Attractability and Virality: The Role of Message Features and Social Influence in Health News Diffusion

What makes health news articles attractable and viral? Why do some articles diffuse widely by prompting audience selections (attractability) and subsequent social retransmissions (virality), while others do not? Identifying what drives social epidemics of health news coverage is crucial to our understanding of its impact on the public, especially in the emerging media environment where news consumption has become increasingly selective and social. This dissertation examines how message features and social influence affect the volume and persistence of attractability and virality within the context of the online diffusion of New York Times (NYT) health news articles. The dissertation analyzes (1) behavioral data of audience selections and retransmissions of the NYT articles and (2) associated article content and context data that are collected using computational social science approaches (automated data mining; computer-assisted content analysis) along with more traditional methods (manual content analysis; message evaluation survey). Analyses of message effects on the total volume of attractability and virality show that articles with high informational utility and positive sentiment invite more frequent selections and retransmissions, and that articles are also more attractable when presenting controversial, emotionally evocative, and familiar content. Furthermore, these analyses reveal that informational utility and novelty have stronger positive associations with email-specific virality, while emotion-related message features, content familiarity, and exemplification play a larger role in triggering social media-based retransmissions. Temporal dynamics analyses demonstrate social influence-driven cumulative advantage effects, such that articles which stay on popular-news lists longer invite more frequent subsequent selections and retransmissions. These analyses further show that the social influence effects are stronger for articles containing message features found to enhance the total volume of attractability and virality. This suggests that those synergistic interactions might underlie the observed message effects on total selections and retransmissions. Exploratory analyses reveal that the effects of social influence and message features tend to be similar for both (1) the volume of audience news selections and retransmissions and (2) the persistence of those behaviors. However, some message features, such as expressed emotionality, are relatively unique predictors of persistence outcomes. Results are discussed in light of their implications for communication research and practice

Effect of ferromagnetic contacts on spin accumulation in an all-metallic lateral spin-valve system: Semiclassical spin drift-diffusion equations

We study the effect of the ferromagnetic (FM) contacts on the spin accumulation in the lateral spin valve system for the collinear magnetization configurations. When an additional FM electrode is introduced in the all-metallic lateral spin-valve system, we find that the transresistance can be fractionally suppressed or very weakly influenced depending on the position of the additional FM electrode, and relative magnitudes of contact resistance and the bulk resistance defined over the spin diffusion length. Nonlocal spin signals such as nonlocal voltage drop and leakage spin currents are independent of the magnetization orientation of the additional FM electrode. Even when the additional contact is nonmagnetic, nonlocal spin signals can be changed by the spin current leaking into the nonmagnetic electrode.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, revised versio

Probing Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Monolayers and Heterostructures by Polarization-Resolved Spectroscopy

The goal of this dissertation is to introduce my study on exotic materials in two dimensional world, not only to the well-trained researchers in this field but also to the beginners of condensed matter experiment. I hope this material to be a good guide for those of who paves the way of spintronics and valleytronics The first chapter will give you the introduction to two dimensional materials - Graphene and Monolayer Transition Metal DiChalcogenide (TMDC). The second chapter introduces some toolkits on optical techniques on condensed matter experiment, from very basics for everyone to the advanced for main projects of this work. They include Reflection Contrast, Raman Spectroscopy, Photoluminescence, and Pump Probe Spectroscopy. Chapter three will be review on several literature which are prerequisites for understanding and getting inspiration for this work. They are on the spin-valley indexes of carriers in TMDC, interlayer charge transfer in TMDC heterostructre, valley Hall effect, etc. Chapter four will focus on the first half of main project, “Charge and Spin-Valley Transfer in Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Heterostructure”. Starting from the fabrication of heterostructure samples for our playground, we investigate the Interlayer Charge Transfer in our Heterostructure sample by ultrafast pump probe spectroscopy. We bring the polarization resolved version of the technique to study the Spin-Valley indexes conservation in the interlayer transferred charge, and analyze its physical meaning. We study which one is the dominantly preserved quantity among spin and valley by using the broadband pump probe spectroscopy which covers A and B excitonic energy in TMDC material. As all the measurement here are taken under room temperature condition, this work paves the way for possible real device application. Chapter five will cover the second half of main project, “Electrical control of spin and valley Hall effect in monolayer WSe2 transistors near room temperature”. Valley Hall effect device in praevious studies will be briefly revisited, and our new device is presented, using hole as carrier rather than electron for the robustness of valley index conservation, followed by optical experiment setting and results. Quantitative analyze on valley polarized carrier concentration and its depolarization time constant will follow. Chapter six will be a summary and direction to the future work

Narrative Health Communication and Behavior Change: The Influence of Exemplars in the News on Intention to Quit Smoking.

This study investigated psychological mechanisms underlying the effect of narrative health communication on behavioral intention. Specifically, the study examined how exemplification in news about successful smoking cessation affects recipients\u27 narrative engagement, thereby changing their intention to quit smoking. Nationally representative samples of U.S. adult smokers participated in 2 experiments. The results from the 2 experiments consistently showed that smokers reading a news article with an exemplar experienced greater narrative engagement compared to those reading an article without an exemplar. Those who reported more engagement were in turn more likely to report greater smoking cessation intentions

Soluble suppression of tumorigenicity 2 and echocardiography in sepsis

Soluble suppression of tumorigenicity 2 (sST2) has emerged as a biomarker of cardiac stretch or remodeling, and has demonstrated a role in acutely decompensated heart failure. However, its role in sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction is still unknown. We explored whether sST2 serum concentration reflects either systolic or diastolic dysfunction as measured by Doppler echocardiography. In a total of 127 patients with sepsis, correlations between sST2 and blood pressure, left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction, LV diastolic filling (ratio of early transmitral flow velocity to early diastolic mitral annulus velocity), and resting pulmonary arterial pressure were evaluated. Correlations between sST2 and other sepsis biomarkers (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein [hs-CRP] and procalcitonin) were also examined. sST2 showed a moderate correlation with mean arterial pressure (r=-0.3499) but no correlation with LV ejection fraction, diastolic filling, or resting pulmonary hypertension. It showed moderate correlations with hs-CRP and procalcitonin (r=0.2608 and r=0.3829, respectively). sST2 might have a role as a biomarker of shock or inflammation, but it cannot reflect echocardiographic findings of LV ejection fraction or diastolic filling in sepsis

Lebenssstil und Ästhetik in der Kulturtheorie Georg Simmels: theoretische Beiträge zur Auseinandersetzung mit der Kultursoziologie Pierre Bourdieus

Kim-Heinrich H-S. Lebenssstil und Ästhetik in der Kulturtheorie Georg Simmels: theoretische Beiträge zur Auseinandersetzung mit der Kultursoziologie Pierre Bourdieus. Bielefeld: Universitätsbibliothek; 2012

IRT5 Probiotics Changes Immune Modulatory Protein Expression in the Extraorbital Lacrimal Glands of an Autoimmune Dry Eye Mouse Model

PURPOSE. While the association between the gut microbiome and the immune system has been studied in autoimmune disorders, little is known about ocular disease. Previously we reported that IRT5, a mixture of five probiotic strains, could suppress autoimmune dry eye. In this study, we investigated the mechanism by which IRT5 performs its immunomodulatory function in a mouse model of autoimmune dry eye. METHODS. NOD.B10.H2b mice were used as an autoimmune dry eye model. Either IRT5 or PBS was gavaged orally for 3 weeks, with or without 5 days of antibiotic pretreatment. The effects on clinical features, extraorbital lacrimal gland and spleen proteins, and fecal microbiota were analyzed. RESULTS. The ocular staining score was lower, and tear secretion was higher, in the IRT5-treated groups than in the PBS-treated groups. After IRT5 treatment, the downregulated lacrimal gland proteins were enriched in the biological processes of defense response and immune system process. The relative abundances of 33 operational taxonomic units were higher, and 53 were lower, in the feces of the IRT5-treated groups than in those of the PBS-treated groups. IRT5 administration without antibiotic pretreatment also showed immunomodulatory functions with increases in the Lactobacillus helveticus group and Lactobacillus hamsteri. Additional proteomic assays revealed a decrease of proteins related to antigen-presenting processes in the CD11b(+) and CD11c(+) cells of spleen in the IRT5-treated groups. CONCLUSIONS. Changes in the gut microbiome after IRT5 treatment improved clinical manifestations in the autoimmune dry eye model via the downregulation of antigen-presenting processes in immune networks.11Ysciescopu

Smart Roadside System for Driver Assistance and Safety Warnings: Framework and Applications

The use of newly emerging sensor technologies in traditional roadway systems can provide real-time traffic services to drivers through Telematics and Intelligent Transport Systems (ITSs). This paper introduces a smart roadside system that utilizes various sensors for driver assistance and traffic safety warnings. This paper shows two road application models for a smart roadside system and sensors: a red-light violation warning system for signalized intersections, and a speed advisory system for highways. Evaluation results for the two services are then shown using a micro-simulation method. In the given real-time applications for drivers, the framework and certain algorithms produce a very efficient solution with respect to the roadway type features and sensor type use