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To determine the usefulness of narrative films for academic library collections we examined faculty use of narrative films through course reserve and purchase requests. We found that narrative films were used by faculty in teaching a wide variety of subjects and identified the curricular areas most used. Our findings are a case study directly related to our collection development but can be useful for other libraries building collections for similar curriculum support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Rare diseases (RDs) constitute an important public health issue. However, although public awareness campaigns focus on the improvement of undergraduate and postgraduate education, also popular culture may serve as an educational tool in this field. This study aims to analyse how rare genetic diseases are depicted in popular movies. Methods Twenty popular movies on RDs were analysed quantitatively. The main categories included in the coding frame were: disease, patient, physician/scientist and psychosocial issuses related to RDs. Results The majority of movies do not contain adequate scientific information on RDs. Consequently, their cinematic image is either inaccurate or simplified. However, the cinema does take up some important topics in the field of RDs and highlight their ethical, psychosocial, legal or economic dimension: the diagnostic and therapeutic odyssey, the role of RD patients’ advocacy groups in the production of scientific knowledge, the problem of orphan drugs, the stigmatisation of and discrimination against RD patients, and the impact of diagnosis on one’s concept of self and parents’ feelings of guilt. Conclusion Although popular movies mostly focus on RD patients’ problems of daily living and rarely describe clinical aspects of RDs, they do have an educational potential. Thus, movies can help to raise the public’s awareness on the psychospocial and economic problems faced by RD patients and their families.

Since Aristotle, tradition has it that stories are defi ned as unifi ed wholes, divisible into smaller inter-related parts. In many narrative forms these parts are called scenes. Scenes, too, are regarded as wholes, typically unified on three grounds: a constancy of characters and location within a continuous time frame. Generally, if a storyteller changes one or more of these, the story has moved on to the next scene. But this rule is not universal. The most obvious exception in movies is the telephone call, which can change locations to accommodate images of the two conversing characters. Here, I explore a century's worth of popular, English-language movies to discern how two-sided telephone conversations (which violate spatial unity) are portrayed on the screen, and how they compare to faceto- face conversations (which do not violate spatial unity) in the same movies. The portrayal of both types of conversations has evolved, sometimes independently and sometimes in synchrony, and popular fi lmmaking has arrived circuitously at a system in which both are generally portrayed in the same way--two characters in alternating shots, slightly to opposite sides of the midline and turned towards one another. I discuss the social and psychological reasons why this might be the case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Rare diseases (RDs) constitute an important public health issue. However, although public awareness campaigns focus on the improvement of undergraduate and postgraduate education, also popular culture may serve as an educational tool in this field. This study aims to analyse how rare genetic diseases are depicted in popular movies.Methods: Twenty popular movies on RDs were analysed quantitatively. The main categories included in the coding frame were: disease, patient, physician/scientist and psychosocial issuses related to RDs.Results: The majority of movies do not contain adequate scientific information on RDs. Consequently, their cinematic image is either inaccurate or simplified. However, the cinema does take up some important topics in the field of RDs and highlight their ethical, psychosocial, legal or economic dimension: the diagnostic and therapeutic odyssey, the role of RD patients' advocacy groups in the production of scientific knowledge, the problem of orphan drugs, the stigmatisation of and discrimination against RD patients, and the impact of diagnosis on one's concept of self and parents' feelings of guilt.Conclusion: Although popular movies mostly focus on RD patients' problems of daily living and rarely describe clinical aspects of RDs, they do have an educational potential. Thus, movies can help to raise the public's awareness on the psychospocial and economic problems faced by RD patients and their families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Popular movies are constructed to control our attention and guide our eye movements across the screen. Estimates of fixation locations were made by manually moving a cursor and clicking over frames at the beginnings and ends of more than 30,000 shots in 24 English-language movies. Results provide evidence for three general filmmaking practices in screen composition. The first and overriding practice is that filmmakers generally put the most import content ‒ usually the center of a character's face ‒ slightly above the center of the screen. The second concerns two-person conversations, which account for about half of popular movie content. Dialogue shots alternate views of the speakers involved, and filmmakers generally place the conversants slightly to opposite sides of the midline. The third concerns all other shots. For those, filmmakers generally follow important content in one shot by similar content in the next shot on the same side of the vertical midline. The horizontal aspect of the first practice seems to follow from the nature of our field of view and vertical aspect from the relationship of heads to bodies depicted. The second practice derives from social norms and an image composition norm called nose room, and the third from the consideration of continuity and the speed of re-engaging attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pharmacology has broadened its scope considerably in recent decades. Initially, it was of interest to chemists, doctors and pharmacists. In recent years, however, it has been incorporated into the teaching of biologists, molecular biologists, biotechnologists, chemical engineers and many health professionals, among others. Traditional teaching methods, such as lectures or laboratory work, have been superseded by the use of new pedagogical approaches to enable a better conceptualization and understanding of the discipline. In this article, we present several new methods that have been used in Spanish universities. Firstly, we describe a teaching network that has allowed the sharing of pedagogical innovations in Spanish universities. A European experience to improve prescribing safety is described in detail. The use of popular films and medical TV series in biomedical students shows how these audiovisual resources can be helpful in teaching pharmacology. The use of virtual worlds is detailed to introduce this new approach to teaching. The increasingly important area of the social aspects of pharmacology is also considered in two sections, one devoted to social pharmacology and the other to the use of learning based on social services to improve understanding of this important area. Finally, the use of Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation in pharmacology allows to know how this approach can help to better evaluate clinical pharmacology students. In conclusion, this article allows to know new pedagogical methods resources used in some Spanish universities that may help to improve the teaching of pharmacology. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a culture of fear, everyday life is experienced through the feeling of safety, part of which can be secured through certain electronic home security systems. Three films – Unlawful Entry (1992), Panic Room (2002) and When a Stranger Calls (2006) – will be used as examples in the attempt to consider the relationship between the fear of criminal activity – in this case break ins – and electronic home security systems. The basic premise of the research is that the culturally manufactured fear encourages the electronic home security system industry, the presence of which can, in turn, exasperate one’s fear of the risk of falling victim to violent crime.

Introducción. Las películas comerciales han constituido un método docente de demostrada eficacia en entornos educativos de ciencias de la salud. En el presente artículo se describe la utilidad de Ágora para presentar las complejas relaciones entre ciencia, política y religión, las cuales afectan a diversas situaciones biomédicas en la actualidad. Materiales y métodos. La actividad consistió en la proyección de la película y posterior debate, al final del cual los estudiantes cumplimentaron, de forma anónima y voluntaria, un cuestionario de diez preguntas sobre los temas tratados y los vinculados con los objetivos educativos preestablecidos. Después se les solicitó que enviaran voluntariamente un informe personal sobre los aspectos más relevantes de la película. Resultados. Cincuenta y dos estudiantes (96,3% de los asistentes) respondieron el cuestionario de evaluación. Consideraron que Ágora tenía un interés notable para describir un ejemplo de conflicto entre ciencia y poderes sociales, y manifestaron que tales situaciones aún podían persistir hoy. En los informes personales realizados por 49 estudiantes (90,7%) destacaron la consideración de tales conflictos, las barreras impuestas al conocimiento nuevo, la discriminación de la mujer en la sociedad y en la ciencia, así como las dificultades que entraña el respeto por el pensamiento individual. Conclusiones. Ágora puede ser una película de interés para analizar y debatir las difíciles relaciones entre ciencia, religión y política. A pesar de su ambientación clásica, plantea situaciones aún identificables en nuestra sociedad y que los estudiantes deberían conocer.Introduction. Popular movies have turned out to be useful educational tools able to introduce complex issues to students of health sciences. The present paper describes the usefulness of Ágora to discuss the conflicts that might appear when science is faced with religion or politics. Materials and methods. The movie was introduced to a group of students of fifth year of Biology. After seeing it, students completed, voluntarily and anonymously, a ten-item questionnaire, which considered the topics reflected in the film related with the educational objectives. Afterwards, a general discussion was carried out. They were asked to send a short essay with a personal thought about the activity. Results. Fifty-two students (96.3% of attendees) answered the questionnaire of evaluation. They considered that the movie had an outstanding interest to present the conflicts between science and social powers. They also agreed that such situations might still be present in the current world. Forty-nine students (90.7%) sent the short essays. Students mainly wrote about the above-mentioned conflict, the barriers to knowledge, the discrimination against women and the need of respect for personal opinions. Conclusions. Ágora may be a useful teaching tool to analyze and discuss the complex relationships among science, religion and politics. Even though it is set in the classical world, some of the issues posed in the movie may be still recognizable in our modern societies.

Los cambios recientes y venideros en la docencia universitaria condicionarán cada vez más el empleo de herramientas nuevas y más originales en la enseñanza. En el ámbito de las ciencias biomédicas en particular existen ya experiencias previas sobre el uso del cine comercial como una manera de favorecer el debate y la formación en áreas y asignaturas diferentes. Este artículo sugiere el empleo de la película Mi tío de América a través de la experiencia en estudiantes de Biología, como una forma de presentar las teorías de Henri Laborit sobre la neurobiología de la organización social. Se trata de una película realizada en 1980, dirigida por Alain Resnais y con guión de Jean Gruault. La trama discurre a lo largo de la vida de tres personajes que viven situaciones diversas que permiten reflejar algunas de las teorías de Laborit. En ellas, básicamente se justifica la conducta humana a través de la jerarquización de tres estructuras cerebrales y niveles, desde el más primitivo y primario "arquiencéfalo", pasando por el paleoencéfalo, responsable de la memoria, hasta llegar a un nivel más sofisticado responsable de la conciencia, el neocórtex. La película pretende divulgar estas teorías y, para ello, emplea recursos diversos como imágenes de animales de experimentación en situaciones idénticas o similares a las vividas por los protagonistas. Si prestamos atención no sólo a las ventajas que puede ofrecer esta película para su empleo en la docencia sino también a algunas de las limitaciones propias de este filme, se podría concluir que Mi tío de América es altamente recomendable para la enseñanza en psiconeurobiología.The present and future changes in the teaching at the universities will advise for the use of new and more original methods. In the biomedical sciences there are some experiences regarding the use of popular movies to allow the discussion and interchange of points of view on some polemic topics. This review suggests the usefulness of the film Mon oncle d'Amérique in the teaching of students of human Biology, as a way of introducing the neurobiological theories of Henri Laborit on social organization. This film was directed by Alain Resnais and written by Jean Gruault in 1980. It considers the life of three people who live several situations that are used to explain the Laborit theories. Basically, they justify the human behaviour by the hierarchical organization of the brain in three levels: the most primitive is the archiencephal, the intermediate is the paleoencephal (linked to memory) and the highest, the neocortex that is responsible of consciousness. The movie tries to introduce to these theories using several filmic resources such the viewing of laboratory animals in situations that mimic those lived by the three people. These comparisons allow Laborit himself to explain why people behave in specific ways when submitted to social conflicts. We conclude that Mon oncle d'Amérique is highly recommended for the teaching of some principles related to psychology, psychoneurobiology and psychiatry.

In a culture of fear, everyday life is experienced through the feeling of safety, part of which can be secured through certain electronic home security systems. Three films – Unlawful Entry (1992), Panic Room (2002) and When a Stranger Calls (2006) – will be used as examples in the attempt to consider the relationship between the fear of criminal activity – in this case break ins – and electronic home security systems. The basic premise of the research is that the culturally manufactured fear encourages the electronic home security system industry, the presence of which can, in turn, exasperate one’s fear of the risk of falling victim to violent crime.

This article considers the role Santali movies play regarding the Santal indigenous group's perceptions of their community as unified throughout India. Using participant observation I describe the differing ways people engage with these movies, which are prevalent in the Kolkata metropolis and in two villages in Assam and Odisha. I argue that the way people articulate their identity in the respective settings evolves from the specific everyday culture there, showing that this mediatized identity-building relates to the identity practice of a wider society and the political situation for Santal people. In a recent academic debate on indigeneity in South Asia, scholars discussed from a critical viewpoint the effects of calling communities "indigenous"; they see this as presupposing the conformity of their cultural identity. Based on my observations, I suggest focusing on the diversity of individuals' understandings of their belonging as an assertive device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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