Browsing by Author "Li, Li"

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    Alcohol use among military personnel: an examination of demographic and sociological determinants
    Li, Li (Virginia Tech, 1989-04-05)
    The objective of this thesis was to examine the demographic characteristics and the drink-related determinants of alcohol use among U.S. military personnel. The data were obtained from The 1985 Worldwide Survey of Alcohol and Nonmedical Drug Use among Military Personnel which included 17,328 active duty military personnel. Analysis of Variance and Pearson r were used to examine the zero-order relationships among all independent and dependent variables in the study. Multiple Regression and Path Analysis were used to reveal the relationships between demographic and drink-related variables in predicting alcohol use. Findings from bivariate analyses explored the zero-order relationships between alcohol use and demographic attributes as well as drink-related determinants. It was found that the following characteristics were more frequently associated with military personnel who used alcohol: male, black, younger, not living with a spouse, in lower military ranks and with lower educational attainment. Furthermore, personnel who were strongly influenced by their drinking peers, considered the positive personal benefits of alcohol use, had favorable attitudes toward alcohol use, and encountered more serious problem situations were found to exhibit higher levels of alcohol use. Findings from multiple regressions and path analyses indicated that personal benefit was the most important determinant in predicting alcohol use. lt was found that the effects of problem situations on alcohol use were largely mediated by personal benefit. Moreover, peer influence not only directly affected alcohol use, but also mediated the effect of age on alcohol use. Surprisingly, it was found that normative definition toward alcohol use was not a good predictor of alcohol use. Both direct and mediating effects of normative definition on alcohol use were weak and negligible. Based on the findings of the study, implications for academic research on alcohol use were also discussed in the thesis.
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    The Chesapeake Bay program modeling system: Overview and recommendations for future development
    Hood, Raleigh R.; Shenk, Gary W.; Dixon, Rachel L.; Smith, Sean M. C.; Ball, William P.; Bash, Jesse O.; Batiuk, Rich; Boomer, Kathy; Brady, Damian C.; Cerco, Carl; Claggett, Peter; de Mutsert, Kim; Easton, Zachary M.; Elmore, Andrew J.; Friedrichs, Marjorie A. M.; Harris, Lora A.; Ihde, Thomas F.; Lacher, Lara; Li, Li; Linker, Lewis C.; Miller, Andrew; Moriarty, Julia; Noe, Gregory B.; Onyullo, George E.; Rose, Kenneth; Skalak, Katie; Tian, Richard; Veith, Tamie L.; Wainger, Lisa A.; Weller, Donald; Zhang, Yinglong Joseph (2021-09-15)
    The Chesapeake Bay is the largest, most productive, and most biologically diverse estuary in the continental United States providing crucial habitat and natural resources for culturally and economically important species. Pressures from human population growth and associated development and agricultural intensification have led to excessive nutrient and sediment inputs entering the Bay, negatively affecting the health of the Bay ecosystem and the economic services it provides. The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) is a unique program formally created in 1983 as a multi-stakeholder partnership to guide and foster restoration of the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. Since its inception, the CBP Partnership has been developing, updating, and applying a complex linked modeling system of watershed, airshed, and estuary models as a planning tool to inform strategic management decisions and Bay restoration efforts. This paper provides a description of the 2017 CBP Modeling System and the higher trophic level models developed by the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office, along with specific recommendations that emerged from a 2018 workshop designed to inform future model development. Recom-mendations highlight the need for simulation of watershed inputs, conditions, processes, and practices at higher resolution to provide improved information to guide local nutrient and sediment management plans. More explicit and extensive modeling of connectivity between watershed landforms and estuary sub-areas, estuarine hydrodynamics, watershed and estuarine water quality, the estuarine-watershed socioecological system, and living resources will be important to broaden and improve characterization of responses to targeted nutrient and sediment load reductions. Finally, the value and importance of maintaining effective collaborations among jurisdictional managers, scientists, modelers, support staff, and stakeholder communities is emphasized. An open collaborative and transparent process has been a key element of successes to date and is vitally important as the CBP Partnership moves forward with modeling system improvements that help stakeholders evolve new knowledge, improve management strategies, and better communicate outcomes.
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    Deviant fertility in China
    Li, Li (Virginia Tech, 1992-11-05)
    While most Western and Chinese scholars emphasize the success of Chinese family planning programs, this dissertation focuses on fertility behavior which violates family planning regulations in China. The study contributes to a better understanding of the Chinese "deviant" fertility by conceptualizing the phenomenon in a theoretical framework and conducting an empirical investigation of the issue. In this dissertation, the concept of "deviant fertility" is defined as reproductive behavior that violates current family size norms in terms of having more than the accepted number of children. An approach that bridges the sociology of fertility and the sociology of deviance is established. Specifically, the theoretical framework is based on the cultural conflict perspective of deviance, developed by Thorsten Sellin. The normative conflict concerning fertility in general and the confrontation between the traditional Chinese large family norms and current family planning rules are explicated. Three major data sets are used: the Chinese In-Depth Fertility Survey, with a sample of 6,654 Chinese ever married women aged 49 or younger, the Old-Age Security Survey of 220 married Chinese couples, and the Records of County Family Planning Commissions. More than 50 variables and a number of measurement scales are defined and measured. Descriptive statistics, Pearson's r and analysis of variance, multiple regression, and path analysis are employed in the analysis. Findings from multivariate analyses indicate that a number of factors are significantly related to deviant fertility in China. They are: (1) ideal of large family size, (2) son preference, (3) socioeconomic development, (4) type of employment, (5) area of residence, (6) failed pregnancy, and (7) fertility discussions between a husband and a wife. In addition, the analyses reveal different patterns between rural and urban samples in terms of the impact of individual variables on deviant fertility and different explanatory power of the models. Path analysis further enriches the knowledge of deviant fertility by identifying a number of particular paths through which deviant fertility is influenced. by the selected factors. Several relevant issues drawn from the findings are addressed, including relationships between deviant fertility and Chinese women's status, prevalence of son preference, rural-urban differences, and normative conflicts of fertility in China. Policy implications are also indicated.
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    DNA methylation Landscape of body size variation in sheep
    Cao, Jiaxue; Wei, Caihong; Liu, Dongming; Wang, Huihua; Wu, Mingming; Xie, Zhiyuan; Capellini, Terence D.; Zhang, Li; Zhao, Fuping; Li, Li; Zhong, Tao; Wang, Linjie; Lu, Jian; Liu, Ruizao; Zhang, Shifang; Du, Yongfei; Zhang, Hongping; Du, Lixin (Springer Nature, 2015-10-16)
    Sub-populations of Chinese Mongolian sheep exhibit significant variance in body mass. In the present study, we sequenced the whole genome DNA methylation in these breeds to detect whether DNA methylation plays a role in determining the body mass of sheep by Methylated DNA immunoprecipitation - sequencing method. A high quality methylation map of Chinese Mongolian sheep was obtained in this study. We identified 399 different methylated regions located in 93 human orthologs, which were previously reported as body size related genes in human genome-wide association studies. We tested three regions in LTBP1, and DNA methylation of two CpG sites showed significant correlation with its RNA expression. Additionally, a particular set of differentially methylated windows enriched in the "development process" (GO: 0032502) was identified as potential candidates for association with body mass variation. Next, we validated small part of these windows in 5 genes; DNA methylation of SMAD1, TSC1 and AKT1 showed significant difference across breeds, and six CpG were significantly correlated with RNA expression. Interestingly, two CpG sites showed significant correlation with TSC1 protein expression. This study provides a thorough understanding of body size variation in sheep from an epigenetic perspective.
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    How are Multilingual Systems Constructed: Characterizing Language Use and Selection in Open-Source Multilingual Software
    Li, Wen; Marino, Austin; Yang, Haoran; Meng, Na; Li, Li; Cai, Haipeng (ACM, 2023-12)
    For many years now, modern software is known to be developed in multiple languages (hence termed as multilingual or multi-language software). Yet to this date we still only have very limited knowledge about how multilingual software systems are constructed. For instance, it is not yet really clear how diferent languages are used, selected together, and why they have been so in multilingual software development. Given the fact that using multiple languages in a single software project has become a norm, understanding language use and selection (i.e, language proile) as a basic element of the multilingual construction in contemporary software engineering is an essential first step. In this paper, we set out to ill this gap with a large-scale characterization study on language use and selection in open-source multilingual software. We start with presenting an updated overview of language use in 7,113 GitHub projects spanning ive past years by characterizing overall statistics of language proiles, followed by a deeper look into the functionality relevance/justiication of language selection in these projects through association rule mining.We proceed with an evolutionary characterization of 1,000 GitHub projects for each of 10 past years to provide a longitudinal view of how language use and selection have changed over the years, as well as how the association between functionality and language selection has been evolving. Among many other indings, our study revealed a growing trend of using 3 to 5 languages in one multilingual software project and noticeable stableness of top language selections. We found a non-trivial association between language selection and certain functionality domains, which was less stable than that with individual languages over time. In a historical context, we also have observed major shifts in these characteristics of multilingual systems both in contrast to earlier peer studies and along the evolutionary timeline. Our indings ofer essential knowledge on the multilingual construction in modern software development. Based on our results, we also provide insights and actionable suggestions for both researchers and developers of multilingual systems.