Consuming the U.S. Virgin Islands: Conservation and Education in America’s Paradise examines the relationship between conservation and public education on St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands where there exists no public high school. By interrogating Euroamerican conservation ideologies and policies, this project identifies the ways an expansive, continuous and layered American project of empire fosters the physical and intellectual displacement of the native people of St. John. The U.S. Virgin Islands’ status as an unincorporated territory of the United States provides for a catastrophic convergence of imperialism, environmental racism and consumptive tourism on the 19 square miles of St. John where more than two-thirds of the island belongs to the U.S. National Park Service. Territoriality frames the conflict around public education on St. John by revealing the ways in which federal institutions, such as the Department of Interior (responsible for administering the National Park Service and U.S. territories), exerting disproportionate measures of power operate to meet the demands of white colonial stakeholders rather than those of the local Black island constituency. The “hidden” nature of American colonial possessions as “U.S. territories” coupled with an exploitative Caribbean tourism industry help to permanently fix islands like St. John as remote objects of consumption and desire for primarily white, non-native travelers. This reality produces what I call "the crisis of Paradise." For the U.S. Virgin Islands, patterns of leisure, extraction, and exotification that characterize the Caribbean as a whole destructively entangle with the territory’s moniker “America’s Paradise.” Through the interdisciplinary use of critical Black feminist ethnography, archival records and oral histories, this work explains how native Black people’s mobilization for a public high school for St. John attempts to resist the colonial effort to reduce the land and its people to mere entities of play, respite, and relaxation and, thereby, render them unfit for comprehensive, quality public education. This project enhances understandings of “American” public education and illuminates the ways social and political self-determination have always been at the center of Black people’s struggles in the West. / 2023-11-01T00:00:00Z

Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO) is a rare, autoimmune, neurodegenerative disease selectively affecting the optic nerves and spinal cord. Relapsing NMO is nine times more prevalent in women than in men and approximately one-quarter of NMO patients have symptoms of another autoimmune disorder (National Institute of Health, 2019). NMO has not been linked to any genetic mutations and the cause of the disorder is unknown beyond the general understanding that the body produces anti-aquaporin-4 antibodies (AQP4) which mistakenly attack cells in the nervous system. NMO affects roughly one percent of that of Multiple Sclerosis (4000-8000 patients total) in the United States, but prevalence rates are abnormally high in a handful of regions around the world, particularly among Latin America, where rates can reach up to 5/100,000 individuals. The results of this study predict that there is a connection between African genetics and NMO, but further studies will need to be conducted in more Latin America nations and other regions to determine prevalence rates as well as genetic analysis of affected individuals.

Background. Obesity has been associated with a number of negative health consequences (e.g., hypertension/heart disease, type-2 diabetes, osteoarthritis, and respiratory illnesses). Despite health communication campaigns to reduce overweight/obesity by encouraging lifestyle changes (e.g., eating healthier foods and exercising), the rates of overweight and obesity levels have continued to rise. Studies indicate that the rate of overweight and obesity in the U.S. is highest among Blacks. Messages targeted toward “Blacks” (African-Americans) in the United States treat this segment of the population as a homogenous group and fail to account for within-group cultural differences. Cultural values and beliefs related to food, physical activity, and ideal body size may contribute to overweight and obesity. Objective. This study was designed to gain a deeper understanding of the similarities and differences between African-American and Afro-Caribbean immigrant women living in the Metro Atlanta, Georgia, in terms of the role that culture and social environments play in forming obesity-related—food, physical activity, and body image—attitudes, values, and behaviors. Method. A social cognitive theory (SCT) framework informed the design of semi-structured interview guides. Study participants were comprised of 13 African-American women and 12 Afro-Caribbean women who recently immigrated to the United States from English-speaking countries. All participants were living in Atlanta, Georgia at the time of the study. They were recruited through convenience and snowball sampling and interviewed between October 5 and December 26, 2014. Data from audio-recorded in-depth interviews were transcribed and analyzed using textual analysis software package NVivo9. Results. African-American and Afro-Caribbean participants were similar in terms of some food-, physical activity- and body-image related attitudes and behaviors. Health-related concerns and matrilineal influence affected the food-related behaviors of both groups of participants. Physical activity and body image-related attitudes and behaviors of women in both groups were affected by the norms of their childhood and current social environments. Although a healthy physical activity lifestyle was important to women in both groups, not all women were consistently physically active. The study also revealed some differences between African-American and Afro-Caribbean participants. In general, the African-American women described the food-related norms of their childhood environments in negative terms and were more likely to have changed their food-related behaviors for health reasons. The Afro-Caribbean women described their childhood food-related norms in positive terms, and thus, strove to maintain healthy behaviors from their childhood. The norms of the current social environments of African-Americans, but the childhood social environments of Afro-Caribbean participants, influenced them more toward healthier food-, physical activity- and body image-related attitudes and behaviors. In terms of body ideals, Afro-Caribbean women typically identified a smaller “ideal body size” than African-American women. African-Americans from the South, or those with parents from the South tended to choose larger figures than women from the North. Conclusion. Consistent with other SCT studies, this study found attitudes and behaviors that were consistent with those modeled within the participants’ social environments. There are more cultural differences than similarities between African-American and Afro-Caribbean women. The similarities and differences revealed in this study have implications for the design of culturally relevant obesity-related messages.

Background. Obesity has been associated with a number of negative health consequences (e.g., hypertension/heart disease, type-2 diabetes, osteoarthritis, and respiratory illnesses). Despite health communication campaigns to reduce overweight/obesity by encouraging lifestyle changes (e.g., eating healthier foods and exercising), the rates of overweight and obesity levels have continued to rise. Studies indicate that the rate of overweight and obesity in the U.S. is highest among Blacks. Messages targeted toward “Blacks” (African-Americans) in the United States treat this segment of the population as a homogenous group and fail to account for within-group cultural differences. Cultural values and beliefs related to food, physical activity, and ideal body size may contribute to overweight and obesity. Objective. This study was designed to gain a deeper understanding of the similarities and differences between African-American and Afro-Caribbean immigrant women living in the Metro Atlanta, Georgia, in terms of the role that culture and social environments play in forming obesity-related—food, physical activity, and body image—attitudes, values, and behaviors. Method. A social cognitive theory (SCT) framework informed the design of semi-structured interview guides. Study participants were comprised of 13 African-American women and 12 Afro-Caribbean women who recently immigrated to the United States from English-speaking countries. All participants were living in Atlanta, Georgia at the time of the study. They were recruited through convenience and snowball sampling and interviewed between October 5 and December 26, 2014. Data from audio-recorded in-depth interviews were transcribed and analyzed using textual analysis software package NVivo9. Results. African-American and Afro-Caribbean participants were similar in terms of some food-, physical activity- and body-image related attitudes and behaviors. Health-related concerns and matrilineal influence affected the food-related behaviors of both groups of participants. Physical activity and body image-related attitudes and behaviors of women in both groups were affected by the norms of their childhood and current social environments. Although a healthy physical activity lifestyle was important to women in both groups, not all women were consistently physically active. The study also revealed some differences between African-American and Afro-Caribbean participants. In general, the African-American women described the food-related norms of their childhood environments in negative terms and were more likely to have changed their food-related behaviors for health reasons. The Afro-Caribbean women described their childhood food-related norms in positive terms, and thus, strove to maintain healthy behaviors from their childhood. The norms of the current social environments of African-Americans, but the childhood social environments of Afro-Caribbean participants, influenced them more toward healthier food-, physical activity- and body image-related attitudes and behaviors. In terms of body ideals, Afro-Caribbean women typically identified a smaller “ideal body size” than African-American women. African-Americans from the South, or those with parents from the South tended to choose larger figures than women from the North. Conclusion. Consistent with other SCT studies, this study found attitudes and behaviors that were consistent with those modeled within the participants’ social environments. There are more cultural differences than similarities between African-American and Afro-Caribbean women. The similarities and differences revealed in this study have implications for the design of culturally relevant obesity-related messages.

This dissertation establishes a transatlantic connection between Brazil, the United States and the Caribbean through the discussion of two contemporary literary movements: Sarau da Cooperifa, in São Paulo, and Nuyorican poetry, from the Puerto Rican poets living in New York City. Although these places share significant differences in terms of colonial and postcolonial history, they share similar experiences in terms of race and class representations. From similar oppressive realities, I argue that they also build similar strategies of resistance and urban discourse. By carrying a secondary citizenship status, Nuyorican poets and poets from the Brazilian periphery find in creative writing ways to reinvent themselves as subjects of their own history, a story written and reinvented in the streets, in the street corners, in barber shops, in the back yard, in bars and pubs. They take the street as epistemological locus in order to expand the concept of political intervention, be it while celebrating life or ritualizing death. In this sense, the street is the site for unrestricted access to poetry, and poetry is the element that fits these subjects in the history of the city. The work of Sergio Vaz, Ferrez, Allan da Rosa, Elizandra Souza, Willie Perdomo, Victor Hernandez Cruz, Miguel Algarín, Miguel Piñero and Sandra Maria Esteves is read through the lenses of African Diaspora theories and its relation to literary criticism, anthropology, history, discourse analysis, Black feminist theory and Latino studies. I share Edouard Glissant’s understanding that the Africans, who were forced to come to the Americas and the Caribbean upon slavery, did not bring only their body. They also brought with their body a worldview, a way of dealing with adversity, an epistemological understanding that has allowed them to outlive the physical death by overcoming the imputation of social death. Thus, this dissertation argues that cultural production is a political production, and that it has been used by racialized and impoverished minority individuals and groups across the globe as strategic tool in the struggle against oppression. / text

Parent-teen sex conversations reduce Black adolescents’ HIV/STI risk. Nationally, most studies about Black teens’ sexual risk behaviors omit Afro-Caribbean groups whom are disproportionately burdened by HIV/STIs. Therefore, this exploratory study guided by the PEN-3 model (a) characterized the nature, perceptions, enablers, and nurturers of sexuality conversations between Haitian and Jamaican parents and adolescents and (b) explained the relationship between sexuality conversations and adolescent sexual activity. Using narrative inquiry, 6 Haitian and 8 Jamaican mother-teen dyads’ and triads’ (N=31) experiences were used to characterize the nature, perceptions, enablers, and nurturers of parent-teen sex conversations. Thematic content analysis generated common themes. In phase two, Black adolescents (African American, Haitian, and Jamaican) N=157, completed a validated 52-item questionnaire. Scales included ASAI; measuring recent pre-coital and coital activities; FSCQ measuring families’ orientation towards sex-conversations, and PTSRC-III measuring sexual topics discussed with each parent. Linear and logistic regression determined the relationship between parent-teen sex conversations and teens’ sexual activity. Mothers’ mean age was (41.85±5.50) and teens’ mean age was (16±1.31). Qualitative findings suggest that Afro-Caribbean mothers’ limited childhood and adolescent sex conversations and outcomes of those interactions shaped mothers’ existing attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors about sexual topics, and hindered their ability to discuss sex with their teens. Dyads believed modifying parents’ approach, improving parents’ sexual health knowledge, and increasing families’ comfort with sex- conversations would improve sexual discussions. Survey participants’ mean age was (16±1.49) and mean age of penile-vaginal/anal sexual debut was (14.95±1.71). Twenty percent of sexually active teens had their first parent-teen sex conversation after penile-vaginal/anal sexual debut, p=.01, and 27% after penile-oral/vaginal-oral sexual debut, p=.001. Haitians had lower comfort with family-sex conversations than African Americans, p=.03 and Jamaicans, p=.004. African American teens’ higher comfort for family-sex conversations was predictive of delayed penile-vaginal/anal sexual debut, p=.009 and virginity, OR=1.5, 95% CI [1.154, 1.866]. Teens who never spoke to their fathers about protection from HIV/STI were four times more likely OR= 4.41, 95% CI [1.466, 13.30] to not use condoms. In summary, culturally-responsive, family focused interventions are needed to equip Afro-Caribbean parents for sex conversations with their teens in order to reduce teens’ sexual risk.

Cette étude explore les stratégies de survie qu'Edwidge Danticat, Jamaica Kincaid et Toni Morrison développent dans leurs romans. Il s'agi de n'étudier que trois romans de chacune d'entre elles. Elles sont toutes trois de trois générations différentes. Une vingtaine d'années sépare chacune d'entres elles, et pour tant les thématiques qu'elles élaborent se font écho, sans pour cela que leurs stratégies d'écriture soient comparables. La première partie s'intéresse aux bases de la transmission de la problématique des noirs des Amériques: la mère, le père et la structure sociale, c'est-À-Dire la relation aux autres. La deuxième partie est centrée sur l'individu et ce qui en est dit dans les textes, mais aussi sur la marge de silence qu'ils expriment. La troisième partie étudie les stratégies qui s'élaborent depuis la marge puisque ces romans-Là, de manière intrinsèque, racontent la marge. La quatrième partie explore les stratégies de résilience qui se concentrent essentiellement sur le vivant qui, cependant, n'accède à la compréhension de ses propres stratégies de survie que trop tardivement. / Our purpose is to explore the survival strategies that Edwidge Danticat, Jamaica Kincaid ans Toni Morrison develop in their novels. Only three novels of each author were the objects of our scrutiny. The three novelists are Afro-American and Afro-Caribbean from three different generations. A bear 20 years stands between each of them, yet the themes they tackle echo each others even if their writing strategies seem different. Our first part deals with the bases of black lore transmission: the impact of the mother figure, the place of the father and the social structure which transmits cultural features through relationships between each individual. Our second part is centered on the experiences from the margin: what it is to live" outside" and the silences it implies. Our third part explains the strategies that are elaborated from that margin. Finally, yhe fourth part concentrates on resilience strategies even if the understanding of the phenomenon happens belatedly.

No description available.

Cytochrome P450 enzymes (P450s) are involved in cancer development and treatment due to their roles in the oxidative metabolism of various endogenous (e.g. oestrogen) and exogenous (e.g. tamoxifen) compounds. It is well-known that intermediate P450 metabolites derived from oestrogen metabolism are associated with breast carcinogenesis. The main aim of this project was to profile the cytochrome P450 and P450-regulatory nuclear receptor mRNAs in a series of breast cancer cell lines (BCCs) and compare this profile with normal breast cells. This study used the qualitative reverse transcriptasepolymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to detect mRNA expression of target genes. Results showed CYP1B1, CYP2D6, CYP2J2, CYP2R1, CYP2U1 and CYP4X1 mRNA to be present in all cell lines. CYP2A6, CYP2C8, CYP2C18, CYP2F1 and CYP4Z1 mRNA were expressed in oestrogen receptor (ER)-positiveCaucasian and ER-negative Afro- Caribbean BCCs. Although no differences in P450 mRNA were observed between the different ethnic groups, these preliminary findings suggest potential similarities in the ERpositive Caucasian and ER-negative Afro-Caribbean BCCs which warrant further investigation The CYP4Z1 PCR product was identified as two distinct bands. Specific primer sets were used to demonstrate potential intron retention in CYP4Z1. Using established in vitro models for the study of regulatory mechanisms of CYP4Z1, T47D and ZR-75-1 breast cancer cell lines were used to determine the appropriate nuclear receptors (i.e. progesterone receptor, glucocorticoid receptor or peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha ). These findings suggest that there may be an alternative receptor mechanism involved in CYP4Z1 mRNA induction in these cells. In conjunction, pre-treatment of these two cell lines with the RNA synthesis inhibitor actinomycin D followed by the agonists showed a significant reduction (p < 0.05) of CYP4Z1 mRNA levels and inhibited CYP4Z1 induction by either progesterone, dexamethasone or pirinixic acid, indicating that these agonists have effects on CYP4Z1 mRNA transcription or stability. In contrast, cycloheximide differentially affected the level of CYP4Z1 mRNA induction by these agonists. Taken together, these results suggest that CYP4Z1 mRNA induction in T47D and ZR-75-1 is mediated through differential cell type specific regulatory mechanisms and there is evidence for differential regulation of the splice variants.

Little is known about breast health behaviors in Afro-Caribbean women (ACW) residing in the United States, as they are often included in the collective group of African American women (AAW). The objective of this study was to determine the influence of a spiritually-guided intervention on breast health self-care (BHSC) attitudes in ACW residing in southeastern Florida using a concurrent triangulation mixed methods design. One hundred and seventeen women were recruited from three local south Florida Caribbean churches. Inclusion criteria included: (a) self-identification as Afro-Caribbean, (b) female aged 30 years or older, (c) living in the United States for at least 1 year, (d) able to provide informed consent, (e) able to speak and read English at the 8th grade level, and (f) no previous history of breast cancer. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection