Health Care Opinion Leaders' Views on Delivery System Innovation and Improvement

Presents survey results on healthcare experts' views on strategies and models for fostering coordination and integration, such as accountable care systems, medical homes, and bundled payments; priorities among reform provisions; and market concerns

Sociality, Cognition and Social Learning in Turtles (Emydidae)

Turtles are little studied with respect to learning, cognition and social behavior in spite of being phylogenetically a central group. Populations of many species of these long-lived animals are declining due to commercial activities (pet trade and food), pollution, and habitat destruction. This integrative study of freshwater turtle (Emydidae) behavior investigated their sociality, individual learning and memory capabilities, and the ability of turtles to learn from others. First, I studied turtle underwater social behavior which involved naturalistic observations and ethogram development of the underwater social behavior of (Family Emydidae) at the Chattanooga Aquarium. Turtle social behavioral repertoire and interaction sequencing while underwater were much more complex and varied than those recorded for turtle basking interactions. Turtles also formed stable dominance hierarchies. Second, I trained and tested 9 Florida Red-bellied Cooters (Pseudemys nelsoni) in a discrimination choice task that I developed. Turtles were first trained to an instrumental response task (dislodging clear plastic bottles to obtain food pellets). These turtles not only showed rapid learning, but required minimal to no retraining after a period of 2 years. This study marks the first time that turtles have been shown to exhibit extensive long-term memory measured in years in a controlled experimental task. Olfactory and other controls were run to confirm that the turtles were responding only to visual cues. Finally, I investigated whether turtles could learn about a visual object cue to obtain food reinforcement by observing other experienced turtles that had learned the task. All five P. nelsoni turtles tested showed evidence of social facilitation and stimulus enhancement learning i.e. they learned not only to follow another turtle to a stimulus indicating food but also to approach the correct bottle that contained food reinforcement. This is the first experimental study of social learning in turtles. This integrative study of social behavior, learning, and cognition of turtles will hopefully spark interest in turtle behavior and cognition, help advance the field of comparative animal cognition, and aid in the development of their management in the wild

Why Sex Education

Both sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned/unwanted pregnancy are very serious problems faced by our society today. The United States ranks highest in teen pregnancy over other developed country. In order to combat these very serious societal problems it is important to educate our adolescents. Information concerning safer sexual practices and how/where to get protection and contraception are both important. This thesis is a rational for developmentally appropriate content inclusion and a description of curriculum implementation for adolescents in the United States

The effects of parental antisocial behavior trait and parenting practices on child adjustment: a study of single-mother families

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of parental antisocial behavior trait on child adjustment. The literature (Patterson and Capaldi, 1991) suggests that antisocial parents are at significantly greater risks for a variety of problems, such as unskilled parenting practices and stressful life events (e.g., marital transitions and unemployment). The author employs social learning and exchange principles. The data for this study were taken from the first year of a three-year panel study conducted by the Center for Family Research and Rural Mental Health at Iowa State University. The data consist of 210 single-mother families in the state of Iowa. These data were analyzed using multivariate analyses. This study is important because the participants were selected on the basis of divorce in the parents rather than conduct disorder in the children. Thus, the data is free of referral biases unlike the data of previous studies in this area. Also, previous models have been limited to conduct disorders in boys only. The data employed in this study allow for gender analyses, as well as an analysis of paternal effects on child antisocial behavior. Findings show that family income, mother\u27s education, mother\u27s and father\u27s parenting practices and father\u27s antisocial behavior trait are prime determinants of child adjustment problems

Electron transfer within tetrathiafulvalene calix[4]pyrrole supramolecular ensembles

Over the last decade, the ecological need for clean and renewable energy sources has resulted in considerable resources being directed toward the development of systems capable of converting light energy into chemical energy. This has led to a focus on artificial photosynthetic systems and solar cell devices. These types of devices are desirable since they do not contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, as compared with fossil fuels. Organic solar cells (OSCs) are able to convert solar energy into chemical energy via photon absorption that creates a potential difference in the medium and results in electron transfer. The evolution and lifetime of the charge-separated state produced upon this electron transfer has proved difficult to mimic with synthetic materials. One well recognized problem is that to achieve efficient electron transfer, the rate of back electron transfer must be slower than that of forward electron transfer. Creating a molecular dyad that undergoes rapid electron transfer and results in a long lifetime is a key step in the creation of an organic solar cell that permits efficient solar energy conversion. One such way to achieve these systems is to employ supramolecular interactions to pre-organize the donors and acceptors in solution. The goal of the studies depicted in this dissertation was to explore whether tetrathiafulvalene substituted calix[4]pyrroles (TTF–C4Ps) paired with suitable electron acceptors would lead to systems that undergo electron transfer, either thermal or photoinduced, followed by the formation of stable charge-separated states. We chose to employ fullerenes (Chapter 2) and a porphyrin substituted with a carboxylate functional group (Chapter 3) as the acceptors in the putative electron transfer complexes since both are well known as photoabsorbers that have been extensively studied in photosynthetic model systems. The electron transfer from a TTF moiety of the calix[4]pyrrole to either fullerene or porphyrin was studied via UV-Vis-NIR, fluorescence, and electron spin resonance spectroscopies as well as with laser flash photolysis measurements and theoretical calculations. Chapter 4 details work in which TTF oxidation states were used to create a stable TTF mixed-valence dimer as well as a redox switched “on—off—on” fluorescent system.Chemistr

The Effects of Repertoire Selection and Classroom Configuration on the Middle School Classroom Environment

This predictive correlational study examined the effects of classroom configuration and repertoire selection on student perspectives of the middle school choral classroom atmosphere. Despite the general understanding that repertoire affects the classroom atmosphere, how repertoire selection and classroom configuration affect student perspective is still being determined. Student perspectives are vital as they have a significant impact as educators endeavor to create a positive learning environment for choral students. This quantitative study applied a multiple linear regression to predict the results of the Short Test of Musical Preferences and the National School Improvement Partnership’s Classroom Climate Questionnaire Upper Primary. This study aimed to understand student perspectives on classroom arrangement, repertoire selection, and classroom environment in the middle school choir classroom. The study was conducted in one public middle school choir classrooms in Northeast Georgia. It included 117 choral students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. The findings of this multiple regression analysis revealed a predictive relationship between classroom configuration, repertoire selection, and classroom atmosphere. The regression results showed that the results were statistically significant (R2 = .281, p = 0.034) along with a large effect size (0.625), displaying that classroom configuration and repertoire selection impact students\u27 perspectives on classroom atmosphere. This information is helpful for choir teachers as they aim to form a positive classroom environment for all students. Limitations and recommendations for future research are included

Gender and Sexuality Alliance Advisors\u27 Perceptions of Self-Efficacy and Social Emotional Competency: An Exploratory Study

Background: Literature consistently demonstrates mental health disparities among sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth due to their unique experiences of discrimination, victimization, and rejection on the basis of their sexual and/or gender identity. Findings from the resilience literature highlight the importance of emotion regulation skills, supportive communities, and a relationship with at least one supportive, stable adult in mitigating risk and thriving despite adversity. Relationships with adults confer tremendous benefit for youth and provide opportunities for youth to learn important social and emotional skills. However, due to the rates of family and school rejection that SGM youth often experience, they have fewer opportunities to develop close relationships with adults and to cultivate these skills. One potential place that youth could access these protective factors is in the context of a school-based Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA). Findings consistently demonstrate that the presence of a GSA reduces risk for youth across a variety of domains, but little research has examined the specific activities within GSAs or the advisor-level variables that might be contributing to these observed benefits. As such, this study assessed usual practices within the GSA context explored relationships between advisors’ receipt of professional development, perceived role-specific self-efficacy and social emotional competencies. Methods: GSA Advisor participants (N=170) completed an online survey that consisted of questions about the school at which they work, their GSA activities, and their training experiences. Additionally, participants completed measures related to their own social emotional competencies and their perceived self-efficacy in completing a variety of tasks related to their role as a GSA advisor. Results: Results from this study provide a descriptive picture of advisor characteristics, school-level variables, and usual practices within the GSA context that contribute to understanding processes and practices within GSAs that may confer protection for SGM youth. Additionally, we found support for relationships between advisor tenure and perceived self-efficacy and between advisor receipt of role-specific professional development and perceived self-efficacy (hypothesis 1). Further, advisor social emotional competency significantly predicted perceived self-efficacy (hypothesis 2); receipt of professional development was positively associated with engagement in practice-specific social emotional learning strategies (hypothesis 3); and both receipt of professional development and social emotional competency positive predicted perceived self-efficacy, as well (hypothesis 3). Discussion: Descriptive findings from this study contribute to our understanding of advisor and school-level variables within the context of GSAs. Additionally, they begin to elucidate the activities and foci of GSA meetings that may be partially responsible for the observed benefits of GSAs for SGM youth. Exploratory findings examining relationships between advisor tenure, training, social emotional competency, and self-efficacy point to potentially novel opportunities for providing training and technical assistance to GSA advisors, with a focus on social emotional competencies, in order to increase their perceived efficacy in working with SGM youth