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The Bridal Industry through the Pandemic
Get PDFPrior to the pandemic, the bridal industry was a huge market. But when the pandemic hit, it caused uncertainty in the industry. Trying on a wedding dress is typically a significant part of the wedding process, and bridal dress designers and retailers had to come up with alternatives. The industry survived the pandemic and is preparing for a busy wedding season in 2022
Testimony, Violence, and Silence: An Examination of Agamben and His Critics
Get PDFThis paper investigates the difficulties faced by survivors of atrocities in testifying. I work on the case of female victims of domestic torture as reported by Jeanne Sarson and Linda MacDonald. The starting point is Giorgio Agamben’s Remnants of Auschwitz with his discussion on Primo Levi’s paradox and the testis/superstes/auctor distinction. I build on his nuances while arguing that he has not looked enough into power dynamics that render one speechless. “Unspeakable violence” refers simultaneously to incapacity and not being allowed to speak. Pain renders the victim speechless; perpetrators distort language and speak over survivors. Victims are often not allowed to speak at all. The inaudible also largely determines what can be said: potential listeners’ incomprehension and disbelief can make testimony impossible. Overall, internal psychological reasons and political structural reasons hinder the testimony of atrocity. I, therefore, investigate the figure of the superstes or survivor who is in limbo between selves, languages, worlds, and time zones
Walking Away for the Pandemic: Covid’s Effects on Fashion Shows and Fashion Weeks
Get PDFThis presentation focused on the effect Covid-19 had on fashion shows. In New York, for example, fashion weeks faced challenges before 2020 because of crowded schedules, multiple locations, and high cost. The pandemic accelerated changes in fashion shows by introducing digital presentations. These changes are here to stay
Annual wetland mapping in metropolis by temporal sample migration and Random Forest classification with time series Landsat data and Google Earth Engine
Get PDFWetlands provide various ecosystem services to urban areas, which are crucial for sustainable urban management. With intensified urbanization, there has been marked loss of urban natural wetland, degradation, and related urban disasters in the past several decades. Rapid and accurate mapping of urban wetland extent and change is thus critical for improving urban planning toward sustainability. Here, we have developed a rapid method for continuous mapping of urban wetlands (MUW) by combining automatic sample migration and the random forest algorithm (SM&RF), the so-called MUW_SM&RF. Using time series Landsat images, annual training samples were generated through spectral angular distance (SAD) and time series analysis. Combined with the RF algorithm, annual wetland maps in urban areas were derived. Employing the Google Earth Engine platform (GEE), the MUW_SM&RF was evaluated in four metropolitan areas in different geographical and climatic regions of China from 1990 to 2020, including Tianjin, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and Wuhan. In all four study areas, the generated annual wetland maps had an overall accuracy of over 87% and a Kappa coefficient above 0.815. Compared with previously published datasets, the urban wetland areas derived using the MUW_SM&RF approach achieved improved accuracy and thus demonstrated its robustness for rapid mapping of urban wetlands. Urban wetlands in all four cities had variable distribution patterns and showed significantly decreased trends in the past three decades. The annual urban wetland data product generated by the MUW_SM&RF can provide invaluable information for sustainable urban planning and management, so as for assessment related to the United Nation’s sustainable development goals
Alma Link Resolver Referring Sources Report 2021-2022
No full textStatistics from 2021-2022 on the number of OpenURL requests made to the Alma link resolver for items held by the University of Rhode Island Libraries.
Information provided includes Source, Number of Requests, Number of Clicked Requests, % Clicks from Requests
Bringing digital well-being into the heart of digital media literacies
Get PDFThe complexities of our digital media landscape present challenges that often strain the physical, emotional, and social well-being of learners and educators alike. Given these challenges, this essay makes a case for incorporating digital well-being into digital and media literacy curricula and pedagogy. For the author, a focus on digital well-being, or the capacity to pursue health, safety, and happiness online, has sparked a shift in pedagogical values and goals. Following a discussion of the nature of digital well-being, the author charts this shift through an example lesson about online identity. Bringing digital well-being into the heart of digital media literacies means reconsidering both the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of our teaching
A Comparison of American Women\u27s Experiences with Both Gestational Surrogate Pregnancies and Spontaneous Pregnancies
Get PDFThis article evaluates the pregnancy experiences of American women by comparing their spontaneous or non-surrogate pregnancies with their gestational surrogate pregnancies. Data were collected through structured interviews using an online video platform. In total, 96 interviews were conducted. Data revealed that a woman was more likely to have a pregnancy that was high-risk during a surrogate pregnancy than during a non-surrogate pregnancy, independent of maternal age or gravidity (OR 11.4, 3.5-36.6; p\u3c.0001). A surrogate pregnancy had three times higher odds of resulting in a cesarean section (p\u3c.0001) and was five times more likely to deliver at an earlier gestational age (p\u3c.0001). Women in this study were significantly more likely to experience postpartum depression following the delivery of surrogate children than after delivering their non-surrogate children (p=.01), and overall, they were more likely to have adverse outcomes during a surrogate pregnancy. The rate of new post-surrogacy chronic health issues for women of color was significantly higher than for women identified as white (p\u3c.0001). We found that women’s economic disadvantage was a major contributor to the decision to proceed with surrogacy. This study confirms that health disparities exist for women with surrogate pregnancies compared to non-surrogate pregnancies, which can lead to long-term complications after a surrogate pregnancy. In terms of biomedical ethics, it raises important social, economic, and political issues related to surrogacy, all requiring further exploration. Future research will build on the present work in further helping us to understand the circumstances and consequences involved for women in surrogacy
Analysis of botanicals and botanical supplements by LC-MS/MS-based molecular networking: Approaches for annotating plant metabolites and authentication
Get PDFPrior to the advent of modern medicine, humans have used botanicals extensively for their therapeutic potential. With the majority of newly approved drugs having their origins in natural products, plants remain at the forefront of drug discovery. Continued research and discovery necessitate the use of high-throughput analytical methods to screen and identify bioactive components and potential therapeutic molecules from plants. Utilizing a pre-generated plant extract library, we subjected botanicals to LC-MS/MS-based molecular networking to determine their chemical composition and relatively quantify already known metabolites. The LC-MS/MS-based molecular networking approach was also used to authenticate the composition of dietary supplements against their corresponding plant specimens. The networking procedures provided concise visual representations of the chemical space and highly informative assessments of the botanicals. The procedures also proved to define the composition of the botanical supplements quickly and efficiently. This offered an innovative approach to metabolite profiling and authentication practices and additionally allowed for the identification of new, putatively unknown metabolites for future isolation and biological evaluation.
(Graphical abstract portion included in PDF.
The Benefit of Frequent Corporate Philanthropy
No full textApplying behavioural economic theory, we argue that the frequency of philanthropic activity is important in determining corporate philanthropy\u27s economic outcome. Using Chinese data from 2003 to 2016, we find that firms with more frequent philanthropic activities obtain more government subsidies than firms that only engage in one-off charitable donations. Firms with better corporate governance, such as higher management ownership and more independent directors, are more likely to adopt a strategy of frequent donation. Furthermore, firms are more likely to be frequent donors when management or local government officers have a long tenure. Our findings provide insight into the giving process and suggest that firms can maximize the benefit of corporate philanthropy if they strategically consider the donation frequency and donation amount simultaneously