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Engineering lacks quantitative measures of racism and sexism in engineering graduate education. Racial and gendered disparities in participation, persistence, and experience combined with qualitative evidence indicate that discrimination interferes with marginalized students' well-being and degree completion. The Discrimination in Engineering Graduate Education (DEGrE) scale helps researchers identify environmental gender and race/ethnicity-based discrimination in engineering graduate education. The scale development and initial assessments reported here demonstrate the validity, internal reliability, and utility of the DEGrE subscales. The DEGrE scale will assist engineering colleges and departments evaluate their graduate students' experiences to guide decision makers in identifying changes needed in their graduate programs to improve equity and inclusion of marginalized students.

This preliminary investigation explored associations between Black adolescents' experiences with parental racial socialization (racial pride and racial barrier messages), dimensions of racial identity (centrality and private regard), and critical reflection regarding the need for school change of racial inequity. One hundred fifty-one (78 girls; 73 boys) high school students from the southeastern United States were sampled for this self-report cross-sectional investigation. Findings revealed significant, positive total effects of racial pride and racial barrier socialization on critical reflection. Furthermore, a significant specific indirect relationship between racial pride socialization and critical reflection through centrality (small to medium effect), but not private regard. Unexpectedly, no significant indirect associations of perceived racial barrier socialization on critical reflection through racial identity dimensions were found. Implications for our findings are discussed for school-based practitioners and policymakers.

Scholars have documented positive and negative relationships between adolescents’ critical consciousness and mental health. This study aims to clarify the role of friendship networks contributing to these associations. Using egocentric network data from a nationwide adolescent sample (N = 984, 55.0% female, 23.9% nonbinary, 72.7% non-white), regression analyses examined whether adolescents’ psychological distress and flourishing were predicted by their friend group’s average critical consciousness and the difference between adolescents and their friends on critical consciousness dimensions (sociopolitical action, critical agency, and critical reflection), accounting for network and demographic covariates. Higher friend group critical consciousness positively predicted flourishing, and higher friend group sociopolitical action negatively predicted psychological distress. Adolescents who participated in sociopolitical action more frequently than their friends had higher psychological distress and lower flourishing. Those with higher agency than their friends had lower flourishing. At the individual level, adolescents’ sociopolitical action predicted higher psychological distress and flourishing, critical agency predicted higher flourishing, and critical reflection predicted higher psychological distress and lower flourishing. Adolescent mental health is uniquely related to their friends’ critical consciousness. Findings highlight the utility of social network analyses for understanding social mechanisms that underlie relationships between critical consciousness and mental health.

This study examined experiences of individual, institutional, and cultural racism, along with critical consciousness (i.e., critical reflection, critical agency, critical action), and how they are associated with mental health outcomes for Black adolescents (N = 604; Mage = 15.4; 47.4% female). Consistent with previous research, we found that more experiences of racism were associated with more mental health distress for Black adolescents. We also found that the relationship between racism and mental health varied by critical reflection and critical action, in a three-way interaction effect. The positive association between racism and mental health distress was weaker for the Black adolescents in our sample who reported higher than average critical reflection and lower than average critical action. This evidence suggests that the reflection and action components of critical consciousness, together, can serve as an adaptive coping strategy to guard against the harm racism can cause to mental health. Black adolescents experience less mental health distress when they have a deep understanding of oppression, but do not engage heavily in actions to dismantle those unjust systems. These findings have implications for how youth researchers and practitioners can support critical consciousness development in ways that do not compromise adolescent mental health.

For many Black boys, poor academic performance and high rates of school discipline are often related to biases in how they are perceived and treated at school. These biases oftentimes misalign with how Black boys view themselves and how family members perceive them at home. Few studies examine how different stakeholders' perceptions of Black boys manifest and shape the middle school experience. The current study employed an embedded case study design, using data from eight semi-structured interviews to explore incongruence among student, teacher, and parent perceptions of two middle school Black boys' academic and social experiences. Findings showed greater congruence between the boys' experiences and their parents' perceptions of them compared to their teachers' perceptions of them. Of note were teachers' inaccurate reports of the boys' career aspirations and academic interests and abilities. Implications of these patterns and their impact on Black boys' experiences in school are discussed.

Sociopolitical stress arises in reaction to awareness of, exposure to, and/or involvement in political events. Among a longitudinal cohort of 628 college students from 10 universities across the U.S., we explored trajectories of sociopolitical stress during the 2020 United States presidential election season and examined relationships to psychological well-being. Growth mixture modeling classified our sample into four subgroups each with distinct trajectories of sociopolitical stress: High and Decreasing, Moderate and Increasing, Consistently Low, and High-to-Low. Participants with lower levels of sociopolitical stress expressed higher psychological well-being (high flourishing, high optimism, low anxiety symptoms, low depressive symptoms). The High and Decreasing subgroup was associated with the highest levels of civic action. Participants in the High and Decreasing trajectory were 20 times more likely to identify as LGBQ+, and 4 times more likely to be a woman or a transgender/gender diverse student, compared to participants in the Consistently Low subgroup.

Youth victimization and aggression are common in adolescents' everday lives. This study examines relations between youth cognition and reasoning around bullying and possible responses to bullying, peer nominations related to youth roles in the bullying ecology and self-report experiences of perceived racial discrimination using latent class analyses. Participants included 6th (n = 423) and 9th (n = 392) grade adolescents in the United States (49.1% female). Five distinct classes emerged: Typical, Uninvolved, Challengers, Experiences Discrimination, and Experiences Discrimination and Involved. Furthermore, participants in these classes reasoned about the acceptability of youth aggression and about their likelihood of different responses to youth aggression in distinct ways. Findings document that the Challengers class was most likely to judge the aggression as wrong and the least likely to indicate that they would not respond if they observed aggression. Furthermore, both classes of youth who reported experiencing discrimination judged the aggression as more acceptable.

Underrepresented racial minority college students attending predominantly White institutions disproportionately experience school-based racial/ethnic microaggressions, which can impede college satisfaction and college graduation rates. This study examines the longitudinal implications of school-based racial/ethnic microaggressions on college attitudes (e.g., college satisfaction and graduation expectations). The study also compares the mediating roles of academic achievement (GPA) and academic affect (feelings toward academic experiences). Among a sample of 437 Black and Latinx college students attending five universities in the Midwestern United States, results indicated that academic affect, but not academic achievement, mediated the relationship between school-based microaggressions and graduation expectations. Additionally, school-based discrimination indirectly predicted lower college satisfaction through a negative impact on academic affect. Overall, more frequent exposure to school-based discrimination in college led to lower academic affect, which in turn, predicted lower graduation expectations and lower college satisfaction. These findings highlight the powerful role of academic affect in explaining how racial discrimination impairs graduation expectations and college satisfaction over time. Implications and policy recommendations regarding the impact of racial discrimination on underrepresented minority college students are further discussed.

Many people involved with the United States criminal legal system have experienced trauma, the long-term effects of which can challenge capacity to recover, often resulting in an increased risk of contact with the criminal legal system. Training programs can help professionals improve their understanding of trauma and implement trauma-informed responses. Limited research exists on the impact of trauma-informed response training for criminal legal professionals (e.g., corrections officers, court personnel, and law enforcement), and less is known about the effectiveness of the train-the-trainer (TTT) model in this context. In this article, we describe a four-phase, mixed-methods evaluation of a trauma-informed response training program delivered in the context of a 16-h TTT event to 28 criminal legal professionals in the southwest United States. We examine pre- and post-training knowledge acquisition, training experience, and impact on participant behaviors and attitudes 60 days post-training. Results provide preliminary support for the positive impact of trauma-informed response training for criminal legal professionals. We discuss future directions for research on the effectiveness of trauma-informed response training for criminal legal professionals, including, critically, whether trauma-informed training contributes to improved outcomes for individuals involved with the criminal legal system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnic-racial socialization describes messages and practices that teach youth about their racial and/or ethnic group membership and the role of race in society. Despite a wealth of research on families, little work has considered school socialization practices. The current article uses a framework of school racial socialization to explore six socialization messages reported in a predominantly Black public charter school in an urban area. In focus group and individual interviews, 21 African American students (71% female) discussed what they learned about race and culture at school. Responses revealed a high frequency of cultural socialization and promotion of cultural competence messages, but the content was limited to certain key figures and events. The findings illustrate the complexity of youths' perceptions of socialization and the need for multicultural education in schools.

The current study examines how race-related stress, physiological and psychological anticipation of racism, relates to low-risk and high-risk activism orientations for Black adolescent boys and emerging adult men (N = 286). We investigate whether patterns of racial identity and age moderate those relationships. We found that physiological and psychological anticipation of racism were related to low-risk Black community activism orientation, and those relationships varied by age and racial identity. The relationship between physiological anticipation of racism and high-risk activism orientation was moderated by racial identity profiles. For Black adolescent boys and emerging adult men with racial identity profiles that support individual and communal value of Blackness, more physiological anticipation was related to a greater likelihood of engaging in risky activism in the future. Findings highlight the importance of understanding how stress responses to racism influence youth commitments to future activism. These findings also underscore heterogeneity of racial identity among Black adolescent boys and emerging adult men, and how patterns of racial identity and age differentially influence orientations toward activism against racial oppression.

This study used a youth participatory action research (YPAR) approach to explore the meaning five Black boys make of race, identity, and oppression through their school experiences in a suburban high school. The first author developed, cofacilitated, and assumed the role of participant observer in a YPAR afterschool program aimed at promoting sociopolitical development. The participants completed photovoice projects identifying problems in and solutions for their school community. In their initial framing of the projects, they espoused a deficit narrative of Black student achievement, rooted in low public and private racial regard: Black students are not achieving. At the end of the program year, with the help of individual and group meaning-making in the YPAR program, some participant narratives shifted away from a deficit narrative, and two participants presented a counternarrative that emphasized the ways in which Black students are trying and achieving. These findings contribute to our understanding of how YPAR programs, as situated in liberation and transformative psychology, facilitate critical social analysis for Black boys. Furthermore, these findings contribute to the literature on the experiences of Black boys in suburban schools, through the voices and perspectives of the boys themselves.

Cancer cells favour migration and metastasis to bone tissue for 70–80 % of advanced breast cancer patients and it has been proposed that bone tissue provides attractive physical properties that facilitate tumour invasion, resulting in osteolytic and or osteoblastic metastasis. However, it is not yet known how specific bone tissue composition is associated with tumour invasion. In particular, how compositional and nano-mechanical properties of bone tissue evolve during metastasis, and where in the bone they arise, may affect the overall aggressiveness of tumour invasion, but this is not well understood. The objective of this study is to develop an advanced understanding of temporal and spatial changes in nano-mechanical properties and composition of bone tissue during metastasis. Primary mammary tumours were induced by inoculation of immune-competent BALB/c mice with 4T1 breast cancer cells in the mammary fat pad local to the right femur. Microcomputed tomography and nanoindentation were conducted to quantify cortical and trabecular bone matrix mineralisation and nano-mechanical properties. Analysis was performed in proximal and distal femur regions (spatial analysis) of tumour-adjacent (ipsilateral) and contralateral femurs after 3 weeks and 6 weeks of tumour and metastasis development (temporal analysis). By 3 weeks post-inoculation there was no significant difference in bone volume fraction or nano-mechanical properties of bone tissue between the metastatic femora and healthy controls. However, early osteolysis was indicated by trabecular thinning in the distal and proximal trabecular compartment of tumour-bearing femora. Moreover, cortical thickness was significantly increased in the distal region, and the mean mineral density was significantly higher in cortical and trabecular bone tissue in both proximal and distal regions, of ipsilateral (tumour-bearing) femurs compared to healthy controls. By 6 weeks post-inoculation, overt osteolytic lesions were identified in all ipsilateral metastatic femora, but also in two of four contralateral femora of tumour-bearing mice. Bone volume fraction, cortical area, cortical and trabecular thickness were all significantly decreased in metastatic femora (both ipsilateral and contralateral). Trabecular bone tissue stiffness in the proximal femur decreased in the ipsilateral femurs compared to contralateral and control sites. Temporal and spatial analysis of bone nano-mechanical properties and mineralisation during breast cancer invasion reveals changes in bone tissue composition prior to and following overt metastatic osteolysis, local and distant from the primary tumour site. These changes may alter the mechanical environment of both the bone and tumour cells, and thereby play a role in perpetuating the cancer vicious cycle during breast cancer metastasis to bone tissue.

Background: Blacks are commonly targeted as a population that will benefit from school choice. Drawing upon market theory, school choice advocates argue that educational opportunity will increase for Blacks and other underserved populations when schools are required to compete for students. With choice, the historically underserved can presumably opt into schools that will provide their children higher quality education that confers better educational outcomes. To date, the promise of choice remains unfulfilled. Purpose/Objective: We examine one underexplored factor that may contribute to the unfulfilled promise of school choice: how professionals make meaning of the very students who are expected to most benefit (in this case Black students) and how this meaningmaking may compromise the prospect of greater educational opportunity via choice. In particular, we explore the stories teachers tell about Black students in the course of making meaning of Black underperformance as a professional "problem" and their own role in resolving this problem. Of special concern is how teachers racialize Black students via their narration of the status and experience of these youth and the consequent implications for all Black students in one choice context. Research Design: The data for this study was collected as part of a multi-year, multi-method study of Black students in three demographically distinct school districts participating in an inter-district school choice system in the Midwest. Relying primarily on focus group interviews with teachers, we evaluated teachers' narratives within and across districts to determine the discourse patterns that were germane to and differed across districts. Findings: In the same way that Blacks are not often readily imagined as both Black and American, the Black students in the districts under study were constructed by teachers as interlopers--not readily imagined as both Black and full members of the school communities in which they were enrolled. In blurring these boundaries, teachers 1) rationalized their own sense of professional inefficacy in facilitating the academic success of Black students; and 2) normalized perspectives and practices that situate Black students and their families as deficient. Conclusion/Recommendations: School choice was not articulated in these districts via professional perspectives and practices that increased Black educational opportunity, but was reconfigured as a trope that rationalized Black exclusion and underperformance. Unless teachers are supported in constructing radically different narratives than those reported herein, they are unlikely to cultivate personal practical knowledge that facilitates Black educational access and opportunity in schools of choice or elsewhere.

Engineering lacks quantitative measures of racism and sexism in engineering graduate education. Racial and gendered disparities in participation, persistence, and experience combined with qualitative evidence indicate that discrimination interferes with marginalized students' well-being and degree completion. The Discrimination in Engineering Graduate Education (DEGrE) scale helps researchers identify environmental gender and race/ethnicity-based discrimination in engineering graduate education. The scale development and initial assessments reported here demonstrate the validity, internal reliability, and utility of the DEGrE subscales. The DEGrE scale will assist engineering colleges and departments evaluate their graduate students' experiences to guide decision makers in identifying changes needed in their graduate programs to improve equity and inclusion of marginalized students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This preliminary investigation explored associations between Black adolescents' experiences with parental racial socialization (racial pride and racial barrier messages), dimensions of racial identity (centrality and private regard), and critical reflection regarding the need for school change of racial inequity. One hundred fifty‐one (78 girls; 73 boys) high school students from the southeastern United States were sampled for this self‐report cross‐sectional investigation. Findings revealed significant, positive total effects of racial pride and racial barrier socialization on critical reflection. Furthermore, a significant specific indirect relationship between racial pride socialization and critical reflection through centrality (small to medium effect), but not private regard. Unexpectedly, no significant indirect associations of perceived racial barrier socialization on critical reflection through racial identity dimensions were found. Implications for our findings are discussed for school‐based practitioners and policymakers. Practitioner points: Racial socialization messages were associated with Black youths' critical reflection about the need for school change of racial inequity.Racial pride socialization was related to critical reflection indirectly though one racial identity dimension (i.e., centrality).Racial barrier socialization was related to critical reflection directly and not indirectly through any racial identity dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a worldwide public health problem, accounting for approximately 90% of all oral cancers, and is the eighth most common cancer in men. Cisplatin and carboplatin are the main chemotherapy drugs used in the clinic. However, in addition to their serious side effects, such as damage to the nervous system and kidneys, there is also drug resistance. Thus, the development of new drugs becomes of great importance. Naphthoquinones have been described with antitumor activity. Some of them are found in nature, but semi synthesis has been used as strategy to find new chemical entities for the treatment of cancer. In the present study, we promote a multiple component reaction (MCR) among lawsone, arylaldehydes, and benzylamine to produce sixteen chemoselectively derivated Mannich adducts of 1,4-naphthoquinones in good yield (up to 97%). The antitumor activities and molecular mechanisms of action of these compounds were investigated in OSCC models and the compound 6a induced cytotoxicity in three different tumor cell lines (OSCC4, OSCC9, and OSCC25) and was more selective (IS > 2) for tumor cells than the chemotropic drug carboplatin and the controls lapachol and shikonin, which are chemically similar compounds with cytotoxic effects. The 6a selectively and significantly reduced the amount of cell colony growth, was not hemolytic, and tolerable in mice with no serious side effects at a concentration of 100 mg/kg with a LD50 of 150 mg/kg. The new compound is biologically stable with a profile similar to carboplatin. Morphologically, 6a does not induce cell retraction or membrane blebs, but it does induce intense vesicle formation and late emergence of membrane bubbles. Exploring the mechanism of cell death induction, compound 6a does not induce ROS formation, and cell viability was not affected by inhibitors of apoptosis (ZVAD) and necroptosis (necrostatin 1). Autophagy followed by a late apoptosis process appears to be the death-inducing pathway of 6a, as observed by increased viability by the autophagy inhibitor (3-MA) and by the appearance of autophagosomes, later triggering a process of late apoptosis with the presence of caspase 3/7 and DNA fragmentation. Molecular modeling suggests the ability of the compound to bind to topoisomerase I and II and with greater affinity to hPKM2 enzyme than controls, which could explain the mechanism of cell death by autophagy. Finally, the in-silico prediction of drug-relevant properties showed that compound 6a has a good pharmacokinetic profile when compared to carboplatin and doxorubicin. Among the sixteen naphthoquinones tested, compound 6a was the most effective and is highly selective and well tolerated in animals. The induction of cell death in OSCC through autophagy followed by late apoptosis possibly via inhibition of the PKM2 enzyme points to a promising potential of 6a as a new preclinical anticancer candidate.

This article is guided by two goals: (a) to consider how race-based perspectives can serve as theoretical tools for investigating Black adolescents' opportunities to belong at school, and (b) to describe cultural and political aspects of schooling that can support a sense of belongingness among Black adolescents. We discuss support for the belonging of Black adolescents in terms of interpersonal, instructional, and institutional opportunity structures. We provide a set of guiding questions for scholars seeking to advance educational psychology research at the intersection of race, belonging, and motivation. We end by describing specific research directions for an inclusive examination of school belonging, along with strategies to accomplish this goal.

We report the successful closure of Phase I clinical trials, comprising Phases Ia and Ib, of the vaccine candidate against human schistosomiasis: the Schistosoma mansoni 14 kDa fatty acid-binding protein (Sm14) + glucopyranosyl lipid A in squalene emulsion (GLA-SE). Shown here are the results of Phase Ib, an open, non-placebo-controlled, standardized-dose immunization trial involving 10 healthy 18–49-year-old women. Fifty micrograms of the Sm14 protein plus 10 µg GLA-SE per dose was given intramuscularly thrice at 30-day intervals. Participants were assessed clinically, biochemically, and immunologically for up to 120 days. In preambular experiments involving vaccinated pregnant female rabbits, we did not find any toxicological features in either the offspring or mothers, and the vaccine induced adaptive immunity in the animals. In women, no adverse events were observed, and vaccination induced high titers of anti-Sm14 serum IgG antibody production. Vaccination also elicited robust cytokine responses, with increased TNFα, IFNγ, and IL-2 profiles in all vaccinees on days 90 and 120. The completion of Phase I clinical trials, which were performed to the highest standards set by Good Clinical Research Practice (GCP) standards, and preclinical data in pregnant rabbits enabled the vaccine candidate to proceed to Phase II clinical trials in endemic areas.

The Journal of Adolescent Research (JAR) has a new editor, Elan C. Hope, who took over from Dr. Nancy Deutsch in October 2023. Dr. Deutsch served as the editor for over 6 years and has maintained JAR as a respected journal focused on qualitative and mixed-method research in adolescent and emerging adulthood development. The journal has a rising impact factor and represents a diverse range of experiences of adolescence and emerging adulthood across different contexts. As the new editor, Elan C. Hope aims to prioritize youth voices, promote methodological diversity, and encourage positionality and reflexivity in research. The JAR team is dedicated to expanding the field and welcomes new submissions that align with their vision. [Extracted from the article]

Political activism is one way racially/ethnically marginalized youth can combat institutional discrimination and seek legislative change toward equality and justice. In the current study, we examine participation in #BlackLivesMatter (BLM) and advocacy for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) as political activism popular among youth. Participants were 533 Black and Latino college students. We found that both Black and Latino students reported more involvement in BLM than DACA. There were no gender differences in participation for Black students, but Latina women reported greater participation in BLM and DACA than Latino men. We also tested whether demographic characteristics, racial/ethnic microaggressions, and political efficacy predict BLM and DACA involvement. For Black students, prior political activism predicted involvement in BLM and DACA and immigration status predicted DACA involvement. For Latino students, more experiences of racial/ethnic microaggressions predicted involvement in BLM and DACA and political efficacy predicted DACA involvement. Findings highlight rates of participation in modern sociopolitical movements and expand our understanding of how psychological factors may differentially promote activism for Black and Latino college students.