Water as a Social Opportunity edited by Seanna L. Davidson, Jamie Linton, and Warren E. Mabee

Review of Seanna L. Davidson, Jamie Linton, and Warren E. Mabee\u27s Water as a Social Opportunity

Storying Memories, Storying Ourselves: Autobiographical Explorations of Mixed Race Identity and Belonging

How do family stories shape our lives and identities, and influence our sense of home and belonging? What might it mean to seek out such stories in the context of mixed race heritage, intergenerational migration, and language differences? Perspectives and experiences of mixed race are understudied in Canada, and the scholarship that exists tends to focus on questions of governance, multicultural policy, and directions in multiracial discourse. In contrast to these outward-looking tendencies, my paper centres reflexively on my own experiences as a mixed race woman, maintaining a more intimate scale in its exploration of the connections between identity and family. Through an autobiographical case study that places my memories and experiences alongside the personal narratives and stories of eight family members, I explore my ‘mixed’ identity within the interstices of racial and other categories; my ongoing relationship with Chinese food and food practices; and my shifting understanding and senses of family, belonging, and home. In the process, frames of anti-oppressive and anti-racist feminism, relationality, embodiment, and an ethic of care and love are applied to family interviews, cooking as inquiry, journaling, and arts-based methods such as drawing, poetic writing, and photography. Emphasizing women’s voices and concentrating on the Chinese, paternal side of my family, my work is guided by the following interconnected questions: 1. What is the context and history of my family members – especially women – who have migrated, and/or who are part of the Chinese Diaspora in Canada? 2. How do my siblings and I experience and negotiate mixed race identity from our differing positions? 3. How are my understandings of and connections with family, culture, and ancestors influenced by family stories, food practices, and thinking through water? My research speaks to the importance of personal and autobiographical narrative – and the spaces for such narrative – for attending to perspectives that are less commonly heard, including mixed race experiences. In doing so, I contribute nuance and complexity to what might otherwise be understood as Chinese identity and the Chinese Diaspora in a Canadian context. Meanwhile, I also add to knowledge on creative family-based research practices by considering what it means to undertake this very personal work and accountably engage with research involving family in an academic context. I conclude that belonging, in my case, can be sought through stories, knowledges I already hold and can expand, and embodied experiences of home – rather than only looking in physical places, specific types of identity, or language

DETERMINANTS OF UNSAFE HAMBURGER COOKING BEHAVIOR

We used a national hamburger preparation survey to estimate a simultaneous equation model of food safety knowledge, attitudes, and hamburger cooking behavior. The results suggest that food safety risk perceptions, palatability attributes, and food safety knowledge play important roles in determining food preparation behavior.Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Lensed Density Perturbations in Braneworlds: An Alternative to Perturbations from Inflation

We consider a scenario in which our observable universe is a 3-dimensional surface (3-brane) living in extra dimensions with a warped geometry. We show that ``lensed'' density perturbations from other branes serve as possible seeds for structure formation on our observable brane (without inflation), and, in addition, provide constraints on braneworld scenarios with warped bulk geometry. Due to the warped bulk metric, any perturbation generated on one brane (or in the bulk matter) appears to an observer on a second brane to have a significantly different amplitude. We analyze lensed perturbations in the Randall-Sundrum type scenarios and the ``shortcut metric'' scenarios. For Lorentz violating metrics in the bulk, we find the attractive possibility that large density fluctuations that are causally produced elsewhere can lead to small density fluctuations on our brane on superhorizon (acausal) length scales, as required by structure formation. Our most interesting result is that the ``shortcut metrics'' in which geodesics traverse the extra dimensions provide an alternative to inflation with two important features: a possible solution to the horizon problem and a mechanism to generate perturbations necessary for structure formation.Comment: 27 page

CONSUMER FOOD SAFETY BEHAVIOR: A CASE STUDY IN HAMBURGER COOKING AND ORDERING

More Americans are eating hamburgers more well-done than in the past, according to national surveys. This change reduced the risk of E. coli O157:H7 infection by an estimated 4.6 percent and reduced associated medical costs and productivity losses by an estimated $7.4 million annually. In a 1996 survey, respondents who were more concerned about the risk of foodborne illness cooked and ordered hamburgers more well-done than those who were less concerned. However, respondents who strongly preferred hamburgers less well-done cooked and ordered them that way, even after accounting for their concern about the risk of illness.hamburger doneness, ground beef, food safety, food safety education, E. coli O157:H7, consumer behavior, survey, risk, foodborne illness, risk perceptions, palatability, information, microbial pathogens, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Advertising Practioners’ Educational Prerequisites: Differentiating The Needs Of Creatives From Non Creatives

Singapore‘s advertising industry is one of the clusters identified as an important growth area in the country‘s creative economy. The growth of the media industry, in particular the advertising industry has thus added urgency to call for higher institutions in Singapore to help nurture a pool of creative manpower by providing a well-rounded and comprehensive relevant education on advertising. An effective education policy is therefore a prime instrument in facilitating developments in this industry. A joint research initiative was conducted with the participation of a few advertising companies in Singapore. These included both creative agencies as well as media buying firms. The research served to examine the formal education needs of both creative and non-creative advertising professionals. From the study, we found that the education requirements for creative and non-creative education are similar, but not identical. Industry practitioners viewed that practical exposure are important for both groups of professionals. However, for creative education especially, this aspect took an additional importance as the most notable and common responses were the invitation of industry practitioners to conduct classes, undertaking real life projects and obtaining a global perspective via the engagement of renowned international advertising professionals or going for overseas internships. The study served as a springboard to a more exhaustive study in the advertising industry within Singapore as well as in comparison over a cross-section of countries, providing an insight into trends, different supporting factors and conditions for creativity in relation to the advertising industry

Generalized Cardassian Expansion: Models in Which the Universe is Flat, Matter Dominated, and Accelerating

The Cardassian universe is a proposed modification to the Friedmann Robertson Walker (FRW) equation in which the universe is flat, matter dominated, and accelerating. Here we generalize the original Cardassian proposal to include additional variants on the FRW equation. Specific examples are presented. In the ordinary FRW equation, the right hand side is a linear function of the energy density, $H^2 \sim \rho$. Here, instead, the right hand side of the FRW equation is a different function of the energy density, $H^2 \sim g(\rho)$. This function returns to ordinary FRW at early times, but modifies the expansion at a late epoch of the universe. The only ingredients in this universe are matter and radiation: in particular, there is {\it no} vacuum contribution. Currently the modification of the FRW equation is such that the universe accelerates. The universe can be flat and yet consist of only matter and radiation, and still be compatible with observations. The energy density required to close the universe is much smaller than in a standard cosmology, so that matter can be sufficient to provide a flat geometry. The modifications may arise, e.g., as a consequence of our observable universe living as a 3-dimensional brane in a higher dimensional universe. The Cardassian model survives several observational tests, including the cosmic background radiation, the age of the universe, the cluster baryon fraction, and structure formation. As will be shown in future work, the predictions for observational tests of the generalized Cardassian models can be very different from generic quintessence models, whether the equation of state is constant or time dependent.Comment: 5 pages, Conference Proceeding, Meeting on Sources and Detection of Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe, Marina del Rey, CA, February 200

Effects of High Fat Diet and Exercise on the Metabolism of Maternal Hearts during Pregnancy

Obesity has become a major concern for developed nations across the world, and the United States is the country which is most affected by this pandemic. Excess adiposity is known to cause chronic inflammation, diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease: the leading cause of death for over a decade. With many women of reproductive age considered overweight or obese, the association between obesity and metabolic disorder is concerning. Positive metabolic health outcomes of offspring due to maternal exercise have been documented; however, little is known about how maternal exercise modifies high fat diet associated metabolic dysregulation upon mothers during gestation. The aim of our study was to determine whether maternal exercise before and during pregnancy would alleviate high fat diet-associated glucose and insulin resistance in high fat fed pregnant mice. Using C57BL/6 virgin female mice as a model, we fed the animals either a low fat diet (LFD; 10% kcal from fat) or a high fat diet (HFD; 45% kcal from fat) for twelve weeks, with an exercise intervention after four weeks (HFD+Ex), and pregnancy initiation after eight weeks of diet consumption. Glucose and insulin tolerance tests were performed at day 15 of gestation. Prescribed diet and exercise (or sedentary) behavior continued throughout pregnancy until animals were sacrificed at the 19th day of gestation. The HFD animals experienced a significant increase in body weight, along with increased numbers of calories consumed per day, and exercise further increased body weight and food intake. Both the HFD and the HFD+Ex animals displayed impaired glucose and insulin tolerance testing when compared with the LFD animals. Interestingly, exercise improved serum insulin levels at termination. mRNA expression of genes involved in fatty acid and glucose metabolism were upregulated in the HFD+Ex animals compared with the HFD mice. Our study exhibits that the development of adiposity from the consumption of a high fat diet prior to pregnancy leads to detrimental maternal effects during late gestation, including higher body weight, and glucose tolerance. Surprisingly, the addition of exercise did not alter dam morphology or gestational glucose tolerance; however, it did improve serum insulin levels and metabolite handling in the heart

Review of Zero Energy Building Concept-Definition and Developments in Latin America: A Framework Definition for Application in Panama

In recent decades, European countries have developed concepts, definitions, and construction technologies for Zero Energy Building (ZEB) that are effective and correspond to their specific climates. Latin American countries are still trying to find adequate solutions which respond to the local climatic, cultural, social, technical, and economic context. As such, this paper aims to establish the basis of the minimum energy efficiency and the renewable threshold for the definition of ZEB in order to better understand the application in Panama, based on assessing the energy regulations implemented in Panama. To achieve this aim, a review concentrated on the concept-definition and implementation adopted by Latin American countries is presented first before the paper converges into defining a framework for application in Panama. Finally, a case-study-based theoretical framework proposing a ZEB definition for Panama is discussed. The results of this study showed a net primary energy balance, of which the range falls into a plus energy building definition, indicating that all of the cases studied could supply their electricity needs using Photovoltaic generation. All dwellings studied have the potential to become a plus energy building, depending on the available roof surface area. Finally, a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis is presented in order to assess and support the introduction of such a ZEB definition and framework.In recent decades, European countries have developed concepts, definitions, and construction technologies for Zero Energy Building (ZEB) that are effective and correspond to their specific climates. Latin American countries are still trying to find adequate solutions which respond to the local climatic, cultural, social, technical, and economic context. As such, this paper aims to establish the basis of the minimum energy efficiency and the renewable threshold for the definition of ZEB in order to better understand the application in Panama, based on assessing the energy regulations implemented in Panama. To achieve this aim, a review concentrated on the concept-definition and implementation adopted by Latin American countries is presented first before the paper converges into defining a framework for application in Panama. Finally, a case-study-based theoretical framework proposing a ZEB definition for Panama is discussed. The results of this study showed a net primary energy balance, of which the range falls into a plus energy building definition, indicating that all of the cases studied could supply their electricity needs using Photovoltaic generation. All dwellings studied have the potential to become a plus energy building, depending on the available roof surface area. Finally, a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis is presented in order to assess and support the introduction of such a ZEB definition and framework