Search

The 2020 quote defining the pandemic era was "The New Normal," which, for Black women, implies a need for structural and personal transformation. In this essay, we incorporate the concepts of culturally relevant pedagogy (Bell & Jackson, 2021) and critical autoethnography (Boylorn, 2020; Boylorn & Orbe, 2021) to amplify a Black feminist ethos of self-care as an embodied praxis. Reflecting on the embodied experiences of two Black women professors, we advance a crucial notion of self-care as a pedagogy of renewal to reclaim joy through generative and transformative modes, methods, and meanings.

This study examines how noise in the reported fair market values of derivatives owned by banks affects bank capital adequacy ratios. Monte Carlo simulation is used to generate new balance sheet data to identify noise and subsequently determine its impact on the capital ratios. Noise in fair market values is found to significantly impact the probability of a type I error with regards to the Tier 1 Leverage ratio at the well capitalized benchmark. Banks who suffered from a type I error during the 2008 financial crisis would have been required to pay higher FDIC insurance premiums, get approval of all brokered deposits, and would have faced challenges in obtaining approval for acquisitions., INTRODUCTION This study examines how noise in the reported fair market values of derivatives affects bank capital adequacy ratios. Noise is defined as a component of the measurement of a [...]

Patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) are predisposed to develop neurofibromas, but the underlying molecular mechanisms of neurofibromagenesis are not fully understood. We showed dual genetic deletion of Runx1 and Runx3 in Schwann cells (SCs) and SC precursors delayed neurofibromagenesis and prolonged mouse survival. We identified peripheral myelin protein 22 (Pmp22/Gas3) related to neurofibroma initiation. Knockdown of Pmp22 with short hairpin RNAs increased Runx1fl/fl;Runx3fl/fl;Nf1fl/fl;DhhCre tumor-derived sphere numbers and enabled significantly more neurofibroma-like microlesions on transplantation. Conversely, overexpression of Pmp22 in mouse neurofibroma SCs decreased cell proliferation. Mechanistically, RUNX1/3 regulated alternative promoter usage and induced levels of protein expression of Pmp22 to control SC growth. Last, pharmacological inhibition of RUNX/core-binding factor β (CBFB) activity significantly reduced neurofibroma volume in vivo. Thus, we identified a signaling pathway involving RUNX1/3 suppression of Pmp22 in neurofibroma initiation and/or maintenance. Targeting disruption of RUNX/CBFB interaction might provide a novel therapy for patients with neurofibroma.

In this article, the author argues that teaching toward a new political economy requires educators and instructors to cultivate classroom climates rooted in Black queer and feminist (BQF) ethics of love and care. In doing so, teachers are better positioned to guide students as they tackle challenging conversations concerning systemic inequity, structural privilege, and embodied political praxis. The author looks to Afrofuturist feminist imaginative works as sources of inspiration, encouragement, and care that hold space to reimagine life and love beyond antiblack violence. Afrofuturist feminist worldmaking actively challenge Western white cisheteronormativity, its knowledge systems, and its origin stories that equate Black death as American progress. Drawing from (BQF) worldmaking practices and Audre Lorde's notion of love as a radical and revolutionary life force, the author forwards "love as life" praxis--a praxis that shapes an evolving pedagogical orientation committed to challenging existing systems of knowledge by imagining alternatives.

Background: The need for rapid in-field measurement of key traits contributing to yield over many thousands of genotypes is a major roadblock in crop breeding. Recently, leaf hyperspectral reflectance data has been used to train machine learning models using partial least squares regression (PLSR) to rapidly predict genetic variation in photosynthetic and leaf traits across wheat populations, among other species. However, the application of published PLSR spectral models is limited by a fixed spectral wavelength range as input and the requirement of separate custom-built models for each trait and wavelength range. In addition, the use of reflectance spectra from the short-wave infrared region requires expensive multiple detector spectrometers. The ability to train a model that can accommodate input from different spectral ranges would potentially make such models extensible to more affordable sensors. Here we compare the accuracy of prediction of PLSR with various deep learning approaches and an ensemble model, each trained and tested using previously published data sets. Results: We demonstrate that the accuracy of PLSR to predict photosynthetic and related leaf traits in wheat can be improved with deep learning-based and ensemble models without overfitting. Additionally, these models can be flexibly applied across spectral ranges without significantly compromising accuracy. Conclusion: The method reported provides an improved prediction of wheat leaf and photosynthetic traits from leaf hyperspectral reflectance and do not require a full range, high cost leaf spectrometer. We provide a web service for deploying these algorithms to predict physiological traits in wheat from a variety of spectral data sets, with important implications for wheat yield prediction and crop breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The retreat of state funding at public institutions paired with the growing concerns surrounding vulture capitalism that has weaponized philanthropic gift-giving (i.e., distinguished chairs, scholarships and fellowships, academic research centers, faculty lines, campus maintenance) means educators must find ways to teach students about the importance of using their knowledge and skillsets to promote public interests and improve lives. The term vulture capitalism is used here as it relates to donor influence to critique the types of donors (individuals, foundations, and corporations) who use gift-giving to advance conservative, elitist agendas that serve privatized interests at the expense of public interests (Carey, 2019; Mintz, 2019). Vulture capitalism and donor (gift-giving), as a case study, provide instructors and students constructive opportunities to reflect on how hegemonic power operates in and impacts our daily lives. To do so, the article begins by reflecting on a few examples of harmful donor influence to demonstrate how discussions concerning vulture capitalism can stimulate important conversations surrounding power, hegemony, and institutional oppression. It is argued that critical communication pedagogy (CCP) assists instructors who wish to teach students how to discuss issues of power and hegemony in contemporary communication classrooms. CCP offers a pragmatic approach to addressing and examining how power operates through a consideration of language and discourse. This article highlights three major tenets of CCP to propose an in-class activity that stresses the importance of dialogic reflexivity in classroom conversations concerning hegemony, power, and communication.

Rural adolescents are at risk for firearm-related injury and death. In response, professional organizations have called for communication between adolescents, parents, and providers about firearms. A shared understanding of firearms between providers and families can facilitate effectiveness of health interventions. However, few studies engage adolescents in identifying their perception of common firearm terminology. The current study aimed to understand how adolescents in rural communities defined firearm-related terms including firearm, carrying, and handling, and differences in terms based on prior firearm training. Data were from a mixed methods community-based participatory study of 93 adolescents from rural Washington state. Thematic qualitative coding identified themes for firearm (gun, weapon, projectile, and tool), carrying (on you/your person, transportation, and holding), and handling (actively using, safe use, and holding) and differences between those with prior firearms training. Findings provide insight into perceptions of firearm-related terms for adolescents, an often-neglected voice, and inform rural policy and prevention efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As WPAs at a research institution without a WAC program, we embarked on this project to learn about the types of writing prompts faculty across the disciplines assign and their expectations for student writing. Although our first-year composition program is genre-based and focuses on teaching for transfer, we did not know what genres other faculty assigned nor which writing skills they hoped students could apply to their assignments. We also wanted to understand how they crafted writing assignment prompts and how they perceived students' abilities to meet their expectations. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 faculty members from a range of disciplines about their writing assignments in courses in the major. We found that faculty (1) want or even expect students to take on certain disciplinary roles as writers in their assignments; (2) but they are not routinely making these expectations clear to students in their writing assignment prompts. To address these impediments to transfer, we present a three-part rhetorical framework for faculty that relies on genre to clarify expectations and allows for cuing to promote transfer for students in disciplinary writing contexts.