Purpose: Research has shown that children who stutter (CWS) demonstrate poor adaptive functioning, or poor functional, social, and psychological skills, when compared to children who do not stutter (CWNS). Previous work has also shown that preschool CWS demonstrate significantly lower effortful control than CWNS. High effortful control, or the ability to inhibit a dominant response, is predictive of high adaptive functioning in children who are exposed to a range of adversities. The purposes of this study were fourfold: (a) to investigate if the differences between preschool CWS and CWNS in effortful control extended to school-aged children; (b) to determine if effortful control could uniquely explain adaptive functioning after controlling for a diagnosis of stuttering; (c) to investigate whether effortful control was more influential to CWS than to CWNS; and (d) to investigate whether effortful control uniquely explained adaptive functioning in CWS after controlling for stuttering frequency. Methods: Effortful control and seven core areas of adaptive functioning were investigated in 46 school-age CWS and 46 CWNS. Eight independent two tailed t-tests were used to assess whether CWS demonstrated lower effortful control than CWNS and lower adaptive functioning than CWNS in seven adaptive functioning areas: communication competence, peer competence, internalizing behaviors, externalizing behaviors, general anxiety, social anxiety, and depression. Correlation and hierarchical regression analyses were used to examine the extent to which each component of adaptive functioning was related to effortful control when controlling for age, intelligence, parent-child relationship, and stuttering group membership. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to assess the extent to which each separate component of adaptive functioning was related to effortful control in CWS only. Results: CWS demonstrated significantly lower effortful control when measured by the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire (a parent report measure of hot effortful control) than CWNS. CWS also performed more poorly in all aspects of adaptive functioning; however statistical significance was only reached for internalizing behaviors and general anxiety. The hierarchical linear regressions indicated that effortful control predicted the majority of the variance in five areas of adaptive functioning: peer competence, externalizing behaviors, internalizing behaviors, general anxiety, and depression. In the group of CWS, stuttering frequency predicted internalizing behaviors, general anxiety, and social anxiety. However, stuttering was the most important contributor to only one of the seven components of adaptive functioning, social anxiety. Conclusions: This study with school-aged CWS extends previous work indicating that preschool CWS exhibit lower effortful control than their normally fluent peers. The fact that emotional aspects of effortful control were a stronger predictor of social functioning, internalizing behaviors, and externalizing behaviors than either a stuttering diagnosis or the quantity of stuttering, may explain the adaptive functioning deficits often observed in CWS. Because effortful control is both a powerful contributor to adaptive functioning, and is reduced in CWS, clinical therapy approaches, which boost effortful control skills, have the potential to greatly lessen the impact of stuttering for CWS.

Vibration-based damage detection methods are used in structural applications to identify the global dynamic response of the system. The purpose of the work presented is to exhibit a vibration-based damage detection algorithm that calculates a damage indicator, based on limited frequency bands of the transmissibility function that have high coherence, as a metric for changes in the dynamic integrity of the structure. The methodology was tested using numerical simulation, laboratory experimentation, and field testing with success in detecting, comparatively locating, and relatively quantifying different damages while also parametrically investigating variables which have been identified as issues within similar existing methods. Throughout both the numerical and laboratory analyses, the results were used to successfully detect damage as a result of crack growth or formation of new cracks. Field results using stochastic operational traffic loading have indicated the capability of the proposed methodology in evaluating the changes in the health condition of a section of the bridge and in consistently detecting cracks of various sizes (30 to 60 mm) on a sacrificial specimen integrated with the bridge abutment and a floor beam. Fluctuations in environmental and loading conditions have been known to create some uncertainties in most damage detection processes; however, this work demonstrated that by limiting the features of transmissibility to frequency ranges of high coherence, the effect of these parameters, as compared to the effect of damage, become less significant and can be neglected for some instances. The results of additional field testing using controlled impact forces on the sacrificial specimen have reinforced the findings from the operational loading in detecting damage.

Colleges and universities continually seek to foster the leadership development of undergraduate students through curricular and co-curricular opportunities and experiences. This study examined the effects and potential contributions of participation in campus-based leadership trainings on college students' leadership development with special consideration for gender and racial background. To better understand the relationship between campus-based trainings and leadership development, data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education (WNS) was utilized. The WNS was a multi-institutional, longitudinal dataset made up of 47 four-year colleges and universities from 21 states throughout the United States. This study mark's one of the first multi-year, multi-institution longitudinal studies to investigate the relationship between campus-based leadership trainings and leadership development. The results of the study pointed to several over-arching themes. The first theme was that a student's background and leadership experience prior to college matter. Next, a student's curricular success matters, and influences their leadership gains throughout all aspects of the SCM. The interactions students have with peers who are different from themselves matters. Leadership development opportunities need to be intentionally designed. Finally, campus-based leadership trainings offer a potential programmatic option for institutions to help develop their students as socially responsible leaders, regardless of backgrounds and other experiences.

By the eighteenth century, the business of music publishing in Europe had exploded. Europe had become more culturally international, and interest in purchasing and performing music written by foreign composers was in vogue. Unfortunately laws governing copyright and editing of music were either difficult to enforce or non-existent, and most were not applicable on an international level. Around 1750 music publishers Leclerc and Boivin published an edition of flute sonatas in Paris. This edition was attributed to Georg Friderich Handel, whose work, at the time, was the most sought after in Western Europe. This particular collection is identical to an earlier edition published in 1729 in Hamburg, Germany by an unknown German composer, Johann Christoph Schultze. This paper is the first modern critical edition of Schultze’s Six Sonate â Doi Flauti Traversi Senza Basso Con una Ciacconna tra mischiata di doi Canoni nella medesima nascosti (Six Sonatas for Two Flute without Basso and A Chaconne for Two Equal Voices in Canon) and marks the first time the Chaconne has appeared in modern notation. The edition aims to be as true as possible to the 1729 publication, notes standard performance practices, and answers the question as to why the 1750 edition may have been falsely attributed to Handel.

My sculptures, drawings, and installations deal with nature and weathering processes as metaphors for human experience.

Ethical breaches committed by professionals are an important problem, both within the professions and for society as a whole. In this study, I examined breaches committed in one of the oldest and most-regulated professions, law, across three states. Using a sample of 377 actual disciplinary cases, I quantitatively evaluated the breaches and the punishments assessed to determine if justice is being applied proportionally and consistently. This study showed several potential disconnects between how decision-makers say they will punish, and how they actually punish. Punishment theory states that punishments should be applied in accordance with the blameworthiness of the offense and offender. I identified the factors in these cases that should correspond to blameworthiness, and found that some of the theorized factors (such as target and intentionality) did not matter in determining punishment. The study showed that neither prior good acts nor prior discipline mattered for punishment. It also showed that an offender’s noncooperation with his or her own investigation may be one of the most important factors in determining punishment, which raises questions of justice. Additionally, my study shows that impaired professionals who commit ethical breaches may be treated differently than unimpaired professionals. While mental impairment or any kind of substance abuse ought to be mitigating factors, only professionals with alcohol problems were treated more leniently. Textual analysis revealed that decision-makers used a significantly more passive tone when dealing with alcohol-impaired offenders.

Literature has offered insight into aspects of traditional masculine gender norms in shaping expectations of soldiers (Arkin & Dobrofsky, 1978; Green et al., 2010; Johnson, 2010; Lorber & Garcia, 2010; Shawver, 1995), yet there has been little consideration of how these norms affect gay identified servicemen. For centuries, military policies have made efforts to restrict gay individuals from serving openly or at all, leading to inquiry about the effectiveness of these individuals as service members and the impact on unit cohesion (Burrelli, 2012; Parco & Levy, 2010; Shawver, 1995; Zellman, 1996). The current study examines the experiences of gay service men and the impact on the expression of their masculine and gay identity while in the military. The researcher explores the definition of masculinity in the military, its role in the expression of gay sexual identity, experiences of and participation in acts of homophobia by self or others, and participants’ perception of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy repeal, as it relates to their comfort with expressing their gay identity.

Approximately 26% of the U.S. population between the ages of 65 and 74 years are completely edentulous. Of the different proposed predictors and risk factors, low income and education levels have the highest correlation with tooth loss. While the incidence of complete edentulism in the United States has progressively declined over the past decade, the continued growth of the population strongly suggests that edentulism prevalence will likely remain constant or increase over the next few decades. In patients wearing complete prosthetic appliances, several post-treatment complications may arise, including denture associated Candida species infections and mucosal stomatitis. These type of fungal infections are associated with patient-reported symptoms (e.g. pain or discomfort) and may impede normal oral function. In this study the activity of 11 (antimicrobial and/or antifungal) agents in a dental adhesive carrier against two strains of C. albicans was assessed. In conventional minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) assays, C. albicans were resistant to histatin 5 and lactoferricin B, yet very susceptible to SMAP28; susceptible to long chain bases sphingosine, dihydrosphingosine, and phytosphingosine; and susceptible to anti-fungal agents amphotericin B, chlorhexidine dihydrochloride, chlorhexidine gluconate, fluconazole, and nystatin. However, in 1% dental adhesive (final concentration) C. albicans were resistant to histatin 5, lactoferricin B, SMAP28, sphingosine, dihydrosphingosine, and phytosphingosine suggesting that the components in denture adhesive may inactivate local innate immune factors in the oral cavity possibly predisposing users to fungal infections in relation to their dental prostheses. In MIC assays in 1% dental adhesive (final concentration) C. albicans were susceptible (p value < 0.05) to amphotericin B, chlorhexidine, dihydrochloride, chlorhexidine gluconate, fluconazole, and nystatin strongly suggesting that these anti-fungal agents could be candidates for inclusion in denture adhesive formulations, and also be used as a prescribed topical treatment in individuals with fungal infections of the oral mucosa.

Continued research on sex-based discrimination is necessary given the pervasiveness of the problem and well-documented adverse outcomes for those who experience it. One widely studied contributor to sex-based discrimination in the workplace is gender composition. While a litany of studies have predicted a linear relationship between the proportion of men in a workforce and the incidence of sex discrimination, newer research has indicated a curvilinear relationship. As the state workforce represents both an aggregation of its institutions and the broader environment in which these institutions exist, state-level analysis is needed to resolve this discrepancy. However, past studies have largely been conducted at the institutional or work-group level and no research to date has explored the effect the gender composition of a state's workforce may have on sex-based discrimination filings. Using a unique dataset compiled from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and United States Census Bureau for the years 2009-2012, I find that the state is indeed an important locus of inquiry with regard to sex discrimination outcomes. Negative binomial analysis of state sex-based discrimination filings on gender composition of state's employed population reveals a curvilinear relationship, with the least filings in the most balanced and the most male-dominated state workforces, net of all controls.

From The Biggest Loser to Mike and Molly, globally televised representations of fatness are multiplying in reflection of heightened governmental and medical concern that the size of our bodies constitutes a problem of epidemic proportions. This project demonstrates how television acts as a forum for not only the politics of fat visibility and world health policies, but also for debating issues of fatness in connection to weight-loss and self-discipline, self-love and size acceptance, and even disability and discrimination. Ultimately, this project traces public health, medical, and fat acceptance discourses throughout culture, from media industry documents and regulatory hearings to newspaper reports and television texts, in order to understand television's role in enabling and constraining the ways in which we understand bodies, fatness, and health.