Thesis (S.M. in Science Writing)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 40-51). / In 2002, following the September 11th attacks and the anthrax letters, the United States allocated money to build two maximum containment biology labs. Called Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) facilities, these labs were built to research new vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments for emerging infectious diseases, potential biological weapons, and to contribute to the nation's biodefense. These labs were not the first dramatic reaction to the threat of biowarfare and are in fact, one product of a long history of the country's contentious relationship with biological weapons. Of the two labs created, Boston University Medical Center's National Infectious and Emerging Disease Laboratories (NEIDL) has remained the more controversial given the urban community it resides in. However, increasingly the mandate of these labs has been expanded from biodefense to all infectious disease, regardless of their potential probability for use as a weapon. These include looking at pathogens that could potentially cause a pandemic like SARS, ebola, or smallpox. The repurposing of these labs could make them an invaluable contributor to the United States public health system. / by Alison K. Bruzek. / S.M.in Science Writing

Thesis (S.M. in Science Writing)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 37-39). / At the Sherrill House Rehabilitation and Retirement Center in Boston, MA, music therapist Dianne Tow and her interns use a variety of therapeutic interventions to treat physical and psychological dysfunctions-though not every method has been supported by rigorous scientific research. With current technology in the fields of neuroscience and psychology, the effectiveness of most therapies is difficult to quantify. Most of the progress has been made for methodologies targeting physical limitations. The two therapies with the strongest documentation are rhythmic-auditory stimulation (RAS) gait training and melodic intonation therapy (MIT). RAS gait training is typically used to treat patients with Parkinson's disease or some kind of mobility loss caused by brain damage. Parkinson's disease attacks a person's motor system, and RAS gait training re-stimulates the motor system with music, specifically sound with rhythmic qualities. MIT is used to treat certain kinds of speech loss caused by brain damage in the left hemisphere. Speech is housed in specific organs, primarily in the left hemisphere, but music processing is dispersed throughout both halves of the brain. If the main language enter is compromised, the music neural network can be reworked through multiple therapeutic sessions to help relatively unused language centers in the right hemisphere to develop and grow the connections necessary to produce speech again. Other music therapies that target emotional and psychological dysfunctions appear to have positive effects, as observed by family members and therapists, but science is not yet satisfied. Human musicality and music's direct effects on our health remain mysterious, but the complexities that have been unraveled thus far with gait training and melodic intonation hold a positive note of hope for the future. / by Hannah Yee-shing Cheng. / S.M.in Science Writing

A political system that facilitates and encourages sincere and careful listening among its citizens will produce more democratic decisions. Yet, good listening is being almost completely ignored in that form of political conversation we know as democracy. As such, this thesis argues that due to an abundance of ‘digital citizens' owing to the proliferation of the internet and social media, a ‘democratic listening' approach to political deliberation has become urgent. However, the application of digital citizenship and democratic listening theories have been minimal in Africa's democratic framework. Accordingly, this thesis seeks to develop this neglected body of scholarship by submitting a case study of Zimbabwe's 2018 harmonised elections. In the African context, most countries principal criterion for democracy is the holding of elections and simply letting citizens' vote. Most of these African administrations also escape the demands of accountability and democratization by steadfastly manipulating legacy media – media originally distributed using a pre-internet medium i.e., print, radio and, television. With the advent of social media which has enabled citizens to access alternative sources of information, this aberrant principal criterion of democracy is now being challenged. The thesis locates itself within digital methods that incorporate qualitative research methods. It makes use of the available digital objects such as the like, share, and retweet buttons to explore societal changes and cultural conditions by investigating online data. The data for analysis is gathered from the social media platforms, Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp Messenger. Twitonomy which was developed precisely for Twitter research and offers detailed and visualised analytics of tweets and hashtags is used for data gathering on Twitter. For Facebook, the now defunct Netvizz is used for textually mining data off the platform and on WhatsApp Messenger, an ethnographical approach is exercised. The findings confirm that in Zimbabwe and Africa, social media have emerged as a space for mobilising resistance to authoritarianism and failed promises from elections. Although, African administrations exercise listening as a rhetorical exercise undertaken for instrumental reasons to boost their popularity when they are in a state of decline, social media are now a viable alternative public sphere that democratises political space.

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Separated from her best friend, a co-dependent teenage girl scours NYC’s East Village—clinging to young strangers, a stray golden retriever, and too many sake bombs—as she grasps for stability post 9/11.

When Julia, a falsely confident high-school bully, gets cursed to transform into a frightful monster, she is forced to team up with local Miss Perfect to break the spell, but their French village has more than one secret to reveal.

In a society where one percent of the population can see into the future, a stubborn man who drinks alcohol to suppress his psychic powers is compelled to use his foresight when his brother disappears.

A feature length screenplay about a 22-year-old who, feeling distant from her African roots, leaves Seattle to embark on a career changing project in Senegal that's jeopardized by an affair with her mentor's wife and the woman's young, precocious daughter as their witness.

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In an absurd and desperate attempt to pay back taxes, an eccentric Charlestonian socialite turns his beloved boutique hotel into a male brothel.