1,437 research outputs found
Nick Fury, Will Smith, and Other Black Authority Figures Breaking the Racial Contract in Popular Films of 2000-2015
Film is arguably a model of reflection and reinforcement of cultural, social, and political values of audience members. Therefore, the images and messages displayed in films are of importance. In this study, film is analyzed in order to determine if Charles Mills’ racial contract is depicted in popular films of 2000-2015. The Racial Contract (1997) suggests that only some people, specifically white people, agree to form a state in which their absolute privileges in the political, economic, and social arenas are guaranteed by virtue of being white. This theory was used to understand the role of black people in American society and, as this study explored, in film. Films which earned the highest box office sales in each year were analyzed, and the roles of black characters and the attitudes towards them were coded. The main question posed is whether black characters are portrayed as authority figures in popular film or are they are restrained by sub-personhood, as the racial contract would suggest. Furthermore, is the racial contract reinforced by this portrayal in a modern age? It was concluded that black authority figures were portrayed actively and successfully in popular film, with a general attitude of support from other characters. Thus, the racial contract was not reflected
From King Leonidas to Lord Farquaad: Popular Culture and How Authority is portrayed in Popular Film of 2000-2009
In a modern age dominated by technology, the role of entertainment such as film is steadily growing in American culture and politics. Film and politics “inform” one another, meaning that film reflects the politics within a society in which they are placed (Christensen & Haas 2005). Using this as justification, the central research question of this thesis is, What is the political content of popular films of the 2000s in terms of authority, and what does this suggest about the culture and view on authority of the Millennials as a generation? A content analysis of popular films from 2000-2009 was done to answer this question, and Thompson, Ellis, and Wildavsky\u27s Cultural Theory (1990), which aims to explain why people want what they do and why people perceive the world the way that they do, served as a basis for the research. The theory supports four main categories, or ways of life in which the role of government of lack thereof is distinguished: hierarchy, egalitarianism, fatalism, and individualism. Guided by this theory, twenty-one of the bestselling films from 2000-2009 were viewed, and six scenes from each were coded for the ways in which authority, as well as conflict, blame, and conflict resolution, were portrayed. The final product is a systematic analysis of popular film of the most recent decade, and it is concluded that American Exceptionalism is still an accurate description of American culture
Improved Core Genes Prediction for Constructing well-supported Phylogenetic Trees in large sets of Plant Species
The way to infer well-supported phylogenetic trees that precisely reflect the
evolutionary process is a challenging task that completely depends on the way
the related core genes have been found. In previous computational biology
studies, many similarity based algorithms, mainly dependent on calculating
sequence alignment matrices, have been proposed to find them. In these kinds of
approaches, a significantly high similarity score between two coding sequences
extracted from a given annotation tool means that one has the same genes. In a
previous work article, we presented a quality test approach (QTA) that improves
the core genes quality by combining two annotation tools (namely NCBI, a
partially human-curated database, and DOGMA, an efficient annotation algorithm
for chloroplasts). This method takes the advantages from both sequence
similarity and gene features to guarantee that the core genome contains correct
and well-clustered coding sequences (\emph{i.e.}, genes). We then show in this
article how useful are such well-defined core genes for biomolecular
phylogenetic reconstructions, by investigating various subsets of core genes at
various family or genus levels, leading to subtrees with strong bootstraps that
are finally merged in a well-supported supertree.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, IWBBIO 2015 (3rd International Work-Conference
on Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering
Enhanced Peculiar Velocities in Brane-Induced Gravity
The mounting evidence for anomalously large peculiar velocities in our
Universe presents a challenge for the LCDM paradigm. The recent estimates of
the large scale bulk flow by Watkins et al. are inconsistent at the nearly 3
sigma level with LCDM predictions. Meanwhile, Lee and Komatsu have recently
estimated that the occurrence of high-velocity merging systems such as the
Bullet Cluster (1E0657-57) is unlikely at a 6.5-5.8 sigma level, with an
estimated probability between 3.3x10^{-11} and 3.6x10^{-9} in LCDM cosmology.
We show that these anomalies are alleviated in a broad class of
infrared-modifed gravity theories, called brane-induced gravity, in which
gravity becomes higher-dimensional at ultra large distances. These theories
include additional scalar forces that enhance gravitational attraction and
therefore speed up structure formation at late times and on sufficiently large
scales. The peculiar velocities are enhanced by 24-34% compared to standard
gravity, with the maximal enhancement nearly consistent at the 2 sigma level
with bulk flow observations. The occurrence of the Bullet Cluster in these
theories is 10^4 times more probable than in LCDM cosmology.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures. v2: added reference
Structural and torsional properties of the RAD51-dsDNA nucleoprotein filament
Human RAD51 is a key protein in the repair of DNA by homologous recombination. Its assembly onto DNA, which induces changes in DNA structure, results in the formation of a nucleoprotein filament that forms the basis of strand exchange. Here, we determine the structural and mechanical properties of RAD51-dsDNA filaments. Our measurements use two recently developed magnetic tweezers assays, freely orbiting magnetic tweezers and magnetic torque tweezers, designed to measure the twist and torque of individual molecules. By directly monitoring changes in DNA twist on RAD51 binding, we determine the unwinding angle per RAD51 monomer to be 45°, in quantitative agreement with that of its bacterial homolog, RecA. Measurements of the torque that is built up when RAD51-dsDNA filaments are twisted show that under conditions that suppress ATP hydrolysis the torsional persistence length of the RAD51-dsDNA filament exceeds that of its RecA counterpart by a factor of three. Examination of the filament's torsional stiffness for different combinations of divalent ions and nucleotide cofactors reveals that the Ca2+ ion, apart from suppressing ATPase activity, plays a key role in increasing the torsional stiffness of the filament. These quantitative measurements of RAD51-imposed DNA distortions and accumulated mechanical stress suggest a finely tuned interplay between chemical and mechanical interactions within the RAD51 nucleoprotein filament
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