Radically Feminist or Monstrously Feminine?: Witches and Goddesses in Guadagnino\u27s Suspiria (2018)

Guadagnino’s 2018 remake of Suspiria explicitly and implicitly incorporates two connected myths, witchcraft and goddess centered matriarchal prehistory. The fact that each of these myths have been claimed by feminists in myriad ways may explain Guadagnino’s claim that Suspiria is a great feminist film that escapes the male gaze. In this article, I argue that Guadagnino’s representation of these myths lays bare their misogynistic origins and perpetuates, rather than subverts, patriarchal power structures

Effective Implementation of Blended Learning

This literature review depicts the current reality of blended learning in schools and the systems that will need to transform in order to fully implement technology into the daily school experience. Since technology is an integral part of society, schools are tasked with how to create and implement curriculums that include aspects of online learning. Moving from traditional education to a new blended learning approach brings about challenges for both teachers and administrators. Teachers must learn to understand new technologies and how to utilize them to teach with 21st Century skills in mind. Administrators need to lead districts through new developments in technology and provide the professional development needed to support their staff. By analyzing current research, this literature review presents information that can help in moving toward a blended learning approach to education

Sediment accumulation rates in subarctic lakes: Insights into age-depth modeling from 22 dated lake records from the Northwest Territories, Canada

Age-depth modeling using Bayesian statistics requires well-informed prior information about the behavior of sediment accumulation. Here we present average sediment accumulation rates (represented as deposition times, DT, in yr/cm) for lakes in an Arctic setting, and we examine the variability across space (intra- and inter-lake) and time (late Holocene). The dataset includes over 100 radiocarbon dates, primarily on bulk sediment, from 22 sediment cores obtained from 18 lakes spanning the boreal to tundra ecotone gradients in subarctic Canada. There are four to twenty-five radiocarbon dates per core, depending on the length and character of the sediment records. Deposition times were calculated at 100-year intervals from age-depth models constructed using the 'classical' age-depth modeling software Clam. Lakes in boreal settings have the most rapid accumulation (mean DT 20±10 yr/cm), whereas lakes in tundra settings accumulate at moderate (mean DT 70±10 yr/cm) to very slow rates, (>100yr/cm). Many of the age-depth models demonstrate fluctuations in accumulation that coincide with lake evolution and post-glacial climate change. Ten of our sediment cores yielded sediments as old as c. 9000cal BP (BP=years before AD 1950). From between c. 9000cal BP and c. 6000cal BP, sediment accumulation was relatively rapid (DT of 20-60yr/cm). Accumulation slowed between c. 5500 and c. 4000cal BP as vegetation expanded northward in response to warming. A short period of rapid accumulation occurred near 1200cal BP at three lakes. Our research will help inform priors in Bayesian age modeling

A Journey into the Heart of God: Darren Aronofsky’s Noah (2014) as a subversive Kabbalistic Text

The title of this paper reflects our interpretation of this film as a subversive mystical text, from within the Jewish tradition of Kabbalah. This interpretation is itself the product of a long journey of thinking about, and wrestling with this film in various ways. In this paper, we will outline this journey, concentrating on our first impressions of the film, some notable shifts in our thinking on this film that alerted us to the connection between the film and Jewish mysticism, and some concluding remarks about the implications of this reading

Emancipation and Freedom During Reconstruction: A Study of Cumberland County, Virginia, 1865-1870

This thesis studies the African-American experience of Emancipation during the early years of Reconstruction in Cumberland County, Virginia. Located in the Piedmont region of central Virginia, Cumberland County’s African-American population experienced some highs and lows as they adjusted to their newly won independence in the years leading up to the re-entry of Virginia into the Union in 1870. Using primary sources ranging from census records and reports to Freedmen’s Bureau archives, this study evaluates three areas of Emancipation to understand how African Americans in Cumberland County participated in advancing their civil rights. Despite not being able to legally marry until after Emancipation, freed individuals engaged in long-term marriages that stretched back into enslavement, often defying their White owners even though most of the relationships involved individuals on two different plantations. From an economic perspective, African Americans of the county fared more poorly, having to sign onto onerous labor contracts that tightly controlled their behavior. Additionally, by 1870, almost no one in the Black community owned any land, something that would have given them more autonomy over their lives. Finally, because Cumberland County was an African-American majority population during the initial years of Reconstruction, they experienced more initial success in rallying for and receiving their voting rights, voting two African-American men into office to represent them in the General Assembly. All in all, while they may have experienced some success, particularly politically, ultimately minority White planters reasserted control over formerly enslaved individuals, preventing them from advancing themselves economically. Although everything changed with Emancipation, in reality, very little changed

Blade tonal noise reduction using tail articulation at high Reynolds number

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2005.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 141-144).The biologically inspired method of tail articulation is investigated as a means of reducing tonal noise due to the stator wake blade interaction in underwater vehicles. This work is experimental in nature and conducted in the closed channel water tunnel at Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, Rhode Island. Tail articulation is carried out with a life scale stator model with hinged flapping tail designed to (i) operate in freestream velocities corresponding to Reynolds number in the range 75,000 < Re < 300,000 and (ii) operate at frequencies up to 30 Hz in order to investigate the range of Strouhal number 0.0 < St < 0.35. Velocity measurements in the active stator wake are carried out by Laser Doppler Velocimetry, LDV, and Particle Image Velocimetry, PIV, in order to investigate the effects of tail articulation. Time averaged measurements of the stator wake by LDV show that Strouhal number of the tail articulation has a dominant effect on the time mean stator drag. Instantaneous phase averaged measurements of the stator wake by PIV show three regimes of the stator wake as Strouhal number is increased; quasi-steady wake spreading, vortex roll up, and strong vortex wake. A low order model describing the creation and convection of vorticity by tail articulation is developed which describes wake phenomena observed in experimental measurements. A two dimensional blade force simulation coupled with the reduced order tail articulation model is used to perimetrically search for a tail motion resulting in lower unsteady blade forces.(cont.) Finally, a three dimensional unsteady propeller simulation using both experimental wake velocity data by PIV and simulated wake velocity data generated by the reduced order tail articulation model is used to predict the effect of tail articulation on radiated noise. These simulations indicate that reduction of radiated noise by 5 dB or more is possible using tail articulation.by Daniel Lee Macumber.S.M

A log-normal spectral analysis of inorganic grain-size distributions from a Canadian boreal lake core: Towards refining depositional process proxy data from high latitude lakes

Better methods for interpreting grain size spectra will enhance current understanding of past transport–depositional processes. A high-resolution inorganic grain-size dataset has been measured from a freeze core extracted from ‘Alberta Lake E’ a boreal fresh water lake 40 km east of the Athabasca Oil Sands in north-eastern Alberta, Canada. The grain-size spectra are remarkably consistent throughout the core, exhibiting a structure comprising six persistent grain-size distributions below ca 250 μm, plus a rare medium-sand distribution. Automated deconvolution of the grain-size spectra produced poor results. Constraining the modes of two of the distributions produced deconvolution solutions that were statistically excellent and consistent with the structure of each spectrum. Statistical analysis of the ‘constrained’ solutions indicates that deconvolution successfully extracted independent grain-size populations. Conversely, the multimodal spectra generate traditional measures (for example, mean grain size) that are inconsistent combinations of different individual populations, and thus are poor proxies of transport–depositional processes. Alberta Lake E is situated in a boreal wetland landscape where sediment delivery is dominated by overland flow transport during spring melt. This context means that the Alberta Lake E grain-size spectra can be interpreted to reflect: (i) a bedload component transported during short-duration high discharge events that reflect the intensity of the melt; and (ii) a finer suspended load component representing material whose magnitude is controlled by the volume of the spring melt. Stratigraphically, bedload and suspended load populations demonstrate different short-wavelength and long-wavelength cyclicity, suggesting that spring melt is likely to be driven by cyclic external forcing factors. The links between the grain-size spectra and spring melt have potential for generating proxy records that better capture the external controls over spring melt in boreal systems, and the risks associated with these energetic hydrodynamics. This is exemplified by the coarsest Alberta Lake E distributions, which indicate that more intense spring melt dynamics occurred in pre-historical times