You Were Never Really Here

This is a film review of You Were Never Really Here (2023), directed by Flor Portieri

Handling the Undead

This is a film review of Handling the Undead (2024), directed by Thea Hvistendahl

Dao Gives Birth to Lots of Killing: Violence in the Daoist Tradition

Violence in Daoism takes on political and/or cosmological significance. The earliest texts, including Daodejing, argue for defensive war that must be conducted appropriately by rulers. Myths and rituals that developed later in the tradition portray gods and spirits subduing demons. The latter are either killed or enlisted into the armies of the gods. Rituals include the role of humans, particularly Daoist priests/ritual specialists who call upon the gods to fight demons who inflict maladies upon people. This paper also examines the role of martial arts and physical violence. Martial arts are often imbued with religious hues in Daoism, as is seen with Taijiquan, Xingyiquan, and Baguazhang. The styles carry combat effectiveness with different methods such as wrestling, striking, grappling, and the use of weapons. Physical violence in Daoism took the form of overturning dynastic regimes, namely the Han, Yuan, and Qing dynasties. There are possibilities that Daoist monks fought in 20th century China. There is too little to confirm this currently. The paper ends with an analysis of the book trilogy, Chronicles of Tao. It portrays the actions of Huashan monk Guan Shihung who acted violently. The book is examined for what it can tell us about the Daoist view of killing

In the Summers

This is a film review of In the Summers (2023), directed by Alessandra Lacorazza

Every LIttle Thing

This is a film review of Every LIttle Thing (2024), directed by Sally Aitken

In the Land of Brothers

This is a film review of In the Land of Brothers (2024), directed by Raha Amirfazli and Alireza Ghasemi

Leilani\u27s Fortune

This is a film review of Leilani\u27s Fortune (2024), directed by Loveleen Kaur

Girls Will Be Girls

This is a film review of Girls Will Be Girls (2024), directed by Shuchi Talati

Realm of Satan

This is a film review of Realm of Satan (2024), directed by Scott Cummings

Optimization of tyrosine hydroxylase antibody for immunohistochemistry fluorescence detection in zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter produced through the catecholamine synthesis pathway that affects brain activity. Unregulated dopamine levels can lead to various diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Optimization of an immunohistochemistry protocol will allow for the quantification of tyrosine hydroxylase antibody, which indirectly allows for dopamine quantification in dopaminergic regions within the brain. However, the antibody concentration to give the optimal signal-to-noise ratio in IHC varies across studies. Through this experiment, I determined the concentration of tyrosine hydroxylase (TyrH) antibody for immunohistochemistry that gave the best signal-to-background noise ratio within several known dopaminergic regions in the zebrafish brain. I tested the following primary antibody concentrations: 1:200, 1:500, 1:750, and 1:1000. While there was a significant difference in signal-to-noise ratio amongst the concentrations as determined by a Friedman’s ANOVA, the Wilcoxon Test failed to yield a significant difference between treatment groups. These findings allow for future experiments on the correlations between neurotransmitters and personality types in zebrafish