Does Ethnicity Matter?: Facebook’s Effect on Body Esteem

Social media is widely used by members of today’s society for connecting with family and friends, networking, and entertainment. Previous research has indicated that social media also negatively affects women’s body image (Andsager, 2014). However, there is limited research on how ethnicity mediates the relationship between social media and body image. The current study examines the relationship between the ethnicity of the woman featured in social media postings, the size of the woman featured in the social media postings, and the ethnicity of the viewer and their effect on body esteem. Female students from a southeastern university viewed a mock Facebook profile of either a thin White woman, a thin African-American/Black woman, a heavy White woman, or a heavy African-American/Black woman and responded to several measures, including a body esteem measure. Based on the social comparison theory, it was hypothesized that White women’s body esteem will be negatively affected when viewing the mock Facebook profile of a thin White woman only, whereas American American/Black women’s body esteem will not be when looking at this same profile. It was also hypothesized that African American/Black women’s body esteem will be affected when viewing the profile of a thin African American/Black woman. Results indicated that there was not a significant interaction among the three factors suggesting other factors besides ethnicity, such as ideal body type, are influential on women’s body esteem

Developing A Method To Extract Alkaloids From The Secretions Of Salamanders Found In Northwestern North Carolina

Many species of salamanders secrete noxious chemicals as a defense mechanism. Two salamanders found in western North Carolina, P. yonahlossee and P. montanous, belong to the same genus, but show vastly different coloring. P. yonahlossee displays a bright red dorsal patch, while P. montanous is uniformly grey. Recent research conducted in the Biology Department at Appalachian State University using clay models to represent salamanders showed that predatory birds avoided models with bright red spots, suggesting that the defense mechanism was effective. It is not known, however, if the P. yonahlossee secrets noxious substances, or if the red patch is simply a form of mimicry. The goal of this work is to determine if the P. yonahlossee secrets noxious substances. Recent research conducted on poisonous frogs suggests that the noxious compounds in salamanders could be alkaloids. I used nicotine as a model alkaloid and compared the ability of liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) and solid phase extraction (SPE) to recover alkaloids from salamander secretion. GC/MS was used to quantify all extracts. Although previous students optimized the LLE method, we have been unable to reproduce their results and have done experiments to determine if nicotine is lost in the evaporation step of the extraction. We used two different GCs and determined that one of them provides cleaner chromatograms, probably because it has fewer users. Although our samples have aged in the freezer and our proposed method is only semi-quantitative, this research has the potential to answer important questions about salamanders in western North Carolina that can be applied to other regions. In addition, to our knowledge, no other methods in the literature have used SPE to recover alkaloids from salamander secretion, so there is potential to contribute a new, robust method

Two stories about a war

There are moments, hours and often days in our lives when time appears to be suspended. For men in time of war, this illusion may last for years. In reality, our course of time continues toward a single destiny, but while men live with war there are three real fates« to go to war and return, to go and not return, or not to go at all. Though which fate may befall a man in the reality of time is not controlled by reality alone. Time's illusions overlap, and what is real, and what is not, often cannot be distinguished in our lives. Some men may only appear to have returned from war, others seem to have a way of returning when in reality they have not, and some may live war in reality when it appears that they have not gone at all. The two stories of this thesis involve these three fates of war for three individuals, and how illusion and reality effected their lives during the time of the Viet Nam War. Illusion and reality in memories and dreams of past, present and what will be are tricks of time played on us all. The magician's secrets are well kept, but in stories we can read and wonder, and perhaps even catch a glimpse of how they work

Newly Incorporated Municipalities (NIMs) in the United States 1990 - 2000: Socioeconomic Differences

The purpose of this dissertation was to conduct a systematic examination into municipal incorporation activity in the United States through three primary avenues. To accomplish this task Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) and 2000 U.S. Census Bureau data was examined. First, a geographical analysis of NIMs was conducted to determine the essential spatial attributes of newly incorporated municipalities. The geographical analyses of NIMs revealed that the South Census region received a disproportionate share of NIM activity (151 out of 263) and North Carolina witnessed the most incorporations of any state (34). Likewise, a unique clustering of NIMs within certain counties was evident while other NIMs were formed in relative isolation. The geography of these clustering NIMs can be partially explained by a "herd mentality" where a local political culture is established that facilitates the diffusion of a NIM ideology in response to the aggressive annexation tactics of neighboring cities. Secondly, an examination of socio-economic differences between NIMs and their Cohort Cities largely confirmed the existing literature on municipal incorporation. Through the use of a T-test and ANOVA procedures it was determined that NIMs have statistically significantly smaller populations, lower population densities, higher percentages of white residents, higher median household incomes, lower percentages of poverty and larger percentages of residents employed in management occupations compared to existing municipalities. Interestingly, spatial variability by Census Region and Metropolitan designation had little impact on the statistically significant socio-economic variables. Finally, three NIM typologies where identified based on socio-economic variation among NIMs utilizing Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis techniques. These three National NIM Types include Exclusive Enclaves, Suburban Settlements, and Peripheral Communities that deviated based on skills/affluence, age, political affiliation, and race to name a few. The National NIM Typology can serve as a theoretical framework in which scholars can discuss NIMs. Additionally, the typology will assist public policy makers focused on balancing the rights of individual communities with larger concerns of regional economies of scale and efficient use of tax revenues

Appalachia In Science Fiction: Cormac McCarthy’s The Road And Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games

In literature, science fiction and Appalachia seem to exist in two separate—even opposing—worlds. Science fiction is a genre typically devoted to technology and an imaginary future. The Appalachian region, on the other hand, is often celebrated for its roots in tradition and history. Yet there are a number of literary works where science fiction and Appalachia not only cross paths, but converge. Using an ecocritical approach, this study focuses on two recent science fiction texts set in southern Appalachia—Cormac McCarthy’s 2006 novel The Road and Suzanne Collins’s 2008 novel The Hunger Games—their treatment of place, otherness, and the impact of human modernization and technology on the post-apocalyptic futures envisioned in the works. The emotional power of these novels, similar to other science fiction works set in Appalachia, lies in the startling and often uneasy convergence of tradition and innovation, of past and future—of what was, is, and may be—and all that can be lost along the way

“Dreamkeepers”: School Experiences From The Voices Of Successful Adult African American Males

While there is an abundance of literature portraying the African American male in a negative light, this study focused on successful African American males and explored educational practices that contributed to their academic success. This study asked successful Black adult school leaders to reflect on their early school experiences and to discuss the impact of their school experiences on their academic success. In addition, this study explored the commitments successful adult males made to support young Black males and focused on the guidance these men provided to support school success. In this interpretive qualitative study, a phenomenological approach was employed to document, in their own voices, the early school experiences of successful African American male school administrators. Ladson-Billings’ (2009) characteristics and critical dimensions of culturally relevant teaching were employed to guide this study. Results indicated that the Black adult male participants experienced academic success during their early school experiences and that they have success stories to voice despite the predominance of negative research in the literature. These African American male school leaders experienced teachers that Ladson-Billings would describe as Dreamkeepers

Symmetry In Atonal Music

Atonal music includes each of the twelve pitch-classes repeated equally within a composition. The composer then gives no preference to a particular subset of the twelve pitch-classes and avoids key-structure in the music, which is a significant part of the structure in traditional tonal music. A particular piece of atonal music is often written to favor a group of symmetric permutations of a given 12-tone row reached via the operations transposition, inversion, and retrograde. Here, we investigate symmetry in twelve-tone rows and apply these ideas to n-tone rows for microtonal systems. In terms of algebra, the goal is to count the unique groupings of permutations, or orbits, which can be reached via combinations of the three possible operations that preserve symmetry

Fat Talk And Romantic Relationships: Does Fat Talk Affect Relationship Satisfaction And Sexual Satisfaction?

Using vignettes about a fictional couple, the present study examined how varied levels of the woman’s fat talk were perceived to affect the couple’s relationship and sexual satisfaction. Participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk and included 239 heterosexual people (127 men, 112 women) with long-term (i.e., at least 1 year) relationship experience. Using a 3 (Level of Body Talk: Excessive Fat Talk, Minimal Fat Talk, vs. Self-Accepting Body Talk) x 2 (Participant Gender: Male vs. Female) x 2 (Perspective: Michael vs. Jessica) design, participants were randomly assigned to a Body Talk and Perspective condition and were asked to read a vignette and complete a series of questionnaires. Supporting hypotheses, analyses indicated participants in the excessive fat talk condition perceived lower satisfaction levels than the minimal fat talk and self-accepting body talk conditions. The satisfaction levels perceived by the self-accepting body talk and minimal fat talk conditions did not significantly differ. Participants’ perceptions of the target woman’s signal that she cared about her physical appearance did not differ across the three conditions. Research in this area is in its infancy; more is needed to inform interventions to improve body image and sexual satisfaction and to reduce women's habitual fat talk

A Follow-Up Study Of Vocational And Technical Division Graduates Of Catawba Valley Technical Institute

The purpose of the follow-up study was to survey the graduates of Catawba Valley Technical Institute with the primary objective being to assemble information useful in institutional evaluation