abstract: Do response advertisements influence individuals’ evaluations of political candidates and vote preferences? This dissertation explores the impact of response advertisements on citizens’ expressed vote preferences and favorability towards political candidates. This project utilized an original focus group to determine citizens feelings regarding American political campaigns more generally and attitudes towards negative campaigning more specifically, including how candidates should respond when attacked. Additionally, an experiment was conducted to determine which type of response advertisements influences citizen attitudes most. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Political Science 2020

archives@tulane.edu / In this work, five algorithms of negative dimensional integration (NDIM) are compared in several examples of Feynman diagram calculations, and the resulting solutions are compared. The methods used are the Ricotta method without parametrization, the Ricotta method with Schwinger parametrization, the Suzuki method, the Anastasiou method, and the method of brackets. It is found that for one-loop diagrams, the method of brackets gives the same solution as the other methods, but without requiring analytic continuation of the gamma factors in the solution. For multi-loop diagrams, the method of brackets gives solutions in a simpler form than the other methods, and often gives fewer possible solutions as well. In addition to its use in the evaluation of Feynman diagrams, the method of brackets is also useful when extended to the evaluation of definite integrals over the positive real numbers. This extended method of brackets is applied to several examples of definite integrals, and the five NDIM methods are also used to evaluate these examples when possible. In particular, it is shown that the method of brackets is the only method of NDIM which may be extended to the evaluation of a large class of definite integrals over the positive real numbers. / 1 / Kristina E. VanDusen

The purpose of the current study is to evaluate a procedure that can be used to introduce horses to clipping. Negative reinforcement was used in a shaping paradigm. Shaping steps were conducted by the handler, starting with touching the horse with the hand, then touching the horse with the clippers while they are off, culminating with touching the horse with the clippers while they are on. When a horse broke contact with either the hand or the clippers, the hand or the clippers were held at that point until the horse emitted an appropriate response. When the horse emitted an appropriate response, the clippers were removed, and the handler stepped away from the horse. For all eight horses, this shaping plan was effective in enabling the clipping of each horse with minimal inappropriate behavior and without additional restraint. The entire process took under an hour for each horse.

Thesis (D.Sc.)--Boston University, Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine, 2004 (Oral Biology). / Includes bibliography (leaves 107-151). / Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a glycolipid found in the outer membrane of Gram negative bacteria, induces the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a) and interleukin (IL )-1, by monocytes/macrophages. Excessive and uncontrolled secretion of these compounds leads to multiple pathological conditions, such as septic shock. LPS receptors have been shown to be CD14, TLR4 and MD-2. LPS interaction with these receptors mediates many monocyte/macrophage functions. Even though only CD14 was demonstrated to bind to LPS, and TLR4/MD-2 were capable of transducing signals, data only show that LPS and CD 14 were in close proximity to TLR4 and no direct binding was reported. Quite recently, moesin, a member of the ERM family of proteins, has been also found to function as a receptor for LPS. We have shown that anti-moesin antibody inhibited the release of TNFa by LPS stimulated monocytes. Moesin was also found to be necessary for the detection of LPS, where homozygous knockout mice exhibited 3-fold reduction in neutrophil infiltrates in LPS injected sites when compared to their wild type controls. When moesin gene expression was completely suppressed with antisense oligonucleotides, there was a significant reduction of LPS-induced TNF-a secretion. LPS stimulation of mononuclear phagocytes activates several intracellular signaling pathways including the phosphorylation of IKBa, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways: extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK) 1 / 2 (P44/42), p38. These signaling pathways in tum activate a variety of transcription factors including NF-KB, which coordinates the induction of several genes encoding inflammatory mediators. [TRUNCATED]

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Background         Across centuries, games are part of human life. In his article "Keeping up with ... Gamification," Kim (2015) indicated that the development of Information Technology has taken gaming to the reach of individuals around the world, thus expanding worldwide collaboration and interaction. Parallelly, With the removal of the obstructions of time and space, E-learning platforms have attracted millions of students. "Here we are now, entertain us," if we could pick one phrase that would portray modern learning procedure, this statement would suit best. Games have been available in education for quite a while (Sciforce, 2018). Turning to this strategy in E-learning would have been unavoidable. However, gamification is not equivalent to games intrinsically. It is alluded to as the "utilization of game components within non-game contexts" (Deterding, Dixon, Khaled, & Nacke, 2011). Although previous studies illustrate the noticeable benefits of gamification in E-learning, the negative effects however remain largely implicit and overlooked. Purpose:              The purpose of this study is to explore the negative effect of Gamification in E-learning in the eyes of university students who are familiar with modern technology and terms in learning field and has decided to choose a course that is very focus and meet their need. The study thereby helps university students and the others to understand the comprehensive view about gamification in E-learning, especially in the negative side. Moreover, this paper would help the E-learning platforms for better Gamification-design. Method:              Following the purpose of this study, an exploratory qualitative research with an inductive approach was used. In particular, in-depth interviews with open-ended questions were utilized to have an insight into the interviewees' perception about Gamification in E-learning.   Conclusion:          The result of the study indicate that gamification could make student get bored (Attention), losing confident, stressful and feeling helplessness (Confident), annoying, uncomfortable and reluctant (Satisfaction), distracted and want to give up (Volition) In the theme of Engagement, gamification has the noticeable negative impact on Community Support factor, slightly impact on Peer Collaboration and Cognitive Problem solving, and almost no effect on Interact with Instructor and Learning Management factor. In detail, gamification could make learners feel useless, frustrate, confusing, and want to give up.

Cette thèse introduit des nouveaux modèles de signaux musicaux informés par la physique des instruments. Alors que les communautés de l'acoustique instrumentale et du traitement du signal considèrent la modélisation des sons instrumentaux suivant deux approches différentes (respectivement, une modélisation du mécanisme de production du son, opposée à une modélisation des caractéristiques "morphologiques" générales du son), cette thèse propose une approche collaborative en contraignant des modèles de signaux génériques à l'aide d'information basée sur l'acoustique. L'effort est ainsi porté sur la construction de modèles spécifiques à un instrument, avec des applications aussi bien tournées vers l'acoustique (apprentissage de paramètres liés à la facture et à l'accord) que le traitement du signal (transcription de musique). En particulier nous nous concentrons sur l'analyse de musique pour piano, instrument pour lequel les sons produits sont de nature inharmonique. Cependant, l'inclusion d'une telle propriété dans des modèles de signaux est connue pour entraîner des difficultés d'optimisation, allant jusqu'à endommager les performances (en comparaison avec un modèle harmonique plus simple) dans des tâches d'analyse telles que la transcription. Un objectif majeur de cette thèse est d'avoir une meilleure compréhension des difficultés liées à l'inclusion explicite de l'inharmonicité dans des modèles de signaux, et d'étudier l'influence de l'apport de cette information sur les performances d'analyse, en particulier dans une tâche de transcription. / This thesis introduces new models of music signals informed by the physics of the instruments. While instrumental acoustics and audio signal processing target the modeling of musical tones from different perspectives (modeling of the production mechanism of the sound vs modeling of the generic "morphological'' features of the sound), this thesis aims at mixing both approaches by constraining generic signal models with acoustics-based information. Thus, it is here intended to design instrument-specific models for applications both to acoustics (learning of parameters related to the design and the tuning) and signal processing (transcription). In particular, we focus on piano music analysis for which the tones have the well-known property of inharmonicity. The inclusion of such a property in signal models however makes the optimization harder, and may even damage the performance in tasks such as music transcription when compared to a simpler harmonic model. A major goal of this thesis is thus to have a better understanding about the issues arising from the explicit inclusion of the inharmonicity in signal models, and to investigate whether it is really valuable when targeting tasks such as polyphonic music transcription.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Negative urgency, defined as a tendency to act rashly under extreme negative emotion, is strongly associated with tobacco use. Despite the robust cross-sectional and experimental evidence linking negative urgency and tobacco use, neural correlates of negative urgency in tobacco use have not been studied. The purpose of the current study was to 1) identify neural circuits that differ between tobacco users and non-tobacco users and 2) explore the relationship between resting-state seed-based functional connectivity (rsFC) and negative urgency, both in the overall group and between tobacco users and non-tobacco users. Using negative urgency-related brain regions as seed regions (voxel level p = .005, cluster-level a < .05), compared to non-tobacco users (n = 21; mean age = 36.57, 62% female, 76% white), tobacco users (n = 22; mean age = 37.50, 64% female, 77% white) had stronger rsFC strengths in the right amygdala – left medial orbitofrontal cortex/ventromedial prefrontal cortex circuit and the right nucleus accumbens – right temporoparietal junction circuit. Additionally, rsFC in the bilateral temporal pole – left supramarginal gyrus circuits was positively correlated with negative urgency (Left temporal pole: r = .55, p < .001; Right temporal pole: r = .51, p < .001). The current study extends previous neuroimaging findings, which have mainly focused on how negative urgency is related to brain responses in localized, segregated brain regions, by examining the network-level interactions between different brain regions. This study provides prime preliminary data for future neuroimaging studies of negative urgency by providing potential target networks that would aid the development of novel intervention strategies for negative urgency-based maladaptive behaviors.

Purpose: To compare the presenting symptoms and the outcomes of root canal therapy between HIV positive and HIV negative endodontic patients over a 6-12 month period. Methods: Fifty-nine HIV negative and 46 HIV positive patients presented for endodontic treatment. Signs and symptoms were noted and compared for both groups of patients, together with demographic data and CD4 counts for the HIV positive patients. Endodontic procedures were evaluated after an 18-month period. Endodontic treatment was assessed using clinical factors (palpation, percussion, sensitivity to hot and cold, swellings, excessive bleeding), and radiographic factors (periapical radiolucency, root resorption, periodontal ligament space). Results: There was no statistically significant difference in the preoperative presenting symptoms of endodontic infections/conditions between HIV positive and HIV negative patients. The prevalence of radiographic caries in the presenting teeth was only 24% in the HIV positive patients compared with 95% in the HIV negative patients. For the HIV positive patients, the treatment time required to resolution of the endodontic infection was nearly twice (113 minutes) that of the HIV negative patients (52 minutes). Amongst the HIV positive patients still experiencing symptoms at 18 months, pain was more severe in those patients with lower CD4 counts (significance at the 90% level of confidence). Conclusion: Within the limitations of this study the following conclusions emerge: 1. Although the success rate was lower over the period of this study in HIV positive patients, the rate is sufficiently high to warrant treatment. 2. Patients who are HIV positive may present with more severe symptoms and during treatment more bleeding may be expected. 3. In keeping with best practice for immuno-compromised patients, it would be advantageous to put HIV positive patients on antibiotic cover during treatment. 4. The process of anachoresis may explain the high incidence of endodontic infections in teeth with no history of trauma or caries in the HIV positive group.

Staphylococcus lugdunensis and Staphylococcus schleiferi, two newly described species, have been isolated from numerous types of human infections. We compared the pathogenicity of 30 strains of S. lugdunensis, S. schleiferi, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus warneri, and Staphylococcus hominis, using a mouse model in which a foreign body preadhered with the test strain was implanted subcutaneously, followed by injection of the test strain. All five species of staphylococci produced abscesses. Staphylococcus epidermidis, S. schleiferi, and S. lugdunensis yielded species means of 76-91% abscess formation; 80-100% of the infected foreign bodies and tissues were culture positive. These three species were more virulent than S. warneri or S. hominis, which produced abscesses in 54 and 65% of mice, respectively; only 10-48% of the infected samples were culture positive. Transmission electron microscopy of pure cultures of selected strains showed that all species possessed glycocalyx. All species produced a variety of possible virulence factors, such as α and δ hemolysins, as well as the aggressins lipase and esterase. The production of exoenzymes did not always correlate with virulence as demonstrated by abscess formation in mice.