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PSYCHOLOGY: Effects of Fidget Toys on Physiological and Psychological Stress
No full textJob interviews are known to elicit stress as college students prepare to enter the job market. It is important to identify ways to regulate stress in job interviews because it could lead to better outcomes for interviewees. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of fidget toys on reducing physiological and psychological stress. We sampled 35 college students and conducted mock job interviews while measuring each participant’s physiological stress levels (i.e., skin conductance, heart rate, and blood pressure) throughout the interview. We hypothesized that participants who were given well-designed, recognizable fidget toys would show decreased levels of physiological stress throughout the interview, while participants given nothing would show persisting stress levels. Data analysis is ongoing, but we expect to find that fidget toys were a stress reliever for people in job interviews. These findings would imply that organizations could gather more accurate data during the hiring process by offering interviewees the option to use a fidget toy to regulate stress. This way, hiring decisions could be based on data that is not as clouded by the inherent stress of job interviews. Further elaboration on the results and implications of this study will be presented upon completion
Mind-Controlled Games & Gamified Exercise: Gaming Reimagined through Human-Computer Interaction
Get PDFHuman-computer interaction (HCI), the study of how people interact with technology, is a field that is constantly evolving and expanding. Innovations once considered revolutionary, such as mouse clicks and digital drawings, now seem trivial compared to the possibilities offered by augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and advanced game development. This presentation describes two projects that dive into the world of human-computer interaction through the lens of game-development. The first examines the possibility of humans controlling a game with one’s mind, while the other investigates how game-based experiences can motivate physical activity. Through these experiences we hope to further expand the use-cases of HCI in everyday interaction
The Cybernetic Unconscious
Get PDFThe internet is the most perfect incarnation of a process that has repeated across centuries and networks. In the mind, we call it psychosis, in society, we call it religion, and on the internet, it is becoming the singularity. My comic, ELDERNET, is a cyberweird analysis and critique of the internet as the collective locus of the unconscious. Drawing inspiration from media from French post-structuralist philosophy to 1920s Weird Fiction, I reveal the representations of horror within the automatic network
Cascading Effects: Analyzing Project Failure Impact in the Maven Central Ecosystem
Get PDFAbstract—This study examines failure propagation patterns within the Maven Central ecosystem, a critical software de- pendency repository, through comprehensive analysis of dependency networks using the Goblin framework. Our dual-sampling methodology, investigating both top dependencies and random libraries, revealed two distinct failure propagation patterns that pose significant risks to ecosystem stability. Core infrastructure failures, particularly evident in cases like the AWS SDK family with 429,800 total dependencies, create immediate and widespread disruption, affecting an average of 20,402 dependent projects and propagating through dependency chains averaging 90.80 levels deep.
Our analysis of peripheral projects reveals their significant cascading effects, with higher average dependency depths of 54.25 levels and chain lengths extending to 116.74 levels, as exemplified by cases like org.apache.camel:camel-swagger-java, which demonstrated a maximum chain length of 647 levels. Our findings highlight specific vulnerabilities in current dependency network structures, showing that ecosystem resilience requires both protecting core infrastructure and managing dependency complexity
Evaluating Employee Turnover and Fundraising Metrics in Youth Sports Programming
Get PDFThis study examines key aspects of nonprofit success at First Tee, a youth development organization that teaches life skills through golf. First Tee operates five branches in Tennessee—Chattanooga, Nashville, Tri-Cities, Knoxville, and Memphis—each with varying efficiencies and costs. While previous research highlights the program’s positive impact on youth development, little is known about how employee satisfaction and fundraising strategies affect its long-term sustainability. Using a mixed-methods, concurrent design, this study incorporates semi-structured interviews with Regional Directors and key employees, alongside job satisfaction survey data from staff. These methods assessed operational effectiveness, job satisfaction, and fundraising strategies to identify opportunities for improvement.
Preliminary results indicate that First Tee employs effective organizational best practices, with employees expressing strong alignment with the mission. However, findings highlight a need for greater cohesion both within and between branches, as staff seek stronger unity across the organization. Employees also expressed a desire for more open communication between branches to share successful fundraising practices and operational insights. Additionally, there is a rising demand for incentives beyond traditional workplace benefits, with employees looking for additional support and engagement opportunities. These insights suggest opportunities to enhance employee engagement, foster collaboration, and improve organizational effectiveness, ultimately strengthening First Tee’s long-term impact. Greater transparency and collaboration could help standardize best practices and improve overall organizational effectiveness
Supporting the Other: The Interplay of Demographic Characteristics and Their Impact on Political Tolerance
No full textHow do demographic characteristics produce political tolerance? Research indicates that as political intolerance continues to increase, support for individual rights is at risk. Research also indicates that factors such as geographic location, age, race, religion, education level, and wealth play a major role in Americans’ willingness to support those dissimilar to them. To test the proposition that different combinations or synergies of demographic characteristics have a greater effect on the production of political tolerance than the sum of their individual parts, I plan to use existing data from the American National Election Survey database to gauge how these factors affect citizens’ political tolerance and their willingness to extend individual rights to groups they ordinarily oppose. Then, I will conduct a cross-sectional regression analysis to determine what traits have the most significant impact on citizens’ degree of political tolerance
No Political Secularization Without Representation: Examining the Influence of Modernization on Individual Belief and Its Relationship with Government Attitudes Towards Organized Religion
No full textHow does modernization’s impact on a population’s beliefs affect their government’s attitude and policies toward organized religions? While current literature agrees that modernization within any nation seems to have a direct correlation with the number of religious practitioners within their country, there is currently no consensus as to whether modernity promotes secularization or desecularization among their respective populations nor has it identified the government’s reaction to these changes. The purpose of this study is to determine if the development of individual belief among citizens living within various nations influences the attitudes their government has taken to either favor or disfavor religion over the past 40 years. This will be accomplished through a comparison analysis between data collected by the World Values Survey on individual beliefs and the Government Religious Preference dataset (GRP). I expect to find that countries whose populations have secularized over the past 40 years are more likely to adopt tolerant religious policies, score lower on the GRP, and move away from favoring any religious practice, whereas countries, where their populations have desecularized, will likely have adopted more conservative religious policies, score higher on the GRP, and have moved towards favoring one religion while disfavoring others
Making Copies
No full textIt has long been suggested that students are leaving college with more liberal political attitudes than when they first arrived. This observation has sparked considerable debate among educators, policymakers, and researchers; with many wondering whether higher education fosters a shift toward more liberal ideologies. Several studies have pointed to a positive correlation between educational attainment and the growth of liberal, tolerant attitudes (Brooks & Weber, 2022). However, this raises a critical question: what exactly causes this ideological shift? Why do students, particularly those in college settings, tend to embrace more liberal views as they progress through their education? Ultimately, I hypothesize that while both professor and student influence are at play, professor influence has more weight in the production of liberals at the university level
Exploring Approaches to Mental Health in Minority Communities of African Descent
No full textIn Western culture, mental health has grown to become an important and more widely discussed topic. As stigmas surrounding mental health issues slowly break, more people are being encouraged to seek out resources to aid their mental well-being, especially through technology and online mental health services. However, this Western cultural phenomenon has not fully translated to minority communities within the West. Specifically, within immigrant Black communities such as African and Caribbean communities, mental health is not a widely discussed topic and is often seen as taboo. African American communities also have a different relationship with mental health than other Americans due to the history of the community in America. Because the immigrant Black community and the African American community share both common traits and differences, it is a point of interest to compare their attitudes toward mental health. This study analyzes how these different communities approach mental health and how technological acceptance within the communities affects access to mental health resources. Participants are asked to self-report if they identify as black, and those who do self-report the cultures they feel most connected to. They then complete the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS-21) questionnaire, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) questionnaire, and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) questionnaire. We will analyze the interaction between the scores of each questionnaire for both African Americans and Black immigrants to observe whether there is a significant difference between the two
