Hybrid Veggies & Mixed Kids: Ecocriticism and Race in Ruth Ozeki\u27s Pastoral Heartlands

This paper explores the troping of racial categories and mixed race bodies in Ruth Ozekis All Over Creation (2003) and My Year of Meats (1999). Moving through both transnational and local space, Ozekis writes an ecocritical pastoral text in order to resist representations of people of mixed race stemming from nineteenth century racial theory. Drawing attention to the consumption of food within and across national borders, whether genetically modified potatoes or hormone-infused beef, Ozeki simultaneously highlights the uncritical consumption of the language of biology around the mixed race body. All Over Creation and My Year of Meats are constructed around the traditions and tensions inherent in the pastoral, using mixed race to counter the silences of ecocritical discourse while problematizing science- and place-based constructions of race

American Orientalism and Cosmopolitan Mixed Race: Early Asian American Mixed Race in the American Literary Imagination

This paper offers and initial examination of representations of Asian American mixed race during the long period of Asian exclusion and enforced anti-miscegenation when racial mixing was legally proscribed. I argue that this literature must be understood through two categories Orientalist texts that produce and reproduce dominant discourses about Asian American mixed race and cosmopolitan texts written by mixed-race figures circling in vanguard cliques of art and literature. After tracking the representations of early Asian American mixed race in U.S. literature, this paper offers an analysis of the writing of Asian American mixed-race authors themselves in order to expand and push current theorizations

An investigation into the effects of Omega-3 fatty acids on bone resorption in the female ovariectomised rat : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Nutritional Science at Massey University

Estrogen deficiency results in disruption of the normal bone remodeling cyclc leading to a loss of bone mineral and, in many cases, the development of osteoporosis. Various studies have demonstrated a beneficial effect of essential fatty acids (EFAs) in reducing the loss of bone density as a consequence of estrogen deficiency. The aim of the present study was to examine the specific effects of the n-3 EFA, eicosopentaenoic acid (EPA) on bone density and strength in ovariectomised female rats. 60 Sprague-Dawley rats were randomized into four groups and either ovariectomised (n=45) or sham operated (n=15). Ovariectomised animals were fed calcium adequate diets containing either corn oil (OVX control, n=15), corn oil + 0.1g/kg body weight EPA (low dose, n=15) or corn oil + 1.0g/kg body weight EPA (high dose, n= 15) for a period of nine weeks. Sham rats were fed the corn oil diet as per the OVX control group. Urinary calcium and phosphate excretion, serum type 1 collagen c-telopeptide concentration, bone density, bone ash and bone breaking strength were measured. Plasma fatty acid composition and serum concentrations of 25 hydroxyvitamin D3 were also determined. Femur bone density was significantly lower in the high dose group compared to sham, OVX control and low dose EPA groups (p<0.001, p=0.0096 and p=0.0047 respectively). Low dose EPA supplementation had no significant effect on bone density. No significant differences in urinary calcium or phosphate concentrations, serum concentrations of type-1 collagen c-telopeptide or bone breaking strength were evident with either dose of EPA compared to unsupplemented, ovariectomised controls. EPA supplementation resulted in significant decreases in the levels of n-6 EFAs and increases in the levels of n-3 EFAs except docosahexaenoic acid in plasma lipids. Both low and high dose EPA supplementation led to significant increases in serum concentration of25(OH) vitamin D3. In conclusion 1.0g EPA/kg body weight had a detrimental effect on bone density in ovariectomised rats. It is proposed that high intake of the highly unsaturated EPA resulted in significant lipid peroxidation. This in turn disrupted membrane structure and inhibited intestinal calcium absorption thereby stimulating PTH-mediated bone resorption. potential role for n-3 EFAs in the regulation of vitamin D activity is also outlined

Learning to Make Strategic Moves: Experimental Evidence

Do players in practice make the strategic commitment moves that are predicted by game theory? Since such strategic moves can appear somewhat counter-intuitive, we conducted an experiment to see if people make the predicted strategic move. The experiment uses a simple bargaining situation. A player can make a strategic move of committing to not seeing what the other player will demand. Our data show that the subjects do, but only after substantial time, learn to make the predicted strategic move. We also find significant efficiency differences between our treatments that are not predicted by theory.Strategic moves; commitment; bargaining; information; strategic value of information; physical timing effects; virtual observability; endogenous timing; learning; experiment

On the Evolutionary Stability of Bargaining Inefficiency

Bargaining; game theory; efficiency; evolutionary stability

Reciprocity, Materialism and Welfare: An Evolutionary Model

This paper analyses preference evolution in a bargaining situation. We show that preferences for reciprocity, that sustain a conflict-free outcome, are viable if players have enough information about opponents’ preferences. However, depending on the initial starting point, preference evolution can in general both enhance or reduce subjective and material welfare, relative to the situation where all players have the usual materialistic preferences.Preference evolution; Reciprocity; Altruism; Materialism; Subjective and material eciency; Bargaining; Indirect evolutionary approach