Women Farmland Owners in Iowa: Cultivating Agency through Rhetorical Practice

While 47 percent of Iowa farmland is owned or co-owned by women, conventional agriculture remains largely a masculine enterprise. This dissertation focuses on the narratives of six women in Iowa who have become farmland owners through inheritance from spouses or other family members. Through ethnographic methods, I analyze the women\u27s decisions and resulting shifts in their identity, which is related to their status as farmland owners in a hegemonic culture where women are often marginalized. Furthermore, I argue that analyzing identity is an important aspect of understanding a purposeful, embodied human rhetorical agency

A qualitative analysis and evaluation of Iowa State\u27s ESL writing program: the English 101 series

The purpose of this study is to analyze and evaluate Iowa State\u27s English 101 series of classes through qualitative research consisting primarily of interviews with TESL faculty pedagogically and administratively involved with the program, teaching assistants who carry out the program\u27s instructional goals and students who are recipients of the instruction. The research will analyze strengths and weaknesses of the program, and suggest how the program may be improved

Understanding Less than Nothing: Children\u27s Neural Response to Negative Numbers Shifts Across Age and Accuracy

We examined the brain activity underlying the development of our understanding of negative numbers, which are amounts lacking direct physical counterparts. Children performed a paired comparison task with positive and negative numbers during an fMRI session. As previously shown in adults, both pre-instruction fifth-graders and post-instruction seventh-graders demonstrated typical behavioral and neural distance effects to negative numbers, where response times and parietal and frontal activity increased as comparison distance decreased. We then determined the factors impacting the distance effect in each age group. Behaviorally, the fifth-grader distance effect for negatives was significantly predicted only by positive comparison accuracy, indicating that children who were generally better at working with numbers were better at comparing negatives. In seventh-graders, negative number comparison accuracy significantly predicted their negative number distance effect, indicating that children who were better at working with negative numbers demonstrated a more typical distance effect. Across children, as age increased, the negative number distance effect increased in the bilateral IPS and decreased frontally, indicating a frontoparietal shift consistent with previous numerical development literature. In contrast, as negative comparison task accuracy increased, the parietal distance effect increased in the left IPS and decreased in the right, possibly indicating a change from an approximate understanding of negatives\u27 values to a more exact, precise representation (particularly supported by the left IPS) with increasing expertise. These shifts separately indicate the effects of increasing maturity generally in numeric processing and specifically in negative number understanding

Case report impact on orthognathic surgery for counterclockwise rotation and effect on airway, with or without temporomandibular joint total joint prostheses

Propósito: Presentar informes de casos que han generado nuevos protocolos de tratamiento que mejoran los resultados de los pacientes con deformidades mandibulares y compromiso de las vías respiratorias que requieren rotación en sentido contrario a las agujas del reloj (CCWR) del complejo maxilomandibular (MMC) con o sin necesidad de prótesis articular total (TJP) de la articulación temporomandibular (ATM). Se presentan estudios que verifican la eficacia de estos procedimientos. Métodos: Se identificaron presentaciones de casos iniciales en referencia a la CCWR de la MMC sin y con prótesis articular total de la ATM en casos de patología de la ATM coexistente en fase terminal. Se realizó una búsqueda bibliográfica no sistemática para identificar estudios pertinentes al tema. Resultados: Se presentan dos informes de casos que han afectado significativamente a nuestra especialidad: 1) CCWR de la MMC y efecto sobre las vías respiratorias, y 2) TJP de la ATM con osteotomías maxilares concomitantes para CCWR de la MMC. Se identificaron 40 artículos que cumplían los criterios filtrados. Veintinueve trabajos se excluyeron como informes de casos, filosofía, técnica o series de casos pequeñas. Once estudios cumplieron los criterios de inclusión y se resumen según los datos incluidos. Estos estudios validan la eficacia y estabilidad de la CCWR de la MMC en presencia de articulaciones sanas, así como en pacientes con patología de la ATM en fase terminal, utilizando la TJP personalizada de la ATM junto con la cirugía ortognática. Conclusiones: Los pacientes con ATM sana pueden ser tratados con CCWR de la MMC con resultados predecibles y estabilidad. Los pacientes con patología de la ATM en fase terminal pueden beneficiarse de la PTM de la ATM y la cirugía ortognática para la CCWR de la MMC con buena estabilidad, mejor función, disminución del dolor, mejora de las vías respiratorias y de la calidad de vida. © 2023Purpose: Present case reports that have generated new treatment protocols improving treatment of patient outcomes with jaw deformities and airway compromises requiring counterclockwise rotation (CCWR) of the maxillo-mandibular complex (MMC) with or without a requirement for temporomandibular joint (TMJ) total joint prostheses (TJP). Presented are studies that verify the efficacy of these procedures. Methods: Initial case presentations were identified in reference to CCWR of the MMC without and with TMJ total joint prostheses in cases of co-existing end-stage TMJ pathology. A non-systematic literature search was conducted to identify studies pertinent to subject matter. Results: Two case reports are presented that have significantly affected our specialty: 1) CCWR of the MMC and effect on airway, and 2) TMJ TJP with concomitant maxillary osteotomies for CCWR of the MMC. Forty papers were identified meeting the filtered criteria. Twenty-nine papers were excluded as case reports, philosophy, technique, or small case series. Eleven studies met the inclusion criteria and are summarized according to the data included. These studies validate the efficacy and stability of CCWR of the MMC in the presence of healthy joints as well as patients with end-stage TMJ pathology using custom TMJ TJP in conjunction with orthognathic surgery. Conclusions: Patients with healthy TMJs can be treated with CCWR of the MMC with predictable outcomes and stability. Patients with end-stage TMJ pathology can benefit from TMJ TJP and orthognathic surgery for CCWR of the MMC with good stability, improved function, decreased pain, improved airway, and quality of life. © 202

Global land deals: What has been done, what has changed, and what’s next?

In 2010, the Land Deals Politics Initiative formed to study the rising number of large-scale land deals taking place around the world. As the so-called ‘global land grab’ took shape, we organised small grant competitions to generate more empirical research into the phenomenon, and we organised conferences to debate the parameters and dynamics from the local level to the global. In this article, we take stock of what has been written about land grabbing as well as the way in which the context has changed since 2010. We highlight the ongoing need for research, as well as the changing nature of financial capital, the institutional “reforms” that resulted from calls for change, new technologies that have emerged to measure and distribute land access, the role of climate change in underpinning powerful new green grabs, and the changing geopolitical context that challenges resistance even as people struggle to retain their access to land. Finally, in the lead up to the 2024 Conference on Global Land Grabbing in Bogotá, Colombia, we highlight several challenges for the next decade of research on global land grabbing

The politics of evidence: A response to Rulli and D'Odorico

ESR

Anion vacancies as a source of persistent photoconductivity in II-VI and chalcopyrite semiconductors

Using first-principles electronic structure calculations we identify the anion vacancies in II-VI and chalcopyrite Cu-III-VI2 semiconductors as a class of intrinsic defects that can exhibit metastable behavior. Specifically, we predict persistent electron photoconductivity (n-type PPC) caused by the oxygen vacancy VO in n-ZnO, and persistent hole photoconductivity (p-type PPC) caused by the Se vacancy VSe in p-CuInSe2 and p-CuGaSe2. We find that VSe in the chalcopyrite materials is amphoteric having two "negative-U" like transitions, i.e. a double-donor transition e(2+/0) close to the valence band and a double-acceptor transition e(0/2-) closer to the conduction band. We introduce a classification scheme that distinguishes two types of defects (e.g., donors): type-alpha, which have a defect-localized-state (DLS) in the gap, and type-beta, which have a resonant DLS within the host bands (e.g., conduction band). In the latter case, the introduced carriers (e.g., electrons) relax to the band edge where they can occupy a perturbed-host-state (PHS). Type alpha is non-conducting, whereas type beta is conducting. We identify the neutral anion vacancy as type-alpha and the doubly positively charged vacancy as type-beta. We suggest that illumination changes the charge state of the anion vacancy and leads to a crossover between alpha- and beta-type behavior, resulting in metastability and PPC. In CuInSe2, the metastable behavior of VSe is carried over to the (VSe-VCu) complex, which we identify as the physical origin of PPC observed experimentally. We explain previous puzzling experimental results in ZnO and CuInSe2 in the light of this model.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev.

Lateralization of face processing in the human brain

Are visual face processing mechanisms the same in the left and right cerebral hemispheres? The possibility of such ‘duplicated processing’ seems puzzling in terms of neural resource usage, and we currently lack a precise characterization of the lateral differences in face processing. To address this need, we have undertaken a three-pronged approach. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we assessed cortical sensitivity to facial semblance, the modulatory effects of context and temporal response dynamics. Results on all three fronts revealed systematic hemispheric differences. We found that: (i) activation patterns in the left fusiform gyrus correlate with image-level face-semblance, while those in the right correlate with categorical face/non-face judgements. (ii) Context exerts significant excitatory/inhibitory influence in the left, but has limited effect on the right. (iii) Face-selectivity persists in the right even after activity on the left has returned to baseline. These results provide important clues regarding the functional architecture of face processing, suggesting that the left hemisphere is involved in processing ‘low-level’ face semblance, and perhaps is a precursor to categorical ‘deep’ analyses on the right.John Merck FundSimons FoundationJames S. McDonnell FoundationNational Eye Institute (NIH, grant number R21-EY015521

Medial Temporal Lobe BOLD Activity at Rest Predicts Individual Differences in Memory Ability in Hhealthy Young Adults

Human beings differ in their ability to form and retrieve lasting long-term memories. To explore the source of these individual differences, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) activity in healthy young adults (n = 50) during periods of resting fixation that were interleaved with periods of simple cognitive tasks. We report that medial temporal lobe BOLD activity during periods of rest predicts individual differences in memory ability. Specifically, individuals who exhibited greater magnitudes of task-induced deactivations in medial temporal lobe BOLD signal (as compared to periods of rest) demonstrated superior memory during offline testing. This relationship was independent of differences in general cognitive function and persisted across different control tasks (i.e., number judgment versus checkerboard detection) and experimental designs (i.e., blocked versus event-related). These results offer a neurophysiological basis for the variability in mnemonic ability that is present amongst healthy young adults and may help to guide strategies aimed at early detection and intervention of neurological and mnemonic impairment