The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship and effect of a Death Awareness Training program on personal values and value systems. The experimental group experienced Death Awareness Training and the control group participated in an exercise assumed to be unrelated to the experimental group experiences. The Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) for terminal and instrumental values was used to obtain measures of value system change.Prior to the group experiences, the sample of 28 subjects was randomly divided into two groups of fourteen subjects each. The subjects were master's level counseling students. The experimental group (six males and eight females) participated in two hours and five minutes of Death Awareness Training. The control group (seven males and seven females) spent an equivalent amount of time viewing and discussing a videotape on family therapy.The Rokeach Value Survey for terminal and instrumental values was administered to both groups before and after the group experience. The subjects responded to the RVS by rank-ordering both lists of values from one to eighteen, most to least important. The RVS was scored to obtain value change scores for each subject, for both lists of values. Direction of change was not a factor. The value change scores were then subjected to two way analysis of variance. The selected level of significance was .05.The first major null hypothesis--there is no statistically significant difference in value change scores between the experimental group and the control group--was statistically rejected (F = 6.29; df = 1,52; p <.05). Therefore, it was asserted that Death Awareness Training had a statistically significant effect in the reprioritization of personal value systems.The second major null hypothesis--there is no statistically significant difference in value change scores between terminal values and instrumental values--was also statistically rejected (F = 8.29; df = 1,52; p <.05). This indicated that Death Awareness Training caused a statistically significantly greater reprioritization of instrumental values than terminal values.The third major null hypothesis--there is no statistically significant difference in value change scores in the interaction among groups and values--was not statistically rejected (F = 1.56; df = 1,52; P >.05), and therefore not investigated. Since this hypothesis was not rejected, four sub-hypotheses were not investigated and therefore not rejected.The following conclusions were drawn from the study:1. Relatively short periods of Death Awareness Training achieved significant changes in personal value systems.2. Changes in personal value systems resulting from Death Awareness Training may also result in changes in observable behavior.3. Conceptions and meanings of death prior to Death Awareness Training were bases on inaccurate information.4. Personal value systems existing before Death Awareness Training were based on misconceptions, misperceptions, fear, guilt and distorted individual and collective thoughts about death.5. Death Awareness Training created inconsistencies and imbalances in existing value systems causing changes in the value systems designed to remove or reduce the inconsistencies and imbalances.6. Death Awareness Training altered desired modes of conduct more than desired end-states of existence. The perceived end product of life remained basically the same but the quality, in terms of the process of life, was significantly changed as a result of Death Awareness Training.The results of the study indicate that Death Awareness Training can be a useful procedure for counselors, therapists and mental health practitioners of all kinds to assist clients manifesting death and death-related concerns, to explore personal meanings and perceptions of the clients' conceptions of death, to alleviate personal fears concerning their death and the death of significant others, and alter dysfunctional behavior patterns emulating from or in a death context.Since Death Awareness Training resulted in changes in personal value systems, counselor educators may want to consider providing similar training programs to counselors in training. This is necessary so that the value system a counselor will use in the counseling relationship to effect a multitude of decisions and outcomes with a client will not be a value system based on misconceptions, misperceptions, and fear. This is particularly true with, though not limited to, clients manifesting death and death-related concerns.

The present study sought to investigate the impact of a specific approach to death education on parental attitudes toward death education of young children. A seconf purpose was to determine if parents' self-reported level of anxiety about discussing death with their children would be affected by their participation in a specific approach to death education. And a third purpose was to determine if parents would validate the use of the educational program in which they participated as a model for other parents to learn how to better understand and be helpful to children coping with loss as a consequence of death.A total of 54 parents of children who were currently enrolled in the Rochester, Minnesota public elementary schools were randomly assigned to participate in one of three educational-discussion groups. A one-group pretest posttest design was used in the study, and the assessment instruments consisted of a Demographic Data and Attitude Questionnaire and a Parent Questionnaire Related to Children and Death.Results of the statistical investigation indicated that there was no significant difference in pre- and post group analysis regarding parents' attitudes toward death education of young children. There was a statistically significant difference (p < .01) between the pre and post comparisons on subjects' self-reported level of anxiety about discussing death with their children, and the vast majority (96.3%) agreed or strongly agreed that the educational program in which they participated could serve as a model for other parents to learn how to better understand and be helpful to children at a time of loss.On the basis of these data, conclusions were drawn and speculations were made concerning the use of the educational model in community death education programs.

Vitreous humor is a fluid that is relatively well protected from postmortem degradation and contamination. Due to its postmortem stability, vitreous humor has high utility in forensic pathology. Vitreous humor biochemical constituents, especially potassium, have been widely used in the postmortem interval (PMI) estimations. The time dependant rise of vitreous potassium levels in the postmortem period has been considered to be helpful in PMI determinations. The relative stability of vitreous biochemistry is useful in assessing the antemortem metabolic status and in predicting the antemortem serum biochemistry of an individual. However, the validity of vitreous biochemistry in forensic applications has been questioned in light of the reported concentration differences of various biochemical constituents in the same pair of eyes at identical PMI. This study hypothesized that the concentration of vitreous biochemical constituents in the same pair of eyes change at the same rate and this change that occurs in a time dependent fashion may be utilized in accurately estimating the PMI. It was further hypothesized that postmortem vitreous humor biochemistry closely mimics antemortem serum biochemistry and may be a useful aid in establishing a postmortem diagnoses of hyperglycemia. To test these hypotheses, vitreous humor samples were collected from a total of 103 autopsies (Female, 35 and Male, 68; Mean Age ± SD, 60.6 ± 17.6) conducted at Royal University Hospital morgue between January 2003 to February 2005. In 61 of these subjects, the precise time of death was known. Right and left eye vitreous humor samples were collected separately through a scleral puncture at the lateral canthus. Most of the biochemical analyses were carried out immediately post-extraction. After centrifugation, the supernatant of the fluid were analyzed for sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, magnesium, urea, creatinine, glucose and lactate on an LX-20 Analyzer (Beckman-Coulter). Osmolality was measured on an Osmometer model 3900 (Advanced Instruments Inc.). Vitreous humor hypoxanthine and xanthine were analyzed using a colorimetric method (Amplex® Red Xanthine/ Xanthine Oxidase Assay Kit, Molecular Probes Inc.). Vitreous humor lipid hydroperoxides were measured using the Ferrous Oxidation in Xylenol Orange assay version 2 (FOX 2). The data was statistically analyzed by paired t-test, linear regression analysis and Mann-Whitney test using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows version 13.0. The results of this study indicated that there were no significant between-eye differences for all of the vitreous biochemical constituents that were studied. It was observed that there was a significant correlation between vitreous potassium (R, 0.731; P, <0.0001), hypoxanthine, (R, 0.450; P, <0.0001), xanthine (R, 0.590; P, <0.0001), lactate (R, 0.508; P, <0.0001), calcium (R, 0.33; P, <0.01) and PMI. The corresponding formulae derived from the linear regression equations to estimate PMI were for potassium (6.41 (K+) 46.25), hypoxanthine (0.32 (Hypoxanthine) 60.94), xanthine (0.14 (Xanthine) 50.08), lactate (5.21 (Lactate) 27.69) and calcium (200 (Ca2+) 380.4). On a comparison of the actual PMI and the estimated PMI calculated using the formulae derived from the linear regression correlationship, it was found that the lowest standard deviation and the highest correlationship was obtained for vitreous potassium. The mean paired actual and estimated PMI values were significantly correlated for potassium (P, <0.0001), hypoxanthine (P, <0.0001), xanthine (P, <0.0001), lactate (P, <0.0001) and calcium (P, <0.01). Only vitreous potassium along with lactate and xanthine were significantly correlated with PMI in the same linear regression model. It was found that there was a highly significant correlation between antemortem serum and postmortem vitreous urea (R, 0.967; P, < 0.0001) and antemortem serum and postmortem vitreous creatinine (R, 0.865; P, <0.0001) concentrations. There was a significant difference (P, <0.05) between the postmortem vitreous glucose levels in the diabetic subjects as compared to the non-diabetic subjects. Vitreous lactate and lipid hydroperoxide levels did not exhibit any significant differences in these two diagnostic subgroups. The results of the present study suggest that the previously reported between eye differences for various vitreous biochemical constituents in the same pair of eyes are insignificant so far as forensic applications are concerned. Vitreous potassium is a useful biochemical marker for PMI estimations. Vitreous hypoxanthine, xanthine, lactate and calcium are all significantly correlated with PMI and if used in conjunction with vitreous potassium may possibly enhance PMI estimations by narrowing the error margin. The knowledge of vitreous urea and creatinine levels are a useful index in predicting the antemortem metabolic and renal status of the deceased subject.

Cotton fiber has been postulated to undergo a process of programmed cell death (PCD) during the maturation phase of development. A parallel may exist between cotton fibers and xylem tracheary elements, which have periods of elongation, secondary cell wall deposition and death. Secondary wall formation and PCD are purported to be coupled events in tracheary elements. In this study, an attempt was made to observe the occurrence and timing of PCD in cotton fibers by TUNEL staining to detect DNA strand breaks, and also to monitor DNA content by PI staining. The staining patterns produced by PI and TUNEL left room for interpretation. TUNEL-positive and PI-stained areas were observed, but failure to observe nuclei of conventional appearance in my cytological preparations at any time-point, along with possible nonspecific staining or autofluorescence of cell wall and intracellular components, made it difficult to draw firm conclusions of significance. Thus, additional analyses will be needed to prove or disprove current PCD theories. Nevertheless, the differences in TUNEL and PI signals across fiber development stages indicate that the observed fluorescence patterns are marking discrete developmental phases. The PI signal is dispersed throughout the cell during the elongation phase (5-15 DPA) and appears to condense during secondary cell wall synthesis (25- 40 DPA). TUNEL-positive signal may be observed as early as 25 DPA, but the signal is not widespread until 45 DPA. At 50 DPA and beyond, PI staining is reduced. Visually detectable DNA can be extracted from cotton fiber nuclei between 5 and 40 DPA, although a laddering pattern was not visible at any time-point. The results, although inconclusive, point to the possibility that PCD may be a process leading to maturation in the cotton fiber, succeeding completion of secondary cell wall synthesis.

It is important to assess and communicate the risk to life and downtime associated with earthquake induced damage to structures. Thus, a previously developed four-diagram/four-step approach to assess direct losses associated with structural damage, a similar quantitative risk assessment technique is used to examine the indirect loss associated with death and downtime. The four-step approach is subdivided into four distinct tasks: (a) Hazard analysis, (b) Structural analysis, (c) Loss analysis of both direct and indirect losses and (d) The total loss estimation due to damage, death and downtime. This empirically calibrated model in the form of power curve is used by establishing losses corresponding to onset of damage state 5 (complete damage) and limiting upper losses. The utility of the approach is investigated for the bridges in both California and New Zealand regions with different detailing. Results show that death related losses for bridges are generally twice and downtime five times the direct damage losses. Thus, it is concluded that structures should be designed for more than just acceptable physical damage. It is shown that a marked improvement can be made by moving to a comprehensive damage avoidance design paradigm.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the qualitative and quantitative differences in children and adolescents¡¦ death concept development, and to analyze the relationships of children and adolescents¡¦ death concept development with background variables (such as gender, age, religious belief, heath status, etc.) The subjects were drawn from the primary school children and junior high school adolescents of the Affiliated Senior High School of National Kaohsiung Normal University. Data were drawing, questionnaire, and interview. 239 students (age 8-16) were asked to draw a picture when they heard the word death, 204 students (age 10-16) were administered by Fill-in-Sentence Questionnaire of Death, and 24 students (age 8-16) were interviewed individually. The total subject number was 239. The drawings were analyzed following Marton¡¦s (1988) phenomenographic method and assigned to the modified classification scheme of death concept system developed by Tamm & Granqvist (1995), consisting 3 superordinate and 12 subordinate qualitative categories. With respect to Fill-in sentence questionnaire and interview data, they were analyzed according to content analysis method, with Fill-in sentence questionnaire using the categorization proposed by Neimeyer(1983) and Holcomb & Neimeyer (1993) as a template. Data analysis included qualitative and quantitative analysis. Qualitative analysis selectively portrayed drawing representative of each superordinate/subordinate death concept and presented result from the interview with children. Quantitative analysis included descriptive statistics ,£q2 test and post comparison of£q2 test. Analytically, the following were the results obtained from this study: 1.The internal causes and external causes of death were found with about equal frequency in both children and adolescents, with children above 2nd grade and adolescents all understanding the universality of death. 2.Children and adolescents expressing that dead bodies were not existential had approximately equal frequency (above 55%), but the majority of young children believed the existence of soul. 3.The majority of children and adolescents who actually faced real death usually expresses sadness and loss; it was natural response that death related things companied with negative emotion. 4.The majority of the 2nd to 6th children believed existence of world after death. However, many adolescents demonstrated more imagination about the world after death, although they didn¡¦t believe in the existence after death. 5. Many adolescents reported thoughts about nature of death and evaluation of death. Alternatively, children didn¡¦t report thoughts about nature of death, but they reported much negative evaluation of death. 6.There were significant differences in the death concept development with different grades and families communicating death. However, there were less significant differences in the death concept development with gender, religion, and death experience. 7.Only half children and adolescents reported that their parents ever talked about death with them, but parents were the targets that children wanted to talk to about death, while young adolescents has tendency to resort to their peers. 8.Children and adolescents reported the deepest impression of death concept was when family members died, while impressions of death from the mass communication media regarding violent death came in second. According to the results of this study, recommendations regarding death education for parents, teachers, and institutions are laid out, and some suggestions for future research are also provided.

Thanks to previous work conducted by Staff et al. (1986), Copano Bay on the Texas coast presents an exceptional research area for studying 1) the effect of living volatility on death assemblage diversity and composition and 2) the stability of death assemblage diversity. Staff et al. (1986) revisited one site in Copano Bay every six weeks for 18 months in 1981-1982. In order to test the variability of both the live and dead assemblages of Copano Bay, Texas, the transect originally established by Staff et al. (1981) in 1981-1983, was reestablished in 2004 and sampled every six weeks for a duration of one year. Taxonomic abundance, diversity, and composition of these assemblages were compared to each other and those of Staff et al. (1981) in order to understand how both the living and dead assemblages have changed in the intervening 22 years. Important findings include: 1. Death assemblage composition in Copano Bay changed over 22 years more than expected based on short-term variation; 2. The death assemblages in Copano Bay reflected changes in taxonomic composition of the corresponding living community; 3. The death assemblages of Copano Bay were found to predominantly reflect the local, rather than the entire regional, species pool; and 4. Variation in diversity occurred at both six-week and 22-year time scales, indicating that the death assemblages at the study site are variable. Understanding time averaging and its effects on death assemblages will not only aid in paleocommunity reconstruction, but also aid in the construction of modern ecologic baselines.

Thesis (MCS) -- AUT University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (vi, 43 leaves : col. ill. ; 30 cm + 1 DVD (4 3/4 in.)) in the City Campus Theses Collection (T 155.937 MCK)

Thesis (M.S.)--Marshall University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Includes abstract. Document formatted into pages: contains : 89 p. Includes bibliographical references : p. 44-48.

Thesis (Ph. D.) - Catholic University of America, 1917. / Vita. Bibliography: p. 84-85. Also available in print.