The Evolution of Comic Book Movies: An Exploration and Implementation of Comic Books in Academia

The following paper outlines my Capstone, which centers on the creation and implementation of a course focusing on the academic study and consumption of comic book movies and the comics they are based on. The study of this medium has been absent from classrooms for too long, and so, in the pages that follow, I have included a syllabus, sample lesson plans, and a detailed exploration of comic books and the films they inspire in an academic setting. This paper includes research, analysis, and insight detailing the exploits of the class I taught in Fall 2013, HNR 210: The Evolution of the Comic Book Movie, and the aftermath and continued effects of the project today

Barriers to recovery and recommendations for change: the Pennsylvania Consensus Conference on psychiatry\u27s role.

OBJECTIVE: Recovery has emerged over the past decade as a dominant theme in public mental health care. METHODS: The 2006 Pennsylvania Consensus Conference brought together 24 community psychiatrists to explore the barriers they experienced in promoting recovery and their recommendations for change. RESULTS: Twelve barriers were identified and classified into one of three categories: psychiatry knowledge, roles, and training; the need to transform public mental health systems and services; and environmental barriers to opportunity. Participants made 22 recommendations to address these barriers through changes in policies, programs, and psychiatric knowledge and practice. CONCLUSIONS: The recommendations identify areas for change that can be accomplished through individual psychiatrist action and organized group efforts

Gender role orientation, thinking style preference and facets of adult paranormality: A mediation analysis

This study examines the extent to which masculine and feminine gender role orientations predict self-reported anomalous experiences, belief, ability and fear once relevant correlates including biological sex are controlled for. The extent to which rational versus intuitive thinking style preference mediates these relationships is also examined. Path analysis (n=332) found heightened femininity directly predicts stronger intuitive preference plus more anomalous experiences, belief and fear with, additionally, intuitive preference mediating several gender role-paranormality relationships. By comparison, heightened masculinity directly predicts both thinking styles plus lower anomalous fear. The latter relationship is also shaped by the nature of mediators with (a) more anomalous experiences and belief leading to more anomalous fear and (b) either heightened rationality else more anomalous ability leading to, conversely, less anomalous fear. The extent to which findings support a gender (or social) role account of adult paranormality, together with methodological limitations and ideas for future research, is discussed

Reconstructing Civility after Wrongdoing: A Place for Restorative Justice

Demonstration of mediation techniques that offer an alternative to retributive justice responses to wrongdoing

User-initialized active contour segmentation and golden-angle real-time cardiovascular magnetic resonance enable accurate assessment of LV function in patients with sinus rhythm and arrhythmias.

BackgroundData obtained during arrhythmia is retained in real-time cardiovascular magnetic resonance (rt-CMR), but there is limited and inconsistent evidence to show that rt-CMR can accurately assess beat-to-beat variation in left ventricular (LV) function or during an arrhythmia.MethodsMulti-slice, short axis cine and real-time golden-angle radial CMR data was collected in 22 clinical patients (18 in sinus rhythm and 4 patients with arrhythmia). A user-initialized active contour segmentation (ACS) software was validated via comparison to manual segmentation on clinically accepted software. For each image in the 2D acquisitions, slice volume was calculated and global LV volumes were estimated via summation across the LV using multiple slices. Real-time imaging data was reconstructed using different image exposure times and frame rates to evaluate the effect of temporal resolution on measured function in each slice via ACS. Finally, global volumetric function of ectopic and non-ectopic beats was measured using ACS in patients with arrhythmias.ResultsACS provides global LV volume measurements that are not significantly different from manual quantification of retrospectively gated cine images in sinus rhythm patients. With an exposure time of 95.2 ms and a frame rate of > 89 frames per second, golden-angle real-time imaging accurately captures hemodynamic function over a range of patient heart rates. In four patients with frequent ectopic contractions, initial quantification of the impact of ectopic beats on hemodynamic function was demonstrated.ConclusionUser-initialized active contours and golden-angle real-time radial CMR can be used to determine time-varying LV function in patients. These methods will be very useful for the assessment of LV function in patients with frequent arrhythmias

Autocatalytic plume pinch-off

A localized source of buoyancy flux in a non-reactive fluid medium creates a plume. The flux can be provided by either heat, a compositional difference between the fluid comprising the plume and its surroundings, or a combination of both. For autocatalytic plumes produced by the iodate-arsenous acid reaction, however, buoyancy is produced along the entire reacting interface between the plume and its surroundings. Buoyancy production at the moving interface drives fluid motion, which in turn generates flow that advects the reaction front. As a consequence of this interplay between fluid flow and chemical reaction, autocatalytic plumes exhibit a rich dynamics during their ascent through the reactant medium. One of the more interesting dynamical features is the production of an accelerating vortical plume head that in certain cases pinches-off and detaches from the upwelling conduit. After pinch-off, a new plume head forms in the conduit below, and this can lead to multiple generations of plume heads for a single plume initiation. We investigated the pinch-off process using both experimentation and simulation. Experiments were performed using various concentrations of glycerol, in which it was found that repeated pinch-off occurs exclusively in a specific concentration range. Autocatalytic plume simulations revealed that pinch-off is triggered by the appearance of accelerating flow in the plume conduit.Comment: 10 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys Rev E. See also http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/nonlinear/papers_chemwave.htm

Flight Deck Information Automation: A Human-in-the-Loop In-Trail Procedure Simulation Study

Information automation systems are generally intended to support pilot tasks and improve flightcrew awareness and decision making, but not to directly control the aircraft or its systems. As a result these systems do not include cases where automation decisions and actions directly affect the aircraft performance, flight path or systems. Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) operational concepts and technologies will dramatically affect both the types and amount of information available on flight decks. Much of that information will be produced by flight deck information automation systems that collect, process, and present that information to the flightcrew. It is therefore important to understand the human factors characteristics of information automation systems and identify human factors issues specifically related to information automation. This paper presents an investigation of two information automation characteristics (functional complexity and automation visibility) using prototype oceanic In-Trail Procedures (ITP) display systems. The outcome will be used to develop and iterate recommendations for design and evaluation of information automation systems that will mitigate the identified human factors issues