Social movement scholars have contended that considerable research on protest policing has been done, but research testing multiple theories in recent decades is lacking. To resolve this gap in the literature, this study integrates major paradigms in repression research and theories of policing styles around a dramaturgical approach to collective action, identifying factors influencing violence at social protests in the United States from 2006-2009. Conceiving of social protest as a form of political and symbolic action, I maintain that social actors and the qualities of their actions and immediate environment importantly influence a protest event's characteristics and outcomes. Specifically, I code for three violent outcomes—arrests, police violence, and any violence—and one measure of threat—police presence. I identify four components of the protest event which influence these outcomes—actors (e.g., authorities, protesters, and counterprotesters), enemies (e.g., the target of protesters' claims), the stage (e.g., qualities of place and space where a protest occurs), and protest performance (e.g., protest size and specific tactics employed by actors). Thus, this research focuses on how qualities of police, protester, and counterprotester performances intersect to influence violence at protest events. Data for this project were collected from multiple sources from 2006-2009. Information on protest events was collected by content coding of newspaper articles in the Los Angeles Times and New York Times. Information on community policing styles was derived from lists of funding for agencies participating in the U.S. Department of Justice's Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program. In some instances the results of this study show that certain characteristics leading to police presence and violence at social protests in the U.S. persist from research conducted on earlier decades—presence of African Americans or counterprotesters, protester use of "more confrontational" tactics and/or multiple tactics, and the damaging of property by protesters or counterprotesters. However, my findings also contradict previous studies, because I find that: (1) larger protests are less likely to be policed or result in violence; (2) social and cultural targets are more likely predictors of policing and violence rather than government or economic ones; and, (3) specific social movement families and tactical types influence protest event outcomes differently. I also found that community policing styles had no effect on protest event policing. These findings are important because they show how a protest event's symbolic nature influences policing and violent outcomes. / Ph. D.

When do leaders choose state-sponsored repression as a response to certain threats to the state? Conventional wisdom states that authoritarian regimes will be more likely to use these repressive acts in order to maintain law and order, as well as to suppress the opposition. However, previous literature on the subject fails to recognize the effect of irregular civil wars on this decision, as well as the types of repression that will - or will not - be used against citizens. I analyze cross-sectional time series data in 46 African states between 1990 and 2010 on human rights violations and their causes. The key independent variable is irregular civil war, but I also look at the effects of protest movements and domestic terror attacks to find the levels of human rights violations and the specific type of human rights violations used. Irregular civil war is the most important indicator for human rights violations, specifically, the use of killing and disappearances to silence the opposition and end the warfare.

No / MicroRNAs are a relatively new class of small, noncoding RNA species that represent a cornerstone of cell biology, with diverse roles ranging from embryonic development to aging. miRNAs function to regulate posttranscriptional gene expression, are critical to the normal function of cells, and as such are frequently dysregulated during disease processes. In this chapter, we discuss the biogenesis and mechanism of action of miRNA and their role in cancer initiation, promotion, and progression. In addition, we discuss the most recently identified dual roles of miRNA in epigenetic gene regulation; how they are both regulators and regulated. Finally, we discuss the emerging roles of miRNA as epigenetic anti-cancer therapeutics, the current research examining inhibition of oncogenic miRNAs, and studies now establishing the potential of replacing lost, tumor-suppressive miRNA.

Clostridium perfringens is a versatile pathogen capable of causing a wide array of diseases, ranging from clostridial food poisoning to tissue infections such as gas gangrene. An important factor in virulence as well as in the distribution of C. perfringens is its ability to form an endospore. The symptoms of C. perfringens food poisoning are directly correlated to the release of an enterotoxin at the end of the sporulation process. The sporulation process in C. perfringens is subject to carbon catabolite repression (CCR) by sugars, especially glucose. CCR is a regulatory pathway that alters transcription based on carbon source availability. In Gram-positive bacteria, the HPr kinase/phosphatase is responsible for this nutritional sensing by phosphorylating or dephosphorylating the serine-46 residue of HPr. HPr-Ser-P then forms a complex with the transcriptional regulator CcpA to regulate transcription. We were able to show here that purified recombinant C. perfringens HPr kinase/phosphatase was able to phosphorylate the serine-46 residue of HPr. When the codon for this serine residue is mutated through PCR mutagenesis to encode alanine, phosphorylation could not take place. We have also shown that in gel retardation assays, CcpA and HPr-Ser-P were able to bind to two DNA fragments containing putative C. perfringens CRE-sites, sequences where CcpA binds to regulate transcription. The genome sequence of a food poisoning strain of C. perfringens was searched for potential CRE-sites using degenerate sequences designed to match those CRE-sites CcpA was shown to bind. DNA fragments containing these newly identified CRE-sites were then used in gel retardation assays to determine whether CcpA binds to these CRE-sites, making them candidates for CCR regulation. These results, combined with comparisons of metabolic characteristics of a ccpA- strain versus wild-type C. perfringens, provide evidence that CcpA participates in the regulation of carbon catabolite repression in the pathogenic bacterium C. perfringens / Master of Science

This thesis is an examination of the evolution of tech-assisted repression in Putin's Russia. The thesis uses a novel analytical framework called the T.E.A. table framework, which organizes repression into three categories: techniques (the repressive acts themselves), effects (short-to-medium term individual and communal effects), and arcs (large-scale societal shifts over long periods of time). This framework is "tested" against two influential texts in the study of non-democratic politics: The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt and Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes by Juan Jose Linz. The following chapters look at the techniques, effects, and arcs of television-based repression, social media-based repression, and finally artificial intelligence-based repression. As these technologies have been introduced, there has been a consisted trend toward centralization, control, and increasing the granularity, or the personalization and adaptability, of repression. / Master of Arts / Authoritarianism is a form of government that opposes democratic values such as freedom of speech, the right to free and fair elections, and checks and balances. Repression is a term that entails the many ways that an authoritarian leader tries to consolidate power without regard for freedoms or rights. Many authoritarian countries in the modern world use technology to help keep control over their citizens. This thesis looks at how different technologies have been used by an authoritarian regime, in this case Russia under Vladimir Putin, in order to maintain control and restrict civil liberties and political rights. The technologies being looked at are television, social media, and artificial intelligence. The main findings are that these technologies are all being used in very different ways in order to reach some end goals: increased control over the activities of citizens, an increased amount of repressive technology in the country, and an increased amount of personalization in the repression citizens interact with, because personalized repression is more effective than non-personalized repression.

Ergänzend zu bestehenden Verfahren Bewältigungsverhalten zu erfassen, versucht die vorliegende Studie mittels eines mehrdimensionalen Ansatzes neue Wege der psychosomatischen Grundlagenforschung zu eröffnen. Anhand des Biopsychologischen Belastungstests werden erlebens- (Annäherungsmotivation, Meidungsmotivation, Traitangst), verhaltens- und peripherpsychologische (Herzfrequenz, Hautleitwertreaktion) Parameter einer heterogenen Stichprobe aus gesunden Kontrollprobandinnen und psychosomatischen Patientinnen erhoben. Diese Parameter sollen eine Einteilung der Testpersonen in Untergruppen ermöglichen, um die Identifizierung von repressiv, optimistisch und konflikthaft bewältigenden Personen vornehmen zu können. In den Analysen lässt sich die Aufteilung der Untergruppen im hypothetisierten Rahmen allerdings nicht wiederfinden. Es zeigen sich signifikante Unterschiede zwischen den Motivationsebenen der Testpersonen (Annäherungsmotivation/Meidungsmotivation jeweils hoch/niedrig), sowie kontinuierlich signifikante Unterschiede zwischen den gesunden Kontrollprobandinnen und den psychosomatischen Patientinnen. Zusätzlich finden sich enge Parallelen zwischen Traitangst und Meidungsmotivation. / The following study proposes additionally to present methods a new multidimensional approach in psychosomatic research. Experience (approach motivation, avoidance motivation, trait-anxiety), behavioural, and peripher-psychological (heart frequency, skin conductance response) parameters are collected utilizing the Biopsychologischer Belastungstest (BBT). Using these parameters it is intended to separate test persons into clusters allowing the discrimination of coping patterns repression, optimism, and intra-personal approach avoidance conflict. The hypothesized subgroups can not be approved by the results of cluster analysis. However, significant differences between high and low approach respectively avoidance motivated test persons are found. Furthermore, throughout the analysis significant differences between "healthy" control persons and the psychosomatic patients are visible. In addition it can be emphasized that trait-anxiety is closely related to avoidance motivation.

No description available.

Viele Studien zeigen, dass die Beteiligung an politischen Protesten in mittel- und osteuropäischen Ländern geringer ausfällt als in Westeuropa. Das Ausmaß und die Ursachen dieser Ost-West-Partizipationslücke werden jedoch immer noch debattiert. Diese Dissertation untersucht die Ursachen dieses europäischen Protestgefälles. Inspiriert von den Theorien politischer Sozialisation wird untersucht, inwiefern ein frühes Erleben von (1) Repression und (2) Mobilisierung während der Transition zur Demokratie das Protestverhalten verschiedener Generationen in Mittel- und Osteuropa geprägt hat. Hierfür werden mehrebenen Alters-Perioden-Kohorten-Modelle mit wiederholten länderübergreifenden Umfragedaten genutzt. Studie 1 zeigt, dass ein frühes Erleben von Repression einen nachhaltigen Effekt auf die Teilnahme an Demonstrationen hat, nicht aber auf Petitionen und Boykotte. Darüber hinaus beeinflusst die Art der erlebten Repression die Richtung des Effekts: Personen, deren Bürgerrechte während ihrer Jugend eingeschränkt wurden, scheinen in ihrem späteren Leben häufiger an Demonstrationen teilzunehmen. Das Gegenteil ist der Fall für Personen, die Verletzungen persönlicher Integrität erlebt haben. Studie 2 zeigt, dass das Erleben der Mobilisierung während der Transition zur Demokratie diese Ost-West-Protestlücke nicht moderiert. Studie 3, eine Analyse des Protestverhaltens von Ostdeutschen, bestätigt, dass die Erfahrung der bottom-up Transition die mit gewaltsamer Repression verbundene Demobilisierung nicht kompensiert. Durch diese neu gewonnen Erkenntnisse zum Verhältnis von Regimewechsel und Zivilgesellschaft, verbindet und bereichert diese Dissertation die Forschungsfelder zu politischem Verhalten, sozialen Bewegungen und Demokratisierung. / Many studies have shown that protest participation is lower in Central and Eastern Europe than in Western Europe. Yet, the extent of and causes underlying the East-West participation gap are still debated in the literature. This thesis sheds new light on the sources of the European protest divide. Inspired by political socialization theories, it examines how early exposure to (1) repression and (2) mobilization during the transition to democracy has shaped the protest behavior of different generations in postcommunist democracies. This projects applies multilevel age-period-cohort models on data from repeated cross-national surveys to measure the effects of these types of exposure. Study 1 reveals that early exposure to repression has a lasting effect on demonstration attendance but not on participation in petitions and boycotts. Furthermore, the direction of this effect depends on the type of repression experienced by citizens: early exposure to civil liberties restrictions increases citizens’ participation in demonstrations while exposure to personal integrity violations depresses their participation. Study 2 demonstrates that exposure to mobilization during the transition to democracy does not moderate the East-West protest gap. Study 3, an analysis of East Germans’ protest behavior, confirms that the experience of a bottom-up transition does not compensate for the demobilization associated with violent repression. By generating new insights into the relation between regime change and civil society, this project bridges and contributes to the fields of political behavior, social movements, and democratization.

Although Samuel Beckett's plays indicate his abiding interest in the complex functioning of memory, little has been written on the topic. The aim of this study, therefore, is to examine the wide-ranging, specific approaches towards recall and forgetting that he reflects in his drama. Because conversational strategies are grounded in cognitive processes, the interplay between memory and discourse will also be probed. The thesis foregrounds Beckett's profound distrust of memory functioning, as well as his conviction that `yesterday' has dangerous power to `deform'. Through his own perception and his psychological study of dysfunctional, decaying and trauma-charged memories, he is able to apply a comprehensive knowledge-base to the creation of his time-damaged characters. In the scrutiny of their autobiographical memories, the reconstructive and imaginative components become apparent. These are mainly shown to alienate characters from one another, so that Beckett's claim that memory can remedy suffering becomes questionable. The investigation is informed by a variety of critical disciplines, as well as insights derived from the Proust Monograph. Beckett's investigation of the psychology of the 1930s is evaluated, in addition to current medical and psychological research into gerontology, amnesia, dementia, and the repressed or obsessive memories of the neurotic. Conway's work on the characteristic features of autobiographical memory illuminates relevant Beckett plays. An appraisal of discourse studies focuses on language and power, phatic communication and the multiple speech acts that reflect the functioning of normal and dysfunctional memory. Reference to the work of Lacan and Derrida enhances discussion of the inadequacy of language. To give due attention to the theatrical component of Beckett's drama, enactment, performance criticism and audience reception of his plays are discussed. / English Studies / D.Litt. et Phil.

La perturbation dans le fonctionnement affectif peut contribuer à des symptômes psychologiques et physiques chez les patients souffrant de fibromyalgie. La question qui nous intéresse dans cette étude est d’explorer certains processus du traitement émotionnel et leurs liens avec des variables cognitives, au sein de la fibromyalgie. Notre population se compose de 24 fibromyalgiques, comparés à 24 patients polyarthrites rhumatoïdes et 27 sujets contrôles. Notre hypothèse est que la perception et la mémorisation des stimuli de nature émotionnelle est affectée par certains processus de traitement émotionnel. Notamment nos résultats mettent en évidence une particularité émotionnelle et mnésique pour un matériel émotionnel standardisé. / The disturbance in emotional operation can contribute to psychological and physical symptoms among patients suffering from fibromyalgia. The question which interests us in this study is to explore certain processes of the emotional treatment and their links with cognitive variables, within the fibromyalgia. Our population is composed of 24 fibromyalgics, compared to 24 polyarthritises rhumatoïdes patients and 27 control subjects. Our assumption is that the perception and the memorizing of the stimuli of emotional nature are affected by certain treatments emotional. In particular our results highlight an emotional and memory characteristic for a standardized emotional material.