The Evolution of The Dream: Representations of The American Dream in Two Films from the 21st Century

This paper debates the current state of the American Dream, once central to the identity of the United States, based on contemporary representations of the Dream that have taken root in the 21st century. These arguments are founded in the cultural analyses of Muccino’s The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) and Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), due to their diametrically opposing representations of the concept. Through these analyses, I find that the Dream has evolved from a debate on whether it could be real, to a debate on whether it should be pursued in the first place.This paper debates the current state of the American Dream, once central to the identity of the United States, based on contemporary representations of the Dream that have taken root in the 21st century. These arguments are founded in the cultural analyses of Muccino’s The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) and Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), due to their diametrically opposing representations of the concept. Through these analyses, I find that the Dream has evolved from a debate on whether it could be real, to a debate on whether it should be pursued in the first place

Fra Hammerfest pleiehjem til Åsgård sykehus

Oppgaven skildrer utviklingen av sinnssykevesenet i Finnmark i perioden 1920-1961. Utgangspunktet for oppgaven er Stortingets behandling av et nytt statsasyl i Troms og Finnmark. Da statsasylet ble utsatt i 1925, først og fremst av økonomiske årsaker, bestemte Finnmark fylke seg for å etablere et eget pleiehjem ved Fuglenes i Hammerfest. I pleiehjemmet, som ble kalt HPH, 12 år lange drift, opparbeidet det seg bånd til privatpleie i regionen og knyttet kontakter med statsasylet ved Rønvik. Et resultat ble en institusjon som gjennomsyret fylkets sinnssykevesen frem til tyskerne evakuerte befolkningen i 1944. Da befolkningen returnerte utover 1940-tallet til Finnmark var alt nedbrent, inkludert HPH. Oppgaven tar for seg HPHs virke før krigen, før den følgende skildrer Finnmarks forsøk på å gjenreise sinnssykevesenet frem til Åsgård psykiatriske sykehus sto klar i 1961

Heroic music stimulates empowering thoughts during mind-wandering

It is generally well-known, and scientifically well established, that music affects emotions and moods. However, only little is known about the influence of music on thoughts. This scarcity is particularly surprising given the importance of the valence of thoughts for psychological health and well-being. We presented excerpts of heroic- and sad-sounding music to n = 62 individuals, and collected thought probes after each excerpt, assessing the valence and the nature of thoughts stimulated by the music. Our results show that mind-wandering emerged during listening to either type of music (heroic, sad), and that the type of music strongly influenced the thought contents during mind-wandering. Heroic-sounding music evoked more positive, exciting, constructive, and motivating thoughts, while sad-sounding music evoked more calm or demotivating thoughts. The results thus indicate that music has a strong effect on the valence of thought contents during mind-wandering, with heroic music evoking more empowering and motivating thoughts, and sad music more relaxing or depressive thoughts. These findings have important implications for the use of music in everyday life to promote health and well-being in both clinical populations and healthy individuals.publishedVersio

Concentrating and labeling genomic DNA in a nanofluidic array

Genomic DNA is concentrated in a dense nanofluidic array and labeled by a polymerase ϕ29 reaction where neither the DNA nor the enzyme is attached to a solid support.</p