Of Shining Sea and Rising Sun: cultural storytelling in the genre of horror in video games

In the modern era, video games are hardly the simple, mindless medium that they used to be. Rather, they are now being used as a vehicle for artistic expression and storytelling worldwide, creating a colorful and comprehensive new approach to the storytelling experience that was previously reserved for books or movies. The immersive nature of the medium provides for a richer and more stimulating experience, from which the genre of horror greatly benefits. Rather than the more passive experience the viewer gets from watching a movie or reading a book, video games allow for the player to be completely immersed, experiencing the story rather than just witnessing it. This general aspect combined with the opportunity for unique artistic expression and storytelling, provides for a better overall horror experience. Within the horror genre, there are two schools of storytelling: the Eastern Style (primarily from Japan and countries in the Far East), and the Western Style (particularly the United States). These styles are both unique with their approaches to the genre, begging the question: what do different cultures find scary? Through careful analysis of the Eastern and Western styles, we can understand the characteristics and unique components, identifying the reasoning behind them. An examination of broader social implications in the areas of religion, history, and psychology, will expand the scope of the digital media studies, providing a greater understanding of the continued evolution of human storytelling. The evolution and future possibilities of storytelling are explored in this study by examining the techniques and implications specific to these two identified schools within the horror genre of video games.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1243/thumbnail.jp

Generalised anxiety disorder doubles risk of cardiovascular events in people with stable coronary heart disease

Does generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) affect cardiovascular events associated with coronary heart disease (CHD)? Population: 1015 patients with stable coronary heart. Eligible patients had at least one of the following: history of myocardial infarction (MI), 50% stenosis in one or more coronary vessels (angiographic evidence), history of coronary revascularization, diagnosis of CHD or previous evidence of exercise-induced ischaemia (treadmill or nuclear testing). Setting: Medical centres and public health clinics in San Francisco, USA; September 2000 to December 2002. Prognostic factors: GAD according to Diagnostic Interview Schedule for DSM-IV criteria. Outcomes:\ud Cardiovascular events occurring between baseline and March 2009. Events included stroke, heart failure, MI, transient ischaemic attack or death. Heart failure was defined as hospitalisation for a clinical syndrome involving at least two of the following: orthopnoea, third heart sound, pulmonary rales, paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnoea, elevated jugular venous pressure, cardiomegaly or pulmonary oedema on chest radiography. Non-fatal MI was defined based on the presence of symptoms, electrocardiographic changes and cardiac enzymes using standard criteria

Teaching critical appraisal to Sport & Exercise Sciences and Biosciences students

Seminars were implemented to develop undergraduates’ critical appraisal skills and their effectiveness was evaluated. Participants were 140 undergraduate students consisting of 103 students from Sport and Exercise Sciences and 37 from Biosciences. Four seminars were employed to develop and reinforce critical thinking and provide an opportunity for practise and group work. Source material included research proposals and published journal articles. Two linked pieces of coursework assessed critical thinking skills. Teaching method effectiveness was examined using the students’ questionnaire responses and comparison of coursework grades across the module. Students reported finding the seminars useful and helpful, and their self-ratings of critical appraisal skills improved from pre- to post-seminar. However, this was not generally reflected in assessment grades across the group. Overall, there was a significant decline in grades from the first to the second piece of coursework. However, although Sport and Exercise Sciences students’ scored significantly lower on the second coursework, Biosciences students scored higher. It is possible that this type of teaching helps to boost performance in students who originally are new to such skills. Future studies would need to examine whether different methods or longer follow-up might also yield improvements in objective measurements of students’ critical appraisal ability

A Roof of One\u27s Own: Widow Walking in the Anthropocene

A nonfiction work that explores widow\u27s walks in a time of climate change on the coasts. This piece walks the lines between speculative fiction and lyrical essay

Blunted cardiovascular reactivity relates to depression, obesity, and self-reported health

The reactivity hypothesis implicates exaggerated cardiovascular reactions to acute psychological stress in the development of hypertension and other cardiovascular disease outcomes. However, cardiovascular reactivity has also been suggested as a mediator between a variety of psychosocial and behavioural risk factors and cardiovascular disease. Data from various analyses of the West of Scotland Twenty-07 study are discussed together, and caution against over-stretching the original reactivity hypothesis. Blood pressure and heart rate were assessed at rest and during an acute mental arithmetic stress task. First, depression, though a putative risk factor for cardiovascular disease, does not appear to confer this risk via exaggerated reactivity, as it was negatively related to reactivity. Second, obesity, another risk factor, was also associated with blunted rather than heightened reactivity. Finally, lower reactivity was related to poorer self-reported health. Similar associations emerged from both cross-sectional and prospective analyses. These seemingly paradoxical results are discussed in terms of implications for the reactivity hypothesis

Critical Service Learning

Service Learning Initiative for Community Engagement in Sociology (SLICES) is a critical, research-focused, community-based, leadership and knowledge project. By engaging in Community Based Participatory Action Research Projects (CBPAR) students have an opportunity to work multiple semesters, if they choose, to develop research skills, serve in leadership roles, serve and collaborate with local organization, and engage in professional development.https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/btp_expo/1042/thumbnail.jp

Injunctions in Sovereign Debt Litigation

Injunctions against foreign sovereigns have come under criticism on comity and enforcement grounds. We argue that these objections are overstated. Comity considerations are important but not dispositive. Enforcement objections assign too much significance to the court’s inability to impose meaningful contempt sanctions, overlooking the fact that, when a foreign sovereign is involved, both money judgments and injunctions are enforced through what amounts to a court-imposed embargo. This embargo discourages third parties from dealing with the sovereign and, if sufficiently costly, can induce the sovereign to comply. Nevertheless, we are skeptical about injunctions in sovereign debt litigation. They are prone to dramatic spillover effects precisely because they cannot reach their primary target, the sovereign government. Recent decisions in NML v. Argentina illustrate the way in which a court’s inability to compel compliance by the sovereign may lead it to impose dramatic and potentially unwarranted costs on third parties, turning traditional equitable analysis on its head

Does Work Stress Predict the Occurrence of Cold, Flu and Minor Illness Symptoms in Clinical Psychology Trainees?

Objectives: The present study examined the three/four-day lagged relationship between daily work stress and upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) and other minor illness symptoms. Methods: Twenty-four postgraduate clinical psychology trainees completed work stress, cold/flu symptoms and somatic symptoms checklists daily for four weeks. Results: Increases in work stress were observed two days prior to a cold/flu episode but not three or four days preceding a cold/flu episode. Work stress was unrelated to peaks in somatic symptom reporting. Conclusions: There was some evidence of a lagged relationship between work stress and symptoms, but not of the expected duration, suggesting that the relationship between work stress and URTI symptoms was not mediated by the immune system