Search

The CROWN Act is a huge achievement for multiple jurisdictions in the United States. However, legal shifts alone cannot do the work of dismantling a systemic culture of anti-Blackness in public and private space. This Article argues that profound cultural shifts must accompany political and legal shifts around an anti-Black history of hair policing. One example of a cultural shift advanced by Black activists, creators, and artists is the creation of natural hair salons, a social space that performsthe work of celebrating Black hair amid a harmful culture of respectability politics and Eurocentrism.To advance this argument, this Article focuses on the happenstance of the passage of the CROWN Act at the same time as another significant development in the United States: the opening of Miss Rizos Salon in New York City. Miss Rizos Salon made its own name as one of the first natural hair salons in the Dominican Republic, an achievement borne of Black-centered organizing against structural and interpersonal anti-Blackness. Dominican salons in both the Dominican Republic and in the United States have served as common sites of pelo bueno versus pelo malo due to the Dominican salon’s established trait as the place clients go to straighten or relax hair. Today, the reclamation of this space into a reimagined site for the celebration of natural hair creates a promising venue for tackling anti-Black attitudes towards natural hair that cannot easily be addressed by legal regimes. It is this transnational movement of Black organizing that is the direct rebuttal to the command “arréglate ese pajón.” Rather than acquiesce to the command, the Black transnational natural hair movement responds by obliterating the white supremacist projects that created the command.

Abstract Background Shifting cargo from roads to eco-friendly inland waterway transport (IWT) is an important step towards reaching the decarbonization goals defined by the European Green Deal. The rehabilitation of nautical bottlenecks is essential to reach the fairway depth which is needed to allow a competitive transport on inland waterways. Aim The goal of this paper is to (1) identify key performance indicators (KPI) associated with nautical bottlenecks caused by insufficient maintenance, (2) understand the effects of resolving nautical bottlenecks on the identified KPIs and (3) develop a conceptual framework. Methods To develop the conceptual framework, we carried out a systematic literature review. We analysed the identified literature using qualitative content analysis and thus, derived relevant KPIs and their interdependencies. Findings Ten KPIs were identified, which could be clustered as being either IWT-related, market-related or location-related. One example for an IWT-related KPI is the vessel draft, while market-related KPIs are e.g., referring to the KPI modal share and location-related KPIs to other KPIs such as fairway depth. Contribution The conceptual framework visualizes the interdependencies between the KPIs and facilitates further research in this field, i.e., the development of a method for the evaluation of economic benefits of resolving nautical bottlenecks on inland waterways. A scientific method that allows the economic evaluation of resolving nautical bottlenecks it is essential to demonstrates the gain in quantitative net benefit if water levels are sufficient. A quantification of the net benefit serves as a motivator to intensify maintenance work on nautical bottlenecks and to facilitate decision-making regarding infrastructure projects.

Abstract The use of technologies that automate handling goods and loading units in warehouses and depots is not new. Yet, the purchase process of these technologies issues troubles and the estimation of the economic advantages brought by one or another technology to the entire chain of operations in logistics are not always known. Faults or not documented decisions put pressure on managers and prices for services. They can cause a drop in the competitiveness of warehouse operators, particularly in uncertain conditions. Academia documented the cost of warehouse storage well. Yet, little research has looked into the economic justification of implementing automatic systems for loading or unloading activities and the impact on complementary operations. For this reason, a model is needed to calculate the cost of operations when different technical equipment is used. This research further investigates the cost categories that must be considered when purchasing automated loading/unloading technologies. The model includes the purchase and operational loading costs that new technologies generate and the cost of adjacent operations to loading activity. The case study uses forklifts as the reference scenario and provides an overview of the return on investment and a break-even period when other technologies are in use. The calculation model shows that increasing cargo volume leads to a better RoI. The same observation is also made regarding the rise in labour costs. For the latter, using human operators to handle pallets on a one-by-one basis generates an exponential increase in operational cost due to delays and faults. On the other side, the cost of implementing automated loading/unloading technologies and the consideration of technology risk determine the low economic advantages. An in-depth cost and benefit analysis shows in which situation a technology generates greater benefits. Further results of this paper show that better use of trucks' loading capacity can positively impact the financial performance of automated loading technologies, as a higher volume of cargo is moved (at once) without human intervention.

Abstract Background Autism entails reduced communicative abilities. Approximately 30% of individuals with autism have intellectual disability (ID). Some people with autism and ID are virtually non-communicative and unable to notify their caregivers when they are in pain. In a pilot study, we showed that heart rate (HR) monitoring may identify painful situations in this patient group, as HR increases in acutely painful situations. Objectives This study aims to generate knowledge to reduce the number of painful episodes in non-communicative patients’ everyday lives. We will 1) assess the effectiveness of HR as a tool for identifying potentially painful care procedures, 2) test the effect of HR-informed changes in potentially painful care procedures on biomarkers of pain, and 3) assess how six weeks of communication through HR affects the quality of communication between patient and caregiver. Methods We will recruit 38 non-communicative patients with autism and ID residing in care homes. Assessments: HR is measured continuously to identify acutely painful situations. HR variability and pain-related cytokines (MCP-1, IL-1RA, IL-8, TGFβ1, and IL-17) are collected as measures of long-term pain. Caregivers will be asked to what degree they observe pain in their patients and how well they believe they understand their patient’s expressions of emotion and pain. Pre-intervention: HR is measured 8 h/day over 2 weeks to identify potentially painful situations across four settings: physiotherapy, cast use, lifting, and personal hygiene. Intervention: Changes in procedures for identified painful situations are in the form of changes in 1) physiotherapy techniques, 2) preparations for putting on casts, 3) lifting techniques or 4) personal hygiene procedures. Design: Nineteen patients will start intervention in week 3 while 19 patients will continue data collection for another 2 weeks before procedure changes are introduced. This is done to distinguish between specific effects of changes in procedures and non-specific effects, such as caregivers increased attention. Discussion This study will advance the field of wearable physiological sensor use in patient care. Trial registration Registered prospectively at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05738278).

Abstract Determining which ports to call at in a maritime loop is considered as an important determinant factor for shipping companies which impacts not only on efficiency, and productivity but also on transportation costs. The port selection process becomes more challenging and sensitive if the market is for perishable goods such as fruits and vegetables. Specifically, this paper aims to develop an efficient maritime supply chain for reefer cargo. A case study of refrigerated cargo trade between West-Africa and West-Europe is investigated for which the main objective is to minimize the trade route's supply chain costs. To do so, the paper analyzes various scenarios based upon the different types of cargo (transshipment and non-transshipment), commodity types (dry and reefer), and a combination of different (un)loading ports in and the Rotterdam–Gibraltar range. Four African ports, namely Tema (Ghana), Douala (Cameroon), Abidjan (Ivory Coast), and Dakar (Senegal), are considered for the outbound leg (Africa–Europe), while several ports in the E.U. and the U.K. are selected as inbound leg. The analysis is initiated by applying a data-gathering strategy to get the relevant container flow from European ports to West-African ports. Then, a chain cost modelling approach is used to determine what the sailing schedule of the vessel should be. By performing the import/export cargo volume and maritime and supply chain costs are calculated, which can be used by the involved stakeholders to decide which ports are the best to call on a specific route.

In this article, we describe initial findings from a survey of English composition faculty at two-year colleges about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their workload. This survey, conducted as a follow-up to ongoing research by the Two-Year College English Association (TYCA), examines the working conditions and practices of English faculty at two-year colleges. Respondents described broad increases in English faculty's workload and identified the institutional supports available to support that work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our analysis highlights the strengths and limitations of institutional support provided for faculty. Echoing previous scholarship, these findings suggest that the pandemic exacerbated existing gaps in institutional support for faculty. Thus, we identify the 2020-2021 academic years as an opportunity to reflect upon the radical changes and fraught collaborations that enable our institutional work. We discuss how institutional partners and faculty colleagues evaluate the intersections of labor, professional development, and disciplinary knowledge as sites where institutions can remove information silos and improve the flow of knowledge to better and more holistically support our students. This focus on opportunities suggests that we use the exigency of the pandemic to learn from this experience and also address longstanding problems and inequities in higher education that have emerged or become more visible from the impact of COVID-19 as observed through the pandemic TYCA Workload Survey.

Marine mammals are exposed to increasing intensities of anthropogenic stressors such as acoustic disturbance and contaminants. Correlative studies have suggested concerning shifts in behavioral and physiological status of stress-exposed individuals, which could alter the health and survival of marine mammal populations. However, functional studies of the effects of multiple stressors on marine mammals are lacking. To fill in this gap, we recently developed an ex vivo approach of precision-cut adipose tissue slices (PCATS) to study the impact of stressors on the function of an essential endocrine organ: the adipose tissue. In the present study, we investigated the impact of hormones associated with the stress response on adipose tissue from northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris). Blubber biopsies were collected from 17 weaned northern elephant seal pups, separated into inner and outer layers, dissected into PCATS, and cultured for 48 hours. To mimic prolonged and short-term exposure to physiological stress, PCATS were treated with 2 µM cortisol (CORT) for the entire 48 hours or 100 nM epinephrine (EPI) for the last 12 hours of culture, respectively. Hormones were applied individually or in combination. CORT and EPI exhibited an interacting, blubber layer-dependent, effect on adipose tissue biology, as quantified by gene expression in PCATS, and release of glycerol, free fatty acids, leptin and polychlorinated biphenyls into culture media. EPI stimulated a higher rate of lipolysis than CORT in PCATS from both blubber layers. The combination of CORT and EPI upregulated the expression of adipose triglyceride lipase in inner blubber PCATS and downregulated hormone-sensitive lipase in outer blubber-derived PCATS. Expression of the leptin gene and secretion of the leptin adipokine were both decreased by EPI, while addition of CORT attenuated this effect in inner blubber PCATS only. CORT also increased the expression of the antioxidant enzyme glutathione peroxidase 3 in PCATS from both blubber layers. Polychlorinated biphenyls exhibited selective and limited mobilization from PCATS treated with stress hormones, highlighting the lipophilic properties of these toxic compounds. This study showed that physiological stress can impact several essential functions of marine mammal blubber, such as lipolysis and adipokine production.