Rape Fantasy and the Feminist: A History of Critical Thought

The rape scene has occurred and recurred in literature since literature’s inception. Though the function of this versatile trope is not always clear, its prevalence is undeniable. Often, these gruesome scenes appear as works of realism, presenting women’s harsh reality to the public to expose rape culture. In popular women’s fiction, however, the purpose of the trope is not as clear. Janice Radway, in Reading the Romance, and Tania Modleski, in Loving with a Vengeance: Mass-produced Fantasies for Women, address such occurrences in their critique of romance novels whose plots rely heavily on the rape or near-rape of the heroine. Now in the twenty-first century, case studies have emerged which focus not on the rape scenes which occur in novels, but on those that occur in women’s minds. The current study aims to answer the following question: what is currently known about women’s erotic rape fantasies, and how have these fantasies, and these women, been criticized? The study will explore what women, and particularly feminists, say and have said about rape fantasies. The study also aims to track how cultural changes such as the sex-positive movement have affected critical thought about this phenomenon. This initial literature review is preliminary to a wider study addressing the prevalence of both erotic and aversive rape fantasies in literature and cinema, their place in rape culture, and how a feminist approach might be taken to discuss these phenomena

Low-cost, compact, cooled photomultiplier assembly for use in magnetic fields up to 1400 Gauss

Use of vortex tube for cooling and concentric shielding have produced smaller and more compact unit than was previously available. Future uses of device could include installation in gas chromatographs and mass spectrometers. Additional uses would include measurements and controls in magnetohydrodynamic power generators and fusion reactors

Economic Trade: a Solution to the Production Frontier of Two Economies in Trade

It is often possible to intuit the function describing the production frontier of two economies in trade. For example, when the two individual frontiers are linear, the aggregate frontier can be rendered by an intuitive sense of the two derivatives, as will be shown below. But when the two functions are complex, no amount of judgment will suffice to sketch the aggregate production frontier. To solve this conundrum, we will employ polar coordinates and Lagrange Multipliers to yield an analytical function describing the aggregate production frontier.Statistics Working Papers Serie

Is social decision making for close others consistent across domains and within individuals?

Humans make decisions across a variety of social contexts. Though social decision-making research has blossomed in recent decades, surprisingly little is known about whether social decision-making preferences are consistent across different domains. We conducted an exploratory study in which participants made choices about 2 types of close others: parents and friends. To elicit decision making preferences, we pit the interests in parents and friends against one another. To assess the consistency of preferences for close others, decision making was assessed in three domains-risk taking, probabilistic learning, and self-other similarity judgments. We reasoned that if social decision-making preferences are consistent across domains, participants ought to exhibit the same preference in all three domains (i.e., a parent preference, based on prior work), and individual differences in preference magnitude ought to be conserved across domains within individuals. A combination of computational modeling, random coefficient regression, and traditional statistical tests revealed a robust parent-over-friend preference in the risk taking and probabilistic learning domains but not the self-other similarity domain. Preferences for parent-over-friend in the risk-taking domain were strongly associated with similar preferences in the probabilistic learning domain but not the self-other similarity domain. These results suggest that distinct and dissociable value-based and social-cognitive computations underlie social decision making. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

USING ORDER STATISTICS TO ESTIMATE PROBABILITIES OF PURCHASE FOR CONSUMER GOODS

Much work has been done recently to develop models of individual brand choice. This work has been especially fruitful in the area of “attribute investigation” (e.g., conjoint analysis) for the purpose of uncovering an “ideal” set of product attributes for a given product on a customer-by-customer basis. These techniques have been employed in several strategic areas of marketing, including product specification, pricing, service prioritization, brand image/equity, and satisfaction/loyalty. Similarly, some effort has been made with the issue of optimal advertising strategy. This paper considers the advertising effectiveness function within the context of other interrelated variables such as consumer preference (brand choice) for a brand vis-à-vis its competitors. The model suggests, among other things, that under certain reasonable conditions, the advertising response function may not be “diminishing marginal returns” or ‘S-shaped’ as is usually assumed, but instead will increase up to a point and then decline. The model also explicitly considers the advertising expenditures of competing brands, as well as intrinsic "liking" for them. The consideration of competitive activity, in the present study may yield a more complete model of advertising response than is found elsewhere. Finally the model provides direction for strategic purposes in its ability to illustrate in a fairly straightforward and graphical sense how advertising and promotion “work” in much the same way that demand and supply curves illustrate how the various economic inputs work.Statistics Working Papers Serie

Measuring The Effects of Therapeutic Listening - Quickshifts

This study examines a structured protocol to measure the effects of daily individualized use of Therapeutic Listening - Quickshifts (TL-Q) used to improve occupational performance in children with learning and developmental disabilities. The study identifies a standardized practice-based evidence procedure to measure the outcomes of implementing TL-Q within traditional OT practice. OTs worldwide are using sound-based therapies (SBTs) despite limited supporting evidence available regarding the productivity of these interventions. Even fewer studies have been published on the effects of Therapeutic Listening (TL), a novel intervention shown to increase personal and interpersonal skills including sensory processing skills, visual motor integration, and emotional regulation (Frick & Hacker, 2001). TL-Q is used to modify distressing effects of sensory dysregulation and learning disabilities through an individualized listening program of modified musical patterns that the child listens to through headphones for a set amount of time each day. The music program is implemented at home for a more intensive intervention designed to stimulate neuroplasticity across hemispheres eliciting behavioral changes and improved neurological responses (Wink, McKeown, & Casey, 2017).https://scholar.dominican.edu/ug-student-posters/1062/thumbnail.jp

Measuring The Outcomes of Therapeutic Listening in Children with Learning and Developmental Disabilities

Anecdotal reports of the Therapeutic Listening ®-Quickshifts (TL-Q) technique report positive effects on child behavior but the individualized approach requires further supporting evidence. TL-Q is an individualized sound-based program used to facilitate sensory processing skills and is believed to improve interpersonal, social, and cognitive skills (Frick & Hacker, 2001). This study examines the use of a standardized protocol to measure the specific outcomes of the TL-Q program using a practice-based evidence (PBE) approach for the purpose of aggregating data for clinical practice. The protocol was used to measure the outcomes of the TL-Q program in a convenience sample of 23 children, ages 3-12, with learning and developmental disabilities, including sensory processing dysfunction. The protocol was applied in a multi-center, multiple case study design, evaluating changes in sensorimotor skills, self-regulation, maladaptive behavior and activities of daily living (ADLs.) The protocol consisted of pre-test, post-test clinical assessments and semi-structured interviews including the COPM, SPM, VMI, PDMS-2, BOT-2 and a modified Clinical Observations tool. The protocol was applied over a 12-week period and completed in the child’s natural home setting simultaneously with traditional occupational therapy treatment. Significant improvement was seen in individualized goals and developmental posture skills. The outcomes generated from this study support the use of TL-Q in occupational therapy practice. The COPM proved to be a valuable tool for measuring outcomes of TL-Q, suggesting that the assessment may be beneficial to implement in pediatric practice settings