In recent years, kindness-based meditation practices, including loving-kindness meditation (LKM), have gained empirical support for decreasing depression and anxiety symptoms. LKM is defined as the intentional transmission of unselfish kindness toward all beings. It is practiced by contemplating an object of meditation (e.g., self, difficult person) and offering goodwill by silently repeating phrases (e.g., “May you be happy”). Given LKM’s focus on cultivating positive emotional states, researchers have hypothesized that LKM may work by increasing positive affect (PA), promoting cognitive and behavioral flexibility, and reducing negative affect (NA). This study was the first to employ a multiple baseline, single-case design to evaluate the acceptability and clinical efficacy of a brief, individual LKM intervention for individuals (N = 9) with unipolar depressive disorders, social anxiety disorder, or generalized anxiety disorder and low PA. Participants were randomized to a 2-, 4-, or 6-week baseline and completed weekly assessments during baseline, 7 weeks of treatment, and at 1-, 2- and 4-week follow-up. LKM was hypothesized to be acceptable and effective for reducing depression and anxiety symptoms and increasing PA. Secondary hypotheses were that (1) improvements in PA would precede disorder symptom improvement and (2) LKM would lead to improvements in other treatment variables (e.g., NA, anger, mindfulness, affective regulation styles, quality of life, etc.) Results revealed that the study intervention had good feasibility and acceptability. Per visual inspection, LKM led to improvements in principal disorder symptoms for four participants during treatment and five participants at follow-up (three of whom showed clinically reliable change). Contrary to study hypotheses, only one participant demonstrated reliable improvements in PA during treatment. For this participant, increases in PA occurred simultaneously with reductions in depression. Across participants, LKM exerted moderate to large effects on disorder severity, depression and anxiety symptoms, quality of life, mindful nonreactivity, and tolerating affective style. Overall, individuals with principal unipolar depressive disorders showed the strongest response to the study intervention. In summary, this study provided preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of brief, individual LKM for reducing depression and anxiety in a transdiagnostic outpatient sample with low positive affect.

Two computer programs were developed using a CDC 3100. They were written in FORTRAN IV. One program uses four tape drives, one card reader, and one printer. It will calculate factorial analysis of variance with or without covariance and/or multivariate analysis for one to eight factors and up to twenty-five variables. The other program is used for completely randomized designs, randomized block designs, and latin square designs. It will handle twenty-five treatments, rows (blocks), and columns. The program can handle fifteen variables using any number of these variables for covariates.

Increasingly, nutritionists are challenged to optimize broiler genetic capacity, while considering varying ingredient qualities and pricing, to meet production goals and profitability. Due to scale and cost, university and private research is often used by nutritionists to help make these decisions; thus, requiring these facilities to detect small, incremental improvements. In Chapters 1 and 2, processing data from several nutrition research trials were utilized to evaluate the impact of processing personnel, sample size, and unit of analysis on the detection of dietary differences. By accounting for potential variability between personnel (as a covariant) and selecting an adequate sample size for processing, researchers can reduce variability and improve the accuracy of studies. In Chapter 3, a novel serine protease was investigated to potentially mitigate some of the negative effects of ingredient variability and improve overall performance and processing. Overall, data from this thesis provide practical solutions that can be utilized by academics and the poultry industry to optimize experimental design and broiler performance.

<p> The estimators of the mean, standard deviation and group effects for one-way-classification experimental designs are obtained from type I censored samples. The bias and the variances and covariances of these estimators are evaluated. A test statistic is proposed for testing a linear contrast of the group-effects. Two numerical examples are presented.</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Ph. D.

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