Roger Williams University

Drawing on an in-depth field study of low-income Muslim households in Turkey, this research theorizes poverty as a cultural enactment rather than a purely economic state. Our findings show that consumers mobilize religious and moral frameworks to interpret, relationally evaluate, and materially manage deprivation in ways that render hardship emotionally sustainable and socially dignified. Through moral enactments (e.g. divine testing, gratitude, prohibitions against waste), relational enactments (e.g. moralized social comparison and recalibrated needs), and embodied enactments (e.g. thrift, repair, reciprocity, and stewardship), participants transform objective scarcity into lived sufficiency and moral coherence. These culturally grounded processes reveal how poverty becomes meaningful, virtuous, and socially validated, challenging deficit-based assumptions that low-income consumers uniformly experience deprivation as psychologically damaging. By conceptualizing poverty as a culturally enacted moral order, this study offers a new framework for understanding how consumers sustain dignity, agency, and emotional resilience under structural constraint.

Multiple studies indicate that executive function (EF) skills predict academic achievement among children experiencing homelessness. However, few studies have examined the extent to which EF mediates or moderates links between early homelessness and subsequent math or reading achievement. Leveraging data from direct assessments of EF during pre-kindergarten screening and integrated administrative data from multiple sources, we examined the mediating and moderating effects of EF on the association between early childhood homelessness and third-grade academic achievement. Participants included 496 children (Mage = 54.27; 52% female) who completed three EF tasks in addition to a routine pre-kindergarten screening battery. By combining administrative data on homelessness with screening data, we identified 91 children exposed to early homelessness. Measures of academic achievement were drawn from educational administrative data. Research Findings: As hypothesized, early childhood homelessness predicted lower EF and subsequent third-grade achievement; EF skills partially mediated associations between homelessness and third-grade math and reading performance. Contrary to hypotheses, EF did not show moderating effects on the risk of early homelessness for achievement. Practice or Policy: Findings suggest that later achievement may be related to systemic risks associated with early homelessness that also affect early EF skills that are important for learning.

The production of replicas of heritage assets found in archaeological sites has been ongoing for hundreds of years around the world. Historically, replicas have been achieved using a technique of mold making and casting. Although this method can yield high-quality results, some artifacts are put at risk of being damaged in the process and others are unsuitable because of their fragility. Additionally, when comparing the original to the copy, these methods can result in a degradation of fidelity, inherent to the mold making and casting process. In recent decades, non-destructive techniques have emerged that rely on three-dimensional laser scanning to obtain high-resolution digital copies that can then be used to fabricate high-fidelity replicas with the help of additive or subtractive manufacturing processes, without endangering the original work. However, these techniques leave traces of the digital processes involved and, in many cases, use materials that negatively impact the environment when large-scale replicas are to be obtained. This paper presents the experiments and outcomes of using relatively new digitally aided reproduction methods to recreate a portion of the Hieroglyphic Stairway of Copán, Honduras, which is the longest pre-Hispanic inscription in the Maya area. This impressive structure with 63 steps at nearly 30 m high features approximately 1,100 sculpted hieroglyph blocks that tell the dynastic history of the Ancient Maya site of Copán, as commissioned by Ruler 14, K’ahk’ Joplaj Chan K’awiil in the eighth century CE. In addition to outlining the process and tools employed, the paper documents successful experiments with CNC routing of plaster in a semi-cured state, and the development of unique composite materials created with stone powder recovered from quarry waste obtained at the same location that was used by the ancient Maya. Our methods integrate the monolithic and aesthetic qualities of the original with the non-destructive, high-fidelity technique of using a 3D scan to cut a blank directly to obtain a positive without the use of environmentally harmful materials.

Hydromedusae are often overlooked in pelagic trophic ecology compared to large scyphozoans. We investigated the diet, prey selectivity, ingestion rates, digestion times, and predation impacts of the native Liriope tetraphylla and non-indigenous species Cnidostoma fallax and Moerisia inkermanica in a subtropical estuary of the southwestern Atlantic. While all three species predominantly consumed copepods, L. tetraphylla exhibited the broadest diet and highest number of preys in gut content (up to 13). Digestion time for L. tetraphylla decreased significantly with increasing temperature, from 94 min at 18 degrees C to 64 min at 28 degrees C, with Q(10) values showing that digestion rates roughly double with a 10 degrees C increase. Cnidostoma fallax exhibited longer digestion times (180 min at 23 degrees C). Daily ingestion rations ranged from 16 to 212 copepods day(-1) for L. tetraphylla, 7-15 for C. fallax, and up to 48 for M. inkermanica. Predation impact (PI), the proportion of a prey stock consumed by L. tetraphylla population, averaged 38.1% and peaked at 103.5%, while C. fallax and M. inkermanica had lower impacts (similar to 5%). Carbon intake analyses revealed that L. tetraphylla consumed daily up to 280 times its own carbon weight, far exceeding the non-indigenous species. These results highlight the critical role of hydromedusae in estuarine food webs, challenging the prevailing view that only large gelatinous predators exert top-down control. We demonstrate that small hydrozoans can be key agents shaping prey community structure and carbon flow in subtropical estuarine ecosystems.