Cultivation theory (Gerbner & Gross, 1976) suggests that the cumulative effect of heavy exposure to television's underrepresentation and negative portrayal of people 65+ as sexless, insignificant, and comical can cause people to assume such television-like perceptions of the age group in the real world. This study's purpose was to explore not only television's cultivation effect on viewers' perceptions of the number and nature of people 65+, but also the psychological processes that are expected to mediate this effect. As an extension of Shrum, Wyer, and O'Guinn's (1998) study on the role of source discounting in cultivation, this quasi-experiment employed three experimental conditions-no-priming, source-priming, and relation-priming-to manipulate participants' awareness of television as the source of the information they retrieve to make judgments about people 65+. The experimental conditions were expected to moderate the cultivation effect like they did in Shrum, Wyer, and O'Guinn's (1998) study; in the no-priming condition, but not in the source-priming or relation-priming conditions, heavy viewers were to report more television-like perceptions of people 65+ than light viewers. The results of this study revealed six major findings: first, heavy television viewing does not cultivate viewers to underestimate the 65+ population in the U.S.; second, heavy television viewing cultivates viewers to perceive people 65+ as sexless (specifically, "not sexually attractive" and "not sexually passionate") and comical (specifically, "unintentionally funny"); third, priming is not necessary to induce source discounting of television information for judgment-making about the number and nature of the elderly in the real world; fourth, whether people are prompted to recognize television as an information source, they will discount television information when making judgments about the number of people 65+, and they will count television information when making judgments about the nature of people 65+; fifth, high perceived reality of television encourages heavy viewers to perceive people 65+ as "comical"; sixth, high direct experience with people 65+ discourages heavy viewers to perceive people 65+ as "insignificant in society."

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur lärare ser på stödstrukturer i olika lärmiljöer vid muntliga framställningar i svenskämnet för årskurs 4–6. Studien har sin teoretiska utgångspunkt i Specialpedagogiska skolmyndighetens tillgänglighetsmodell. För att besvara studiens syfte och frågeställningar har fem semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts ansikte mot ansikte och via videokonferens med lärare på tre skolor i två kommuner i södra Sverige. Resultatet från studien visar på att lärare använder sig av en stor variation av stödstrukturer vid muntliga framställningar. Vanligt förekommande stödstrukturer vid muntliga framställningar i resultatet är bland annat mallar, stödord och anpassning av gruppstorlek.

CYP17 is an ACTH/cAMP inducible gene in the human adrenal cortex encoding a cytochrome P450 enzyme with sterol 17α-hydroxylase activity and 17,20 lyase activity essential for biosynthesis of cortisol and androgens. Studies carried out during the past decade have shown that acclerated transcription of inducible eukaryotic genes involves sequential chromatin modifications by cooperative promoter-specific transcription factors and the class of proteins called transcriptional coregulators. In the present work, we aimed to first identify important chromatin modifications and chromatin modifying complexes at the CYP17 transcription start site and nearby steroidogenic factor-1 (SF-1) binding site. Then, we asked what modifications to SF-1 occur during the interaction of this nuclear receptor with the CYP17 promoter, and what their function may be. Finally, we asked how ACTH/cAMP signaling affects SF-1-containing chromatin-modifying complexes during the early phase of transcriptional induction of CYP17. Results from chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and mammalian two hybrid experiments identified complexes including one comprised of SF-1, steroid receptor coactivator-1 (SRC-1), and the histone acetyltransferase general control nonderepressed 5 (GCN5) as cAMP-inducible, but sensitive to the SF-1 antagonist sphingosine, and able to act in stimulating CYP17 transcription. Moreover, ATPases on the promoter coincided with manipulation of nucleosome histone H2 dimer content. Next, we found that SF-1 phosphorylation by glycogen synthase kinase 3beta (GSK3beta), reciprocal dephosphorylation by phosphatase(s), and acetylation by GCN5 at nearby sites at the ligand binding pocket opening were required for efficient CYP17 transcription. This leads us to propose that ligand binding to SF-1 is controlled by these post-translational modifications. Finally, we determined that the corepressors E1A C-terminal binding proteins (CtBP) 1 and 2 are protein kinase A (PKA) targets and are sensitive to PKA-dependent NADH accumulation. These effects of PKA activation by ACTH/cAMP in adrenal cortex cells enforce CYP17 transcription concomitant with dimerization of CtBP1 and CtBP2.