A History of the American Film Institute

The American Film Institute (AFI) is a highly politicized, powerful organization. To date, most historical documentation and recording of AFI events and activities has been disseminated to the mass media from within the organization through its own publications or in other historical documentation as incidental history in relation to another topic. This dissertation, written as an overview, is the first comprehensive, independent historical examination of the AFI. The examination begins with an exploration of the development, activities and decline of the American Council on Education‟s original AFI and other film organizations that existed prior to the present day AFI. It then follows through to suggest an explanation for the contentious public discussions concerning the AFI‟s purpose and direction during its early years, which favored commercial film interests over educational/instructional film interests, as well as limited opportunities for women. This examination continues with documentation of the accomplishments of the AFI and the programs it sponsors concerning film education, preservation and promotion of U.S. films

An update on the potential for male contraception : emerging options

The human population continues to grow and is estimated to rise to 10.1 billion by the end of the century. Therefore, there is still an unmet need for safe and highly effective contraceptive options for both men and women. Current options available to men include withdrawal, condoms, and vasectomy. Methods in development fall into two categories: hormonal and nonhormonal. This review will provide an overview of the testosterone combinations and immunocontraception of hormonal targets. Nonhormonal immunocontraception of sperm proteins will also be examined, together with the use of agents to disrupt other sperm-associated targets and pathways. The categories focused on include epididymal proteins, testicular kinases, epigenetic reader proteins, opioids, lonidamine derivatives, retinoic acid, microRNAs associated with spermatogenesis, and plant extracts. Considering these developments, the number of options available to men is likely to increase in the near future

Changes in Exercise Habits of University Students During the Covid-19 Lockdown

The purpose of this investigation was to investigate how the exercise habits of college students changed during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Data were collected via an online survey distributed through the University of Southern Maine student email distribution list. All current university students were invited to participate in the survey starting in February 2021 through March 2021. The study included a questionnaire designed to capture the exercise habits of university students three months before the lockdown of COVID-19 (January – March 2020) and their exercise habits after a lockdown in (February - April 2021). The survey questions were based on the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) physical activity guidelines to analyze the participant's exercise habits. The participants showed a decrease in the exercise along with an increase in weekly sitting time. Before COVID-19, 21.8% of participants were sitting >35 hours per week. After the COVID-19 lockdown, 50.45% of participants were sitting >35 hours per week. The results of this study could be used for further research to promote an increase in exercise at home. With the uncertainty of the pandemic, motivating people to stand and walk more could be the first step in breaking the increase in sitting habits and help to increase exercise habits. The COVID-19 pandemic has indeed imposed many restrictions on our daily routines, but it could also guide us to new approaches for prescribing exercise programs in the future

Intersections of Poverty, Geography, and Custodial Grandparent Caregiving in Appalachia

The purpose of this study is to compare the incidence of custodial grandparenting in Central Appalachia to other areas in Appalachia and the rest of the U.S., to explore how recent economic changes have affected poverty rates of custodial grandparents in all of these areas, and to explore what influences the probability of custodial grandparenting. We hypothesize that the recent economic upheaval of the Great Recession has pressured many families to rely on grandparents to provide care for their grandchildren and that these trends are particularly evident in the Appalachian region due to longstanding historical trends and unique cultural factors. Three year summary data from the American Community Survey (ACS) was used to compare rates of grandparent caregiving along with poverty, children living in grandparent only households, and other indicators of poverty and economic distress both between regions and across three different time periods (2005-07, 2008-10, and 2011-13). We then developed at logistic regression model using the ACS individual level data (Public Use MicroData) for 2009-13 to estimate the probability of caregiving status among grandparents living with grandchildren in each Appalachian region compared to the entire United States. Grandparents living with grandchildren in Central Appalachia had more than double the odds of being the primary caregiver when compared to the rest of the U.S. when controlling for demographics, poverty, gender, race, age, and education. While grandparents can provide an important resource for these families, advocates and state level policy makers need to be aware of the potential downstream costs to children and older adults over time and consider how to better support these Appalachian grandfamilies

Whistleblowing and Compliance in the Judicial Hierarchy

One way that principals can overcome the problem of informational asymmetries in hierarchical organizations is to enable whistleblowing. We evaluate how whistleblowing influences compliance in the judicial hierarchy. We present a formal model in which a potential whistleblower may, at some cost, signal noncompliance by a lower court to a higher court. A key insight of the model is that whistleblowing is most informative when it is rare. While the presence of a whistleblower can increase compliance by lower courts, beyond a certain point blowing the whistle is counterproductive and actually reduces compliance. Moreover, a whistleblower who is a “perfect ally” of the higher court (in terms of preferences) blows the whistle too often. Our model shows an important connection between the frequency of whistleblowing and the effectiveness of whistleblowing as a threat to induce compliance in hierarchical organizations

Signaling and Counter-Signaling in the Judicial Hierarchy: An Empirical Analysis of En Banc Review

We leverage the institutional features of American courts to evaluate the importance of whistleblowers in hierarchical oversight. Drawing on a formal theory of signaling in the judicial hierarchy, we examine the role of whistleblowing dissents in triggering en banc review of three-judge panels by full circuits of the Courts of Appeals. The theory generates predictions about how dissent interacts with judicial preferences to influence circuits' review and reversal decisions, which we test using original and existing data. First, we show that judges who dissent counter to their preferences are more likely to see their dissents lead to review and reversal. Second, we show that dissents are most influential when the likelihood of non-compliance by a three-judge panel is highest. Our results underscore the importance of dissent in the judicial hierarchy and illustrate how judicial whistleblowers can help appellate courts target the most important cases for review