Rationale: The rate of acquisition of drug self-administration may serve as a predictor of later drug-taking behavior, possibly influencing vulnerability to initiate drug use. Objectives: The present study examined the effects of perinatal (gestation/lactation) lead exposure on adult rates of acquisition of intravenous (i.v.) heroin self-administration and cocaine self-administration using an automated procedure that included both Pavlovian and operant components. Methods: For Experiment 1, female rats were gavaged daily with 0 or 16 mg lead for 30 days prior to breeding with nonexposed males. Metal administration continued through pregnancy and lactation and was discontinued at weaning (postnatal day [PND] 21). Animals born to control or lead-exposed dams received indwelling jugular catheters as adults and subsequently were tested daily in a preparation where sessions included an initial 3-hr autoshaping period followed by a 3- hr self-administration period. During autoshaping, heroin (.018 mg/kg) infusions were paired with the extension and retraction of a lever when a lever press was not made for 15 sec, while infusions occurred during self-administration only when a lever press was executed (FR-1). The criterion for acquisition was a 2-day period during which a mean of 10 infusions/session occurred during self-administration. Animals were given 35 days to reach criterion. Results: Findings from Experiment 1 showed the proportion of rats meeting the lever-press response criterion for heroin when tested as adults was lower among lead-exposed animals. In Experiment 2, cocaine (.20 mg/kg) was presented to animals that underwent the same metal-exposure regimen, surgical procedures and methods with variations only in the number of infusions that were automatically administered during the Pavlovian component. Criterion for cocaine acquisition was a mean of 50 infusions over a two-day. In Experiment 2, a greater proportion of leadexposed animals reached the criterion for cocaine acquisition. Conclusions: Developmentally lead-exposed animals showed a decrease in vulnerability to initiate drug-taking behavior when presented with heroin in the adult phase, relative to controls. In contrast, developmentally lead-exposed animals showed an enhanced vulnerability to reach the criterion for cocaine self-administration. Clinical relevance of developmental exposure to lead and the attendant vulnerability to self-administer drugs of abuse is discussed.

The possibility of using residual stresses favorably as a means of self-assembling MEMS during material deposition is experimentally investigated. Two atomic force microscope cantilevers are placed in contact at their free ends. Material is isothermally electroplated onto one (the deposition) cantilever, but no material is deposited onto the other (spring) cantilever. The deposited layer contains residual stresses that deform the deposition cantilever. The deposition cantilever in turn deforms the spring cantilever, thereby doing work in the spring cantilever and proving that the two structures can selfassemble during deposition processing. An insoluble nickel electroplating process and an all-sulfate nickel solution are used for the deposition. The deflection of the selfassembled cantilevers is measured in-situ as a function of the deposited thin film thickness through the optical method of atomic force microscopy. The experimental results are compared to an analytical model which consists of Euler-Bernoulli beam theory that is modified to account for moving boundaries as the material is deposited. The model accounts for the through-thickness variation of the intrinsic strain during the electroplating. Closed-form solutions are not possible, but numerical solutions are plotted for the cantilever deflection and work on the spring cantilever as functions of the deposition thickness.

The purposes of this study are to examine the relationship of self-efficacy regarding self-management of asthma and student self-management knowledge and also examine the extent to which self-efficacy and self-management knowledge predicts student outcomes such as reading grades, the number of times a student was absent and the number of visits a student made to the school nurse. Students were sampled from one public school district within a suburban city in the southwest portion of the United States. The sample was comprised of 33 males and 12 females ranging in age from six to eleven years of age. Three data collection instruments were developed for this study. Parents of the participants were asked to fill out a demographic survey to provide descriptive data. Participants of the study were administered two face-to-face interview surveys: The Asthma Student Self-Management Knowledge in a School Setting Survey (SMS) and the Asthma Self-Efficacy of Self-Management of Asthma Survey (AMES). Both surveys were developed based on the six lesson topics of Open Airways. Two separate data analyses were conducted based on the data collected from each participant. To better understand the relationship between the AMES and the SMS, a Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used in the regression analysis. The findings showed that there was a statistically significant positive relationship between the SMS and the AMES. To determine if the AMES and the SMS could predict reading grades, the number of times a student was absent and the number of visits a student made to the school nurse, a multiple linear regression was used. The findings showed that there is minimal evidence showing that only reading scores maybe predicted by asthma self-efficacy and asthma self-management knowledge. Taking into account identified limitations such as not taking into account the severity of the participant??s asthma, one would be cautious to generalize these findings to other children with asthma. Based on these results and limitations, recommendations for future practice and for future research are provided.

As workplace demands change, a need has developed for alternatives to traditional education. With advancements in electronic telecommunication technologies, distance education has become a viable alternative to traditional classrooms for working professionals. Efficiency and cost effectiveness are driving many programs to place oncampus students and distance students in the same courses at the same time. This phenomenon has resulted in the placement of students with vastly different backgrounds, levels of expertise, and levels of motivation in the same classrooms. Often a professor will teach to one learning style, leaving some students in the dust, never to get on track. Without face-to-face contact with an instructor, this can leave distance education students feeling isolated and alone. There is a continuing need for the development of alternative instruments to assess self-directed learning (Brockett & Himestra, 1991). We must develop a means of determining an individual??s readiness for self-directed learning, as well as a device for measuring the efficiency of programs designed to foster the attitudes and skills which are involved in increased self-directedness in learning (Guglielmino, 1977). Self-directed learning readiness is important to a learner??s success in distance education programs. Inorder for an educator to tailor instruction to the unique attributes of each student, there is a need for an instrument that will identify the learner??s stage of self-directedness or degree of dependency and for an instrument that will determine the educator??s default teaching style at the beginning of a course. Such an instrument will help instructors increase their learners?? level of self-direction and will improve the overall quality, student satisfaction, and student retention in distance learning courses. The purpose of this study is to develop and pilot test two instruments based upon the Staged Self Directed Learning Model (Grow, 1991) and the key assumptions of andragogy: one measuring the self-directed learning readiness of a student in the context of an individual course and the other measuring the teaching style of the instructor in the context of the same course. The data will be analyzed and given to the instructor to give him/her an idea of the self-directed learning readiness level of students enrolled in the course. A report will be generated to show matches and mismatches between the instructor??s teaching style and the self-directed learning readiness level of the students. A decision model will be developed to suggest teaching strategies that minimize mismatches and facilitate the growth of students from dependent to self-directed through the course.

The purpose of this study was to determine and understand the variables affecting the revival of the draft horse industry in the United States. A qualitative study was conducted using 31 purposively (Lincoln and Guba, 1985) selected draft horse industry participants who were drawn from three case studies, conducted in East Texas, Russia (Siberia), and Northern Indiana. Structured and semi-structured interviews were utilized. Major findings emerged with this research showed that the culture of practicality, inventiveness, and risk taking has allowed communities of individuals to achieve financial success where others have been forced to abandon their businesses and seek other sources of livelihood. Some of the findings stood alone with no seeming connection to the other findings. Other findings appeared to be intertwined with one another. All of the emerging findings contributed to the renewal and engagement of individuals in the draft horse industry revival. The findings are deliberately not listed in any particular order. The scope of the study did not include a method to determine whichfinding or series of findings preceded the others. The major findings to emerge from this study are as follows. Most of the participants in the revival were or are middle aged men and women. This finding melds well with another finding that determined the draft horse business was the second, third, or fourth career of the participants in this study. Many of the participants operate their businesses in rural non-farm locations. Owners and publishers of trade magazines played a pivotal role in this industry revival. Geography and international connections played a role. The Amish communities across the U.S. played a pivotal role in keeping relic technologies alive and maintaining seed stock for the revival of the draft breeds. Specific markets for horses and equipment have been carved out by many of the participants. Self-directed learning and andragogy were exhibited by almost all of the participants. The role of university and extension personnel in this revival was essentially non-existent.

In this thesis, we will investigate the degradation of the Low-Temperature-Polycrystalline-Silicon TFTs(LTPS TFTS) under the electrical stress. The devices are offer by Chi Mei Optoelectronics. The two mechanisms of the electrical stress are AC and DC stress. On the AC stress, there are some phenomena which cannot be completely explained by typical NBTI mechanism in the experiment. In addition to NBTI, we suggest that the self-heating effect might be involved, because the self-heating effect could rise channel temperature and cause the dissociation of the Si-H bonds at the poly-Si/SiO2 interface due to the Joule heating. We also compare pulse to give on the degradation difference of different place. On the DC stress, we show the stress drain voltage dependence of on-current and threshold voltage degradation, in which the stress gate voltage was fixed at -15V and stress time was 2154 s. The electric measurements of forward and reverse modes were employed to analyze the experimental data. The anomalous negative bias temperature instability degradation of poly-Si TFTs was investigated.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Kent State University, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Oct. 29, 2009). Advisor: Nichole Egbert. Keywords: disclosure; weblog; blog; computer-mediated communication; uses and gratifications; social penetration theory; hyperpersonal theory. Includes bibliographical references (p. 173-186).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Open University.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Sociology." Includes bibliographical references (p. 288-297).