Placing trust: The political ecology of chicken meat in Japan

Ph.D.Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 201

A qualitative analysis of figural memory performance in persons with epilepsy

This study examined nonverbal memory in patients with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) on a figural reproduction task, the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure (ROCF). The Boston Qualitative Scoring System (BQSS) was used to examine whether qualitative features of ROCF performance could discriminate between those with right and left TLE. As predicted, seizure groups did not differ on a standard quantitative scoring system for the ROCF. Contrary to prediction, the right TLE group did not perform more poorly on BQSS measures of quality or organization, and they did not have greater difficulty recalling the figure after a delay. There was a trend towards poorer performance by the right TLE group on 2 BQSS scales, those quantifying the presence or absence of elements of the figure. ROCF performance was more strongly correlated with measures of visuoperception than with additional measures of nonverbal memory. Thus, the BQSS does not appear to be assessing nonverbal memory, and the implications of the ROCF as a visuoperceptual task are discussed

A Trend-Change Extension of the Cairns-Blake-Dowd Model

This paper builds on the two-factor mortality model known as the Cairns-Blake-Dowd (CBD) model, which is used to project future mortality. It is shown that these two factors do not follow a random walk, as proposed in the original model, but that each should instead be modelled as a random fluctuation around a trend, the trend changing periodically. The paper uses statistical techniques to determine the points at which there are statistically significant changes in each trend. The frequency of change in each trend is then used to project the frequency of future changes, and the sizes of historical changes are used to project the sizes of future changes. The results are then presented as fan charts, and used to estimate the range of possible future outcomes for period life expectancies. These projections show that modelling mortality rates in this way leaves much greater uncertainty over future life expectancy in the long term

Precarious foodscapes: Life, caring, digitization, and labor in the face of deepening food crises

In the face of deepening environmental and economic crises, the concept of precarity helps to draw out the grave problems that permeate contemporary foodscapes. In this special issue introduction, we lay the conceptual groundwork for connecting the concept of precarity with contemporary foodscapes by identifying four key sources of precarity within precarious foodscapes: life, caring, digitization, and labor. Life becomes a source of shared precarity with human and non-human life in the face of a destabilizing climactic and health ecologies. Caring becomes a source of precarity as food becomes intertwined with gendered food work and emotional labor. Digital information technologies become a source of precarity as discourses and ideas of food become destabilized and recreated by digital platforms, algorithms, and technologies. Labor becomes a source of precarity as the corporate food regime deepens its exploitation of compensated human labor, unpaid human labor, and non-human labor. This discussion contextualizes the articles that follow and aims to open up and invite further research on precarious foodscapes going forward

Hyperkinetic children: Early indicators of potential school failure

Hyperkinetic children are identified as a “population-at risk” upon admission to kindergarten. The etiology of hyperkinetic behavior is controversial. “Organic driveness,” “hyperkinetic behavior disorder,” “postencephalitic behavior,” “brain damage with behavioral and conceptual deficit,” “Strauss syndrome,” have all been used to label essentially similar symptom constellations. Bypassing the area of controversy, a study is reported that demonstrates that children who were identified as “hyperkinetic” (using behavioral criteria developed in an earlier study) were (1) absent from school more frequently, and (2) did remarkably less well on standardized tests of school readiness than their peers rated “nonhyperkinetic.” The implications are discussed and suggestions made for the development of intervention programs .Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44325/1/10597_2005_Article_BF01435134.pd