Courtroom Drama With Chinese Characteristics: A Comparative Approach to Legal Process in Chinese Cinema

While previous “law and film” scholarship has concentrated mainly on Hollywood films, this article examines legal themes in Chinese cinema. It argues that Chinese films do not simply mimic Western conventions when portraying the courtroom, but draw upon a centuries-old, indigenous tradition of “court case” (gong’an) melodrama. Like Hollywood cinema, gong’an drama seizes upon the dramatic and narrative potential of legal trials. Yet, while Hollywood trial films turn viewers into jurors, pushing them back and forth between the competing stories that emerge from the adversarial process, gong’an drama eschews any recognition of opposing narratives, instead centering on the punishment of decidedly guilty criminals. The moral clarity and punitive sense of justice that characterize gong’an drama are manifest in China’s modern-day legal system and in Chinese cinema. An analysis of Tokyo Trial, a 2006 Chinese film about the post-World War II war crimes trial in Japan, demonstrates the lasting influence of gong’an drama. Although Tokyo Trial resembles Hollywood courtroom drama in many respects, it remains faithful to the gong’an model. This highlights the robustness of China’s native gong’an tradition and the attitudes underlying it

Using Visual Analytics of Heart Rate Variation to Aid in Diagnostics

We present an interactive visualization tool for exploring RR interval data (the time between consecutive heart beats) to support diagnostics. An RR interval sequence diagram allows us to reduce hours of data into a general overview opposed to using short term ECG strips. A simple moving average is applied to the sequence diagram to smooth out short-term variance and highlight long-term trends. The moving average is surrounded by standard deviation bands which allow us to see the fluctuations in variance. After a brief training period using these tools coupled with RR interval and RR interval difference histograms, non- expert participants (undergraduate students) were able to differentiate between normal, atrial fibrillation, and congestive heart failure

Effective control of pulmonary vascular resistance with inhaled nitric oxide after cardiac operation

AbstractIncreased pulmonary vascular resistance may greatly complicate the perioperative management of cardiac surgical patients. Inhaled nitric oxide may be a promising new therapy to selectively lower pulmonary vascular resistance. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of inhaled nitric oxide on pulmonary and systemic hemodynamics in cardiac surgical patients. Twenty patients (age 57 ± 6 years) were studied in the operating room after weaning from cardiopulmonary bypass. Mean pulmonary artery pressure, pulmonary vascular resistance, systemic vascular resistance, and mean aortic pressure were determined at four points of data collection: before nitric oxide, with 20 ppm nitric oxide, with 40 ppm nitric oxide, and after nitric oxide. Statistical analysis was by analysis of variance; significance was accepted for p < 0.05. Inhaled nitric oxide produced selective pulmonary vasorelaxation. Pulmonary vascular resistance was lowered from 343 ± 30 before nitric oxide to 233 ± 25 dynes · sec -1 · cm -5 with 20 ppm nitric oxide. Pulmonary vascular resistance was not further lowered by 40 ppm nitric oxide ( p < 0.05). Mean pulmonary arterial pressure was 29 ± 1 mm Hg before nitric oxide and was lowered to 22 ± 1 mm Hg by 20 ppm nitric oxide and 21 ± 1 mm Hg by 40 ppm nitric oxide ( p < 0.05). Both pulmonary vascular resistance and mean pulmonary arterial pressure returned to baseline after withdrawal of inhaled nitric oxide. Inhaled nitric oxide produced no changes in either systemic vascular resistance or mean aortic pressure. We conclude that nitric oxide may be used as an effective pulmonary vasodilator after cardiac operations. It may be particularly valuable for selectively lowering right ventricular afterload in patients with right ventricular dysfunction. (J THORAC CARDIOVASC SURG 1996;111:753-63

A high-throughput in vivo micronucleus assay for genome instability screening in mice.

We describe a sensitive, robust, high-throughput method for quantifying the formation of micronuclei, markers of genome instability, in mouse erythrocytes. Micronuclei are whole chromosomes or chromosome segments that have been separated from the nucleus. Other methods of detection rely on labor-intensive, microscopy-based techniques. Here we describe a 2-d, 96-well plate-based flow cytometric method of micronucleus scoring that is simple enough for a research technician experienced in flow cytometry to perform. The assay detects low levels of genome instability that cannot be readily identified by classic phenotyping, using 25 μl of blood. By using this assay, we have screened >10,000 blood samples and discovered novel genes that contribute to vertebrate genome maintenance, as well as novel disease models and mechanisms of genome instability disorders. We discuss experimental design considerations, including statistical power calculation, we provide troubleshooting tips and we discuss factors that contribute to a false-positive increase in the number of micronucleated red blood cells and to experimental variability.Acknowledgments We thank M. Hitcham and N. Harman for assistance with blood collections, W. Cheng for assistance with flow cytometry during high-throughput screening and K. Dry for comments on the manuscript. R.E.M. is supported by Cancer Research UK (CRUK; project grant C20510/A12401). D.J.A. is supported by CRUK. D.J.A. and B.L.N. are supported by the Wellcome Trust. Research in the Jackson Laboratory is funded by CRUK program grant no. C6/A11224, the European Research Council and the European Community Seventh Framework Programme grant agreement no. HEALTH-F2-2010-259893 (DDResponse). Core funding is provided by CRUK (C6946/A14492) and the Wellcome Trust (WT092096). S.P.J. receives his salary from the University of Cambridge, UK, supplemented by CRUK. G.B. is funded by CRUK program grant no. C6/A11224.This is the accepted manuscript for a paper published in Nature Protocols 10, 205–215 (2015) doi:10.1038/nprot.2015.010, Published online 31 December 201

New and improved demonstrations, each illustrating a single scientific paper

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit