Fostering family : how communication sustains and functions in foster families

"May 2014."Thesis advisor: Dr. Colleen Colaner.While foster families are prevalent and serve a critical role in our society, little is known about the communicative dynamics connecting the foster square (e.g., foster child, foster parent(s), birth parent(s), and agency). Guided by Family Communication Patterns theory (Koerner and Fitzpatrick, 2002), the goal of this thesis was to understand not only how foster families communicate, but also how foster parent-child communication impacts foster children as well as the parent-child relationship. Current foster parents (N=158) completed an anonymous online survey in which they were asked to report on their communication and relationship with a current foster child. Several significant findings emerged. First, a positive relationship between shared family identity and both conversation orientation and relational closeness emerged. Second, communicative openness was positively associated with child's strengths and relational closeness. Third, the interactional effect of communicative openness and conformity orientation significantly predicted child strengths. Lastly, both consensual and laissez-faire parenting styles had unique effects on foster-parent child relational closeness. These findings provide valuable theoretical contributions and ultimately help to establish a foundation for future research on the foster family form. Implications for understanding how shared family identity emerges and the role of openness in the foster family form are discussed.Includes bibliographical references (pages 60-70)

The Role of Forest Soils in a Northern New England Effluent Management System

The Carrabassett Valley Sanitary District in Carrabassett Valley, Maine has utilized both a forest spray irrigation system and a Snowfluent™ system for the treatment of their wastewater effluent. This study was designed to evaluate potential changes in soil properties after approximately 20 years of treatment in the forested spray irrigation site and three years of treatment in the field Snowfluent™ site. In addition, grass yield and composition were evaluated on the field study sites. After treatment with effluent or Snowfluent™, soils showed an increase in soil exchangeable Ca, Mg, Na, and K, base saturation, and pH. While most constituents were higher in treated soils, available P was lower in treated soils compared to the controls. This difference was attributed to higher rates of P mineralization from soil organic matter due to an irrigation effect of the treatment, depleting available P pools despite the P addition with the treatment. Most of the differences due to treatment were greatest at the surface and diminished with depth. Depth patterns in soil properties mostly reflected the decreasing influence of organic matter and its decomposition products with depth as evidenced by significantly higher total C in the surface compared to lower horizons. There were decreasing concentrations of total N, and exchangeable or extractable Ca, Mg, Na, K, Mn, Zn, and P with depth. In addition, there was decreasing BS with depth, driven primarily by declining exchangeable Ca and Mg. Imgation with Snowfluent™ altered the chemical composition of the grass on the site. All element concentrations were significantly higher in the grass foliage except for Ca. The differences were attributed to the additional nutrients and moisture derived from the Snowfluent™. The use of forest spray imgation and Snowfluent™ as a wastewater treatment strategy appears to work well. The soil and vegetation were able to retain most of the applied nutrients, and do not appear to be moving toward saturation. Vegetation management may be a key tool for managing nutrient accumulation on the grass sites as the system ages

Families are for thriving, not just surviving : aged out foster youths' experiences of family, home, and estrangement

Guided by social identity (Tajfel & Turner, 1986), social constructionism (Berger & Luckmann, 1967; Gergen, 1985), and discourse-dependence (Galvin, 2006; Galvin & Braithwaite, 2014) theorizing, the present study illuminated the communicative experiences and complexities inherent to family and home life for youth who aged out of foster care. Broadly, results from 30 interviews afforded a necessary understanding of how aged out foster youth understand and process "family," "home," and family identity formation and deconstruction in conversations with others. First, findings revealed that "family" was conceptualized as those who love you unconditionally, as those who support you, and as more than blood -- signifying a valuing of function (e.g., love, support) over structure (e.g., blood/legal ties) when defining-family. The criteria aged out foster youth applied to “family” informed aged out foster youths' decision-making processes about what individuals were identified as family ingroup members, family outgroup members, and liminal group members. Second, results indicated that participants drew upon their experiences before, during, and after care when making sense of home as self, home as a place, and home as family. Third, findings revealed that aged out foster youth utilized naming, discussing, narrating, ritualizing, and normalizing to build and maintain family identity with family ingroup members. Fourth, results indicated that aged out foster youth most often estranged from biological family members due to physical actions, personal attributes, and/or lack of social support. Ultimately, participants reported estranging from family members because they defied their personal standards for family relationships. In order to actively deconstruct family identity with these family members, aged out foster youth utilized the discursive strategies of naming, discussing, deritualizing, silencing, and disassociating to deliberately defy standards of family as a way to create distance. Last, results revealed that aged out foster youth tended to focus on the positive impacts of family estrangement on the self through discussing both emotional implications (i.e., positive affect, negative affect, and mixed affect) and self-improvement implications (i.e., demonstrating empowerment, encouraging self-care, and promoting mental health). Findings contribute to family communication and family estrangement research by illuminating how aged out foster youth accounts spoke to family estrangement as a potential pathway to self-actualization. Results also advance discourse-dependence theorizing by empirically testing Galvin and Braithwaite's (2014) proposed identity deconstruction strategies and illuminating how standards for identity-building talk have heightened. Moreover, findings contribute to social identity and intergroup theorizing through revealing how the family ingroup is being reimagined and complicating our understandings of intergroup distinctions. A host of practical implications, such as offering estrangement coaching and developing practical skills for evaluating family, also emerged. Ultimately, results from the current study pave the way for future research to continue to explore how family and home life are discussed and experienced among aged out foster youth.Includes bibliographical reference

The Effects of Stress and Trauma on Brain and Memory: A View from Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

Many aspects of brain development depend on experience. Because the major macro-morphological events of brain development occur over the first 2–3 years of postnatal life, this time period can be considered both a period of opportunity as well as a period of vulnerability. In this paper we describe how experience with stress early in life can have a negative impact on certain aspects of brain development, and specifically, those neural circuits that underlie memory. We also describe the effects of traumatic events on the development of the neural basis of memory. In support of our argument, we review the literature on brain, stress, and memory in the context of development. Based on this review, we suggest that the developing brain is particularly vulnerable to the harmful physiological effects of stress, which in turn has the potential to lead to impairments in memory. Unfortunately, there are few empirical data that directly address this hypothesis. In this context we offer a number of suggestions for future research

The writings of Giovanni Angelo Brunelli, astronomer of the Portuguese Boundaries Demarcation Committee (1753-1761), about the Brazilian Amazonia

O texto apresenta breve introdução à vida e à obra de Giovanni Angelo Brunelli (1722-1804), astrônomo bolonhês que participou da primeira Comissão Demarcadora de Limites entre as possessões de Portugal e Espanha na América do Sul, de 1753 a 1761, a serviço da Coroa lusitana. Em seguida, são publicados os três trabalhos de Brunelli sobre a Amazônia brasileira, tendo como temas a pororoca (1767), a mandioca (1767) e o rio Amazonas (1791); e dois outros documentos relacionadas à comissão, um ofício no qual Brunelli reclama a coordenação dos trabalhos de cartografia (1752) e um rascunho do diário de viagem do astrônomo até o rio Negro (1754). Todos esses documentos foram traduzidos ao português, pela primeira vez, do latim e do italiano.The text presents an introduction to the life and works of Giovanni Angelo Brunelli (1722-1804), a Bolognese astronomer that participated in the first Boundaries Demarcation Committee (1753 to 1761) between Portugal and Spain's South American possessions, serving the Portuguese Crown. The three works of Brunelli about the Brazilian Amazonia are published, whose themes are the 'pororoca' (1767), the manioc (1767), and the Amazon River (1791). Two others documents related to the demarcation committee are also published: Brunelli's letter complaining about the coordination of cartographic works (1752) and the draft of the astronomer's travel diary to the Negro River (1754). All of these documents were translated to Portuguese, for the first time, from the Latin and Italian

Using a Mobile Device to Deliver Visual Schedules to Young Children with Autism

Young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) frequently display an inability to self-regulate (use materials appropriately and refrain from self-stimulatory behavior) and self-monitor (complete each step in a task before continuing to the next step) their behavior and therefore experience a great deal of failure within their respective school and home environments and frequently end up receiving instruction in restrictive, self-contained classrooms. Visual schedules have been used to help students with ASD self-regulate their behaviors in academic and community settings (NPDC, 2010; NSR, 2009). The purpose of this study was to determine whether high-tech visual schedules increase the self-regulation and transition behaviors of young children with ASD. Specifically, on-task and on-schedule behaviors were addressed along with the satisfaction of the stakeholders with the high-tech visual schedule intervention. A multiple-baseline across academic tasks (reading, writing, and math) was used to determine the effectiveness of a visual schedule delivered via an iPod touch on on-task and on-schedule behaviors. The participants included three elementary students who were receiving special education services under the category of autism. There were three males (one African American third grader, and two Hispanic fourth graders). The participants were provided with visual schedules for three academic tasks (reading, writing, and math) delivered via an iPod touch. Given the variability in the data it cannot be said that the visual schedule had an impact on on-task and on-schedule behaviors. The visual schedules did however, generalize to the general education setting and were effective in maintaining on-task and on-schedule behaviors across participants. Additionally, the teaching staff indicated a high level of satisfaction with the implementation of the visual schedule indicated by ongoing use after completion of the study

Where\u27s the Next China? Comparative Advantages of Bangladesh and Vietnam Apparel Industries

A growing number of retailers consider building collaborative relationships with global outsourced suppliers as a key strategy to ensure efficiency in their supply chain.Extant literature has suggested that the collaborative relationships with suppliers benefit retailers by allowing them to reduce cost, enhance product quality, and to deliver products on-time. Although collaborative relationships between fashion retailers and global outsourced suppliers have drawn great attention in the fashion industry, little research has explored collaborative relationships in the context of fashion supply chain. In addition, while fashion retailers recognize the positive effect of the collaborative relationship with suppliers on their performance, lack of understanding about their suppliers prevents fashion retailers from developing and managing such collaborative relationships effectively (Fawcett et al., 2015). Furthermore, although suppliers\u27 perception and attitudes are identified as crucial factors in creating effective collaborative relationships between retailers and suppliers (Fawcett et al., 2015), not much research has illuminated collaborative relationships from the stance of global outsourced suppliers. To fill in the aforementioned void, we adopt a qualitative approach to identify the antecedents of building effective collaborative relationships between retailers and suppliers from the suppliers\u27 perspectives, specifically in the domain of global fashion supply chain

Proposed Method for Evaluating Voice Authentication Systems

Security is an important part of our daily lives. This thesis focuses on the biometric component of security. Identity authentication for security is improved when voice authentication is augmented by other identity authentication components. This thesis presents a method for evaluating existing algorithms. This thesis details a method to compare pass/fail rates of various voice authentication algorithms. The method provides a formal mechanism to evaluate algorithms for different security levels. Different security levels have different security requirements. The application sets the security level. The level for entering a level for entering a high security research facility is more stringent for imposters at the risk of inconveniencing employees. The method also can be used to optimize setting the threshold of the algorithm. The developed method works even when the algorithm is less than ideal.School of Electrical & Computer Engineerin

A Study of the Seismic Waves SKS and SKKS. Glacial Geology of the Frying Pan River Drainage, Colorado

[Major Thesis Abstract] Arrival times, amplitudes, and periods of the seismic phases SKS and SKKS have been investigated for normal, intermediate, and deep earthquakes recorded at Pasadena and Huancayo, Peru. New observed time­-distance curves are constructed for depths of &#60; 60, 100, 200, and 600 kilometers. Travel-times for the core have been calculated from normal shock time data. Slight modification of wave velocity just inside the core and of travel times within the core are suggested. Calculated travel times of SKS, SKKS, and SKKKS are in good agreement with observations. Energy parameters determined from observed ampli­tude/period ratios are found in only fair agreement with those calculated from theory. Observed energies are too large for most of the phase components and depths considered. The horizontal components of SKKS over the whole distance range, and of SKS at Δ &#60; 100°for all depths, yield observed energies less than those pre­dicted by theory. Both discrepancies are at least qual­itatively explained by a proposed non-spherical distribution of shear strain about the fault source, and by . abnormal absorption in the outer 700 kilometers of the core. A period increase with epicentral distance for SKS and SKKS is best explained by selective absorption in this same zone. Anomalous observed energies, as a function of epi­central location, can also be accounted for by the proposed non-spherical distribution of energy. A similar regional phase-period dependence is considered in terms of finite faulting velocities. Times, energies, and periods of multiple SKS phases for the depths studied are presented. No single hypothesis commensurate with all observed conditions is found, but the phases pSKS and sSKS for normal shocks are probably represented. [Minor Thesis Abstract] On the west flank of the Sawatch Range, Colorado, evidence is found for six distinct glacial advances. One glaciation is pre-Wisconsin, four are Wisconsin, and one post-Wisconsin in age. In addition to end and lateral moraines of each advance, terrace remnants of six valley trains were identified and studied for a distance of 25 miles along Frying Pan River and its major tributaries. Elevations above stream level of these outwash terraces are 400±50, 90-120, 40-50, 20-30, 12-17, and 6-8 feet. Five of the tributary valleys contained ice streams which did not join the trunk Frying Pan glacier during the Wisconsin stage. An extensive review and testing of the numerous criteria used to distinguish deposits of multiple glaciations shows that nine of these criteria can conveniently be expressed in parameters indicative of relative age. Estimates based on these criteria, coupled with a recent radiocarbon dating of late Mankato till in the Midwest, yield the following approximate ages for deposits of the six glaciations in Frying Pan Valley: 230,000, 63,000, 46,000, 17,000, 11,500, and 5,750 years. The accuracy and reliability of the procedure used cannot be evaluated without further absolute Carbon-14 age determination.</p