A crosscultural analysis of elderly people’s morality in interactive media

This study examines elderly people’s innate moral foundations in influencing decisions, and their subsequent enjoyment in an interactive media environment. The Moral Foundation Questionnaire was used to distinguish between the moral intuitions of elderly US and German respondents, who were believed to have divergent yet stable moral codes that would be salient in a novel virtual world. In an experimental design, participants (N=116) were confronted with a computer simulation in which they could decide to violate or uphold each of five moral intuitions. Germans and Americans differed in their moral foundations, yet for both groups higher moral salience led to a decrease in decisions to commit moral violations in a virtual world. Results for enjoyment were mixed

Work in Progress: A meta-literature review of Moral Foundations Theory as applied in game studies

This paper outlines an in-progress systematic review of extant research in game studies that has incorporated Moral Foundations Theory (MFT), or relevant extensions of that theory to media entertainment, such as the Moral Intuition and Media Entertainment/Model of Intuitive Morality and Exemplars (MIME). Due to the interdisciplinary nature of these theoretical perspectives as well as game studies broadly, systematic review is critical to helping us collectively understand and collate the research in this area. The systematic review is done in two parts, one as a deep description of the characteristics of included studies, and one as a statistical analysis (as well as a qualitative assessment) of the quality of those included studies. At this stage, an initial set of 24-26 articles focused on gaming and MFT/MIME have been uncovered via systematic database searching, and both study characteristic and study quality coding sheets in progress (shared, within)

Video Games as Time Machines: Video Game Nostalgia and the Success of Retro Gaming

This article conceptually integrates research on the experience of nostalgia—defined as a predominantly positive, social, and past-oriented emotion—into the fold of video game research. We emphasize the role of nostalgia as an explanation for contemporary retro gaming trends, and suggest that nostalgia towards gaming events is a necessary area of research. To those ends, we broadly review existing literature on nostalgia before specifically focusing on media-induced nostalgia, and demonstrate how theoretical and empirical observations from this work can be applied to understand video game nostalgia. In particular, we argue that engaging in older gaming experiences indirectly (via memories) and even directly (via replaying or recreating experiences) elicits nostalgia, which in turn contributes to players’ self-optimization and enhanced well-being. Moreover, as gamers and the medium mature together, nostalgic experiences with the medium are likely to become increasingly prevalent. The broad aim of this article is to offer future directions for research on video game nostalgia and provide a research agenda for research in this area

Results from EDGES High-Band: II. Constraints on Parameters of Early Galaxies

We use the sky-average spectrum measured by EDGES High-Band ($90-190$ MHz) to constrain parameters of early galaxies independent of the absorption feature at $78$~MHz reported by Bowman et al. (2018). These parameters represent traditional models of cosmic dawn and the epoch of reionization produced with the 21cmFAST simulation code (Mesinger & Furlanetto 2007, Mesinger et al. 2011). The parameters considered are: (1) the UV ionizing efficiency ($\zeta$), (2) minimum halo virial temperature hosting efficient star-forming galaxies ($T^{\rm min}_{\rm vir}$), (3) integrated soft-band X-ray luminosity ($L_{\rm X\,<\,2\,keV}/{\rm SFR}$), and (4) minimum X-ray energy escaping the first galaxies ($E_{0}$), corresponding to a typical H${\rm \scriptstyle I}$ column density for attenuation through the interstellar medium. The High-Band spectrum disfavors high values of $T^{\rm min}_{\rm vir}$ and $\zeta$, which correspond to signals with late absorption troughs and sharp reionization transitions. It also disfavors intermediate values of $L_{\rm X\,<\,2\,keV}/{\rm SFR}$, which produce relatively deep and narrow troughs within the band. Specifically, we rule out $39.4<\log_{10}\left(L_{\rm X\,<\,2\,keV}/{\rm SFR}\right)<39.8$ ($95\%$ C.L.). We then combine the EDGES High-Band data with constraints on the electron scattering optical depth from Planck and the hydrogen neutral fraction from high-$z$ quasars. This produces a lower degeneracy between $\zeta$ and $T^{\rm min}_{\rm vir}$ than that reported in Greig & Mesinger (2017a) using the Planck and quasar constraints alone. Our main result in this combined analysis is the estimate $4.5$~$\leq \log_{10}\left(T^{\rm min}_{\rm vir}/\rm K\right)\leq$~$5.7$ ($95\%$ C.L.). We leave for future work the evaluation of $21$~cm models using simultaneously data from EDGES Low- and High-Band.Comment: Accepted in Ap

Two faces of narcissism on SNS: The distinct effects of vulnerable and grandiose narcissism on SNS privacy control

a b s t r a c t This study suggests narcissism as an important psychological factor that predicts one&apos;s behavioral intention to control information privacy on SNS. Particularly, we approach narcissism as a two-dimensional construct-vulnerable and grandiose narcissism-to provide a better understanding of the role of narcissism in SNS usage. As one of the first studies to apply a two-dimensional approach to narcissism in computer-mediated communication, our results show that vulnerable narcissism has a significant positive effect on behavioral intention to control privacy on SNS, while grandiose narcissism has no effect. This effect was found when considering other personality traits, including self-esteem, computer anxiety, and concern for information privacy. The results indicate that unidimensional approaches to narcissism cannot solely predict SNS behaviors, and the construct of narcissism should be broken down into two orthogonal constructs

Running Head: Video Game Nostalgia and Retro Gaming

This article conceptually integrates research on the experience of nostalgia—defined as a predominantly positive, social, and past-oriented emotion—into the fold of video game research. We emphasize the role of nostalgia as an explanation for contemporary retro gaming trends, and suggest that nostalgia towards gaming events is a necessary area of research. To those ends, we broadly review existing literature on nostalgia before specifically focusing on media-induced nostalgia, and demonstrate how theoretical and empirical observations from this work can be applied to understand video game nostalgia. In particular, we argue that engaging in older gaming experiences indirectly (via memories) and even directly (via replaying or recreating experiences) elicits nostalgia, which in turn contributes to players' self-optimization and enhanced well-being. Moreover, as gamers and the medium mature together, nostalgic experiences with the medium are likely to become increasingly prevalent. The broad aim of this article is to offer future directions for research on video game nostalgia and provide a research agenda for research in this area

Influence of Cr and W alloying on the fiber-matrix interfacial shear strength in cast and directionally solidified sapphire NiAl composites

Sapphire-reinforced NiAl matrix composites with chromium or tungsten as alloying additions were synthesized using casting and zone directional solidification (DS) techniques and characterized by a fiber pushout test as well as by microhardness measurements. The sapphire-NiAl(Cr) specimens exhibited an interlayer of Cr rich eutectic at the fiber-matrix interface and a higher interfacial shear strength compared to unalloyed sapphire-NiAl specimens processed under identical conditions. In contrast, the sapphire-NiAl(W) specimens did not show interfacial excess of tungsten rich phases, although the interfacial shear strength was high and comparable to that of sapphire-NiAl(Cr). The postdebond sliding stress was higher in sapphire-NiAl(Cr) than in sapphire-NiAl(W) due to interface enrichment with chromium particles. The matrix microhardness progressively decreased with increasing distance from the interface in both DS NiAl and NiAl(Cr) specimens. The study highlights the potential of casting and DS techniques to improve the toughness and strength of NiAl by designing dual-phase microstructures in NiAl alloys reinforced with sapphire fibers

Systemic Racism and Health Disparities: A Statement from Editors of Family Medicine Journals

The year 2020 has been marked by historic protests across the United States and the globe sparked by the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and so many other Black people. The protests heightened awareness of racism as a public health crisis and triggered an antiracism movement. The editors of several North American family medicine publications have come together to address this call to action and share resources on racism across our readerships.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163331/1/Final Statement on Systemic Racism- with acknowledgements.pdf-1Description of Final Statement on Systemic Racism- with acknowledgements.pdf : Main ArticleSEL

Cluster M Mycobacteriophages Bongo, PegLeg, and Rey with Unusually Large Repertoires of tRNA Isotopes

Genomic analysis of a large set of phages infecting the common hostMycobacterium smegmatis mc2155 shows that they span considerable genetic diversity. There are more than 20 distinct types that lack nucleotide similarity with each other, and there is considerable diversity within most of the groups. Three newly isolated temperate mycobacteriophages, Bongo, PegLeg, and Rey, constitute a new group (cluster M), with the closely related phages Bongo and PegLeg forming subcluster M1 and the more distantly related Rey forming subcluster M2. The cluster M mycobacteriophages have siphoviral morphologies with unusually long tails, are homoimmune, and have larger than average genomes (80.2 to 83.7 kbp). They exhibit a variety of features not previously described in other mycobacteriophages, including noncanonical genome architectures and several unusual sets of conserved repeated sequences suggesting novel regulatory systems for both transcription and translation. In addition to containing transfer-messenger RNA and RtcB-like RNA ligase genes, their genomes encode 21 to 24 tRNA genes encompassing complete or nearly complete sets of isotypes. We predict that these tRNAs are used in late lytic growth, likely compensating for the degradation or inadequacy of host tRNAs. They may represent a complete set of tRNAs necessary for late lytic growth, especially when taken together with the apparent lack of codons in the same late genes that correspond to tRNAs that the genomes of the phages do not obviously encode