Commercial Advertising and How It Enforces Gender Stereotypes Among Children

The things that people say about gender and the enforced stereotypes that children are brought into at an early age can affect the mindset of children and how they interact with other children and adults. No child is born with prejudice or with the notion that one gender or race is different than another. These are things that they piece together from the social cues around them, which can be detrimental to their interactions with other people in the future. Differences in gender is something that is instilled in most children from an early age

How Commercial Advertising Enforces Gender Stereotypes among Children and the Ways This Affects Them Psychologically

Some people believe that children of different sexes are born with completely separate preferences and mindsets which are permanent and predetermined. However, children are very influenced by their surroundings, which is often the main deciding factor which is predetermined by parents and caretakers from birth. Separating children by gender puts them into boxes, stunting their ability to make their own decisions and creating stereotypes. This segregation is painfully apparent in commercial advertising and is proven to have affected children psychologically in ways that can be detrimental

Virtual Hand Illusion Induced by Visuomotor Correlations

Background: Our body schema gives the subjective impression of being highly stable. However, a number of easily-evoked illusions illustrate its remarkable malleability. In the rubber-hand illusion, illusory ownership of a rubber-hand is evoked by synchronous visual and tactile stimulation on a visible rubber arm and on the hidden real arm. Ownership is concurrent with a proprioceptive illusion of displacement of the arm position towards the fake arm. We have previously shown that this illusion of ownership plus the proprioceptive displacement also occurs towards a virtual 3D projection of an arm when the appropriate synchronous visuotactile stimulation is provided. Our objective here was to explore whether these illusions (ownership and proprioceptive displacement) can be induced by only synchronous visuomotor stimulation, in the absence of tactile stimulation.Methodology/Principal Findings: To achieve this we used a data-glove that uses sensors transmitting the positions of fingers to a virtually projected hand in the synchronous but not in the asynchronous condition. The illusion of ownership was measured by means of questionnaires. Questions related to ownership gave significantly larger values for the synchronous than for the asynchronous condition. Proprioceptive displacement provided an objective measure of the illusion and had a median value of 3.5 cm difference between the synchronous and asynchronous conditions. In addition, the correlation between the feeling of ownership of the virtual arm and the size of the drift was significant.Conclusions/Significance: We conclude that synchrony between visual and proprioceptive information along with motor activity is able to induce an illusion of ownership over a virtual arm. This has implications regarding the brain mechanisms underlying body ownership as well as the use of virtual bodies in therapies and rehabilitation

TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN (POST)CRISIS KATANGA PROVINCE, SOUTHEASTERN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: A CASE STUDY OF TEACHER LEARNING CIRCLES

Teachers in (post)crisis contexts face an array of de-motivating factors such as insecurity, lack of pay, difficult working conditions, minimal leadership, and feeling undervalued (Johnson, 2006; OECD, 2009; Shriberg, 2007). To bolster their motivation and support their teaching, teachers in these settings need a forum where they feel valued as professionals (Asimeng-Boahene, 2003; Bennel & Akyeampong; Kirk & Winthrop, 2007). One model of teacher professional development (TPD) known as Teacher Learning Circles (TLCs) is currently being implemented in Katanga province in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for early grade reading teachers. TLCs strive to help teachers adopt innovative teaching techniques and create supportive environments. This study examines teachers’ perspectives, using a crystallized qualitative case study approach, how these TLCs operate in varied (post)crisis contexts in the DRC where teachers describe their experiences with content, instructional practices and teacher-community support structures of the TLCs (Ellingson, 2008; Rappleye, 2006). Three major themes arose from the data; Motivating factors for teachers to remain in the profession; the school environment factors that impacted teachers day-to-day; and TLC elements related to technical, social, and emotional collegial assistance. By examining these themes across five schools, the TLCs fell into three specific categories: well-functioning TLCs (wTLCs), struggling community-school TLCs (sTLCs), and conflict-impacted sTLCs. Overall findings suggest that, in wTLCs, communities are more stable, teachers effectively manage challenging working conditions, view themselves as professionals, are supported by their communities, participate in an encouraging school community that is fostered by the Head Teacher (HT), and regularly participate in sustained TLCs. Overall, wTLC teachers are able to adapt and translate what they learn in the TLCs into their classrooms. sTLCs appear to be located in two types of contexts, one indirectly impacted by conflict and another that actively experienced consequences of conflict. In both communities, teachers may not be able to overcome feeling overwhelmed and undervalued. In these schools, working conditions appear to be extreme, where teachers’ physical, social and emotional needs are not met. The study suggests future avenues of TPD research, which include studies that examine culturally relevant forms of TPD in times of crisis and trauma

We’re Coming Out! – “Home” and “Away” Identities in the Field of International Education: An Emotional Construction and Negotiation of the Self

Once upon a time, there was a young man from the country of Federation. In this era of postmodernism, Paul St. John Frisoli held fragmented and multiple identities that were at times complimentary and contradictory. He believed that whether he was angry, happy, frustrated, or satisfied that emotions offered clues to these identities. One day, Paul left for the islands of Banga Sharini where he worked on the WEZAP radio project that was funded by the Federation Agency for International Development (FAID). During his stay, he developed new Consultant and Foreign Identity selves while leaving his “home” identities of the Student, Family, and Secret Gay Partner behind. This adventure, told from an autoethnographic approach, examined his daily dairies and letters written to those in the Federation in order to highlight the validity of bridging personal and professional accounts of research in academic inquiry. Paul used the lenses of Cultural Studies to examine how international development work impacted his various fragmented identities. Throughout this self-discovery process, he continuously examined the emotions displayed during the construction his “away” identities while concurrently observing the interaction of these new selves with his “home” identities. What he discovered was a stretching effect on his “home” and “away” identities caused by power, agency, and emotions

Analysis and Conceptual Design of a Passive Upper Limb Exoskeleton

This paper reports a preliminary design of a passive upper limb exoskeleton with 6 degrees of freedom to support workers in industrial environments in a vast range of repetitive tasks. Leveraging the detailed analytical model developed in previous research, the best springs configuration to balance the system during motion is designed through an efficient optimization routine. The model is validated with commercial software for specific overhead tasks, and aspects of the proposed balancer physical implementation are evaluated. Index Terms—Upper Limb Exoskeleton, Wearable Devices, Design Optimization, Virtual Prototyping, Gravity balancing

Flora and Fauna in East Asian Art

Flora and Fauna in East Asian Art is the fourth annual exhibition curated by students enrolled in the Art History Methods course. This exhibition highlights the academic achievements of six student curators: Samantha Frisoli ’18, Daniella Snyder ’18, Gabriella Bucci ’19, Melissa Casale ’19, Keira Koch ’19, and Paige Deschapelles ’20. The selection of artworks in this exhibition considers how East Asian artists portrayed similar subjects of flora and fauna in different media including painting, prints, embroidery, jade, and porcelain. This exhibition intends to reveal the hidden meanings behind various representations of flora and fauna in East Asian art by examining the iconography, cultural context, aesthetic and function of each object.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/artcatalogs/1025/thumbnail.jp

Kinematic design of a two contact points haptic interface for the thumb and index fingers of the hand.

This paper presents an integrated approach to the kinematic design of a portable haptic interface for the thumb and index fingers of the hand. The kinematics of the haptic interface was selected on the basis of constructive reasons, design constraints, and usability issues, and in order to guarantee the best level of performance with the lowest encumbrance and weight over the workspace of the hand. The kinematic dimensioning was the result of a multi-objective optimization of several performance parameters, such as minimum required torque at actuators and maximum reachable workspace, with the simultaneous fulfillment of design constraints, such as satisfactory mechanical stiffness at the end effector, global kinematic isotropy over the workspace, and limited bulk of the device. A geometric interpretation of singularities based on screw theory was formulated to point out both hand postures and movements associated with weaker performance. The results of the paper were used to build the prototype of a new portable haptic interface with two contact points, whose main design features are also specifically presented