Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2009. / Title from screen (viewed on August 28, 2009). Department of Communication Studies, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Kristina Sheeler. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-75).

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, March, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-101)

abstract: Chinese activists came forth in unprecedented numbers to compete as independent candidates in the 2011-12 local people's congress elections throughout China, directly challenging the ruling Chinese Communist Party within the electoral arena. In response, the government threatened, harassed and obstructed the campaigns of these candidates, and as a result only a handful of independent candidates made it onto the official ballots, let alone win the elections. Despite their lack of success, independent candidates have been promoted by media sources as the latest movement with the potential to bring about democratic reform within China. However, independent candidates as a collective have not been sufficiently analyzed in order to determine the extent of these candidates' shared desire for democratic reform or their powers to effect such reform. Therefore, within the theoretical framework of electoral authoritarianism and utilizing a single-case, exploratory case study, this thesis explores the potential of the 2011-12 independent candidate movement to initiate democratic reform in China. Relying upon the statements of the candidates as reported by English-language news media, I create a typology of the movement and examine the candidates' goals and motives, as well as their interactions with the local people's congresses and the Chinese Communist Party, in hopes of revealing a clearer picture of the balance of power between the movement and the current regime. I conclude that due to the inability of independent candidates to win a significant number of seats, the limited power of deputies on local people's congress to effect structural change, and the lack of unity and organization among independent candidates, the 2011-12 independent candidate movement will not immediately result in structural democratic reform in China. Nevertheless, I contend that the increased awareness of electoral rights and democracy in China as a result the independent candidate movement will, in the coming years and decades, compel the ruling Chinese Communist Party to take significant steps to appease the ever-growing demand for political participation in China. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Social Justice and Human Rights 2012

This thesis develops a candidate-centred conception of American presidential nominations. Candidates' choices in nomination politics remain under-theorised. The literature on nominations has tended either to downplay the role of candidates' independent influence or to suggest that the impact of their choices is too idiosyncratic to theorize about. I reject both of these positions; and instead develop the basic elements of a theory in which candidates are the principal agents of change in nomination contests. I argue that candidates make distinct identity, tactical, and management choices, and I show that this simple frame can be used to connect aspirants' varying goals to their choices and actions. In my theory, candidates' prospects remain relatively stable unless a shift occurs in their competitive setting in response to an unexpected event - for instance, a surprising election result. These shifts, or critical junctures, define a candidate's path to his party's presidential nomination. I argue that the rival candidates' choices dominate the development of these critical junctures and, therefore, that candidates' choices are crucial to nomination outcomes. Structural factors, the actions of non-candidates and the effects of exogenous events, account for a minority of critical junctures. In the empirical chapters of this study, I examine the Democratic and Republican nomination contests in selected years before the McGovern-Fraser reforms (1912, 1924, 1932) and in post-reform cases (1972, 1976, 1980) to demonstrate the pervasive influence of candidates' choices in contrasting institutional settings. These cases confirm my basic claim about the centrality of candidates' choices and also suggest significant ways in which candidates' choices have changed between 1912 and 1980.

This textual analysis examines online mainstream media coverage during Hillary Clinton’s 2015/16 presidential campaign. Previous research on female political candidates indicates that there are both subtle and unsubtle ways the media reinforces masculinity in the political realm. The results of the study provide a commentary on the internet as a cultural text and Feminist Communication Studies, suggesting that there may be a decrease in the institutionalized sexism in the reporting of mainstream online media. Although encompassing only a small snapshot of the 2015/16 presidential race, the results also suggest that media seemed to lack a category for Clinton – she is both an inside and outsider, sitting at the cusp of a transformative historical event.

abstract: The 2016 election brought to light a political climate change in the United States and showed that questions scholars and pundits alike thought were answered perhaps had not been completely addressed. For some, the main question left unanswered was what would it take for a woman to become President of the United States? For others, the question of fear politics and the effects of social media were raised. Perhaps, the most intriguing was exactly who has influence over US elections? While these, and other, questions were asked in the context of the presidential election, they are also applicable to all political races. This dissertation examines how voter perceptions based on stereotypes and racial threat can affect Latina candidates’ prospects for election. Using an online experiment with 660 subjects and two elite interviews to test four hypotheses in order to determine whether or not racial resentment and stereotypes play a role in voter perceptions of Latina political candidates. The results show that racial resent and gender stereotypes play a role in voter perception of Latina political candidates. The results have theoretical and practical implications. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Political Science 2018

Submitted by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2018-07-24T10:49:05Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Paula Cristina Gonçalves Reis - 2018.pdf: 1910919 bytes, checksum: 8a5b1935994b96fb8af453803c398e3e (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2018-07-24T11:05:07Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Paula Cristina Gonçalves Reis - 2018.pdf: 1910919 bytes, checksum: 8a5b1935994b96fb8af453803c398e3e (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-24T11:05:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Paula Cristina Gonçalves Reis - 2018.pdf: 1910919 bytes, checksum: 8a5b1935994b96fb8af453803c398e3e (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-05-07 / The objective of this dissertation is to analyze the different categories of expenditures in electoral campaigns and the impact of social media on the performance of candidates for the position of São Paulo city councilor in the municipal elections of 2016. For this purpose, we use electoral data from the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court and data collected from the Internet. The determinants of the number of votes are estimated by linear and hierarchical regressions. In addition, linear determinants of campaign donations sources are also estimated. The main results indicate that the political capital, the candidate's wealth, and party coalitions have positive and significant effects on the amount of campaign donation. With regard to the determinants of the number of votes, spending on Internet, radio, TV, and print campaigns have positive effects on the number of votes. Moreover, the results show that the use of the social networks Facebook and Twitter produce significant impacts in the elections. / O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar as diferentes categorias de gastos em campanhas eleitorais e o impacto das redes sociais no desempenho de candidatos ao cargo de vereador nas eleições municipais de São Paulo em 2016. Para tanto, são utilizados dados eleitorais do Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE) e dados coletados da internet. A partir disso são estimados por meio de regressões lineares e hierárquicas os determinantes do número de votos. Adicionalmente, estima-se também por regressões lineares os determinantes de recursos de financiamento de campanha. Os principais resultados indicam que o capital político, o patrimônio do candidato e as coligações partidárias têm efeito positivo e significativo no montante de donativos de campanha. No que se referem aos determinantes do número de votos, as despesas com campanhas na internet, no rádio, na TV e com materiais impressos geram efeitos positivos no número de votos. Ademais, os resultados mostram que o uso de redes sociais Facebook e Twitter produzem impactos significativamente relevantes nas eleições.

nÃo hà / O tema de pesquisa desse trabalho està situado na anÃlise da construÃÃo de lideranÃas policiais militares no espaÃo da polÃtica cearense. Especificamente, pretendo compreender como no ano de 2014, policiais militares utilizaram de suas experiÃncias na polÃcia para consolidar um capital polÃtico capaz de conseguir a adesÃo do voto a um cargo legislativo no CearÃ. Na busca de lanÃar luzes sobre este perÃodo, à possÃvel observar que no "tempo da polÃtica", momento em que a coerÃÃo social à eminentemente emblemÃtica para que os eleitores se manifestem a partir da adesÃo por meio do voto a alguma das facÃÃes em disputa, o estado do Cearà se mostra um espaÃo repleto de conflitos sociais. Entre a maioria dos candidatos, estas disputas estÃo inseridas nas acusaÃÃes pronunciadas em palanque sobre a reputaÃÃo dos demais postulantes ao cargo. à importante frisar que estes acontecimentos representam a maneira como as estratÃgias de campanha neste "espaÃo da polÃtica" se constroem. Desta forma, para compreender as estratÃgias utilizadas para a conquista da adesÃo do voto por policiais no perÃodo eleitoral, o referido estudo acompanhou o dia a dia de alguns dos candidatos militares ao legislativo, especialmente do CapitÃo Wagner de Sousa, do Coronel Francisco Bezerra e do Cabo FlÃvio Sabino, com a realizaÃÃo de entrevistas entre os candidatos, assessores e membros das associaÃÃes de policiais, com o intuito de compreender como estes elaboraram as estratÃgias para a conquista da adesÃo do voto em suas campanhas. / The research topic of this work is situated in the analysis of the construction of military police leaders in the space of Cearà policy. Specifically, I want to understand how in 2014, military police used their experiences in the police to consolidate a political capital able to secure the support of the vote to a legislative CearÃ. In seeking to shed light on this period, you can see that the "political time", a time when the social coercion is eminently emblematic for voters to be revealed from the membership by voting to any of the factions in dispute, the state of Cearà shown a space full of social conflict. Among most candidates, these disputes are inserted into the charges pronounced in soapbox about the reputation of other candidates for the post. It is important to note that these events represent the way the campaign strategies in this "space policy" are built. Thus, to understand the strategies used for achieving the accession of the vote by police in the electoral period, the study monitored the daily lives of some of the military candidates to the legislature, especially Captain Wagner Sousa, Colonel Francisco Bezerra and cable FlÃvio Sabino, with interviews of applicants, advisors and members of the police associations, in order to understand how these have developed strategies for the achievement of the membership vote on their campaigns.

A partir de uma biblioteca de cDNA de glândulas de veneno de Micrurus corallinus (cobra-coral), uma serpente da Família Elapidae bastante representada no Brasil e muito comum em áreas florestais tropicais, foram gerados 1.438 Expressed Sequences Tags (ESTs), agrupados em 611 clusters. O banco representa os genes mais expressos na glândula de veneno de M. corallinus. Os transcritos relacionados às toxinas apresentaram ao redor de 46% de representação nesse banco de seqüências. A composição geral das toxinas inclui: toxinas de três dígitos (3FTx) (24%), fosfolipases A2 (PLA2) (16%), lectinas do tipo C (5%), entre outros. O banco permitiu não somente a identificação de possíveis toxinas, mas também de transcritos celulares, sendo a maioria envolvida nas funções fisiológicas de células da glândula de veneno. A maior parte dessas moléculas apresenta um envolvimento na expressão gênica e protéica, o que reflete uma alta especialização do tecido para a síntese de toxinas. A análise do transcriptoma de glândulas de veneno de M. corallinus possibilitou a identificação de alguns candidatos antigênicos para um anti-soro antielapídico alternativo. Cinco candidatos antigênicos foram selecionados por meio da análise do transcriptoma obtido: Atg1 (Grupo das neurotoxinas Homolog 8), Atg2 (Grupo das neurotoxinas Homolog 7/3/1), Atg3 (Outras neurotoxinas 1), Atg4 (Outras neurotoxinas 2) e Atg5 (fosfolipase do tipo A2). Avaliamos a viabilidade de imunização com o DNA desses candidatos. Para isso, os cinco grupos de antígenos foram clonados, primeiramente em pGEM-T e, posteriormente, em pSecTag2A, que é um vetor de expressão em células de mamíferos. As clonagens foram inicialmente testadas em células do tipo COS (transfecção transiente), entretanto não ficou clara a capacidade dessas células em expressar os antígenos. Para a análise da resposta imunológica da vacina de DNA, proteínas recombinantes produzidas em E. coli foram utilizadas para o coating de ELISA para detectar anticorpos presentes no soro primário proveniente da imunização com DNA. Os resultados mostraram que o soro dos animais imunizados foi capaz de reconhecer os antígenos recombinantes. Isso indica que a imunização por DNA em camundongos poderia ser uma boa alternativa em relação à imunização do veneno puro de serpente, que é custosa e muito depende da disponibilidade do veneno. Apesar da necessidade de testes complementares, esse é um resultado promissor, já que a produção de anticorpos pode ser alcançada por via de imunização intramuscular, mais prática para objetivos de produção. / Micrurus corallinus(coral snake) is a tropical forest snake belonging to the Elapidae Family, and is very common in Brazil. From the cDNA library of its venom glands, 1.438 Expressed Sequences Tags (ESTs) were generated and grouped into 611 clusters. This database contains the most expressed genes in the M. corallinus venom glands. The transcripts related to toxins represent approximately 46% of the total genes in this database. The toxin compound consists of: three finger toxins (24%), phospholipases A2 (PLA2s) (16%), type-C lectins (5%), among others. This database allowed not only the identification of possible toxins, but also the identification of cellular transcripts, most of which seems to be involved in physiological functions of venom gland cells. The majority of these molecules are involved in gene and protein expression, revealing the high level of specialization of the tissue for toxin synthesis. The analysis of the M. corallinus venom gland transcriptome allowed the identification of some antigenic candidates for an alternative antielapidic antiserum. Five antigenic candidates were selected after analysing the transcriptome: Atg1 (Homolog group 8), Atg2 (Homolog group 7/3/1), Atg3 (Other neurotoxins 1), Atg5 (A2-type phospholipase). These five antigenic groups were used for DNA immunization. Then they were first cloned in pGEM-T and, after, in pSecTag2A, which is an expression vector in mammal cells. The cloning was tested in COS-type cells (transient transfection), without signs of expression. To analyze the immunological response, recombinant proteins were produced in E. coli and used for ELISA coating to react with the primary serum deriving from the DNA immunization. The results showed that the serum from the immunized animals was able to recognize the recombinant antigens, indicating that the DNA immunization in mice could be a feasible alternative regarding the traditional immunization with crude snake venom, which is costly and heavily dependent on the availability of the venom. Regardless the need for additional tests, this is a promising result, because the antibody production can be achieved by intramuscular immunization, a more effective method when aiming for downstream production.