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Background/Objectives: This longitudinal study aimed to examine how gender influences the relationship between popularity goals and cyberbullying perpetration among adolescents in China and the United States, controlling for peer-nominated popularity. Additionally, the study sought to identify potential cross-cultural differences in these dynamics. Methods: The research involved 1063 eighth and ninth graders (ages 12–16; 48.7% girls) who completed self-reported surveys in the fall of 2022 (Time 1) regarding cyberbullying behaviors and popularity goals. Peer nominations of popularity were also collected. Follow-up data on cyberbullying perpetration were obtained one year later in the fall of 2023 (Time 2). Results: Popularity goals were found to positively predict cyberbullying perpetration at Time 2 across all participants even after accounting for peer-nominated popularity. In China, this association was more pronounced among boys, whereas in the United States, the relationship was stronger for girls. Conclusions: Although cultural differences in the overall patterns were minimal, gender emerged as a significant moderating factor, revealing distinct cross-cultural variations. These findings underscore the need for culturally tailored approaches in interventions targeting adolescent cyberbullying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined fame-seeking mass shooters worldwide who attacked from 1999 to 2022 to identify their profiles, behaviours, influences, and trends. Quantitative analyses revealed many similarities between fame-seeking shooters in the United States and in other countries: compared to other mass shooters, they were more frequently young and more likely to target schools, commit suicide, and kill and injure many victims. Fame-seeking mass shooters who attacked outside the United States appeared more likely to have been influenced by American mass shooters than by perpetrators from all other countries, combined. Findings also showed a substantial rise in the number of fame-seeking shooters over time, along with increases in the proportion of mass shooters who sought fame and the average number of victims they killed. We discuss the implications of these disturbing trends and offer an assessment for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biology as an integral part of science learning continues to be maximized by integrating technology into its learning design. The definite manifestation of this integration process is to achieve meaningfulness, activeness, and effectiveness of the learning carried out. The flipped classroom (FC) is gaining popularity as a pedagogical model that uses the important benefits of technology in its learning environment. FC is proven to be an effective teaching mode that empowers students' 21st-century skills, stimulates students' self-learning, and improves academic performance. The potential of the FC is interesting to explore to what extent biology welcomes the FC. The aimed of this systematic literature review is to review and analyze articles published by Scopus indexed journals. We used the keywords "Flipped classroom and biology" in the search menu in the Scopus database and succeeded in finding 72 articles. There were 21 articles that met the criteria for further analysis. The inclusion and exclusion model used is PRISMA. The findings obtained are the trend of FC publications in biology learning over the last ten years. The approaches used in this research include quantitative, mixed method, case study and qualitative. Key words that are often used by writers are student, human, biology. The biology keyword has a branch, namely active learning. There are 9 countries of origin of authors who publish articles. The United States is a country that is active in publishing. Articles published on each continent are not evenly distributed. The dominant articles are published in collaboration with one country and rarely are articles published by one author. We have succeeded in formulating a picture of the existence of the FC in biology learning over the last ten years. These findings can be a consideration or reference for researchers to explore and study more deeply research related to the FC in biology learning based on their respective urgency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescents who lack traits valued by peers are at risk for adjustment difficulties but the mechanisms responsible for deteriorating well-being have yet to be identified. The present study examines processes whereby low athleticism and low attractiveness give rise to adolescent adjustment difficulties. Participants were public middle school students (ages 10 to 13 years, Mage = 11.54, SDage = 1.00) in the USA and Lithuania (300 girls, 280 boys; 52.7% girls). Self-reports of alcohol misuse and loneliness were collected three times during an academic year (M = 12.3 week intervals). Athleticism, attractiveness, unpopularity, and peer rejection were assessed through peer nominations. Full longitudinal mediation analyses examined direct and indirect pathways from stigmatized traits (i.e., low athleticism, low attractiveness) to adjustment difficulties (i.e., alcohol misuse, loneliness) through two indices of low peer status: unpopularity and rejection. The results indicated that the possession of stigmatized traits predicted escalating unpopularity, which, in turn, predicted increasing adjustment difficulties. Similar indirect associations did not emerge with rejection as a mediator, underscoring the unique role of power and prominence (and the lack thereof) in socioemotional development. The findings underscore the adjustment risks and interpersonal challenges that confront children and adolescents who lack traits valued by peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies in the United States have shown that minority students might face a trade-off between better academic performance and peer acceptance, which has been termed "acting White." This paper investigates racial differences in the relationship between grades and popularity in five Brazilian schools. Popularity is measured using friendship ties among students, assigning a higher value to students more central in the network. The racial composition of friendship ties is generally diverse, although they tend to favor racial peers, especially among Black students. We find a positive correlation between grades and popularity of non-White students that is driven by their friendships with their White classmates. This contrasts with patterns associated with acting White, where a negative correlation between minorities' grades and their popularity among racial peers is not compensated by their status among White students. We also investigate how academic performance is associated with racial identity choice conditional on skin color, finding a weak negative relationship between higher grades and the odds of classification as mixed race. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) models are widely used as a tool for policy decision-making. These models lost their fame when they could not predict the crisis in 2008 and could not address policy problems afterward. Meanwhile, the Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) approach emerged as an alternative to DSGE models. Between 2000 and 2020, this study examined scholarly research on the topic of ABM in economics. The information is gathered using the SCOPUS database. Numerous bibliometric indicators are provided, including the total number of publications and citations. The study reveals that agent-based modelling in economics research has grown in recent years. The majority of active research occurs in countries such as the United States of America, and collaboration allows researchers to reach out to many more countries. ABM has the potential to be applied in a wide range of economic fields. ABM also necessitates research into its own development to be used to better understand economic phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the contribution of mobile device applications to political discourse in the US presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in 2020. The sample consisted of 101 applications (apps) and the analysis was based on a qualitative methodology that examined the popularity and discourse features of these apps. The results reflect a wide range of developments that oscillate between commercial interest and a form of blurred political engagement located somewhere across entertainment, parody and virality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is blue food desirable or disgusting? The answer, it would seem, is both, but it really depends on the food in which the color happens to be present. It turns out that the oft-cited aversive response to blue meat may not even have been scientifically validated, despite the fact that blue food coloring is often added to discombobulate diners. In the case of drinks, however, there has been a recent growth of successful new blue product launches in everything from beer to tea, and from wine to gin, arguing that coloring food products blue is more than simply a contemporary fad. In fact, the current interest in blue food coloring builds on the color's earlier appearance in everything from blue curacao to blue-raspberry candyfloss (cotton candy), and thereafter a number of soft drinks. Over the years, the combination of blue coloring with raspberry flavoring has also appeared in everything from bubble-gum to patriotic pop rocks (popping candy in The United States). Ultimately, it is the rarity of naturally-blue foods that is likely what makes this color so special. As such, blue food coloring can both work effectively to attract the visual attention of the shopper while, at the same time, being linked to a range of different flavors (since this is one of the few color-flavor mappings that are essentially arbitrary) depending on the food format in which it happens to appear. Note also that the basic descriptor "blue" covers a wide range of hues having a range of different associations, hence eliciting different reactions (be they positive or negative). While blue was once associated with artificiality, a growing number of natural blue food colorings have come onto the market in recent years thus perhaps changing the dominant associations that many consumers may have with this most unusual of food colors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regardless of the fast-growing popularity of shrinking cities in the literature, certain misconceptions persist. Urban shrinkage is often assumed to be near-synonymous with urban distress, and shrinking cities are assumed to be in need of growth. In this paper, we seek to achieve a greater conceptual clarity for both shrinkage and distress, thereby informing present debates on the topic and inviting more nuanced ones in the future. The paper is organized in three main parts. We first use a historical lens to challenge the conflation of shrinkage and distress. Western history is rife with examples of when growth—shrinkage's opposite—was associated with distress. Second, we comment on some contradictions in the conceptual currents that underlie the idea of shrinking as distress, particularly in the United States. Third, we highlight how shrinkage may benefit cities and the people who live in them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The popularity of soccer worldwide is unquestionable, yet the aspect of purposeful heading in the sport has drawn increasing scrutiny over the past 10 years. The reason for this is primarily be-cause of the concern over the potential deleterious effects of repetitive head impacts (RHI) on brain structure and function. Accurate accounts of the header burden in soccer are needed to determine how frequently the activity occurs during practice and competition. Utilizing robust prospective database, this report provides a significant look into soccer heading exposure in both interscholastic (10 yr.-matches) and collegiate (15 yr.-practices & matches) cohorts in the United States. Methods: Headers/game exposure rates were 1.68 (interscholastic girls), 2.36 (collegiate women), and 3.55 (collegiate men). Results: Overall, the data suggests that in our cohorts of soccer players, the exposure to soccer heading in both practice and game settings is relatively low. Conclusions: Our soccer heading tabulation system accounted for 4 types of headers including clear, pass, shot, and unintentional deflection. Fortunately, the "unintentional deflections" (blows to the head) accounted for an extremely low number (range 2-5%) of the total soccer heading exposures. Additional research is needed to best understand the implications of these small number of RHI on long-term brain function and behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little attention has focused on how adolescents' perceptions of the pressure to be popular or socially preferred from parents, friends, and the media influence their engagement in face-to-face and cyber aggressive and prosocial behaviors. The present study examined these relationships among 857 seventh graders (M age = 12.19; 50.8% girls) from seven middle schools in the Midwestern United States. Adolescents completed questionnaires on their perceptions of the pressure to be perceived as popular and socially preferred from parents, friends, and the media; their face-to-face and cyber social behaviors; and peer nominations of social preference and popularity. The findings revealed that adolescents' perceptions of their parents' and friends' pressure for popularity and social preference related to adolescents' social behaviors in both the face-to-face and cyber contexts, controlling for social preference and popularity. Gender did not moderate these associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have documented the salience of social networks for a range of health outcomes and behaviors among adolescents, but sleep has received far less attention. We examined whether adolescents' network positions relative to cohesive friendship groups and popularity among peers are associated with their sleep behaviors and whether the associations differ by gender. We analyzed friendship data on 2,550 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to identify participants' network group positions (member, isolate, liaison) and popularity (number of friendship nominations received). Respondents provided self-reports of sleep duration, insomnia symptoms, and sleep insufficiency. We evaluated the relationships between respondents' group positions and popularity with their sleep behaviors using linear and Poisson regression, adjusting for socio-demographics, self-rated health, smoking and drinking status, integration in non-peer contexts (school, family, and religion), and friends' sleep. Results from the total sample show that liaisons report increased risk of sleep insufficiency compared to group members. Higher popularity status is associated with shorter sleep duration and greater sleep insufficiency. Stratifying by gender, popular girls report shorter sleep duration (β = -2.68 min for each additional friendship nomination; 95% CI [-4.75, -.61]) and greater sleep insufficiency (RR = 1.04; 95% CI [1.01, 1.07]) compared to less popular girls. Girls who are liaisons experience more sleep insufficiency (RR = 1.28; 95% CI [1.07, 1.53]) compared to group member girls. In contrast, isolated boys reported more insomnia symptoms (RR = 2.19; 95% CI [1.20, 3.98]) compared to group members. Popularity may have hidden costs for girls' sleep, while social isolation seems to be detrimental for boys' sleep. These results suggest that a social network perspective is valuable for studying sleep health and might inform targeted interventions to improve adolescents' sleep outcomes. • Positions in peer groups and popularity are related to adolescents' sleep. • There are gender differences in social network attributes related to sleep. • Popularity is associated with shorter sleep and sleep insufficiency in girls. • Liaison status (group-bridging) is associated with sleep insufficiency in girls. • Isolation status is associated with insomnia symptoms in boys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nonprofit performing arts industry in America, along with many performing arts organizations around the world, are facing crises on a variety of fronts. Accordingly, arts organizations must learn new ways to attract the resources they need to sustain their mission and quality. Arts managers must improve their skills in increasing and broadening their audience base, improving accessibility to various art forms, and learning how to better meet the needs of specific audience segments and contributors. To accomplish this, they must develop a better understanding of their own business and of the interests, attitudes, and motivations of their customers. They must professionalize their marketing and management skills and learn to be accountable to all their publics: their artists, their funders, and their audiences. Then they can create offerings, services, and messages to which the target audience will enthusiastically respond, without compromising their artistic integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several previous studies support the claim that liking for music can be predicted by its arousal-evoking qualities and typicality; and that emotional responses to music can be captured by two dimensions, namely sleepy-arousing and unpleasant-pleasant. The present research tests these ideas via all 204,506 pieces of music to have featured on sales and/or radio airplay charts in the United States, representing the entire commercial musical culture. Energy scores were related to popularity, although not always in the predicted direction. Atypical songs enjoyed more commercial success. Energy and beats per minute data were associated with seven mood scores for each piece, such that higher values were associated with the expression of moods toward the arousing pole of the sleepy-arousal dimension. Popularity was also associated with mood scores, demonstrating those moods associated most clearly with commercial success; and mood scores differed between genres, with implications for music therapy, research on music and mental health, and the uses of music in commerce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]