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Fighting for a Level Playing Field: The Reality of Elite Women\u27s Sports in Today\u27s Modern Era
Full text linkSports makeup the very essence and lifeblood of American culture. In addition to being incredibly popular, sports dominate the mainstream media and are fiercely supported across all aspects of society. However, the gender hierarchy that exists in the United States subjects elite women in sports to a lesser status in which their abilities, strengths, and talents are seen as indefinitely inferior to their male counterparts. Exploring the reasoning behind these disparities is a major focus of my research in addition to showing how poorly women in sports are treated today. Previous studies indicate that institutionalized forms of sexism, hegemonic masculinity, and the normalization of strict gender roles are some of the primary reasons behind this severe imbalance. While past research has been lucrative, there is a lack of current and expansive pieces of data. As a result, content analysis was used as the main methodology in which articles about women in sports were analyzed across various online platforms and organized by using thematic codes. This includes Instagram, ESPN, ESPNW, Bleacher-Report, Just Women\u27s Sports, The New York Times, and Sports Illustrated. A total of 60 stories were collected and published between the years of 2021 and 2023. Going beyond the inequities that exist for elite female athletes, my research makes it explicitly clear that women\u27s sports are prevented from making progress due to the sociocultural expectations and stereotypes that are placed on them. Not only do female athletes require more rights, but the world today needs to admit that it is actively and systematically sabotaging women in sports
Improving Human-Robot Interaction: Modifications of a Social Robot on Dimensions of Gender and Personality
Full text linkPrevious research in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) has shown that social female robots typically evoke more cognitive and affective trust. Studies also show that extroverted robot personalities are associated with desirable social outcomes. In this experiment, I tested the extent to which a robot\u27s gender (male vs. female) and personality (introverted vs. extroverted) impact the success of a given human-robot interaction. Specifically, I evaluated if the gender of a robot has an effect on the human preference for extroverted personalities. Prior to interacting with a robot, participants completed a baseline Negative Attitudes Towards Robots Scale [9]. Then, during the interaction, the robot asked the participant a variety of questions in an interview-like manner. After this dialogue concluded, the robot requested the participant to execute a task, which was used as a behavioral measure. Once the participants were done with the task, they completed two self-report measures: a Robot Comfort Scale [9] and a Robot Reaction Scale [7]. Results showed that participants felt more comfortable interacting with the extroverted female robot compared to the introverted female robot. However, the opposite was true for the male robot: participants felt more comfortable interacting with the introverted male robot compared to the extroverted male robot. Furthermore, participants tended to have better general reactions to the extroverted female robot compared to the introverted male robot. This study demonstrates that the notion of extroverted robots yielding desirable social outcomes is not generalizable on dimensions of gender
From \u27cookie-pushers\u27 to the Cold War: U.S. Foreign Service professionalization and a new foreign policy
Full text linkThe professionalization of the U.S. Foreign Service was codified by the Rogers Act in 1924. This act was supposed to change the way the U.S. practiced diplomacy, turning what had been an agency full of avaricious politicos and hangers-on, the eponymous pin-stripe boys and cookie-pushers. However, within this group were those swept up in the movement of civil service reform, and they convinced the United States to engage in the act of creating a professional Foreign Service and eventually in instituting the Marshall Plan. This was a swift and shocking reversal in U.S. policy. But the more the policy changed, the more the group influencing this policy stayed the same. Using the power of the Rogers Act, this group propagated its beliefs in liberal internationalism to the whole Foreign Service, putting the United States on a collision course with the Soviet Union. This essay deals with the causes of this transformation. This was only possible due to an intersection of unique conditions. First, there had to be a visibly floundering Foreign Service seemingly unable to complete its assigned tasks. Second, there had to be an ideological movement to improve what was there. Third, there had to be some call to action that made a Foreign Service relevant to U.S. political life. And finally, there had to be people willing to invest in the creation of the Foreign Service and willing to be a part of it. These topics are the basis of this essay for the purpose of understanding why the Foreign Service was able to so effectively shape U.S. policy and opinions
Tissue Retractor for Open Ventral Hernia Surgery
No full textMore than 800,000 open ventral hernia surgeries are performed each year in the United States. This procedure has an average readmittance rate of 20%. Tissue retractors are used in each of these surgeries to expose the surgical field. There is evidence that retractors play a role in the surgery\u27s high readmittance rate by inducing cellular necrosis in the tissue they interact with. The angular geometry of current retractors places large amounts of stress on small amounts of tissue, leading to necrosis. Additionally, current retractors are uncomfortable to use and come in fixed sizes that do not fit all tissues. Therefore, we have designed a retractor that limits the amount of stress placed on the tissue, is easier to use, and is more customizable, with the goal of improving patient recovery rates
Fetal Movement Visualization to Empower Pregnant People
No full textMiracles of life do not occur all the time. Every year in the US, 24,000 stillbirths-babies lost after 20+ weeks gestation-devastate families [10]. Healthcare providers recommend parents in the third trimester of pregnancy perform fetal movement counting to monitor their baby\u27s health [12, 16]. As a result, mobile apps rise in popularity to assist mothers in tracking when and how many times their babies kicked. Using the fetal movement counting information collected, apps graph the data for users. However, despite the diversity of apps available, a formal analysis of the usability of those visualizations is missing. This research is especially needed because mothers may rely on that data to make pregnancy-related decisions. Therefore, this study proposes and evaluates three visualizations of fetal movement data: line, bar, and calendar charts. Through usability testing with 19 women, we find that the most effective visualization depends on baby types. A bar or calendar chart that distinguishes the time of the kick count session is helpful if the baby moves differently throughout the day. If the baby moves consistently, a line chart graphing individual kick count sessions on the x-axis is more effective
Canopy Shear Layer Perturbation by Localized Height Heterogeneity
No full textThe effects of a local heterogeneity on the turbulent flow over an otherwise homogenous canopy were investigated. Specifically, the effects of a local increase in canopy height were studied for a canopy resembling aquatic vegetation; this local height increase is analogous to invasive species of seagrass. The considered canopy is categorized as a dense, such that tightly packed elements affect the flow on a canopy scale, instead of an element scale only. Canopy flow is separated into slow-moving flow through the canopy and fast-moving flow above the canopy, resulting in a shear layer at the canopy-flow interface. To better understand the effects of a local increase in canopy height, particle image velocimetry flow fields for various disturbance heights (hd/h = 1.25, 1.5, 2) were analyzed; here, h denotes the homogenous canopy height. The effects of the local heterogeneity are investigated for two submergence depths, H/h = 2 and H/h = 3, with respective Reynolds numbers of 12 000 and 19 000. The local heterogeneity restricts the flow area, increasing vertical flows before and after the disturbance as well as elevating free stream velocity at a rate proportional to the disturbance size. The disturbance size is also proportional to the turbulence in the disturbance wake; this wake disperses downstream, distributing turbulence and decreasing the size of coherent vortical structures until the shear layer reattaches to the homogenous canopy and begins recovery. Homogenous canopy flow was not recovered four canopy heights downstream of the disturbance and submergence cases analyzed, and future research could investigate the rate of canopy boundary layer recovery as a function of disturbance size, submergence, and Reynolds number
The relationship between helicopter parenting and risky sexual behavior in emerging adults
Full text linkPrior research on helicopter parenting suggests a hovering style of parenting may lead to engagement in risky behaviors including problematic drinking and drug use and risky sexual behavior. The purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between helicopter parenting during childhood and adolescence and later sexual behavior in emerging adults. Participants included 380 undergraduate students between the ages of 18 and 26 who anonymously completed a survey where they were asked to report retrospectively about their parents\u27 parenting behavior during the time they were growing up and their sexual health histories during the past six months, utilizing the Helicopter Parenting Scale (HPS) and Sexual Risk Survey (SRS), respectively. Findings did not support a significant relationship between the experience of helicopter parenting and risky sexual behavior and were inconsistent with prior research. However, results show that there were some trends in the data with those who self-identified as part of the gender minority, Black or African American, and upper income groups exhibiting all positive correlation values and those who self-identified as part of the Hispanic or Latino and low income groups exhibiting all negative correlation values. These findings suggest a need for further research that seeks to better understand how demographic differences may influence the relationship between helicopter parenting and risky behaviors
Assessing the Potential Influence of Anti-Transgender Bias on Memory and Judgements
Full text linkDecades of prior research have shown that our memory is susceptible to a variety of influences that can distort the accuracy of what we remember. For example, false memories can be implanted into an individual\u27s mind and top-down factors like expectations and prejudicial biases can sway what we do and don\u27t remember about an event. The current study was designed to assess the potential memory-modifying influence of an understudied, yet important, type of bias - anti-transgender bias. Although prior research has documented the prevalence of anti-transgender bias in today\u27s society, no study has yet examined how these biases may shape our memory and judgements of an event. To that end, we asked participants to read a set of short stories centered on an individual\u27s day at an amusement park and later recall details from those stories and make judgements regarding specific events that took place. One of these stories involved the main character helping a child wash their hands in a restroom. Critically, we manipulated the gender of the main character (cisgender man, transgender man, cisgender woman, or transgender woman) as well as the gender of the restroom (men\u27s or women\u27s room). Participants also completed an anti-transgender bias scale. Results will shed light on the potential influence of anti-transgender bias on memory and judgements, as well as if that influence varies between transgender men and transgender women
Characterization of Stream Turbidity in the Catskills, New York: Insights into Environmental Controls
Full text linkElevated turbidity poses a threat to water quality, which is especially problematic in unfiltered water supply systems such as New York City\u27s (NYC). The Catskills Region of New York, which supplies NYC with the majority of its drinking water, is especially prone to chronically elevated turbidity due to the erosion of glacial till in Catskill streams. Here, we characterize turbidity and streamflow in the Catskills to understand the drivers of turbidity in this region. To accomplish this, we examined over a decade\u27s worth of observed turbidity and streamflow data (2010-2022, n = 88,255) at 20 United States Geological Survey (USGS) monitoring sites. We investigated the seasonal and temporal trends in turbidity and streamflow, as well as the potential underlying causes for extreme turbidity events. Our results indicate that turbidity peaks during January through April across sites, which suggests that earlier timings of spring snow melt may contribute to elevated turbidity during these months. The turbidity baseline conditions also differ across sites, along with several sites frequently exceeding the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) turbidity regulatory limit of 5 NTU, suggesting that certain areas of the Catskill Watershed are more susceptible to higher turbidity. Examination of extreme floods in the Catskills, such as a severe flood in December 2020 that affected the entire region, reveals that there is a characteristic process that can explain turbidity dynamics after severe flooding in this region. The December 2020 flood elevated turbidity above baseline conditions for approximately three months at several Catskill sites. There was an intermediate flood in March 2021 that could flush the easily erodible sediment that had been deposited in the channels as a result of the first flood event. However, this intermediate flood did not produce enough energy to overwhelm the system and keep turbidity above baseline conditions. Overall, our analysis proposes potential mechanisms to explain elevated turbidity events throughout the watershed and highlights the extent of the turbidity problem in the Catskills, which has important implications for water resources management of this water supply system