Thesis--University of Oklahoma. / Bibliography: leaves 62-63.

Normative age differences and declines in cognition may be overestimated due to influences reflecting impending mortality. The terminal decline hypothesis posits that accelerated cognitive decline for older adults is a function of proximity to death. Although previous research has demonstrated mortality-cognition associations, key questions remain unresolved. This study examined five neglected aspects of terminal decline research: (a) are mortality deficits uniform across age? (b) does impending mortality differentially influence cognitive domains? (c) does cause of death influence magnitude of mortality deficits? (d) do individuals closer to death show accelerated cognitive declines? and (e) do mortality deficits share associations with indicators of neurological disturbance such as performance inconsistency? The sample consisted of 707 adults from the Victoria Longitudinal Study (VLS) who completed between 1 to 5 waves of measurement over a 12-year period. Participants were classified as either Young-Old (59 to 79 years, M = 71.86) or Old-Old (80 to 95 years, M = 83.66). A total of 442 Survivors completed all waves and relevant measures compared with 265 Decedents who participated on at least one occasion and subsequently died. An extensive battery of tests was administered including measures of verbal speed, working memory, episodic memory, semantic memory, and crystallized verbal ability. Results were informative for each of the five research questions. First, mortality-related cognitive deficits were magnified with increasing age. Old-Old decedents exhibited steeper decline compared with similarly aged and younger survivors. Further, multilevel analyses demonstrated that Decedents declined at significantly faster rates per year increase in age. For the second research question, terminal decline was found to differentially influence select cognitive measures. Relative to Survivors, Old-Old Decedents displayed large variation across measures exhibiting poorer performance for verbal speed and episodic memory with considerably better performance for vocabulary. Results for the third research goal demonstrated that specific cause of death differentially influenced cognitive performance. Greater cross-sectional differences and declines were found for those who died of cardiovascular disease (CVD). A fourth contribution to the terminal decline literature found that the shape of cognitive decline for Decedents was accelerated in closer proximity to death. Evidence for the final research question revealed that impending death, presence of CVD, and older age were all associated with increased performance inconsistency. Considered together, these results provide both converging evidence and novel contributions to the terminal decline literature. / Graduate

This dissertation investigates the effects and value of instructional activities for improving second language use of English articles. After reviewing a number of issues concerning pedagogical, linguistic, psycholinguistic, and internal validity, this study presents the results of eight longitudinal time-series case studies of adult Japanese learners of English residing in Vancouver, Canada, four of whom received grammatical explanations, input processing activities, and output practice activities regarding English article use. Learner development was assessed on three different narrative retelling tasks (spoken, written, and cloze) and the production was analysed with reference to specific contexts of use, indicating the form-function mappings that comprised the learners' interlanguage knowledge. The results indicated that the learners' interlanguage production exhibited (a) the anticipated task variation, with greater suppliance of the on tasks that allowed greater attention to form, and (b) the anticipated discoursal variation, with the supplied more consistently when it was primed as a redundant element on the written task and with the supplied less consistently when it was efficiently deleted as a redundant element on the spoken task. The results also indicated the variable nature of individual development and the value of assessing development longitudinally on different tasks. Importantly, the results indicated that the learners improved or continued improving after instruction, and strongly suggested that instruction can cause automatization of interlanguage knowledge. This finding suggests that form-focused instruction may be valuable for second language learning, and that pedagogical positions opposing form-focused instruction may need to be revised or abandoned. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

In longitudinal cohort studies, potential risk factors are measured at baseline, subjects are followed over time, and disease endpoints are ascertained via extensive surveillance. Individual follow-up time is from baseline to the event, if one is observed during the study period. Follow-up time is censored for subjects who are not observed to have the event during the study period, at the end of the study period for subjects who remain event-free, but during the study period for subjects who leave the study early by choice or by mortality, or whose last evaluation was before the end of the study. Survival analytic techniques are unique in that the unit of analysis is not the individual but the person-time contributed by the individual. Surveillance in longitudinal studies is generally quite rigorous. Subjects are examined in waves and their event status is ascertained. Surveillance continues between waves, and events come to the attention of the investigator. If there is a long time between waves, analyses can be conducted on all available data, with non-events censored early at the last examination and events followed beyond the general examination to the incident event. Motivated by analyses using the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) with cardiovascular endpoints, we consider four censoring methods for non-events and evaluate their impact on estimates of incidence, and on tests of association between risk factors and incidence. We further investigate the impact of early censoring of non-events (as compared to events) under various scenarios with respect to incidence estimation, robustness, and power using a simulation study of Weibull survival models over a range of sample sizes and distribution parameters. Our FHS and simulation investigations show early censoring of non-events causes over estimation of incidence, particularly when the baseline incidence is low. Early censoring of non-events did not affect the robustness of the Wald test [Ho: Hazard Ratio (HR) =1]. However, in both the FHS and over the range of simulation scenarios, under early censoring of non-events, estimates of HR were closer to the null (1.0), and the power to detect associations with risk factors was markedly reduced.

This research was supported by an award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01-HD- 059835). The NIH had no further role in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication. The authors wish to thank the dedicated staff members of Asociacion Civil Proyectos en Salud (PROESA), Peru and Instituto Materno Perinatal, Peru for their expert technical assistance with this research. / Objective We examined associations of childhood physical and sexual abuse with risk of intimate partner violence (IPV). We also evaluated the extent to which childhood abuse was associated with self-reported general health status and symptoms of antepartum depression in a cohort of pregnant Peruvian women. Methods In-person interviews were conducted to collect information regarding history of childhood abuse and IPV from 1,521 women during early pregnancy. Antepartum depressive symptomatology was evaluated using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Multivariable logistic regression procedures were used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). Results Any childhood abuse was associated with 2.2-fold increased odds of lifetime IPV (95%CI: 1.72–2.83). Compared with women who reported no childhood abuse, those who reported both, childhood physical and sexual abuse had a 7.14-fold lifetime risk of physical and sexual IPV (95%CI: 4.15–12.26). The odds of experiencing physical and sexual abuse by an intimate partner in the past year was 3.33-fold higher among women with a history of childhood physical and sexual abuse as compared to women who were not abused as children (95%CI 1.60–6.89). Childhood abuse was associated with higher odds of self-reported poor health status during early pregnancy (aOR = 1.32, 95%CI: 1.04–1.68) and with symptoms of antepartum depression (aOR = 2.07, 95%CI: 1.58–2.71). Conclusion These data indicate that childhood sexual and physical abuse is associated with IPV, poor general health and depressive symptoms in early pregnancy. The high prevalence of childhood trauma and its enduring effects of on women’s health warrant concerted global health efforts in preventing violence. / : This research was supported by an award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01-HD-059835). The NIH had no further role in study design; in the collection, / Revisión por pares

The introduction of Science Education Standards for the K-12 education system of the United States and those of Bhutan is aimed at providing students with equitable access to quality science instruction and to promote a scientifically literate society. These reforms in education systems require teachers who are well prepared to translate the reform documents, (i.e., Science Standards and curriculum goals) into effective daily classroom instruction. Reform efforts by the states or the federal government involve significant investment of financial and other resources. But all too often the teachers are not prepared to implement reforms in their classroom professional practices due to lack of proper (and timely) professional development and necessary support. To design professional development and educative materials to enable teachers’ implementation of these reform ideas, we need research into the current practices and challenges in implementing reform ideas by pre-service science teachers and in-service science teachers. Science education programs and research has increasingly placed emphasis on the need for sound theoretical models to support educational program development and implementation. This is a case study based on a multi-compartment network model designed to examine aspects of current practices in implementing reform ideas, and furthermore to identify areas of best practices and areas of improvement (e.g., professional practices and interpretation of theories of teaching and learning). The core of the model is grounded in the principles of social constructivism, and the relevant theories and practices guiding teacher education forms the multi-compartments of a network box model that focuses on how the components interact with each other in a teacher education program. It is intended to provide a holistic picture of how the teacher education practices and reform implementation goals interact. This model was initially applied in an investigation of practices of a cohort of pre-service science teachers in a teacher education program in the U.S. This constituted phase one of this research. Subsequently, it also was applied to a pre-service science teacher education in Bhutan. There, the course involved translation of reform ideas into the pre-service teacher’s professional practices, in this latter case science Standards (referred to as Bhutan Goals of Science Education) in Bhutan. In parallel to the U.S.-based study, a cohort of pre-service science teachers in a science education course and relevant expert science teacher educators participated in the Bhutan study. The study was carried out in two separate case studies with distinct contextual characteristics. The U.S. case study part one was designed in some ways to pilot the analytical model. The Bhutan case study part two is an extension of the first study. In both the U.S. and Bhutan study, the pre-service science teachers and expert science teacher educators showed strong degree of coherence in terms of their ranking of the science Standards and their rationale behind the ranking, indicating a certain degree of evidence for a community of practice. However, further inquiry revealed that pre-service science teachers struggled to effectively incorporate Standards in their lesson plans. Furthermore, the findings from the two-part study provide some insights into how this analytical model can be applied to science teacher education engaged in reform implementation, across different institutional and cultural contexts. Both quantitative and qualitative evidence were obtained and analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis methods and qualitative data analysis techniques.

Yes / There is a major need for longitudinal research examining the experiences of people with dementia and their primary carers, as relatively little is known about how the factors associated with capability to ‘live well’ vary over time. The main aim of the IDEAL-2 study is to investigate how and why, over time, people with dementia and their primary carers might vary in their capability to live well with dementia, whilst exploring both their use of health and care services and their unmet needs. IDEAL-2 will build on the Improving the experience of Dementia and Enhancing Active Life (IDEAL) cohort of 1547 people (who, at recruitment between July 2014 and July 2016, had mild-to-moderate dementia), and their 1283 primary carers in Great Britain. The existing cohort will be enriched with additional participants with mild-to-moderate dementia (and their primary carers where available and willing) from the following groups: people with rarer forms of dementia, and/or those who are ≥90 years or < 65 years of age at time of recruitment. We will assess the primary outcome, capability to live well with dementia, and the factors influencing it using questionnaires at yearly intervals for 3 years. Additionally, we will seek to link the cohort data with administrative data to obtain information about health service use. Some participants will be invited for in-depth face-to-face interviews. The cohort study will be supplemented by linked research focusing on: the co-production of new measures of living well; including the perspectives of people with advanced dementia living in residential care settings; including people with dementia from black, Asian, and minority ethnic groups; and understanding the experience of people living with undiagnosed dementia. IDEAL-2 will provide evidence about the key indicators of, and factors associated with, living well over the course of dementia and how these differ for particular subgroups. It will tell us which combinations of services and support are most beneficial and cost-effective. Moreover, the IDEAL-2 study will gather evidence from underresearched groups of people with dementia, who are likely to have their own distinct perceptions of living well. / Alzheimer’s Society (grant number 348 (AS-PR2–16-001)). The University of Exeter is the sponsor of this study.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1985 E22 / Master of Science

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration