The Representations Of Serial Killers

In this thesis, I have analysed representations of a selection of fictional and factual serial killers from Thomas de Quincey to Thomas Harris’s Hannibal Lecter, from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to the autobiographical narratives of real life serial killers Carl Panzram, Donald Gaskins and Ian Brady. My analysis of these texts identifies the portrayals of serial killers in terms of representations as aesthetic, existential, socially othered phenomena. The thesis proceeds from the premise that serial killer narratives often obscure the existential brute reality of murder. As such, I examine serial killing vis-à-vis attempted explanatory shifts in such narratives which represent serial murder and serial killers in terms of aesthetic, psychopathological, moral/religious/supernatural and socio-political phenomena, and I investigate the implications of these shifts. I focus initially on Romantic ideas of the self, and in the relationship between the ‘outsider’ artist/poet and the textual emergence of the figure of the solitary ‘serial’ murderer in the early nineteenth century, particularly in relation to De Quincey’s aesthetic murder essays. Subsequent fluctuations of the representation of serial killing between mental-health, law-and-order and political/social discourses are discussed in relation to the subsequent texts. I conclude by examining cognitive dissonance theory, A.E. Van Vogt’s description of the Violent Man, and James Gilligan’s theories on violence, in order to propose a possible synergetic response to narratives and representations of serial killers and serial killing

Instructor Use of Tablet PCs in a College Pre-Calculus Course: Implementation & Assessment

A group of six math instructors used tablet PCs to teach their individual sections of a high enrollment gateway Pre-Calculus course in a diverse urban four-year college. Student performance in the experimental sections were compared to those in 31 other sections in terms of student retention, pass rates, and score on the department-wide standardized final exam. Student performance was higher in Tablet PC sections across all three measures, although in some cases the improvement was not substantial enough to improve students’ overall course grades. Surveys of students and faculty in classes using a Tablet PC reflected overall positive impressions of the technology’s use in mathematics classrooms

Using a Natural Disaster to Understand the Educational and Technical Assistance Needs of Small-scale Forest Landowners

Natural disasters occur in all forests, and may provide an opportunity for forestry extension educators and natural resource professionals to reach landowners with education and technical assistance. The 1998 ice storm that hit northern New York State, USA in January 1998, was used to assess the educational and technical assistance needs of forest owners. The degree of commonality among private forest landowners and maple syrup producers in their preferred delivery methods and messengers for educational materials was explored as a result of this natural disaster. Most respondents surveyed indicated that newsletters or special mailings were the best way to reach them. However, some evidence was found that small-scale forest landowners find personal contacts more useful than written materials when considering adopting a new practice. Evidence exists that some people likely sought information for the first time as a result of the storm and many think about the possibility of future ice storms when making management decisions. Responding effectively to a teachable moment created by a natural disaster requires the ability to disperse quickly relevant educational materials through a knowledgeable and trusted human network and into the hands of affected individuals before they begin making resource management decisions

Smart windows—-dynamic control of building energy performance

This paper explores the potential of thermotropic (TT) windows as a means of improving overall building energy performance. Capitalising on their ability to dynamically alter solar and visible light transmittance and reflectance based on window temperature, they have the ability to reduce solar heat gains and subsequently reduce cooling loads when the external conditions exceed those required for occupant comfort. Conversely when the external conditions fall short of those required for comfort, they maintain a degree of optical transparency thus promoting opportunities afforded by passive solar gains. To test their overall effectiveness, thermotropic layers made of varying hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) concentrations (2 wt.%, 4 wt.% and 6 wt.%) were firstly synthesised and their optical properties measured. Building performance predictions were subsequently conducted in EnergyPlus for four window inclinations (90°, 60°, 30° and 0° to the horizontal) based on a small office test cell situated in the hot summer Mediterranean climate of Palermo, Italy. Results from annual predictions show that both incident solar radiation and outdoor ambient temperature play a significant role in the transmissivity and reflectivity of the glazing unit. If used as a roof light, a 6 wt.% HPC-based thermotropic window has a dynamic average Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC) between 0.44 and 0.56, this lower than that of 0.74 for double glazing. Predictions also show that in the specific case tested, the 6 wt.% HPC-based thermotropic window provides an overall annual energy saving of 22% over an equivalent double glazed unit. By maintaining the thermotropic window spectral properties but lowering the associated transition temperature ranges, it was found that the lowest temperature range provided the smallest solar heat gains. Although, this is beneficial during periods where cooling may be needed, in those periods where heating may be required, opportunities gained through passive solar heating are limited. In addition, with lower solar heat gain, there is a possibility that artificial lighting energy demand increases resulting in additional energy consumption

Preferences of children in grades two through eight in social studies subject areas

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Multimorbidity and co-morbidity in atrial fibrillation and effects on survival: findings from UK Biobank cohort

Aims: To examine the number and type of co-morbid long-term health conditions (LTCs) and their associations with all-cause mortality in an atrial fibrillation (AF) population. Methods and results: Community cohort participants (UK Biobank n = 502 637) aged 37–73 years were recruited between 2006 and 2010. Self-reported LTCs (n = 42) identified in people with AF at baseline. All-cause mortality was available for a median follow-up of 7 years (interquartile range 76–93 months). Hazard ratios (HRs) examined associations between number and type of co-morbid LTC and all-cause mortality, adjusting for age, sex, socio-economic status, smoking, and anticoagulation status. Three thousand six hundred fifty-one participants (0.7% of the study population) reported AF; mean age was 61.9 years. The all-cause mortality rate was 6.7% (248 participants) at 7 years. Atrial fibrillation participants with ≥4 co-morbidities had a six-fold higher risk of mortality compared to participants without any LTC. Co-morbid heart failure was associated with higher risk of mortality [HR 2.96, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.83–4.80], whereas the presence of co-morbid stroke did not have a significant association. Among non-cardiometabolic conditions, presence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (HR 3.31, 95% CI 2.14–5.11) and osteoporosis (HR 3.13, 95% CI 1.63–6.01) was associated with a higher risk of mortality. Conclusion: Survival in middle-aged to older individuals with self-reported AF is strongly correlated with level of multimorbidity. This group should be targeted for interventions to optimize their management, which in turn may potentially reduce the impact of their co-morbidities on survival. Future AF clinical guidelines need to place greater emphasis on the issue of co-morbidity

Management Activities of Private Forest Landowners in New York State

CaRDI Research & Policy Brief, Issue 15. Click on the PDF for the full report. Visit the HDRU website for a complete listing of HDRU publications at: http://hdru.dnr.cornell.edu/. A complete listing of CaRDI publications can be found on its site: https://cardi.cals.cornell.edu/

Valuing Academic Perspectives

First paragraph: This report summarises a number of evaluative studies carried out in the neighbourhood of Wester Hailes, Edinburgh in the summer of 2014 by a team of academics, as part of a wider Arts and Humanities Research Council funded Connected Communities project Valuing Different Perspectives (VDP).1 The overall project sought to use a range of evaluative perspectives to the study of a number of previous AHRC Connected Communities projects: Community Hacking 2.0, Ladders to the Clouds, and the Communities Within Spaces of Flows projects.2 The projects produced diverse outputs for the local community: a totem pole; a social history walking "code book"; wall plaques (in preparation); the renewal of the local newspaper The Wester Hailes Sentinel as an online ‘hyper-local' news source, The Digital Sentinel; and a local partnership called Our Place in Time. The earlier Connected Communities projects also supported the local housing association (Prospect Community Housing [PCHA]) in continuing their use of the social history Facebook page From There to Here