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Gender, Suffering, and Humanity in Westworld
Get PDFThis paper examines gender, suffering, and humanity in the HBO series Westworld. I use Dolores, the female robot protagonist of the show, as a case study to explore gender performativity, narratives of suffering, affective agency, cyborg feminism and the uncanny valley. By analyzing the intersections of these theories in Dolores’s story, I illustrate how people and cyborgs alike are both humanized and dehumanized through their gender expression
New & Noteworthy, April 2020
Get PDFContents include: #LMDA20 // Conference Countdown; Dramaturgy Debut Panel: Join the Legacy; Upcoming Regional Events; Pandemic Response: Resources for Artists.https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/lmdanewsletter/1038/thumbnail.jp
Modern Military Weaponry and (un)Sustainable Treatment of the Environment
Get PDFAn often ignored aspect of environmental degradation in the modern age is military pollution. How has the military impacted environmental health over time, from ancient Rome to the Marshall Islands? This paper compares and contrasts types of environmental degradation, like chemical warfare and deforestation, and attempts to lay out the steep increase in their negative impact following industrialization in the west entering into the 20th century. The paper concludes that a different understanding of human relationship with the earth is necessary to combat environmental degradation going forward
Tattoos in East Asia: Conforming to Individualism
Get PDFAlthough Japan, South Korea, and China share a similar history of tattoo criminality spanning thousands of years, in modern times they all hold different legal policies concerning the practice of tattooing. South Korea has the strictest laws, requiring a medical doctorate to legally tattoo, while Japan has only recently reaffirmed the legality of the practice outside of health professionals. China, on the other hand, has few restrictions on body art. This paper explores this interesting difference via observational fieldwork in the major cities of Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai and Beijing as well as interviews with local people within and outside the tattoo scene. In doing so, this paper hopes to explain the connection between a new tattoo culture supported by a younger generation and the level of democracy and development of each country. Although a strong social stigma towards the art remains salient in all three nations due to the historical connection to criminality, a new, younger generation with greater access to the internet and the outside world has been able to adopt a tattoo culture unrelated to previous trends. Tattoos in East Asia are becoming less about rebellious self-expression, which could be threatening to authoritarian governmental systems like China, but are instead symbols of a modern society rising alongside a younger middle class, one unburdened by previous decades of poverty or struggle. The rising prevalence of a tattooed population may be less an indicator of a strong counter-culture then, but instead, a signal of a globalized, developed society
Patient-Reported, Not Performance Based, Outcome Measures Are Correlated With Future Falls in Community Dwelling Older Adults
Get PDFBackground: One-third of community-dwelling older adults fall at least once a year, yet many commonly used performance-based outcome measures for falls have ceiling effects. Additionally, psychological factors such as fear of falling and avoidance behaviors may contribute to fall risk.
Purpose: To determine whether balance confidence, fear of falling avoidance behaviors, or performance on high-level mobility outcome measures can predict falls in community-dwelling older adults.
Methods: Eighty-nine participants (76 ± 7 years) completed the Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale (ABC), Fear of Falling Avoidance Behaviors Questionnaire (FFABQ), Functional Gait Assessment (FGA), and Community Balance & Mobility Scale (CB&M) and then recorded their falls for 6 months. Spearman’s rho, a Point-Biserial Correlation, and Receiver Operating Curves were used to analyze the relationship of the selected outcome measures, past falls, and future falls.
Results: There were statistically significant correlations between falls and both the ABC (r2=-.235, p=.022) and the FFABQ (r2=.286, p=.019). There was a positive correlation between history of falls and future falls (r=.323, p=.002). The ABC (area under curve [AUC] =.632, p=.038) and the FFABQ (AUC=.655, p=.015) were significant predictors of future falls. The optimal cutoff scores for determining individuals who experienced falls were: ABC-96% (79% sensitivity, 66% specificity) and FFABQ-1.50 (79%, 55%).
Conclusion: No single outcome measure was found to be strongly correlated with falls. The ABC, FFABQ, and history of falls were weakly correlated with future falls. A cutoff score of 96% on the ABC and 1.50 on the FFABQ had adequate sensitivity, but low specificity for predicting falls
Physarum Polycephalum Network Construction
Get PDFThe slime mold Physarum polycephalum creates a tubular plasmodial network between food sources when foraging. We expect through the lens of optimal foraging theory for these tubes to connect food sources in the most efficient, cost effective, and also redundant manner to optimize use of energy and reproduction. We constructed an apparatus for taking data from many plasmodia concurrently and algorithms for tracking plasmodial growth
The Short-Term Effects of Thoracic Transverse Mobilization in Patients with Subacromial Shoulder Pain
Get PDFBackground: There is evidence that thoracic manipulation is effective for treating subacromial shoulder pain (SSP). However, evidence is limited for thoracic mobilization. Manipulation is not safe for all patients; therefore, effects of thoracic mobilization on SSP needs to be researched further.
Purpose: To measure the effects of thoracic spine transverse mobilization (TSTM) and a home exercise in patients with SSP immediately after treatment, and 48 hours later. Shoulder range of motion (ROM), shoulder pain, and patient perception of treatment effects were assessed.
Methods: This is a single treatment pretest/posttest design consisting of eight patients (five females, three males; mean age 26.75 +8.14 years) with shoulder pain. Participants completed a standardized examination, and then treatment using TSTM and a home exercise. Outcome measures were taken at baseline, immediately following treatment, and 48 hours later.
Results:The improvements in Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI) and Numerical Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) scores were statistically significant (p
Conclusion: In conclusion, a single treatment of TSTM and one exercise provided a statistically significant decrease in self-reported shoulder pain and disability measures at 48-hour follow-up. The SPADI and NPRS did not reach the minimum clinically important difference (MCID), however, the SPADI Pain subscale did. Future studies should focus on the long-term effects of TSTM, multiple treatments, and in comparison with a control group
Diversity and its Discontents: Deepening the Discourse
Get PDFThis article explores the shifting meanings of diversity discourse from the classical demarcations associated with demographic groups to the individualized applicability the concept has assumed in recent years. The trend toward attenuated understandings of diversity comes at the risk of slighting historic hardship that groups of people have long endured. The analysis weaves student testimonies and teaching experience from the classroom together with existing research and critical theory on diversity. In emphasizing the need to honor legacies of oppression among particular groups, while animating the possibilities that shared experiences across expansive human variation provide, the author includes feedback from classes that bring students inside and outside prison together. The author builds on feminist theory and pedagogy to explore the challenges and affective dimensions of diversity discourse in college classrooms, and concludes by affirming the significance of diverse human experience for learning and living together in an egalitarian democratic society
The Past and the Present: Two Paradigms of the Sino-African Investment
Get PDFOutward foreign direct investment (OFDI) has obvious economic and political connections between the recipient and donor countries. Such investment can benefit both sides and carry certain costs to both, whether through global scrutiny or domestic struggles. This these seeks to add to the ongoing discussion of China\u27s OFDI to Africa by comparing China\u27s investment during its socialist period (1949-1976) and its post-socialist era (1977 – present). This comparison reveals that China\u27s foreign policy has transitioned from a socialist paradigm to a capitalist one in the last seven decades, which brought significant changes in its OFDI policies and practice. In the socialist paradigm, the case study is focused on Tanzania and Zambia, and for the capitalist paradigm, the focus is Zambia and Sudan. The thesis argues that China\u27s OFDI strongly connects to its foreign policy, which in turn correlates to China\u27s economic and political agenda. Researching the paradigms then reveals how economic and political agendas impact the recipient OFDI country, depending on China\u27s motives