You Need the Words?: Portrayals of Romantic Anxiety in Film

Viewers’ interpretations of characters with anxious attitudes in romantic relationships can affect their opinions on what constitutes appropriate relationship behavior. This paper analyzes the impact of media on people through a literature review and offers an explanation of different portrayals of romantic anxiety in film: the language used to describe characters and characters’ ends. The films studied - Sunset Boulevard, Sid and Nancy, Hard Core Logo, Burnt Money, and The Hustler - all showed a pattern where a character with romantic anxiety was mistreated by the storyline or other characters, and most of these characters meet their end through suicide or murder. The impact of these types of negative portrayals have not yet been explored, but similar studies find that viewers watch films to learn the norms of their community (Levy, 1990), and negative portrayals of romantic anxiety could lead to negative effects for anxious individuals. Further studies using questionnaires and focus groups are recommended in order to better understand the impact of these messages, viewer awareness, and sources of exposure

Elemental Analysis of Adhesive Tapes by Laser-Based Methods

Adhesive tapes are a common type of evidence involved in violent crimes and national security threats. This research evaluated the utility of LA-ICP-MS and LIBS for the characterization of the trace elemental signature in adhesive tapes for forensic comparisons. LA-ICP-MS and LIBS methods were developed, for the first time, for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of adhesive tapes. The backings of 90 black electrical tapes, previously characterized by conventional techniques (physical examination, IR, Py-GC-MS, and SEM-EDS), were analyzed by LA-ICP-MS to evaluate the ability of the technique to discriminate samples originating from different sources and to associate pieces of tapes originating from the same roll. The discrimination for the LA-ICP-MS analysis of the 90 samples was found to be 93.9%, greater than the discrimination found using SEM-EDS (87.3%). Moreover, 100% correct association resulted for the control samples evaluated in this study. The analysis of tapes by LIBS allowed to separate pairs of tapes that were not previously distinguished by LA-ICP-MS by detecting differences in lithium, calcium, and potassium. The potential of normalization strategies was evaluated for LIBS spectral and statistical comparisons. Two quantitative analysis methods were developed for the analysis of tapes and other polymers. These quantitative methods can help in creating and populating databases that can lead to the use of likelihood ratios and the development of standard methods of analysis and interpretation for tape evidence. Two interlaboratory trials including 7 operational and research laboratories were completed as part of this study. SEM-EDS resulted in 16.7% and 12.5% false positive rates for interlaboratory tests #1 and #2, respectively. Up to 7 and 8 elements were detected by SEM-EDS for interlaboratory test #1 and #2, respectively. LIBS and LA-ICP-MS resulted in no false positives or false negatives. In addition, increased characterization of the samples was obtained by detecting up to 17 elements by LIBS and 32 elements by LA-ICP-MS. The increased sensitivity and selectivity of LIBS and LA-ICP-MS methods has been shown to distinguish tapes originating from different sources, and to correctly associate tapes belonging to the same rolls in different laboratories and by different analysts

Analysis of Flash in Injection Molding Using Flow Simulation and Design of Experiments

This study presents a method of detecting flash by using flow simulation along with the mold processing conditions and the DOE analysis values from all input and output parameters that will be calculated. All of this would be completed in order to compare and verify the DOE and simulation results and find out if it can be applied to an actual live production molded part, in this case, the Leap char ribbon. This paper will also describe the scrap issue that is presently happening on this molded part, and what are the options that there is in order to find the most suitable solution for the company. It will explain the experimental trials that were performed in the specimen and the results obtained from the simulation analysis that was computed in the Moldflow software. it would lead benefit of detecting and minimize. The results from the testing will permit to identify the behavior of mold temperature, melt temperature, viscosity and injection speed on pressure and time and by verifying this results with the DOE, will lead us into the road to better select an optimal new resin that will help to solve the flash problem and that is transmitted from the injection mold and confirming if the results can predict if the flash is due to processing condition, the material properties or the mold itself. All the results and possible outcomes would be presented to the company in order for them to decide on whether they want to make the changes to the current injection mold or if the purchase of a complete brand new mold would be necessary

Composite and Polymer Formulation Employing Sulfur and Bio-olefin Feedstocks

Environmental sustainability represents a challenge for society since industrial growth has a direct impact on natural resources and waste production. New technologies that effectively incorporate waste into renewable resources are critical to the development of a sustainable and circular economy. The manufacturing of structural materials like Portland cement (OPC) is responsible for \u3e8% of the global anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide, with ~ 1 kg of CO2 released to the atmosphere for every kilogram of OPC produced. For instance, the development of sustainable structural materials is a key factor to reduce the greenhouse emissions and to attenuate the climate change. Plant oils and animal coproducts primarily comprised of triglycerides and unsaturated fatty acids represent abundant feedstocks with great potential to replace the traditional petrochemical olefins to produce more sustainable materials via atom economical processes like inverse vulcanization. The work presented in this dissertation focuses on the incorporation of post-consumer plastic and low value animal fats to produce high sulfur content composites that exhibit impressive thermal and mechanical properties. Chapter one reviews the prominent studies that have been done to develop new lithium-sulfur batteries having improved anode interface, better electrolyte and cathode design, and enhanced electrochemical performance. The emergence of Li-S battery technologies represents an important alternative in green economy and represents a promising alternative to overcome different environmental challenges encountered by the production and used of traditional liquid state batteries. Chapter two and three reports the atom economical polymerization of triglycerides, low value animal fats and their reaction with elemental sulfur to yield high strength composites that showed great chemical and thermomechanical stabilities when compared to other traditional building materials. Chapter four and five report synthetic routes to chemically modify and repurpose post-consumer Poly(ethylene terephthalate) employing sustainable bio-olefins such as fatty acid derivatives and animal fats , and the subsequent reaction with industrial by-product sulfur to yield high strength structural materials. A detailed analysis of the morphology, thermal and mechanical properties of the composites is discussed. Chapter six describes a strategy to synthesize high sulfur content materials utilizing underexploited organic chemical precursors such as rancid animal fats. During this work, a blend of partially hydrolyzed chicken fat and plant oils as the comonomers, followed by the reaction with elemental sulfur yielded highly crosslinked polymer composites having compressive and flexural strengths that exceeded that of traditional building materials like OPC

Optimizing Measurement of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in Small Blood Samples of Premature Infants

To establish a method that allows for the reliable assessment of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-A) concentrations in very small blood samples of preterm infants. Systemic VEGF measurements are important in view of the most appropriate Anti-VEGF drug to be used for the treatment of acute retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Cord blood samples from preterm (n = 6) infants, blood samples from preterm infants with treatment requiring ROP (n = 12), and blood samples from healthy adults (n = 10) were collected. Serum, citrate plasma, and serum from recalcified citrate blood were obtained. Levels of VEGF-A and platelet factor-4 (PF-4) were quantified by ELISA or AlphaLISA immunoassay. VEGF-A levels could be detected by both assays, with the AlphaLISA generating slightly lower levels in healthy adults, but not in cord blood of preterm infants. In plasma samples, VEGF levels ranged from non detectable to 181 pg/ml. PF-4 concentrations were between 0.16-3.88 microg/ml. Values of VEGF-A and PF-4 in serum and recalcified serum were significantly higher compared to plasma through the release of these cytokines after platelet activation. In plasma samples of infants with ROP, VEGF-A could always be detected and its values ranged from 19.50 to 245.91 pg/ml and PF-4 concentrations were between 0.1 and 3.3 microg/ml. Using the AlphaLISA kit, we were able to detect VEGF in small sample volumes (5 microl plasma or serum/well) in premature infants with treatment requiring ROP and to monitor platelet activation by PF-4 detection. Minimal blood probe volumes reduce phlebotomy losses avoiding the risk of iatrogenic anemia, thus allowing close monitoring of the cytokine levels in these very fragile infants

Formulation space search for two-dimensional packing problems

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The two-dimension packing problem is concerned with the arrangement of items without overlaps inside a container. In particular we have considered the case when the items are circular objects, some of the general examples that can be found in the industry are related with packing, storing and transportation of circular objects. Although there are several approaches we want to investigate the use of formulation space search. Formulation space search is a fairly recent method that provides an easy way to escape from local optima for non-linear problems allowing to achieve better results. Despite the fact that it has been implemented to solve the packing problem with identical circles, we present an improved implementation of the formulation space search that gives better results for the case of identical and non-identical circles, also considering that they are packed inside different shaped containers, for which we provide the needed modifications for an appropriate implementation. The containers considered are: the unit circle, the unit square, two rectangles with different dimension (length 5, width 1 and length 10 width 1), a right-isosceles triangle, a semicircle and a right-circular quadrant. Results from the tests conducted shown several improvements over the best previously known for the case of identical circles inside three different containers: a right-isosceles triangle, a semicircle and a circular quadrant. In order to extend the scope of the formulation space search approach we used it to solve mixed-integer non-linear problems, in particular those with zero-one variables. Our findings suggest that our implementation provides a competitive way to solve these kind of problems.This study was funded by the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology (CONACyT)

Barbie Doesn\u27t Have Bruises: Gendered Images of Anxiety and Avoidant Attachment Relationships in Film

Viewers’ interpretations of romantic relationships portrayed between those with anxious and avoidant attachments can affect their opinions on what constitutes appropriate relationship behavior. I conducted a literature review on media impacts and offer an interpretation of the implications of the language used to describe characters, relationships and characters’ ends. The films studied - Sunset Boulevard, Sid and Nancy, and The Hustler - showed a pattern where in a relationship between an anxious and an avoidant character, the anxious character was punished, absorbed by their relationship, abandoned, trapped in their life, and cut off from the world. Viewers watch films to learn the norms of their community (Levy, 1990), and an idealization of avoidant behavior, coupled with negative portrayals of romantic anxiety could lead to harmful beliefs about love. Further studies using questionnaires and focus groups are recommended to better understand the impact of these messages, viewer awareness, and sources of exposure

Review of OpenStax College Success

Review of OpenStax College Success, https://openstax.org/details/ books/college-succes