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A Conversation with Ruth Ozeki
No full textRuth Ozeki delivered the keynote address at the 2024 URI Humanities Festival. Ozeki is a filmmaker, novelist, and Zen Buddhist priest. Her films, now in educational distribution, are shown at universities, museums and arts venues around the world. Body of Correspondence (1994) won the New Visions Award at the San Francisco Film Festival and was aired on PBS. Halving the Bones (1995), an award-winning autobiographical film, tells the story of Ozeki’s journey as she brings her grandmother’s remains home from Japan. It has been screened at the Sundance Film Festival, the Museum of Modern Art, the Montreal World Film Festival, and the Margaret Mead Film Festival, among others.
Ozeki’s first novel, My Year of Meats, garnered widespread glowing reviews, awards, and a still-growing readership. It was also an international success and has been translated into eleven languages and published in fourteen countries. It won the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Award, the Imus/Barnes and Noble American Book Award, and a Special Jury Prize of the World Cookbook Awards in Versailles. Ozeki’s second novel, All Over Creation, was a New York Times Notable Book and the recipient of a 2004 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, as well as the Willa Literary Award for Contemporary Fiction. A Tale for the Time Being was an instant New York Times bestseller list and was shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize. Her latest novel, The Book of Form and Emptiness, was the 2022 winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Ozeki, a frequent speaker on college and university campuses, currently divides her time between New York City and British Columbia, where she lives with her husband, artist Oliver Kellhammer. She currently teaches creative writing at Smith College, where she is the Grace Jarcho Ross 1933 Professor of Humanities in the Department of English Language and Literature. She serves on the advisory editorial board of the Asian American Literary Review and on the Creative Advisory Council of Hedgebrook. She practices Zen Buddhism with Zoketsu Norman Fischer and is the editor of the Everyday Zen website. She was ordained as a Soto Zen priest in June 2010
Voter Approval of Bond Referendums: The Role of Bond Amount and Ballot Characteristics
Get PDFMunicipal and state governments are often constitutionally bound to ask voters to approve new government debt through voting on bond referendums. Generally, politicians expect voters to balk at higher-cost bonds and be more willing to approve lower-cost bonds. However, there is minimal research on how the amount of a bond affects voter support. We implement a survey experiment that presents respondents with hypothetical ballots, in which the cost of proposed bonds, the number of bonds on the ballot, and the order in which they are presented, are all randomized. Our results suggest that support is not responsive to the amount of the bond, even when the cost is well outside what is typical and within the bounds of what the government can afford. In contrast, we find other aspects of the ballot matter significantly more for bond referendum approval. The more bonds on the ballot and being placed lower on the ballot both reduce support significantly
Land for Whom? Diversity, Land Trusts, and Farmers and Gardeners from Marginalized Backgrounds in New England, U.S.
Get PDFLand trusts in the U.S. play an important role in preventing the loss of farmland to development. Farmers seeking affordable land may benefit from these conservation efforts. Yet the distribution of these benefits across farmer groups is unclear. This study asks: To what extent are land trusts meeting the needs of farmers and gardeners from marginalized backgrounds? Interviews with land trust staff and focus groups with marginalized farmers and gardeners in New England, USA reveal discrepancies in how diversity and land access are discussed. Access to adequate, affordable land was a serious concern among farmers and gardeners, yet few land trusts had programs to increase access for diverse populations. Land trusts approached diversity, equity, and inclusion work by making limited commitments, pivoting to social class, and avoidance due to perceptions of mission drift. These findings have significant implications for who benefits and who is excluded from private farmland conservation
Differential scanning fluorimetry to assess PFAS binding to bovine serum albumin protein
No full textThe rapid screening of protein binding affinity for poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) benefits risk assessment and fate and transport modelling. PFAS are known to bioaccumulate in livestock through contaminated food and water. One excretion pathway is through milk, which may be facilitated by binding to milk proteins such as bovine serum albumin (BSA). We report a label-free differential scanning fluorimetry approach to determine PFAS–BSA binding over a broad temperature range. This method utilizes the tryptophan residue within the protein binding pocket as an intrinsic fluorophore, eliminating the need for fluorophore labels that may influence binding. BSA association constants were determined by (a) an equilibrium-based model at the melting temperature of BSA and (b) the Hill adsorption model to account for temperature dependent binding and binding cooperativity. Differences in binding between PFAS and fatty acid analogs revealed that a combination of size and hydrophobicity drives PFAS binding
Multifunctional composite structures with embedded conductive yarns for shock load monitoring and failure detection
No full textThis study evaluates the performance of composite structures with embedded conductive yarns during shock loads to create a multifunctional system for immediate failure detection. The scalable sensing yarns were made by braiding Kevlar fibers with Nitinol fibers and then integrating them into a carbon/epoxy prepreg. The multifunctional structure was subjected to a Mach 2 air blast load using a shock tube apparatus. The embedded sensor yarns were used to record their electrical performance, while Digital Image Correlation captured full-field displacements, velocities, and strains. In addition, pressure transducers measured shock event pressures. The results revealed that through-thickness failure of the laminated composite occurred at approximately 2.5% strain, which was visually observable. However, the embedded sensor exhibited out-of-range electrical measurements at around 1.5% strain, even though no visible structural damage was present. This demonstrates the embedded sensing yarns’ ability to detect delamination-type failures by responding to interlaminate damage, highlighting their advantages over conventional external sensors. Similarly, the gauge factor for the fiber system was determined to be 1.89 ± 0.07. This multifunctional system shows great potential for enhancing composite structure safety and performance in high-performance aerospace applications and offering real-time structural health assessment
Bottlebrush Midblocks Promote Colloidal Bridging of Telechelic Polymers
No full textTelechelic polymers are effective rheological modifiers that bridge between associative constituents to form elastic networks. The performance of linear telechelic chains, however, is controlled by entropic forces and thus suffers from an upper limit on bridge formation. This work overcomes this limitation by utilizing telechelic triblock copolymers containing bottlebrush midblocks. By comparing the rheological properties of emulsions linked by telechelic bottlebrush polymers to those containing linear chains, we determined that telechelic polymers with bottlebrush midblocks form elastic networks more efficiently. These enhanced rheological properties arise from the high stiffness of the bottlebrush midblocks, which offsets the entropic stretching penalty for bridge formation, enabling them to more readily form networks. This molecular-level control over polymer conformation in complex fluids opens avenues for designing highly elastic networks with minimal polymeric additives
From Sea to Shining Sea: A Survey of Intellectual Freedom Practices in the United States
No full textThe American Library Association has long hosted a form for librarians to share challenges to library materials for the purposes of providing support and gathering data. In the face of increasing challenges to library materials, some states have also developed local procedures for gathering information and providing local support. These efforts are not consistent across states, however, and some states do not share any information on their processes publicly. In 2023, the presenters distributed a survey to gather information from states, territories, and tribal nations that do not publicly share their procedures in order to document efforts. This presentation will share the preliminary survey results, along with lessons learned and areas for future research
Science Teaching Efficacy and Science Outcome Expectancy Among Early Childhood Preservice Teachers: Effects of Constructivist Beliefs vs. Traditional Beliefs
Get PDFThis study examined early childhood preservice teachers’ perceived science teaching efficacy and its association with their teaching beliefs (constructivist and traditional beliefs). The participants included 181 preservice teachers enrolled in an early childhood teacher education program at a university in the Midwestern United States. Information was collected using the Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument – Preservice (STEBI-B) and Teaching Beliefs Survey (TBS). The results revealed that the preservice teachers were efficacious about their science teaching, showing a negative relation with traditional teaching beliefs and no statistically significant relation with constructivist teaching beliefs. The results of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the preservice teachers’ traditional teaching beliefs was a significant negative predictor of their personal science teaching efficacy and of their science teaching outcomes expectancy, while there was no significant effect of constructivist beliefs on them. These results suggest that when preservice teachers adhere to traditional teaching methods, it can lower their confidence and expectations about their effectiveness in teaching science. This underscores the current trend in early childhood education towards promoting innovative, student-centered teaching practices. By moving away from traditional beliefs and embracing more constructivist and inquiry-based approaches, teacher education programs can better prepare preservice teachers to create dynamic, effective, and engaging science classrooms for young children. This approach aligns with contemporary educational practices that prioritize hands-on learning and critical thinking, laying a strong foundation for students\u27 lifelong interest and involvement in STEM subjects