Using emotional rather than rational reactions: Can fiction help?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Michel, Alain

1998-01-01

This paper presents a summary of a Case study. Ask someone in the street about nuclear events, Chernobyl will come first. The accident that is the center of the action in the 'Chinese syndrome', a fiction produced for the cinema, is better known than the one that occurred nearly at the same time in Three Mile Island reactor. This film can be seen nearly every year on T V in Europe and always creates some emotion. If the film 'Karen Silkwood' is programmed, on illegal actions in a plutonium fuel fabrication plant, dramatizing on the basis a some real facts, nuclear activities are again questioned. There are many books with nuclear questions as the central subject: most of them are based on nuclear black-mail or the life after the bomb. But there also are a number of them which concern nuclear plants. There are many more of those. In most of them, the nuclear people are the villains. In comic strips like 'L'Ankou' (Spirou) or T V serials like 'The Simpsons', the nuclear power plant employees are stupid and aggressive. Some other writers like P.D. James, or Michel Corentin and Gil Lacq have nuclear plant managers among the heroes of their plot, and they give a realistic view of the nuclear world, although not really positive. The days have changed from the time Jules Verne described the technical progress with such enthusiasm that many young people decided to make a career in science and technology. Presently the point is not anymore to show the nuclear engineers or scientists as perfect heroes, or pretend that all is well in perfect nuclear installations. The interesting aspect of a good fiction would be more to make these premises and people positively familiar. A good example of such a book, is 'Overload' (Arthur Hailey): the subject is the delayed licensing of a large coal power plant and its consequences, a dramatic blackout. A pity that it was never made into a film for T V or cinema. This autumn, I have published a book titled 'The Syndrome M': it is a thriller

The Value of Fictional Worlds (or Why 'The Lord of the Rings' is Worth Reading

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James Harold

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Some works of fiction are widely held by critics to have little value, yet these works are not only popular but also widely admired in ways that are not always appreciated. In this paper I make use of Kendall Walton’s account of fictional worlds to argue that fictional worlds can and often do have value, including aesthetic value, that is independent of the works that create them. In the process, I critique Walton’s notion of fictional worlds and offer a defense of the study and appreciation of fictional worlds, as distinguished from the works of fiction with which they are associated.

Fact vs fiction--how paratextual information shapes our reading processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Altmann, Ulrike; Bohrn, Isabel C; Lubrich, Oliver; Menninghaus, Winfried; Jacobs, Arthur M

2014-01-01

Our life is full of stories: some of them depict real-life events and were reported, e.g. in the daily news or in autobiographies, whereas other stories, as often presented to us in movies and novels, are fictional. However, we have only little insights in the neurocognitive processes underlying the reading of factual as compared to fictional contents. We investigated the neurocognitive effects of reading short narratives, labeled to be either factual or fictional. Reading in a factual mode engaged an activation pattern suggesting an action-based reconstruction of the events depicted in a story. This process seems to be past-oriented and leads to shorter reaction times at the behavioral level. In contrast, the brain activation patterns corresponding to reading fiction seem to reflect a constructive simulation of what might have happened. This is in line with studies on imagination of possible past or future events.

Thermal Comfort Assessment in The Open Space in Bandung Case Study Dago Street and Riau Street

Science.gov (United States)

Sugangga, M.; Janesonia, K. I.; Illiyin, D. F.; Donny Koerniawan, M.

2018-05-01

Bandung’s temperature has been higher since last years. This phenomenon affects the level of thermal comfort in open space. One indicator that determines the thermal comfort level is the type of activity performed by the open space user. Riau Street and Dago Street are corridors that are often used by the people for strolling, jogging, shopping. Dago Street has special event every Sunday namely car free day. Both corridors have different orientation; Dago Street is North to South corridor while Riau Street’s is West to East. The goal of the study is to compare people’s perception of thermal comfort in both corridors. This research uses two methods, namely qualitative method and quantitative method. Based on the results of qualitative analysis found that the thermal conditions in Dago Street more comfortable than the Riau Street. The result of quantitative analysis found that the average PET (thermal comfort indices) value of Dago Street was at 27.5 °C PET and Riau Street 28.6 °C PET. Dago Street is considered more convenient because it has a lower PET value than Riau Street. The people perception of thermal comfort is very important to start the steps for designing the orientation of street in urban design.

Potential reductions of street solids and phosphorus in urban watersheds from street cleaning, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2009-11

Science.gov (United States)

Sorenson, Jason R.

2013-01-01

Material accumulating and washing off urban street surfaces and ultimately into stormwater drainage systems represents a substantial nonpoint source of solids, phosphorus, and other constituent loading to waterways in urban areas. Cost and lack of usable space limit the type and number of structural stormwater source controls available to municipalities and other public managers. Non-structural source controls such as street cleaning are commonly used by cities and towns for construction, maintenance and aesthetics, and may reduce contaminant loading to waterways. Effectiveness of street cleaning is highly variable and potential improvements to water quality are not fully understood. In 2009, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and initiated a study to better understand the physical and chemical nature of the organic and inorganic solid material on street surfaces, evaluate the performance of a street cleaner at removing street solids, and make use of the Source Loading and Management Model (SLAMM) to estimate potential reductions in solid and phosphorus loading to the lower Charles River from various street-cleaning technologies and frequencies. Average yield of material on streets collected between May and December 2010, was determined to be about 740 pounds per curb-mile on streets in multifamily land use and about 522 pounds per curb-mile on commercial land-use streets. At the end-of-winter in March 2011, about 2,609 and 4,788 pounds per curb-mile on average were collected from streets in multifamily and commercial land-use types, respectively. About 86 percent of the total street-solid yield from multifamily and commercial land-use streets was greater than or equal to 0.125 millimeters in diameter (or very fine sand). Observations of street-solid distribution across the entire street width indicated that as

Trashing the millenium: Subjectivity and technology in cyberpunk science fiction

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J. A. Sey

1992-05-01

Full Text Available 'Cyberpunk’ science fiction is a self-proclaimed movement within the genre which began in the 1980s. As the name suggests, it is an extrapolative form of science fiction which combines an almost obsessional interest in machines (particularly information machines with an anarchic, amoral, streetwise sensibility This paper sketches the development of the movement and seeks to make qualified claims for the radical. potential of its fiction. Of crucial importance are the ways in which human subjectivity (viewed in psychoanalytic terms interacts with 'technological subjectivity' in cyberpunk, particularly with regard to implications of these interactions for oedipalization.

Still ‘Watching’ TV? The Consumption of TV Fiction by Engaged Audiences

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Alexander Dhoest

2016-07-01

Full Text Available There is no denying that television, as a medium and an institution, has drastically changed in the age of digitization and convergence. For audiences, this has not only opened up multiple opportunities to watch television content at other times and on other devices, but also to interact with its cross-media extensions. However, while much has been written about the new opportunities for audience engagement, we do not know much about the actual adoption of new technologies nor the motivations underlying such uses. Therefore, this paper draws on empirical audience research to address the key question: how do viewers engage with contemporary TV fiction? Through empirical audience research, using various qualitative research methods, three different aspects of the reception of cross-media TV fiction will be discussed: (1 how do viewers watch the TV episodes of contemporary TV fiction?, (2 how do viewers engage with the cross-media extensions of TV fiction?, and (3 how do viewers experience the social dimensions of contemporary TV fiction? We focus on a particular group, that of 'engaged' viewers, who are actively involved by personalizing their viewing practices, by communicating about it, by consuming cross-media elements of TV fiction, or producing TV fiction-related content. Our findings suggest that even this group does not make full use of all the available technological opportunities to personalize TV viewing, and that the classical TV text, linear viewing, and the social aspect of viewing remain of key importance.

Art and fiction are signals with indeterminate truth values.

Science.gov (United States)

Rabb, Nathaniel

2017-01-01

Menninghaus et al. distinguish art from fiction, but no current arguments or data suggest that the concept of art can be meaningfully circumscribed. This is a problem for aesthetic psychology. I sketch a solution by rejecting the distinction: Unlike most animal communication, in which signals are either true or false, art and fiction consist of signals without determinate truth values.

Wall Street som kreationistisk forkynder

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ekman, Susanne

2016-01-01

Artiklen gennemgår Karen Hos etnografi om Wall Street: "Liquidated: An ethnography of Wall Street" set i lyset af den offentlige debat vedrørende Goldman Sachs opkøb af Dong......Artiklen gennemgår Karen Hos etnografi om Wall Street: "Liquidated: An ethnography of Wall Street" set i lyset af den offentlige debat vedrørende Goldman Sachs opkøb af Dong...

A training purpose for the Bachelor: physics and Fiction Science

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bacas Leal, P.; Martin, M.J.; Perera Cendal, F.; Pizarro Galan, A.M.

1997-01-01

Science fiction can be used in the classroom as a fantastic narrative which exploits the imaginative outlooks of modern science. In this paper some of the teaching prospects which science fiction offers are analysed, and for instance, those offered by A.C. Clarke's Maelstrom II are developed. (Author)

Upper Elementary Students' Motivation to Read Fiction and Nonfiction

Science.gov (United States)

Parsons, Allison Ward; Parsons, Seth A.; Malloy, Jacquelynn A.; Gambrell, Linda B.; Marinak, Barbara A.; Reutzel, D. Ray; Applegate, Mary D.; Applegate, Anthony J.; Fawson, Parker C.

2018-01-01

This research explores upper elementary students' motivation to read fiction and nonfiction. Using expectancy-value theory, the researchers developed separate surveys to measure motivation to read fiction and nonfiction. Researchers administered surveys to 1,104 upper elementary students (grades 3-6) in multiple locations across the United States…

Science Fiction at the Far Side of Technology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Johansen, Mikkel Willum

2017-01-01

behind some of the major works of their genre; assessments that may in turn provide the inspiration for new stories based on an enhanced understanding of the dynamics of science and technology. Film critics and literary critics with a good working knowledge of science fiction may find fresh insight......This book explores what science fiction can tell us about the human condition in a technological world (with the dilemma's and consequences that this entails) and also engages with the genre at points where we apparently find it on the far side of science, technology or human existence. As such....... It is our hope that this interdisciplinary approach will set an example for those who, like us, have been busy assessing the ways in which fictional attempts to fathom the possibilities of science and technology speak to central concerns about what it means to be human in a contemporary world of technology...

Fact or Fiction? Libraries Can Thrive in the Digital Age

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, Christopher

2014-01-01

Today's school library uses an increasing number of digital resources to supplement a print collection that is moving more toward fiction and literary non-fiction. Supplemental resources, including streaming video, online resources, subscription databases, audiobooks, e-books, and even games, round out the new collections. Despite the best…

Synthetic Literature : Writing Science Fiction in a Co-Creative Process

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Manjavacas, Enrique; Karsdorp, F.B.; Burtenshaw, Ben; Kestemont, Mike

This paper describes a co-creative text generation system applied within a science fiction setting to be used by an established novelist. The project was initiated as part of The Dutch Book Week, and the generated text will be published within a volume of science fiction stories. We explore the

The Material Co-Construction of Hard Science Fiction and Physics

Science.gov (United States)

Hasse, Cathrine

2015-01-01

This article explores the relationship between hard science fiction and physics and a gendered culture of science. Empirical studies indicate that science fiction references might spur some students' interest in physics and help develop this interest throughout school, into a university education and even further later inspire the practice of…

Adult education and publishing Canadian fiction in a global context: a Foucauldian analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susan M Holloway

2014-04-01

Full Text Available This paper draws upon findings from a research study on the relationship between fiction, citizenship, and lifelong learning. It includes interviews with authors from several genres, publishing houses, and arts councils. This paper explores many of the ambivalent outcomes of the shifting power elements in publishing that can simultaneously benefit and disadvantage the publication of a national body of fiction. Although focused on the Canadian context, fiction writers and publishers around the globe face similar challenges. Using a Foucauldian analysis, it considers the importance of fiction and adult learning in shaping discourses of citizenship and critical social learning.

Simulating fiction: individual differences in literature comprehension revealed with FMRI.

Science.gov (United States)

Nijhof, Annabel D; Willems, Roel M

2015-01-01

When we read literary fiction, we are transported to fictional places, and we feel and think along with the characters. Despite the importance of narrative in adult life and during development, the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying fiction comprehension are unclear. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how individuals differently employ neural networks important for understanding others' beliefs and intentions (mentalizing), and for sensori-motor simulation while listening to excerpts from literary novels. Localizer tasks were used to localize both the cortical motor network and the mentalizing network in participants after they listened to excerpts from literary novels. Results show that participants who had high activation in anterior medial prefrontal cortex (aMPFC; part of the mentalizing network) when listening to mentalizing content of literary fiction, had lower motor cortex activity when they listened to action-related content of the story, and vice versa. This qualifies how people differ in their engagement with fiction: some people are mostly drawn into a story by mentalizing about the thoughts and beliefs of others, whereas others engage in literature by simulating more concrete events such as actions. This study provides on-line neural evidence for the existence of qualitatively different styles of moving into literary worlds, and adds to a growing body of literature showing the potential to study narrative comprehension with neuroimaging methods.

Fiction and Religion : How Narratives About the Supernatural Inspire Religious Belief

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Davidsen, M.A.

2016-01-01

Thematic issue on 'Fiction and Religion: How Narratives About the Supernatural Inspire Religious Belief', volume 46(4) of Religion. The thematic issue inclues the following articles: Davidsen, Markus Altena, "Fiction and Religion: How Narratives About the Supernatural Inspire Religious Belief –

How Does Fiction Reading Influence Empathy? An Experimental Investigation on the Role of Emotional Transportation

Science.gov (United States)

Bal, P. Matthijs; Veltkamp, Martijn

2013-01-01

The current study investigated whether fiction experiences change empathy of the reader. Based on transportation theory, it was predicted that when people read fiction, and they are emotionally transported into the story, they become more empathic. Two experiments showed that empathy was influenced over a period of one week for people who read a fictional story, but only when they were emotionally transported into the story. No transportation led to lower empathy in both studies, while study 1 showed that high transportation led to higher empathy among fiction readers. These effects were not found for people in the control condition where people read non-fiction. The study showed that fiction influences empathy of the reader, but only under the condition of low or high emotional transportation into the story. PMID:23383160

How does fiction reading influence empathy? An experimental investigation on the role of emotional transportation.

Science.gov (United States)

Bal, P Matthijs; Veltkamp, Martijn

2013-01-01

The current study investigated whether fiction experiences change empathy of the reader. Based on transportation theory, it was predicted that when people read fiction, and they are emotionally transported into the story, they become more empathic. Two experiments showed that empathy was influenced over a period of one week for people who read a fictional story, but only when they were emotionally transported into the story. No transportation led to lower empathy in both studies, while study 1 showed that high transportation led to higher empathy among fiction readers. These effects were not found for people in the control condition where people read non-fiction. The study showed that fiction influences empathy of the reader, but only under the condition of low or high emotional transportation into the story.

How does fiction reading influence empathy? An experimental investigation on the role of emotional transportation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P Matthijs Bal

Full Text Available The current study investigated whether fiction experiences change empathy of the reader. Based on transportation theory, it was predicted that when people read fiction, and they are emotionally transported into the story, they become more empathic. Two experiments showed that empathy was influenced over a period of one week for people who read a fictional story, but only when they were emotionally transported into the story. No transportation led to lower empathy in both studies, while study 1 showed that high transportation led to higher empathy among fiction readers. These effects were not found for people in the control condition where people read non-fiction. The study showed that fiction influences empathy of the reader, but only under the condition of low or high emotional transportation into the story.

RACE, CODE OF THE STREET, AND VIOLENT DELINQUENCY: A MULTILEVEL INVESTIGATION OF NEIGHBORHOOD STREET CULTURE AND INDIVIDUAL NORMS OF VIOLENCE*

Science.gov (United States)

Stewart, Eric A.; Simons, Ronald L.

2011-01-01

The study outlined in this article drew on Elijah Anderson’s (1999) code of the street perspective to examine the impact of neighborhood street culture on violent delinquency. Using data from more than 700 African American adolescents, we examined 1) whether neighborhood street culture predicts adolescent violence above and beyond an adolescent’s own street code values and 2) whether neighborhood street culture moderates individual-level street code values on adolescent violence. Consistent with Anderson’s hypotheses, neighborhood street culture significantly predicts violent delinquency independent of individual-level street code effects. Additionally, neighborhood street culture moderates individual-level street code values on violence in neighborhoods where the street culture is widespread. In particular, the effect of street code values on violence is enhanced in neighborhoods where the street culture is endorsed widely. PMID:21666759

LIFE AS FICTION, OR SOME NOTES ON ANTERO DE QUENTAL

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Monica Figueiredo

2008-08-01

Full Text Available Recovery of essayistic route of Antero de Quental . Analysis of the main ideas of Quental's thought and its relation with the biographical path of the poet. The (re creation of fictional "A genius who was a saint", according Eça de Queiroz . The biography as a form of fictional writing.

Reflections on Science Fiction in Light of Today's Global Concerns.

Science.gov (United States)

Aiex, Patrick K.

Science fiction is a literary genre that can be used in humanities courses to discuss ideas, attitudes, ethics, morality, and the effects of science and technology on the world's population. One of the best examples of a "classic" science fiction novel which can provoke class discussion is Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World,"…

Holy sci-fi! where science fiction and religion intersect

CERN Document Server

Nahin, Paul J

2014-01-01

Can a computer have a soul? Are religion and science mutually exclusive? Is there really such a thing as free will? If you could time travel to visit Jesus, would you (and should you)? For hundreds of years, philosophers, scientists, and science fiction writers have pondered these questions and many more. In Holy Sci-Fi!, popular writer Paul Nahin explores the fertile and sometimes uneasy relationship between science fiction and religion. With a scope spanning the history of religion, philosophy, and literature, Nahin follows religious themes in science fiction from Feynman to Foucault, and from Asimov to Aristotle. An intriguing journey through popular and well-loved books and stories, Holy Sci-Fi! shows how sci-fi has informed humanity's attitudes towards our faiths, our future, and ourselves.

Critique and Fiction: Doing Science Right in Rural Education Research

Science.gov (United States)

Howley, Craig

2009-01-01

This essay explains the relevance of fiction to the practice of rural education research, in so doing engaging questions about the nature and purposes of research and, therefore, of science itself. Although many may assume science and fiction (in this account, novels) harbor contrary purposes and devices, this essay argues that, to the contrary,…

Simulating the impacts of on-street vehicle parking on traffic operations on urban streets using cellular automation

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Jingxu; Li, Zhibin; Jiang, Hang; Zhu, Senlai; Wang, Wei

2017-02-01

In recent years, many bicycle lanes on urban streets are replaced with vehicle parking places. Spaces for bicycle riding are reduced, resulting in changes in bicycle and vehicle operational features. The objective of this study is to estimate the impacts of on-street parking on heterogeneous traffic operation on urban streets. A cellular automaton (CA) model is developed and calibrated to simulate bicycle lane-changing on streets with on-street parking. Two types of street segments with different bicycle lane width are considered. From the simulation, two types of conflicts between bicycles and vehicles are identified which are frictional conflicts and blocking conflicts. Factors affecting the frequency of conflicts are also identified. Based on the results, vehicle delay is estimated for various traffic situations considering the range of occupancy levels for on-street parking. Later, a numerical network example is analyzed to estimate the network impact of on-street parking on traffic assignment and operation. Findings of the study are helpful to policies and design regarding on-street vehicle parking to improve the efficiency of traffic operations.

Updike's Bech: a book, and the heaven of fiction

OpenAIRE

Manzanas Calvo, Ana María

1993-01-01

This paper examines Bech's trajectory as a fictional character and as an artificer of words. Bech, the word master, is "reduced" throughout the novel in the several oeuvres which try to capture his essence until finally he enters the "heaven of fiction," the ultimate reduction which fixes him as an immortal, immutable character. Bech, however, longs for the mortality of life outside the pantheon, for the unlimited possibilities of reality.

Moral fictions and medical ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Franklin G; Truog, Robert D; Brock, Dan W

2010-11-01

Conventional medical ethics and the law draw a bright line distinguishing the permitted practice of withdrawing life-sustaining treatment from the forbidden practice of active euthanasia by means of a lethal injection. When clinicians justifiably withdraw life-sustaining treatment, they allow patients to die but do not cause, intend, or have moral responsibility for, the patient's death. In contrast, physicians unjustifiably kill patients whenever they intentionally administer a lethal dose of medication. We argue that the differential moral assessment of these two practices is based on a series of moral fictions - motivated false beliefs that erroneously characterize withdrawing life-sustaining treatment in order to bring accepted end-of-life practices in line with the prevailing moral norm that doctors must never kill patients. When these moral fictions are exposed, it becomes apparent that conventional medical ethics relating to end-of-life decisions is radically mistaken. © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Quelques commentaires sur les personnages de fiction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Umberto Eco

2010-06-01

Full Text Available L’auteur met en place des observations et développe des analyses sur le statut des personnages de fiction, mettant à contribution les ressources de l’histoire, de la littérature, de la sémiotique, de la logique et de la narratologie. De quelle vie particulière vivent les personnages de roman, qui fait que nous sommes capables de les tenir pour plus réels que des personnages réels, et que nous sommes enclins à éprouver les sentiments qu’ils éprouvent, même si nous savons qu’ils n’existent pas ? Comment ces personnages de fiction existent-ils, selon quelle « partition » leur existence se développe-t-elle au point d’interférer avec la nôtre ? L’interrogation porte sur la nature de ce flux émotionnel qui s’écoule du lecteur vers les personnages de fiction et les investit de valeur, sur ce qui se projette de la vie vers le roman, entraînant avec lui le lecteur qui se trouve de la sorte impliqué malgré lui dans l’histoire, et se trouve pris dans le mécanisme de l’identification et de la vie fictive.Some commentaries about fiction charactersPutting into form a number of observations and developing an analysis on the status of fiction characters, the author draws on resources coming from history, literature, semiotic, logic et narration. What is that particular life lived by fiction characters that enable us to consider them as being more real than real characters, and to experience the feelings that they experience, even though we know that they do not exist? How do these characters exist? In other words, according to what “script” does their existence develop to the point of interfering with ours? The questioning centres on the nature of the emotional flux which flows from the reader towards the fictional characters thus giving them value, and on what it is which is projected from real life towards the novel and which is capable of sweeping up the reader who, without having particularly intended to do

Modern Middle Eastern Fiction: An Approach to Studying the Area.

Science.gov (United States)

Stone, Frank A., Comp.

The annotated listing cites Middle Eastern fiction which has been translated into English and can be used in humanities or social studies classes at the secondary level. The eight works of fiction listed contain materials that can be used to investigate the following topics: 1) contrasts between urban and village styles of life in the Middle East;…

Beyond Flash Gordon and "Star Wars": Science Fiction and History Instruction

Science.gov (United States)

Cooper, B. Lee

1978-01-01

Historical concepts can be taught through analysis of science fiction. Offers a class outline with science fiction resources to examine the boundaries of historical inquiry; six themes for student investigation based on specific resources; and a bibliography of 44 additional anthologies and books. (AV)

More than "Cool Science": Science Fiction and Fact in the Classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Vandana

2014-02-01

The unfortunate negative attitude toward physics among many students, including science majors, warrants creative approaches to teaching required physics courses. One such approach is to integrate science fiction into the curriculum, either in the form of movies or the written word. Historically this has been done since at least the 1970s, and by now many universities and colleges have courses that incorporate science fiction stories or film. The intent appears to be to a) increase student interest in physics, b) increase the imaginative grasp of the student, and c) enable a clearer understanding of physics concepts. Reports on these experiments, from Freedman and Little's classic 1980 paper to more recent work like that of Dubeck et al.,2 Dark,3 and Smith,4 indicate that such innovative approaches do work. I was curious as to whether a combination of science fiction and science fact (in the form of a science news article) might enhance the benefits of including science fiction. Below I describe how I used a science fiction story along with a science article on a related theme to pique the interest of students in a new and exciting area of research that was nevertheless connected to the course material.

Science Fiction in the Classroom.

Science.gov (United States)

Brake, Mark; Thornton, Rosi

2003-01-01

Considers science fiction as an imaginative forum to focus on the relationships between science, culture, and society. Outlines some of the ways in which using the genre can help achieve a dynamic and pluralistic understanding of the nature and evolution of science. (Author/KHR)

Science fiction by scientists an anthology of short stories

CERN Document Server

2017-01-01

This anthology contains fourteen intriguing short stories by active research scientists and other writers trained in science. Science is at the heart of real science fiction, which is more than just westerns with ray guns or fantasy with spaceships. The people who do science and love science best are scientists. Scientists like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Fred Hoyle wrote some of the legendary tales of golden age science fiction. Today there is a new generation of scientists writing science fiction informed with the expertise of their fields, from astrophysics to computer science, biochemistry to rocket science, quantum physics to genetics, speculating about what is possible in our universe. Here lies the sense of wonder only science can deliver. All the stories in this volume are supplemented by afterwords commenting on the science underlying each story.

The neuroaesthetics of prose fiction: pitfalls, parameters and prospects.

Science.gov (United States)

Burke, Michael

2015-01-01

There is a paucity of neuroaesthetic studies on prose fiction. This is in contrast to the very many impressive studies that have been conducted in recent times on the neuroaesthetics of sister arts such as painting, music and dance. Why might this be the case, what are its causes and, of greatest importance, how can it best be resolved? In this article, the pitfalls, parameters and prospects of a neuroaesthetics of prose fiction will be explored. The article itself is part critical review, part methodological proposal and part opinion paper. Its aim is simple: to stimulate, excite and energize thinking in the discipline as to how prose fiction might be fully integrated in the canon of neuroaesthetics and to point to opportunities where neuroimaging studies on literary discourse processing might be conducted in collaborative work bringing humanists and scientists together.

Imagining the future: The Power of Climate Change Fiction

Science.gov (United States)

Buhr Sullivan, S. M.; Kellagher, E.; Poppleton, K. L.

2013-12-01

Fiction has galvanized the public imagination around societal concerns throughout US history, on issues including slavery, worker abuse and animal cruelty. A growing body of fiction concerned with climate change, 'cli-fi', provides the opportunity for students to engage with climate science in more visceral and affective ways. The Inspiring Climate Education Excellence (ICEE) project ran a climate and energy book club from Spring 2012 through Winter 2013, in which educators, scientists and writers participated. The fictional works were intended for audiences ranging from youth through adult, with themes of dystopia, renewal, hope, oppression, and innovation. This presentation will describe the benefits, opportunities and caveats of using these works within science teaching contexts, highlight some of the works which stood out from the rest and provide an annotated bibliography of books which were included or considered.

Street-art

OpenAIRE

Rybnikářová, Klára

2009-01-01

This thesis is concerned with the street-art and graffiti phenomenon. The theoretical research is focused on presenting the essence and character of this art style, while also watching it from socio-cultural point of view and observing it in context of art history. The theoretical study is followed by the didactical part of thesis, where I present possibilities of using the street-art theme in art education programs in the school setting. My thesis is concluded with a discussion of a practica...

Citygml and the Streets of New York - a Proposal for Detailed Street Space Modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Beil, C.; Kolbe, T. H.

2017-10-01

Three-dimensional semantic city models are increasingly used for the analysis of large urban areas. Until now the focus has mostly been on buildings. Nonetheless many applications could also benefit from detailed models of public street space for further analysis. However, there are only few guidelines for representing roads within city models. Therefore, related standards dealing with street modelling are examined and discussed. Nearly all street representations are based on linear abstractions. However, there are many use cases that require or would benefit from the detailed geometrical and semantic representation of street space. A variety of potential applications for detailed street space models are presented. Subsequently, based on related standards as well as on user requirements, a concept for a CityGML-compliant representation of street space in multiple levels of detail is developed. In the course of this process, the CityGML Transportation model of the currently valid OGC standard CityGML2.0 is examined to discover possibilities for further developments. Moreover, a number of improvements are presented. Finally, based on open data sources, the proposed concept is implemented within a semantic 3D city model of New York City generating a detailed 3D street space model for the entire city. As a result, 11 thematic classes, such as roadbeds, sidewalks or traffic islands are generated and enriched with a large number of thematic attributes.

Street Children as M arginal People: The Relationship between Life History and Social Networks on the Street

OpenAIRE

SUCHARITKUL, Juthathip

2007-01-01

This paper assumes that street children are victims of socioeconomic development policy. As a consequence of the street life experience, children are labeled as street children by society and their way of their life is different from ordinary children, thus pushing them to become marginalized people. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Street Children phenomenon, and especially to study the relationship between their life history and personal networks on the street. The focus is to...

The Impact of Science Fiction Film on Student Understanding of Science

Science.gov (United States)

Barnett, Michael; Wagner, Heather; Gatling, Anne; Anderson, Janice; Houle, Meredith; Kafka, Alan

2006-04-01

Researchers who have investigated the public understanding of science have argued that fictional cinema and television has proven to be particularly effective at blurring the distinction between fact and fiction. The rationale for this study lies in the notion that to teach science effectively, educators need to understand how popular culture influences their students' perception and understanding of science. Using naturalistic research methods in a diverse middle school we found that students who watched a popular science fiction film, The Core, had a number of misunderstandings of earth science concepts when compared to students who did not watch the movie. We found that a single viewing of a science fiction film can negatively impact student ideas regarding scientific phenomena. Specifically, we found that the film leveraged the scientific authority of the main character, coupled with scientifically correct explanations of some basic earth science, to create a series of plausible, albeit unscientific, ideas that made sense to students.

MAPCERN links to Google Street View

CERN Multimedia

Matilda Heron

2015-01-01

CERN’s online maps, MAPCERN, now have the added bonus of Google Street View, thanks to the new release of images of many CERN sites captured by Google.   New Street View images of CERN sites have been added to MAPCERN, see bottom-right-hand image in the screenshot above.   Google Street View, an integrated service of Google Maps introduced in 2007, links 360-degree panoramic photos into a virtual tour. CERN and Google began collaborating on this Street View project in 2010 and now these Street View images have been embedded into MAPCERN, accessible by clicking the “Street View” tab in MAPCERN’s bottom-right-hand window. If you need to locate a building at CERN, or plan an operation on some equipment, you can save time by using the Street View images to check out the area in advance. The CERN Meyrin site has been fully mapped, as well as the surfaces of the eight LHC points, BA2 and BA3. New Street View images of CERN, including the Pr...

Crime fiction and mediatized religion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Kim Toft

Scandinavian media where religion has become mediatized. Consumers of popular culture no longer endorse confidence in institutionalized religion, but that does not mean that people are losing faith: Faith only seems to adjust itself and tiptoe into popular media and popular fiction. Hence, this paper seeks...

Religion in Scandinavian Crime Fiction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Kim Toft

Scandinavian media where religion has become mediatized. Consumers of popular culture no longer endorse confidence in institutionalized religion, but that does not mean that people are losing faith: Faith only seem to adjust itself and tiptoe into popular media and popular fiction. Hence, this paper seeks...

Jane Austen's (1775-1817) references to headache: fact and fiction.

Science.gov (United States)

Larner, A J

2010-11-01

References to headache in Jane Austen's works, both fictional and non-fictional, and in biographical works undertaken by Austen family members have been collated. These multiple references suggest that Jane Austen used headache as a narrative device to reflect not only physiological bodily processes but also psychological states, possibly based on her own experience of headache and that of female relations and acquaintances.

Exploring science through science fiction

CERN Document Server

Luokkala, Barry B

2014-01-01

How does Einstein’s description of space and time compare with Dr. Who? Can James Bond really escape from an armor-plated railroad car by cutting through the floor with a laser concealed in a wristwatch? What would it take to create a fully-intelligent android, such as Star Trek’s Commander Data? How might we discover intelligent civilizations on other planets in the galaxy? Is human teleportation possible? Will our technological society ever reach the point at which it becomes lawful to discriminate on the basis of genetic information, as in the movie GATTACA? Exploring Science Through Science Fiction addresses these and other interesting questions, using science fiction as a springboard for discussing fundamental science concepts and cutting-edge science research. The book is designed as a primary text for a college-level course which should appeal to students in the fine arts and humanities as well as to science and engineering students. It includes references to original research papers, landmark scie...

Sexualité, échange de pouvoir et science-fiction : Une étude SMiotique de quelques textes de science-fiction québécoise

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sylvie Bérard

2008-07-01

Full Text Available Cet article s’attarde à trois textes de science-fiction québécoise contemporaine mettant en scène une interaction sadomasochiste: « La carte du tendre » d’Élisabeth Vonarburg, Lame d’Esther Rochon et La mue de l'hermaphrodite de Karoline Georges. Combinant entre autres l’analyse du discours narratif, les théories psychanalytiques, et l’étude de la performance, il s’intéresse non seulement à ce que la science-fiction nous dit de la sexualité et du sadomasochisme, mais il tente de cerner ce que le sadomasochisme, en tant que cadre d’analyse, peut nous apprendre à propos de l’écriture de science-fiction et, pourquoi pas, à propos de l’écriture en général.

Allegheny County Street Centerlines

Data.gov (United States)

Allegheny County / City of Pittsburgh / Western PA Regional Data Center — This dataset contains the locations of the street centerlines for vehicular and foot traffic in Allegheny County. Street Centerlines are classified as Primary Road,...

Metaphysical perspectives on YHWH as a fictional entity in the Hebrew Bible

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jacobus W. Gericke

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Within a literary ontology, YHWH in the Hebrew Bible is technically also a fictional entity or object. In Hebrew Bible scholarship, a variety of philosophical issues surrounding fiction have received sustained and in-depth attention. However, the mainstream research on these matters tends to focus on the philosophical foundations of or backgrounds to a particular literary theory, rather than on metaphysical puzzles as encountered in the philosophy of fiction proper. To fill this gap, the present article seeks to provide a meta-theoretical overview of the main contemporary philosophical perspectives on the metaphysics of fictional objects. Three views (and their sub-currents are discussed, namely possibilism, (neo-Meinongianism and (literary creationism. Each view’s theory is introduced and critically appropriated with reference to what is implied to be an answer to the question of what exactly the biblical character YHWH can meaningfully be said to be in the context of the metaphysics of fictional objects. In this way, the present study also goes beyond the traditional concern with the nature of God in Old Testament theology.

The Science in Science Fiction: Using Popular Entertainment as a Gateway

Science.gov (United States)

Basri, Gibor S.

2011-05-01

Science fiction on television and in movies reaches a wide audience of young people. Some of them are avid fans of particular stories, and more are enthralled by some of the special effects and other science fiction themes that have become ever more compelling as media technology improves. It actually doesn't matter whether the physics behind the science fiction is solid, the latest in speculative theory, or absolute nonsense - all provide a backdrop against which to present solid science. I'll talk about the opportunities provided by a few recent series and movies and how they can be woven into discussions of physics, astrophysics, or how science really works.

Pulp fictions of medieval England: Essays in popular romance

OpenAIRE

McDonald, Nicola

2004-01-01

Middle English popular romance is the most audacious and compendious testimony to the imaginary world of the English Middle Ages. Yet, with few exceptions, it remains under read and under studied. Pulp fictions of medieval England demonstrates that popular romance merits and rewards serious critical attention and that it is crucial to our understanding of the complex and conflicted world of medieval England. Pulp fictions of medieval England comprises ten essays on individual romances that, w...

The Female Rescuer in Newbery Fiction: Exploring the Archetype of Mother.

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, Sherron Killingsworth

2002-01-01

Examines the identity of female characters who rescue male protagonists in three works of Newbery-winning fiction, and realizes their archetypal roles of Mother. Provides readers with a vehicle for revisiting the interaction among characters in young adult fiction. Presents a rationale for using literary criticism to help students explore how…

The Impact of Science Fiction Film on Student Understanding of Science

Science.gov (United States)

Barnett, Michael; Wagner, Heather; Gatling, Anne; Anderson, Janice; Houle, Meredith; Kafka, Alan

2006-01-01

Researchers who have investigated the public understanding of science have argued that fictional cinema and television has proven to be particularly effective at blurring the distinction between fact and fiction. The rationale for this study lies in the notion that to teach science effectively, educators need to understand how popular culture…

Street Politics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael J. Shapiro

2012-03-01

Full Text Available I write from Prague, where, unlike in most urban formations, the main city street plays an iconic role; it references a history of political protest. However, before elaborating on the protest iconography of the Prague street, Vaclavske nam, I want to locate the ways in which the design of urban space is actualized in everyday life in the cities of the world. Three functions stand out; the first involves dwelling, the second seeing, and the third moving. With respect to the first function – dwelling – the design partitions and coordinates residential, commercial and leisure functions. At times these are organized to segregate different classes (Robert Moses’ redesign of much of New York stands out with respect to the segregation function. With respect to the second function – seeing – the design of urban space is allegiance-inspiring; it involves sight lines that afford urban dwellers and visitors views of iconic buildings and statues, which reference key founding moments in the past and/or authoritative political functions in the present (Here, L’Enfants design for Washington DC stands out as exemplary. Its manifest intention was to make the buildings housing executive, legislative and judicial functions visible from many vantage points. Rarely are the streets themselves iconic. Their dominant role is involved with the effectuation of movement. As for this third function: As Lewis Mumford famously points out, streets were once part of an asterisk design, radiating out from an exemplary, often spiritual center...

Egalitarian Fiction and Collective Fraud.

Science.gov (United States)

Gottfredson, Linda S.

1994-01-01

Social science today condones and perpetuates the egalitarian fiction that racial and ethnic groups never differ in average developed intelligence (general mental ability). Enforcement of this lie and avoidance of real research into these issues is aiding bigots more than the truth would and is degrading intellectual integrity. (SLD)

Road and Street Centerlines, Street-The data set is a line feature consisting of 13948 line segments representing streets. It was created to maintain the location of city and county based streets., Published in 1989, Davis County Government.

Data.gov (United States)

NSGIC Local Govt | GIS Inventory — Road and Street Centerlines dataset current as of 1989. Street-The data set is a line feature consisting of 13948 line segments representing streets. It was created...

Mean Streets: An analysis on street level pollution in NYC

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, G.

2017-12-01

The overarching objective of this study is to quantify the spatial and temporal variability in particulatematter concentration (PM 2.5) along crowded streets in New York City. Due to their fine size and lowdensity PM 2.5 stays longer in the atmosphere and could bypass human nose and throat and penetratedeep in to the lungs and even enter the circulatory system. PM 2.5 is a by-product of automobilecombustion and is a primary cause of respiratory malfunction in NYC. The study would monitor streetlevel concentration of PM2.5 across three different routes that witness significant pedestrian traffic;observations will be conducted along these three routes at different time periods. The study will use theAirBeam community air quality monitor. The monitor tracks PM 2.5 concentration along with GPS, airtemperature and relative humidity. The surface level concentration monitored by AirBeam will becompared with atmospheric concentration of PM 2.5 that are monitored at the NOAA CREST facility onCCNY campus. The lower atmospheric values will be correlated with street level values to assess thevalidity of using of lower atmospheric values to predict street level concentrations. The street levelconcentration will be compared to the air quality forecasted by the New York Department ofEnvironment Conservation to estimate its accuracy and applicability.

Street art - vandalismus nebo umění?

OpenAIRE

Grabmüllerová, Eva

2012-01-01

The diploma thesis ‚Street Art - Vandalism or Art?' deals with a world-wide phenomenon of contemporary art. The thesis focuses on the characterization of street art and history of street art (its origin and development) and analyzes the difference between street art and graffiti. The thesis presents street art techniques as well as notable street artists. The thesis also observes street art scene in the Czech Republic and depicts features that street art has in common with other art movements...

Octavia Butler and Virginia Hamilton: Black Women Writers and Science Fiction.

Science.gov (United States)

Hampton, Gregory Jerome; Brooks, Wanda M.

2003-01-01

Notes that African American literature has always had science fiction elements in its focus on narratives of the alienated and marginalized "other." Contends that Octavia Butler and Virginia Hamilton are two African American writers of science fiction who examine the connections between the stories of a culture and the genre of science…

Blue Indians: Teaching the Political Geography of Imperialism with Fictional Film

Science.gov (United States)

Madsen, Kenneth D.

2014-01-01

Fictional film provides an opportunity to breathe life into the application of academic concepts by capturing the attention and imagination of students. Using the 2009 hit movie "Avatar", it is argued that popular fiction has the potential to help students grasp the dynamics of imperial/indigenous relationships in part because it removes…

In the Spotlight of Misperception: Japanese Science Fiction Vis-à-vis Western Science Fiction Set in Japan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Baryon Tensor Posadas

2000-06-01

Full Text Available In 1984, William Gibson published a novel that began new traditions in science fiction writing —Neuromancer. the novel won a hat-trick of all three of the major science fiction awards: The Hugo, Nebula, and the Philip K. Dick. The opening chapter was set in Chiba prefecture, a large coastal region east of the capital Tokyo with the line "The sky above the port was the color of television turned to a dead channel" (Gibson 1. It was the centerpiece of the cyberpunk movement characterized by a mix of high technology in the fields of computer networking and biomechanical interface and urban street life (Sterling xi.Yet despite its opening scenes being set in Tokyo, Gibson at that time had never set foot in Japan. Furthermore, practically all of Gibson's novels—Neuromancer (1984, Count Zero (1986, Mona Liza Overdrive (1988, Virtual Light (1991, and Idoru (1995 along with several of his short stories, have dealt with Japan in varying degrees, wether as a setting or by involving Japanese social system sush as the yakuza and the zaibatsu system of corporate management as atmospheric elements.Another impetus came from Delia Aguilar's study on Filipino housewives and the politics of gender. This study reveals that " . . . in the private space of the family as the major mechanism for the reproduction of social relations, women are at once validated and oppressed, a process that is powerfully mediated by the maternal ideology of which women are the foremost proponents." This maternal ideology shapes Filipino women's idea of motherhood that sees devotion to children, self-sacrifice, and care giving as the essence of motherhood, allowing them to embrace oppression and subordination. In this context, the interrogation of maternal ideology in Philippine literature is important to the overall feminist movement. Women writers who have freed themselves from the mystifying notions of motherhood may have been inspired to represent women in their works

Personal and Familial Properties of Street Children--"Street Children: The Forgotten or Not Remembered Ones"

Science.gov (United States)

Özbas, Mehmet

2015-01-01

With this research it is aimed to determine the personal traits of Street Children depending on them and also the socio-economic variables of Street Children resulting from their families. For this main aim in the research process, it is provided to have communication directly with the parents of Street Children using one-to-one and face-to-face…

Miku's mask: Fictional encounters in children's costume play.

Science.gov (United States)

Helgesen, Espen

2015-11-01

Children's engagement with Japanese toys and fictional characters has taken on new significance in the age of YouTube. Drawing on ethnographic research on technology-mediated play among 8- and 9-year-olds in Norway, this article shows how boundaries between "real" humans and "fake" non-humans are blurred and undermined when children take on the perspective of a fictional pop star known as Miku. I argue that YouTube provides a platform for children's playful experimentation with posthuman subjectivities, where they orient themselves toward the future not in terms of becoming adult but in terms of multiple becomings.

Da Platone a Hollywood: due problemi della fiction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luca Mori

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The argument of fiction with respect to spectators’ illusion is very vast. This paper outlines the interconnection between two particular issues of this immense area of study, which pertain to two paradoxical effects of fiction: (1 the spectator’s cognitive and emotional illusion induced either by theatrical or by cinematographic representation and (2 the more unclear and long-run effects of such representations on everyday life. Plato’s myth of the cave, and some of Husserl’s ideas about “artistic illusion” awakened through the stage performance, will help in delineating some philosophical aspects of the problem

The social world of street children : street children's peer friendship, group life and subculture in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

OpenAIRE

Fikre, Kaleab

2016-01-01

This study attempts to explore the street children’s social world, focusing on their peer friendship, group life, and street subculture in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The study shows how street children’s peer friendship, street group, and subculture are part and parcel of children’s quest for survival in the street in the absence of guardians conventionally considered as responsible for the provision and protection of children. The main perspective of the study is grounded in the p...

Are We Really the Prey? Nanotechnology as Science and Science Fiction

Science.gov (United States)

Bowman, Diana M.; Hodge, Graeme A.; Binks, Peter

2007-01-01

Popular culture can play a significant role in shaping the acceptance of evolving technologies, with nanotechnology likely to be a case in point. The most popular fiction work to date in this arena has been Michael Crichton's techno-thriller "Prey," which fuses together nanotechnology science with science fiction. Within the context of "Prey,"…

Exploring Mars and Beyond: Science Fiction a Resource for Environmental Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Ryder W.

The purpose of this article is to show how traditional science fiction, an empowering literature of social criticism, can be used by environmental educators to reach the traditional goals of environmental education. The sub-genres of science fiction are discussed along with ways in which they can be used to reach certain goals of environmental…

COMMON GROUNDS BETWEEN PRINTMAKING AND STREET ART

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Burcak Balamber

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Graffiti movement, born as a result of an effort of the youth, who felt themselves socially excluded and alone, to show their existence and identities during the 1960s, expanded its scope owing to street based artists such as Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat entering to the galleries, and transformed into an artistic manner of expression having aesthetic concerns by adopting a more inclusive definition ‘street art’. During this transformation of street art,street artists experimented with various methods from many different disciplines and hence created works in a wide range of varieties in terms of plastic and artistic values. Among these disciplines, printmakinghastaken its own place in street artas a discipline thatdeeply influenced street artists.Printmaking has fascinated street artists and become a part of their production process, not only with its philosophy sharing common grounds with street art and advantages in terms of its tecnical practices but also its unique plastic and linear values.Thanks to the opportunities of printmaking, street art has succeeded creating a tremendous impression worldwide, and even positioned itself into today’s greatest museums/gallery halls. This article aims to show how and in what way printmaking has influenced street art being in a transformation since the 1960s, and to put an emphasis on theimportance of printmaking on today’s street art.

Eliciting physics students mental models via science fiction stories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Acar, H.

2005-01-01

This paper presents the results of an experiment which investigated the effects of the using science fiction stories in physics lessons. A questionnaire form containing 2 open-ended questions related to Jules Vernes story From the Earth to the Moon was used with 353, 9th and 10th grade students to determine their pre-conceptions about gravity and weightlessness. Mental models explaining students scientific and alternative views were constructed, according to students replies. After these studies, 6 students were interviewed. In this interview, researches were done about whether science fiction stories had an effect on bringing students pre-conceptions related to physics subjects out, on students inquiring their own concepts and on increasing students interest and motivation towards physics subjects. Studies in this research show that science fiction stories have an effect on arousing students interest and curiosity, have a role encouraging students to inquire their own concepts and are effective in making students alternative views come out

Presenting a Model for Setting in Narrative Fiction Illustration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hajar Salimi Namin

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The present research aims at presenting a model for evaluating and enhancing training the setting in illustration for narrative fictions for undergraduate students of graphic design who are weak in setting. The research utilized expert’s opinions through a survey. The designed model was submitted to eight experts, and their opinions were used to have the model adjusted and improved. Used as research instruments were notes, materials in text books, papers, and related websites, as well as questionnaires. Results indicated that, for evaluating and enhancing the level of training the setting in illustration for narrative fiction to students, one needs to extract sub-indexes of setting. Moreover, definition and recognition of the model of setting helps undergraduate students of graphic design enhance the level of setting in their works skill by recognizing details of setting. Accordingly, it is recommended to design training packages to enhance these sub-indexes and hence improve the setting for narrative fiction illustration.

Intelligent street lighting clustering

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verhoeven, R.; Jovanovic, N.; Lukkien, J.J.

2014-01-01

The advances in dynamic street lighting introduce new functionality for control and maintenance of the street lighting infrastructure. Vital elements in this infrastructure are the powerful controlling devices that control separate groups of light poles and collect information from the system. For

What If?: Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers. Revised and Expanded Edition.

Science.gov (United States)

Bernays, Anne; Painter, Pamela

This book is designed to be a how-to-write-fiction guide that is long on specifics and short on theoretical material. Each section of the book deals with a separate element of fiction--characterization, dialogue, point of view, plot, etc. Every exercise in the book is introduced in an opening paragraph, followed by instructions for completing the…

Contemporary Ghost Stories: Cyberspace in Fiction for Children and Young Adults

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, Marla

2005-01-01

This essay identifies a genre of popular fiction for children and young adults, prevalent in the 1990s and continuing into the early twenty-first century, that incorporates computers and the internet, e-mails and chat rooms, into its plots. However, along with a focus on technology, this fiction frequently features the supernatural. So, too,…

Report from Middle-Earth: Fan Fiction Tasks in the EFL Classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Sauro, Shannon; Sundmark, Björn

2016-01-01

This study builds upon work in task-based language teaching and literary studies to explore the use of fan fiction as a pedagogical tool in a technology-enhanced university foreign language class. A task-based fan fiction project, The Blogging Hobbit, modelled on blog-based role-play storytelling found in online media fandoms, was carried out in a…

Automatic Discovery and Geotagging of Objects from Street View Imagery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vladimir A. Krylov

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Many applications, such as autonomous navigation, urban planning, and asset monitoring, rely on the availability of accurate information about objects and their geolocations. In this paper, we propose the automatic detection and computation of the coordinates of recurring stationary objects of interest using street view imagery. Our processing pipeline relies on two fully convolutional neural networks: the first segments objects in the images, while the second estimates their distance from the camera. To geolocate all the detected objects coherently we propose a novel custom Markov random field model to estimate the objects’ geolocation. The novelty of the resulting pipeline is the combined use of monocular depth estimation and triangulation to enable automatic mapping of complex scenes with the simultaneous presence of multiple, visually similar objects of interest. We validate experimentally the effectiveness of our approach on two object classes: traffic lights and telegraph poles. The experiments report high object recall rates and position precision of approximately 2 m, which is approaching the precision of single-frequency GPS receivers.

StreetMekka - Ledelse af Københavns nye streetkulturhus

OpenAIRE

Gjelstrup, Mikkel

2009-01-01

Street culture is spreading out through the streets of Denmark and in the summer of 2009 the City of Copenhagen will open up an indoor street culture facility called StreetMekka. Moving street culture from its natural concrete habitat to a communal facility presents challenges. The City of Copenhagen has made official guideline for the StreetMekka facility to follow, but the free and self organized street culture is not an easy thing to keep within guidelines. This master thesis discusses fro...

Alan Paton’s unpublished fiction (1922- 1934: an initial appraisal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. Levey

2007-07-01

Full Text Available This article considers selected issues in the early fiction of Alan Paton, which is in manuscript form: three novels or parts of novels namely, “Ship of Truth” (1922-1923, “Brother Death” (1930, “John Henry Dane” (1934b, the novel/novella “Secret for seven” (1934d, and the short stories “Little Barbee”, (1928? and “Calvin Doone” (1930a. Attention is given to the first novel. A summary of the findings follows: even though Paton’s longer unpublished fiction is religiously earnest and at times rhetorically effective, it is simplistic and tends to perpetuate the white, English-speaking patriarchal hegemony of Natal, rather than offer any sustained critique of it. These works are set against the background of the Natal Midlands in the 1920s and 1930s. The shorter fiction is slightly different in nature.

Woman's Quest in Contemporary Fiction.

Science.gov (United States)

Semeiks, Jonna Gormely

Depending primarily on Joseph Campbell's treatment of the quest or hero myth, this paper provides analyses of recent women's fiction in terms of contemporary women's quests for personal identity and freedom. Following discussions of a proposed definition of myth, its connotations, and its use as a literary device and as a tool for critical…

Road and Street Centerlines, StreetLabels-The data set is a text feature consisting of 6329 label points representing street names. It was created to show the names of city and county based streets., Published in 1989, Davis County Government.

Data.gov (United States)

NSGIC Local Govt | GIS Inventory — Road and Street Centerlines dataset current as of 1989. StreetLabels-The data set is a text feature consisting of 6329 label points representing street names. It was...

Road and Street Centerlines - COUNTY_STREET_CENTERLINES_IDHS_IN: Street Centerlines Maintained by County Agencies in Indiana (Indiana Department of Homeland Security, Line Shapefile)

Data.gov (United States)

NSGIC State | GIS Inventory — COUNTY_STREET_CENTERLINES_IDHS_IN is a line feature class that contains street centerlines maintained by county agencies in Indiana, provided by personnel of Indiana...

The Fictional Black Blues Figure: Blues Music and the Art of Narrative Self-Invention

OpenAIRE

Mack, Kimberly

2015-01-01

The Fictional Black Blues Figure: Blues Music and the Art of Narrative Self-Invention, Kimberly MackMy dissertation examines representations of black American blues musicians in contemporary American fiction, drama, and popular music, and it argues that blues music can be examined as a narrative art rooted in the tradition of fictionalized autobiographical self-fashioning. I contend that the contemporary, multi-racial, literary and musical characters in my project who participate in so-called...

Fiction Criticizing Reality: Abbas Kiarostami and the Cracked Windshield of Cinema

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James Blake Ewing

2014-04-01

Full Text Available This article argues that Abbas Kiarostami uses documentaries and fiction films to examine the distinction between reality and fiction. Through the use of an arthouse style of filmmaking, the insertion of a surrogate director into the narrative and a recurring breakdown in technology, Kiarostami demonstrates that film’s ability to capture reality is a flawed, sometimes broken, endeavor.

‘Fabricated Lives’: Shakespearean Collaboration in Fictional Forms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert Sawyer

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The essay examines fictionalized accounts of the collaboration between Shakespeare and his contemporaries, focusing on those that portray Christopher Marlowe as occasionally Shakespeare’s co-author. Beginning with two novels by Anthony Burgess, Nothing Like the Sun: A Story of Shakespeare’s Love-life (1964 and A Dead Man in Deptford (1994, I then look at Peter Whelan’s play, The School of Night (1992, before concluding with the film Shakespeare in Love (1998. By looking at these popularized renditions of collaboration and biography, I conclude that the more collaborative that the fictionalized work is in origin, the more positively it portrays such relationships in Shakespeare’s time.

Do suburban residents want to pay for wide streets? a survey on consumer preference and ability to afford towards wide street and on-street parking in American suburbia.

Science.gov (United States)

2016-08-01

All local governments in the U.S. set the street minimum width and cross-section design for local : neighborhood streets. Because local streets typically require no more than two traffic lanes (approx. 20 feet : wide), a minimum width of 26 feet or w...

Scottish science fiction: writing Scottish literature back into history

OpenAIRE

Miller, Gavin

2010-01-01

The increasing vigour of Scottish literature since the 1980s has led not only to a revival in literary fiction, but also to a growing diversification into other narrative genres. The detective story – in the form of so-called “tartan noir” – has been the most obvious popular genre to undergo revival, but science fiction has also blossomed in the work of authors such as Alasdair Gray, Iain (M.) Banks, and Ken MacLeod. In this article, I trace something of the problematic history of Scottish sc...

The construction of fictional space in participatory design practice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dindler, Christian

2010-01-01

games of make-believe mediated by props. The motivation for discussing fictional space is traced through ongoing work on designing new exhibition spaces for museums. Through a case study from a participatory design session, it is explored how games of make-believe progress and the role of props...... the process through which participants in participatory design create a design space in which established conventions of everyday practice are altered or suspended. With inspiration from literary theory, it is argued that the production of fictional space may be understood in terms of participants practicing...

Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror 2001.

Science.gov (United States)

Voice of Youth Advocates, 2002

2002-01-01

Presents an annotated bibliography of 81 science fiction, fantasy, and horror genre titles that were judged best-reads by reviewers in "Voice of Youth Advocates" from June 2001 through April 2002. (LRW)

The medical science fiction of James White: Inside and Outside Sector General.

Science.gov (United States)

Howard, Richard

2016-12-01

James White was a Northern Irish science fiction author working in the subgenre of medical science fiction from the mid-1950s to the end of the twentieth century. The aim of this article is to introduce White to scholars working in the medical humanities, pointing to features of interest and critiquing the more excessive utopian impulses of the author. The article covers White's Sector General series, set on a vast intergalactic hospital, as well as the author's standalone fictions. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Independent Reading: The Relationship of Challenge, Non-Fiction and Gender to Achievement

Science.gov (United States)

Topping, K. J.; Samuels, J.; Paul, T.

2008-01-01

To explore whether different balances of fiction/non-fiction reading and challenge might help explain differences in reading achievement between genders, data on 45,670 pupils who independently read over 3 million books were analysed. Moderate (rather than high or low) levels of challenge were positively associated with achievement gain, but…

Toward Improved Collections in Medical Humanities: Fiction in Academic Health Sciences Libraries

Science.gov (United States)

Dali, Keren; Dilevko, Juris

2006-01-01

Although fiction plays a prominent role in the interdisciplinary field of medical humanities (MH), it is physically and intellectually isolated from non-fiction in academic health sciences libraries. Using the Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database (LAMD) as a tool for selection and subject analysis, we suggest a method of integrating fiction…

The Relationship Between Empathy and Reading Fiction: Separate Roles for Cognitive and Affective Components

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John Stansfield

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Research suggests that both life-time experience of reading fiction and the extent to which a reader feels ‘transported’ by the narrative are associated with empathy. This study examined these relationships further by delineating empathy into cognitive and affective components. Thirty-three participants were tested on prior exposure to fiction, transportation, and different measures of cognitive empathy, affective empathy and helping tendency. The results revealed that exposure to fiction was associated with trait cognitive, but not affective, empathy, while the experience of being transported was associated with story-induced affective empathy. Story-induced affective empathy was also associated with helping tendency. The results are discussed by considering implications for relationships between reactions to fictional worlds and reactions to real-world behaviours.

A sustainable design fiction : green practices

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wakkary, R.L.; Desjardins, A.; Hauser, S.; Maestri, L.

2013-01-01

In this article, we argue that an approach informed by practice theory coupled with design fiction provides useful insights into the role of interaction design with respect to environmental sustainability. We argue that a practice-oriented approach can help interaction designers step away from

The Fiction of Sustainability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mubanda Rasmussen, Louise

research with organisations providing help to "Orphans and Vulnerable Children" in Malawi, this paper discusses how donors, international and local NGOs, and CBOs all participate in keeping alive 'the fiction of sustainability', each for their different reasons. Rather than overt resistance to the power...... of international donors, the processes I discuss reflect how actors from their different positions become skilled in using established policy models and available resources for their own ends....

Probing the limits of reality: the metaphysics in science fiction

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, John L.

2003-01-01

Science fiction provides a genre in which metaphysical questions concerning the ultimate structure of reality regularly arise. In addressing these questions, contemporary scientists tend to assume that the questions are of a scientific nature and should be handled solely by reference to our best theories. In this paper, it is argued that we cannot afford to neglect the role of conceptual analysis - a distinctively philosophical task - in thinking critically about the possibilities that science fiction claims to describe.

Street Lines, US, 2015, NAVTEQ

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — NAVTEQ Streets for the United States. The Streets layer contains all roads plus all Road Network attributes such as direction of travel, lanes, dividers, speed...

Wilde Rewound: Time-Travelling with Oscar in Recent Author Fictions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kirby Joris

2012-05-01

Full Text Available In the early 1980s historical figures in general – and writers from the past in particular – entered a kind of Golden Age thanks to fiction. Through various forms of semi-biographical novels and other narratives, they have, from that time forward, been enjoying a pampered life in a new genre called “the author-as-character” (Franssen and Hoenselaars 1999 or “author fictions” (Savu 2009 that reanimate them or conjure them up in a present that constantly seeks to reassert its link with the past. This is particularly true of Oscar Wilde’s life, for his disparate and colourful personality has been time and again re-appropriated in recent fiction. This article focuses on three of these contemporary fictional depictions: an epistolary novel, an epistolary website and a fictional interview, all three dealing with a fictionalised Oscar Wilde conversing with a contemporary author who is also an interviewer in his or her own way and right. Because they are very close to each other in terms of narration (i.e. impersonation and pastiche and subject, putting words in Wilde’s mouth as though they were his own, The Unauthorized Letters of Oscar Wilde, the website Dialogus, and Coffee with Oscar Wilde, represent three fascinating means of exploring how Oscar’s rebirth as a man and author actually takes place. Among the numerous fictional portraits of Oscar Wilde, I have thus chosen to pay particular attention to the depictions that are well anchored in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and which do not, therefore, display a narrative that would merely take place during the fin de siècle, with only period-style people in period costume. By contrast, the three portraits are literal time-travelling narratives that endeavour to bridge the gap between past, present and future.

Mars: A Freshmen Year Seminar of Science and Science-fiction

Science.gov (United States)

Svec, Michael; Moffett, D. A.; Winiski, M.

2013-06-01

"Mars: On the shoulder of giants" is a freshmen year seminar developed collaboratively between the physics, education, and center for teaching and learning. This course focuses on how scientific knowledge is developed through the lens of our changing view of Mars throughout history. Analyses of current studies of Mars are juxtaposed against historical understanding and perceptions of the planet found in scientific and popular literature of the day, as well as the movies. Kim Stanley Robinson’s "Red Mars" provides a unifying story throughout the course complimented by Fredrick Taylor’s "The Scientific Exploration of Mars" and Hartmann’s "A Traveler’s Guide to Mars." Based on the three-years of experience, the authors advocate the use of the speculative science-fiction novel and argue for its use in high school and undergraduate courses including those for science majors. Many of the students who selected this seminar went on to major in science and in subsequent interviews discussed the influence of science fiction on their decision to major in science. Science fiction provided story, science, and speculation that became a rich medium for critical-thinking skills and critical literacy. Student reflections indicated that science fiction served as a reminder of why they study science, a source for imagination, and exploration of science as a human endeavor. Based on this experience, we propose five elements for selecting science-fiction for inclusion in science classes: 1) Provides a deep description of the science content or technologies, 2) Describes science and technologies are plausible or accurate to the time period, 3) Contains a novum or plausible innovation that plays a key element in the speculation, 4) Exploration of the impact on society or humanity, and, 5) Shows science and technology as human endeavors.

Anarchic alchemists : dissident androgyny in Anglo-American gothic fiction from Godwin to Melville

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Leeuwen, Evert Jan van

2006-01-01

The dissertation Anarchic Alchemists: Dissident Androgyny in Anglo-American Gothic Fiction from Godwin to Melville investigates the close generic links between British and American Gothic fictions from the late eighteenth-century up to the middle of the nineteenth century, including studies on

Science fiction/science fact: medical genetics in news stories.

Science.gov (United States)

Petersen, Alan; Anderson, Alison; Allan, Stuart

2005-12-01

News media coverage of biotechnology issues offers a rich source of fictional portrayals, with stories drawing strongly on popular imagery and metaphors in descriptions of the powers and dangers of biotechnology. This article examines how science fiction metaphors, imagery and motifs surface in British newspaper (broadsheet and tabloid) coverage of medical genetic issues, focusing on press reporting of two recent highly publicised news media events; namely, the Hashmi and Whitaker families' plights to use stem cells from a 'perfectly matched sibling' for the treatment of their diseased children. It is concerned in particular with the extent to which journalists' use of certain literary devices encourages preferred formulations of medical genetics, and thereby potentially shapes public deliberation about scientific developments and their consequences for society. Understanding how science fiction sustains science fact, and vice versa, and how the former is portrayed in news media, it is argued, would thus seem to be crucial in the effort to understand why people respond so strongly to biotechnologies, and what they imagine their consequences to be.

Street as Sustainable City Structural Element

Science.gov (United States)

Leyzerova, A. V.; Bagina, E. J.

2017-11-01

Sustainability in architecture is nowadays of particular significance in the course of globalization and information density. The technospehere spontaneous development poses a threat to the sustainability of traditional urban forms where a street is one of the essential forming elements in the urban structure. The article proposes to consider formally compositional street features in relation to one of the traditional streets in the historic center of Ekaterinburg. The study examines the street-planning structure, the development of its skeleton elements, silhouette and fabric elevation characteristics as well as the scale characteristics and visual complexity of objects. The study provided architectural and artistic aspects of street sustainability, and limits of the appropriate scale and composition consistency under which the compatibility of alternative compositional forms existing at different times is possible.

Facts about real antimatter collide with fiction

CERN Multimedia

Siegfried, Tom

2004-01-01

When science collides with fiction, sometimes a best seller emerges from the debris. Take Dan Brown's Angels & Demons, for instance, a murder mystery based on science at CERN, the European nuclear research laboratory outside Geneva

Street Prostitution Zones and Crime

OpenAIRE

Bisschop, Paul; Kastoryano, Stephen; van der Klaauw, Bas

2015-01-01

This paper studies the effects of introducing legal street prostitution zones on both registered and perceived crime. We exploit a unique setting in the Netherlands where legal street prostitution zones were opened in nine cities under different regulation systems. We provide evidence that the opening of these zones was not in response to changes in crime. Our difference-in-difference analysis using data on the largest 25 Dutch cities between 1994 and 2011 shows that opening a legal street pr...

How to Tell the Schlock from the Good Stuff in Science Fiction.

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, June

1992-01-01

Asserts that not all science fiction is great. Discusses ways to tell the difference between the good and the bad. Encourages even those teachers who are most leery of a genre with which they are unfamiliar to jump in and try science fiction as a way of opening up student minds and imaginations. (PRA)

[Pathology and pathologists in fiction revisited].

Science.gov (United States)

Nizze, H

2008-11-01

Pathology and pathologists are rarely the subjects of works of fiction. In the existing sources, the kind of representation naturally depends on the occupations and attitudes of the respective authors. The surgeon and gynecologist Carl Ludwig Schleich recollected Rudolf Virchow's free and easy handling of an autopsy assistant and his simultaneous understanding for a mourning husband. The dermatologist Gottfried Benn processed his disturbing impressions of pathology as an expressionistic dialogue between professor and students, with a violent ending. The writer and dramatic adviser Günther Weisenborn recalled unpleasant details about the autopsy course in his earlier medical studies, which he linked with individual views about the life of a deceased young woman. Praise, so to speak, to the dissecting pathologist have been sensitively written by the lawyer Maxence van der Meersch and by the surgeon Peter Bamm. Finally, the bestselling novelist Arthur Hailey gives an excellent fictional portrayal of the microscopic pathologist in The Final Diagnosis.

Sara Wasson and Emily Alder, Gothic Science Fiction 1980-2010

OpenAIRE

Beaulé, Sophie

2014-01-01

With their collection of essays Gothic Science Fiction 1980-2010, Sara Wasson and Emily Alder illustrate the richness of gothic tropes in contemporary forms, from novels and movies to card games. More than cliché, melodrama, or gore, the “gothick” (to borrow Adam Roberts’s term, xi) allows for the hybridity in contemporary production, especially in science fiction, that the collected articles examine. The book is divided into three parts, “Redefining Genres”, “Biopower and Capital”, and “Gend...

Hybridization of crime fiction genre forms as a representation of contemporary cultural process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. O. Krapivnyk

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The research is devoted to the consideration of hybridization of crime fiction forms in the contemporary cultural process. The work showed that, from the point of view of the culture development, sophistication of the classical crime fiction formula, hybridization of detective fiction with other fiction genres is a natural process of the strive to vary і diversify, combine genres, styles and means of text presentation (from a hard copy or audio book to video and computer games, which is related to the crisis of the Modernity project epoch, where fiction genres were quite self­sufficient, and the transition to the postmodern (or updated Modern, where the human consciousness is dominated by the processes of simultaneous specialization and combination of various industries, in other words, divergence and convergence. It may be claimed that a detective text as one of the most popular genres in the contemporary information culture, in particular, because it reveals secrets, clarifies vague things and assists in discovering the truth, transforms so that there is a process of detectivization of different text products of the cultural industry. At the same time the very detective formula as a component of various genres becomes a tool for playing and influencing the consciousness of a contemporary person.

Reading fiction and reading minds: the role of simulation in the default network.

Science.gov (United States)

Tamir, Diana I; Bricker, Andrew B; Dodell-Feder, David; Mitchell, Jason P

2016-02-01

Research in psychology has suggested that reading fiction can improve individuals' social-cognitive abilities. Findings from neuroscience show that reading and social cognition both recruit the default network, a network which is known to support our capacity to simulate hypothetical scenes, spaces and mental states. The current research tests the hypothesis that fiction reading enhances social cognition because it serves to exercise the default subnetwork involved in theory of mind. While undergoing functional neuroimaging, participants read literary passages that differed along two dimensions: (i) vivid vs abstract and (ii) social vs non-social. Analyses revealed distinct subnetworks of the default network respond to the two dimensions of interest: the medial temporal lobe subnetwork responded preferentially to vivid passages, with or without social content; the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) subnetwork responded preferentially to passages with social and abstract content. Analyses also demonstrated that participants who read fiction most often also showed the strongest social cognition performance. Finally, mediation analysis showed that activity in the dmPFC subnetwork in response to the social content mediated this relation, suggesting that the simulation of social content in fiction plays a role in fiction's ability to enhance readers' social cognition. © The Author (2015). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Sisters Hope - Protected by the Fiction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lawaetz, Anna; Hallberg, Gry Worre

2011-01-01

In this article we will introduce the fictional and art-pedagogical universe of Sisters Hope and describe how it in different ways transcends into contexts beyond the art world and thus functions as a tool to democratize the aesthetic dimension and mode of being within high schools, academia...

H.G. Wells's Science Fiction: The Cyborg Visual Dromological Discourse

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Ehsaneh Eshaghi

2015-01-01

Full Text Available H. G. Wells, as the forefather of science fiction, has used the relative notion of time in his stories such as Time Machine (1895. Speed is the initiator of a discourse in which humans are floating and moving ahead and has become one of the main “discourses” of the human being. Paul Virilio's theory of “dromology”, "vision machine" and “virtual reality”, along with "the aesthetics of disappearance" are applied in criticizing the novel scientific discourse by Wells who engenders a machinic, in the Deleuzian sense, and a cyborg discourse, through which he connotes the imperial narratives and the dromocratic powers. The usage of the Cyborg discourse by Wells in his science fiction stories has been to emphasize how the dromological and vision discourses are the prerequisite to the panoptical discourse through the microscopic and telescopic visions. It is concluded that the splintering frame is the created visual frame in the Wellsian science fiction.

Fiction reading has a small positive impact on social cognition: A meta-analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Dodell-Feder, David; Tamir, Diana I

2018-02-26

Scholars from both the social sciences and the humanities have credited fiction reading with a range of positive real-world social effects. Research in psychology has suggested that readers may make good citizens because fiction reading is associated with better social cognition. But does fiction reading causally improve social cognition? Here, we meta-analyze extant published and unpublished experimental data to address this question. Multilevel random-effects meta-analysis of 53 effect sizes from 14 studies demonstrated that it does: compared to nonfiction reading and no reading, fiction reading leads to a small, statistically significant improvement in social-cognitive performance (g = .15-.16). This effect is robust across sensitivity analyses and does not appear to be the result of publication bias. We recommend that in future work, researchers use more robust reading manipulations, assess whether the effects transfer to improved real-world social functioning, and investigate mechanisms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

The use of "non-fiction novels" in a sensation and perception course.

Science.gov (United States)

Gunther, Karen L

2011-01-01

Scientific material can be difficult to relate to everyday knowledge. Textbook facts can be abstract. This Study of Teaching and Learning project examined the use of "non-fiction novels" (biographies and other books that read like novels but are true) in an undergraduate Sensation and Perception course in order to increase the concreteness of the reading material and to give the students a story on which to hang the facts learned in lecture. In Phase I (Fall 2009) non-fiction novels were used for half of the units and a standard textbook for the other half. In Phase II (Fall 2010) only non-fiction novels were used. The Fall 2009 class was very positive about the use of non-fiction novels, but exam scores did not mirror this enthusiasm, either on semester exam scores or on a four-month re-take of the cumulative final exam. In contrast, the Fall 2010 class missed having a textbook, but exam performance significantly improved over prior semesters, and performance on the four-month re-take of the cumulative final exam showed performance equivalent to the Fall 2009 class's four-month performance on questions from textbook units. In both semesters, the effectiveness of the instructor in stimulating student interest was significantly higher than in prior years where only the textbook was used. In addition, 68% of the students said that reading the non-fiction novels made them want to learn more about our sensory systems.

Memory of the Present: Empathy and Identity in Young Adult Fiction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Nikolajeva

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Recent studies in cognitive literary criticism have provided scholars of literature with new, stimulating approaches to literary texts and neuroscientists with new insights about human emotions, empathy, and memory through evidence from fiction. What have so far been largely neglected are the implications of cognitive criticism for the study of literature targeting a young audience, whose theory of mind and empathic skills are not yet fully developed. A cognitive approach to children's and young adult literature has to meet several challenges less relevant in general fiction. Firstly, how is a young fictional character's consciousness represented by an author whose cognitive and affective skills are ostensibly superior? Secondly, how do texts instruct their young readers to employ theory of mind in order to assess both the young protagonist's emotions and their understanding of other characters' emotions (higher-order mind-reading? Thirdly, how can fiction support young people's development of their theory of mind? The paper will discuss these issues with a particular focus on memory and identity, expressed textually through tense and narrative perspective. Drawing on work by Lisa Zunshine (2006 and Blackey Vermeule (2010, the predominantly theoretical argument will be illustrated by a contemporary young adult novel, Slated (2012, by Teri Terry.

Cleaning up the Streets of Denver

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stegen, R.L.; Wood, T.R.; Hackett, J.R.; Sogue, A.

2006-01-01

Between 1913 and 1924, several Denver area facilities extracted radium from carnotite ore mined from the Paradox basin region of Colorado. Tailings or abandoned ores from these facilities were apparently incorporated into asphalt used to pave approximately 7.2 kilometers (4.5 miles) of streets in Denver. A majority of the streets are located in residential areas. The radionuclides are bound within the asphalt matrix and pose minimal risk unless they are disturbed. The City and County of Denver (CCoD) is responsible for controlling repairs and maintenance on these impacted streets. Since 2002, the CCoD has embarked on a significant capital improvement project to remove the impacted asphalt for secure disposal followed by street reconstruction. To date, Parsons has removed approximately 55 percent of the impacted asphalt. This paper discusses the history of the Denver Radium Streets and summarizes on-going project efforts. (authors)

Parallel Stories, Differentiated Histories. Exploring Fiction and Memory in Spanish and Portuguese Television

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Carlos Rueda Laffond

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Integrated into an international project on the characteristics of historical fiction on TV in Spain and Portugal during 2001–2012, the study traces the main aspects of these productions as entertainment products and memory strategies. Historical fiction on Iberian television channels express qualitative problems of interpretation. Its development must be related to issues such practices, meanings and forms of recognition, and connected with specific memory systems. The article explores a set of key–points: uses and topics of historical fiction; its visions through similarly proposals; polarization in several historical times, and its convergent perspectives about Franco and Oliveira Salazar as Iberian contemporary dictators.

Writing Oneself into Someone Else s Story Experiments With Identity And Speculative Life Writing in Twilight Fan Fiction

OpenAIRE

Lehtonen, Sanna

2015-01-01

Fan fiction offers rich data to explore readers’ understanding of gendered discourses informing the narrative construction of fictional and real-life identities. This paper focuses on gender identity construction in self-insertion fan fiction texts – stories that involve avatars of fan writers – based on Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight novels. Self-insertion fan fiction stories can be considered a form of life writing where authors play with their identity in a virtual context in te...

Family Resemblances: Human Reproductive Cloning as an Example for Reconsidering the Mutual Relationships between Bioethics and Science Fiction.

Science.gov (United States)

Hansen, Solveig L

2018-03-08

In the traditions of narrative ethics and casuistry, stories have a well-established role. Specifically, illness narratives provide insight into patients' perspectives and histories. However, because they tend to see fiction as an aesthetic endeavour, practitioners in these traditions often do not realize that fictional stories are valuable moral sources of their own. In this paper I employ two arguments to show the mutual relationship between bioethics and fiction, specifically, science fiction. First, both discourses use imagination to set a scene and determine a perspective. Second, bioethics and science fiction share the family resemblance of expressing moral beliefs. I then consider how understanding bioethics and science fiction as interrelated discourses can be the basis of a methodology for inquiry into relational autonomy in the context of biotechnologies and medicine. As an example of this methodology, I analyse Fay Weldon's novel The Cloning of Joanna May (1989).

Street level society

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vinum, Christine; Nissen, Morten

2006-01-01

This paper aims to reflect on research findings from different empirical studies of social work with young drug users and socially excluded young people in Copenhagen. In the paper we account for historical changes in social policy and interventions into young people's drug taking in Copenhagen......, and partly from the decentralizing and specializing efforts characteristic of the Danish welfare state and its institutions. We discuss a general turn towards street level interventions to address the problems of social exclusion, as well as different attempts to create what we term street level heterotopias...

From Google Maps to a fine-grained catalog of street trees

Science.gov (United States)

Branson, Steve; Wegner, Jan Dirk; Hall, David; Lang, Nico; Schindler, Konrad; Perona, Pietro

2018-01-01

Up-to-date catalogs of the urban tree population are of importance for municipalities to monitor and improve quality of life in cities. Despite much research on automation of tree mapping, mainly relying on dedicated airborne LiDAR or hyperspectral campaigns, tree detection and species recognition is still mostly done manually in practice. We present a fully automated tree detection and species recognition pipeline that can process thousands of trees within a few hours using publicly available aerial and street view images of Google MapsTM. These data provide rich information from different viewpoints and at different scales from global tree shapes to bark textures. Our work-flow is built around a supervised classification that automatically learns the most discriminative features from thousands of trees and corresponding, publicly available tree inventory data. In addition, we introduce a change tracker that recognizes changes of individual trees at city-scale, which is essential to keep an urban tree inventory up-to-date. The system takes street-level images of the same tree location at two different times and classifies the type of change (e.g., tree has been removed). Drawing on recent advances in computer vision and machine learning, we apply convolutional neural networks (CNN) for all classification tasks. We propose the following pipeline: download all available panoramas and overhead images of an area of interest, detect trees per image and combine multi-view detections in a probabilistic framework, adding prior knowledge; recognize fine-grained species of detected trees. In a later, separate module, track trees over time, detect significant changes and classify the type of change. We believe this is the first work to exploit publicly available image data for city-scale street tree detection, species recognition and change tracking, exhaustively over several square kilometers, respectively many thousands of trees. Experiments in the city of Pasadena

Science Fiction Movies as a Tool for Revealing Students' Knowledge and Alternative Conceptions

Science.gov (United States)

Ongel-Erdal, Sevinc; Sonmez, Duygu; Day, Rob

2004-01-01

According to renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, "science fiction is useful both for stimulating the imagination and for diffusing fear of the future." Indeed, several studies suggest that using science fiction movies as a teaching aid can improve both motivation and achievement. However, if a movie's plot crosses the line between good…

T. rex and Godzilla: Finding Science in Science Fiction

Science.gov (United States)

Engelmann, G. F.; Chure, D. J.

2017-12-01

Works of fiction act as a powerful vehicle for inculcating an intuitive understanding (or misunderstanding) of scientific concepts in the audience. They can communicate information about scientific phenomena or how science is done. These entertainments can contribute to scientific literacy of the public and provide valuable outreach opportunities, but scientific accuracy is rarely even a minor consideration in developing fictional stories. Science educators can still make use of popular fiction to promote science education and outreach. Varied approaches have focused on the physical science in classic space operas, but historical sciences can make use of public interest in fictional tales involving prehistoric creatures and settings. Dinosaurs like T. rex inspire awe and widespread popular appeal that can nurture an interest in fossils but also serves as a gateway to all the other sciences on which paleontology depends, and to the scientific endeavor itself. But the portrayal of dinosaurs has met with negative criticism of details that is not likely to be productive of further discussion and learning. Perhaps it is not so important that authors and film makers didn't get it right; that "correctness" of terms and reconstructions is less important than the opportunity to improve public understanding of how science works; to cultivate a habit of critical thinking and an analytical approach to interpreting the world. Dinosaurs and other long extinct creatures can provide examples of how we know what we know; what kind of evidence is available and how it can be interpreted; how creative framing of hypotheses allows imaginative conjectures to be constrained by observations. They can open informative discussions of how scientists work in gathering data and developing and testing hypotheses. For example, how do paleontologists find fossils? Monsters, unrealistic fantasy creatures like Godzilla, have great charismatic appeal, and can prompt discussions of the obstacles

EQUIVOCATION IN THE FOUNDATIONS OF LEIBNIZ’S INFINITESIMAL FICTIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tzuchien THO

2012-11-01

Full Text Available In this article, I address two different kinds of equivocations in reading Leibniz’s fictional infinite and infinitesimal. These equivocations form the background of a reductive reading of infinite and infinitesimal fictions either as ultimately finite or as something whose status can be taken together with any other mathematical object as such. The first equivocation is the association of a foundation of infinitesimals with their ontological status. I analyze this equivocation by criticizing the logicist influence on 20th century Anglophone reception of the syncategorematical infinite and infinitesimal. The second equivocation is the association of the rigor of mathematical demonstration with the problem of the admissibility of infinite or infinitesimal terms. I analyze this by looking at Leibniz’s constructive method and apagogic argument style in his quadrature method. In treating these equivocations, I critique some assumptions that underlie the reductive reading of Leibniz’s fictionalism concerning infinite and infinitesimals. In turn, I suggest that these infinitesimal “fictions” pointed to a problematic within Leibniz’s work that was conceived and reconsidered in Leibniz’s work from a range of different contexts and methods.Keywords: Leibniz, differential calculu

Can Radiologists Learn From Airport Baggage Screening?: A Survey About Using Fictional Patients for Quality Assurance.

Science.gov (United States)

Phelps, Andrew; Callen, Andrew L; Marcovici, Peter; Naeger, David M; Mongan, John; Webb, Emily M

2018-02-01

For both airport baggage screeners and radiologists, low target prevalence is associated with low detection rate, a phenomenon known as "prevalence effect." In airport baggage screening, the target prevalence is artificially increased with fictional weapons that are digitally superimposed on real baggage. This strategy improves the detection rate of real weapons and also allows airport supervisors to monitor screener performance. A similar strategy using fictional patients could be applied in radiology. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to review the psychophysics literature regarding low target prevalence and (2) to survey radiologists' attitudes toward using fictional patients as a quality assurance tool. We reviewed the psychophysics literature on low target prevalence and airport x-ray baggage screeners. An online survey was e-mailed to all members of the Association of University Radiologists to determine their attitudes toward using fictional patients in radiology. Of the 1503 Association of University Radiologists member recipients, there were 153 respondents (10% response rate). When asked whether the use of fictional patients was a good idea, the responses were as follows: disagree (44%), neutral (25%), and agree (31%). The most frequent concern was the time taken away from doing clinical work (89% of the respondents). The psychophysics literature supports the use of fictional targets to mitigate the prevalence effect. However, the use of fictional patients is not a popular idea among academic radiologists. Copyright © 2018 The Association of University Radiologists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Us and Them: A Vision of Heroes on the Move in John McGahern’s Fiction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Radler Dana

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Current explorations of migration in fiction focus on innovative perspectives, linking memory and trauma with the concepts of exile and conflict. Personal memories ask for an understanding of what belonging and identity represent for the Irish; immigration has hybrid and fertile links to memory studies, psychology and psychoanalysis (Akhtar, making the immigrant both love and hate his new territory, while returning to the past or homeland to reflect and regain emotional balance. From the focus on ‘the sexy foreigner’ (Beltsiou, we rely on the idea of crisis discussed by León Grinberg and Rebeca Grinberg, Frank Summers’ examination of identity, the place of the modern polis and the variations of the narrative (Phillips, the trans-generational factor (Fitzgerald and Lambkin, the departure seen as an exile (Murray and Said and the impact of guilt (Wills.

Air quality considerations for stormwater green street design.

Science.gov (United States)

Shaneyfelt, Kathryn M; Anderson, Andrew R; Kumar, Prashant; Hunt, William F

2017-12-01

Green streets are increasingly being used as a stormwater management strategy to mitigate stormwater runoff at its source while providing other environmental and societal benefits, including connecting pedestrians to the street. Simultaneously, human exposure to particulate matter from urban transportation is of major concern worldwide due to the proximity of pedestrians, drivers, and cyclists to the emission sources. Vegetation used for stormwater treatment can help designers limit the exposure of people to air pollutants. This goal can be achieved through the deliberate placement of green streets, along with strategic planting schemes that maximize pollutant dispersion. This communication presents general design considerations for green streets that combine stormwater management and air quality goals. There is currently limited guidance on designing green streets for air quality considerations; this is the first communication to offer suggestions and advice for the design of green stormwater streets in regards to their effects on air quality. Street characteristics including (1) the width to height ratio of the street to the buildings, (2) the type of trees and their location, and (3) any prevailing winds can have an impact on pollutant concentrations within the street and along sidewalks. Vegetation within stormwater control measures has the ability to reduce particulate matter concentrations; however, it must be carefully selected and placed within the green street to promote the dispersion of air flow. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enhancement of subject description of fiction with annotations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alenka Šauperl

2007-01-01

Full Text Available In Slovenia, subject description of fiction was traditionally limited to the Universal Decimal Classification number, which was mainly assigned for shelving. Readers found their books by browsing the library shelves, while librarians had to rely on their personal familiarity with the library collection if they wanted to advise readers on the selection of books. Subject description, such as is often associated with non-literary works, would require a lot of time. Therefore, we wanted to know whether reading book reviews in newspapers could replace reading the entire literary work. We analysed a small sample of book reviews written by literary critics and published in Slovenian newspapers and compared them to the reviews, written by librarians for the same literary works (in the »Priporočamo!« project. We realized that the content is different. However, they could be used for identification of additional subject headings. The same findings resulted from a similar analysis of literary works written for children. Concepts, that seemed potentially appropriate subject headings, often actually do not appear in the Slovenian subject headings or subject headings from the Pionirska knjižnica of Ljubljana. Both subject heading lists should include a larger number of abstract concepts, which more often appear in literary than in non-literary works. Both subject heading lists should also be coordinated.

The Rebirth of the Musical Author in Recent Fiction Written in English

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carmen Lara-Rallo

2012-05-01

Full Text Available In his 2005 monograph on The Author, Andrew Bennett reflects on how “authorship is central to the way in which critical practice is currently conceptualized and theorized”. The rebirth of the author in contemporary criticism is being accompanied by a renewed fascination with the figure of the author as the subject of recent fiction. This can be seen reflected in current portrayals of real and fictional writers such as Henry James, in David Lodge’s Author, Author (2004, or Olive Wellwood, in A.S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book (2009. Moreover, the recovery of the author can be traced as well in the context of the emergence of music as a fertile referent for interartistic narratives. In terms of the dialogue between contemporary fiction and music, there seems to be a common interest in the image of the author, both in the act of creation, as a composer, and of re-creation, as a performer. Works such as Bernard MacLaverty’s Grace Notes (1997, Vikram Seth’s An Equal Music (1999, Conrad Williams’ The Concert Pianist (2006, or Kazuo Ishiguro’s Nocturnes. Five Stories of Music and Nightfall (2009 favour the author-musician’s perspective as they interact with music in different ways. In light of this, the aim of this article is to explore the process of rebirth of the musical author in recent fiction written in English, analysing this trend as part of a more general tendency to recover the author’s presence and voice in both fiction and criticism.

Air quality considerations for stormwater green street design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shaneyfelt, Kathryn M.; Anderson, Andrew R.; Kumar, Prashant; Hunt, William F.

2017-01-01

Green streets are increasingly being used as a stormwater management strategy to mitigate stormwater runoff at its source while providing other environmental and societal benefits, including connecting pedestrians to the street. Simultaneously, human exposure to particulate matter from urban transportation is of major concern worldwide due to the proximity of pedestrians, drivers, and cyclists to the emission sources. Vegetation used for stormwater treatment can help designers limit the exposure of people to air pollutants. This goal can be achieved through the deliberate placement of green streets, along with strategic planting schemes that maximize pollutant dispersion. This communication presents general design considerations for green streets that combine stormwater management and air quality goals. There is currently limited guidance on designing green streets for air quality considerations; this is the first communication to offer suggestions and advice for the design of green stormwater streets in regards to their effects on air quality. Street characteristics including (1) the width to height ratio of the street to the buildings, (2) the type of trees and their location, and (3) any prevailing winds can have an impact on pollutant concentrations within the street and along sidewalks. Vegetation within stormwater control measures has the ability to reduce particulate matter concentrations; however, it must be carefully selected and placed within the green street to promote the dispersion of air flow. - Highlights: • Green streets can be used for both stormwater and air quality management. • Design considerations must be made to minimize human exposure to air pollutants. • Urban vegetation can improve air quality with careful selection and placement.

Does a single session of reading literary fiction prime enhanced mentalising performance? Four replication experiments of Kidd and Castano (2013).

Science.gov (United States)

Samur, Dalya; Tops, Mattie; Koole, Sander L

2018-02-01

Prior experiments indicated that reading literary fiction improves mentalising performance relative to reading popular fiction, non-fiction, or not reading. However, the experiments had relatively small sample sizes and hence low statistical power. To address this limitation, the present authors conducted four high-powered replication experiments (combined N = 1006) testing the causal impact of reading literary fiction on mentalising. Relative to the original research, the present experiments used the same literary texts in the reading manipulation; the same mentalising task; and the same kind of participant samples. Moreover, one experiment was pre-registered as a direct replication. In none of the experiments did reading literary fiction have any effect on mentalising relative to control conditions. The results replicate earlier findings that familiarity with fiction is positively correlated with mentalising. Taken together, the present findings call into question whether a single session of reading fiction leads to immediate improvements in mentalising.

Making fictions sound real - On film sound, perceptual realism and genre

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Birger Langkjær

2010-05-01

Full Text Available This article examines the role that sound plays in making fictions perceptually real to film audiences, whether these fictions are realist or non-realist in content and narrative form. I will argue that some aspects of film sound practices and the kind of experiences they trigger are related to basic rules of human perception, whereas others are more properly explained in relation to how aesthetic devices, including sound, are used to characterise the fiction and thereby make it perceptually real to its audience. Finally, I will argue that not all genres can be defined by a simple taxonomy of sounds. Apart from an account of the kinds of sounds that typically appear in a specific genre, a genre analysis of sound may also benefit from a functionalist approach that focuses on how sounds can make both realist and non-realist aspects of genres sound real to audiences.

Making fictions sound real - On film sound, perceptual realism and genre

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Birger Langkjær

2009-09-01

Full Text Available This article examines the role that sound plays in making fictions perceptually real to film audiences, whether these fictions are realist or non-realist in content and narrative form. I will argue that some aspects of film sound practices and the kind of experiences they trigger are related to basic rules of human perception, whereas others are more properly explained in relation to how aesthetic devices, including sound, are used to characterise the fiction and thereby make it perceptually real to its audience. Finally, I will argue that not all genres can be defined by a simple taxonomy of sounds. Apart from an account of the kinds of sounds that typically appear in a specific genre, a genre analysis of sound may also benefit from a functionalist approach that focuses on how sounds can make both realist and non-realist aspects of genres sound real to audiences.

Ordinary tales from endoscopic odysseys: fiction, ethics, and the gastroenterological journey.

Science.gov (United States)

Meulenberg, Frans; de Beaufort, Inez D

2014-04-01

Fiction (i.e. novels, short stories, and movies) provides an opportunity for imaginative moral reflection and can serve as a basis for moral argument. Narratives play a role in moral reasoning because they are exemplars as well as tests. Those who care for sick people, should be interested in patient's and literary stories. Exploring the representation of gastroenterological ailments in fiction gives insight in the experience of undergoing colonoscopy, farting, pain, the borders of intimacy, hygiene and the lack of it, taboos and the doctor-patient-relationship. Included authors are, among others: Michel Faber, Alan Bennett, Charles Bukowski, Charlotte Roche and James Joyce. Several movies are discussed as well. Though in general gastroenterological problems don't seem often at foreground in fiction, in some cases they are represented in a more symbolic way, and touch upon some fundamental aspects of the human condition. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Stranger that fiction parallel universes beguile science

CERN Document Server

2007-01-01

Is the universe -- correction: 'our' universe -- no more than a speck of cosmic dust amid an infinite number of parallel worlds? A staple of mind-bending science fiction, the possibility of multiple universes has long intrigued hard-nosed physicists, mathematicians and cosmologists too.

Stranger than fiction: parallel universes beguile science

CERN Document Server

Hautefeuille, Annie

2007-01-01

Is the universe-correction: 'our' universe-no more than a speck of cosmic dust amid an infinite number of parallel worlds? A staple of mind-bending science fiction, the possibility of multiple universes has long intrigued hard-nosed physicists, mathematicians and cosmologists too.

Universal design characteristic on themed streets

Science.gov (United States)

Harsritanto, Bangun IR; Indriastjario; Wijayanti

2017-12-01

People around the world can access the streets to fulfil their daily activities regardless of their gender, age, and abilities. The streetscape is an urban public space which is built to facilitate the basic needs of people as social being. The themed street is an urban streetscape designed and built in detail with a theme or special purpose in an of urban development process. Universal design facilitates the full range of human diversity as physical appearance, perception, cognitive abilities, sizes, and shapes. By designing for the diversity, the specialized streets become more functional and user-friendly. The purpose of this study is to examine several design characteristics of themed streets in several countries from three different continents using universal design principles for giving proper directions to develop more user-friendly streets. Literature review and case study were used as research methods. The literature review was extracted and compiled from manuscripts, streetscape design books, and from universal design principles. Furthermore, the constructed theory were used to examine the case studies of themed streets. The findings indicated that themed streets’ character design were strongly influenced by local cultural aspect even though the basic guidelines were universal design principles; the resumed design direction can be suggested universal along with the richness of local aspects.

The Regulation of Street Foods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Forkour, John Boulard; Samuelsen, Helle; Yeboah, Eric Henry

2017-01-01

the challenges and negotiating strategies of regulators of street-vended foods in Ghana and analyses the implication for their relationship with street food vendors. The paper reveals that regulators operate in a context of limited resources, leading to a general feeling of neglect. In coping, regulators adopt...

Street Papers, Work, and Begging

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cockburn, Patrick Joseph

2014-01-01

Street papers are publications produced specifically for sale by the homeless and other vulnerable people in many countries around the world. Their social status is, however, often conspicuously unstable: ‘Get a job!’ has been reported as a common insult addressed to vendors, and street paper...

The Stuff of (Urban) Legends, and How It Can Help Students Appreciate Fiction.

Science.gov (United States)

Cioe, Paul

2000-01-01

Suggests that educators rethink the ways in which they introduce elements of fiction. Considers how giving students the opportunity to show what they already know about the elements of fiction can lead them to a richer appreciation of the rewards of reading short stories. Notes that folktales and urban legends can provide familiar parallels to…

Science or Science Fiction?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lefsrud, Lianne M.; Meyer, Renate

2012-01-01

This paper examines the framings and identity work associated with professionals’ discursive construction of climate change science, their legitimation of themselves as experts on ‘the truth’, and their attitudes towards regulatory measures. Drawing from survey responses of 1077 professional......, legitimation strategies, and use of emotionality and metaphor. By linking notions of the science or science fiction of climate change to the assessment of the adequacy of global and local policies and of potential organizational responses, we contribute to the understanding of ‘defensive institutional work...

Writing social psychology: fictional things and unpopulated texts.

Science.gov (United States)

Billig, Michael

2011-03-01

This paper presents the author's position on the question how to write social psychology. It reflects the author's long-term interest in rhetoric and his more recent concerns about the writing of social scientists. The author argues that social psychologists tend to produce unpopulated texts, writing about 'fictional things' rather than people. Social psychologists assume that their technical terms are more precise than ordinary language terms. The author contests this assumption. He suggests that when it comes to describing human actions, ordinary language on the whole tends to be more precise. The paper analyses why this should be the case, drawing on ideas from linguistics and Vaihinger's notion of fictions. The author presents examples to show how psychological writers, by using passives and nominals, can omit information about the agents of action and the nature of the actions that they are performing. Although their texts may appear impressively technical, they can, in fact, be highly imprecise. Moreover, social psychologists, by using this nominal style of writing, tend to write about processes as if they were things and then attribute actions to these things. In so doing, they create 'fictional things', which they treat as if they were real things. The author offers six recommendations for writing in simpler, clearer ways. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.

Fictional privacy among Facebook users.

Science.gov (United States)

Lemieux, Robert

2012-08-01

The current study involved the creation of a fictional Facebook account with limited information and was designed to assess whether participants would accept the friendship of an ambiguous, unknown person. Results indicated that 325 Facebook members (72% of the sample) willingly accepted the friendship of the unknown individual. Results are discussed in relation to privacy concerns, norms of reciprocity, and allowing access to potentially embarrassing information and/or pictures.

Science Fiction and the Big Questions

Science.gov (United States)

O'Keefe, M.

Advocates of space science promote investment in science education and the development of new technologies necessary for space travel. Success in these areas requires an increase of interest and support among the general public. What role can entertainment media play in inspiring the public ­ especially young people ­ to support the development of space science? Such inspiration is badly needed. Science education and funding in the United States are in a state of crisis. This bleak situation exists during a boom in the popularity of science-oriented television shows and science fiction movies. This paper draws on interviews with professionals in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, as well as students interested in those fields. The interviewees were asked about their lifelong media-viewing habits. Analysis of these interviews, along with examples from popular culture, suggests that science fiction can be a valuable tool for space advocates. Specifically, the aspects of character, story, and special effects can provide viewers with inspiration and a sense of wonder regarding space science and the prospect of long-term human space exploration.

"Angels & Demons" - Distinguishing truth from fiction

CERN Multimedia

2005-01-01

Dan Brown's best-selling novel "Angels & Demons" was published in French on 2 March. A web page on CERN's public site is dedicated to separating truth from fiction in this novel. After the extraordinary success of Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code", one of his earlier novels "Angels & Demons", published in 2000, has now become a best seller and has generated a flood of questions about CERN. This detective story is about a secret society, the Illuminati, who wish to destroy the Vatican with an antimatter bomb stolen from - wait for it - CERN! Inevitably, CERN has been bombarded with calls about the technologies described in the novel that are supposed to be under development in the Laboratory. The Press Office has always explained that, even if the novel appears to be very informative, it is in fact a mixture of fact and fiction. For instance, according to the novel CERN is supposed to own a plane that can cover the distance between Massachusetts in the United States and Switzerland in just over an hour! ...

Street Pastors : on security, care and faith

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Steden, R.

2018-01-01

This paper presents a study of Street Pastors in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. Street Pastors are Christian volunteers who look after vulnerable people in the night-time economy. In this manner, they provide ‘securitas’ through empathy and care. The motives of Street Pastors for engaging with

Literary Fiction Influences Attitudes Toward Animal Welfare.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wojciech Małecki

Full Text Available Literary fiction has been credited with considerable power to improve attitudes toward outgroups. It was even argued that it has been an important factor behind the global decline of violence against various minorities in the last centuries. Could it also help to reduce the human-inflicted suffering of animals? To test this, we studied the attitude toward animal welfare of n = 921 (experimental group people of both sexes who read a short fragment of an unpublished novel with a motif of the physical abuse of an animal. The control group (n = 912 read a fragment of a similar length but not related to animals. After reading the text all subjects filled out an on-line questionnaire with seven items (camouflaged among many others items measuring attitudes toward animal welfare. The questionnaire included also demographical questions, such as whether the subject keeps pets. We found that in comparison with the control group, the experimental group was significantly more concerned about animal welfare. This result indicates that literary fiction can influence attitudes toward other species. It is also worth noting that our study is characterized by a high level of ecological validity, i.e. a relatively high extent to which its results can be generalized (or extended to real-world settings. Due to its specific design, which involved the cooperation of a bestselling author and his publisher, the study approximated the typical conditions in which people read fiction in a remarkably accurate way. Finally, our research has potential practical implications for promoting animal welfare.

Literary Fiction Influences Attitudes Toward Animal Welfare.

Science.gov (United States)

Małecki, Wojciech; Pawłowski, Bogusław; Sorokowski, Piotr

2016-01-01

Literary fiction has been credited with considerable power to improve attitudes toward outgroups. It was even argued that it has been an important factor behind the global decline of violence against various minorities in the last centuries. Could it also help to reduce the human-inflicted suffering of animals? To test this, we studied the attitude toward animal welfare of n = 921 (experimental group) people of both sexes who read a short fragment of an unpublished novel with a motif of the physical abuse of an animal. The control group (n = 912) read a fragment of a similar length but not related to animals. After reading the text all subjects filled out an on-line questionnaire with seven items (camouflaged among many others items) measuring attitudes toward animal welfare. The questionnaire included also demographical questions, such as whether the subject keeps pets. We found that in comparison with the control group, the experimental group was significantly more concerned about animal welfare. This result indicates that literary fiction can influence attitudes toward other species. It is also worth noting that our study is characterized by a high level of ecological validity, i.e. a relatively high extent to which its results can be generalized (or extended) to real-world settings. Due to its specific design, which involved the cooperation of a bestselling author and his publisher, the study approximated the typical conditions in which people read fiction in a remarkably accurate way. Finally, our research has potential practical implications for promoting animal welfare.

City Streets

Data.gov (United States)

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources — This data set contains roadway centerlines for city streets found on the USGS 1:24,000 mapping series. In some areas, these roadways are current through the 2000...

Spatial Character Analysis of Streets as Public Spaces: The Case of Izmit Hurriyet and Cumhuriyet Street, Turkey

Science.gov (United States)

Özbayraktar, Mehtap; Pekdemir, Merve; Mırzaliyeva, Gumru

2017-10-01

The word “public” was first used to refer to the theatre audience in France in the mid-17th century. In the 18th century, it turned into the meaning of “public space incorporating a large variety of people and composed of acquaintances and strangers”. The concepts of publicity, public space, and public realm have been studied and described by many researchers in the course of time. These descriptions show the development of public space as well. In the very general sense, public spaces are areas of personal and social happiness; collective living spaces of the society; areas of expression of natural and cultural variety; and key elements providing a ground for the establishment of an identity. In the United Nations’ report on public spaces, public space is addressed under six groups: 1. The spaces we intensely used in our daily life; 2. Green open public spaces; 3. Public activity spaces which users can go in without any difficulty, are open to public, and are under protection; 4. Public sector realm (social agreements in which the people are represented, contribute to collective goods, and trust in the administrators elected); 5. City as a public space; 6. Cyberspace. As cities grow, public spaces transform and diversify. Attempts are made to meet the changing needs through types of space developed. However, the character of the existing public spaces, the distribution of open spaces and parks and their inadequacy, the destruction of public space, and the things that are required to be done stand as important issues to be addressed. One of the public spaces going through transformation are streets which we intensely use in our daily life. In general, streets are defined as roads with buildings on both sides in settlements such as provinces and districts whose boundaries are determined by neighbouring buildings. Some researchers have defined streets based on their social functions. According to them, streets are meeting spaces; spaces to deal with

Reaching Nonscience Students through Science Fiction

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Donald A.

2009-01-01

In 2006 I had the chance to design a physics course for students not majoring in scientific fields. I chose to shape the course around science fiction, not as a source for quantitative problems but as a means for conveying important physics concepts. I hoped that, by encountering these concepts in narratives, students with little or no science or…

A Pedagogical Approach to Detective Fiction

Science.gov (United States)

Reyes-Torres, Agustín

2011-01-01

One of the main concerns when teaching a foreign language is how to encourage students to read and become interested in its literature. This article presents detective fiction as a pedagogical tool that provides the key elements to make it appealing for young readers. In this way, the mystery, the action and the suspense in the story; the figure…

Fiction and Conviction | Blackburn | Philosophical Papers

African Journals Online (AJOL)

I claim that there is nothing so unusual in the interleaving of myth or fiction and history that Williams finds in Herodotus. I also reflect on the difficulty of separating acceptance of truth from acceptance of myth, metaphor, and model, not only in history but also in science. Philosophical Papers Vol.32(3) 2003: 243-260 ...

Gel state of the fictional body in Mario Bellatin’s 'Rosa Canina' and "Flores"

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Isabel Jasinski

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Mario Bellatin creates a peculiar "space of sense" in fiction, related to the visual and per­formatic expressions of language. So, his literary project presents writing as body language, a terri­tory of significance constantly deterritorialized by sensations connected to the narrative game, with images and symbols in the literary actions. A sense of creative destruction constitutes the paradox expressed by fiction as body and by the body as fiction, in what we call Bellatin’s "nomadic writing", by means of the abnormality of the characters, their sexuality and religiosity, as one can note in Flo­res (2000, especially in "Rosa canina", published online by Cosac Naify in 2009. The position adopted by the protagonist in this work seems to indicate a specific "regime of signification”, as Josefina Ludmer puts it, according to which art and reality, fiction and biography blur their borders in a “gel state exchange”.

Poverty, violence, and family disorganization: Three "Hydras" and their role in children's street movement in Bangladesh.

Science.gov (United States)

Reza, Md Hasan

2016-05-01

The increasing number of children running away from home in Bangladesh is a major concern, and in need of critical attention. This yearlong study explores why children leave home with a sample of street children in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Purposive sampling from three locations in Dhaka yielded a sample of 75 homeless children aged 10-17. For each participant, a 60-90min in-depth qualitative interview was conducted multiple times. While the dominant explanations rely on poverty or abuse, the findings of this study reveal that the cause is actually three heads of a Hydra monster: poverty, abuse, and family disorganization and their interactions. It shows that the primary reasons for children breaking from their family are all interrelated. The findings from this study are likely to add knowledge regarding the issues and may lead to preventative interventions for street children and their families. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

PLC based Smart Street Lighting Control

OpenAIRE

D.V.Pushpa Latha; K.R.Sudha; Swati Devabhaktuni

2013-01-01

Conventional street lighting systems in most of the areas are Online at regular intervals of time irrespective of the seasonal variations. The street lights are simply switched on at afternoon and turned off in the morning. The consequence is that a large amount of Power is wasted meaninglessly. As energy consumption is an issue of increasing interest, possible energy savings in public street lighting systems are recently discussed from different viewpoints. The purpose of this work is to des...

The Use of “Non-Fiction Novels” in a Sensation and Perception Course

Science.gov (United States)

Gunther, Karen L.

2011-01-01

Scientific material can be difficult to relate to everyday knowledge. Textbook facts can be abstract. This Study of Teaching and Learning project examined the use of “non-fiction novels” (biographies and other books that read like novels but are true) in an undergraduate Sensation and Perception course in order to increase the concreteness of the reading material and to give the students a story on which to hang the facts learned in lecture. In Phase I (Fall 2009) non-fiction novels were used for half of the units and a standard textbook for the other half. In Phase II (Fall 2010) only non-fiction novels were used. The Fall 2009 class was very positive about the use of non-fiction novels, but exam scores did not mirror this enthusiasm, either on semester exam scores or on a four-month re-take of the cumulative final exam. In contrast, the Fall 2010 class missed having a textbook, but exam performance significantly improved over prior semesters, and performance on the four-month re-take of the cumulative final exam showed performance equivalent to the Fall 2009 class’s four-month performance on questions from textbook units. In both semesters, the effectiveness of the instructor in stimulating student interest was significantly higher than in prior years where only the textbook was used. In addition, 68% of the students said that reading the non-fiction novels made them want to learn more about our sensory systems. PMID:23626489

Reliģijas makdonaldizācija

OpenAIRE

Siliņš, Toms

2012-01-01

Bakalaura darbā apskatītas makdonaldizācijas procesa izpausmes Latvijas reliģisko organizāciju darbībā. Pētījuma mērķis ir noskaidrot makdonaldizācijas izpausmes Latvijas reliģiskajās organizācijās, tādēļ izvirzīti pētījuma jautājumi – kādas ir liecības par makdonaldizācijas procesa ietekmi uz reliģiskajām organizācijām Latvijā un kā vērtējama makdonaldizācijas procesa ietekme uz reliģiskajām organizācijām Latvijā. Pētījuma ietvaros veiktas divas ekspertu intervijas, kuru analīzes rezultātā i...

The Turn to Precarity in Twenty-First Century Fiction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Morrison Jago

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Recent years have seen several attempts by writers and critics to understand the changed sensibility in post-9/11 fiction through a variety of new -isms. This essay explores this cultural shift in a different way, finding a ‘turn to precarity’ in twenty-first century fiction characterised by a renewal of interest in the flow and foreclosure of affect, the resurgence of questions about vulnerability and our relationships to the other, and a heightened awareness of the social dynamics of seeing. The essay draws these tendencies together via the work of Judith Butler in Frames of War, in an analysis of Trezza Azzopardi’s quasi-biographical study of precarious life, Remember Me.

Learning from Fiction: Applications in Emerging Technologies

Science.gov (United States)

Gordon, Ruthanna

2009-01-01

Understanding the development of public opinion about emerging technologies, when the scope of that emergence is still speculative, poses particular challenges. Opinions and beliefs may be drawn from conflicting experts in multiple fields, media portrayals with varying biases, and fictional narratives that portray diverse possible futures. This…

[Addictive behavior of street children: interculturation and resilience].

Science.gov (United States)

Kommegne, T; Denoux, P; Bernoussi, A; Njiengwe, E F

2014-09-01

This research belongs to a more comprehensive study on the care of street children in Cameroon. The idea is to develop an analysis of the street pathology where symptoms such as addictive behavior and drug addiction can be found. Beside HIV AIDS, addictive behaviors are the main risk factors that many professionals have to face with while dealing with the street problems today. Through an intercultural approach, we examined the practices of addictive typology, their initiatory role and their function in the integration of the street system. We also analysed their importance in the survival strategies. After an overview of theoretical controversies that feed the debate on addictions, we questioned the impact of these practices on the street career through the prism of general theory of addictions, particularly the hedonic management model. Addiction helps to resist adversity, it helps to desist and then to begin a harmonious neo development despite the horrors of the street experience. We undertook a quantitative and qualitative study on a sample of 148 street children. We proposed to 128 of them a questionnaire focused on addictive behaviors and survival strategies in the street context. We notably evaluated the street career of 24 of them, using interviews and standardized tests to assess self-esteem (Coopersmith's SEI) frustration tolerance (Rosenweig's P-F) and self-efficacy (Sherer's SE Scale) in order to measure the impact of addictive behaviors on the resilience process. We found that the street career is essentially traumatic, and that addictive behaviors involving various integration strategies are strongly linked to the interculturation process through the identity strategies and the intercultural competences. Addiction itself is not significantly related to self-esteem issues but strongly impacts on self-efficacy and the ability to tolerate frustration. They allow the street children to withstand the street adversity but are a real obstacle to their

The street school Srikandi as an empowerment model of humane education for the street girls of non halfway house in Surabaya

Science.gov (United States)

Setyowati, RRN; Yani, MT; Imron, A.

2018-01-01

The street children have not had a solid emotional mental, however they must deal into the life of street that harsh, competitive and tend to affect negatively for their personality development. Their where abouts on the street is not motivated by family economic factor only, but it is also influenced by the disharmony of role and function of family rules and social environment influences. The street children empowerment that had been conducted by the halfway house does not run effectively. This research was aimed to identify problems faced by the street girls, to describe the efforts to overcome the problems faced by the street girls, and also developing the empowerment model for the street girls in Surabaya who do not stay in the halfway house. This research used qualitative method. The problems are often experienced by the street girls, for instance violence. Besides, imitative behavior arises as a respond towards behavior that happened to them. The parents also play role in the process of social control. The empowerment model that is designed is the educational empowerment through revitalization of family rules. Moreover, life skills education has to be strengthened to improve the welfare standard of living.

The Education Rights of Street-Involved Children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sonja Grover

2010-05-01

Full Text Available This paper provides an overview of certain key aspects of the practical and legal situation of street-involved children globally. The inadequate protection of these children under both domestic and international law is addressed. The diversity of the population of street-involved children is considered as is the fact that this group is composed of both legally stateless and de facto stateless children. The relationship of street involvement to child labor, various health risks and victimization is discussed. The educational needs of older street-involved children are addressed including their right to participate in decision-making regarding aspects of educational service design and delivery. The overall objective of this paper is to encourage those who are involved in, or could impact upon educational policy to include street-involved children in their educational planning implementation and advocacy efforts.

Modelling traffic pollution in streets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Berkowicz, R.; Hertel, O. [National Environmental Research Inst., Dept. of Atmospheric Environment, Roskilde (Denmark); Larsen, S.E.; Soerensen, N.N.; Nielsen, M. [Risoe National Lab., Dept. of Meteorology and Wind Energy, Roskilde (Denmark)

1997-01-01

This report concerns mainly the subject related to modelling air pollution from traffic in urban streets. A short overview is presented over the theoretical aspects and examples of most commonly used methods and models are given. Flow and dispersion conditions in street canyons are discussed and the presentation is substantiated with the analysis of the experimental data. The main emphasis is on the modelling methods that are suitable for routine applications and a more detailed presentation is given of the Operational Street Pollution Model (OSPM), which was developed by the National Environmental Research Institute. The model is used for surveillance of air pollution from traffic in Danish cities and also for special air pollution studies. (au) 76 refs.

Smart street lighting : The advantages of LED street lighting and a smart control system in Uppsala municipality

OpenAIRE

Sjöberg, Inga; Gidén Hember, Amanda; Wallerström, Carolina

2017-01-01

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to examine how LED street lights and a smart street light control system can reduce the energy consumption, costs and in extension the CO2 equivalents in a geographically delimited area. In 2015 the municipality of Sala installed LED armatures connected to a smart control system in the whole municipality. The smart control system enables for instance adjustment of the light intensity at specific times during the day and a supervision of the street light ...

How does fiction reading influence empathy? An experimental investigation on the role of emotional transportation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bal, P.M.; Veltkamp, M.

2013-01-01

The current study investigated whether fiction experiences change empathy of the reader. Based on transportation theory, it was predicted that when people read fiction, and they are emotionally transported into the story, they become more empathic. Two experiments showed that empathy was influenced

Teaching Science Fact with Science Fiction

Science.gov (United States)

Raham, R. Gary

2004-01-01

The literature of science fiction packs up the facts and discoveries of science and runs off to futures filled with both wonders and warnings. Kids love to take the journeys it offers for the thrill of the ride, but they can learn as they travel, too. This book will provide the reader with: (1) an overview of the past 500 years of scientific…

Realistic teenage fiction with a sexrelated theme: Readers’ responses to Slinger-slinger by Francois Bloemhof

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M.N. Wiggill

2004-07-01

Full Text Available Francois Bloemhof submitted his novel for teenagers, “Slinger-slinger” for the Sanlam competition for youth fiction in 1996. Eventually this prizewinner in the beginners’ category was published in 1997. The main theme of “Slinger-slinger” is the sexual awakening and identity of teenagers. A study was undertaken to obtain the opinions of teenage readers about the success of “Slinger-slinger” as a whole, as well as to gauge the success of integrating sexual aspects in this novel. The study also served to obtain information about the reading needs of teenage readers with regard to realistic teenage fiction and teenage fiction with a sex-related theme. The findings of the study underlying this article indicated that the participating teenage readers regarded “Slinger-slinger” as successful and interesting, and that they would like to read more realistic Afrikaans teenage fiction such as “Slinger-slinger”.

Perceiving and experiencing fictional characters: an integrative account

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hoorn, J.F.; Konijn, E.A.

2003-01-01

Fictional characters (PCs) and mediated persons in literature, theater, film, art, TV, and digital media fulfill basic psychological functions, although the processes involved remain unspecified. Departing from identification and empathy hypotheses, a new context-sensitive model draws upon

“The Poet, He Nothing Affirms, and Therefore Never Lieth”? An Analysis of the Editorial Fiction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eva-Maria Konrad

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Is the editorial fiction a possible challenge to Sir Philip Sidney’s famous defence of the poets? Predicated on an assertion-based definition of lying, this paper discusses two historically consecutive versions of this phenomenon: A closer analysis of Gérard Genette’s category of the disavowing authentic authorial preface reveals that Genette’s arguments cannot defend editorial fictions written by ‘author-editors’ against accusations of lying. Rather, this first version of editorial fictions occasionally embodies lies for which the authors are to be held accountable. Editorial fictions written by ‘character-editors’, in contrast, do not meet the conditions of the assertion-based account of lying with the result that, in this case, neither the author nor the ‘character-editor’ can be accused of lying.

Narratives of psychiatric malingering in works of fiction.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuperman, V

2006-12-01

This paper argues that the representation of psychiatric malingering in literary and cinematographic narratives informs societal stereotypes, and thus influences the clinical phenomenology of malingering. The study aims to identify sociocultural models of malingering in contemporary Western society based on the narrative analysis of about 60 fictional and non-fiction texts. Two behavioural patterns derived from the Foucauldian categories folly and madness are recognisable in naïve conceptualisations of fake insanity. Fabricated significations of deviation originate in grand societal narratives rather than in medical discourse, and construct characters such as animal like underdeveloped simpletons or detached, irrational, violent madmen. Each pattern stems from its own archaic conceptual basis and dictates a distinct framework for strategies of malingering. The semiotic structure of artistic narratives of malingering is discussed in comparison with the symptomatology of existing psychiatric models.

Generative Street Addresses from Satellite Imagery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

İlke Demir

2018-03-01

Full Text Available We describe our automatic generative algorithm to create street addresses from satellite images by learning and labeling roads, regions, and address cells. Currently, 75% of the world’s roads lack adequate street addressing systems. Recent geocoding initiatives tend to convert pure latitude and longitude information into a memorable form for unknown areas. However, settlements are identified by streets, and such addressing schemes are not coherent with the road topology. Instead, we propose a generative address design that maps the globe in accordance with streets. Our algorithm starts with extracting roads from satellite imagery by utilizing deep learning. Then, it uniquely labels the regions, roads, and structures using some graph- and proximity-based algorithms. We also extend our addressing scheme to (i cover inaccessible areas following similar design principles; (ii be inclusive and flexible for changes on the ground; and (iii lead as a pioneer for a unified street-based global geodatabase. We present our results on an example of a developed city and multiple undeveloped cities. We also compare productivity on the basis of current ad hoc and new complete addresses. We conclude by contrasting our generative addresses to current industrial and open solutions.

Public Reactions to New Street Tree Planting

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Ruth A. Rae

2010-01-01

Full Text Available MillionTreesNYC, which has the goal of planting one million trees in New York City by 2017, is intended to make New York City a greener, more sustainable city and is part of the Mayor’s comprehensive long term strategic plan, PlaNYC. Through planting a tree at every suitable sidewalk location in the city, the City of New York is transforming blocks and communities, and providing a variety of environmental, social and aesthetic benefits. This article examines the large scale municipal planting of new street trees and the reaction by some of the pubic to this planting.Trees offer benefits to the city overall, but the public may not understand these benefits or the street tree planting process. Between 2007 and 2009, the Department of Parks & Recreation planted 53,235 new street trees, and received 4,108 items of correspondence from the public. The majority of this correspondence consisted of public comments about the City’s new street tree planting policies and processes including placement objections, maintenance concerns, reports of resultant damage from tree planting operations, requests for new street trees and reports of tree conditions.This study describes the operational policies that guide New York City's municipal street tree planting, and results of content and spatial analysis of the correspondence. Qualitative analysis of the correspondence revealed the public perceptions and concerns related to the MillionTreesNYC program. Spatial analysis explored the relationship between the planting locations of new street trees and the locations of the citizen correspondence.Public reactions to this large scale municipal planting are related to the dual public and private nature of the sidewalk, issues of territoriality, responsibility, aesthetics and place attachment. Correspondence volume was associated with the scale of the new street tree block planting program, and the effectiveness of NYC’s 311 Customer Service Center. The discussion

Bottom of the Iceberg: The Archontic Text - Review of Fanged Fan Fiction (McFarland, 2013)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schubart, Rikke

2014-01-01

Anmeldelse af Lindgren, Maria og Malin Isaksson, Fanged Fan Fiction: Variations on Twilight, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries (McFarland, 2013)......Anmeldelse af Lindgren, Maria og Malin Isaksson, Fanged Fan Fiction: Variations on Twilight, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries (McFarland, 2013)...

Traumaculture and Telepathetic Cyber Fiction

Science.gov (United States)

Drinkall, Jacquelene

This paper explores the interactive CD-ROM No Other Symptoms: Time Travelling with Rosalind Brodsky, usingtelepathetic socio-psychological, psychoanalytic and narrative theories. The CD-ROMexists as a contemporary artwork and published interactive hardcover book authored by painter and new-media visual artist Suzanne Treister. The artwork incorporates Treister's paintings, writing, photoshop, animation, video and audio work with narrative structures taken from world history, the history of psychoanalysis, futurist science and science fiction, family history and biography.

Passive control potentials of trees and on-street parked cars in reduction of air pollution exposure in urban street canyons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abhijith, K.V.; Gokhale, Sharad

2015-01-01

This study investigates the passive-control-potentials of trees and on-street parked cars on pedestrian exposure to air pollutants in a street canyon using three-dimensional CFD. Since, according to some studies trees deteriorate air quality and cars parked roadside improve it, the combine as well as separate effects of trees and on-street parked cars have been examined. For this, different tree canopy layouts and parking configurations have been developed and pedestrian exposure for each has been analysed. The results showed, for example, tree crown with high porosity and low-stand density in combination with parallel or perpendicular car parking reduced the pedestrian exposure considerably. - Highlights: • Trees and on-street parked cars can manipulate pollutant levels in street canyons. • Low stand density trees with 0° or 90° car parking reduce pedestrian exposure. • Trees with medium crown, high porosity, low stand density reduce pollutant levels. - This study investigated the combination of trees and on-street parked cars to manipulate pollutant levels in urban street canyons to reduce pedestrian exposure

THE MOTIF OF THE SECOND COMING IN RUSSIAN FANTASTIC FICTION

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Tatyana I. Khoruzhenko

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The motif of the Second Coming of Christ takes a special place in Russian fantastic fiction at the turn of the millennium. In the recent decades allusions to the Gospel topic appears in increasing frequency in the genre of fantasy. The aim of the given article was to analyze the peculiarities of the depiction of the subject of Advent in Russian fantastic fiction. As the basis for the research the novels of Y. Voznesenskaya, N. Perumov, V. Khlumov, S. Lukyanenko and T. Ustimenko are of particular interest. The Advent motif appears in the story line of each of the novels in question. Though, the attitude of the authors to the image of the Savior and his second coming to the world fluctuates: from a respectful expectation (Y. Voznesenskaya, T. Ustimenko, S. Lukyanenko to the depiction of the Savior as a monster (N. Perumov. The possibility of an ambivalent interpretation of the Savior is the eloquent evidence of desacralization of this image. The profaning of the sacred is one of the tendencies of the modern popular culture. The genre of fantastic fiction, as a product of mass culture, has caught this trend quite precisely.

The Art of Sympathy : Forms of Moral and Emotional Persuasion in Fiction

OpenAIRE

Sklar, Howard

2008-01-01

"The Art of Sympathy: Forms of Moral and Emotional Persuasion" in Fiction is an interdisciplinary study that looks closely at the ways that stories evoke sympathy, and the significance of this emotion for the development of moral attitudes and awareness. By linking readers' emotional responses to fiction with the potential impact of such responses on "the moral imagination," the study builds on empirical research conducted by literary scholars and psychologists into the emotional effects of r...

Dark Matter: British Weird Fiction and the Substance of Horror, 1880-1927

OpenAIRE

Camara, Anthony Christopher

2013-01-01

This dissertation examines the origins of British weird horror fiction, an understudied literary genre that had an extraordinary impact on later writers whose works appeared in popular magazines such as The Argosy (1882-1978) and Weird Tales (1923-1954). By far the most popular writer associated with the latter publication is H.P. Lovecraft, an American practitioner of cosmic weird horror whose astounding fictions have become emblematic of the genre in the mainstream imagination. This disse...

Short Historical Fiction To Get Children Reading.

Science.gov (United States)

Sullivan, Kathleen

1997-01-01

Provides an annotated bibliography of short historical fiction and picture books for readers in grades K-8. Includes a list of selected Caldecott and Newbery winners with historical themes or backgrounds and a list of activity books featuring Spanish exploration in Mexico, Roman art and fashion, medieval Europe, and cowboys. (PEN)

Stepping into Science Fiction: Understanding the Genre

Science.gov (United States)

Barone, Diane; Barone, Rebecca

2014-01-01

This manuscript focuses on fifth graders' understanding of science fiction. It is argued that it is necessary for students to understand both reading strategies and the key elements of a genre for comprehension. Students read "The Giver" within literature circles and conversation and written responses about the book were used for…

Hippocrates: facts and fiction | Retief | Acta Theologica

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, is reviewed as a historical person and in terms of his contribution to medicine in order to distinguish fact from fiction. Contemporary and later sources reveal that many (possibly untrue) legends accumulated around this enigmatic figure. The textual tradition and the composition of the ...

A COMPUTER ANALYSIS OF FICTIONAL PROSE STYLE.

Science.gov (United States)

KROEBER, KARL

FUNDAMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FICTIONAL PROSE STYLE WERE STUDIED THROUGH SYSTEMATIC AND OBJECTIVE ANALYSES OF NOVELISTIC SYNTAX AND VOCABULARY. SAMPLE PASSAGES FROM THE MAJOR NOVELS OF JANE AUSTEN, THE BRONTE SISTERS, AND GEORGE ELIOT AS WELL AS NOVELS BY 13 OTHER AUTHORS WERE ANALYZED. INFORMATION ON PASSAGE SENTENCES, CLAUSES, AND WORDS WAS…

Online Fan Fiction, Global Identities, and Imagination

Science.gov (United States)

Black, Rebecca W.

2009-01-01

Based on longitudinal data from a three year ethnographic study, this article uses discourse analytic methods to explore the literacy and social practices of three adolescent English language learners writing in an online fan fiction community. Theoretical constructs within globalization and literacy studies are used to describe the influences of…

Poetry in Fiction: an approximation to the structure of «El curioso impertinente»

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Sara Isabel Santa Aguilar

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The present work analyzes how poetry breaks into the structure of El curioso impertinente. Firstly, it should be highlighted that El curioso impertinente is a novel considered as fiction within the don Quixote’s frame of reference (fictional plane, and in which characters are constantly acting fake situations, that ends up becoming true, which leads them to a renewed need to feign or to lie. From this perspective, the work focuses on the paradox that, given this plane fixed so far from the reality of the reader, the three poems recited by the characters come from a world outside fiction since they have actual authors in Cervantes’s time. Furthermore, the two sonnets ‘written’ by Lotario belong to the more serious Cervantine poetry, and thus belong to Spanish Golden Age lyrical tradition. Another paradox is also present: the five poems, which are rated as literature by the characters of the novel, foreshadow the events that will take place in the novel’s reality; unveiling a structure in which reality is constantly imitating fiction.

[The democratic side of science-fiction].

Science.gov (United States)

Lecellier, Charles-Henri

2011-04-01

Suspicion towards technological advances has progressively grown during the xx(th) century. However, in the XXI(st) century, reading the NBIC (nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science) report of the National Science Foundation, we can note that science has caught up with science fiction. These changes in public mentality on one side and in scientific capacities on the other argue for an evolution of the debate on sciences. The recent example of the national debate on nanotechnology in France has clearly shown that the public is no longer waiting for additional sources of scientific knowledge but rather waiting for the recognition of its authority to participate in the definition of the national R&D priority and associated scientific strategies. This is all the more legitimate that these strategies will have profound impact on the future of our societies and therefore cannot be decided only by scientists. Hence, it is crucial to identify innovative tools promoting debate on sciences and their technological spin-off. Here, we contend that science fiction has major assets that could face this challenge and facilitate the dialogue between sciences and society.

Graham Greene's novel: The peculiar experiment in modern fiction

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Lončar-Vujnović Mirjana N.

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Graham Greene's The Quiet American could be understood as the specific and unique example in experimental modern and post modern fiction during the twentieth century. This novel could be accepted as the peculiar application of the experiment what makes it almost the exceptional case in modern fiction. Greene used some innovative and usual modern elements expressing them through the prism of completely unusual experimental aspect of form. In the novel, Greene made the combination of already known innovative and usual modern elements and traditional elements of form. Actually, he covered the experimental innovations with the common thematic structure, narrative form and partly with the specific psychoanalytical presentation of character's minds, observing and expressing them all at the same time.

Claiming lesbian history: the romance between fact and fiction.

Science.gov (United States)

Garber, Linda

2015-01-01

The contested field of lesbian history exists along a continuum, with undisputed evidence on one end and informed speculation on the other. Lesbian historical fiction extends the spectrum, envisioning the lives of lesbian pirates, war heroes, pioneers, bandits, and stock romantic characters, as well as the handful of protagonists examined here whose quests specifically highlight the difficulty and importance of researching the lesbian past. The genre blossomed in the 1980s, just as the Foucauldian insistence that homosexual identity did not exist before the late nineteenth century gained sway in the academy. The proliferation of lesbian historical fictions signals the growing desire for more thorough (if not completely factual) historical underpinnings of the burgeoning lesbian identities, communities, and politics set in motion in the 1970s.

[Street social education: historical, political and pedagogical bases].

Science.gov (United States)

de Oliveira, Walter Ferreira

2007-01-01

This work is about street social education as a pedagogical system that started in Latin America in the late 1970s, as the street population formed mostly by children and adolescents called for attention. The first street social educators were 'pastoral' agents working at the praça da Sé a place with large numbers of street children in São Paulo. Based on the Liberation Theology and on the pedagogies developed by Paulo Freire, Celestine Freinet, Anton Makarenko, and Emília Ferreiro, the street educators developed a conceptual field and participated in the promulgation of the 1988 Federal Constitution, particularly by writing and introducing the 'Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente' (the 'Child and Adolescent Statute'). Street social education is currently latent and suffering the consequences of program discontinuity caused by successive changes of government. It is, therefore important to know the conceptual proposals.

Miku’s mask: Fictional encounters in children’s costume play

Science.gov (United States)

Helgesen, Espen

2015-01-01

Children’s engagement with Japanese toys and fictional characters has taken on new significance in the age of YouTube. Drawing on ethnographic research on technology-mediated play among 8- and 9-year-olds in Norway, this article shows how boundaries between “real” humans and “fake” non-humans are blurred and undermined when children take on the perspective of a fictional pop star known as Miku. I argue that YouTube provides a platform for children’s playful experimentation with posthuman subjectivities, where they orient themselves toward the future not in terms of becoming adult but in terms of multiple becomings. PMID:26635445

Alcohol in urban streetscapes: a comparison of the use of Google Street View and on-street observation.

Science.gov (United States)

Clews, Chris; Brajkovich-Payne, Roza; Dwight, Emily; Ahmad Fauzul, Ayob; Burton, Madeleine; Carleton, Olivia; Cook, Julie; Deroles, Charlotte; Faulkner, Ruby; Furniss, Mary; Herewini, Anahera; Huband, Daymen; Jones, Nerissa; Kim, Cho Wool; Li, Alice; Lu, Jacky; Stanley, James; Wilson, Nick; Thomson, George

2016-05-26

Alcohol-related harm is a major global health issue, and controls on alcohol marketing are one intervention utilized by governments. This study investigated the use of Google Street View (GSV) as a novel research method for collecting alcohol-related data in the urban environment. The efficacy of GSV and on-street observation by observer teams was compared by surveying 400 m stretches of 12 streets in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. Data on alcohol sale, alcohol-related advertising, health promotion materials, regulatory information and visible alcohol consumption were collected. A total of 403 retailers with evidence of alcohol sales and 1161 items of alcohol-related communication were identified in on-street observation. Of the latter, 1028 items (89 %) were for alcohol marketing and 133 (11 %) were for alcohol-related health promotion and alcohol regulation. GSV was found to be a less sensitive tool than on-street observation with only 50 % of the alcohol venues identified and 52 % of the venue-associated brand marketing identified. A high degree of inter-observer reliability was generally found between pairs of observers e.g., for the detection of alcohol retail venues the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.93 (95 % CI: 0.78 to 0.98) for on-street observation and 0.85 (95 % CI: 0.49 to 0.96) for using GSV. GSV does not seem suitable for the comprehensive study of the influences on alcohol consumption in the urban streetscape. However, it may still have value for large, static objects in the environment and be more time efficient than traditional on-street observation measures, especially when used to collect data across a wide geographical area. Furthermore, GSV might become a more useful research tool in settings with better image quality (such as more 'footpath views') and with more regularly updated GSV imagery.

Literature as Window: Developing Interracial Understanding through Fiction.

Science.gov (United States)

Merriam, Allen H.

1988-01-01

Using Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" as a case study, demonstrates the evocative power of fiction to promote interracial understanding. Creative art, by appealing to the imagination, can evoke feelings and insights that make human relationships vivid and personal. (BJV)

Subject cataloguing of the works of fiction at the National and University Library

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tatjana Kovač

2006-01-01

Full Text Available The article reviews the principles of construction and policies of application of subject headings to works of fiction at the National and University Library in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The records are created in COMARC format, and the literary type, genre and the language of a document are each assigned a code, whereas literature is also indexed by using UDC class numbers. The principles for constructing and assigning subject headings for fiction are in accordance with the IFLA Principles Underlying Subject Heading Languages, and the rules of the Slovenian General List of Subject Headings (2002. The author presents the general and more specific rules and procedures for the construction of subject headings. Most frequently used subject headings for the works of fiction are name, topical or geographic headings.

"Normal" feelings in "abnormal" worlds : on the political uses of emotion in science fiction manga

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Li, Carl Ka-hei

2015-01-01

Scholars such as Darko Suvin have successfully argued for science fiction (SF) as fiction that portrays political alternatives through a focus on cognitive processes. This conception of SF minimizes the importance of character emotions, which has opened it to criticism from those who argue in favor

Far Out: Some Approaches to Teaching the Speculative Literature of Science Fiction and the Supernatural.

Science.gov (United States)

Los Angeles City Schools, CA. Div. of Instructional Planning and Services.

This curriculum guide contains course descriptions (for minicourses and semester-long courses), outlines, and class projects for teaching science fiction and the supernatural in junior and senior high schools. The eight course descriptions include objectives, methods, activities, and resources and materials. Lists of science fiction books and…

Italian Science Fiction, Nuclear Technologies: Narrative Strategies Between the “Two Cultures” (1950s-1970s)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Iannuzzi, Giulia

2017-01-01

This chapter critically investigates how science fiction interacted with, and contributed to the development of a collective imagery related to nuclear energy in Italy between the 1950s and the 1970s, within a context characterized by a difficult relationship between the “two cultures”. To do this, it takes into account the theme of nuclear technologies in science fiction genre narratives, and its treatment on the part of non-genre Italian writers. An initial enthusiasm toward nuclear energy is interpreted as part of new hopes connected to an unprecedented modernization in the peninsula and a new centrality of techno-science – of which science fiction was an apt expression. The hostility toward both nuclear technologies and science fiction on the part of the Italian cultural elite during subsequent decades is read as two different sides of the same “malaise of modernity”.

By Dynamite, Sabotage, Revolution, and the Pen: Violence in Caribbean Anarchist Fiction, 1890s-1920s

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Kirwin R. Shaffer

2009-07-01

Full Text Available From the 1890s to the 1920s, anarchist groups and movements emerged in Puerto Rico and Cuba. They promoted the traditional anarchist agenda against governments, militarism, capitalism, and organized religion. While research on anarchists has often focused on their activities in strikes, uprisings, educational experiments, and other counter-cultural activities, this article illustrates how Caribbean-based anarchists used their fiction to promote the anarchist agenda. A central theme in much of the fiction (plays, poetry, novels, and short stories revolved around violence leveled against society especially by governments. Just as interesting is how this fiction described—even praised—anarchist violence against authority. Thus, even while Caribbean anarchists only rarely resorted to physical violence, anarchist fiction often condemned authoritarian violence while celebrating the violence of revolution, the strike, bombings, and assassination to promote the anarchist cause of universal freedom.

Detecting Themed Streets Using a Location Based Service Application

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Byeongsuk Ji

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Various themed streets have recently been developed by local governments in order to stimulate local economies and to establish the identity of the corresponding places. However, the motivations behind the development of some of these themed street projects has been based on profit, without full considerations of people’s perceptions of their local areas, resulting in marginal effects on the local economies concerned. In response to this issue, this study proposed a themed street clustering method to detect the themed streets of a specific region, focusing on the commercial themed street, which is more prevalent than other types of themed streets using location based service data. This study especially uses “the street segment” as a basic unit for analysis. The Sillim and Gangnam areas of Seoul, South Korea were chosen for the evaluation of the adequacy of the proposed method. By comparing trade areas that were sourced from a market analysis report by a reliable agent with the themed streets detected in this study, the experiment results showed high proficiency of the proposed method.

Modelling Pollutant Dispersion in a Street Network

Science.gov (United States)

Salem, N. Ben; Garbero, V.; Salizzoni, P.; Lamaison, G.; Soulhac, L.

2015-04-01

This study constitutes a further step in the analysis of the performances of a street network model to simulate atmospheric pollutant dispersion in urban areas. The model, named SIRANE, is based on the decomposition of the urban atmosphere into two sub-domains: the urban boundary layer, whose dynamics is assumed to be well established, and the urban canopy, represented as a series of interconnected boxes. Parametric laws govern the mass exchanges between the boxes under the assumption that the pollutant dispersion within the canopy can be fully simulated by modelling three main bulk transfer phenomena: channelling along street axes, transfers at street intersections, and vertical exchange between street canyons and the overlying atmosphere. Here, we aim to evaluate the reliability of the parametrizations adopted to simulate these phenomena, by focusing on their possible dependence on the external wind direction. To this end, we test the model against concentration measurements within an idealized urban district whose geometrical layout closely matches the street network represented in SIRANE. The analysis is performed for an urban array with a fixed geometry and a varying wind incidence angle. The results show that the model provides generally good results with the reference parametrizations adopted in SIRANE and that its performances are quite robust for a wide range of the model parameters. This proves the reliability of the street network approach in simulating pollutant dispersion in densely built city districts. The results also show that the model performances may be improved by considering a dependence of the wind fluctuations at street intersections and of the vertical exchange velocity on the direction of the incident wind. This opens the way for further investigations to clarify the dependence of these parameters on wind direction and street aspect ratios.

Psychosocial profile of institutionalised street children in Alexandria ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Objective: The phenomenon of street children in Egypt constitutes a public health concern. This study aimed to investigate the characteristics of institutionalised street children in Alexandria, to compare the prevalence of substance abuse and conduct disorder between street children and school children, and to identify ...

Street Food Consumption and its associated socio-demographic ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Street Food Consumption and its associated socio-demographic factors in Oyo town, Nigeria. ... Abstract. Background: Contemporary life-styles have made street foods to be an important meal option in Nigeria. They contribute ... Nutrition education is suggested for people to make a better choice of nourishing street foods.

On the escape of pollutants from urban street canyons

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Baik, J.J.; Kim, J.J. [Kwangju Inst. of Science and Technology (Korea). Dept. of Environmental Science and Engineering

2002-07-01

Pollutant transport from urban street canyons is numerically investigated using a two-dimensional flow and dispersion model. The ambient wind blows perpendicular to the street and passive pollutants are released at the street level. Results from the control experiment with a street aspect ratio of 1 show that at the roof level of the street canyon, the vertical turbulent flux of pollutants is upward everywhere and the vertical flux of pollutants by mean flow is upward or downward. The horizontally integrated vertical flux of pollutants by mean flow at the roof level of the street canyon is downward and its magnitude is much smaller than that by turbulent process. These results indicate that pollutants escape from the street canyon mainly by turbulent process and that the net effect of mean flow is to make some escaped pollutants reenter the street canyon. Further experiments with different inflow turbulence intensities, inflow wind speeds, and street aspect ratio confirm the findings from the control experiment. In the case of two isolated buildings, the horizontally integrated vertical flux of pollutants by mean flow is upward due to flow separation but the other main results are the same as those from the control experiment. (author)

Social and economic characteristics of street youth by gender and level of street involvement in Eldoret, Kenya.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rebecca Sorber

Full Text Available Street-connected youth are a neglected and vulnerable population, particularly in resource-constrained settings. The development of interventions and supports for this population requires insight into how they live. This study describes the social and economic characteristics of a convenience sample of street youth (SY in Eldoret, Kenya.Participants were eligible if they were aged 12-21, living in Eldoret, spending days only (part-time, or nights and days on the street (full-time and able and willing to consent or assent. Data were collected using a standardized interview conducted in English or Kiswahili. Binary dependent variables were having been arrested and/or jailed, and first priority for spending money (food vs. other. Nominal categorical dependent variables included major source of support, and major reason for being street-involved. Multivariable analysis used logistic regression models to examine the association of gender and level of street-involvement with social and economic factors of interest adjusting for age and length of time on the street. Data were analyzed using SAS 9.3.Of the 200 SY enrolled, 41% were female, mean age of 16.3 years; 71% were on the street full-time, and 29% part-time. Compared with part-time SY, full-time SY were more likely to have been arrested (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR]: 2.33, 95% Confidence Interval [95%CI]:1.01-5.35, name food as their first spending priority (AOR: 2.57, 95%CI:1.03-6.45, have left home due to violence (AOR: 5.54, 95%CI: 1.67-18.34, and more likely to report friends on the street as a major source of support (AOR: 3.59, 95% CI: 1.01-12.82. Compared with females, males were more likely to have ever been arrested (AOR: 2.66, 95%CI:1.14-6.18, and to have ever been jailed (AOR: 3.22, 95%CI:1.47-7.02.These results suggest a high degree of heterogeneity and vulnerability among SY in this setting. There is an urgent need for interventions taking into consideration these characteristics.

Fiction e identità narrativa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roberto Talamo

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Nell’articolo si compie una ricognizione dei principali indirizzi di teoria del romanzo che leggono questo genere narrativo come forma della vita interiore svelata. Confrontando queste teorie con il concetto di “identità narrativa” sviluppato da Ricœur, si propone un’idea originale di analisi delle vite interiori narrate nella fiction, a partire dalla definizione auerbachiana di “realismo moderno” come tentativo di avvicinarsi alla realtà oggettiva tramite “molte impressioni soggettive avute da molte persone”.

Transplantation: fantasy, fiction and fact.

Science.gov (United States)

Magee, Reginald

2004-03-01

Today organ transplantation is considered a routine surgical procedure. The idea of transferring tissues from one person to another has been inspiring to the minds of artists depicting the Saints Cosmos and Damian and also writers such as Mary Shelley. Early attempts at tissue transplantation were unsuccessful but in the last 50 years medical research has brought it into reality. The present paper looks at the subject from the realms of fantasy through the works of fiction and finally into everyday fact.

OpenStreetMap over WMS

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Přemysl Vohnout

2010-02-01

Full Text Available This paper discuss the issues which we faced, while preparing WMS server with OpenStreetMap data of whole Europe. This article is divided into three sections. First is about mandatory applications which are required for working WMS service with OpenStreetMap data. Second is focused on tuning up PostgreSQL. Third is focused on rendering time improvement of layers.

POLE-LIKE STREET FURNITURE DECOMPOSTION IN MOBILE LASER SCANNING DATA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F. Li

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Automatic semantic interpretation of street furniture has become a popular topic in recent years. Current studies detect street furniture as connected components of points above the street level. Street furniture classification based on properties of such components suffers from large intra class variability of shapes and cannot deal with mixed classes like traffic signs attached to light poles. In this paper, we focus on the decomposition of point clouds of pole-like street furniture. A novel street furniture decomposition method is proposed, which consists of three steps: (i acquirement of prior-knowledge, (ii pole extraction, (iii components separation. For the pole extraction, a novel global pole extraction approach is proposed to handle 3 different cases of street furniture. In the evaluation of results, which involves the decomposition of 27 different instances of street furniture, we demonstrate that our method decomposes mixed classes street furniture into poles and different components with respect to different functionalities.

Pole-Like Street Furniture Decompostion in Mobile Laser Scanning Data

Science.gov (United States)

Li, F.; Oude Elberink, S.; Vosselman, G.

2016-06-01

Automatic semantic interpretation of street furniture has become a popular topic in recent years. Current studies detect street furniture as connected components of points above the street level. Street furniture classification based on properties of such components suffers from large intra class variability of shapes and cannot deal with mixed classes like traffic signs attached to light poles. In this paper, we focus on the decomposition of point clouds of pole-like street furniture. A novel street furniture decomposition method is proposed, which consists of three steps: (i) acquirement of prior-knowledge, (ii) pole extraction, (iii) components separation. For the pole extraction, a novel global pole extraction approach is proposed to handle 3 different cases of street furniture. In the evaluation of results, which involves the decomposition of 27 different instances of street furniture, we demonstrate that our method decomposes mixed classes street furniture into poles and different components with respect to different functionalities.

Fiction into Film: Learning Literature with a Movie Camera.

Science.gov (United States)

Costanzo, William V.

1985-01-01

Describes a "fiction into film" class course, in which students are brought to many significant insights about the workings of literature by collaborating on a short film based on a literary work. (FL)

Advanced Space Nuclear Reactors from Fiction to Reality

Science.gov (United States)

Popa-Simil, L.

The advanced nuclear power sources are used in a large variety of science fiction movies and novels, but their practical development is, still, in its early conceptual stages, some of the ideas being confirmed by collateral experiments. The novel reactor concept uses the direct conversion of nuclear energy into electricity, has electronic control of reactivity, being surrounded by a transmutation blanket and very thin shielding being small and light that at its very limit may be suitable to power an autonomously flying car. It also provides an improved fuel cycle producing minimal negative impact to environment. The key elements started to lose the fiction attributes, becoming viable actual concepts and goals for the developments to come, and on the possibility to achieve these objectives started to become more real because the theory shows that using the novel nano-technologies this novel reactor might be achievable in less than a century.

Dementia and detectives: Alzheimer's disease in crime fiction.

Science.gov (United States)

Orr, David Mr

2018-01-01

Fictional representations of dementia have burgeoned in recent years, and scholars have amply explored their double-edged capacity to promote tragic perspectives or normalising images of 'living well' with the condition. Yet to date, there has been only sparse consideration of the treatment afforded dementia within the genre of crime fiction. Focusing on two novels, Emma Healey's Elizabeth is Missing and Alice LaPlante's Turn of Mind, this article considers what it means in relation to the ethics of representation that these authors choose to cast as their amateur detective narrators women who have dementia. Analysing how their narrative portrayals frame the experience of living with dementia, it becomes apparent that features of the crime genre inflect the meanings conveyed. While aspects of the novels may reinforce problem-based discourses around dementia, in other respects they may spur meaningful reflection about it among the large readership of this genre.

A review of variables of urban street connectivity for spatial connection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohamad, W S N W; Said, I

2014-01-01

Several studies on street connectivity in cities and towns have been modeled on topology, morphology, technology and psychology of people living in the urban environment. Street connectivity means the connection of streets that offers people alternative routes. However, there emerge difficulties to determine the suitable variables and analysis to be chosen in defining the accurate result for studies street connectivity. The aim of this paper is to identify variables of street connectivity by applying GIS and Space Syntax. This paper reviews the variables of street connectivity from 15 past articles done in 1990s to early 2000s from journals of nine disciplines on Environment and Behavior, Planning and Design, Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, Applied Earth Observation and Geo-information, Environment and Planning, Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Environmental Psychology, Social Science and Medicine and Building and Environment. From the review, there are four variables found for street connectivity: link (streets-streets, street-nodes or node-streets, nodes-nodes), accessibility, least-angle, and centrality. Space syntax and GIS are suitable tools to analyze the four variables relating to systematic street systems for pedestrians. This review implies that planners of the street systems, in the aspect of street connectivity in cities and towns, should consider these four variables

A review of variables of urban street connectivity for spatial connection

Science.gov (United States)

Mohamad, W. S. N. W.; Said, I.

2014-02-01

Several studies on street connectivity in cities and towns have been modeled on topology, morphology, technology and psychology of people living in the urban environment. Street connectivity means the connection of streets that offers people alternative routes. However, there emerge difficulties to determine the suitable variables and analysis to be chosen in defining the accurate result for studies street connectivity. The aim of this paper is to identify variables of street connectivity by applying GIS and Space Syntax. This paper reviews the variables of street connectivity from 15 past articles done in 1990s to early 2000s from journals of nine disciplines on Environment and Behavior, Planning and Design, Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, Applied Earth Observation and Geo-information, Environment and Planning, Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Environmental Psychology, Social Science and Medicine and Building and Environment. From the review, there are four variables found for street connectivity: link (streets-streets, street-nodes or node-streets, nodes-nodes), accessibility, least-angle, and centrality. Space syntax and GIS are suitable tools to analyze the four variables relating to systematic street systems for pedestrians. This review implies that planners of the street systems, in the aspect of street connectivity in cities and towns, should consider these four variables.

Languages of the heart: the biomedical and the metaphorical in American fiction.

Science.gov (United States)

Oldfield, Benjamin J; Jones, David S

2014-01-01

The role of heart disease in American fiction has received less attention from scholars of literature, history, and medicine than have portrayals of tuberculosis, cancer, or HIV/AIDS, despite the fact that heart disease topped mortality charts for most of the 20th century. This article surveys manifestations of coronary artery disease in popular works of 20th-century American fiction to trace how authors and their protagonists grappled with the disease while knowledge of pathophysiology and therapeutics evolved. Countering Susan Sontag's mechanistic vision of patient encounters-where disease is absent of metaphor-we pair popular fiction with concurrent historical analysis to show that the proliferation of technological narratives of cardiac therapeutics could not displace the deeply symbolic nature of characters' encounters with heart disease. Because of the limited ability of the biomedical narrative to convey the meanings of disease and treatments, doctors and patients need to communicate through the rich possibilities of metaphor.

Sensation Seeking in Street Violence

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Heinskou, Marie Bruvik; Liebst, Lasse Suonperä

Sensation seeking leads to violence—runs an influential hypothesis in the social scientific study of violent behavior. Although studies confirm that violence is sometimes structured by sensation-seeking motives, the literature seldom comments on the limits to this explanation of violence....... The present study examines the scale of violence motivated by sensation seeking and the degree to which there are several distinct forms of sensation seeking motives operative in violence, rather than a sensation-seeking motive in the singular. The study draws on a sample of situations from Copenhagen...... involving street violence, which are coded quantitatively and qualitatively. Our analysis shows that sensation seeking only seldom seems to play a role in the structuring of street violence. Moreover, the data indicate that sensation seeking finds expression in street violence situations in two different...

Saints, Cops and Camorristi. Editorial Policies and Production Models of Italian TV Fiction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luca Barra

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Contemporary Italian TV fiction production is the result of both a long historical tradition and a complex broadcasting scenario. In recent years, three different models clearly emerged, following the divergent goals and needs of public service broadcaster Rai, commercial television Mediaset and pay-TV operator Sky Italia: respectively, with a pedagogical approach resulting in hagiographic miniseries, socially committed fiction and relevant comedies; with procedural and legal dramas following the US commercial models and romance-filled prime time soaps; and with a cable-oriented tension towards anti-heroes, high-budget productions and “quality television”. The paper reconstructs the main traits of each model, focusing on their main titles and most emblematic genres, as well as on the national production companies that helped the broadcasters in defining and establishing peculiar “fiction styles” and editorial policies.

Characteristics of flow and reactive pollutant dispersion in urban street canyons

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Soo-Jin; Kim, Jae-Jin; Kim, Minjoong J.; Park, Rokjin J.; Cheong, Hyeong-Bin

2015-05-01

In this study, the effects of aspect ratio defined as the ratio of building height to street width on the dispersion of reactive pollutants in street canyons were investigated using a coupled CFD-chemistry model. Flow characteristics for different aspect ratios were analyzed first. For each aspect ratio, six emission scenarios with different VOC-NOX ratios were considered. One vortex was generated when the aspect ratio was less than 1.6 (shallow street canyon). When the aspect ratio was greater than 1.6 (deep street canyon), two vortices were formed in the street canyons. Comparing to previous studies on two-dimensional street canyons, the vortex center is slanted toward the upwind building and reverse and downward flows are dominant in street canyons. Near the street bottom, there is a marked difference in flow pattern between in shallow and deep street canyons. Near the street bottom, reverse and downward flows are dominant in shallow street canyon and flow convergence exists near the center of the deep street canyons, which induces a large difference in the NOX and O3 dispersion patterns in the street canyons. NOX concentrations are high near the street bottom and decreases with height. The O3 concentrations are low at high NO concentrations near the street bottom because of NO titration. At a low VOC-NOX ratio, the NO concentrations are sufficiently high to destroy large amount of O3 by titration, resulting in an O3 concentration in the street canyon much lower than the background concentration. At high VOC-NOX ratios, a small amount of O3 is destroyed by NO titration in the lower layer of the street canyons. However, in the upper layer, O3 is formed through the photolysis of NO2 by VOC degradation reactions. As the aspect ratio increases, NOX (O3) concentrations averaged over the street canyons decrease (increase) in the shallow street canyons. This is because outward flow becomes strong and NOX flux toward the outsides of the street canyons increases

Diffusion of Complete Streets policies Across US communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Moreland-Russell, Sarah; Eyler, Amy; Barbero, Colleen; Hipp, J Aaron; Walsh, Heidi

2013-01-01

Complete Streets policies guide planning in communities by making the transportation system accommodating to all users including vehicle drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists, as well as those using public transportation. While the number of Complete Streets policies has increased over the past decade, no research has explored the factors attributing to the widespread diffusion of these policies. The purpose of this study was to apply concepts of the Diffusion of Innovation Theory to data related to Complete Streets policies in order to identify potential patterns and correlates. The main outcome of this study was policy adoption. Using the Diffusion of Innovation Theory and results from previous literature, we identified several factors that had the potential to affect the rate of Complete Streets policy diffusion: rural/urban status, state obesity rate, state funding for transportation, state obesity prevention funding, percentage of people who walk or bike to work in the state, presence of a state Complete Streets policy, and the number of bordering communities with Complete Streets policy. We used event history analysis as the main analysis method. Data from 49 community-level policies were analyzed, with a "community" defined as a city, a county, or a regional/Metropolitan Planning Organization. Three variables were significant predictors of Complete Streets policy adoption: state obesity rate (odds ratio [OR] = 1.465; confidence interval [CI] = 1.10-1.96) percentage of people who bike or walk to work in the state (OR = 1.726; CI = 1.069-2.79), and presence of a border community with a Complete Streets policy (OR = 3.859; CI = 1.084-13.742). Communities with Complete Streets policies varied in geographic and sociodemographic factors. Information about communities that are more likely to adopt a policy can be a tool for advocates and policy makers interested in this topic. Because adoption does not imply implementation, further research is needed to study

Using Anthropomorphism and Fictional Story Development to Enhance Student Learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kari A. Brossard Stoos

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Understanding mechanisms of human disease can be very challenging for students with a basic background in anatomy and biology, and it can be nearly impossible for students without any prior exposure to these basic sciences.  We have designed an approach for understanding human disease for learners of various science backgrounds.  By using fictional character associations with disease processes, we have anthropomorphized disease components to make the mechanisms accessible to students with little to no science background, while still appealing and exciting to students with significant science backgrounds.  By assisting students in the creation of fictional characters to represent disease processes, we have increased student understanding, engagement, enjoyment, and retention of course content.

Individuals with severely impaired vision can learn useful orientation and mobility skills in virtual streets and can use them to improve real street safety.

Science.gov (United States)

Bowman, Ellen Lambert; Liu, Lei

2017-01-01

Virtual reality has great potential in training road safety skills to individuals with low vision but the feasibility of such training has not been demonstrated. We tested the hypotheses that low vision individuals could learn useful skills in virtual streets and could apply them to improve real street safety. Twelve participants, whose vision was too poor to use the pedestrian signals were taught by a certified orientation and mobility specialist to determine the safest time to cross the street using the visual and auditory signals made by the start of previously stopped cars at a traffic-light controlled street intersection. Four participants were trained in real streets and eight in virtual streets presented on 3 projection screens. The crossing timing of all participants was evaluated in real streets before and after training. The participants were instructed to say "GO" at the time when they felt the safest to cross the street. A safety score was derived to quantify the GO calls based on its occurrence in the pedestrian phase (when the pedestrian sign did not show DON'T WALK). Before training, > 50% of the GO calls from all participants fell in the DON'T WALK phase of the traffic cycle and thus were totally unsafe. 20% of the GO calls fell in the latter half of the pedestrian phase. These calls were unsafe because one initiated crossing this late might not have sufficient time to walk across the street. After training, 90% of the GO calls fell in the early half of the pedestrian phase. These calls were safer because one initiated crossing in the pedestrian phase and had at least half of the pedestrian phase for walking across. Similar safety changes occurred in both virtual street and real street trained participants. An ANOVA showed a significant increase of the safety scores after training and there was no difference in this safety improvement between the virtual street and real street trained participants. This study demonstrated that virtual reality

Multimodal Diversity of Postmodernist Fiction Text

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

U. I. Tykha

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to the analysis of structural and functional manifestations of multimodal diversity in postmodernist fiction texts. Multimodality is defined as the coexistence of more than one semiotic mode within a certain context. Multimodal texts feature a diversity of semiotic modes in the communication and development of their narrative. Such experimental texts subvert conventional patterns by introducing various semiotic resources – verbal or non-verbal.

Cost Overrun Optimism: Fact or Fiction

Science.gov (United States)

2016-02-29

Base, OH. Homgren, C. T. (1990). In G. Foster (Ed.), Cost accounting : A managerial emphasis (7th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Morrison... Accounting Office. Gansler, J. S. (1989). Affording defense. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Heise, S. R. (1991). A review of cost performance index...Image designed by Diane Fleischer Cost Overrun Optimism: FACT or FICTION? Maj David D. Christensen, USAF Program managers are advocates by

Forging Futures with Teens and Science Fiction: A Conversation with Greg Bear and David Brin.

Science.gov (United States)

Moltz, Sandy

2003-01-01

Presents an interview with Greg Bear and David Brin, two science fiction writers who started Reading for the Future, an international project geared toward secondary school students that shows teachers and librarians how science fiction inspires young readers. Discusses programs that have come out of this group; standards for books geared toward…

Street Choice Logit Model for Visitors in Shopping Districts

Science.gov (United States)

Kawada, Ko; Yamada, Takashi; Kishimoto, Tatsuya

2014-01-01

In this study, we propose two models for predicting people’s activity. The first model is the pedestrian distribution prediction (or postdiction) model by multiple regression analysis using space syntax indices of urban fabric and people distribution data obtained from a field survey. The second model is a street choice model for visitors using multinomial logit model. We performed a questionnaire survey on the field to investigate the strolling routes of 46 visitors and obtained a total of 1211 street choices in their routes. We proposed a utility function, sum of weighted space syntax indices, and other indices, and estimated the parameters for weights on the basis of maximum likelihood. These models consider both street networks, distance from destination, direction of the street choice and other spatial compositions (numbers of pedestrians, cars, shops, and elevation). The first model explains the characteristics of the street where many people tend to walk or stay. The second model explains the mechanism underlying the street choice of visitors and clarifies the differences in the weights of street choice parameters among the various attributes, such as gender, existence of destinations, number of people, etc. For all the attributes considered, the influences of DISTANCE and DIRECTION are strong. On the other hand, the influences of Int.V, SHOPS, CARS, ELEVATION, and WIDTH are different for each attribute. People with defined destinations tend to choose streets that “have more shops, and are wider and lower”. In contrast, people with undefined destinations tend to choose streets of high Int.V. The choice of males is affected by Int.V, SHOPS, WIDTH (positive) and CARS (negative). Females prefer streets that have many shops, and couples tend to choose downhill streets. The behavior of individual persons is affected by all variables. The behavior of people visiting in groups is affected by SHOP and WIDTH (positive). PMID:25379274

Street Choice Logit Model for Visitors in Shopping Districts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ko Kawada

2014-07-01

Full Text Available In this study, we propose two models for predicting people’s activity. The first model is the pedestrian distribution prediction (or postdiction model by multiple regression analysis using space syntax indices of urban fabric and people distribution data obtained from a field survey. The second model is a street choice model for visitors using multinomial logit model. We performed a questionnaire survey on the field to investigate the strolling routes of 46 visitors and obtained a total of 1211 street choices in their routes. We proposed a utility function, sum of weighted space syntax indices, and other indices, and estimated the parameters for weights on the basis of maximum likelihood. These models consider both street networks, distance from destination, direction of the street choice and other spatial compositions (numbers of pedestrians, cars, shops, and elevation. The first model explains the characteristics of the street where many people tend to walk or stay. The second model explains the mechanism underlying the street choice of visitors and clarifies the differences in the weights of street choice parameters among the various attributes, such as gender, existence of destinations, number of people, etc. For all the attributes considered, the influences of DISTANCE and DIRECTION are strong. On the other hand, the influences of Int.V, SHOPS, CARS, ELEVATION, and WIDTH are different for each attribute. People with defined destinations tend to choose streets that “have more shops, and are wider and lower”. In contrast, people with undefined destinations tend to choose streets of high Int.V. The choice of males is affected by Int.V, SHOPS, WIDTH (positive and CARS (negative. Females prefer streets that have many shops, and couples tend to choose downhill streets. The behavior of individual persons is affected by all variables. The behavior of people visiting in groups is affected by SHOP and WIDTH (positive.

Health policy making for street children: challenges and strategies.

Science.gov (United States)

Abdi, Fatemeh; Saeieh, Sara Esmaelzadeh; Roozbeh, Nasibeh; Yazdkhasti, Mansoureh

2017-08-17

Background The phenomenon of street children is a bio-psychological and social issue that not only harms children, but also endangers the health of a society. In line with the national programs for the development and promotion of street children's health in Iran, health policy making and essential strategies for this group of children will be presented in this paper. This paper will discuss the main issues and challenges of street children's health and, also, health policy and guidelines for this population. Methods In this review study, the keywords; street children, health, challenges, policy, and health policy making were searched through PubMed, SID, Iranmedex, World Health Organization (WHO), Emro, the Cochran Library, Medline and Google scholar to collect data. The search resulted in 84 related resources from which 48 cases that were more relevant to this research and covered the issue more comprehensively, were used. All data published during 2002-2015 have been included in this paper. Results Key concepts including street children and their health, health policy, strategies to improve the health of street children, health policy approaches for street children, the WHO's strategies, and social support program for street children must be considered in the health policy making processes for street children, as precise identification of the relevant information makes planning more effective in health policy making for this group of children. Conclusion The phenomenon of street children is a growing problem in the world and it has turned into a serious concern in many countries including Iran. The findings of this study can be used for identifying necessary measures in order to use research outcomes more effectively in policy making processes and reforming street children's health policies in Iran.

Children's direct fright and worry reactions to violence in fiction and news television programs.

Science.gov (United States)

van der Molen, Juliette H Walma; Bushman, Brad J

2008-09-01

To examine whether violence in fictional and news television content frightens and worries children. Mixed factorial. Type of reaction (fright, worry) and television programming (violent news, violent fiction) were within-subjects factors, whereas age, sex, and television viewing frequency were between-subjects factors. Participants included 572 children (47% boys), aged 8 to 12 years, from 9 urban and rural primary schools in the Netherlands. The main exposure was to descriptions of 8 threats frequently depicted in fictional and news programs (eg, murder, war, house fires). Children reported whether they were frightened or worried by these threats. Violent threats increased both fright and worry. These 2 reactions could be distinguished from one another in a factor analysis. When violent content was described as news, it produced more fear reactions than when it was described as fiction. Fright and worry were greater in girls than in boys, in younger children than in older children, and in light television viewers than in heavy television viewers. Pediatricians should inform parents, educators, policy makers, and broadcasters about the potentially harmful effect of violent programming on children's emotions, especially in the case of news programming.

Stranger than fiction parallel universes beguile science

CERN Multimedia

2007-01-01

A staple of mind-bending science fiction, the possibility of multiple universes has long intrigued hard-nosed physicists, mathematicians and cosmologists too. We may not be able -- at least not yet -- to prove they exist, many serious scientists say, but there are plenty of reasons to think that parallel dimensions are more than figments of eggheaded imagination.

Whose Bay Street? Competing Narratives of Nassau's City Centre

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nona Patara Martin

2009-05-01

Full Text Available Bay Street has always been at the centre of commercial, cultural and political life in the Bahama Islands. It also acts as a gateway for millions of tourists who come to Nassau, the Bahamian capital, via cruise ships every year. Not surprisingly, Bahamians and non-Bahamians have widely divergent impressions of Bay Street. The need to accommodate the tourists who are critical to the Bahamian economy has meant that Bay Street, despite its deep social significance for Bahamians, has increasingly become a tourist space. With reference to the ‘sense of place’ and place attachment literature, this paper traces the transformation of Bay Street and attempts to tease out the most obvious tensions between the Bay Street that Bahamians experience and Bay Street as a port of call.

Epistemological-motivational bases of literary non-fiction genre as factors determining the linguistic structure of text

OpenAIRE

GALSTYAN ASHOT

2016-01-01

This article dwells on epistemological-motivational aspects of the literary non-fiction genre. The general features of memoir literature are examined form the point of view of their epistemological and cognitive aspects. The cognitive and informational specificities of non-fictional narratives are also considered.

Alcohol in urban streetscapes: a comparison of the use of Google Street View and on-street observation

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Chris Clews

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Alcohol-related harm is a major global health issue, and controls on alcohol marketing are one intervention utilized by governments. This study investigated the use of Google Street View (GSV as a novel research method for collecting alcohol-related data in the urban environment. Methods The efficacy of GSV and on-street observation by observer teams was compared by surveying 400 m stretches of 12 streets in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. Data on alcohol sale, alcohol-related advertising, health promotion materials, regulatory information and visible alcohol consumption were collected. Results A total of 403 retailers with evidence of alcohol sales and 1161 items of alcohol-related communication were identified in on-street observation. Of the latter, 1028 items (89 % were for alcohol marketing and 133 (11 % were for alcohol-related health promotion and alcohol regulation. GSV was found to be a less sensitive tool than on-street observation with only 50 % of the alcohol venues identified and 52 % of the venue-associated brand marketing identified. A high degree of inter-observer reliability was generally found between pairs of observers e.g., for the detection of alcohol retail venues the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC was 0.93 (95 % CI: 0.78 to 0.98 for on-street observation and 0.85 (95 % CI: 0.49 to 0.96 for using GSV. Conclusions GSV does not seem suitable for the comprehensive study of the influences on alcohol consumption in the urban streetscape. However, it may still have value for large, static objects in the environment and be more time efficient than traditional on-street observation measures, especially when used to collect data across a wide geographical area. Furthermore, GSV might become a more useful research tool in settings with better image quality (such as more ‘footpath views’ and with more regularly updated GSV imagery.

What Pauline Doesn't Know: Using Guided Fiction Writing to Educate Health Professionals about Cultural Competence.

Science.gov (United States)

Saffran, Lise

2017-01-07

Research linking reading literary fiction to empathy supports health humanities programs in which reflective writing accompanies close readings of texts, both to explore principles of storytelling (narrative arc and concrete language) and to promote an examination of biases in care. Little attention has been paid to the possible contribution of guided fiction-writing in health humanities curricula toward enhancing cultural competence among health professionals, both clinical and community-based. Through an analysis of the short story "Pie Dance" by Molly Giles, juxtaposed with descriptions of specific writing exercises, this paper explains how the demands of writing fiction promote cultural competency.

Contrast in air pollution components between major streets and background locations: Particulate matter mass, black carbon, elemental composition, nitrogen oxide and ultrafine particle number

Science.gov (United States)

Boogaard, Hanna; Kos, Gerard P. A.; Weijers, Ernie P.; Janssen, Nicole A. H.; Fischer, Paul H.; van der Zee, Saskia C.; de Hartog, Jeroen J.; Hoek, Gerard

2011-01-01

Policies to reduce outdoor air pollution concentrations are often assessed on the basis of the regulated pollutants. Whether these are the most appropriate components to assess the potential health benefits is questionable, as other health-relevant pollutants may be more strongly related to traffic. The aim of this study is to compare the contrast in concentration between major roads and (sub)urban background for a large range of pollutants and to analyze the magnitude of the measured difference in the street - background for major streets with different street configurations. Measurements of PM 10, PM 2.5, particle number concentrations (PNC), black carbon (BC), elemental composition of PM 10 and PM 2.5 and NO x were conducted simultaneously in eight major streets and nine (sub)urban background locations in the Netherlands. Measurements were done six times for a week during a six month period in 2008. High contrasts between busy streets and background locations in the same city were found for chromium, copper and iron (factor 2-3). These elements were especially present in the coarse fraction of PM. In addition, high contrasts were found for BC and NO x (factor 1.8), typically indicators of direct combustion emissions. The contrast for PNC was similar to BC. NO 2 contrast was lower (factor 1.5). The largest contrast was found for two street canyons and two streets with buildings at one side of the street only. The contrast between busy streets and urban background in NO 2 was less than the contrast found for BC, PNC and elements indicative of non-exhaust emissions, adding evidence that NO 2 is not representing (current) traffic well. The study supports a substantial role for non-exhaust emissions including brake- and tyre wear and road dust in addition to direct combustion emissions. Significant underestimation of disease burden may occur when relying too much on the regulated components.

Beyond Historical Fiction: Speare's "The Witch of Blackbird Pond."

Science.gov (United States)

Thuente, Mary Helen

1985-01-01

Reviews "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by E. Speare to show how the full narrative power of the novel derives from the author's successful integration of two separate narrative genres: historical fiction and the folktale. (EL)

THE ADDRESSEE AGE AS A FACTOR DETERMINING THE DISCURSIVE STRUCTURE OF A WORK OF FICTION

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Beloglazova Elena Vladimirovna

2014-12-01

Full Text Available In the present paper the author attempts to establish the connection between the discursive structure of a work of fiction and the addressee age factor. At that the point of departure for the argument is (a the thesis on discursive heterogeneity being a feature of fiction in general, which is a direct consequence of literature of literature being aimed at reflecting the world in its entirety and complexity, and (b the assumption that the above-said is applicable to children's fiction, though discursive heterogeneity undergoes a certain transformation due to the specific nature and role of literature for children. The category of addressee in the cornerstone of children's fiction predetermining: on the surface level – the selection of organization of language means in the text; on the contents level – the selection of story and characters; on the ideology level – the configuration of the polydiscourse of the children's fiction, as well as the selection of discourses' representatives. The peculiarity of children's fiction is primarily due to the ideology underlying it - what the society demands from the right book for kids, which is viewed as a socializing tool. And in order to be efficient, the tool needs to be tailored for its object, its exact parameters, age being one of them. Thus the complexity of the discursive structure of literary works for children appears to be directly related to the age of their ideal reader, which is shown in the article by comparative analysis of works addressed to floor and ceiling audiences of the childhood span. The analysis reveals the fact that older readership leads not only to a greater complexity of a literary work's discursive structure, but also to a wider variety in the ways of introducing interdiscursemes into text.

Does Science-Fiction predict [or change] the future?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Christian Graswohl; Jan Westren-Doll; Douglas Fenech

2010-01-01

This research paper looks at a selection of science-fiction films and its connection with the progression of the use of television, telephone and print media. It also analyzes statistical data obtained from a questionnaire conducted by the research group regarding the use of communication media.

Future Tense: Science Fiction Confronts the New Science.

Science.gov (United States)

Antczak, Janice

1990-01-01

Describes 10 science fiction stories for young readers whose contents address recent developments on the frontiers of scientific research, including genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, and robotics. The use of these materials to inform young readers about the issues and dangers involved in scientific developments is discussed. (CLB)

Available means: manifestations of Aristotle's three modes of rhetorical appeal in antinuclear fiction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mannix, P.J.

1986-01-01

The abundance of sympathetic scientists, military men and clergymen in antinuclear fiction reflects a public perception that authorities speak most knowledgeably about an issue. Other antinuclear works employ characters with less traditional ethical appeals: nurturing women, vital youths, and even infallible computers. Antinuclear fiction uses enthymeme and example to reflect the history of the nuclear weapons debate. Some works attach the immorality of the weapons by examining the moral dilemmas of nuclear scientists. Others admit the permanence of the nuclear threat. By arousing emotions, fiction is capable of mobilizing its audience's active support for the ideas it presents. The principal emotions that various antinuclear works arouse highlight the close relationship between literature and rhetoric. The most dominant emotions, pity and fear, are the two Aristotle links to tragedy. Scorn, the principal emotion that Dr. Strangelove arouses - is the crucial emotion on which all satire depends. However, the other principal emotion in anti-nuclear fiction - hope - has principally a rhetorical function ensuring that the feelings the works provoke will be channeled constructively.

Into a Mapping of Copenhagen Street Lighting 2014

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bülow, Katja; Asp, Claus; Kongshaug, Jesper

LED lighting is a new lighting component in urban Spaces. How does LED lighting change the visual experience of a street, how did it use to be and how will it become? The book presents a mapping method in which an overview map of light sources in the Copenhagen streets is combined with a video...... recording and a series of photos from a route, whick goes through different city parts and types of streets. The mapping is done in the crucial changing fase, in which the street lighting in Copenhagen is a mix of previously used light sources and LED....

Welsh Women's Industrial Fiction 1880-1910.

Science.gov (United States)

Bohata, Kirsti; Jones, Alexandra

2017-10-02

From the beginning of the genre, women writers have made a major contribution to the development of industrial writing. Although prevented from gaining first-hand experience of the coalface, Welsh women writers were amongst the first to try to fictionalize those heavy industries-coal and metal in the south, and slate in the north-which dominated the lives of the majority of the late nineteenth-century Welsh population. Treatment of industrial matter is generally fragmentary in this early women's writing; industrial imagery and metaphor may be used in novels that are not primarily "about" industry at all. Yet from c. 1880-1910, Welsh women writers made a significant-and hitherto critically neglected-attempt to make sense in literature of contemporary industrial Wales in powerful and innovative ways. This essay maps their contribution and considers anglophone Welsh women writers' adaptations and innovations of form (particularly romance) as they try to find a way of representing industrial landscapes, communities and the daily realities of industrial labour. It identifies the genesis in women's writing of tropes that would become central to later industrial fiction, including depictions of industrial accident, injury, death and disability. And it explores the representation of social relations (class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality) and conflict on this tumultuous, dangerous new stage.

The Chicana Subject in Ana Castillo's Fiction and the Discursive Zone of Chicana/o Theory

Science.gov (United States)

Carson, Benjamin D.

2007-01-01

In the world of Chicana fiction, Ana Castillo has achieved the kind of status Maxine Hong Kingston has attained within Asian American discourse. Castillo's work is popular not only with the general reading public but in many academic circles as well. What sets Castillo apart from so many other Chicana fiction writers is that she is also a…

POLE-LIKE STREET FURNITURE DECOMPOSTION IN MOBILE LASER SCANNING DATA

OpenAIRE

Li, F.; Oude Elberink, S.; Vosselman, G.

2016-01-01

Automatic semantic interpretation of street furniture has become a popular topic in recent years. Current studies detect street furniture as connected components of points above the street level. Street furniture classification based on properties of such components suffers from large intra class variability of shapes and cannot deal with mixed classes like traffic signs attached to light poles. In this paper, we focus on the decomposition of point clouds of pole-like street furniture. A nove...

Street canyon ventilation control by proper planning and development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Balakin Vladimir Vasil'evich

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The objective of street canyon ventilation control in major streets is a tool of air pollution prevention in them, protection of housing areas from excessive wind or preservation and intensification of existing wind speed in case of insufficient ventilation. The maximum permissible concentration of car exhaust pollutants with wind speed within comfortable and permissible values by physiological and hygienic criteria, are ensured as from 40 to 70 % of thoroughfares in major cities. The dependence of air pollution level on wind speed is comparable to its dependence on traffic intensity and ratio of buildings height (H to street width. But one has to take into account that, if the wind blows across the street, vortices form within the street canyon, which results in higher concentration of car exhaust pollutants near the downwind buildings. The objective of this work is to find the functional dependences of wind speed in a major street on its width and density of buildings, and also to find out which street configurations are favorable for formation of closed air circulation within it, resulting in insufficient aeration. The experimental research was done on a site for large-scale modeling of built-up urban territory, using cup anemometers. The coefficients of dependence of wind speed within a street on the types of buildings and on the street width were obtained. Characteristics of street layouts for control of aeration were determined. Building density rates for maximizing or optimizing the wind speed were determined. Street layouts are considered where stable vortices form between the buildings. For example, vortices within the street canyon’s cross-section appear when buildings squarish in ground plan situated far apart are replaced by oblong ones with the minimum allowed intervals of 15 meters between them (for 5-storeyed buildings; or intervals equal to the buildings’ height, or where the buildings are long and close together. With

Street children of India -- a glimpse.

Science.gov (United States)

Nigam, S

1994-01-01

In India, 90% of street children are working children with regular family ties who live with their families, but are on the streets due to poverty and their parents' unemployment. The remaining 10% are either working children with few family ties who view the streets as their homes or abandoned and neglected children with no family ties. The National Policy for Children established in 1974 emphasizes the provision of equal opportunities for the development to all children during their growing years. Policy stresses programs to maintain, educate, and train destitute children and orphans. Policy is also to protect children against neglect, cruelty, and exploitation, but this is only on paper. An UNICEF study found that almost 40,000 children die every day in developing countries, 25% of whom are in India. Studies in some major cities indicate that the street children in India are of moderate health status, suffering from various chronic diseases and undernourishment. They are deprived of all health programs, but seem to prefer government hospitals in case of dire need. Street children often have to pay for water. Almost 97% in Calcutta, 99% in Bangalore, and 90% in Madras reported having no access to toilet and bathing facilities; 83% in Kanpur, however, had access to such facilities. Nothing has been heard in recent years of the National Children's Board established in 1975. Apparently the board has gradually waned. Various schemes were planned in 1992 by the Union Welfare Ministry in association with UNICEF. Extending extra health facilities, establishing nutrition programs, providing vocational training, protecting children from abuse, distributing dry-food polypacks, providing night shelters, providing ration cards, and creating bathing and toilet facilities would go far in improving the quality of life and the future of street children in India.

Freeze, Wait, Reanimate: Cryonic Suspension and Science Fiction

Science.gov (United States)

Shoffstall, Grant

2010-01-01

This essay takes as its chief point of departure Jacques Ellul's contention that imaginative treatments of malevolent technology in antitechnological science fiction, by way of inviting rejection, refusal, dismissal, or condemnation, conspire in facilitating human acceptance of and adjustment to technology as it otherwise presently is. The author…

Implant removal after fracture healing : facts and fiction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vos, D.I.

2013-01-01

A frequently asked question to trauma and orthopaedic surgeons is whether and if yes, when an implant will be removed? Although implant removal after fracture healing is daily practice, a scientific basis doesn’t exist. All studies in this thesis were performed to unravel the facts and fiction of

The Religious Affordance of Fiction : A Semiotic Approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Davidsen, M.A.

2016-01-01

A curious aspect of late modern religion is the emergence of fiction-based religions, such as Jediism, based on George Lucas’ Star Wars saga, and Tolkien spirituality, based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary mythology about Middle-earth. This article draws on narrative semiotics to explain why some

75 FR 71744 - Fifth Street Finance Corp., et al.; Notice of Application

Science.gov (United States)

2010-11-24

... Street Finance Corp., et al.; Notice of Application November 18, 2010. AGENCY: Securities and Exchange... Street Finance Corp. (``Fifth Street''), Fifth Street Management LLC, Fifth Street Mezzanine Partners IV... regulated as a business development company (``BDC'') under the Act. Fifth Street is a specialty finance...

Goffman Goes Rock Climbing: Using Creative Fiction to Explore the Presentation of Self in Outdoor Education

Science.gov (United States)

Beames, Simon K.; Pike, Elizabeth C. J.

2008-01-01

Outdoor education literature has a recent history of examining its practice through a variety of sociological, philosophical, psychological, and anthropological lenses. Following this trend, this paper explores the face-to-face social interaction of a fictional introductory rock-climbing course. The analysis of this creative fiction draws on…

Food irradiation: Facts or fiction?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Loaharanu, P.

1990-01-01

Food irradiation is at a political crossroad. In one direction, it is moving forward supported by overwhelming scientific evidence of its safety and benefits to economy and health. In the opposite direction, it threatens to be derailed by misleading claims about its safety and usefulness. Whether people will ultimately benefit from the use of irradiation to help fight serious food problems, or whether they will allow the technology to go to waste, will be determined by how successful people are in separating the facts from the fiction of food irradiation

'Limbitless Solutions': the Prosthetic Arm, Iron Man and the Science Fiction of Technoscience.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Susan

2016-12-01

Early last year, a non-profit organisation called 'Limbitless Solutions' modelled a 3D printed prosthetic arm on a fighting suit that features in the popular superhero film series, Iron Man (2008-2013). In addition, 'Limbitless Solutions' resourcefully deployed the fictional character and inventor of the Iron Man suit, weapons specialist and philanthropist, Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr, in a celebrity/superhero endorsed promotional short film, showing 'Tony', the 'real Iron Man', gifting the futuristic military styled 'gauntlet' to Alex, a 7-year-old boy with a partially developed right arm. Engaging with scholarly work on the science fiction of technoscience, prostheses and the posthuman, and disability and DIY assistive technology, I analyse 'Limbitless Solutions' use of science fiction in a high-profile media event that problematically portrays an impaired child 'in need' of 'repair' and subsequently 'fixed' by technology. Overall, the aim is to integrate science fiction tropes, such as the wounded hero, the fighting suit and prosthetic arm, with disability studies, to highlight the sustained challenges that emerging theories of disability and technology face as contemporary economic, political and ideological forces endorse and promote militarised images of cyborg assimilation over human variation and physical difference. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Does reading a single passage of literary fiction really improve theory of mind? An attempt at replication.

Science.gov (United States)

Panero, Maria Eugenia; Weisberg, Deena Skolnick; Black, Jessica; Goldstein, Thalia R; Barnes, Jennifer L; Brownell, Hiram; Winner, Ellen

2016-11-01

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 111(5) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (see record 2016-50315-003). In the article, due to an error in stimulus construction, four items (three authors, one foil) were omitted from the ART presented to all participants tested by Research Group 1. These omissions do not undermine the results in the primary analyses, which all included ART and ART Condition (as covariates). Any variation across research groups, including this difference in reading exposure measurement, is accounted for in the multilevel analyses. Therefore, the Table 2 title should appear as Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) Scores by Condition and Overall Unadjusted Means for the Current Study and Kidd and Castano (2013), as Well as the Zero-Order Pearson's Correlations Between RMET and ART Scores Overall and by Condition. The ART data columns should be deleted, and the table note should begin as follows: RMET scores were transformed to correct for skew prior to correlational analyses. The section title above the Discussion section should appear as Comparison of Our RMET Scores to Kidd and Castano Data, with the first two sentences appearing as follows: To determine whether the responses in our sample were similar to what Kidd and Castano (2013) found, we compared our mean performance on the RMET to theirs. Our grand mean (26.28) was significantly higher than theirs (25.18), t (1=, 374) = 3.71, p Fiction simulates the social world and invites us into the minds of characters. This has led various researchers to suggest that reading fiction improves our understanding of others' cognitive and emotional states. Kidd and Castano (2013) received a great deal of attention by providing support for this claim. Their article reported that reading segments of literary fiction (but not popular fiction or nonfiction) immediately and significantly improved performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), an

A Study on Evaluation for Street Space using AHP Method

OpenAIRE

小塚, みすず; 許, 彦; 川本, 義海; 本多, 義明

2004-01-01

Street space is an important public area which forms the framework of city space. In addition, from the view of the traffic functions, street space also plays a role to support people's activities performed in city. This paper examines the evaluations of street space among the cities of Fukui (Japan), Toyota (Japan) and Suzhou (China). Therefore, a questionnaire has been carried out and actual conditions of street space are grasped. In addition street functions were evaluated with the AHP met...

"Street Love": How Street Life Oriented U. S. Born African Men Frame Giving Back to One Another and the Local Community

Science.gov (United States)

Payne, Yasser Arafat; Hamdi, Hanaa A.

2009-01-01

This Participatory Action Research (PAR) project worked with four active street life oriented U. S. born African men, to document how a community sample of street life oriented U. S. born African men between the ages of 16-65, frame and use "street life" as a Site of Resiliency (Payne, Dissertation, 2005; "Journal of Black Psychology" 34(1):3-31,…

The (Street) Art of Resistance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Awad, Sarah H.; Wagoner, Brady; Glaveanu, Vlad Petre

2017-01-01

This chapter focuses on the interrelation between resistance, novelty and social change We will consider resistance as both a social and individual phenomenon, a constructive process that articulates continuity and change and as an act oriented towards an imagined future of different communities....... In this account, resistance is thus a creative act having its own dynamic and, most of all, aesthetic dimension. In fact, it is one such visibly artistic form of resistance that will be considered here, the case of street art as a tool of social protest and revolution in Egypt. Street art is commonly defined...... in sharp contrast with high or fine art because of its collective nature and anonymity, its different kind of aesthetics, and most of all its disruptive, ‘anti-social’ outcomes. With the use of illustrations, we will argue here that street art is prototypical of a creative form of resistance, situated...

Framing Mass Shootings: Fictional Depictions of Real-life Gun Massacres in American Cinema

OpenAIRE

Tryggeseid, Ane Johannessen

2017-01-01

This thesis examines the concept of real-life mass shootings and its depiction in American fictional cinema. The issue of mass shootings is a highly controversial subject of discussion, both within the public and political sphere, as it necessarily touches upon rigid perceptions of civil liberties – specifically those of the Second Amendment – which further permeates the field of fictional cinema. As opposed to assessing the issue of mass shootings as a product of a prevailing culture of guns...

Street children: “Running from” or “running to”?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. le Roux

1997-03-01

Full Text Available The street child phenomenon presents a complex issue resulting from a diversity of integrated factors. The problem should therefore preferably be explained and addressed holistically. A search of available literature on street children clearly indicates that street children per se are not the primary problem. The phenomenon o f street children is merely a symptom of a problem underlying the intolerable situation of these children's family and community lives. In this article it is explained that the street child phenomenon is thus symptomatic of contemporary twentieth century conditions. "Running from " and “running to " are in fact intereffective tendencies or reactions to a complicated polarised society: two sides of a common coin.

Designing safe and inclusive streets in India | CRDI - Centre de ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

17 nov. 2016 ... Safe streets play a crucial role in enabling livelihoods, mobility, and access to services. In fast-growing Indian cities such as Ahmedabad, streets are also the site of conflict. With incomes and vehicle ownership on the rise, traffic has replaced people as the central point of street design. Vehicle-focused street ...

School Me, School Me Not, Street Me, Street Me Not…

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gravesen, David Thore; Frostholm, Peter Hornbæk

School Me, School Me Not, Street Me, Street Me Not… (1099) David Thore Gravesen, Peter Hornbæk Frostholm ECER 2016, 14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research, Session: 14 SES 10 A When picking leaves of a marguerite, whilst doing the “she loves me, she loves me not” game, you....... Obviously, the skaters attend the site to skate. But also other, more vulnerable groupings, use the site to socialize, meet peers and perhaps escape an unreliable and risky family arena. One particular group, the self-named Thugz, primarily formed around a number of young boys with non-Danish ethnic...... milieu. With a criminal gang-like behavior (Hoeben & Weerman 2013; Hviid 2007; Rasmussen 2012) involving petty crime and violence, one would think the group members would be indifferent towards their schooling and future careers. This was not the case. The informants proved to be very aware...

Contemporary fiction and the ethics of modern culture

CERN Document Server

Karnicky, Jeffrey

2007-01-01

This book argues for the ethical relevancy of contemporary fiction at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Through reading novels by such writers as David Foster Wallace, Richard Powers, and Irvine Welsh, this book looks at how these works seek to transform the ways that readers live in the world.

Imagine That!: Science Fiction as a Learning Motivation

Science.gov (United States)

Ontell, Val

2003-01-01

This article, based on a presentation made by the author at the 2003 California Library Association conference, provides examples of how librarians and teachers can use Science Fiction to provide catalysts for discussion in a variety of subjects; teach students how to question intelligently; and stimulate their imaginations, thus motivating them…

Improving urban visibility through fractal analysis of street edges: The case of John Evans Atta Mills High Street in Accra, Ghana

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R.A. Oppong

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Streets are a representation of cities, and the image of a city is a reflection of its home country. Although attempts to ensure harmonious spatial and environmental development in Ghanaian settlements date back to the colonial era, these efforts have minimal physical manifestation in the urban fabric of the city of Accra. The Independence Arch of Ghana, an important landmark in the urban fabric and history of Accra, lacks the striking vista and approach it deserves. This paper introduces the use of fractal analysis of street edges to understand the characteristics of the John Evans Atta Mills (JEAM High Street for developing recommendations to improve visibility along its stretch and the overall image of the city. The box-counting method with visual survey was used in research. The pertinent questions this paper seeks to address are as follows: What factors affect the visibility and imageability of JEAM High Street? What design aspects should be considered to improve urban visibility along JEAM High Street? What is the link of fractals to urban design and architecture? The paper recommends various design considerations and qualities to improve the urban visibility and imageability of JEAM High Street.

Turning Fiction Into Non-fiction for Signal-to-Noise Ratio Estimation -- The Time-Multiplexed and Adaptive Split-Symbol Moments Estimator

Science.gov (United States)

Simon, M.; Dolinar, S.

2005-08-01

A means is proposed for realizing the generalized split-symbol moments estimator (SSME) of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), i.e., one whose implementation on the average allows for a number of subdivisions (observables), 2L, per symbol beyond the conventional value of two, with other than an integer value of L. In theory, the generalized SSME was previously shown to yield optimum performance for a given true SNR, R, when L=R/sqrt(2) and thus, in general, the resulting estimator was referred to as the fictitious SSME. Here we present a time-multiplexed version of the SSME that allows it to achieve its optimum value of L as above (to the extent that it can be computed as the average of a sum of integers) at each value of SNR and as such turns fiction into non-fiction. Also proposed is an adaptive algorithm that allows the SSME to rapidly converge to its optimum value of L when in fact one has no a priori information about the true value of SNR.

Teacher candidates' perceptions regarding the integration of fictional literature into elementary science instruction

Science.gov (United States)

Everman, Daphne Jane

The purpose of this study was to investigate the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs held by teacher candidates (TCs) regarding the integration of fictional literature into elementary science instruction. Data were collected in the forms of a Q sort completed by two sections of TCs as an in-class activity, demographics and background information filled out by each participant, and two focus groups. The data were analyzed through a blend of Q methodology and Yin's five phase analysis approach (2011), and a constructivist framework was used to analyze the potential impact TCs' background had on their perceptions of the use of fictional literature in elementary science. Key findings indicated that while many TCs have limited backgrounds in the use of fictional literature during science and would like more information about how to use it, overall, there was strong support for its use as a science teaching tool because it makes science more approachable, builds excitement, and encourages students to become more engaged.

Manipulating Our Futures: The Role of Science Fiction in Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Michalsky, Walt

1979-01-01

A rationale is presented for using science fiction in the English classroom, emphasizing that students like the genre and that it teaches them to analyze and interpret social and technological change. (SJL)

"May the journey continue": Earth 2 fan fiction, or Filling in gaps to revive a canceled series

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesca Musiani

2010-09-01

Full Text Available This essay explores writing practices in a fan community having to give life to a story deprived of an "official" version: the television series Earth 2. I argue that fan fiction writing for this prematurely canceled series exhibits peculiar features in comparison to fan writing for established series: for example, temporality, choice of protagonists, character pairings, and challenges to the original conception(s of the series. Writing fan fiction for a canceled series is not about creating alternatives to an existing story, but about filling in gaps; it brings to light the ways in which fan fiction deals with closure. I take as a case study Earth 2, a series aired by NBC in the United States in 1994–95, whose first and only season ended in a cliffhanger episode hinting that a mysterious ailment had struck the main and most popular character. Shortly afterward, a significant number of Earth 2 Web sites, online conventions, and especially fan stories started developing; they explored what could have happened next and bore nostalgic but combative mottoes and titles such as "May the Journey Continue." I explore the specific features of Earth 2 fan fiction production and sharing by analyzing the main Earth 2 fan fiction archives on the Web and the responses to my email interviews of fan writers. Exemplars of the Earth 2 case are compared to those of other science fiction TV series, both prematurely canceled (Firefly, Space: Above and Beyond and long-lived (Babylon 5, Star Trek: Deep Space 9.

Diversity of contexts in drug use among street adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

Goncalves de Moura, Yone; van der Meer Sanchez, Zila; Noto, Ana Regina

2010-09-01

In this study we aimed to investigate through ethnographic methods the different contexts of drug use by street adolescents in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Participant observations and semistructured interviews were performed at 11 major points of adolescent concentration in the streets of the city and in 10 care institutions. The sample was composed of 17 adolescents between 12 and 17 years of age. Data showed diverse patterns of drug use distributed by geographic situation and street circumstances. Observations were grouped into three main contexts: (a) immersion: greater intensity of drug use associated with greater involvement in the street culture; (b) surface: less drug use associated with family closeness; and (c) alternative-migratory: greater involvement with drug trafficking and prostitution associated with less family closeness and street culture. The drug use patterns varied in accordance with the diversity of street situations. Therefore, the peculiarities of each context should be taken into consideration in the development of social/ health policies.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF STREET PATTERNS IN ISRAELI CITIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Itzhak OMER

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Street patterns of Israeli cities were investigated by comparing three time periods of urban development: (I the late 19th century until the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948; (II 1948 until the 1980s; and (III the late 1980s until the present. These time periods are related respectively to the pre-modern, modern and late-modern urban planning approach. Representative urban street networks were examined in selected cities by means of morphological analysis of typical street pattern properties: curvature, fragmentation, connectivity, continuity and differentiation. The study results reveal significant differences between the street patterns of the three examined periods in the development of cities in Israel. The results show clearly the gradual trends in the intensification of curvature, fragmentation, complexity and hierarchical organization of street networks as well as the weakening of the network's internal and external connectivity. The implications of these changes on connectivity and spatial integration are discussed with respect to planning approaches.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF STREET PATTERNS IN ISRAELI CITIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Itzhak OMER

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Street patterns of Israeli cities were investigated by comparing three time periods of urban development: (I the late 19th century until the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948; (II 1948 until the 1980s; and (III the late 1980s until the present. These time periods are related respectively to the pre-modern, modern and late-modern urban planning approach. Representative urban street networks were examined in selected cities by means of morphological analysis of typical street pattern properties: curvature, fragmentation, connectivity, continuity and differentiation. The study results reveal significant differences between the street patterns of the three examined periods in the development of cities in Israel. The results show clearly the gradual trends in the intensification of curvature, fragmentation, complexity and hierarchical organization of street networks as well as the weakening of the network's internal and external connectivity. The implications of these changes on connectivity and spatial integration are discussed with respect to planning approaches.

Science Fiction and Ontologies of Leadership

OpenAIRE

Jana Vizmuller-Zocco

2014-01-01

The role of leadership in science fiction receives a particular analysis which is based on what can be termed transhumanist novels published in Italy between 2008 and 2013. The main purpose of this study is to answer the following question: What happens to (the nature of) leadership in a technologically-driven society? Four novels form the backbone of the description of futuristic leadership. The four conclusions drawn from this analysis regarding the nature of leadership in a technologically...

Peculiarities of destructive influence of mass media and fiction on formation of aggressive behaviour of senior pupils

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roksoliana Zozuliak-Sluchyk

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The article analyzes the media as a factor in the formation of aggressive behavior and propensity to violence seniors. The features of fiction influence the aggressiveness and hostility among high school students. Keywords: aggressive behavior, media, works of fiction, high school, hostility.

Socio - demographic characteristics of child street vendors in Nnewi ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background: Involvement of children in street trading is inimical, contrary to the Rights of the Child, and threatens holistic child development. Objective: To describe the sociodemographic characteristics of child street vendors in Nnewi. Method: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey of children selling wares on the streets of ...

Socio-demographic characteristics of street children in rural ... - Ibadan

African Journals Online (AJOL)

15.0%), part-time driving (9.5%) and car washing (5.0%) were the commonest types of work. Of those still schooling, 41.6% had no form of part-time work on the streets. None of the street children lived on the street with 65% still living with parents.

Space Livability of Street Vendors in Simpang Lima Public Space, Semarang

Science.gov (United States)

Widjajanti, R.; Wahyono, H.

2018-02-01

Street vendors in Semarang have been growing rapidly and uncontrolled. They always use public space such as public roads, sidewalks, parks and fields as trading locations. The street vendors’ activities in the public space are considered as the cause of declining on environmental quality and aesthetics of the city. All these years, the government often evicted the street vendors than organized and provides adequate space for them. As one of the actual urban activities, the street vendors’ activities should be accommodated by the government and the location for them is managed in the urban spatial plan. Street vendors need spaces which livable and suitable to their activities’ requirements, has a relationship with users (street vendors’ doers and consumers) and the activities of street vendors themselves. Research on the aspect of space for street vendors is still less in quantity, whereas space for them is an urgent matter for the government in managing their activities. This study aims to identify the livability of space based on the street vendors’ behavior in their location. This research used descriptive quantitative method with questionnaires and GIS as the mapping tool for street vendors’ location. The result of the research shows that the livability of street vendor space is based on the activity of street vendors (type of merchandise, trading places’ size, trade place assessment, space dimension, trading time, duration and period) and space conditions (access, natural elements, safety and parking space).

[Street Outreach Offices: visibility, invisibility, and enhanced visibility].

Science.gov (United States)

Hallais, Janaína Alves da Silveira; Barros, Nelson Filice de

2015-07-01

This article discusses care for street people from a socio-anthropological perspective, using participant observation conducted with a team from a street outreach project. Based on observations, street people are historically viewed as marginal and rarely obtain access to health services, thus making them invisible to the Brazilian Unified National Health System. Brazil's National Policy for the Homeless provides for their access to health care, but such care is not always guaranteed in practice, because health services and professionals have little experience in dealing with homeless persons. The study concludes that enhanced visibility is needed to ensure care for people living on the street, establishing a therapeutic bond that deconstructs stigmatizing practice.

A social work study on family patterns and street children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Reza Iravani

2014-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a social work study on relationship between various family characteristics and street children in rural area as well as city of Esfahan, Iran. The proposed study selects a sample of 150 street children, 75 from city and 75 from rural area, and using some statistical tests verifies the effects of three factors including family income, place of residency and family size on street children. The results indicate that the city residence had more street children than rural residence did. In addition, there was a meaningful difference between the number of street children in low-income families and high-income families. Finally, the survey results indicate that big size families more likely suffered from street children than low size families did.

Myth Structure and Media Fiction Plot: An Exploration.

Science.gov (United States)

Harless, James D.

Based on the general research of Joseph Campbell in adventure plots from mythology, the author explores the simplified monomyth plots currently in frequent use in mass media programing. The close relationship of media fiction to mythic stories is established through the analysis of more than 25 stories resulting from media broadcasting. The media…

Lyssna : a design fiction to reframe food waste

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oogjes, D.J.; Bruns, M.; Wakkary, R.

2016-01-01

In this paper we propose the design fiction, Lyssna, a diegetic prototype in the form of a hearing aid for your refrigerator that aims at reintegrating lost aspects of food. Lyssna is based on home studies of food practices informed by Mediation Theory and Theories of Practice. Our aim is to explore

Risk behaviour of street children in Colombo.

Science.gov (United States)

Senaratna, B C V; Wijewardana, B V N

2012-09-01

Sri Lankan street children live in insecure and disadvantaged environments and have disrupted and poorly functioning families resulting in their poor socialisation. In this backdrop they are at high risk of adopting delinquent and antisocial behaviour and becoming victims of abuse. Despite recognition of this as a social problem, an in-depth exploration of their behaviour and its correlates has not been attempted. To describe risk behaviour among street children in Colombo city and the determinants of such behaviour. A cross sectional qualitative study in Colombo Fort, Pettah, Slave Island, and Maradana areas was conducted using focus group discussions (FGDs) with street children and semi-structured interviews (SSIs) with street children and key informants in their environment. Data generated were used to profile 283 children identified through referral sampling. An observation study was conducted to validate data generated through FGDs and SSIs. Semi-structured questionnaires, a moderator guide, an interviewer-administered questionnaire, and an observational checklist were used for SSIs, FGDs, profiling, and observational study, respectively. Majority of street children were boys and were aged 14 years or less. Nearly 18% lived alone without a guardian. Two thirds had never enrolled in a school. Many children were used for begging, neglecting their health vulnerabilities. Occupational risk behaviour included heavy manual labour, transportation and sale of illicit alcohol and narcotics, robbing/pick-pocketing, commercial sex work, and pimping. Recreational risk behaviour included abuse of alcohol/narcotics, smoking, sexual promiscuity, and patronising commercial sex workers. Increased awareness and strategies are required to minimise threats to street children and society.

Analyzing Thermal Characteristics of Urban Streets Using a Thermal Imaging Camera: A Case Study on Commercial Streets in Seoul, Korea

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Sugie Lee

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Due to continuing city growth and global warming over the past decades, urban heat island (UHI effects, referring to the phenomena wherein the ambient air temperatures in cities are higher than those in rural areas, have become a serious threat to urban populations. Impervious surfaces, buildings with low-albedo materials, and a lack of vegetated areas are the major causes of poor urban thermal environments, particularly during the summer. Previous research has focused primarily on the thermal characteristics of individual building units. Few studies consider the impact of the street-scale thermal environments on the surface temperature, which affects pedestrian thermal comfort. The purpose of this study is to analyze the thermal characteristics of various physical elements on urban streets using thermal imaging cameras, and present policy implications for improving pedestrian thermal comfort. This study examines street-scale thermal environments of three major commercial streets: Garosu road, Serosu road, and Narosu road, in Seoul, Korea. This study conducted field measurements both during the day and the night in June 2017 in order to investigate changes in the urban surface temperatures across time. The results show that street trees are the most effective mitigation element for reducing surface temperatures. With regard to building use types, the highest surface temperatures are typically measured near restaurant buildings. Building façades that are dark-colored or partially covered with a metal contribute to high surface temperatures. Similarly, the temperatures of artificial turf or wooden decks on urban streets are also significantly high during the daytime. The thermal characteristics of various urban street elements should be considered to reduce the surface temperature and mitigate the urban heat island effect.

What Physiological Changes and Cerebral Traces Tell Us about Adhesion to Fiction During Theater-Watching?

Science.gov (United States)

Metz-Lutz, Marie-Noëlle; Bressan, Yannick; Heider, Nathalie; Otzenberger, Hélène

2010-01-01

Live theater is typically designed to alter the state of mind of the audience. Indeed, the perceptual inputs issuing from a live theatrical performance are intended to represent something else, and the actions, emphasized by the writing and staging, are the key prompting the adhesion of viewers to fiction, i.e., their belief that it is real. This phenomenon raises the issue of the cognitive processes governing access to a fictional reality during live theater and of their cerebral underpinnings. To get insight into the physiological substrates of adhesion we recreated the peculiar context of watching live drama in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment, with simultaneous recording of heart activity. The instants of adhesion were defined as the co-occurrence of theatrical events determined a priori by the stage director and the spectators' offline reports of moments when fiction acted as reality. These data served to specify, for each spectator, individual fMRI time-series, used in a random-effect group analysis to define the pattern of brain response to theatrical events. The changes in this pattern related to subjects' adhesion to fiction, were investigated using a region of interest analysis. The results showed that adhesion to theatrical events correlated with increased activity in the left BA47 and posterior superior temporal sulcus, together with a decrease in dynamic heart rate variability, leading us to discuss the hypothesis of subtle changes in the subjects' state of awareness, enabling them to mentally dissociate physical and mental (drama-viewing) experiences, to account for the phenomenon of adhesion to dramatic fiction.

What physiological changes and cerebral traces tell us about adhesion to fiction during theater-watching?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marie-Noëlle Metz-Lutz

2010-08-01

Full Text Available Live theater is typically designed to alter the state of mind of the audience. Indeed, the perceptual inputs issuing from a live theatrical performance are intended to represent something else, and the actions, emphasised by the writing and staging, are the key prompting the adhesion of viewers to fiction, i.e. their belief that it is real. This phenomenon raises the issue of the cognitive processes governing access to a fictional reality during live theater and of their cerebral underpinnings. To get insight into the physiological substrates of adhesion we recreated the peculiar context of watching live drama in a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment, with simultaneous recording of heart activity. The instants of adhesion were defined as the co-occurrence of theatrical events determined a priori by the stage director and the spectators’ offline reports of moments when fiction acted as reality. These data served to specify, for each spectator, individual fMRI time-series, used in a random-effect group analysis to define the pattern of brain response to theatrical events. The changes in this pattern related to subjects’ adhesion to fiction, were investigated using a region of interest analysis. The results showed that adhesion to theatrical events correlated with increased activity in the left BA47 and pSTS, together with a decrease in dynamic heart rate variability, leading us to discuss the hypothesis of subtle changes in the subjects’ state of awareness, enabling them to mentally dissociate physical and mental (drama-viewing experiences, to account for the phenomenon of adhesion to dramatic fiction.

"The epic love story of Sam and Dean": "Supernatural," queer readings, and the romance of incestuous fan fiction

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Catherine Tosenberger

2008-09-01

Full Text Available This article examines incestuous slash fan fiction produced for the CW television series Supernatural. I argue that "Wincest" fan fiction is best understood not as perverse, oppositional resistance to a heterosexual, nonincestuous show, but an expression of readings that are suggested and supported by the text itself. I examine the literary, cultural, and folkloric discourses of incest and queerness invoked by the series, paying special attention to Romanticism, the Gothic, and horror as underliers to those discourses, and how those genres inform both the series and the fan fiction. I discuss a number of Wincest stories in detail, focusing upon how these stories build upon thematic elements within the series. In conclusion, I argue that the most resistive aspect of Wincest fan fiction is that it gives the main characters a lasting happiness that the series eternally defers.

Competition for the Elements of the City Environment for Irkutsk’s Public Spaces: Street Furniture, Street Design

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Tatyana Danilova

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The article reviews the contest «Street furniture. Street design», which was held this summer by manufacturing company «PalpNord», International research laboratory of study and design of the urban environment «Urban Planning School» and the Union of Architects of Russia. The winners and their projects are also listed in the article.

Mapping Urban Land Use at Street Block Level Using OpenStreetMap, Remote Sensing Data, and Spatial Metrics

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Taïs Grippa

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Up-to-date and reliable land-use information is essential for a variety of applications such as planning or monitoring of the urban environment. This research presents a workflow for mapping urban land use at the street block level, with a focus on residential use, using very-high resolution satellite imagery and derived land-cover maps as input. We develop a processing chain for the automated creation of street block polygons from OpenStreetMap and ancillary data. Spatial metrics and other street block features are computed, followed by feature selection that reduces the initial datasets by more than 80%, providing a parsimonious, discriminative, and redundancy-free set of features. A random forest (RF classifier is used for the classification of street blocks, which results in accuracies of 84% and 79% for five and six land-use classes, respectively. We exploit the probabilistic output of RF to identify and relabel blocks that have a high degree of uncertainty. Finally, the thematic precision of the residential blocks is refined according to the proportion of the built-up area. The output data and processing chains are made freely available. The proposed framework is able to process large datasets, given that the cities in the case studies, Dakar and Ouagadougou, cover more than 1000 km2 in total, with a spatial resolution of 0.5 m.

‘Space’ Interpretation in Contemporary English Fictional Discourse: Female Perspective

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Anna I. Dzyubenko

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The article reveals the set of transformations that the space being a vital element of the fictional discourse structure undergoes being introduced into the narration by the modern female authors (S. Townsend, C. Alliott, K. Swan, E. Gilbert. The article also represents the basic characteristics attributed to ‘space’ as a key component reinforcing the whole narrative structure of the female discourse. The author states that the space in such discourse proves to be much influenced and strongly correlated with the emotional background the protagonists have creating suspense and climax or, on the contrary, anticlimax in the narration. It is suggested that the fictional space is most often graded in size, in its morphological characteristics and qualities. Moreover, the space is prone to be moving and developing than being stagnant.

The Body Not in the Room: Reading Gossip as Fiction

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Catherine Bush

2014-04-01

Full Text Available It can be useful to return to some fundamentals when thinking about what gives gossip its power, whether words spoken aloud or words that spread and leave their indelible traces throughout the digital realm. As a novelist and storyteller, I’d like to employ some lines of thought about what we do when we read fiction in order to consider gossip as an act of creative reading. Gossip, like a gift, depends on being received by someone, is defined by the intention to be received. Current fMRI studies have shown the empathetic capacities generated in individuals after reading works of fiction. I want to consider what happens when we imagine something about someone else, and how the engaged creativity of the recipient is essential to the act of gossiping.

Engineering in Children's Fiction--Not a Good Story?

Science.gov (United States)

Holbrook, Allyson; Panozza, Lisa; Prieto, Elena

2009-01-01

Responding to concerns that engineering is a poorly understood occupation and that young people are exposed to stereotyped images of scientists and engineers at an early age, this investigation sought to identify how science and engineering is portrayed in contemporary junior fiction (ages 8-12) and to what extent. An examination of 4,800 junior…

The Non-Fiction Reading Habits of Young Successful Boy Readers: Forming Connections between Masculinity and Reading

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Smith, Susannah

2004-01-01

The reading experiences of six young successful boy readers were studied over a two-year period. In this article, their non-fiction reading is analysed and ways in which the boys make positive connections between masculinity and reading are identified. The boys' non-fiction reading centres on typical boy interest areas and hobbies (for example,…

Picturing the African Diaspora in recent fiction | Jacobs | Current ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Coetzee's engagement with the theme of diasporic migration in Disgrace signals an important direction in contemporary South African fiction. Coetzee himself has foregrounded immigrant cultural identities in Slow Man (2005), whereas the historical African diaspora and its continuation into the present-day dispersal of ...

American socio-politics in fictional context: transformers and the representation of the United States

OpenAIRE

Underwood, David William.

2013-01-01

The fictional narratives that have been developed for the support of the Transformers brand, with their underlying emphasis on the sale of action figures, have been dismissed as a somewhat juvenile and uninteresting text. Little to no serious academic analysis of any of the various iterations of the franchise has been undertaken. With this thesis, I endeavour to begin that analysis and thus broaden and problematize the currently limited understanding of Transformers fictions. Due to the fr...

Hiding in Plain Sight: Street artists online

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Kim Barbour

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Identity and privacy concerns related to social media are the subject of widespread academic enquiry and mass media reporting. Although in most circumstances academic research tends to present identity play and online self­presentation as positive, media reporting in Australia makes much of the risks of identity theft, privacy breaches and online predators. This research explores the phenomenological experience of creating an online persona, focusing particularly on street artists. For street artists, the threat of unwanted exposure has to be balanced with the positive implications of sharing their creative work outside its geographical and temporal constraints. I argue that street artists use complex persona­creation strategies in order to both protect and promote themselves. The two street artists discussed in this article experience their engagement with social media and digital networks in ways that offer new insight into the opportunities and problems associated with the presentation of a persona online.

Abyssal fiction: common shares, colonial cleavages

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Alexandre Montaury

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The paper aims to develop a reflection on the interaction between the legacies of colonialism and traditional symbolic and cultural practices in African Portuguese-speaking spaces. From a preliminary analysis of fictional texts of wide circulation in Brazil, aims to examine the cleavages, or “abyssal lines” that constitute experiences printed in the daily life of the former Portuguese colony of Cape Verde, Mozambique and Angola.---DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21881/abriluff.2016n17a378

Rheumatology in the Italian literary fiction: “La Longobarda” by Giorgio Conconi (1999

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P. Marson

2011-09-01

Full Text Available In the literary fiction “La Longobarda” by Giorgio Conconi (1999 the protagonist Linda narrates her life, when about fifty she falls ill because of arthritis, thus looking prematurely older and suffering from severe disturbances of body image. This fiction represents an uncommon case of contemporary literature dealing with rheumatological topics. In the present note, it has shown how literature can contribute in several ways to achievement in the human dimension of medicine, by teaching physician concrete and powerful lessons about the lives of sick people.

Reality = relevance? Insights from spontaneous modulations of the brain's default network when telling apart reality from fiction.

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Anna Abraham

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Although human beings regularly experience fictional worlds through activities such as reading novels and watching movies, little is known about what mechanisms underlie our implicit knowledge of the distinction between reality and fiction. The first neuroimaging study to address this issue revealed that the mere exposure to contexts involving real entities compared to fictional characters led to engagement of regions in the anterior medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices (amPFC, PCC. As these core regions of the brain's default network are involved during self-referential processing and autobiographical memory retrieval, it was hypothesized that real entities may be conceptually coded as being more personally relevant to us than fictional characters. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI study, we directly test the hypothesis that entity-associated personal relevance is the critical factor underlying the differential engagement of these brain regions by comparing the brain's response when processing contexts involving family or friends (high relevance, famous people (medium relevance, or fictional characters (low relevance. In line with predictions, a gradient pattern of activation was observed such that higher entity-associated personal relevance was associated with stronger activation in the amPFC and the PCC. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The results of the study have several important implications. Firstly, they provide informed grounds for characterizing the dynamics of reality-fiction distinction. Secondly, they provide further insights into the functions of the amPFC and the PCC. Thirdly, in view of the current debate related to the functional relevance and specificity of brain's default network, they reveal a novel approach by which the functions of this network can be further explored.

Evaluation of the Street Pollution Model OSPM for Measurements at 12 Streets Stations Using a Newly Developed and Freely Available Evaluation Tool

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ketzel, Matthias; Jensen, Steen Solvang; Brandt, Jørgen

2012-01-01

In the present work, the Operational Street Pollution Model (OSPM) has been evaluated in comparison with continuous half-hourly measurements over a multi-year period for five permanent street monitor stations that constitute part of the Danish Air Quality Monitoring Programme as well as with pass......In the present work, the Operational Street Pollution Model (OSPM) has been evaluated in comparison with continuous half-hourly measurements over a multi-year period for five permanent street monitor stations that constitute part of the Danish Air Quality Monitoring Programme as well...... the observations well, especially for the most recent years, while for NO2 the model over-predicts in two cases. The explanation for this over-prediction is believed to be uncertainties in the traffic or emission input data, but also in model parameters, and the representativeness of the urban background data may....... OSPM calculations for nine streets with passive sampler measurements were conducted as ‘blind test’ i.e. without knowing the measured values. OSPM calculations were in good agreement with the measurements for seven out of nine street sections. Refinements of the input data lead to a significant...

Exposure to maltreatment and urban violence in children working on the streets in São Paulo, Brazil: factors associated with street work

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Andrea F. Mello

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Objective: To quantitatively study the exposure to childhood maltreatment and urban violence in children from families with at least one child working on the streets and to investigate the relationship between these factors and street work. Methods: Families who participated in a nongovernmental organization (NGO program to eliminate child labor were included. Data concerning sociodemographic characteristics, punishment methods used in the family environment against the children, five types of abuse and neglect perpetrated by the caregivers, urban violence exposure and family functioning were collected. Results: The sample included 126 children who were working on the streets and 65 siblings who were not working on the streets. Caregivers reported high levels of severe physical punishment. The children reported high levels of abuse and neglect, and high levels of urban violence exposure. The families showed a predominance of dysfunctional and unsatisfactory relationships. A multiple logistic regression model showed that age older than 12 years and severe physical punishment at home were associated with street work. Conclusion: Interventions to decrease the risk of child street work should be family-focused and should aim to reduce violence in the family environment.

Occupy Wall Street

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Michael J.; Bang, Henrik

2013-01-01

This article analyzes the political form of Occupy Wall Street on Twitter. Drawing on evidence contained within the profiles of over 50,000 Twitter users, political identities of participants are characterized using natural language processing. The results find evidence of a traditional...

[Who told you to grow old and live on the streets?].

Science.gov (United States)

Brêtas, Ana Cristina Passarella; Marcolan, João Fernando; Rosa, Anderson da Silva; Fernandes, Flávia Saraiva Leão; Raizer, Milena Veiga

2010-06-01

This qualitative case study is part of another study: Aging, health and work. The objective of this excerpt was to identify the meaning of aging on the streets for the elderly living on the street. The subjects' statements were analyzed under the light of the following themes: history of aging and history of life on the streets. It was understood that the streets are usually a hostile environment for the elderly. It does not guarantee the basic life conditions, affecting the mental health of people who are forced to live on the streets, particularly the elderly. The street does not offer any way out and, together with to the life conditions of the elderly living on the streets leads to the gradual loss of self-esteem, significantly affecting self-care. In addition to these issues, we found that compromised functional capacity puts the life/survival of the elderly living on the streets at risk.

Can activity support influence image of a street?

Science.gov (United States)

Tamiami Fachrudin, Hilma

2018-03-01

Activity support may affect the formation of the image of a corridor and street. Form, place, and character of activity support in an area will have the function attraction and usefulness of its activities. The aim of this research is to analyze how the influence of activity support on the image of a street, in this case, Dr.Mansyur street which located in front of Universitas Sumatera Utara. Along the street, there are various activities that conducted from morning until evening. The method used is a quantitative method with observation and questionnaire techniques. A population of this study is visitors and students of architecture department from Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) with sample number is 100 respondents for visitors and 100 respondents for students. Independent variables are activity support factors that consist of the type of activity, form, color, dimension, material, position and lighting. The dependent variable is imageability by [1]. Data were analyzed using logistic regression analysis. The results show that activity support influences image Dr. Mansyur street that has an image as a campus and culinary area and easy to identify.

Characteristics of street children in Cameroon: A cross-sectional study

Science.gov (United States)

Cumber, Samuel N.

2016-01-01

Introduction The issue of street children is one of the global social problems rising in low- and middle-income countries. These children are vulnerable, but because of a lack of sufficient information, it is very difficult for stakeholders to address their plight in Cameroon. Aim To examine the situation and characteristics of street children in three Cameroonian cities. Objectives To describe the demographic, socio-economic and behavioural profiles of street children. To identify challenges of street children and to compare the results from the three cities on account of their different settings, cultural history and challenges. Materials and methods The study was an analytical cross-sectional survey conducted through researcher-administered questionnaires to 399 street children (homeless for at least a month), in three Cameroonian cities from 1 January 2015 to 30 March 2015. Results The majority of the participants were boys, more than 70% were homeless for less than 12 months and poverty was found to be the most common reason for being on the street. Most of the participants earned less than 500CFA francs (USD 0.85), with many of them resorting to begging, drug abuse, sex work and other risky behaviours. Only two of the respondents (0.5%) regarded the public attitude towards them as supportive. Conclusion As children roam the streets in search of shelter, food and other basic needs, their future hangs in the balance. Understanding the plight of street children highlights the need for immediate design and implementation of intervention strategies to prevent children from living in the streets and assist those who have become street children. PMID:28155316

Science fiction and human enhancement: radical life-extension in the movie 'In Time' (2011).

Science.gov (United States)

Roduit, Johann A R; Eichinger, Tobias; Glannon, Walter

2018-03-20

The ethics of human enhancement has been a hotly debated topic in the last 15 years. In this debate, some advocate examining science fiction stories to elucidate the ethical issues regarding the current phenomenon of human enhancement. Stories from science fiction seem well suited to analyze biomedical advances, providing some possible case studies. Of particular interest is the work of screenwriter Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, S1m0ne, In Time, and Good Kill), which often focuses on ethical questions raised by the use of new technologies. Examining the movie In Time (2011), the aim of this paper is to show how science fiction can contribute to the ethical debate of human enhancement. In Time provides an interesting case study to explore what could be some of the consequences of radical life-extension technologies. In this paper, we will show how arguments regarding radical life-extension portrayed in this particular movie differ from what is found in the scientific literature. We will see how In Time gives flesh to arguments defending or rejecting radical life-extension. It articulates feelings of unease, alienation and boredom associated with this possibility. Finally, this article will conclude that science fiction movies in general, and In Time in particular, are a valuable resource for a broad and comprehensive debate about our coming future.

Making Materiality Matter : A sociological analysis of price formation on the Dutch fiction book market, 1980-2009

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Franssen, T.; Velthuis, O.

2016-01-01

This article analyzes determinants of prices in the Dutch fiction book market between 1980 and 2009. It does so on the basis of interviews with editors of large publishing houses and regression analysis of a dataset that contains prices and their determinants of over 80 000 fiction books. We show