The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate whether personal creative activity predicted perceived stress in men living with a chronic physical illness. Personal creative activity was measured with the Creative Achievement Questionnaire (Carson, Peterson, & Higgins, 2005), select questions from the Flow Questionnaire (Collins, 2006), the Everyday Creativity Questionnaire (Ivcevic & Mayer, 2009) and the Creative Behaviour Inventory (Hocevar, 1979). Perceived stress was measured with the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983). Sequential Multiple Regression was used to assess the relationship between personal creative activity and perceived stress levels of males with chronic illness. It was hypothesized that there would be a negative relationship between men‟s personal creative activity involvement and their perceived level of stress; that is, higher personal creative activity scores would be associated with lower perceived stress levels. This relationship was expected to be demonstrated by all men regardless of their diagnosis.<p> Participants included 139 males with chronic illness (mean age: 50 years). Findings indicated that personal creative activity was not related to perceived stress. However the participants reported being involved in many different personal creative activities not included in the four creative measures, which may help explain the low scores on the creativity measures that may have skewed the data and resulted in low correlations. Age and number of symptoms were related to perceived stress. As the participants aged, their perceived stress decreased; and the more symptoms they reported, the higher their perceived stress. The strengths and limitations of the current study are outlined, along with implications for future research and practice. Future research is needed to further examine the relationship between creativity and perceived stress in men with chronic illness as well as to develop creativity measures that include more male-oriented activities.

Chronic illness impacts numerous families in the United States. Children are increasingly among those affected by a chronic illness. The families undergo trials and experiences that tax their coping skills and require extensive coping strategies. This research project explored how families cope with chronic illness in one of the children in the family. The objective of the research project was to use the method of case study to examine the everyday lives, perceptions, and coping strategies of the family members as they deal with the realities of the effects of a child’s illness on a daily basis. Three families were studied using the case study format. Through interviews, observations, and investigation of data, the researcher gathered pertinent information about the participants’ lives and experiences. Emergent themes were identified from the facts gathered. These themes included information and suggestions that various participants offered. Included among the emergent themes were the following titles: alarming environment, redefined realities, relational requests, valuable individual, coping concoctions, as well as awareness and advocacy. The study’s emergent themes were divided into numerous subcategories. The multiple realities that the family members face is evidenced in the number of issues and themes that emerged from the study. This research project gives additional insight into the reality of the lives of families experiencing chronic illness in one of the children. Suggestions and observations by the participants could be useful for family, friends, medical professionals, educational systems, and support groups that interact with families facing similar trials. The descriptive style of the study lends itself to the vicarious interaction of the reader to the circumstances of the participants. This format allows the reader to transfer knowledge to his or her own experiences. The study could further be useful by offering detail to the existing knowledge base, in addition to aiding in the development of theory.

The roles of genes responsible for the survival and persistence of Brucella in the host and the relationship between these genes and the disease were investigated via signature-tagged transposon mutagenesis. As much as 8% of the Brucella genome is important for survival of this organism in the host. This is an unusually high number and may help to explain the chronic or persistent nature of Brucella infections. Mutants attenuated in the mouse model were divided into two groups. The early mutants failed to establish infection or colonize the host. The late mutants colonized the host but failed to maintain infection. The vaccine potential of two mutants (virB10 and gcvH) that were unable to sustain infection was compared to that of a vaccine strain, S19. Survival of strain S19 in vivo was up to 12 weeks while virB10 and gcvH mutants were cleared from spleen at 8, and 24 weeks post-inoculation, respectively. Mice were vaccinated with individual mutants and then challenged with virulent S2308 at 8, 16, and 24 weeks postvaccination. As a result, protective immunity correlated with persistence of the mutant strain [gcvH>virB10]. These results suggest that survival is one of several factors that may influence protective immunity making it difficult to compare strains. For example, examination of host immune response revealed a similar pattern of host immune function (TH1 over TH2) in all mice except those vaccinated with virB10 mutant. Since gcvH mutant provided the best immunity, experiments were designed to explore its contribution of persistence to protection. In an effort to reduce non-specific activation induced by prolonged survival of gcvH mutant, protection was monitored after different periods of vaccination exposure followed with doxycycline treatment. In these studies, persistence of gcvH mutant enhanced protection against challenge. Overall, defined mutations in genes affecting survival may render mutants as vaccine candidates capable of stimulating protective immunity equal to or better than fortuitously isolated attenuated strains. Future studies should focus on characterization of these and other genes responsible for the persistence of Brucella to improve the safety and efficacy of live vaccines.

The purposes of this study were 1) to explore the associations between individual factors, disease factors, family factors, social factors and quality of life ( QoL ), 2) to predict QoL in patients with chronic mental illness ( CMI ), and 3) to understand the needs of caregivers. A cross-sectional and cluster sampling was employed. Structured questionnaires, including a living conditions questionnaire and a psychotic symptom assessment scale, Caregiver Burden Scale, 5-item Brief Symptom Rating Scale ( BSRS-5 ), and the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-12 ( MOS SF-12 ) were used to collect data. Totally, 2023 patients were recruited, males 52.9%, females 47.1%, and a mean age of 44.99¡Ó12.09. Most of these cases were high school educated, unemployed, and had been hospitalized. 12.6% had a history of violence, 8.4% had a history of attempted suicide, 10% had substance abuse, and 5.4% had legal related issues. The most common diagnoses were schizophrenia¡]70.5%¡^and affective disorder¡]19.7%¡^. Single-factor analysis showed those who were unmarried, employed, younger, having less psychological problems, and low levels of psychological distress had better QOL. Besides, sex and education were not related to QOL in personal factors. Current psychotic symptoms and positive symptoms were negatively correlated with QOL. Schizophrenic patients and hospitalized patients reported higher QOL than bipolar patients and community patients in disease factors. Caregiver¡¦s attitude and caregiver¡¦s burden were negatively correlated with QOL in family factors. The unstable housing and community life dysfunction were negatively correlated with QOL in social factors. All significantly correlated variables were entered into hierarchical regression analysis followed the sequence of social factors, family factors, disease factors and individual factors. The results showed all four of these dimensions were significant predictors of MCS and PCS of QoL, explained variance 48.2¢H and 21.2¢H, respectively. Conclusions: Individual factors and disease factors are the most important factors in predicting QoL in CMI patients. Second, family factors are more important than social factors in MCS, and social factors are more important than family factors in PCS. The above evidence indicates a wide range of factors must be considered to improve the QoL in CMI patients.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-71). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wyoming, 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Jan. 19, 2010). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 242-253). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-71). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis--M.D., University of Hong Kong. / Typewritten.

Thesis (M.D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1987.