The Social Relations and Interactions of a First Person Shooter (FPS) Gamer

Video games have been part of society for over 40 years. During this period, a stereotypical image of a person who plays videogames has formed. Influenced by the stereotypical image (young, loner males, pale, socially inept, overweight, and possibly aggressive or violent), psychological research has focused on the possible negative effects of playing first person shooter video games. Contrary to the stereotype, first person shooter video games can be a medium in which social relationships are formed and maintained. This study aims to explored the social relationships and interactions of players of first person shooter video games in all locations of play, and how these relationships and interactions influenced the game experience, and how players managed these relationships and interactions. This research was done using qualitative interviews with 12 current first person shooter gamers. The study found that between non-persistent game worlds, technological advancements, and the potentially persistent social relationships, a large diversity of social relationships and interactions occur in and emerge from first person shooter video games. These social relationships and interactions play a central role in the enjoyment of playing first person shooter video games. The study found the interactions that are possible, happen in many different forms. The relationships found in the study developed from several different settings with playing together and friends’ friend being the most common start of a relationship. As well, the participants’ reported a level structure for the relationships that are part of their first person shooter gaming. The study also describes the interactions of players while gaming as being seen as mostly good, with a few antisocial acts committed. These findings are discussed in comparison with literature from other game genres on the social interactions and relationships of players. The seemingly “unsocial” and virtually violent first person shooter game world has been shown to encompass surprisingly rich and diverse social relationships

An Examination of the Effectiveness of Precision Teaching

This research examined the effect of adding precision teaching to an already used method of times table practice, compared practice with and without precision teaching, and finally compared precision teaching to rate building. In the first experiment there was no significant difference in students' rates, endurance, stability, application or adduction of answering times table equations, depending on whether or not they had received precision teaching. Due to some confounding variables in the first experiment, a second experiment was performed where these variables where better controlled. The results from the second experiment also showed no significant difference in students' rates of answering time's table equations, or their retention of these rates, between students who had received precision teaching and those who had not. Again due to some confounding variables preventing a good comparison of practice with and without precision teaching, a further experiment was conducted. As the third experiment was conducted in the same setting as the second, precision teaching was compared to rate building instead of practice with no precision teaching. The results of this study suggest that rate building results in significantly larger increases in rates of answering times table equations than precision teaching. While there was a significant difference between the two groups' increases in rate, there were some confounding variables that may have affected the outcome of this study. Overall, students in all three experiments made increases in rate that are comparative to gains reported in the precision teaching literature. As such while this research does not add support for all the methods used in precision teaching, as described in the literature, it does suggest that the use of rate building results in the achievement of faster rates

Racial Battle Fatigue Among Latinx and Black Community College Students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Disciplines: A Quantitative Perspective

The role of community colleges as open-access institutions that bring racial diversity to careers in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields is essential (Musante, 2012; Reyes, 2011). Yet, the opportunity to attend postsecondary institutions is not enough to guarantee the success of People of Color as they navigate hostile academic environments (Franklin, 2016). Community colleges must be willing to ensure that students are welcomed in their classes and that they are promoting positive academic environments that are sensitive to racially marginalized and stigmatized groups. The influence on racially marginalized and stigmatized groups is underscored by findings in the literature on how hostile academic environments have led to “alienation, dissatisfaction, academic disidentification, disengagement, and blocked academic aspirations” (Smith, Allen, & Danley, 2007, p. 552). Smith (2004), a professor at the University of Utah, coined the term racial battle fatigue (RBF) to describe three major stress responses (physiological, psychological, and behavioral) from the accumulation of racial microaggressions and the energy expended on coping with and fighting against it (Yosso, Smith, Ceja, & Solózano, 2009). Microaggressions are everyday subtle or ambiguous racially related insults, slights, mistreatments, or invalidations (Torres-Harding & Turner, 2015). A racial battle fatigue scale (RBFS) was later developed by Franklin, Smith, and Hung (2014) and quantitatively tested in a college classroom using the RBF framework to assess psychological, physiological, and behavioral stress. The purpose of this study was to use this RBFS to quantitatively measure racial battle fatigue (RBF) for Latinx and African American students enrolled in STEM courses across multiple community college classrooms and campuses. An online questionnaire was administered to 536 students from community colleges in Oregon, Washington, Illinois, and California. The study spanned one term or one semester of an introductory chemistry course intended as a transfer course. Each institution had the same prerequisites, including College Algebra, and similar student learning outcomes. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed to test the four statistical hypotheses of the three research questions of this study. Three dependent variables included the three RBF domain scores of (a) psychological, (b) behavioral, and (c) physiological. Two independent variables were included in the model. The study findings revealed a significance for the race of the student when responding to questions regarding RBF. White students had a significantly lower score than Latinx and Black on the behavioral, physiological, and psychological domains. Black and Latinx did not differ from each other on any of the three domains. Maltese and Tai (2011) asserted that classroom environments play a large role in student retention in STEM. Understood in this context, measuring RBS is a crucial first step to raising consciousness within the community college setting for more retention of Latinx and African American students. The findings of this research will be useful to administrators and faculty when considering how to address microaggressions on their campus and how it impacts students, their health, and sense of belonging as a STEM student. The findings of this research will also help guide instructional pedagogy at PWIs, HSIs, and PBIs regarding group work, especially in STEM courses. Most importantly, the results of this research can help identify, disrupt, and dismantle the racism that marginalizes, subordinates, and excludes students in STEM even within the community college environment. Keywords: racial battle fatigue, critical race theory, STEM, community college, microaggressions, stres

Model Complexes for Reactive Intermediates in Cytochrome P450 Nitric Oxide Reductase (P450nor)

Nitric oxide (NO) is involved in many important biological processes in humans, but the overproduction of NO has detrimental consequences for human health. In contrast, denitrifying organisms efficiently detoxify NO. Fungi produce NO during anaerobic respiration, and detoxify NO by reduction to nitrous oxide (N2O) using a Cytochrome P450-type nitric oxide reductase (P450nor). The active site of this enzyme contains a ferric heme coordinated to a proximal cysteinate ligand. In the proposed mechanism, the ferric heme binds NO and is reduced to a ferrous HNO complex. It is speculated that this intermediate is protonated to a formally iron(IV)-NHOH species as the critical intermediate for NO reduction.To elucidate whether an iron(IV)-NHOH type intermediate is catalytically competent for N-N bond formation, I prepared the first model complex for such a species using a bis-picket fence porphyrin as supporting ligand. Using resonance Raman and Mossbauer spectroscopy I was able to show that the electronic structure of out model is best described as an iron(III)-NHOMe(radical) species, and not an iron(IV) complex or a porphyrin radical species. This complex has a half live of 68 minutes at –80oC. This species reacts with NO gas to form a ferric species, however N2O is not formed. Future studies will determine if an N-N bond was formed by analysis of the N-containing products. Next, we investigated whether ferrous HNO complexes are catalytically competent intermediates in P450nor. We synthesized iron(II)-RNO complexes, where the N-atom is substituted with an alkyl group (R = iPr, Ph) rather than a H-atom. The reaction of these complexes with NO results in an iron(II)-NO complex, rather than N-N bond formation. The addition of a neutral thiol ligand trans to the RNO ligand could activate these complexes toward N-N bond formation. Finally, a new method to synthesize ferric heme-nitrosyl complexes was developed, which allowed us to determine key factors that result in denitrosylation of ferric heme-nitrosyl complexes. This opens up the door to study the P450nor reaction of an iron(III)-NO complex with a hydride to form a ferrous HNO complex.PHDChemistryUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137122/1/asmcquar_1.pd

1958 – 2014: nach 56 Jahren Forschung endlich eine Erklärung für die Reaktivität von Cytochrom P450

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106938/1/4846_ftp.pd

1958 – 2014: After 56 Years of Research, Cytochrome P450 Reactivity Is Finally Explained

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106997/1/4750_ftp.pd

Exploration of the Other Race Recognition Deficit Using the EZ Diffusion Model

Existing research regarding the Other-Race Bias (ORB), a phenomenon in which faces of the same race are more accurately recognized than of another race, primarily focus on when the recognition deficit occurs. A more interesting question is, why does it occur? The current research was designed to investigate the possible processing components responsible for the ORB through the use of a quantitative cognitive model, the EZ diffusion model. The EZ diffusion model jointly considers both accuracy and reaction time in addition to traditional measures of performance. This allows us to evaluate recognition decisions made about same-race and other-race faces. In addition to examining the processing components, emotion was also manipulated to potentially differentiate what type of processing, configural or featural, is recruited. One theory of face processing, the Ingroup/Outgroup model of face processing, argues that since faces are first categorized configurally. If this is the case then the emotion, a featural component should have no effect on the ORB. Using the EZ diffusion model, the results indicated that recognition differences occur because of the quality of information available at encoding and not a response bias. Furthermore, the use of configural or featural processing may not be able to explain the differences in processing for SR and OR faces. Research needs to continue to seek explanations of the ORB