The Importance of Play: Identification with Video Game Characters\u27 Intersectional Effects on Bias

Video games are steadily becoming one of the largest and most influential forms of media in history. Today, video games are so popular that the Nintendo mascot Mario from the Mario Brothers video game series is more recognized than Disney\u27s Mickey Mouse. The reach and influence of video games is cause for celebration and concern. After all, just like other forms of media video games can influence audiences far beyond their play sessions. Media can influence everything from how individuals treat others, to governmental policies. With such a large scope of influence over who they reach and how they affect society it\u27s necessary to examine how video games represent real world people. Representation in video games has the potential to influence audiences\u27 perceptions of and attitudes towards real people. Video games already come under constant scrutiny for their numerous portrayals of sexist and racist imagery. These negative portrayals can affect real world biases against disenfranchised groups. Which in some cases can even lead to an increase in violence against those groups. Many forms of passive media, such as books and television, have already been analyzed to discern how their use of diverse non-stereotypical representation can combat biases, promote empathy, and encourage tolerance among their audiences. Video games have been researched in a similar manner, but stand apart from these mediums in an important way. Video games allow participants to take an active role in their entertainment. Unlike a book or a movie a video game offers participants control over the characters and the actions those characters take within the story. Video game audiences don’t just witness the narrative, they give it form through their choices and actions. Other researchers have examined how interactivity in video games influences real world biases. The first part of this dissertation provides background information for these past studies. We expanded on this research with three studies of our own featuring race and gender bias. The studies reveal that in video games the experience of watching a character vs playing as a character greatly affects the character’s ability to influence audience biases. Just seeing a female or black character in a video game is a very different experience from playing as them and being able to control their actions. Furthermore, in video games this experience of play via character control produces a unique psychological phenomenon called embodied identification. Embodied identification represents how much a player feels they are physically and/or mentally immersed in a playable character. The level of embodied identification a player experiences directly effects the virtual character’s influence over the player. So, it plays an important role in influencing players and is the main focus of this dissertation. There is also an examination into how embodied identification effects players\u27 attitudes toward underrepresented people. The third of the three studies in this paper includes perhaps the most prolific expansion on past research by incorporating intersectionality into the study. This study allows researchers and developers to better understand how all aspects of a player character\u27s identity influence multiple societal biases. In this way, the study is able to look beyond a singular view of identity; only focusing on race or gender for example, to gain a more complete picture of video games\u27 ability to combat biases and promote tolerance in society

Magnetic properties of the three-dimensional Hubbard model at half filling

We study the magnetic properties of the 3d Hubbard model at half-filling in the TPSC formalism, previously developed for the 2d model. We focus on the N\'eel transition approached from the disordered side and on the paramagnetic phase. We find a very good quantitative agreement with Dynamical Mean-Field results for the isotropic 3d model. Calculations on finite size lattices also provide satisfactory comparisons with Monte Carlo results up to the intermediate coupling regime. We point out a qualitative difference between the isotropic 3d case, and the 2d or anisotropic 3d cases for the double occupation factor. Even for this local correlation function, 2d or anisotropic 3d cases are out of reach of DMF: this comes from the inability of DMF to account for antiferromagnetic fluctuations, which are crucial.Comment: RevTex, 9 pages +10 figure

Pairing fluctuations and pseudogaps in the attractive Hubbard model

The two-dimensional attractive Hubbard model is studied in the weak to intermediate coupling regime by employing a non-perturbative approach. It is first shown that this approach is in quantitative agreement with Monte Carlo calculations for both single-particle and two-particle quantities. Both the density of states and the single-particle spectral weight show a pseudogap at the Fermi energy below some characteristic temperature T*, also in good agreement with quantum Monte Carlo calculations. The pseudogap is caused by critical pairing fluctuations in the low-temperature renormalized classical regime $\omega < T$ of the two-dimensional system. With increasing temperature the spectral weight fills in the pseudogap instead of closing it and the pseudogap appears earlier in the density of states than in the spectral function. Small temperature changes around T* can modify the spectral weight over frequency scales much larger than temperature. Several qualitative results for the s-wave case should remain true for d-wave superconductors.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figure

What's in a Sign? Trademark Law and Economic Theory

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to summarise the extant theory as it relates to the economics of trademark, and to give some suggestions for further research with reference to distinct streams of literature. The proposed line of study inevitably looks at the complex relationship between signs and economics. Trademark is a sign introduced to remedy a market failure. It facilitates purchase decisions by indicating the provenance of the goods, so that consumers can identify specific quality attributes deriving from their own, or others&apos;, past experience. Trademark holders, on their part, have an incentive to invest in quality because they will be able to reap the benefits in terms of reputation. In other words, trademark law becomes an economic device which, opportunely designed, can produce incentives for maximising market efficiency. This role must, of course, be recognised, as a vast body of literature has done, with its many positive economic consequences. Nevertheless, trademark appears to have additional economic effects that should be properly recognized: it can determine the promotion of market power and the emergence of rent-seeking behaviours. It gives birth to an idiosyncratic economics of signs where very strong protection tends to be assured, even though the welfare effects are as yet poorly understood. In this domain much remains to be done and the challenge to researchers is open

A map of the binding site for catalytic domain 5 in the core of a group II intron ribozyme.

Group II introns are ribozymes with a complex tertiary architecture that is of great interest as a model for RNA folding. Domain 5 (D5) is a highly conserved region of the intron that is considered one of the most critical structures in the catalytic core. Despite its central importance, the means by which D5 interacts with other core elements is unclear. To obtain a map of potential interaction sites, dimethyl sulfate was used to footprint regions of the intron that are involved in D5 binding. These studies were complemented by measurements of D5 binding to a series of truncated intron derivatives. In this way, the minimal region of the intron required for strong D5 association was defined and the sites most likely to represent thermodynamically significant positions of tertiary contact were identified. These studies show that ground-state D5 binding is mediated by tertiary contacts to specific regions of D1, including a tetraloop receptor and an adjacent three-way junction. In contrast, D2 and D3 are not found to stabilize D5 association. These data highlight the significance of D1-D5 interactions and will facilitate the identification of specific tertiary contacts between them