C-reactive protein (CRP) is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), peripheral vascular disease, diabetes, and stroke. In addition to traditional risk factors of CVD, some studies have shown that depression and anger independently predict CRP, but other studies have found null results, and few, if any, studies have considered possible roles of physical activity and diet. The purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of certain psychosocial variables to predict CRP controlling for traditional CVD risk factors. Cross-sectional data for 300 healthy women who participated in the Stockholm Female Coronary Risk Study were analyzed. Regression analyses were performed to determine whether anger, depression, social support, marital stress, and self-esteem were associated with CRP levels while controlling for relevant covariates. Analyses investigated possible mediating effects of certain aspects of diet and physical activity and whether body composition (measured by waist circumference) and fasting glucose moderates the relationship between psychosocial variables and CRP. We found that anger symptoms were negatively associated with CRP and anger discussion was positively associated with CRP controlling for several biological variables. Diet and physical activity did not explain the relationship between these anger variables and CRP. Social support in the forms of social attachment and social integration were positively associated with CRP among women with a larger waist circumference and higher fasting glucose, respectively. Marital stress was positively related to CRP among women with a larger waist circumference. Among women with a smaller waist circumference, marital stress was negatively related to CRP and social integration was positively related to CRP. These findings suggest that having a large waist in addition to less social support and more marital stress is disadvantageous with regard to CRP. Furthermore, it is possible that being quite thin may not necessarily be advantageous with regard to inflammation.

Freie Universiẗat, Diss., 2006--Berlin.

This thesis is dedicated to mediation as an alternative dispute resolution method and as a possibility to prevent long lasting court disputes which occur more than necessary. The aim of this thesis is to point out the advantages of mediation and the possibilities of its wider implementation in Czech Republic, while comparing with the Australian system, where mediation is widely used. The thesis is separated into six parts. The first part is focused on a brief introduction of some ADR methods, in particular renegotiation, mediation, pre-arbitration settlement methods, arbitration and hybrid ADR methods. Furthermore, this part focuses on the history of mediation around the world and in the Czech Republic. The end of the first part focuses on a detail analysis of various forms of mediation based on several criteria of division. The second part compares mediation to court proceedings from three different points of view. These are the ability of each method to fulfil the aims and needs of the parties, the aspects of the dispute and of the parties which affect the suitability of each method and lastly the ability of each method to eliminate the barriers to an effective resolution of the dispute. In the third part the author focuses on the role of the mediator, the organisation of mediation in the Czech...

Models for mediation are widely used in psychology, behavior science and education because they help researchers understand how a causal effect happens through one or several mediating variables. And more complex mediation models that incorporate multiple mediators are increasingly being assessed. This report uses a generated dataset to provide an overview of the assessment of direct effects and indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Use of a multiple comparison-based procedure for testing a set of hypotheses simultaneously while controlling the experiment-wise type I error rate is used to calculate a confidence interval for each pairwise contrast of mediated effects. Three approaches will be used to test hypotheses concerning the contrast between pairs of mediator effects. These approaches include 1) an assumption of zero covariance between parameters from different models, 2) assumption of a non-zero covariance between parameters from different models and 3) use of bootstrapping. Results are provided and discussed. / text

Würzburg, Univ., Diss., 2009. / Zsfassung in dt. Sprache.

Scholars have debated whether mediator impartiality or mediator interest plays a more vital role in bringing about a successful outcome. This research develops a comprehensive model that accounts for mediation occurrence and medication outcome in terms of an additive model of both mediator impartiality and mediator interest. The two channels through which mediators influence the changes of mediation and occurrence and outcome are hypothesized to be two dimensions of trust, mediator fairness and mediator capacity. This research argues 1) that mediator impartiality contributes to successful mediation outcomes by improving disputants’ trust in mediators’ fairness and 2) that mediator interest increases the likelihood of successful mediation outcomes by improving disputants’ trust in mediators’ capacity. Therefore, this research hypothesizes that the levels of mediators’ impartiality and mediators’ interest do not have individual effects on mediation occurrence and outcome. It argues, rather, that the additive level of the two variables determines the likelihood of mediation occurrence and successful outcome. The hypotheses of this research are tested using quantitative analysis of 294 interstate mediation cases carried out by states between 1945 and 1999 and qualitative analyses of the Philippines’ mediation of the Borneo dispute between Malaya and Indonesia in 1964 and Syria’s mediation of the border dispute between North Yemen and South Yemen in 1979. Both sets of analyses support the researcher’s claim that it is the additive level of impartiality and interest, rather than the individual level of both variables, that affects the chance of mediation success being achieved.

Sozial ängstliche Menschen richten ihre Aufmerksamkeit in sozial bedrohlichen Situationen nach innen auf selbstbezogene negative Gedanken (z.B. „Ich schaffe das nicht!“). Außerdem richten sie ihre Aufmerksamkeit unwillkürlich bevorzugt auf potenziell bedrohliche soziale Umweltreize und beurteilen diese im Vergleich zu niedrig sozial ängstlichen Kontrollpersonen besonders negativ. Einschlägige Modelle und die Fachliteratur lassen den Schluss zu, dass selbstbezogene negative Gedanken und die systematisch verzerrte Verarbeitung bedrohlicher sozialer Umweltreize Mediatoren für Zusammenhänge zwischen sozialer Ängstlichkeit und akuter Angst in sozial bedrohlichen Situationen sind. Zudem finden sich Hinweise auf Wechselwirkungen zwischen den angenommenen Mediatoren. Auf dieser Grundlage wurde ein Arbeitsmodell zu Mediatoren sozialer Angst erstellt. In drei Experimenten wurden von diesem Modell abgeleitete Hypothesen überprüft. Die Ergebnisse der drei Experimente zeigten eindrucksvoll in subjektiven und physiologischen Daten (Herzratenvariabilität bzw. parasympathische Aktivierung), dass selbstbezogene negative Gedanken tatsächlich ein Mediator sozialer Angst sind. Im Vergleich dazu spielt die verzerrte automatische Verarbeitung bedrohlicher sozialer Umweltreize zumindest in ökologisch validen, sozial bedrohlichen Situationen eine vernachlässigbare Rolle. / Based on a review of models and empirical findings a working model is proposed, suggesting that self-related negative cognitions and biased processing of external social threat-cues are mediators of social anxiety. Hypotheses derived from this model were tested in three experiments. The first experiment examined whether levels of trait social anxiousness predicted fearful responding to external social threat-cues (angry vs. neutral and happy facial expressions) during social evaluation. Higher trait social anxiousness predisposes to an inward focus on one’s fear reaction to social threat. Using this strategy was expected to enhance fearful responding to angry facial expressions. A strategy of identifying with angry faces was expected to counteract fearful responding, but was expected to fail more often with increasing levels of trait social anxiousness. To examine these hypotheses, affective modulation of the startle eye-blink was assessed in forty-four undergraduate students. This measure served as a probe into the activation of brain structures involved in the automatic evaluation of environmental threat-cues. Trait and state anxiety as well as explicit emotional responding to the stimuli were assessed with questionnaires and ratings. Processing angry faces potentiated startle amplitudes as expected. Low arousal induced by the stimuli was a probable reason, why startle potentiation to happy faces emerged instead of attenuation. Trait social anxiousness and the cognitive strategies did not influence these effects. Yet, increased trait social anxiousness predicted decreased startle latency, indicating motor hyper-responsivity, which is part of the clinical representation of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Processing facial expressions and identifying with them disrupted this association. Previous studies support that similar strategies may enhance treatment of SAD. Individuals with SAD were expected to respond with increased arousal to external social threat-cues. Therefore, the second experiment examined whether nine individuals with SAD showed attentional (prepulse inhibition, PPI) or affective startle modulation to angry as compared to neutral and happy facial expressions. Corrugator supercilii activity was assessed as a behavioral indicator for effects of facial expressions. The remaining setup resembled the first experiment. Facial expressions did not modulate the startle reflex, but corrugator supercilii activity was sensitive to facial valence. However, the effects were not related to trait social anxiousness. Apparently, angry facial expressions do not act as phobic stimuli for individuals with SAD. The third experiment examined whether focusing on self-related negative cognitions or biased processing of external social threat-cues mediates relationships between trait social anxiety and anxious responding in a socially challenging situation. Inducing self-related negative cognitions vs. relaxation was expected to reveal a functional dependency on the supposed mediation in a multivariate assessment of criteria of the working model. Within this design, the impact of external social threat-cues (facial expressions and emotional words) was compared to control stimuli and context effects, using the startle paradigm. The findings provide first evidence for full statistical mediation of the associations between trait social anxiety and self-reported anxiety as well as parasympathetic withdrawal by self-related negative cognitions, when thirty-six undergraduate students anticipated public speaking. Apprehensive arousal, as indicated by increased skin conductance levels and heart rate, was present in all participants. Observer ratings of behavior during public speaking matched the self-rated quality of the performance. None of these measures were correlated with trait social anxiousness. Startle amplitude correlated with state and trait social anxiety, but was no mediator. Finally, there was no affective modulation of the startle amplitude by external social threat-cues. These studies advance both our current understanding of the factors that mediate social anxiety responses to situations and our knowledge of the physiological and anatomical mechanisms involved in social anxiety. Based on these findings a revised version of the working model on mediators of social anxiety is proposed in the hope it may aid further research for the ultimate goal of developing an empirically validated functional anatomical model of social anxiety.

The Mediator complex was originally discovered in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and has since then been shown to be required for transcriptional regulation both in vitro and in vivo. The Mediator complex also stimulates basal, unregulated transcription and serves as a bridge by conveying signals from promoter-bound transcriptional regulatory proteins such as activators and repressors to the RNA Polymerase II general transcriptional machinery. The Mediator consists of 21 subunits and can be divided into three distinct modules head, middle and tail. Despite the tremendous progress that has been achieved so far in characterizing the Mediator complex both functionally and structurally, many aspects of the complex are not yet well understood. The objective of this work is to achieve further understanding of the Mediator complex by studying the folding of different protein subunits, their interactions and how that affects assembly of the Mediator complex. In our first study we made a temperature-sensitive med21 mutant and used it to identify genes that can suppress the mutation when present in high copy number. Among the 10 genes that we identified, the strongest suppressors were Med7 and Med10, which encode Mediator subunits, and Ash1, which encodes a repressor of the HO gene. We also used 2-hybrid experiments and immunoprecipitation to study protein-protein interactions between Med21 and the Med4, Med7 and Med10 proteins which are all essential for viability and located within the middle domain of the Mediator complex. We found that the N-terminal 2-8 amino acids of Med21 are required for interactions with Med7 and Med10. These results led us to propose a model in which the N-terminal part of Med21 functions as a molecular switchboard where competing signals from various activators, repressors and mediator subunits are integrated prior to reaching the general transcription machinery. In our second study, we extended our studies of protein-protein interactions to another part of the mediator complex by studying the folding and the assembly processes of the mediator head domain subunits Med8, Med18 and Med20. Using purified proteins and a combination of several different methods such as immunoprecipitation, far-UV circular dichroism and fluorescence, we demonstrated that the Med8, Med18 and Med20 subunits are interdependent on each other for proper folding and complex formation.

This dissertation looked for to study the charisma of the religious mediator us " Movements of Christianity of Liberation " in the Diocese Sergipana of Propriá, during the decade from sixty to eighty. Centering our debate in the understanding of the social action, we have as main subject to understand the " poor " influence in the adoption of actions on the part of the mediators, in that public's favor, mainly in Fazenda Betume conflicts (1974) and of Santana dos Frades (1979). The hypotheses, we became pregnant that the mediators as D. José Brandão de Castro and the nun Maria Joana Hermínia exercised an important influence in the construction of the identity of the movements as CEBs, MEB and CPT in the area. Such influence was motivated by a conversion of the mediator D. Brandão, constituted starting from a relationship maintained between him and the members of the movements and proportionate for the critics and demands done by the popular ones. They resulted in actions in favor of the rural ones, what characterized the Church of Propriá as allied of the involved in the conflicts and no mere middleman. Before the collected material, we made use of the Analysis of Content using the poor " term " as analysis category, complemented by interviews done to members of the mentioned movements. Esta dissertação buscou estudar o carisma do mediador religioso nos “Movimentos de Cristianismo de Libertação” na Diocese Sergipana de Propriá, durante a década de sessenta a oitenta. Centrando nosso debate na compreensão da ação social, temos como questão principal entender a influência dos “pobres” na adoção de ações por parte do mediador, em favor desse público, principalmente nos conflitos da Fazenda Betume (1974) e de Santana dos Frades (1979). Como hipóteses, concebemos que os mediadores como D. José Brandão de Castro e a freira Maria Joana Hermínia exerceram uma importante influência na construção da identidade dos movimentos como as CEBs, o MEB e a CPT na região. Tal influência foi motivada por uma conversão do mediador D. Brandão, constituída a partir de uma relação mantida entre ele e os membros dos movimentos e proporcionada pelas críticas e demandas feita pelos populares. Elas resultaram em ações em favor dos campesinos, o que caracterizou a Igreja de Propriá como aliada dos envolvidos nos conflitos e não mera intermediária. Ante o material coletado, fizemos uso da Análise de Conteúdo utilizando o termo “pobre” como categoria de análise, complementada por entrevistas feitas à membros dos movimentos citados.

Abstract In prior research has addressed relationship between advertising and financial performance, it is not consistent enough to draw a clear conclusion how advertising influences financial performance of the firm. This research develops a conceptual framework and tests whether brand equity mediates the relationship between advertising and financial performance (i.e., sales and market value). If advertising can play a key role in developing and maintaining brand equity and financial performance, it should be considered an investment rather than an expense. Advertising can contribute directly to brand equity and indirectly to financial performance and how much value advertising can deliver to brands and firms. The results show support for this framework. The findings of the research showed that advertising can not only work to improve market performance measures but also to develop and maintain brands. Firms that are viewed more favorably for their advertising enjoy higher financial performance, and a firm¡¦s brand equity level mediates this influence of advertising on financial performance. Notably, this research finds the results of the mediator (brand equity) offering important implications for marketing theory and practice.