Californian Communities Research Articles

Conflict and alignment on aquaculture among Californian communities

Expanding sustainable aquaculture, particularly marine aquaculture, has been increasingly discussed as a pathway for meeting growing seafood demands while reducing the environmental cost of production, including within the United States. California, the state with the largest economy, population, and seafood demand, plays a large role in the domestic seafood landscape and is currently re-evaluating policy and practices toward sustainable aquaculture through the development of a state Aquaculture Action Plan (AAP). To inform the development of the plan, we surveyed California interest groups and community members with association or knowledge of marine aquaculture to understand sentiment around current and future aquaculture in the state, both positive and negative. Specifically, we conducted surveys and a scenario exercise with a representative focus group (“in-person” group) and a broader community of others engaged in marine aquaculture (“survey” group). Participants spanned aquaculturists, commercial fishers, government agency representatives, environmental NGO advocates, academics and tribal members. We found people generally preferred California farms to focus on expanding seaweed and bivalve production, and not land-based finfish or crustaceans; simultaneously, people tended to show a strong preference for local production to fill the seafood production-consumption gap in the state. Notably, the preference of our respondents for the type of seafood to be farmed is in conflict with broader consumer preferences, as California residents (and the U.S generally) predominantly consume shrimp and fish. In support of the broader sentiment of developing locally accessible seafood, both groups expressed a strong preference for increased production to be from small farms and distributed locally. Adoption of local aquaculture products would likely be facilitated by programs that increase traceability and labeling of seafood within the state. We found consensus among groups that aquaculture is important in the state and national seafood sector now and will become more important in the future. Finally, there was strong preference in our study against reliance on foreign imports, a mismatch with the current trade landscape. In sum, our work highlights areas of alignment and contention within key interest groups for the future direction of and vision for marine aquaculture in California. California may be at an inflection point for marine aquaculture, and the success or failure of efforts to expand aquaculture will likely rest on how well policy can respond to the input and preferences of key communities and interest groups.

Second-Generation Iranian Zoroastrians in a New American Homeland: A Case Study in California

AbstractThe article contributes to filling the research gap concerning Iranian Zoroastrians in diaspora. Using a narrative approach, it explores how second-generation Zoroastrians raised in the United States learn and practice religion while facing the challenges of a pluralistic American society. The article includes a case study of two young Zoroastrian women interviewed in 2019, members of the Californian community. The contrastive cases shed light on the internal heterogeneity of Zoroastrianism, different ways the religion is perceived and experienced, and different ideas about future preservation of the ethno-religious heritage. The study contributes to an understanding of how Zoroastrianism evolves on a new continent and how it differs from what Zoroastrian immigrants brought from Iran.

Food and Nutrient Displacement by Walnut Supplementation in a Randomized Crossover Study.

The aim of this article is to evaluate the effect of a daily supplement of walnuts on the overall daily diet and nutrient profile of healthy adults. A randomized controlled trial with crossover design was conducted for two 6-month diet periods in southeast Californian communities. Subjects were randomized to receive a control diet or a walnut-supplemented diet, then switched. The walnut supplement represented approximately 12% of their daily energy intake. Trained nutritionists collected seven 24 h dietary recalls from each participant (a total of 14 recalls for both periods). Ninety participants were able to complete the study, including 50 females and 40 males. The average age of the participants was 54.3 years. Diets in the walnut period had significantly higher vegetable protein, total fat, total PUFA, PUFA 18:2, PUFA 22:6, and total dietary fiber (p < 0.05), while also exhibiting significantly lower PUFA 20:5. All mineral levels were higher on the walnut-supplemented diet. Calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and zinc were, particularly, significantly higher among the walnut-supplemented group (p < 0.05). Displacement occurred in more than one-third of the entire nuts and seeds group; four-fifths of the non-alcoholic beverages and desserts groups; and the majority of the candy, sugar, and sweets group. Walnut supplementation can lead to favorable modifications in nutrient and food intake profiles that may contribute to chronic disease prevention. Nutrient and food displacement may be a mechanism to explain the favourable association between walnut intake and improved diet.

Archaeology, Indigenous erasure, and the creation of white public space at the California missions

This paper explores how the materiality of the past has been mobilized to simultaneously erase Indigenous presence and create white public space at Spanish mission sites in California. As the site of present-day Santa Clara University, Mission Santa Clara de Asís presents an important case study. The documentary record associated with more than a century of archaeology at the mission reveals its intersections with heritage-making, particularly the maintenance of public memory that privileges and valorizes whiteness. These same records further detail how the university and local residents effectively erased the heritage of the thousands of Ohlone people and members of neighboring Indigenous groups who lived, worked, and died at Mission Santa Clara. Recognizing how archaeology has contributed to the current heritage landscape at Santa Clara and other California mission sites is a necessary first step in the creation of new archaeological and heritage practices that center the experiences and persistence of Native Californian communities.

Forging Communities in Colonial Alta California

This edited collection comprises exciting recent work on colonial California in the fields of ethnohistory and historical archaeology. The nine chapters in this volume explore the many facets of community building among Indigenous Californians, paying specific attention to how Indigenous people formed copresent and imagined communities around shared religious beliefs, political and economic ties, and the practices of locality. The authors propose that communities are not natural, distinct, or static, but constructed, “dynamic, overlapping, and perhaps above all else, conditional” (21). The authors, individually and collectively, pursue five goals in their exploration of colonial California community building: considering how Indigenous Californians formed new communities and redefined existing communities, exploring how traditional and innovative community-building practices worked, assessing the impact of shared physical proximity on community building, and pinpointing when, where, and how communities intersected. The book as a whole and the individual chapters succeed beautifully. The result is a diverse range of scholarship that coheres methodologically and thematically in ways that help the reader better understand the significance of each individual chapter.The chapters in part 1 detail how the Gabrieleño, Chumash, and Pomo people re-created Indigenous spiritual communities within colonial contexts. Native converts and workers continued traditional mourning and courtship customs, which linked widely dispersed villages to each other and to the mission system. Both archaeological and documentary evidence suggest how traditional practices intersected with missionization and migratory labor patterns to produce new kinds of Indigenous communities. The chapters in part 2 illustrate how Indigenous people built communities outside colonial institutions, but directly in response to colonialism. The Chumash and Tejon people of Southern California organized multiethnic communities around resistance to the mission system, while Ohlone and Yokuts converts at Mission Santa Clara used the mission itself to maintain political and economic ties between Native villages. Intermarriage between the latter two linguistic groups created complex new tribal identities. Part 3, the final section, reveals how Indigenous Californians created unique colonial communities to meet distinctly Indigenous needs. Ohlone and Yokuts at Santa Clara developed a communal identity that knit together a diverse population. The Pomo near Fort Ross in Marin County and the Kumayyay of San Diego created settlement patterns to connect themselves more securely to the broader colonial economy.Hull and Douglas’s collection makes a welcome addition to existing scholarship and suggests a new paradigm for studies of Indigenous California. A deep dive into specific aspects of Indigenous Californian communities gives historians new ways to understand what made Indigenous communities cohere, beyond the abstractions of tribelet or language group. The theoretical and methodological rigor of this volume also invites comparison between the colonial experiences of Indigenous Californians and those of Native societies in other regions and eras. This volume is a must-read for scholars of Indigenous California. It represents some of the most energizing research in this field: the synergy of historical archaeology and ethnohistory is illuminating and inspiring. All scholars of Indigenous histories will benefit from its careful considerations of what community means, how it is created, and the many purposes it can serve.

The Real Stranded Assets of Carbon Lock-In

Climate debates over stranded assets are focusing on the wrong assets. Fossil-fuel companies and petrostates argue that they will suffer economic losses from climate policies. Although true, this ignores assets that will be stranded in the absence of climate policy. These are the real stranded assets of carbon lock-in and could prove much more costly.

Contesting Trauma and Violence through Indigeneity and a Decolonizing Pedagogy at Rio Hondo Community College

ABSTRACT Over a period of nine years (2011–2019), I have had the opportunity to engage with – and to contextualize through a decolonial and mental health lens – the growing threats to and the policing of students at different Southern Californian community colleges. These interactions occurred with a non-White majority of students, mainly Xicanas/os, who were present in these community college classes in large numbers. In this paper, I write about a decolonizing teaching strategy that is both culturally sustaining and revitalizing, and conscious of race. Students of Mesoamerican ancestry, identified by the community colleges as Hispanic, benefit when teachers engage them through an Indigenous lens, affording to such students their rightful place as Native Americans to combat forms of trauma and violence. In addition, I outline the initial observations of the Mesoamerican Figurine Project of Rio Hondo College, where students materialized their own views of the human body and self through clay-work and reflective writing. Using the Borderlands lens and the Coatlicue State – I posit “a teaching archaeology of the human body” that nurtures self-determination and births an Indigeneity grounded in land and cosmology.

Anti-gentrification Campaigns and the Fight for Local Control in California Cities

Abstract Gentrification is integral to the functioning of global cities: international developers raze old housing and renovate industrial lofts for elite service workers seeking central-city accommodations. In the process, local real estate markets heat up and working-class residents find themselves priced out, displaced more often than not to peripheral sites of the global metropolis. In Californian communities in downtown and the east side of Los Angeles, the Mission in San Francisco, and Barrio Logan in San Diego, however, residents rejected this process of involuntary movement, instead arguing for the value of historically rich, rooted communities. In what appeared to be a wave of anti-global activism beginning in the 1980s, residents worked to regain control over their local communities through a variety of strategies including the deliberate deployment of local culture and arts, and the increasingly savvy use of media and public relations. With these tools, anti-gentrifiers asserted ownership without property titles, housing rights without mortgages, and community buy-in without cash deposits. Anti-gentrification movements thus constituted a direct challenge to the workings of the global city while also feeding into a global movement to restore political power to the grassroots.

Exposure to Traffic and Regional Air Pollution Throughout the Life Course on Lung Function

Introduction: Several studies have reported adverse effects of near-roadway air pollution and regional air pollution on lung function in children. However, there has been little investigation as to whether there is a critical time when these pollutants may cause the largest detrimental effect to the developing lung. Methods: As part of the Children’s Health Study, repeated measurements of forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) were assessed on 1,502 children between the ages of 11 and 15 in eight Southern Californian communities. Residential measures of exposure to near-roadway air pollutants from either freeways or large roads (freeway or non-freeway nitric oxides [NOx]) were estimated using the CALINE4 dispersion model, while regional pollutants (nitrogen dioxide [NO2], ozone [O3], and particulate matter with aerodynamic dynamiter of less than 2.5um and 10um [PM2.5 and PM10]) were estimated from inverse distance weighting of regional monitoring stations. All exposures were estimated from one year prior to birth until last year of follow-up. Mixed linear regression models were used to associate exposures during different periods of life and lung function. Results: Preliminary findings suggest that exposure to an increase of 18.9 ppb of freeway NOx one year before birth was associated with a 23.1 ml decrease in FVC (p-value = 0.02), while exposure to the same change in freeway NOx one year after birth was associated with a 16.0 ml decrease (p-value = 0.047). However, exposure to freeway NOx one year before lung function testing was associated with a non-significant decrease in FVC (13.2 ml deficit, p-value = 0.052). Conclusion: These results suggest that early life exposure to near-roadway air pollutants may be more impactful than during other periods in the trajectory of lung development through adolescence. There was less consistent findings with regional air pollution.

Determinants of the spatial distributions of elemental carbon and particulate matter in eight Southern Californian communities

Emerging evidence indicates that near-roadway pollution (NRP) in ambient air has adverse health effects. However, specific components of the NRP mixture responsible for these effects have not been established. A major limitation for health studies is the lack of exposure models that estimate NRP components observed in epidemiological studies over fine spatial scale of tens to hundreds of meters. In this study, exposure models were developed for fine-scale variation in biologically relevant elemental carbon (EC). Measurements of particulate matter (PM) and EC less than 2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter (EC2.5) and of PM and EC of nanoscale size less than 0.2 μm were made at up to 29 locations in each of eight Southern California Children's Health Study communities. Regression-based prediction models were developed using a guided forward selection process to identify traffic variables and other pollutant sources, community physical characteristics and land use as predictors of PM and EC variation in each community. A combined eight-community model including only CALINE4 near-roadway dispersion-estimated vehicular emissions accounting for distance, distance-weighted traffic volume, and meteorology, explained 51% of the EC0.2 variability. Community-specific models identified additional predictors in some communities; however, in most communities the correlation between predicted concentrations from the eight-community model and observed concentrations stratified by community was similar to those for the community-specific models. EC2.5 could be predicted as well as EC0.2. EC2.5 estimated from CALINE4 and population density explained 53% of the within-community variation. Exposure prediction was further improved after accounting for between-community heterogeneity of CALINE4 effects associated with average distance to Pacific Ocean shoreline (to 61% for EC0.2) and for regional NOx pollution (to 57% for EC2.5). PM fine spatial scale variation was poorly predicted in both size fractions. In conclusion, models of exposure that include traffic measures such as CALINE4 can provide useful estimates for EC0.2 and EC2.5 on a spatial scale appropriate for health studies of NRP in selected Southern California communities.

Associations of children's lung function with ambient air pollution: joint effects of regional and near-roadway pollutants

BackgroundPrevious studies have reported adverse effects of either regional or near-roadway air pollution (NRAP) on lung function. However, there has been little study of the joint effects of these exposures.ObjectivesTo...

Abstract 191: Community Uptake of a Smartphone Application to Recruit Bystander Basic Life Support for Victims of Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

Background: PulsePoint is a smartphone application that links bystanders with the 911 response to cardiac arrest. The application facilitates bystander basic life support while EMS personnel are en route. After community members download the free software to their smartphones, they can receive automated alerts directing them to nearby public location out-of-hospital cardiac arrests and public AED locations. Objective: To quantify the uptake of the PulsePoint application in two Californian communities. Methods: PulsePoint was launched in San Ramon December 2011 and in San Jose February 2012. Promotional efforts in both communities included mass media campaigns, public service announcements in theatres and the use of social media outlets (e.g. Twitter and Facebook). Data from iTunes, Android Market and the PulsePoint enterprise server were collected to document uptake. Results: As of May 27, 2012 there were 23,069 PulsePoint application downloads (18,000 iOS, 5,069 Android). Figure 1 shows the cumulative installations of the PulsePoint application over time. The number of devices registered on the PulsePoint server is 11,167, accounting for users who removed the application from their device after installation. Of those devices registered, only 30% (3,350/11,167) have settings configured to receive cardiac arrest alerts. To date, there have been 64 suspected cardiac arrest incidents associated with a PulsePoint alert. Conclusion: There has been significant uptake of the PulsePoint application in San Ramon and San Jose with an increasing number of users over time. Future work should focus on methods to maximize the number of users configuring the cardiac arrest alerts feature to be active, to encourage retention of the application and determining the effectiveness of the application with respect to increasing bystander CPR, AED use and survival for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims in the community.

The effect of ambient air pollution on exhaled nitric oxide in the Children's Health Study

We assessed the effect of daily variations in ambient air pollutants on exhaled nitric oxide fraction (F(eNO)) using data from a cohort of school children with large differences in air pollutant exposures from the Children's Health Study. Based on a cohort of 2,240 school children from 13 Southern Californian communities, cumulative lagged average regression models were fitted to determine the association between F(eNO) and ambient air pollution levels from central site monitors with lags of up to 30 days prior to F(eNO) testing. Daily 24-h cumulative lagged averages of particles with a 50% cut-off aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 µm (PM₂.₅; over 1-8 days) and particles with a 50% cut-off aerodynamic diameter of 10 µm (PM₁₀; over 1-7 days), as well as 10:00-18:00 h cumulative lagged average of O₃ (over 1-23 days) were significantly associated with 17.42% (p<0.01), 9.25% (p<0.05) and 14.25% (p<0.01) higher F(eNO) levels over the interquartile range of 7.5 μg·m⁻³, 12.97 μg·m⁻³ and 15.42 ppb, respectively. The effects of PM₂.₅, PM₁₀ and O₃ were higher in the warm season. The particulate matter effects were robust to adjustments for effects of O₃ and temperature and did not vary by asthma or allergy status. In summary, short-term increases in PM₂.₅, PM₁₀ and O₃ were associated with airway inflammation independent of asthma and allergy status, with PM₁₀ effects significantly higher in the warm season.

Politics, Kinship, and Ancestors: Some Diasporic Dimensions of the Vietnamese Experience in North America

This article examines some political, social, and symbolic dimensions of the Việt Kiều (overseas Vietnamese) experience in North America. On the basis of ethnographic data from Quebec (Canada) and Southern California, it seeks to understand how and at which moments in their history the experience of these Vietnamese Canadians and Americans could or could not have been considered diasporic. The article concludes that because of diverging demographic, social, and historical circumstances, the Quebec Việt Kiều ceased being a diaspora after the inception of Đồi Mối, while the post-1975 diasporic moment has seemingly continued on in Californian communities.

Community-wide transmission of a strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis that causes reduced lung pathology in mice

Since 1992, Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain PG004 has been responsible for a large outbreak of tuberculosis in one northern Californian community. There are no epidemiological or host factors to explain this outbreak. PG004 was therefore analysed for biological characteristics that might explain its widespread distribution. BABL/c mice were infected intravenously with PG004, non-PG004 M. tuberculosis strains CCC20 and CCC23 isolated from patients in the same community, and the laboratory strain H37Rv. The susceptibility of PG004 to reactive nitrogen intermediates (RNIs) was compared with that of H37Rv. Because of the reported association of phenolic glycolipid production with mouse virulence, a junction sequence in the polyketide synthase gene cluster (pks 15/1) was compared among strains. It was found that the most virulent strain, based on mouse mortality, was not the outbreak strain PG004, but the non-outbreak strain CCC20. This strain had an intact pks 15/1 sequence identical to that of another non-outbreak strain, CCC23, which caused death in only one out of ten mice in 300 days of follow-up. The outbreak strain PG004 had a frameshift mutation in the pks 15/1 sequence identical to the sequence of H37Rv, and it was no more resistant to RNIs than H37Rv. The most distinguishing feature of PG004 was its failure to produce well-organized, coalescing granulomas in mouse lungs. The lack of organized granulomas and reduced pathology may prevent restriction of PG004 in the lungs and allow it to spread into alveolar air spaces and escape the host to transmit to others. Humans with reduced lung pathology may remain undiagnosed and untreated in the community longer than those with severe disease. The over-representation of an M. tuberculosis strain in a community, therefore, may be more associated with strains that cause reduced rather than severe lung pathology.

The Spatial and Temporal Variability of Residential Real Estate Values in Response to Flooding

A relationship between residential property values and the incidence of flooding is represented, using a case study of two Californian communities that were flooded following a levee break. Analysis of the real estate market before and after the flood shows that the flood was capitalized into housing values, whereby both list and selling prices dropped immediately and have recently begun to recover. However, recovery of the market is not uniform throughout the floodplain. Houses that suffered eighteen inches of water recovered to near pre-flood values in less than one year. In contrast, houses that had approximately ten feet of water in them have not recovered to the same extent, indicating that capitalization and recovery do not occur evenly. These findings suggest that policies and programs should address these spatial and temporal differences in recovery, which are expected to vary with different flood frequencies and magnitudes.

Use of Pheromone Traps to Suppress Populations of Scolytus Multistriatus in Small, Isolated Californian Communities

Dutch elm disease was first discovered in California in 1975 and the State of California has since been involved in a program to eliminate all sources of infection from the counties where the disease has been located (Arciero 1979). However, the State is also funding research to develop methods for suppressing the fungus and vector, should the disease become more widely established in California, in the future. One of these methods is a trapping system using pheromone-baited traps to remove large numbers of the smaller European elm bark beetle. Scolytus multistriatus (Marsham), from cities such as Sacramento, which have large numbers of valuable elms.

Light and Hyperbilirubinemia

Dr. Thomas H. Milby, et al., of the California Department of Public Health1 described a significant (p. &amp;lt; .01) seasonal variation in the incidence of neonatal nonhemolytic unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia, observed in a hospital in a small, predominantly agricultural Californian community during a 4-year observation period (1963-1966). An excess of cases occurred during the fourth quarter of each of the 4 years reviewed, as compared with the other quarters of these years. A similar trend (p. &amp;lt; .5) was apparent in a nearby hospital during 2 of the 33 years reviewed (1964-1966).

A comparison of the sclerophyllous vegetation characteristic of Mediterranean type climates in France, California, and Southern Australia. II. Dry matter, energy, and nutrient accumulation

The annual rates of growth (on the basis of dry weight and of solar energy fixed) and nutrient uptakes of garrigue, chaparral, heath, and mallee-broombush growing in the Mediterranean type homoclime of southern France, California, and southern Australia were compared during the first 10 years of succession following fire. The Australian and Californian communities have an essentially similar growth rate of 640-2000 kg/ha/yr. The growth rate of the chaparral may be slightly greater than that of the Australian cominunities owing to greater availability of the nutrients phosphorus and potassium. The application of phosphorus fertilizer will increase the growth rate of Australian heath to that of the chaparral. Observations of Long et al. (1967) made on garrigue 10 km north of Montpellier, France indicate a growth rate of c. 1500 kg/ha/yr, essentially similar to that of the Australian and Californian communities. The author's data for a dense, vigorous stand of garrigue growing on relatively fertile calcareous soil 13 km north-west of Montpellier reveal an annual growth rate of 4000-4200 kg/ha/yr. The growth rates of these distinctive plant communities, composed of entirely different species, are largely controlled by the major factors - solar radiation and available water. In similar homocIimes essentially the same growth rate results. Within limits, soil fertility will play a minor role in controlling the growth rate and consequently the nature of the resultant plant community.

A Californian Community

A Californian Community