Tributes To Fallen Journalists: The Evolution Of The Hero Myth In Journalistic Practice

This dissertation explores a hero mythology in newspaper tributes to fallen journalists and examines whether these stories implicitly or explicitly encouraged risk-taking by reporters and discouraged them from acknowledging the psychological consequences of that behavior. This historical case study uses qualitative methods to analyze New York Times tributes to U.S. journalists who died from 1854 to 2012 and whose names appeared on the Journalists Memorial at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. This study finds that the Times wrote about 274 of the 362 fallen journalists and depicted one in four in heroic terms, with their stories invoking themes often found in classic hero myths. Eighty percent of these hero journalists were on foreign assignments that typically involved covering war. Virtually all of these hero journalists killed in the United States were targeted because of their journalistic work. These journalists were seen as answering a call and giving their lives in service to a greater cause often tied to normative journalistic values, such as pursuing the truth. The tributes for 27 percent of these journalists mentioned qualities associated with risk-taking, such as courage. One in ten of these journalists embodied a type of stoicism that involved them downplaying personal hardship. A central finding of this study suggests that this hero mythology emerged in the mid-1920s, immediately after the adoption of state and national journalism ethics codes and the opening of the first journalism schools in the United States. Consequently, this mythology served as vital part of American journalism's professional movement, melding tacit journalistic codes with the tales of heroic fallen journalists. These hero myths evolved, reaching their zenith during World War II, when the U.S. government assisted in this idolatry. This hero mythology then ebbed until resurfacing sporadically during the Vietnam War and Watergate era with antihero journalists whose work seemed to be in direct opposition to the authorities who once celebrated them. The post 9/11-era saw a resurgence of the hero myth despite the advent of research that questioned whether journalism's so-called macho code discouraged journalists from seeking treatment for occupational mental health risks such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Acute appendicitis: transcript profiling of blood identifies promising biomarkers and potential underlying processes

Background The diagnosis of acute appendicitis can be surprisingly difficult without computed tomography, which carries significant radiation exposure. Circulating blood cells may carry informative changes in their RNA expression profile that would signal internal infection or inflammation of the appendix. Methods Genome-wide expression profiling was applied to whole blood RNA of acute appendicitis patients versus patients with other abdominal disorders, in order to identify biomarkers of appendicitis. From a large cohort of emergency patients, a discovery set of patients with surgically confirmed appendicitis, or abdominal pain from other causes, was identified. RNA from whole blood was profiled by microarrays, and RNA levels were filtered by a combined fold-change (\u3e2) and p value (\u3c0.05). A separate set of patients, including patients with respiratory infections, was used to validate a partial least squares discriminant (PLSD) prediction model. Results Transcript profiling identified 37 differentially expressed genes (DEG) in appendicitis versus abdominal pain patients. The DEG list contained 3 major ontologies: infection-related, inflammation-related, and ribosomal processing. Appendicitis patients had lower level of neutrophil defensin mRNA (DEFA1,3), but higher levels of alkaline phosphatase (ALPL) and interleukin-8 receptor-ß (CXCR2/IL8RB), which was confirmed in a larger cohort of 60 patients using droplet digital PCR (ddPCR). Conclusions Patients with acute appendicitis have detectable changes in the mRNA expression levels of factors related to neutrophil innate defense systems. The low defensin mRNA levels suggest that appendicitis patient’s immune cells are not directly activated by pathogens, but are primed by diffusible factors in the microenvironment of the infection. The detected biomarkers are consistent with prior evidence that biofilm-forming bacteria in the appendix may be an important factor in appendicitis

ASSASSINATION OF AMERICAN PRESIDENTS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE LITERATURE

The thesis focus lies in an analysis of the literature devoted to ten assassination events involving six American Presidents, three Presidential Candidates and one President-elect. The study provides initially a background history tracing the growth of the assassination phenomenon. The crux of the problem is to classify the literature so as to facilitate a determination of the varacity of four hypotheses. In reviewing the literature, particular attention is given to separating various aspects such as supported and non-supported theories, eyewitness accounts and second hand reports, changes in perspective, scholarly and unscholarly studies, proven and unproven facts and theories and counter-theories. Four hypotheses were formulated as follows: (1) A period of extreme domestic, social and political conflict in the United States generates a greater volume of literature than does a period of relative tranquility when an assassination episode occurs. (2) The tendency toward conspiratorial theories is greater during the former period. (3) Availability of accused assassin for interrogation and medical/psychiatric examination after the event, if he is taken alive and remains alive, may be of considerable influence in holding down development of volume of literature and speculation around conspiracy. (4) The more powerful and prestigious the office of the president appears during a given period in history, the greater the likelihood of assassination attempts on the incumbent. The procedure entailed research into a wide spectrum of literature dealing with the assassination episodes and surrounding eras. The volume of literature including that which attributed the assassination to conspiracy was evaluated. Study was made of the assassin\u27s availability for interrogation in the assassination aftermath to determine influence on conspiracy, speculation and effect on literature volume. Presidential power and prestige was analyzed during the various eras of the ten presidential targets discussed. The findings indicate that a period of domestic, social, political conflict generate a greater volume of literature and conspiratorial theories when a presidential assassination event occurs. The third hypothesis was supported in that it was found that when the assassin remained alive, the subsequent literature and conspiratorial speculation remained small. The investigative research of the source material only partially supported the last hypothesis

InAs self-assembled quantum dots on InP by molecular beam epitaxy

We present results of room temperature photoluminescence (PL) emission from a 0-dimensional system in the ~ 1.4 to ~ 1.7 \ub5m spectral region. Molecular beam epitaxy was used to grow InAs self-assembled quantum dots in AlInAs on an InP substrate. Preliminary characterizations have been performed using PL and transmission electron microscopy. The low temperatures PL spectra also display excited state emission and state filling as the excitation intensity is increased.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Red-Emitting Semiconductor Quantum Dot Lasers

Visible-stimulated emission in a semiconductor quantum dot (QD) laser structure has been demonstrated. Red-emitting, self-assembled QDs of highly strained InAlAs have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy on a GaAs substrate. Carriers injected electrically from the doped regions of a separate confinement heterostructure thermalized efficiently into the zero-dimensional QD states, and stimulated emission at sim 707 nanometers was observed at 77 kelvin with a threshold current of 175 milliamperes for a 60-micrometer by 400-micrometer broad area laser. An external efficiency of sim 8.5 percent at low temperature and a peak power greater than 200 milliwatts demonstrate the good size distribution and high gain in these high-quality QDs.NRC publication: Ye

Acute appendicitis: Transcript profiling of blood identifies promising biomarkers and potential underlying processes

© 2016 The Author(s). Background: The diagnosis of acute appendicitis can be surprisingly difficult without computed tomography, which carries significant radiation exposure. Circulating blood cells may carry informative changes in their RNA expression profile that would signal internal infection or inflammation of the appendix. Methods: Genome-wide expression profiling was applied to whole blood RNA of acute appendicitis patients versus patients with other abdominal disorders, in order to identify biomarkers of appendicitis. From a large cohort of emergency patients, a discovery set of patients with surgically confirmed appendicitis, or abdominal pain from other causes, was identified. RNA from whole blood was profiled by microarrays, and RNA levels were filtered by a combined fold-change (\u3e2) and p value (\u3c0.05). A separate set of patients, including patients with respiratory infections, was used to validate a partial least squares discriminant (PLSD) prediction model. Results: Transcript profiling identified 37 differentially expressed genes (DEG) in appendicitis versus abdominal pain patients. The DEG list contained 3 major ontologies: infection-related, inflammation-related, and ribosomal processing. Appendicitis patients had lower level of neutrophil defensin mRNA (DEFA1,3), but higher levels of alkaline phosphatase (ALPL) and interleukin-8 receptor-ß (CXCR2/IL8RB), which was confirmed in a larger cohort of 60 patients using droplet digital PCR (ddPCR). Conclusions: Patients with acute appendicitis have detectable changes in the mRNA expression levels of factors related to neutrophil innate defense systems. The low defensin mRNA levels suggest that appendicitis patient\u27s immune cells are not directly activated by pathogens, but are primed by diffusible factors in the microenvironment of the infection. The detected biomarkers are consistent with prior evidence that biofilm-forming bacteria in the appendix may be an important factor in appendicitis

Validation of Pneumonia and Appendicitis Genomic Biomarkers Using Droplet Digital PCR (ddPCR)

Droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) is a novel and improved molecular method that allows for absolute quantification of target transcript in copies per input samples. As such, its application in validation of high throughput screening with Microarray (MA) or Next Generation Sequencing may provide a cost-effective practical solution. To validate the MA identified genomic biomarkers of appendicitis and bacterial respiratory infections, we have applied the ddPCR on whole blood RNA from patients with acute appendicitis and respiratory infections, as well as on control subjects enrolled in the GWU IRB approved study. The MA transcript profiling identified 37 differentially expressed genes (DEG) in appendicitis versus abdominal pain patients and several strong biomarkers of respiratory infections were discovered during data analysis. The DEG list contained three major ontologies: infection-related, inflammation-related, and ribosomal processing. The detected transcripts were validated using ddPCR on 70 patients and confirmed the patterns detected by MA or NGS alone. ddPCR may serve as a robust tool for validation of large scale genomic biomarkers discovery experiments and could be implemented into clinical practice once the biomarkers are validated