Ein Pakt mit dem Teufel : Leni Riefenstahl, Triumph of the Will, and the Nature of Guilt

Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will is rightly considered a massive technical achievement in the world of cinema and propaganda. However, this achievement was undertaken at the behest of the immoral, murderous regime of Nazi Germany, a regime that Riefenstahl was more than willing to work with and glorify in order to further her career. This thesis will argue that Riefenstahl’s onscreen deification of Hitler, visual representation of völkisch ideology, and use of the music of Richard Wagner make her later claims of ignorance as to the film’s ultimate meaning impossible to correlate with established facts

Regulation and redistribution in utilities

The consumption of utilities (for example, energy and water), along with that of other goods such as food, clothing, shelter, health and education, is often thought of as something that has particular distributional significance. This concern is reflected by the range of welfare and regulatory measures in place that are designed to guard against non-participation or under-consumption. The pricing of these goods illustrates well the conflicting arguments between economic efficiency and equity. The case for charging VAT on fuel, for example, is essentially an efficiency argument which points to the distortionary effects of a tax system that increases the prices of some goods (for example, double-glazing) and not of others (for example, domestic energy). The counter-argument is based upon notions of equity: that it is unfair to tax a necessity because the effects fall hardest on the living standards of poor households.

Novel Low Shear 3D Bioreactor for the Scaled Production of High Purity Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Human mesenchymal stem cells are an ideal candidate for stem cell therapies. They have been researched since the 1960’s and can differentiate into many desired functional cell types without undergoing teratogenesis. However, higher yields are needed for a marketable, successful stem cell therapy. To accomplish this, cells will have to be cultured to expand them to therapeutically relevant dosages for multiple patients. Bioreactor production is an ideal method to solve this problem. The aim of this thesis is to test and validate a novel bioreactor for the cultivation of human mesenchymal stem cells. In this work, we investigate a novel suspended matrix for the culture on human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). Initially we investigated various fiber meshes, both random and structured, for stem cell growth and morphology. We also investigated hMSC proliferation on rigid polymers commonly used in 3D printing. We then took the conditions that worked best in 2D culture and tested them in a small-scale model of the Express bioreactor from Sepragen. We have assessed cell growth on 3D printed Polylactic Acid (PLA) matrices and developed a scale down model bioreactor for development and characterization. Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) modeling was used in parallel with the described in-vitro experimentation to characterize shear profiles. From the CFD we were also able to predict a flow rate which resulted in almost zero shear. What we found was that hMSCs readily form confluent monolayers on the PLA lattice, and retain their surface marker expression and stemness. When combined with a short hypoxic treatment, the cells performed better than control flasks, resulting in a four-fold increase from seed with no impact on biomarker profile and differentiation ability

Psychological type profile of Roman Catholic priests : an empirical enquiry in the United States

This study explores the psychological type profile of Roman Catholic priests serving in the United States, drawing on data provided by 55 priests who completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales. The data demonstrated clear preferences for introversion (67 %), sensing (64 %), and judging (91 %), and for a balance between thinking (49 %) and feeling (51 %). A very high proportion of priests reported preferences for ISTJ (27 %), compared with 16 % of men in the U.S. population. Implications of these findings are discussed for ministry in the Roman Catholic Church

Pharmakon in the Firelands: Connecting Historical Discourses and Small-Town Social Contexts with Substance Use Experience

The ongoing increase in opioid and polysubstance-related overdoses and mortality in United States coincides with a shift in the ways substance use is understood. Once almost exclusively treated as a criminal problem, substance use, and overdose is increasingly viewed in terms of public health and from an urban to rural issue. The discourse surrounding the use of psychoactive substances largely omits the voices of the very people who use them. Likewise, the social context of small towns, at once not quite rural nor entirely urban, is generally given little consideration. To address these gaps in the research, I conduct two historical discourse analyses; the first analyzing advertisements and the second studying news articles published in the Northern Ohio region known as The Firelands. I conduct and analyze unstructured interviews with current and former opioid and polysubstance users, their family, and friends. I employ ethnographic data collection to advance and enrich the sociological understanding of the lived experiences and knowledge of the people who use psychoactive substances. The results of the discourse analysis are used to contextualize the knowledge of small-town opioid users and their lived experiences. Collectively, these insights contribute to the sociological study of deviance, a deeper understanding of drug use within the context of space and place, and the sociology of health and medicine

A Survey of the Educational Status and Responsibilities of Negro Teachers of Vocational Agriculture in Texas

The purposes of this study are: 1. To secure information concerning the education of Negro Vocational Agriculture teachers in Texas. 2. To secure information concerning the responsibilities of these agriculture teachers. 3. To secure information concerning the attitudes of these teachers toward these responsibilities. 4. To become acquainted with the conditions under which these teachers live and work. 5. To use the information secured as a suggested guide in preservice education of Vocational Agriculture teachers in Texas. This study is limited to information concerning the Education and Responsibilities of Negro Vocational Agriculture Teachers in Texas. It includes the amount of education these teachers have obtained, the teaching experience of these teachers and some recommendations for improving the pre-service training of prospective Vocational Agriculture teachers for the Negro schools in Texas

Confirmation of Prophecy by Proxy: Audience Anticipation and Reception of the 2014 Movie Left Behind and its Relevance to the Dispensational Premillennialist Worldview

Media has the potential to legitimize or spread a belief system to the general public. The 2014 movie Left Behind is an example of a deliberate attempt at promoting the belief system referred to as dispensational premillennialism (DPM), or belief in the imminent rapture of Christians. Producers of Left Behind (2014) sought to promote DPM to the general public, hoping for a mass conversion. Online discussion and interviews were gathered and interpreted qualitatively. Content analysis of audience anticipation and reception show believers were as concerned with the conversion of the general public via this movie than the movie itself. Differences between the text of the movie and discussion surrounding the film provide insights into the DPM worldview. Dispensational premillennialists are observed; rejecting earthly existence as counterfeit, asserting the general inerrancy of prophecy while rejecting “date setting” practices and using the effigy of the Antichrist to criticize perceived socio-political enemies

The phenomenology of customer delight: a case study of product evaluation

This thesis presents a phenomenological case study of customer delight during product evaluation. The literature presents two existing 'theories' of customer delight. The first, from the field of Consumer Research, presents a cognitive model of post-purchase customer delight as the affective result of expectation disconfirmation. The second, from the Manufacturing literature, proposes that customers are delighted when products contain unexpected features or levels of qualities that exceed expectations. This research was motivated by the fact that our current understanding of this commercially important phenomenon is confined by expectation-based thinking. Furthermore, both streams of research have neglected to study the naturalistic occurrence of delight from the customer's perspective. The aim of this research was to generate an integrated understanding of the affective, behavioural, and cognitive nature of customer delight and its product basis. A case study methodology, incorporating interview, self-report and observational methods, was adopted to generate a triangulated understanding of productbased customer delight. The naturalistic product evaluations of 918 customers were observed and self-reported delight reactions were collected from 66 research participants. In total 414 customer delight reactions were analysed in detail. This approach aimed to generate new theory, rather than test the existing models, and this new integrative understanding of customer delight is the primary contribution of this thesis. A new model of product-based customer delight is presented, and the existing Manufacturing model is extended to incorporate the empirical findings of the case study. Whilst the findings of this research support concepts contained within the existing theories of customer delight, they also demonstrate their limitations. The cognitive and affective diversity of customer delight reactions, previously unaccounted for in the literature, was uncovered and five product-based routes to delight were identified. The emergent theory successfully integrates the two previously separate concepts of delight and builds upon them by identifying the behaviours associated with customer delight resulting from both attribute-based and holistic product appraisals

Confirmation of Prophecy by Proxy: Audience Anticipation and Reception of the 2014 Movie Left Behind and its Relevance to the Dispensational Premillennialist Worldview

Media has the potential to legitimize or spread a belief system to the general public. The 2014 movie Left Behind is an example of a deliberate attempt at promoting the belief system referred to as dispensational premillennialism (DPM), or belief in the imminent rapture of Christians. Producers of Left Behind (2014) sought to promote DPM to the general public, hoping for a mass conversion. Online discussion and interviews were gathered and interpreted qualitatively. Content analysis of audience anticipation and reception show believers were as concerned with the conversion of the general public via this movie than the movie itself. Differences between the text of the movie and discussion surrounding the film provide insights into the DPM worldview. Dispensational premillennialists are observed; rejecting earthly existence as counterfeit, asserting the general inerrancy of prophecy while rejecting “date setting” practices and using the effigy of the Antichrist to criticize perceived socio-political enemies

Improving Tracer Particle Surface Properties for Wind Tunnel Research

The surface properties of micron size polystyrene latex microspheres (PSLs) modified with quaternary alkylammonium (QA) surfactants were investigated, with a focus on the relationship between surface chemistry and adhesion. These investigations were motivated by the need to develop non-fouling tracer particles for wind tunnel studies. The goals were to relate the work of adhesion between particles and substrates to the type and amount of QA modifier in order to optimize the performance of PSL tracers. Surfactant-free emulsion polymerization (SFEP) can produce PSLs for wind tunnel tracers. Covalentlybound charged groups (derived from the initiator) stabilize PSL surfaces in water. This work used PSLs with anionic surface groups. Previous studies indicated that surface-bound charged groups on PSLs have a significant impact on their interfacial energy. Modifying charged surface groups therefore offers a method to modulate PSL interfacial properties. In this work, PSLs and films were modified by adsorption of QA surfactants