A descriptive study of undergraduate contraceptive attitudes among students at the University of New Hampshire

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine and to understand undergraduate students’ contraceptive attitudes and its effects on contraceptive use to further enhance the education regarding unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). DESIGN AND METHODS: A descriptive study to understand contraceptive attitudes while exploring demographics and sexual behaviors as well as the incorporation of the Contraceptive Attitude Scale (CAS). The researchers utilized an online survey system to distribute surveys electronically. RESULTS: Most students had a positive attitude regarding contraception. IMPLICATIONS: Nurses at college health facilities can focus on educating the college population since their age group is likely to engage in risky behavior

Exploitation and Regulation of Apoptotic Caspases

Caspases are the cysteine proteases that govern apoptotic cell death. The regulation of these enzymes is critical in order to restrain their death-inducing capabilities until the appropriate moment. Infidelity of caspase regulation and activation underlies a plethora of human diseases ranging from cancer to neurodegeneration. This establishes a pressing need for comprehensive studies of the apoptotic caspases in order to understand all aspects of their regulation, activation, substrate preferences, structure, and function. A detailed structural view of caspase regulation would have lasting implications for future therapeutic avenues targeting caspase function or apoptosis. This dissertation chronicles caspase regulation by phosphorylation as well as zinc. A mechanistic approach uncovering the precise means by which caspases and kinases co-regulate one another offers multiple avenues for therapeutic intervention. In addition, the influence of zinc on caspase activity at biologically relevant concentrations alters the perspective on zinc regulation of apoptosis. Lastly, this work utilizes the knowledge derived from these mechanistic studies for an application in which the cell death inducing potential of an executioner caspase is harnessed by delivering the caspase to a population of cancer cells

Judging lives: autonomy, dignity and human well-being in cases of voluntary assisted suicide in a South African context

Master’s thesis submitted to Faculty of Humanities in partial fulfilment of Master of Arts: Applied Ethics for Professionals University of the Witwatersrand Department of Philosophy, 2017In this thesis I explore the issue of voluntary assisted suicide in a South African constitutional context through the tri-coloured normative prism of autonomy, dignity and human well-being. I will focus on the way South Africa, as a secular society, ought to engage with this highly emotive issue in light of the socio-legal framework in which we are embedded and which framework carries with it profound normative implications. I divide the discussion into two broad sections. In the first section I articulate, from an ethical standpoint, what I take to be the strongest positive case for South African society to permit voluntary assisted suicide. I argue that by permitting voluntary assisted suicide South African society would be giving proper expression to (i) individual autonomy (ii) human dignity, and (iii) human well-being. In articulating the positive case I also analyse the triumvirate concepts of individual autonomy, dignity and human well-being as well as their relationship to each other. I argue that individual autonomy is an essential component of a good human life, that is to say, a worthwhile life and that to speak of a dignified life is, in turn, to speak of the sort of life that is worthy of respect, reverence and honour. I then turn to an examination of two of the principal ethical arguments against the moral permissibility of voluntary assisted suicide in the literature, namely (i) the Sanctity of Life Argument, and (ii) the Social Harm Argument. I argue that neither argument is sufficiently persuasive to rebut the positive case in favour of voluntary assisted suicide. However, certain critical considerations are raised that do speak to the need for effective oversight and regulation of such a practice in South African society. Accordingly, I advance the view that, in light of the failure of these two principal arguments (and in the absence of any stronger arguments) voluntary assisted suicide ought to be permitted in South Africa subject to uniform, public and specifiable oversight criteria applicable to each individual who wishes to end his life with the assistance of another. In the second section, I describe the South African legal standpoint on voluntary assisted suicide in light of (i) the normative underpinnings of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (and in particular the Bill of Rights) and (ii) the present legal status of voluntary assisted suicide, taking into account both the common law and the South African Law Commission Report on Euthanasia and Artificial Preservation of Life, 1998. This analysis involves an examination of (i) the recent decision of Stransham-Ford v Minister of Justice and Correctional Services & Others1 handed down on 4 May 2015 in which the North Gauteng High Court granted, for the first time in South African legal history, an application allowing a terminally ill man the right to die and to be actively assisted to do so by a consenting physician; as well as (ii) the subsequent Supreme Court of Appeal decision in The Minister of Justice and Correctional Services & Others v Estate Late Stransham Ford2 that overturned the original decision. I argue that the best way to understand the socio-legal framework in which we find ourselves is as a social contract that ‘instantiates’ or ‘gives expression to’ a rights-based ethic, which in turn protects vital human interests. I argue further that this constitutional legal framework is capable of tracking and incorporating the positive ethical case for voluntary assisted suicide admirably. Finally, I posit that the quickest and most effective way to implement a permissive policy for voluntary assisted suicide is through the development of the common law. In the process, I tentatively suggest what appropriate safeguards and oversight of voluntary assisted suicide might look like, the practical implementation of which would allow South African society – specifically through the judicial branch of government - to more sagaciously and compassionately judge lives.XL201

Papua New Guinea Primary School Technology Teachers: The Impacts of Support Materials on Their Perceptions and Practices

This thesis explores the perceptions of technology and technology education held by six primary school teachers in Papua New Guinea, and their views of the materials developed to use as a support for teaching technology and the impacts on their perceptions and their teaching practices of technology. Based on the interpretivist paradigm, a case study approach and qualitative data collection methods were used to explore the teachers' views of technology and technology education and how the support materials influenced these perceptions and practices. One to one, semistructured interviews with the teachers, and an analysis of their planning documents were used to collect data. As part of the curriculum reforms, technology education was introduced as a new subject into primary education in PNG in 1994. However, no formal professional development was provided for helping the primary teachers implement technology education. Instead, curriculum materials were developed and distributed to teachers in 2005 as a support for their technology teaching. This thesis supports the idea that teachers need support to help them learn. It is also argues that teachers' beliefs about subject areas, teaching, their students, and curriculum materials influence how they interact with these support materials. The findings show that the support materials were very useful in enhancing the teachers' knowledge of technology and effective teaching of technology. There were changes to teachers' perceptions of technology and technological practices when they began to use the support materials. Changes included the views of technology as more than modern artefacts to include traditional technology, that technology was more than just practical. It also has a knowledge base. However, not all aspects of technology as advocated in the support materials have been taken up by these teachers. Problem-solving and design aspects have received marginal attention. Other factors were at play including subject subcultures, subject backgrounds, past hands-on experiences and ownership of personal technological artefacts. To be even more effective technology teachers, it is advocated that teacher professional development is required for Papua New Guinean primary teachers to implement the technology successfully

The effects of non-linear bromide adsorption on apparent macrodispersivity

Macrodispersivity estimates are crucial in predicting the subsurface transport of contaminants. These predictions have become increasingly important as the number of contaminated sites continues to increase. In addition, the longevity of many contaminants can affect water quality over extended periods of time. Anionic tracers such as bromide and chloride are commonly used as groundwater tracers in dispersivity experiments because they are inexpensive, easily detected, and are commonly believed to behave conservatively. It has been found, however, that anionic tracers do not always behave conservatively; sediments with a net positive surface charge can adsorb some-of the tracer. A weakly non-linear, experimentally derived Freundlich sorption isotherm was found to describe bromide adsorption in sediments from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The aim of this research was to quantify the effects of this sorption on apparent dispersivities relative to a conservative tracer. In addition, the effects on apparent dispersivities of injecting different amounts of tracer and omitting tracer concentrations below detection limits were evaluated. Monte Carlo simulations were performed using SUTRA and W ATSUTRA. The models were developed to simulate natural gradient tracer tests. Two types of hydraulic conductivity fields were generated using the Fast Fourier Transform method. One represented a weakly heterogeneous flow field, with physical parameters similar to the Borden aquifer in Ontario, Canada; the other represented a strongly heterogeneous flow field with physical parameters similar to the Columbus aquifer in Mississippi. These hydraulic conductivity fields represent two extremes of aquifer conditions. Forty simulations were performed in this study for eight cases. Five realizations were performed for each case; each realization was simulated for two years. Apparent dispersivities were calculated by the method of moments. Ensemble means were estimated by averaging the apparent longitudinal or horizontal transverse dispersivity values for the five realizations in each case. Null hypothesis testing was performed with a standard t-test to test the significance between the estimates for the ensemble means for various cases. The following simplifying assumptions were used in this research: 1) Sorption according to the Freundlich isotherm was assumed to be a reversible equilibrium process. Thus, desorption followed the same isotherm as adsorption, only with decreasing concentrations, and both adsorption and desorption were rapid in comparison to advective flow. 2) The Freundlich isotherm was constant throughout the model domain. 3) The groundwater model employed was two-dimensional; vertical heterogeneity was not represented. The results indicated the experimentally derived Freundlich isotherm, given the assumptions and limited number of realizations used in this study, did not significantly affect apparent plume dispersivity values. Thus, bromide was not found to be an unsuitable groundwater tracer. The quantity of tracer mass injected and omission of tracer concentrations below detection limits also did not have a significant effect on apparent dispersivity values. It was found that using tracer concentrations below detection level can adversely affect high-order spatial moments; this finding may, however, be unique to SUTRA and W ATSUTRA or similar finite-element programs

A Theory of Form as Temporal Referentiality

This study proposes temporal referentiality—roughly defined as the orientation of substance in its temporal medium—as a theoretical and analytical framework for musical form. Operating on the principle of music as a temporally extended entity, this thesis explores the connections that occur between substance across its medium, suggests an additional interpretation of medium connections (temporality) in terms of language tense, and examines substance connections (referentiality) through different types of filtering. I also propose a means for visual and literary interpretation of temporal referentiality, depicting a network of substance relationships established over a piece’s timespace. Analysis of this type assumes a listener’s complete familiarity with the substance in its temporal boundaries. Visual representations portray the amount and strength of future- and past-oriented musical substance at a given point in time, including which sections are connected to one another (medium connection) and which variables or features of sameness are responsible for this connection (substance connection). Employing an analogy between orientation and tense, it also becomes feasible to construct a “model prose composition” with the same temporal referentiality as a piece of music. Finally, a system of filtering serves to isolate portions of medium and substance and to clarify what elements are responsible for the elusive concept of “sameness.” The possibilities for temporal reference analysis are applied to the first movements of Bartók’s Fourth String Quartet and Brahms’s Violin Concerto, as well as Bach’s Contrapunctus #9 from The Art of Fugue and the Variations movement of Webern’s Symphony op. 21

Brothers in Blood: the Significance of Land and Loss in the Creation of Jewish and Native American Ethnic and Religious identity

Volunteering at the Onondaga Nation School and collaborating with Chief Jacobs has exposed me to a new and subversive underbelly of American political and religious life. Working on sovereign Native land also provided valuable on the ground experience in Onondaga language and Haudenosaunee culture - food, humor, lacrosse, art, ceremony, government, education etc. Throughout my tenure at Onondaga I have used comparison as the backdrop for my experiences collaborating with Native peoples as well as the methodological backbone for this dissertation project. My dissertation project, Brothers in Blood: the Significance of Land and Loss in the Creation of Jewish and Native American Ethnic and Religious Identity, represents an educational union between Syracuse University and the Onondaga Nation School as much as it explores the historical, theological and political interfaces between American Jews and American Indians. I argue that while the historical maintenance of a social-religious identity, outside a theological context, has caused patterns of Jewish and Native American identity creation to overlap and intersect the incongruities in the lived experiences of Jews in the United States and Natives in the United States arise from competing Jewish, Christian, and Native American orientations to religion, land, and community. Through the prisms of blood, genocide and theology my dissertation examines the interfaces between American Jews and American Indians as they converge and coalesce around patterns of religion, racism and anti-Semitism. Furthermore, I illustrate how these intersections can serve as a nexus for looking at the formation of race and ethnicity in the United States

“Burnout” em uma amostra de profissionais de Educação Física brasileiros

“Burnout” é resultado da exposição prolongada ao estresse laboral crônico com recuperação insuficiente. O presente estudo analisou a presença de “burnout” em uma amostra de profissionais de educação física da Região Metropolitana de Londrina, Paraná, Brasil. Foram reunidos para estudo 588 sujeitos (273 mulheres e 315 homens). A presença de “burnout” foi definida por intermédio da versão traduzida do Maslach Burnout Inventory. Definiu-se “burnout” pela sobreposição de elevados escores de exaustão emocional e despersonalização e baixo escore de realização profissional. Foi também tratado os efeitos de sexo, idade e características laborais (experiência na profissão, qualificação acadêmica, área de atuação profissional, jornada de trabalho semanal, locais de trabalho e ganho financeiro) nas três dimensões de “burnout”. Os resultados indicaram a presença de “burnout” em 10,2% da amostra selecionada. Homens relataram escores de reduzida realização profissional de maior gravidade que mulheres. Escores equivalentes à exaustão emocional e despersonalização foram significativamente mais elevados em profissionais com mais idade. Com relação às características laborais, maior experiência profissional, qualificação apenas na graduação, atividade no ensino básico, jornada de trabalho ≥ 40 horas/semana, pluriemprego e menor ganho financeiro aumentaram significativamente as chances de acometimento de “burnout”. Concluindo, os presentes achados podem ser empregados para delinear programas de intervenção e implementar mudanças no ambiente de trabalho destinado a aprimorar a saúde ocupacional e o bem-estar em geral dos profissionais de educação física.Burnout is the result of prolonged exposure to chronic work stress with insufficiente recovery. This study examined the presence of burnout in a sample of physical education professional from the metropolitan region of Londrina, Paraná, Brazil. A total of 588 subjects (273 women and 315 men) were included in the study. To define the presence of burnout we used the version translated into Portuguese of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Burnout was defined by superposition of high scores in emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and low scores on personal accomplishment at work. We also studied the effect of gender, age and job characteristics (working experience, academic qualification, area of professional practice, weekly workload, workplaces and income) on the three dimensions of burnout. The results indicated the presence of burnout in 10.2% of the selected sample. Men reported scores on reduced personal accomplishment indicative of greater severity than women. Scores equivalent to emotional exhaustion and depersonalization were significantly higher in older professionals. Regarding to job characteristics, more working experience, qualification only at graduation, professional practice in primary education, weekly workload ≥ 40 hours/week, multiple employment and lower income increased significantly the odds of the presence of burnout. In conclusion, the present findings can be used to design programs of intervention and implement changes in the work environment aimed at improving occupational health and overall well-being of profissional physical education