Rhetoric as repression : the roles and effects of government framing

Thesis supervisor: Dr. A. Cooper Drury.Includes vita.During modern protest movements, the regimes targeted by dissidents have issued largely similar kinds of statements about the events. Participants tend to be depicted as national traitors, criminals, or otherwise illegitimate. This project seeks to understand the role such regime rhetoric plays in a government's resistance to protest. I develop a theory that argues that such statements are intentionally designed so as to reduce the amount of support protesters receive from the domestic population and international community by framing them as illegitimate actors. As a result, the government can prevent the growth of protests without relying on costly uses of force. I test the need and capacity for states to carry out this strategy through the level of openness and construction of state-owned media institutions, the relationship between rhetoric and protests, and whether rhetoric reduces the pressure states experience from the international community. I find that transparent states tend to replace state repression with rhetoric, and that this framing allows states to reduce the number of protests. While rhetoric does not change the level of pressure states experience from international organizations, it successfully decreases the amount of pressure that other states bring to bear on a target state.Includes bibliographical references (pages 143-153)

Shaming the Truth: Naming and Shaming and Transitional Justice

While it is generally recognized that “naming and shaming” carried out by transnational human rights actors can lead to an improvement in aggregate conditions, it is less clear whether this strategy influences more specific behavior. As more states are democratizing, the international community has stepped up efforts at transitional justice to promote accountability and reconciliation. What is unclear is whether this promotion has been positive or negative for the pursuit of transitional justice broadly or if the community prioritizes some mechanisms over others. In this paper, we examine the role that human rights advocacy plays in the onset of transitional justice mechanisms. Using events data to disaggregate naming and shaming across state, intergovernmental, and nongovernmental actors, we test which kinds of activities have the greatest impact on the implementation of transitional justice in post-conflict settings

Counter-Diffusion: Does Russian Propaganda Wind Up in America?

Does the norm diffusion process work in reverse? Specifically, does the success of the Russian government in building counternarratives and counternorms to reinforce its authoritarian government mean they have the ability to diminish successful human rights advocacy in the United States? This project examines whether the rhetoric used to justify anti-LGBT policies in Russia are broadcast and adopted by anti-LGBT groups in the United States. In the United States, public support for LGBT civil rights is often cited as a success story in the adoption and diffusion of human rights norms. Often, this is used as evidence of broadening norm adoption. However, this local success has not been followed by global success. Russia, for example, remains as a country that largely denies LGBT rights and criminalizes advocacy as “homopropaganda.” Rather than causing public backlash, this position is met with widespread public support in Russia. We expect the existence of a successful counternorm in one country to be adopted and weaponized against the same group in another country where human rights norms have been adopted. We examine this question by collecting public statements and stories issued by Russian state media that reference LGBT rights issues. We then compare them to statements made by American ant-LGBT groups, measuring for changes in content. We expect that, over time, American groups start to use rhetoric similar to that used by Russia

Excitonic Effects in Quantum Wires

We review the effects of Coulomb correlation on the linear and non-linear optical properties of semiconductor quantum wires, with emphasis on recent results for the bound excitonic states. Our theoretical approach is based on generalized semiconductor Bloch equations, and allows full three-dimensional multisubband description of electron-hole correlation for arbitrary confinement profiles. In particular, we consider V- and T-shaped structures for which significant experimental advances were obtained recently. Above band gap, a very general result obtained by this approach is that electron-hole Coulomb correlation removes the inverse-square-root single-particle singularity in the optical spectra at band edge, in agreement with previous reports from purely one-dimensional models. Strong correlation effects on transitions in the continuum are found to persist also at high densities of photoexcited carriers. Below bandgap, we find that the same potential- (Coulomb) to kinetic-energy ratio holds for quite different wire cross sections and compositions. As a consequence, we identify a shape- and barrier-independent parameter that governs a universal scaling law for exciton binding energy with size. Previous indications that the shape of the wire cross-section may have important effects on exciton binding are discussed in the light of the present results.Comment: Proc. OECS-5 Conference, G\"ottingen, 1997 (To appear in Phys. Stat. Sol. (b)

Invited response on: dual-plane retro-pectoral versus pre-pectoral dti breast reconstruction. An italian multicenter experience

Invited Response on: Dual-Plane Retro-Pectoral Versus Pre-pectoral DTI Breast Reconstruction: An Italian Multicenter Experienc

Influence of magnetic micelles on assembly and deposition of porphyrin J‐aggregates

Clusters of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) have been incorporated into the hydrophobic core of polyethylene glycol (PEG)‐modified phospholipid micelles. Two different PEG‐phospholipids have been selected to guarantee water solubility and provide an external corona, bearing neutral (SPIONs@PEG‐micelles) or positively charged amino groups (SPIONs@NH2‐PEG‐micelles). Under acidic conditions and with specific mixing protocols (porphyrin first, PF, or porphyrin last, PL), the water‐soluble 5,10,15,20‐tetrakis‐(4‐ sulfonatophenyl)‐porphyrin (TPPS) forms chiral J‐aggregates, and in the presence of the two different types of magnetic micelles, an increase of the aggregation rates has been generally observed. In the case of the neutral SPIONs@PEG‐micelles, PL protocol affords a stable nanosystem, whereas PF protocol is effective with the charged SPIONs@NH2‐PEG‐micelles. In both cases, chiral J‐aggregates embedded into the magnetic micelles (TPPS@SPIONs@micelles) have been characterized in solution through UV/vis absorption and circular/linear dichroism. An external magnetic field allows depositing films of the TPPS@SPIONs@micelles that retain their chiroptical properties and exhibit a high degree of alignment, which is also confirmed by atomic force microscopy

Identifying correlations between LIGO's astronomical range and auxiliary sensors using lasso regression

The range to which the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) can observe astrophysical systems varies over time, limited by noise in the instruments and their environments. Identifying and removing the sources of noise that limit LIGO's range enables higher signal-to-noise observations and increases the number of observations. The LIGO observatories are continuously monitored by hundreds of thousands of auxiliary channels that may contain information about these noise sources. This paper describes an algorithm that uses linear regression, namely lasso (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator) regression, to analyze all of these channels and identify a small subset of them that can be used to reconstruct variations in LIGO's astrophysical range. Exemplary results of the application of this method to three different periods of LIGO Livingston data are presented, along with computational performance and current limitations

Nandrolone decanoate: Use, abuse and side effects

Background and Objectives: Androgens play a significant role in the development of male reproductive organs. The clinical use of synthetic testosterone derivatives, such as nandrolone, is focused on maximizing the anabolic effects and minimizing the androgenic ones. Class II anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS), including nandrolone, are rapidly becoming a widespread group of drugs used both clinically and illicitly. The illicit use of AAS is diffused among adolescent and bodybuilders because of their anabolic proprieties and their capacity to increase tolerance to exercise. This systematic review aims to focus on side effects related to illicit AAS abuse, evaluating the scientific literature in order to underline the most frequent side effects on AAS abusers’ bodies. Materials and Methods: A systematic review of the scientific literature was performed using the PubMed database and the keywords “nandrolone decanoate”. The inclusion criteria for articles or abstracts were English language and the presence of the following words: “abuse” or “adverse effects”. After applying the exclusion and inclusion criteria, from a total of 766 articles, only 148 were considered eligible for the study. Results: The most reported adverse effects (found in more than 5% of the studies) were endocrine effects (18 studies, 42%), such as virilization, gynecomastia, hormonal disorders, dyslipidemia, genital alterations, and infertility; cardiovascular dysfunctions (six studies, 14%) such as vascular damage, coagulation disorders, and arteriosus hypertension; skin disorders (five studies, 12%) such as pricking, acne, and skin spots; psychiatric and mood disorders (four studies, 9%) such as aggressiveness, sleep disorders and anxiety; musculoskeletal disorders (two studies, 5%), excretory disorders (two studies, 5%), and gastrointestinal disorders (two studies, 5%). Conclusions: Based on the result of our study, the most common adverse effects secondary to the abuse of nandrolone decanoate (ND) involve the endocrine, cardiovascular, skin, and psychiatric systems. These data could prove useful to healthcare professionals in both sports and clinical settings