Of Shining Sea and Rising Sun: cultural storytelling in the genre of horror in video games

In the modern era, video games are hardly the simple, mindless medium that they used to be. Rather, they are now being used as a vehicle for artistic expression and storytelling worldwide, creating a colorful and comprehensive new approach to the storytelling experience that was previously reserved for books or movies. The immersive nature of the medium provides for a richer and more stimulating experience, from which the genre of horror greatly benefits. Rather than the more passive experience the viewer gets from watching a movie or reading a book, video games allow for the player to be completely immersed, experiencing the story rather than just witnessing it. This general aspect combined with the opportunity for unique artistic expression and storytelling, provides for a better overall horror experience. Within the horror genre, there are two schools of storytelling: the Eastern Style (primarily from Japan and countries in the Far East), and the Western Style (particularly the United States). These styles are both unique with their approaches to the genre, begging the question: what do different cultures find scary? Through careful analysis of the Eastern and Western styles, we can understand the characteristics and unique components, identifying the reasoning behind them. An examination of broader social implications in the areas of religion, history, and psychology, will expand the scope of the digital media studies, providing a greater understanding of the continued evolution of human storytelling. The evolution and future possibilities of storytelling are explored in this study by examining the techniques and implications specific to these two identified schools within the horror genre of video games.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1243/thumbnail.jp

Moon - Glow

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/2137/thumbnail.jp

Mode-medium instability and its correction with a Gaussian reflectivity mirror

A high power CO2 laser beam is known to deteriorate after a few microseconds due to a mode-medium instability (MMI) which results from an intensity dependent heating rate related to the vibrational-to-translational decay of the upper and lower CO2 lasing levels. An iterative numerical technique is developed to model the time evolution of the beam as it is affected by the MMI. The technique is used to study the MMI in an unstable CO2 resonator with a hard-edge output mirror for different parameters like the Fresnel number and the gas density. The results show that the mode of the hard edge unstable resonator deteriorates because of the diffraction ripples in the mode. A Gaussian-reflectivity mirror was used to correct the MMI. This mirror produces a smoother intensity profile which significantly reduces the effects of the MMI. Quantitative results on peak density variation and beam quality are presented

Some current measurements in the Sargasso Sea

Also published as: Deep-Sea Research 12 (1965): 805-814Long-term current measurements at depths of 50 and 100m obtained with Richardson current meters at two deep-water moorings south of Bermuda are reported. The records are dominated by anticyclonic rotations which appear and degenerate, possibly in response to the passage of storms. Spectral analysis of the records indicates that this motion has a period of 24 hours at a depth of 50 m, and 25·3 hours at a depth of 100m. No explanation is given to account for this difference in period over a 50-m separation. Both records indicate the existence of semidiurnal tidal motion. The long-term motions at both depths indicate a systematic change in the net direction of flow over a three-month period.The Office of Naval Research under Contract Nonr-2196(00) NR 083-004

Informality and the Development and Demolition of Urban Villages in the Chinese Peri-urban Area

The fate of Chinese urban villages (chengzhongcun) has recently attracted both research and policy attention. Two important unaddressed questions are: what are the sources of informality in otherwise orderly Chinese cities; and, will village redevelopment policy eliminate informality in the Chinese city? Reflecting on the long-established study of informal settlements and recent research on informality, it is argued that the informality in China has been created by the dual urban-rural land market and land management system and by an underprovision of migrant housing. The redevelopment of chengzhongcun is an attempt to eliminate this informality and to create more governable spaces through formal land development; but since it fails to tackle the root demand for unregulated living and working space, village redevelopment only leads to the replication of informality in more remote rural villages, in other urban neighbourhoods and, to some extent, in the redeveloped neighbourhoods. © 2012 Urban Studies Journal Limited

The changing role of cell culture in the generation of transgenic livestock

Transgenesis may allow the generation of farm animals with altered phenotype, animal models for research and animal bioreactors. Although such animals have been produced, the time and expense involved in generating transgenic livestock and then evaluating the transgene expression pattern is very restrictive. If questions about the ability and efficiency of expression could be asked solely in vitro rapid progress could be achieved. Unfortunately, experiments addressing transcriptional control in vitro have proved unreliable in their ability to indicate whether a transgene will be transcribed or not. However, initial studies suggest that cell culture may be able to predict in vivo post-transcriptional events. We review these issues and propose that strategies which engineer the transgene integration site could enhance the probability for efficient expression. This approach has now become feasible with the development of techniques allowing animals to be generated from somatic cells by nuclear transfer. The important step in this procedure is the use of cells grown in culture as the source of genetic information, allowing the selection of specific transgene integration events. This technology which has dramatically increased the potential use of transgenic livestock for both agricultural and biotechnological applications, is based on standard cell culture methodology. We are now at the start of a new era in large animal transgenics

Editorial

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