Body Image Perception: Adolescent Boys and Avatar Depiction in Video Games

Research on mass media’s impact on body image has mostly been focused on females thus far. Of the little research that has been done on male body image, most of it has been focused on adult males, and therefore the effect of mass media on adolescent boys’ body image is still a relatively primitive field of knowledge. Through comparing the exposure of adolescent boys to muscular avatars in popular video games, a source of mass media that a majority of adolescent boys are exposed to, and relating it to research done on the effects of frequent ideal image exposure through other forms of mass media on males, the influence of video games on the body image of adolescent boys can be determined. This study consisted of several factors: (1) understanding the impact of constantly viewing ideal images in mass media on males’ perceptions of their own bodies, (2) reviewing the body types of the male avatars in several modern, popular video games played by adolescent boys, (3) relating the exposure of video game avatars on adolescent boys’ views of their own physiques, and (4) examining the implications of negative body image on adolescent boys’ eating and exercise strategies. Although video game avatars tend to have a slightly different body shape than those presented in most types of mass media, their unifying trait of naturally unattainable muscularity resulted a reaction among adolescent boys that was similar to that of adult males with regard to mesomorphic (muscular, V-shaped) body types in mass media. This resulting negative body image can lead to psychological disorders such as depression or such physical disorders as anabolic steroid usage, unnatural dieting, and excessive exercising

A note on Hardy's theorem

Hardy's theorem for the Riemann zeta-function $\zeta(s)$ says that it admits infinitely many complex zeros on the line $\Re({s}) = \frac{1}{2}$. In this note, we give a simple proof of this statement which, to the best of our knowledge, is new.Comment: 9 pages; To appear in Hardy Ramanujan Journa

Vector bundles with a fixed determinant on an irreducible nodal curve

Let $M$ be the moduli space of generalized parabolic bundles (GPBs) of rank $r$ and degree $d$ on a smooth curve $X$. Let $M_{\bar L}$ be the closure of its subset consisting of GPBs with fixed determinant ${\bar L}$. We define a moduli functor for which $M_{\bar L}$ is the coarse moduli scheme. Using the correspondence between GPBs on $X$ and torsion-free sheaves on a nodal curve $Y$ of which $X$ is a desingularization, we show that $M_{\bar L}$ can be regarded as the compactified moduli scheme of vector bundles on $Y$ with fixed determinant. We get a natural scheme structure on the closure of the subset consisting of torsion-free sheaves with a fixed determinant in the moduli space of torsion-free sheaves on $Y$. The relation to Seshadri--Nagaraj conjecture is studied.Comment: 7 page

Moduli spaces of vector bundles on a singular rational ruled surface

We study moduli spaces $M_X(r,c_1,c_2)$ parametrizing slope semistable vector bundles of rank $r$ and fixed Chern classes $c_1, c_2$ on a ruled surface whose base is a rational nodal curve. We show that under certain conditions, these moduli spaces are irreducible, smooth and rational (when non-empty). We also prove that they are non-empty in some cases. We show that for a rational ruled surface defined over real numbers, the moduli space $M_X(r,c_1,c_2)$ is rational as a variety defined over $\mathbb R$.Comment: Final versio