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“How Can I Make This Real Life?”: Realism, Politics, and Simulational Rhetoric in Video Games
Get PDFVideo games are becoming an increasingly relevant aspect of modern culture, both shaping discourse around topics of labor, play, and art, and being shaped by the society they are created within. Scholars have examined the link between video games and player behavior since the 1990s and found that there is little concrete proof that video games alter behavior on their own and are simply one part of a much larger context. But with video games increasing in complexity and accuracy, it becomes necessary to examine whether video games are capable of convincing players about truths of the real world through play. This thesis focused on a specific instance of simulational rhetoric—systems of police and criminal justice—within a specific video game—Cities: Skylines II—in order to see whether realism in a game impacted the beliefs of the players who experienced it. Ultimately, I discovered that while simulational rhetoric plays a role in convincing players about how accurate a game is compared to real life, players will prioritize their own experiences and pre-existing beliefs over that of the video game, which casts doubts upon the current ways that game developers create games meant to promote positive social change or handle negative playerbases
\u3ci\u3ePotamogeton Crispus\u3c/i\u3e Invasion: Impacts on Native Aquatic Plants and Associated Faunal Habitat
Get PDFAquatic invasive plants are non-native plants that invade a water body and displace native aquatic plants. Invasion depletes the native plant community\u27s ability to provide ecosystem services, including improved water quality, decreased problematic algae, and increased animal habitat. The loss of these ecosystem services reduces the value of fishing, boating, and swimming opportunities in aquatic ecosystems. The potential changes in plant communities and services are particularly important at sites targeted for restoration because project goals typically include increasing ecosystem services, including wildlife habitat. Curly-leaf pondweed (Potamogeton crispus L.) is a problematic invasive species in North America. To better manage invasion by curly-leaf pondweed, practitioners need to understand its invasion ecology, which includes region-specific growth patterns, mechanisms by which it dominates a system, and the role of native aquatic plants in increasing a system\u27s resilience against invasion. In addition, it is important to understand how invasion by curly-leaf pondweed threatens wildlife habitat for animals like fish. This research project used experimental and observational studies to increase understanding of curly-leaf pondweed ecology which can inform future management. To address questions regarding invasion ecology, we grew curly-leaf pondweed in outdoor tanks and observed them for 16 months. Tanks contained different combinations of native aquatic plants in wetland soil with abundant plant propagules. Additionally, we conducted aquatic plant surveys at the Provo River Delta (Utah, USA) where a curly-leaf pondweed invasion similar to that in the outdoor tanks was underway. In a different study, designed to address questions regarding changes in wildlife habitat, small fish—June sucker (Chasmistes liorus)—were placed in tanks that contained native plants and curly-leaf pondweed. The fish were then exposed to different predator threats and their use of habitats was observed. Together, these studies revealed that (1) growth patterns of curly-leaf pondweed at mid-latitude sites resemble that observed in northern regions of the USA, (2) abundant native aquatic plant propagules can limit curly-leaf pondweed invasion, and (3) curly-leaf pondweed invasion threatens the diverse native aquatic plant community needed by small fish to find adequate refuge habitat
The Impact of Absolute Education on Young Voter Turnout
Get PDFAmerican civic education continually proves to need attention and reform. This research evaluates whether implementing specific teaching strategies at the high school level impacts a student\u27s future political participation; specifically, to more clearly outline whether a high school level civics curriculum directly impacts a student\u27s likelihood to cast a voting ballot in midterm and presidential elections within six years of graduation. This paper aims to understand better if teaching and/or education reform is effective in helping future generations and the democratic fate of our country. In this study, we measure the current state civic graduation requirements compared with the state\u27s youth engagement in politics through youth voter turnout, which includes voters between the ages of 18 and 24. By continuing the work and studies of modern scholars and analyzing the recent changes states have made to civic education graduation requirements, this study hopes to discover whether implementing improved civic teaching requirements in high schools influences youth voter turnout. The variables measured are state required civics tests, state-required curriculums, and state-required semesters of civics courses. By using a linear regression model, all of the variables collected were measured. In the conclusion of this study, we find that the concepts measured do not have a true statistical significance on youth voter turnout
Accelerating Convergence of RANS CFD Simulation of External Flows Using Surface-Vorticity Panel Solver
No full textReynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are widely used to measure aerodynamic and hydrodynamic forces on airplanes, cars, ships, and more. However, these simulations demand heavy computational power, often slowing down design and optimization processes. Past efforts to speed them up have ranged from tweaking pressure solvers to using machine-learning techniques. This study explores whether advanced potential-flow solutions can kickstart RANS simulations to make them faster. We proposed that initializing velocity and pressure fields with predictions from a surface-vorticity solver, FlightStream, could speed up RANS simulations for steady, incompressible flows. To test this, we developed tools to transfer FlightStream\u27s flow data into a popular commercial RANS solver. For a 2D NACA0015 airfoil at a Reynolds number of 3.6x105 and angles of attack from 0 to 10 degrees, initialized RANS simulations converged 2.8X–5.3X faster than those starting from scratch, proving the idea works. In 3D tests with the NACA0012 airfoil under the same conditions, the speedup was even more impressive due to the larger scale. Depending on how we measured convergence, speedups ranged from 7X–17X for lift and drag with strict criteria, up to 43X–794X when we relaxed the standards. Surprisingly, not all initial conditions worked as expected. We tried two setups in 3D: one with both velocity and pressure from FlightStream, and another with a simple uniform velocity matching the inlet. The uniform velocity unexpectedly outperformed the more complex setup, and adding the pressure field didn\u27t help much. We think this is because the RANS solver quickly figures out the pressure on its own, and FlightStream\u27s data had some gaps from manual processing. For the Streamlined NACA0012, the uniform flow was already a close match to reality, giving it an edge. This uniform velocity boost was a pleasant surprise, but it might not hold up in trickier flows with sharp changes or turbulence, where it could stumble. Meanwhile, FlightStream\u27s predictions, though imperfect, could shine in complex scenarios. These results show our method has potential, but there\u27s more to explore, especially for tougher cases
Forging Resilient Futures: The Role of Community Organizations in Addressing Environmental Injustices Faced by Immigrants Along the Wasatch Front, Utah
Get PDFUtah’s Wasatch Front is an urban area with a growing population that faces looming environmental challenges, such as the desiccation of the Great Salt Lake, worsening air quality, water scarcity, and the impacts of urban sprawl. If not prevented, the lake’s desiccation or other environmental challenges could result in dangerous air pollution, biodiversity loss, and disruptions to local economies. Immigrant populations may be uniquely vulnerable to these environmental changes because of economic, social, and political marginalization. For example, 50% of Salt Lake City’s foreign-born residents live on the City’s westside—the area on the frontline of the lake’s toxic dust. My research explores the role of immigrant-serving community organizations in mitigating the impacts of these environmental changes upon the immigrant communities along the Wasatch Front. Via semi-structured interviews with organizational staff, I examine how community organizations: 1) frame immigrant vulnerability and resilience, 2) mitigate environmental injustice affecting immigrant populations; and 3) advocate for environmental policy changes. My findings reveal a pattern in which immigrant-serving community organizations have strong awareness regarding the disproportionate environmental risks affecting immigrant and refugee along the Wasatch Front yet are not actively engaged in the mitigation of these risks. Given structural, financial, social, and political barriers limiting the scope of their work, organizational staff largely perceive environmental justice as outside their organizational purview. This is an important finding given that community-based organizations can sometimes be the only institutions interfacing with immigrants and refugees and are therefore uniquely positioned to help mitigate environmental injustices affecting immigrants and refugees
A Case Study of Garden-Based STEAM Curriculum on Students’ STEM Career Interests
No full textThe number of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers available is increasing faster than the number of students who are majoring in STEM fields. Many female students feel they do not belong in STEM careers, even though they have just as much ability as their male counterparts. One way to help female students feel like they belong in these careers is to increase their interest in pursuing STEM pathways. Currently, the individual STEM subjects (i.e., science, mathematics) are taught in a siloed way, which does not allow students to connect the subjects and see how these fields work together in the real world. The purpose of this mixed-methods case study was to describe how middle school students, with a focus on female students, engaged in and experienced a 7-week STEAM garden-based intervention and how the intervention changed their mathematics and science identities and STEM career interests. Students engaged in integrated garden-based STEAM lessons designed to be interdisciplinary and engaging, occurring partly outside and partly in the classroom with the aim of increasing all students’ mathematics and science identities, and interests in STEM careers. In this case study, I used qualitative data results to describe all the students’ experiences while participating in the garden-based STEAM lessons taught by the researcher. I used both quantitative and qualitative data types to triangulate results and the effects on students’ mathematics and science identities and STEM career interests, pre- and post-garden-based lessons. The coded data showed themes of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, enjoyment, and connection to real life while participating in the garden-based STEAM lessons. The students’ mathematics identities remained high from pre- to post-garden-based STEAM lessons. The students’ science identities increased, female students remained high, and the male students increased statistically significantly. There was a statistically significant increase in female STEM career interest from pre- to post-garden-based STEAM lessons intervention. In conclusion, this study showed that students participating in garden-based STEAM lessons enjoyed it, made connections to real-life, and maintained or increased their mathematics and science identities, which in turn led to increased female STEM career interests
Optimizing Composition of Defined Control Diets and Exercise for Ideal Metabolic Health in Laboratory Mice
No full textIn the U.S., nutrient deficiencies, obesity and metabolic syndrome are all current public health concerns affecting millions of people. Fundamental dietary research approaches addressing these important areas are typically based on research in laboratory animals that are fed chemically defined diets to learn about the impacts of dietary components or supplements of interest on metabolic health. All such feeding trials are faced with the problem that a healthy standard diet must be established to ensure optimal metabolic health of the control animals.
The AIN-93G standard diet is commonly used as a chemically defined control diet in feeding trials. Furthermore, researchers have used the AIN-93G diet as a model for chemically defined diets that exhibit similar macro and micronutrients. However, chemically defined diets modeled after the AIN-93G diet have been found to induce obesity in laboratory animals. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine an effective dietary formulation of chemically defined diets to maintain metabolically health control mice for research trials. Three parameters of diet composition: protein percentage, carbohydrate complexity, and calorie density were altered to determine the impact on metabolic health of animals. Additionally, we evaluated to what extent, voluntary physical exercise can offset the obesogenicity of the control diet modeled after the AING-93 standard control diet.
Through a series of metabolic function tests, the results demonstrated that calorie density had a significant impact on the metabolic parameters that were assessed. Furthermore, voluntary physical exercise significantly improved metabolic health even when animals were fed a diet with obesogenic potential. The outcomes of this study highlight the necessity to improve chemically defined control diets used in metabolic studies of nutritional deficiencies and metabolic diseases like obesit
Measuring Support in Couple Relationships: The Psychometrics Properties of the Couple Support Behavior Questionnaire
Get PDFCouple support, a unique form of social support, as defined in this thesis is the felt sense of being upheld, valued, lifted up, and empowered by your romantic partner, during both times of distress and success. In this master’s thesis, I used secondary data provided by Dr. Ryan Seedall and conducted statistical analyses to develop a new measure, the Couple Support Behavior Questionnaire (CSBQ). Using data from 443 individuals who had all been in a relationship for at least three years and were all above the age of 18, I used statistical methods to shorten and provide a 19-item measure, with four subscales. Each of the four types of support represent a unique kind of support that can be present within relationships and impart valuable and distinctive pieces of couple support. Caring support (9 items) is focused on both emotional and physical forms of support. Guidance support (5 items) is a more action-oriented type of support. Informational support (3 items) centers on imparting knowledge and facts. Lastly, non-judgmental acceptance (2 items) is a unique type of support that conveys a mindset associated with specific support behaviors. The CSBQ measure is now available to be used in assessing couple support behaviors in both clinical and research settings
Identifying and Addressing Current Gaps in Knowledge and Treatment Dissemination for Individuals With Trichotillomania
Get PDFTrichotillomania is an impairing and debilitating mental health condition, and while the research in this area is growing, this population is underserved. The aim of this project was to identify gaps in the research that may be contributing to lack of treatment access and begin filling those gaps. The first gap is knowledge of how treatments work and for whom they work best. While there are a variety of treatment options and ways of delivering treatment, individual factors that predict who will benefit most are not well investigated. We explored the individual factors, and aspects of treatment that we believe create change, that predict decreases in symptom severity for a website of acceptance and commitment therapy- enhanced behavior therapy (A-EBT) for adults with trichotillomania. Age and anxiety levels both impacted treatment outcomes. Additionally, trichotillomania specific psychological flexibility was preliminarily found to be a process of change in treatment for trichotillomania regardless of intervention type. The second paper explored how providers knowledge of trichotillomania and skin picking disorder could be a cause for lack of treatment accessibility. Providers had limited knowledge of diagnosis, treatment, resources, referral options for individuals with trichotillomania, and reported that they did not feel competent to treat trichotillomania or skin picking disorder based on their knowledge and training. The third paper explored if weekly phone check-ins improved treatment outcomes and adherence to a fully automated website delivering A-EBT for adults with trichotillomania. We found that while adherence to the program significantly predicted treatment outcomes, check-ins did not significantly improve adherence to the program
Managing for Disturbance: Trade-Offs Associated With Population Resilience and Ecosystem Size
Get PDFPopulations can recover from and withstand disturbance through characteristics such as reproduction and maintaining large abundances. While these traits are beneficial to native species conservation, they can simultaneously challenge effective invasive species management. Effective invasive species control requires sufficient efforts to overcome a population\u27s ability to recover from disturbance, such as harvest. My dissertation aimed to address how the size of an invasive population and its ability to recover from disturbance impact a suite of invasive species control methods, including those that (1) target mainly larger and older individuals (i.e., mechanical removal), (2) target all sizes of individuals (i.e., targeted poison bait), and (3) aim to limit future generations\u27 reproductive ability through genetic methods (i.e., Trojan Y Chromosome stocking). Each of these strategies have minimum effort levels, below which little to no biomass reduction occurs. This means that if management fails to exert effort at or above this intensity, there may be a substantial investment resulting in no meaningful population impact. Additionally, I examine the potential for different combinations of these methods to control a population of invasive common carp (Cyprinus carpio) in Utah Lake, UT, assessing the trade-offs between control effectiveness and cost. I highlight that there are minimum efforts required, regardless of control method employed, to achieve meaningful progress towards invasive species control targets. Further, I demonstrate how methods can be combined to produce desired population impacts and illustrate how combining mechanical removal and Trojan Y Chromosome stocking could be an effective strategy for my case study of the Utah Lake common carp control program. However, all of the combined methods explored herein that achieve control targets would require substantial budgetary increases for Utah Lake. Overall, my research advances our understanding of the relationship between necessary levels of invasive species control efforts and the size and reproductive ability of the target population. An agency\u27s ability to adequately apply effort to control an invasive species can ultimately be limited by resource availability. While substantial increases in investment may be necessary, combining multiple control methods could reduce the long-term investment required to achieve management targets. Regardless of methods applied, failure to reach or surpass the necessary effort level can result in prolonged investment of resources with minimal impact on the targeted population