Thesis advisor: James R. Mahalik / Objectives. Adolescent friendships play a particularly critical role in one’s physical, social, and emotional development. Difficult, inequitable, friendships in late adolescence and young adulthood are particularly concerning as the experience one has in these formative friendships can negatively impact one’s physical and psychological development (Ehrlich, Hoyt, Sumner, McDade, & Adam, 2015; Engels & Bogt, 2001; Hartup, 1996; Parker, Rubin, Erath, Wojslawowicz, & Buskirk, 2006). The goal of this dissertation was to examine one particular type of problematic and inequitable peer relationship experienced in late adolescence and young adulthood, colloquially termed a “high-maintenance” friendship. Specifically, this study examined the association between high-maintenance friendships and social emotional adjustment in late adolescents and young adults in a college setting and had four overarching purposes. First, it provided a preliminary definition for the construct of high-maintenance friendships among late adolescents and young adults in a college setting. Second, it explored late adolescents’ and young adults’ beliefs around why they have stayed in friendships that were high-maintenance. Third, the study applied the principles of interdependence theory to high-maintenance friendships and examined whether individual-level factors such as self-esteem, behavioral expectations, attachment style, loneliness, and gender were linked to the likelihood that one will stay in a high-maintenance friendship. Fourth, the study explored whether the degree to which a high-maintenance friendship impacted one’s emotional well-being (i.e., making them upset) was associated with one’s likelihood of staying in the high-maintenance friendship. Method. Participants were 256 late adolescents and young adults from a mid-size, elite, private university in the Northeastern United States (Mage = 19.09 years; 53.1% female). A mixed method, two-phase, exploratory, sequential design was implemented across two phases. The first phase implemented a qualitative content analysis in an effort to identify, develop, and define the construct high-maintenance friendships. The second phase of the study utilized a series of hierarchical linear regression analyses to explore the relationships between individual level characteristics and one’s likelihood of staying in high-maintenance friendships. Results. Qualitative analyses yielded a three-factor model, suggesting that late adolescents and young adults conceptualize the most salient characteristics of a high-maintenance friendship as: 1. one sidedness, 2. requiring substantial effort, and 3. general high expectations. Additionally, qualitative analyses generated a four-factor model of environmental obstacles that late adolescents and young adults recognized as why they stayed in a high-maintenance friendship: 1. positive friendship qualities, 2. shared experiences, 3. shared contexts, and 4. decrease in high-maintenance behavior over time. Quantitative analyses challenged the study’s hypotheses and indicated that lower levels of emotional closeness expectations and lower levels of avoidant attachment style predict to increased likelihood of staying in a cross-sex high-maintenance friendship. Quantitative analysis also indicated that the more a participant endorsed that the high-maintenance friendship impacted their emotional well-being, the less likely they were to stay in the friendship. Conclusions. The findings across the four phases of this study extend the current literature on difficult peer friendships in late adolescence and young adulthood by highlighting that: (a) high-maintenance friendships are inequitable, but those who experience social emotional distress in the friendship tend to not stay in the friendships, (b) there may be an optimal level of tolerable inequity which one can have in a close friendship without experiencing social emotional distress, and (c) there may be ways to increase one’s social emotional resilience and to restore an optimum level of inequity, even in problematic, high-maintenance friendships. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

This study used qualitative research methods to analyze the ways in which difficult knowledge is represented in Ontario’s 2013 and revised 2018 history curriculum (Grades 7, 8, 10). Difficult knowledge promotes serious discussions about weighty topics – often entrenched in collective memory – and invites readers to reflect on the different values, beliefs, and perspectives around such topics. In this study, difficult histories refer to contested depictions of past violence and oppression as they appear in historical narratives and curricular frameworks (Epstein and Peck, 2017). Examining the curriculum using the lens of difficult knowledge allowed me to consider how educators might foster reconciliation through engagement with chapters in Canadian history. The content analysis considered the difficult knowledge topics in history curricula and the approaches proposed to encourage perspective-taking. The study used a critical sociocultural approach to explore how Ontario’s official curriculum represents difficult knowledge using multiple perspectives in general, and Indigenous perspectives, specifically. In an effort to gain a better understanding of the curricular resources currently available, this study contributes to knowledge growth by identifying entry points in the curriculum that serve to help teachers introduce difficult knowledge using disciplinary thinking and Indigenous epistemic themes. The main goal with this research is to provide recommendations to guide policy, research, and practice in the integration of Indigenous perspectives and knowledges in ways that are meaningful to learners.

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New conceptual work in the judgment and decision-making research arena has suggested a nonconsequentialist perspective to decision-making. From this perspective, an emphasis is placed on emotions during the decision-making process, specifically positing that concurrent emotions may lead to decisions that are nonconsequentialist in nature. In the current study I develop the Nonconsequentialist Decision-Making Model (NDMM) and include indecisiveness as a vital construct in the model. In tune with much new research on emotions during the decision-making process, I examine how being indecisive is a product of negative concurrent emotions, and how indecisiveness affects the decision-making process. Using a natural decision-making setting, the current study had participants discuss the "biggest" decision they are currently facing in their lives. Data was collected regarding indecisiveness, nonconsequentialist dysfunctional decisional coping behavior, and decision difficulty. The findings show strong support for the NDMM and the nonconsequentialist perspective. Furthermore, the indecisiveness construct was measured successfully and showed to be a critical part of the decision-making process when dealing with difficult decisions.

New conceptual work in the judgment and decision-making research arena has suggested a nonconsequentialist perspective to decision-making. From this perspective, an emphasis is placed on emotions during the decision-making process, specifically positing that concurrent emotions may lead to decisions that are nonconsequentialist in nature. In the current study I develop the Nonconsequentialist Decision-Making Model (NDMM) and include indecisiveness as a vital construct in the model. In tune with much new research on emotions during the decision-making process, I examine how being indecisive is a product of negative concurrent emotions, and how indecisiveness affects the decision-making process. Using a natural decision-making setting, the current study had participants discuss the "biggest" decision they are currently facing in their lives. Data was collected regarding indecisiveness, nonconsequentialist dysfunctional decisional coping behavior, and decision difficulty. The findings show strong support for the NDMM and the nonconsequentialist perspective. Furthermore, the indecisiveness construct was measured successfully and showed to be a critical part of the decision-making process when dealing with difficult decisions.

The aim of this thesis is to quantify the intubation success rates and complication rates associated with GlideScope® video laryngoscopy in pediatric difficult airway patients. Difficult intubation is a major source of anesthesia-related morbidity and mortality in both adults and children (1-3). A number of studies have demonstrated that video laryngoscopy has helped to address this problem in adults, producing high intubation success rates with minimal complications (4-6). However, the literature on the use of videoscopes in children with difficult airways is sparse. We therefore sought to examine success and complication rates with the GlideScope®, a common type of video laryngoscope. To do so, we examined patient data from the Pediatric Difficult Intubation Registry, a collection of information on difficult airway incidents at fourteen pediatric teaching hospitals in the United States. From these data we calculated overall, first-pass, and rescue success rates on a per-attempt and per-patient basis, comparing them to success rates that resulted from using direct laryngoscopy. We also examined success rates for smaller groups of patients divided by Cormack-Lehane airway grade, weight, and muscle relaxant use. Finally, we assessed complication rates for patients undergoing GlideScope® intubation attempts and direct laryngoscopy. The GlideScope® produced lower success rates in our sample than those documented in adult difficult airway patients. This was particularly the case among smaller children and those with poor glottis visualization. However, the GlideScope® was superior to direct laryngoscopy by all measures and in all patient subgroups. We also found lower rates of hypoxemia and overall complications among patients receiving intubation attempts with only the GlideScope® versus only direct laryngoscopy. We believe this result may be related to the greater number of intubation attempts among patients receiving direct laryngoscopy.

The case concerning demolition of the Japanese General Government Building in Seoul, South Korea, from the Japanese colonialism has been discussed since Korea’s liberation in 1945, but the building had been used for many functions during that time frame. This building was finally demolished during the period 1995 to 1997, despite the national and international protestations. This research analysed newspaper articles to study the conflict between pro-demolition and pro-conservation groups in the newspapers to see how, and why the conflict proceeded. Korean newspaper archives were used to search four newspapers from the time period of 1991 to 1998, using the keyword ‘Japanese General Government Building’. The collected data was analysed with qualitative methodology to understand the conflicts in the newspapers. This analysis revealed three reasons put forward by the pro-conservation, Memorial and Educational Value, Art and Use Value, and Economic Value and, two reasons of pro-demolition, the Memorial Obstacle and Socio-cultural obstacle. Most reasons for both groups were classic arguments relating to other difficult heritage buildings, however, two different reasons are pertinent to this particular case: First, the government did not present any practical reasons to destroy the building. Second, Feng-Shui was presented as one of the main reasons for destroying the building. This socio-cultural element has been a fundamental and strong belief system in Korea.

Increasing tool life is a significant objective in production. Achieving this objective in a machining process poses a significant challenge, especially during cutting hard-to-cut materials such as superalloys, due to the severe tool chipping/failure at the beginning of the cut. Although numerous attempts have been carried out to improve tool performance and prolong tool life during the machining of difficult-to-cut materials over the past several years, researchers have not obtained sufficient control over sudden tool failure/chipping. The focus of this study is to prolong tool life and control tool chipping by developing an ultra-soft deposited layer on the cutting tool that can protect it during the machining of difficult-to-cut materials such as Inconel 718. In the current study, an ultra-soft layer of material is deposited on the tool through two different techniques; a typical physical vapor deposition (PVD) technique and a novel developed method called “pre-machining”. In the PVD method, the soft layer is deposited under a high vacuum environment using a PVD coater. In the novel pre-machining method, the soft layer is deposited through a very short machining process involving Al-Si. It should be mentioned that soft coatings have never been used before for machining applications of difficult-to-cut materials including Inconel 718. This study shows that in contrast to what is expected, depositing an ultra-soft layer on the cutting tool significantly improves tool performance, by reducing chipping, and improving the machined surface integrity during cutting of Inconel 718. The obtained results show up to a 500% ± 10% improvement in tool life and around a 150% ± 10% reduction in cutting forces. Significant reductions in work hardening, residual stress, and surface roughness on the machined surface were other main achievements of the current study. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Inconel 718 is considered to be a difficult-to-cut material due to its poor machinability. Significant tool failure at the early stage of cutting is the main challenge of machining this material and is the most significant contributing factor to its high manufacturing costs. Studies show that the common methods used to tackle this issue have not been completely successful. The goal of the present study is to tackle the machining challenges of Inconel 718 by developing tool coatings that meet the specific needs of the material to eliminate tool failure and thereby improve overall machining performance. For this purpose, a new tool coating material and a novel deposition technique that can be used as an alternative for commonly used coatings were developed in this study to improve the tool performance during the machining of Inconel 718. In addition, thorough studies have been carried out to gain a better understanding of the dominant wear phenomena and tool surface treatments that result in an improvement in the machinability of Inconel 718.

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