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In this Black Feminist qualitative study, we used sista circle methodology and Black feminist thought (BFT) to explore Black college women's experiences, socialization, and messages on skin complexion. We further examined the impact of these messages on Black college women's campus experience. Eight, self-identified, Black college women participated in this study. The individual and collective experiences of these eight sistas revealed: (a) Black college women receive messages about complexion and colorism from family and media; (b) the salience of colorism shifts depending upon Black women's educational status and identity development; and (c) acts of resistance against colorism vary from choosing to be silent, engaging in conversations, and even to committing to research on issues facing Black women. Campus practitioners should consider offering programs and resources inclusive of nuanced experiences of Black college women to avoid reaffirming colorism. Researchers should consider exploring (with)in-group privileges afforded to Black women based upon their complexion to better understand how colorism impacts (post)college success.

In this qualitative meta-narrative, I explore how Black women administrators in higher education experience and navigate policing in predominantly white work environments. Using intersectionality as a framework and semi-structured interviews as the primary data collection technique, the findings from this study reveal workplace policing manifests for Black women on physical, emotion, and communicative levels. More specifically, participants endured restrictions and navigated dissatisfaction with their tone of voice, criticism of their attire and style of dress, and (mis)perceptions of office fit. Participants also reported engaging in self-policing practices to (over)compensate for and in anticipation of workplace-based policing struggles. I include implications for research and practice.

The purpose of this qualitative narrative inquiry was to explore the impact of institutional context on Black first-generation college women's identity development. We examined their experiences along the lines of their minoritized race, gender, and first-generation student status using intersectionality theory. Six Black, first-generation college women participated in this study. The findings revealed (a) participants struggled with constant identity negotiation, particularly related to their potential for academic success as first-generation students; (b) all participants reported experiencing and seeing discrimination that culminated in feelings of institutional betrayal; and (c) despite negative experiences and encounters, each of the women in this study identified support mechanisms and counterspaces for developing healthy coping strategies with balancing their identity development in predominantly White campus environments.

Although HIV rates are statistically stable, meaning the number of new acquisitions has remained relatively flat, the impact of the epidemic is uneven. Black women between the ages of 13 and 34 are more likely to acquire HIV, suggesting intervention during college is an ideal HIV mitigation strategy. Moreover, far too few Black women who could benefit from biomedical interventions have them or know about them. In this piece, I explore the current landscape and context of HIV and the college environment for Black women, revealing the social, cultural, and epistemic need to restory and better nuance the HIV crisis. I elucidate how and why the college context is a particularly vital space for HIV‐related health equity and the possibilities for transformation through teaching, research, practice, and policies around HIV and Black women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative narrative inquiry explores how Black women navigate their identities at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) as entry-level student affairs professionals. Our framework is rooted in Black Feminist thought to consider how Black women are impacted by identity and supervisory relationships in the workplace. Using semi-structured interviews, we explore Black women’s upbringing, supervisory relationships, and current workplace navigation. Our findings reveal how participants navigated their social identities based on prior socialization for workplace assimilation and by balancing forced identity suppression and authenticity. These findings are particularly important for institutions wishing to diversify the leadership pipeline, increase retention of new student affairs professionals, and incorporate inclusive supervision practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study investigated the effects of decreased energy availability (EA) and carbohydrate availability (CA) on reproductive and metabolic hormones in male endurance-trained athletes. Methods: Thirteen athletes (age: 26.08 ± 4.3 years; weight: 70.9 ± 6.5 kg; height: 179.9 ± 4.2 cm) participated in two training weeks with varying training volumes (low [LV] and high [HV]). The participants logged their diet and exercise for seven days and provided blood samples to measure hormone levels (Testosterone [T], insulin, leptin, cortisol, and interleukin-6 [IL-6]). Results: Results showed that 46.2% (HV) and 38.5% (LV) of participants were at risk for low EA (≤25 kcal/kg FFM·d-1), while 53.8% (HV) and 69.2% (LV) had low CA (<6 g/kg). Strong positive correlations were found between leptin and body fat percentage (DXABFP) in both weeks (HV: r(11) = 0.88, p < 0.001; LV: r(11) = 0.93, p < 0.001). Moderate correlations were observed between T and DXABFP (r(11) = 0.56, p = 0.05) and negative correlations between leptin and fat intake (r(11) = −0.60, p = 0.03). Regression analyses indicated significant relationships between DXABFP and T (F(1,11) = 4.91, p = 0.049), leptin (HV: F(1,11) = 40.56, p < 0.001; LV: F(1,11) = 74.67, p < 0.001), and cortisol (F(1,11) = 6.69, p = 0.025). Conclusions: These findings suggest that monitoring body composition and macronutrients can be clinically useful for male athletes, especially those without access to blood testing. Ultimately, a greater understanding of health and performance outcomes for male athletes is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic noise is rising and may interfere with natural acoustic cues used by organisms to recruit. Newly developed acoustic technology provides enriched settlement cues to boost recruitment of target organisms navigating to restoration sites, but can it boost recruitment in noise-polluted sites? To address this dilemma, we coupled replicated aquarium experiments with field experiments. Under controlled and replicated laboratory conditions, acoustic enrichment boosted recruitment by 2.57 times in the absence of anthropogenic noise, but yielded comparable recruitment in its presence (i.e. no boosting effect). Using the same technique, we then tested the replicability of these responses in real-world settings where independently replicated 'sites' are unfeasible owing to the inherent differences in soundscapes. Again, acoustic enrichment increased recruitment where anthropogenic noise was low (by 3.33 times), but had no effect at a site of noise pollution. Together, these coupled laboratory-to-field outcomes indicate that anthropogenic noise can mask the signal of acoustic enrichment. While noise pollution may reduce the effectiveness of acoustic enrichment, some of our reported observations suggest that anthropogenic noise per se might also provide an attractive cue for oyster larvae to recruit. These findings underscore the complexity of larval behavioural responses to acoustic stimuli during recruitment processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic those with underlying chronic lung conditions, including tuberculosis (TB), were hypothesized to be at higher risk of severe COVID-19 disease. However, there is inconclusive clinical and preclinical data to confirm the specific risk SARS-CoV-2 poses for the millions of individuals infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb). We and others have found that compared to singly infected mice, mice co-infected with M.tb and SARS-CoV-2 leads to reduced SARS-CoV-2 severity compared to mice infected with SARSCoV-2 alone. Consequently, there is a large interest in identifying the molecular mechanisms responsible for the reduced SARS-CoV-2 infection severity observed in M.tb and SARS-CoV-2 co-infection. To address this, we conducted a comprehensive characterization of a co-infection model and performed mechanistic in vitro modeling to dynamically assess how the innate immune response induced by M.tb restricts viral replication. Our study has successfully identified several cytokines that induce the upregulation of antiviral genes in lung epithelial cells, thereby providing protection prior to challenge with SARS-CoV-2. In conclusion, our study offers a comprehensive understanding of the key pathways induced by an existing bacterial infection that effectively restricts SARS-CoV-2 activity and identifies candidate therapeutic targets for SARS-CoV-2 infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black women are essential to ending the HIV epidemic in the United States; yet prevention, access, testing, and structural racism affect how HIV disproportionately affects them. Limited public health research focuses on Black women attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and the ability to address HIV prevention, such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake. PrEP is a once-daily oral pill used to prevent HIV transmission and has suboptimal uptake within the Black community. This generic qualitative descriptive analysis identifies the barriers and facilitators of PrEP uptake among Black women attending an HBCU using the health belief model. Overall, 22 Black college women participated in a 60-minute focus group. Emergent categories were as follows: (a) Barriers--stigma, cost, and side effects; (b) Facilitators--PrEP's effectiveness, exposure to HIV, and unprotected sex. Our findings can inform future efforts to increase PrEP uptake among Black women attending an HBCU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, HIV disproportionately affects people 13-45 years old, people of color, people in the south, and men who have sex with men. Given the growing number of postsecondary students within these demographic groups, this presents an equity issue and raises concerns for how higher education researchers and practitioners choose to engage problems of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) in U.S. college contexts. Using a content analysis methodology and Endarkened Feminist Epistemological lens, we examined a decade of HIV/AIDS-related research published in 113 higher education journals. Our findings suggest a generally limited focus on HIV/AIDS in college contexts and overrepresentation of quantitative methods in available scholarships. Furthermore, despite widening HIV/AIDS diagnosis gaps, researchers rarely nuanced identity and most often focused on individual choices rather than systemic structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine soundscapes provide important navigational cues to dispersing larvae in search of suitable habitat. Yet, widespread habitat loss has degraded marine soundscapes and their functional role in recruitment. Habitat restoration efforts can provide suitable substrate for habitat regeneration, such as constructing reefs to facilitate recruitment and habitat growth by oysters, but typically occur where soundscapes are degraded and recruitment is limited. Enhancing marine soundscapes on newly constructed reefs using speaker technology may ensure sufficient recruitment to establish a trajectory of recovery for the desired habitat.Across two of the largest oyster reef restorations in Australia, we deployed low‐cost marine speakers at four sites and at three times throughout the recruitment season to test whether soundscape enrichment could boost recruitment and habitat formation by oysters. In the presence and absence of soundscape playback, we compared oyster recruitment rates to settlement panels across space and time, and oyster habitat cover and three‐dimensional habitat building on newly constructed boulder reefs.On the settlement panels deployed across the two reef restorations, soundscape playback significantly increased oyster recruitment at 8 of the 10 sites by an average (±1 SE) 5.1 ± 1.9 times (5281 ± 1384 more larvae per m2), and by as much as 18 times.On boulders atop newly constructed reefs, where the restoration goal is for oysters to form three‐dimensional habitat, the surface area covered by oysters after 5 months did not differ between speaker and control treatments. However, soundscape playback appeared to influence the earlier recruitment of oysters, resulting in significantly more large oysters per boulder that formed significantly more three‐dimensional habitat building by an average 4.3 ± 1.2 times relative to nonspeaker controls.Synthesis and applications. Our results show that using speakers to enrich marine soundscapes at new restoration sites can boost oyster recruitment, resulting in more larger oysters that form more three‐dimensional habitat atop reef restorations. In accelerating the formation of these vertical growth forms, which provide the ecological functions that motivate restoration efforts, the early application of speaker technology on new reef restorations may help steer ecological succession on a trajectory of desired habitat recovery, potentially reducing the substantial cost of ongoing intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Angela Davis' (2016) conversational interview style writing approach, we discuss how we, as two Black women early career scholars, experience, facilitate, and find joy, hope, and optimism in the face of hostility in academe. In tandem with songs of promise and perseverance by Black women creatives, we reveal how music connects to and helps to provide color for our professional and personal journeys, often contextualizing how we understand, negotiate, and persist within our chosen profession. With some consideration to the soundtracks of our lives, three major questions guided our writing: (1) Where within your teaching and research do you facilitate and experience joy?; (2) How does being a Black woman faculty member influence and/or shift how you think about joy within the academy?; and (3) How has the current system enabled you to positively and effectively negotiate hope and joy (e.g. flexibility, summer off, etc.)?. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative, phenomenological study explored the rhetoric that low-income, first-generation college students in the United States use to describe and understand their social class and class-based experiences. We focused on the rhetoric associated with these descriptions given the complexity in naming and situating class-based experiences within and beyond college contexts in the United States. Our findings suggest that, while students readily described how their college experiences differed from their higher SES peers, many struggled to find language to describe social class in terms other than financial. Despite challenges in languaging their experiences, participants showed awareness of the functions of social class during college. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]