The Word Of God, For The People Of God: Examining The Impact Of The Bible On Personal Policy Preferences

For Christians, the Bible represents a unique document that contains holy messaging about how they should live their life. However, the connection between biblical messages and personal policy preferences is unclear. This research utilizes a unique survey-embedded experiment to discover how a liberal Bible message can impact personal policy preferences. Ultimately, I conclude that exposure to a liberal Bible message does not show more liberal differences in policy perspectives relative to a control passage amongst Christians. Similarly, I also conclude that Christians exposed to a liberal Bible message do not demonstrate statistically more liberal policy preferences relative to Christians exposed to a control passage across a spectrum of religiosity and political involvement

History Of Botanical Collectors At Grandfather Mountain, NC During The 19th Century And An Analysis Of The Flora Of The Boone Fork Headwaters Within Grandfather Mountain State Park, NC

The Southern Appalachian Mountains have been an active region of botanical exploration for over 250 years. From the middle of the 19th century, botanists have noted Grandfather Mountain’s unique vegetation and its similarity to the flora of the North Appalachian Mountains. The intent of this study was to identify the important botanists visiting Grandfather Mountain during the 19th century. Four collectors were selected for this analysis. These four scientists who played an important role in the history of taxonomic and botanical work on Grandfather Mountain, Asa Gray, Rev. Moses Ashley Curtis, John K. Small and Amos A. Heller, contributed to our knowledge of Grandfather Mountain and its unique flora. The second portion of my thesis work focused on the vascular flora, natural communities, and a preliminary list of epipetric mosses collected from dry boulders and rock outcrops within the Boone Fork headwaters of Grandfather Mountain State Park. Surveys revealed 262 vascular plant species, 19 epipetric mosses, and 18 distinct natural communities. Twenty-four vascular plant species found during field surveys were state listed or federally listed and three taxa represent new county records. The vascular flora was represented by 76 plant families, ten comprising 48% of the species within the BFH

Expertise in unexpected places: selective social learning from counter-normative experts

Previous research demonstrates that children prefer to use information given by people of their own gender when learning about their environment. However, young children are also very sensitive to the specialized knowledge, or expertise, of others. The present work explored whether children are willing to learn from an expert informant who displays non - traditional gender role interests. Four- to 8-year-olds were presented with conflicting opinions about a piece of domain specific information from a counter-stereotypical expert (e.g., a boy with expertise in ballet), as well as a layperson of the opposite gender (e.g., a girl with little knowledge about ballet). Participants were asked to choose who they believed was correct, who they would prefer to learn from in the future, and how much they liked each character. Overall, participants selected the counter-stereotypical expert as correct. However, 4- to 5-year-olds reported a preference to learn from same-gender participants in the future irrespective of their expertise, whereas 6- to 8-year-olds reported wanting to learn from the counter-stereotypical expert in the future. Gender differences also emerged, with boys of all ages showing greater acceptance of the opinion of a male counter-stereotypical expert as compared to a female counter-stereotypical expert. These results demonstrate that while expertise is a powerful learning cue, there are circumstances in which expert testimony may be disregarded in favor of potent social categorical biases

The effects of signalled reinforcement in multiple schedules of reinforcement

In a two-component multiple variable interval schedule of reinforcement, responding in a blue, nonsignalled component was found to be a decreasing, negatively accelerated function of the rate of reinforcement in a red, signalled component. It was clearly demonstrated that the interaction between responding in one component of a multiple schedule and reinforcement rate in a second, regularly alternated component will occur in the absence of large variations in response rate in the component in which reinforcement rate is varied. Neither the Catania function for concurrent schedules nor the Lander and Irwin function for multiple schedules accurately predicted responding in the present situation, although a function of the same general form appeared appropriate. When equal VI schedules were in effect in both components, the effect of signalling reinforcement in one component was a decrease in responding in the signalled component and a corresponding increase in responding in the unchanged component. Upon removal of the signal, responding in the previously signalled component recovered (increased), while responding in the unchanged component showed a gradual decline. Both positive and negative behavioral contrast were observed in the absence of changes in reinforcement rate

Assai: historical contexts of a contested musical term

This study seeks to establish the feasibility of assai as a moderating term in more cases than is typically assumed. Since evidence of concurrent competing definitions for the term assai exists from the mid- to late-18th century, understanding and putting into practice a composer’s indications according to his own understanding of the term becomes murky where the word assai is concerned during and beyond the time when the two definitions exist concurrently. Through investigation of musical scores, examining such features as ornamentation, the relative brilliance of the work, tonality, meter, and structure, the characteristics of a piece of music that are crucial to navigating the multivalent qualities of the word assai are identified and tested against the actual musical content of examples from works of J. S. Bach, Domenico Scarlatti, W. F. Bach, J. C. F. Bach, Johann Friedrich Agricola, C. P. E. Bach, W. A. Mozart, F. J. Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, and Franz Liszt

Behavioral contrast : distribution of responses and time in a two-component multiple schedule of reinforcement

The concurrent properties of component performances on multiple variable-interval schedules of reinforcement were studied in six pigeons under conditions where pecks in each component of a two-component multiple schedule were reinforced according to concurrent schedules. The rationale for studying component performances within the context of a "multiple schedule of concurrent schedules" was based upon the assumption that within each component of a multiple schedule a certain proportion of the animal's time will be governed by the exteroceptive component stimulus of the multiple schedule while the remainder will be distributed among other concurrent response alternatives in direct proportion to their relative reinforcement value. Based upon this assumption, the present study sought to evaluate the hypothesis that behavioral contrast on multiple schedules results, at least in part, from a stimulus-specific shift in the reinforcement value associated with the unchanged component stimulus relative to the reinforcement value associated with stimuli occasioning other concurrent response alternatives

The effects of group directed versus individual directed instruction within a group instructional setting

One contribution of behavior modification to educational settings is the functional analysis of teaching behavior. The components of teaching consist of (a) prompts which set the occasion for a response to occur; (b) student responses; and (c) consequences which alter the frequency of student responses. Many investigations specifying the functions and parameters of each of these components have been conducted. The present investigation considered instruction as a "package" composed of both antecedent and consequent components. The research question was the relative merits of directing instruction to individuals within a group versus groups of students. The performance task of beginning archery was chosen as a dependent measure. Twenty-six subjects were matched on shoulder-girdle strength and assigned to one of two experimental conditions. In the individual instructional condition, the instructor was required to direct at least 90 percent of the instructions to individuals within the group; not more than 10 percent of the instructions were directed to the group as a whole. In the group instructional condition, the reverse was true. Daily observations of the teacher's instructional behaviors were used to determine that the experimental conditions of the study were met

The effects of pure tone stimulation on non-nutritive sucking in the human infant

Non-nutritive sucking initiation and non-nutritive sucking cessation to four pure tone stimuli varying both in frequency and intensity were investigated in an attempt to discern the usefulness of these two discrete response indices when testing auditory sensitivity in 2½ month old infants. Stimuli were presented contingent upon S’s sucking state and variable interstimulus intervals were employed to minimize the occurrence of sucking habituation. Non-stimulus control trials were randomly presented along with experimental trials such that infants could be used as their own controls. A TSD analysis resulted in the calculation of sensitivity indices (d1), based on the total number of trials each stimulus was presented, averaged across all subjects. Analyses of variance performed on the sensitivity indices yielded a significant main effect for Intensity when non-nutritive sucking cessation was considered. Differential responsivity to stimulus frequency was not evidenced. The utility of the two response indices under investigation was found to be equivocal and highly conditional, varying as a function of subject, stimulus, and procedural variables

Investigation and comparison of stereoisomer products of 2-methylcitrate synthase and 2-methylcitrate dehydratase in Escherichia coli strain K12 and Bacillus subtilis strain 168

Bacillus subtilis has been extensively studied and serves as a model organism for Gram-positive bacteria which can be attributed to its capacity to be genetically manipulated, form endospores, and a sequenced genome. B. subtilis undergoes a disproportionate cellular division during a process known as sporulation, which has been widely used to study more complex phenomena, such as cellular differentiation. In addition, B. subtilis is widely used by industry and a greater understanding of its metabolic pathways would be a valuable contribution to the genomic annotation in this model organism. A long-term goal of our research is to provide a more complete description of the biochemical pathways that are encoded by the mother cell metabolic gene (mmg) operon within B. subtilis. One specific objective of this research is to compare the 2-methylcitrate stereoisomer produced by 2-methylcitrate synthase, the PrpC enzyme, in Escherichia coli to the 2-methylcitrate stereoisomer produced by the homologous enzyme, MmgD, in B. subtilis. In addition, we wish to further investigate the subsequent dehydration reaction catalyzed by homologous enzymes PrpD and MmgE, which both have been found to produce (Z)-2-methylcitrate. The prpC and prpD gene products were cloned, overexpressed, and purified using a culture of E. coli strain BL21(DE3) via methods established by researchers of the Reddick Lab. The presence of the desired prpC and prpD gene products were verified by SDS-PAGE analysis and activity assays. To compare the 2-methylcitrate synthase activity of PrpC to MmgD, the reaction product was assessed by standardization with commercially available 2-methylcitrate racemate. Activity assays with PrpD and cross-species experiments were prepared in the same manner. Using this methodology, it was found that PrpC and MmgD produce either (2S, 3R)-2-methylcitrate or (3S, 2R)-2-methylcitrate. In addition, by confirming the substrates for these enzymes, we demonstrated the substrate for PrpD is not (2S, 3S)-2-methylcitrate and, therefore, PrpD does not exhibit a syn-elimination mechanism to produce (Z)-2-methylcitrate

Bibles, Beliefs, Crosses, And Candidates: The Effects Of Religious Identity On Political Attitudes

Religious identity is an understudied yet important component of religious behavior. Through this thesis, I consider two components: how does religion affect people’s judgments on political attitudes and how a political candidate’s religious identity impacts people’s evaluations. For my first study, I argue that the Bible serves as a conservative affective cue that will make respondents more likely to support more conservative federal spending policies. Through the use of a novel survey experiment, I find no evidence that the Bible impacts Christians’ stances on federal spending policy. For my second study, I analyze Mason’s (2018b) conception of religion as a causal factor in negative affective evaluations. Through a survey experiment, I find that Christians tend to evaluate Christian candidates less harshly than non-Christian candidates across party lines, that increased religiosity actually increases the affective evaluation gap between partisans on hypothetical candidates, and that Christian and Evangelical Christian identity do not appear to play a role in affective evaluations of candidates. Overall, through the combinations of these studies, I discover the limits of the impacts of religious identity in the political realm, ultimately resulting in a call for future research on the role of politics in religion