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A collection of poems.

Retention of college students has continued to be a concern for many people connected with higher education (Baum & Ma, 2007; Day & Newburger, 2002; Habley & McClanahan, 2004). The high school to college transition experience has been identified as a key factor in students' decision to remain in college and persist to graduation (Hunter, 2006; Levitz & Noel, 1989; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005; Roe Clark, 2005). More students than ever are coming to higher education with mental health challenges (Kadison & DiGeronimo, 2004; Soet & Sevig, 2006) but a thorough review of the literature reveals no literature on the transition experience of students that have been diagnosed with psychiatric illness. The purpose of this study was to understand and describe how students diagnosed with a mental illness experience the college transition. In addition, the study provided an understanding of the transition experience for these students at three different types of institutions. The theoretical framework for this study was Schlossberg's (1984) transition theory. The individuals in the sample included 18-19 year old traditional first year college students diagnosed with mental illness. Interviews were conducted with 21 respondents during their second semester of college. Data analysis revealed themes under the topics of individual characteristics, academic and social transition, and institutional differences. Findings revealed that these first year students with mental illness had many of the same developmental and transition experiences and challenges as their peers. However, their transition experiences were complicated by the daily tasks of managing medications, symptoms, counseling appointments, academic support services, and involvement of parents. Participants were learning to take responsibility for their own well-being but still needed a safety-net. In addition, respondents described resources and strategies that they used to adjust academically and socially, such as receiving academic accommodations and disclosing their diagnosis to faculty and friends. The students described their campuses in similar ways, as friendly and supportive, with few institutional differences. In general, the participants confronted challenges early during their transition but at the time of the interviews they seemed to be experiencing a successful transition. / Ph. D.

Background: Many non-thyroidal factors affect thyroid function tests. Anesthesia and surgery have been documented to affect thyroid function tests in humans but have not been extensively studied in dogs. Hypothesis: Anesthesia alone and anesthesia combined with surgery will affect thyroid function tests in dogs. Animals: 15 euthyroid mongrel dogs. Methods: Dogs were assigned to one of three groups: control, general anesthesia, and general anesthesia plus abdominal exploratory surgery. Blood samples were collected from each dog immediately prior to pre-medication, 20 minutes after pre-medication, 55 minutes after anesthesia induction, once daily for an additional 6 days, and 14 days post-procedures. Sampling was performed at identical times in the control group. Thyroxine (T4), free T4 (fT4) by equilibrium dialysis, triiodothyronine (T3), reverse T3 (rT3) and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) concentrations were measured in all samples. Results: Results of all thyroid function tests were not significantly different between control and anesthesia groups. Serum T3 for the surgery group decreased significantly from baseline compared to the control and anesthesia groups at multiple times. Serum T4 and rT3 for the surgery group increased significantly from baseline compared to the control and anesthesia groups at multiple times. Serum fT4 for the surgery group increased significantly from baseline compared to the control and anesthesia groups at 48 hours only. Conclusions and Clinical Importance: Surgery has a significant effect on thyroid function tests, while the anesthetic protocol used in this study does not. Because serum T4 and fT4 concentrations increased rather than decreased, evaluating these hormones following surgery is unlikely to lead to a misdiagnosis of hypothyroidism in euthyroid dogs. / Master of Science

Much of Tennessee Williams' work features mentally ill characters; his devotion to and interest in the subject has led to the composition of many plays that highlight the humanity of the insane, rather that caricaturize them with the usual stereotypes. In Suddenly Last Summer, Williams challenges the social stigmas most "normal" people attach to madness. Throughout the course of the action, the lines dividing sane and insane, normate and non-normate, gradually blur disrupting the audience's social equilibrium. By undermining presumed viewer prejudices toward the mentally ill, Williams creates the opportunity for redrawing the social boundaries of exclusion and inclusion. / by Kathleen Rush. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Controlling for the wide variability in the physical health status of geriatric populations is important as severity of illness is known to both moderate and suppress relationships examined in psychosocial research. The purpose of the present investigation was to develop a uniform, easily administered quantitative index of illness severity, composed of disease-specific scales, that was independent of psychosocial factors and appropriate for use with a geriatric population. As well, the aim was to collect preliminary data on the reliability and validity of the scale. The development of the Severity of Illness-Geriatric (SOI­G) scale involved the adaptation of a previously developed severity of illness instrument Severity of Renal Disease Scale (SORDS). <p>The present investigation involved five programmatically linked studies. Study 1 involved the determination of the items to be included on SOI-G while Study 2 defined the severity criteria for each item. In Study 3, five geriatric specialists scaled each level of each item on the same underlying threat to life scale. There was a high level of initial agreement between the raters supporting the reliability of the severity values. The final scale consisted of 32 items. <p>In Study 4, archival data was collected on 61 patients admitted to the geriatric unit of a rehabilitation hospital. The SOI-G was compared to the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale-Geriatric (CIRS-G) and a global severity rating. <p>SOI-G inter-rater reliability estimates were low (likely due to rater error) but promising. SOI-G demonstrated support for content validity, face validity, and construct validity but evidence for convergent validity was not established. SOI-G scores were sensitive to differences among patients with respect to discharge outcome. The utility of SOI-G as a moderator variable in psychosocial research with the elderly could not be explored in Study 5 due to a limited sample size. <p>It was concluded that the present investigation demonstrated the potential usefulness of SOI-G in psychosocial research with the elderly but further research is needed before definitive conclusions can be made. The SOI-G offers researchers a tool for controlling disease variability that is not measured by psychological tests but must be accounted for in research designs.