The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between media use and body image in senior citizens. This study specifically targeted older people who participate in regular physical activity. Seniors participating in the 2006 Huntsman World Senior Games in St. George, Utah were surveyed concerning current body image and total media use. The sample included 691 participants. Lower body image scores were recorded among seniors who watched greater amounts of television. Magazine readership and body image displayed no relationship among men or women. Total media use did not influence body image scores among seniors. Male participants exhibited a stronger relationship than female participants between television use and low body image scores. Results indicated that males were vulnerable to messages targeting body image in a similar way to that of females. The findings of this study suggest that individuals may still be influenced by ultra thin images prevalent in media well into their older years.

Purpose: The Demoralization scale (DS-I) is a validated and frequently used instrument to assess existential distress in patients with cancer and other severe medical illness. The purpose of this study was to provide normative values derived from a representative German general population sample and to analyze the correlational structure of the DS-I. Methods: A representative sample of the adult German general population completed the DS-I (24 Items), the Emotion Thermometers (ET) measuring distress, anxiety, depression, anger, need for help, and the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy Fatigue Scale (FACIT-fatigue). Results: The sample consists of N = 2,407 adults (mean age = 49.8; range = 18–94 years), 55.7% women). The percentages of participants above the DS-I cutoff (30) was 13.5%. The mean scores of the DS-I dimensions were as follows: (1) loss of meaning and purpose: M = 2.78 SD = 4.49; (2) disheartenment: M = 3.19 SD = 4.03; (3) dysphoria M = 4.51 SD = 3.20; (4) sense of failure: M = 6.24 SD = 3.40; and for the DS-I total score: M = 16.72 SD = 12.74. Women reported significantly higher levels of demoralization than men, with effect sizes between d = 0.09 (Loss of Meaning) and d = 0.21 (Dysphoria). Age was not associated with demoralization in our sample. DS-I reliability was excellent (a = 0.94) and DS-I subscales were interrelated (r between 0.31 and 0.87) and significantly correlated with ET, especially depression, anxiety, and need for help and fatigue (r between 0.14 and 0.69). Conclusions: In order to use the DS-I as a screening tool in clinical practice and research the normative values are essential for comparing the symptom burden of groups of patients within the health care system to the general population. Age and sex differences between groups of patients can be accounted for using the presented normative scores of the DS-I.

Aphasia is an acquired language impairment caused by damage in the regions of the brain that support language. The Main Concept Analysis (MCA) is a published formal assessment battery that allows the quantification of the presence, accuracy, completeness, and efficiency of content in spoken discourse produced by persons with aphasia (PWA). It utilizes a sequential picture description task (with four sets of pictures) for language sample elicitation. The MCA results can also be used clinically for targeting appropriate interventions of aphasic output. The purpose of this research is to develop a Spanish adaptation of the MCA by establishing normative data based on native unimpaired speakers of Spanish. In the pilot study, thirty-eight unimpaired Spanish participants were recruited by previous student researchers. Each participant was asked to complete a demographic questionnaire and a short form of the Cognitive Linguistic Quick Test was administered to rule out any unidentified language problems. The MCA was then be administered to participants and their oral description was audio recorded for later orthographic transcription. A total of 81 unimpaired participants that consisted of different genders, ages (young, middle-aged, and older groups), levels of education (high versus low), and dialect origins (e.g., Spain, Puerto Rico, Columbia) were recruited in the main study to establish a more balanced set of data. One person with aphasia (PWA) was recruited for this study. Based on the collected normative samples, the essential information was identified for each participant. A dialect-specific scoring criteria including target main concepts and lexicons of the Spanish-MCA were developed. The Spanish-MCA was conducted to test the validity of the assessment battery. In the current study, a preliminary set of data using the MCA scoring criteria has been established. Similar to findings in Kong and Yeh 2015, the results of the Spanish-MCA showed age and education did impact discourse performance. Results from one-way ANOVA revealed statistical differences between age groups and education levels of the unimpaired participants recruited. The groups of participants with a higher education conveyed more AC concepts compared to the other dialect groups. To compare data for PWA, it is suggested that a larger sample size of PWA be recruited to validate the Spanish-MCA.

Nancy Pelosi (CA-12) was elected to the House of Representatives in 1987 and was the first female Speaker of the House, originally elected to the position in 2007. Despite the length and significance of her career in the House, there is very little academic literature devoted to the effectiveness of her leadership. In an attempt to fill this research gap, this thesis will raise the following questions; Is Nancy Pelosi an effective Speaker of the House, and has her effectiveness changed significantly over her term as Speaker? For purposes of this research, leadership effectiveness is defined as the Speaker's ability to advance her caucus' legislation and retain her party's majority and power. Leadership style is defined as the actions taken and choices made by the Speaker in order to achieve these goals. To do this, I will utilize the framework developed by Ronald M. Peters and Cindy Simon Rosenthal consisting of 5 normative criteria in which to judge contemporary congressional leadership. In this thesis, I consider leadership episodes that occurred after their work in order to continue the study of Pelosi's leadership and evaluate any changes. I conclude that while she has some effectiveness shortcomings, Pelosi is an effective leader and her leadership style and process has remained relatively constant with few minor changes to account for the quickly evolving political environment her leadership exists within.

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