The mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system has been implicated in providing the basis of pleasure, guiding the general mechanism of reinforcement as well as motivation. Support for these roles have grown from neurochemical research in the field of addiction. It is now well known that DA activity increases in the nucleus accumbens septi (NAcc) with exposure to addictive substances. Moreover, pharmacological manipulation of this system produces predictable changes in the administration of drugs of abuse, as well as natural reinforcers. This system is responsive to natural reinforcers and addiction may be the transference of routine mesolimbic function to environmental stimuli predictive of drug administration. The role of the NAcc in addiction specifically appears to be the facilitation of attention to drug-paired stimuli and addiction may be the behavioral manifestation of conditioned NAcc DA reactivity to the presence of drug-related stimuli. Although these findings have been reported in adults, few studies have focused on adolescence, the time when drug use/abuse begins. Adolescents may be particularly susceptible to addiction when considered in the light of this hypothesis. Recent research has revealed that the mesolimbic system of periadolescent animals is undergoing dramatic transition in functional tone. DA receptor and transporter levels are up regulated, synthesis rates are altered, and innervation from prefrontal cortex (PFC), involved in regulating tonic and phasic DA activity, is increasing. Consequently, during adolescence there is a dramatic change in tonic DA levels, variations in phasic responses to acute drug administration and alterations in how the system adapts to repeated drug exposure. The present study utilizes the procedures of conditioned place preference, Novelty preference and in vivo microdialysis to determine how this conditioning process changes during the period of adolescence. The results indicate that adolescents are different from adults not only on behavioral measures associated with drug abuse, but in their neurochemical responsiveness to alcohol, and that these differences are related to a general developmental aspect of adolescence that renders them susceptible to addiction.

This study investigated the differences in how domestically violent men processed social information before, during, and after the completion of treatment received from a Batterers Intervention Program in Florida. Men receiving mandatory treatment for domestic violence as the result of a court order were exposed to a series of hypothetical scenarios involving their intimate partners and women with whom they were not intimately acquainted. The scenarios were sculpted to create negative feelings in the men,and cognitive processing patterns were investigated by testing their recall of social cues, their perception of intentionality and hostility, response consideration, response decisions, enactment ability, and response evaluation. Data was collected from participants prior to their first treatment session, after 14 weeks, and upon completion of treatment after 26 weeks. The cognitive processing patterns of domestically violent men from a control group not receiving treatment were tested at the same points in time. Results of the study suggest that receiving treatment for domestic violence does have an effect on the cognitive processing patterns of domestically violent men. Namely, after receiving treatment, there is a greater consideration of more socially appropriate forms of behavioral responses, and less emotional comfort with intimate partner aggresssion. Implications of this study on research and treatment are discussed, and suggestions for improvement are made.

Work in many environments with chemical or biological agents requires the use of personal protective equipment such as gloves and respirators. It is well established that glove thickness affects finger dexterity. There is further evidence that visual constraints (e.g., visual acuity) and gender may also impede finger dexterity. Therefore, the personal protection may place a barrier to the agent, but performance or productivity will decrease. The purpose of this study is to examine the potential effects of gloves and visual acuity as well as gender and first order interactions on task performance using standard dexterity tests. Five men and five women volunteered as participants in the study. There were four levels of gloves: None (as control), 9 mil, 18 mil, and 28 mil unlined latext gloves were used. There were five levels of visual acuity: None as a negative control, masked goggles as a positive control, and masked goggles with occlusion foils of 20/50, 20/100 and <20/300. A full factorial design was used and the combinations were randomly assigned. Three platforms were used for this study: Prudue Pegboard, Grooved Pegboard and the placing task of the Minnesota Dexterity Test. These results showed that the main factors of Glove and Goggle were significant for all platforms and Gender was significant for the Purdue Pegboard and Grooved Pegboard. There were significant interactions among the main effects but these did not demonstrate a consistent pattern. The largest differences in performance were associated with the gloves, even at the last thickness of 9 mil. The increased thickness to 18 and 28 mil resulted in significant and large losses of performance. It was most marked with the smallerpieces of the pegboard tasks. Generally women performed better than men for the pegboard tasks as expected and there were no differences for the larger pieces of the Minnesota tasks. Except for the greatest decrement in visual acuity, the differences among the levels of visual acuity were not significant. The expectedinteraction between gloves and acuity was not observed.

Areally expansive, persistent and recurring blooms frequently dominated by cyanobacteria have developed primarily in the north-central region of Florida Bay since approximately 1991. This part of the bay has a history of the following: periodic hypersalinity, high sediment-derived turbidity, P limitation, N limitation, light limitation and long water residence time. Clonal isolates of selected dominant bloom species of cyanobacteria (Synechococcus cf. elongatus and Synechocystis sp.) and diatoms (Chaetoceros cf. salsugineus and Thalassiosira cf. oceanica) from Florida Bay were examined in an effort to explain their relative dominance of the phytoplankton community. The following physiological characteristics and nutrient strategies of the study species were examined: (1) salinity-growth response; (2) light-growth response; (3) phosphorus-dependent growth kinetics; (4) ERC-theory phosphorus competitiveness; (5) cellular quotas and luxury storage capabilities of N and P; (6) optimal N:P ratios; (7) P and N-limited competitiveness under various salinities, N:P ratios, forms of N and P, and rates of nutrient delivery; (8) aerobic nitrogen fixation; (9) production of allelochemic compounds, and (10) response to resuspended sediment. This study identified salinity and nutrient limitation as the factors having the greatest potential to regulate the development of cyanobacteria and diatom bloom dominance in Florida Bay. The results strongly suggest that the frequent dominance of Synechococcus cf. elongatus, and Synechocystis sp. in the recurring phytoplankton blooms of the north-central region of Florida Bay can be attributed to their superior P-competitiveness and to a lesser degree to their greater salinity tolerance limits.

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the often tumultuous relationship between Friedrich Nietzsche and democracy. Nietzsche has always had an antipathy towards democracy. Nietzsche has claimed that democracy espouses a will to equality which levels the greatest men along with the most average men. For Nietzsche, his Ubermenschen must emerge from the muddle of mediocrity and similitude in order to set themselves apart from the herd. The herd is more than happy to live in a democratic society since no one will be rendered better or greater than anyone else. I argue that Nietzsche does not realize democracy's many assets. Liberal democracy could very well be the best political springboard for his Ubermenschen. For Nietzsche, higher culture emerges in spite of modernity's leveling snare. These great men engage in contests. They create their own rules and values. They say what they like. In a fascist society, these men would never be allowed to do as they please. One benefit of liberal democracy is that we are given the right to dissent. We are given the right to express ourselves. Democracy could facilitate the emergence of the elusive Ubermenschen. These are men who transcend the average and the ordinary. In this dissertation I begin by exploring Nietzsche's cultural criticisms. He devotes a great deal of energy condemning modernity and its leveling tendencies. Out of the cultural morass that is modernity comes this higher culture of which Nietzsche speaks highly. In chapter two, I argue that higher culture must begin with the individual. I will examine what it takes for a man to be able to transcend his mediocre culture. In chapter three, I examine the contemporary political climate and try to determine whether these great individuals could emerge in such a climate. Finally, in chapter four I examine which political system could best help this culture emerge. I argue that liberal democracy is the best environment for these higher men.

Traumatic injuries to peripheral nerves often leave gaps that cannot be repaired by direct suture methods. In such instances, repair with a tubular nerve guide, allows connection of the nerve ends, provides directional guidance, and concentrates endogenous trophic factors for regenerating axons. We hypothesized that collagen nerve guides containing longitudinally oriented channels would further improve the outcome of nerve repair by increasing the surface area available for cell migration. We restored the continuity of a 10mm peripheral nerve gap (rat sciatic nerve) by suturing the nerve stumps into a type I collagen nerve guide (1.5 mm ID), which contained longitudinal channels. Two different channel designs were tested. They were compared to empty nerve guides and autografts. One channel design contained five longitudinally-oriented collagen microtubes (0.4 mm ID) and the other contained 32 longitudinally-oriented collagen filaments (90 micro m diameter). Nerve regeneration was examined at 6 weeks and 12 weeks post repair by a determination of the number and diameter of myelinated axons in the middle sections of the nerve guides. Sciatic function Indices were calculated from walking tracks and static stance images, and electrophysiological assessments were performed. Compound muscle action potentials of the gastrocnemius and intrinsic muscles of the foot were recorded from animals in each group at 12 weeks, indicating that axons regenerated through the nerve repair site, into the distal nerve stump, and successfully reinnervated peripheral targets. At 6 weeks, there was no significant difference between the mean number of myelinated axons with the mid sections of the 3 types of nerve guides (P = 0.488). At 12 weeks, the nerve guide that contained 5 microtubes within its lumen had significantly more axons than the nerve guide that contained 32 filaments in its lumen (P = 0.008). The mean myelinated axon number in the microtube group is larger than the empty nerve guide group but this difference was not statistically significance (P < 0.05). Autografts at both 6 and 12 weeks had significantly more myelinated axons in the mid section of the repair site than either of the nerve guide repairs at the respective time points (P < 0.05).

Although F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby has received extensive critical attention since the middle of the century, there remains an unaddressed and unanswered question that demands further exploration: what makes Gatsby "great?" It seems that the source of Gatsby's greatness, for narrator Nick Carraway, is that Gatsby has a quality that sets him apart from others: it is not a "flabby impressionability," but a "heightened sensitivity to the promises of life" and "an extraordinary gift for hope" that Nick has never seen before, nor does he expect to see again (6). I contend that what Nick sees as Gatsby's belief and hope in the possibilities of life are embodied in what Kierkegaard discusses in his works Either/Or and Fear and Trembling as choosing to live an ethical existence free from the pain of the material world. Gatsby makes this choice (of living ethically) when the young James Gatz chooses to become Jay Gatsby and free himself from the pain of losing Daisy. Through this choice, according to Kierkegaard, the ethical individual is inducted into the knighthood as a knight of infinity. If the knight makes one more movement, he becomes a knight of faith who believes, "Nevertheless I have faith that I will get her--that is, by virtue of the absurd, by virtue of the fact that for God all things are possible" (Fear and Trembling 46). Gatsby is a "son of God" that "sprang from his Platonic conception of himself"; he is a Kierkegaardian knight who has chosen an ethical existence; he is a knight who has the ability to look impossibility in the eye and still have faith to the point of absurdity, even if a reunion with his love (Daisy) is not possible. This is Gatsby's "extraordinary gift for hope," which Kierkegaard attributes to "the only great one," the knight of faith. Thus, Nick's narrative is not only a canonization of his "great" knight, but an imaginative recollection that traces the movements of his knight, Gatsby, down the same path Kierkegaard imaginatively follows and observes his great knight of faith in Fear and Trembling.

Copper Indium Gallium DiSelenide absorber layers are fabricated using a two step manufacturing-friendly process. The first step involves the sequential deposition of Copper and Gallium and codeposition of Indium and Selenium, not necessarily in that order, at 275o C. This is followed by the second stage, where the substrate is annealed in the presence of Selenium and a thin layer of Copper is deposited to neutralize the excess Indium and Gallium on the surface to form the Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide absorber layer. Elimination of the need for high degree of control and elimination of toxic gases like hydrogen selenide aid in the easy scalability of this process to industry. The performance of CuInGaSe2/CdS/ZnO solar cells thus fabricated was characterized using techniques such as I-V, C-V, Spectral Response and EDS/SEM. Cells with open circuit voltages of 450-475 mV, short circuit current densities of 30-40 mA/cm², fill factors of 60-68% and efficiencies of 8-12% were routinely fabricated. Gallium in small amounts seems to improve the open circuit voltages by 50-100 mV without significantly affecting the short circuit currents and the band gap in Type I precursors. Gallium also improves the adhesion of the CIS layer to the molybdenum back contact. Efforts are also being aimed at improving the short circuit current densities in our high bandgap devices. It is believed that improperly bonded Ga is hurting the electronic properties of the CIGS films. A part of this work involves the reduction of the detrimental effect of Ga on the Jsc's by modifying the base process, so as to improve the homogeneity of the film. The modifications include lowering the Ga level as well as fine-tuning the annealing step. Ar annealing of the samples has also been incorporated. The short circuit current densities have been improved significantly by the above mentioned modifications. At present, the best Jsc's are in the 33-35 mA/cm² range. The Voc's have also been improved by splitting the Ga into two layers and replacing the top Cu layer by a Ga layer. Light soaking studies of the absorber have also been carried out. The baseline Type I process has also been adapted to a new load-locked in-line evaporator system. Device performance dependence on Ga and In thickness as well as the top selenization temperature has been determined in this research. The effect of moisture on the quality of the films has been studied. Bandgap variations due to the presence/absence of Se during the Cu deposition has been investigated. The impact of substrate cleaning/Moly deposition conditions on the device performance has been explored. Insitu Ar annealing studies of CIGS absorbers have been carried out. Alternate buffer layers have been pursued. Devices with Voc's as high as 480 mV, Jsc's as high as 40.7 mA/cm² and fill factors of 66% have been fabricated.

Utilization of a large, diverse sample provided a rare opportunity to advance our understanding of gender, race, and socioeconomic differences in school-based problem behavior. Yearly assessment of discipline referrals and suspensions received within the school context from 5th- through 11th-grade, as well as assessment of school dropout, provided an opportunity to examine these issues through an extended prospective longitudinal design. Results highlight the middle school transition as a time when discipline referrals and suspensions increase markedly, while student reports of connections to others, motivation, and optimism decline sharply. Results indicate that boys, African-American students, and students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds report lower levels of connections to others, motivation, and optimism in 5th-grade. Boys, African-American students, and students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds also receive more discipline referrals and suspensions from 5th-grade onward and are more likely to experience dropout. However, regardless of demographic group membership, students who report stronger connections to others, motivation, and optimism in 5th-grade receive fewer referrals and suspensions from 5th- through 11th grade, and are much less likely to dropout of school than are students who report lower levels of connections, motivation, and optimism in 5th-grade. These results highlight the need to address students' sharp declines in functioning across the middle school transition through both ecological and person-centered prevention and school restructuring efforts. Results also highlight the utility of movement away from a static, demographic based understanding of problem behavior toward a clearer understanding of person and environment factors that may underlie both between and within demographic group differences in outcomes. Placing emphasis upon factors that are potentially amenable through school based prevention efforts considerably increases the likelihood that all of our nation's children are provided with equal opportunity to achieve their fullest potential.

In the United States, like most other parts of the world, there is a commonly held belief that all capable couples should have children. This belief has contributed to the development of a pro-natalist ideology or concept that having children is good. This pronatalist belief tends to spill over into the media, as well. Yet, there are those individuals who do not subscribe to the parenthood belief structure and to the manner in which the media frame the parenthood debate. These people are known as the voluntarily childfree or the childless by choice. This thesis is an exploratory ethnographic examination of the childless by choice subculture and their relationship to potential pro-natalist media framing. It is a search for deeper understanding into the relationship between the media and the voluntarily childfree. In order to gain a better understanding of the childless by choice and their relationship to pro-natalist media representations, this thesis utilized in-depth interviews and participant observation as its methods of data collection. The study utilized eight couples and was conducted during the month of April of 2004. The observation/interview process lasted an average of 85 minutes each. This study found that a perceived relationship exists between the media and childless by choice sub-culture. This association is complex and is further complicated by the media's apparent lack of knowledge about this particular demographic. The suggested role the media play, in this relationship, is one of enforcer. It perpetuates the dominant pro-natalist ideology and reinforces the status quo. The media also assist in contributing to the stigmatization and negative stereotypes of the voluntarily childfree. Some of the stigma associated with remaining childfree could be reduced if the media portrayed having children as a viable option and not a requirement of adulthood. These efforts, combined with a concerted effort on the media's part to include more frequent and positive representations of this demographic, can be most beneficial to the childless by choice subculture. Through a deeper understanding of this relationship, a more accurate representation of this demographic was allowed to surface.