The Journey to be Anti-Racist: Robin DiAngelo

This artifact is a timeline that demonstrates the progression of events leading Dr. DiAngelo to write her book, White Fragility: Why It\u27s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism. Dr. DiAngelo is very intentional about understanding how her upbringing has shaped her life and privilege. By exploring her socioeconomic class and race, she has come to further understand her place and society and the impact she can have. I hope to do the same: to examine her life and sum the influential events leading up to her book and life today into a timeline that tells the story of how a lower-class, white girl became such a strong voice and advocate against racial oppression. My hope is that this timeline will lead to a deeper understanding of how to be active about the passion for racial justice as we look to Dr. DiAngelo’s example

Density- and age-dependent reproduction partially compensates culling efforts of invasive non-native American mink

Management strategies of wildlife species must pay due regard to density dependent changes in vital rates. Knowledge of density dependent relationships is sparse for most species but such knowledge ought to inform adaptive management. Using data from a large-scale, 6 years of control effort of the invasive non-native American mink (Neovison vison) in Scotland, we analysed density dependent changes in reproduction as revealed by placental scar counts in culled females. Control strongly reduced mink density but it varied substantially over time and space, reflecting variation in when control was initiated in each river section. We used hurdle statistical models to simultaneously relate the probability of conception, litter size and female age to prevailing mink density in river sections where the female was culled. Both the probability of conceiving a litter (average 0.81) and litter size (average 5.52 pups) increased as the density of females, but not males, declined. In addition, there was a senescent decline in both components of fecundity, which given culling of mink and subsequent reinvasions, resulted in a younger population, adding further to density dependent compensation in fecundity. There was no evidence of depensation, even at the lowest density. The predicted combined impact of changes in density and age structure could lead to an increase in fecundity of up to 2.1 pups per female occupying or reinvading the controlled area. Control strategies must be sufficiently adaptable and robust in order to overcome this compensation and suppress densities of mink and other invasive mammals

Chronicles of Oklahoma

Article gives a brief history of the Daugherty Ranch, established in the Muscogee (Creek) Nation by James Monroe Daugherty. Ella M. Robinson describes the cattleman's journey, the extent of his holdings, and the success his met in Indian Territory

Sussing out ageing: Sharing lesbian & queer women's knowledge of ageing in Aotearoa New Zealand

This thesis is a qualitative study exploring how some lesbian and queer women (aged 45 to 88) conceptualise, and experience ageing, old age and the life course in Aotearoa New Zealand. Combining semi-structured interviews with fieldwork conducted in Dunedin, Auckland, Wellington and the Kāpiti Coast, this project shares 32 participants’ insights into the importance of multifigurative (tacit and verbal) knowledge exchange in forming subjectivities at the confluence of age, sexuality, and gender. Through personal stories of agency, adjustment, appropriation, and resistance, this multigenerational group of women discuss the changes ageing bestows on multiple levels of personhood – including changes to the body, temporal orientation, sexual drive, and one’s sense of embodiment. They offer humorous, poignant and inspiring perspectives of an ever-changing world where ‘the personal is political’ at all ages, especially when confronted by heteronormative representations of old age, deficit-based rhetoric, and gendered representations of the life course that privileges a reproductive trajectory. Amid the cacophony of ‘successful’, ‘positive’, or ‘active’ ageing discourses, alongside medicalised narratives of decline, this critical, ethnographic study makes space for lesbian and queer women’s phenomenological and social knowledge of ageing to be shared. A key insight is the importance of intra- and intergenerational encounters, friendships, older family members, lovers, and ‘peripheral role models’ for imagining alternative life paths, older age, and how to leave the world. Participants’ stories and impressions of ageing unfold against recent attempts to raise awareness of the difficulties faced by older ‘rainbow’ citizens navigating the New Zealand health and aged care sector. Informed by a multidisciplinary body of literature and the theoretical perspectives of critical, queer, and feminist scholars interested in ageing, I contextualise women’s personal experiences against a backdrop of neoliberal, consumerist and political economic forces. I reveal how such social systems influence both participants’ fears of entering health and aged care institutions, and the language employed by advocates seeking to improve these services. I thus join an increasing number of scholars highlighting the limitations of expanding models of ‘cultural competency’ in biomedical contexts to include queer identities and suggest returning to Irihapeti Ramsden’s (2002) important work on Cultural Safety. With an increasingly diverse ageing population, I argue that lesbian and queer women’s perspectives on ageing, and their attempts to create alternative spaces for ‘ageing well’, raise important questions about the future of aged care in New Zealand for everyone

Effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on the healthcare experiences of medical crowdfunders in Aotearoa New Zealand

New Zealand went into a strict, nation-wide lockdown at 11:59pm, on Wednesday the 25th of March 2020, in an early effort to stem community transmission of – and later, eliminate – COVID-19. This lockdown was justified by protecting public health, but it also involved a variety of rapidly-implemented changes to standard healthcare delivery and access, including access to medical facilities and personnel, postponement of many routine or non-urgent procedures, and move to ‘virtual’ consultations wherever possible. Literature has established that studying the growing phenomena of medical crowdfunding can be a useful way to examine systemic inequality, and precarity, within different national healthcare systems. In the context of dramatic (though temporary) changes to healthcare delivery during lockdown, we consider crowdfunding as a way to understand the experiences of those who were already unwell or fell ill (with non-COVID-related illnesses) during this time, as they engaged with these systems. The data is drawn from a larger research project on medical crowdfunding in New Zealand, which happened to be collecting quantitative data directly after the return to Level 1, and covering campaigns that had run prior to and throughout Levels 4, 3, and 2. We asked the following question: In what ways did medical crowdfunding campaign narratives reveal some of the effects of New Zealand’s pandemic response on the healthcare experiences of those already living with health needs, during the 2020 lockdown? We approached this question through a qualitative analysis of 50 medical crowdfunding campaigns which mentioned COVID-19 as part of their narratives. The majority (74%) of these campaigns were for people experiencing illness – the remaining (26%) were for those with injuries; differences or disabilities; mental health needs; seeking gender-affirming healthcare; and other. Campaigns were often co-constructed by the recipient and a third party. Campaigns sought mainly support with general living expenses during illness (including rent, bills, travel costs, childcare, etc) with a minority of campaigns fundraising directly for medical treatment or equipment. The findings convey how campaigns narrated institutional change (including delays or cancellations, the impacts of travel restrictions on access to healthcare, backlogs in the healthcare system, and the change to virtual consultation), economic impacts that also affected the ability of people to support themselves during periods of illness (including job or income loss, and change to fundraising plans), and wider effects on wellbeing (in terms of changes to social support systems, and pressures on mental health). We lay out some conclusions about the value of and possibilities for crowdfunding as a window into the pressures and precarities various people within New Zealand faced, during this time. In particular the campaigns we studied went against trends noted in other campaign studies, to directly address the entanglements between personal states of health, and personal healthcare needs, and wider political, bureaucratic, and economic, systems and structures. Gaps in existing systems, and populations who were unevenly affected, can be identified through studying crowdfunding patterns, and crowdfunding narratives. The need for continuing critical attention to the state’s actions, even in times of crisis, is emphasised. We suggest some directions for future research that develops the critical, theoretical, and applied potential of this approach and this data

Chronicles of Oklahoma

Notes and Documents section for Volume 46, Number 3, Autumn 1968. It includes a history of the establishment of the "4-D" school in the Cherokee Strip, an account of a fire that destroyed the Spaulding Institute, and a letter detailing the life of a Creek boy while attending school at the Kowetah Mission

The healthiness of food and beverages on price promotion at promotional displays: A cross-sectional audit of australian supermarkets

Supermarket environments can strongly influence purchasing decisions. Price promotions are recognised as a particularly persuasive tactic, but the healthiness of price promotions in prominent in-store locations is understudied. This study compared the prevalence and magnitude of price promotions on healthy and unhealthy food and beverages (foods) displayed at prominent in-store locations within Australian supermarkets, including analyses by supermarket group and area-level socio-economic position. A cross-sectional in-store audit of price promotions on foods at key display areas was undertaken in 104 randomly selected stores from major Australian supermarket groups (Woolworths, Coles, Aldi and independents) in Victoria, Australia. Of the display space dedicated to foods with price promotions, three of the four supermarket groups had a greater proportion of display space devoted to unhealthy (compared to healthy) foods at each promotional location measured (end of aisles: 66%; island bins: 53%; checkouts: 88%). Aldi offered very few price promotions. Few measures varied by area-level socio-economic position. This study demonstrated that price promotions at prominent in-store locations in Australian supermarkets favoured unhealthy foods. Marketing of this nature is likely to encourage the purchase of unhealthy foods, highlighting the need for retailers and policy-makers to consider addressing in-store pricing and placement strategies to encourage healthier food environments

Understanding consumers’ perceptions of smoke-affected wines

Smoke taint in grapes and wine is complicated. If a vineyard is exposed to smoke, there are a whole range of factors that determine whether or not the wine eventually made from those grapes will be smoke-affected and to what degree. While many of those factors are now quite well understood (Coulter, 2022; Parker et al., 2023), questions still remain about what consumers think. Do they notice smoke characters in wine? Do they like or dislike them? How strong do smoke characters need to be to cause a reaction in consumers? And are all consumers the same when it comes to smoky wines? Three recent consumer sensory studies at the AWRI aimed to learn more about the answers to these questions. This article presents a summary of the results and conclusions of this work. Full details were recently published by Bilogrevic et al. (2023) as an open access article in the peer-reviewed journal, OENO One (https://doi.org/10.20870/oeno-one.2023.57.2.7261)

Lafite in China

Increased economic power has positioned China within the global elite, yet China’s legitimacy remains low with regard to hierarchies of taste. Drawing from Bourdieu and Elias, this article offers an account of the global dynamics of status contests, and the role played by cultural capital and notions of civility and vulgarity. Specifically, we examine how U.S., UK, and Chinese media represent Chinese consumption of fine wine, and particularly that of Château Lafite, in the 2000 to 2013 period. Our analysis reveals four major ways in which Chinese fine wine consumption is framed—as vulgar, popular, functional, and discerning—and highlights tensions between Western and Chinese terms of cultural legitimacy. The research uncovers nuanced dimensions to the “East/West” divide in terms of the grades of cultural capital, competing logics of valuation, and modes of civility at play. Macromarketing implications of fine wine consumption in a fragmented and complex market are discussed

CONTRA: copy number analysis for targeted resequencing

Motivation: In light of the increasing adoption of targeted resequencing (TR) as a cost-effective strategy to identify disease-causing variants, a robust method for copy number variation (CNV) analysis is needed to maximize the value of this promising technology