HIV-related disclosure concerns are associated with higher rates of concealment and poorer well-being, including poorer health related HIV quality of life (HIV-QOL). Little research, however, has examined whether gender differences exist in the links between HIV disclosure concerns and HIV-QOL. We expected that disclosure concerns and gender would be associated with HIV-QOL, such that the relationship between disclosure concerns and poorer HIV-QOL to be stronger in women living with HIV (WLWH) than in men living with HIV (MLWH). One hundred and forty MLWH (n = 102) and WLWH (n = 38) completed an online questionnaire consisting of measures regarding their demographics, disclosure concerns (HIV-stigma scale), and HIV-QOL (HIV-AIDS-Targeted Quality of Life Instrument). Results suggested that more disclosure concerns were associated with poorer HIV-QOL, but in general, men and women did not differ in their levels of HIV-QOL. As expected, interactions emerged between gender and disclosure concerns such that disclosure concerns were associated with increased health worries and poorer sexual functioning for WLWH but not for MLWH. Interventions should acknowledge the differing needs and experiences of WLWH in order to improve HIV-QOL and increase longevity.

Purpose: The purposes of this research are to evaluate the effectiveness of a vaccine education module (VEM) in 1) contributing to new vaccine knowledge of university freshmen; and 2) identifying common vaccine concerns of university freshmen before and after completing the VEM. Methods: A VEM, including information about vaccine-preventable diseases, benefits of vaccines, principles of community or herd immunity, and where to go to get vaccinated, was created for freshman students. Student vaccine concerns were identified using a pretest/posttest quasi-experimental design using an online questionnaire before and after completing the VEM. After the VEM, participants were also asked to identify newly acquired knowledge. Results: Prior to viewing the VEM, the most common participant vaccine theme was the overall decrease of vaccination rates in the general population. After completing the VEM, the most common vaccine concern was the erosion of community immunity. The second most common theme were concerns about vaccine safety. Participants were also concerned about their own vaccination status. When asked what new knowledge they gleaned from the VEM, participants most frequently reported learning information about communicable diseases. Data were collected in the fall of 2019. Conclusions: Following the completion of the VEM, freshman university students reported fewer concerns about vaccine safety and more concerns regarding their current vaccination status. This demonstrates how a VEM contributes to vaccination knowledge and addresses vaccination concerns in university students.

In an effort to increase the relevance and rigor of the science curriculum being taught in schools throughout Florida, the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards were developed and districts throughout the state began processing them for use in the K-12 classrooms. With a history of adopt and abandon reform strategies, one district wanted to follow a more structured implementation approach to better ensure a successful transition to the new standards. As the first aspect of the approach, teachers in grades 3-8 were asked to complete two instruments which gauged their beliefs regarding the Next Generation Standards in science. Quantitative analysis of the responses revealed differences in beliefs among teachers at different grade levels, at schools with different socio-economic statuses, and at schools with different standardized test performance histories. Qualitative analysis uncovered the nature of the differences and allowed for a clearer view of the current state of science reform in the district.

No description available.

No description available.

Introduction: Smoking is often used as a maladaptive weight control strategy among college-age females who have increased weight concerns. Many perceived benefits accrued from smoking including enhanced mood, reduced anxiety, and weight control can also be achieved through physical activity. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a novel behavioral task (body-image exposure task) that was designed to elicit weight concerns on urge to smoke among college-age female smokers who vary in levels of physical activity. Methods: Using a cue-reactivity paradigm, 16 sedentary and 21 physically active college-age female smokers were exposed to a pilot tested body-image exposure session. Self-reported urge and smoking topography variables were obtained before and after the exposure session along with measures of body dissatisfaction, positive and negative affect, and physical-appearance related anxiety at the two time-points. Results: Paired sample t-test showed significant increases in self-reported urge (p <.01) and quicker latency to first puff (p <.01) at post test for the entire sample. Significant differences were not seen in the other topography variables of puff duration, puff number, and inter-puff interval. Results of partial correlation indicated lower self-reported urge at post-test was associated with increased time engaging vigorous intensity physical activity (r =-0.44 ; p =.01). However, association between latency to first puff and physical activity was not significant (r=-.10; p=.62). The body-image exposure session also significantly increased body dissatisfaction (p < .01), and anxiety related to physical appearance (p < .01) while lowering positive affect at post-test (p <.01). Baseline measures of depressive symptoms were significantly associated with increased self-reported urge at post-test (r= .59, p = .03) urge though this relationship was not significant after controlling for vigorous intensity of physical activity (r = .33; p = .07) showing the potential protective effects of physical activity on smoking urges. Conclusion: These results suggest that physical activity can be protective of smoking urges in a situation that increases weight concerns among young women and emphasizes the need to incorporate physical activity components along with cognitive behavioral therapy in tailoring smoking cessation interventions in this population. Future research should continue to explore effects of physical activity on reactivity to body-cues and explore variability in cue-reactivity as a result of physical activity. / Kinesiology

As quickly as individuals engage in new ways to share personal information online, their concerns over privacy are increasing. Online engagement is not just “to share or not to share,” but a continuum of the disclosure. To remain engaged online and to avoid privacy exposure, individuals sometimes omit or provide inaccurate information. This process is defined as online equivocation. Drawing on privacy calculus research, this study investigates how individuals use online equivocation to lower privacy concerns in mobile computing, essentially reducing the costs of online disclosure. Several studies are used to explain and analyze online equivocation and draw out the implications for theory, firms, society, and individuals. To achieve this a qualitative questionnaire was distributed among 547 individuals across the United States asking subjects to report whether they had provided inaccurate data online in privacy-concerned situations and to detail the various strategies used. The results indicate that online equivocation can be categorized into five distinct strategies organized on a continuum of level of effort: omission, abbreviation, substitution, combined substitution, and alternative persona. A follow-up questionnaire was completed with 582 respondents that showed individuals use one more online equivocation strategy in the majority of personal information sharing. This result provides a framework for further study of online equivocation. A third and final survey tested a new conceptual model constructed from the results of the previous questionnaires to examine the effects of online equivocation on privacy concerns, collecting 2,947 responses. The final survey analysis found that individuals employed online equivocation strategies to help reduce privacy concerns in mobile computing and contributed to privacy calculus theory, contending that individuals will make a cost-benefit analysis regarding whether to disclose inaccurate personal information to reduce privacy concerns. However, the research shows that the behavior of online equivocation positively effects mobile privacy concerns, implying that the more that individuals online equivocate, the more likely they are to be concerned about privacy. Overall, the study shows that online equivocation is a fairly common strategy, leading to high percentages of inaccurate data collected by businesses. Inaccurate personal information from consumers can misinform companies and lead to incorrect business decisions, affecting the nature of the products or services offered. Firms aiming to compete online depend on the quality of the information they collect from consumers and may view understanding this phenomenon as strategically crucial to competitiveness. / Business Administration/Strategic Management

The purpose of this study was to examine a sample of employed individuals who participated in credit counseling through a non-profit consumer credit counseling agency in the Mid-Atlantic. Using data collected at two points in time, this sample was examined to measure changes in personal financial variables, health status, and work outcomes. The sample respondents were also examined to determine the extent to which they instituted positive financial behaviors following participation in credit counseling. In addition, this research assessed differences in the demographics among the clients. Also studied was the extent to which individual and family characteristics, health status, financial concerns and related stress, and financial wellness accounted for the variance in work outcomes of productivity, presenteeism, and worktime used for personal financial matters. Significant changes in personal financial outcomes, health status, and work outcomes were found between the initial and follow-up study. One year following credit counseling, respondents had decreased levels of financial concerns and financial stress, experienced fewer workloss days, and spent less time using work hours to handle personal financial matters. They also indicated improvements in their level of financial wellness, health status, and job productivity. Respondents had instituted a number of positive financial behaviors since receiving credit counseling one year earlier. Most had reduced some of their personal debts and cut down on living expenses. A model of work and personal financial outcomes was presented in this study. Hierarchical regression analyses using both data sets revealed that health status and financial concerns explained a significant amount of the variance in four work outcomes: (1) productivity, (2) presenteeism, (3) work time used for personal financial matters, and (4) workloss days. Adding financial wellness as the final step in the analysis, did not explain any additional variance in each of the work outcomes. This research assessed only the demographic and personal financial variables explanatory relationships to work outcomes. Therefore, life events beyond these variables may offer additional explanation of the work outcomes. Of importance is that this research provides documentation of positive changes in personal finances and work outcomes of employed individuals who participated in credit counseling one year earlier. In addition, the research presented a model of personal financial and work outcomes that can be advanced through further research. / Ph. D.

Software quality attributes, such as reliability, security, and usability, are often well-defined and understood at the requirement level. They lay the ground foundation necessary to achieve high-quality, robust, user-friendly, and trustworthy software systems. However, when addressing these attributes at the code level, two significant challenges emerge. First, they tend to scatter across the codebase due to improper encapsulation of object-oriented classes, hampering the visibility of quality-related components across the codebase. Second, they become tangled within a single module due to intricate interdependencies with functional aspects of the code. Addressing quality concerns in the presence of scattered and tangled code can lead to unforeseen issues. For example, software developers may inadvertently introduce new and latent bugs or incorrectly implement code components deviating from the original system-wide requirements. To tackle these pressing issues, this dissertation proposes a series of state-of-the-art solutions integrating ML-based techniques and NLP-based techniques, including static program analysis techniques, to automatically and effectively detect and repair quality concerns present at the code level, even when scattered across the codebase. Additionally, we introduce program structural analysis and change impact analysis, complemented by other unsupervised ML-based techniques, to disentangle quality-related changes from functional ones, to gain a holistic understanding of a particular maintenance task. From a practical stance, our techniques can be integrated for quality risk assessment purposes and incorporated into safety-critical continuous integration systems to monitor the evolving nature of quality concerns. Furthermore, they can enhance bidirectional traceability across evolving software artifacts, such as bug reports, commit messages, and source code, and facilitate bug triaging systems for prioritizing the resolution of highly impacted quality-related bugs.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(経済学) / 甲第25077号 / 経博第684号 / 新制||経||305(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院経済学研究科経済学専攻 / (主査)教授 関口 格, 准教授 陳 珈惠, 教授 渡辺 誠 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Agricultural Science / Kyoto University / DFAM