The problem with which this investigation is concerned is the determination of compositional styles in terms of manners of employing monadic and dyadic intervals in the music of the common practice period. An aspect for determining style is proposed by way of comparing the frequency of occurrence of dyads and monads in selected musical examples from the baroque, classical, and romantic periods. Chapter I is a discussion of the problem and methodology of the study. Chapters II, III, and IV present analytic comparison of examples in the baroque, classical, and romantic periods respectively. Chapter V presents a summary of the findings with references to the pedagogical applications of the two-part framework principle.

A level set of a function is defined as the region, where the function gets over the specified level. A level set of the probability density function can be considered an alternative to the traditional confidence region because on certain conditions the level set covers the region with minimal volume over all regions with a given confidence level. The benefits of using level sets arise in situations where, for example, the given random variables are multimodal or the given random vectors have strongly correlated components. This thesis describes estimates of the level set by means of a so called plug-in method, which first estimates density from the data set and then specifies the level set from the estimated density. In addition, explicit direct methods are also studied, such as algorithms based on support vectors or dyadic decision trees. Special attention is paid to the nonparametric probability density estimates, which form an essential tool for plug-in estimates. Namely, the second chapter describes histograms, averaged shifted histograms, kernel density estimates and its generalization. A new technique transforming kernel supports is proposed to avoid the so called boundary effect in multidimensional data domains. Ultimately, all methods are implemented in Mathematica and compared on financial data sets.

Thesis advisor: Dorothy A. Jones / As the United States population ages, knowing and understanding the older adult couple’s experience living with chronic illness at home is significant to inform new strategies of care, and planning of resources for the improvement in the health and well-being for a potentially vulnerable population. The purpose of this qualitative study was to better understand the older adult couple’s experience while living with chronic illness at home by answering the following research questions: What is the life pattern manifested by an older adult couple living with chronic illness at home? Are there common themes across the life patterns of older adult couples living with chronic illness living at home? The theoretical framework guiding this study was Margaret Newman’s Health as Expanding Consciousness using a hermeneutic-dialectic phenomenology method. The study’s sample consisted of 14 married older adults (> 65 years of age) couples living together at home. The research method explored the experiences of the older adult couple through dialogue within the context of their social environment in all its complexity. This approach gave voice to the older adult couples’ experiences and their meaning from their perspective, which facilitated insights about each older adult couple as well as common themes across the older adult couples. Three themes emerged from the study, (1) an unfolding pattern of living meaningfully as an older adult couple with chronic illness while moving through life transitions, (2) couple interconnectedness strengthens the bonding within the older adult couple and promotes self-growth, and (3) a resonating process within the older adult couple promotes movement toward expanding consciousness. Conceptual models are proposed. The findings suggest older adult couples living with chronic illness at home strive to live meaningfully while experiencing multiple life transitions embedded in a resonating process that facilitates change. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Connell School of Nursing. / Discipline: Nursing.

This qualitative and explanatory study focuses on the concept of ‘media witnessing’, which concerns witnessing media texts performed in, by, and through the media. The aim is to determine how people from different backgrounds engage with news photographs of Syrian children which went viral in 2015 and 2016. Furthermore, this study uses the analytical framework of media witnessing created by Maria Kyriakidou (2015). The framework was made to analyse four different reactions to distant, mediated suffering: affective, ecstatic, politicised and detached. This framework is tested and adapted for this study to identify the engagement experience of individuals with new viral photographs. These photographs were taken by professional photojournalists. The data was collected via semi-structured, two-person interviews known as dyadic interviews. Participants were recruited by way of purposive and snowball sampling. In the end, four dyadic interviews were conducted which involved eight individuals in total. During each interview, two participants looked together at four viral news photographs and discussed their thoughts and feelings based on an interview guide. All dyadic interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. The study material—four transcripts—was finally analysed using a thematic analysis method. Themes were based on modes of media witnessing. The analysis reveals a fifth mode of response—first-hand witnessing—which is linked to an individual’s own experience and past. Finally, this study claims that an adapted framework constitutes a suitable way to analyse people’s engagement but that there is a need for further study of media witnessing.

Background and Objectives: Alterations in the habitual sleep/wake patterns of women with breast cancer and their informal caregivers may be concurrently exacerbated and co-vary during the patient’s treatment. The current study set out to longitudinally ex-plore sleep-wake patterns of patient-caregiver dyads in the context of adjuvant chemotherapy (CTh) for breast cancer. Taking into consideration the complexity of mechanisms interfering with a care dyad’s sleep, diverse sleep-impairing factors were also investigated. Design and Methods: Descriptive, observational, repeated-measures dyadic study. Forty eight newly diagnosed women receiving outpatient adjuvant CTh for early stage breast cancer (stage I-IIIA) and their nominated primary informal caregiver completed self-reported sleep measures at pre-treatment (week prior to CTh), post-CTh cycle 1, post-CThC4, and approximately 30 days after the end of CTh (total of =6 cycles received). Additional data on the dyads’ sleep hygiene practices (SH), patient physical burden, caregiving burden (CRACB), psychological burden (PSYCH), nocturnal sleep disturbances (SDSTRB), and maladaptive coping strategies were collected at each assessment point. Results: Prior to CTh, 65% of dyads consisted of at least one poor sleeper, a rate further increasing to approximately 88% at CThC4. Multivariate hierarchical linear modelling revealed curvilinear trajectories for most dyads’ sleep/wake parameters that nevertheless reached significance (p<.05) for patients only. In both groups, sleep/wake impairment reached its peak at mid-treatment (CThC4); yet, patients consistently reported significantly more sleep problems than their carers. Partial convergence also emerged as suggested by positive correlations and no between-groups differences in daily disturbance, daytime napping duration, total sleep time, and overall sleep/wake impairment at pre-treatment. At CThC4, rates of change in sleep latency and daytime napping duration were also similar. In exploratory analyses, increased CRACB, poor SH, and SDSTRB consistently predicted poorer outcomes in the dyad members’ own sleep-wake patterns. Cross-partner effects most frequently emerged with regard to the dyads’ PSYCH, as well as for CRACB. Among the most interesting findings, increased patient PSYCH adversely affected caregiver perceived sleep quality and daytime napping. Reversely, increased CRACB was related to worse patient sleep quality, reduced sleep time, and difficulty to fall asleep. Some links might be suggested for own poor sleep hygiene and worse partner outcomes on daytime functioning, sleep efficiency, or wake after sleep onset. Conclusions and Future Implications: This is one of the first studies to show that a dyadic approach in the assessment of sleep/wake patterns in patients with breast cancer and their informal carers is a promising method to enhance exploration of potentially concurrent sleep/wake-impairment and associations with sleep-impairing factors that may co-vary in dyad members. Replication of the current findings in future dyadic sleep research is warranted. Meanwhile, clinicians will need to engage in concurrent systematic and ongoing sleep assessments that synthesise and contrast data to establish a care dyad’s level of sleep quality.

Predicting divorce potential has been of interest to researchers and clinicians. The Marital Status Inventory (Weiss & Ceretto, 1980) was developed to provide information about clients' perceived divorce potential. The MSI has been widely used but there have been complaints about the negatively worded items from clients, therapists, and researchers. Therefore, this study compared a revised form of the MSI (MSI-R has no negatively worded items) with the original format. There were three purposes of the study. The first was to assess the reliability and validity of the MSI-R. The second purpose was to see if the MSI-R continued to distinguish between types of therapy couples attended (marital versus other therapy). The third and final purpose of the study was to assess the ability of the MSI-R to assess divorce potential with a remarital sample. It was found that the MSI-R is on face value equally as valid as the original MSI. There was a lack of support for discriminate validity. The MSI-R was found to be internally consistent (alpha = .83), therefore reliable. Clients found the revised items to be more easily understood and readable than the original items. The MSI and MSI-R were significantly correlated indicating that they apparently measure the same concepts. Results showed that both groups scored on the low end of the scale indicating that the sample was not a very divorce prone group. There did not appear to be any difference with regards to mean scores on the MSI and MSI-R between marital and remarital groups. While the MSI-R appears to be a promising replacement for the MSI, further research is warranted to provide sufficient evidence of validity.

This dissertation investigated the bottom-up technology transmission process in a country with varied levels of technology diffusion, such as Chile. In particular, I explored how children act as technology brokers within their families by influencing their parents' adoption of and learning about digital media, so as to include older generations in the digital environment. In order to do this, I measured to what extent this process occurs, I proposed a typology of factors that intervene in the process and analyzed the outcomes variables related to the phenomenon. Methodologically, I used a mixed-methods research approach by combining in-depth interviews with a self-administered paper-and-pencil survey taken by dyads of one parent and one child. I analyzed 28 interviews involving one 12 to 18-year-old child and one parent or legal guardian (14 dyads) stratified by socioeconomic background, age, and gender. In addition, I conducted the parent-child survey among school-aged children and their parents in three schools, stratified by socioeconomic status. One class per cohort from 7th to 11th grades was randomly surveyed. In total, 381 students and 251 parents completed the surveys. The analyses showed that bottom-up technology transmission occurs at some degree for all the technologies investigated in this study. However, children's influence should not be overstated because they play only one part among a number of factors involved in the digital inclusion of older generations. It also established a typology of factors related to the process at different levels, including structural influences, family structure, strategies employed by youth, and psychological dispositions of parents. Specifically, the analyses consistently found that this process was more likely to occur among people from a lower socioeconomic status. Also, the transmission was associated with more fluid parent-child interactions and occurred among parents who perceived the technology to be useful. Regarding the outcome variables, it demonstrated that this phenomenon is linked, although weakly, to greater levels of perceived competence among parents and higher esteem among young people. Finally, it suggested that bottom-up technology transmission is associated with the reduction of some socioeconomic gaps in digital media use. / text

The thesis is an exploratory qualitative analysis of conversations between two out of three leading characters in Woody Allen’s motion picture Hannah and Her Sisters (1986). Due to a perception of invisible power relations, it is hypothesized that what seems like a powerful position in discourse, in fact is an indication of the opposite, and that what seems like a powerless position, is an indication of power. Three features based on scholarship connected to Conversation Analysis (CA), Dyadic Power Theory (DPT) and power relations in verbal interaction are chosen to test the hypotheses: first and second positions in sequences as dicussed by Hutchby (1996), control attempts as elaborated by DPT, and mitigating strategies as argued for by Mullany (2004). Findings confirm the hypotheses, but also reveal ambiguities and contrasting results. Connecting the data to sources based on talk in the private sphere, in particular within family discourse, is mentioned as one way to further illuminate the subject in future research.

The thesis focuses on female orgasm and its relation to autoerotic activities and dyadic sexual behavior. The first theoretical part focuses on theories describing the function of female orgasms and factors influencing its occurrence. The second part consists of four articles published in peer-reviewed journals. The first article is a review, focusing on the development of expert opinions over time, with specific regard to female orgasms and the division between clitoral and vaginal orgasm. The second article discusses the role of general relationship and sexual satisfaction with respect to the female orgasm. The third article examined the association between first autoerotic experiences and the occurrence of vaginal orgasm. Finally, the fourth article concerned the frequency of dyadic sexual activity and its relation to vaginal orgasm. The findings within each article indicate that autoerotic and dyadic sexual activities together with general relationship and sexual satisfaction have a positive influence on the occurrence of female orgasms.

The effects of maternal stress on child behavior, especially externalizing problems such as aggression, defiance, and lack of self-control, are well-established within psychological literature. Few studies, however, have examined the effects of maternal stress on child internalizing problems, such as loneliness, withdrawal, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Moreover, there is much research within developmental psychology to support the notion that parent-child co-regulation, sometimes called dyadic synchrony, can predict child behavioral outcomes. Currently, researchers lack an understanding of how this process can interact with maternal stress to predict child internalizing symptoms. The following thesis details a multi-method assessment which is designed to examine the mediating effect of co-regulation on the relationship between maternal stress and child internalizing symptoms. In this research project, mothers and their three-year-old children complete questionnaires and a challenging dyadic task to assess their current stress, internalizing symptoms, and co-regulation strategies. Co-regulation scores are assigned through a macro coding scheme developed by a behavioral observation coding team. Due to ongoing data collection, data from a comparable project were collected to test this hypothesis using similar self-report measures. This study may have significant implications for the effects of everyday parent-child interactions on future child health outcomes.