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We used National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System and Census data to examine Black-White and Hispanic-White disparities in reporting, substantiation, and out-of-home placement both descriptively from 2005-2019 and in multivariate models from 2007-2017. We also tracked contemporaneous social risk (e.g., child poverty) and child harm (e.g., infant mortality) disparities using non-child protective services (CPS) sources and compared them to CPS reporting rate disparities. Black-White CPS reporting disparities were lower than found in non-CPS risk and harm benchmarks. Consistent with the Hispanic paradox, Hispanic-White CPS reporting disparities were lower than risk disparities but similar to harm disparities. Descriptive and multivariate analyses of data from the past several years indicated that Black children were less likely to be substantiated or placed into out-of-home care following a report than White children. Hispanic children were slightly more likely to be substantiated or placed in out-of-home care than White children overall, but this difference disappeared in multivariate models. Available data provide no evidence that Black children were overreported relative to observed risks and harms reflected in non-CPS data. Reducing reporting rates among Black children will require addressing broader conditions associated with maltreatment.

Isohydry (maintenance of plant water potential at the cost of carbon gain) and anisohydry (gas exchange maintenance at the cost of declining plant water status) make up two ends of a stomatal drought response strategy continuum. However, few studies have merged measures of stomatal regulation with xylem hydraulic safety strategies based on in situ field measurements. The goal of this study was to characterize the stomatal and xylem hydraulic safety strategies of woody species in the biodiverse Mediterranean-type ecosystem region of California. Measurements were conducted in situ when California was experiencing the most severe drought conditions in the past 1,200 years. We found coordination among stomatal, hydraulic, and standard leaf functional traits. For example, stem xylem vulnerability to cavitation (P50 ) was correlated with the water potential at stomatal closure (Pclose ); more resistant species had a more negative water potential at stomatal closure. The degree of isohydry-anisohydry, defined at Pclose -P50 , was correlated with the hydraulic safety margin across species; more isohydric species had a larger hydraulic safety margin. In addition, we report for the first time Pclose values below -10 MPa. Measuring these traits in a biodiverse region under exceptional drought conditions contributes to our understanding of plant drought responses.

Through this research study my aim was to critically examine the ways in which multimodal, autoethnographic art can enhance and expand educational experiences in general education art classrooms. The study investigates how participants’ perceptions of self and others within culture transform over a semester-long qualitative arts-based study. The study’s goal was to uncover teaching and learning strategies that help to disrupt traditional academic boundaries using autoethnography to create an engaged, cooperative university classroom environment. The participants for this study included 77 students in a general education art and culture course and myself as the co-teacher and researcher. Autoethnographic data were collected throughout the course in the forms of art research journals, pre-and post course questionnaires, researcher field notes, recorded class discussions, on-line discussion boards, notes from one-on-one student/researcher communications and field notes from participants’ final multimodal, autoethnographic art pieces and presentations. The methods used for the study were a modified version of arts-based and grounded theoretical research models. A heavy emphasis was placed on the participants art-making and sharing their work with others in the study. The findings from the study indicated most of, many of participants experienced advancement in their understanding of self within culture and developments of new insights into the experiences and perceptions of others in the study. Results from the study confirm a steady growth in participant engagement and development of cooperative class environment throughout the semester. This study contributes to existing scholarship on the generation of new knowledge from arts-based research models, multimodal autoethnograpy as method, teacher/student relationships in academia, and risk-taking in teacher professional development. The findings from the study might provide support and encouragement for meaningful discus

Victoria Cook, in "Exploring Transnational Identities in Ondaatje's Anil's Ghost," addresses issues of identity raised in the narrative of Michael Ondaatje's novel Anil's Ghost. Cook's paper is a close analysis of Ondaatje's novel, paying particular attention to the way in which Ondaatje examines identity as both a "construct" and a "process." The approach used is one that draws on postcolonial theory and takes a "transnational" perspective. Cook argues that Ondaatje's text moves beyond the concept of a postcolonial literature of "resistance" into an area that requires a theory of process rather than product. Transnationalism is shown here to be just such a theory, in that it captures something of this fluidity: the analysis is underpinned, therefore, by the application of transnational theory, as put forward by critics such as Paul Giles. Names and naming are the main themes addressed in the course of this argument, with regard to the way in which they impact on issues of identification. Finally, Cook explores in her paper issues of identity in Anil's Ghost, identity that traverses cultural and national boundaries and encompasses both central and marginal positions.

Anil’s Ghost, by Michael Ondaatje, is set in present day Sri Lanka against the background of civil war. This dissertation addresses some of the issues of identity that are raised in the narrative of Anil's Ghost through a close analysis of the text, paying particular attention to the way in which Ondaatje examines identity as both a "construct" and a "process". The approach used is one that draws on postcolonial theory and takes a "transnational" perspective. The central argument asserts that Ondaatje's text moves beyond the concept of a postcolonial literature of "resistance", into an area that requires a theory of "process" rather than "product". Transnationalism is shown here to be just such a theory - in that it captures something of this fluidity - and therefore to be very suitable for the analysis of Ondaatje's discourse. The main focus of this research, then, is to demonstrate a transnational conceptual matrix as being an appropriate framework for the examination of identity in Anil's Ghost - in so doing it puts forward transnationalism as a positive means for the articulation of difference and fragmentation in the construction of an holistic, multi-cultural identity. Three main themes are addressed in the course of this argument, with regard to the way in which they impact on issues of identification: naming, and its association with mapping; the relationship between language and identity; the interaction between memory and dislocation. These themes are examined in the light of Ondaatje's paradigm of "the returning stranger" (Powells 2) and underpinned by the application of transnational theory, as put forward by critics such as Paul Giles. This dissertation explores issues of identity in Anil’s Ghost, which traverse cultural and national boundaries and encompass both central and marginal positions, through the application of a transnational methodology.