The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between the attitudes of parents toward outdoor environments and their children spending time outdoors, and how these attitudes related to their children's overall health. The sample for this study consisted of parents of six to thirteen year old children from the U.S., who accessed the survey from the Aggie Horticulture homepage between March and August 2009. Surveys were collected until 142 completed questionnaires were received. The online questionnaire included questions about parents' attitude toward nature; their children playing outdoors, play site rating, and children's overall health and demographic questions. Descriptive statistics were used to tabulate mean scores on the Parental Attitude About Nature Scale, and Parental Attitude About Their Children Spending Time Outdoors Scale, both of which indicated overall positive views. Pearson's product-moment correlations indicated statistically significant relationships between the Parental Attitude About Nature Scale, and Parental Attitude About Their Children Spending Time Outdoors Scale (P=0.001), and between these two scales and time children spent outdoors (P=0.008, P=0.05). No correlation existed between Parental Attitude About Their Children Spending Time Outdoors score and the Health Problems score (P=0.459). Also, there were statistically significant relationships between time spent indoors on video games or watching TV and health problems of children (r=+0.182, P=0.031), congestion (r=+0.192, P=0.023), and children having trouble sleeping (r=+0.237, P=0.005); asthma attacks and with the time spent in indoor organized sports (r=+0.274, P=0.001) and outdoor organized sports (r=+0.177, P=0.036). Additionally, time spent outdoors in free play was negatively correlated with body pain or discomfort (r=-0.219, P=0.009), repeated upset stomach (r=-0.179, P=0.034), or feeling tired or having low energy (r=-0.289, P=0.001). In regards to play areas a post-hoc analysis (Tukey's HSD) revealed that all the outdoor play scene pictures had statistically significantly higher mean scores in ratings of approval by parents (P=0.001) when compared to the indoor play area and that the outdoor scene picture with the black hardtop surface had a statistically significantly lower mean score (P=0.001) than the other outdoor play scene pictures. This indicated that, in general, parents preferred play areas with a greater amount of natural elements.

Recent advances in networking technology have led to a paradigm shift in broadcast media. The entry of the Internet as a form of popular media means that traditional media are now seeking to transform themselves in a bid for survival. Changes in media broadcasting methods have made the spread and acquisition of information faster and easier. Today¡¦s youth of the E-generation live in an economically stable and technologically advanced society. Changes in society, politics and the traditional family structure have made youths an increasingly important market as their buying power and influence on family decisions have increased. The goal of this study is to discover how the subjects of this study utilize various types of media. Media utilization includes their media preferences, utilization frequency and duration as well as where they use it most often. Beyond utilization, the study goes on to examine and categorize the subjects¡¦ lifestyle and media utilization motives. The study then seeks to discover if there are any links between the subjects¡¦ lifestyles and their media utilization motives. Finally, the study examines the question of ¡§Do different lifestyles or media utilization motives lead to differences in media utilization?¡¨ The subjects of this study were E-generation youths (i.e. young people aged between 13 and 22). Taking into consideration the ease of conducting the survey, information availability and cost, Taipei and Kaohsiung (including their counties and cities) were selected as the regions to be sampled. As for the types of media, the five common forms of TV, newspapers, magazines, the Internet and radio were selected for use in this study into media preferences and usage. For this study, the collection of samples was carried out in the form of questionnaire surveys in Taipei and Kaohsiung. After the sample data was acquired, the lifestyles and media utilization motives were categorized and labeled. After factor analysis, lifestyle was divided into four categories: ¡§Community Involvement and Socialization¡¨, ¡§Fashionable and Trendy¡¨, ¡§Pro-Active¡¨ and ¡§Internet Home¡¨; media utilization motives were divided into three types, these being: ¡§Need for Entertainment and Peer Acceptance¡¨, ¡§Need to Increase Knowledge and Skills¡¨ and ¡§Need for Fashion Shopping¡¨. Finally the collected data were subjected to statistical analysis using the SPSS 10.0 software in order to validate the study¡¦s various hypotheses. The results of the study indicated that among youths the media preference was TV first, followed by the Internet. As for frequency of usage, 46.3% of those interviewed used the Internet every day while 41.0% watched TV every day. In terms of duration, those who used the Internet for 5 hours or more made up 24.0% while those who used it for 2 to 4 hours made up 64%. Those who watched TV for 5 hours or more made up 11.6% while those who watched for 2 to 4 hours made up 72.1%. This showed that when it comes to media preferences and utilization, despite youth¡¦s preferences and increasing dependence on the Internet, TV remains an indispensable part of their daily life. By differentiating amongst the sampling locations of this study, it was found that youths in Taipei used the Internet most, followed by TV; the exact reverse was true for youths in Kaohsiung. This showed that their location and environment affected youths¡¦ media preferences. When youths were classified according to their lifestyle, different lifestyles resulted in media utilization motive variances; different media utilization motives also in turn affected how youths utilized media. Based on the above conclusions, the Internet and TV currently remain the types of media that youths are willing to use and devote a great deal of time to. Newspaper, magazine and radio by contrast made up a smaller segment with most youths having significantly less contact with these types of media and spending less time even when they do.

Although, the literature reveals that coach interior designs have been emphasized as an important factor determining their competitiveness in the market and the quality of an interior design can be effectively improved by using information about passenger expectations, few practical studies exist to assess the urban railway transport interiors from the passengers&rsquo / perspective. Consequently, designers lack reliable criteria to guide their decisions which would satisfy users. In this study, it is intended to develop a procedure to create interior design alternatives of urban railway transportation vehicles with regard to subjective needs and preferences of users. In order to acquire design criteria and recommendations for such interiors, the design alternatives are then evaluated quantitatively through the medium of semantic assessment tools. The thesis is supported with the arguments collected from literature and with the data from three empirical studies.

This thesis analyzes the relationship between users&rsquo / characteristics and users&rsquo / interface preferences. An online survey is developed for this study. This survey composed of two types of questions: (1) users&rsquo / personal information such as age, gender, country, cognitive structure, and also computer experience and (2) user interface elements. More than 2,500 participants from 120 different countries throughout the world completed our survey. Results were analyzed using cross tables. Our findings show that there is a relationship between users&rsquo / characteristics and users&rsquo / interface preferences. In the presence of this relationship, an artificial neural network model is developed for the estimation of the interface preferences based on the user characteristics.

Abstract MtDNA D-loop sequences and cranial morphometrics were used to analyze the phylogenetic relationships of bharal (Pseudois nayaur szechuanensis) populations. The habitat preferences of bharal were also investigated in Helanshan, Ningxia. The results from the analysis of mtDNA D-loop sequences and cranial morphometrics were in accordance. Among all populations analyzed, the phylogenetic relationships between populations in Lixian, Sichuan and Helanshan, Ningxia were most distantly related, while populations in Dulan, Qinghai and Subei, Gansu were close to one another. No matter in summer or winter, bharal generally prefer to stay in meadows, but they would appear in forests and shrubs as well.

<p>Music has always been an important form of communication and it can be found in many different contexts including aesthetical, cultural and emotional forms. In the globalized society of today music can be distributed fast through radio, TV, CD: s and the Internet. For many people consumption of music is an important part of the daily life and it can contribute to shape an individual’s attitudes and personality.</p><p>The main purpose of this study is to find out whether there are any differences between men and women’s musical preferences. I will apply an explorative approach using qualitative interviews to describe what causes the differences. My results show that there is a difference between men and women’s musical preferences at least on the surface. Men preferred listening to rock and women favoured pop to a greater extent. These results could be affected by socialisation which refers to common norms in the society describing how women and men should behave. Socialisation can be linked to musical preferences and clearly both sexes are affected by this. It can be problematic to break these norms fearing exclusion from certain social groups. Some factors that effects musical preferences are socialisation, gender and identity.</p>

Thesis (M.S.)--Eastern Illinois University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-73).

Thesis (M.A.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Kathline M. Erndl, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Religion. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 16, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-120).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2003. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-96). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.