COMMUNICATION CRISIS ON CAMPUS: THE PUBLIC RELATIONS STRATEGIES, TACTICS, AND RESULTS OF MISSISSIPPI’S LEADING UNIVERSITIES IN RESPONSE TO THE STATE FLAG DEBATE, 2015-2020

This dissertation utilizes W.T. Coombs’s Strategic Crisis Communication Theory to examine the public relations strategies and effectiveness of Mississippi’s three largest public universities, the University of Mississippi, Mississippi State University, and the University of Southern Mississippi, related to the historic decision to retire the state of Mississippi’s flag in 2020. Facing significant reputational threat and public pressure from students and faculty, the universities became public advocates for a new state flag in 2015 and 2016, when each chose to refrain from flying the flag—a flag that featured the Confederate battle emblem for more than 100 years—on its campuses. The universities then became a pivotal force for legislative action in favor of a new flag in 2020, when the universities’ affiliated athletics organizations—the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Southeastern Conference, and Conference USA—all threatened to withhold postseason play from the state, a decision that would have resulted in millions of dollars in associated, positive economic impact lost by Mississippi (Scarborough, 2020). That year, the university institutional executive officers, along with athletics administrators and coaches, lobbied lawmakers at the State Capitol in the week leading up to a historic vote for a new flag by state legislators (Kenney, 2020). In conducting this case study, the researcher examined four sources of data, covering a time period from 2015 to 2020: 1. Public statements and other official press releases from university officials on university websites; 2. Media coverage, including a content analysis of 132 news articles; 3. Facebook posts and feedback; and 4. Interviews with all three institutional executive officers at the time of flag change in January 2021. This dissertation demonstrates that each university ultimately utilized an aggressive public relations strategy, classified by the researcher using the Coombs’ categorization as a rebuild strategy, to public relations success, especially considering the institutions’ problematic prior history regarding issues of race, as well as their ongoing relationships with students, faculty, and athletics-affiliated organizations, which were pushing administrators toward greater advocacy for a change to Mississippi’s flag

Water Use Efficiency and Land Cover Variability on a Native Grassland Ranch on the Pampa Biome of Uruguay

Global efforts towards sustainable cattle ranching should be based on comprehensive approaches, targeting physical variables of the ranching process, as well as, the socioeconomic dimensions. Alianza del Pastizal is a non-profit conservation organization that works to preserve the temperate grasslands of the Southern Cone of South America by promoting conservation practices among ranching communities in Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil. Alianza has become a mediator for ranchers exchanging information, resources, and education. Ranchers associated with the Alliance take pride in their property management as they aim to improve the community wellbeing and natural resource sustainability. In a previous study, producers from the four countries in the Alliance engaged in focus groups and participatory workshops where they identified water cycle regulation and water quality, as the most important ecosystem services provided by natural grasslands on their properties. With this information, our ultimate goal is to determine if the producers actual land use management activities align with the importance they placed on water. For this purpose, we chose the properties located in the floodplain of the Queguay River, northwestern Uruguay. We used a Google Earth Engine platform to inventory the vegetation types and corresponding Water Use Efficiency (WUE) values per vegetation type in the Colonia Juan Gutierrez. Our results indicate the presence of various vegetation types in the Colonia properties, which follow the seasonal rainfall and temperature patterns of the region, and display variability in WUE values. We plan to carry out the same analysis in the Rincon de Perez conservation area, and the managed forests west of the Colonia. Ultimately, we plan to compare these results to properties that do not subscribe to the Alianza’s ideas to determine whether the stated preferences of Alianza ranchers align with differences in practice that improve environmental outcomes

Global Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP) Dataset

The Global PMP Datasets in Geotiff format at the 0.5-hr, 1-hr, 2-hr, 3-hr, 6-hr, 12-hr, and 24-hr durations, are statistically derived based on WMO-NOAA’s endorsed Hershfield PMP estimation technique using IMERG’s 30-min precipitation dataset

A measurement of neutrino oscillations with muon neutrinos in the MINOS experiment

Experimental evidence has established that neutrino flavor states evolve over time. A neutrino of a particular flavor that travels some distance can be detected in a different neutrino flavor state. The Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS) is a long-baseline experiment that is designed to study this phenomenon, called neutrino oscillations. MINOS is based at Fermilab near Chicago, IL, and consists of two detectors: the Near Detector located at Fermilab, and the Far Detector, which is located in an old iron mine in Soudan, MN. Both detectors are exposed to a beam of muon neutrinos from the NuMI beamline, and MINOS measures the fraction of muon neutrinos that disappear after traveling the 734 km between the two detectors. One can measure the atmospheric neutrino mass splitting and mixing angle by observing the energy-dependence of this muon neutrino disappearance. MINOS has made several prior measurements of these parameters. Here I describe recently-developed techniques used to enhance our sensitivity to the oscillation parameters, and I present the results obtained when they are applied to a dataset that is twice as large as has been previously analyzed. We measure the mass splitting {Delta}m{sub 23}{sup 2} = (2.32{sub -0.08}{sup +0.12}) x 10{sup -3} eV{sup 2}/c{sup 4} and the mixing angle sin{sup 2}(2{theta}{sub 32}) > 0.90 at 90% C.L. These results comprise the world's best measurement of the atmospheric neutrino mass splitting. Alternative disappearance models are also tested. The neutrino decay hypothesis is disfavored at 7.2{sigma} and the neutrino quantum decoherence hypothesis is disfavored at 9.0{sigma}

ZZ--Z′Z' mixing and oblique corrections in an SU(3)×U(1){\rm SU(3) \times U(1)} model

A global fit for experiments is included in this revised version.Comment: IFP-460-UNC, TRI-PP-93-11, 20 pages, 2 figures are appende

Boolean analysis identifies CD38 as a biomarker of aggressive localized prostate cancer.

The introduction of serum Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) testing nearly 30 years ago has been associated with a significant shift towards localized disease and decreased deaths due to prostate cancer. Recognition that PSA testing has caused over diagnosis and over treatment of prostate cancer has generated considerable controversy over its value, and has spurred efforts to identify prognostic biomarkers to distinguish patients who need treatment from those that can be observed. Recent studies show that cancer is heterogeneous and forms a hierarchy of tumor cell populations. We developed a method of identifying prostate cancer differentiation states related to androgen signaling using Boolean logic. Using gene expression data, we identified two markers, CD38 and ARG2, that group prostate cancer into three differentiation states. Cancers with CD38-, ARG2- expression patterns, corresponding to an undifferentiated state, had significantly lower 10-year recurrence-free survival compared to the most differentiated group (CD38+ARG2+). We carried out immunohistochemical (IHC) staining for these two markers in a single institution (Stanford; n = 234) and multi-institution (Canary; n = 1326) cohorts. IHC staining for CD38 and ARG2 in the Stanford cohort demonstrated that combined expression of CD38 and ARG2 was prognostic. In the Canary cohort, low CD38 protein expression by IHC was significantly associated with recurrence-free survival (RFS), seminal vesicle invasion (SVI), extra-capsular extension (ECE) in univariable analysis. In multivariable analysis, ARG2 and CD38 IHC staining results were not independently associated with RFS, overall survival, or disease-specific survival after adjusting for other factors including SVI, ECE, Gleason score, pre-operative PSA, and surgical margins

Electrical Neuroimaging of Music Processing in Pianists With and Without True Absolute Pitch

True absolute pitch (AP), labeling of pitches with semitone precision without a reference, is classically studied using isolated tones. However, AP is acquired and has its function within complex dynamic musical contexts. Here we examined event-related brain responses and underlying cerebral sources to endings of short expressive string quartets, investigating a homogeneous population of young highly trained pianists with half of them possessing true-AP. The pieces ended regularly or contained harmonic transgressions at closure that participants appraised. Given the millisecond precision of ERP analyses, this experimental plan allowed examining whether AP alters music processing at an early perceptual, or later cognitive level, or both, and which cerebral sources underlie differences with non-AP musicians. We also investigated the impact of AP on general auditory cognition. Remarkably, harmonic transgression sensitivity did not differ between AP and non-AP participants, and differences for auditory cognition were only marginal. The key finding of this study is the involvement of a microstate peaking around 60 ms after musical closure, characterizing AP participants. Concurring sources were estimated in secondary auditory areas, comprising the planum temporale, all transgression conditions collapsed. These results suggest that AP is not a panacea to become a proficient musician, but a rare perceptual feature

Using systematic screening to increase integration of reproductive health services delivery in Senegal

This study tested the systematic screening technique to increase the integration of reproductive health services in Senegal. The study took place in four urban health posts in the city of Dakar and three rural health posts in the district of Kebemer. A before and after design tested the hypothesis that the use of the systematic screening tool would result in more services received per client visit. In Dakar, services per visit increased significantly by 20 percent, while in Kebemer, services per visit also increased significantly by 35 percent. The study also examined several techniques to improve provider compliance with the screening technique. The Senegal Ministry of Health has requested assistance in scaling up the strategy to other reproductive health service delivery points at district, regional, and national levels

BAAD: a Biomass And Allometry Database for woody plants

Understanding how plants are constructed—i.e., how key size dimensions and the amount of mass invested in different tissues varies among individuals—is essential for modeling plant growth, carbon stocks, and energy fluxes in the terrestrial biosphere. Allocation patterns can differ through ontogeny, but also among coexisting species and among species adapted to different environments. While a variety of models dealing with biomass allocation exist, we lack a synthetic understanding of the underlying processes. This is partly due to the lack of suitable data sets for validating and parameterizing models. To that end, we present the Biomass And Allometry Database (BAAD) for woody plants. The BAAD contains 259 634 measurements collected in 176 different studies, from 21 084 individuals across 678 species. Most of these data come from existing publications. However, raw data were rarely made public at the time of publication. Thus, the BAAD contains data from different studies, transformed into standard units and variable names. The transformations were achieved using a common workflow for all raw data files. Other features that distinguish the BAAD are: (i) measurements were for individual plants rather than stand averages; (ii) individuals spanning a range of sizes were measured; (iii) plants from 0.01–100 m in height were included; and (iv) biomass was estimated directly, i.e., not indirectly via allometric equations (except in very large trees where biomass was estimated from detailed sub‐sampling). We included both wild and artificially grown plants. The data set contains the following size metrics: total leaf area; area of stem cross‐section including sapwood, heartwood, and bark; height of plant and crown base, crown area, and surface area; and the dry mass of leaf, stem, branches, sapwood, heartwood, bark, coarse roots, and fine root tissues. We also report other properties of individuals (age, leaf size, leaf mass per area, wood density, nitrogen content of leaves and wood), as well as information about the growing environment (location, light, experimental treatment, vegetation type) where available. It is our hope that making these data available will improve our ability to understand plant growth, ecosystem dynamics, and carbon cycling in the world\u27s vegetation

Vertical dust mixing and the interannual variations in the Mars thermosphere

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/94815/1/jgre2303.pd