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Numerous consequences of sexual assault have been identified, including psychological consequences such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and health-risk behaviors such as substance misuse. Previous research has indicated that survivors of sexual assault may engage in substance misuse (i.e. alcohol and other illicit and prescription drug use) in attempt to suppress negative thoughts, memories, and flashbacks of the assault. The present study seeks to expand on and examine health-risk behaviors among undergraduate college women after the experience of sexual assault. Although many researchers have focused on the use of alcohol following sexual assault, less have studied non-medical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) as an alternative method of maladaptive coping. NMUPD has recently been identified as the fastest rising recreational substance among college populations. With NMUPD becoming a norm among college students in recreational settings, exploring NMUPD for alternative uses seems like the next logical step in research. This study views sexual assault on a continuum starting from unwanted sexual contact and ending in completed rape. This study aims to bridge the gap in research by attempting to connect the risky behavior of NMUPD to coping with any experience on the sexual assault continuum among college undergraduate women. Participants with and without a history of sexual assault were recruited for the present study. Participants completed a measure of sexual assault history and severity, along with questionnaires assessing current alcohol, marijuana, and NMUPD use

<p>The yeast Mediator complex is required for transcriptional regulation both in vivo and in vitro and the identification of similar complexes from metazoans indicates that its function is conserved through evolution. Mediator subunit composition and structure is well characterized both by biochemical, genetic and biophysical methods. In contrast, little is known about the mechanisms by which Mediator operates and how the complex is regulated. The aim of my thesis was to elucidate how Mediator functions at the molecular level and to investigate functional interactions within Mediator. </p><p> It is possible to recruit RNA polymerase II to a target promoter and thus to activate transcription by fusing Mediator subunits to a DNA binding domain. In order to investigate functional interactions within Mediator, we made such fusion proteins where different Mediator subunits were fused to the DNA binding domain of lexA. The expression of a reporter gene containing binding sites for lexA was subsequently measured in both a wild type strain and in strains where genes encoding specific Mediator subunits had been disrupted. We found that lexA-Med2 and lexA-Gal11 are strong activators that function independently of all Mediator subunits tested. On the other hand, lexA-Srb10 is a weak activator that depends on Srb8 and Srb11 and lexA-Med1 and lexA-Srb7 are both cryptic activators that become active in the absence of Srb8, Srb10, Srb11, or Sin4. Both lexA-Med1 and lexA-Srb7 proteins showed a stable association with the Mediator subunits Med4 and Med8 in wild type cells and in all deletion strains tested, indicating that they were functionally incorporated into the Mediator complex. We also showed that both Med4 and Med8 exist in two forms that differed in electrophoretic mobility and that these forms differed in their ability to associate with Mediator immuno-purified from the LEXA-SRB7 and LEXA-MED1 strains. Dephosphorylation assays of purified Mediator indicated that the two mobility forms of Med4 corresponded to the phosphorylated and unphosphorylated forms of the Med4 protein respectively. </p><p> Some of the data presented in this study as well as previous genetic and biochemical data obtained in our lab suggested a functional link between the Med1, Med2, Srb10 and Srb11 proteins. We extended these findings by showing that the Srb10 kinase phosphorylates the Med2 protein at residue serine 208, both in vitro and in vivo. We also showed that a point mutation of the single phosphorylation site to an alanine or to an aspartic acid residue altered the gene expression of a specific set of genes. Taken together, these data indicate that posttranslational modification of Mediator subunits is a so far uncharacterized mechanism for regulation of gene expression. </p><p> In order to study the function of the Srb7 subunit of Mediator, we isolated a temperature sensitive strain where the amino acids 2 to 8 of srb7 were deleted. The Mediator subunits Nut2 and Med7 were isolated as high copy suppressor of srb7-∆(2-8) and we were also able to show that Srb7 interacted with Nut2 and Med7 both in a 2-hybrid system and in co-immuno precipitation experiments using recombinantly expressed proteins. Interestingly, a deletion of amino acids 2 to 8 of Srb7 abolishes its interaction with both Med7 and Nut2 in vitro. Med4 also interacted with Srb7 in the 2-hybrid system and surprisingly, the first eight amino acids of Srb7 were shown to be sufficient for this interaction.</p>

<p>The study introduces and puts forward Sector Policing as a model to expand community Policing and to broaden the scope of crime prevention. It also demonstrates how Sector Policing can be utilised to decentralise policing and deepen community participation.</p>

<p>This study entails a constructive contribution towards a contemporary reinterpretation, within the Akan context, of the classic Christian notion of Christ&rsquo / s person and work as Mediator between God and humanity. Specifically, I endeavour to reinterpret aspects of the Christian confession of faith as formulated by the Council of Chalcedon (451) that, Jesus Christ is &ldquo / truly God&rdquo / (vere Deus) as well as &ldquo / truly human&rdquo / (vere homo). I build on the notion that the relationship between these two claims may also be understood in terms of the one &ldquo / person&rdquo / and the two &ldquo / natures&rdquo / of Jesus Christ. The work of Christ is reinterpreted from this perspective. The thesis is divided into two main parts. The first part, which covers the first four chapters, entail reviews of some of the dominant African Christologies &ndash / with particular reference to divine conqueror and ancestor Christologies. In these chapters, the adequacy of the mentioned Christologies is assessed with reference to the Nicene/Chalcedonian confessional definition concerning the person of Christ. The conclusion reached is that these Christologies do not adequately express the person of Christ as truly divine as well as truly human as defined by the first four ecumenical councils. As a result, these Christologies also express the work of Christ, particularly his atonement in a less adequate way.</p>

<p>Violence is considered to be one of the most critical and threatening global problems plaguing the world today, leaving a trail of devastating consequences to societies, economies, cultures, families and individuals (Desjarlais &amp / Kleinman, 1997). Adolescents who grow up in a context of violence learn distorted ways of thinking, acting, living and interacting. Aggressive tendencies and violent behaviour become internalised and adopted as acceptable ways to resolve conflict situations. Chronic, continuous exposure to violence results in physical, psychological and emotional disturbances, such as depression, anxiety, lowered self-confidence, sleep disturbances, decreased attention and concentration spans. This study addressed the form of violence known as community violence, i.e. violence that children experience within their communities (either as witnesses or as victims). This study investigated the effects of this negative environmental experience and investigated potential mediating and moderating variables that could influence the harmful effects of such experiences. The variables considered as mediating and/or moderating variables were social support and self-esteem. The theoretical framework adopted for this study was Bronfennbrenner&rsquo / s Bioecological Systems theory.</p>

<p>Violence is considered to be one of the most critical and threatening global problems plaguing the world today, leaving a trail of devastating consequences to societies, economies, cultures, families and individuals (Desjarlais &amp / Kleinman, 1997). Adolescents who grow up in a context of violence learn distorted ways of thinking, acting, living and interacting. Aggressive tendencies and violent behaviour become internalised and adopted as acceptable ways to resolve conflict situations. Chronic, continuous exposure to violence results in physical, psychological and emotional disturbances, such as depression, anxiety, lowered self-confidence, sleep disturbances, decreased attention and concentration spans. This study addressed the form of violence known as community violence, i.e. violence that children experience within their communities (either as witnesses or as victims). This study investigated the effects of this negative environmental experience and investigated potential mediating and moderating variables that could influence the harmful effects of such experiences. The variables considered as mediating and/or moderating variables were social support and self-esteem. The theoretical framework adopted for this study was Bronfennbrenner&rsquo / s Bioecological Systems theory.</p>

The yeast Mediator complex is required for transcriptional regulation both in vivo and in vitro and the identification of similar complexes from metazoans indicates that its function is conserved through evolution. Mediator subunit composition and structure is well characterized both by biochemical, genetic and biophysical methods. In contrast, little is known about the mechanisms by which Mediator operates and how the complex is regulated. The aim of my thesis was to elucidate how Mediator functions at the molecular level and to investigate functional interactions within Mediator. It is possible to recruit RNA polymerase II to a target promoter and thus to activate transcription by fusing Mediator subunits to a DNA binding domain. In order to investigate functional interactions within Mediator, we made such fusion proteins where different Mediator subunits were fused to the DNA binding domain of lexA. The expression of a reporter gene containing binding sites for lexA was subsequently measured in both a wild type strain and in strains where genes encoding specific Mediator subunits had been disrupted. We found that lexA-Med2 and lexA-Gal11 are strong activators that function independently of all Mediator subunits tested. On the other hand, lexA-Srb10 is a weak activator that depends on Srb8 and Srb11 and lexA-Med1 and lexA-Srb7 are both cryptic activators that become active in the absence of Srb8, Srb10, Srb11, or Sin4. Both lexA-Med1 and lexA-Srb7 proteins showed a stable association with the Mediator subunits Med4 and Med8 in wild type cells and in all deletion strains tested, indicating that they were functionally incorporated into the Mediator complex. We also showed that both Med4 and Med8 exist in two forms that differed in electrophoretic mobility and that these forms differed in their ability to associate with Mediator immuno-purified from the LEXA-SRB7 and LEXA-MED1 strains. Dephosphorylation assays of purified Mediator indicated that the two mobility forms of Med4 corresponded to the phosphorylated and unphosphorylated forms of the Med4 protein respectively. Some of the data presented in this study as well as previous genetic and biochemical data obtained in our lab suggested a functional link between the Med1, Med2, Srb10 and Srb11 proteins. We extended these findings by showing that the Srb10 kinase phosphorylates the Med2 protein at residue serine 208, both in vitro and in vivo. We also showed that a point mutation of the single phosphorylation site to an alanine or to an aspartic acid residue altered the gene expression of a specific set of genes. Taken together, these data indicate that posttranslational modification of Mediator subunits is a so far uncharacterized mechanism for regulation of gene expression. In order to study the function of the Srb7 subunit of Mediator, we isolated a temperature sensitive strain where the amino acids 2 to 8 of srb7 were deleted. The Mediator subunits Nut2 and Med7 were isolated as high copy suppressor of srb7-∆(2-8) and we were also able to show that Srb7 interacted with Nut2 and Med7 both in a 2-hybrid system and in co-immuno precipitation experiments using recombinantly expressed proteins. Interestingly, a deletion of amino acids 2 to 8 of Srb7 abolishes its interaction with both Med7 and Nut2 in vitro. Med4 also interacted with Srb7 in the 2-hybrid system and surprisingly, the first eight amino acids of Srb7 were shown to be sufficient for this interaction.

Consider an SQL query that involves joins of several relations, optionally followed by selections and/or projections. It can be represented by a conjunctive datalog query Q without negation or arithmetic subgoals. We consider the problem of answering such a query Q using a mediator M. For each relation R that corresponds to a subgoal in Q, M contains several sources; each source for R provides some of the tuples in R. The capability of each source are described in terms of templates. It might not be possible to get all the tuples in the result, Result(Q), using M, due to restrictions imposed by the templates. We consider best-effort query answering: Find as many tuples in Result(Q) as possible. We present an algorithm to determine if Q can be so answered using M. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Bilateral incomplete-information negotiations of multiple issues present a difficult yet common negotiation problem that is complicated to solve from a mechanism design perspective. Unlike multilateral situations, where the individual aspirations of multiple agents can potentially be used against one another to achieve socially desirable outcomes, bilateral negotiations only involve two agents; this makes the negotiations appear to be a zero-sum game pitting agent against agent. While this is essentially true, the gain of one agent is the loss of the other, with multiple issues, it is not unusual that issues are valued asymmetrically such that agents can gain on issues important to them but suffer losses on issues of less importance. Being able to make trade-offs amongst the issues to take advantage of this asymmetry allows both agents to experience overall benefit. The major complication is negotiating under the uncertainty of incomplete information, where agents do not know each other's preferences and neither agent wants to be taken advantage of by revealing its private information to the other agent, or by being too generous in its negotiating. This leaves agents stumbling in the dark trying to find appropriate trade-offs amongst issues. In this work, we introduce the Bilateral Automated Mediation (BAM) framework. The BAM framework is aimed at helping agents alleviate the difficulties of negotiating under uncertainty by formulating a negotiation environment that is suitable for creating agreements that benefit both agents jointly. Our mediator is a composition of many different negotiation ideas and methods put together in a novel third-party framework that guides agents through the agreement space of the negotiation, but instead of arbitrating a final agreement, it allows the agents themselves to ratify the final agreement.