Benjamin John and other poems

Benjamin John is a narrative made up of lyrics in the present tense: But it covers a considerable length of time. The result is a collapse of time, or should be, so that the reader, at the end of it, wonders where Benjamin John's life has gone. But the Lyric Cycle uses a static story line and a confusion in tense and address to do the opposite: So that although little or no time passes, the reader, at the end, feels, I hope, that at least a year has gone by. I think these techniques, if indeed they do work, are more than mere tricks. The male sense of time seems to me often heavily weighted with a sense of bereavement. "It might have been" sums up Benjamin John's view of his life. I wished to collapse the time in his poems because these sad words are so by virtue of their utter inability to move within time

International Implications of Revolution

A historical analysis of revolution throughout the world to determine both the international implications of it, as well as the methodology for determining a response to it

A comparison of kernel equating and IRT true score equating methods

"This two-part study investigates 1) the impact of loglinear model selection in pre-smoothing observed score distributions on the kernel method of test equating and 2) the differences between kernel equating, chained equipercentile equating, and true score methods of concurrent calibration and Stocking and Lord's transformation method. Data were simulated to emulate realistic situations in which test difficulty differed, sample sizes varied, anchor test lengths were of varying lengths, and test lengths ranged from 20 items to 100 items. Difficulty of anchor tests were held constant. Because data were simulated in a single group (SG) format, traditional unsmoothed equipercentile equating was used as a criterion by which all other methods, which use the non-equivalent groups with an anchor test design (NEAT), were compared. Data were simulated using IceDog (ETS, 2007) and analyzed using KE software (ETS, 2007), MULTILOG (Thissen, 2003), IceDog (ETS, 2007), PARSCALE (Muraki & Bock, 2003) and Fortran programming code developed by the author. Results indicate the impact of equating technique chosen on examinees' test scores in a variety of realistic situations, and have further recommendations for further study."--Abstract from author supplied metadata

Family Communication Patterns and the Mediating Role of Communication Competence and Alexithymia in Relation to Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Citation metadata

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) affects a growing number of youth and transitional-aged youth. Nock's (2009) comprehensive model of NSSI engagement points to a range of factors that combine to predict who is at a heightened risk for self-injury. The present study examined the impact of specific interpersonal factors, family communication patterns (i.e., conversation and conformity orientations), and communication competence on five supported measures of self-injurious behaviors. We further tested whether alexithymia, or a person's inability to identify and describe their emotions, mediated family communication patterns and communication competence in predicting NSSI behavior. Family communication patterns, specifically conversation orientation, had a positive impact on lifetime NSSI behaviors. While communication competence positively related to both lifetime and current NSSI behaviors, alexithymia mediated these relationships. Implications for treatment are provided

Understanding the experiences of survivors of a loss by suicide: A photovoice study

Suicide is a devastating loss that leaves behind many survivors who are left to cope with unique obstacles such as isolation, stigma, and the question of why the death occurred. All of these aspects can lead to negative mental health consequences and make it difficult to express the grief experience verbally. Words may not provide the fullest description of the experience, but photographs may provide survivors the opportunity to share their experience on a deeper level. In this study, the researchers used photovoice methodology to explore the experience of survivors. The result included seven themes with a total of 15 photos. These enriching photographs not only give voice to survivors of suicide, but also bring the survivors’ voices out of isolation and provide other individuals within the survivors’ community with a powerful message of their grief experiences

Effects of picture prompts delivered by a video iPodRTM on pedestrian navigation

National data continue to indicate many individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have not had the same access to education, employment, independent living, or extracurricular activities as the general population after high school (Blackorby & Wagner, 1996; Newman, Wagner, Cameto, & Knokey, 2009; Wagner, Newman, Cameto, Garza, & Levine, 2005; Wagner, Newman, Cameto, Levine, & Garza, 2006). Transportation access can be a major contributor to independence, productivity, and societal inclusion for individuals with disabilities (Myers, 1996). Individuals with IDD face many challenges related to community integration such as obstacles to independently navigate in the community (Sohlberg, Fickas, Lemoncello, & Hung, 2009). Travel training and pedestrian navigation skills are critical since these skills impact how people live, work, and participate in their community (Groce, 1996b). It is important to have an organized and sequential way to teach independent travel to individuals with IDD since most do not learn these skills incidentally or obtain a driver’s license to navigate independently (LaGrow, Wiener, & LaDuke, 1990). This study examined the effects of pedestrian navigation training using picture prompts displayed through a video iPod® on travel route completion with four young adults with IDD (18-26 years old) participating in an inclusive individualized postsecondary program at a 4-year university. Results indicated a functional relation between picture prompts displayed on the video iPod® and participants’ acquisition of pedestrian navigation skills to and from various campus locations. Maintenance data indicated all four participants were able to continue to navigate trained routes independently for up to 28 days using the video iPod®. Generalization measures indicated 3 out of 4 participants were able to use the video iPod® to navigate untrained routes without any prompts given by the researcher. Social validity data suggested iPod® training and supports were useful and practical for teaching independent pedestrian navigation skills. Finally, limitations, suggestions for future research, and implications for practice were provided

Parental alcoholism and coping : a comparison of female children of alcoholics with female children of non-alcoholics

The purpose of this research was; 1. to assess differences in level of depression between female children of alcoholics (COAs) and female children of non-alcoholics, 2. to assess potential differences in choice of coping strategies between COAs and children of non-alcoholics, and 3. to determine the extent to which the eight coping strategies under study were useful in predicting group (COA group or children of non-alcoholic group) placement. A sample of 103 (76 children of non-alcoholics and 27 COAs) traditional-aged undergraduate college students comprised the sample. An independent two-sample t-test revealed statistically significant differences in level of depression between the COAs and the children of non-alcoholics, with the children of alcoholics exhibiting a higher level of depression. However, the mean depression scores for both groups were within the no depression range