Predecisional Information Distortion of Trial Evidence: Biased Processing Under Persuasion

To facilitate information distortion, previous investigations have not been in persuasive settings nor involved information that strongly favored the selection of one choice over another. A study was conducted that addresses the absence of investigation into how information is distorted during decisions in persuasive situations. The context of the courtroom was used. Participants saw numerous pieces of evidence: some of the evidence strongly favored a verdict of guilty; some favored a verdict of not guilty; and other evidence favored neither. Evidence that favored a verdict of guilty or not guilty as the first piece of evidence was manipulated. Some participants were told the evidence came from the prosecution or the defense while others were not. Results indicated that participants distorted information in the direction of the persuasive evidence presented first, regardless of whether or not they were told the source of the evidence. The strong evidence location manipulation did not affect participants’ verdict in the case—despite the finding that the manipulation affected evidence evaluation which was correlated with participants’ verdict. This study demonstrated that information is distorted when presented in a persuasive context and when the information strongly favored the selection of one option over the other

Presidential ethos : leadership as goal and tool in the rhetoric of recent American presidents

This thesis discusses the role of leadership as an aspect of ethos in presidential rhetoric. In it, a terminology is established to deal with two original applications of leadership ethos in presidential rhetoric: accumulating, or building up leadership status as an independent goal, and wielding, or using the established ethos of the presidency to affect some other goal of persuasion. These terms provide the basis for an approach to analyzing presidential rhetoric. Support for this approach is drawn from the theoretical basis of authorities reaching as far back as Aristotle up to the much more U.S.-specific observations of David Zarefsky, Richard Neustadt, and others. Applications of this division are then applied to speeches from U.S. presidents from Reagan to Obama. Finally, suggestions for the usage and application of the established accumulating/ wielding dichotomy are summarized

Reinvisioning the Nineteenth Century in Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker : Gender, Ethnicity, and Class

Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker, an alternate history novel, examines the cultural and political atmosphere in late nineteenth-century America. It focuses on a group of women marginalized from mainstream society because of their race, culture, or class. The novel’s heroine, Briar, a poor working woman, is rejected by society and suffers labor exploitation. In response to her oppressive circumstances, she joins a community of women, and together, they rebel against an oppressive, patriarchal society. My paper explores Priest’s adaptation of the social, historical, and cultural background of the nineteenth-century and the treatment of gender, ethnicity, and class through her characters. Boneshaker examines nineteenth-century standards of motherhood and marriage. I argue that it disrupts the extreme codes that define motherhood and marriage because its women are not defined by their status as wives and Briar creates her own conventions for parenting as a single mother. They are not restricted by conventional, middle class nineteenth-century values regarding marriage and motherhood. I argue that as an alternate history fiction, Boneshaker has the ability to liberate and empower those disenfranchised by race, class, or gender. While Priest succeeds in freeing her female characters from oppressive nineteenth-century gender constraints, she does not respond to anti-Chinese sentiment. Boneshaker offers a historically accurate portrayal of Chinese racism in the nineteenth-century, but it refuses to effectively confront it in the same way it does for gender oppression and Native American racism. The women in Boneshaker are offered gender liberation, and the Native American woman, while she suffers from racist attitudes, is given the power to defend herself from her attackers. Boneshaker’s Chinese reflect nineteenth-century depictions that stereotype them as submissive and passive. In Boneshaker, they are effectively silenced through language barriers or disability, and are never given the opportunity to respond to racism. They continually suffer abuse at the hands of white male characters, but are never given the opportunity to defend themselves. I argue that Boneshaker’s treatment of the Native American princess Angeline is in response to nineteenth-century stereotypes of Native women. Priest refuses to reduce Angeline to stereotypes that liken her to middle class white women. In many nineteenth-century periodicals and literature, Native women were written to appeal to the middle class sensibility of white women readers. To achieve this, the depiction of Native women reflected the white middle class woman in looks and values. The role of the Native woman in popular nineteenth-century fiction was typically reduced to the romantic interest of a white man or she was depicted as the noble savage, willing to deceive her people to save white men. I argue that Boneshaker’s depiction of Princess Angeline as an independent, rebellious, liberated woman, offers readers a historically accurate portrayal of the Native American woman. The alternate history novel offers Boneshaker the ability to reimagine and reinvision the nineteenth-century; however, it does not always take advantage of its genre possibilities. Boneshaker is an example of the limitations and advantages of the genre in its inability to significantly respond to Chinese racism while also demonstrating class and gender liberation. Boneshaker offers women an alternate space in which they are given autonomy and act as active agents in the construction of history

Event driven sediment mobility on the inner continental shelf of Onslow Bay, NC

This study seeks to further constrain near-bottom hydrodynamic current conditions required to mobilize native sediments on a high-energy sediment starved shelf environment and link these data to changes in sidescan sonar imagery of the inner-shelf environment of Onslow Bay, NC. A bottom-mounted upward looking Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) deployed at the OB3M study site on the lower sand flat adjacent to a low-relief marine hardbottom recorded hourly flow velocity profiles from a depth of 17.7 m. The lower sand flat is composed of two dominant surficial lithofacies consisting of patchy, but well-defined areas of well sorted fine sand and poorly sorted coarse grained material. A dual frequency high-resolution sidescan sonar system was utilized to biannually survey a 5.5 by 3.7 km area encompassing the OB3M site between March 2002 and October 2003. Mosaic imagery obtained from these surveys were used to document seasonal changes in bottom characteristics in response to twenty-three identified sediment mobility events. Measurable contributions from semidiurnal tidal flows, mean current flows dominated by subtidal wind-generated currents, as well as wave-generated oscillatory motions in the near-bottom layer during storm and non-storm conditions have been identified for the nineteen-month period bracketing two tropical storm seasons off the North Carolina coast. Calculated critical shear velocity values due to the combined effects of waves and currents indicate that the fine-grained sand fraction was mobile more than 66% of the period, frequently as incipiently suspended load and bedload, and rarely as fully suspended load. Quantitative analysis of sidescan sonar imagery demonstrate that even though hydrodynamic conditions favor mobilization of fine sands, the gross morphology and sediment distribution at this inner-shelf site remained relatively unchanged after the occurrence of several commonplace high-energy events. Seasonal sedimentation patterns, however; were found to be substantially altered after the passage of Hurricane Isabel within 225 km of the study site. Evidence from this study reveals that over the nineteen-month study period at this discrete site, the combined effects of typical high-energy events had little effect on the net distribution of bottom sediments, yet a singular extreme event was found to actively modify seabed sedimentation processes

Personality types and value orientations with special reference to the feminine role

The problem of conflict in the feminine role is the result of social and cultural changes of the past several decades. The traditional middle and upper class feminine role expectations were focused upon marriage and the family and the woman's interests, values, and actions were expected to be channeled in the direction of obligation to the family group. The woman's individual needs and interests were expected to be subordinated to the needs and interests of her family. Society left little or no opportunity for the woman of the colonial period to play any role other than this one, so closely connected with her biological role of bearing children. The woman who did not marry was forced to choose between becoming a member of a relative's family as the stereotyped "maiden aunt" and becoming a governess or teacher. The opportunity for individual achievement in this latter role was highly limited

A rhetorical analysis of logos, pathos, and ethos in selected speeches of Terry Sanford

On February 4, 1960, Terry Sanford announced his candidacy for the governorship of North Carolina. This step, the result of fourteen years of strategic career planning, brought Sanford into regional prominence and gave him the opportunity to enunciate the ambitious educational plan with which he has been consistently associated. His successful bid for governor was followed by a vigorous campaign on behalf of the first major legislation of his administration, the B Budget Request. The passage of this budget request assured the implementation of that progressive educational program outlined in his campaign for governor. Most of Sanford's accomplishments are embodied in the B Budget Request. This study focuses on the B Budget Request campaign and specifically on six selected speeches that are representative of Sanford's style and strategy. The study applies Aristotelian principles of artistic proof, i.e., logos, pathos and ethos, to the six selected speeches of Terry Sanford

Solid-state nanopores: a new platform for DNA biomarker discovery

Solid-state (SS) nanopores emerged as a molecular detection platform in 2001, offering many advantages over their biological counterparts, α-hemolysin nanopores (α-HL). These advantages include better chemical, electrical, mechanical, and thermal stability, as well as size tunability and device integration. In addition, the size of α-HL restricts its application to translocations of single-stranded polynucleotides (ssDNA and ssRNA). This research project focused on developing a SS-nanopore platform for biomarker detection, based on differentiating ssDNA and double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) at the single-molecule scale. Reported dsDNA translocation measurements result in an average residence time of ~ 30 ns/bp, so the temporal resolution required for detection of small DNA duplexes can exceed available bandwidth limitations. To address this issue, several system parameters were explored in order to slow down translocation speed, thereby increasing temporal resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. These parameters included: applied voltage, pH, pore geometry, DNA binding agents, salt composition and concentration, and temperature. Experimental findings showed that SS-nanopores can be precisely fabricated using a controlled helium ion milling technique, acidic conditions cause DNA depurination that results in slower translocation durations, and single-stranded binding proteins (SSBs) bind preferentially to ssDNA, forming complexes with distinct translocation characteristics that permit large (> 7 kb) ds- and ssDNA to be effectively distinguished. Together, these data show that SS-nanopores can serve as a tool to electronically detect the presence and relative concentration of target DNA molecules with ultrahigh sensitivity, thus demonstrating their potential utility as a biomarker discovery platform in both biomedical and environmental applications

The influence of managing a loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) forest for biofuels production via switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) intercropping and woody debris removal on rodents

The abundance and distribution of wildlife communities can be influenced by many factors including resources, competitors, predators and parasites, and climate. Changes to managed forest understory composition and structure may affect ecologically important rodent communities. Furthermore, diversity of rodent communities can correlate with vertebrate biodiversity across a diverse range of ecosystem types. To help meet demands for renewable sources of energy, biofuel feedstock production options include intercropping switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) within intensively managed loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) stands, and removal of residual woody debris. The objective of my study was to experimentally examine rodent responses to these options. I surveyed rodent populations using mark-recapture techniques to determine their responses to pine and switchgrass intercropping and residual woody debris removal. For 6 months in 2009, and 5 months in 2010, we captured rodents on experimental plots within newly established pine plantations that were subjected to five different treatments that involve biomass removal. Habitat measurements conducted in 2010 on percent cover and height of habitat types reflected differences among the 5 treatments as indicated by a significant interaction of habitat type (i.e. grass, pine, etc.) among biomass removal options and across sampling dates from April to October. This interaction indicates the preparation of the study plots created habitats that differed in structure. Rodent community diversity metrics including species richness, Shannon Diversity index, and Fisher's á index were not influenced by biomass removal options in either 2009 or 2010. In 2009, treatments did not influence the abundance of any species. However, there was a trend for house mice (Mus musculus) and hispid cotton rats (Sigmodon hispidus) adults to be more abundant in habitats with switchgrass. In 2010, treatments significantly influenced the abundance of the number of unique individuals and total captures of white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus), M. musculus, and S. hispidus of. During the second year of study, P. leucopus adults showed highest abundance in non-switchgrass habitats, intermediate abundance in pine and switchgrass intercropped habitats, and lowest abundance in switchgrass only habitats. Additionally, P. leucopus juveniles showed a trend to be more abundant in habitats without switchgrass, suggesting differences were a result of P. leucopus reproduction in these habitats. M. musculus abundance was highest in switchgrass only habitats, intermediate in pine and switchgrass intercropped habitats, and lowest in habitats without switchgrass. Mus musculus juveniles showed a trend for higher abundance in habitats with switchgrass suggesting differences were a result of M. musculus reproduction. Abundance of S. hispidus tended to be higher in habitats with pine and switchgrass intercropped than habitats without switchgrass and habitats with only switchgrass. Juvenile abundance of S. hispidus did not differ among biomass removal options, suggesting all habitats in this study provided similar resources for S. hispidus reproduction. My results suggest residual woody debris removal has no influence on rodent population abundance, incorporation of switchgrass intercropping has an intermediate influence on rodent population abundance, and planting only switchgrass has a significant influence rodent population abundance. Switchgrass habitats supported higher abundance of the invasive M. musculus, and lower abundance of the native P. leucopus than habitats without switchgrass. Thus, forest managers may want to consider introducing switchgrass exclusively to interior forest stands, that are far from potential M. musculus source populations (e.g., agricultural fields and residential buildings. This strategy could also benefit native species that avoid switchgrass, such as P. leucopus, by providing refuge areas devoid of switchgrass in exterior stands. A better understanding of rodent responses to forest management will be beneficial in maintaining biodiversity and the sustained use of the services provided by forest habitats

The position of women in the administration of physical education units in selected four-year, public colleges and universities

The purpose of the study was to determine the position of women administrators of physical education units in large and very large universities throughout the United States having undergraduate and graduate professional preparation and general college programs in physical education. A total of 199 institutions of higher education meeting the criteria for inclusion in the study were recipients of the survey instrument. Ninety-eight respondents provided usable returns. The data collected for this investigation were of a descriptive nature. The quantitative segment of the data was analyzed utilizing appropriate numbers, percentages, tables, and graphs

Leadership styles and teacher involvement in the decision-making process in the small administrative unit

Many traditional models of the managerial process in public school organizations have been autocratic or bureaucratic in nature. The manager makes decisions on matters within his particular area of freedom, issues the directives and orders to his subordinates, and monitors their performance to ensure conformity with the decisions made and the directives issued. In too many instances, administrators have not involved the faculty and staff in the decision-making process. Public schools must develop mechanisms for decision-making that will build trust rather than diminish it, and these mechanisms must involve the willingness to delegate authority and to allow individuals to assume leadership. The key to this process is to develop the proper framework for the decision-making process and to determine the level of teacher involvement which will be most effective. The efforts behind the decision-making process, the implementation of the decision made, and the responsibility for the decisions can be shared. If all who are involved in the sharing process have productive input and cooperative planning is provided, then an effective decision-making mechanism can be established within the school system