A Thin Line between Sovereign and Abject Agents: Global Action Thrillers with the Sci-Fi Mind-Game War on Terror

Seung-hoon Jeong discusses in his paper global action thrillers about the war on terror. He highlights the biopolitical abjection of counterterrorist agents from their state agencies. This abjection ends up either self-reaffirming in the manner of a sovereign agent (the Bond series) or terrorizing their sovereign system (the Bourne series), while both are trapped in the vicious cycle of terror and counterterror. More notable is the “mind-game” sci-fi genre. Source Code, among others, stages a loop of a traumatic counterterrorist mission with retroactive causality, a closed circuit of neoliberal productivity and pathological abjection in a video-game narrative. The time-travel motif here, however, ultimately “undoes” sacrifice, problematically sacrificing the ethics of sacrifice. Finding no exit from the sovereign system, the abject agent against it embraces the perpetual present of actions including undoing traumas. This reinforced reaffirmation of sovereign agency underlies Hollywood’s new ideology as seen in many other post-Source Code films

Competing states for the fractional quantum Hall effect in the 1/3-filled second Landau level

In this work, we investigate the nature of the fractional quantum Hall state in the 1/3-filled second Landau level (SLL) at filling factor $\nu=7/3$ (and 8/3 in the presence of the particle-hole symmetry) via exact diagonalization in both torus and spherical geometries. Specifically, we compute the overlap between the exact 7/3 ground state and various competing states including (i) the Laughlin state, (ii) the fermionic Haffnian state, (iii) the antisymmetrized product state of two composite fermion seas at 1/6 filling, and (iv) the particle-hole (PH) conjugate of the $Z_4$ parafermion state. All these trial states are constructed according to a guiding principle called the bilayer mapping approach, where a trial state is obtained as the antisymmetrized projection of a bilayer quantum Hall state with interlayer distance $d$ as a variational parameter. Under the proper understanding of the ground-state degeneracy in the torus geometry, the $Z_4$ parafermion state can be obtained as the antisymmetrized projection of the Halperin (330) state. Similarly, it is proved in this work that the fermionic Haffnian state can be obtained as the antisymmetrized projection of the Halperin (551) state. It is shown that, while extremely accurate at sufficiently large positive Haldane pseudopotential variation $\delta V_1^{(1)}$, the Laughlin state loses its overlap with the exact 7/3 ground state significantly at $\delta V_1^{(1)} \simeq 0$. At slightly negative $\delta V_1^{(1)}$, it is shown that the PH-conjugated $Z_4$ parafermion state has a substantial overlap with the exact 7/3 ground state, which is the highest among the above four trial states.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure

Korean Pre-service Teachers' Flipped Learning Experiences in a Teacher Education Program

This study explores Korean pre-service teachers' perceptions, attitudes, and satisfaction with flipped learning courses in a teacher education program. A mixed research method was used to collect the end-of-semester survey (n=62) and individual interview data (n=4). Guided by the four pillars of flipped learning (FL), study results are followed. First, Korean pre-service teachers believed that flipped learning format provided a flexible learning environment where pre-service teachers (PSTs) learn course materials in their own space. This result indicated that their learning happened without the limits of time and space. Second, pre-service teachers showed that their self-directed learning could be enhanced while watching pre-recorded videos before attending the class. Most PSTs agreed that their self-directed learning could be enhanced after participating in the flipped learning courses. Third, pre-service teachers evaluated that the FL course instructor was a professional educator who conveyed the intentional content effectively. Fourth, pre-service teachers were generally satisfied with the FL courses and were willing to take the FL courses again in the future

Development of a thorium coating on an aluminium substrate by using electrodeposition method and alpha spectroscopy

A thin coating of thorium on aluminium substrates with the areal density of 110 to 130 $\mu g/cm^2$ is developed over a circular area of 22 mm diameter by using the electrodeposition method. An electrodeposition system is fabricated to consist of three components; an anode made of a platinum mesh, a cylindrical-shape vessel to contain the thorium solution, and a cathode in the form of a circular aluminium plate. The aluminium plate is mounted horizontally, and the platinum mesh is connected to an axial rod of an electric motor, mounted vertically and normal to the plane of the aluminium. The electrolyte solution is prepared by dissolving a known-weight thorium nitrate powder in 0.8 M HNO3 and isopropanol. The system is operated either in constant voltage (CV) or constant current (CC) mode. Under the electric field between the anode and cathode, thorium ions were deposited on the aluminium substrate mounted on the cathode. In the CV mode at 320, 360, and 400 V and in the CC mode at 15 mA, thorium films were formed over a circular area of the aluminium substrate. The areal density of thorium coating was measured by detecting emitted alpha particles. The areal density of thorium varied from 80 to 130 $\mu g/cm^2$ by changing the deposition time from 10 to 60 min. The results from the CV mode and CC mode are compared, and the radial dependence in the measured areal density is discussed for different modes of the electric field. The developed thorium coatings are to be used in the in-house development of particle detectors, fast neutron converters, targets for thorium fission experiments, and other purposes.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl

CSF Otorrhea Resulting from Osteoradionecrosis of the Temporal Bone in a Patient with Recurrent Meningioma

Osteoradionecrosis of the temporal bone is a very rare but potentially lethal complication of radiotherapy for head and neck or skull base tumors. Only two cases of osteoradionecrosis of the temporal bone complicating cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) otorrhea have been reported in the literature. This report describes a case of CSF otorrhea and osteoradionecrosis of the temporal bone in a patient with meningioma who was treated with tympanomastoid surgery and autologous fat obliteration in the mastoid

Large‐Scale, Ultrapliable, and Free‐Standing Nanomembranes

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97443/1/adma_201204619_sm_suppl.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97443/2/2167_ftp.pd

The Clinical Features and Risk Factors of Subglottic Cysts in Children: A Clinical Experience Using the Spontaneous Respiration Technique

Objectives Subglottic cysts (SGCs) are a rare cause of respiratory distress resulting from upper airway obstruction in infants and young children. Risk factors other than prematurity with a history of endotracheal intubation have not yet been well elucidated. Therefore, we aimed to describe the clinical features and analyze the risk factors of SGCs. Methods We conducted a retrospective review of medical records of pediatric patients who underwent marsupialization for SGCs between January 2017 and March 2022. These records were then compared with those of controls with a history of neonatal intubation, with a case-to-control ratio of 1:3. Results Eleven patients (eight boys and three girls) diagnosed with SGCs and 33 control patients (26 boys and seven girls) were included. All patients had a history of premature birth and neonatal intubation. Symptoms of SGCs appeared at a mean age of 8.2 months (range, 1–14 months) after extubation. The mean duration of intubation was 21.5 days (range, 2–90 days), and the intubation period was longer in patients with SGCs than in controls (21.5±24.8 days vs. 5.3±7.1 days; P<0.001). Furthermore, gestational age (28.3±4.2 weeks vs. 33.8±4.4 weeks; P=0.001) and birth weight (1,134.1±515.1 g vs. 2,178.2±910.1 g; P=0.001) were significantly lower in patients with SGCs than in controls. Multivariable analysis identified the intubation period as an independent risk factor. Conclusion This study showed that gestational age, birth weight, and the intubation period were significantly associated with the development of SGCs. Pediatric patients presenting with progressive dyspnea who have the corresponding risk factors should undergo early laryngoscopy for the differential diagnosis of SGC

Suppression of STAT3 and HIF-1 Alpha Mediates Anti-Angiogenic Activity of Betulinic Acid in Hypoxic PC-3 Prostate Cancer Cells

Background: Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is a transcription factor that regulates various cellular processes such as cell survival, angiogenesis and proliferation. In the present study, we examined that betulinic acid (BA), a triterpene from the bark of white birch, had the inhibitory effects on hypoxia-mediated activation of STAT3 in androgen independent human prostate cancer PC-3 cells. Methodology/Principal Findings: BA inhibited the protein expression and the transcriptional activities of hypoxia-inducible factor-1a (HIF-1a) under hypoxic condition. Consistently, BA blocked hypoxia-induced phosphorylation, DNA binding activity and nuclear accumulation of STAT3. In addition, BA significantly reduced cellular and secreted levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a critical angiogenic factor and a target gene of STAT3 induced under hypoxia. Furthermore, BA prevented in vitro capillary tube formation in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) maintained in conditioned medium of hypoxic PC-3 cells, implying anti-angiogenic activity of BA under hypoxic condition. Of note, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChiP) assay revealed that BA inhibited binding of HIF-1a and STAT3 to VEGF promoter. Furthermore, silencing STAT3 using siRNA transfection effectively enhanced the reduced VEGF production induced by BA treatment under hypoxia. Conclusions/Significance: Taken together, our results suggest that BA has anti-angiogenic activity by disturbing th