Positive Appeals Research Articles

Production of vitamins, coenzymes and related biochemicals by biotechnological processes.

Vitamins and related biofactors belong to those few chemicals with a direct positive appeal to people. There is indeed a large need for extra vitamins, other than those derived from plant and animal food sources, due to unbalanced food habits or processing, food shortage or disease. Added vitamins are now either prepared chemically or biotechnologically via fermentation or bioconversion processes. Several vitamins and related biofactors are now only or mainly produced chemically (vitamin A, cholecalciferol (D3), tocopherol (E), vitamin K2, thiamine (B1), niacin (PP or B3), pantothenic acid (B5), pyridoxine (B6), biotin (H or B8), folic acid (B9) or via extraction processes (beta-carotene or provitamin A, provitamin D3, tocopherol, vitamin F-group). However, for several of these compounds microbiological or algal methods also exist or are rapidly emerging. Others are produced practically exclusively via fermentation (ergosterol or provitamin D2, riboflavin (B2), cyanocobalamin (B12), orotic acid (B13), vitamin F-group, ATP, nucleosides, coenzymes, etc. or via microalgal culture (beta-carotene, E, F). Both chemical and microbial processes are run industrially for vitamin B2 while vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is produced via a combination of chemical reactions and fermentation processes. A survey is given here of the current state of vitamin production, with emphasis on developments and strategies for improved biotechnological production and its significance, as compared to existing chemical processes. The screening or construction of vitamin hyperproducing microbial strains is a difficult task; pathway elucidation and metabolic (de)regulation need further study; r-DNA technology has only recently been introduced; improved fermentation processes and immobilised biocatalysts bioconversions for the synthesis of chiral vitamin compounds or intermediates or derivatives are gaining importance; the recovery and purification of these vitamin compounds from their fermentation broths remains equally complex.

Competitive Allocations when the Asset Market is Incomplete

The normative appeal of the market mechanism derives from the pareto optimality of competitive equilibrium allocations. Its positive appeal derives from the generic determinacy of competitive allocations : the requirement of market clearing generically suffices in order to determine the allocation of resources up to a finite set; also, the variation in the allocation of resources following a small variation in exogenous parameters, tastes, endowments or technologies. The existence of competitive equilibria guarantees the consistency both of the model and of the market as an allocation mechanism. Within the Arrow-Debreu model, these textbook properties of competitive equilibria hold under assumptions that are well understood, even standard. A most demanding requirement of the Arrow-Debreu model is the requirement that the asset market be cbmplete : that for each date-event a portfolio of securities exist that pays off one unit of revenue at that date-event and zero otherwise ; also that all securities be traded at an initial period with all individuals present. When the asset market is incomplete, prices acquire a role in addition to that of conveying the aggregate scarcity of commodities: in conjunction with the asset structure, prices determine the attainable reallocations of revenue across date-events. This additional role of the price mechanism underlies the divergence between economies with a complete and an incomplete asset structure. Competitive equilibrium allocations are fully pareto optimal when the asset market is complete: 1 no variation in the distribution of assets or commodities can improve on a competitive allocation. The argument for optimality is analytically simple and requires a minimum of assumptions: it derives simply from the fact that all potential reallocations can be valued unambiguously at the equilibrium prices. What is demanding is the appropriate interpretation of the notion of a commodity or a market ; equivalently, the requirement that the asset market be complete. The appropriate criterion of optimality when the asset market is incomplete has been a vexing question since the construction of examples with an incomplete asset market and

“Qualitative liberalism”: Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and the persuasive uses of definition and history

During the 1950s, American liberals as an ideological group were besieged by a number of challenges to their values and presumptions. In response to these challenges, historian and political advocate Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. sought to transform the term “liberal” from a term of approbation to a term with a broader, more positive appeal. In the latter half of the 1950s, Schlesinger engaged in a rhetorical campaign which attempted to provide liberals with a dramatic redefinition of themselves as a force in American politics based on the notion of “qualitative liberalism.” This essay applies the concepts of persuasive definition, ideograph, and ideological history in an analysis of Schlesinger's discourse in order to enhance understanding of how the strategic definition of terms such as “liberal” can influence the ongoing struggle to set presumptions in American political life.

Beyond Fear Appeals: Negative and Positive Persuasive Appeals to Health and Self‐Esteem

The present research was designed to extend our knowledge of fear appeals and attitude change in two directions. The first purpose was to compare a traditional negative, or fear, appeal to its counterpart, an appeal emphasizing the positive consequences of accepting a communicator's recommendation. The second purpose was to test the assumption of the theory of protection motivation that people are motivated to protect themselves from psychological and social, as well as physical, threats. The results disclosed that, compared to a no‐message control condition, the traditional negative appeal to health was more persuasive than the positive appeal. A positive appeal to self‐esteem, however, was superior to a negative appeal to self‐esteem. Several implications for health psychology were discussed. First, the traditional negative appeals to health may be more persuasive than positive appeals. Second, people may be persuaded to adopt healthy lifestyles for reasons other than health per se (i.e., to enhance self‐esteem). The following tentative conclusions were based on unexpected findings and should be interpreted with caution. The decision to use a positive or negative appeal should consider the number of available adaptive responses. Finally, the data suggested that mass media health campaigns should use both negative and positive appeals.

Maternity Career Apparel and Perceived Job Effectiveness

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a relationship between maternity career apparel and perceived job effectiveness. A sample of 97pregnant women was dra wn from prenatal classes at a local hospital in a southern metropolitan area. A questionnaire, designed by the researchers, measured desired fashion appeal and styles of apparel worn to work and jacket styles for pregnant women. Also included was a component on perceived job effectiveness. Data were analyzed using chi square univariate and multivariate tests, and Spearman rank order correlation. Results indicated that there were significant differences among educational and career oriented groups forgeneral fashion appeal. There were no significant differences among demographic groups for apparel worn to work orforjacket styles. Significant negative and positive associations werefoundfor general fashion appeal and apparel worn to work with perceived job effectiveness. Respondents have needs that are differentfrom career women in general, and professional attire worn duringpregnancy is related to one's self-assessment ofjob effectiveness. The results have implications in terms oftargeting pregnant professional women as a group with specific apparel needs and supported the relationship between appearance and perceived job effectiveness.

Effects of prior information and initial attitude on susceptibility to emotional appeals

In order to examine variables that mediate susceptibility to emotional appeals, 80 Ss received a positive or negative appeal concerning a little-known country. In addition, one-half of the Ss also received neutral information about the attitude object prior to the appeal. Results of a 2 by 2 by 2 analysis of variance (Positive Appeal vs Negative Appeal by Prior Information vs No Prior Information by Favorable Initial Attitude vs Unfavorable Initial Attitude) showed two significant interactions. First, negative appeals effected more change among Ss with initially favorable attitudes (p <.01), and second, the presence of prior information increased the effectiveness of negative but decreased the effectiveness of positive appeals (p <.05). The findings suggest that positive and negative appeals may identify separate processes of change, but that communicator credibility should be examined in further studies.

The Relationship between Anxiety and Positive and Negative Advertising Appeals

Advertising appeals that arouse an appropriate amount of emotional tension can be successful in achieving desired attitudinal changes. For some members of an audience the appropriate amount of emotional tension may apparently be achieved by means of negative appeals while others respond better to positive appeals

Effects of factual information on creating resistance to emotional appeals

Factual information about a little-known country was presented to Ss who subsequently heard either a negative or positive emotional appeal about the country and its people. Ss in the control conditions did not receive prior information about the country before hearing the emotional appeals. The results indicated that Ss exposed to prior factual information were less persuaded by the negative appeal than Ss who did not receive prior information. Prior factual information had little effect in influencing susceptibility to the positive appeal. Indirect evidence cited suggested that the factual information tended to create a positive attitude toward the country. Several interpretations of the data, including an averaging model of information integration, were discussed.

Shakesperian Performance as Criticism, Ashland, 1962

HE unique importance of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, now twenty-seven years old, continues to lie in its revelations. of what the original performances must have been like. Its duplication of the Globe-Fortune multiple staging is repeatedly vindicated as an agent of critical study of the plays. Whr Happily the producers and actors at Ashland show their awareness that the only sure way toward recovery of past methods of performance must take into account universal features of good theater. Lively, intense, integrated action, clear and forceful utterance, effective stage picture, positive appeal to the audience, these are sought along with the specifically Elizabethan features. The i962 season of four plays affirmed this emphatically in a sparkling Comedy of Errors, which opened the cycle. That it was only less apparent in the As You Like It was strikingly the result of less imaginative use of the elements of the Elizabethan stage. In varying degrees this seemed even more true of the two heavier dramas, Henry IV, Part 2, and Coriolanus. These two stood as interesting contrasts in the study of warfare and the contest for political power. Perhaps their directors were seeking variations on previous successful deployment of battle scenes. Certainly these moments lacked the sense of clang and clamor that have so often shaken the stage at Ashland. Coriolanus, in particular, directed by a newcomer, suffered from the want of mass and movement, the effect being as if the hero found himself supported by only such ragtag as Falstaff chose for glorious death in the other war play. The forestage failed to become a battlefield, nor was it successfully turned into a place of peace and security, the locus amoenus of the Forest of Arden. Since both effects have been repeatedly achieved in previous seasons, there is no need to question the potential of the Elizabethan type of stage. Both scholar and director need to ask what it is that converts a bare and meagerly dressed stage into forest or battlefield. The answer in part is certainly that the actors must believe it to be so. Yet the Banished Duke was asked to discourse to his brothers in exile on their forest retreat in a crowded inner stage setting. Not only was this area largely preempted by a massive table and benches, but the emulators of Robin Hood were arrayed in hugeous Graustarkian costumes such as no hunter, forester, or freedom fighter would be found dead in, not least because they made such broad targets for speedy death. The feel and form of the inner stage is that of a room, or at least a restricted and essentially closed space. Not only was it impossible for the Duke