In species where males do not provide immediate benefits to females in the form of resources or parental care to offspring, adaptive mate choice may be maintained by selection because preferred males sire offspring that are genetically superior. I test the hypothesis that female mating preferences result in enhanced performance of their larvae, owing to genetic variation among sires in two species of red-eyed treefrogs. This variation in males may be manifested as body size or in advertisement call parameters. I examined natural pairing patterns and found that both species display a size-based mating pattern with substantial seasonal effects. In lean years, females mate with males that are larger on average, yet females also seem to favor a constant size ratio of the male relative to her body size. I documented significant call trait variation both within and among males and have evidence to support size-related call traits as indicators of mating success for some properties. Finally, I provide evidence for a pronounced effect of sire size on offspring traits, most notably upon hatching that may have significant post-metamorphic fitness benefits. My study provides data on the basis of female choice and may provide a link between female preference for male traits and enhanced offspring performance by larvae sired by preferred males in the evolution of anuran mating systems.

This project seeks to expand Asian American studies and Asian North American studies to the Caribbean/South America by examining works of SKY Lee, Maxine Hong Kingston and Jan Shinebourne. I argue that these writers represent Chinese diasporic experiences by reconstructing Chinese immigration history to the Americas. Although different racial constitutions and different cultural and historical specificities occasion the racializations of the Chinese in these regions, the colonial and neocolonial powers deploy similar mechanism for racializations and cultural politics that favors the dominant. These writers’ evocation of the nomadic female subjectivity that traverses the multiple and shifting borderlands and contact zones in their narratives offers a comparative perspective on the construction of ethnic female identity across the Americas and leads to a critique of the function of (neo)colonial power in identity and social formation in the Americas. Engaging in a hemispheric study of the Chinese immigration to the Americas, this project also contributes to recent scholarship on diasporic studies as it challenges the conventional categorization of global diasporas, specifically Chinese diaspora as diaspora of trade, and destabilizes the homeland/hostland binary with an account of the secondary migrations within the Americas. Drawing on recent scholarship on diasporic, hemispheric and women’s studies, and global Asian immigration, the Introduction outlines the methodology of the project. Chapter one examines Lee’s "Disappearing Moon Café," arguing that in this family saga Lee repoliticizes the marginalization of the Chinese by exploring the relationship between Chinese and American Indians against the broad racial relationships in Canada. Chapter two reexamines autobiography as a genre and contends that Kingston documents anti-Chinese U.S. immigration history in "The Woman Warrior" and "China Men" by narrating her family genealogy, which mirrors the collective history of Chinese immigration to the Americas. Chapter three focuses on Shinebourne’s representations of creolized Chinese experiences in "The Last English Plantation" and "Timepiece" against the background of Afro- and Indo-Guyanese conflicts in colonial Guyana. While Lee and Kingston foster transpacific dialogues, Shinebourne’s works depict the intersecting experiences of Chinese, East Indian and African diasporas. Her works foreground the historical and political connection of Asian indentureship with African slavery as an alternative labor source for the colonial economy in the Caribbean and Latin America and hence make evident the extension of European Atlantic system to the Pacific

This dissertation examines the experience of former collegiate football hostesses and presents an autoethnographic narrative from my viewpoint as a female researcher enmeshed in the culture of athletics. The exploration reveals the experience of gender, race, and power as told through my own stories as well as those of former hostesses. My exploratory study reveals the contradiction and conflict between and amongst women’s experiences as well as brings to light the aspects of hostess experience that the media rarely highlights. I wrote this for readers to witness and understand the complexity of the hostess experience, its privileges and challenges.

“Appeasing the Animal” is collection of thirty-two poems that represent a fight and conciliation between the civilized self and the spectrum of human needs in a socially constructed reality. These explorations were split into male and female representations of the human psyche. This intersection is also a place that investigates mothers & daughters, politics, sex, crisis, religion, and other important points of dramatic conflict.

The purpose of this study was to investigate Arthur Schnitzler’s depiction of three female figures in short stories with a specific focus on how the figures are portrayed in relation to socially sanctioned roles in late nineteenth and early twentieth century German-speaking Europe. The figures and works selected as subjects of this study were Friederike in Die Frau des Weisen (1898), Elise in Der Mörder (1921) and Else in Fräulein Else (1924). The primary question that was investigated was whether Schnitzler depicted these female figures in a manner that could be interpreted as impacting the loosening of the grip of such expectations on women. As an approach, passages in the text that mirror expectations placed on women by society in this era were sought out and analyzed. Prior to the analysis of the three figures, information on the major trends of such expectations was identified through selected passages in Hedwig Dohm’s Der Frauen Natur und Recht (1876). Results of the study demonstrated that Schnitzler often depicted these figures in a manner resembling the views of sanctioned roles as expressed by Dohm. While Schnitzler did not portray the figures as specifically breaking out of such roles, he appeared to make a statement regarding the toxicity level in his society for women as a result of the roles that were imposed upon them. Additional findings were that Schnitzler’s boldness in his depiction of the figures seemed to increase over time and that many observations that critics have made about his dramas could also be said of these works of prose.

The following poems are and attempt at reclamation and reconciliation. The first section wades through the delicate subject of personal history and is an attempt to show truth as a means of both self and communal healing. The second is plaintive, a brief effort to interlope into and understand worlds outside (but not foreign) to my own. The third is a poetic essay detailing the journey of a young woman facing the horrors of an undeclared, and seemingly eternal war. The fourth and final sections serve as a means of exploration of the self and place; tackling issues of sex, the physical body, and sexuality.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-87).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rhode Island, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 155-164).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Drexel University, 2006. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-96).

Vascular reactivity to vasopressin and phenylephrine is potentiated by constrictor prostanoids (CP) in normotensive female (F) but not male (M) rat aorta and CP function is estrogen-dependent. This study investigated the effects of estrogen on CP function and arterial blood pressure (MAP) during development of aortic coarctation-induced hypertension (HT). M and F rats, (15-18 wks.) in four groups: normotensive (NT), hypertensive (HT), ovariectomized (OVX), and OVX estrogen-replaced (OE), underwent abdominal aortic coarctation or sham surgery (NT). At 14 days, SQ 29,548 (SQ, Thromboxane A2 (TXA2) receptor antagonist) was given i.v. to the groups. In another experiment, rats received Ridogrel (TXA2 receptor antagonist+TXA2 synthase (TXS) inhibitor) or vehicle (methyl cellulose) daily, for 14 days. Thoracic aortae were analyzed for morphology, incubated in Kreb’s Henseleit Buffer (KHB) ± angiotensin II (ANG II), or underwent continuous pulsatile flow and pressure experiments (PFP) with KHB ± ANG II. Perfusate was analyzed for thromboxane B2 (TXB2) and prostaglandin F1α (PGF1α). RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry were performed for TXS. MAP was higher in F-HT than in M-HT after 14 days. SQ infusion reduced MAP substantially more in F-HT and OE-HT than in others. Ridogrel prevented increases in MAP in F/OE-HT rats, but not M/OVX-HT. Basal release of TXB2 and PGF1α increased to a greater extent in F-HT than in M-HT relative to their controls. ANG II-stimulated TXB2 and PGF1α release increased to a greater extent in F-HT than in M-HT. With or without ANG II, TXB2 production in HT during PFP increased with estrogen. PGF1α increased during PFP with estrogen, however not with ANG II. Pressurization resulted in less diameter change in F and OE-HT than in OVX-HT. Elastin increased with HT (inhibited by Ridogrel) in all but M. Collagen increased in HT with estrogen (inhibited by Ridogrel). Neither OVX-HT nor Ridogrel had any effect on morphology. Estrogen increased TXS with HT. Estrogen enhanced vascular CP and MAP in F-HT by increased expression of TXS and collagen density in the vasculature indicating that in aortic coarctation-induced HT, CP are upregulated by estrogen. Specific forms of HT in human beings may involve estrogen-induced vascular CP upregulation.