The Taylor-Spence Drive (D) theory was investigated by comparing performance of high anxiety (HA), medium anxiety (MA) and low anxiety (LA) Ss, as measured by the Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, on the test list of both a response-equivalence paradigm (A-B, A-C) and a control paradigm (D-B, A-C). The Ss were 60 grade six boys. The paired-associate learning tasks were designed to detect the debilitating effects of associative-stage competition in the experimental group for HA, MA and LA Ss respectively. A two (experimental conditions) by three (anxiety levels) by six (repeated trials) analysis of variance was performed on the data. There is a significant difference in performance between experimental and control groups on the test list (A-C), p < .0005. There are several trends favourable to the Taylor-Spence D theory but chance factors could have been involved since none of the hypotheses generated from the theory reached the .05 significance level. The first favourable trend is that HA and MA Ss' performance tends to be superior to LA Ss' in the control group on the test list (A-C). Also, HA Ss' performance is inferior to LA Ss' in the experimental group on the test list (A-C) giving support to the interaction hypothesis. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

La Polyarthrite Rhumatoïde, une des maladies auto-immunes les plus répandues, est caractérisée par une destruction progressive des articulations, conduisant à des déformations et handicaps. La nature multifactorielle de la PR fournit une hétérogénéité élevée avec des combinaisons spécifiques entre un profil génétique et des facteurs environnementaux qui influencent la susceptibilité, la gravité et le développement de la maladie. L’objectif de cette thèse est l’identification et la caractérisation de gènes candidats dans la PR. Nous avons confirmé l’association ainsi que la liaison des régions TRAF1-C5 et 6q23, et démontré une tendance pour une association et liaison entre la région génique 4q27 et la PR dans la population européenne. De plus, nous avons fourni des résultats concluants qui s’opposent à une implication des gènes PRKCH, CASP7, RANK, RANKL et PTPN22-1123G dans la susceptibilité génétique à la PR dans la population européenne. Nous avons effectué une étude d’expression génique utilisant 48.701 ADNc des PBMC de patients et contrôles sains. Une expression différentielle de 339 gènes entre les deux groupes a été observée. Nous avons identifié une expression élevée d’un spectre de nouveaux gènes impliqués dans différents mécanismes immunitaires de la PR. Nous avons aussi identifié une association entre les allèles HLA EP et le tabac au sein des patients ACPA positifs avec une PR familiale ou sporadique. Ces différentes approches complémentaires ont permis l’identification de nouveaux gènes et la mise en évidence d’interactions gène-autoanticorps-environnement, contribuant ainsi à une meilleure compréhension des mécanismes pathologiques de la PR. / Rheumatoid Arthritis, one of the most common autoimmune diseases, is characterized by progressive articular damage leading to joint deformities and disability. The multifactorial nature of RA provides high disease heterogeneity with specific combinations of a genetic background and environmental factors that influence the susceptibility, severity and outcome of the disease. The aim of this thesis was the identification and characterization of candidate genes in RA. We have confirmed the association and linkage of TRAF1-C5 and 6q23 gene regions, and demonstrated a trend for the association and linkage of the 4q27 gene region with RA in European descent populations. Furthermore, we provided evidence against the involvement of the PRKCH, CASP7, RANK and RANKL genes and the PTPN22–1123G allele in RA genetic susceptibility in the European population. We performed a large-scale gene expression profiling study using 48.701 cDNAs in PBMCs of RA patients and healthy controls. A differentially expression of 339 genes (238 down-regulated and 101 up-regulated) between the two groups was observed. We identified a remarkably elevated expression of a spectrum of new genes involved in immunity and defense mechanisms. Finally, we identified an association between HLA SE alleles and tobacco smoking for anti-CCP positivity in French population with familial and sporadic RA. All these complementary approaches that allowed the identification of new genes and gene-autoantibodies-environment interactions contribute to a better understanding of RA disease mechanisms and could lead to the identification of innovative clinical biomarkers for diagnostic procedures and therapeutic interventions.

This study investigated the background and experience of municipal recreation directors in the Southwest District of the United States and compared these qualifications with standards recommended by the National Recreation and Park Association.

The purpose of this study was to compare the attitudes of faculty at: (1) Division I NCAA and NAIA institutions, (2) Division I and II NAIA institutions on selected issues related to intercollegiate athletics, and (3) Division I NCAA and NAIA institutions toward selected issues related to intercollegiate athletics when demographics variables are considered. The problem was to determine if there were significant differences between the attitudes of the faculties.

"After careful reading of the Minutes of the Department of Elementary-School Principals of the Florida Education Association and other available material, the writer will identify five areas which have been of major concern to the members of the organization for the elementary-school principals of Florida. The development of these areas will be traced and comments of the writer will be substantiated by direct quotations from the Minutes of the organization. The writer realizes that the material at hand is limited and a more thorough study could be made if time permitted interviews and the soliciting of material. From this study conclusions will be drawn that will point the way for future projects of the Department of Elementary-School Principals of the Florida Education Association. Recommendations will be made for future use of this material"--Introduction. / "August, 1955." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: W. J. Edwards, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 31).

While we have traditionally understood the hippocampus to be involved in memory and navigation, it also appears that it has a role in language processing, creation and prediction. An obvious explanation for this is that language is impossible if linguistic signs cannot be remembered and retrieved. Because linguistic signs are definitionally biologically neutral or arbitrary, we must use the brain's apparatus for learning and storing information from the external world to store and retrieve them. Although plausible, this explanation fails to take into account the hippocampus' role in navigation as a contributing element in the processing, storage and retrieval of linguistic signs. Because the hippocampus also represents non-physical spaces through the same basic cognitive mechanisms with which it represents physical space, it is possible that the semantic content of linguistic signs is encoded in a fundamentally similar way to how navigational information is encoded. If true, this could have implications for education in general, and second language acquisition specifically. These experiments test whether there might be a learning benefit to presenting information in consistent spatial locations by having participants learn word associations in a 3-dimensional virtual environment. The experiments found that this was not the case. These findings have implications for education. Some educational paradigms stress learning in relevant contexts. These results suggest that physical location may not be an important component of a learning environment.

Resolving the interplay of the genetic components of a complex disease is a challenging endeavor. Over the past several years, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have emerged as a popular approach at locating common genetic variation within the human genome associated with disease risk. Assessing genetic-phenotype associations upon hundreds of thousands of genetic markers using the GWAS approach, introduces the potentially high number of false positive signals and requires statistical correction for multiple hypothesis testing. Permutation tests are considered the gold standard for multiple testing correction in GWAS, because they simultaneously provide unbiased Type I error control and high power. However, they demand heavy computational effort, especially with large-scale data sets of modern GWAS. In recent years, the computational problem has been circumvented by using approximations to permutation tests, but several studies have posed sampling conditions in which these approximations are suggestive to be biased. We have developed an optimized parallel algorithm for the permutation testing approach to multiple testing correction in GWAS, whose implementation essentially abates the computational problem. When introduced to GWAS data, our algorithm yields rapid, precise, and powerful multiplicity adjustment, many orders of magnitude faster than existing employed GWAS statistical software. Although GWAS have identified many potentially important genetic associations which will advance our understanding of human disease, the common variants with modest effects on disease risk discovered through this approach likely account for a small proportion of the heritability in complex disease. On the other hand, interactions between genetic and environmental factors could account for a substantial proportion of the heritability in a complex disease and are overlooked within the GWAS approach. We have developed an efficient and easily implemented tool for genetic association studies, whose aim is identifying genes involved in a gene-environment interaction. Our approach is amenable to a wide range of association studies and assorted densities in sampled genetic marker panels, and incorporates resampling for multiple testing correction. Within the context of a case-control study design we demonstrate by way of simulation that our proposed method offers greater statistical power to detect gene-environment interaction, when compared to several competing approaches to assess this type of interaction.

The ear and eye are both special sensory organs that are derived from the neural ectoderm and develop closely together during the fourth week of embryogenesis. The structure of these organs is related to their functions and therefore each of the components must be able to effectively operate in order to function efficiently. The role of genetic and environmental factors that affect the development of both the ear and eye have been identified and studied, which allows researchers to better understand the association of the ear and eye. Currently, there are syndromes (such as Goldenhar and CHARGE) that are known to affect both systems concurrently. However, there is a possibility that there are more undiscovered syndromes that also affect the ear and eye simultaneously, where there are still unexplored associations between various eye and ear disorders. Identifying and understanding these syndromes allows clinicians to better diagnose and treat patients who originally present with one or the other disorder and have not been further tested. The ear and eye have also been associated with the central nervous system, where disorders in the systems might indicate neurodevelopment or neurological issues because of abnormalities in the development of their common origin.

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