Learning during infancy is dependent on many factors. One such factor is physiological self-regulation. This study investigated the relationship between physiological self-regulation abilities and evidence of learning based on Visual Expectation Paradigm (VExP) performance. Alterations in High Frequency Heart Period Variability (HFHPV) assessed physiological self-regulation and were hypothesized to correspond with VExP performance. Findings revealed patterns of HFHPV change during the VExP and that HFHPV change negatively corresponded with a resting measure of HFHPV and VExP performance. Results suggested that resting HFHPV was a better predictor of learning during the VExP than patterns of HFHPV change evidenced throughout the task.

The current study describes the directive behaviors of seven mothers with their toddlers ranging in age from 12 to 35 months throughout the day. This study explores the behaviors of a sample with lower socioeconomic status without the use of unnatural measures or artificial environments that may enhance the likelihood of observing atypical behaviors and perhaps perpetuate a deficit-based interpretation of the poverty context. Nine hours of observation for each dyad were collected as part of a larger study concerning the daily experiences of toddlers with the exception of one participant who dropped out of the study after three hours of observation. The current study analyzed maternal behaviors while the mother was present with her toddler and the toddler was awake. Observations used in the current analysis lasted between 90 to 450 minutes for each participant. The importance of the extended observational protocol used in the current study was specifically investigated by comparing parenting behaviors that occurred during the first 45 minutes of observation to those which occurred during subsequent observational segments. This study also explored a more complete conception of directiveness in a lower socioeconomic context by defining two separate variables for responsive and adultinitiated directiveness. The situational contexts that influence mothers’ directive behaviors were then examined. The results of the current study suggest that when mothers with lower socioeconomic status are observed for an extended amount of time they vary greatly in the amount of directiveness that they use with their children. These directive behaviors occurred at a much higher rate during the first segment of time mothers were observed. Directive behaviors did not cluster as either adult-initiated or responsive as expected. Rather, directive behaviors clustered according to the contexts of caregiving or play interactions. Only three toddlers engaged in any structured activities while in the care of their mothers. Results of the current study challenge the methodology used in previous research that has resulted in the wide spread stereotype of parents with lower socioeconomic status parenting in a harsh and deficient manner. Implications for family functioning assessment and intervention are also discussed.

This work is a historically situated ethnography of the rise in psychiatric discourses in Iran since the 1990s. It explores the trajectory of emerging psychiatric selves in the convergence of the social and the psychological. I examine psychiatric mindsets, the ways different sectors of the society embody, internalize, and modify psychiatric discourses to articulate and understand their distinct generational experiences and sedimented anxieties. Generational in my inquiry has to do with the way different generations experiences the 1980s, the Iran-Iraq war, new forms of citizenship and the politicization of their bodies and minds. This ethnography is interdisciplinary, intimate and multi-sited. Its areas include medical training and practice, neuroscientific explanatory models for mental illness and it treatment, biomedical modes of thinking versus psycho-dynamic ones, the subjective experience of being or wanting to be medicated, the historical trajectory of the field of psychiatry in the 2 0 th century Iran and its knowledge communities, cultural material such as cinema and literature, shifting gendered and gendering paradigms of motherhood, biomedical modernization, and the discursive processes that give rise to emerging psychiatric selves. The 1990s paradigm shift is a significant pretext to the emergence of spaces in literature, art and particularly Persian blogs, where belated articulation and dialogical reconstruction of traumatic memory create forms of identification, and grounds for making sense of the past in order to heal, cope and move on. / by Orkideh Behrouzan. / Thesis (Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS))--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2010. / "September 2010." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 268-278).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--RAND Graduate School, 2006. / Title taken from title screen (viewed March 6, 2007). Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis is an investigation into the Ethiopian Civil Society, with a focus on Muslims’participation and activities. This research is the result of a series of interviews carried on in AddisAbaba during my staying there thank to a scholarship from Pavia University.Chapter One is a general introduction of the study, presenting the object, the methodology anduse of sources as well as the state of the current research of the topics covered by this research.Chapter Two is a framework chapter about Islām in Ethiopia offering an historical perspective aswell as focusing on its characteristics and current developments. Chapter Three deals withEthiopian Civil Society characteristics and with its legal framework. Chapter Four constitutes thecore of this research: in it, I collected the findings of my research describing the presence ofMuslims into Ethiopian Civil Society. I analyzed the activities and characteristics of the differentorganizations and associations that I met in Addis Ababa, their self-representation concerningtheir being related with Islām and their opinions on Muslims’ marginalization and lack of nonpoliticizationin Ethiopia. A set of conclusions constitutes the last section of the thesis.

Faculty of Criminology, Justice and Policy Studies

A comprehensive review of the state of food security in the United States with a specific focus on the communities in Nashville, Tennessee is presented in this thesis. Food insecurity is proposed as a mechanism by which diet-related health disparities are maintained. The reduction of health disparities, particularly diet-related conditions like Type II diabetes, chronic heart disease, and obesity, between individuals of differing race, income-level, educational attainment, socioeconomic status, and geographic residential location is not possible without reducing the structural barriers impeding access to fresh, healthful foods. The Nashville Mobile Market circumvents these barrierscost, time, and energyby providing a dependable, convenient mobile grocery store. This thesis provides a detailed analysis of The Nashville Mobile Market, its development, sustainability, operation, and its use as a research tool to assess changes in purchasing and consuming fresh produce.

This paper looks at the way football affects society. Analysis includes a look into football in Victorian England, the notorious Glaswegian Rangers-Celtic rivalry as well as the role of football in the United States during the late 20th century.

It is believed that the civil society leads to the prosperity of western countries. However, it¡¦s worth being noticed that the essential factor should be the Christian faith. Several studies have concluded that there is a significant correlation between Christian faith and civil culture in western countries. That is why countries featured as the post-modern civil society are embedded in the culture circle of Christian faith and why modern Christian countries can set an example for post-modern civil society. In order to investigate the origin of post-modern society, the present study begins with religion which is featured as relatively unconscious. Qualitatively analysis and inference are adopted to infer the spirit of Christian and investigate how Christian life in church develops post-modern society culture. Moreover, comparative method is adopted to compare the differences between Catholic and Christian faith and to investigate the direct impact of Christianity on the transformation from traditional society to post-modern civil society of western countries at the turning point of Protestant Reformation. Additionally, the differences between materialism as well as utilitarianism and traditional ethic belief as well as Christian faith are also compared in order to point out the importance of Christian faith, which is more influential on the transformation of social value qualitatively and quantitatively than materialism and utilitarianism. On the other hand, analysis method is used to analyze the resource of Christian faith, the New Testament, and find out that it has much to do with the characteristics of post-modern society and the origin of social value. Due to the deep analysis and extensive inference, the present study discovers that the elements of Christian faith hidden in post-modern society. Thus, it has been concluded that Christian faith has an impact on traditional value and it also has lots to do with the formation of post-modern society. In addition, Christian faith has developed three major characteristics of post-modern society and it has formed the central belief of post-modern society. Finally, with the analysis of latest news, the proposed statements in the present study have been confirmed.

A distinct focus on female youth experiences in political contests has been lacking in the literature on youth and political violence despite many female youth’s involvement with armed groups. The first Palestinian Intifada (1987-1993) saw the participation of many female youth alongside both teenage boys and men. This is notable especially given the patriarchal culture of Palestinian society in that women and young girls are traditionally confined to the private sphere. Additionally, public interactions with men and young boys could be viewed as improper and threats to one’s honor and purity may ensue. In light of these facts, the purpose of this study is to investigate the experience of Palestinian female adolescents in zones of political conflict - specifically in the Gaza Strip during the First Intifada. More specifically, this study explores the relationship between socioeconomic status, religious, political and individual characteristics on differences in levels of female participation and activist behaviors. Data were collected via self-report survey in the Gaza Strip in 1998 from a sample of 960 youth, 375 of which were female. Models predicting political involvement are assessed through hierarchical linear regression analyses. Results indicated that socioeconomic status, age, efficacy, religiosity, and political affiliation predicted Palestinian female youth activism in the first Intifada. No interaction was found between religiosity, political affiliation, and activism. These findings are discussed in relation to the broader literature on civic and political engagement of youth as well as gender issues in orthodox Islamic societies.