A study of the factors related to the acceptance of treatment as seen in the initial interviews

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston UniversityThis was a comparative study of seven families that accepted treatment and seven families that refused treatment. The study focused on the relationship of parental attitudes in the initial interviews to the subsequent acceptance of treatment. The following areas were examined in order to understand the dynamics of clinic involvement: descriptive characteristics, family background, history of the problem, source of referral, parental attitudes toward the child, parental attitudes toward the problem, parental attitudes toward the clinic and the nature of termination. This study was conducted at the Providence Child Guidance Clinic in Providence, Rhode Island. The factors that were found to be most related to the acceptance of treatment were parental attitudes toward the child, toward the problem and toward the clinic. Parental attitudes in relation to clinic involvement tended to form a configuration. The parents who introjected responsibility for the problem, were ambivalent to their children and were either well-motivated or ambivalent to the clinic accapted treatment. The parents who refused treatment tended to project responsibility for the problem, be more rejecting of their children and either poorly-motivated or ambivalent to the clinic. Another factor that was found to be crucially related to the acceptance of treatment was some degree of conscious involvement with their child's difficulty

College Students Experiences Participating in International Alternative Break Trips

This study sought to explore undergraduate students’ experiences participating in international alternative break trips. A qualitative approach was used to understand the motivating factors as well as the impact the trip had on them. Participants included three female undergraduate students who had participated in an international alternative break trip in Mexico were interviewed one-on-one. The results demonstrated there were multiple different motivating factors and impacts the students experienced. The motivating factors consisted of student involvement, they were all personally invited on the trip, practicing a new language, opportunity to leave the country, and service was not a motivator. The impacts the students had were they thought about their future plans, gained a better cultural awareness, had an impact through volunteer work, and had no negative experience

College Students Experiences Participating in International Alternative Break Trips

This study sought to explore undergraduate students’ experiences participating in international alternative break trips. A qualitative approach was used to understand the motivating factors as well as the impact the trip had on them. Participants included three female undergraduate students who had participated in an international alternative break trip in Mexico were interviewed one-on-one. The results demonstrated there were multiple different motivating factors and impacts the students experienced. The motivating factors consisted of student involvement, they were all personally invited on the trip, practicing a new language, opportunity to leave the country, and service was not a motivator. The impacts the students had were they thought about their future plans, gained a better cultural awareness, had an impact through volunteer work, and had no negative experience

Using molecular mechanics to predict bulk material properties of fibronectin fibers

The structural proteins of the extracellular matrix (ECM) form fibers with finely tuned mechanical properties matched to the time scales of cell traction forces. Several proteins such as fibronectin (Fn) and fibrin undergo molecular conformational changes that extend the proteins and are believed to be a major contributor to the extensibility of bulk fibers. The dynamics of these conformational changes have been thoroughly explored since the advent of single molecule force spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations but remarkably, these data have not been rigorously applied to the understanding of the time dependent mechanics of bulk ECM fibers. Using measurements of protein density within fibers, we have examined the influence of dynamic molecular conformational changes and the intermolecular arrangement of Fn within fibers on the bulk mechanical properties of Fn fibers. Fibers were simulated as molecular strands with architectures that promote either equal or disparate molecular loading under conditions of constant extension rate. Measurements of protein concentration within micron scale fibers using deep ultraviolet transmission microscopy allowed the simulations to be scaled appropriately for comparison to in vitro measurements of fiber mechanics as well as providing estimates of fiber porosity and water content, suggesting Fn fibers are approximately 75% solute. Comparing the properties predicted by single molecule measurements to in vitro measurements of Fn fibers showed that domain unfolding is sufficient to predict the high extensibility and nonlinear stiffness of Fn fibers with surprising accuracy, with disparately loaded fibers providing the best fit to experiment. This work shows the promise of this microstructural modeling approach for understanding Fn fiber properties, which is generally applicable to other ECM fibers, and could be further expanded to tissue scale by incorporating these simulated fibers into three dimensional network models