Millsaps College

We explore from several perspectives the following question: given a set of integers, X, and a positive integer, N, what is the maximum size, D(X,N), of a subset, A, contained in {1,2,...,N}, before A is forced to contain two distinct elements that differ by an element of X? The set of forbidden differences, X, is called intersective if D(X,N)=o(N), with the most well-studied examples being the set of perfect squares, S, and the set numbers one less than a prime, P-1. In addition to some new results, including exact formulas and estimates for D(X,N) in some non-intersective cases like X=P and X=S+k for some small positive integers, k, we also provide a comprehensive survey of known bounds and extensive computational data. In particular, we utilize an existing algorithm for finding maximum cliques in graphs to determine D(S,N) for all N up to 300, and D(P-1,N) for all N up to 500. None of these exact values appear previously in the literature.

Individuals vary in their self-disclosure motivations and physiological responses. It is unclear, however, whether the content of a person's self-view accounts for this variation. In this paper we explore the impact of self-disclosure on autonomic nervous system activity in participants with high and low levels of grandiose narcissistic traits. Three conversational experiments were conducted to simulate different contexts of self-disclosure: getting acquainted (Experiment 1), talking about emotional life experiences (Experiment 2), and telling emotional stories with varying self-relevance (Experiment 3). The experiments were conducted on the same sample of 22 dyads (n=44) measured in a single session. While Experiment 1 did not confirm the anticipated heightened sympathetic arousal in participants with high grandiose narcissism (N+), Experiment 2, focusing on telling about positive and negative life experiences, supported the hypothesis of increased skin conductance among the N+ individuals. Experiment 3, with more specific topics that varied in self-relevance, further supported the notion that narcissism is associated with elevated physiological arousal during self-disclosure. Notably, the skin conductance of the N+ individuals was particularly heightened when telling about being admired by others. Exploratory analyses showed that tellers' (whether N+ or N-) skin conductance was even more pronounced when they were discussing with an N+ co-participant.

ABSTRACT Advertising budgets and related expenditures have been increasing every year. Companies, in the past, have used different tools to grab their customers’ attention and encourage them to buy their products. The purpose of this research is to introduce strategic self-anticonformity (SSA) as an effective tool in the advertising industry. This study demonstrates that SSA relates positively to attention, and ultimately to purchase intention. An experiment was conducted to manipulate the SSA condition. The study also shows that product involvement moderates the relationship between SSA and attention. In addition, attitude toward ad mediates the relationship between attention and purchase intention.

Our visual lives are filled with stable and unstable objects, some relatively human-sized like furniture and boxes, others much larger like trees and buildings. Yet not much is known about how the stability of these objects affects the deployment of our attention across the visual field. To address this, we have investigated how perceived stability interacts with our attentional system with a series of experiments using a cueless temporal order judgment task. Participants were presented with stable and unstable objects, separated by small temporal intervals, and asked to report which object appeared first in the display. Each experiment employed a different pair of stable and unstable stimuli, including objects with stability as a feature at the global scale (e.g., large art pieces; Experiment 1), local scale (e.g., traffic cone; Experiment 2), and never-before-seen objects (e.g., NOUN Database; Experiment 3). The use of never-before-seen objects was aimed to provide a control for novelty, as unstable objects may be more novel due to context (i.e., a physically unstable traffic cone) and attended to more. Additionally, Experiment 4 compared an object, an ottoman, that maintained its stability while being presented upright vs. upside down to control for inversion effects. Participants’ responses were fit to logistic regression models, and their point of subjective simultaneity was calculated using the fitted model. The results show that stability at the local scale captures attention, and this effect is present even in never-before-seen objects (Exp 3). Likewise, the lack of attentional capture in with the ottoman (Exp 4) suggests that these observed effects are due to the objects’ stability rather than their inverted nature. Overall, the results of this study help inform us of the role stability plays in perceiving objects in our visual environments.

The Chiricahua Mountains in southeastern Arizona are renowned for their exceptional biodiversity and high levels of endemism. Morphological, genomic, behavioral, and distributional data were used to report the discovery of a remarkable new tarantula species from this range. Aphonopelmajacobii sp. nov. inhabits high-elevation mixed conifer forests in these mountains, but also co-occurs and shares its breeding period with A.chiricahua-a related member of the Marxi species group-in mid-elevation Madrean evergreen oak and pine-oak woodlands. This marks the first documented case of syntopy between two montane endemics in the Madrean Archipelago and adds to our knowledge of this threatened region's unmatched tarantula diversity in the United States. An emended diagnosis and redescription for A.chiricahua are also provided based on several newly acquired and accurately identified specimens. Phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial and genomic-scale data reveal that A.jacobii sp. nov. is more closely related to A.marxi, a species primarily distributed on the Colorado Plateau, than to A.chiricahua or the other Madrean Sky Island taxa. These data provide the evolutionary framework for better understanding the region's complex biogeographic history (e.g., biotic assembly of the Chiricahua Mountains) and conservation of these spiders.

ABSTRACT Prompted and resolved by acts of volitional imagining, dramatizing figures a situation in which actors share in having something important at stake such that imminently some of their actions will be momentous (making great differences) and fateful (defining of lives). Religious dramatizing does this very ambitiously. In amplifying the stakes of action there is a danger of being inappropriately dramatic, as in Don Quixote’s fantasies or Chicken Little’s ‘The sky is falling!’ But dramatization can be validated by successfully enacting the dramatic heightening of a situation, by conventionally instituting heights of importance, and by having convincing experiences of situations as dramatic. Kant worries about an inappropriately romantic dramatizing of the moral life; Lucretius warns that religious visionaries will make people crazy with fear of divine retribution. The issue is taken seriously within religious dramatizing. For example, apocalypticism seems to entail an irresponsible termination of care for continuing life. Correctives are offered by Hans Urs von Balthasar’s theory of ‘theo-drama’ and (Francis’s, 2015) encyclical ‘On Care for Our Common Home’. These examples show how the modulation of dramatizing is no less a religious concern than the dramatic heightening of human life.

To the French critics who originally labelled certain films noir it seemed that a class of Hollywood products had gone darker during the war years – as though a dark filter had been placed over the lens. Films were not designed or marketed as noir, and retrospectively noir's status as a genre is still unsettled. Yet there is widespread interest today in experiencing diverse films as noir, and even in using a Noir Filter in Instagram and video games. Pursuing the filter clue, the noir experience can be thought of as subjection to a dark filtering of narrative. Image filtering styles can help to resolve not only the puzzle of noir's quasi-genre status but also an issue of general interest in aesthetic experience. The use of image filters makes a distinctively powerful contribution to the experience of a work or genre, or to the cultural dominance of an aesthetic regime, due to the unobtrusive formative role it plays in the economy of experience.

PurposeThis study aims to understand the effect of cultural dimension (individualism/ collectivism) on promotional rewards (social or economic) resulting in incentivizing consumers to engage in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), further impacting their repurchase intentions.Design/methodology/approachIn Study 1, a 2 (culture: individualism vs collectivism) × 2 (promotional rewards: social vs economic) between-subjects design was used. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. In Study 2, culture was measured instead of just being manipulated. The authors used regression analysis in this study.FindingsOwing to the characteristics of collectivistic individuals, consumers in collectivistic cultures were more likely to respond to social rewards as an incentive to engage in eWOM. However, consumers in individualistic cultures were more motivated to engage in eWOM when economic rewards were offered.Originality/valueDespite the global nature of eWOM, little research has explored the effects of cultural traits on consumer response to amplified eWOM strategy. Additionally, though many organizations now offer various promotional incentives to reviewers, little research has explored the effects of promotional offers on a reviewer’s subsequent behavior, and no research has explored the relationship between cultural dimensions and current and future response to promotional eWOM rewards.

Interreligious engagement (IE) has been experienced and theorized mainly as the pursuit of a shared respectful awareness of the beliefs, practices, and social experiences of multiple religious communities. In rare instances, it has been possible to create architecture specifically to foster IE, as in the “tri-faith” Abrahamic campus in Omaha and the Berlin House of One. The theme is: Here we are, accepting that we share the world. Another form of IE that deserves to attract more interest is multireligious collaboration in civic work (addressing homelessness, urban blight, illiteracy, etc.). Some adherents of the intrinsically cosmopolitan “world” religions are actively cosmopolitan to the extent of seeking this engagement. The theme is: Let us share the work of the world, including sharing our religiously inflected processing of what the practical issues facing us are. There is a new initiative of this sort in my city, Jackson, Mississippi, named (from M. L. King) the “Beloved Community”. An architectural thought experiment may prove helpful in articulating the ideals for such an endeavor. What would be the physical desiderata for its headquarters? Let us imagine a new downtown building, The Meeting, dedicated to housing meetings where mixed religious groups learn about civic issues and coordinate efforts to address them. Full interreligious sharing of a space seems to require a neutral design lacking any definite religious inspiration. But there are nonsectarian ways to create an appreciably special, non-ordinary space, as in courtrooms and classrooms. Could a civic IE headquarters be special, expressive of practical optimism, and contain a sufficient religious allusion to qualify as a “next-to-sacred space” in which religious actors felt supported in the civic extension of their religious lives? I offer suggestions for discussion, including (1) a pavilion-style building suggestive of being set up for a special purpose—not soaringly grandiose but with a vertical feature such as a central roof lantern; (2) at least one major porch, with benches and tables; (3) an outside water fountain with public water supply (a historical allusion to the Islamic sabil); (4) inside, right-sized meeting rooms around the glass-walled periphery; (5) a big “living room” lounge in the center, usable for larger meetings, with access to a kitchen, and with a big project board for tracking work completed and work in hand next to a large map of the city; (6) a moderate descent of several steps into each meeting room so that there is a feeling of commitment in attending a meeting and a sense of challenge in going forth from one; (7) otherwise a main floor levelness and openness facilitating movement in and out, as in a train station; and (8) upstairs small offices for religious and other qualifying organizations. Answering the aesthetic and practical questions these suggestions raise takes us into imagining civic IE more concretely.