A primary purpose of second language (L2) research is to determine what factors hinder or help L2 acquisition. One aspect that has a strong effect on L2 proficiency is learners' age of onset of acquisition (AOA) (Johnson & Newport, 1989). These studies and others suggest that younger learners are more adept than older learners at learning an L2, especially to a near-native level. However, some older learners can become quite proficient in an L2 (Ioup, et al. 1994; Bialystok, 1997; Bongaerts, 1999), although learners who have acquired the L2 over the age of 30 are rarely studied. Why is it that some older learners are more adept at learning a second language than others? Some argue cognitive abilities (Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2002; DeKeyser, 2006) while others argue social and affective factors (Moyer, 1999) differ across the lifespan, causing younger learners to achieve a higher proficiency than older learners. Little research, however, has examined both these factors, especially in learners who acquired a language beyond early adulthood. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine 1) if there are age effects between groups of older adults learning an L2 and 2) what causes any differences found. This study examines a variety of both cognitive, affective and demographic factors that have been previously shown to affect language learning. The participants included 38 native Spanish speakers placed into four AOA groups: 10-19, 20-29, 30-39, and over 40. In order to test cognitive factors a working memory task as well as a switch task were included (Abrahamsson, 2012; Paradis, 2009). Other factors were assessed using a survey that inquired about motivation, amount of time using the L1 versus the L2, and musical ability (Slevc & Miyake, 2006). Subjects also participated in an elicited imitation task to assess global proficiency in the L2 (Erlam, 2009).Results suggest that age effects are found even in older learners. Participants with a younger AOA who spend more time speaking the L2 (English) tended to have greater proficiency in the L2. Attentional control was also a predictor.

Researchers and policymakers have become interested in the use of relationship education programs as a means to remedy the effects of family instability. Research suggests that relationship education produces positive outcomes with some groups. However, whether populations who are socially and economically more at-risk of relationship problems and relationship dissolution are gaining from relationship education remains an open question. Ecocultural Theory is used to conceptualize the research question and to illustrate the importance of studying diverse populations. The purpose of this study is to assess relationship education outcomes for select at-risk groups. The sample for this study (n=1,907) comes from participants of a relationship education program in a Southern state in the United States. Ordinary Least Squares regression was used to analyze interactions between race, gender, and income in predicting change in individual empowerment, relationship quality, and relationship commitment following participation in a relationship education program. Results did not indicate any significant difference between subgroups of race, gender, and income. Clinical implications for relationship educators working with diverse and at-risk populations and future directions for research are discussed.

This study examined the association between different socio-demographic factors and food insecurity in the Central Florida Communities of Maitland, Winter Park, and Eatonville. Data from the Institute for Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Central Florida were utilized to analyze 3 main questions: In which community is food insecurity more prevalent? To what extent are food consumption, transportation, poverty, and unemployment associated with food insecurity? Does the association between food consumption, transportation, poverty, unemployment, and food insecurity remain when controlling for self-reported overall health, education, marital status, and race. The results revealed differences in predictors of food insecurities. Particularly, there was a positive relationship between food consumption and the knowledge of recommended number of servings of fruits and vegetables suggesting that those who have nutritional knowledge practice healthy dietary behaviors. Furthermore, structural dysfunctions and affordability pose food consumption limitations on the communities studied (mainly Eatonville).

This thesis investigates the impact of finetuning the LLaMA 33B language model on partisan news datasets, revealing negligible changes and underscoring the enduring influence of pretraining datasets on model opinions. Training nine models across nine distinct news datasets spanning three topics and two ideologies, the study found consistent demographic representation, predominantly favoring liberal, college-educated, high-income, and non-religious demographics. Interestingly, a depolarizing effect emerged from partisan news finetuning, suggesting that intense exposure to topic-specific information might lead to depolarization, irrespective of ideological alignment. Despite the exposure to contrasting viewpoints, LLaMA 33B maintained its common sense reasoning ability, showing minimal variance on evaluation metrics like Hellaswag accuracy, ARC accuracy, and TruthfulQA MC1 and MC2. These results might indicate robustness in common sense reasoning or a deficiency in synthesizing diverse contextual information. Ultimately, this thesis demonstrates the resilience of high-performing language models like LLaMA 33B against targeted ideological bias, demonstrating their continued functionality and reasoning ability, even when subjected to highly partisan information environments.

ABSTRACT  Background: Second-hand clothing has significantly continued to generate interest both in research and in the real world and emphasis ofexisting works revolve around history, motivations for buying and effect on the environment as well as the impact on the countries that these second-hand clothes are imported. Consumers’ demographics is expected to play a role in their intention to purchase certain goods including clothes and findings also revealed that people have begun to incorporate sustainability in their intention to purchase second-hand clothing. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of demographic variables and sustainability awareness on the consumers’ purchase intention on second-hand clothing. In other words, to investigate if statistical relationships exist between gender, age, income, educational level and sustainability awareness on the intention to purchase second-hand clothing. Method: This research was conducted through a quantitative method and five hypotheses were formulated based on the theory. An online survey was developed and shared through social media and sample of 111 respondents was generated. These responses were analysed through Excel and SPSS. Conclusion: Findings showed that none of the variables influenced consumers’ intention to purchase second-hand clothing. Implications: Business men can take advantage of this study to position their businesses using this findings to intensify their strategies since intention to purchase second-hand clothing has no relationship with gender, age, income, educational level and sustainability awareness. It also brought to light the level of sustainability awareness of the people and the need for the government to promote it. Originality: This work was the first to examine how demographic variables and sustainability awareness impact purchase intention on second-hand clothing in Nigeria. This contributes to existing second-hand clothing literature which is capable of inspiring comparative study and can also be useful for business decision.

To date, the greatest success in predicting recreational travel patterns has been made by the Systems Theory Model. However, discrepancies still occur primarily due to the lack of accurate and extensive information on the socio-demographic variables that influence recreational travel. The research verified the assumption that socio-demographic variables warrant consideration in a recreational model. The analysis indicates specifically the types of socio-demographic variables that influence the various types of recreational travel. Due to a small sample size the results are not directly applicable to the model, however, they establish the types of socio-demographic variables that warrant consideration in a large sample survey. / Thesis / Bachelor of Arts (BA)

The clouded apollo (Parnassius mnemosyne) is a palearctic butterfly with a wide distribution across Eurasia. In recent decades, however, the species has declined in many parts of its distribution range. In Sweden, both the distribution and populations size of the clouded apollo has decreased dramatically over the past two decades, mainly due to habitat loss resulting from changes in land use practices. Today, only three geographically isolated populations remain in Sweden, as well as one captive population. While previous studies have explored the population genetics of other clouded apollo populations across Eurasia, little is known about the genetics of the remaining populations in Sweden. Here we make use of whole genome resequencing data from clouded apollo individuals collected in each of the three natural populations as well as the captive population. We apply population genetic analyses and explore mitochondrial gene data when mapping to two different reference genome assemblies, to get a better understanding of the genetic structure and levels of genetic diversity of the populations in Sweden. Our results show that the clouded apollo populations in different geographic regions harbour similar but relatively low levels of genetic diversity. We also find significant genetic differentiation between the northernmost population and the populations in southern Sweden, as well as higher levels of inbreeding in this population. Our analysis of the mitochondrial CO1 gene coupled with previously available data, shows that the remaining clouded apollo populations in Sweden correspond to two distinct mitochondrial haplogroups characteristic of different regions of Eurasia. Together with our other results, this indicates a re-colonisation of Scandinavia via two different routes after the last glacial maximum. Finally, our analyses uncover sub-population substructure in one of the remaining populations in southern Sweden. Together our results provide a first overview of the populations genetics of the clouded apollo butterfly in Sweden and explore the genetic consequences of populations size declines and fragmentation in the region. These findings were communicated to local conservation authorities and used to inform conservation strategies to protect this endangered species in Sweden.

The aim of this systematic literature review is to examine the empirical evidence within the field of Digital Game-based Learning (DGBL) concerning teachers’ beliefs and experiences about digital games in relation to the different barriers that prevent them from using them in the classroom. The search yielded a total of 152 results, from which a total of 27 articles were included in the present study. A thematic analysis was used to interpret the data which led to the formation of a variety of codes, sub-themes, and themes. The results go into detail into all of these, detailing different intrinsic and extrinsic barriers, teachers’ positive and negative beliefs in conjunction with the influence of demographic factors as well as education. The discussion is based on the relationships that arose between the themes and sub-themes which is further supplemented by the theories on beliefs and barriers in relation to technology integration which are presented in the background section. The results show that there is a bi-directional relationship between teachers’ beliefs and the barriers they face in the use of digital games in education as compounding barriers lead to or exacerbate negative beliefs while positive beliefs can lead to certain barriers being overcome. Both pre-service education and professional development have proven successful in improving teacher beliefs and confidence, however, the influence of extrinsic barriers results in many teachers believing that the use of digital games is too difficult or impossible in practice. Finally, the influence of demographic factors such as age, gender, and experience are discussed, with the latter being especially influential in terms of teachers’ beliefs.

Between 1994 and 2003, two related concerns were in the educational spotlight. The first concern was participation rates of low income students in higher education. The second was the apparent disparity in Internet usage by low income and other disadvantaged individuals, highlighted in the report Falling Through The Net (United States Department of Commerce, 2000). The purpose of this study is to identify the economic factors and demographic attributes that influence participation of low income students in online distance learning courses offered by a Mississippi community college. This study centers on the hypothesis that there is no statistically significant difference between low income and non low income student participation rates in online distance education courses and that the economic factors, other than income, between low income participates and non low income participants will be statistically similar. Survey data collected from analyzed through the use of logistical regression to determine the relationship of demographic and economic factors to the decision to enroll in future online courses. It was found that students who are older and married are less likely to choose to enroll in future online distance learning courses. Students with higher numbers of courses completed and who paid for college with personal funds are more likely to enroll in future online distance learning courses than those with fewer numbers of distance learning hours completed and those who experience less difficulty traveling to campus are less likely to choose to enroll in future distance learning courses.

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