Implications of Effort Put into Forming an Attitude for Resistance to Attitude Change

Many researchers have studied elaboration, which is the extent to which people effortfully think about attitude-relevant information. Despite being effortful, many effects of elaboration, such as resistance of change, have largely been attributed to cognitive changes that accompany elaboration or to perceptions of elaboration rather than to the effort itself. Yet, it seems that effort itself could contribute to a person's resistance to give up that attitude. In the current case, effort can be described as the amount of work put into obtaining information and forming an attitude about it. One hundred seventy-three Ohio State University students were brought into the lab where they were asked to read an article and form an attitude about the target policy in the message. While the participants were reading this article, they were randomly assigned to also have a secondary task or not. This secondary task involved simultaneously monitoring a string of letters played at a relatively slow rate over headphones while attempting to read the article. The intent was for the secondary task to make participants put forth additional effort to receive and use the available information. The participants were then asked questions on their attitude toward the policy, how much they thought about the information and how difficult it was to obtain that information. Finally, the participants read an article that took an opposing point of view and then reported their attitude again following that opposing message. The data show that there was no significant difference in change in belief between the two secondary task conditions, but measures of perceived effort did predict resistance to change above and beyond perceptions of elaboration. Further studies will have to be designed with a more refined operationalization of variables, such as incorporating other ways to induce effort. For example, this could include the use of distracting visual stimuli. This study provides insight into why putting more cognitive effort into a task motivates someone to stick with it.No embargoAcademic Major: Psycholog

Drying Methods for the Fabrication of Polymer Foam Material

This is a report on the study of the drying of nanoporous polymer foam material fabricated by photolithogtaphic methods. Three drying methods were employed, which were air drying, supercritical drying and freeze drying. After fabrication and drying, physical properties of the polymer foams were measured. These measurements included density of the material, Young’s modulus, surface area, and the shape of the skeletal particles. The measurements determined the effect of the polymer concentration and the effect of drying methods. It was determined that polymer concentration had a much larger effect on the properties of the materials than the drying method

Evidence of Injury Following Sexual Assault: A Research Proposal

The prosecution of rape in the United States often relies on the evidence of genital injury. However, because rape is a crime of lack of consent, evidence should only be used to corroborate a storyline rather than to prove or disprove consent. The objective of this incidence density case-control study examining participants after consensual intercourse as well as victims of rape is to prove that both groups have an equally low prevalence on genital injury. Participants will include 300 victims on non-consensual sexual intercourse and 300 participants of consensual sexual intercourse interviewed and examined for genital injury using macrovisualization, speculum, colposcopy, and toluidine blue dye by Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners. Study participants must by over the age of 18 but premenopausal, present with absence of menses or pregnancy, and have participated in penile-vaginal intercourse within 72 hours of examination. Main outcomes are proportion and odds ratio of injury among both groups

A Review of Harmful Algal Bloom Prediction Models for Lakes and Reservoirs

Anthropogenic activity has led to eutrophication in water bodies across the world. This eutrophication promotes blooms, cyanobacteria being among the most notorious bloom organisms. Cyanobacterial blooms (more commonly referred to as harmful algal blooms (HABs)) can devastate an ecosystem. Cyanobacteria are resilient microorganisms that have adapted to survive under a variety of conditions, often outcompeting other phytoplankton. Some species of cyanobacteria produce toxins that ward off predators. These toxins can negatively affect the health of the aquatic life, but also can impact animals and humans that drink or come in contact with these noxious waters. Although cyanotoxin’s effects on humans are not as well researched as the growth, behavior, and ecological niche of cyanobacteria, their health impacts are of large concern. It is important that research to mitigate and understand cyanobacterial blooms and cyanotoxin production continues. This project supports continued research by addressing an approach to collect and summarize published articles that focus on techniques and models to predict cyanobacterial blooms with the goal of understanding what research has been done to promote future work. The following report summarizes 34 articles from 2003 to 2020 that each describe a mechanistic or data driven model developed to predict the occurrence of cyanobacterial blooms or the presence of cyanotoxins in lakes or reservoirs with similar climates to Utah. These articles showed a shift from more mechanistic approaches to more data driven approaches with time. This resulted in a more individualistic approach to modeling, meaning that models are often produced for a single lake or reservoir and are not easily comparable to other models for different systems

Cytogénétique et génétique des lignées cellulaires des animaux domestiques

International audienc

Étude des bandes chromosomiques du porc et de trois différentes souches de rein de porc en culture (PK 15, F et RP)

International audienc

Bandes chromosomiques de type G chez le lapin domestique (oryctolagus cuniculus)

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In situ 3D characterization of historical coatings and wood using multimodal nonlinear optical microscopy

International audienceWe demonstrate multimodal nonlinear optical imaging of historical artifacts by combining Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) and Two-Photon Excited Fluorescence (2PEF) microscopies. We first identify the nonlinear optical response of materials commonly encountered in coatings of cultural heritage artifacts by analyzing one- and multi-layered model samples. We observe 2PEF signals from cochineal lake and sandarac and show that pigments and varnish films can be discriminated by exploiting their different emission spectral ranges as in luminescence linear spectroscopy. We then demonstrate SHG imaging of a filler, plaster, composed of bassanite particles which exhibit a non centrosymmetric crystal structure. We also show that SHG/2PEF imaging enables the visualization of wood microstructure through typically 60 µm-thick coatings by revealing crystalline cellulose (SHG signal) and lignin (2PEF signal) in the wood cell walls. Finally, in situ multimodal nonlinear imaging is demonstrated in a historical violin. SHG/2PEF imaging thus appears as a promising non-destructive and contactless tool for in situ 3D investigation of historical coatings and more generally for wood characterization and coating analysis at micrometer scale. © 2012 OS