The Brofenbrenner(1979) ecological theory was applied to examine the relationship between parent and child depressive mood and the moderation of relational quality at two levels; 1) parent-child (within family) and 2) family-social support (outside family) levels. It was hypothesized that both levels would buffer the predictive association of parent to child depressive mood. At the first level, the parent-child depressive mood association was qualified by an interaction with relatedness (categorized as inadequate and adequate) that approached a conventional level of significance, R2 = .023, F(1,101) = 2.77, p = .099. At the second level, the addition of social support as a moderator yielded a R2 =.028, F(1,101) = 3.11, p = .081. Exploratory analyses were performed to clarify each moderation. The findings suggest that relational quality within and outside the family have the potential to serve as protective factors in regards to depressive symptoms for children with asthma.

Recent research expresses serious doubts on the concept of unlearning. It is argued that knowledge cannot be discarded or eliminated in order to make space for the creation of new knowledge. Taking into account the recent scepticism, we focus on the cognitive dimension of unlearning and propose an alternative conceptualization. Considering how far unlearning can go from a psychological/cognitive scientific perspective, we propose that unlearning is about reducing the influence of old knowledge on our cognitive capacity. This study: (a) investigates the unlearning process within the cognitive domain and on an individual level and (b) proposes unlearning process triggers that detract or facilitate the knowledge change process, which could subsequently contribute to unlearning on an organizational level.

abstract: Text mining of biomedical literature and clinical notes is a very active field of research in biomedical science. Semantic analysis is one of the core modules for different Natural Language Processing (NLP) solutions. Methods for calculating semantic relatedness of two concepts can be very useful in solutions solving different problems such as relationship extraction, ontology creation and question / answering [1–6]. Several techniques exist in calculating semantic relatedness of two concepts. These techniques utilize different knowledge sources and corpora. So far, researchers attempted to find the best hybrid method for each domain by combining semantic relatedness techniques and data sources manually. In this work, attempts were made to eliminate the needs for manually combining semantic relatedness methods targeting any new contexts or resources through proposing an automated method, which attempted to find the best combination of semantic relatedness techniques and resources to achieve the best semantic relatedness score in every context. This may help the research community find the best hybrid method for each context considering the available algorithms and resources. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Biomedical Informatics 2016

abstract: Why are human societies so psychologically diverse? The discipline of behavioral ecology is rich in both theory and data on how environments shape non-human animal behavior. However, behavioral ecological thinking has not received much attention in the study of human cultural psychological variation. I propose that ecological relatedness—how genetically related individuals are to others in their proximate environment—is one aspect of the environment that shapes human psychology. I present three studies here that examine the influence of ecological relatedness on multiple aspects of psychology. In the first study, I find that higher levels of ecological relatedness at the nation level is associated with a greater willingness to put oneself at risk for others, greater localized trust, and a stronger sense of belonging to one’s community. In the second and third studies, using experimental manipulations of perceived ecological relatedness, I examine the effects of ecological relatedness on helping behavior across situations, monetary sharing on a dictator game, interpersonal judgments, and alloparenting behaviors. I find that individuals led to perceive higher ecological relatedness became more sensitive to need in potential helping situations. The implications of ecological relatedness for thinking about psychological variation across groups are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2016

A produção de jogadores de futebol em Guaianases e outros bairros periféricos da zona leste de São Paulo é o foco desta tese. Com base em descrições das relações que permeiam o sistema futebolístico (amador e profissional) tais como o engajamento de familiares, agentes de futebol, professores e diretores do clube varzeano Botafogo de Guaianases, desvela-se os processos de constituição de jovens futebolistas engendrados por projetos familiares. Voltados à efetivação da carreira profissional, os projetos têm início com a revelação de um dom reconhecido na prática cotidiana pelo próprio futebolista e por outros atores: familiares, professores, agentes, espectadores etc. A primeira parte desta tese destaca a centralidade da várzea paulistana na constituição dos jovens, implicando discussões sobre o futebol de várzea, a cidade, o bairro e a circulação pelos espaços urbanos. A segunda parte apresenta a constituição de jovens futebolistas por meio de análises sobre o aprendizado de futebol em uma escolinha imersa no ambiente varzeano, a elaboração de projetos familiares centrados em investimentos específicos no filho/irmão futebolista, as atuações dos agentes de futebol enquanto mediadores com o campo profissional, e, por fim, sobre a composição de famílias esportivas a partir de trajetórias familiares. Os jovens futebolistas são constituídos e constituidores de relações e práticas de fazer família no sistema futebolístico. O conjunto de tais relacionalidades é o que chamo de família esportiva, ou seja, a objetificação das relações que produzem jovens futebolistas. / The production of football players in Guaianases and other São Paulo city east outskirts is the focus of this thesis. From descriptions of the relations that permeate the football system (amateur and professional), such as the engagement of family, football agents, teachers and directors of the amateur club Botafogo de Guaianases, unveiling the processes of formation of young footballers engendered by family projects. Focused on the effectiveness of career, projects start with the revelation of a gift recognized in everyday practice by footballer himself and by other social actors: family, football teachers, players agents, spectators etc. The first part of this thesis attempts to highlight the centrality of the amateur universe (várzea) in the constitution of young people crossing the discussions about amateur football, the city, the neighborhood and the circulation through urban spaces. The second presentes the constitution of young footballers through analyzes on learning in a football scholl immersed in the amateur environment, the development of family projects focused on specific investments in the son/brother footballer, the performances of players agents as mediators with the professional, and, finally, on the composition of sports families from the description of familiar trajectories. The young footballers are both constituted by and producers of relations and practices of making family in the football system. The set of such relatedness is what is called here sports family, i.e., the objectification of relations that produce young footballers.

Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri) is a major weed in United States cotton and soybean production systems. Originally native to the Southwest, the species has spread throughout the country. In 2004 a population of A. palmeri was identified with resistance to glyphosate, a herbicide heavily relied on in modern no-tillage and transgenic glyphosate-resistant (GR) crop systems. This project aims to determine the degree of genetic relatedness among eight different populations of GR and glyphosate-susceptible (GS) A. palmeri from various geographic regions in the United States by analyzing patterns of phylogeography and diversity to ascertain whether resistance evolved independently or spread from outside to an Arizona locality (AZ-R). Shikimic acid accumulation and EPSPS genomic copy assays confirmed resistance or susceptibility. With a set of 1,351 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), discovered by genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS), UPGMA phylogenetic analysis, principal component analysis, Bayesian model-based clustering, and pairwise comparisons of genetic distances were conducted. A GR population from Tennessee and two GS populations from Georgia and Arizona were identified as genetically distinct while the remaining GS populations from Kansas, Arizona, and Nebraska clustered together with two GR populations from Arizona and Georgia. Within the latter group, AZ-R was most closely related to the GS populations from Kansas and Arizona followed by the GR population from Georgia. GR populations from Georgia and Tennessee were genetically distinct from each other. No isolation by distance was detected and A. palmeri was revealed to be a species with high genetic diversity. The data suggest the following two possible scenarios: either glyphosate resistance was introduced to the Arizona locality from the east, or resistance evolved independently in Arizona. Glyphosate resistance in the Georgia and Tennessee localities most likely evolved separately. Thus, modern farmers need to continue to diversify weed management practices and prevent seed dispersal to mitigate herbicide resistance evolution in A. palmeri.

Notre thèse s’attache à l’étude des systèmes représentationnels impliqués par la parenté par recours au don de spermatozoïdes. D’un point de vue théorique en psychologie sociale, l’objectif est de saisir la logique de ces systèmes (contenus et processus d’élaboration et de transformation) et leur efficacité au sein de la pratique sociale. La problématique porte sur les manières dont le sens commun traduit les enjeux anthropologiques relatifs à la parenté et au don dans le cas du don de spermatozoïdes. Nous nous inscrivons dans une approche sociogénétique des représentations sociales nous permettant de retracer les éléments et les jalons des processus d’appropriation symbolique en œuvre pour ceux qui ont pour tâche d’institutionnaliser ces pratiques et pour ceux qui en ont une expérience vécue. Nous avons développé un plan de recherche fonctionnant selon le principe de la triangulation des méthodes et organisant une étude multi-niveaux des phénomènes représentationnels. Grâce au partenariat scientifique avec la Fédération française des CECOS, nous avons rencontré des parents par recours au don de spermatozoïdes dans le cadre d’enquêtes quantitative et qualitative (entretiens individuels et focus groups). L’analyse des débats parlementaires de la révision de 2011 de la loi relative à la bioéthique complète ce design méthodologique. Les résultats ont permis de mettre au jour les systèmes représentationnels actualisés dans la sphère publique pour penser la parenté par recours au don, via la mise en évidence des tensions entre catégories de pensée fondamentales (thêmata) qui organisent le champ représentationnel des acteurs parlementaires. Le croisement des analyses dégage des similarités entre les logiques parentales et parlementaires (pro-anonymat) quant à cet anonymat du donneur, sans qu’il n’y ait de détermination, par ce régime anonyme, des pratiques parentales (majoritaires) de récits de sa conception à l’enfant. Les analyses des processus d’inscriptions psychosociales et culturelles du vécu de la parenté par recours au don témoignent toutefois d’un projet représentationnel partagé qui s’ancre dans des modes de parenté normalisés. Il s’actualise de manières paradoxales par un ensemble signifiant de pratiques (récits à l’enfant du recours au don ; dons d’ovocytes) qui se constituent en actions représentationnelles. La discussion souligne l’intérêt qu’il y a à considérer une pluralité de sociogenèses. Elles produisent des états représentationnels composites et la complexité de phénomènes en tensions, dont des actions représentationnelles transgressant et prolongeant l’ordre établi des attendus culturels et des rapports sociaux. / This thesis focuses on the representational systems involved in family building through sperm donation. Drawing on psychosocial theories, it investigates the logic behind these systems and their efficacy in social practices. Specifically, we explore how anthropological issues to do with kinship/relatedness and giving-receiving relationships are transformed into common sense knowledge in the case of sperm donation. This issue is considered using a sociogenetic approach, through the lens of social representations theory. Adopting this theoretical perspective allowed us to trace the elements and milestones of the processes of symbolic coping at play among those whose task is to institutionalise these practices, and among those who experience them.We developed a research programme organised according to principles of method triangulation, hence conducting multi-level studies of representational phenomena. Owing to our scientific partnership with the French federation of CECOS (certified clinics), we conducted quantitative and qualitative research (interviews and focus groups) with parents who conceived their children using sperm donation. A further aspect of our research was based upon an analysis of parliamentary debates regarding the 2011 revision to bioethics legislation in France.Our findings indicated the significance of representational systems for meaning making about parenthood through sperm donation. Specifically, the representational fields of parliamentary players were shown to be organised by tensions between fundamental categories of thought (themata). We found similarities between parental and parliamentary logics that both favoured anonymity, but no relationship between parents’ disclosure decisions and donor anonymity. We did however observe that parents make sense of sperm donation through a shared - yet negotiated - representational project anchored in a rather traditional family model. This project was found to be enacted paradoxically by a set of significant practices (disclosure strategies; egg donation) that constitute representational actions.Our discussion underlines the intense dynamic that underpins the investigated representational systems, studied in different areas of production and transformation. It leads to complex and tense representational phenomena, including actions that transgress and prolong the established cultural and social order.

The focus of this study was to explore how Clinical Psychologists narrate their experience of relatedness within a multi-disciplinary team. Mental health services in the UK are facing increased financial pressure and a necessity for all professionals to justify their role. In this context value often appears to be placed on the cheapest way of providing individual, independent care for clients rather than on the relational value of job satisfaction, joint working and therapeutic relationships. The aim of this study was to explore the experience of Clinical Psychologists and through this contribute to thinking around collaborative and interdisciplinary working. This study was guided by eight individual semi-structured interviews which were conducted with Clinical Psychologists who work in Multi-Disciplinary working age adult Community Mental Health Teams and explored using Narrative Analysis. The participants consisted of seven females and one male who had been qualified between three and fifteen years and were working at various pay bands between 7 and 8c. Four relational narratives were found. These were connections to the self of the psychologist, connections to clients, connections with colleagues and connections with the system. The first relational aspect was how the Clinical Psychologists in this study storied their ability to remain connected to their own humanity and their personal values within the context of their Multi-Disciplinary Teams. The second level involved the stories about relationships and connections with clients, particularly thinking about the perceived impact and consequences of the other relational levels for the clients and their safety. The third relational aspect was the stories that Clinical Psychologists told about their sense of relatedness to their colleagues within their teams and the importance of having time available for this. Finally, the fourth level, which was evident within all the other relationships, was of the impact of the wider system and context. These stories emerged from the analysis process with the understanding that the interviews were co-constructed and represented multiple voices. This study confirmed that despite a history of both research and legislation highlighting the benefits and values of inter-professional working and compassion the reality remains elusive. To achieve these aims there needs to be a shift in focus from short-term planning evaluating efficiency in relation only to perceived financial value, to thinking more widely and long-term about relational value. There is a need for investment and recognition of the aspects of team working that are less easy to quantify financially. Further research could explore the experience of other professional groups within CMHTs, and other MDTs, and of clients. This would give a voice to individuals who did not have an explicit voice in this research.

Disturbance is a central factor shaping composition, structure, and dynamics of local communities. Drying is a disturbance that occurs in aquatic ecosystems globally and can strongly influence their communities. Although the effects of drying may depend on ecosystem connectivity and the dispersal abilities of resident species, there have been no comparisons of community responses to drying between lentic and lotic ecosystems across different climates. Here, we predicted that drying would have stronger effects on aquatic communities in isolated lentic ecosystems than in dendritic lotic ecosystems, owing to the higher hydrological connectivity of the latter, and that drying would have stronger effects on passive than on active dispersers, because of the potentially higher recolonizing ability of the latter. We tested these predictions by comparing alpha diversity, phylogenetic relatedness, and beta diversity for active and passive dispersers, in both ecosystem types across five climatic regions. Drying caused greater declines in alpha diversity in lentic than in lotic ecosystems. Communities that experienced drying were more similar to one another than those of perennial sites, and this pattern was especially pronounced in lentic ecosystems. In contrast, drying did not influence the contributions of turnover and richness gradients to beta diversity. Additionally, dispersal mode did not influence community responses to drying. Relatively weaker effects of drying in lotic compared to lentic systems were likely due to the hydrological connectivity among perennial and temporary river sites, which may facilitate dispersal of organisms to escape drying and recolonize rewetted sites. Collectively, our results suggest that habitat connectivity may ameliorate (and fragmentation may worsen) the impacts of drying disturbance. This is an important finding in light of increasing drying and concomitant aquatic habitat fragmentation under global change.

No description available.