University of Massachusetts Boston

About: University of Massachusetts Boston is a education organization based out in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Health care. The organization has 6541 authors who have published 12918 publications receiving 411731 citations. The organization is also known as: UMass Boston.

Protective processes in adolescence: Matching stressors with social resources

Abstract: Working within the “matching theory” of social supports, this research focuses on depressed mood and examines how resilience to stress during adolescence is shaped by developmental constraints on the use of support for coping with problems in the family, peer, and personal arenas. The sample is 1,036 adolescents systematically drawn from 3 community high schools in the Boston area. Predictions center on the efficacy of peer and family supports, and two intraindividual protective factors: sense of mastery and sense of social integration. Findings indicate little evidence of cross-domain stress buffering (where family support buffers the effects of peer stress on mood, and vice versa), suggesting that family and peer domains are more distinct during this stage of development. Protective effects for friendship stresses are evidenced, but boys are more able than girls to marshal their personal and support resources in managing friendship problems. Discussion centers on matching theory and the role of development in shaping coping responses to stress.

Predictors of Employment and Postsecondary Education of Youth With Autism

Abstract: Using logistic and multiple regressions, the authors investigated predictors of employment and postsecondary education outcomes of youth with autism in the Vocational Rehabilitation Program. Data w...

Communicating with and empowering international students with a library skills set

Abstract: Much library research over the last decade has focused on serving this particular group of library user. The project synthesizes and supplements past recommendations with a survey of academic institutions in the Southern USA. Data were collected from 123 colleges and universities. Both librarians and international student support staff agreed that the major challenges international students face are language/communication problems, adjusting to a new educational/library system, and general culture adjustments. The paper recommends a model for library skills training for internationalstudents by weaving together ACRL’s Information Literacy Competency Standards with the communication, educational and cultural adjustments international students encounter when studying in the USA.

Bathymetric and geographic population structure in the pan-Atlantic deep-sea bivalve Deminucula atacellana (Schenck, 1939).

Abstract: The deep-sea soft-sediment environment hosts a diverse and highly endemic fauna of uncertain origin. We know little about how this fauna evolved because geographic patterns of genetic variation, the essential information for inferring patterns of population differentiation and speciation are poorly understood. Using formalin-fixed specimens from archival collections, we quantify patterns of genetic variation in the protobranch bivalve Deminucula atacellana, a species widespread throughout the Atlantic Ocean at bathyal and abyssal depths. Samples were taken from 18 localities in the North American, West European and Argentine basins. A hypervariable region of mitochondrial 16S rDNA was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequenced from 130 individuals revealing 21 haplotypes. Except for several important exceptions, haplotypes are unique to each basin. Overall gene diversity is high ( h = 0.73) with pronounced population structure (Φ ST = 0.877) and highly significant geographic associations ( P < 0.0001). Sequences cluster into four major clades corresponding to differences in geography and depth. Genetic divergence was much greater among populations at different depths within the same basin, than among those at similar depths but separated by thousands of kilometres. Isolation by distance probably explains much of the interbasin variation. Depth-related divergence may reflect historical patterns of colonization or strong environmental selective gradients. Broadly distributed deep-sea organisms can possess highly genetically divergent populations, despite the lack of any morphological divergence.