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Impact of Growing Belief in Climate Change on Housing Costs in the United States
No full textThis paper examines the monetary impact of changing perceptions of climate change on the coastal residential real estate market. Climate change is not yet fully capitalized into the cost of housing, and a property’s exposure to sea level rise or flooding will cause the property\u27s value to decrease (or increase at a slower rate) compared to unexposed properties. As fears around damage to property increase, demand to live in coastal exposed communities decreases, directly reducing property prices. Utilizing a hedonic linear regression model in combination with climate change belief data, I analyze coastal housing prices but find no empirical correlation between expectation of future climate damage to current property prices at the county level. The aggregation bias problems of this paper make the results difficult to interpret. An extensive literature review indicates that changing climate risk will affect coastal housing prices and exposed coastal properties are currently overvalued
Embodied Reimagining: A Queer Mapping of Identity Performances in Percy Jackson Fan Fiction
No full textThis thesis delves into the multimodal landscape of fan fiction communities, focusing on the characters Nico and Annabeth in Percy Jackson fan fiction pieces. This study illuminates fan fiction\u27s significance beyond mere entertainment through a comprehensive examination of reader-author dynamics and a detailed analysis of transformative works, particularly those reimagining characters like Annabeth. By uncovering fan fiction\u27s role as a space for queer exploration, individual empowerment, and communal interaction, this research underscores its transformative potential in fostering creativity and challenging conventional narratives of representation. Drawing on perspectives from queer theory, Black feminist thought, and gender performance studies, this project highlights fan fiction\u27s capacity to facilitate personal expression, critical inquiry, and community building. However, it also acknowledges the challenges within fan fiction spaces and the ongoing evolution of this inquiry. Moving forward, this research aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of fan fiction\u27s enduring relevance and impact on individual agency and cultural discourse
Victorians and Video Games: Exploring Historical Education Through Video Games in the 1851 Great Exhibition
No full textThis essay explores the evolving intersection of video games and historical representation, examining how this medium both reflects and constructs historical narratives and consciousness. Through a multidisciplinary approach, it scrutinizes the historiography of video games, their integration with historical literature, scholarly analyses, and the unique affordances of video games as pedagogical tools for historical education. By analyzing various case studies, including Assassin\u27s Creed and Sid Meier\u27s Civilization, the paper highlights the complexities of historical accuracy, representation, and the educational potentials and limitations of video games. It argues that video games, as cultural artifacts, offer a unique and immersive medium for engaging with history, allowing for interactive exploration and interpretation of historical events, figures, and periods. However, the paper also critically addresses the challenges related to historical accuracy, representation, and the commercial motivations behind game design, which can influence the portrayal of history in games. By examining video games through the lenses of historiography, literature, scholarly work, and their role as educational tools, this essay contributes to the broader discourse on the significance of video games in historical understanding and education, advocating for a nuanced appreciation of their potential to enrich historical awareness and learning
A Group Theoretical Approach to Tilings of Regular Hyperbolic Lattices
No full textIn this Independent Study, we explore finite tilings of hyperbolic space as defined on a regular lattice. We adapt a group theoretical invariant developed for this type of problems in Z2 by John Conway and Jeffrey Lagarias. For this, we first present the properties of hyperbolic geometry in the Poincaré Disc Model, its groups of isometries, and Fuchsian groups. Following this, we summarize Conway and Lagarias’ argument in Euclidean space along with their characterization of tilings via boundary words derived from F2 . We then translate their constructions to hyperbolic space through the use of the Poincaré Polygon Theorem together with the resulting regular tesselations of hyperbolic space and their respective Fuchsian groups. Finally, we generalize the Conway-Lagarias invariant while also defining our own tiling problem in the hyperbolic lattice generated by 8 hyperbolic octagons
Mental Health Support vs. Nutritional Support: What Would a Man Do?
No full textGender may influence whether individuals access mental health and nutritional support. Women are more likely to engage in mental health support and have been the core sample demographic for behavioral literature for the past several decades. However, men are less likely to pursue professional mental health support than women, with fewer studies focusing on the male demographic. Similarly, men are less likely to participate in nutritional support than women. Very few studies have identified how personal beliefs and perceived social support influence their health care decisions, even less is known about specific adult age brackets for men. Survey data from 98 participants ages 30-49 was used to examine the effect of influence of social support beliefs, health beliefs, and religious beliefs on seeking mental health support and nutritional support. Results conclude that men pursue mental and nutritional support equally, although men in their 40s were more likely exhibit health seeking behaviors than men in their 30s. Additionally, unmarried men and men with high religiosity reported less mental health seeking behaviors. These findings implicate men in their 40s, men with low religiosity, and men who are married are more likely to engage in health seeking behaviors should resources be available. Future research should further substantiate these findings and examine how to increase health seeking behaviors in demographics that are currently not as engaged
Morphological Measurements of Vision in Juvenile Carolina Grasshoppers
No full textThe senses provide vital information about how an animal should behave. Vision in particular is important for many animals, as it can help an animal find food, detect danger, or communicate. Insects often have compound eyes with unique structural features that affect the quality of vision, including visual acuity (the sharpness of vision) and sensitivity (the ability to perceive small changes). Size is an important element of visual abilities because it determines how many lenses can fit onto the eye. As an insect’s body grows, the size of the eyes increases, possibly resulting in changes to visual acuity and sensitivity. The Carolina grasshopper is an insect that goes through a dramatic increase in size through five nymphal stages before reaching adulthood, making it a good organism to examine changes in vision across development. Visual abilities can be assessed through equations that use eye size, facet size, and curvature to calculate visual acuity and relative sensitivity. Grasshoppers from four juvenile instars and one adult instar were measured to assess how changes occur throughout development. Structural changes in the eye during development indicate that as grasshoppers mature, the visual acuity of the eye remains intact while the relative sensitivity of the eye improved by 78% from the first measured instar to the adult instar. These changes in vision may result in behavioral changes as the grasshopper matures. Improved vision may allow the grasshopper to better locate food and avoid predation. Studying changes in vision can help to provide greater clarity on how compound eye vision works and can also improve our understanding of behaviors related to visual ability
Identity and the Shadow of Charisma: The Gap Between Bureaucracy and Need
No full textWhen one participates—in any genuine capacity—in a group or organization, they are beholden to that group’s ideology and values, and as such take those values into their own identity. An athlete, a college student, a boy scout, a member of the clergy; all of these organizations in one way or another influence our identities as we internalize them. There are some groups, however, that by their very nature take up more of one’s identity than another might. Being an athlete , for example, might take up more of one’s identity than being a normal student at a college on account of the time commitment, the potential for bodily harm, the emotional investment, and so on. Sociologist Lewis Coser calls these groups “Greedy Organizations”, and cites them as having the rather dangerous ability of supplanting one’s original identity with the values of the group, and all without the knowledge of the one being altered. My study looks into the nature and structure of different types of organizations, paying particular attention to the different types of people who run the organizations—what you might call a “leader”. By discerning the nature of both organizations and leaders, I hope to elucidate what exactly makes certain types of leaders so powerful, and how it is that those leaders are allowed to come into their power in the first place. What I found was that charismatic leaders emerge in the discrepancy between what the workers need and what the bureaucracy can provide. From that foothold, charismatic leaders are able to exert their influence over their group, who have now incorporated the leader’s vision at least partially into their moral identity. Before they even know it, they’re bound up in the leader’s pace, their original identity supplanted by this new, different one
Boom or Bust: An Investigation of Rookie Running Back Performance Through the NFL Draft
No full textEach year in American football, highly touted collegiate players are drafted into the NFL via the NFL draft. The NFL draft is an event in which NFL executives and team decision-makers can assess and select players that they think can add value to their organization. However, it is often the case that an exceptional college player who is selected early in the draft and paid a significant amount of money underperforms in the NFL. The player would then likely be considered a bust . The reason for this drop in playing quality is not solely due to athletic ability or football intelligence though. Each player is subject to random and unique circumstances, which has historically made assessing talent via the NFL draft so difficult for executives leading to busts time and time again. Some positions are much more subject to being busts and are considered volatile in this study. As such, the least volatile position is deemed to be the running back, who carries the football for as many yards as possible. This study aims to investigate how random factors as well as performance statistics can be used to account for differences in rookie running back quality throughout the NFL draft