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This aim of this thesis was to investigate the effects of violent and non-violent media on aggression and mood. The results of Chapter 3 indicate that viewing violent heroes, rather than violent villains, leads to a greater chance of reactive aggression. Graphic violence portrayals that fostered anger and anxiety inhibited likelihood of aggressive behaviour. Chapter 4 highlighted a significant positive relationship between positive affect and reactive aggression for male participants who viewed a violent hero. The results from chapter 5 demonstrate that positive affect increases after viewing non-violent media correlate with instrumental aggression. Results of chapter 6 indicate that playing a positive affect inducing, non-violent video game led to an increased likelihood of reactive and instrumental aggression. Playing a graphically violent video game did not lead to a aggression. Results of chapter 7 suggest that trait aggression and identification with a violent protagonist predict instrumental aggression in graphically violent video game players. The results of this thesis suggest that for the general population, violent content is not the key characteristic of media that leads to aggression. However, players who enjoy playing graphically violent media and identify with the violent main character may be the most likely to instrumentally aggress.

Edwards Amasa Park (1808-1900) of Andover championed Edwardsean Calvinism in the United States from the Jacksonian era until the very close of the nineteenth century by employing rhetorical strategies that lent his New England theology fresh apologetic usefulness. The thesis demonstrates that Park has been incorrectly identified as a Taylorite but, extending the argument of Joseph Conforti, ought to be viewed as re-casting his inherited Hopkinsian exercise scheme into a fresh historical synthesis influenced by contemporary patterns of thought. Park’s own training at Andover in the irenic divinity of Moses Stuart and Leonard Woods, his application as rhetorician of the work of Hugh Blair and George Campbell and his exposure in Germany to the Vermittlungstheologie of Friedrich Tholuck and Julius Müller gave specific definition to his own theological project. Additionally, the thesis argues that Park ought not to be viewed as a romantic idealist in the line of Horace Bushnell or as a proto-liberal in advance of the Andover liberals who succeeded him. Park retained a life-long commitment to a commingled epistemology and methodology derived from Lockean empiricism, Baconian induction, natural theology and Scottish common sense realism. As a formidable apologist for his revivalist inheritance identified with Jonathan Edwards and Samuel Hopkins, Edwards Amasa Park conserved the substance and prolonged the influence of his beloved New England theology by securing for it modes of expression well fitted to his nineteenth-century audience.

The explosive growth in the rate of data generation in recent years threatens to outpace the growth in computer power, motivating the need for new, scalable algorithms and big data analytic techniques. No field may be more emblematic of this data deluge than the life sciences, where technologies such as high-throughput mRNA arrays and next generation genome sequencing are routinely used to generate datasets of extreme scale. Data from experiments in genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics and proteomics are continuously being added to existing repositories. A goal of exploratory analysis of such omics data is to illuminate the functions and relationships of biomolecules within an organism. This dissertation describes the design, implementation and application of graph algorithms, with the goal of seeking dense structure in data derived from omics experiments in order to detect latent associations between often heterogeneous entities, such as genes, diseases and phenotypes. Exact combinatorial solutions are developed and implemented, rather than relying on approximations or heuristics, even when problems are exceedingly large and/or difficult. Datasets on which the algorithms are applied include time series transcriptomic data from an experiment on the developing mouse cerebellum, gene expression data measuring acute ethanol response in the prefrontal cortex, and the analysis of a predicted protein-protein interaction network. A bipartite graph model is used to integrate heterogeneous data types, such as genes with phenotypes and microbes with mouse strains. The techniques are then extended to a multipartite algorithm to enumerate dense substructure in multipartite graphs, constructed using data from three or more heterogeneous sources, with applications to functional genomics. Several new theoretical results are given regarding multipartite graphs and the multipartite enumeration algorithm. In all cases, practical implementations are demonstrated to expand the frontier of computational feasibility.

Many deaf children have delayed language development that would greatly affect their future academic success (Marschark, Lang, & Albertini, 2002). Information given by professionals to parents could be a significant factor in overcoming this delay. To assess the quality of this information six parents of deaf children in the Rochester NY area, three deaf parents and three hearing parents were selected to participate in an interview and survey. After the data was examined, it was found that the majority of the parents in this study felt that the information they received from professionals concerning their child's language development was adequate but could use further improvements. These parents posted suggestions on possible ways that might help make the experience of working with professionals easier. More widespread research needs to be done on this topic, and possibly a guideline for professionals on how to work with parents of deaf children could be developed. Hopefully, this would help parents make easier and better decisions, which could ensure a more successful future for the deaf child.

This study was an investigation of the effects of using an integrated computer program on the improvement of math and reading scores of students in grades three)through five. The program used was "Success Maker" from Computer CurriculumCorporation. Students were randomly assigned to one of two groups in each classroom;there were two classrooms at grade three, three at grade four, and two at grade five.Before students began using the computers, pretests in both reading and math were administered to them; assessments from S.T.A.R. reading and math were utilized for both pretests and posttests. Following the pretest, students in Group 1 used computers each day (each session ≅ 15 minutes) to supplement their reading and math instruction;Group 2 did not use computers for math or reading instruction during this time. At the end of five weeks, students were again given tests. Gains were determined using the scaled scores from the test results. Then Group 2 used the computer program whileGroup 1 did not. Following this five-week session, tests were again given to the students.During each session, both groups continued to do all non-computer class work and were exposed to the same curricular instruction from the teachers in their respective rooms.This cycle was repeated one more time, so each group used the computers for two alternating cycles and did not use them for two sessions.Scaled score gains were obtained for each grade for all sessions; in addition,grades were combined and overall reading and math gains were determined. T-tests were conducted for each subgroup for each five-week cycle. Distribution of scores was examined and boxplots were constructed in order to determine abnormal gain scores.Outliers were deleted from the data and t-tests were again performed.For most sessions, there were no statistically significant gains found favoring either group; there was only one instance in which statistically significant gains were realized with the use of the computer software. However, when gain scores were examined using charts to explore progress, there were some trends toward improvement that suggested that the computer use may have enhanced the instruction, especially in reading. Theresearcher concluded that there might be practical significance realized in the use of the computer, especially when one considers that students want to use the technology, andthat evidence that there could possibly be significant results obtained with longer,sustained use of the software.

The primary purposes of this study were to determine how well the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) diffused information to workers, compare the efficacy of an OSHA type Form with the Chemical Manufacturer Association/ American National Standards Institute (CMA/ANSI Z400.1) structure and the International Chemical Safety Card (ICSC), and determine worker acceptability and understanding of MSDSs at a large national laboratory. The Adoption Diffusion Innovation Theory, Social Cognitive Theory, and Value Expectancy Theory (Health Belief Model) provided the theoretical framework for this research. An inventory questionnaire and quantitative testing were utilized to gather data from a purposively selected sample (N = 160) out of 824 union workers employed at a large national laboratory. Eighteen crafts comprised the 160 workers studied. Instrumentation utilized in the study consisted of a forty- question inventory on acceptability of the MSDS to the worker and a ten-question MSDS comprehensibility test administered to each worker as a pretest and posttest. The workers were partitioned into four groups of forty randomly selected test subjects. The treatments or independent variables, three differently formatted MSDSs, were introduced as references during the posttest. A different format was given to each of three groups and none was provided to the control group. The MSDSs were controlled for level of readability and the specific chemical addressed was the same on all three. Gain scores between the pretest and posttest were equated to diffusion efficacy of each treatment format. Relationships between the variables of age, education level, years worked, and number of chemicals used were evaluated for effect on the efficacy of each format. Descriptive statistics and the chi-square test were used to analyze the inventory on worker acceptability and understanding of the MSDS. Inferential statistics including the t-test, ANOVA, Dunnett's test, Sidak's multiple comparison tests were utilized to determine significant differences in gain scores between pretests and posttests of formats, between formats and controls, and among formats and groups of variables. Findings disclosed are: (a) the sample population of union workers studied were well trained on the MSDS and understood and accepted them as viable documents; (b) there were however, lesser percentages of workers that needed to be better persuaded to use the MSDS at the national laboratory; (c) all three MSDS formats significantly diffused information to workers, although approximately one third of the information on the forms was not absorbed; (d) the rank order of finish between the three different formats was ICSC, OSHA type Form and CMA/ANSI Z400.1, respectively, however, there were no significant differences in the scores; (e) there were significant differences in how well each form answered specific test questions with the ICSC and OSHA type Form out performing the CMA/ANSI Z400.1 structure.