Planning and design of brownfield landscapes are not straight forward due to invisible, potential contamination. The dilemma occurs to designers in dealing with brownfield landscapes, because they are unknowingly able to deliver deceptive information regarding the site safety. If the designers and planners are given the information about factors affecting people's reaction to different characteristics of brownfield landscapes, this would help them to be better prepared for ethical issues. For this study, visual preference survey for neighborhoods along the rail yard in the City of Roanoke was conducted. A dimensional analysis found six brownfield landscape types. First of all, historical landmark and maintained landscape types received the highest ratings regardless of the participants characteristics and backgrounds. These types may be viewed less critically and are thus likely to mask potential harms. Second, scruffy vegetation and modest rundown building types that made up the second preferred group revealed more ambivalent feeling. People were highly flexible in switching between change or preservation options in their thinking, thus it would be easy to lead people to focus on certain aspects according to the designer's purposes. Lastly, the two industrial remnant types were the least preferred group. Participants tend to associate these types with toxic pollutants that are likely to adversely affect the health, thus, it would be important to reassure people regarding safety concerns. The expert interviews with brownfield program managers of many localities (Roanoke, VA; Portland, OR; Toledo, OH; Pheonix, AZ; Lewisville, TX; Arlington, TX; and New Bern, NC) were conducted to determine whether the current approaches are effective and develop recommendations. The interviews found that the effectiveness of program is greatly challenged by normative site assessment required by federal government. While the procedure provides necessary information about site safety, it also attaches a stigma to sites regardless of actual contamination level. Based on the findings, it is recommended to include assessment criteria that reveals reuse potentials of brownfields for balanced approach. The results provide useful information for program managers, planners and designers regarding important factors that should be considered for site prioritization and preparation and presentation of designs for brownfield reuse. / Ph. D.

Previous research, such as 'exercise determinants', has primarily sampled minimally physically active and sedentary people. In turn, studies focused on correlates of and perceived barriers to minimal physical activity (PA). The present study focused on exercisers (N=247, mean age=34) to assess social cognitive variables associated with PA consistency. Participants were categorized as either inconsistent, or slightly, fairly, or highly consistent exercisers. A new preference construct (type of activity, environment, social setting, feedback) for exercise was developed, and its association with consistency was assessed. Online measures assessed PA levels, preferences, enjoyment, outcome expectancy, self-efficacy, social-support, self-regulation. Higher planning confidence (Ã =.333, p<.000) and frequency (Ã =.276, p<.000) was associated with higher levels of PA consistency. Planning preference influenced planning frequency (Ã =.498, p<.000). Planning confidence influenced planning preference (Ã =.187, p<.003), which mediated its effect on planning frequency (Ã =.220, p<.000). Goal-setting frequency influenced consistency (Ã =.279, p<.000). Goal-setting preference influenced goal-setting frequency (Ã =.668, p<.000). Tracking frequency influenced consistency (Ã =.216, p<.000). Tracking preference influenced tracking frequency (Ã =.696, p<.000). Tracking confidence influenced tracking preference (Ã =.517, p< .000). Age influenced planning confidence (Ã =-.147, p<.021) and goal-setting confidence (Ã =-.164, p<.01). Engaging in PA in one's preferred environment (Ã =.540, p<.000) or with preferred company (Ã =.220, p<.001) was higher among more consistent exercisers. Using strategies to offset perceived barriers to exercise was highly predictive of consistency (Ã =.458, p<.000). Results suggest interventions should assess and match people to PA preference dimensions (i.e. environment, company, and self-regulation strategies) which will increase their self-regulation and ultimately exercise consistency. / Master of Science

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of learning gender and age labels on toddlers' toy preferences. Many researchers (e.g., Arthur, Bigler, Liben, Ruble, & Gelman, 2008; Martin & Halverson, 1981) have suggested that the acquisition of such labels should cause increased in-group preferences, and thus, increased interest in same-category toy preferences. In this study, we used feminine and masculine toys (e.g., a purse, a hammer) to test gender typed preferences and adult and child objects (e.g., toy keys, real keys) to test age typed preferences. Forty 18-20 month old children (M = 19.1 months) from primarily upper-middle class families participated in the study. After taking pre-test measures of their children's social label understanding and toy preferences, parents were randomly assigned with their children, to one of two conditions: the age condition (in which they were asked to practice "grown-up" and "kid") and the gender condition (in which they were asked to practice "boy" and "girl"). Parents practiced the labels with their children for approximately two weeks and returned to the lab. In the post-test session, children's social label understanding and toy preferences were again assessed. Additionally, parents were asked about their attitudes about other-gender toys and behaviors and about the toys their children had at home. The results indicated an interaction between test time and comprehension of the gender and age labels. Children in the age condition's performance on the age labels in the target word comprehension task improved from pre- to post-test. Children in the gender condition's performance on the gender labels also improved from pre- to post-test. However, there were no main effects of condition at post-test. As predicted, comprehension of labels was related to toy play in the age condition. Children who were more successful on the age labels on the word comprehension task also played more with toy items than real items at post-test. Comprehension of labels was not related to toy play in the gender condition. However, at pre-test, girls in the gender condition already exhibited strong sex typed behavior, so it is possible that the manipulation was not enough to change these extant preferences. These data partially support Bigler and Liben's (2006) Developmental Intergroup Theory and work by Martin and Halverson (1981) on role of cognitive processes in the formation of social stereotypes, preferences, and prejudice. / text

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1979 H68 / Master of Science

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1955 C33 / Master of Science

No description available.

PURPOSE:Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators (SERMs) reduce the risk of breast cancer for women at increased risk by 38%. However, uptake is extremely low and the reasons for this are not completely understood. The aims of this study were to utilize time trade-off methods to determine the degree of risk reduction required to make taking SERMs worthwhile to women, and the factors associated with requiring greater risk reduction to take SERMs.METHODS:Women at increased risk of breast cancer (N=107) were recruited from two familial cancer clinics in Australia. Participants completed a questionnaire either online or in pen and paper format. Hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis was used to analyze the data.RESULTS:Overall, there was considerable heterogeneity in the degree of risk reduction required to make taking SERMs worthwhile. Women with higher perceived breast cancer risk and those with stronger intentions to undergo (or who had undergone) an oophorectomy required a smaller degree of risk reduction to consider taking SERMs worthwhile.CONCLUSION:Women at increased familial risk appear motivated to consider SERMs for prevention. A tailored approach to communicating about medical prevention is essential. Health professionals could usefully highlight the absolute (rather than relative) probability of side effects and take into account an individual's perceived (rather than objective) risk of breast cancer.

No description available.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional & Community Planning / Brent Chamberlain / Growing urban populations and the increasing prevalence of the millennial generation are profoundly changing personal travel behaviors and patterns. As a result, cities, planners, and developers must understand and act upon the shifting preferences and expectations of these public transit users in order to align costly public transit services with user needs in efficient ways. While public transit systems are becoming an increasingly vital part of urban life, few jurisdictions have considered the need to tailor these systems to millennials – those most likely to incorporate public transit into their daily lives. This paper examines the travel behaviors of University Students engaged in a forced travel intervention caused by a sudden relocation of their work site. The change in work location encouraged the use of a free public transit system as means of commuting. Longitudinal survey results, taken pre and post-intervention, indicate statistical differences between transit preferences and actual habits related to transit use and other modes of travel. Survey findings suggest that there is a statistically significant difference between the stated willingness and actual travel behaviors of public transit users and of drivers, and that modal shifts can assist in overcoming the attitude/behavior split related to personal travel among millennials.

<p>In this dissertation, I examine at the aggregate and individual levels, why contemporary fertility preferences diverge from actual fertility. I use three waves of cross-sectional survey data from the National Family Health Surveys from India (also known as the Indian Demographic and Health Surveys), fielded in 1992-3, 1998-9 and 2005-6 to investigate the disjuncture between preferences and behavior. The first empirical chapter outlines and operationalizes a new framework to decompose the incongruence between stated preferences and actual fertility into a set of parameters, such as unwanted births, gender preference and postponement of births to later ages, each of which varies in its level and intensity between societies and over time. By delineating the societal constraints that women do not incorporate in their childbearing intentions, this model provides a useful framework to explain variability in fertility in contemporary intermediate- and low-fertility populations. Equally important, the framework provides avenues to enquire into the fundamental structural and cultural correlates producing differences between family size preferences and actual fertility.</p><p>Subsequent empirical chapters explore various aspects of fertility preferences in detail. The second chapter probes a key socioeconomic correlate of individual-level fertility preferences, namely educational differences in preferences. In brief, I find that educational differences in family size preferences have considerably converged over time using two-way fixed effects models. However, there is still considerable heterogeneity in the implementation of preferences (as manifested by the use of contraception). Accordingly, in the third chapter, I analyze the multilevel sources of variation in the use of contraception by young women, given that they express a preference to space or stop childbearing. Using multilevel models, I find that community norms play a strong role in the use of contraception by young women to meet their fertility preferences to space or stop childbearing. I argue that community norms are an influential determinant of young women's ability to regulate their own fertility - serving to enhance or constrain their use of contraception to either space or stop childbearing. </p><p>Overall, findings from this dissertation highlight the macro-level factors that explain variation in contemporary fertility, of which fertility preferences emerge as a critical parameter. This dissertation also illuminates the growing convergence of fertility preferences across socioeconomic categories, while focusing attention on local community forces that influence fertility behavior even in the face of women's stated preferences.</p> / Dissertation