The mechanisms underlying caffeine’s acute effects and withdrawal symptoms are not entirely understood. The purpose was to determine whether these effects or symptoms co-exist in clusters, and whether they are associated with polymorphisms in β1- and β2-adrenoceptors. Subjects (n=1271) were from the Toronto Nutrigenomics and Health Study. The acute effects and withdrawal symptoms clustered into 4 and 6 factors, respectively. Subjects with the ADRβ2 Gly16Arg Gly/Arg genotype were more likely than Gly allele homozygotes to report “fatigue” withdrawal symptoms. Among >200 mg/d caffeine consumers, ADRβ2 Gly allele carriers had a greater risk, compared to Arg allele homozygotes, of reporting ‘flu-like somatic’ withdrawal symptoms. Among subjects with the CYP1A2 -163 A>C A/A genotype and 100-200 mg/d caffeine consumers, ADRβ1 Arg389Gly Gly allele carriers had a greater risk, compared to Arg allele homozygotes, of reporting “dysphoric mood” withdrawal symptoms. The findings suggest that β1- and β2- adrenoceptors play a role in caffeine withdrawal.

The mechanisms underlying caffeine’s acute effects and withdrawal symptoms are not entirely understood. The purpose was to determine whether these effects or symptoms co-exist in clusters, and whether they are associated with polymorphisms in β1- and β2-adrenoceptors. Subjects (n=1271) were from the Toronto Nutrigenomics and Health Study. The acute effects and withdrawal symptoms clustered into 4 and 6 factors, respectively. Subjects with the ADRβ2 Gly16Arg Gly/Arg genotype were more likely than Gly allele homozygotes to report “fatigue” withdrawal symptoms. Among >200 mg/d caffeine consumers, ADRβ2 Gly allele carriers had a greater risk, compared to Arg allele homozygotes, of reporting ‘flu-like somatic’ withdrawal symptoms. Among subjects with the CYP1A2 -163 A>C A/A genotype and 100-200 mg/d caffeine consumers, ADRβ1 Arg389Gly Gly allele carriers had a greater risk, compared to Arg allele homozygotes, of reporting “dysphoric mood” withdrawal symptoms. The findings suggest that β1- and β2- adrenoceptors play a role in caffeine withdrawal.

Title: Research on middle-age worker¡¦s stressors and withdrawal behaviors Student: Tzu Hui Liao Advisor: Jin Feng Uen By the trend of decreasing baby-bust and early-retirement, the labor force structure has changed. Middle age and older workers will become increasingly prevalent in the work place. The impact of an aging workforce raises the height-light issues facing employees today. During the global economic crisis in 2008, there are many business enterprises chose to lay off employees massively or offer unpaid leaves. And the middle age and older workers are the main target. Thus, this worker issue has become more and more important. Attention is mainly given to the human resource policies which may impact middle age workers such as performance management, selection and training etc. Less research has focused on attitudes toward the elderly held by middle-aged adults themselves. The presence of ageism in our society is of mounting concern with regard to the changing demographic shape of the workforce. Governments and organizations have become interested in the middle-age worker on performance, training, in recent years. Middle-age worker has numerous life and working experiences, so their mental and physical attitudes may vary form the ones held by the freshmen in labor market. Therefore, this research aims to explore on middle-age workers and withdrawal behaviors in depth in order to development the best human resource practices.

The Hispanic population continues to rapidly increase within the state of Texas as well as the nation. However, the Hispanic population educational attainment level lags behind that of the general population. Hispanic males are the lowest educated segment of society averaging less than a high school diploma. The negative long-term economic impact of such low educational attainment levels coupled with the rapid increase of the Hispanic population has been documented by Texas state demographers as well as the U.S. Census Bureau. The researcher conducted a qualitative study to inform a deeper understanding of the experiences that facilitated the persistence of 18 Hispanic male first-time-in-college students through the official reporting date of their fall first termat a community college in South Texas. An asset model and related conceptual framework, which recognized students as experts, were utilized. Focus group interviews, semi-structured interviews, and existing data were analyzed utilizing qualitative research methods. The researcher identified six overarching themes that significantly influenced the students? ability to persist. In addition, analysis of the data produced five barrier themes that these students overcame via the utilization of corresponding knowledge and actions themes. Finally, students provided recommended college changes for mitigating the barriers faced by future Hispanic male students. The researcher provided conclusions regarding Hispanic male students, recommendations for students, recommendations for colleges and universities serving Hispanic male students, recommendations for the focal community college, and implications for the theoretical model utilized. The researcher recommended expanding this research to other institutions of higher education and notes the national implications for increasing the educational attainment level of Hispanic male students.

<p>The thesis has as purpose to describe and analyse a decision made be the Swedish tax committee in which it was decided that a cooperative economical associations selling price, which was less than the comparable public bonds market price, would be the focus of a withdrawal tax. There are exceptions from a withdrawal tax, that is if the transaction has a business motivation. However the concept, business motivation, is narrowly interpreted both in the preparatory works and in case law, which makes it irrelevant to the situation at hand. A cooperative economical association is a form of association nearest akin to the limited companies. These types of associations have as purpose to increase their owners wealth with the benefit of freedom from personal responsibility. The work concludes that the purpose and meaning of a withdrawal tax is necessary to secure a consistent legality and neutrality between persons conduction business and persons who do not. However, there is one part of the subject matter that seems to be unreasonable. This thesis will show that the market price taken from the public bond market, is not a legal, neutral or comparable price to estimate the full width of a withdrawal tax.</p>

Increasing women's participation in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) can promote a healthy economy by ensuring a diverse and well-qualified STEM workforce, not only in the quantity of females in the workforce, but diversity in thinking and creativity. It will also send a positive message to young women about the breadth of educational opportunities and career choices they have available to them. However, women continue to participate in engineering education in a far lower rate than men. Attracting and retaining female students has become a challenging problem for the academic engineering community. In this study, a classic model of student withdrawal is presented as a theoretical framework for examining the relationships between the environment and the people in undergraduate engineering departments, and how they can influence students' commitment to and persistence in their program. A sample of 1,369 engineering undergraduates enrolled in eight Florida universities participated in a survey assessing the climate of the engineering department, the socialization process, student commitment and withdrawal intentions. The results of a factor analysis reveal that faculty support, a sense of community, and encouraging and valuing diversity are all important elements of a climate for retention. In general, women perceived the academic climate as being less supportive than men did, reported lower levels of commitment, and greater withdrawal intentions. These climate factors, as well as socialization, also played a significant role in predicting the levels of student commitment to their program, and their intentions to withdraw or persist in their academic goals. However, there was little evidence for a moderating role of gender in these relationships. This research suggests the importance of having a supportive faculty and fostering a sense of community among students, both of which aid in the successful socialization of engineering students, and ultimately promote commitment and persistence.

Cyberloafing is the nonsanctioned recreational use of the computers/internet during work hours. Although research is increasing, the processes related to cyberloafing are not well understood. In the current studies, I developed, tested, and evaluated a series of causal minor-cyberloafing models. In Study 1, I empirically compared four minor-cyberloafing taxonomies and selected two of these models as my working taxonomies for minor cyberloafing. In Study 2, I tested and evaluated eight causal minor-cyberloafing models using structural equation modeling techniques and various model-data fit indices. Results of Study 2 indicated that the models were not plausible, bringing into question the value of the proposed models. Despite the poor primary results, I did find a number of potentially important results in the subsequent exploratory analyses. First, I observed high correlations between minor cyberloafing and four of my exploratory variables. Second, I found that one’s perception of the descriptive cyberloafing norms predicted minor cyberloafing above and beyond one’s perception of the injunctive cyberloafing norms. Finally, I found that the predictors cyberloafing attitudes and perceived descriptive norms accounted for a substantial amount of variance in minor cyberloafing. I discuss the theoretical implications of the exploratory results and future directions for research in the discussion section.

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Distinct alcohol self-administration behaviors are observed when comparing two F1 hybrid strains of mice: C57BL/6J x NZB/B1NJ (B6xNZB) show reduced alcohol preference (RAP) after experience with high concentrations of alcohol and abstinence periods and C57BL/6J x FVB/NJ (B6xFVB) show sustained alcohol preference (SAP), providing models of stable, high alcohol consumption and moderate drinking. The purpose of this dissertation is to characterize ethanol-related behaviors and define neurocircuits engaged by SAP and RAP. We performed a battery of behavioral tests to define behaviors that predict SAP and RAP. B6xFVB exhibited less severe ethanol-induced conditioned taste aversion and were less sensitive to ethanol-induced loss of righting reflex (LORR) than B6xNZB. Both hybrids demonstrated ethanol-induced place preference and low ethanol withdrawal severity. Hybrids differ in sensitivity to the aversive and sedative, but not rewarding, effects of ethanol. Results of elevated plus maze, mirror chamber, and locomotor tests reveal B6xFVB mice are less anxious and more active than B6xNZB mice. The validity of the SAP behavioral phenotype in B6xFVB mice was determined by testing whether chronic self-administration of ethanol produced tolerance or dependence. We measured responses from ethanol-naïve and ethanol-experienced mice in tests of ethanol-induced hypothermia, withdrawal severity, and LORR. Chronic ethanol self-administration resulted in tolerance to sedative and hypothermic effects of ethanol; however, physical dependence was not evident as measured by ethanol withdrawal severity. We tested the hypothesis that SAP and RAP behavioral differences are represented by differential production of the inducible transcription factor, FosB. FosB immunoreactivity was quantified in 16 brain structures after chronic ethanol consumption or only water. Neuronal activity (as measured by FosB levels) depended on ethanol experience, brain region, and genotype, further supporting the notion that neuronal circuitry underlies motivational aspects of ethanol consumption. For B6xNZB mice, ethanol consumption resulted in increased neuronal activity in the EW, VTA, and amygdala, known ethanol- reward-, and stress-related brain regions. In B6xFVB, ethanol consumption resulted in a larger network of correlated regional activity, whereas in B6xNZB ethanol consumption resulted in a smaller network. These studies characterized genetic models of stable, high consumption (SAP) and moderate drinking (RAP) in two hybrid mouse strains. / text

The thesis has as purpose to describe and analyse a decision made be the Swedish tax committee in which it was decided that a cooperative economical associations selling price, which was less than the comparable public bonds market price, would be the focus of a withdrawal tax. There are exceptions from a withdrawal tax, that is if the transaction has a business motivation. However the concept, business motivation, is narrowly interpreted both in the preparatory works and in case law, which makes it irrelevant to the situation at hand. A cooperative economical association is a form of association nearest akin to the limited companies. These types of associations have as purpose to increase their owners wealth with the benefit of freedom from personal responsibility. The work concludes that the purpose and meaning of a withdrawal tax is necessary to secure a consistent legality and neutrality between persons conduction business and persons who do not. However, there is one part of the subject matter that seems to be unreasonable. This thesis will show that the market price taken from the public bond market, is not a legal, neutral or comparable price to estimate the full width of a withdrawal tax.