Graduate

Photographic images are used in scientific communication to convince an expert audience of the authority of the text being presented, but has the secondary effect of democratizing scientific communication for non-technical audiences (Mogull & Stanfield, 2015, pp. 1-2). The photographs in scientific communication often go beyond the normal reach of human vision, such as in the use of micrographs to show microscopic images at a size that can be seen by normal vision. Another form of augmented photograph that exists in scientific communication is the false color photograph. False color uses alternative colors to highlight a difference or to present forms of energy that are outside of the human perceived light range. False color photographs do not appear as their subject would appear to the human eye, but rather are presented in a symbolically interpreted way. In some cases, this means that visual information is pre-interpreted for the viewer and in other cases non-visible information is presented in a simple form that is visually understandable by a human with average color perception.

The linguistic territory of the Internet, the domain name system, has recently undergone a large-scale expansion and you can claim a piece of it for yourself in the form of a domain name. This is exciting news for bloggers, photographers, artists, writers and anyone else who has or wants an online presence that previously struggled to find the perfect name in dot-COM! There is one catch however, you may be blocked from getting the perfect name in one of the new domains if it is similar to someone else's trademark or you may be able to register your new domain name but have it taken away later because a corporation demonstrated they had a prior legal claim to it, even if you were not aware of their trademark.

Individuals interact with each other through a variety of linguistic and behavioral symbols. Social situations are interpreted based on the symbols and the context in which the symbols appear (Burke & Stets, 2009, p. 65). Identity is the key filter through which situations are interpreted and made meaningful (Stets & Carter, 2011, p. 193). Identities are not harmless attributes assigned to a set of characteristics, but rather socially and politically engaged markers that impact many facets of social life, including something as essential as the experience and assignment of agency (Alcoff, 2005, p. 20). This paper will discuss identity from the perspective of four philosophers, Bernard Williams, Charles Taylor, Linda Alcoff and Judith Butler, as well as sociologists Peter Burke and Jan Stets through their identity control theory framework.

Case analysis of UNC Charlotte's First Destination Survey

Big data and existing research protections under the Belmont Report/Common Rule are incompatible. Big data is a new and emerging field with unknown risks to subjects. In some areas, such as informed consent, the Belmont Report may be too restrictive and in violation of its own principles of beneficence. The gaps in Common Rule that allow public datasets to be utilized without detailed review of the research project by an institutional review board place additional risk on subjects in the dataset. The current state of big data research is established in a social environment where privacy is valued by many people and it cannot be assumed that there is a social agreement that the possible risks of big data are worth the potential benefits. Academic researchers, who tend to be early adopters of new technologies and new techniques, are embarking on a new type of research to which existing ethical frameworks were not prepared to adapt.

Modern humans interact with a variety of electronic devices to accomplish tasks, entertain themselves and to communicate with others. Traditionally this interaction has been conceived of as being the interaction between a user and a tool. There is no emotional value in that interaction, it is not social. The interaction is merely functional. The problem with that approach is that humans do express emotions toward computers, smart phones and other computational devices. Some of the concepts involved in the computer science sub-field of human-computer interaction describe these interactions as social and refer to computers as social actors. If computers are to be treated social actors, then emotions must be considered in evaluation of the interactions in which they take part. Despite the anthropomorphist properties that some in the computer science discipline apply to computers, computers, including artificial intelligences, do not experience feelings. Therefore, the concept of emotions in human-computer interaction must be considered through different frameworks and from the perspective of the human actors involved. Humans develop social relationships with their technology (Nass 1994). Like any relationship involving humans, the quality of the relationship is impacted by the emotional exchanges involved. Emotion is an important component of human-computer interaction because of the amount of time that humans spend with their devices and because the capability to interact successfully with other humans depends upon strong social and emotional skills.

The new gTLDs open up many possibilities for Internet users and content producers. The preliminary research conducted in this paper provides only a small sample of the variation in uses that have been undertaken by Internet users. Community and identity are not easily defined and looking for markers of the existence, especially between many entities presents a challenge.

The new gTLDs open up many possibilities for Internet users and content producers. The preliminary research conducted in this paper provides only a small sample of the variation in uses that have been undertaken by Internet users. Community and identity are not easily defined and looking for markers of the existence, especially between many entities presents a challenge.

Students select a major field of study (a major) as part of their higher educational experience. This paper will investigate the literature regarding choice of college major to determine if the research regarding students choosing to major in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields is applicable to non-STEM fields as well. What factors drive the decision to select one major over another? Gender has historically been one of the more visible social factors for students selecting a major, but other factors of stratification such as race and socioeconomic status also contribute to the way a student conceives of their academic (and career) identity.

Artificial intelligence is one of the most promising fields to aid human-computer interaction. Creating methods to give computers the functionality of imitating intelligence by adapting their own responses to information they are given or utilizing machine-learning techniques to expect or anticipate needs has the intended benefit of simplifying human interactions with computers (Dinsmore and Moehle 13). One of the more troubled areas of artificial intelligence is voice recognition. Computers function in specific binary (digital) commands, and human language is laden with ambiguous lexical terms, internal contradictions, cultural references and tonal and inflectional differences. How are artificial intelligences to cope with these complexities to become fluent in human verbal communication? This paper will examine how artificial intelligences cope with tonal and inflectional differences and the absence of a contextual awareness in speech recognition.

This paper reviews Burke & Stet's Identity Theory and then examines new research that builds on the theory.

Pornography is treated as a social illness by some academic disciplines and by most religious groups. This depiction arises from a perceived corruption of societal values through the viewing of pornography. Could it be possible that pornography is mirroring what exists in society? Pornographic imagery is driven by the consumer demand for a specific type of imagery. If the social demands were to change, then so would pornography itself. This paper explores this concept through the lens of feminist and post-modern theories.

Gay men involved in sadomasochistic sexuality display a performance of hyper-masculine behavior. Through the appropriation of masculine artifacts due to fetishistic desire the material traits of masculinity are implemented and hyper-masculine roles are enacted. Sadomasochistic behaviors themselves emulate homosocial interactions in erotic spaces, producing a gay clone of hyper-masculine culture.

This document proposes thesis research into the impact of the stigma of alternative sexual identities on the self-disclosure and presentation of members of the BDSM community. This proposal presents a content analysis and an interview-based methodology.

The Internet has become a global community for those that are able to access it and utilize it effectively. Those individuals who are not among those that fall into that category are considered to be in a “gap” known as the digital divide. The digital divide mimics structural inequality that is found in traditional systems that result in social inequality. Individuals who fall into this divide are not engaged in the same social experience as those who are more privileged. The lessened engagement promotes the continuation of inequality in other spheres such as social status and access to social resources. The ubiquity of the Internet blinds the casual observer of the existence of the digital divide.

This paper considers the different construction of masculinity in the queercore punk scene compared to its mainstream counterpart. Using lyrics and acts of drag through a cultural engine of the Do It Yourself ethic queers mainstream masculinity in acts of queer terrorism. Do these acts challenge mainstream constructions of masculinity or do these acts provide a way for queercore to reinterpret masculinity for its own context?

Categorization is one of the most essential features of cognition. Categorization is the beginning of meaning and the way in which the result of cognition is stored. There are two basic types of cognitive systems that are capable of categorization, biological and artificial systems. These two types of cognitive systems approach categorization with somewhat different processes and with different levels of proficiency on different types of categorization. There is an obvious difference in the hardware in use for each type of cognitive system, this paper aims to explore the differences that go beyond hardware and also explore some of the similarities.

Gay identity is a creation of social discourse. There are many variations in gay identity that do not conform to the identity that is accepted by the gay community. Queer theory questions and attempts to deconstruct gay identity to move it away from its discursively constructed emulation of stereotypes in culture. Through questioning the identity intersectional identities, such as those found between masculinity and homosexuality or homosexuality and blackness emerge. Difference goes against the categorical construction of the identity and as such the community uses social pressure to attempt to enforce upon members of the community a standard gay identity.

Group project. Our group interviewed ceramic artists at UNC Charlotte to determine their needs in terms of design changes to systems in their environment. Through our evaluation we discovered that the only difficulty with which we could assist but not interfere in their process was to design a better way to load kilns. We used several design prototypes until ultimately we selected a web-based prototype which could be extended. We took the prototype to our users to get their feedback and they responded positively to our design. This report describes our entire adventure.

The social constructionist view of sexuality is framed around the concept that sexuality is a construction of social and cultural influences, and that sexuality is fluid. This paper puts forth the concept that social construction is applicable to all forms of sexuality, not just the normative and intercourse driven forms of sexuality. Non-normative, non-genital centric sexual behaviors and sexualities are also socially constructed. Sexuality is influenced by social forces and in turn sexuality shapes the social landscape. Sadomasochistic and Fetishistic sexual identities are formed through processes of socialization, social learning and community formation. This paper explores the creation of subcultures as a necessary part of the maintenance of the identities, the influence of the identities on majority society and the ways in which the gender hierarchy plays a major role in constructing alternative sexual identities.

Feminist discourse proposes a system of gender equality through the destruction of the hegemonic system of power. The traditional approach to feminism constructs a world view that disregards men as being any role other than the oppressor. While in the Western world there may be statistical justification for this, when viewing feminism as a transnational construct with global ramifications that scope loses its validity, but as feminism is fueled by Western ideals, men and their associated masculinity are ignored in feminist discourse. This paper exposes some of the shortcomings of feminist discourse, particularly in the area of sex work. Men are ignored in all but a handful of academic articles, leaving them unrepresented. This paper utilizes those few articles and presents an argument for the need for further representation of men in feminist discourse.

Masculinity is one of the longest living social institutions. Its rules are carried through unspoken codes and are enforced by social processes. Sociology is the optimum field to explore masculinity due to its ties with so many social institutions and its impact on all members of society. This paper explores how masculinity is conveyed and enforced in society as well as how masculinity influences other social institutions. There is more than one type of masculinity and this paper addresses how those various masculinities interact.