Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / African American adolescents have historically been considered at low risk for substance use relative to the White adolescent majority based on national prevalence estimates. However, during the last decade, African American adolescents’ rates of marijuana use—alone and in combination with other substances—have increased disproportionately relative to those of their White peers. Given the strong relationship between marijuana use and other substance use and the functional consequences associated with concurrent substance use during adolescence, the increase in marijuana use among African American youth may contribute to increased substance-related health disparities across the lifespan. Thus, the current study examined daily associations between marijuana use and other substance use among African American adolescents relative to their White peers. It also examined whether those associations differentially predicted behavioral health consequences among African American adolescents. Participants (N = 35; 42.9% African American) were adolescents age 14-18 who reported past 30-day use of marijuana, alcohol, and/or tobacco products. Respondents completed daily diaries reporting their substance use for 14 consecutive days, followed by self-report measures of internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, and substance use problems. Multilevel regression and structural equation models were used to account for the nesting of days within individuals. Participants completed 458 diaries for a completion rate of 93.5%. African American respondents reported greater daily- and individual-level rates of marijuana use and concurrent substance use than White respondents. However, in multilevel models controlling for demographics, marijuana use was not related to concurrent use of alcohol and/or tobacco use and this relationship did not vary by race. Racial differences in the relationship between concurrent substance use and behavioral health consequences were observed such that the relationship was positive among White youth but not African American youth. Findings suggest that African American youth are at high risk for engagement in problematic patterns of substance use but that daily diary methods may not be most appropriate for illuminating these patterns. Despite these unexpected results, disparities in substance-related consequences among African Americans adults persist. Future research should examine long-term rather than proximal consequences of concurrent substance use among African American adolescents.

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Journalism and Media Studies A816954 muriungianne@yahoo.com / Everywhere in countries around the world, there is an urgent call for governments in Nations to enforcement democracy for its citizens. One of the measures of democracy is in an election where citizens are able to freely elect the leaders who govern them. In such times, the media in general play a vital role in among other things, informing the voters, providing a forum for debate and acting as a watchdog to ensure that election malpractices are not carried out. Further, as purveyors of truth, the media is expected to give balanced accounts of the political parties contending as well as debate the promises of the candidates and parties in question. In Kenya’s 2002 elections, the voters depended on the media to effectively play out its role as a purveyor of information, and also set the agenda for what was deemed important. This research report is an examination, an analysis, which looks into what Kenya’s leading newspapers reported about the elections in 2002. In this report, I will not only be looking at the overall picture the newspapers painted but further, I will examine the themes that played themselves out in the newspapers over the election period. The theories of news production as well as the role of media in democracy and subsequently in election coverage will aid the arguments in this paper. Further, I will also debate the notion of objectivity in media coverage in order to ascertain whether private media can be the standards set for the industry. In doing this, the research will be examining the role of media in democracy and subsequently in an election coverage.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart uses humor to explore, analyze, and criticize current media and political trends, politicians, and campaigns. Reappropriation uses video as an argument against the original producers of that content, one of the tools used to highlight the problems with the political and current media coverage. The effectiveness of using reappropriated video is analyzed through a rhetorical analysis, combining argumentative analysis and functional analysis. Through this analysis a structure is developed for three types of arguments used by The Daily Show: highlighting absurdity, the political fact check and highlighting contradictions, and exposing social and media patterns. The analysis explores the strengths and weaknesses of each type of reappropriation, and the structural form of the argument.

Academically capable youth with disabilities often have daily functioning challenges that impact adulthood outcomes. The studies in this dissertation address this concern by focusing specifically on a particular area of challenge: the ability to take over the decision making, problem solving, and organization needed to carry out complex daily life tasks in real life contexts. The purpose of the two studies were to: (1) distinguish deficits in discrete skills from challenges organizing skills to self-manage complex tasks associated with adult roles and (2) explore the extent to which challenges in social, cognitive and behavioral factors relate to self-management of daily life tasks. In Study 1, data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2) were analyzed using a structural equation modeling approach to test associations between executive functioning, behavioral health, and social communication skills and self-management of daily life tasks in youth who graduated with a high school diploma. The model findings were compared with an alternate model testing the associations of the underlying factors and discrete functional skills. Study 1 findings indicated that challenges in underlying factors in diploma-track youth with disabilities are more strongly associated with the ability to self-manage life tasks, supporting the conceptual distinction between daily task management and discrete, foundational functional skills. While this study provided a generalizable model of factors associated with management of life tasks for academically capable youth with disabilities, this study was limited in that the variables were not specifically tailored to the constructs of interest, thus providing a broad, yet possibly imprecise picture of the relationships among these variables. Study 2 expanded on Study 1, providing a more detailed investigation of the factors associated with self-management of daily life tasks by using measures that were specifically selected to represent metacognition, internalizing behaviors, and social communication skills within a sample of academically capable autistic youth (N= 46). Study findings suggested that all three factors are associated with the ability to manage complex tasks, with executive functioning partially mediating the association between social communication skills and internalizing behaviors on task management. Together, the study findings confirm self-management of daily life tasks as a distinct area of challenge for academically capable youth with disabilities and provide a more detailed understanding of what is breaking down in the process of learning to manage life tasks and participate in valued adult roles. These findings can ultimately provide guidance on how to design targeted interventions in order to enable participation in independent living and productivity for academically capable youth with disabilities as well as highlight a potential target for outcome measurement in intervention studies that aim to improve daily life functioning and participation in the community. / 2023-09-27T00:00:00Z

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

No description available.

Nitrogen excreted by ruminants may negatively impact the environment, and N not retained is not utilized for growth and production. Experiments were conducted to examine the effect of 48 h oscillation of two levels of low ruminally degradable dietary CP on N metabolism in lambs and performance of steers. In Exp. 1, a metabolism trial was conducted with 28 lambs (31 kg), allotted to four different diets: 8% CP, 10% CP, 12% CP, and 8% and 12% CP diets oscillated every 48 h. After adaptation, transition, and preliminary periods, feces and urine were collected for 10 d. Ruminal fluid and blood samples were taken at the end of collection and again 2 d later. In Exp. 2, 24 crossbred steers (228 kg) were allotted to four diets: 1) 7.5% CP, 2) 9% CP, 3) 10.5% CP, and 4) 7.5% and 10.5% CP diets oscillated every 48 h. Feed intake was measured during the 112 d study, and ADG and gain to feed ratio were calculated. Cattle were weighed every 14 d and blood samples were taken every 28 d. In Exp. 1, N retention was lowest (P < 0.05) for the lambs fed the 8% CP diet, with no differences among lambs fed the other diets. Differences in urinary N excretion accounted for most of the differences in total N excretion. Ruminal NH3-N and BUN levels were greater in animals fed higher amounts of CP. Ruminal pH and VFA concentrations were not affected by diet. In Exp. 2, feed intake did not differ among steers fed different diets. Average daily gain was lowest for cattle fed the 7.5% CP diet. No significant difference was evident for ADG between steers fed the 7.5/10.5% CP oscillating diet and those fed the 9% or the 10.5% CP diet. Gain to feed ratio was lower (P < 0.05) for steers fed the 7.5% CP diet compared to steers fed all other diets. Blood urea N level was higher for cattle fed the 10.5% CP diet than those fed the two lower CP levels, and differences were usually significant (P < 0.05). No consistent significant difference in BUN levels existed between steers fed the 7.5/10.5% CP oscillating diet and those fed the 9% and 10.5% CP diets continuously. Oscillating two levels of low ruminally degradable dietary CP every 48 h had no significant effect on N retention in lambs nor on the performance of steers compared to animals fed the same level of CP daily in these experiments. / Master of Science

En metastudie som använder sig av en specifikt anpassad tolkning av grounded theory för att undersöka The Daily Shows satiriska kritik och funktion, samt hur detta relaterar till det sociologiska perspektivet. Fynden visar på en problematik som väl överrensstämmer med mer allmänna sociologiska teorier hos Foucault, Bourdieu och Habermas. Satiren visar sig utöva en serie meningsfulla funktioner som har potential att verka som en populistisk samhällskritik med stort inflytande. Satiren visar sig dock inte vara en problemfri diskurs och ett antal problem identifieras som behöver adresseras för att diskursen ska kunna åberopa någon form av legitimitet. / A meta-study which uses a specifically tailored interpretation of grounded theory to explore The Daily Shows satiric critique and function, as well as how it relates to the sociological perspective. The findings show a complex of problems that well corresponds to the more general sociological theories of Foucault, Bourdieu and Habermas. The satire is found to perform a series of meaningful functions with potential to act as a populist form of social criticism with a large influence. However, satire is also found to be a problematic discourse and a series of problems are identified that needs to be addressed for the discourse to invoke any form of legitimacy.

Chronic pain is a widespread problem, especially in the older population, and can affect various aspects of daily living. At a time when it has been acknowledged that the population is increasingly ageing, research regarding the effects of chronic pain on the daily living of older adults is essential. Furthermore, the development of innovative technology is changing the way that much research is being conducted, and can lead to the retrieval of novel information, using a fresh approach. The adoption of this technology in the field of chronic pain research has the potential to examine various aspects of the daily living of older adults living with chronic pain using a different approach to previous research. This study is underpinned by a Critical Realist ontology and Hermeneutic epistemology and follows a Generic Qualitative Research methodology (Caelli, et al., 2003). The aim of the study was not to generalise the findings but to gather a deep theoretical description of the outcomes and offer an explanation of these findings based on an analysis of the multiple research methods used within the study. This study had two main aims and was split into two sections according to the aims. Firstly, Part A of this study aimed to explore a range of day-to-day patterns and experiences of functioning in older adults suffering from chronic pain. Part B aimed to explore the usability, acceptance and experience of the technology used to measure functioning as part of the first aim of this study. Part B also aimed to look at the practicalities the participants were faced with when using the technology. A mixed methods design was used for Part A in which 15 older adults (65+) living with chronic pain (pain >3 months) took part in an in-depth study lasting seven days. As well as the 15 core participants that took part in the study, two older adults (65+) without chronic pain and two younger adults (<65) with chronic pain took part in the study in order to provide some insight into the effects of either pain, or age, on functioning. Part A used four data collection techniques to gather data upon the daily functioning of older adults with chronic pain; the Daily Reconstruction Method diary (Kahneman, Krueger, Schkade, Schwarz, Stone, 2004), the Sensecam (also known as the Vicon Revue, Vicon©), the LifeShirt (Vivometrics Inc) and a semi-structured interview. However, although the LifeShirt was validated, as part of this PhD, and used throughout the study, the gathered data was not analysed due to multiple problems with the data. The Daily Reconstruction Method, Sensecam and the semi-structured interview were each analysed separately before the results of the Daily Reconstruction Method and Sensecam were integrated into the themes derived from the semi-structured interviews. The integrated results led to the development of two themes, each with sub-themes; ‘effect on daily living’ and ‘managing pain and functioning’. The themes from Part A highlighted the way in which pain affected functioning and the modifications to daily functioning as a result of chronic pain. The way in which individuals perceived the management of their own pain and functioning, as well as strategies and assistive devices to manage pain and functioning were also discussed. This study has furthered current knowledge due to the idiographic nature of the study, as well as multiple, novel, data collection tools used, adding additional details to how tasks have been modified, reduced, or terminated. Part B of this study used the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT, Venkatesh, et al., 2003), the Flow-State Scale (Jackson & Marsh, 1996) and semi-structured interviews to explore participants’ use of both the Sensecam and LifeShirt. The questionnaires and interviews were carried out with all of the individuals that carried out Part A of this research. From the semi-structured interviews two main themes were reported, each with sub-themes; ‘expectations and experiences’ and ‘awareness of equipment’. Two concepts developed from the themes within Part B that were specific to the participants’ experiences of wearing wearable technology in this study, as opposed to ‘typical’ non-wearable technology; specifically, the importance of design and the importance of others. Both of these overarching concepts affected the expectations of the technology, the experiences of using the technology, as well as the awareness of the technology during use. Furthermore, both concepts will remain and are long-lasting, despite the development of the technology in this field, but there are specific details that are contemporary and are specific to either the Sensecam or the LifeShirt as used in this study.

FundaÃÃo Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnolÃgico / Na atualidade, ao mesmo tempo em que se aprofunda a divisÃo social e territorial do trabalho, as dinÃmicas urbanas cada vez mais se integram, aumentam as velocidades dos fluxos de matÃria (mercadorias, pessoas) e energia (informaÃÃo) que permeiam os territÃrios metropolitanos. MÃltiplos sÃo os sujeitos sociais e agentes (Estado, Capital) envolvidos nestes processos. Assim, a mobilidade à uma condiÃÃo necessÃria à vida nas cidades. Com efeito, este trabalho tem por objetivo analisar em que contexto acontecem os deslocamentos pendulares ocorrentes na RegiÃo Metropolitana de Fortaleza, com origem na integraÃÃo dos municÃpios de MaracanaÃ-Fortaleza. à por meio dos deslocamentos cotidianos que se evidenciam a condiÃÃo social do morador, as relaÃÃes de poder e os conflitos, que permeiam a produÃÃo do espaÃo urbano metropolitano. Em sÃntese, buscou-se compreender os limites e possibilidades estratÃgicas que a mobilidade traz ao morador no seu direito à cidade, a uma vida, a uma sociabilidade, transpondo a produÃÃo e o consumo. Motivado pela busca por trabalho ou outra necessidade cotidiana, esse fenÃmeno se materializa como uma condiÃÃo de classe, onde estes sujeitos redefinem no cotidiano sua concepÃÃo de espaÃo, tempo e direitos sociais. / At present, at the same time where if it deepen the social and territorial division of the work, the urban dynamics each time more combine, increase the speeds of the flows of matter (merchandises, people) and energy (information) that pervade the territories metropolitans. Multiples are the social subjects and agents (State, Capital) involved in these processes. Thus, mobility is a necessary condition the life in the cities. Indeed, this study aims to examine the context in which context happens the daily displacements, that occur in the Region Metropolitan of Fortaleza, from the integration of the cities of MaracanaÃ-Fortaleza. It is means of the daily displacements that highlight the social status of the resident, power relations and conflicts, that pervade the production of the metropolitan urban space. In synthesis, sought understand the limits and the strategical possibilities that mobility brings to the inhabitant in its right to the city, a life, a sociability, in order to beyond the production and of the consumption. Motivated by the search for work or other daily needs, this phenomenon if materializes as a class condition, where these subject redefine everyday life your conception of space, time and social rights.