DEMOCRATIZING PUBLIC HEALTH: CITIZEN EMPOWERMENT THROUGH THE BIOTHRILLER GENRE

Preparedness—the process of readying for emerging threats—is central to contemporary public health, which strives to anticipate potential problems instead of reacting to medical disasters. However, this concept resonates little outside of elite policymaker circles. Instead, many Americans assume policymaking is an inherently reactive process that rewards politicians for “fixing” existing problems. For example, while the prospect of a pandemic influenza outbreak represents one of American’s most pressing concerns, surveys report pervasive public ignorance about many aspects of preparedness and public health, including disease transmission, prevention practices, and the relationship between zoological and human diseases. For many Americans, it seems, exposure to such issues comes not through first-hand experience or even governmental education efforts, but through the fictional world of “biothrillers.” Biothrillers are a distinct genre of movies, novels, and television shows that depict humankind’s efforts to survive novel and extraordinarily dangerous diseases. Because an informed citizenry is vital to a healthy functioning democracy, this paper considers the capacity of biothrillers to democratize public health by educating citizens about preparedness as well as the risks associated with the emerging diseases. To what extent do biothrillers empower citizens to draw informed conclusions and make informed decisions about contemporary public health practices and health risks? Can biothrillers compensate for scant government education efforts, thereby helping to close the knowledge gap between medical and political elites and the public writ large? This paper examines three prominent biothrillers, Wolfgang Peterson’s 1995 film Outbreak, Richard Pierce’s 2006 film Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America, and Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 film Contagion. It finds that although biothrillers vary in the extent to which they present accurate depictions of the risks associated with emerging diseases as well as the general practice of public health, most of these films fail to empower citizens to become active participants in the procurement of public health. This shortcoming is largely a testament to the films’ portrayal of citizens as helpless and passive victims. The one exception to this rule is Fatal Contact, which depicts the efforts of neighborhood groups to form ad-hoc influenza monitoring and response programs

BIOTHRILLER FILMS AND CITIZEN EMPOWERMENT: A VIEWER’S GUIDE TO OUTBREAK, CONTAGION, AND FATAL CONTACT

According to University of Hannover Professor Ruth Mayer (2007), biothrillers have long been an important pathway into the American “political unconscious,” as the diseases they depict often serve as “metaphors” for some of the nation’s greatest fears—terrorism, social disintegration, immigration. Beyond their metaphorical qualities, biothrillers, which are often based on real diseases, also expose Americans to the political, scientific, and social dynamics of public health preparedness and response efforts. Wolfgang Peterson’s 1995 film Outbreak, Richard Pierce’s 2006 film Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America, and Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 film Contagion are all struck from this creative mold, providing largely realistic portrayals of disease transmission, the preparedness cycle, government institutions, and, in some cases, the role of citizen participation in the procurement of public health services. The following viewer’s guide can be used in conjunction with these three films. Questions highlight themes associated with each film while encouraging viewers to compare and contrast Outbreak, Fatal Contact, and Contagion

Mechanical thresholds for initiation and persistence of pain following nerve root injury: mechanical and chemical contributions at injury

There is much evidence supporting the hypothesis that magnitude of nerve root mechanical injury affects the nature of the physiological responses which can contribute to pain in lumbar radiculopathy. Specifically, injury magnitude has been shown to modulate behavioral hypersensitivity responses in animal models of radiculopathy. However, no study has determined the mechanical deformation thresholds for initiation and maintenance of the behavioral sensitivity in these models. Therefore, it was the purpose of this study to quantify the effects of mechanical and chemical contributions at injury on behavioral outcomes and to determine mechanical thresholds for pain onset and persistence. Male Holtzman rats received either a silk or chromic gut ligation of the L5 nerve roots, a sham exposure of the nerve roots, or a chromic exposure in which no mechanical deformation was applied but chromic gut material was placed on the roots. Using image analysis, nerve root radial strains were estimated at the time of injury. Behavioral hypersensitivity was assessed by measuring mechanical allodynia continuously throughout the study. Chromic gut ligations produced allodynia responses for nerve root strains at two-thirds of the magnitudes of those strains which produced the corresponding behaviors for silk ligation. Thresholds for nerve root compression producing the onset (8.4%) and persistence of pain (17.4-22.2%) were determined for silk ligation in this lumbar radiculopathy model. Such mechanical thresholds for behavioral sensitivity in a painful radiculopathy model begin to provide biomechanical data which may have utility in broader experimental and computational models for relating injury biomechanics and physiologic responses of pain

Bridging the Information Literacy Gap with Clickers

A Class Performance System (CPS) is applied as an assessment tool to assist in determining the level of information literacy knowledge already possessed by adult students enrolled in a graduate Educational Leadership and Technology program. The CPS data collected reveals that students possess varying degrees of technology expertise and information literacy skills. Study results suggest that clickers facilitate differentiated information literacy pedagogy and increase engagement for graduate students. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

High-angle-of-attack pneumatic lag and upwash corrections for a hemispherical flow direction sensor

As part of the NASA F-14 high angle of attack flight test program, a nose mounted hemispherical flow direction sensor was calibrated against a fuselage mounted movable vane flow angle sensor. Significant discrepancies were found to exist in the angle of attack measurements. A two fold approach taken to resolve these discrepancies during subsonic flight is described. First, the sensing integrity of the isolated hemispherical sensor is established by wind tunnel data extending to an angle of attack of 60 deg. Second, two probable causes for the discrepancies, pneumatic lag and upwash, are examined. Methods of identifying and compensating for lag and upwash are presented. The wind tunnel data verify that the isolated hemispherical sensor is sufficiently accurate for static conditions with angles of attack up to 60 deg and angles of sideslip up to 30 deg. Analysis of flight data for two high angle of attack maneuvers establishes that pneumatic lag and upwash are highly correlated with the discrepancies between the hemispherical and vane type sensor measurements