Searching for superwomen : female fans and their behavior

Field of study: Journalism.Dr. Cynthia Frisby, Thesis Supervisor."December 2017."In the last decade, comic books and comic book fan culture have become more popular in mainstream culture, with TV shows and movies depicting both comic book characters and comic book fans. However, very little has been mentioned, let alone researched, about the female comic book fan and her perceptions of the industry. Using focus groups and online surveys, this research examines the perceptions of female comic book fans about the comic book industry, the messaging of the comic book industry and the target markets of those messages. It also examines how these perceptions may or may not affect female fan behavior. This thesis found that female fans believe that the comic book industry targets male fans over female fans, and listens and values their preferences more. In regard to behavior, it found that female fans believe that their fandom is a type of community building and by creating large groups they can have a stronger voice and affect change within the comic book industry.Includes bibliographical references (pages 60-63)

Assessing the effect of increased student accountability and parental involvement on student attendance at Middle Township High School

The study examined what effect increasing student accountability through a series of pre-set consequences enforced on a zero tolerance basis, coupled with increased parent involvement through prompt communication regarding all student absences and tardy arrivals, would have on attendance. The study was held at Middle Township High School in southern New Jersey, a semi-rural school of grades 9-12 with a student population of approximately 1,000, most of whom drive or ride a school bus. The data was assembled during the first semester of the 1998-99 school year. The study, which measured attendance, both lateness and absence, through surveys and statistical data comparisons, found that attendance did improve when students were held accountable and parents were kept informed. It also revealed that neither parents nor students were satisfied with the increased accountability and both resented that the parent was not empowered to excuse lateness and/or absence for the student

Methods to Detect Forgeries in Static Signatures

Statistical and machine learning approaches to forgery detection in offline sig- natures are attempted and evaluated. Offline signatures are static signatures found on physical media, mainly a piece of paper. A dataset of 330 signatures for 33 people is used, containing five genuine and five forged signatures for each person. The statistical analysis approach proves more successful than a machine learning approach, likely due to the size of the dataset

Comparative effectiveness of depot and oral second generation antipsychotic drugs in schizophrenia: A nationwide study in Hungary.

We conducted a nationwide, full-population based investigation to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of all marketed second generation antipsychotic drugs (SGA) prescribed for outpatients with the diagnosis of schizophrenia in Hungary. Using the national central register, our observational follow-up study included all patients with schizophrenia or related disorder between 01/01/2006 and 30/06/2008. The study cohort comprised 9567 patients who started new SGA during the inclusion period (01/07/2007-30/06/2008). All-cause medication discontinuation of 8 SGAs (1 depot and 7 oral formulations) marketed during the inclusion period, and the time to all-cause discontinuation were the main outcomes. Statistical models included the Kaplan-Meier and the Cox proportional hazards models with propensity score adjustment. Patients treated with a depot formulation risperidone had the longest time to discontinuation with a median of 215 days (95%CI:181-242 days), which was statistically significantly different compared to patients treated with the rest of the medications: olanzapine (136 days, 95%CI:121-153 days), aripiprazole (102 days, 95%CI:81-126 days), ziprasidone (93 days, 95%CI:82-119 days), quetiapine (89 days, 95%CI:81-100 days), clozapine (76 days, 95%CI:54-92 days), amisulpride (73 days, 95%CI:62-85 days), and risperidone (55 days, 95%CI: 41-63 days). Our results in Hungary are partly similar to those of a recent register-based study in Finland with patients who were discharged from their first hospitalization for schizophrenia (Tiihonen et al., 2006, 2011); namely the median times to all-cause medication discontinuation were <120 days for the majority of the oral SGA. In terms of medication differences, our data support the superior effectiveness of the depot formulation regarding all-cause discontinuation, followed by olanzapine at the efficacy rank order

Modeling temperature-dependent transport properties in dissipative particle dynamics: A top-down coarse-graining toward realistic dynamics at the mesoscale

Dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) is a widespread computational tool to simulate the behavior of soft matter and liquids in and out of equilibrium. Although there are many applications in which the effect of temperature is relevant, most of the DPD studies have been carried out at a fixed system temperature. Therefore, this work investigates how to incorporate the effect of system temperature variation within the DPD model to capture realistic temperature-dependent system properties. In particular, this work focuses on the relationship between temperature and transport properties, and therefore, an extended DPD model for transport properties prediction is employed. Transport properties, unlike the equilibrium properties, are often overlooked despite their significant influence on the flow dynamics of non-isothermal mesoscopic systems. Moreover, before simulating the response of the system induced by a temperature change, it is important to first estimate transport properties at a certain temperature. Thus here, the same fluid is simulated across different temperature conditions using isothermal DPD with the aim to identify a temperature-dependent parametrization methodology, capable of ensuring the correctness of both equilibrium and dynamical properties. Liquid water is used as a model system for these analyses. This work proposes a temperature-dependent form of the extended DPD model where both conservative and non-conservative interaction parameters incorporate the variation of the temperature. The predictions provided by our simulations are in excellent agreement with experimental data

TLR4 and TLR9 Expression in Different Phenotypes of Rhinitis

Background. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) represent a family of evolutionarily conserved proteins, that represent a fundamental link between innate and adaptive immune responses. Aim. The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of TLR4 and TLR9 in the normal nasal mucosa and in the mucosa of subjects with different phenotypes of rhinitis. Methodology. A confocal analysis of TLR4 and TLR9 (co)expression was carried out on biopsies from the inferior turbinate obtained from 4 patients affected by persistent allergic rhinitis, 8 patients with chronic rhino-sinusitis, and 6 patients with vasomotor rhinitis The results were compared with those of specimens obtained from 4 subjects undergoing nasal surgery, but with signs of nasal inflammation. Results. TLR4 and TLR9 were expressed in the healthy nasal mucosa; TLR4 and TLR9 expression was significantly decreased in allergic rhinitis. TLR4 was over expressed in the epithelium of chronic rhino-sinusitis. Both TLRs were co-expressed in the sub-epithelial infiltrate of chronic and vasomotor rhinitis, even though this expression was higher in the former compared with the latter. Conclusions. This study indicates that TLR4 and TLR9 show a different pattern of expression in different phenotypes of rhinitis, possibly related to the type and severity of the disease

Correlation between female sex and allergy was significant in patients presenting with dysphonia

Aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of allergy in patients affected by both organic and/or functional vocal fold disorders. The secondary aim was to assess the correlation between sex and allergy in dysphonic patients. A retrospective chart review was performed on dysphonic patients. A total of 76 patients underwent fiberoptic endoscopy to assess the objective picture. Logistic regression analyses have been conducted to assess the association between sex and the outcome variables. The laryngoscopic examination revealed the presence of poor glottic closure in 32.9%, hyperkinesias in 11.8%, redness in 11.84%, polyps in 5.3%, oedema in 3.95%, vocal fold hypertrophy in 5.3%, nodules in 42.1%, cordectomy in 2.6%. Allergic rhinitis was present in 56.6%, milk intolerance in 13.2%, asthma in 9.2%, atopic dermatitis in 3.9%, drugs intolerance in 11.8%. A total of 76.32% patients presenting with dysphonia were allergic. A statistically significant association was found between female sex and presence of allergy. In conclusion, allergy testing should be performed routinely on female professional voice users. Mild respiratory disorders must be taken into serious consideration in female professional voice users, who may primarily complain of vocal dysfunction rather than upper and lower respiratory diseases

Assessment of Executive Functions in Children with Sensorineural Hearing Loss and in Children with Specific Language Impairment: Preliminary Reports

Executive functions (EFs) are related abilities, associated with the frontal lobes functions, that allow individuals to modify behavioral patterns when they become unsatisfactory. The aim of this study was to assess EFs in children with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and in children with "specific language impairment" (SLI), compared with a control group of children with normal development, to identify specific skill deficits. Three groups of preschool children aged between 2 and 6 years were assessed: 19 children with normal hearing, cognitive, and language development, 10 children with SNHL, and 20 children with SLI. The FE-PS 2-6 Battery was used for the assessment of preschool EFs, supplemented with the Modified Bell Test for the analysis of selective attention. Statistically significant differences were found between the two experimental groups and the control one, regarding the investigated skills. Children with SNHL showed a clear deficit in flexibility, whereas children with SLI had greater problems in self-regulation and management of waiting for gratification. Selective attention was found to be deficient in all three groups, with no statistically significant differences. This study shows that the skills investigated were found to be deficient in both SNHL and SLI patients. It is essential to start targeted exercises based on specific deficient skills as part of the rehabilitation program. It is of great importance to understand the consequences of EF deficit in preschool children to achieve an accurate diagnosis and carry out customized rehabilitation programs

Simulation of high Schmidt number fluids with dissipative particle dynamics: Parameter identification and robust viscosity evaluation

Dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) is a widely used coarse-grained technique for the simulation of complex fluids. Although the method is capable of describing the hydrodynamics of any fluid, the common choice of DPD parameters, such as friction coefficient γ, dissipative cutoff radius , coarse-graining factor Nm and weighting function exponent s, unrealistically leads to the simulation of liquid water with a low Schmidt number Sc at standard pressure and temperature. In this work we explored the influence of these parameters, finding the set of parameters needed to properly simulate liquid water. Particular attention was devoted to the numerical techniques to calculate the transport properties from equilibrium simulations, especially in the calculation of the viscosity, comparing the most commonly adopted techniques and formulating a recipe that can be used for further investigations