Rise Up: An Examination of White Nationalist Social Media Content and its Effect on White Americans' Collective Actions

Recent data from anti-hate organizations finds that pro-White events, propaganda, and groups are steadily increasing in the United States. Additionally, large collective actions and mass shootings that are racially motivated have become highly visible in the past few years. Given social media’s role in both influencing and acting as a platform for the far-right, its impact cannot be ignored. Across two studies, this dissertation examines the themes underlying White nationalist social media content and its influence on White Americans’ intra and intergroup relations. In Study One, a content analysis of videos from five White nationalist YouTube channels finds that outgroups are both frequently discussed and mentioned in threatening or negative ways. Additionally, these videos regularly include content that references psychological mechanisms known to increase collective action intentions in the real world. In Study Two, a cross-sectional survey finds that self-reported exposure to social media content containing references to White injustice are associated with intentions to engage in collective action to improve the status and position of Whites in American society. Further, exposure to White injustice on social media has an especially strong influence on the real-world attitudes of Democrats. These findings reflect the important role played by digital media in the rise of White nationalism in Western nations with multicultural societies.PHDCommunicationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/169807/1/hawki_1.pd

Fecal sludge management: diagnostics for service delivery in urban areas - report of a FSM study in Hawassa, Ethiopia

This report summarizes the main findings of a case study on fecal sludge management in Hawassa,Ethiopia. The specific objectives of the study were: to provide quantitative and qualitative data on the sanitation situation in Hawassa from a socio-economic perspective, specifically as it relates to FSM; to do the above in such a way that the data is representative of the city as a whole but also providing a separate picture of the situation in low-income areas, primarily through qualitative means in the Hawassa case; to provide initial recommendations to guide discussions around future interventions in the sanitation sector in Hawassa, by contributing credible data and analysis; and to inform the development of analytical tools and guidelines, by road-testing draft tools using primary data collection

Helping and hurting others: Person and situation effects on aggressive and prosocial behavior as assessed by the Tangram task

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136251/1/ab21669.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136251/2/ab21669_am.pd

Overcoming Innocents’ Naiveté: Pre‐interrogation Decision‐making Among Innocent Suspects

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133623/1/bsl2247.pd

Pitch-interval analysis of ‘periodic’ and ‘aperiodic’ Question+Answer pairs

In English Question+Answer (Q+A) pairs, periodicity typically emerges across turn space, to a degree of precision matching standards of music perception. Interactionally- aligned Q+A pairs display such shared periodicity across the turn, while unaligned pairs do not. Periodicity is measured as temporal location of f0 maxima or minima, ‘pikes’, in successive accented syllables. This study asks whether periodicity of pikes across a turn is accompanied by systematic use of musical pitch intervals across the turn space. Recordings of 77 Q+A pairs from 8 pairs of native English speakers talking naturally. Ratios of f0 in the last pike of the Question and the first of the Answer fell more reliably into Western musical interval categories when the Q+A pair’s turn transition was periodic (the Answer was aligned or preferred, re the Question) than when it was aperiodic (disaligned, dispreferred). Similar results were found for ratios of modal f0. Such pitch ratios are better described by musical interval categories of Western tuning systems than by those of three non-Western systems, and best of all by semitones, suggesting close connections between culturally-specific uses of pitch in conversation and in music. Judgments of arousal/valence suggest weak relations with specific pitch intervals. Theoretical implications are discussed

An Economic Evaluation of Preclinical Testing Strategies Compared to the Compulsory Scrapie Flock Scheme in the Control of Classical Scrapie

Cost-benefit is rarely combined with nonlinear dynamic models when evaluating control options for infectious diseases. The current strategy for scrapie in Great Britain requires that all genetically susceptible livestock in affected flocks be culled (Compulsory Scrapie Flock Scheme or CSFS). However, this results in the removal of many healthy sheep, and a recently developed pre-clinical test for scrapie now offers a strategy based on disease detection. We explore the flock level cost-effectiveness of scrapie control using a deterministic transmission model and industry estimates of costs associated with genotype testing, pre-clinical tests and the value of a sheep culled. Benefit was measured in terms of the reduction in the number of infected sheep sold on, compared to a baseline strategy of doing nothing, using Incremental Cost Effectiveness analysis to compare across strategies. As market data was not available for pre-clinical testing, a threshold analysis was used to set a unit-cost giving equal costs for CSFS and multiple pre-clinical testing (MT, one test each year for three consecutive years). Assuming a 40% within-flock proportion of susceptible genotypes and a test sensitivity of 90%, a single test (ST) was cheaper but less effective than either the CSFS or MT strategies (30 infected-sales-averted over the lifetime of the average epidemic). The MT strategy was slightly less effective than the CSFS and would be a dominated strategy unless preclinical testing was cheaper than the threshold price of £6.28, but may be appropriate for flocks with particularly valuable livestock. Though the ST is not currently recommended, the proportion of susceptible genotypes in the national flock is likely to continue to decrease; this may eventually make it a cost-effective alternative to the MT or CSFS

Fecal sludge management: diagnostics for service delivery in urban areas - summary report

Urban sanitation remains a significant challenge for most low- and middle-income countries. The urban population of the group of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) more than tripled between 1990 and 2015. While access to sanitation in LDCs has increased in relative terms, in absolute terms the number of people using unimproved sanitation has increased. Under the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is now a focus on the whole sanitation service chain from containment through to disposal. The challenge for urban sanitation under the SDGs is therefore not only to achieve universal access to toilets, but also that all excreta is safely managed along the whole sanitation service chain. This document provides a summary of the diagnostic tools developed for assessing FSM services and is based on field work carried out in the five cities of Balikpapan in Indonesia, Dhaka in Bangladesh, Hawassa in Ethiopia, Lima in Peru and Santa Cruz in Bolivia. It summarizes the tools themselves, lessons learnt about their use, and general policy recommendations

Reduction of Taxonomic Bias in Diatom Species Data

Inconsistency in taxonomic identification and analyst bias impede the effective use of diatom data in regional and national stream and lake surveys. In this study, we evaluated the effect of existing protocols and a revised protocol on the precision of diatom species counts. The revised protocol adjusts four elements of sample preparation, taxon identification and enumeration, and quality control (QC). We used six independent data sets to assess the effect of the adjustments on analytical outcomes. The first data set was produced by three laboratories with a total of five analysts following established protocols (Charles et al., Protocols for the analysis of algal samples collected as part of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment, 2002) or their slight variations. The remaining data sets were produced by one to three laboratories with a total of two to three analysts following a revised protocol. The revised protocol included the following modifications: (1) development of coordinated precount voucher floras based on morphological operational taxonomic units, (2) random assignment of samples to analysts, (3) postcount identification and documentation of taxa (as opposed to an approach in which analysts assign names while they enumerate), and (4) increased use of QC samples. The revised protocol reduced taxonomic bias, as measured by reduction in analyst signal, and improved similarity among QC samples. Reduced taxonomic bias improves the performance of biological assessments, facilitates transparency across studies, and refines estimates of diatom species distributions

Structure of Staphylococcus aureus cytidine monophosphate kinase in complex with cytidine 5′-monophosphate

The crystal structure of S. aureus cytidine monophosphate kinase in complex with cytidine 5′-monophosphate has been determined