The female horror film audience : viewing pleasures and fan practices

What is at stake for female fans and followers of horror cinema? This study explores the pleasures in horror film viewing for female members of the audience. The findings presented here confirm that female viewers of horror do not refuse to look but actively enjoy horror films and read such films in feminine ways. Part 1 of this thesis suggests that questions about the female viewer and her consumption of the horror film cannot be answered solely by a consideration of the text-reader relationship or by theoretical models of spectatorship and identification. A profile of female horror film fans and followers can therefore be developed only through an audience study. Part 2 presents a profile of female horror fans and followers. The participants in the study were largely drawn from the memberships of horror fan groups and from the readerships of a cross-section of professional and fan horror magazines. Qualitative data were collected through focus groups, interviews, open-ended questions included in the questionnaire and through the communication of opinions and experiences in letters and other written material. Part 3 sheds light on the modes of interpretation and attempts to position the female viewers as active consumers of horror films. This study concludes with a model of the female horror film viewer which points towards areas of female horror film spectatorship which require further analysis. The value of investigating the invisible experiences of women with popular culture is demonstrated by the very large proportion of respondents who expressed their delight and thanks in having an opportunity to speak about their experiences. This study of female horror film viewers allows the voice of an otherwise marginalised and invisible audience to be heard, their experiences recorded, the possibilities for resistance explored, and the potentially feminine pleasures of the horror film identified

Body composition, IGF1 status, and physical functionality in nonagenarians: implications for osteosarcopenia

OBJECTIVES: Body composition alterations occur during aging. The purpose of the present analysis was to explore the functional consequences of the overlap of sarcopenia and osteoporosis, and the potential role of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) in their development in the oldest old. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Eighty-seven nonagenarians from the Louisiana Healthy Aging Study were included. MEASURES: The definition of sarcopenia was based on appendicular lean mass (ALM). Osteoporosis was diagnosed based on bone mineral density (BMD) T score. Four phenotypes were compared: (1) healthy body composition, that is, nonosteoporotic nonsarcopenic (CO, control group), (2) osteoporotic (O, low BMD T score), (3) sarcopenic (S, low ALM), and (4) osteosarcopenic (OS, low BMD T score and low ALM). Sex- and age-specific IGF1-Standard Deviation Scores (SDS) were calculated. The Continuous Scale-Physical Functional Performance (CS-PFP) test was performed. RESULTS: In OS men, IGF1-SDS values (-0.61 ±0.37 vs -0.04 ± 0.52, P = .02) were lower than those in CO males (control group), whereas IGF1-SDS were similar in the 4 body composition phenotypes in women. In men only, ALM was positively associated with IGF1-SDS values (P = .01) independent of age and C-reactive protein concentration. Regarding bone health, we found no association between IGF1-SDS values and BMD. IGF1-SDS was not associated with functional performance (CS-PFP) in men and women. CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS: IGF1 sensitivity in skeletal muscle and bone may differ by sex in the oldest old. IGF1 status did not appear to affect physical functionality. Determinants and clinical and functional characteristics of osteosarcopenia need to be further investigated in order to define conclusive diagnostic criteria

One-dimensional two-phase reacting gas nonequilibrium performance program Interim analysis report

Computer program for calculating inviscid one-dimensional equilibrium, frozen and nonequilibrium nozzle expansion of propellant exhaust mixture