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Early Identification Of Children With Asperger Syndrome: Communication Characteristics, Lynda D. Chouinard

Master's Theses and Capstones

Diagnosis of children within the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) category varies significantly but children with Asperger Syndrome (AS) are typically diagnosed at a much older age than those with Autism (AD). The late childhood diagnosis of AS means a possible lapse in years that the child receives appropriate intervention and support. The purpose of this retrospective study was to gain further insight into what early communication and behavior characteristics can be identified in children from birth to three years who are later diagnosed with AS.

Parents of ten children with AS and under nineteen-years old were identified to participate in …

Mothers Of Children With Developmental Disabilities: A Study Of The Meaning Of Leisure Occupations, Jennifer L. Bellen

Master's Theses and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to further our understanding of how the leisure occupations of mothers are influenced by having a child with significant developmental disabilities. Qualitative research methods specifically, a phenomenological approach was used to develop an understanding of how the mothers of children with developmental disabilities engage in leisure activities and the feelings and meanings they attach to leisure participation. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with mothers who shared their experiences regarding their leisure activities. In this study I explored time constraints, daily routines, engagement in leisure activities and the meanings attributed to them. Analysis of …

Mhc (B) Complex Recombinant Immune Response, Nicole Gay Wilkinson

Master's Theses and Capstones

Recombination between chicken major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I B-F and class IV B-G genes has enabled more precise identification of genes controlling immune responses. Congenic lines, each containing a unique MHC recombinant, were developed with 99.9% genetic uniformity to inbred Line UCD 003 (B17B17). A new recombinant, R13 (BF17-BG23), originated in the tenth backcross generation for R1 (BF24-BG23). Two experiments tested the R13 immune response to bovine red blood .cells (BRBC) and Rous sarcoma virus (RSV).

A single R13B17 sire mated to five R131317 dams produced progeny segregating for R13R13, R13B17, and B17B17 genotypes. These progeny were injected with …

A Comparison Of The First Fifty Words Of Typically Developing Children To The First Fifty Words Of Typically Developing Children Exposed To Manual Communication, Emily Woodacre

Master's Theses and Capstones

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of manual communication in the acquisition of the first 50 spoken words in typically-developing children. It was hypothesized that typically-developing children exposed to manual communication would have a different composition of their first 50 words compared to typically-developing children not exposed to manual communication. More specifically a greater portion of dual-functioning words and action words were predicted as a result of the visual and motor aspects of gestures and manual communication.

Twelve participants who were enrolled in a six-week baby-sign playgroup were involved in the study. Parents recorded their …

Examining The Relationship Between Psychological Skills And Confidence In Goalkeepers, Amanda E. Laws

Master's Theses and Capstones

This study examined the relationships that exist between psychological skills and confidence. Analysis of the relationship took place with ice hockey, lacrosse and soccer goalkeepers. Participants (N = 1927) completed measures of psychological skills (ACSI-28) and confidence (CSCI) online. Participants deemed psychological skills as important, but rarely used them to enhance performance. Goalkeepers (N = 412) scored higher on both the personal coping resource score (M = 50.82, SD = 9.24) and confidence (M = 41.88, SD = 5.66) than non-goalkeepers on the personal coping resource score (M = 47.48, SD = 9.60) and confidence (M = 41.84, SD = …

Salmonella Enterica Serovar Typhimurium Promotes Apoptosis In Activated Neutrophils, Christopher C. Wrocklage

Master's Theses and Capstones

Apoptosis is an extremely important and highly regulated function in neutrophils. As the most abundant, but shortest-lived white blood cells, they must initiate this process in the absence of pathogens and selectively release their potent cytotoxic components when pathogens are present. Many pathogens are able to modulate this process in neutrophils, either for the host's benefit or for their own. Previous work has shown that transmigration across a T84 intestinal epithelial crypt cell monolayer increases the ability of neutrophils to bind and kill Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium).

The goal of this work was to see how S. Typhimurium …

The Economics Of Childbearing: Three Essays, Andrea Kutinova

Doctoral Dissertations

Expenditure programs, business cycles, and government interventions can affect many decisions surrounding the birth of a child. For example, public insurance programs such as Medicaid have the potential to increase the utilization of prenatal care. This, in turn, may lead to better infant and maternal health outcomes. Given the high and increasing number of pregnant women covered by Medicaid, the effectiveness of the program in promoting prenatal care use and improving health needs to be evaluated. Also, the impacts of business cycles on childbearing are of interest to policymakers. For example, does unemployment substantially affect the decision to conceive a …

Psychopathological Symptoms And Their Relation To Paranormal Belief And Illusory Judgment, Michael P. Cofrin

Doctoral Dissertations

The relationship between psychopathological symptoms and paranormal belief and abilities was explored in four studies. Study 1 investigated the relationship between depressive symptoms and paranormal belief. Study 2 shifted the investigation into the laboratory by testing participants' illusory judgments on a paranormal task and assessing the relationship between their judgments and depressive symptoms. Study 3 combined scale and lab tasks testing for additional psychopathological symptoms and illusory judgment on four paranormal tasks. Study 4 incorporated techniques to increase illusion of control induction and minimize context effects and fatigue. Psychosis proneness and mood symptoms were positively related to general paranormal belief …

Cellular Uptake And Actions Of Bilberry Anthocyanins In Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells, Paul Everett Milbury Jr.

Doctoral Dissertations

Inflammation and oxidative stress play a significant role in the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). In AMD, retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells are damaged by oxidative stress and die via the process of apoptosis. Anthocyanins from fruits and berries, such as bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), possess significant antioxidant activity in vitro and have been used in "traditional medicine" to treat AMD. It is not clear whether intracellular concentrations of anthocyanins are sufficient to quench radical species and mitigate oxidative stress in vivo. In this research project, human RPE cells in vitro were used to establish an oxidative stress model in …

Family Structure, The State Children's Health Insurance Program (Schip) And Child Outcomes, Minghua Li

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three separate but interrelated essays that investigate how family structure and public policy are linked to health and developmental child outcomes. Each essay employs two or three waves of the National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) as the primary data source. The first essay broadly investigates how family structure, including the less typical non-traditional families such as single father and grandparent households, are related to a wide of array of child outcomes with a focus on the interplay of parent-child gender. The results from this study show that children in single father families have better health …

A Training Model: The Effects Of Mental Rehearsal On The Performance Of Elite Collegiate Nordic Skiers, Jennifer Lynn Conant

Master's Theses and Capstones

In today's competitive athletic world, the one common goal all athletes share is to win. The pressure to carry out this goal is staggering and as a result, athletes are training harder for longer hours and ultimately burning out. While there are numerous books that attempt to teach an athlete how to train physically for their sport, very few training programs teach them how to train mentally for their sport. A training program that does not include both a physical and mental aspect will fail.

This model introduces a training program where interested Nordic ski coaches can implement the training …

A User-Friendly System To Measure Electromyographic Activity Of Dancers, Jianhua Zhou

Master's Theses and Capstones

A data acquisition system aided by virtual instrumentation was developed to measure electromyographic activity of the dancers. The system is composed of three main components: (1) Analog front-end with signal conditioning, (2) USB serial interface based A/D conversion, and (3) virtual instrumentation designed in LabView tools. The proposed system is able to accurately collect the magnitude of jump force and displayed the data using virtual instruments with alarm functions. The signal path is well-conditioned and processed, which makes the device suitable for feasibility studies for future research.

The Effect Of Air Pollution And Time Spent Outdoors On Pulmonary Function In A Diverse New England Population, Thomas Daniel Lambert

Master's Theses and Capstones

Outdoor air pollution has been associated with declines in pulmonary function. We collected daily pulmonary function measures from 165 participants in New England during July and August, 2004 and compared these measures to outdoor air pollution using single and multiple pollutant models. Increases of 10mug/m3 PM2.5, 10 ppb O3, and 1 ppb NO2 were associated with -1.29%, -0.54%, and -0.151 % changes in FEV1 of asthmatic participants spending more than 5 hours outdoors, respectively. Effects for non-asthmatic and all participants spending less than 5 hours outdoors were near zero and not significant. There was also evidence indicating that the largest …

What Really Is The Difference Between Occupational Therapy And Physical Therapy In A Skilled Nursing Facility, Lauryn Morell

Master's Theses and Capstones

Insurance reimbursement guidelines have changed the way allied health services are delivered. The onset of the Prospective Payment System (PPS) reorganized financing for therapy services. Instead of basing reimbursement on each individual case, finances are based on diagnostic and case mix groupings and regulate expected service needs. This has forced both occupational and physical therapy to vie for the same reimbursement monies.

Cross training occupational and physical therapists was suggested as a means of cost containment. Downsizing rehabilitation departments was actually performed to minimize costs. These drastic responses to reimbursement changes in the health care field were also coupled with …

Current Intrapartum Care Practices In India, Rizwana Rizwana

Master's Theses and Capstones

According to the annual report of the Government of India, 100,000 women annually continue to die because of childbirth related complications (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Government of India), 2000-2001). In India, over 90% of women become mothers and a majority of them deliver without skilled assistance during delivery. This translates to approximately 30 million women in India experiencing pregnancy every year, and 27 million having live births (Bakshi, 2006). Of these, 136,000 maternal deaths occur every year due to childbirth complications, most of which can be prevented. Literature reveals that lack of appropriate care during pregnancy and childbirth, …