Bereavement among Urban University Students: The Role of Meaning Making in Adjustment to Loss

Employing Neimeyer\u27s theory of meaning reconstruction as a guiding framework, this study examined meaning making in a diverse sample of bereaved university students. The aims of this study were to 1) identify types of meanings made about loss, 2) examine socio-demographic and bereavement-related characteristics that might influence meaning making, and 3) investigate associations between types of meanings and post-loss psychological adjustment. Participants were 229 students from an urban commuter university. This was a cross-sectional study, employing self-report data collected on a secure, Web-based system. Participants were 18 years or older and had experienced the loss of a friend or family member within the last three years. Bereavement-related meaning making was assessed using four measures of sense-making, cognitive appraisal, religious/spiritual meaning, and impact on identity. Participants were diverse in age (18 - 61 years, M = 24.18), race (55% White/Caucasian, 15.3% Asian, 14.4% Latino/a, 14.4% Black/African American, and 10.4% multi-racial/other), and religious background (25% atheist, 28% agnostic, 53% affiliated with a religion, and 6% spiritual/not religious). The majority lost a family member (66.7%), rather than a friend. Cause of death was due to natural (64.5%) or unnatural/violent causes and the mean time since death was 17.2 months. Principal components analysis identified five interpretable factors of meaning making: 1) personal growth, 2) positive reframing, 3) spiritual/religious meaning, 4) causal attribution, and 5) rumination/impact on identity. After controlling for covariates, each of the factors was regressed onto positive affect (PANAS), depression (CES-D), posttraumatic stress (PCL-S), and prolonged grief (PGD-13). Results of this study indicated that bereaved students made positive and negative secular and religious meanings about loss. Meaning making factors were influenced by socio-demographic and bereavement-related characteristics, in particular a closer relationship with the deceased, cause of death due to unnatural/violent causes, and younger age of the deceased when he or she died. These characteristics may make it more difficult for survivors to make sense and find meaning in a loss. Difficulty making sense was associated with higher distress, including symptoms of depression, PTSD, and prolonged grief as well as lower positive affect. Future studies are warranted to examine specific cultural influences and the clinical significance of ascribing meaning to loss among underserved groups

Effects of emotional tone and visual complexity on processing health risk and benefit information in DTC advertising [abstract]

Abstract only availableThe expenditure of direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertising has more than quadrupled since 1996 reaching $4.2 billion in 2005. This study examines how emotional tone and visual complexity affect recognition and attitude toward the ad in DTC drug advertising. Using 50-55 and 70-75 year olds participants, the experiment examines the impact of cognitive aging on memory for risks and benefits communicated through televised DTC ads.MU Undergraduate Research Scholars Progra

Evaluation of Proposals for an Automated Data Processing System for the City of Gothenburg, Nebraska

An evaluation of proposals submitted by multiple companies for an electronic data processing system for the city of Gothenburg, Nebraska

Request for Proposal Automated Data Processing Equipment and Software for the City of Gothenburg, Nebraska

On June 4, 1984, the City of Gothenburg, Nebraska released a request for proposal (RFP) for an in-house, on-line, real time, multi-user or multiprogramming data processing system or comparable on-line, real time, multi-user or multiprogramming time sharing capability

Effect of Isoenergetic Substitution of Cheese with Other Dairy Products on Blood Lipid Markers in the Fasted and Postprandial State: An Updated and Extended Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials in Adults

Consumption of fat as part of a cheese matrix may differentially affect blood lipid responses, when compared to other dairy foods. This systematic review was conducted to compare the impact of consuming equal amounts of fat from cheese and other dairy products on blood lipid markers in the fasted and postprandial state. Searches of PubMed (Medline), Cochrane Central and Embase databases were conducted up to mid-June 2022. Eligible human randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigated the effect of isoenergetic substitution of hard or semi-hard cheese with other dairy products on blood lipid markers. Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane RoB 2.0 tool. Random-effects meta-analyses assessed the effect of ≥2 similar dietary replacements on the same blood lipid marker. Of 1,491 identified citations, 10 articles were included (risk of bias: all some concerns). Pooled analyses of 7 RCTs showed a reduction in fasting total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol concentrations following ≥ 14 d mean daily intake of 135 g cheese (weighted mean difference (WMD): −0.24 mmol/L; 95% CI: −0.34, −0.15; I2 = 59.8 %, WMD: −0.19 mmol/L; 95% CI: −0.27, −0.12; I2 = 42.8%, and WMD: −0.04 mmol/L; 95% CI: −0.08, −0.00; I2 = 58.6%, respectively) relative to ∼52 g/d butter. We found no evidence of a benefit from replacing cheese for ≥ 14 d with milk on fasting blood lipid markers (n = 2). Limited postprandial RCTs, described in narrative syntheses, suggested that cheese-rich meals may induce differential fed-state lipid responses compared to some other dairy matrix structures, but not butter (n ≤ 2). In conclusion, these findings indicate that dairy fat consumed in the form of cheese has a differential effect on blood lipid responses relative to some other dairy food structures. However, owing to considerable heterogeneity and limited studies, further confirmation from RCTs is warranted. This systematic review protocol was registered at https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/ as CRD42022299748

"Walking Around Like a Panda Bear": Feelings of Stigma among Nontraditional-Age Students

Conceptions of the creation and maintenance of stigma center on interactions and the role of external feedback. Substantive work on stigmatized groups illustrates that cognitions play a role in stigma development, but does not use a social psychological approach to examine this systematically. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 undergraduates age 25 and older to highlight the role of cognition in stigma maintenance, even in situations in which there is little or no negative feedback. Results show that, even in the absence of negative feedback, reflected appraisals and social comparisons produce three aspects of stigma - a sense of: 1) standing out; 2) exclusion; and 3) others' negative evaluation of them. Results show that social comparisons maintain and moderate stigma. Results highlight the importance of cognition in the maintenance of stigma. Implications for studying stigmatized groups, such as racial minorities and the physically disabled, are discussed

Geoprocessing for Grand Island and Hall County: Analysis and Recommendations

This report examined the feasibility of establishing an automated geobased data processing system for housing and community development data in Grand Island and Hall County

The effects of videographics and information delivery style on attention and recognition in direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on August 12, 2009)Thesis (M.A.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2008.This study explores the effect of videographics and information delivery style on attention and recognition. The two levels of information delivery style included voiceover and direct address, in which actors speak directly into the camera. Using the Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated Message Processing, it was hypothesized that ads utilizing voiceover delivery style will require more effort to encode than ads utilizing direct address delivery style, marked by a greater deceleration in heart rate. It was also predicted that of the two levels of videographics, low and high audio-video redundancy, recognition would be greater for high redundancy videographics than for low redundancy videographics. Employing a within-subjects repeated measures design, 14 prescription drug commercials that included 20 instances of the message features under investigation were shown to participants. Using repeated measures ANOVA to analyze each hypothesis, the results of this study suggest that while participants did not orient to videographics as expected, high redundancy videographics were remembered better than low redundancy videographics despite no significant difference in attention. Additionally, voiceover delivery style did not require more effort to encode than direct address delivery style, nor were there significant differences in recognition between the two levels.Includes bibliographical reference