(Re)defining Public Officials and Public Figures: A Washington State Primer

This Comment reflects an attempt to distill the Supreme Court\u27s thematic intent from over thirty years of defamation case law. The Comment then evaluates current definitions of public officials and public figures to determine whether they are consistent with the theme. Washington courts have already addressed these definitions, but this Comment posits that Washington law on public officials and public figures is inconsistent with the Supreme Court\u27s intent and suggests alternative defining tests for public officials and public figures

Face Time

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(Re)defining Public Officials and Public Figures: A Washington State Primer

This Comment reflects an attempt to distill the Supreme Court\u27s thematic intent from over thirty years of defamation case law. The Comment then evaluates current definitions of public officials and public figures to determine whether they are consistent with the theme. Washington courts have already addressed these definitions, but this Comment posits that Washington law on public officials and public figures is inconsistent with the Supreme Court\u27s intent and suggests alternative defining tests for public officials and public figures

Reconceptualizing imaginary friends: interdisciplinary approaches for understanding invisible companions

Imaginary friends or invisible companions are common features of cross-cultural childhoods. Research is primarily located in developmental psychology, where invisible companions are considered part of imaginary play. We argue for a reconceptualization of the core phenomenon, to one of regularly interacting with a person who is not normally perceptible to others, instead of uncritically adopting the dominant Euro-Western ontology of imagination. Analyzing the central experience through other branches of psychology, anthropology, religion, and spirituality shows that different fields are potentially discussing the same phenomenon, albeit obscured by disciplinary boundaries. We outline some implications of this new approach for the development of childhood studies

On the mechanical properties of N-functionalised dipeptide gels

The properties of a hydrogel are controlled by the underlying network that immobilizes the solvent. For gels formed by the self-assembly of a small molecule, it is common to show the primary fibres that entangle to form the network by microscopy, but it is difficult to access information about the network. One approach to understand the network is to examine the effect of the concentration on the rheological properties, such that G cx, where G is the storage modulus and c is the concentration. A number of reports link the exponent x to a specific type of network. Here, we discuss a small library of gels formed using functionalized dipeptides, and describe the underlying networks of these gels, using microscopy, small angle scattering and rheology. We show that apparently different networks can give very similar values of x

Brief Report:A Longitudinal Study of Excessive Smiling and Laughing in Children with Angelman Syndrome

Elevated laughing and smiling is a key characteristic of the Angelman syndrome behavioral phenotype, with cross-sectional studies reporting changes with environment and age. This study compares levels of laughing and smiling in 12 participants across three experimental conditions [full social interaction (with eye contact), social interaction with no eye contact, proximity only] at two data points. No differences were noted in frequency of laughing and smiling over time in any condition. However, with age as a covariate, the frequency of laughing and smiling decreased over time in the full social interaction (with eye contact) condition only. As this is the first longitudinal study to explore these behaviors in Angelman syndrome, the results suggest a gene–environment–time interaction within the behavioral phenotype.Full Tex