrooms. We believe that film can serve as a powerful tool in the social studies classroom and, where appropriately utilized, foster critical thinking and civic mindedness. The NCSS College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) framework, represents a renewed and formalized emphasis on the perennial social studies goals of deep thinking, reading and writing. We believe that as teachers endeavor to digest and implement the platform in schools and classrooms across the country, the desire for access to structured strategies that lead to more active and rigorous investigation in the social studies classroom will grow increasingly acute. Our hope is that this edited book might play a small role in the larger project of supporting practitioners, specifically K-6 teachers of social studies content, by offering a collection of classroom-ready tools based on the Hollywood or History? strategy and designed to foster inquiry through the careful use of selected motion pictures and television productions.

  • Africa: The Definitive Visual History of a Continent by Morenikenji Asaaju , et. al

    Africa: The Definitive Visual History of a Continent

    Morenikenji Asaaju , et. al

    Spanning more than 200,000 years, from the emergence of the first humans to the rise of megacities, Africa explores the history and cultures of the world's second-largest continent in vivid detail. It brings to life the stories that shaped Africa and the world around it, from powerful and influential empires and kingdoms such as Mali and Benin, through the struggle against colonization and the fight for independence, to Africa's place on the global stage today. You will meet some of Africa's most important political and military leaders, including Hannibal, Mansa Moussa, Oba Ewuare, Shaka Zulu, Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, and Ellen Sirleaf. Lavish photography showcases the great art and architecture that African civilizations have created, while engaging text written by experts of African heritage covers every facet of African cultures, from music and literature to religions, mythology, and languages. Exclusive CGI illustrations recreate iconic buildings and life in lost cities such as Timbuktu and Great Zimbabwe. Beautifully illustrated and unparalleled in scope, Africa is the perfect book for anyone who is looking to deepen their understanding of Africa's vital and inspiring history.

  • Approaches to Solutions of Municipal Fiscal Distress: a Descriptive Case of Matteson, Illinois by Natalia Ermasova and Tatyana Guzman

    Approaches to Solutions of Municipal Fiscal Distress: a Descriptive Case of Matteson, Illinois

    Natalia Ermasova and Tatyana Guzman

    The aim of this case study is to provide a detailed picture of causes and consequences of fiscal emergencies and to examine different approaches the Village of Matteson, Illinois, used to improve its financial position between 2009 and 2024. Specifically, we focus on the following research questions: (1) What are the main causes of fiscal stress? (2) How did Matteson address its fiscal challenges? and, (3) What recommendation for improvement of fiscal health conditions in Matteson could extrapolate to other local governments? This case study analysis supports a Theory of Municipal Fiscal Emergency and Bankruptcy by Guzman and Ermasova (2023). We found that Matteson went through three stages of exit from its fiscal stress situation suggested by Guzman and Ermasova (2023): Haphazard, Emergency, and Innovative Responses. Matteson tackled its fiscal problems by “stretching the budget,” creating a business district tax and municipal hotel tax, establishing new fines, installing traffic-light cameras on heavy traffic roads, collecting higher service charges and permit fees, improving budgeting practices, achieving Home Rule status, and providing financial incentives to businesses to support economic development.

  • Autism Spectrum Disorder by Erin Simpson

    Autism Spectrum Disorder

    Erin Simpson

    Master the PTA’s role in treating and managing pediatric conditions! Comprehensive yet easy to understand, Pediatrics for the Physical Therapist Assistant, 2nd Edition provides the knowledge and skills you need to succeed both in the classroom and in clinical practice. The text guides you through a myriad of topics including child development, assessment tools, intervention principles, neurologic and muscular disorders, and congenital disorders such as Down Syndrome, along with other pediatric conditions including limb deficiencies and sports injuries. This edition adds six new chapters including a chapter introducing Movement Systems Analysis for pediatrics. From a team of expert contributors led by PT clinician/educator Roberta Kuchler O'Shea, this book teaches not only the lessons learned from textbooks and research but also from children and their families.

  • Childhood Trauma: What is Happening in the Brain? by Dr. Wanikka Vance-Clark

    Childhood Trauma: What is Happening in the Brain?

    Dr. Wanikka Vance-Clark

    Struggling with the lingering effects of childhood trauma—whether from emotional or physical abuse, household violence, neglect, or a painful parental divorce—can leave a lifelong impact on your personality, relationships, and overall happiness. If you're tired of letting these past experiences hold you back from living a fulfilling life, it's time to take control and heal the wounds that have caused so much pain. In this powerful and transformative book, Dr. Wanikka Vance-Clark, guides you through identifying the signs of childhood trauma, understanding its root causes, and recognizing its impact on learning and cognitive development. Written in a clear and accessible style, this book is both an informative resource and a practical tool for parents, educators, and trauma survivors alike, ensuring that everyone can benefit from its insights. Uncover the most effective strategies to confront and overcome the emotional scars of the past. Arm yourself with the tools to break free from the chains of trauma and avoid the chronic illnesses, isolation, and setbacks it can cause in adulthood. Don't wait any longer—this life-changing book will help you take the first steps toward healing, reclaiming your power, and living the joyful, successful life you deserve!

  • Choice Theory and Reality Therapy Couples Counseling by Patricia A. Robey

    Choice Theory and Reality Therapy Couples Counseling

    Patricia A. Robey

    This textbook provides undergraduate and graduate students with a comprehensive and in-depth exploration of the primary models of couples counseling, allowing them to compare and contrast each theory alongside a single case. Designed to be the core text for couple therapy courses, the book begins by introducing the field as well as presenting Carissa and Steve, a couple whom readers will follow as each model is applied to their case. The chapters focus on 11 different theoretical models such as Bowen family systems theory, emotionally focused couple therapy, the Gottman method, solution-focused couples counseling, narrative couple therapy, and more, with expert therapists writing on each of these unique models. Each chapter addresses the history of the model, the conceptualization of problem formation, diversity considerations, and the conceptualization of problem resolution. With session transcripts throughout, this book allows training therapists to easily compare, contrast, and apply the most prevalent models in couples counseling. This textbook is a core text for graduate marriage and family therapy, mental health counseling, clinical psychology, and social work students. The book is also useful for practicing professionals who want to explore how to apply a specific model of counseling to couples.

  • Christian Integration and the CACREP Alliance by Vasti P. Holstun and Leonis S. Wright

    Christian Integration and the CACREP Alliance

    Vasti P. Holstun and Leonis S. Wright

    As both counselor educators and deeply committed followers of Christ, we recognize the need more than ever to integrate a Christian perspective on issues in the professional counseling field. The primary motivation for this book is to empower faith-based CACREP-accredited counseling programs to integrate robust Christian principles and values into the counseling profession while upholding and honoring the ethical standards outlined in the American Counseling Association's Code of Ethics. This work comprises the perspectives of 55 contributing Christian authors from many institutions who are committed to the integration of Christian faith and theology in the counseling profession. Each of the authors is committed to the following core values in their writing:

  • Counterfactual Geographies: Creating Urban Space in Post-Crash Irish Fiction by Liam Lanigan

    Counterfactual Geographies: Creating Urban Space in Post-Crash Irish Fiction

    Liam Lanigan

    This chapter explores the depiction of the space of the International Financial Services Centre in Paul Murray's 2015 novel The Mark and the Void. In doing so it provides an analysis of the relationship between Irish fiction and the financialisation of Irish urban space. The chapter suggests that Murray's novel critiques the subjection of urban space to the logic of global financial capital, while also gesturing towards new ways of thinking about and constructing urban space that resist that logic. The Mark and the Void identifies the fissures in the financialised space of Dublin through which a different urban spatiality might be imagined and brought into being, and through which a ‘counterfactual geography’ might be imagined from within the conditions created by financial catastrophe. However, while the novel articulates the critical-utopian impulse to go beyond understanding the transformation of Dublin, towards the possibility of its being reimagined, it stops short of enacting that possibility in its own narrative structure. The chapter ends by noting that while Murray's novel critiques the conditions by which urban space has been remade by neoliberal capital, literature has the capacity to not just demand that we reclaim the city, but also enable us, imaginatively, to do so.

  • Couples Counseling in the Loss of a Child: A Choice Theory and Emotionally Focused Therapy Approach by Ileana Ungureanu and Patricia A. Robey

    Couples Counseling in the Loss of a Child: A Choice Theory and Emotionally Focused Therapy Approach

    Ileana Ungureanu and Patricia A. Robey

    The death of a child is one of the most painful events a parent can experience. In addition to its impact on the individual, it takes a heavy toll on the couple’s or parents’ relationship. Research shows that grieving can impact the couple on multiple levels, including emotional and meaning-making levels. Because the death of a child activates attachment needs in both partners, it is very difficult to reach out across the pain to meet a partner’s needs when both are faced with grieving at the same time. The authors will describe a model to work with bereft parents where the emotional part of grief will be addressed through an Emotionally Focused therapy approach (Johnson, 2020) and the meaning-making part will be addressed through a Choice Theory perspective (Glasser 1998, 2000). A composite case will be used to exemplify the proposed model.

  • Crisis in the Academic Library by Cari Didion

    Crisis in the Academic Library

    Cari Didion

    Academic libraries are full of inspiring collections, resources, and services, but libraries are special because of the people who run them. And what people believe about and face in their culture impacts ideas, plans, and outcomes. Academic library workers face many contemporary challenges that contribute to toxic work cultures—the rapid change of higher education, diminishing resources, lack of diversity, power hierarchies—and addressing these problems requires innovative solutions, ongoing professional development, and effective leadership. Toxic Dynamics: Disrupting, Dismantling, and Transforming Academic Library Culture provides practical solutions for confronting these complex issues and innovative ways to promote a healthy and sustainable work culture. It addresses critical and timely challenges such as faculty versus staff or us versus them mentality, unionization, gendered labor, organizational change, self-care, tenure, and promotion. Authors from all sizes and types of academic libraries provide evidence-based solutions to mitigate the negative effects of toxicity, change management strategies, and ways to confront and challenge values that harm library workers and their well-being. By understanding the root causes of toxic cultures, recognizing their impact, and implementing solutions, leaders can create a more supportive and positive work environment and improve morale, retention, and productivity. Toxic Dynamics is an important resource for anyone interested in improving workplace culture and addressing issues related to toxicity and inequity, and for library leaders at all levels.

  • Curdled Contracts: Reading Mills through a Lugonesian Spirit by Taylor Rogers

    Curdled Contracts: Reading Mills through a Lugonesian Spirit

    Taylor Rogers

    Charles W. Mills (1951–2021) was considered by many to be the most well-known philosopher specializing in political philosophy and critical philosophy of race. This is the first collection of essays to critically examine the key themes of Mills’s philosophy across his major works.
    The chapters in this volume engage with major themes such as the racial contract, non-ideal theory, metaphysics of race, epistemology of ignorance, and corrective justice. They also explore Mills’s engagement with philosophical figures including Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Maria Lugones, Immanuel Kant, Karl Marx, and John Rawls. Furthermore, the contributors seek to uncover unexplored terrain which may be illuminated by applying many of Mills’s key insights.
    The Philosophy of Charles W. Mills will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in political philosophy, philosophy of race, Africana philosophy, and Black political thought.

  • Diurnal, Seasonal, and Vertical Changes in Photosynthetic Rates in Cinamomum camphora Forests in Subtropical China by Zhiqiant Li, Qinxiang Wu, Yuanying Peng, Junjie Lei, Shuguang Liu, Can Mao, Xin Liu, Jun Wang, Wende Yan, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Diurnal, Seasonal, and Vertical Changes in Photosynthetic Rates in Cinamomum camphora Forests in Subtropical China

    Zhiqiant Li, Qinxiang Wu, Yuanying Peng, Junjie Lei, Shuguang Liu, Can Mao, Xin Liu, Jun Wang, Wende Yan, and Xiaoyong Chen

    The increase in the global atmospheric CO2 concentration is expected to increase the productivity of forests, but the dynamic processes of such increased productivity in the forest canopy remain unclear. In this study, diurnal and seasonal variations and vertical changes in photosynthetic rates were investigated in Camphor tree (Cinnamomum camphora) forests in subtropical China. The effect of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and CO2 concentrations on photosynthetic rates were also examined in the studied forests. Results showed the diurnal patterns of photosynthesis exhibited two peaks on sunny days, but only one peak on cloudy days. The daily average photosynthetic rate on cloudy days was approximately 74% of that on sunny days. The photosynthetic rate decreased along the vertical forest canopy profile. If the photosynthetic rate in the upper canopy layer was 100%, the corresponding rates were 83% and 25% in the middle and lower canopy layers, respectively. The rates of dark respiration derived from the PAR response curve were 1.73, 1.25, and 1.0 µmol m−2 s−1 for the upper, middle, and lower canopy layers, respectively. The apparent quantum yield of photosynthesis was 0.0183, 0.0186, and 0.0327 µmol CO2 µmol−1 PAR for the upper, middle, and lower canopy, respectively. The initial slope of the photosynthetic response curve to CO2 was highest in the upper canopy and lowest in the lower canopy. The seasonal variation in photosynthetic rates exhibited a two-peaked pattern at all canopy positions, with the two peaks occurring in June and September. The stand biomass and biomass carbon storage were 144.7 t ha−1 and 71.6 t C ha−1 in the examined forests, respectively. The study provides a scientific reference for future research on accessing carbon sequestration and designing forest management practices, specifically in regulating canopy structure in subtropical regions.

  • Everything is Different Here. Again. Welcoming Gustavo / Todo es Diferencia Aquí. De Nueva. Le Tenemos la Bienvenu a Gustavo by Valerie Butron and Rita Guzman

    Everything is Different Here. Again. Welcoming Gustavo / Todo es Diferencia Aquí. De Nueva. Le Tenemos la Bienvenu a Gustavo

    Valerie Butron and Rita Guzman

    Have you ever been on a long journey? Gustavo has. Gustavo, his Mother, and cousin Luz went on a very long journey from Guatemala to the United States. They have just arrived to live in their new community in the United States. Everything is different here. Again. What will Gustavo's first day of school be like and how can his new teachers and classmates help him feel welcome? How can Gustavo's new teachers and classmates support him emotionally and socially?

  • Gauging Student Progress: The Need for Daily Formative Assessment by Shannon Manley, Sara L. Avrit, and Bailie Antwiler

    Gauging Student Progress: The Need for Daily Formative Assessment

    Shannon Manley, Sara L. Avrit, and Bailie Antwiler

    Assessment drives instruction. Teachers need an effective procedure for determining students' learning and mastery of a concept of skill daily. Formative assessment meets this demand. It is designed to take place during instruction while learning is occurring. Formative assessments supply teachers with needed methods to monitor students' learning through a deliberate and intentional process. During the assessment process, teachers provide affirming and corrective feedback to clarify of correct any misunderstandings. The authors argue that formative assessment should be implemented as a daily practice in classrooms given its value in collective data and effectiveness in driving instruction.

  • “I Feel Disconnected … but Do I?”: University Students’ Sense of Belonging in Time of Adversity by Anna Bernadska, Giesela Grumbach, Linda Campos-Moreira, Maristela Zell, and Lisa Hollis-Sawyer

    “I Feel Disconnected … but Do I?”: University Students’ Sense of Belonging in Time of Adversity

    Anna Bernadska, Giesela Grumbach, Linda Campos-Moreira, Maristela Zell, and Lisa Hollis-Sawyer

    Research about students’ sense of belonging during major adverse events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic is limited. Using data from two public universities, we ask: How do students experience belonging in times of adversity? What factors affect their experience? “Feeling Disconnected” emerged as the major theme describing negative changes in belonging. The theme “Seeing Value in the Pandemic” emerged for students reporting positive changes. Several sub-themes illuminated factors that diminished or strengthened students’ belonging.

  • Related Technological Density and Regional Industrial Upgrading from Perspective of Product Space Theory: Evidence from China by Haoyan Cheng, Mingyong Song, and Yunchuan Liu

    Related Technological Density and Regional Industrial Upgrading from Perspective of Product Space Theory: Evidence from China

    Haoyan Cheng, Mingyong Song, and Yunchuan Liu

    When the product space theory is applied to study regional technology and industry evolution, both the theory exploitation and practical application are not comprehensive and detailed enough. This article traces the connotation of ‘density’ in the product space theory, explains the micro-foundation of regional industrial upgrading from a firm’s perspective, and abstracts industrial upgrading into four processes at two stages. Empirical research shows that an increase in related technological density (i.e. the average proximity of related technologies in a certain region) is beneficial for all processes of industrial upgrading. Marketization has a positive moderating effect on the static stage but a certain ‘counterproductive’ effect on the dynamic stage. Regional heterogeneity analysis shows that, on the whole, the industrial upgrading effect of the related technological density increase is relatively stronger on static processes but relatively weaker on dynamic processes in eastern China, and such results may be attributed to differences in regional resource dependence.

  • States of Incarceration: A Discussion by Jarrod Shanahan and Zhandarka Kurti

    States of Incarceration: A Discussion

    Jarrod Shanahan and Zhandarka Kurti

    What’s the relationship between combating the far right and working for systemic change? What does it mean when fascists intensify racial oppression and patriarchy but also call for the downfall of economic elites or even take up arms against the state?
    Three way fight politics confront these urgent questions squarely, arguing that the far right grows out of an oppressive capitalist order but is also in conflict with it in real ways, and that radicals need to combat both. The three way fight approach says we need sharper analysis of far-right movements so we can fight them more effectively, and we also need to track ongoing developments within the ruling class, including liberal or centrist efforts to co-opt antifascism as a tool of state repression and system legitimation.
    This book offers an introduction to three way fight politics, with more than thirty essays, position statements, and interviews from the Three Way Fight website and elsewhere, spanning from the antifascist struggles of the 1980s and 1990s to the political upheavals of the twenty-first century. Over fifteen authors explore a range of topics, such as fascist politics’ relationship with patriarchy and settler colonialism, Tom Metzger’s “Third Position” (anticapitalist) fascism, conflict within the business community over the 2016 presidential election, and the Trump administration’s shifting relationship with the organized far right. Many of the writings address issues of political strategy, such as tensions between radicals and liberals within the reproductive rights movement and the George Floyd rebellion, video gaming as an arena of political struggle, and the importance (and challenges) of approaching antifascist organizing in ways that are militant, community based, and nonsectarian.

  • The Performativity of Comedic Apologies by Dustin Goltz and Jason Zingsheim

    The Performativity of Comedic Apologies

    Dustin Goltz and Jason Zingsheim

    This essay examines the comedic apology ritual as a complex site of struggle over competing cultural values. First tracing the multilayered process of the categorical apology, we detail performative dimensions of apology specific to the dealing of comedy and the interpretive ambiguities of irony. Turning next to the context of the “apology epidemic,” we examine how the call for, and possible delivery of, an apology marks a performative struggle over competing norms and values. Finally, the essay traces a series of performative effects emerging from the repetition of this cultural comic apology ritual, both in its compliance and refusal.

  • Wearing Many Hats: The Lived Experience of Professional School Counselors by Yenitza Z. Guzman, Ahmet Can, Leonis Wright, and Eman Tadros

    Wearing Many Hats: The Lived Experience of Professional School Counselors

    Yenitza Z. Guzman, Ahmet Can, Leonis Wright, and Eman Tadros

    This study examines the lived experiences of urban school counselors. This qualitative phenomenological research attempts to examine roles and responsibilities of each school counselor. The focus is to identify roles assigned to the school counselor, how they are assigned, what sort of say school counselors have in those assignments, and suggestions they have to improve their assigned roles and responsibilities. The findings are analyzed and discussed, including themes of COVID-19, Challenges, Satisfaction, Professional Identity, and Advocacy. Clinical recommendations and future directions have been provided.

  • We Celebrate Juneteenth Unidos: Inspired by a True Story by Valerie Butron and Rita Guzman

    We Celebrate Juneteenth Unidos: Inspired by a True Story

    Valerie Butron and Rita Guzman

    Grandma Joy is coming to visit and she's especially excited to take her granddaughter Joy to the park today. Joy's abuelos - grandparents, are joining them too! But why? Joy's entire family and her neighbors will celebrate Juneteenth unidos - united. Inspired by a true story of different communities learning how to enjoy the holiday together, WeCelebrateJuneteenth Unidos honors history, celebrates community, language and shared values.

  • What Drives Renewable Energy Consumption in Asia by Evelina Mengova

    What Drives Renewable Energy Consumption in Asia

    Evelina Mengova

    In more recent years Asia has had the highest level of investment in renewables and the highest level of electricity generation from renewable sources. This paper analyzes the determinants of renewable energy consumption in Asia and the Pacific from 1996 to 2018. It explores the major challenges this region has faced in moving towards a more environmentally friendly generation and use of energy. We find that the renewable electricity output, GDP per capita, merchandise trade, the value added of the manufacturing sector and the income share held by the poorest population boost renewable electricity consumption. On the other hand, energy use per capita, access to electricity, energy imports, broad FDI, population growth and the income share held by the richest population lower consumption of electricity from renewable sources. Trade openness and being an island do not seem to have a statistically significant impact in our sample over the observed period.

  • Capital Budgeting During Municipal Bankruptcy: Cases of Jefferson County, AL; Central Falls, RI; and Vallejo, CA. by Natalia Ermasova and Tatyana Guzman

    Capital Budgeting During Municipal Bankruptcy: Cases of Jefferson County, AL; Central Falls, RI; and Vallejo, CA.

    Natalia Ermasova and Tatyana Guzman

    This comparative case study explores the capital budgeting before, during, and after municipal bankruptcy in three U.S. local governments: Jefferson County, AL; Central Falls, RI; and Vallejo, CA. This in-depth examination of capital budgeting challenges reveals a pattern across all cases—a significant decrease in capital spending on infrastructure and maintenance before and during municipal bankruptcy. In fact, the mismanagement and underinvestment in capital infrastructure were some of the causes of municipal bankruptcy in all three local governments. The comparison of the reforms adopted after the bankruptcy shows that all three local government went through a similar two-stage process of recovery and restructuring, employing the emergent strategy to exit the bankruptcy and the problem-oriented innovative strategy to recover. These results show that even though all three local government significantly decreased spending on capital investments and maintenance as part of the emergent strategy, investment in public infrastructure during the recovery, and reconstructing became a priority across all selected cases.

  • Seasonal Dynamics of Soil Respiration and Its Autotrophic and Heterotrophic Components in Subtropical Camphor Forests by Ping He, Wende Yan, Yuanying Peng, Junjie Lei, Wei Zheng, Yi Zhang, Yaqin Qi, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Seasonal Dynamics of Soil Respiration and Its Autotrophic and Heterotrophic Components in Subtropical Camphor Forests

    Ping He, Wende Yan, Yuanying Peng, Junjie Lei, Wei Zheng, Yi Zhang, Yaqin Qi, and Xiaoyong Chen

    On a global scale, soil respiration (Rs), representing the CO2 flux between the soil surface and the atmosphere, ranks as the second-largest terrestrial carbon (C) flux. Understanding the dynamics between Rs and its autotrophic (Ra) and heterotrophic (Rh) components is necessary for accurately evaluating and predicting global C balance and net ecosystem production under environmental change. In this study, we conducted a two-year root exclusion experiment in subtropical China’s Camphor (Cinnamomum camphora (L.) Presl.) forests to assess seasonal changes in Ra and Rh and their relative contributions to Rs. Additionally, we examined the influence of environmental factors on the dynamics of Ra, Rh, and Rs. Our results showed that seasonal mean Rs values were 2.88 µmol m−2 s−1, with mean Ra and Rh of 1.21 and 1.67 µmol m−2 s−1, respectively, in the studied forests. On an annual basis, the annual values of mean Rs in the studied forests were 405 ± 219 g C m−2 year−1, with Rh and Ra accounting for 240 ± 120 and 164 ± 102 g C m−2 year−1, respectively. The seasonal mean ratio of Rh to Rs (Rh/Rs) was 58%, varying from 45 to 81%. Seasonal changes in Rs and Rh were strongly correlated with soil temperature but not soil water content. Both Rh and Rs increased exponentially with the average soil temperature measured in the topsoil layer (about 5 cm), with Q10 values of 2.02 and 1.73 for Rh and Rs, respectively. Our results suggest that the composition and activity of soil microbes and fauna play a primary role in releasing carbon flux from soil to the atmosphere in the studied forest ecosystems.

  • The Response of Nutrient Cycle, Microbial Community Abundance and Metabolic Function to Nitrogen Fertilizer in Rhizosphere Soil of Phellodendron Chinese Schneid Seedlings by Yuanzheng Gu, Xianglin Chen, Yan Shen, Xiaoyong Chen, Gongxiu He, Xinxing He, Guangjun Wang, Hanjie He, and Zhencheng Lv

    The Response of Nutrient Cycle, Microbial Community Abundance and Metabolic Function to Nitrogen Fertilizer in Rhizosphere Soil of Phellodendron Chinese Schneid Seedlings

    Yuanzheng Gu, Xianglin Chen, Yan Shen, Xiaoyong Chen, Gongxiu He, Xinxing He, Guangjun Wang, Hanjie He, and Zhencheng Lv

    Nitrogen (N) as an essential macronutrient affects the soil nutrient cycle, microbial community abundance, and metabolic function. However, the specific responses of microorganisms and metabolic functions in rhizosphere soil of Phellodendron chinense Schneid seedlings to N addition remain unclear. In this study, four treatments (CK, N5, N10 and N15) were conducted, and the soil physicochemical properties, enzyme activities, microbial community abundances and diversities, metabolism, and gene expressions were investigated in rhizosphere soil of P. chinense Schneid. The results showed that N addition significantly decreased rhizosphere soil pH, among which the effect of N10 treatment was better. N10 treatment significantly increased the contents of available phosphorus (AP), available potassium (AK), ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N), nitrate nitrogen (NO3−-N) and sucrase (SU) activity, as well as fungal diversity and the relative expression abundances of amoA and phoD genes in rhizosphere soil, but observably decreased the total phosphorus (TP) content, urease (UR) activity and bacterial diversity, among which the pH, soil organic matter (SOM), AP, NH4+-N and NO3−-N were the main environmental factors for affecting rhizosphere soil microbial community structure based on RDA and correlation analyses. Meanwhile, N10 treatment notably enhanced the absolute abundances of the uracil, guanine, indole, prostaglandin F2α and γ-glutamylalanine, while reduced the contents of D-phenylalanine and phenylacetylglycine in rhizosphere soil of P. chinense Schneid seedlings. Furthermore, the soil available nutrients represented a significant correlation with soil metabolites and dominant microorganisms, suggesting that N10 addition effectively regulated microbial community abundance and metabolic functions by enhancing nutrient cycle in the rhizosphere soil of P. chinense Schneid seedlings.

  • Tracing the Effect of the Paycheck Protection Program on Nonprofit Capacity to Sustain Payroll and Services During COVID‐19 by Erica Ceka and Lora Warner

    Tracing the Effect of the Paycheck Protection Program on Nonprofit Capacity to Sustain Payroll and Services During COVID‐19

    Erica Ceka and Lora Warner

    This study explores the effect of government fiscal stimulus on nonprofit performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, it investigates whether access to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) increased the ability of nonprofit organizations operating in the crisis context conditions to continue supplying funds for payroll and maintain effective delivery of services and programs after the initial revenue shock. The study findings are derived from the analysis of survey data collected from 160 Wisconsin nonprofit organizations in July and August 2020 linked to publicly available Internal Revenue Service tax filings. Regression analysis reveals a strong positive connection between the PPP loans and the nonprofit capacity to continue funding payroll and providing services within the next months of the pandemic. The empirical results suggest that the government stimulus policies offering direct economic assistance can indeed contribute to the continuity of nonprofit services and payroll in times of fiscal uncertainty, albeit the policy may not yield equally significant results across all types of organizations. This study increases the understanding of nonprofit performance during an extended revenue crisis, offering answers to policymakers, researchers, and practitioners interested in learning more about the efficacy of federal stimulus funding in enabling private organizations to mitigate the financial consequences of the COVID-19 crisis.

  • Allelopathic Mechanisms in Camellia oleifera- Arachis hypogaea L. Intercropping by Hao Wen, Peipei Dan, Ting Liu, Ziqian Li, Xiaoyong Chen, Yini Cao, Yong Li, and Wende Yan

    Allelopathic Mechanisms in Camellia oleifera- Arachis hypogaea L. Intercropping

    Hao Wen, Peipei Dan, Ting Liu, Ziqian Li, Xiaoyong Chen, Yini Cao, Yong Li, and Wende Yan

    Tree-crop intercropping is of great significance in food security, land protection, and sustainable agriculture. However, the mechanisms of allelopathy between plant species during intercropping are still limited. This study focuses on the allelopathic effects in the intercropping between Camellia oleifera and Arachis hypogaea L. in southern China. We use different parts of the C. oleifera extract to evaluate their impact on peanut seed germination. The results showed that it has inhibitory effects on peanut germination and growth, with the fruit shell having the strongest inhibitory effect. Three main allelopathic substances affecting A. hypogaea germination and growth were identified using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis, namely, 2,4-di-tert-butylphenol, hexanal, and benzaldehyde. Transcriptomics and metabolomics analyses revealed their effects on glutathione metabolism pathways and specific gene expression. In summary, this study reveals the allelopathic interaction mechanism between C. oleifera and A. hypogaea, which helps to better understand the role of allelopathy in intercropping practices between trees and crops.

  • Biodegradation Method of Soil Microplastics Based on Enzymatic Engineering by Hong Liu, Yong Li, Qianlong Tan, Ziqian Li, Wentao Chen, Haimei Wu, Zekai Chen, Can Mao, Lingli Xie, Yuanyuan Hou, Dan Peipei, Junjie Lei, Xuyuan Zhang, Xiaoyong Chen, and Wende Yan

    Biodegradation Method of Soil Microplastics Based on Enzymatic Engineering

    Hong Liu, Yong Li, Qianlong Tan, Ziqian Li, Wentao Chen, Haimei Wu, Zekai Chen, Can Mao, Lingli Xie, Yuanyuan Hou, Dan Peipei, Junjie Lei, Xuyuan Zhang, Xiaoyong Chen, and Wende Yan

    Microplastics, which refer to small plastic particles with a diameter less than 5 millimeters, have gained global attention due to their accumulation in soil and waterways, potentially harming the health of wildlife and ecosystems. Enzyme engineering-based remediation techniques offer a promising, cost-effective and environmentally-friendly approach for cleaning microplastics from soil. This article provides an overview of enzyme engineering-based bioremediation strategies for addressing soil microplastic pollution, highlighting the factors that may impact their efficacy, in the pursuit of identifying the optimal approach for remedying this issue.

  • Characterization and Application of Fe-modified Biochar Alleviating Cr(VI) Stress in Pak Choi Seedling Cultivated in Cr-polluted Hydroponics by Dongjun Zou, Yaohui Wu, Yuanying Peng, Junjie Lei, Guangjun Wang, Jun Wang, Yuliang Pan, Wende Yan, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Characterization and Application of Fe-modified Biochar Alleviating Cr(VI) Stress in Pak Choi Seedling Cultivated in Cr-polluted Hydroponics

    Dongjun Zou, Yaohui Wu, Yuanying Peng, Junjie Lei, Guangjun Wang, Jun Wang, Yuliang Pan, Wende Yan, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Chromium (Cr) is one of the common environmental pollutants, which causes severe health hazards on human health and environmental security. In this study, we characterized two biochars, a raw biochar (RBC) and a Fe-modified biochar (MBC) made from poplar wood chips and determined the effect of the two biochars on remediation of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) in hydroponic system by monitoring Pak choi growth. Results showed the surface area, pore number and pore volume were significantly higher in MBC than in PBC, but the pore size was larger in PBC than in MBC. When compared to the control, low concentrations of Cr(VI) (≤2 mg L−1) promoted the growth and biomass production of Pak choi by 10–78%. In contrast, the high concentrations of Cr(VI) (≥4 mg L−1) showed a significantly reduction of the growth and biomass production of Pak choi by 10–28%. Fe-modified biochar (MBC) had a more significant impact than RBC on the remediation of Cr in the Cr(VI) pollution and improved growth and biomass production of Pak choi to a greater extent. Our study indicated that MBC has a better effect on degrading Cr(VI) pollution. The findings provide scientific basis and reference for the remediation of heavy metals in aquatic ecosystems by using biochar.

  • Interplanting Leguminous Shrubs Boosts the Trophic Interactions of Soil Micro-food Web in a Karst Grassland by Jiachen Wang, Jie Zhao, Rong Yang, Xin Liu, Xuyuan Zhang, Wei Zhang, Xiaoyong Chen, Wende Yan, and Delin Wang

    Interplanting Leguminous Shrubs Boosts the Trophic Interactions of Soil Micro-food Web in a Karst Grassland

    Jiachen Wang, Jie Zhao, Rong Yang, Xin Liu, Xuyuan Zhang, Wei Zhang, Xiaoyong Chen, Wende Yan, and Delin Wang

    Nitrogen (N) is an essential nutrient for ecosystem productivity, restoration and succession processes. Biological N fixation and chemical N addition are both important strategies for accessing N nutrients in soil ecosystem. However, it is unclear which N supplement strategies is more effective in restoring ecosystem stability, particularly in soil micro-food web component, which plays a crucial role in nutrient cycling. Here, an in-situ study was conducted in a natural grassland to investigate the effects of N supply on soil microbial and nematode communities by three legume species: Amorpha fruticose (AF), Derris fordii (DF), and Indigofera atropurpurea (IA) at two interplanting densities (1: low density, 1.5 × 2 m; and 2: high density, 1 × 1 m), and by two N fertilization rates (N5: 5 g N m−2 y−1 and N10: 10 g N m−2 y−1). Results showed the microbial biomass of total-PLFA, bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes and chlorophyta increased by DF1 and IA2, and the biomasses of total nematodes, herbivores and omnivores were promoted by AF1, AF2 and DF1, but the biomass of most components was inhibited by N fertilizers. The interactions of soil micro-food web were complicated by DF1 and DF2, but simplified by N5 and N10. Furthermore, different N supplement strategies showed distinct energy flow patterns, such as the bacterial channel was promoted exclusively in AF2, the plant channel was enhanced in AF1 and AF2, and the fungal channel was boosted in DF1 and DF2 but declined in N5 and N10. These results demonstrated that the structure and energy flow of the soil micro-food web might be benefited by legume interplanting but impaired by N fertilizers. In particular, interplanting with D. fordii granted a more sustainable way of N supplementation for promoting the complexity and stability of the soil micro-food web, compared to interplanting with other legume species. Our findings provide better understanding of the interactions between legumes and soil biota and have important implications for sustainable restoration of degraded karst grasslands.

  • Leguminous Crop Restores the Carbon Flow Attenuation from Nitrogen Loading Within Woil Nematode Food Web in a Camellia oleifera Plantation by Jiachen Wang, Xuyuan Zhang, Hailun Wang, Ting Liu, Amna Fayyaz, Norela C.T. Gonzalez, Jun Wang, Xiaoyong Chen, Jie Zhao, and Wende Yan

    Leguminous Crop Restores the Carbon Flow Attenuation from Nitrogen Loading Within Woil Nematode Food Web in a Camellia oleifera Plantation

    Jiachen Wang, Xuyuan Zhang, Hailun Wang, Ting Liu, Amna Fayyaz, Norela C.T. Gonzalez, Jun Wang, Xiaoyong Chen, Jie Zhao, and Wende Yan

    Excessive nitrogen (N) loading poses a substantial risk to soil biodiversity and disrupts carbon (C) flows within the soil food web. Intercropping with legumes is often considered a sustainable way to maintain soil N availability and mitigate the associated detrimental effects. However, it remains unclear whether and how legume crops restore energetic attenuation caused by N loading within the soil food web. Here, we conducted a two-year field experiment using randomized block design in a subtropic Camellia oleifera plantation with high wet N deposition. We examined the effects of applying N fertilizers at normal or half levels (168 or 84 kg N ha−1yr−1) and intercropping legumes (Arachis hypogaea or Cassia tora) on the soil nematode food web. We observed that N fertilization suppressed the majority of nematode trophic groups, weakened the stability of food web structure, and diminished the C flows across the bacterial and fungal energy channels. Conversely, intercropping with legumes (particularly with C. tora) bolstered the densities of bacterivore and fungivore nematodes. This enhancement facilitated interactions within the soil micro-food web, and subsequently augmented the C flows within their respective channels. Model predictions suggested that the detrimental effects of N fertilizers on the nematode food web are primarily linked to decreased soil pH resulting from soil N accumulation. Notably, higher soil organic C was found to mitigate these effects. Furthermore, N-enriched legume substrates played a beneficial role in stimulating soil microbial activities and facilitating C flows through bottom-up control. Our findings emphasize the positive impacts of legume crops on mitigating soil biodiversity loss and restoring energetic attenuation within soil food web under N-saturated soil conditions. These findings provide valuable insights for agroforestry management practices aimed at sustaining soil health and ecosystem resilience.

  • Bereavement in Older Adults by Ileana Ungureanu and C. A. Hall

    Bereavement in Older Adults

    Ileana Ungureanu and C. A. Hall

    Since the late 1970s, there has been an increase in the study of diversity, inclusion, race, and ethnicity within the field of counseling. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Multicultural Counseling, Social Justice, and Advocacy will comprehensively synthesize a wide range of terms, concepts, ideologies, groups, and organizations through a diverse lens. This encyclopedia will include entries on a wide range of topics relative to multicultural counseling, social justice and advocacy, and the experiences of diverse groups. The encyclopedia will consist of approximately 600 signed entries, arranged alphabetically within four volumes.

  • Sexual Trauma by Ileana Ungureanu

    Sexual Trauma

    Ileana Ungureanu

    Since the late 1970s, there has been an increase in the study of diversity, inclusion, race, and ethnicity within the field of counseling. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Multicultural Counseling, Social Justice, and Advocacy will comprehensively synthesize a wide range of terms, concepts, ideologies, groups, and organizations through a diverse lens. This encyclopedia will include entries on a wide range of topics relative to multicultural counseling, social justice and advocacy, and the experiences of diverse groups. The encyclopedia will consist of approximately 600 signed entries, arranged alphabetically within four volumes.

  • Synthesis and Scope of the Role of Postmating Prezygotic Isolation in Speciation by Martin D. Garlovsky, Emma Whittington, Tomas Albrecht, Henry Areans-Castro, Dean M. Castillo, Graeme L. Keais, Erica L. Larson, Leonie C. Moyle, Melissa Plakke, Radka Reifová, Rhonda R. Snook, Murielle Ålund, and Alexandra A-T. Weber

    Synthesis and Scope of the Role of Postmating Prezygotic Isolation in Speciation

    Martin D. Garlovsky, Emma Whittington, Tomas Albrecht, Henry Areans-Castro, Dean M. Castillo, Graeme L. Keais, Erica L. Larson, Leonie C. Moyle, Melissa Plakke, Radka Reifová, Rhonda R. Snook, Murielle Ålund, and Alexandra A-T. Weber

    How barriers to gene flow arise and are maintained are key questions in evolutionary biology. Speciation research has mainly focused on barriers that occur either before mating or after zygote formation. In comparison, postmating prezygotic (PMPZ) isolation—a barrier that acts after gamete release but before zygote formation—is less frequently investigated but may hold a unique role in generating biodiversity. Here we discuss the distinctive features of PMPZ isolation, including the primary drivers and molecular mechanisms underpinning PMPZ isolation. We then present the first comprehensive survey of PMPZ isolation research, revealing that it is a widespread form of prezygotic isolation across eukaryotes. The survey also exposes obstacles in studying PMPZ isolation, in part attributable to the challenges involved in directly measuring PMPZ isolation and uncovering its causal mechanisms. Finally, we identify outstanding knowledge gaps and provide recommendations for improving future research on PMPZ isolation. This will allow us to better understand the nature of this often-neglected reproductive barrier and its contribution to speciation.

  • Utilization of Choice Theory and Reality Therapy to Promote Career Development with Adolescents in School Settings by Yenitza Z. Guzman, Ahmet Can, and Patricia A. Robey

    Utilization of Choice Theory and Reality Therapy to Promote Career Development with Adolescents in School Settings

    Yenitza Z. Guzman, Ahmet Can, and Patricia A. Robey

    The role of a Professional School Counselor encompasses supporting students in a variety of areas, including post-secondary and career considerations. Reality Therapy/Choice Theory is an extremely helpful lens from which school counselors can help students in making career decisions. This article focuses on the intersection of how the ASCA National Model and Reality Therapy/Choice Theory can be applied in school settings. This is modeled by providing a role play demonstration and discussion explaining how a professional school counselor can assist a student through career options and choices.

  • Particle Size Determines the Phytotoxicity of ZnO Nanoparticles in Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Revealed by Spatial Imaging Techniques by Ziqian Li, Wende Yan, Yong Li, Yang Shi, Xuyuan Zhang, Junjie Lei, Ke Min, Yuliang Pan, Xiaoyong Chen, Qian Liu, and Guibin Jiang

    Particle Size Determines the Phytotoxicity of ZnO Nanoparticles in Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Revealed by Spatial Imaging Techniques

    Ziqian Li, Wende Yan, Yong Li, Yang Shi, Xuyuan Zhang, Junjie Lei, Ke Min, Yuliang Pan, Xiaoyong Chen, Qian Liu, and Guibin Jiang

    To understand the nanotoxicity effects on plants, it is necessary to systematically study the distribution of NPs in vivo. Herein, elemental and particle-imaging techniques were used to unravel the size effects of ZnO NPs on phytotoxicity. Small-sized ZnO NPs (5, 20, and 50 nm) showed an inhibitory effect on the length and biomass of rice (Oryza sativa L.) used as a model plant. ZnO NP nanotoxicity caused rice root cell membrane damage, increased the malondialdehyde content, and activated antioxidant enzymes. As a control, the same dose of Zn2+ salt did not affect the physiological and biochemical indices of rice, suggesting that the toxicity is caused by the entry of the ZnO NPs and not the dissolved Zn2+. Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy analysis revealed that ZnO NPs accumulated in the rice root vascular tissues of the rhizodermis and procambium. Furthermore, transmission electron microscopy confirmed that the NPs were internalized to the root tissues. These results suggest that ZnO NPs may exist in the rice root system and that their particle size could be a crucial factor in determining toxicity. This study provides evidence of the size-dependent phytotoxicity of ZnO NPs.

  • The Avenging-Woman On-Screen: Female Empowerment and Feminist Possibilities by Lara Stache Ph.D and Rachel D. Davidson

    The Avenging-Woman On-Screen: Female Empowerment and Feminist Possibilities

    Lara Stache Ph.D and Rachel D. Davidson

    In The Avenging-Woman On-Screen: Female Empowerment and Feminist Possibilities, Lara C. Stache and Rachel D. Davidson demonstrate how the on-screen character of the avenging-woman offers a complex construction of femininity that serves as a representation of cultural conversations about female empowerment, female agency, and feminism. This character is both woman and hero, typically both physically appealing and physical aggressive—a dichotomy that goes against traditional gendered norms of femininity. Television and film narratives produced since 2010, the authors posit, offer an opportunity to reflect on and consider the evolution of cultural ideologies about women and power, given the significant cultural shifts in Hollywood that occurred amid the #MeToo explosion and post–Harvey Weinstein revelations. Stache and Davidson argue that depictions of the avenging-woman utilize a feminist language of empowerment that suggests the potential for a subversive message against the patriarchy while also recognizing that an alternative reading of some representations presents, at times, a hegemonic construction of empowerment that ultimately cautions against subversion within patriarchal systems. The authors question how these representations may limit social change or, in some cases, represent particularly progressive rhetorics about women and power. Scholars of communication, media studies, film and television studies, and women’s studies will find this book of particular interest.

  • Ecological Stoichiometry of N and P across a Chronosequence of Chinese Fir Plantation Forests by Juan Cao, Wende Yan, Taimoor Hassan Farooq, Xiaoyong Chen, Jun Wang, Chenglin Yuan, Yaqin Qi, and Khalid Ali Khan

    Ecological Stoichiometry of N and P across a Chronosequence of Chinese Fir Plantation Forests

    Juan Cao, Wende Yan, Taimoor Hassan Farooq, Xiaoyong Chen, Jun Wang, Chenglin Yuan, Yaqin Qi, and Khalid Ali Khan

    Ecological stoichiometry is crucial in understanding nutrient dynamics and its impact on plant growth and development at various ecological scales. Among the different nutrients, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) have been widely recognized as key elements regulating substance transport, energy utilization, and ecosystem conversion. The N:P ratio in plants serves as a sensitive indicator of ecological processes, reflecting the availability and balance of these nutrients. Therefore, studying the ecological stoichiometry of N and P is essential for accurately assessing soil fertility and site productivity, particularly in forest ecosystems with low-fertility soils. In this study conducted in Huitong, Hunan province, southern China, the contents of N and P, as well as the N:P ratios, were investigated in plant-soil systems across four different aged stands of Chinese fir forests (3-, 8-, 18-, and 26-year-old stands). The results revealed varying concentrations of N and P in soils and foliage across the different plantations. Soil N concentrations increased by approximately 4%, 30%, and 22% in 8-, 18-, and 26-year-old plantations compared to the 3-year-old plantation. Soil P concentration was significantly higher in 8-, 18-, and 26-year-old plantations compared to the 3-year-old plantation. The average soil N:P ratio followed the order of 3-year-old plantation > 18-year-old plantation > 26-year-old plantation > 8-year-old plantation. Regarding foliage, both N and P contents exhibited a similar pattern across the different aged leaves, with current-year-old leaves having higher concentrations than 1-year-old, 2-year-old, and 3-year-old leaves in all four Chinese fir plantations. The study further established relationships between soil and foliage nutrient ratios. Soil N:P ratio was positively correlated with soil N content but negatively associated with soil P content. The foliage N:P ratio also showed a significant negative correlation between leaf N and foliage P content. These findings suggest that soil nutrient conditions improved with the aging of Chinese fir plantations, mainly due to increased inputs of above- and below-ground litter. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the ecological stoichiometry of N and P in Chinese fir plantations, offering a scientific basis for sustainable forest management practices in southern China.

  • Integrated Physiological and Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals Mechanism of Leaf in Phellodendron Chinense Schneid Seedlings Response to Drought Stress by Xuejing Zhang, Wenkai Sun, Xiaoyong Chen, Lili Chen, Zhencheng Chen, Hanjie He, and Wende Yan

    Integrated Physiological and Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals Mechanism of Leaf in Phellodendron Chinense Schneid Seedlings Response to Drought Stress

    Xuejing Zhang, Wenkai Sun, Xiaoyong Chen, Lili Chen, Zhencheng Chen, Hanjie He, and Wende Yan

    Phellodendron chinense Schneid (P. chinense Schneid) is a traditional Chinese woody medicinal plant which contains berberine, phellodendrine and other bioactive compounds, and has an important function on anti-tumor, anti-inflammation, bacteriostasis, reducing blood sugar and fat. The growth and alkaloid biosynthesis of P. chinense Schneid are affected by drought stress, while influence the yield and quality. However, the molecular mechanism of P. chinense Schneid seedlings response to drought stress at transcriptional and physiological levels are not clear. In this study, physiological and transcriptomic responses of P. chinense Schneid seedling leaf to drought stress were investigated. The P. chinense Schneid seedlings were irrigated to field capacity (NC), 40% field capacity (moderate drought, MD) and 20% field capacity (severe drought, SD). The results showed that MD and SD treatments promoted ROS generation, reduced Chl contents and photosynthetic efficiencies, inhibited shoot growth, but increased phellodendrine contents in leaves compared to the NC treatments. A total of 54325 unigenes were identified in MD and SD treatment samples, and the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were primarily involved in several pathways of photosynthesis, phytohormone biosynthesis and signal transduction and isoquiholine alkaloid biosynthesis, with the ethylene (ET) signaling pathway especially. Moreover, some transcription factors from DEGs were revealed, which chiefly related to ET signal transduction, leaf development and alkaloid biosynthesis. Our study suggested that the P. chinense Schneid seedlings responded to drought stress mainly through ET signaling pathway.

  • “The Native Court Way”: Disputes over Marriage, Divorce, and “Adultery” in Colonial Courts in Abeokuta (Southwestern Nigeria), 1905–1945 by Morenikenji Asaaju

    “The Native Court Way”: Disputes over Marriage, Divorce, and “Adultery” in Colonial Courts in Abeokuta (Southwestern Nigeria), 1905–1945

    Morenikenji Asaaju

    This article examines surviving native court records from 1905–1957 in Abeokuta, Southwest Nigeria, to argue that what constituted marriage, marital rights, and sexual access to wives was changing readily in this period of socioeconomic and political change. In this period, Britain established the native court system, stressing African and British judges, to apply rigid ideas of native law and customs concerning marriage. Men and women—husbands, wives, lovers, fathers, uncles, aunties, brothers, sisters, and in-laws—approached the native courts to negotiate conflict over marriage, divorce, seduction, adultery, and child custody. Rather than administering rigid legal judgements of what constituted legitimate marriage, judgements rendered by these courts provided maneuverability, specifically for women to negotiate and contest marital status and relations.

  • The Effects of Commitment and Trust on the Relationship Between Service Quality and University Brand Loyalty in Time of Crisis by Dongjun Rew, Wonsuk Cha, Jin-Woo Kim, and Joo Y. Jung

    The Effects of Commitment and Trust on the Relationship Between Service Quality and University Brand Loyalty in Time of Crisis

    Dongjun Rew, Wonsuk Cha, Jin-Woo Kim, and Joo Y. Jung

    Existing literature on university brand loyalty (UBL) has less focused on a marketing-oriented perspective, or relationship marketing, and its impact on testing UBL. The aim of this study is to identity the roles and impacts of trust and commitment, which are main factors that create a relationship, in the relationship between university service quality, student satisfaction (SAT), and UBL and discuss its implications for university approaches of the marketing-oriented perspective. A self-report study was conducted with a total sample of 301 undergraduate students from four universities in the USA. PLS-SEM and path analysis were employed to test each hypothetical relationship. This study identified that trust and commitment play important roles as mediators in the relationship between SAT and UBL. Therefore, the findings support contributions of this study by offering implications that universities need to focus on building and maintaining the quality of relationship with students.

  • Sentences Are Key: Helping School-Age Children and Adolescents Build Sentence Skills Needed for Real Language by Catherine H. Balthazar and Cheryl M. Scott

    Sentences Are Key: Helping School-Age Children and Adolescents Build Sentence Skills Needed for Real Language

    Catherine H. Balthazar and Cheryl M. Scott

    In this article, we present key concepts pointing to the importance of targeting complex sentences for school-age children and adolescents with developmental language disorders (DLD). Drawing on current treatment research, we argue that the sentence is a crucial but often neglected piece of the puzzle when it comes to understanding relationships between DLD and academic outcomes. We provide detailed suggestions for how clinicians can focus on complex sentence structures in natural academic contexts to bridge this gap. Method: Background information on sentence complexity is presented, along with a rationale for targeting complex sentences with school-age children and adolescents with DLD. Intervention methods from a variety of studies targeting multiclausal sentences are discussed in relation to current accounts of language learning and language processing models. We provide a robust catalog of suggested strategies for targeting sentence complexity in a manner that is aligned with research findings to date and integrated into real academic contexts.

  • Biomass Production and Carbon Stocks in Poplar-Crop Agroforestry Chronosequence in Subtropical Central China by Zhong Wang, Wende Yan, Yuanying Peng, Meng Wan, Taimoor Hassan Farooq, Wei Fan, Junjie Lei, Chenglin Yuan, Wancai Wang, Yaqin Qi, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Biomass Production and Carbon Stocks in Poplar-Crop Agroforestry Chronosequence in Subtropical Central China

    Zhong Wang, Wende Yan, Yuanying Peng, Meng Wan, Taimoor Hassan Farooq, Wei Fan, Junjie Lei, Chenglin Yuan, Wancai Wang, Yaqin Qi, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Agroforest systems have been widely recognized as an integrated approach to sustainable land use for addressing the climate change problem because of their greater potential to sequester atmospheric CO2 with multiple economic and ecological benefits. However, the nature and extent of the effects of an age-sequence of agroforestry systems on carbon (C) storage remain largely unknown. To reveal the influence of different aged poplar-crop systems on C stocks, we investigated the variation in biomass and C storage under four aged poplar-crop agroforest systems (3-, 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old) in the Henan province of China. The results showed that stand biomass increased with forest age, ranging from 26.9 to 121.6 t/ha in the corresponding four aged poplar-crop systems. The poplar tree biomass accounted for >80% of the total stand biomass in these poplar-crop agroforestry systems, except in the 3-year-old agroforestry system. The average stand productivity peaked in a 9-year-old poplar-crop system (11.8 t/ha/yr), the next was in 13- and 17-year-old agroforestry systems, and the minimum was found in 3-year-old poplar-crop stands (4.8 t/ha/yr). The total C stocks increased, with aging poplar-crop systems ranging from 99.7 to 189.2 t/ha in the studied agroforestry systems. The proportion of C stocks accounted for about 6, 25, and 69% of the total C stocks in the crop, poplar tree, and soil components in all studied agroforestry ecosystems, respectively. Our results suggested that the poplar-crop system, especially in productive and mature stages, is quite an effective agroforestry model to increase the study site’s biomass production and C stocks. This study highlighted the importance of agroforestry systems in C storage. It recommended the poplar-crop agroforest ecosystems as a viable option for sustainable production and C mitigation in the central region of China.

  • Powering IoT Systems with 5G Wireless Communication: A Comprehensive Review by Suresh Palarimath, Pyingkodi M, Thenmozhi K, Mohammed A. Salam, Mohammed Maqsood, and Roopa Devi Palarimath

    Powering IoT Systems with 5G Wireless Communication: A Comprehensive Review

    Suresh Palarimath, Pyingkodi M, Thenmozhi K, Mohammed A. Salam, Mohammed Maqsood, and Roopa Devi Palarimath

    In today's modern world, IoT plays an important and multifaceted function in all industries. 5th Generation Wireless Systems - 5G is the primary technical platform on which the Internet of Things plays a major role in smart technologies. Incorporating 5G technology into the architecture of an IoT system is now simple. Using plug-and-play technology, remote access to configuration and control is possible. Smart technology always results in faster data transfer rates, more bandwidth, greater capacity, lower latency, and a quicker output response. Based on this notion, IoT brings about a dramatic shift in heterogeneous networks. So, there is a need to implement 5G-IoT technologies. In the age of the Internet of Things, the fifth-generation (5G) cellular networks give the smart and complex technical environment. 5G Cellular Networks offer great growth potential for IoT technologies. This article gives a thorough study of the role of 5G Cellular Networks in the expansion of IoT technologies across all industries. Since the inclusion of renewable energy emerges as a new trend in the digital world, 5G is very beneficial in the age of the Internet of Things. To achieve the link between 'Things and People,' 'Things and Things,' and 'People and People' in power Systems, it is necessary to combine IoT with 5G in power systems to a high degree of success in various power-based industry-based systems. This article demonstrates a smart scenario and provides a thorough analysis of "how 5G drives the IoT System intelligently in every way and how IoT affects as the "most promising technology" with this smart 5G Wireless Communication System." In addition, the IoT era 5G application possibilities were demonstrated.

  • Ecological Stoichiometry and Stock Distribution of C, N, and P in Three Forest Types in a Karst Region of China by Wancai Wang

    Ecological Stoichiometry and Stock Distribution of C, N, and P in Three Forest Types in a Karst Region of China

    Wancai Wang

    Ecological stoichiometry plays important roles in understanding the nutrient constraints on tree growth and development, as well in maintaining ecosystem services in forests, yet the characteristics of carbon:nitrogen:phosphorous (C:N:P) stoichiometry in forests under karst environment have not been sufficiently evaluated. In this study, concentration, distribution, stocks of Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorous (P), and ecological stoichiometry were studied in three common forest types: Masson pine natural forests (MPNF), Masson pine plantation forests (MPPF), and Slash pine plantation forests (SPPF) in a karst region of southwestern China. Results showed that N concentrations were higher in overstory than in understory and litter in the studied forests. However, P concentration was relatively low in overstory component of the forested ecosystems. Meanwhile, the N and P concentrations were higher in SPPF in the stem and litter, while these contents were higher in MPPF and MPNP in the overstory and understory. The N and P stocks ranged from 5.7–6.2 t ha−1, and 0.5–0.6 t ha−1 in the examined forests. The ecological stoichiometry of C:N:P in the three forest types was similar in litter (46–49:2:1), and relatively steady in soil (250–320:13–16:1) and tree leaf (100–200:14–20:1). Soil P status was the primary limiting factor in affecting tree growth in MPPF and SPPF (N:P ratio > 16), while both N and P conditions were the main restrictive factors in MPNP (N:P ratio = 15) in the study area. Our study provides scientific references and useful datasets of C:N:P stoichiometry for sustainable management of forest ecosystems in karst regions.

  • Soil Nutrients, Enzyme Activities, and Microbial Communities along a Chronosequence of Chinese Fir Plantations in Subtropical China by Junjie Lei, Yixuan Cao, Jun Wang, Yazhen Chen, Yuanying Peng, Qiwen Shao, Qing Dan, Yichen Xu, Xiaoyong Chen, and Peng Dan

    Soil Nutrients, Enzyme Activities, and Microbial Communities along a Chronosequence of Chinese Fir Plantations in Subtropical China

    Junjie Lei, Yixuan Cao, Jun Wang, Yazhen Chen, Yuanying Peng, Qiwen Shao, Qing Dan, Yichen Xu, Xiaoyong Chen, and Peng Dan

    Forests undergo a long-term development process from young to mature stages, yet the variations in soil nutrients, enzyme activities, microbial diversity, and community composition related to forest ages are still unclear. In this study, the characteristics of soil bacterial and fungal communities with their corresponding soil environmental factors in the young, middle, and mature stages (7, 15, and 25-year-old) of Chinese fir plantations (CFP) in the subtropical region of China were investigated in 2021. Results showed that the alpha diversity indices (Chao1 and Shannon) of soil bacteria and fungi were higher in 15 and 25-year-old stands than in 7-year-old stand of CFP, while the soil pH, soil water content, soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, sucrase, urease, acid phosphatase, catalase, and microbial biomass carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus showed higher in 7-year-old stand than other two stands of CFP. The nonmetric multidimensional scaling analysis revealed that the soil microbial species composition was significantly different in three stand ages of CFP. The redundancy and canonical correspondence analysis indicated that the soil urease and microbial biomass nitrogen were the main factors affecting soil bacterial and fungal species composition. Our findings suggested that soil microbial diversity and community structure were inconsistent with changes in soil nutrients and enzyme activities during CFP development, and enhancing stand nurturing and soil nutrient accumulation in the mid-development stage were beneficial to the sustainable management of CFP.

  • “Between Tradition and Modernity’’: Marriage Dynamics in Colonial Southwestern Nigeria, by Morenikenji Asaaju

    “Between Tradition and Modernity’’: Marriage Dynamics in Colonial Southwestern Nigeria,

    Morenikenji Asaaju

    An inspiring editorial analysis and interpretation of aspects of Nigerian history, culture, and politics, from mankind’s archaeological past to ethnographic present, this book contextualises cultural history as instrument of sustainable development in postcolonial Nigeria. Nigeria’s rich cultural history defines its physical environment, cultural diversities, early industrial technology and even its various challenges of development. Yet, little is achieved in engaging cultural history as cultural experience for the country’s development. The gains of cultural history as a mirror of the past and inspiration for development is ignored. This difficulty in harnessing the potential for development in Nigeria found in the country’s cultural history leaves us vulnerable to repeating past mistakes. The book is accessible, and aimed at giving the readers a unique and expansive understanding of history, cultural knowledge, and their applications in Nigerian postcolonial development agendas. This makes the book essential for scholars of anthropology, archaeology, history, linguistics, sociology, political science, and geography, as well as policy makers.

  • Changes in Soil Phosphorus Fractions Following the Conversion of Chinese Fir Plantations to Evergreen Broad-leaved Forests in Subtropical China by Junjie Lei, Yuanying Peng, Juan Cao, Rujie Li, Qiang Jia, Xiao Shi, Ting Zhou, Wende Yan, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Changes in Soil Phosphorus Fractions Following the Conversion of Chinese Fir Plantations to Evergreen Broad-leaved Forests in Subtropical China

    Junjie Lei, Yuanying Peng, Juan Cao, Rujie Li, Qiang Jia, Xiao Shi, Ting Zhou, Wende Yan, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Forest conversion is a common management practice in forestry, yet the effects of forest conversion on the transformation of phosphorus (P) fractions remain unclear. This work aims at assessing the changes in soil P fractions, including total P (TP), available P (AP), inorganic P (Pi), organic P (Po) and microbial biomass P (MBP) after natural conversion of Chinese fir plantations (CFP) to evergreen broad-leaved forests (EBLF) in subtropical China. Results showed the contents of soil TP and Po were not affected by the forest conversion, but soil AP and MBP concentrations and their proportion significantly increased with forest conversion from CFP to EBLF. The contents of soil P fractions were significantly accumulated in the topsoil (0–20 cm) in the studied forests. Additionally, soil P contents were higher in the winter–spring seasons than in the summer–fall seasons during the period of study. Soil AP content was positively correlated with TP, Po, Pi, labile organophosphorus (LOP), moderate labile organophosphorus (MLOP), moderate resistant organophosphorus (MROP), aluminum–bound P (Al–P), iron–bound P (Fe–P) and MBP contents in EBLF, while the content of soil AP was positively related to Po, LOP, MLOP, Al–P, Fe–P and MBP contents in CFP. Path analysis showed that the most important factor in affecting soil P availability was Po (LOP and HROP) in EBLF stands and was Al–P in CFP stands. Our study suggested that management practices in conserving soil Pi (especially in Al–P) in the CFP and in increasing Po inputs in the EBLF would improve soil P availability in subtropical forests.

  • Revisiting Gender and Marriage: Runaway Wives, Native Law and Custom, and the Native Courts in Colonial Abeokuta, Southwestern Nigeria by Morenikenji Asaaju

    Revisiting Gender and Marriage: Runaway Wives, Native Law and Custom, and the Native Courts in Colonial Abeokuta, Southwestern Nigeria

    Morenikenji Asaaju

    This study focuses on women and colonial courts in Abeokuta, southwestern Nigeria, in the early decades of the twentieth century. It examines the effects of colonial intervention on women and marriage. Examining case volumes of the Ake, Abeokuta, Native Court from 1905 to 1957, the study demonstrates that unique circumstances of the twentieth century—colonial intervention and the establishment of the native courts—led to the increase of divorce rate accelerated by the phenomenon of wives leaving matrimonial homes, establishing new unions of their choice, and approaching the court to end earlier unions and legalize the new ones. The study argues that, despite the negative connotations that might be associated with wives leaving matrimonial homes and requesting divorce in colonial courts, these women made use of the new circumstances to redefine marriage, inserting modifications reflective of women’s choices and preferences, as evidenced through their claims collected from the court records.

  • Time-dependent Effects of Microplastics on Soil Bacteriome by Xuyuan Zhang, Yong Li, Junjie Lei, Ziqian Li, Qianlong Tan, Longli Xie, Yunmu Xiao, Ting Liu, Xiaoyong Chen, Yafeng Wen, Wenhua Xiang, Yakov Kuzakov, and Wende Yan

    Time-dependent Effects of Microplastics on Soil Bacteriome

    Xuyuan Zhang, Yong Li, Junjie Lei, Ziqian Li, Qianlong Tan, Longli Xie, Yunmu Xiao, Ting Liu, Xiaoyong Chen, Yafeng Wen, Wenhua Xiang, Yakov Kuzakov, and Wende Yan

    Microplastic threats to biodiversity, health and ecological safety are adding to concern worldwide, but the real impacts on the functioning of organisms and ecosystems are obscure owing to their inert characteristics. Here we investigated the long-lasting ecological effects of six prevalent microplastic types: polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyamide (PA), polystyrene (PS), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) on soil bacteria at a 2 % (w/w) level. Due to the inertia and lack of available nitrogen of these microplastics, their effects on bacteriome tended to converge after one year and were strongly different from their short-term effects. The soil volumes around microplastics were very specific, in which the microplastic-adapted bacteria (e.g., some genera in Actinobacteria) were enriched but the phyla Bacteroidetes and Gemmatimonadetes declined, resulting in higher microbial nitrogen requirements and reduced organic carbon mineralization. The reshaped bacteriome was specialized in the genetic potential of xenobiotic and lipid metabolism as well as related oxidation, esterification, and hydrolysis processes, but excessive oxidative damage resulted in severe weakness in community genetic information processing. According to model predictions, microplastic effects are indirectly derived from nutrients and oxidative stress, and the effects on bacterial functions are stronger than on structure, posing a heavy risk to soil ecosystems.

  • Legume Biological Nitrogen Fixation Improves but Chemical Nitrogen Fertilizer Suppresses Soil Nematode Communities in a Camellia Oleifera Plantation by Jia-chen Wang, Hai-lun Wang, Qin-qin Lin, Yuan-qun Wu, Xin-xin He, Xiaoyong Chen, Wende Yan, and Jie Zhao

    Legume Biological Nitrogen Fixation Improves but Chemical Nitrogen Fertilizer Suppresses Soil Nematode Communities in a Camellia Oleifera Plantation

    Jia-chen Wang, Hai-lun Wang, Qin-qin Lin, Yuan-qun Wu, Xin-xin He, Xiaoyong Chen, Wende Yan, and Jie Zhao

    Legume intercropping by biological nitrogen (N) fixation is supposed as a more sustainable way than chemical N addition to enhance soil N availability in agronomy, however, the effects of the two types of N input on soil food web are scarcely determined. To fill the knowledge gap, we conducted a field experiment with randomized block design in an oil-tea (Camellia oleifera) plantation, which included five N manipulation treatment: legume intercropping (Arachis hypogaea and Cassia tora), chemical N fertilizer application (84 and 168 kg N ha-1 yr-1), and the control (no N addition). The soil nematode communities and physicochemical properties were monitored in the seedling, heading, and mature stages of the legumes respectively. The results showed that the legume intercropping significantly increased the abundances of bacterivores and omnivore-predators compared with the N fertilizations. Weighted nematode fauna analysis showed that N fertilization treatments were mainly located in the degraded plot (quadrat IV), and legume treatments were located in the structure plot (quadrat III). Structural equation model revealed that the legume intercropping positively correlated with the abundance of bacterivores and omnivore-predators while N fertilization rate negatively correlated with the abundance of bacterivores and fungivores. Our results suggest that the legume biological N fixation was more conducive to providing N sources to soil organisms than the chemical N fertilizer, which resulted in an enhanced and a degraded soil food web respectively. Thus, legume intercropping is a more sustainable N management practice for the cultivation of C. oleifera plantations.

  • Novel PbMoO4 Loaded N-biochar Composites with Enhanced Adsorption-photocatalytic Removal of Tetracycline by Mengzhu Jiang, Zhifen Chen, Yaohui Wu, Jinhua Luo, Aihua Zhang, Xiaoyong Chen, Yelin Zeng, Guangjun Wang, Yonghong Wang, and Yunlin Zhao

    Novel PbMoO4 Loaded N-biochar Composites with Enhanced Adsorption-photocatalytic Removal of Tetracycline

    Mengzhu Jiang, Zhifen Chen, Yaohui Wu, Jinhua Luo, Aihua Zhang, Xiaoyong Chen, Yelin Zeng, Guangjun Wang, Yonghong Wang, and Yunlin Zhao

    Modifying energy band structure and increasing absorption are two efficient strategies to improve the photocatalytic performance of semiconductor photocatalysts. In this study, a novel biochar (BC) based photocatalyst, nitrogen-doped (N-doped) BC based PbMoO4 (NPBC) was developed by combining both strategies. After loading PbMoO4 on poplar sawdust via in situ method, the composites were pyrolyzed in the presence of a certain amount of urea. Nitrogen doping successfully increased the specific surface area and narrowed the bandgap of the composite of PbMoO4@BC (PBC) to improve its adsorption-photocatalytic performance. NPBC-2, in which the ratio of PbMoO4: poplar sawdust was 3:1.6, exhibited excellent adsorption-photocatalytic removal for 40 mg L−1 tetracycline (TC) under visible light and the total removal rate was 88.25%, which was 1.60 and 3.46 folds of that for PBC and PbMoO4, respectively. The adsorption kinetic of TC removal by NPBC-2 fitted well with pseudo fist order models, and the adsorption was dominated by the physical process. Vacancies (h+) and superoxide radicals (•O2−) were the main active species for TC photodegradation. In addition, after 5 cycles, the composite still exhibited high ability for TC removal. Therefore, N-doped BC based photocatalysts provided a feasible and effective way for the remediation of organism-contaminated water.

  • Unraveling Perceptions on Wrongful Convictions: Do Gender and Ethnicity Explain Disparities in Views? by Erica Ceka, Natalia Ermasova, and Lisa Jackson

    Unraveling Perceptions on Wrongful Convictions: Do Gender and Ethnicity Explain Disparities in Views?

    Erica Ceka, Natalia Ermasova, and Lisa Jackson

    This research employs a convenience sample survey design to explore the complex interaction between race, gender, and public perceptions of wrongful convictions. Examining 324 responses from diverse groups, the study finds that these views are not uniform across different demographics. African Americans and women exhibit significantly heightened perceptions of wrongful convictions and more robust support for justice reform. The regression results also highlight that age, education, and professional background in law enforcement significantly influence these perspectives. Notwithstanding its limitations, the study forms foundation for further inquiry into the role of socio-demographic factors in shaping public attitudes toward criminal justice system.

  • Corporate Philanthropy and Firm Performance: The Role of Corporate Strategies by Wonsuk Cha, Dongjun Rew, and Joo Jung

    Corporate Philanthropy and Firm Performance: The Role of Corporate Strategies

    Wonsuk Cha, Dongjun Rew, and Joo Jung

    The purpose of this study is to empirically explore the interaction between corporate philanthropy and firm performance through the mechanism of corporate strategies, such as unrelated diversification and global strategic posture (GSP).

  • Almudena Grandes and the "Problem of Spain" by Novia Pagone

    Almudena Grandes and the "Problem of Spain"

    Novia Pagone

    From 2008 until her untimely death in 2021, Almudena Grandes wrote a weekly column in El País where she often addressed, and lamented, the state of Spanish democracy and the need to reconcile Spain's history for a chance at a better future, a topic familiar to readers of her novels. Although her fiction writing on these themes is well studied, her nonfiction has garnered less attention. The 2019 publication of a selection of these columns, La herida perpetua, spanning the decade marked by the 2008 economic crisis through the 2018 resurgence of the far right, provides us an opportunity to look more closely at the impact and importance of Grandes's nonfiction. Informed by recent scholarship on the state of Spanish democracy and criticism of traditional narratives of the transition to democracy (1975–1982), I argue that these columns represent a public call to action with the goal of (re)building a society that values open debate and fosters an active citizenry, one with the resilience to exercise their rights daily to hold accountable corrupt politicians. Collecting a selection of Grandes's weekly writing into one volume allows readers to contemplate the political events of an important period in Spain's democracy and to engage the legacies of the past while suggesting possibilities for the future, a dialogical exchange that defines democracy and is necessary for its survival.

  • A Visual Definition of Caregiving: Caring About, Caring For, and the Feminization of Care by Rachel D. Davidson and Lara Stache Ph.D

    A Visual Definition of Caregiving: Caring About, Caring For, and the Feminization of Care

    Rachel D. Davidson and Lara Stache Ph.D

    Over the past decade, stories about financial, physical, and interpersonal strains facing unpaid family caregivers have steadily increased (Eisenstadt 2014; McSweeney-Feld 2013; Rieder 2012; Tunajeck 2010). Such narratives are becoming more common as the caregiver to care receiver ratio grows increasingly lopsided (McSweeney-Feld 2013). Pro-caregiving advocates championing policy changes for unpaid caregivers have progressively begun to use the term “caregiving crisis” to describe negative conditions impacting individuals who care for others, including, but not limited to chronic illness and financial strain. Of observable concern, is that the primary role of caregiving tends to fall on women who are implicated in a complex history of caregiving rhetoric that centers on motherhood and lack of agency. This complex history has been further exacerbated by the 2020 Covid pandemic, which has disproportionately impacted women in general (Olen 2021; Fox, 2021; Gogoi 2020), and mothers in particular (Grose, 2021; Gross 2021; Leonhardt 2020).

  • Book Review: Combat Death in Contemporary American Culture: Popular Cultural Conceptions of War Since World War II by Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet by Josh Sopiarz

    Book Review: Combat Death in Contemporary American Culture: Popular Cultural Conceptions of War Since World War II by Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet

    Josh Sopiarz

  • Book Review: The Global Novel and Capitalism in Crisis by Treasa De Loughry by Liam Lanigan

    Book Review: The Global Novel and Capitalism in Crisis by Treasa De Loughry

    Liam Lanigan

    Book Review: Treasa De Loughry, The Global Novel and Capitalism in Crisis”

  • Contributing to Speech-Language Pathology Assistant Students’ Choice of Career Path by Nicole Wells, Danielle Osmelak, Angela M. Riccelli, and Ravi Nigam

    Contributing to Speech-Language Pathology Assistant Students’ Choice of Career Path

    Nicole Wells, Danielle Osmelak, Angela M. Riccelli, and Ravi Nigam

    Speech Language Pathology Assistants (SLPAs) are important support personnel who play a key role in the field of communication sciences and disorders. As the client base for communication disorders grows and diversifies, there is a continuous need for service providers, including SLPAs. Given the notable shortage of skilled communication sciences and disorders professionals and the advantages that assistants can provide, exploring SLPA career decision making is especially timely and important. The current study surveyed 75 students enrolled in SLPA programs across the United States via an online 12 question survey tool, regarding their demographics, reasons for choosing to become an SLPA, and anticipated work setting(s). Results of the study indicated that SLPA students were often identified as non-traditional students who, in addition to having diverse educational backgrounds, were working either full-time or part-time jobs while completing their education. Results of the current study revealed that the primary motivating factor that contributed to the students’ decision to pursue a career as an SLPA was the desire to work in a helping profession. The school setting was the most anticipated work setting of SLPA students upon graduating from their program; however, the majority (60%) of current SLPA students planned to pursue a master’s degree to become a speech-language pathologist in the future. Understanding the demographics of SLPA students and identifying the motivating factors specific to their career choices may be advantageous in the warranted recruitment process within the field of communication sciences and disorders.

  • Drifting Streaming Peaks-Over-Threshold-Enhanced Self-Evolving Neural Networks for Short-Term Wind Farm Generation Forecast by Yunchuan Liu

    Drifting Streaming Peaks-Over-Threshold-Enhanced Self-Evolving Neural Networks for Short-Term Wind Farm Generation Forecast

    Yunchuan Liu

    This paper investigates the short-term wind farm generation forecast. It is observed from the real wind farm generation measurements that wind farm generation exhibits distinct features, such as the non-stationarity and the heterogeneous dynamics of ramp and non-ramp events across different classes of wind turbines. To account for the distinct features of wind farm generation, we propose a Drifting Streaming Peaks-over-Threshold (DSPOT)-enhanced self-evolving neural networks-based short-term wind farm generation forecast. Using DSPOT, the proposed method first classifies the wind farm generation data into ramp and non-ramp datasets, where time-varying dynamics are taken into account by utilizing dynamic ramp thresholds to separate the ramp and non-ramp events. We then train different neural networks based on each dataset to learn the different dynamics of wind farm generation by the NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies (NEAT), which can obtain the best network topology and weighting parameters. As the efficacy of the neural networks relies on the quality of the training datasets (i.e., the classification accuracy of the ramp and non-ramp events), a Bayesian optimization-based approach is developed to optimize the parameters of DSPOT to enhance the quality of the training datasets and the corresponding performance of the neural networks. Based on the developed self-evolving neural networks, both distributional and point forecasts are developed. The experimental results show that compared with other forecast approaches, the proposed forecast approach can substantially improve the forecast accuracy, especially for ramp events. The experiment results indicate that the accuracy improvement in a 60 min horizon forecast in terms of the mean absolute error (MAE) is at least 33.6% for the whole year data and at least 37% for the ramp events. Moreover, the distributional forecast in terms of the continuous rank probability score (CRPS) is improved by at least 35.8 for the whole year data and at least 35.2 for the ramp events.

  • Effects of Perfluorinated Compounds Homologues on Chemical Property, Microbial Composition, Richness and Diversity of Urban Forest Soil by Wei Zheng, Lei Hu, Zekai Chen, Jun Tang, Yuliang Pan, Wende Yan, Xiaoyong Chen, yuanying Peng, and Lijun Chen

    Effects of Perfluorinated Compounds Homologues on Chemical Property, Microbial Composition, Richness and Diversity of Urban Forest Soil

    Wei Zheng, Lei Hu, Zekai Chen, Jun Tang, Yuliang Pan, Wende Yan, Xiaoyong Chen, yuanying Peng, and Lijun Chen

    Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), as an important class of new persistent organic pollutants, are widely distributed in the environment. Yet the effects of different types and concentrations of PFCs on soil microbial community in urban forest ecosystems are remain uncertain. Here, two typical PFCs, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), were selected to carry out a pot experiment in greenhouse with singly and joint treatment at different concentrations, to examine their effects on composition and diversity of soil microorganisms and availability of soil macronutrients by using high-throughput Illumina sequencing approach. The results showed both PFOA and PFOS application significantly increased soil NO3--N and NH4+-N content, but did not alter total phosphorus content, compared to the control check (CK) treatments. Total potassium content was reduced in PFOA treatments but increased in PFOS and PFOA×PFOS treatments. The most dominant bacterial phylum was Chloroflexi in low and medium PFCs concentrations and the CK treatments, but it was switched to Acidobacteria in high concentrations. No obvious change was detected for the composition of the dominant fungi community in PFCs treatments compared to the CK treatments. With the increase of PFCs concentrations, soil bacterial richness decreased but its diversity increased, whereas the richness and diversity of fungal community usually decreased. Redundancy analyses revealed that soil fungal community was more sensitive to PFCs pollutants than soil bacterial communities. Further data analysis revealed by structural equation model (SEM) that the PFCs exposed for 60 days indirectly affects the diversity and richness of soil bacteria and fungi by directly affecting NO3--N and NH4+-N content. The results suggested the concentration of PFCs pollutants played a primary role in determining the composition, richness and diversity of forest soil microbial communities.

  • Essentials of Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences: A Problem-Solving Approach by Kimberly A. Jaroszewski

    Essentials of Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences: A Problem-Solving Approach

    Kimberly A. Jaroszewski

    Written for students studying in a variety of social and health science areas, The Essentials of Behavioral Statistics: A Problem-Solving Approach is designed to give each student a conceptual understanding of the basic statistical procedures used in behavioral sciences, as well as the computational skills to carry them out and embed statistics in the research process. It separates out what type of questions that each type of statistic can address and provides instructions on completing the analysis manually or with the assistance of SPSS Statistical Software®.

  • Genomes of Endangered Great Hammerhead and Shortfin Mako Sharks Reveal Historic Population Declines and High Levels of Inbreeding in Great Hammerhead by Michael J. Stanhope, Kristina M. Ceres, Qi Sun, Minghui Wang, Jordan D. Zehr, Nicholas Marra, Aryn P. Wilder, Cheng Zou, Andrea M. Bermard, Paulina Pavinski-Bitar, Mitchell G. Lokey, and Mahmood S. Shivji

    Genomes of Endangered Great Hammerhead and Shortfin Mako Sharks Reveal Historic Population Declines and High Levels of Inbreeding in Great Hammerhead

    Michael J. Stanhope, Kristina M. Ceres, Qi Sun, Minghui Wang, Jordan D. Zehr, Nicholas Marra, Aryn P. Wilder, Cheng Zou, Andrea M. Bermard, Paulina Pavinski-Bitar, Mitchell G. Lokey, and Mahmood S. Shivji

    Despite increasing threats of extinction to Elasmobranchii (sharks and rays), whole genome-based conservation insights are lacking. Here, we present chromosome-level genome assemblies for the Critically Endangered great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran) and the Endangered shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus) sharks, with genetic diversity and historical demographic comparisons to other shark species. The great hammerhead exhibited low genetic variation, with 8.7% of the 2.77 Gbp genome in runs of homozygosity (ROH) > 1 Mbp and 74.4% in ROH >100 kbp. The 4.98 Gbp shortfin mako genome had considerably greater diversity and <1% in ROH > 1 Mbp. Both these sharks experienced precipitous declines in effective population size (Ne) over the last 250 thousand years. While shortfin mako exhibited a large historical Ne that may have enabled the retention of higher genetic variation, the genomic data suggest a possibly more concerning picture for the great hammerhead, and a need for evaluation with additional individuals.

  • Impact of School Characteristics on PARCC Results by Lina Smulkaitis and J. Christopher Tweddle

    Impact of School Characteristics on PARCC Results

    Lina Smulkaitis and J. Christopher Tweddle

    The purpose of this article is to take an in-depth look at how certain non-academic factors affect standardized test results in the middle school setting. As standardized testing and student growth impact school and teacher evaluation, it is important to consider the influence of factors both inside and outside of the classroom. This study analyzed the impact on student performance on the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exam of the following variables: property taxes received by schools; instructional spending per pupil; percentage of low-income students; percentage of student mobility; percentage of English Language Learners (ELL); teacher salary, retention rates, and education; and class size. This analysis was based on data gathered from the Illinois State Report Card published by the Illinois State Board of Education on 374 of the 376 grade 6–8 middle schools located in Illinois. The three strongest predictors of the success rate for middle school age students on the PARCC exam were the student mobility rate, the amount of property tax received by the school, and the percentage of low-income students. Instructional spending per pupil, percentage of English Language Learners, teacher retention rate, salary and education, and class size had a less significant impact on students meeting or exceeding standards on the PARCC exam. This suggests that the socioeconomic demographics of the surrounding community are a contributing factor to student success.

  • Native Courts, Marriage and Dispute Settlement in Colonial Abeokuta, Southwestern Nigeria by Morenikenji Asaaju

    Native Courts, Marriage and Dispute Settlement in Colonial Abeokuta, Southwestern Nigeria

    Morenikenji Asaaju

    This book explores the roles that Nigerian women have played since pre-colonial times in shaping the culture, customs and values of the different societies that now constitute parts of the modern Nigerian state. The contributions gathered here provide engaging explanations of different aspects of Nigerian life, highlighting the effects of patriarchy, colonialism, industry, and international policies on women in Africa’s most populous country. This book represents a major contribution to African women’s history and gender studies globally, and will appeal to students and scholars of women’s history and gender interested in understanding life and its challenges in the Global South.

  • Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome: Non-pharmacologic Interventions for the Maternal-Infant Dyad by Nancy J. MacMullen and Laura A. Dulski

    Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome: Non-pharmacologic Interventions for the Maternal-Infant Dyad

    Nancy J. MacMullen and Laura A. Dulski

    Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) remains a concern for health care providers. The incidence of NAS has increased globally, and it has emerged as a worldwide health concern. In our previous article, we explored the efficacy of current pharmacologic treatment for NAS symptoms. Our purpose now is to focus on non-pharmacologic interventions for NAS symptoms and the involvement of caregivers, specifically the mother. We will discuss breastfeeding, rooming in, babywearing, the eat, sleep, console approach, and laser acupuncture.
    We intend to describe the involvement of the interdisciplinary team and all who care for these infants, including parents.

  • Novel ZnFe2O4/BC/ZnO Photocatalyst for High-efficiency Degradation of Tetracycline Under Visible Light Irradiation by Jinhua Luo, Yaohui Wu, Mengzhu Jiang, Aihua Zhang, Xiaoyong Chen, Yelin Zeng, Yonghong Wang, Yunlin Zhao, and Guangjun Wang

    Novel ZnFe2O4/BC/ZnO Photocatalyst for High-efficiency Degradation of Tetracycline Under Visible Light Irradiation

    Jinhua Luo, Yaohui Wu, Mengzhu Jiang, Aihua Zhang, Xiaoyong Chen, Yelin Zeng, Yonghong Wang, Yunlin Zhao, and Guangjun Wang

    Developing broad-spectrum light reactions, effective charge separation, and easily recoverable photocatalysts were considered cost-effective pollution remediation methods. The ZnFe2O4/BC/ZnO composite was prepared to achieve these objectives, where biochar (BC) was used as a conductive channel and ZnFe2O4 as a magnetic substance. Among them, the 0.6-ZBO composite performed the best, with photocatalytic removal of tetracycline (TC) reaching 85.6%. The photocatalytic degradation rated constant of 0.6-ZBO composite was 23.36 × 10−3 min−1, which was 7.6, 4.1, and 2.5 times higher than that of ZnFe2O4/BC, ZnO, and ZnFe2O4/ZnO samples, respectively. According to several characterization data, it was demonstrated that successful Z-scheme heterojunctions were constructed between ZnFe2O4 and ZnO. The 0.6-ZBO complex increased the range of light absorption and strengthened the separation of electron-hole pairs, thus improving the redox ability of the complex. In the different water matrices, the stability of 0.6-ZBO was excellent and its ability to remove TC decreased slightly to about 11% after 5 cycles. This work provided a valuable approach to design a novel and efficient system for degrading organic pollutants in wastewater using magnetic biochar.

  • “Oh, That Pesky DNA”: Using Murder-mystery Narratives to Identify, Evaluate, and Organize Arguments by Lara Stache

    “Oh, That Pesky DNA”: Using Murder-mystery Narratives to Identify, Evaluate, and Organize Arguments

    Lara Stache

    Utilizing popular murder-mystery texts that transcend boundaries of race, class, age, and sex, students apply Toulmin’s 1958 concept of claim, data, warrant (Toulmin, S. E. 2003. The uses of argument. Cambridge University Press). Ultimately, students engage in an activity that demonstrates how argumentation plays a role outside of the college classroom writing assignment. Courses: Introduction to Communication, Argumentation and Debate, Rhetorical Theory, Critical Analysis, and Communication writing courses. It is also applicable to secondary K-12 courses. Objective: The aim of this activity is to introduce concepts of argumentation, including organization of information within written work, evaluation of argumentative data/evidence, and articulation of a well-supported claim. It is designed to help students recognize (1) how they analyze argumentative messages in their daily lives, specifically by focusing on a popular culture text, and (2) how organization of an argument is structured, with the goal of clearly communicating a message to the audience.

  • Prelude to a Hot American Summer by Jarrod Shanahan and Zhandarka Kurti

    Prelude to a Hot American Summer

    Jarrod Shanahan and Zhandarka Kurti

    In the summer of 2020, America experienced one of the biggest uprisings in half a century. After George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police, angry crowds took to the streets night after night, fighting the police, looting, and eventually burning down the Third Precinct. The revolt soon spread to cities large and small across the country, where rioters set police cars on fire, sacked luxury shopping districts, and forced the president into hiding in a bunker beneath the White House. Throughout the summer and into the fall, localized rebellions continued to erupt in Atlanta, Chicago, Kenosha, Louisville, Philadelphia, and elsewhere.
    Written during the riots, The George Floyd Uprising is a compendium of the most radical writing to come out of that long, hot summer. These incendiary dispatches—from those on the front lines of the struggle—examine the new horizons opened by the revolt, as well as the social, tactical, and strategic obstacles it confronted. This practical, inspiring collection offers a toolbox for all those actively seeking to expand and intensify revolts in the future, and it is essential reading for everyone interested in toppling the state, racism, and capitalism.

  • Social Epistemology by Ben Almassi

    Social Epistemology

    Ben Almassi

    Entry on Social Epistemology in Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy

  • Strengthened Voice Through Pedagogical Partnerships: A Story of Transformational Learning by Rasha Elhage and Lisset Rosales

    Strengthened Voice Through Pedagogical Partnerships: A Story of Transformational Learning

    Rasha Elhage and Lisset Rosales

    Participating in the Pedagogical Partnership Project through BranchED (Branch Alliance for Education Diversity) deepened our understanding of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) students’ and faculty members’ experiences in the higher education setting. This concept of a partnership between a faculty member and the student was tempting for its novelty (at least to us) and for its purpose, which focuses on supporting students’ success (Cook-Sather, 2018; Healey et al., 2016). In fact, a research study conducted by Cook-Sather (2018) suggests that participating in pedagogical partnerships “(1) fosters important affective experiences in relation to all faculty and to fellow students, (2) informs students’ academic engagement in their own classes, and (3) contributes to students’ sense of their evolution as active agents in their own and others’ development” (p. 4).

  • Teaching Urban Studies - The Map in City Literature by Lieven Ameel, Chen Bar-Itzhak, Patricia Garcia, Jason Finch, Silja Laine, Liam Lanigan, Anni Lappela, Juho Rajaniemi, and Markku Salmela

    Teaching Urban Studies - The Map in City Literature

    Lieven Ameel, Chen Bar-Itzhak, Patricia Garcia, Jason Finch, Silja Laine, Liam Lanigan, Anni Lappela, Juho Rajaniemi, and Markku Salmela

    Over the past decades, the growing interest in the study of literature of the city has led to the development of literary urban studies as a discipline in its own right. The Routledge Companion to Literary Urban Studies provides a methodical overview of the fundamentals of this developing discipline and a detailed outline of new directions in the field.

  • The Impact of COVID-19 on Teachers' Transition Practices for Students with Disabilities in Illinois, USA by Rasha Elhage

    The Impact of COVID-19 on Teachers' Transition Practices for Students with Disabilities in Illinois, USA

    Rasha Elhage

    Transition services are central in preparing youth with disabilities for opportunities in postsecondary education, employment and independent living. The life skills education acquired in school may be the only resources they receive to help them with this transition. With COVID-19, educational systems were interrupted, including the access of students with disabilities to service provision and transition services. This study aimed to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on teachers' transition practices for students with disabilities in the State of Illinois, United States and to identify factors associated with the differences in teachers' practices across eight domains of transition. Results indicated statistical significant differences in transition practices before and during COVID-19 in all eight domains. Gender, Race, School Closings & Type of School did not show significant associations with any of the eight domains. Emotional Disability was found to have a significant association with all eight domains, whereas Intellectual Disability did not show significant association with any of the eight domains. Grade level and teachers' educational level showed significant associations with certain domains. Future investigations into how COVID-19 changed teachers' transition practices for students with disabilities and the long-term impact that these changes will have on students' post-secondary outcomes are needed.

  • The Role of Innovation and Technology in Renewable Energy by Evelina Mengova and David Green

    The Role of Innovation and Technology in Renewable Energy

    Evelina Mengova and David Green

    Renewable energy is an investment in our future. This article explores the role of innovation and technology in electricity production from renewable sources in Europe, the Former Soviet Union, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and North America. It analyzes the major challenges—in terms of technology and population skills needed to use it—that impact each of these regions in moving toward a more environmentally friendly generation and use of energy. We find that specific regional characteristics, together with the number of patent applications and the level of skills enabling work with advanced technologies of a country, have a substantial effect on its renewable electricity output. We find no evidence that broad Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) fosters renewables.

  • The Safe Passages Program as Approach to Combat the Heroin Epidemic: Case of Will County, IL by Karl Jurgens, Mary Bruce, Natalia Ermasova, and Andre Ashmore

    The Safe Passages Program as Approach to Combat the Heroin Epidemic: Case of Will County, IL

    Karl Jurgens, Mary Bruce, Natalia Ermasova, and Andre Ashmore

    This research analyzes the police departments’ unconventional approach to fighting heroin by offering treatment instead. Police departments implement a program, the Safe Passages, that allows an individual addicted to heroin to enter the police department without fear of arrest or questioning.

  • We're Going to the Guelaguetza / Vamos a la Guelaguetza by Valerie Butron and Rita Guzman

    We're Going to the Guelaguetza / Vamos a la Guelaguetza

    Valerie Butron and Rita Guzman

    Rufina's abuelo has exciting news to share when he picks her up from school. Their family will travel to Oaxaca in July to celebrate the Guelaguetza! Rufina is curious to talk to her family members in English and Spanish to find out about the things she will see, taste, touch, smell, and hear while they celebrate. El abuelo de Rufina tiene noticias emocionantes que compartir cuando la recoge de la escuela. ¡Su familia viajará a Oaxaca en julio para celebrar la Guelaguetza! Rufina siente curiosidad por hablar con los miembros de su familia en inglés y español para conocer las cosas que verá, saboreará, tocará, olerá y oirá mientras celebran.

  • What We Owe Owls. Nonideal Relationality among Fellow Creatures in the Old Growth Forest by Ben Almassi

    What We Owe Owls. Nonideal Relationality among Fellow Creatures in the Old Growth Forest

    Ben Almassi

    Though many of us have constructed our lives (or have had them constructed for us) such that it is easy to ignore or forget, human lives are entangled with other animals in many ways. Some interspecies relations would arguably exist in some form or another even under an ideal model of animal ethics. Others have an inescapably non-ideal character – these relationships exist as they do because things have gone wrong. In such circumstances we have reparative duties to animals we have wronged because we have wronged them. Here I draw upon Christine Korsgaard’s “Fellow Creatures” (2018) and other nonideal approaches to animal ethics to critically assess the United States Fish & Wildlife Service practice of killing barred owls to protect endangered spotted owls in the old growth forest of the Pacific Northwest. This is a difficult case to be sure, but one that can benefit from non-ideal moral assessment in terms of interspecies relational repair. I argue for increased spotted owl habitat preservation and forest restoration as an alternative to barred owl removal that better aligns with both nonideal relational animal ethics and stated US Fish & Wildlife Service values.

  • Magnetically Recyclable PbMoO4/BC/Fe3O4 Composite for Tetracycline Removal: Fabrication, Performance, and Mechanism by Hongzhi Yang, Tianpei He, Jinhua Luo, Aihua Zhang, Xiaoyong Chen, Yelin Zeng, Yonghong Wang, Yunlin Zhao, and Guangjun Wang

    Magnetically Recyclable PbMoO4/BC/Fe3O4 Composite for Tetracycline Removal: Fabrication, Performance, and Mechanism

    Hongzhi Yang, Tianpei He, Jinhua Luo, Aihua Zhang, Xiaoyong Chen, Yelin Zeng, Yonghong Wang, Yunlin Zhao, and Guangjun Wang

    A novel PbMoO4@MBC (MBL-2) magnetic heterojunction photocatalyst was prepared by the successful loading of Fe3O4 with PbMoO4 onto the highly conductive BC surface through the integration of co-precipitation and pyrolysis. Using advanced characterization methods could reveal the composition, morphology, and optoelectronic properties of the material. The results showed that using BC as the electron transfer interface provided a pathway for charge transfer between Fe3O4 and PbMoO4, and importantly, the PbMoO4@MBC (MBL-2) nanocomposite had a large specific surface area, excellent magnetic response, high light absorption capacity for efficient carrier separation, and thus the photocatalytic activity was high. The degradation rate of MBL-2 for TC under visible light was as high as 89%. More importantly, PbMoO4@MBC (MBL-2) possessed good stability and reusability. The Z-scheme electron transfer pathway for improved photocatalytic performance was proposed by radical capture experiments and electron spin resonance (ESR) measurement analysis.

  • Soil Quality and r – K fungal Communities in Plantations after Conversion from Subtropical Forest by Ting Lu, Xiaohong Wu, Huangwei Li, Chen Ning, Yong Li, Xuyuan Zhang, Jinsong He, Ekaterina Filimonenko, Shu Chen, Xiaoyong Chen, David J. Gibson, Yakov Kuzyakov, and Wende Yan

    Soil Quality and r – K fungal Communities in Plantations after Conversion from Subtropical Forest

    Ting Lu, Xiaohong Wu, Huangwei Li, Chen Ning, Yong Li, Xuyuan Zhang, Jinsong He, Ekaterina Filimonenko, Shu Chen, Xiaoyong Chen, David J. Gibson, Yakov Kuzyakov, and Wende Yan

    Intensive clear-cutting of natural forests and conversion to monoculture plantations are ongoing worldwide, leading to the degradation of soil quality and microbial functions. Here, we compared soil quality index (SQI) and fungal communities in a natural forest (Forest) and four 5-year-old monoculture plantations, including Camellia oleifera (Oil), Amygdalus persica (Peach), Myrica rubra (Berry) and Cunninghamia lanceolate (Fir) in a subtropical region of China. After conversion, soil pH in the plantations rose up to 0.31, but organic carbon and total nitrogen contents, sucrase, acid protease, glutaminase, acid and alkaline phosphatase activities decreased by 83%, 59%, 40%, 64%, 66%, 94% and 59%, respectively. Correspondingly, the SQI dropped by 65%. High-throughput sequencing of the ITS1 region demonstrated an increase in α-diversity and a striking difference in β-diversity of fungi following conversion. Changes in the dominant fungal taxa following forest conversion to plantations were interpreted by r- and K-selection of life strategies. Conversion increased the fungal groups with r-strategies, such as Ascomycota and Zygomycota, but decreased the fungal groups with K-strategies, such as Basidiomycota. Genera affiliated to those phyla including Pseudophialophora, Rhytisma increased, but Russula decreased. Redundancy analysis and structural equation modeling indicated that the diversity and composition of fungal communities changed with soil degradation, which was mainly driven by increased pH and total phosphorus content, but decreased C/N ratio and C and N related enzymes activities. Overall, the conversion of forest to monoculture plantations decreased soil quality and the abundance of K-strategists, retarded the decomposition of persistent organic matter, but boosted the prevalence of r-strategists in a more diverse fungal community.

  • The Effects of g-C3N4/biochar and g-C3N4 on Bacterial Community in Riverbed Sediment by Yao Tang, Xuemei Hu, Zhenggang Xu, Xiaoyong Chen, Yelin Zeng, Guangjun Wang, Yonghong Wang, Gaoqiang Liu, Yunlin Zhao, and Yaohui Wu

    The Effects of g-C3N4/biochar and g-C3N4 on Bacterial Community in Riverbed Sediment

    Yao Tang, Xuemei Hu, Zhenggang Xu, Xiaoyong Chen, Yelin Zeng, Guangjun Wang, Yonghong Wang, Gaoqiang Liu, Yunlin Zhao, and Yaohui Wu

    Biochar had been widely used to improve the activity of photocatalysts, the biochar-based photocatalysts had more potential for environmental pollution remediation, but their effect on the sediment remained unknown. To understand these, the typical photocatalyst g-C3N4 was modified by biochar to develop g-C3N4/biochar with enhanced photocatalytic ability. Riverbed sediment was exposed to g-C3N4 and g-C3N4/biochar respectively for 30 days, and Illumina sequencing was utilized to examine the changes in the bacterial community in the sediment. The results showed that in riverbed sediment, g-C3N4 exposure had a concentration-dependent effect on the diversity of bacteria, while g-C3N4/biochar exposure had a slight influence on the bacterial diversity and the diversity almost maintained stable with different g-C3N4/biochar concentration. The application of g-C3N4 exhibited an inhibition influence on the growth of Acidobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes, and Rokubacteria in sediment, whose relative abundance increased when g-C3N4 was 25 mg/kg, and then decreased when g-C3N4 beyond this concentration. The presence of g-C3N4/biochar increased the relative abundance of Cyanobacteria in sediment and showed no obvious impact on other dominant phyla. Both g-C3N4 and g-C3N4/biochar could alter the levels of TP, NN, and AN in the sediment, but the magnitude of the changes of these physicochemical factors caused by g-C3N4/biochar was much smaller than those caused by g-C3N4. In addition, the complexity of the bacterial community network was reduced in a high concentration of g-C3N4, while it remained stable with different concentrations of g-C3N4/biochar treatments. Totally, this study demonstrated that, compared to g-C3N4, g-C3N4/biochar was able to maintain the relative stability of the bacterial community in riverbed sediment and mitigate the negative effects of photocatalysts to some extent, making biochar an ecological remediation agent with great potential for application.

  • School Counselors and Administrators Agree: Time and Testing are Barriers by TeShaunda Hannor-Walker, Robert Pincus, Leonis Wright, Wendy Rock, Jennifer Money-Brady, and Lynn Bohecker

    School Counselors and Administrators Agree: Time and Testing are Barriers

    TeShaunda Hannor-Walker, Robert Pincus, Leonis Wright, Wendy Rock, Jennifer Money-Brady, and Lynn Bohecker

    School leaders continuously state their concerns about rising mental health issues in schools. This study looks at the perceptions of the roles of school counselors as mental health professionals in schools from the perspectives of school counselors and principals. The purpose of this study is to explore how administrators and school counselors describe the role of school counselors, and the perceived barriers to school counselors spending the recommended 80 percent of their time in the delivery of services to students. This study uses deductive qualitative content analysis to review written responses from the 518 participants who identified as either a licensed or certified school counselor or a school administrator. The results show that school administrators and school counselors have very different perceptions of school counselors as mental health professionals; however, they agree that time and testing are barriers to providing direct services to students.

  • Alumni Perceptions of the Educational Benefits of Their Graduate Degrees from a PBI by Rasha Elhage, Olanipekun Laoesebikan, and Kimberly Black-Parker

    Alumni Perceptions of the Educational Benefits of Their Graduate Degrees from a PBI

    Rasha Elhage, Olanipekun Laoesebikan, and Kimberly Black-Parker

    Much of the research on the benefits of graduate education for minority students has focused on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Little has been done on Predominantly Black Institutions. This case study attempts to shed light on alumni perceptions of the benefits of their graduate education at a Predominantly Black Institution (PBI), Chicago State University. The researchers surveyed the accessible population of Chicago State University alumni who completed requirements for their master’s and doctoral degrees between the academic years 2008 and 2018. Results indicate that perceived benefits fell into two categories: 1) personal benefits that accrued to the graduate and 2) enabling benefits that encouraged the completion of graduate study. Personal benefits included personal fulfillment, an enhanced knowledge of a profession or discipline, and advancement in a career including promotions and salary raises, while some enabling benefits included perceived program quality, the financial accessibility of graduate study at a PBI, and a supportive learning environment. Findings from this study of alumni can lend insights to effective approaches to teaching graduate students from diverse backgrounds.

  • Estranging the Novel: Poland, Ireland, and Theories of World Literature by Katarzyna Bartoszyńska by Liam Lanigan

    Estranging the Novel: Poland, Ireland, and Theories of World Literature by Katarzyna Bartoszyńska

    Liam Lanigan

    Review of Estranging the Novel: Poland, Ireland, and Theories of World Literature by Katarzyna Bartoszyńska.

  • Effects of g-C3N4 on Bacterial Community and Tetracycline Resistance Genes in Two Typical Sediments in Tetracycline Pollution Remediation by Xuemei Hu, Xiaoyong Chen, Yao Tang, Zhenggang Xu, Yelin Zeng, Yonghong Wang, Yaohui Wu, and Guangjun Wang

    Effects of g-C3N4 on Bacterial Community and Tetracycline Resistance Genes in Two Typical Sediments in Tetracycline Pollution Remediation

    Xuemei Hu, Xiaoyong Chen, Yao Tang, Zhenggang Xu, Yelin Zeng, Yonghong Wang, Yaohui Wu, and Guangjun Wang

    Photocatalysis, as a novel technique, has been widely used for antibiotic pollution remediation in wastewater. In the processes of degradation and removal of antibiotics, the impact of photocatalysts on microenvironment is very important but remains poorly understood. In the present study, the effect of typical photocatalyst g-C3N4 (Graphitic carbon nitride) on microbial community was investigated in two sediment types (riverbed sediment and pig-farm sediment) polluted by tetracycline (TC) in central southern China. The riverbed sediment and pig farm sediment samples were respectively exposed to g-C3N4 (25, 75, 125 mg⋅kg–1) and TC (60, 120, 180 mg⋅L–1) treatments alone or combination for 30 days, respectively. The bacterial community and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) of the treated sediments were analyzed by Illumina sequencing and metagenomic sequencing. Studies had shown that: TC, g-C3N4, and TC/g-C3N4 have significant effects on the changes of microbial communities and components in riverbed sediment, but they do not exist in pig farm sediment. The most alterations of microbial taxa were Acidobacteriota, Actinobacteriota, and Desulfobacterota in riverbed sediment, and Elusimicrobiota in the pig farm sediment under various treatments. Through network analysis, it was found that the distribution of microorganisms in the pig farm sediment is more complex and more stable. The addition of g-C3N4 reduced the absolute abundance of ARGs in the two examined sediments, but not significantly changed their relative abundance of ARGs. The g-C3N4 application was beneficial to the removal of TC residues and to the prevention of the generation and transmission of ARGs in sediments. Our results suggested that g-C3N4 was a suitable photocatalyst with excellent application prospect for the removal of TC residues and the control of ARGs in environment.

  • Disinvestment in Higher Education and its Impact on Society: Case of Illinois Public Universities by Richard J. Greenfield and Natalia Ermasova

    Disinvestment in Higher Education and its Impact on Society: Case of Illinois Public Universities

    Richard J. Greenfield and Natalia Ermasova

    This research analyzed the disinvestment in higher education in Illinois. This study is an exploratory case study based on interviews with eleven Presidents, Vice Presidents, and Associate Vice Presidents of Enrollment Management from nine Illinois public universities, qualitative analysis, and secondary data. This study revealed four main themes: the challenges in public universities due to disinvestment in higher education, students migrating outside Illinois, the importance of AIM HIGH Grants, and increased creativity in recruiting students by admissions departments. Disinvestment in higher education had the following impacts: increased tuition, diminished enrollment of students, students migrating outside Illinois, deferred maintenance, loss of talented faculty, and reduction of capital projects.

  • Addressing the Career Needs of Transgender and Gender Expansive Students by Leonis Wright, Jon Borland, and Ahmet Can

    Addressing the Career Needs of Transgender and Gender Expansive Students

    Leonis Wright, Jon Borland, and Ahmet Can

    Changing demographics, multiple worldviews, and cultural plurality are major influences in the career development process for diverse students. As school counselors are considered social justice advocates, they should utilize differentiated strategies when working with transgender and gender-expansive students (TGE). This conceptual paper provides an overview of TGE individuals’ challenges, discusses the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) stance on working with this population, and highlights a career development group counseling curriculum for TGE students at the secondary (middle/high) education level.

  • Evaluation of Risk Adjustment Performance of Diagnosis-based and Medication-based Comorbidity Indices in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease by Huei Guo Il, Chao-Hsiun Tang, Mei-Ling Sheu, Hung-Yi Liu, Ning Lu, Yuan-Ya Tsai, Bi-Li Chen, and Kuo-Cherh Huang

    Evaluation of Risk Adjustment Performance of Diagnosis-based and Medication-based Comorbidity Indices in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

    Huei Guo Il, Chao-Hsiun Tang, Mei-Ling Sheu, Hung-Yi Liu, Ning Lu, Yuan-Ya Tsai, Bi-Li Chen, and Kuo-Cherh Huang

    Objectives This study assessed risk adjustment performance of six comorbidity indices in two categories of comorbidity measures: diagnosis-based comorbidity indices and medication-based ones in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods This was a population–based retrospective cohort study. Data used in this study were sourced from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. The study population comprised all patients who were hospitalized due to COPD for the first time in the target year of 2012. Each qualified patient was individually followed for one year starting from the index date to assess two outcomes of interest, medical expenditures within one year after discharge and in-hospital mortality of patients. To assess how well the added comorbidity measures would improve the fitted model, we calculated the log-likelihood ratio statistic G2. Subsequently, we compared risk adjustment performance of the comorbidity indices by using the Harrell c-statistic measure derived from multiple logistic regression models. Results Analytical results demonstrated that that comorbidity measures were significant predictors of medical expenditures and mortality of COPD patients. Specifically, in the category of diagnosis-based comorbidity indices the Elixhauser index was superior to other indices, while the RxRisk-V index was a stronger predictor in the framework of medication-based codes, for gauging both medical expenditures and in-hospital mortality by utilizing information from the index hospitalization only as well as the index and prior hospitalizations. Conclusions In conclusion, this work has ascertained that comorbidity indices are significant predictors of medical expenditures and mortality of COPD patients. Based on the study findings, we propose that when designing the payment schemes for patients with chronic diseases, the health authority should make adjustments in accordance with the burden of health care caused by comorbid conditions.

  • Social Justice and Black Men’s Health by Shonda Lawrence, Jerry Watson, Kristie Lipford, Nathaniel Currie, and Malik Cooper

    Social Justice and Black Men’s Health

    Shonda Lawrence, Jerry Watson, Kristie Lipford, Nathaniel Currie, and Malik Cooper

    This chapter provides a brief overview of the literature emphasizing seven unique and prevailing obstacles and barriers that Black men face when interacting with healthcare systems. Issues of: (1) racism and mistrust, (2) finances and economic stability, (3) gender-influenced stereotypes, (4) religion/faith-based ideology, (5) personal health management, (6) incarceration, and (7) Black men representation in medicine are believed to be seven factors that provide an explanation for why Black men continue to experience poor health outcomes. The chapter discusses social and political factors that have had implications for how black men interact with healthcare systems and utilizes the integrated lenses of critical race theory and intersectionality theory to conceptualize processes for understanding and change. Discussion questions and case studies are included to prompt critical thinking and elicit discussions on historical and structural racism, the influence of sociopolitical systems, and the implications for social work policy and practice.

  • Soil Nitrogen Transformation Process Influenced by Litterfall Manipulation in Two Subtropical Forest Types by Wende Yan, Taimoor Hassan Farooq, Yi Chen, Wancai Wang, Rubab Shabbir, Uttam Kumar, Muhammad Umair Riaz, Saqer S. Alotaibi, Yuanying Peng, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Soil Nitrogen Transformation Process Influenced by Litterfall Manipulation in Two Subtropical Forest Types

    Wende Yan, Taimoor Hassan Farooq, Yi Chen, Wancai Wang, Rubab Shabbir, Uttam Kumar, Muhammad Umair Riaz, Saqer S. Alotaibi, Yuanying Peng, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Nitrogen (N) is often recognized as the primary limiting nutrient element for the growth and production of forests worldwide. Litterfall represents a significant pathway for returning nutrients from aboveground parts of trees to the soils and plays an essential role in N availability in different forest ecosystems. This study explores the N transformation processes under litterfall manipulation treatments in a Masson pine pure forest (MPPF), and Masson pine and Camphor tree mixed forest (MCMF) stands in subtropical southern China. The litterfall manipulation included litterfall addition (LA), litterfall removal (LR), and litterfall control (LC) treatments. The project aimed to examine how litterfall inputs affect the soil N process in different forest types in the study region. Results showed that soil ammonium N (NH4+-N) and nitrate N (NO3−-N) content increased under LA treatment and decreased under LR treatment compared to LC treatment. LA treatment significantly increased soil total inorganic N (TIN) content by 41.86 and 22.19% in MPPF and MCMF, respectively. In contrast, LR treatment decreased the TIN content by 10 and 24% in MPPF and MCMF compared to LC treatment. Overall, the soil net ammonification, nitrification, and N mineralization rates were higher in MCMF than in MPPF; however, values in both forests were not significantly different. LA treatment significantly increased annual net ammonification, nitrification, and mineralization in both forest types (p < 0.05) compared to LC treatment. LR treatment significantly decreased the values (p < 0.05), except for ammonification, where LR treatment did not differ substantially compared to LC treatment. Our results suggested that changes in litterfall inputs would significantly alter soil N dynamics in studied forests of sub-tropical region. Moreover, mixed forest stands have higher nutrient returns due to mixed litter and higher decomposition compared to pure forest stands.

  • Synergistic Adsorption-photocatalytic Activity using Z-Scheme Based Magnetic ZnFe2O4/CuWO4 Heterojunction for Tetracycline Removal by Jinhua Luo, Yaohui Wu, Xiaoyong Chen, Tianpei He, Guangjun Wang, Yonghong Wang, Yunlin Zhao, and Zhefen Chen

    Synergistic Adsorption-photocatalytic Activity using Z-Scheme Based Magnetic ZnFe2O4/CuWO4 Heterojunction for Tetracycline Removal

    Jinhua Luo, Yaohui Wu, Xiaoyong Chen, Tianpei He, Guangjun Wang, Yonghong Wang, Yunlin Zhao, and Zhefen Chen

    Developing efficient and economical photocatalysts was considered as an efficient and economical strategy for pollution remediation. Herein, magnetically separable ZnFe2O4/CuWO4 composites (ZW) had been developed via combining ZnFe2O4 with CuWO4. The composite with a mass ratio of 40% CuWO4 (ZW-40) performed best, and the tetracycline hydrochloride (TC) removal by adsorption-photocatalysis of ZW-40 reached 86.5%. The photocatalytic degradation rated constant of it was 9.44 × 10−3 min−1, which was approximately 5.04 and 3.28 times compared to the ZnFe2O4 and CuWO4 samples, respectively. Pseudo-second-order kinetic models could describe well the TC adsorption process, in which chemisorption was the major driving factor, with the maximum adsorption at 23.56 mg g−1. The improved photo-catalytic capability owed to the formation of Z-scheme heterojunctions with ZnFe2O4 and CuWO4, which improved the intensity of visible light absorption and enhanced the separation electron-hole pairs as well as the redox capability of the composite. ZW-40 was high stability as its removal ability of TC in different water conditions slightly dropped about 15% after 5 cycles. ZW-40 could effectively remove TC in different water matrix, its removal ability for 40 mg/L was as follows: super-pure water> municipal wastewater> swine farm wastewater. Hence, the complexation of ZnFe2O4 with CuWO4 provides a valuable strategy to improve the photocatalytic potential for ZnFe2O4-based catalysts as well as providing a promising pathway for water clarification.

  • Unraveling the Importance of Forest Structure and Composition Driving Soil Microbial and Enzymatic Responses in the Subtropical Forest Soils by Taimoor Hassan Farooq, Xiaoyong Chen, Awais Shakoor, Muhammad Haroon U. Rashid, Uttam Kumar, Majid Alhomrani, Abdulhakeem S. Alamri, Balasubramani Ravindran, and Wende Yan

    Unraveling the Importance of Forest Structure and Composition Driving Soil Microbial and Enzymatic Responses in the Subtropical Forest Soils

    Taimoor Hassan Farooq, Xiaoyong Chen, Awais Shakoor, Muhammad Haroon U. Rashid, Uttam Kumar, Majid Alhomrani, Abdulhakeem S. Alamri, Balasubramani Ravindran, and Wende Yan

    As the responsive soil properties, soil microbial fractions and enzymatic activities are often recommended for assessing soil environment. Different flora, silvicultural practices, and anthropogenic activities regulate essential ecosystem processes. They could substantially affect biological properties, nutrient budgets, and biogeochemical cycles at local and regional scales. This study examined how different forest compositions influenced by various anthropogenic activities (land use change, over-exploitation, species translocation) affect soil microbial properties and enzymatic activities, as well as the effects of soil chemical properties on these patterns in important sub-tropical forest ecosystems in Southern China. The research was conducted at Lutou forest research station, located in Yueyang, Hunan Province, China. Soil samples were collected at 0–10, 10–20, and 20–40 cm depths from natural broadleaved forest (NBF), coniferous monoculture plantations (CPF), and mixed forest stand. CPF stands are directly affected by human interference and frequent harvesting practices, whereas mixed forest and NBF stands are naturally grown forests with minimal human interference. Enzymes continually play a positive role in preserving soil health. The results showed that the interaction effect of forest type and soil depth significantly influenced urease, sucrase, and protease activity (all p < 0.001); however, no clear patterns were observed. Soil microbial carbon (MBC) and soil microbial nitrogen (MBN) were remarkably higher in 0–10 cm in mixed forest and NBF stand compared to CPF stand. For the upper soil layer, soil organic carbon (SOC) was higher in mixed forest, whereas, for the remaining two layers, it was observed to be highest in NBF. Moreover, the microbial quotient (MBC/SOC) was considerably higher in NBF forest in all soil layers than in mixed forest and CPF stand. Soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil total nitrogen (TN) had a strong positive relationship with MBC compared to MBN. Our study contributes toward an enhanced understanding of soil enzymatic responses and microbial soil dynamics’ biological patterns, controls, and activities in different rural forest ecosystems.

  • Pilot Study of a Culturally Sensitive Intervention to Promote Genetic Counseling for Breast Cancer Risk by Vida Henderson, Jessica M. Madrigal, Le'Chaun Kendall, Pooja Parekh, Jennifer Newsome, Ifeanyi Beverly Chukwudozie, De Lawnia Comer-Hagans, Vickii Coffey, Giesela Grumbach, Shirley Spencer, Carolyn Rodgers, Ravneet Kaur, Lara Balay, Tara Maga, Zo Ramamonjiarivelo, Catherine H. Balthazar, Robert Winn, Karriem Watson, Angela Odoms-Young, and Kent F. Hoskins

    Pilot Study of a Culturally Sensitive Intervention to Promote Genetic Counseling for Breast Cancer Risk

    Vida Henderson, Jessica M. Madrigal, Le'Chaun Kendall, Pooja Parekh, Jennifer Newsome, Ifeanyi Beverly Chukwudozie, De Lawnia Comer-Hagans, Vickii Coffey, Giesela Grumbach, Shirley Spencer, Carolyn Rodgers, Ravneet Kaur, Lara Balay, Tara Maga, Zo Ramamonjiarivelo, Catherine H. Balthazar, Robert Winn, Karriem Watson, Angela Odoms-Young, and Kent F. Hoskins

    Despite the benefits of genetic counseling and testing, uptake of cancer genetic services is generally low and Black/African American (Black) women are substantially less likely to receive genetic services than non-Hispanic White women. Our team developed a culturally sensitive, narrative decision aid video to promote uptake of genetic counseling among Black women at risk for a hereditary breast cancer syndrome that can be incorporated in conjunction with population-based cancer risk assessment in a clinical setting. We report here a pilot study to demonstrate changes in intention to access genetic counseling and intervention satisfaction.

  • ‘They Gave Me Nothing’: Marriage, Slavery and Divorce in Twentieth-Century Abeokuta by Morenikenji Asaaju

    ‘They Gave Me Nothing’: Marriage, Slavery and Divorce in Twentieth-Century Abeokuta

    Morenikenji Asaaju

    During the early twentieth century, several hundred women in colonial Abeokuta initiated divorce proceedings against their husbands, who were also frequently their masters. The legal records associated with their cases offer important clues about how women – both freeborn and slave – contested the terms of their marriages using the colonial courts. This article examines how and why these women used new interpretations of marriage, which were introduced by European Christian missionaries and the British colonial administrators in order to challenge established traditions. It reveals how colonial native courts approached indigenous norms surrounding marriage and slavery: colonial interventions gave freeborn women a measure of agency within marriage which was also somewhat unexpectedly extended to slave wives. Through an exploration of court judgements, this article demonstrates the effects of colonial intervention on marriage and slavery and the role of the colonial courts in local matrimonial disputes and practices and investigates how they empowered enslaved wives.

  • Variations in Litterfall Dynamics, C:N:P Stoichiometry and Associated Nutrient Return in Pure and Mixed Stands of Camphor Tree and Masson Pine Forests by Taimoor Hassan Farooq, Zongwen Li, Wende Yan, Awais Shakoor, Uttam Kumar, Rabab Shabbir, Yuanying Peng, Ekambaram Gayathiri, Saber S. Alotaibi, Jacek Wrobel, Hazem M. Kalaji, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Variations in Litterfall Dynamics, C:N:P Stoichiometry and Associated Nutrient Return in Pure and Mixed Stands of Camphor Tree and Masson Pine Forests

    Taimoor Hassan Farooq, Zongwen Li, Wende Yan, Awais Shakoor, Uttam Kumar, Rabab Shabbir, Yuanying Peng, Ekambaram Gayathiri, Saber S. Alotaibi, Jacek Wrobel, Hazem M. Kalaji, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Litterfall, directly and indirectly, affects the soil physicochemical properties, microbial activity, and diversity of soil fauna and flora by adding organic matter and nutrients to the soil. This study explores litterfall dynamics such as litterfall production, litter decomposition rate, and associated nutrient return in three forest types, that is, camphor tree forest (CTF), Masson pine forest (MPF), and camphor tree and Masson pine mixed forest (CMF), in subtropical China. Results showed that CMF had the highest mean annual litterfall production (4.30 ± 0.22 t ha−1), which was significantly higher than that of MPF (3.41 ± 0.25 t ha−1) and CTF (3.26 ± 0.17 t ha−1). Leaf represented the major fraction of litterfall, constituting over 71% of the total litterfall mass in the three forest types. The contribution of branch litter was 16.3, 8.9, and 16.9%, and miscellaneous litter was 12.6, 18.9, and 11.1% in CTF, MPF, and CMF, respectively. The concentration of macronutrients ranked as N > Ca > K > Mg > P in all litter fractions. The total annual macronutrient return to the soil from the litterfall was in order as CTF (74.2 kg ha−1‧yr−1) > CMF (70.7 kg ha−1‧yr−1) > MPF (33.6 kg ha−1‧yr−1). The decomposition rate was higher in leaf litter than in branch litter throughout the three forests. Among the forest types, the leaf and branch decomposition rates were in a pattern: CTF > CMF > MPF. The ratio of C/N in both leaf and branch litters was significantly higher in MPF than in CTF and CMF, while no significant differences in N/P ratio were found in these litters among the three forests. The high N:P ratios in leaf litter (23/30) and the branch (24/32) litter indicated the high N returning and low nutrient returning to the soil. Our results suggested that the broadleaved forests have faster litter decomposition and higher macronutrient returns than conifer forests. Moreover, the litter decomposition rate was mainly associated with litterfall quality and chemical composition. The introduction of broadleaved trees into monoculture coniferous stands could increase litter production nutrients return, and thus, it had advantages in soil nutrients restoration and sustainable forest management.

  • Implications of Illinois Teacher Evaluation Reforms: Insights from Principals by David Conrad and Donald G. Hackmann

    Implications of Illinois Teacher Evaluation Reforms: Insights from Principals

    David Conrad and Donald G. Hackmann

    This study investigated principals’ perceptions of Illinois teacher evaluation reforms, applying education policy implementation theory and micropolitics of personnel evaluation as conceptual frameworks. Interviews were conducted with 20 Illinois public school principals. Findings revealed micropolitics influenced the development and implementation of local evaluation procedures that were favorable to educators. Principals perceived student growth scores unduly inflated summative ratings, hindering them from rating educators as underperforming and subsequently assigning improvement plans. Despite challenges, participants believed improvement plans were important levers to hold educators accountable for improving their performance.

  • Simulation of Soil CO2 Efflux under Different Hydrothermal Conditions Based on General Regression Neural Network by Li Zhang, Wende Yan, Yijun Liu, Xiaocui Liang, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Simulation of Soil CO2 Efflux under Different Hydrothermal Conditions Based on General Regression Neural Network

    Li Zhang, Wende Yan, Yijun Liu, Xiaocui Liang, and Xiaoyong Chen

    Soil respiration (Rs) is an important component of global carbon (C) cycle and represents the second largest C exchange between atmosphere and geosphere. Regression models have been widely applied to describe Rs process and its relations to environmental factors in terrestrial ecosystems. However, the development of these semi-empirical regression model needed a large number of observation data in order to chives a reliable result. The successful performance of the regression model was highly dependent on data quality. In this study, a general regression neural network (GRNN) model and six validated two-factor-semi-empirical regression models were compared to stimulate changes of Rs under the influence of soil temperature (Tsoil) and soil moisture (Wsoil) alone and combination in camphor forests in subtropical China. The results showed the GRNN model produced greater accuracy than the regression models in predicting Rs. The R2 ranged 0.773-0.809 for the six two-factor regression models, but 0.84 for the GRNN model, with calculated RMSE of 0.404-442 in the regression models compared to 0.20 in the GRNN model. The dataset expanded by GRNN model could better fit the semi-empirical model than the observation dataset, which indicated the GRNN model had satisfactory generalization properties. Additionally, the GRNN model revealed the non-linear relationship between Rs and Wsoil when Wsoil was not a limiting factor, while the regression models were hard to detect the internet linkage. Therefore, GRNN model can not only be considered as a method to provide more accurate predication of Rs in forest ecosystems, but also provide an optional scheme for studying Rs under extreme and long-term climate change.

  • Combined Toxicity of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles and Cadmium Inducing Root Damage in Phytolacca americana L. by Yunmu Xiao, Yong Li, Yang Shi, Xuyuan Zhang, Ting Liu, Taimoor Hassan Farooq, Yuliang Pan, Xiaoyong Chen, and Wende Yan

    Combined Toxicity of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles and Cadmium Inducing Root Damage in Phytolacca americana L.

    Yunmu Xiao, Yong Li, Yang Shi, Xuyuan Zhang, Ting Liu, Taimoor Hassan Farooq, Yuliang Pan, Xiaoyong Chen, and Wende Yan

    In recent years, nano-contamination in the soil environment has aroused concern. But it is still uncertain whether the interactions of nano- and metal-pollutants would have a combined toxic effect on plants. In this study, we investigated the effects of joint exposure to zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) and Cd on the root tissue of Phytolacca americana L. Spin-polarized density functional theory simulations assumed that the plant may undergo metal toxicity or acidosis upon joint exposure to ZnO NPs/Cd. Subsequently, experimental exposure of P. americana verified the combined toxic effects. The plant grew normally with a single treatment of ZnO NPs (500 mg/kg) or low doses of Cd (10 mg/kg). However, root growth was significantly inhibited with the combined treatments (up to 43% reduction); additionally, Cd ions were transported to the shoot, leading to shoot growth inhibition (translocation factor > 1). The antioxidant enzymes in the root (superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, and catalase) were highly activated to resist stress, accompanied by a greater than two-fold increase in thiobarbituric acid reactive substances. Corresponding to physiological indicators, biological transmission electron microscopy revealed severe damage to the root cells. Moreover, ZnO NPs/Cd accumulation was observed in the root cytoderm, which confirmed the toxicity of the combined effects. Our study provides insight into the potential combined toxicity of ZnO NPs and heavy metals in polluted environments, such as mining areas and electronic waste sites, and agricultural soils.

  • Individuals and Families Experiencing Loss and Bereavement by Jacquelyn J. Benson, Abigail J. Rolbiecki, Tashel C. Bordere, Cadmona A. Hall, Allie Abraham, Dena DiNardo, Marianne Celano, and Ileana Ungureanu

    Individuals and Families Experiencing Loss and Bereavement

    Jacquelyn J. Benson, Abigail J. Rolbiecki, Tashel C. Bordere, Cadmona A. Hall, Allie Abraham, Dena DiNardo, Marianne Celano, and Ileana Ungureanu

    Clinical work with the bereaved is a nuanced and emotionally laden process. Families enter therapy at a vulnerable time in their life cycle and trust that they will be supported in healing. This chapter provides a brief review of research on loss and bereavement in families that have experienced loss from cancer, the death of an older parent, the death of a child, or the sudden, violent death of a family member. Specifically, it includes a description of the loss, including prevalence, and the types of grief associated with the loss. The chapter also includes variation and prevalence in grief types or grief response by age, gender, marital status, personality, and relationship type. The clinical applications section presents a case and intervention for each family type, and consistent with the research evidence. Psychoeducation plays an important role and is also referenced.

  • Telepractice, AAC & the SLP by Danielle Osmelak and Angela M. Riccelli

    Telepractice, AAC & the SLP

    Danielle Osmelak and Angela M. Riccelli

    As our whole profession shifts efforts toward telepractice post the myriad of COVID-19 pandemic mandates, has anyone wondered what happens to those who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)? How do we adapt our AAC services to increase access and continue providing support to our clients in need of AAC and their families? The answer lies in tele-AAC. So, what is tele-AAC you may ask? Tele-AAC is a unique type of telepractice in the field of speech-language pathology that requires technical expertise in both telepractice and AAC systems (Anderson, et.al, 2012). ASHA defines telepractice as the application of telecommunications technology to the delivery of speech-language pathology and audiology professional services at a distance by linking clinician to client/patient or clinician to clinician for assessment, intervention, and/or consultation. (ASHA, nd). Tele-AAC services range from direct services (where an AAC user receives real-time feedback on their device from an experienced clinician) to more indirect services (where novice practitioners and family members receive feedback to support the AAC user (Hall & Boisvert, 2014).

  • Book Review: Joe Louis vs. Billy Conn: Boxing’s Unforgettable Summer of 1941 by Ed Gruver by Josh Sopiarz

    Book Review: Joe Louis vs. Billy Conn: Boxing’s Unforgettable Summer of 1941 by Ed Gruver

    Josh Sopiarz

  • Book Review: Never Come Morning (New Edition) by Nelson Algren by Josh Sopiarz

    Book Review: Never Come Morning (New Edition) by Nelson Algren

    Josh Sopiarz

  • Book Review: The Circus Is in Town: Sport, Celebrity, and Spectacle edited by Lisa Doris Alexander and Joel Nathan Rosen by Josh Sopiarz

    Book Review: The Circus Is in Town: Sport, Celebrity, and Spectacle edited by Lisa Doris Alexander and Joel Nathan Rosen

    Josh Sopiarz

  • Book Review: We Average Unbeautiful Watchers: Fan Narratives and the Reading of American Sports by Noah Cohan by Josh Sopiarz

    Book Review: We Average Unbeautiful Watchers: Fan Narratives and the Reading of American Sports by Noah Cohan

    Josh Sopiarz

  • Captives: How Rikers Island Took New York City Hostage by Jarrod Shanahan

    Captives: How Rikers Island Took New York City Hostage

    Jarrod Shanahan

    Captives combines a thrilling narrative account of Rikers Island’s descent into infamy with a dramatic retelling of the last seventy years of New York and American politics from the vantage point of its jails. It is a story of a crowded field of contending powers–city bureaucrats and unions, black power activists and correction offices, crooked cops and elected leaders– struggle for the right to run our cities, a story that culminates in the triumph of of the twin figures we today call neoliberalism and mass incarceration. It is the history of how the Rikers Island of today–and the social order it represents–came to be.
    With a sweeping vision and an often cinematic touch, Captives records how the tempo of history was set by the metronome of bloody and bruising clashes between corrections officers and prisoners, and between police officers and virtually everyone else. Written by a one-time inmate, Captives draws on extensive archival research, decades of journalism, interviews, prisoner testimonials, and firsthand experience to deliver an urgent intervention into our nationwide conversation about the future of mass incarceration.

  • Climate Reparations, Compensation, and Intergenerational Restorative Justice by Ben Almassi

    Climate Reparations, Compensation, and Intergenerational Restorative Justice

    Ben Almassi

    Almassi investigates the ways in which intergenerational restorative justice enables a response to global climate change that surpasses compensation for loss and damage narrowly construed. Building on Annette Baier’s discussion of cross-generational community and his own account of reparative environmental justice, Almassi sees climate justice as an ameliorative project that requires international and intergenerational collaborative relationships and thus international and intergenerational relational repair. A restorative model of climate justice not only avoids causal, metaphysical, and ethical problems that compensatory models face, he argues, but also shines light on a wider array of climate injustices in need of a reparative response.

  • COVID-19 Stress, Health Issues, and Correlations with Different Genders and Age Groups by Natalia Ermasova and Natalia Rekhter

    COVID-19 Stress, Health Issues, and Correlations with Different Genders and Age Groups

    Natalia Ermasova and Natalia Rekhter

    This cross-sectional study was conducted during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and aimed to investigate how perceived vulnerability to COVID-19 at the early stages of the pandemic is associated with perceptions of stress and accompanying health issues among different population groups. This study found the top five stressors for the sample population: difficulties/problems with work; social media news, emotional problems; non-social media news; and financial issues. The ANOVA test reveals that female respondents were impacted by the stressors at a higher degree than male respondents. This study found that female respondents were impacted by interpersonal stressors (relationships with friends and emotional problems) to a higher degree than male respondents. The ANOVA analysis shows that young adults had higher mean values in the perception of the following stressors during the COVID-19 crisis: emotional problems, family problems, difficulties/problems with work, and unemployment. Learning about how people perceive COVID-19 related stress and its impact on their health, particularly in the pandemic early and the most uncertain stages, can allow business and health professionals to develop targeted interventions for different population groups, including strategies that can influence pandemic preventative behavioural patterns.

  • Genome Sequence of Equine Erythroparvovirus 1, Identified in the United States by Y. Tina Yu, Ximena Olarte Castillo, Guillaume Reboul, Jordan Zehr, Yining Sun, Renee Anderson, Minghui Wang, Qi Sun, Rebecca Tallmadge, Kelly Sams, Joel Brown, Nicholas Marra, Bryce Stanhope, Jennifer Grenier, Colin R. Parrish, Nicola Pusterla, Thomas Divers, Linda Mittel, and Laura B. Goodman

    Genome Sequence of Equine Erythroparvovirus 1, Identified in the United States

    Y. Tina Yu, Ximena Olarte Castillo, Guillaume Reboul, Jordan Zehr, Yining Sun, Renee Anderson, Minghui Wang, Qi Sun, Rebecca Tallmadge, Kelly Sams, Joel Brown, Nicholas Marra, Bryce Stanhope, Jennifer Grenier, Colin R. Parrish, Nicola Pusterla, Thomas Divers, Linda Mittel, and Laura B. Goodman

    Equine Erythroparvovirus 1 is a parvovirus that was identified in the blood offour horses in the United States. Here, we report one genome from a horse in New York State. This genome may represent a new species within the genus Erythroparvovirus.

  • High-Quality Reference Genome for an Arid-Adapted Mammal, the Banner-Tailed Kangaroo Rat (Dipodomys spectabilis) by Avril M. Harder, Kimberly K. O. Walden, Nicholas Marra, and Janna R. Willoughby

    High-Quality Reference Genome for an Arid-Adapted Mammal, the Banner-Tailed Kangaroo Rat (Dipodomys spectabilis)

    Avril M. Harder, Kimberly K. O. Walden, Nicholas Marra, and Janna R. Willoughby

    Kangaroo rats in the genus Dipodomys are found in a variety of habitat types in western North America, including deserts, arid and semiarid grasslands, and scrublands. Many Dipodomys species are experiencing strong population declines due to increasing habitat fragmentation, with two species listed as federally endangered in the United States. The precarious state of many Dipodomys populations, including those occupying extreme environments, make species of this genus valuable subjects for studying the impacts of habitat degradation and fragmentation on population genomic patterns and for characterizing the genomic bases of adaptation to harsh conditions. To facilitate exploration of such questions, we assembled and annotated a reference genome for the banner-tailed kangaroo rat (Dipodomys spectabilis) using PacBio HiFi sequencing reads, providing a more contiguous genomic resource than two previously assembled Dipodomys genomes. Using the HiFi data for D. spectabilis and publicly available sequencing data for two other Dipodomys species (Dipodomys ordii and Dipodomys stephensi), we demonstrate the utility of this new assembly for studies of congeners by conducting inference of historic effective population sizes (Ne) and linking these patterns to the species’ current extinction risk statuses. The genome assembly presented here will serve as a valuable resource for population and conservation genomic studies of Dipodomys species, comparative genomic research within mammals and rodents, and investigations into genomic adaptation to extreme environments and changing landscapes.

  • Nontoxic: Masculinity, Allyship, and Feminist by Ben Almassi

    Nontoxic: Masculinity, Allyship, and Feminist

    Ben Almassi

    This chapter introduces the concept of toxic masculinity—as a useful hermeneutical resource, an object of critical scrutiny, and a reminder of the need for alternative normative visions for what men and masculinity should be. It also identifies the major theoretical and methodological priorities guiding my approach throughout this book in evaluating existing visions for alternatives to toxic masculinity and making the case for allyship masculinity as one such alternative not only compatible with but grounded in feminist values and practices.

  • Public Capital Infrastructure Management: Cases of Germany, Hungary and the USA by G. Nyikos and Natalia Ermasova

    Public Capital Infrastructure Management: Cases of Germany, Hungary and the USA

    G. Nyikos and Natalia Ermasova

    The study uses a comparative case study approach to analyze contrasts and similarities of capital infrastructure management at the national level in Hungary, Germany, and the USA. Public investment has decreased in Germany and the USA while Hungary has benefited from significant public investments financed by EU funds over the past 15 years. Ageing infrastructure and public infrastructure maintenance has been found to be the weakest area in all three countries. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated existing challenges in underinvestment in public infrastructure. Political support for capital infrastructure project could be more important than cost-benefit estimates in the USA and Hungary. These study findings show that there has been an increased need to institutionalize recommended practices in capital infrastructure management at national levels of government, in particular during COVID-19 crisis. The countries have a unique opportunity to reinvest in capital infrastructure and jumpstart countries’ economy during COVID-19 crisis.

  • Rehabilitation Research, 6th Edition by Catherine H. Balthazar and Ann Vendrely

    Rehabilitation Research, 6th Edition

    Catherine H. Balthazar and Ann Vendrely

    Discover how to use evidence to improve your practice! Providing thorough, contemporary coverage of the full range of rehabilitation research with a clear, easy-to-understand approach, Rehabilitation Research: Principles and Applications, 6th Edition helps you learn to analyze and apply research to practice. It examines traditional experimental designs, as well as nonexperimental and emerging approaches, including qualitative research, single-system designs, epidemiology, and outcomes research. Ideal for students and practitioners in physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology, this user-friendly resource emphasizes evidence-based practice and your development as a true scientist-practitioner.

  • Relationally Responsive Expert Trustworthiness by Ben Almassi

    Relationally Responsive Expert Trustworthiness

    Ben Almassi

    Social epistemologists often operationalize the task of indirectly assessing experts’ trustworthiness to identifying whose beliefs are more reliably true on matters in an area of expertise. Not only does this neglect the philosophically rich space between belief formation and testimonial utterances, it also reduces trustworthiness to reliability. In ethics of trust, by contrast, explicitly relational views of trust include things like good will and responsiveness. One might think that relational aspects can be safely set aside for social epistemology of trust in experts, that such considerations may be relevant for personal relationships but not for expert trustworthiness. Against these claims I argue for the social-epistemic relevance of relational aspects of trust in experts, and to that end I discuss three sorts of considerations – responsively positive, neutral, and negative factors – that can make a difference for expert trustworthiness.

  • School Social Work: A Skills-Based Competency Approach by JoDee Keller and Giesela Grumbach

    School Social Work: A Skills-Based Competency Approach

    JoDee Keller and Giesela Grumbach

    Informed by a social justice approach, this user-friendly text for social work students provides a comprehensive introduction to contemporary school social work practice structured around the 2022 CSWE EPAS Competencies. With a focus on skills development, this innovative text is competency-based and encompasses professionalism, cross-disciplinary collaboration, research applications, theoretical foundations, policies, engagement, assessment, intervention, and evaluation. Following a brief historical overview and introduction to the discipline, the book delves into school social work practice and delivers timely content regarding professional identity, supervision, anti-racism, diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice. Practice knowledge is examined through social work theory, evidence-informed practice, use of data, and policies regarding school, children, and families. The text addresses the full range of client engagement, service provision, the multi-tiered system of supports, trauma-based practices, social emotional learning, termination, and transition-planning.

  • Sexuality in Popular Culture: Is It Okay to "Wanna Ride?" by Lara Stache Ph.D and Rachel D. Davidson

    Sexuality in Popular Culture: Is It Okay to "Wanna Ride?"

    Lara Stache Ph.D and Rachel D. Davidson

    Our quality of life is inextricably linked to the quality of our communication and the quality of our personal relationships. The quality of sexual relationships has a significant bearing on our wellness, too. Contemporary Studies of Sexuality and Communication: Theoretical and Applied Perspectives is a peer-reviewed volume that showcases scholarship about sexuality and communication. It includes readings on the current understandings in the field in an accessible format. In Contemporary Studies of Sexuality and Communication, authors Jimmie Manning and Carey Noland invite readers to talk and think about sex in meaningful ways. Moreover, the publication provides readers with the tools to transform understandings about sex and sexuality into practice, thus improving their relationships, their communities, their organizations, and their lives.

  • Sins of the Fathers: Historical Injustice and its Repair in <i>Black Panther </i> by Ben Almassi

    Sins of the Fathers: Historical Injustice and its Repair in Black Panther

    Ben Almassi

    The film's rousing opening is a unifying creation myth every Wakandan child surely knows by heart. The characters in Black Panther are not contemplating justice from behind a veil of ignorance, nor applying ideal principles of justice to govern a nascent Wakandan society. Different approaches to achieving justice given that injustice has already happened vie for our consideration. The case for restitutive justice at the museum is pretty strong, but Eric Killmonger does a poor job of it: like his brief reign as king, his corrective justice begets further injustice. Killmonger is not the only character in Black Panther for whom retribution as corrective justice resonates. In Black Panther , T'Challa, Killmonger, and Nakia offer radically different visions for Wakanda after injustice, visions for our hero – and for us – to reckon with. Killmonger insists on what T'Challa wants to ignore, that the people within Wakanda's borders exist in relation to the people outside them.

  • Social Emotional Learning: Developing the Adolescent by Alli Cipra and Shannon B. Dermer

    Social Emotional Learning: Developing the Adolescent

    Alli Cipra and Shannon B. Dermer

    During the latter part of the 21st century, social emotional learning (SEL) started being incorporated into the classroom in a meaningful way. While SEL has garnered enough attention to be included in school curricula throughout the United States as well as several other countries worldwide, research about the import and effect of SEL is relatively new (America Succeeds, 2019). The worldwide COVID pandemic has brought about challenges beyond the obvious serious health concerns. Byproducts of the pandemic include the increased need for coping mechanisms and problem solving, interpersonal interaction skills, as well as an understanding of identity development to help children handle emotional distress resulting from the numerous significant changes in their daily lives. However, many current SEL programs do not address these key areas of concern. It is the authors’ contention that an SEL curriculum which focuses on resilience as well as key indicators of identity development, coping mechanisms, and personal de-escalation techniques are necessary to effectively aid adolescents with navigating their current lives and building a positive future. This research proposes a new SEL program that fits the needs of adolescents and preteens as administered in the school system. Building on a previous program shown to significantly improve self-esteem and school cohesion and trust (Cipra & Hall, 2019), Gr2IT focuses on several key principles to help children develop social and emotional skills and resiliency in the classroom and beyond. A unique component of the program is the principle of identity. Because identity formation is a significant developmental task, understanding the reinforcing and bidirectional relation between behavior and identity is beneficial to adolescents. Gr2 IT incorporates principles of identity development throughout the curriculum. In conjunction with emotional regulatory practices, problem-solving strategies, and a social equity perspective, Gr2 IT introduces a holistic approach to social and emotional learning to support the positive development of youth. While Gr2 IT is currently being developed for American schools, many of the principles are universal to child development and may be adapted cross culturally.

  • States of Incarceration: Rebellion, Reform, and America’s Punishment System by Jarrod Shanahan and Zhandarka Kurti

    States of Incarceration: Rebellion, Reform, and America’s Punishment System

    Jarrod Shanahan and Zhandarka Kurti

    Inspired by the George Floyd Rebellion, States of Incarceration examines the ongoing reconfiguration of mass incarceration as crucial for understanding how race, class, and punishment shape America today. The rise of mass incarceration has coincided with massive disinvestment in working-class communities, particularly communities of color, and a commitment to criminalize poverty, addiction, and interpersonal violence. As Jarrod Shanahan and Zhandarka Kurti argue, the present is a moment of transition and potential reform of incarceration and, by extension, the American justice system. States of Incarceration provides insights into the rise of mass incarceration and its recent history while focusing on the needs of campaigners struggling with the issues of police and prison abolition, as well as the challenges that lie ahead. It is essential reading for anyone concerned with these questions.

  • The Source®: Dementia (Second Edition) by Danielle Osmelak, Naomi Gurevich (ed.), and Pam Britton Reese (ed.)

    The Source®: Dementia (Second Edition)

    Danielle Osmelak, Naomi Gurevich (ed.), and Pam Britton Reese (ed.)

    The Source®: Dementia–Second Edition is a comprehensive resource for speech clinicians working with older adults, geriatric patients, and other dementia populations. It provides background and foundational knowledge about dementia and its characteristics using current literature on everything from causes to prevention. Evidence-based practice treatment suggestions are provided for direct intervention, indirect intervention, advocacy, and community and family education. Ready-to-use resources are included in each section, including reproducible supplemental materials.

  • Treason to Whiteness is Loyalty to Humanity by Noel Ignatiev by Noel Ignatiev, Geert Dhondt (ed.), Zhandarka Kurti (ed.), and Jarrod Shanahan (ed.)

    Treason to Whiteness is Loyalty to Humanity by Noel Ignatiev

    Noel Ignatiev, Geert Dhondt (ed.), Zhandarka Kurti (ed.), and Jarrod Shanahan (ed.)

    For sixty years, Noel Ignatiev provided an unflinching account of “whiteness” — a social fiction and an unmitigated disaster for all working-class people. This new essay collection from the late firebrand covers the breadth of his life and insights as an autodidact steel worker, a groundbreaking theoretician, and a bitter enemy of racists everywhere.
    In these essays, Ignatiev confronts the Weather Underground and recounts which strategies proved most effective to winning white workers in Gary, Indiana, to black liberation. He discovers the prescient political insights of the nineteenth-century abolition movement, surveys the wreckage of the revolutionary twentieth century with C.L.R. James, and attends to the thorny and contradictory nature of working-class consciousness. Through it all, our attentions are turned to the everyday life of “ordinary” people, whose actions anticipate a wholly new society they have not yet recognized or named.
    In short, Ignatiev reflects on the incisive questions of his time and ours: How can we drive back the forces of racism in society? How can the so-called “white” working class be won over to emancipatory politics? How can we build a new human community?

  • Using Peer Evaluations as Embedded Assessments: Comparing Teamwork Evaluations for Group Projects in Face-to-Face and Online Classes by Stephen H. Wagner, Cecil Wagner, and Olumide Ijose

    Using Peer Evaluations as Embedded Assessments: Comparing Teamwork Evaluations for Group Projects in Face-to-Face and Online Classes

    Stephen H. Wagner, Cecil Wagner, and Olumide Ijose

    Peer ratings of teamwork associated with a group project assignment within online and face-to-face classes of a graduate-level course in Organizational Behavior were examined in this article. Partial support was found for the hypothesis that peer ratings of teamwork in the initial (i.e., newly developed) online classes would be lower than those in the face-to-face classes offered in the same time period. Also receiving partial support was the hypothesis that peer ratings of teamwork would be more favorable in later online classes that had enhancements to the group project assignment when compared to those in the initial online classes. Post-hoc analyses suggested there were no significant differences in the peer rating of teamwork observed in online and face-to-face classes after enhancements were made to the group project assignment. Discussion focuses on the value of embedded assessments for continuous quality improvement processes associated with curriculum development.

  • Utilizing Choice Theory to Empower Parents of Children at Risk of School Failure by Shaalein C. Lopez and Patricia A. Robey

    Utilizing Choice Theory to Empower Parents of Children at Risk of School Failure

    Shaalein C. Lopez and Patricia A. Robey

    Obtaining academic support beyond standard classroom instruction should be within reach for any school student in need. The active participation of parents in efforts to secure this support is essential but can feel overwhelming for parents who are unfamiliar with the internal procedures of the school system or the educational access rights that are available for students. School Psychologists are specially trained to help parents and families understand the needs of their children and to help them develop strategies for more effective collaboration. Choice Theory provides a conceptual model for understanding and empowering parents and students to get their needs met within the context of school systems.

  • The Coach and the Quarterback in the Therapeutic Relationship by Patricia A. Robey and Victoria A. Harris

    The Coach and the Quarterback in the Therapeutic Relationship

    Patricia A. Robey and Victoria A. Harris

    Metaphors in Counselor Education and Supervision provides counselor educators and supervisors with creative applications of metaphors to help students and supervisees who struggle with abstract clinical concepts or foundational clinical skills. This teaching and supervision guide provides a variety of metaphors to clarify different areas of counselor education and supervision, including but not limited to case conceptualization, self-care, the counseling process, countertransference, suicide assessments, and advocacy. Each metaphor is accompanied by ethical and cultural considerations, group supervision modifications, and alternative uses to help emphasize diversity and ethics. This book will prepare supervisees and students with unique methods for teaching and understanding counseling concepts and skills and supply professional counselors with creative and different perspectives to use in practice.

  • Bullying Types and Roles in Early Adolescence: Latent Classes of Perpetrators and Victims by Samantha Coyle, Alli Cipra, and Sandra Yu Rueger

    Bullying Types and Roles in Early Adolescence: Latent Classes of Perpetrators and Victims

    Samantha Coyle, Alli Cipra, and Sandra Yu Rueger

    Although research has suggested that youth involved in bullying as victims, perpetrators, or both are at risk for negative outcomes, less work has investigated different patterns in how youth are involved in bullying with consideration for both the role (i.e., victimization and perpetration) as well as type of behaviors experienced (i.e., cyber, verbal, relational, and physical). Using Latent Class Analysis (LCA), the current study investigated patterns of bullying involvement with a sample of 799 middle school students. Results indicated that five classes of bully-involved youth emerged, including a (a) not involved class, (b) traditional bully victim class, (c) verbal bully-victim class, (d) traditional victim-only class, and (e) cyber bully-victim class. Notably, the bully-involved groups demonstrated significantly more internalizing, externalizing, and school related problems than youth not involved in bullying. Implications regarding identification of youth at risk for social and emotional challenges and intervention planning for bully involved youth are discussed.

  • In-situ Synthesis of Biochar Modified PbMoO4: An Efficient Visible Light-driven Photocatalyst for Tetracycline Removal by Zhifen Chen, Zhengping He, Miao Zhou, Meilin Xie, Tianpei He, Yunlin Zhao, Xiaoyong Chen, Yaohui Wu, and Zhenggang Xu

    In-situ Synthesis of Biochar Modified PbMoO4: An Efficient Visible Light-driven Photocatalyst for Tetracycline Removal

    Zhifen Chen, Zhengping He, Miao Zhou, Meilin Xie, Tianpei He, Yunlin Zhao, Xiaoyong Chen, Yaohui Wu, and Zhenggang Xu

    For highly efficient photocatalytic remediation of organic pollutants, broad-spectrum light response and effective charge separation are two key goals. To achieve these goals, a novel biochar (BC) modified PbMoO4 composite catalyst was successfully synthesized in situ by combining coprecipitation with pyrolysis treatment of poplar sawdust and the technical feasibility of degradation of tetracycline (TC) with compound photocatalyst prepared from recovered agricultural and forestry residues was preliminarily demonstrated. The characterization demonstrated that the presence of BC narrowed the bandgap, enhanced visible light absorption as well as facilitated charge separation. Three composites (with the mass ratio of PbMoO4 to BC = 1:4; 1:1; and 4:1, respectively) displayed higher activity than pure PbMoO4. The results showed that the composite with the PbMoO4 to BC ratio of 1:4 exhibited the best photocatalytic activity, for 150 mg L−1 TC the removal rate was 61.0%, and the rate constant was 8.1 × 10−3 min−1, while the photocatalytic activity of PbMoO4 was 26.0% and 3.9 × 10−3 min−1. The reactions in the presence of radical quenchers indicated that holes (h+) and superoxide radicals (radical dotO2−) were the dominant active species for photodegradation. In different water matrices, for 150 mg L−1 TC solution the photocatalytic activity of optimal photocatalyst decreased as follows: ultrapure water > artificial sewage > farm sewage > municipal sewage. Moreover, the catalyst exhibited good stability over five cycles. Therefore, BC doped PbMoO4 provides a useful strategy for improving the photocatalytic ability of PbMoO4-based photocatalysts and offers a promising method for water purification.

  • Toward a Realism of the World-System: John Lanchester’s Capital and the Global City by Liam Lanigan

    Toward a Realism of the World-System: John Lanchester’s Capital and the Global City

    Liam Lanigan

    This essay explores how John Lanchester’s Capital adapts classical realism to represent the contemporary global city; it pays particular attention to how London’s position in the world-system disrupts Lukácsian totality. Because the novel attends to the complexity and extensiveness of the world-system, it depicts the city not as a representative totality but as embedded in the global circuits of capital, shaped by the influences of inward migration and global finance. In this the novel has affinities with many fictions of the global periphery, for instance portraying the city as at once socially fragmented and structurally connected. Furthermore, the novel departs from classical realism in its closure; though the 2008 financial crisis is omitted from the novel, it overshadows the entire plot, and its absence emphasizes the lack of finality in the story of this phase of capitalism itself. In demonstrating the temporal and spatial unknowability of contemporary capital, Lanchester’s novel both affirms the capacity of realism to trace deep systemic connections and reveals the fragility of its construction of a social totality, positing a realism attendant to its own perspectival limits within the world-system.

  • Carceral Non-Profits and the Limits of Prison Reform by Zhandarka Kurti and Jarrod Shanahan

    Carceral Non-Profits and the Limits of Prison Reform

    Zhandarka Kurti and Jarrod Shanahan

    Today there is a growing chorus to end mass incarceration ranging from leftists and liberals to some on the right. For abolitionists, decarceration—or the reduction of the prison population—is an important first step in a vision that seeks to do away with the social ills the present criminal justice system simply manages. While some attention has been paid to the growing bi-partisan consensus that acknowledges, at least rhetorically, the need to end mass incarceration, we know very little about one of its key players: criminal justice non-profits. In what follows, we devise a conceptual schema that we term carceral non-profits to interrogate the complex class position of certain non-profit organizations surrounding decarceration and criminal justice reform. We argue that the defining feature of carceral non-profits is their role in steering radical change towards piecemeal liberal reform, and the promotion of carceral expansion under the guise of decarceration. This paper is an attempt to engage with an audience of abolitionist activists and scholars trying to make sense of the shifting terrain of the non-profit industrial complex at the grassroots level.

  • Intersectionality and the Emerging Majority Student: Negotiating Identity in the Liminalities of the University Environment by Jayne R. Goode, Jelena Radovic-Fanta, and Sayoni Bose

    Intersectionality and the Emerging Majority Student: Negotiating Identity in the Liminalities of the University Environment

    Jayne R. Goode, Jelena Radovic-Fanta, and Sayoni Bose

    Students at the intersection of social, political, and economic struggles must often forge new paths to make college entrance possible, even as dominant social narratives predict their failure. Faculty and administration endeavor to engage this emerging majority population and devote valuable time and resources to support structures meant to foster belonging and a sense of community. This article provides insight into the liminality of the university environment for this population and the communicative processes of college student identity development. Analysis reveals identity construction processes through the liminal practices of experimentation, reflection, and recognition are successful and complex, as students discursively position themselves as college students. Implications for intersectional research and liminality as space for possibility are discussed.

  • Knowing How to Feel: Racism, Resilience, and Affective Resistance by Taylor Rogers

    Knowing How to Feel: Racism, Resilience, and Affective Resistance

    Taylor Rogers

    This article explores the affective dimension of resilient epistemological systems. Specifically, I argue that responsible epistemic practice requires affective engagement with nondominant experiences. To begin, I outline Kristie Dotson's account of epistemological resilience whereby an epistemological system remains stable despite counterevidence or attempts to alter it. Then, I develop an account of affective numbness. As I argue, affective numbness can promote epistemological resilience in at least two ways. First, it can reinforce harmful stereotypes even after these stereotypes have been rationally demystified. To illustrate, I examine the stereotype of Black criminality as it relates to false confessions (Lackey 2018). Second, it can encourage “epistemic appropriation” (Davis 2018), which I demonstrate by examining the appropriation of “intersectionality” and #MeToo by white culture. Finally, I conclude that resisting harmful resilience requires affective resistance, or efforts that target numbness via different kinds of affective engagement. I consider Kantian “disinterestedness” as a candidate.

  • Narrative Resistance to Organizational Hegemony and Power Plays: Illinois School Social Workers Fight for Voice and Inclusion by Giesela Grumbach, Leticia Villarreal Sosa, Brenda Lindsey, Annette H. Johnson, and Adrian Delgado

    Narrative Resistance to Organizational Hegemony and Power Plays: Illinois School Social Workers Fight for Voice and Inclusion

    Giesela Grumbach, Leticia Villarreal Sosa, Brenda Lindsey, Annette H. Johnson, and Adrian Delgado

    Professional organizations aim to strengthen and protect the professions they serve. However, organizations can also behave in hegemonic ways, eroding specializations and advancing a policy agenda without critical member input. Exploring issues of power and inclusion is essential not only for the survival and stability of the organization, but also for ensuring that the organization's actions are consistent with its values and ethics. The Illinois chapter of NASW disregarded stakeholders and minoritized voices, as well as organizational values and ethics, when it recently lobbied for a bill (S. B. 2071) that would eliminate graduate level specialized training for the post-master's professional educator license. As we consider the role of organizations and the unique features of the school social work specialization, we will analyze these issues through the framework of master narratives that advance hegemonic notions that disregard inclusion and counter narratives as a form of resistance that attend to issues of power and oppression.

  • Robust Event Classification Using Imperfect Real-world PMU Data by Yunchuan Liu, Amir Ghasemkhani, Hanif Livani, Virgilio A. Centeno, Pin-Yu Chen, and Junshan Zhang

    Robust Event Classification Using Imperfect Real-world PMU Data

    Yunchuan Liu, Amir Ghasemkhani, Hanif Livani, Virgilio A. Centeno, Pin-Yu Chen, and Junshan Zhang

    This paper studies robust event classification using imperfect real-world phasor measurement unit (PMU) data. By analyzing the real-world PMU data, we find it is challenging to directly use this dataset for event classifiers due to the low data quality observed in PMU measurements and event logs. To address these challenges, we develop a novel machine learning framework for training robust event classifiers, which consists of three main steps: data preprocessing, fine-grained event data extraction, and feature engineering. Specifically, the data preprocessing step addresses the data quality issues of PMU measurements (e.g., bad data and missing data); in the fine-grained event data extraction step, a model-free event detection method is developed to accurately localize the events from the inaccurate event timestamps in the event logs; and the feature engineering step constructs the event features based on the patterns of different event types, in order to improve the performance and the interpretability of the event classifiers. Based on the proposed framework, we develop a workflow for event classification using the real-world PMU data streaming into the system in real-time. Using the proposed framework, robust event classifiers can be efficiently trained based on many off-the-shelf lightweight machine learning models. Numerical experiments using the real-world dataset from the Western Interconnection of the U.S power transmission grid show that the event classifiers trained under the proposed framework can achieve high classification accuracy while being robust against low-quality data.

  • Virtual Termination amid COVID-19: Strategies for School Social Work Interns and Field Instructors by Giesela Grumbach, Annette H. Johnson, Erik Engel, and Linda Campos-Moreira

    Virtual Termination amid COVID-19: Strategies for School Social Work Interns and Field Instructors

    Giesela Grumbach, Annette H. Johnson, Erik Engel, and Linda Campos-Moreira

    The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the natural rhythm of the school year, affecting the way services are rendered. This shift has implications for the termination of services and the guidance of school social work interns through the termination process. This article provides lessons learned from the rapid transition from face-to-face practice to telemental health services in schools. The authors present strategies for supervising the termination process in a remote environment. In keeping with social work’s professional mandate, field instructors must guide interns on conducting termination services properly and engage interns in this reflective process. This article also addresses issues of equity and access for students and their families. Attention is given to the impact of termination on student clients, families, school social work interns, and field instructors. Telemental health demonstrates promise in supporting a model of practice that provides opportunities for innovation. Researchers and practitioners are encouraged to continue this discourse for engaging in and developing best practices for telemental health services, termination of services, and supervision of social work interns in the school setting. The school social work profession must continue to augment policies related to the provision of telemental health services in school settings.

  • James Joyce by Liam Lanigan

    James Joyce

    Liam Lanigan

    James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (b. 1882–d. 1941) was a novelist, short story writer, playwright, and poet. He is one of the preeminent writers of the 20th century, regarded as one the greatest innovators of the novel form and a central figure in the modernist literary tradition. That reputation has made him the focus of an extraordinarily large body of scholarship, covering an almost limitless range of topics and contexts, and often placing him at the center of key philosophical debates about the nature of modernity and of literature. Furthermore, due to his close association with some of the most prominent writers in Irish, American, and European literature, and his influence on writers from across the world, his work is read in relation to a wide range of cultural and literary contexts. His writing is intensely focused on the details of Dublin life at the turn of the 20th century, as well as navigating a deeply ambivalent relationship with the Irish Literary Revival of which he was both a fierce critic and a participant. Living in Trieste, Paris, and Zurich for much of his life, he was also in close contact with many Modernist writers, and he was engaged with the tumultuous political and cultural life of Europe. Though he dabbled in socialism as a young man and was, privately, very critical of the rise of fascism, his own political convictions remain somewhat enigmatic and the subject of scholarly debate. Indeed, a characteristic feature of Joyce scholarship has been how amenable his work is to co-option by diverse and often conflicting ideological perspectives. In part, this may be due to the encyclopedically inclusiveness in historical, cultural, and sensory detail of his most famous works. His works were at once a scrupulous account of the city of his birth, faithfully rendering the topographical and human life of Dublin at a particular moment in its history, and one that simultaneously laid claim to the sweep of human history and knowledge, Joyce once claiming that if he could get to the heart of Dublin he could get to the heart of “all the cities of the world.” This article aims to reflect the diversity of approaches to Joyce’s work, as well as disagreements that have defined debate around his work and its significance. The topics covered reflect several major areas of study that have defined critical responses to Joyce.

  • The Effects of Resilience and Familiarity on the Relationship Between CSR and Consumer Attitudes by Dongjun Rew and Wonsuk Cha

    The Effects of Resilience and Familiarity on the Relationship Between CSR and Consumer Attitudes

    Dongjun Rew and Wonsuk Cha

    Purpose
    This study aims to explore the effects of consumer resilience and brand familiarity on the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and consumer attitudes toward the company conducting CSR in places that have suffered from traumatic events such as natural or anthropogenic disasters and uncertainty of public health issue.
    Design/methodology/approach
    This study collected survey-based data from 194 participants who suffered from natural and anthropogenic disasters in the state of Texas. Path analysis was used to test each structural relationship among variables after verifying the reliability and validity of each variable. Analysis of variance was used to investigate the difference in resilience between the two groups.
    Findings
    This study verified that there is a positive relationship between CSR and consumer attitude. More importantly, the results show that both resilience and familiarity play an important role as a mediator in the relationship between CSR and attitudes. In particular, it tells us that a group with high resilience shows a higher possibility of having positive attitudes toward the company than another group having low resilience.

  • University and Professor Practices to Support DACA and Undocumented Students: DACA Student Experiences, Teacher Knowledge, and University Actions by Jenny Banh and Jelena Radovic-Fanta

    University and Professor Practices to Support DACA and Undocumented Students: DACA Student Experiences, Teacher Knowledge, and University Actions

    Jenny Banh and Jelena Radovic-Fanta

    The United States immigration policy Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) which protects some individuals from deportation was enacted in 2012, phased out in 2017 and is now under court challenges. There are still thousands of DACA students currently in higher education. The article highlights promising practices that professors and universities can put in place to support DACA students in the United States. Several semi-structured interviews were conducted with DACA students and Dream Center Directors in California universities to gauge students’ barriers and bridges to their higher education success. DACA students articulated public policy suggestions that universities and professors can immediately enact and have tangible results. Three themes were revealed in the interview data: the need for teacher knowledge, diversity of DACA student experiences, and for actions. These were explained as (1) knowledge of student’s lives, and, conversely, students’ access to information necessary for navigating college life; (2) the diversity of students’ life stories and experiences of trauma suffered during and after DACA rescinding decision; and (3) actions that should be taken by the faculty, staff, and the university community that would help students succeed academically.

  • A Preliminary Study of Nursing Practice Patterns Concerning Dysphagia Diet Modification: Implications for Interprofessional Education With SLPs by Naomi Gurevich, Danielle Osmelak, and Sydney Osentoski

    A Preliminary Study of Nursing Practice Patterns Concerning Dysphagia Diet Modification: Implications for Interprofessional Education With SLPs

    Naomi Gurevich, Danielle Osmelak, and Sydney Osentoski

    Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are trained to evaluate and treat dysphagia. One treatment method is to modify diet consistency or viscosity to compensate for swallowing dysfunction and promote a safer intake; this typically involves softening solids and thickening liquids. Thickening liquids is not safer for all patients, and modification of dysphagia diets without adequate training may reduce the quality of dysphagia patient care. Over 90% of SLPs working in health care report exposure to nurses who regularly downgrade dysphagia diets without an SLP consult. This study explores dysphagia diet modification practices of nursing staff with and without dysphagia training.

  • James Joyce’s Ulysses: A Multivocal Dublin by Liam Lanigan

    James Joyce’s Ulysses: A Multivocal Dublin

    Liam Lanigan

    Living Reference Work entry
    in The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban Literary Studies
    Tambling, J. (ed.)

  • Commentary: Unbiasing Genome-Based Analyses of Selection: An Example Using Iconic Shark Species by Nicholas Marra, Michael J. Stanhope, Nathaniel K. Jue, Vincent P. Richards, Stephen J. O'Brien, Agostinho Antunes, and Mahmood S. Shivji

    Commentary: Unbiasing Genome-Based Analyses of Selection: An Example Using Iconic Shark Species

    Nicholas Marra, Michael J. Stanhope, Nathaniel K. Jue, Vincent P. Richards, Stephen J. O'Brien, Agostinho Antunes, and Mahmood S. Shivji

    Yamaguchi and Kuraku (2021) published an opinion article in this special issue of Frontiers in Marine Science, discussing certain analyses of the white shark genome, published earlier in another journal (Marra et al., 2019). Their opinion article involves selected data from our paper, as well as data released by others, subsequent to the analyses reported in our paper. We here, address their opinions.

  • The Wakanda Effect: A Protective Factor to Navigate Racialized Environments by Cassandra McKay-Jackson, Giesela Grumbach, and Linda Campos-Moreira

    The Wakanda Effect: A Protective Factor to Navigate Racialized Environments

    Cassandra McKay-Jackson, Giesela Grumbach, and Linda Campos-Moreira

    In 2018 the Afrofuturistic film, Black Panther, exposed a hunger for the portrayal of Black people in a positive light. Utilizing critical race theory, the authors conducted a mixed-methods study to explore viewers’ experiences with racial microaggressions, their means of coping with racial battle fatigue, and how the film impacted them. Viewers described the film as empowering, which elicited critical consciousness, and expressed an appreciation for the counter-narrative, introducing a “Wakanda effect.” Further, social validation and connection, centering, and counter-narratives were key strategies in resisting racial microaggressions. The authors provide a figure that describes the Wakanda effect and end with a discussion of resilience in addressing racial battle fatigue.

  • Unraveling the Influence of Land-Use Change on δ 13 C, δ 15 N, and Soil Nutritional Status in Coniferous, Broadleaved, and Mixed Forests in Southern China: A Field Investigation by Taimoor Hassan Farooq, Xiaoyong Chen, Awais Shakoor, Yong Li, Jun Wang, Muhammad Haroon U. Rashid, Uttam Kumar, and Wende Yan

    Unraveling the Influence of Land-Use Change on δ 13 C, δ 15 N, and Soil Nutritional Status in Coniferous, Broadleaved, and Mixed Forests in Southern China: A Field Investigation

    Taimoor Hassan Farooq, Xiaoyong Chen, Awais Shakoor, Yong Li, Jun Wang, Muhammad Haroon U. Rashid, Uttam Kumar, and Wende Yan

    Natural isotopic abundance in soil and foliar can provide integrated information related to the long-term alterations of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycles in forest ecosystems. We evaluated total carbon (TC), total nitrogen (TN), and isotopic natural abundance of C (δ13C) and N (δ15N) in soil and foliar of coniferous plantation (CPF), natural broadleaved forest (NBF), and mixed forest stands at three different soil depths (i.e., 0–10, 10–20, and 20–40 cm). This study also explored how soil available nutrients are affected by different forest types. Lutou forest research station, located in Hunan Province, central China, was used as the study area. Results demonstrated that the topsoil layer had higher TC and TN content in the mixed forest stand, resulting in a better quality of organic materials in the topsoil layer in the mixed forest than NBF and CPF. In general, soil TC, TN, and δ15N varied significantly in different soil depths and forest types. However, the forest type did not exhibit any significant effect on δ13C. Overall, soil δ13C was significantly enriched in CPF, and δ15N values were enriched in mixed forest. Foliar C content varied significantly among forest types, whereas foliar N content was not significantly different. No big differences were observed for foliar δ15N and δ13C across forest types. However, foliar δ13C and δ15N were positively related to soil δ13C and δ15N, respectively. Foliar N, soil and foliar C:N ratio, soil moisture content (SMC), and forest type were observed as the major influential factors affecting isotopic natural abundance, whereas soil pH was not significantly correlated. In addition, forest type change and soil depth increment had a significant effect on soil nutrient availability. In general, soil nutrient availability was higher in mixed forest. Our findings implied that forest type and soil depth alter TC, TN, and soil δ15N, whereas δ13C was only driven by soil depth. Moreover, plantations led to a decline in soil available nutrient content compared with NBF and mixed forest stands.

  • Effect of the COVID-19 on Perceptions of Health, Anticipated Need for Health Services, and Cost of Health Care by Natalia Rekhter and Natalia Ermasova

    Effect of the COVID-19 on Perceptions of Health, Anticipated Need for Health Services, and Cost of Health Care

    Natalia Rekhter and Natalia Ermasova

    Objective: This article investigates how perceived vulnerability to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic at its early stages is associated with people's perception of their health, the need for health-care services, and expenses related to addressing the COVID-19 impact on their health. Methods: The results are based on the analysis of surveys that were distributed among members of 26 random Facebook groups in April-May, 2020. Perceived COVID-19 pandemic related stress and health concerns were examined by using the analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. Results: Among 315 respondents, 64% have experienced COVID-19 related stress and identified anxiety, headache, insomnia, and weight gain as their primary health concerns. The ANOVA test revealed that females are more impacted by the COVID-19 stress than males. Around 40% of respondents believed that the COVID-19 would lead to an increase in the cost of health services, and 20% of respondents anticipated that the COVID-19 pandemic would increase their need for health services. Conclusions: Learning about how people perceive the COVID-19 pandemic impact on their health, particularly in the pandemic's early stages can allow health professionals to develop targeted interventions that can influence pandemic preventative behaviors among different population groups. This study can help understand use patterns and mitigate financial barriers that could interfere with patients' care-seeking behavior.

  • Ethical Behavior Perceptions in Russia: Do Ethics‐related Programs and Individual Characteristics Matter? by Natalia Ermasova and Polina Ermasova

    Ethical Behavior Perceptions in Russia: Do Ethics‐related Programs and Individual Characteristics Matter?

    Natalia Ermasova and Polina Ermasova

    This paper aims to analyze how individual differences and ethics-related programs predict Russian business students and working adults' perception of personal business ethics. This research evaluates the business ethics perceptions based on surveys of 1,207 managers, employees, and business students in Russia. This study finds the significant correlations between individual differences (gender, age, education level, and management experience), ethics-related programs (business ethics courses taught in universities, ethics and diversity professional development training), and personal business ethics' perceptions of Russian business students and working adults. We also find that individual differences moderate the relationship between ethics-related programs and how the personal business ethics of Russian business students and working adults are perceived. These findings advance current literature by revealing that age moderates the relationship between ethics-related programs (formal ethic courses, ethics, and diversity trainings) and personal ethical behavior perceptions of working adults and business students in Russia. Our study found that gender had a significant positive moderating effect on relationship of organizational code of ethics, formal ethic courses, and diversity professional development with personal ethical behavior perceptions. The relation between personal ethical behavior perceptions and the presence of an organizational code of ethics was negative and marginally moderated by age and managerial experience. This study contributes to business ethics research by deepening the understanding of the impact of individual differences on the relationship between ethics-related programs and personal business ethics' perceptions.

  • Book Review: Tough Ain’t Enough: New Perspectives on the Films of Clint Eastwood Edited by Lester D. Friedman, et al. by Josh Sopiarz

    Book Review: Tough Ain’t Enough: New Perspectives on the Films of Clint Eastwood Edited by Lester D. Friedman, et al.

    Josh Sopiarz

  • Value Disputes in Urban Ecological Restoration: Lessons from the Chicago Wilderness by Ben Almassi

    Value Disputes in Urban Ecological Restoration: Lessons from the Chicago Wilderness

    Ben Almassi

    As a practice to facilitate the recovery of degraded ecosystems, ecological restoration is an inherently value-laden endeavor. Urban ecological restoration further underlines the complexity of value-ladenness involved by situating restoration in politically, ethically, epistemically, and otherwise normatively heterogenous social contexts. One such context that is particularly rich in opportunities for both significant restoration projects and social disputes about the value of such projects is the Chicago Wilderness, a region comprised of a variety of ecosystems on public and private lands across Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. Here I offer a close reading of value disputes in the Chicago Wilderness among ecologists, practitioners, policymakers, activists, and journalists over the aims, methods, and constitutive activities of urban ecological restoration.

  • Non-targeted Metabolomics Reveal the Impact of Phenanthrene Stress on Root Exudates of Ten Urban Greening Tree Species by Jiaolong Wang, Taimoor Hassan Farooq, Ali Aslam, Awais Shakoor, Xiaoyong Chen, and Wende Yan

    Non-targeted Metabolomics Reveal the Impact of Phenanthrene Stress on Root Exudates of Ten Urban Greening Tree Species

    Jiaolong Wang, Taimoor Hassan Farooq, Ali Aslam, Awais Shakoor, Xiaoyong Chen, and Wende Yan

    Different root exudations can modify the bioavailability of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Among these exudations, the low molecular weight organic acids play an imperative role in this process. The study was conducted to analyze the effect of phenanthrene (PHE) stress on root exudation variations and changes in its chemical composition in ten urban greening tree species, namely Loropetalum chinense, Gardenia ellis, Photinia fraseri, Ligustrum japonicum, Rhododendron simsii, Osmanthus fragrans, Gardenia jasminoides, Buxus sinica, Camellia sasanqua, and Euonymus japonicas. The experiment was carried out in three PHE concentration treatments (0 mg kg−1 (CK), 200 mg kg−1 (PHEL), 2000 mg kg−1 (PHEH)). The root exudates were collected and analyzed by GC-MS method. In total, 673 compounds were identified either with high or low abundance among all species and treatments. Compounds identified in CK, PHEL, and PHEH were 240, 180, and 256, respectively. The results illustrated that carbohydrates, phenols, and esters were the dominant compounds, accounted for more than 92%. Principal component analysis depicted that tree species grown in PHEH showed obvious alteration in compounds of root exudation, whereas little difference was noticed between PHEL and CK. Phenols (80%) were the most abundant, while nitriles contributed a small portion. Moreover, among all species, R. simsii released the maximum number of compounds, and L. japonicum released the least number of compounds accounting for 89 and 46, respectively. The results achieved here to illustrate that plant type, and PHE stress can significantly change the concentrations and species of root exudates. This study provides the scientific reference for understanding the phenanthrene responsive changes in root exudates and phytoremediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), as well as a screening of urban greening tree species.

  • Why Aren't My Students Reading: Faculty & Student Research Unveiling the Hidden Curriculum of Course Material Usage by Jayne Goode, Kerri K. Morris, Bradley Smith, and J. Christopher Tweddle

    Why Aren't My Students Reading: Faculty & Student Research Unveiling the Hidden Curriculum of Course Material Usage

    Jayne Goode, Kerri K. Morris, Bradley Smith, and J. Christopher Tweddle

    This reflective essay follows a faculty working group as they attempt to understand barriers to access to course materials through the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). Through the workgroup’s research and collaboration with students in a problem-based learning course, the workgroup uncovered elements of the hidden curriculum in assumptions regarding course material procurement. The collaboration has served as the foundation for efforts to begin to transform the way that faculty on campus make use of textbooks and course materials in their courses. This transformation should make explicit to faculty that the utilization of course materials for all aspects of the course are often hidden pedagogy and must be made explicit by each instructor.

  • What Do We Know About Corporate Philanthropy? A Review and Research Directions by Wonsuk Cha and Ujvala Rajadhyaksha

    What Do We Know About Corporate Philanthropy? A Review and Research Directions

    Wonsuk Cha and Ujvala Rajadhyaksha

    During the past decades, academics and practitioners have been extensively focusing on corporate philanthropy as an important part of corporate social responsibility and a vast number of papers have been published on this topic in various disciplines. To have a better understanding of the evolution of corporate philanthropy, this paper critically reviews some 60 years of research covering 228 corporate philanthropy documents (including 214 journal articles, 5 dissertations, and 9 books and book chapters) across and between disciplines, and analyzes their content in a systematic and comprehensive manner. A multi-level and multidisciplinary theoretical framework that synthesizes and integrates the corporate philanthropy literature at micro-, meso-, and macro-levels of analysis is offered. Specifically, the framework presents antecedents, intermediaries (moderators and mediators), consequences of corporate philanthropy, and the underlying mechanisms of the corporate philanthropy–firm performance relationship. This paper helps bridge important knowledge gaps of corporate philanthropy and its relation with firm performance by studying corporate philanthropy at a multi-level of analysis and applying diverse theoretical frameworks of corporate philanthropy. The paper concludes by offering several suggestions for future research on corporate philanthropy.

  • Abbreviated Assessment Tool of Learned Helplessness and Mastery Orientation: The Student Behavior Checklist—Brief by Sandra Y. Rueger, Alli Cipra, Wyungjoon Choe, Jake C. Steggerda, Andrea E. Kirby, and Lauren B. Stone

    Abbreviated Assessment Tool of Learned Helplessness and Mastery Orientation: The Student Behavior Checklist—Brief

    Sandra Y. Rueger, Alli Cipra, Wyungjoon Choe, Jake C. Steggerda, Andrea E. Kirby, and Lauren B. Stone

    Measurement limitations have hindered research on learned helplessness (LH) and mastery orientation (MO) in the classroom. We reduced the 24-item Student Behavior Checklist to a 6-item scale and tested the abbreviated measure for evidence of reliability and validity in a sample of 5th and 6th graders (N = 299). We then replicated findings in an independent sample of middle school students (N = 116). Results demonstrated strong support for construct validity of the Student Behavior Checklist-Brief (SBC-B), including a hierarchical two-factor structure indicating the distinctness of LH and MO and an overarching construct, which we refer to as learning approach. Results also demonstrated consistent evidence supporting criterion and convergent/discriminant validity, internal consistency reliability, and temporal stability. The SBC-B offers a psychometrically sound teacher-report measure of LH and MO.

  • ‘Fight the Reds, Support the Blue’: Blue Lives Matter and the US Counter-subversive Tradition by Jarrod Shanahan and Tyler Wall

    ‘Fight the Reds, Support the Blue’: Blue Lives Matter and the US Counter-subversive Tradition

    Jarrod Shanahan and Tyler Wall

    In the wake of the rightwing siege of the US Capitol, which put ‘Blue Lives Matter’ supporters at odds with police protecting the Capitol, the authors look to the history and contours of the ‘counter-subversive tradition’ in the United States and its locus in local police departments. They examine a similar moment of social unrest – the mid-to-late 1960s – and the pro-police organising undertaken by Support Your Local Police (SYLP), a front group of the ultra-right John Birch Society, which blended anti-communism with opposition to the Black Freedom Movement, with particular anxiety about the spectre of united white and black revolt from below and the encroachment of the federal government on local power from above. The campaign also presented a kind of uniquely rightwing anti-statism, largely through the rejection of impediments to local powers and, specifically, the untrammelled power of the cops. In making sense of the Capitol siege, and the years of rightwing organising that preceded it, the article argues that this important precursor to ‘Blue Lives Matter’ presents a schema for understanding longstanding efforts in police organising in defence of what James Baldwin called ‘arrogant autonomy’ – freedom from civilian oversight or political challenges to cop power, and from all challenges to locally entrenched structures of white power.

  • Intercropping of Peanut–tea Enhances Soil Enzymatic Activity and Soil Nutrient Ntatus at Different Soil Profiles in Subtropical Southern China by Taimoor Hassan Farooq, uttam Kumar, Jing Mo, Awais Shakoor, Jung Wang, Muhammad Haroon U. Rashid, Muhammad Aammar Tufail, Xiaoyong Chen, and Wende Yan

    Intercropping of Peanut–tea Enhances Soil Enzymatic Activity and Soil Nutrient Ntatus at Different Soil Profiles in Subtropical Southern China

    Taimoor Hassan Farooq, uttam Kumar, Jing Mo, Awais Shakoor, Jung Wang, Muhammad Haroon U. Rashid, Muhammad Aammar Tufail, Xiaoyong Chen, and Wende Yan

    Intercropping is one of the most widely used agroforestry techniques, reducing the harmful impacts of external inputs such as fertilizers. It also controls soil erosion, increases soil nutrients availability, and reduces weed growth. In this study, the intercropping of peanut (Arachishypogaea L.) was done with tea plants (Camellia oleifera), and it was compared with the mono-cropping of tea and peanut. Soil health and fertility were examined by analyzing the variability in soil enzymatic activity and soil nutrients availability at different soil depths (0–10 cm, 10–20 cm, 20–30 cm, and 30–40 cm). Results showed that the peanut–tea intercropping considerably impacted the soil organic carbon (SOC), soil nutrient availability, and soil enzymatic responses at different soil depths. The activity of protease, sucrase, and acid phosphatase was higher in intercropping, while the activity of urease and catalase was higher in peanut monoculture. In intercropping, total phosphorus (TP) was 14.2%, 34.2%, 77.7%, 61.9%; total potassium (TK) was 13.4%, 20%, 27.4%, 20%; available phosphorus (AP) was 52.9%, 26.56%, 61.1%; 146.15% and available potassium (AK) was 11.1%, 43.06%, 46.79% higher than the mono-cropping of tea in respective soil layers. Additionally, available nitrogen (AN) was 51.78%, 5.92%, and 15.32% lower in the 10–20 cm, 20–30 cm, and 30–40 cm layers of the intercropping system than in the mono-cropping system of peanut. Moreover, the soil enzymatic activity was significantly correlated with SOC and total nitrogen (TN) content across all soil depths and cropping systems. The depth and path analysis effect revealed that SOC directly affected sucrase, protease, urease, and catalase enzymes in an intercropping system. It was concluded that an increase in the soil enzymatic activity in the intercropping pattern improved the reaction rate at which organic matter decomposed and released nutrients into the soil environment. Enzyme activity in the decomposition process plays a vital role in forest soil morphology and function. For efficient land use in the cropping system, it is necessary to develop coherent agroforestry practices. The results in this study revealed that intercropping certainly enhance soil nutrients status and positively impacts soil conservation.

  • Overcoming Addiction: College Women Formerly Involved with the Criminal Justice System Account of Successful Reentry by Shonda Lawrence and Cynthia Honoré-Collins

    Overcoming Addiction: College Women Formerly Involved with the Criminal Justice System Account of Successful Reentry

    Shonda Lawrence and Cynthia Honoré-Collins

  • Perspectives of Plantation Forests in the Sustainable Forest Development of China by Taimoor Hassan Farooq, Xiaohong Wu, Yong Li, Xiang Zhang, Xiaoyong Chen, Wende Yan, Awais Shakoor, Muhammad Haroon U. Rashid, and Uttam Kumar

    Perspectives of Plantation Forests in the Sustainable Forest Development of China

    Taimoor Hassan Farooq, Xiaohong Wu, Yong Li, Xiang Zhang, Xiaoyong Chen, Wende Yan, Awais Shakoor, Muhammad Haroon U. Rashid, and Uttam Kumar

    Modern forestry is gradually moving towards man-made forests on a large scale. Plantations with advanced forestry system have been introduced with the goal of sustainable forestry development and to enhance social, ecological, and economic benefits. Forest plantations with native and exotic species have been established in China and worldwide with shorter rotation cycles than natural forests. In this paper, we discuss the role and perspectives of plantation forests in the Chinese sustainable forest development, the evolution of various plantation programs, the ecological effects of plantations, and the measures to improve plantation forestry. The Chinese government has given substantial importance to nurturing plantation forest resources through various large scale afforestation programs. In 2019, the total area covered by plantations in China reached 79.54 million ha, with a stock volume of 3.39 billion m³ (59.30 m³ per ha); coniferous forests (26.11 million ha, 32.83%) and broad-leaved forests (26.45 million ha, 33.25%) are the dominant types. Plantations have been primarily distributed in the central and southern parts of the country. Plantations with fast-growing and high-yielding tree species facilitated Chinese afforestation activities and improved the administration of forest production, which effectively boosted the forest industry. Plantation forest resources offer many potential productive, economic, and social advantages, though they are also associated with a loss of biodiversity and climate change makes them likely susceptible to disease and insect attack. Appropriate forest management practices during planning, execution, and maintenance of plantations can contribute to the conservation, promotion, and restoration of biodiversity, with the final aim of attaining a balance between having forest plantations and natural forests.

  • Telepractice: Behavior Management and the Speech-Language Pathologist Key information by Angela M. Riccelli and Danielle Osmelak

    Telepractice: Behavior Management and the Speech-Language Pathologist Key information

    Angela M. Riccelli and Danielle Osmelak

    Many speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are now finding themselves jumping into a world of telepractice as the coronavirus pandemic has elevated fears and anxieties, closed schools, and in many instances, forced education to move completely online. Telepractice has been defined as the application of telecommunications technology to deliver clinical services at a distance by linking clinician to client, caregiver, or any person(s) responsible for delivering care to the client, for the purposes of assessment, intervention, consultation, and/or supervision (Speech Pathology, Australia, 2014). The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) recognizes telepractice as an acceptable mode of expanding services from a distance while still maintaining clinician and client connections sufficient for assessment, intervention, or consultation (Cherney et al., 2011).

  • “Unbreak My Heart”: Clinical Implications for Working With Bereaved Couples by Ileana Ungureanu and Cadmona A. Hall

    “Unbreak My Heart”: Clinical Implications for Working With Bereaved Couples

    Ileana Ungureanu and Cadmona A. Hall

    Death and bereavement remain a cultural taboo that continues to impact helping professionals. The death of a child is a particularly difficult loss as it challenges expectations about the life cycle. Many clinicians find themselves unprepared and ill-equipped to appropriately intervene. Bereaved couples require knowledgeable and culturally competent support to facilitate positive and healthy outcomes. The aim of this article is to provide clinicians with a theoretical framework and clinical conceptualization to assess and intervene in the lives of bereaved couples.

  • Cannot Give you Because of Living on the Top of a Castle: CEOs, Corporate Philanthropy and Firm Age by Wonsuk Cha and Dongjun Rew

    Cannot Give you Because of Living on the Top of a Castle: CEOs, Corporate Philanthropy and Firm Age

    Wonsuk Cha and Dongjun Rew

    Purpose
    This study aims to investigate the role of firm age in the relationship between CEO characteristics (measured by founder status and civic engagement) and the level of corporate philanthropy which is one of the important components of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices (Carroll, 1991).
    Design/methodology/approach
    Drawing from upper echelons theory, this study argues that firm age functions as a barrier that limits the relationship between CEO characteristics and the level of corporate philanthropy. Moderated regression analysis (MRA) was used to analyze data from 146 publicly traded US firms between 2010 and 2017.
    Findings
    This study verified that there is a significantly positive relationship between CEO civic engagement and the level of corporate philanthropy although the relationship between CEO founder status and the level of corporate philanthropy was not found to be significant. Specifically, the relationship between CEO characteristics and the level of corporate philanthropy was weaker as firms get older. Overall, the results indicate that the organizational inertia of older firms can restrict the effect of CEO characteristics on corporate philanthropy.

  • E-learning Recommendations for Teaching Students with Disabilities by Rasha Elhage

    E-learning Recommendations for Teaching Students with Disabilities

    Rasha Elhage

    COVID-19 disrupted educational systems around the world in attempts to contain the spread of the pandemic, countries announced widespread school closures (Van Lancker >amp; Parolin, 2020). Educators, especially special education teachers, have struggled to offer distance learning and adapt to the unique challenges the pandemic posed. Teachers faced aggressive multifaceted challenges (Cross >amp; Polk, 2018) to identify e-learning structures and strategies to address the needs of students with disabilities (SWD) and help them be successful in the online classroom. The following framework and tips can help educators approach online teaching with more confidence to meet the needs of their students with individualized education plans (IEP).

 
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