For several decades, evolutionary and social learning theories have been explanatory frameworks to explicate gender differences in overt behaviors and the prevalence, etiology, and maintenance of mental health problems. To further explore relations among gender, overt behaviors, and depression severity, this study used a daily diary methodology to examine gender differences within thirteen behavioral domains and whether differntial frequency of overt behaviors and environmental reward mediated the relationship between gender and depression severity. Overall, females engaged in a significantly greater breadth of behavioral domains and reported a higher level of environmental reward. Females reported spending more time in the domains of health/hygiene, spiritual activities, and eating with others. In contrast, males spent a greater duration of time in the domains of physical activity, sexual activity, and hobbies and recreational experiences. In relation to males, females found social activities, passive/sedentary behaviors, eating with others, and engagement in “other” activities to be more rewarding. Gender had a significant direct effect on depression severity, with females reporting increased depression. This effect was attenuated by the mediator (total environmental reward) such that to the extent that females exhibited increased environmental reward, the gender effect on depression was reduced. These data support behavioral models of depression and have clinical relevance as highlighted in the context of behavioral activation interventions for depression.

This study is a textual thematic analysis that sought to identify recruiting themes embedded in a World War II combat film, Guadalcanal Diary (1943). The film was chosen on the basis of its representative ness of the combat films of the era. The study was completed through a deconstruction of the film, identifying scenes that contained either manifest or latent, recruiting appeals. The appeals were those Padilla and Laner’s 2001 study identified as the predominant themes used in 1942 recruiting posters. Additionally, the study examined the film using Carey’s (1989) theory of a ritual view of communication, a view that focuses on the role of communication acts in the maintenance of society over time. An historical context addressing the relationship between the federal government and Hollywood, and the Selective Service, voluntary enlistments and the armed forces, is included for clarification purposes. The film was found to exhibit both manifest and latent references to the four recruiting themes, which included a gain in status, recognition of patriotic behavior, adventure and challenge, and traditions and honor of the military. Further research is indicated in the areas of feature films and embedded recruiting messages, other forms of popular media during the war and recruiting messages, and the relationship between the draft and voluntary enlistments during war eras. / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. / "May 2006." / Includes bibliographic references (leaves 77-83)

The purpose of this work is to develop a web based decision support system, based onfuzzy logic, to assess the motor state of Parkinson patients on their performance in onscreenmotor tests in a test battery on a hand computer. A set of well defined rules, basedon an expert’s knowledge, were made to diagnose the current state of the patient. At theend of a period, an overall score is calculated which represents the overall state of thepatient during the period. Acceptability of the rules is based on the absolute differencebetween patient’s own assessment of his condition and the diagnosed state. Anyinconsistency can be tracked by highlighted as an alert in the system. Graphicalpresentation of data aims at enhanced analysis of patient’s state and performancemonitoring by the clinic staff. In general, the system is beneficial for the clinic staff,patients, project managers and researchers.

Denna uppsats syfte är en tematisk jämförelse mellan Johanna Nilssons Rebell med frusna fötter och Helen Fieldings Bridget Jones’s Diary beträffande huvudkaraktärerna för att komma fram till hur felplacerad Stella Björk skulle vara i en chick lit-berättelse. Jag använder Bridget som representativ för en typisk huvudkaraktär i chick lit då det är vid publiceringen av Bridget Jones’s Diary forskarna anser att chick lit föddes. Vid en tematisk jämförelse mellan Stella och Bridget där miljö- och karaktärsbeskrivning och även karaktärsutveckling avhandlas blir resultatet att dessa två fiktiva kvinnor är lika på många sätt men det finns skillnader. Karaktärernas komplexitet är en stor skillnad, då Stella är en mer komplex karaktär än Bridget. De funderar mycket båda två men över olika ämnen. En sista stor skillnad är att Bridget tänker på hur hennes egen kropp ser ut medan Stella funderar mer över hur hemska andra människors kroppsliga ideal är.

Rationale and study aims: Persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) experience declines in everyday functioning and cognitive performance greater than what is experienced in normal aging but less than that of dementia. Daily stress and daily memory complaints associated with cognitive deficits may contribute to greater psychological distress in the day-to-day experiences of persons with MCI. However, research examining the occurrence of daily stressors, daily memory complaints and psychological distress in MCI is limited, and it is not clear how the daily processes of stress and affect in persons with MCI compare to cognitively healthy older adults. This dissertation examined the occurrence of daily stressors, daily memory complaints, retrospective and daily well-being in persons with MCI compared to cognitively healthy controls. Main analyses examined whether daily stressors and daily memory complaints were associated with worse daily affect in MCI participants compared to controls, and whether increased daily stress was associated with a greater number of memory complaints. Methods: The study used a short-term repeated measures design, and included MCI and control participants recruited from a university-based memory clinic. The interviews consisted of a baseline interview and up to eight consecutive days of brief daily phone interviews. The interviews included both retrospective and daily measures of psychological well-being, daily stressors, daily memory complaints, and open-ended questions about daily experiences. Results: Persons with MCI reported a greater number of daily memory complaints and worse psychological distress, as measured by both retrospective and daily reports. There were no significant differences between MCI and control participants, however, in the frequency of daily stressors. In both unadjusted and adjusted analyses, on days when a participant reported more daily stressors, they had higher negative affect. The stress-negative affect relationship was stronger for MCI participants compared to controls. MCI and control participants who reported more memory complaints, on average, had higher negative affect. Discussion: Daily stressors were disproportionally associated with greater psychological distress in MCI participants as compared to cognitively healthy controls. Interventions targeting the potential distress associated with daily life may be beneficial for psychological well-being in persons with MCI. Future research should examine other potential mechanisms of distress in daily lives of persons with MCI in order to inform relatives and caregivers of persons with MCI, clinicians who give diagnoses to their patients, and individuals providing community support for individuals living with MCI.

In this study information-related activities engaged in by engineers during work task performance in the research and development centre at Sandvik Materials Technology AB are investigated. The purpose of the present study was to identify and achieve an understanding of the information-related activities performed by engineers during work task performance in a corporate context. The work task performance in focus is the task of writing a technical report.The study rests on methodological triangulation through the use of a work task diary, a semi-structured questionnaire and focus groups. In total 16 engineers participated in the study. The theoretical framework is based on theories of information in social practice, the information seeking process and the concept of task.The study presents results showing that engineers work in a highly complex information environment and their work task performance is to a high degree affected by situational attributes such as previous experience, type of work task, time, target group, and access to information. The results show that the information sources preferred by engineers have not changed over time; rather a change is seen in the type of sources. There is a distinct increase in the use of electronic sources; which in turn seem to affect the way engineers perceive accessibility. The study also shows that there are evident situational and contextual attributes affecting the information-related activities. Information needed to perform a work task is strongly related to data retrieved from experiments. There also seems to be an embedded tolerance for a low scientific level in technical reports, even though the scientific practice is the norm.This study also shows that the concept of work task forms a relevant basis for studies of information-related activities, particularly in combination with theories on information in social practice. The model of the work task process combined with a faceted classification of work tasks provides a sound methodological tool for the analysis of work tasks in different contexts.

Individuals with dyslexia have an unexpected difficulty learning to read. This difficulty produces other effects, such as poor reading attitudes, meaning many choose not to read. Reading is a valuable source of information and entertainment, therefore individuals with dyslexia require better reading support. This study attempted to develop an intervention to improve reading attitudes using video self-modelling (VSM). VSM involves individuals watching carefully created videos of themselves correctly performing target behaviours. During this 1 month intervention, 14 participants (13 male and 1 female) aged 9-14 who had dyslexia were asked to watch a weekly video of themselves silently reading one of four types of material: academic digital, academic print, recreational digital or recreational print. The participants’ reading attitudes and ability were measured before and after the intervention using the Survey of Adolescent Reading Attitudes and the Wide Range Achievement Test–Fourth Edition, respectively. Their reading habits and affect while reading (as a proxy measure of reading attitudes) were monitored during the intervention using a daily reading diary. This study did not detect any systematic or reliable changes in reading habits, affect while reading, reading attitudes and reading skills. This may have been due to limitations in the procedure, or it is possible that VSM cannot affect attitudes and that reading attitudes alone do not have a strong influence on ability. Consequently, future research should use VSM to help individuals with dyslexia by focusing on specific reading skills, such as phonological awareness.

Uppsatsen bygger på den vandringsdagbok som skrevs under 1952-1954 av 24 nyutexaminerade småskollärarinnor från Norrköpings småskoleseminarium. De hade enats om att skriva brev i dagboksform omfattande tre sidor brevtext och sedan låta boken cirkulera runt till samtliga författare. Boken skulle i första hand spegla deras arbete som lärarinnor och viktiga delar av deras privatliv. För några år sedan skänktes böckerna, 23 av 25, till Arbetets museum i Norrköping. Jag har tagit del av breven som omfattar lärarinnornas första arbetsår och försökt analysera deras arbete, privatliv, föreningsliv och deras hemligheter som det speglas i vandringsdagboken. De flesta anställdes bara på korta vikariat. En tredjedel förlovade eller gifte sig under det första året och några födde barn. Umgänget bestod av nya kolleger och av kontakt med gamla vänner från seminarietiden. De intresserade sig mycket litet för aktuella politiska, kulturella eller sociala problem. Vissa frågor, privata eller i skolan, behandlas inte i brevtexterna. / My essay is a result of an investigation of letters written in a diary between 1952 and 1954 by 24 primary school teachers who had just finished their final exam in the College of Education in Norrköping, Sweden during the summer of 1952. They had promised each other to write letters of three pages in a diary and to let the book circulate between all the participators. The letters should include the experience of their work as schoolteachers but also important parts of their private lives. The books, 23 of 25 in all, were donated to the Arbetets museum in Norrköping a few years ago. I have read the letters and made an effort to analyse their educational work, their private lives, their community activities and their secrets as found in the texts of the diary. The teachers were employed for some months or for one or two terms. One third of them was engaged or married during the first year and a few gave birth to children. Their intimate friends consisted of schoolteachers but they also kept contact with their old acquaintances from the College of Education. They took little interest in the political, cultural or social problems during the period I have studied. Certain questions of private nature were not discussed in the diary letters.

Darbas skirtas dienoraščio žanro studijai. Analizuojant pasirinktus trijų talentingų asmenybių dienoraščius (J. Meko, A. Nykos-Nilliūno ir Z. Maurinios) išskiriami du šio lankstaus žanro sluoksniai: literatūrinis ir filosofinis, apibrėžiami estetinių refleksijų sąvoka. Dienoraščių estetika nagrinėta atsižvelgiant į pagrindiniuss semantinio turinio vienetus, kurie susideda iš tokių tendencingų elementų: 1. Laiškai (korespondencija) ir straipsniai; 2. Pasakojimai-žmonių Portretai; 3. Pasakojimai (naratyvai); 4. Pokalbių fragmentai; 5. Literatūros ar kultūros kritika; 6. Prisiminimai (Reminiscencijos) ir 7. Įvairūs literatūriški aprašymai ir palyginimai. Filosofinėje plotmėje dienoraščiai nagrinėjami remiantis asmeninės savirefleksijos ir fenomenologijos sąsajomis išskiriant subjektyvaus pasaulio vertinimo, asmeninės patirties ir gyvenamojo pasaulio, kaip priešingybės logiškam ir „sumokslintąjam“, o taip pat intersubjektyvumo ir intencionalumo sąvokas. Trumpai apžvelgtos dienoraščių funkcijos ir struktūra. / The purpose of the study is research of diary genre. For the diary analysis three talented persons' (J. Mekas, A. Nyka-Niliūnas and Z. Maurinia) were chosen. Two different layers of this genre were distinguished: literary and philosophical, by defining concept of aesthetical reflections. Aesthetic diary layer was explored by taking in to account primary units of semantic matter, which consist of such a tendentious elements: 1. Letters (correspondence); 2. Narrative - people Portraits; 3. Story (narrative); 4. fragments of the Conversations; 5. literature and culture critique; 6. Memories (reminiscent) 7. and others literary aesthetical forms. In philosophical plane diaries were analyzed taking as a background correlation between personal self-reflection and phenomenology, by characterizing conceptions of subjective world estimation, firsthand experience and habitable world as opposites of logical and scientific. Function and the structure of the diaries were overlooked also.

Vis daugiau procesų perkeliama į elektroninę erdvę ̶ tokia tendencija neaplenkė ir Lietuvos mokyklų. Šiame darbe pristatoma problema apžvelgiant situaciją vienoje Kauno gimnazijų, kur remiantis kitų mokyklų praktika, Europos Sąjungos nuorodomis ir Lietuvos Respublikos įstatymais, buvo įdiegtas elektroninis dienynas. Skirtingai nei elektroninės komercijos atveju, skaitmenizavus dienyną, tiesioginę įtaką organizacinių procesų efektyvumui išmatuoti yra sunku tiek dėl ankstesnių tyrimų trūkumo, tiek ir trūkstant visuotinai priimtinos praktikos. Praeitais metais pasiūlytas efektyvumo tyrimo būdas šiame darbe analizuojamas, remiantis H. Leavitt bei J. Gaskin modeliais, aiškinančiais technologijos įtaką kitiems organizacijos komponentams, šią įtaką matuojant našumo, produktyvumo, kokybės ir nuoseklumo dimensijose. Sekančiame skyriuje pristatomi moksliniai tyrimo metodai, tarnausiantys duomenų rinkimui, analizei ir rezultatų apibendrinimui. Vėliau pristatomas praktinis tyrimo modelis, aiškinami jo taikymo metu gauti rezultatai. Darbo pabaigoje pateikiamos išvados ir perspektyvos. / The tendency of moving business processes to electronic environment is also adopted in Lithuania schools. In this article the problem of e-diary usage will be presented, describing situation in one of Kaunas gymnasium‘s, where e-diary was introduced, based on a practice of other schools, Europe Union policies and The Republic of Lithuania’s law. While you can measure effectiveness of e-commerce in businesses, it‘s difficult to do the same with the introduction of e-diary in schools, both due to the lack of previous research as well as lack of widely-used practice for this matter. Recently published method for measuring e-diary’s efficiency of school‘s organizational processes is analyzed in this work, using theoretical models of H. Leavitt and J. Gaskin. Based on these models the influence of e-diary system on other organizational components is analysed, while measuring this influence in terms of productivity, efficiency, quality and consistency. In this work there a description of scientific research methods is presented, with explanation how the chosen methods are used for collection of data, analysis and generalization from results.