4210 research outputs found
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The Effect Of Affirming Scientific Belief On Existential Anxiety
Get PDFA Research Methods Project supervised by Dr. Hilary Stebbins (Spring 2021)
Heuristics, Biases, and Police Activity
Get PDFAn infographic created as part of Dr. Erchull’s Social Psychology course (Spring 2021). Students were asked to give psychology away through an infographic designed to educate an audience of their choice about an idea from social psychology that the group would benefit from understanding. TOPIC: heuristics and biases. AUDIENCE: U.S. law enforcement.
References:
NAACP. (2020, July 10). Criminal justice fact sheet. https://www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/
Initiative, P. (2020, December 29). Race and ethnicity. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/research/race_and_ethnicity
Looking for Social Cues in Nonverbal Communication
Get PDFAn infographic created as part of Dr. Erchull’s Social Psychology course (Fall 2021).
Students were asked to “give psychology away” through an infographic designed to educate an audience of their choice about an idea from social psychology that the group would benefit from understanding. TOPIC: nonverbal communication. AUDIENCE: college students with randomly assigned roomates
Understanding All Aspects of Self & How It Pertains to College Students
Get PDFAn infographic created as part of Dr. Erchull’s Social Psychology course (Fall 2021).
Students were asked to “give psychology away” through an infographic designed to educate an audience of their choice about an idea from social psychology that the group would benefit from understanding. TOPIC: the self. AUDIENCE: residential college students in their second year
Preliminary Examination Correlating Earthworm Behavior and Acid Mine Drainage-Contamination in Soils
No full textPyrite mining, common in part of Virginia a century ago, left behind many abandoned sites full of tailings, overburden, and exposed sulfate minerals. Contrary Creek, a stream in central Virginia, and its surrounding soils have become largely polluted with arsenic, lead, copper, zinc, and high acidity due to the runoff from the abandoned mines. This process called acid-mine drainage has nearly eliminated all aquatic and terrestrial animal life in the surrounding 12 hectares. Soil quality in degraded areas can be evaluated by assessing the behavior, survival, and other biological factors of earthworms in these contaminated conditions as well as analyzing the different trace metal fractions within the soils, focusing on total and bioavailable concentrations. Earthworms such as Eisenia fetida (red wigglers) are soil-dwelling geophages that are sensitive to soil conditions while maintaining a relatively high tolerance range and are an ideal indicator species when analyzing soil conditions. E. fetida earthworm biomass and behavior was used as an indicator of soil quality in soils from four locations near Contrary Creek. Mesocosms were prepared with pH values ranging from 3.70-4.65 and various levels of bioavailable metals. Before and after a two-week incubation, earthworm behavior was analyzed using the ToxTrac program, which quantifies mobility by average distance, speed, and acceleration, the first time to our knowledge that this program has been applied to worms. Earthworm biomass was also recorded before and after incubation. Acid-mine drainage pollution is a global concern, so finding a method to evaluate and perhaps mitigate the polluted soil regarding ecological health would be a valuable technique
A Singular Value Homotopy for Finding Critical Parameter Values
No full textVarious applications in science and engineering depend upon computing real solutions to systems of analytic equations which depend upon real parameters. Locally in the parameter space, the qualitative behavior of the solutions remains the same except at critical parameter values. This article develops a singular value homotopy that aims to compute critical parameter values. Several examples are presented including computing critical parameter values for nonlinear boundary value problems, turning points for a steady-state system connected to learning and memory, and computing the maximum Gaussian curvature of a surface
How to Feel: The Science and Meaning of Touch
No full textHow to Feel explores the scientific, physical, emotional, and cultural aspects of touch, reconnecting us to what is arguably our most important sense. Sushma Subramanian introduces readers to the scientists whose groundbreaking research is underscoring the role of touch in our lives. Through vivid individual stories—a man who lost his sense of touch in his late teens, a woman who experiences touch-emotion synesthesia, her own efforts to become less touch averse—Subramanian explains the science of the somatosensory system and our philosophical beliefs about it. She visits labs that are shaping the textures of objects we use every day, from cereal to synthetic fabrics. The book highlights the growing field of haptics, which is trying to incorporate tactile interactions into devices such as phones that touch us back and prosthetic limbs that can feel. How to Feel offers a new appreciation for a vital but misunderstood sense and how we can use it to live more fully.https://scholar.umw.edu/cds_books/1000/thumbnail.jp
This is America: Comparing the U.S. and Foreign Media Press Coverage of African American Foreign Policy Officials
Get PDFThere is universal recognition that the foreign policy making talent in the United States is woefully unrepresentative of America’s vibrant minority populations, and more is required to attract minorities to pursue public service careers representing the United States abroad and accurately reflect its diversity. However, little attention is paid towards the international response to America’s diversity as it relates to when people of color represent the United States as diplomats, foreign service officers and White House foreign policy officials, as well as in less official capacities as scholars and humanitarian workers. These concerns assume new relevance against the backdrop of the United States’ outsized cultural reach and the international popularity of American films that show “true American culture” and a global introspection about race in America. This presentation will examine the English Language foreign press coverage in 6 countries of the appointment of General Colin Powell, Dr. Condoleezza Rice and Dr. Susan Rice to senior WH and cabinet-level Foreign Policy positions of Secretary of State and National Security Advisor respectively from 2000 to 2013 during the Bush and Obama Administrations. Ultimately, the presentation will analyze and demonstrate the influence of gender and race in the coverage of these individuals to demonstrate the importance of diversity to offering a full understanding of the American experience
An Empirical Analysis of Economic Inequality on Economic Growth
Get PDFFor the United States, one of the most important trends of concern is the growing level of inequality. It is widely accepted that the United States is currently experiencing historically high levels of economic inequality. There are numerous reasons for policymakers and citizens to be concerned about the rising level of inequality, such as its impact on the basic American social contract that says that hard work pays off and the diminishing of opportunity. It has been well established that inequality negatively impacts educational opportunities, social mobility, skills development, and labor inputs. Most research has studied the extent to which higher inequality is associated with less opportunity and mobility. This research studies if there is a causal link between higher inequality and slower macroeconomic growth. The main hypothesis is that inequality limits human capital accumulation primarily through the channel of educational attainment, which then dampens labor quality. Reductions in labor quality led to slower economic growth. This research attempts to measure this relationship by incorporating income inequality in the composition of labor quality. The results do not support the hypothesis that as the United States has seen a rise in inequality, economic growth decreases. One suggestion is to use disaggregate data rather than aggregate data as some of the variations are lost when analyzing aggregate data
This Land is Not Your Land, This Land is My Land: A Quest for Civil Religious Understanding within the Defining Attitudes of American Values
Get PDFWith enough passion and drive, people within a country can make their own citizenship into a religious notion, emphasizing the importance of inherent national values like freedom, justice, and land, until these ideals become as sacred as any religion. While Americans claim that these symbols are the inherent strength of the nation, in this paper I argue that the civil religion in America is not as stable as citizens believe, and the concept of what it means to be American is once again being called into question. This instability has led to a major schism within the country, which can be seen through a number of events that have happened in the last few years, including but not limited to the Black Lives Matter movement and the insurrection at the Capitol