University of North Dakota

Occupational credentials connect to broader power relations, provide authority used to justify appearance-based inequalities, and are linked to the social contexts implicated in cosmetic medical procedures and other beauty interventions. Plastic surgeons, cosmetic dentists, and other medical professionals offering cosmetic procedures advertise to global audiences on digital platforms, where they compete with less prestigiously credentialed counterparts offering beauty interventions of their own. How do content creators promoting cosmetic medicine procedures portray themselves and the procedures they offer to audiences, and how might these portrayals differ across creators’ occupational credentials and other identity characteristics? We apply thematic and categorical content analysis to TikTok videos produced by medical professionals, credentialed aestheticians, and adjacent content creators, in which creators promote consumer medicine procedures and other beauty interventions. Additionally, we analyze comments responding to these videos. We find men with higher-status occupational credentials frequently practice parasocial paternalism , portraying themselves as affable and approachable while centering themselves and other men in the beauty intervention process. Women across credential hierarchies conversely employ embodied advice , themselves pursuing showcased interventions rather than solely advertising them. Our findings illustrate interlinked empowerment and subjugation in online content showcasing cosmetic medicine procedures, and the complex ways online audiences respond to content creators’ reliance on legacy and populist symbols of expertise.

This comprehensive review examines the synergistic integration of climate mitigation strategies and circular economy (CE) principles as a pathway toward achieving global carbon neutrality. While traditional mitigation measures such as renewable energy adoption, carbon capture, and efficiency improvement are vital, they remain insufficient without systemic transformation across economic and industrial sectors. CE practices, including resource efficiency, waste valorization, product life extension, and recycling, offer complementary solutions that decouple economic growth from environmental degradation. This study synthesizes interdisciplinary insights on how CE principles enhance the effectiveness of renewable energy systems, industrial decarbonization, and waste reduction. It also highlights regional disparities, policy barriers, and opportunities for cross-sectoral innovation. Through an extensive review of international carbon neutrality initiatives and sectoral case studies, the paper identifies the multidimensional impacts of CE integration spanning reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, improvements in resource productivity, and strengthened socio-economic resilience. The findings underscore that achieving carbon neutrality requires a unified framework combining technological, economic, and policy measures that prioritize sustainability transitions. Ultimately, the study contributes a holistic perspective on leveraging CE-driven innovation to accelerate climate action and establish a sustainable, low-carbon global economy. • Integrating circular economy enhances climate mitigation effectiveness. • Renewable energy and CE synergy accelerates global carbon neutrality. • Resource efficiency reduces emissions and supports sustainable growth. • Policy and financial frameworks are crucial for CE implementation. • CE-driven innovation fosters resilience in low-carbon economic systems.

Abstract Chapter 4 begins with the story of Tamandani, a young mother who got pregnant when she was 18 years old, and her narrative highlights resistance, agency, and desire while navigating adolescence, schooling, and pregnancy. Drawing from Tamandani’s narrative, this chapter centers on how pregnant and mothering students exercise their agency and freedoms, make choices and decisions, challenge the status quo, and express their desires in relation to pregnancy, schooling, and motherhood. The chapter is organized into three sections. First, juvenescence and complexities of kutha msinkhu, connects to the literal and symbolic transition from childhood to adulthood and the ways in which sexual desires affect the young women’s schooling post-pregnancy experiences—including moments of resistance and disobedience while simultaneously challenging the status quo. Second, social class structures choices and the cycle of survival centers on the intersecting identities embodied by pregnant and mothering students, particularly their social class and gender and how these categories played a critical role in shaping their schooling post-pregnancy experiences. Lastly, the pursuit of motherhood as a push factor largely draws from African Indigenous knowledges and the CAFE framework and centers on motherhood itself as an embodied identity that gives and amplifies societal power for young mothers.

Abstract In Chapter 6, I begin with two anecdotes from Orama and Tionge, who discuss their experience of attending night school to introduce readers to alternative paradigms and otherwise possibilities of schooling post-pregnancy. The author positions non-mainstream educational opportunities, such as night schools, as critical spaces of inclusion that challenge the rigid structures of mainstream schooling by providing pathways that acknowledge the complex realities of pregnant learners and school-aged mothers. With particular emphasis on African ways of being and belonging, the author amplifies the stories of participants who are excluded from “standard” schooling practices due to their motherhood or pregnancy status. As a departure from normative and traditional forms of theorizing schooling, this chapter draws on the CAFE framework, which is rooted in Afro-indigenous ontologies and the Afrocentric nature of being, to intentionally offer otherwise or unorthodox possibilities of schooling post-pregnancy.

Cloud droplet temperature plays a key role in fundamental cloud microphysical and radiative processes. The supercooled droplet temperature and lifetime can impact cloud ice and precipitation formation via homogeneous freezing and activation of ice-nucleating particles through contact and immersion freezing. While most observational and modeling studies often assume droplet temperature to be spatially uniform and equal to the ambient temperature (Ta), this assumption may not always be valid, particularly when droplets experience strong relative humidity (RH) gradients at cloud boundaries.For a wide range of ambient conditions, we model the coupled heat and mass transfer between the droplet and its environment and quantify the decrease in droplet temperature (ΔT) from that of the far-away ambient temperature (Ta), and the increase in droplet lifetime due to reduced droplet surface temperatures, compared to Maxwellian diffusion-limited evaporation estimates. ΔT is found to increase with Ta, and decrease with increase in ambient relative humidity (RH), and pressure (P). For a prescribed environment and assuming the droplet has infinite thermal heat conductivity, ΔT was typically 1-5°C lower than Ta, with highest values (~10.3°C) for very low RH, low P, and Ta closer to 0ºC. For higher RH and larger droplets, droplet lifetimes can increase by more than 100s compared to the diffusion-limited evaporation approach, which ignores droplet cooling. The steady state temperature of evaporating droplets can be approximated by environmental thermodynamic wet-bulb temperature. Radiation was found to play a minor role in influencing droplet temperatures, except for larger droplets in environments close to saturation. If we resolve the spatiotemporally varying thermal and vapor density gradients near the evaporating droplet, results demonstrate a higher subsaturation-dependent decrease in the droplet temperature as well as the envelope of air in the vicinity of the droplet surface. For an ambient environment specified far away, with Ta = -5°C, RH = 10%, 40%, and 70%, the decrease in droplet temperatures due to evaporative cooling is ~ 24, 11, and 5°C, respectively and the evaporatively cooled droplets survive longer compared to previous estimates. The implications of evaporative cooling and increased lifetimes of supercooled cloud droplets on potential enhancement of ice nucleation near evaporating cloud edges, such as cloud-top generating cells, and especially for moderately supercooled ambient temperatures, are discussed. The importance of using accurate droplet temperatures to improve activated ice nuclei number concentrations from existing primary ice nucleation parameterization schemes, especially in sub-saturated environments, is highlighted. Finally, using high-resolution direct numerical simulations of moderately supercooled cloud boundaries, we discuss the impacts of droplet evaporative cooling on the evolution of supercooled droplet size distributions, which critically impacts ice nucleation.

We compared freshwater ecosystem management of the Yuba River, in California, USA, and the Noce River in the Province of Trento, Italy to examine how cultural and political practices can shape freshwater ecosystem management strategies within similar geographical and hydrologic contexts. Specifically, we compared climate, land-use history, flow regulation, restoration approaches, and associated challenges and successes. The Yuba and Noce catchments both have Mediterranean climates, runoff sourced by rainfall and glacial or snowmelt, and developed water supply resources for agriculture, municipal water supply, recreation, and power generation. Both rivers have long histories of human modification, including damming in the 20th century to accommodate escalating energy demand and intensive agriculture. Dam releases for power generation on the Noce River result in hydropeaking, altering the eco-morphodynamics and limiting biodiversity. Water supply storage, diversion for agricultural use, and gravel extraction on the Yuba River results in highly altered flow regimes and degraded instream habitat. Contrasts between the rivers’ respective regulatory frameworks and their intended goals yield different management actions. In the Yuba, the US Endangered Species Act drives targeted restoration for species-specific recovery, limiting broader holistic protections for the aquatic ecosystem. Whereas in the Noce, the European Union Water Framework Directive mandates broad ecosystem benchmarks be met, with restoration focused on improving habitat, biodiversity, and water quality. However, the top-down approach may limit stakeholder involvement. Recently, success in coalition building among California water managers, academic institutions, conservation groups, and private landowners has led to reconnecting floodplain habitats and providing environmental flows for native salmonids. Implementing alternative hydropower generation schemes in the Noce has led to improved aquatic biodiversity metrics and increased recreation opportunities. As climate change exacerbates impacted river functions worldwide, comparison of freshwater ecosystem management between international catchments offers potential new solutions for sustaining essential ecosystem services.

This nationwide study examined how 25 Black undergraduate and graduate students defined and constructed the meaning of safety and joy on their campuses. Through our newly developed Critical Socioecological Framework for Racialized School Safety (CSFRSS), we address students’ experiences of cultivating joy within a liberatory framework, given that these students have historically been underserved and invalidated in academic spaces deemed unsafe. Using the study’ s data, we found that 1) feeling authentic–particularly within Black racial identity–was rooted in how students determined feeling safe, and 2) even in their unsafe academic spaces, students could cultivate joy due to their Black communities.

Summary: This presentation elucidates experience from the field in providing mental health education and support to primary care providers of refugees. There are myriad models of care integration of mental health within primary care. Certain models allow for informal occasions to enhance provider well-being in addition to patient care. Collaborative care models (mental health and primary care) during crises provide unique opportunities for not only education but also support of practitioners.

Cylindrical steel storage tanks play a vital role in petrochemicals, oil refineries, power plants, and storage systems for liquefied natural gas (LNG) and other hazardous materials. These structures are highly susceptible to local instability that can cause failure of the tank–liquid system and disrupt industrial operations. Ensuring their safety and reliability requires advanced dynamic modeling, seismic design, and structural health monitoring. This study investigates the seismic behavior of cylindrical storage tanks, focusing on fluid–structure interaction (FSI) and the nonlinear response to seismic base excitations. The study also conducts a parametric analysis to assess the impact of liquid levels and seismic input accelerations on sloshing dynamics and structural response. Results from the finite-element analysis (FEA) are validated against experimental test data, demonstrating strong agreement and confirming the accuracy of the finite-element (FE) modeling approach. The results indicated that the experimentally measured shear force was 47.30 kN, whereas the numerical model predicted 44.27 kN, corresponding to a percentage difference of approximately 6.4%. Findings from the parametric study revealed that the hydrodynamic pressure changed significantly as the applied peak ground acceleration (PGA) input values varied. Tanks subjected to 0.45g exhibited slightly greater deformations compared with 0.40g, whereas 0.31g produced similar responses to those at 0.40g. Hydrodynamic pressures reached 149.3 kPa at 0.45g, 94.6 kPa at 0.40g, and 76.3 kPa at 0.31g, indicating reductions of 36.60% and 48.69%. For Tank 3 during the 1940 El Centro earthquake, the maximum sloshing height reached 970 mm at 22.6 s for the 91% fill level, with lower volumes producing 780 mm at 16.3 s and 760 mm at 51.7 s. This research provides critical insights into the seismic behavior of storage tanks and offers practical recommendations for designing resilient systems that mitigate risks associated with seismic activity.

Abstract Africa is increasingly being exposed to the negative impacts of climate and environmental change, while having less capacity to respond compared to other continents. The vulnerability partially results from unprecedented demographic growth, urbanization, and industrialization. However, the continent has still largely been underserved by the broader Earth system science (ESS) community, as evidenced by the limited amount of ESS data and research that cover Africa compared to other areas of the world. Here, we present the recent University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) Africa Initiative that aims to enhance environmental sustainability in Africa by fostering international collaborative research partnerships coled by African scientists. Specifically, we outline urgent challenges and opportunities identified through an international workshop in six areas of ESS, namely, 1) air quality and health, 2) weather, 3) climate, 4) land and water, 5) social science perspectives, and 6) developing equitable collaboration and sustainable infrastructure. We highlight examples of successful partnerships and conclude with recommendations to advance collaborative, actionable ESS research that addresses Africa’s critical environmental challenges. Significance Statement Africa is experiencing the negative impacts of climate and environmental change. However, relevant research and hence suggested solutions are very limited. As a key outcome of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) Africa Initiative, we highlight the importance of the international community in supporting and coleading successful collaborative efforts with African scientists that can address Africa’s environmental challenges through equitable partnerships. This paper provides a forward-looking perspective by highlighting collaborative research opportunities in six critical Earth system science (ESS) areas and identifies practical directions to advance environmental sustainability in Africa through more coordinated scientific engagement.