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Reimagize – a digital card-based roleplaying game to improve adolescent girls’ body image

Kumar et al. | Oct 04, 2021

Reimagize – a digital card-based roleplaying game to improve adolescent girls’ body image

Reimagize, a role-playing with decision-making, was conjured, implementing social psychological concepts like counter-stereotyping and perspective-taking. As the game works implicitly to influence body image, it even counters image issues beyond personal body dissatisfaction. This study explored whether a digital role-playing card game, incorporating some of the most common prejudices of body image (like size prejudice, prejudices from the media, etc.) as identified by a digital survey/questionnaire completed by Indian girls aged 11-21, could counter these issues and reduce personal body dissatisfaction.

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Are Age and Sex Related to Emotion Recognition Ability in Children and Teenagers?

Gallego-García et al. | Feb 23, 2018

Are Age and Sex Related to Emotion Recognition Ability in Children and Teenagers?

Humans have a natural ability to recognize emotional cues from the facial expressions of others, as a crucial evolutionary trait to navigate social interactions. This ability likely develops through normal development and social experience, but it is unclear how much influence age and sex have in emotional facial recognition (EFR). In this study, the authors investigate EFR in children and teenagers, and look at whether accurate emotional recognition does occur more in males or females.

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The Analysis of the Effects of Smoke and Water Vapor on Insect Pheromone Communication and Physical Condition: An Investigation of the Causes of Colony Collapse Disorder

Delatorre et al. | May 20, 2015

The Analysis of the Effects of Smoke and Water Vapor on Insect Pheromone Communication and Physical Condition: An Investigation of the Causes of Colony Collapse Disorder

The cause of insect colony collapse disorder (CCD) is still a mystery. In this study, the authors aimed to test the effects of two environmental factors, water vapor and smoke levels, on the social behavior and physical condition of insects. Their findings could help shed light on how changing environmental factors can contribute to CCD.

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Shortage of Black physicians: Florida Black medical student enrollment from 2013 to 2021

Khan et al. | Sep 18, 2024

Shortage of Black physicians: Florida Black medical student enrollment from 2013 to 2021

Black patients tend to have better health outcomes when cared for by Black physicians, yet Black doctors make up only 5% of U.S. physicians, despite Black people comprising 14% of the population. This analysis of data from Florida medical schools showed a higher enrollment of Black first-year students (13.5%) compared to the national average (9%), and a national increase from 6% in 2013 to 9% in 2021, aligning with the rise of social justice movements. Increasing Black medical student enrollment could reduce health disparities and improve outcomes for Black communities.

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Reddit v. Wall Street: Why Redditors beat Wall Street at its own game

Bhakar et al. | Sep 13, 2022

Reddit v. Wall Street: Why Redditors beat Wall Street at its own game

Here the authors investigated the motivation of a short squeeze of GameStop stock where users of the internet forum Reddit drove a sudden increase in GameStop stock price during the start of 2021. They relied on both qualitative and quantitative analyses where they tracked activity on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit in relation to mentions of GameStop. With these methods they found that while initially the short squeeze was driven by financial motivations, later on emotional motivations became more important. They suggest that social phenomena can be dynamic and evolve necessitating mixed method approaches to study them.

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Culturally Adapted Assessment Tool for Autism Spectrum Disorder and its Clinical Significance

Das et al. | Apr 19, 2021

Culturally Adapted Assessment Tool for Autism Spectrum Disorder and its Clinical Significance

Diagnosing of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) using tools developed in the West is challenging in the Indian setting due to a huge diversity in sociocultural and economic backgrounds. Here, the authors developed a home-based, audiovisual game app (Autest) suitable for ASD risk assessment in Indian children under 10 years of age. Ratings suggested that the tool is effective and can reduce social inhibition and facilitate assessment. Further usage and development of Autest can improve risk assessment and early intervention measures for children with ASD in India.

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Population Forecasting by Population Growth Models based on MATLAB Simulation

Li et al. | Aug 31, 2020

Population Forecasting by Population Growth Models based on MATLAB Simulation

In this work, the authors investigate the accuracy with which two different population growth models can predict population growth over time. They apply the Malthusian law or Logistic law to US population from 1951 until 2019. To assess how closely the growth model fits actual population data, a least-squared curve fit was applied and revealed that the Logistic law of population growth resulted in smaller sum of squared residuals. These findings are important for ensuring optimal population growth models are implemented to data as population forecasting affects a country's economic and social structure.

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How are genetically modified foods discussed on TikTok? An analysis of #GMOFOODS

Basch et al. | Nov 20, 2023

How are genetically modified foods discussed on TikTok? An analysis of #GMOFOODS
Image credit: Camilo Jimenez

Here, the authors investigated engagement with #GMOFOODS, a hashtag on TikTok. They hypothesized that content focused on the negative effects of genetically modified organisms would receive more interaction driven by consumers. They found that the most common cateogry focused on the disadvantages of GMOs related to nutrition and health with the number of views determining if the video would be provided to users.

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The effect of sports on teenagers’ depression symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic

Düzgezen et al. | Jun 12, 2023

The effect of sports on teenagers’ depression symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic
Image credit: Izuddin Helmi Adnan

Here, seeking to identify the possible role of sports in helping teenagers navigate the troubles associated with societal changes during a pandemic, the authors surveyed 50 adolescents to collect Beck Depression Inventory scores. They found that 9 out of students with severe depressions did not do sports, while no significant relationship between depressive symptoms and either gender or place of exercise was observed.

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