The development of an intercultural teenage program in a neighborhood house.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

An Examination of the Current Ohio Condominium Law

Ohio sanctioned condominiums in 1963 by enacting the Condominium Property Act. The act addresses five issues: (1) the creation of the condominium form of ownership; (2) the respective interests each unit owner possesses in the common area; (3) the administration of the condominium; (4) the rights of the lienors; and, (5) the removal of the property from the Act\u27s provisions. The Act was amended in 1978 to facilitate consumer protection. This comment will examine the 1978 amendment and evaluate its effectiveness. It will then examine the tax considerations involved in the purchase of a condominium unit

PERCEIVED DISCRIMINATION AND DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMATOLOGY AMONG NATIVE AMERICAN OLDER ADULTS

Recent studies have recognized discrimination as a stressor that is linked to psychological distress for those who experience such discrimination. The present study investigated the role of cultural identification as a moderator of the relationship between a global measure of perceived discrimination and depressive affect for a sample of older Native American adults, a group that has essentially been ignored in the empirical literature. The data were collected through surveys mailed to tribally-enrolled Native American adults aged 50 and older residing on a reservation in the Northwest. Multiple regression analysis was performed to test the moderating role of cultural identification. Analyses indicated that individuals who perceive more discrimination in their daily lives reported more symptoms of depressive affect. However, the present study found no statistically significant interaction effect between cultural identification and perceived discrimination, thus indicating that a strong identification with one’s cultural group did not serve to protect one from the harmful effects of discrimination in this particular sample. These results add to our knowledge concerning the factors that contribute to poorer mental health outcomes in older Native American adults

Preschool Teacher Knowledge and Skills: Phonemic Awareness and Instruction

The extent of phonemic awareness knowledge and skills early childhood teachers bring to beginning literacy instruction lays the foundation upon which reading success is built for preschool children in their care. A significant number of preschool children receive their first literacy instruction in community-based or Head Start preschools. Phonemes are the individual sounds that make up spoken words and developing the ability to attend to the sounds that letters represent is the first step in learning to read. No published studies were found assessing the ability of teachers in these two settings to provide effective instruction in phonemic awareness. The Survey of Teacher PhAKS (Phonemic Awareness Knowledge and Skills) was administered to Head Start and community-based teachers using a pencil-and-paper format. Additional survey responses were received from an online survey sent to community-based teachers. From a random sampling of completed surveys received, 32 surveys were chosen from each setting. Data were compared to determine the level of knowledge and skills preschool teachers possessed to provide effective phonemic awareness instruction. Even though there were a small number of participants, which precludes drawing any definitive conclusions, there were characteristics within the data that can inform future research. The mean of correct responses made by each group was statistically very nearly the same, with each group answering approximately one third of questions correctly. Variety within the responses to individual questions was noted. For instance, Community-based preschool teachers demonstrated more knowledge with instruction-related questions while Head Start teachers scored higher with questions about definitions and learning activities. Neither group of participants used the response choice of I\u27m not sure with any frequency. Phonemic awareness is the first step preschool children traditionally take toward learning to read. The similarity of limited knowledge and skills about PA observed in the responses to the survey instrument by both community-based and Head Start preschool teacher supports the need for more research on this topic within these two settings. Community-based preschool teachers are much more difficult to access than Head Start teachers, but the need is very nearly the same. The efforts required to survey a meaningful number of community-based preschool teachers and the limited knowledge and skills demonstrated by the teachers who have completed it, indicates that much more attention and research is needed for both these teachers and for Head Start teachers as well

A Qualitative Investigation of the Strategies used by a Sample of Native American Older Adults to Cope with Race-Related Stressors

The present study explored how racism-related stress was characterized by respondents and investigated the ways in which these respondents coped with this type of stress. Using content analysis, four broad themes of race-related stress emerged: 1) Institutional, 2) Intergroup, 3) Bicultural, and 4) Intragroup. Race-related coping strategies, which included the cognitive, emotional and behavioral strategies respondents used to reduce and/or manage their experiences of racism, were also explored. Eight overarching coping strategies were described: 1) Taking action, 2) Acceptance, 3) Escaping, 4) Collective coping, 5) Meaning making, 6) Affective coping, 7) Returning to what Indians did before , and 8) Creative coping. This work has important implications given the evidence that suggests that racism is a unique source of stress that contributes to the reduced quality of life for racial/ethnic minorities as well as to the race/ethnicity-based disparities in mental and physical health. As such, this study begins to expand our awareness of the sources of race-related stress among this population as well as begins to improve our understanding of the coping strategies that are effective in helping these Native American individuals cope with racism. In the present analysis, results were compared to the existing race-related stress and coping literature in an effort to understand the unique and common experiences of racism across different racial/ethnic minority groups. The findings indicated that for this sample of Native American older adults the welfare of the group/tribe and maintaining a sense of belonging to the group were important values that influenced coping behaviors. These findings suggest that appropriate and effective clinical and social interventions for this population should take into account the values, attitudes and customs of a Native American worldview that recognizes the central importance of belongingness/interconnectedness. However given that this study did not specifically ask about racism, future studies will need to employ a more direct line of questioning since it is quite possible that specific questions regarding respondents\u27 experiences with racism could lead to different and/or more complete responses

Short term responses of nitrogen trace gas emissions to nitrogen fertilization in tropical sugar cane: Variations due to soils and management practices

Nitrogen (N) fertilization of agricultural systems is thought to be a major source of the increase in atmospheric N2O; NO emissions from soils have also been shown to increase due to N fertilization. While N fertilizer use is increasing rapidly in the developing world and in the tropics, nearly all of our information on gas emissions is derived from studies of temperate zone agriculture. Using chambers, we measured fluxes of N2O and NO following urea fertilization in tropical sugar cane systems growing on a variety of soil types in the Hawaiian Islands, USA. On the island of Maui, where urea is applied in irrigation lines and soils are mollisols and inceptisols, N2O fluxes were elevated for a week or less following fertilization; maximum average fluxes were typically less than 30 ng cm(exp -2)/ h. NO fluxes were often an order of magnitude less than N2O. Together, N2O and NO represented from 0.01 - 0.5% of the applied N. In fields on the island of Hawaii, where urea is broadcast on the surface and soils are andisols, N2O fluxes were similar in magnitude to Maui but remained elevated for much longer periods after fertilization. NO emissions were 2-5 times higher than N2O through most of the sampling periods. Together the gases loss represented approximately 1. 1 - 3% of the applied N. Laboratory studies indicate that denitrification is a critical source of N2O in Maui, but that nitrification is more important in Hawaii. Experimental studies suggest that differences in the pattern of N2O/NO and the processes producing them are a result of both carbon availability and placement of fertilizer, and that the more information-intensive fertilizer management practice results in lower emissions

Evaluating Trichloroethylene Degradation Using Differing Nano- and Micro-Scale Iron Particles

Trichioroethylene, or TCE, is a central nervous system depressant and possible carcinogen, as well as a persistent groundwater pollutant. TCE exists in the aquifer either as free product in the form of a dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) or as a dissolved-phase constituent. It is only slightly soluble in water, so dissolution of the contaminant is a long-term process and in-situ remediation is difficult. To remedy this, NASA and the University of Central Florida developed Emulsified Zero-Valent Iron, or EZVI. The emulsion droplet contains ZVI particles and water encapsulated by an oil/surfactant membrane, and effectively penetrates to degrade DNAPL-phase TCE. To maximize the efficiency of this process, several commercially available ZVIs of radically different particle sizes and morphologies both in emulsion and as neat (unemulsified) metal were evaluated for relative effectiveness at TCE degradation

The development of metaphorical language comprehension in typical development and in Williams syndrome

The domain of figurative language comprehension was used to probe the developmental relation between language and cognition in typically developing individuals and individuals with Williams syndrome. Extending the work of Vosniadou and Ortony, the emergence of nonliteral similarity and category knowledge was investigated in 117 typically developing children between 4 and 12 years of age, 19 typically developing adults, 15 children with Williams syndrome between 5 and 12 years of age, and 8 adults with Williams syndrome. Participants were required to complete similarity and categorization statements by selecting one of two words (e.g., either “The sun is like ___” or “The sun is the same kind of thing as ___”) with word pairs formed from items that were literally, perceptually, or functionally similar to the target word or else anomalous (e.g., moon, orange, oven, or chair, respectively). Results indicated that individuals with Williams syndrome may access different, less abstract knowledge in figurative language comparisons despite the relatively strong verbal abilities found in this disorder

The Cellular Distribution of Serotonin Transporter Is Impeded on Serotonin-Altered Vimentin Network

BACKGROUND:The C-terminus of the serotonin transporter (SERT) contains binding domains for different proteins and is critical for its functional expression. In endogenous and heterologous expression systems, our proteomic and biochemical analysis demonstrated that an intermediate filament, vimentin, binds to the C-terminus of SERT. It has been reported that 5HT-stimulation of cells leads to disassembly and spatial reorientation of vimentin filaments. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:We tested the impact of 5HT-stimulation on vimentin-SERT association and found that 5HT-stimulation accelerates the translocation of SERT from the plasma membrane via enhancing the level of association between phosphovimentin and SERT. Furthermore a progressive truncation of the C-terminus of SERT was performed to map the vimentin-SERT association domain. Deletion of up to 20, but not 14 amino acids arrested the transporters at intracellular locations. Although, truncation of the last 14 amino acids, did not alter 5HT uptake rates of transporter but abolished its association with vimentin. To understand the involvement of 5HT in phosphovimentin-SERT association from the plasma membrane, we further investigated the six amino acids between Delta14 and Delta20, i.e., the SITPET sequence of SERT. While the triple mutation on the possible kinase action sites, S(611), T(613), and T(616) arrested the transporter at intracellular locations, replacing the residues with aspartic acid one at a time altered neither the 5HT uptake rates nor the vimentin association of these mutants. However, replacing the three target sites with alanine, either simultaneously or one at a time, had no significant effect on 5HT uptake rates or the vimentin association with transporter. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:Based on our findings, we propose that phosphate modification of the SITPET sequence differentially, one at a time exposes the vimentin binding domain on the C-terminus of SERT. Conversely, following 5HT stimulation, the association between vimentin-SERT is enhanced which changes the cellular distribution of SERT on an altered vimentin network