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News Media Sentiment Toward Chinese AI: a Comparative Analysis with Belt and Road Initiative Involvement and Public Opinion on China
No full textThis study evaluates different countries\u27 news media’s sentiment towards Chinese AI, between May 2023 and May 2024, by using Microsoft Azure NLP Sentiment Analysis. The results are then compared with the country’s public opinion on China and its involvement in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). For this study 12 countries have been selected which are USA, Australia, Pakistan, Peru, Russia, Romania, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Philippines, Brazil, and Egypt. For each one, GNews Application Programming Interface (API), which has access to more than 60,000 global news sources, was used to aggregate relevant news articles based on queried keywords. The collected set of articles related to the topic of China+AI was compared with a set of aggregated articles related to AI, which was used as the control variable. The results showed no significant patterns between a country’s involvement with BRI or public opinion of China. This is contradictory to the theory of Commercial Liberalism and provides valuable insights regarding limitations of China’s soft power
Waiting for the Miraculous: An Essay on Patience in American Literature
No full textThis work concerns object relations in American literature in the lyric mode over the past fifty years and its relationship to dealing with loss and illness. More specifically, how do people relate to things —anything from pocket watches to pieces of ribbon—that not only sustain hope but also make the process of waiting more bearable? This study will begin with an overview of object relations theory in literature, followed by an analysis of the novels and essays of four writers from different decades—Toni Morrison, Marilynne Robinson, Annie Dillard, and Teju Cole. The way in which these authors portray object relations denotes a form of patience in which one’s personal longings, contained in physical things, aspire for universal understanding
Cleansing Our Recycling Failures: How Guilt and Outrage Lead to Different Types of Pro-Environmental Behavior
Full text linkMost Americans view recycling as “the right thing to do,” yet U.S. recycling rates lag behind other developed countries, and Americans are quick to justify why they do not recycle more (e.g., laziness, inconvenience). Recent messaging has highlighted recycling failures in the U.S., but how effective are these messages, and do they create individual behavioral changes? According to research on moral self-regulation, failing to act morally can threaten a person’s moral self-concept, eliciting moral emotions (i.e., guilt and outrage), and motivating compensatory behavior (such as increased recycling). Three studies examined whether watching a video about poor recycling in the U.S. triggers a moral cleansing process. In all studies, participants first reported the extent to which they thought recycling is a moral issue (i.e., moral imperative ), followed by a video manipulation in which some or all participants watched a video about poor U.S. recycling. After the video manipulation, participants reported their perceptions of moral threat, current emotions, ascriptions of responsibility for causing (i.e., causal responsibility ; CR) and addressing (i.e., moral responsibility ; MR) poor U.S. recycling (Studies 2-3 only), and two measures of recycling intention (i.e., recycling intent , commitment ). In Study 1, half of the participants watched a video about poor U.S. recycling ( video condition ; n = 86) while the other half did not watch the video ( control condition ; n = 94). Participants in the video condition felt more morally threatened, more guilty, and more outraged than those in the control condition. Mean levels of recycling intentions did not differ between conditions; however, path analyses with moral threat mediating the relationship between moral imperative and guilt (or outrage, in separate models), and guilt (or outrage) mediating the relationship between threat and recycling intentions, provided good fit to the data. Furthermore, the indirect path from moral imperative to recycling intentions, through moral threat and guilt (or outrage), was significant only in the video condition, suggesting that a moral cleansing process may have been occurring in the video condition, but not necessarily in the control condition. Study 2 tested whether attributing responsibility for poor recycling in the U.S. to different actors was associated with distinct moral cleansing patterns. Participants watched one of three recycling videos: self-focused (blaming individual consumers), other-focused (blaming third parties and other institutions; e.g., “local governments” “waste collectors”), or neutral (i.e., the same video in Study 1). Participants in the self-focused condition felt more personally responsible for causing, and for addressing, U.S. recycling problems, and participants in the other-focused condition felt others were more responsible for causing U.S. recycling problems. Mean ratings of moral threat, guilt, and outrage did not differ between conditions. However, participants in the self-focused condition reported significantly more guilt than outrage. Mean recycling intentions did not differ between conditions, and attributing greater responsibility to self (versus others) was not associated with distinct patterns of moral cleansing. Furthermore, adding measures of moral responsibility to the path models from Study 1 resulted in poor model fit, suggesting that moral responsibility, at least in Study 2, played a minimal role in explaining how perceptions of moral threat led to greater prosocial intentions. To address inconsistencies between Studies 1 and 2, Study 3 replicated the procedures of Study 2 using a new sample, with the only change being the addition of a no-video control condition. Relative to the control condition, participants in all three video-based conditions felt more threatened, participants in the other-focused condition felt more guilty, and participants in the neutral and other-focused conditions felt more outraged. Ratings of causal and moral responsibility did not differ between conditions. Group comparison path models, with threat and moral emotions mediating the relationship between moral imperative and recycling intentions, were good fits to the data; however, unlike in Study 1, constraining paths to be equal across conditions did not worsen model fit in Study 3. Similar to Study 2, including moral responsibility in those models did not fit the data well. Taken together, the present research indicates that moral self-regulation is a promising avenue for future research into increasing proenvironmental behavior. In all three studies, exposure to threatening information made participants feel guilty and outraged, and guilt and outrage were correlated with greater recycling intentions. Future research can develop stronger manipulations that elicit guilt and outrage independently and examine when morally threatening situations elicit defensiveness rather than compensatory behavior
Marked by Valor: The “Lost” History of the 6th United States Colored Troops, Heavy Artillery
Full text link“Marked by Valor: The ‘Lost’ History of the 6 th U.S.C.T., Heavy Artillery,” argues that the camaraderie of having been a Black Union soldier solidified a sub-culture of Black veterans and their families in Natchez, Mississippi, that cohered throughout the Reconstruction period using the tools and the affiliations first gained in slavery and strengthened during the soldiers’ time in the army. Underlying this narrative is an interpretation of Southern history that maintains that we cannot understand the events of the postwar period—not only for Black veterans, but to some extent all freed people—if we do not understand all that came before: all the suffering, negotiation, and community building of slavery; all the difficulties, discipline, training and death of military service; all the political organizing and struggle for federal remuneration of the early Reconstruction period; all the paramilitary activity when white rule resurged. All of which resulted in an uncertain legacy of material gains and losses from having been Black Union soldiers, but which certainly led to a solidarity and remembrance culture that these men and their families nurtured into the late 19 th century and beyond. Perhaps the most tangible evidence of this solidarity being the fact that many of these men’s final request was to be buried with their comrades in the National Cemetery at Natchez. Past studies of Black Civil War soldiers emphasized battlefield glory. Recently, several historical monographs have addressed what happened after the fighting, but this dissertation is an attempt to connect the experiences of enslavement with the military service of these men and all that came in the decades that followed. I have relied on a diverse array of primary source materials: census, marriage, legal documents, and contemporary newspapers held by the Historic Natchez Foundation in Natchez; letters and diaries by white Natchez residents held at the Louisiana State University archives; land deed and probate records from the Adams County Court House in Natchez; and various manuscripts, and other pertinent holdings located at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Records. However, the core of this study of one regiment of African-American Union soldiers from Natchez, Mississippi, is the 321 military pension files that expand this dissertation beyond most accounts of Black Civil War soldiers. Civil War pension files are mini biographies of the applicant veteran. Thousands of individual depositions by the soldiers, friends, neighbors, and army comrades provide an abundance of biographical detail not available in any other archival source. The 6 th Heavy Artillery enlisted about 1400 men in 1863 and ‘64. I have chosen a case study of one regiment of Black soldiers for several reasons. First, the 6 th Heavy Artillery was well led and trained and experienced a variety of military engagements that turned the regiment into a well-seasoned fighting force. This battlefield success contributed to an esprit de corps not found in every Union regiment, a factor which a purely social history of a Civil War regiment might miss. Second, the city of Natchez, Mississippi, has significant archival holdings dating back centuries, because, among other reasons, it was not destroyed by the Union army during the war. By addressing each phase of their lives from slavery through their military service and into the Reconstruction period, as well as separately addressing the subject of the wives and families of these soldiers as they confront the challenges of the postwar period, “Marked by Valor: The ‘Lost’ History of the 6 th United States Colored Troops, Heavy Artillery,” sheds new light on this understudied subculture of African Americans. The men of the 6 th Heavy Artillery and their families were marked by a sense of solidarity that they displayed both publicly and privately and would cherish and perform as a group for decades. In the shared experiences of slavery, wartime struggles, and in the coalitions that these men of the 6 th Heavy and their wives subsequently formed, we can detect not just a cooperative survival strategy, but the lingering traces of a patriotism and pride in having participated in this struggle for freedom—a pride that stayed with the survivors long after federal Reconstruction failed them
Quantifying the Effects of Sentiment and Expectations on the United States Credit Growth
No full textThis dissertation examines the role of sentiment and expectations in predicting U.S. credit growth, drawing upon insights from behavioral finance and macroeconomic forecasting. While traditional economic theories emphasize fundamental determinants of credit expansion, growing evidence suggests that psychological biases, investor sentiment, and extrapolative expectations contribute significantly to credit market fluctuations. Using a dataset comprising sixteen sentiment and expectations indices—including the Consumer Sentiment Index, Anxious Index, Crash Confidence Index, and Loan Officer Opinions Index—this study applies time-varying parameter models and out-of-sample forecasting techniques to assess their predictive power relative to benchmark models. The sentiment indices used in this dissertation capture both psychological attitudes and rational expectations about the economic outlook. While sentiment is often associated with behavioral biases or sub-optimal decisions under uncertainty (Lo, 2004), these indices also reflect informed, rational forecasts made by economic agents. This dual nature—blending both rational and potentially biased components—is crucial for understanding how expectations shape market dynamics, especially in environments where equilibrium may not hold. The findings reveal that while sentiment measures provide valuable information about credit growth at time t, t-2, and t-2 (t is quarterly), they do not consistently outperform a random walk process in forecasting accuracy. However, the optimal rolling window size selection method proposed by Rossi and Inoue (2018) enhances forecast precision relative to ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions. Sentiment effects exhibit heterogeneity across credit types: consumer sentiment significantly influences consumer credit and total credit growth, while financial stress indicators and market-based expectations influence short-term bond issuance. Importantly, elevated sentiment can lead to credit misallocation, fueling booms that subsequently correct through contractions. These results contribute to the behavioral finance literature by empirically demonstrating that sentiment and expectations influence credit cycles beyond macroeconomic fundamentals. They also offer practical implications for policymakers seeking to mitigate the risks of credit booms and busts by integrating sentiment-based indicators into financial stability assessments
Small Number and the Old Game
Full text linkThrough a conversation between Small Number and his Auntie, this article describes the Throwing Game, a Haida tradition recorded by John Swanton in 1905. Several mathematical concepts that may be associated to the game are mentioned
Sulfur fluoride exchange with carbon pronucleophiles
Full text linkAryl alkyl sulfones are an important class of compounds in drug discovery; thus, new methods toward their synthesis are desirable. A general sulfur fluoride exchange (SuFEx) method to couple aryl sulfonyl fluorides with alkyl carbon pronucleophiles to make aryl alkyl sulfones is described. The reaction was applied to a diverse set of pronucleophiles, including esters, amides, heteroarenes, nitriles, sulfones, sulfoxides, and sulfonamides, at room temperature under mild conditions. We highlight the application of this transformation in parallel medicinal chemistry for the high-throughput generation of a broad array of aryl alkyl sulfones. Lastly, we apply this method to the late-state SuFEx derivatization of a complex sulfonyl fluoride template
Disrupting the Timeline: Challenging Notions of a Singular, Linear Early Muslim Historiography
Full text linkFew historical events have received the same attention in the formative years of Islam as the so-called “‘Abbāsid Revolution” in 132 AH/750 CE. In both the medieval and modern contexts, this event has been recognized as a monumental formation from which the rest of Islamic history comes downstream from. Problematically, there are no cohesive historical sources from the losers of this conflict; the Umayyads. Utilizing numismatic and architectural evidence, I argue that the alleged rupture between the Umayyads and their ‘Abbāsid successors is overblown by historiography two centuries after the fact. Then, I further analyze what this continuity means for broader historiographical practices, namely in light of Shahzad Bashir’s “On Islamic Time” wherein Islamic historical traditions are (improperly) mapped onto Eurocentric ideas of singular timelines. I conclude with a recommendation for a comprehensive, potentially contradictory, and multi-temporal understanding of Islamic history with the continuities between the Umayyads and ‘Abbāsids serving as a model to understand these overlaps
The Impact of LLMs Usage on Learning Outcomes for Software Development Students: A Focus on Prompt Engineering
Full text linkThis study investigates the impact of large language model (LLM) usage, specifically ChatGPT, on student learning outcomes in programming education. The research adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative survey data from students and qualitative interviews with instructors. The study addresses three research questions: (1) the effect of LLM usage on undergraduate students\u27 learning outcomes, (2) the influence of prompt engineering skills on this relationship, and (3) instructors\u27 perceptions on these relationships. Quantitative data were collected from 159 students across two Saudi universities using a structured online survey with sections covering demographic information, LLM usage, self-reported programming understanding, and prompt engineering skills. Qualitative data were obtained through semi-structured interviews with programming instructors, covering LLM usage, prompt engineering skills, and their impact on student learning outcomes. The quantitative analysis utilized Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to assess the measurement and structural models, including path coefficients, model explanatory power (R²), and predictive power (PLSpredict). Qualitative data were thematically analyzed using Atlas.ti to identify key themes related to instructor perspectives on the model. LLM usage positively impacts learning outcomes. While quantitative results did not show a significant moderating effect of prompt engineering skills, qualitative findings highlight its critical role in determining the positive effect of LLM usage on learning outcomes. The study emphasizes the importance of clear LLM usage policies and early prompt engineering training to promote meaningful engagement and maintain academic integrity in programming courses
Croatia as a Model for a Democratic Balkans
Full text linkDespite a decade of authoritarian rule under former President-Prime Minister Franjo Tudjman, Croatia is now the only Balkan State with a consolidated democracy and EU membership. Through analyzing historical events, V-Dem scores, and trade, this paper argues that democratization in Croatia only occurred because of underlying structural and social conditions conducive to democracy, followed by a second wave of democratization facilitated by EU accession standards. This research helps us understand how states recover from communism, what indicators suggest a state is nearing democratization, and how the EU should approach incentivizing democracy in neighboring states. If the EU implements policy reflecting the multi-stage model of democracy, it can advance democratization in the Balkans and thereby accelerate the region\u27s integration into the EU and allow for a peaceful resolution of long-standing regional conflicts