Motown Movie Magic: Respectability, Gender, and Authenticity in Crossover Films, 1972-1989

At the start of the 1970s, Berry Gordy, Jr., moved Motown Industries to Los Angeles to expand into the film and television industries. Just as in the music industry, Gordy utilized respectability politics to navigate a segregated market to appeal to a wider audience. As rhetoric around notions of respectability changed perspectives on the Black experience, Gordy’s business practices represented a traditional tactic for uplift ideology that he sought to demonstrate in his film. In the context of national changes and industrial trends, Gordy balanced building credibility, establishing a profitable studio, and creating a positive image throughout the 70s and 80s. As Black-casted content ebbed and flowed in the entertainment industry, Gordy’s work remained a part of the national conversation on the proper way to represent a marginalized community facing decades of stereotyped portrayals

Implementation of high resolution diffractive optical elements on coupled phase and amplitude spatial light modulators

International audienceWe propose the optical implementation of diffractive optical elements onto electrically addressed liquidcrystal spatial light modulators. We compare the classic implementations onto amplitude-only or phaseonly domains with the implementations onto coupled phase and amplitude _spiral_ domains. We demonstrate that the coupling between amplitude and phase provides a trade-off between diffraction efficiency and the signal-to-noise ratio in the reconstruction. Furthermore, when investigating the influence of the maximum dephasing on phase domains and spiral domains through the use of optimal trade-off design, we show that phase-only domains with limited maximum dephasing can provide satisfactory performance. Finally, optical implementations are provided

Optical snake-based segmentation processor using a shadow casting incoherent correlator.

What is believed to be the first incoherent snake-based optoelectronic processor that is able to segment an object in a real image is described. The process, based on active contours (snakes), consists of correlating adaptive binary references with the scene image. The proposed optical implementation of algorithms that are already operational numerically opens attractive possibilities for faster processing. Furthermore, this experiment has yielded a new, versatile application for optical processors

The use of complementary and alternative medicine among california adults with and without cancer.

This article examines the extent and correlates of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use among a population-based sample of California adults that is highly diverse in terms of sociodemographic characteristics and health status. As a follow-up to a state-wide health survey of 55,428 people, 9187 respondents were interviewed by phone regarding their use of 11 different types of CAM providers, special diets, dietary supplements, mind-body interventions, self-prayer and support groups. The sample included all participants in the initial survey who reported a diagnosis of cancer, all the non-white respondents, as well as a random sample of all the white respondents. The relation of CAM use to the respondents' demographic characteristics and health status is assessed. CAM use among Californians is generally high, and the demographic factors associated with high rates of CAM use are the same in California as have been found in other studies. Those reporting a diagnosis of cancer and those who report other chronic health problems indicate a similar level of visits to CAM providers. However, those with cancer are less likely to report using special diets, and more likely to report using support groups and prayer. Health status, gender, ethnicity and education have an independent impact upon CAM use among those who are healthy as well as those who report suffering from chronic health problems, although the precise relation varies by the type of CAM used

DEVELOPMENT IMPACT FEE ADOPTION AND ITS EFFECTS IN TEXAS

The purpose of my thesis is to study what factors affect the adoption of impact fees in Texas and what effects impact fees have on city budgets. This research was done using two models. The first model looked at the adoption of impact fees as the dependent variable and the second model looked at the total impact fee assed on new residential units as the dependent variable. Both models used the gross tax rate, debt per capita, change in city population as a percentage, city population, average price of a new home in 2007, number of building permits issued in 2007, and the average household income as independent variables. The most significant independent variable found for the assessment of impact fees is change in population as a percentage. The total impact fee charged per city was driven by several factors. These included change in population as a percentage, population, and gross tax rate

Child-resistant and tamper-resistant packaging: A systematic review to inform tobacco packaging regulation

We aimed to investigate the effects of special packaging (child-resistant, adult-friendly) and tamper-resistant packaging on health and behavioral outcomes in order to identify research gaps and implications for packaging standards for tobacco products

Dynamic calibration for improving the speed of a parallel-aligned liquid-crystal-on-silicon display

Postprint (published version

Expression of p53, inducible nitric oxide synthase and vascular endothelial growth factor in gastric precancerous and cancerous lesions: correlation with clinical features

BACKGROUND: The growth and metastasis of tumors depend on the development of an adequate blood supply via angiogenesis. Recent studies indicate that the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and the tumor suppressor p53 are fundamental play-markers of the angiogenic process. Overexpression of iNOS and VEGF has been shown to induce angiogenesis in tumors. P53 suppresses angiogenesis by down-regulating VEGF and iNOS. The correlation of expression of p53, VEGF and iNOS and clinical features in gastric carcinogenesis, however, has not been well characterized. METHODS: The expression of p53, iNOS and VEGF in gastric precancerous and cancerous lesions and its relation with the clinical features was determined with immunohistochemistry (avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex method) on 55 randomly selected GC patients and 60 symptom-free subjects from the mass survey in the high-incidence area for GC in Henan, northern China. RESULTS: The positive immunostainig rates for p53, iNOS and VEGF in gastric carcinomas were 51%, 44% and 51%, respectively, and correlated well with TNM stages, but did not show significant difference among the groups with different degrees of gastric wall invasion depth by GC. A positive immunostaining reaction for the iNOS protein was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis (p = 0.019; Spearman correlation coefficient). P53 protein accumulation was higher in the poorly-differentiated gastric carcinoma than in well-differentiated one. In gastric biopsies, no positive immunosatining was observed for p53, iNOS and VEGF in the histologically normal tissue and chronic superficial gastritis (CSG). However, p53, iNOS and VEGF positive immunostaining was observed in the tissues with different severities of lesions of chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG), intestinal metaplasia (IM) and dysplasia (DYS), and the positive rates increased with the lesion progression from CAG to IM to DYS. A high coincidental positive and negative immunostaining rate for p53, iNOS and VEGF was observed both in biopsy samples with CAG, IM and DYS from the symptom-free subjects and in gastric cancer tissue from the GC patients. CONCLUSIONS: The present results indicated that p53 protein accumulation and increased expression of iNOS and VEGF might be responsible for gastric carcinogenesis and tumor aggressiveness of gastric cancer