Tough guys, rock stars, and messiahs: genre and gender in the Hollywood musical, 1966-1983

textThis project seeks to examine how the generic norms (narratives, themes, aesthetics, performers, and performances) of integrated musicals of the 1966-1983 period diverge from those the previous era, and further, how they interrelate with the films' representations of masculinities (visually, intertextually, and bodily). While the musical has oft been discussed academically and popularly as having an underlying mission of projecting an imagined cultural utopia and celebration of romance, many of these later vehicles deviate into a subgenre which features a pattern of unsatisfactory resolutions including unrequited love (Sweet Charity [1969], At Long Last Love [1975]), failed business ventures (Camelot [1967]), and death (The Rocky Horror Picture Show [1975], All That Jazz [1979]). This study interrogates emerging generic dictates in terms of narrative goals, integration of contemporary visual techniques associated with New American Cinema, and a definitively changing pool of musical male stars (eschewing Howard Keel and Fred Astaire for Steve Martin, Burt Reynolds, and The Village People), and ultimately examines their impact on the construction of a less restrictive notion of male gender.Radio-Television-Fil

Average chemical properties and potential formation pathways of highly oxidized organic aerosol

Measurements of ambient organic aerosol indicate that a substantial fraction is highly oxidized and low in volatility, but this fraction is generally not reproduced well in either laboratory studies or models. Here we describe a new approach for constraining the viable precursors and formation pathways of highly oxidized organic aerosol, by starting with the oxidized product and considering the possible reverse reactions, using a set of simple chemical rules. The focus of this work is low-volatility oxidized organic aerosol (LV-OOA), determined from factor analysis of aerosol mass spectrometer data. The elemental composition and volatility of the aerosol enable the determination of its position in a three-dimensional chemical space (defined by H/C, O/C, and carbon number) and thus its average chemical formula. Consideration of possible back-reactions then defines the movement taken through this chemical space, constraining potential reaction pathways and precursors. This approach is taken for two highly oxidized aerosol types, an average of LV-OOA factors from ten field campaigns (average formula C[subscript 10.5]H[subscript 13.4]O[subscript 7.3]), and extremely oxidized LV-OOA (from Mexico City, average formula C[subscript 10]H[subscript 12.1]O[subscript 8.4]). Results suggest that potential formation pathways include functionalization reactions that add multiple functional groups per oxidation step, oligomerization of highly oxidized precursors, and, in some cases, fragmentation reactions that involve the loss of small, reduced fragments.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant CHE-1012809)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant AGS-1056225

Self-Objectification, Body Image, Eating Behaviors, and Exercise Dependence among College Females

The purposes of this study were to examine the associations between (a) self-objectification, (b) body shame, (c) appearance anxiety, and (d) exercise dependence. Participants (N = 155) completed a demographic questionnaire and a survey packet including the Body Surveillance subscale and Body Shame subscale of the Objectified Body Consciousness Scale, Appearance Anxiety Scale, Eating Attitudes Test 26, and the Exercise Dependence Scale. Correlations were conducted revealing associations between self-objectification, body shame, appearance anxiety, and eating attitudes. Associations were also found between body shame and exercise dependence. Partial correlations were conducting revealing body shame and appearance anxiety mediated the relationship between self-objectification and eating attitudes. Body shame also mediated the relationship between self-objectification and exercise dependence

Development of guidelines for tertiary education institutions to assist them in supporting students with a mental illness: a Delphi consensus study with Australian professionals and consumers

Background. The age at which most young people are in tertiary education is also the age of peak onset for mental illness. Because mental health problems can have adverse effects on students’ academic performance and welfare, institutions require guidance how they can best provide support. However, the scientific evidence for how best to do this is relatively limited. Therefore a Delphi expert consensus study was carried out with professional and consumer experts.Methods. A systematic review of websites, books and journal articles was conducted to develop a 172 item survey containing strategies that institutions might use to support students with a mental illness. Two panels of Australian experts (74 professionals and 35 consumers) were recruited and independently rated the items over three rounds, with strategies reaching consensus on importance written into the guidelines.Results. The overall response rate across three rounds was 83% (80% consumers, 85% professionals). 155 strategies were endorsed as essential or important by at least 80% of panel members. The endorsed strategies provided information on policy, measures to promote support services, service provision, accessibility of support services, relationships between services, other types of support and issues associated with reasonable adjustments. They also provided guidance on the procedures the institutions should have for making staff aware of issues associated with mental illness, mental illness training, support for staff and communicating with a student with a mental illness. They also covered student rights and responsibilities, the procedures the institutions should have for making students aware of issues associated with mental illness, dealing with mental health crises, funding and research and evaluation.Conclusions. The guidelines provide guidance for tertiary institutions to assist them in supporting students with a mental illness. It is hoped that they may be used to inform policy and practice in tertiary institutions

Fractionating the unitary notion of dissociation:disembodied but not embodied dissociative experiences are associated with exocentric perspective-taking

It has been argued that hallucinations which appear to involve shifts in egocentric perspective (e.g., the out-of-body experience, OBE) reflect specific biases in exocentric perspective-taking processes. Via a newly devised perspective-taking task, we examined whether such biases in perspective-taking were present in relation to specific dissociative anomalous body experiences (ABE) - namely the OBE. Participants also completed the Cambridge Depersonalization Scale (CDS; Sierra and Berrios, 2000) which provided measures of additional embodied ABE (unreality of self) and measures of derealization (unreality of surroundings). There were no reliable differences in the level of ABE, emotional numbing, and anomalies in sensory recall reported between the OBE and control group as measured by the corresponding CDS subscales. In contrast, the OBE group did provide significantly elevated measures of derealization ("alienation from surroundings" CDS subscale) relative to the control group. At the same time we also found that the OBE group was significantly more efficient at completing all aspects of the perspective-taking task relative to controls. Collectively, the current findings support fractionating the typically unitary notion of dissociation by proposing a distinction between embodied dissociative experiences and disembodied dissociative experiences - with only the latter being associated with exocentric perspective-taking mechanisms. Our findings - obtained with an ecologically valid task and a homogeneous OBE group - also call for a re-evaluation of the relationship between OBEs and perspective-taking in terms of facilitated disembodied experiences

The Relation Between Ejecta Velocity, Intrinsic Color, and Host-Galaxy Mass for High-Redshift Type Ia Supernovae

Recently, using a large low-redshift sample of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), we discovered a relation between SN Ia ejecta velocity and intrinsic color that improves the distance precision of SNe Ia and reduces potential systematic biases related to dust reddening. No SN Ia cosmological results have yet made a correction for the "velocity-color" relation. To test the existence of such a relation and constrain its properties at high redshift, we examine a sample of 75 SNe Ia discovered and observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II (SDSS-II) Supernova Survey and Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS). From each spectrum, we measure ejecta velocities at maximum brightness for the Ca H&K and Si II 6355 features, v_Ca^0 and v_Si^0, respectively. Using SN light-curve parameters, we determine the intrinsic B_max - V_max for each SN. Similar to what was found at low-redshift, we find that SNe Ia with higher ejecta velocity tend to be intrinsically redder than SNe Ia with lower ejecta velocity. The distributions of ejecta velocities for SNe Ia at low and high redshift are similar, indicating that current cosmological results should have little bias related to the velocity-color relation. Additionally, we find a slight (2.4-sigma significant) trend between SN Ia ejecta velocity and host-galaxy mass such that SNe Ia in high-mass host galaxies tend to have lower ejecta velocities as probed by v_Ca^0. These results emphasize the importance of spectroscopy for SN Ia cosmology.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, accepted by Ap

Light drinking in pregnancy, a risk for behavioural problems and cognitive deficits at 3 years of age?

Background The objective of this study was to determine whether there was an association between mothers’ light drinking during pregnancy and risk of behavioural problems, and cognitive deficits in their children at age 3 years. Methods Data from the first two sweeps of the nationally representative prospective UK Millennium Cohort study were used. Drinking patterns during pregnancy and behavioural and cognitive outcomes were assessed during interviews and home visits. Behavioural problems were indicated by scores falling above defined clinically 15 relevant cut-offs on the parent-report version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Cognitive ability was assessed using the naming vocabulary subscale from the British Ability Scale (BAS) and the Bracken School Readiness Assessment (BSRA). Results There was a J-shaped relationship between mothers drinking 20 during pregnancy and the likelihood of high scores (above the cut-off) on the total difficulties scale of the SDQ and the conduct problems, hyperactivity and emotional symptom SDQ subscales. Children born to light drinkers were less likely to score above the cut-offs compared with children of abstinent mothers. Children 25 born to heavy drinkers were more likely to score above the cut-offs compared with children of abstinent mothers. Boys born to mothers who had up to 1–2 drinks per week or per occasion were less likely to have conduct problems (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.45–0.77) and hyperactivity (OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.54–0.94). These effects remained 30 in fully adjusted models. Girls were less likely to have emotional symptoms (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.51–1.01) and peer problems (OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.52–0.92) compared with those born to abstainers. These effects were attenuated in fully adjusted models. Boys born to light drinkers had higher cognitive ability test scores [standard 35 deviations, (95% CI)] BAS 0.15 (0.08–0.23) BSRA 0.24 (0.16–0.32) compared with boys born to abstainers. The difference for BAS was attenuated on adjustment for socio-economic factors, whilst the difference for BSRA remained statistically significant. Conclusions Children born to mothers who drank up to 1–2 drinks per week or per occasion during pregnancy were not at increased risk of clinically relevant behavioural difficulties or cognitive deficits compared with children of abstinent mothers. Heavy drinking 5 during pregnancy appears to be associated with behavioural problems and cognitive deficits in offspring at age 3 years whereas light drinking does not

Hubble Residuals of Nearby Type Ia Supernovae Are Correlated with Host Galaxy Masses

From Sloan Digital Sky Survey u'g'r'i'z' imaging, we estimate the stellar masses of the host galaxies of 70 low redshift SN Ia (0.015 < z < 0.08) from the hosts' absolute luminosities and mass-to-light ratios. These nearby SN were discovered largely by searches targeting luminous galaxies, and we find that their host galaxies are substantially more massive than the hosts of SN discovered by the flux-limited Supernova Legacy Survey. Testing four separate light curve fitters, we detect ~2.5{\sigma} correlations of Hubble residuals with both host galaxy size and stellar mass, such that SN Ia occurring in physically larger, more massive hosts are ~10% brighter after light curve correction. The Hubble residual is the deviation of the inferred distance modulus to the SN, calculated from its apparent luminosity and light curve properties, away from the expected value at the SN redshift. Marginalizing over linear trends in Hubble residuals with light curve parameters shows that the correlations cannot be attributed to a light curve-dependent calibration error. Combining 180 higher-redshift ESSENCE, SNLS, and HigherZ SN with 30 nearby SN whose host masses are less than 10^10.8 solar masses in a cosmology fit yields 1+w=0.22 +0.152/-0.143, while a combination where the 30 nearby SN instead have host masses greater than 10^10.8 solar masses yields 1+w=-0.03 +0.217/-0.108. Progenitor metallicity, stellar population age, and dust extinction correlate with galaxy mass and may be responsible for these systematic effects. Host galaxy measurements will yield improved distances to SN Ia.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, published in ApJ, minor change