Early exposure to abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction is linked to long-term detrimental effects on mental and physical health. In the mid-1990s, Kaiser Permanente and the CDC surveyed adults in the community and found a strong and cumulative relationship between the degree of exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and risk factors for leading causes of death in adulthood. At present, most research using ACE survey methodology examines community-based adult samples, and populations who experience the greatest number of adversities are largely ignored. An additional factor indicative of household dysfunction that has not been thoroughly explored in the context of ACE survey methodology is foster care placement. Further, little is understood regarding the impact of out-of-home placement on persons with disproportionately high ACE scores and subsequent difficulties with sexual and aggressive behavior. Studies investigating differential risk factors and outcomes could inform prevention, policy, and treatment. As such, the current study seeks to investigate the impact of childhood adversity and out-ofhome placement on the onset of aggression and problem sexual behavior using ACE survey methodology in a sample of juveniles receiving residential treatment for sexual misconduct. Data for this study were collected from archival records of children and adolescents who have received sexual offender treatment at a treatment center for male youth (N=120; 88% Caucasian) for periods ranging from one month to more than four years (M=13.68 months, SD=10.96). These participants have a mean age of 14.63 years (SD=1.56; Range: 11 to 17 years) at the time of first admission into the facility. As expected, the adolescents in this study have experienced higher rates of adverse childhood experiences than the general adult population and male adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system previously reported in the literature. Only 2.5% of the current sample experienced no ACEs and 74.2% faced four or more adversities, which is considered to be high risk in the literature. Participants had a mean age at first out-of-home placement of 9 years (SD=5.21) and had an average of 3.7 out-of-home placements at time of admission to the facility. The association of childhood adversities, the number of non-psychiatric out-of-home placements, and age at first out-of-home placement with earlier onset of aggressive and sexual offending behaviors will be investigated using Cox proportional hazard analyses. Behavioral outcomes (e.g., onset of sexual and aggressive behavior problems; substance use; arrest history; and, treatment length) between individuals who were placed in family members’ homes versus those placed in non-familial foster care will also be explored. Implications for prevention and environmental responsiveness will be addressed.

Crucial research about suicidal thoughts and behaviors is often done in a cross-sectional manner that only considers limited risk factors. This research is limited in scope and rarely produces meaningful results to inform treatment. This study uses a longitudinal design to follow 93 participants over approximately 6 months. Participants are individuals with autism and social anxiety who were part of high-risk groups for suicidality, sleep problems, and social isolation. Participants recorded their sleep patterns and suicidal thoughts daily via the phone app MetricWire and continuously wore a GENEActiv actigraphy device to tract their objective sleep patterns. The Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS): Baseline/Screening Version, C- SSRS: Since Last Visit Version; The Insomnia Severity Index (ISI); The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI); and The Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Level 2 Sleep Disturbance Adult Form were used to characterize the sample population. Data were analyzed using a longitudinal multilevel regression design. Findings indicate that perceived sleep quality was negatively correlated to suicide ideation over time. Self- reported sleep duration, gender, and Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) score were not significant predictors of suicidal ideation over time. Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale-Self Report (LSAS) score was positively correlated to suicide ideation. Clinical implications of these findings suggest a renewed effort must be made to assess for suicidality in persons reporting social anxiety and that effective intervention to improve sleep quality could reduce suicidal ideation.

Spreadsheets are one of the most frequently used applications. They are used because they are easy to understand and values can be updated easily. However, many people try to use spreadsheets for problems beyond their intended scope and end up with errors and miscalculations. We present a new spreadsheet system which uses complex-values and equation code reuse to overcome the limitations of spreadsheets for complex problems. We also discuss the features necessary in order to make these enhancements useful and effective.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / This dissertation probes critical questions about the relationship between the production of cultural meanings, social power, and material objects. By using the public discourse on traffic accidents in the United States as a historical case study, this study investigates in particular the various ways by which social groups respond to unintended technological consequences and dangers within definitional processes of collectively constructing a social problem. The textual-thematic analysis draws largely upon theories from social problems literature and science & technology studies, as it looks at a number of salient historical claimsmakers, sites of discourse production, and cultural vehicles of meaning making. Specifically, the contributions of the private insurance industry, safety establishment, consumer market, automobile clubs, and printed media are closely dissected to flesh out the contours and content of the accident problem's construction and development through time. In line with a contextual constructivist approach to social problems analysis, the research has observed the emergence, evolution, and eventual waning of the accident issue along several structural anchors that provide possible explanations for some of these dynamics. To a great extent, the traffic accident problem has gradually 'disappeared' in America throughout the twentieth century - a disappearance that is not physical but conceptual. Specifically, it means that the troubling social condition is defined as something to live with, a necessary evil of which there seems to be limited ability or desire to substantially affect or eradicate. The sociological concept I employ to name this particular trajectory towards problem attenuation is normalization. Applied to the case analyzed here, the findings offer a way to understand the processes by which traffic accidents become nom1alized in America as an acquiescent price to pay for the benefits of the automobile. Theoretically, these conclusions have laid the groundwork for producing a hypothetical model of social problems normalization. The model highlights the role played by several cultural devices of claimsmaking in affecting issue attenuation or 'disappearance.' When the problem is constructed through highly technicizing, commensurating, commodifying, and socially controlling modalities of sense making, the likelihood of its normalization and eventual floundering increases.

<p> Challenges to the diagnostic accuracy of standardized tests of language can make the utility of these measures on their own, problematic. Consequently, this research program uses tools of conversational analysis to study the speech of preschoolers and young adults.</p> <p> In the first of three studies we examine, from a purely data-driven approach, how conversational measures relate to one another and compare with WPPSI-III expressive and receptive vocabulary scores in assessing preschoolers' language. Mean length of utterance (MLU) was found to be the only conversation measure strongly related to WPPSI-III language scores. However, other conversation measures constituted reasonably stable factors that may have utility for children's language assessment.</p> <p> The second study uses the same sample of children to investigate what features of language best predict behavioural and emotional problems and whether conversation measures provide better prediction of these symptoms than standardized scores. Results indicated that conversation measures of language significantly improved prediction of Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL C-TRF) DSM-oriented and syndrome scales beyond that accounted for by WPPSI GLC scores.</p> <p> Finally, the third study uses conversational analysis to study the role of disfluencies in the speech of young adults with and without autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) to determine whether these features of speech serve listener or speaker-oriented functions. Individuals with ASD were observed to produce fewer filled pause words (ums and uhs) and revisions than controls, but more silent pauses. Filled-pause words, therefore, appear to be listener-oriented features of speech.</p> <p> Taken together, findings of this program of research highlight the importance of using conversational analysis as an alternative or in addition to standardized tests of language as well as inform what specific measures of language are best suited for this purpose.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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