441 research outputs found
The Generational Stratification of Ecological Anxiety
Get PDFThe following undergraduate senior thesis focuses on the impacts of ecological anxiety within the 21st century—specifically, the non-uniform mental health consequences of climate change across multiple age demographics ranging from Millennials to Baby Boomers. To be precise, this research asks which of these two generations most acutely feel the cognitive impacts of climate change awareness and climatic experiences, as well as how these consequences manifest in relation to multiple distinct socioeconomic factors. Ecological anxiety represents a newfound dimension of the climate conversation, as mental and spiritual wellbeing are threatened by oncoming climate change in tandem with natural and built environments relied upon by humans. This research intends to analyze distinctions across generations regarding concentrations of & responses to ecological anxiety. I initially hypothesized that younger generations would be more susceptible to the condition compared to older adults due to newfound contemporary focus on the consequences of climate change in schools and through media. I administered a closed-form questionnaire set up through QualtricsXM and distributed it through multiple channels, ranging from physical QR codes to social media outlets (alongside entry into a raffle for a $50.00 Amazon gift card in order to incentivize participation), in order to assess responses to ecological anxiety across age demographics. Quantitative indices corresponding to ecological anxiety within the survey include awareness of ecological degradation across mediums of communication & information, relative proximity to natural areas, history in relation to extreme climatic events, and overall metrics of satisfaction as quantified on a numerical scale. This research will contribute to an improved understanding of the psychological impacts of climate change, substantiating our knowledge of those most susceptible to mental health conditions. This study is centered on the civilian experience of climate change in America, and aims to enhance collective understanding of at-risk populations regarding the mental health impacts of climate change. For the sake of clarity, climate change anxiety constitutes the primary characteristic measured, but ecological degradation resulting from said climatic events & processes are also considered as sources of potential anxiety
Evolutionary dataset optimisation: learning algorithm quality through evolution
Get PDFIn this paper we propose a new method for learning how algorithms perform. Classically, algorithms are compared on a finite number of existing (or newly simulated) benchmark data sets based on some fixed metrics. The algorithm(s) with the smallest value of this metric are chosen to be the `best performing'. We offer a new approach to flip this paradigm. We instead aim to gain a richer picture of the performance of an algorithm by generating artificial data through genetic evolution, the purpose of which is to create populations of datasets for which a particular algorithm performs well. These data sets can be studied to learn as to what attributes lead to a particular progress of a given algorithm. Following a detailed description of the algorithm as well as a brief description of an open source implementation, a number of numeric experiments are presented to show the performance of the method which we call Evolutionary Dataset Optimisation
George Eliot: An evaluation of the criticisms of George Eliot's characterization techniques and an investigation and assessment of those techniques by means of a detailed analysis of several major characters.
Get PDFTHE SCENES OF CLERICAL LIFE and the two early novels of George Eliot, ADAM BEDE and THE MILL ON THE FLOSS, are a rich and rewarding experience. In these early works she writes of an English rural society rendered mellow by the backward glance of memory. In them we see her giving expression to all those accumulated perceptions and experiences of her childhood and youth. With ROMOLA there comes a clear change but, although
there is a sense that her tread is less certain and more measured, there is, nevertheless, the feeling that the artistry
has not disappeared; that inevitably it will reappear and when it does it will have gained because of the interval of experiment and search
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