Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Presence Of Pups After Birth : Effects On Spatial Memory And The Pre-Synaptic Protein Synaptophysin, Abbe Hoffman Macbeth

Master's Theses

A newly maternal rat goes through many changes when she gives birth, mostly due to prolonged elevation of hormones, particularly estrogen. Estrogen has been shown to increase memory capabilities by increasing synaptic activity in the CA1 hippocampus, but exactly how is still unknown. The current project uses reproductive experience to determine whether high hormone levels experienced during pregnancy and lactation affect spatial memory and synaptophysin, a pre-synaptic protein that controls vesicle exocytosis and thus may be responsible for enhanced synaptic connectivity. We found that reproduction itself does not affect memory of a spatial task, but the presence of pups has …

Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor And Maternal Behavior : Neuronal Alterations In The Medial Preoptic Area And Suppression Of Pup Attacks, Lillian Flores Stevens

Master's Theses

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), by virtue of its relationship to various neurotransmitter systems, hormones, and to estrogen in particular, may play a role in maternal behavior. To explore this possible role, female virgin Sprague Dawley rats received continuous intracerebroventricular infusions ofBDNF sense oligonucleotide and were exposed to pups for maternal behavior testing. Behaviorally, BDNF sense had no effect on maternal behavior but did significantly suppress pup attacks during the first 24 hours of exposure. BDNF had a significant effect on neuronal morphology in the medial preoptic area (mPOA) as well, such that neurons in this region exposed to BDNF had …

Follow The Leader? Presidential Approval, Presidential Support, And Representatives' Electoral Fortunes, Paul Gronke, Jeffrey Koch, J. Matthew Wilson

Political Science Research

While the link between presidential approval and congressional election outcomes is long established, scholars have generally ignored the role of a member’s own voting record in mediating these effects. If voters truly use the congressional ballot to express support or opposition toward the President, then they should not reward or punish all of his fellow partisans equally. Instead, the degree of reward or punishment meted out by voters ought to depend on the member’s level of support for the president’s legislative initiatives. Using data from the 1993, 1994, and 1996 National Election Studies, we demonstrate two key points: that representatives’ …

Olininfo, August 2003, Olin Library

OlinInfo

Newsletter of the Franklin W. Olin Library at Rollins College

Suburbanization And The Racial/Ethnic Divide In The Hartford Metropolitan Area, Michael Sacks

Hartford Studies Collection: Papers by Students and Faculty

No abstract provided.

Wsu Research News, Fall 2003, Office Of Research And Sponsored Programs, Wright State University

WSU Research News

A twenty page newsletter of the WSU Research News. The WSU Research News was published monthly beginning in June of 1968 and issued by the Office of Research Development. This newsletter was created to provide information to the WSU faculty about the availability of outside funds for research and educational programs, new developments that may affect availability of funds, and general information on research and educational activities at Wright State University.

Central Florida Future, Vol. 36 Orientation 2003

Central Florida Future

Welcome home future Knights!

Learning Mixture Models With The Latent Maximum Entropy Principle, Shaojun Wang, Dale Schuurmans, Fuchun Peng, Yunxin Zhao

Kno.e.sis Publications

We present a new approach to estimating mixture models based on a new inference principle we have proposed: the latent maximum entropy principle (LME). LME is different both from Jaynes’ maximum entropy principle and from standard maximum likelihood estimation. We demonstrate the LME principle by deriving new algorithms for mixture model estimation, and show how robust new variants of the EM algorithm can be developed. Our experiments show that estimation based on LME generally yields better results than maximum likelihood estimation, particularly when inferring latent variable models from small amounts of data.

Municipal Structures, Camille Burnett

MPA Major Research Papers

This paper examines whether political institutions affect the way municipalities are managed based on case studies of the different municipal structures adopted by 24 cities across North America. The aim is to provide recommendations to the London Chamber of Commerce with respect to municipal management. The findings reveal that municipal governance is dependent upon the structure of the corporation and the way in which the structure affects governance is determined by the roles of the key players.

Health Systems Restructuring In Ontario: Public Participation And Regionalization – The Un-Traveled Road, Sarah Padfield

MPA Major Research Papers

This paper examines whether the healthcare system in Ontario can integrate the principles of public participation and citizen engagement with the regionalization of health authorities based on an extensive literature review, case studies, and personal interviews. The findings reveal that the goals of public participation and citizen engagement can be reconciled with the goals of cost containment and efficiency by instituting regional health authorities.

"Placing" Health Risks In The Karakoram: Local Perceptions Of Disease, Dependency, And Social Change In Northern Pakistan, Sarah Halvorson

Geography Faculty Publications

This article examines local perceptions of health risks in a mountain community in the Karakoram of Northern Pakistan. Specifically, it aims to show how the tremendous social and economic transformations taking place in this region are experienced and understood by the people most affected by them. The case study draws from ethnographic data collected through a range of methods, including personal narratives, focus groups, interviews, household surveys, conversations, and participant observations. Central to this analysis is the role that social change plays in mediating and shaping residents’ worries, and perceived vulnerabilities within this particular economic and cultural context. Furthermore, the …

2003 August, Office Of Communications & Marketing, Morehead State University.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Morehead State University press releases for August of 2003.

Identifying Compliance Issues In The Community Health Care Clinic Environment, Faye K. Beery

Graduate Theses

This study explored the high number of failed appointments and follow-up appointments at a community health care children’s clinic. A thirty-seven item questionnaire was randomly given to 112 participants seeking health care at the clinic on a random basis. Based on literature reviews, five hypothesis were generated to examine reasons for failing to keep appointments for children: 1. Communication difficulties between healthcare personnel and parents regarding patient comprehension of instructions and bottle directions were anticipated. 2. Patient/physician/clinic relationships were expected to influence patient compliance. The need for more reminder calls for appointments was anticipated to be a factor in patient …

The Effect Of Age And Advice Accuracy On Compliance With Decision Support, Susan E. Vallance

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

This thesis was designed to determine whether age or the accuracy of advice provided significantly effects compliance with a computerized decision support assistant. 48 participants in two groups, aged 20-40 (younger adults) and 41-69 (older adults), performed a monitoring/vigilance task intended to be similar to screening baggage with an X-ray monitor. A decision support assistant was provided to assist participants in choosing one out of four gray circles that had the most contrast with the background screen. Compliance with the decision support assistant's advice was then assessed. Results indicated that the level of advice accuracy did have a significant effect …

University Of Nebraska–Lincoln Extension Connect, August 2003

Connect (University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension)

Inside this issue:

Pg. 3 Wastewater Treatment
Pg. 4 Child care education
Pg. 7 Field intelligence

Learning To Make A Difference: Coverage From Acrl's 11 National Conference, Part 2, Angela Gooden, Robin Imhof, Allison Ondrasik King, Jennifer Little, Susan B. Markley

University Libraries Librarian and Staff Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

Information Outlook, August 2003, Special Libraries Association

Information Outlook, 2003

Volume 7, Issue 8

Kula And The Trobriand Islands: The Meaning And Power Of Objects, Becky Tomlinson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Just as a word in a foreign language must be interpreted for one who does not speak the language, a cultural artifact alone holds no significance or meaning for an outsider. Thus, for an object to be understood it cannot stand alone, but must be placed in context though time and space, and various layers of cultural meaning must be expounded. The word lagim, from the Kiriwina language, may be roughly translated as meaning "the splashboard of a Kula canoe". This translation may give the proper words from English that denote the object, but it still leaves much to …

Predicting Leadership Activities: The Role Of Flexibility, Roni Reiter-Palmon

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper investigated the role of flexibility in predicting adolescent leadership activities among 186 undergraduate students. Two measures of flexibility, behavioral flexibility and cognitive flexibility, were developed and entered in a regression equation, after social skills and academic ability. The results suggest that behavioral and cognitive flexibility are distinct constructs and that both contribute uniquely to the prediction of leadership above and beyond social skills and academic ability.

Newsletter Catholic Deaf Of Detroit, August 2003

Newsletter Catholic Deaf of Detroit

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Detroit, MI

Newsletter Catholic Deaf of Detroit Finding Aid

Extension Educators' Perceptions Of Risk Management Training Needs, Steven W. Martin, Oscar Vergara, George F. Patrick, Keith H. Coble, Thomas O. Knight, Alan Baquet

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Risk management is a key issue for farmers and also receives significant national and local political attention. Because much of the outreach in this area is delivered through the Cooperative Extension Service, research on how Extension educators perceive their clients' needs and their own demand for additional training is important for educational programming.

The Risk Management Agency (RMA) and the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) initiated a risk management education competitive grants program during 1998. The information reported here is partial output from one of the surveys conducted by …

The Contribution Of Education And The Role Of The Media In Creating And Promoting Justice, Lavinia A. Baxter

Masters Theses

The issue of creating and promoting justice is becoming more and more significant in our era of democratization. Thus it is important to understand how countries as diverse as South Africa, Germany and the United States have managed to address the issue of providing justice to groups that suffered under previous regimes in these countries. I examine victims’ groups as diverse as former Japanese American internees, ex-German slave and forced laborers, and black South Africans. My hypothesis in this study is that two factors, the media and public education through quasi-legal commissions are critical for redress campaigns to be visible, …

Making Law In The United States Courts Of Appeals., Donald R. Songer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Mathematical Formulas For Calculating Net Returns From Participation In Government Programs, Crp, And Crop Insurance Alternatives, Dustin L. Pendell, William R. Perry, Jeffrey R. Williams, G. Art Barnaby, Bradley Lubben

Department of Agricultural Economics: Presentations, Working Papers, and Gray Literature

The purpose of this report is to provide a revised version of the publication, “Mathematical Formulas for Calculating Net Returns from Participation in Government Commodity Programs including Marketing Loans” (Williams and Barnaby, 1994). The change in design of the government commodity programs and development of several crop insurance alternatives has been significant since the previous paper was published. The formulas for calculating net returns incorporate provisions from the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 and several crop insurance designs developed in the 1990s. Individuals conducting research or education programs will be able to use this revision for reference …

Rural Nebraskans' Opinions On Raising Taxes To Fund Education And Public Aid, John C. Allen, Rebecca J. Vogt, Randolph L. Cantrell

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

The state legislature has been debating several approaches to solve the shortage of money for the state budget. They have passed various tax increases as well as made reductions in the level of services provided. What do rural Nebraskans support doing to solve the budget issue for state aid, higher education and public aid? Which goods and services do they favor imposing the sales tax on? Do their opinions differ based on the size of their community or their age?

This report details 3,087 responses to the 2003 Nebraska Rural Poll, the eighth annual effort to understand rural Nebraskans’ perceptions. …

Next-Of-Kin Perceptions Of Physician Responsiveness To Symptoms Of Hospitalized Patients Near Death, Joel C. Cantor, Jan Blustein, Matthew J. Carlson, David A. Gould

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Many different medical providers visit critically ill patients during a hospitalization, and patients and family members may not feel any physician is truly in charge of care. This study explores whether perceiving that a physician was clearly in charge is associated with reports by surviving next of kin about the responsiveness of physicians to symptoms in hospitalized patients near the end of life. We conducted telephone interviews with surviving next of kin of adult patients (n = 1107) who died in one of five New York City teaching hospitals between April 1998 and June 1999 after a minimum 3-day inpatient …

The Straightedge Subculture On The Internet: A Case Study, James Patrick Williams

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is a case study analysis of the straightedge youth subculture on an Internet bulletin board system (forum), located on the worldwide web between September 2001 and May 2003. Ethnographic methods, including participant observation, e-focus groups, in-depth interviews, and qualitative content analysis are used to collect relevant data. Concepts from subcultural theory, identity and social identity/categorization theory are used throughout my analysis of the Straight Edge Discussion Forum to highlight cultural and social-psychological aspects of subculturally-based behavior and identity. Substantive chapters are divided as follows. First, the types of subcultural information available to subculture members and visitors of …

U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Programs In The Balkans And Caucasus, Whitney Tolliver

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Since the establishment of the Republic of Slovenia’s International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance (ITF) in 1998, the United States has provided more than $52 million (U.S.) in humanitarian demining assistance to the countries in southeast Europe. This includes the recent expansion of funding assistance to countries in the Caucasus region. Together, the United States, the ITF, the mine-affected countries in the region and an impressive number of donors have demonstrated the success of regional cooperation.

Mine Problem In The Region Of Southeastern Europe: The Itf And Seemacc, Damir Gorseta, Eva Veeble, Sabina Beber

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

SE Europe is one of the most mine-affected regions in the world. This article examines the extent of the mine and UXO problem in each of the mine-affected countries in SE Europe, as well as discusses the steps being taken by various organizations in order to solve the mine-related problems in the region.

Bosnia And Herzegovina Mine Problem: Priority Setting, Darvin Lisica

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

With so many tasks to complete and limited resources with which to complete them, the importance of priority setting to mine action cannot be overstated. The author describes how priority setting relates to mine action in Bosnia and Herzegovina and suggests how to go about setting such priorities.