Communication courses (e.g., intercultural communication and gender communication) dedicated to the promotion of social justice often result in students' raised consciousness regarding privilege and ...the oppression of people who have been marginalized historically. Affected students, however, often are at a loss about what to do with the newly acquired knowledge; consequently, they may experience anger and frustration that causes them to feel overwhelmed and leaves them with a sense of hopelessness. This essay provides 10 suggestions to help communication pedagogues guide students from anger and hopelessness to action and empowerment. Tips offered center on classroom discourse, curriculum choices, and potential assignments.
This qualitative study explains how people made sense of their co-constructed ethnic and racial identities after receiving direct-to-consumer genetic test results for the first time. Three themes ...surfaced (e.g., searching for deeper belonging, grappling and negotiating identity, and mitigating race and ethnicity) from journal entries and a focus group interview. The authors assert that there is a place for both science and stories in identity development; race and ethnicity are seen as cultural and scientific; and the introduction of unexpected identities is disruptive and sensemaking happens in conversation. Furthermore, the authors argue for longitudinal studies to discover the impact of genetic tests on identity over time.
Patients with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (DiGeorge syndrome/velocardiofacial syndrome) typically exhibit thymic hypoplasia, conotruncal cardiac defects, and hypoparathyroidism. The ...immunodeficiency that results from the thymic hypoplasia has been extensively described and consists primarily of T-cell lymphopenia. A curious feature of the T-cell lymphopenia is that the age-related rate of decline of T-cell numbers is slower in patients than controls. This leads to T-cell numbers in adulthood that are minimally decreased compared with controls. This suggests that homeostatic mechanisms might be acting to preserve the peripheral blood T-cell numbers in patients. We characterized changes in CD4/CD45RA and CD4/CD45RO T-cell populations in patients and controls of various ages and determined T-cell recombination excision circles and telomere length within the CD4/CD45RA population. Patients had evidence of accelerated conversion of naive to memory cells and had evidence of more extensive replicative history within the CD4/CD45RA compartment compared with controls. Oligoclonal T-cell receptor (TCR) Vβ families and missing Vβ families were seen more often in patients than controls. These data are consistent with homeostatic proliferation of T cells in patients with limited T-cell production due to thymic hypoplasia. (Blood. 2004;103:1020-1025)
Amy Aldridge Sanford, immediate past president of the Central States Communication Association, shares parting thoughts as her term on the organization's executive committee comes to an end. A ...self-identified well-intentioned white ally, she admits to recent mistakes made in her personal journey to a raised consciousness regarding racial and ethnic oppression. Sanford challenges members of CSCA, particularly folx from privileged spaces, to radicalize their journeys of consciousness by embodying the courage necessary to challenge the status quo, especially when it comes to the business of faculty hiring and graduate admissions. The author argues that increasing diversity in the latter will only improve the diversity of the former, which is necessary if faculty and academic administrators in the United States are ever going to be truly reflective of the demographics of the undergraduate student population in modern colleges and universities. Sanford expresses appreciation to the dozens of CSCA members who practiced courage and discomfort during her presidency, including the organizers and participants of the inclusive conference spaces video project, the difficult conversations faculty learning community, and the family friendly task force initiative.
Three hundred fifty participants, recruited from Internet health message boards, completed online surveys about their experiences talking with health care providers about Internet health information. ...Two distinct dimensions of reliance emerged from the data, one regarding the patient's reliance on the health care provider for decision making and the other regarding the patient's reliance on the health care provider to stay healthy. Self-reliant patients tended to be female, have lower incomes, and report less frequent visits to the health care provider than did health-care-provider-reliant patients. Age, comfort level, and frequency of talking about Internet health information were not related to reliance level.
Tumor necrosis factor α (TNF‐α) is a proinflammatory cytokine, which participates in a wide range of immunoregulatory activities. It is generally produced at highest levels by cells of the myeloid ...lineage in response to activation of pathogen recognition receptors such as Toll‐like receptors. Impaired production predisposes to infection with intracellular organisms, and overproduction results in systemic or organ‐specific inflammation. Control of expression is essential to maintain homeostasis, and this control is mediated via multiple strategies. We examined two separate aspects of chromatin accessibility in this study of the human TNF‐α promoter. We examined the role of histone acetylation and chromatin remodeling in cell lines and primary cells and identified two individual steps associated with activation of TNF‐α production. Histone H3 and H4 acetylation was found to be strongly dependent on the developmental stage of human monocytes. It did not appear to be regulated by acute stimuli, and instead, chromatin remodeling was found to occur after acute stimuli in a cell line competent to produce TNF‐α. These data suggest that there is a hierarchy of controls regulating expression of TNF‐α. Acetylation of histones is a prerequisite but is insufficient on its own for TNF‐α production.
A little more than 1,000,000 students with international student or scholar visas are currently enrolled in institutions of higher education in the United States, making up nearly 6% of all ...postsecondary enrollment within the country. NAFSA, the world's largest professional association dedicated to international education, reported that in 2019–20 alone international students contributed $38.7 billion to the U.S. economy (read more at https://bit.ly/3AfNCla).
This study explores two relatively untapped areas of instructional communication scholarship: Hispanic students' communicative behaviors and the influence of context in student-to-student ...communication. Specifically, we utilize Co-Cultural Theory (CCT) to explore what, if any, differences exist in Hispanic students' reports of their co-cultural communication when interacting with White students based on their enrollment in either a 4-year, public Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) or 4-year, public Predominately White Institution (PWI). We found that Hispanic students' communicative approaches did not differ based on their institutional context. However, Hispanic students in the PWI group scored higher on accommodation as their preferred outcome than their Hispanic HSI counterparts. We argue the findings highlight both theoretical and pedagogical implications for researchers and instructors.
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