"What was once rebellion is now clearly just a social sect": Identity, ideological conflict and the field of punk rock artistic production

I advance a sociological reappraisal of the Western punk rock youth cultural artistic form. Contrasting prevalent perspectives correlating punk rock culture with adolescent rites of superficial social rebellion, I argue that the art form often exudes an underappreciated level of sophistication. I argue for the presence of two dominant strains of punk artistic logic, and demonstrate how each correspond with popular trends in neo-Marxist social theory. However, I also note that these competing logics promote contradictory forms of punk artistic conduct. Incorporating the perspectives of Pierre Bourdieu, I link this imperative for ideological division with the punk artists’ placement within fields of cultural production. Drawing from the artistry and testimonies of historically significant punk artists (and artistic consecrators), I argue that notable instances of punk ideological debate simultaneously function to allow punk artists to compete amongst one another for claims to artistic distinction and authority. I consider significant case studies wherein ideological debates double as tactics through which artists bolster their own claims to distinction in striving to delegitimize the authority of their ideological competitors. I question whether the primary function of ideological punk artistic debate stem from sincere ideological imperatives, or concerns surrounding the processes of accrediting individual claims to artistic legitimacy within the punk artistic field. Critically considering the interaction between collectivist punk artistic ideologies and the individualistic imperative of asserting personal claims to authoritative punk identity, I conclude that movements toward internal differentiation ultimately undermine punk rocks’ capacity to serve as a substantive counter-hegemonic artistic movement

"It's not a fashion statement, it's a death wish" : subcultural power dynamics, niche-media knowledge construction, and the 'emo kid' folk-devil

This thesis examines the genesis of the derogative ‘emo kid’ representation and considers the latent functions it initially served in being applied to visible categories of adolescent subculturalists on the behalf of participants within the wider punk subculture. Pulling from the work of Stanley Cohen in arguing that the ‘emo kid’ representation be conceptualized as a subcultural ‘folk-devil’, this thesis argues for the applicability of a Bourdieuian theoretical framework in understanding the means in which subcultural ‘authenticity’ is not only distributed throughout ‘fields’ of subcultural participation, but within those spheres of communicative entertainment media in which subcultural knowledge is created, legitimized and disseminated. In offering a Foucaultian genealogy of the niche-mediated ‘emo’ pseudo-genre, and highlighting its correlation with concurrent movements perceived as facilitating the mainstream colonization of the punk subculture, this thesis argues that the ‘emo kid’ folk-devil was constructed and reified by virtue of an array of discursive measures – based largely in online, ‘micro-mediated’ forums - through which punk subculturalists vied to marginalize those ‘emo kids’ so perceived as threatening the exclusivity of the punk subculture and the long-established ‘symbolic economies’ contained therein. Finally, this thesis demonstrates the process through which this subcultural folk-devil was annexed into a wider socio-discourse concerning dangerous youth populations and, thus, came to be utilized in collusion with mass-mediated campaigns meant to perpetuate the political disempowerment of adolescent populations through the endorsement of ‘representational politics’

Integration of CAD Tools and Structured Design Principles in an Undergraduate Computer Engineering Curriculum

incorporating computer aided engineering and design (CAE/CAD) packages into undergraduate courses. The intent of augmenting the curriculum with these packages is to enhance the students theoretical understanding of the material with hands on design and analysis experience. The University of Arkansas i

NAVIGATING DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING ACQUISITION PRACTICES

The purpose of this research is to examine acquisition practices related to the increased adoption of additive manufacturing (AM) in the Department of Defense (DOD). We explore policies, processes, organizational alignment, and data management to assess AM acquisition in the Air Force. We use a Government Accountability Office (GAO) framework to systematically assess the state of AM acquisitions. Our research includes a DOD spend analysis of AM, policy and guidance analysis, and stakeholder interviews with multiple agencies throughout the Air Force AM ecosystem. We consolidate our findings to develop recommendations that DOD customers can use when seeking 3D-printing requirements. Our conclusion highlights strengths and weaknesses of current acquisitions processes and provides recommendations for further research. While Air Force-centric, our research findings can be adopted to fit acquisition needs specific to all DOD services seeking to meet the call for improved contracting processes outlined in the Department of Defense Additive Manufacturing Strategy.Captain, United States Air ForceCaptain, United States Air ForceCaptain, United States Air ForceApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

New hurdles for translational research

New guidelines for the collection and use of human tissues for research will impose new requirements on researchers to seek ethical approval and patient consent. This extends to the use of surplus tissue, such as breast cancer excision biopsies, which, until recently, have been regarded as having been 'abandoned' by the patient. This article argues that some of these new constraints provide hurdles to translational research that are unnecessary for patient protection. This is particularly significant when emerging technologies are expected to elicit major advances in clinical cancer research

The relationship between serum and salivary cortisol levels in reponse to different exercise intensities

This study examined the effect of exercise intensity on the serum and salivary cortisol responses of endurance-trained males. Subjects (n = 12) rested for 30 minutes (control) and exercised for 30 minutes at 40%, 60%, or 80% of VO2 max on separate days. Serum and saliva samples were collected pre-trial, post-trial, and 30 minutes post-recovery. The overall correlation between serum and saliva in all matched pairs was significant (r = 0.548; p<0.005). Cortisol responses increased significantly with both measures in response to exercise (p<0.05). However, exercise peak serum responses occurred at the post-trial time while saliva peaked at the post-recovery time. The highest correlations between serum-saliva at individual sampling times were during post-recovery. Findings suggest that salivary cortisol sampling may be a useful technique in some circumstances if confounding factors are considered and controlled

Gravity-Assist Mechanical Simulator for Outreach

There is no convenient way to demonstrate mechanically, as an outreach (or inreach) topic, the angular momentum trade-offs and the conservation of angular momentum associated with gravityassist interplanetary trajectories. The mechanical concepts that underlie gravity assist are often misunderstood or confused, possibly because there is no mechanical analog to it in everyday experience. The Gravity Assist Mech - anical Simulator is a hands-on solution to this longstanding technical communications challenge. Users intuitively grasp the concepts, meeting specific educational objectives. A manually spun wheel with high angular mass and low-friction bearings supplies momentum to an attached spherical neodymium magnet that represents a planet orbiting the Sun. A steel bearing ball following a trajectory across a glass plate above the wheel and magnet undergoes an elastic collision with the revolving magnet, illustrating the gravitational elastic collision between spacecraft and planet on a gravity-assist interplanetary trajectory. Manually supplying the angular momentum for the elastic collision, rather than observing an animation, intuitively conveys the concepts, meeting nine specific educational objectives. Many NASA and JPL interplanetary missions are enabled by the gravity-assist technique

A Brief Decisional Balance Intervention Increases Motivation and Behavior Regarding Condom Use in High-risk Heterosexual College Men

Male college students constitute one of a number of at-risk populations susceptible to receiving and transferring sexually transmitted infections. Interventions designed to increase condom use have produced mixed results, but increasing motivation to use condoms may decrease risky sexual behavior. The current study examined the decisional balance, a component of Motivational Interviewing (MI), as an intervention to promote condom use. A total of 41 college men at-risk for negative outcomes from both unsafe sex and drinking participated. They reported both infrequent condom use and heavy drinking. Immediately following a decisional balance on condom use, three separate measures of motivation to change condom use increased. Further, participants reported increases in actual condom use at a 30-day follow-up. Participants did not alter their drinking behavior or their motivation to decrease problematic alcohol use. The findings provide preliminary support for the efficacy of a brief decisional balance intervention to increase safer-sex motivation and behaviors, but similar designs with true control groups receiving assessment only and larger numbers of participants are required before they can be generalized to the greater population of college students. College health professionals might adopt similar brief motivational enhancement interventions with the decisional balance to promote safer sex among at-risk college students

Microbial social networks

Background It is well understood that distinct communities of bacteria are present at different sites of the body, and that changes in the structure of these communities have strong implications for human health. Yet, challenges remain in understanding the complex interconnections between the bacterial taxa within these microbial communities and how they change during the progression of diseases. Many recent studies attempt to analyze the human microbiome using traditional ecological measures and cataloging differences in bacterial community membership. In this paper, we show how to push metagenomic analyses beyond mundane questions related to the bacterial taxonomic profiles that differentiate one sample from another. Methods We develop tools and techniques that help us to investigate the nature of social interactions in microbial communities, and demonstrate ways of compactly capturing extensive information about these networks and visually conveying them in an effective manner. We define the concept of bacterial social clubs , which are groups of taxa that tend to appear together in many samples. More importantly, we define the concept of rival clubs , entire groups that tend to avoid occurring together in many samples. We show how to efficiently compute social clubs and rival clubs and demonstrate their utility with the help of examples including a smokers\u27 dataset and a dataset from the Human Microbiome Project (HMP). Results The tools developed provide a framework for analyzing relationships between bacterial taxa modeled as bacterial co-occurrence networks. The computational techniques also provide a framework for identifying clubs and rival clubs and for studying differences in the microbiomes (and their interactions) of two or more collections of samples. Conclusions Microbial relationships are similar to those found in social networks. In this work, we assume that strong (positive or negative) tendencies to co-occur or co-infect is likely to have biological, physiological, or ecological significance, possibly as a result of cooperation or competition. As a consequence of the analysis, a variety of biological interpretations are conjectured. In the human microbiome context, the pattern of strength of interactions between bacterial taxa is unique to body site