Cross-Cultural and Gender Comparison of Emotional Connotation of Words

So far, scientists have researched to explore the emotional connotation of words in different native languages and genders. This study investigates how connotations of words differ by cultures and genders by inspecting valence values, which indicates how happy people feel about specific words in datasets obtained from USA, Spain, and Portuguese. To fulfill the objective, we categorized people’s feelings evoked by the words based on a criterion created by adding or subtracting standard deviation to or from valence means for the upper and lower bound. Then, words with valence values outside of the upper and lower bounds were categorized as emotional words (positive or negative) and were analyzed. The results show that people of different cultures are more connected regarding the perception of negative connotation of words than positive connotation. Moreover, Portuguese and Spanish are more connected than either of them with the US as they have more emotion words in common. On the gender aspect, we notice that females tend to give more extreme ratings for words than males. Furthermore, the analysis shows that males have a more positive feeling towards sex-related words than females. Overall, this study outlines a way for people interested in anthropology to understand the differences in the emotional connotation of words between males and females and across cultures.

Defining Fair Use on YouTube: A Guide to Modern Copyright

Copyright law is a large, complex issue that has found itself at the center of controversy on YouTube. Much of the debate around copyright centers on whether a video is fair use, the exception to copyright laws. There are large problems on YouTube surrounding the exploitation of the Content ID system, and the solutions to these problems often rely on the assumption of clear and defined copyright law, which is far from the case. This led my research into finding out based on the case law, what constitutes fair use on YouTube? Using a content analysis, these complexities of copyright law were able to be broken down into easy-to-understand guidelines. To do this, roughly 30 cases were found using the websites case.law and copyright.gov, and the decision of the case and the reasoning behind it were pulled out to create guidelines based on the copyright case law of court decisions. These guidelines consist of having a license for the copyrighted content, using the content for education, criticism or review, providing significant commentary to shift the focus away from the content, using the content for parody, changing the purpose of the content, or using an insignificant portion of the content. If any of these scenarios are met, then the video will likely not violate copyright. The use of these guidelines could be implemented into YouTubes algorithm, but more likely these guidelines would be easy to follow for creators to know whether or not their video will violate copyright.

Transgender Microcelebrity Activists: Self-broadcasting as Politics

This research is a qualitative study of Natalie Wynn and Blaire White, two transgender women who empower themselves via social media. Through microcelebrity practices, these two figures have garnered audiences online to disseminate ideas pertaining to their political ideologies. I examine the transgender microcelebrities’ Instagram accounts and YouTube videos via Jerslev’s framework for microcelebrity practices based on observations of self-celebrification on YouTube. The observed content was then examined through a political activist lens using framework from Daskal on digital rights. Participatory technologies become a tool for mobilization and information sharing. Broadcasting one’s experiences and how they relate to larger dialectics of a minority group is political in nature. This self-representation is significant for minority groups that lack sufficient mainstream approval and media representation. This study cannot define what success looks like for a digital activist, as it would be difficult to find and measure qualitative actions directly resulting from self-broadcasting. As more communication takes place on computer-mediated technologies, it must be acknowledged these interactions do not take place within a vacuum, and effects are felt offline, even if we cannot measure each instance of influence from watching a 40-minute video on YouTube.

The Likely Impact of COVID-19 on US Employment in the Medium Term

COVID-19 caused an abrupt increase in unemployment rates for people across various fields of work. This paper compares the COVID-19 crisis with the Great Recession and the Spanish Influenza. After careful data collection and analysis, it is clear that COVID-19 caused a steep, immediate decline in the economy although it did not last long. By comparison, the Global Financial Crisis was a persistent recession though less severe. Comparison of the health effects for COVID-19 and the Spanish flu reveals that the influenza was much more contagious as it infected 29.3% of the US population in three years. In contrast, this percent is 2.4% for COVID-19 as of August, 2021. The flu outbreak also coincided with WWI which caused further spread of the virus, and an effective vaccine was never developed. Therefore, the current economic decline should not be worse than that of the influenza. Moreover, the government is more actively participating in the economy now than it was during the flu pandemic. The Spanish flu had a V-shaped economic trend despite having minimal government involvement. Because the flu and coronavirus are both pandemic-induced crises, we would expect COVID-19 to be V-shaped as well, which is seen through the graphs below. U.S. data from the Federal Reserve is analyzed graphically in this paper, and it shows that the COVID-19 crisis exhibits a distinct V-shape pattern. This suggests that economic recovery will be faster than the less severe Global Financial Crisis, and that countercyclical government policies may not be as necessary.

Mothers’ Behaviors and Children’s Social Confidence and Ability: Correlations from the NLSY

The understanding of shyness and social withdrawal has been built over the past half century with research looking into factors that cause this in children. However, not many mention the natural phenomenon of if children mimic social confidence from their adult figure. This study used correlation analyses to investigate the relations between parents’ behaviors and attitudes and their children’s social confidence and ability. Data were from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1986 Child and Young Adult Survey Mother Supplement. Results showed weak correlation between social confidence and outings frequency, either with family and friends or not. However, children who were spanked more frequently positively correlated with their mothers rating them to be more high strung. Furthermore, all hypotheses showed results that follow the direction of the prediction, so further investigation into the topic may show more significant correlation or a causation relationship of the variables.

Split Sciences: The Legal Accountability of Patients With Dissociative Identity Disorder

The thriller “Split” by M. Night Shyamalan showed a glimpse into the multiple personalities of the antagonist in the film. While many elements were added for intense suspense, the existence of such a disorder was factual. Dissociative Identity Disorder is defined by the American Psychiatric Association as a “psychological illness with 2 or more distinct identities, each accompanied by changes in behavior, memory, and thinking” (American Psychiatric Association). In a legal setting, the actions of the patients with DID have numerous ramifications. This paper aims to illustrate how the accountability of DID patients during a crime should be assessed. To find out how DID patients could be held accountable, we analyzed the disorder by researching the transformations in the brain, identified its origins, and explored the consequences in a judicial milieu. After conducting this research, we identified the solution that could be seamlessly embedded into our current society and benefit the patient as well as the courts. Through the analysis of the psychological disorder with a social lens, we evaluated that the jury and the public should be made more aware of the disorder and the court should not automatically assume innocence based on just the Insanity Defense. This plan is the best course of action for patients and the court systems and also aims to adapt societal thought to be more aware of DID’s difficulties.

How does Social Media Affect the Psychological Well-Being of High School Students Attending Jose Marti MAST 6-12 Academy?

Social media is arguably the most influential force the 21st century has to offer more than the economy, politics, or anything in between; social media has greatly influenced everyone more than once. With a network of interconnected people so large over multiple platforms the force social media exerts over people has never been greater than now; social media has become the place where people share their opinions with the world for others to read, see, and hear. One example of its influence is the public perception on Covid-19, it increased the general fear of it and also decreased mental health among several users of social media; panic mostly spread among younger users, who expressed their concerns over social media (Ahmad & Murad, 2020). While social media applications have a positive influence, they also have a negative influence on their users, especially teenagers. A study conducted by Dr. Ghulam Shabir, Chairman of the Department of Media Studies at The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, found that out of 279 participants, 139 agreed and 85 strongly agreed that social media has a bad influence on the participants; however, they also found that 110 of the agreed and 63 strongly agreed that social media positively influenced them (2014). With many children trying to find who they are, this study stands to find whether social media has a positive or negative effect over the psychological well-being of students in Jose Marti Mast 6-12 Academy.

The Psychological Impact of Color and Light in Interior Design on Teenagers

Interior design is a wide profession that can drastically influence how people feel and use a room. Marco Costa’s research on the effect of color in a room and Markus Canazei’s study on the effect of natural light in a room both focused on how adults were influenced by light and color in rooms. This ultimately led to both studies in this research process focused on teenagers because there isn’t a great amount of research on how light and color can affect teenagers in a room. The results showed that teenagers have a preference towards neutral and cool tones as opposed to adults who prefer warm tones. Teenagers also have a preference towards natural light similar to adults. More research can be done on understanding how light and color can affect teenagers in other environments such as school settings. Further research is necessary to obtain more information on the psychological impact of interior design on teenagers.

Exploring the Lack of Funding for Coral Reef Research and it’s Effects on Coral Reef Management and Conservation

Climate change is greatly harming coral reefs (Gibbs and West, 2019). It is important to research how to help these coral reefs build resilience against climate change but research programs are severely underfunded (Johnston et al. 2020). This paper explored how lack of funding prevents scientists from saving coral reefs and how scientists themselves can be affected. The goal of this paper was to bring to light the struggles faced in the midst of underfunding to feasibly gain support from politicians and government officials to promote funding for these programs. Through three virtual interviews with two scientists and one college professor, I gathered personal experiences from these participants on how coral reefs are being affected today, why research is necessary, and how lack of funding prevents the restoration of these reefs. With the use of a thematic analysis, I was able to recognize common themes between the interviews in order to conclude how lack of program funding prevents scientists from managing and restoring these coral reef ecosystems. The initial assumption for this paper was that coral reef research is underfunded because coral reefs are considered less important, however, the analysis of the data for this paper concluded that all research programs are underfunded. In essence, marine biology, in general, is underfunded as opposed to mainly research on coral reefs. As a result, scientists can be very limited in their abilities to conduct research.

A Mixed Method Study on the Effectiveness of Using Virtual Reality to Improve Adolescent Public Speaking

This study analyzes the extent to which virtual reality technology is effective in improving self-confidence in children and adolescents ages 12-18 when public speaking. Using a mixed method of both quantitative and qualitative data, subject responses were collected through a pre- and post-test survey prior to and after completing a set of three virtual reality simulations. The data demonstrated that with an increasing number of audience members present in a virtual simulation, subject confidence levels decreased, suggesting that virtual reality can be used as an effective tool in reducing public speaking anxiety. While the current study supports this claim, additional research should be conducted based on the limitations of this study, specifically to enlarge the sample size beyond 20 subjects.