The relation between video game violence and aggression

Experimental research has shown that playing violent video games produces higher levels of aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and aggressive behavior (in the short-term) than non-violent video games (see Anderson, Gentile & Buckley, 2007). However, there are two major limitations with these studies. First, the majority of experimental studies that have compared the effects of violent versus non-violent video games on aggression have failed to equate these games in terms of competitiveness, difficulty, and pace of action. Thus, although the common finding is that violent video games produce higher levels of aggression than nonviolent video games, other unmatched factors beyond the actual violent content may be responsible for the elevated levels of aggression. Second, previous experimental studies have tended to use a measure of aggression that may also measure competitiveness, leading to questions about whether violent video games are related to aggression or competitiveness. The present thesis addressed these two issues by fIrst equating a violent and non-violent video game on competitiveness, difficulty and pace of action in Experiment I , and then comparing the effect of each game on aggressive behavior using an unambiguous measure of aggressive behavior (i.e., the Hot Sauce Paradigm). We found that video game violence was not sufficient to elevate aggressive behavior compared to a non-violent video game. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Nonsuicidal Self-Injury and Suicidal Risk: An Examination among Young Adults

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), which refers to the direct and deliberate destruction of bodily tissue in the absence of suicidal intent, is a serious and widespread mental health concern. Although NSSI has been differentiated from suicidal behavior on the basis of non-lethal intent, research has shown that these two behaviors commonly co-occur. Despite increased research on the link between NSSI and suicidal behavior, however, little attention has been given as to why these two behaviors are associated. My doctoral dissertation specifically addressed this gap in the literature by examining the link between NSSI and several measures of suicidal risk (e.g., suicidal ideation, suicidal attempts, pain tolerance) among a large sample of young adults. The primary goal of my doctoral research was to identify individuals who engaged in NSSI at risk for suicidal ideation and attempts, in an effort to elucidate the processes through which psychosocial risk, NSSI, and suicidal risk may be associated. Participants were drawn from a larger sample of 1153 undergraduate students (70.3% female) at a mid-sized Canadian University. In study one, I examined whether increases in psychosocial risk and suicidal ideation were associated with changes in NSSI engagement over a one year period. Analyses revealed that beginners, relapsed injurers, and persistent injurers were differentiated from recovered injurers and desisters by increases in psychsocial risk and suicidal ideation over time. In study two, I examined whether several NSSI characteristics (e.g., frequency, number of methods) were associated with suicidal risk using latent class analysis. Three subgroups of individuals were identified: 1) an infrequent NSSI/not high risk for suicidal behavior group, 2) a frequent NSSI/not high risk for suicidal behavior group, and 3) a frequent NSSI/high risk for suicidal behavior group. Follow-up analyses indicated that individuals in the frequent NSSI/high risk for suicidal behavior group met the clinical cutoff score for high suicidal risk and reported significantly greater levels of suicidal ideation, attempts, and risk for future suicidal behavior as compared to the other two classes. Class 3 was also differentiated by higher levels of psychosocial risk (e.g., depressive symptoms, social anxiety) relative to the other two classes, as well as a comparison group of non-injuring young adults. Finally, in study three, I examined whether NSSI was associated with pain tolerance in a lab-based task, as tolerance to pain has been shown to be a strong predictor of suicidal risk. Individuals who engaged in NSSI to regulate the need to self-punish, tolerated pain longer than individuals who engaged in NSSI but not to self-punish and a non-injuring comparison group. My findings offer new insight into the associations among psychosocial risk, NSSI, and suicidal risk, and can serve to inform intervention efforts aimed at individuals at high risk for suicidal behavior. More specifically, my findings provide clinicians with several NSSI-specific risk factors (e.g., frequent self-injury, self-injuring alone, self-injuring to self-punish) that may serve as important markers of suicidal risk among individuals engaging in NSSI.

Registered Nurses' Perceptions about Facilitators and Barriers to Maternal Skin to Skin Contact in the Operating Room

Abstract It is recommended that all new mothers experience skin-to-skin contact (SSC) with their newborns immediately after birth. However, SSC is not commonly practiced after cesarean deliveries. To understand facilitators and barriers regarding SSC in the operating room (OR), a descriptive online and paper survey was conducted with 68 Registered Nurses from four hospitals in Ontario. The theory of planned behavior framed the study. Nurses had positive attitudes, and believed most health care team members supported SSC in the OR, but were uncertain about their control over the behavior. Nurses who had practiced the behavior in the past had more positive attitudinal and normative beliefs, and perceived some barriers as less difficult. Attitude and past behavior were the only significant multivariate predictors of intention to practice SSC in the future. Results suggest that shifting attitude and supporting more experience with the practice may increase nurses’ implementation of SSC in the OR.

Political Influence, Economic Interests and Endogenous Tax Structure in a Computable Equilibrium Framework: with Applicatioon to the United States, 1973 and 1983

A full understanding of public affairs requires the ability to distinguish between the policies that voters would like the government to adopt, and the influence that different voters or group of voters actually exert in the democratic process. We consider the properties of a computable equilibrium model of a competitive political economy in which the economic interests of groups of voters and their effective influence on equilibrium policy outcomes can be explicitly distinguished and computed. The model incorporates an amended version of the GEMTAP tax model, and is calibrated to data for the United States for 1973 and 1983. Emphasis is placed on how the aggregation of GEMTAP households into groups within which economic and political behaviour is assumed homogeneous affects the numerical representation of interests and influence for representative members of each group. Experiments with the model suggest that the changes in both interests and influence are important parts of the story behind the evolution of U.S. tax policy in the decade after 1973.

The relationship between parental practices and suicidal behaviors in Québec adolescents

Sommaire Cette thèse examine les liens entre la présence de risques suicidaires chez les adolescents et leur perception des pratiques de chacun de leurs parents. L’étude a examiné l’association entre le comportement suicidaire et différents aspects des pratiques parentales incluant l’affection, l’exercice du contrôle comportemental et psychologique ainsi que les conflits entre parent et adolescents. La thèse a également examiné l’effet du statut matrimonial des parents sur le comportement suicidaire chez les jeunes. Le dernier objectif de l’étude a été d’explorer le rôle du sexe de l’adolescent comme facteur de vulnérabilité face au suicide. L’échantillon de l’étude était composé 1096 adolescents Montréalais, âgés de 11 à 18 ans. L’échantillon était également réparti entre filles et garçons, fréquentant deux écoles secondaires de la région de Montréal, dans la province du Québec au Canada. Il y avait deux groupes à l’étude : le groupe suicidaire et le groupe non-suicidaire. Le premier groupe incluait les sujets présentant des idéations suicidaires et ceux ayant fait une ou plusieurs tentatives de suicide. Un questionnaire auto-rapporté fut administré à chaque sujet pour évaluer les dimensions suivantes auprès de la mère et du père : le niveau de proximité affective, le niveau de supervision parentale, le contrôle comportemental et le contrôle psychologique, la tolérance à l’égard des amis, ainsi que la fréquence et l’impact émotionnel des conflits. Une échelle a également évalué la présence éventuelle de comportements suicidaires chez les jeunes. Dans le but de tester l’hypothèse de base de l’étude, une série d’analyses descriptives et une MANCOVA ont été réalisées. L’hypothèse générale de la thèse postulant que les adolescents ayant des risques suicidaires présenteraient des relations plus problématiques avec leurs parents fut confirmée. En contrôlant l’effet de la détresse psychologique des adolescents, les analyses ont mené à la conclusion que, dans les familles biparentales, un faible niveau de proximité affective avec la mère, une fréquence plus élevée de conflits avec la mère, un excès du contrôle psychologique et un plus faible niveau de supervision maternelle, présentaient des liens significatifs avec le comportement suicidaire chez les adolescents. Indépendamment de la structure familiale, les caractéristiques suivantes du père étaient respectivement perçues par l’adolescent comme ayant des liens significatifs avec le comportement suicidaire des adolescents: faible proximité affective, impact émotionnel et fréquence élevée des conflits ainsi que le manque de supervision. Ces résultats ont été interprétés à la lumière des théories de la socialisation qui mettent l’accent sur le rôle central de la qualité des liens affectifs entre parents et adolescents, comme facteur de protection contre les risques suicidaires. Les résultats ont aussi révélé que les filles adolescentes sont plus exposées aux risques suicidaires tels que tentatives et idéations suicidaires. Les conclusions de cette étude soulignent le besoin urgent de recherches plus poussées sur le comportement suicidaire des adolescents et leurs liens avec les facteurs familiaux, en tenant compte du statut matrimonial des parents. La thèse met également l’accent sur la nécessité de mettre en place des programmes de prévention auprès des adolescents présentant des risques suicidaires élevés.

Studies on Ilmenite of Chavara and Manavalakurichi Deposites, Southwest Coast of India

The present work attempts to trace the variation in the physical and chemical behavior of ilmenite, since its release from country rocks and subsequent transportation to the coast through the progressive weathering environments of laterite, sedimentary rocks, rivers and estuarine systems. Since the hinterland of the study area consists of crystalline and sedimentary rocks and their weathered forms (laterites), the contribution of each lithological system to the beach placer is attempted. The results of the study show that the most magnetic fraction contains more content of altered phases than the relatively unweathered fractions. The fractions separated above 0.35A define a high grade of ilmenite ore enriched in Ti content. The lattice volume generally decreases with alteration. The magnetic studies revels that the Chavara ilmenite are found to be made up to low magnetic crops with about 46% of the bulk ilmenite constituted by fractions separated at above 0.35A. In the Manavalakurichi ilmenite on the other hand, around 91% of the beach ilmenite is made of fractions separated at or below 0.3A

Effect of Silane Coupling Agent on Cure Characteristics and Mechanical Properties of Nitrile Rubber/Reclaimed Rubber Blend

Blends of nitrile rubber and reclaimed rubber containing different levels of a coupling agent, Si 69 (bis(3- triethoxysilyl propyl)(tetrasulphide) were prepared and the cure characteristic's and mechanical properties were studied. Optimum loading of Si-69 was found to be a function of blend ratio. 3 phi- of Si 69 in a 70:30. Blend was found to be the optimum combination with respect to the mechanical properties. The rate and state of cure were also affected bv the conp/ing agent. Tensile strength, tear strength and abrasion resistance were improved in the presence of coupling agent. While the state of cure improved, the cure rate and scorch time decreased with increasing silane content. Ageing studies showed that the blends containing the coupling agent were inferior to the unmodified blends.

Effect of Urethane Based Bonding Agent on the Cure Characteristics and Mechanical Properties of Styrene Butadiene Rubber - Whole Tyre Reclaim - Short Nylon Fiber Composite

The cure characteristics and mechanical properties of short nylon fiber- styrene /whole tyre reclaim (SBR/WTR) composites with and without an interfacial bonding agent based on 4,4 diphenyl methane diisocyanate and polyethylene glycol (MDI/PEG) have been studied. An 80:40 blend of SBR/ WTR reinforced with 20 phr of short nylon fiber has been selected and the MDI/ PEG ratio has been changed from 0.67:1 to 2:1. The minimum and maximum torques increased with isocyanate concentration. The scorch time and cure time showed an initial reduction. The cure rate showed an initial improvement. Tensile strength, tear strength and abrasion resistance increased with MDI/PEG ratio, these values were higher in longitudinal direction. Resilience and compression set increased with isocyanate concentration.

Optical absorption studies in ion implanted and amorphous semiconductors - Investigations in some tetrahedrally co-ordinated and chalcogenide materials

The thesis provides an overall review and introduction to amorphous semiconductors, followed by a brief discussion on the important structural models proposed for chalcogenide glasses and their electrical, optional and thermal properties. It also gives a brief description of the Physics of thin films, ion implantation and Photothermal Deflection Spectroscopy. A brief description of the experimental setup of a photothermal deflection spectrometer and the details of the preparation and optical characterization of the thin film samples. It deals with the employment of the subgap optional absorption measurement by PDS to characterize the defects, amorphization and annealing behavior in silicon implanted with B+ ions and the profiles of ion range and vacancy distribution obtained by the TRIM simulation. It reports the results of all absorption measurements by PDS in nitrogen implanted thin film samples of Ge-Se and As-Se systems

A comparative study of medium and large pore zeolites in alkylation reactions

In this thesis an attempt has been made to compare the catalytic activity of some medium and large pore zeolites in a few alkylation and acylation reactions. The work reported in the present study is basically centered around the following zeolites namely, ZSM-5, mordenite, zeolite Y and beta. The major reactions carried out were benzoylation of o-xylene, propionylation of toluene and anisole and benzylation of 0xylene.The programme involves the synthesis, modifications and characterization of the zeolite catalysts by various methods. The influence of various parameters such as non-framework cations, Si/AI ratio of zeolites, temperature of the reaction, catalyst concentration, molar ratio of the reactants and recycling of the catalysts were also examined upon the conversion of reactants and the formation of the desired products in the alkylation / acylation reactions.The general conclusions drawn by us from the results obtained are summarized in the last chapter of the thesis. Zeolite beta offers interesting opportunities as a potential catalyst in alkylation reactions and the area of catalysis by medium and large pore zeolites is very fascinating and there is plenty of scope for further research in this field. Moreover, zeolite based catalysts are effective in meeting current industrial processing and more stringent environment pollution limits.

Development of Best Practices for Ship Recycling Processes

Ship recycling has been considered as the best means to dispose off an obsolete ship. The current state of art of technology combined with the demands of sustainable developments from the global maritime industrial sector has modified the status of erstwhile ‘ship breaking’ involving ship scrap business to a modern industry undertaking dismantling of ships and recycling/reusing the dismantled products in a supply chain of pre owned product market by following the principles of recycling. Industries will have to formulate a set of best practices and blend them with the engineering activities for producing better quality products, improving the productivity and for achieving improved performances related to sustainable development. Improved performance by industries in a sustainable development perspective is accomplished only by implementing the 4E principles, ie.,. ecofriendliness, engineering efficiency, energy conservation and ergonomics in their core operations. The present study has done a comprehensive investigation into various ship recycling operations for formulating a set of best practices.Being the ultimate life cycle stage of a ship, ship recycling activities incorporate certain commercial procedures well in advance to facilitate the objectives of dismantling and recycling/reusing of various parts of the vessel. Thorough knowledge regarding these background procedures in ship recycling is essential for examining and understanding the industrial business operations associated with it. As a first step, the practices followed in merchant shipping operations regarding the decision on decommissioning have been and made available in the thesis. Brief description about the positioning methods and important preparations for the most feasible ship recycling method ie.,. beach method have been provided as a part of the outline of the background information. Available sources of guidelines, codes and rules & regulations for ship recycling have been compiled and included in the discussion.Very brief summary of practices in major ship recycling destinations has been prepared and listed for providing an overview of the global ship recycling activities. The present status of ship recycling by treating it as a full fledged engineering industry has been brought out to establish the need for looking into the development of the best practices. Major engineering attributes of ship as a unique engineering product and the significant influencing factors on her life cycle stage operations have been studied and added to the information base on ship recycling. Role of ship recycling industry as an important player in global sustainable development efforts has been reviewed by analysing the benefits of ship recycling. A brief synopsis on the state of art of ship recycling in major international ship recycling centres has also been incorporated in the backdrop knowledgebase generation on ship recycling processes.Publications available in this field have been reviewed and classified into five subject categories viz., Infrastructure for recycling yards and methods of dismantling, Rules regarding ship recycling activities, Environmental and safety aspects of ship recycling, Role of naval architects and ship classification societies, Application of information technology and Demand forecasting. The inference from the literature survey have been summarised and recorded. Noticeable observations in the inference include need of creation of a comprehensive knowledgebase on ship recycling and its effective implementation in the industry and the insignificant involvement of naval architects and shipbuilding engineers in ship recycling industry. These two important inferences and the message conveyed by them have been addressed with due importance in the subsequent part of the present study.As a part of the study the importance of demand forecasting in ship recycling has been introduced and presented. A sample input for ship recycling data for implementation of computer based methods of demand forecasting has been presented in this section of the thesis.The interdisciplinary nature of engineering processes involved in ship recycling has been identified as one of the important features of this industry. The present study has identified more than a dozen major stake holders in ship recycling having their own interests and roles. It has also been observed that most of the ship recycling activities is carried out in South East Asian countries where the beach based ship recycling is done in yards without proper infrastructure support. A model of beach based ship recycling has been developed and the roles, responsibilities and the mutual interactions of the elements of the system have been documented as a part of the study Subsequently the need of a generation of a wide knowledgebase on ship recycling activities as pointed out by the literature survey has been addressed. The information base and source of expertise required to build a broad knowledgebase on ship recycling operations have been identified and tabulated. Eleven important ship recycling processes have been identified and a brief sketch of steps involved in these processes have been examined and addressed in detail. Based on these findings, a detailed sequential disassembly process plan of ship recycling has been prepared and charted. After having established the need of best practices in ship recycling initially, the present study here identifies development of a user friendly expert system for ship recycling process as one of the constituents of the proposed best practises. A user friendly expert system has been developed for beach based ship recycling processes and is named as Ship Recycling Recommender (SRR). Two important functions of SRR, first one for the ‘Administrators’, the stake holders at the helm of the ship recycling affairs and second one for the ‘Users’, the stake holders who execute the actual dismantling have been presented by highlighting the steps involved in the execution of the software. The important output generated, ie.,. recommended practices for ship dismantling processes and safe handling information on materials present onboard have been presented with the help of ship recycling reports generated by the expert system. A brief account of necessity of having a ship recycling work content estimation as part of the best practices has been presented in the study. This is supported by a detailed work estimation schedule for the same as one of the appendices.As mentioned earlier, a definite lack of involvement of naval architect has been observed in development of methodologies for improving the status of ship recycling industry. Present study has put forward a holistic approach to review the status of ship recycling not simply as end of life activity of all ‘time expired’ vessels, but as a focal point of integrating all life cycle activities. A new engineering design philosophy targeting sustainable development of marine industrial domain, named design for ship recycling has been identified, formulated and presented. A new model of ship life cycle has been proposed by adding few stages to the traditional life cycle after analysing their critical role in accomplishing clean and safe end of life and partial dismantling of ships. Two applications of design for ship recycling viz, recyclability of ships and her products and allotment of Green Safety Index for ships have been presented as a part of implementation of the philosophy in actual practice.

Geochemistry of transition, non-transition and rare-earth elements in the surficial sediments of continental shelf of Kerala and an annex to the Cochin estuarine system

The metals present in the surface sediments have high demand on a global perspective, and the main reservoir of these elements is believed to be the ocean floor. A lot of studies on metals are going on throughout the world for its quantification and exploitation. Even though, some preliminary attempts have been made in selected areas for the quantitative study of metals in the western continental shelf of India, no comprehensive work has been reported so far. The importance of this study also lies on the fact that there has not been a proper evaluation of the impact of the Great Tsunami of 2004 on the coastal areas of the south India. In View of this, an attempt has been made to address the seasonal distribution, behavior and mechanisms which control the deposition of metals in the sediments of the western continental shelf and Cochin Estuary, an annex to this coastal marine region.Surface sediment samples were collected seasonally from two subenvironemnts of southwest coast of India, (continental shelf of Kerala and Cochin estuarine system), to estimate the seasonal distribution and geochemical behavior of non-transition, transition, rare-earth elements, Th and U. Bottom water samples were also taken from each station, and analysed for temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen, hence the response of redox sensitive elements to oxygen minimum zone can be addressed. In addition, other sedimentary parameters such as sand, silt, clay fractions, CaCO3 and organic carbon content were also estimated to evaluate the control factors on level of metals present in the sediment. The study used different environmental data analysis techniques to evaluate the distribution and behavior of elements during different seasons. This includes environmental parameters such as elemental normalisation, enrichment factor, element excess, cerium and europium anomalies and authigenic uranium.

Premartensitic and martensitic phase transitions in ferromagnetic Ni2MnGa

We present an experimental study of the premartensitic and martensitic phase transitions in a Ni2MnGa single crystal by using ultrasonic techniques. The effect of applied magnetic field and uniaxial compressive stress has been investigated. It has been found that they substantially modify the elastic and magnetic behavior of the alloy. These experimental findings are a consequence of magnetoelastic effects. The measured magnetic and vibrational behavior agrees with the predictions of a recently proposed Landau-type model [A. Planes et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 3926 (1997)] that incorporates a magnetoelastic coupling as a key ingredient.

Investigations on the Structural, Spectral and Magnetic Interactions of Transition Metal Complexes of Multidentate Ligands from Di-2-pyridyl ketone and N(4)-substituted Thiosemicarbazides

The present work deals with the investigations on sthe structural spectral and magnetic interactions of transition metal complexes of multidentate ligands from D1-2-pyridyl ketone and N(4)-Substituted thiosemicarbazides.Thiosemicarbazones are thiourea derivatives with the general formula R2N— C(S)—NH—N=CR2. In the solution state, the thiosemicarbazones exhibit the thionethiol tautomerism similar to the keto-enol tautomerism, and in solution state the thiol form predominates and a deprotonation at the thiolate group in alcoholic medium enhances the coordination abilities ofthe thiosemicarbazones.The magnetochemistry of metal complexes of di-2-pyridyl ketone is a current hot subject of research, which mainly owes to the excellent structural diversity of the complexes ranging from cubanes to clusters, with promising ferromagnetic outputs.Only few efforts were aimed at the magnetochemistry of metal complexes of thiosemicarbazones, and that too were concerned with the complexes of bisttltioscinicarbazones). However, as far as the monothiosemicarbazones are concerned, the magnetochemistry of transition metal complexes of di-2-pyridyl ketone thiosemicarbazones turned up quite unexplored. Consequently, an investigation into it appeared novel and promising to us and that prompted this study, which can be regarded as the initial step towards exploring the magnetochemistry of thiosemicarbazone complexes, especially of di-2-pyridyl ketone derivatives.We could successfully isolate single crystals suitable for X-ray diffraction for the first three ligands. To conclude, we have synthesized some new thiosemicarbazones and their transition metal complexes and studied their structural, spectral and magnetic attributes. Some ofthe complexes revealed interesting stereochemistries and possible bridging characteristics with spectroscopic evidences. Unfortunately, single crystal Xray diffraction studies could not be carried out for many of these interesting compounds due to the lack of availability of suitable quality single crystals. However, the magnetic studies provided support for the proposed stereochemistry giving evidences for their magnetically concentrated nature. The magnetic susceptibilities measured at six different temperatures in the 80-298 K range are fitted into different magnetic equations, which provided an idea about the magnetic behavior of the compounds under study. Some of the copper, oxovanadium, nickel and cobalt complexes are found to possess anomalous magnetic moments, i.e., they revealed no regular gradation with temperature. However, some other copper complexes are observed to be antiferromagnetic, due to super-exchange pathways. The manganese complexes and one of the cobalt complexes are also observed to be antiferromagnetic in nature. However, some nickel complexes have turned up to be ferromagnetic. Accordingly, the versatile stereoehemistry and magnetic behavior of the complexes studied, prompt us to conclude that the transition metal complexes of di-2-pyridyl ketone thiosemicarbazones are promising systems for potential magnetic applications.

A Study of the Physical and Engineering Behaviour of Cochin Marine Clays

With the increase in population, housing and construction of various facilities have been a problem with urbanization. Having exhausted all the trouble free hand, man is nowon the lookout for techniques to improve areas which were originally considered uninhabitable. Thus this study is based on the nature and engineering behavior of soft clays covering long stretches of coastal line and methods to improve their geotechnical properties .The main aim of the present investigation is to study in detail the physical and engineering behavior of the marine clays of Cochin. While it is well known that the marine clays have been posing numerous problems to foundation engineers all along, the relevant literature reveals that no systematic and comprehensive study has been attempted to date. The: knowledge gained through the study is suitably used to improve these properties with appropriate additives.