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Electric Exegesis: An Investigation into Transforming Entanglements of Cyberpunk Fiction
No full textCyberpunk is a contentious literary subgenre of science fiction owing specific homage to the sociopolitical climate of the 80s. This paper seeks to apply Natural Language Methodologies to online discourse surrounding the topic, alongside close-reading analysis of the fiction, in order to differentiate the genre’s transformation from novel innovation to ubiquity, spanning William Gibson’s Neuromancer, Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, and Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One
Pluralistic, Inclusive, Global Engagement in Support of American Youth
No full textOnline rhetoric depicts Americans as uneducated about the world around them. Many of the discourses exaggerate this reality without considering the why. As part of this Senior Independent Study, I examine the historical development of Global Citizenship Education (GCE), the shifting ideological landscape in American schools, how media literacy plays a role in GCE, and how stereotypes can be challenged in the American landscape. While the value of some components of GCE exists in the American public, the implementation and solidification of GCE are not necessarily as welcomed. Looking at the historical context of GCE, with shifting perspectives and technologies, reveals a complex environment instilled with an American-first mentality opposing GCE, a lack of consensus on GCE\u27s vision, and a misunderstanding of GCE and its application to everyday Americans impeding American youth\u27s capacity. The US must change its understanding and implementation of GCE from an added concept in social studies classrooms to one ingrained in the culture
The Oral Tradition as a Literary Device through the Indigenous Feminist Perspective
No full textThis project looks at the significance and importance of oral tradition as a literary device in the modern resurgence of Indigenous identity and revitalization, primarily through digital space or, more specifically, podcasting. The first few chapters will be a continuation of my argument and provide evidence to support and more deeply understand a different way of thinking. This is crucial because to research and study something truly is to separate your beliefs, thoughts, opinions, and ways of knowing to grasp a belief that differs entirely from yours. Chapter one will focus on the idea of decolonizing research, explaining the origins and significance of the oral tradition and how it has interacted with colonization. Chapter two will explore the complex relationships between oral tradition, intersectionality, and feminism by highlighting various Indigenous works and authors focusing on these complexities. Chapter three then begins to tie these concepts together by looking at how using a feminist and Indigenous lens to understand colonialism and the effects that it has had and continues to have on Indigenous culture and how decolonizing is crucial to the modern resurgence. Chapter four then digs into the heart of the oral tradition as a literary technique and how a specific example of it, a female Indigenous podcast, works to exemplify all of these contexts and ideas and explore the digital space. Here, we will get to see how Native women have done the work and how they have shared their stories. This final chapter is crucial to understanding why the oral tradition is literary if you can shift your perspective and exemplify that in this day and age, there are more media than just novels that are becoming a part of the literary space.
In this project, I argue that oral tradition as a literary technique is crucial to the resurgence of indigeneity. I am proving this argument by exploring pre- and post-colonial ideologies and contexts essential to understanding oral tradition and why it is important. The concepts in my first couple of chapters further explain my argument because my argument is separated from traditional Western ideas of research and academia. You will not be able to comprehend this thesis without having a basis for understanding the significance of the complex relationships between the oral tradition and colonialism, research, feminism, academia, activism, and a lot of other topics that I am going to further elaborate on as we move forward through this argument. Understanding Indigenous cultures requires ethics that differ from how Westerners read texts and how they analyze them
Baes of a Feather Flock Together: Comparing Preferences of Personality and Value Similarity in Romantic Relationships
No full textPast research has shown that people tend to prefer partners who are more similar than dissimilar to themselves, a phenomenon known as Birds of a Feather theory. While past studies have focused on relationship outcomes associated with partner similarity, the present study explored the degree to which similarity in personality and values are considered desirable for potential romantic partners. Participants (N = 200) answered an online survey determining their own personality traits and values as well as their personality and value preferences of an ideal romantic partner. It was hypothesized that honesty-humility, extraversion, and agreeableness, along with the value self-transcendence would be universally considered desirable traits. Additionally, it was hypothesized that preferences for similarity would emerge for traits honesty-humility, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience, as well as values self-transcendence. Furthermore, honesty-humility was expected to be positively correlated with self-transcendence and negatively correlated with self-enhancement. Finally, correlations between self-reports and preferences for personality and values were assessed through exploratory analysis. Partially consistent with the hypothesis, high levels of honesty-humility and extraversion and low levels of emotionality were considered desirable traits while high levels of self-transcendence and low levels of self-enhancement were considered desirable values. Furthermore, all traits and values emerged with similarity preferences, with traits honesty-humility and openness to experience and values self-transcendence and conservation being most prominent. Finally, self-transcendence and self-enhancement consistently emerged as correlated with honesty-humility while openness to change was correlated with openness to experience. Findings are discussed in the context of birds of a feather theory
A First-Class Yiddisha Tone: An Investigation of Irving Berlin’s Jewish Novelty Songs
No full textThe songs of Irving Berlin have ingrained themselves in the Great American Songbook as exemplary embodiments of the country’s sound and spirit. Berlin’s journey from a Russian Jewish immigrant living in poverty to one of the nation’s most treasured and successful songwriters has been well-documented and incorporated into his legacy. The biographers that write of this journey, however, promote the narrative that Berlin deliberately cast away his identity as a Jewish immigrant in favor for that of the general American. One way they support this narrative is by citing a group of novelty songs he wrote early in his career featuring Jewish caricatures. They claim that the stereotypes abounding in his Jewish novelty songs indicate his disdain for his cultural background.But reading deeper into his lyrics suggests otherwise. Through evaluating historical trends, biographical and autobiographical material, and Berlin’s lyrics, this Independent Study explores alternate interpretations of Berlin’s Jewish novelty songs and illuminates how Berlin may have written his own experiences and personal views into his work. This study also argues that Berlin’s early novelty music played a pivotal role in Berlin’s songwriting career as he found his footing in Tin Pan Alley’s music industry. It concludes that Berlin’s Jewish novelty songs have more depth and significance than previously represented in his literature, and that they enrich knowledge on American music, Jewish music, and one of the most beloved songwriters in history
Creating a Chess AI of Myself
No full textThis thesis explores the development of a personalized chess AI capable of mimicking an individual’s playstyle. The research delves into the evolution of chess AI, from early algorithmic engines to the current state-of-the-art neural network approaches. The study was conducted in two phases. The first phase employed traditional regression models to predict chess moves based on the author’s historical games, achieving moderate success. The second phase investigated the potential of neural networks, specifically the Maia chess engine designed to model human-like play. While fine-tuning Maia on the author’s game data encountered technical challenges, pre-trained Maia models demonstrated significantly higher accuracy in predicting the author’s moves compared to the regression model. This research contributes to the growing field of personalized AI, highlighting the potential for creating systems that adapt to individual behavior and preferences. Although limitations were encountered, the study paves the way for future explorations in personalized chess AI and its potential to enhance learning and enjoyment for players of all levels
Communication and Connection in Cinema: An Investigation of Whether Representations of Deaf or Hard of Hearing Individuals in Popular Film Influence How They Are Perceived by Hearing College Students
No full textThe purpose of this study was to investigate how representation of individuals who are D/deaf or hard of hearing (D/HoH) in selected films impacts how they are perceived by college students. Specifically, the study will examine if differences exist in the perceptions of factors related to individuals who are D/HoH among college students who have or have not viewed negative or positive film samples that depict people who are D/HoH. These factors include intelligence and academic capability; employment and workplace capabilities; perceptions of American Sign Language (ASL); daily living and quality of life (QoL); “connections” with others; communication skills; and maturity. Quantitative research methods were utilized to investigate how positive or negative film clips may influence college-aged hearing individuals’ perceptions of individuals who are D/HoH. Results from this study indicated that this generation is more accepting of individuals who are D/HoH than other generations due to the overwhelming positive perceptions found. Results, however, did indicate that the hypothesis was true and negative film clips did negatively influence participants due to higher mean responses after viewing negative film clips and lower mean responses after viewing positive film clips. Another major implication of this research is that hearing individuals have more negative perceptions towards individuals who are D/HoH when it comes to factors they are less educated on, such as the use of hearing technology or lip reading. A final implication of this research is the importance of mass media in influencing mainstream populations, thus we must educate ourselves on the content we consume and work towards furthering positive representations of individuals who are D/HoH in popular film in the future
Hello Cold World: Comparing Levels of Self-Defined versus Self-Reported Empathy
No full textEmpathy has been studied by numerous scholars as a multidimensional construct that includes both cognitive and emotional aspects. Empathic development is influenced by societal, personal, and relational factors as well as neural mechanisms found within the brain. My study measured empathy as it correlates to life satisfaction, and has factored in a moderating free-response variable in order to understand individuals’ relationship with how they define empathy versus how they outwardly express it. I utilized the Interpersonal Reactivity Index Scale (IRI) and the Riverside Life Satisfaction Scale (RLSS), as well as two free-response measures. I hypothesized that individual’s subjective definition of empathy would be different from their objective expression of empathy, and that their IRI categorical results would not match up with their definitional or expressional empathy. Furthermore, I expected participants’ expressions and definitions of empathy to moderate the relationship between life satisfaction and empathy, and that overall life satisfaction would positively correlate with empathy. My data reinforced the positive relationship between life satisfaction and empathy levels, and as expected, participants’ subjective definitions of empathy did not consistently match up with their objective expressions of empathy, nor did the two free-response measures consistently match up with people’s Empathy IRI categorical results. My results did not support my moderation hypothesis, indicating that empathic congruency between internal sense of empathy and outward expressions of empathy is not required for an individual to have high levels of life satisfaction. In contrast with my hypothesis, incongruency between these factors predicted higher life satisfaction overall
Identifying Crime Trends and Patterns: Exploring Data Driven Approaches to Study Crime in L.A.
No full textThe purpose of this project is to identify the crime trends and patterns for the people in Los Angeles, California, using statistical methods and data visualizations. For the two decades, the United States has been battling high crime rates. Even when crime rates subside, residents of Los Angeles, one of the most populated urban areas in the U.S., continue to experience pervasive fear due to increased crimes. In order to alleviate this fear, it is important to understand the dynamics of crime in Los Angeles. This analysis draws upon government-provided data from the City of Los Angeles,specifically sourced from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), to identify the trends and patterns of the LA crime dataset. Through this, I am answering three questions: ’Who is impacted by crimes in LA?,’ ’When and where do crimes occur the most?,’ and ’How can users interact with the crime data?’To answer these questions, I create a website to spread awareness about the importance crime analysis to promote awareness of crime in Los Angeles. I used multinomial logistic regression to calculate the likelihood of victims experiencing certain types of crime based on their demographic information. I provided visualizations such as bar charts, population pyramids, tree maps, interactivedashboards, and more to present the results visually.Based on the analysis, it was found that the victim’s average age ranges between late 20s to late 30s. Property crimes hold the highest probability of occurrence across all demographic groups usually taking place in residential and public areas. Following this are by property crimes in vehicles and miscellaneous crimes in residential areas. Males are more prone to be victims of crimes involving weapons compared to females, while females face a higher likelihood of experiencing sex crimescompared to males. Crime rates generally increase from morning until afternoon but decrease at night, displaying a high peak between 11 AM and 1 PM. Ultimately, users can engage with the type of crime, weapon, and sex of the victim using the interactive dashboard.Link to the website: https://crimeinla.co
The Impact of Soil Depth on Current Knowledge of The Effects of No-till and Other Tillage Methods on Soil Carbon Levels
No full textThe world is facing a climate crisis, record highs for the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere are set yearly. One way to combat this is by adopting land management strategies that store carbon in the soil instead of releasing carbon into the atmosphere. This study looks at tillage method influences on carbon storage in agricultural soils and how soil depth influences carbon sequestration. Soil samples were taken from a no-till experiment started in 1962 at CFAES (College of Food Agriculture and Environmental Studies), comparing no-till, chisel plow and moldboard plow techniques. Soil samples from each tillage type were taken at depths of 0-4 and 4-8 inches to assess total carbon and soil organic matter. No-till samples at depths of 0-4 inches had significantly higher soil organic matter and total carbon, however no significant differences in these variables were found at depths of 4-8 inches among the till types. Tillage type and depth had significant interactive effects. No-till improves carbon storage in the top 0-4 inches of soil, but depth plays an important role in understanding how carbon is stored in the soil and how specific tillage methods impact carbon sequestration. Results indicate that sampling soil for carbon from only the top 4 inches of sediment is not sufficient and can misrepresent the total soil carbon profile. Soil carbon sequestration can reduce atmospheric carbon but variables such as the impact of different tillage systems and no-till soil depth need to also be taken into consideration