Negative and positive urgency may both be risk factors for compulsive buying

Abstract Background and aims Descriptions of compulsive buying often emphasize the roles of negative moods and trait impulsivity in the development of problematic buying habits. Trait impulsivity is sometimes treated as a unidimensional trait in compulsive buying research, but recent factor analyses suggest that impulsivity consists of multiple components that are probably best treated as independent predictors of problem behavior. In order to draw greater attention to the role of positive moods in compulsive buying, in this study we tested whether negative urgency (the tendency to act rashly while in negative moods) and positive urgency (the tendency to act rashly while in positive moods) account for similar amounts of variance in compulsive buying. Methods North American adults (N = 514) completed an online survey containing the Richmond Compulsive Buying Scale (Ridgway, Kukar-Kinney & Monroe, 2008), established measures of positive and negative urgency (Cyders et al., 2007), ad hoc measures of buying-specific positive and negative urgency, measures of extraversion and neuroticism obtained from the International Personality Item Pool (http://ipip.ori.org/), and demographic questions. Results In several multiple regression analyses, when demographic variables, neuroticism, and extraversion were controlled, positive urgency and negative urgency both emerged as significant predictors of compulsive buying. Whether the two urgency variables were domain-general or buying-specific, they accounted for similar amounts of variance in compulsive buying. Conclusions Preventing and reducing compulsive buying may require attention not only to the purchasing decisions people make while in negative states, but also to the purchasing decisions they make while in positive states

The Cuneiform Tablets at Syracuse University

Among its rare book collections, the George Arents Research Library at Syracuse University has 489 clay tablets written 4000 years ago. All of these cuneiform tablets, composed in the Sumerian language, are accounting records. Although how the library came to have them is not documented, they seem to have been in the collection for at least a halfcentury, awaiting their rediscovery by Professor David I. Owen, chairman of the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University. The tablets are being deciphered and copied by the present author, who will publish his work. These tablets were made in the city of Umma in the heart of the Tigris and Euphrates Valley, called Mesopotamia (between rivers) by the Greeks

Higher Than God

Higher than God is a collection of twelve pieces of fiction in a variety of formats such as modern short story prose, the memoir, the epistolary, poetry, and more experimental forms such as the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story and stream-of-consciousness writings. The works were written with the format of a concept album in mind where each individual piece of fiction is like a song which can be enjoyed on its own, but when read in order, reveals motifs, thematic echoes, and greater emotional resonance for the reader, similar to the effect a well-sequenced album would have on a musical aficionado. The protagonist of the “novel” is a young, white, male named Travis Steve. All the pieces attempt to reveal different aspects of his emotional/spiritual development or lack thereof through focusing on his turbulent emotional life which results from his various relationships and his experimentation with sex and substances. The work also relies heavily upon a myriad range of pop-cultural references, primarily rock n’ roll music, video game culture, and Hollywood movies. The end result is a totality of intra-textual meaning, as well as a bittersweet portrait and psychological examination of the protagonist.ProQuest Traditional Publishing Optio

Student Service Learning – Obstacles and Opportunities

AbstractService learning is a key component of the graduate education program at the Fisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Every time a graduate student is accepted as a Graduate Assistant into the Applied Gerontology Program, the student is trained on their responsibilities which include outreach to community-residing older adults. Outreach includes program planning to ensure delivery of programs both at the Community Center for Vital Aging in downtown Muncie and at various types of senior citizen establishments. Students each month reflect on their experiences through a Monthly Report form. Analysis of Monthly Report forms for the time period May to November, 2012 indicates that the students have learned skills, indicate better understanding of well and disabled older adults, lessened fear of working with and on behalf of older adults, and have a better understanding of what the older adult consumer desires

Tissue Specific Immunity: A Study Of Antiviral Defenses And The Influence Of The Microbiota

Mucosal sites, such as the intestine, constantly interact with non-self entities and distinguish between microorganisms that are beneficial, like the microbiota, or pathogenic, like viruses. There are many unexplored mechanisms of how the intestine recognizes the microbiota and the influence this has on the intestinal response to pathogen challenge. If a pathogen overcomes the multitude of cell autonomous immune mechanisms of the intestinal epithelium, then it gains access to the host body cavity and organs which launch their own immune responses to protect the host organism. However, how the microbiota influences systemic virus challenge and how the immune response varies between tissues has been underexplored. The Cherry lab previously developed Drosophila melanogaster as a model to study enteric virus infection and the microbiota. In this dissertation, we further explore antiviral signaling in the intestine and whole animal and the microbiota’s influence on oral and systemic immunity. We first found autophagy genes, like Atg16, and the ancient antimicrobial protein Drosophila STING (dSTING) are antiviral in the intestine against the alphavirus Sindbis virus (SINV) and a picorna-like virus Drosophila C virus (DCV). Similarly, cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs), the molecules that bind and activate STING, are antiviral during enteric oral infection and induce gene expression changes that are dependent on dSTING and inflammatory NF-kB signaling. CDNs are molecules that must be actively transported into cells, and we identified a putative CDN transporter that is antiviral in enterocytes and is required for CDN-mediated protection from infection and induction of gene expression changes. In contrast to oral infection, we find that autophagy genes, dSTING, the microbiota, and cyclic dinucleotides do not protect flies from systemic SINV infection. Despite this, during systemic DCV infection dSTING and CDNs protect flies while loss of the microbiota exacerbates infection. This uncovers both tissue and virus specific immune responses. Overall, this work defines previously unknown antiviral mechanisms in the fly intestine, explores how the microbiota and bacterial derived products influence enteric and systemic virus infection, and differentiates tissue responses to virus infection

A Handbook of Instruction for Physical Training Instructors Based upon the Selected Program in Physical Training for the 308th College Training Detachment (Aircrew) at Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College

The purpose in writing the handbook of instruction is two-fold: 1. To provide physical training instructors with essential and functional information concerning the aim, objectives, activities, and procedures for the administration and conduct of the selected physical training program of the 308th College Training Detachment at Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College. 2. To obtain uniformity in the conduct of the physical training program by various instructors