Conflict appraisals as a mediator of the association between marital conflict and rumination in adolescents

2015 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.A large number of studies have demonstrated that exposure to marital conflict negatively impacts children. Rumination is a cognitive process of children to such exposure that has been found to lead to both internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and may be linked to exposure to marital conflict. In this thesis, I examined whether marital conflict is related to rumination, and whether this association is mediated by adolescent conflict appraisals of marital conflict. One hundred and fifty-three adolescents (ages 11-17) reported on conflict appraisals surrounding marital conflict and cognitive coping strategies. Marital conflict was assessed via parent-report with a partnership questionnaire measuring intensity, frequency, and hostility of parental conflict. Results indicated that marital conflict was related to greater rumination about negative events

Methodologies for Evaluating Security Risk and Safeguards for HEU to LEU conversion of a Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR) using SCALE and ORIGEN

Rising global opinions on security of vulnerable nuclear materials at research reactor facilities against misuse and acquisition by terrorist or violent groups has led to the implementation of the enrichment reduction program focused at reducing enrichment in fuel from about 90% to less than 20%. This program has provided an extraordinary prospect of improving international security to counter the fears of direct use of HEU materials acquired from these facilities for non-peaceful purposes. Ongoing efforts by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) through the Reduced Enrichment in Test and Research Reactors (RETRR) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supports countries to develop and adapt better technical capabilities targeted towards this program. This research enumerated and compared the amount of weapon-usable materials that the reactor produced in both the HEU and LEU fuel at varying time intervals of operation from a simulated neutronic model of the Nigeria Research Reactor (NIRR-1) developed with SCALE and ORIGEN code. Consequently, result obtained showed that weapon-usable 239Pu balance for LEU fuel compared to HEU increased linearly about 10-fold as the number of days of operation increases. This 239Pu growth was strongly considered for the ongoing conversion of Miniature Neutron Source Reactors (MNSR) as a case study because of the concern that out of the nine licensed prototype MNSR worldwide, four are in China, the origin of the design but the other five are in Ghana, Iran, Nigeria Pakistan and Syria. These five countries have well organized terrorist or violent groups that could potentially acquire nuclear materials or sabotage these facilities to disperse radiological materials which should be a call to more action for more security as well as international safeguards and accounting for nuclear materials. Additionally, based on the outcome of this simulation, as well as the vulnerability assessment carried out that included seeming capabilities of terrorist groups operating near the NIRR-1 facility, security risk and safeguards were evaluated, and suggestions were made on security risk of the increasing quantity of weapon-usable 239Pu isotope

A Catalog of Reusable Design Decisions for Developing UML/MOF-based Domain-specific Modeling Languages

In model-driven development (MDD), domain-specific modeling languages (DSMLs) act as a communication vehicle for aligning the requirements of domain experts with the needs of software engineers. With the rise of the UML as a de facto standard, UML/MOF-based DSMLs are now widely used for MDD. This paper documents design decisions collected from 90 UML/MOF-based DSML projects. These recurring design decisions were gained, on the one hand, by performing a systematic literature review (SLR) on the development of UML/MOF-based DSMLs. Via the SLR, we retrieved 80 related DSML projects for review. On the other hand, we collected decisions from developing ten DSML projects by ourselves. The design decisions are presented in the form of reusable decision records, with each decision record corresponding to a decision point in DSML development processes. Furthermore, we also report on frequently observed (combinations of) decision options as well as on associations between options which may occur within a single decision point or between two decision points. This collection of decision-record documents targets decision makers in DSML development (e.g., DSML engineers, software architects, domain experts).Series: Technical Reports / Institute for Information Systems and New Medi

Analysis of trauma symptomology, trauma-informed care, and student-teacher relationships in a residential treatment center for female adolescents.

Although there is a vast body of literature to support multiple positive outcomes related to positive student-teacher relationships, no prior study has investigated student-teacher relationships within the context of a residential treatment center for abused and neglected adolescents, students who theoretically could benefit from this relationship the most. The first goal of this study was to investigate the effects of student trauma symptomology, teacher beliefs about trauma-informed care, and teachers\u27 emotionally supportive behavior in the classroom on student-teacher relationship quality. Results revealed that teacher beliefs about trauma-informed care and student trauma symptomology, particularly as it is related to \u27Other-Control,\u27 are statistically significant predictor variables of student-teacher relationship quality (F7,45 = 3.002, p = .011, R2 =.318, /).R2 = .212). Additionally, teachers in on-campus schools within residential treatment centers are rarely trained to work with the traumatized students in their classrooms. Therefore, the second goal of this study was to examine the effects of a trauma-informed training intervention for teachers called Risking Connection. Changes in teachers\u27 knowledge about the training material, beliefs about trauma-informed care, and their emotionally supportive behavior in the classroom were evaluated before and after the teacher training as well as the subsequent changes in students\u27 reported trauma symptomology and their perceptions of the student-teacher relationship. Results revealed no statistically significant change in teacher scores; however, this was not expected due to the low sample size of teachers (n = 6). Descriptive statistics suggest that if teacher changes occurred initially, they did not sustain. There was no statistically significant difference in the amount of change in students before and after the teacher training; however, a trend of slightly higher student scores was noted at the third data collection time point directly following the teacher training. Overall, the findings indicate that characteristics of both the students and teachers impact the student-teacher relationship in the residential treatment center setting. Specifically, students\u27 trauma symptomology and teachers\u27 beliefs about the effectiveness of trauma-informed care are predictive of student perceptions of their relationship with their teachers. Implications for research, clinical practice, and effective training for teachers of this population are discussed

Emerging research directions in computer science : contributions from the young informatics faculty in Karlsruhe

In order to build better human-friendly human-computer interfaces, such interfaces need to be enabled with capabilities to perceive the user, his location, identity, activities and in particular his interaction with others and the machine. Only with these perception capabilities can smart systems ( for example human-friendly robots or smart environments) become posssible. In my research I\u27m thus focusing on the development of novel techniques for the visual perception of humans and their activities, in order to facilitate perceptive multimodal interfaces, humanoid robots and smart environments. My work includes research on person tracking, person identication, recognition of pointing gestures, estimation of head orientation and focus of attention, as well as audio-visual scene and activity analysis. Application areas are humanfriendly humanoid robots, smart environments, content-based image and video analysis, as well as safety- and security-related applications. This article gives a brief overview of my ongoing research activities in these areas

If You’re Not Modeling, You’re Just Programming: Modeling Throughout an Undergraduate Software Engineering Program

Modeling is a hallmark of the practice of engineering. Through centuries, engineers have used models ranging from informal “back of the envelope” scribbles to formal, verifiable mathematical models. Whether circuit models in electrical engineering, heat-transfer models in mechanical engineering, or queuing theory models in industrial engineering, modeling makes it possible to perform rigorous analysis that is the cornerstone of modern engineering. By considering software development as fundamentally an engineering endeavor, RIT’s software engineering program strives to instill a culture of engineering practice by exposing our students to both formal and informal modeling of software systems throughout the entire curriculum. This paper describes how we have placed modeling in most aspects of our curriculum. The paper also details the specific pedagogy that we use in several courses to teach our students how to create, analyze and implement models of software systems

Annual General Assembly of the International Association of Maritime Universities

978-84-947311-7-