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Cleveland State University

Theses/Dissertations

2018

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Feasibility Of Using An Equilibrium Point Strategy To Control Reaching Movements Of Paralyzed Arms With Functional Electrical Stimulation, Matthew Huffman Jan 2018

Feasibility Of Using An Equilibrium Point Strategy To Control Reaching Movements Of Paralyzed Arms With Functional Electrical Stimulation, Matthew Huffman

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Functional electrical stimulation (FES) is a technology capable of improving the quality of life for those with the loss of limb movement related to spinal cord injuries. Individuals with high-level tetraplegia, in particular, have lost all movement capabilities below the neck. FES has shown promise in bypassing spinal cord damage by sending electrical impulses directly to a nerve or muscle to trigger a desired function. Despite advancements in FES, full-arm reaching motions have not been achieved, leaving patients unable to perform fundamental tasks such as eating and grooming. To overcome the inability in current FES models to achieve multi-joint coordination, …


Evaluation Of A Small Molecule Agonist Of Epha2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinase And Copalic Acid Analogs As Prostate Cancer Therapeutics, Nethrie Idippily Jan 2018

Evaluation Of A Small Molecule Agonist Of Epha2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinase And Copalic Acid Analogs As Prostate Cancer Therapeutics, Nethrie Idippily

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Project I: Chemotherapeutic drugs have many side effects that are undesirable and are highly toxic. Therefore, there is a growing need for the development of drugs with enhanced efficacy, specificity, and potency to provide cancer patients with a better prognosis. It was discovered that a member of the Receptor Tyrosine Kinase family, EphA2, may prove to be a viable target in developing anti-cancer agents. In the presence of its ligand, EphA2 receptor is responsible for apoptotic and anti-migratory activity. However, in the absence of ligand, EphA2 is able to stimulate cell migration and therefore tumorigenic activity. These conflicting roles of …


Development Of Bioanalytical Methods For Quantitative Measurement Of Anticancer Agents, Sandeep R. Kunati Jan 2018

Development Of Bioanalytical Methods For Quantitative Measurement Of Anticancer Agents, Sandeep R. Kunati

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The ever-growing need to develop new anticancer agents due to increased incidence of cancer and its recurrence has led to a broad range of investigational efforts in anticancer research. Drug discovery and development processes involve evaluations of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic parameters of potential drug candidates in order to assess their safety, toxicity, and efficacy profiles. By providing sensitivity, assay precision, reliability, and high-throughput, mass spectrometry has become an indispensable tool in quantitative and qualitative analysis, from early-stage drug discovery and development processes to routine laboratory analysis. Development of bioanalytical methods requires knowledge of separation science with instrumentation, data interpretation and …


A Broadly Tunable Surface Plasmon-Coupled Wavelength Filter For Visible And Near Infrared Hyperspectral Imaging, Ajaykumar Zalavadia Jan 2018

A Broadly Tunable Surface Plasmon-Coupled Wavelength Filter For Visible And Near Infrared Hyperspectral Imaging, Ajaykumar Zalavadia

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Hyperspectral imaging is a set of techniques that has contributed to the study of advanced materials, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, ceramics, polymers, biological specimens, and geological samples. Its use for remote sensing has advanced our understanding of agriculture, forestry, the Earth, environmental science, and the universe. The development of ultra-compact handheld hyperspectral imagers has been impeded by the scarcity of small widefield tunable wavelength filters. The widefield modality is preferred for handheld imaging applications in which image registration can be performed to counter scene shift caused by irregular user motions that would thwart scanning approaches. In the work presented here an electronically …


Biomimetic Macromolecules For Macrophage Targeting And Modulation, Joshua Whited Jan 2018

Biomimetic Macromolecules For Macrophage Targeting And Modulation, Joshua Whited

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Carbohydrate recognition has come to the forefront of biological aiming to uncover the mechanisms of physiological and pathological processes. Cell surface glycans are involved in processes including cellular adhesion, cell signaling, and immune response. A new approach for profiling cell surface glycans has great potential for a wide range of biomedical applications. Lectins have been conventionally used to determine the structure and function of glycoproteins, however, their numbers are still restricted compared to the number of glycan structures. Boronic acid has proven a remarkable small molecule capable of binding diols in aqueous solution. This interaction indicates boronic acid derived molecules …


Truth And The Language Of War, Kelly O'Melia Jan 2018

Truth And The Language Of War, Kelly O'Melia

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According to modernist Friedrich Nietzsche in On Truth and Lies in an Extra-Moral Sense, language is a constructed system which fails to represent reality because of its inherent metaphorical nature. Modernist writer Virginia Woolf and postmodernist writer Tim O’Brien implicitly address Nietzsche’s belief as they warn against and represent the horrors of war in the novels Jacob’s Room and The Things They Carried. Nietzsche and Woolf develop new modernist styles, forsaking the conventions of nineteenth-century realism. O’Brien pays homage to high modernism and to Woolf in his novel through direct reference and through the modernist strategies utilized to present the …


Improving The Security Of Mobile Devices Through Multi-Dimensional And Analog Authentication, Jonathan Gurary Jan 2018

Improving The Security Of Mobile Devices Through Multi-Dimensional And Analog Authentication, Jonathan Gurary

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Mobile devices are ubiquitous in today's society, and the usage of these devices for secure tasks like corporate email, banking, and stock trading grows by the day. The first, and often only, defense against attackers who get physical access to the device is the lock screen: the authentication task required to gain access to the device. To date mobile devices have languished under insecure authentication scheme offerings like PINs, Pattern Unlock, and biometrics-- or slow offerings like alphanumeric passwords. This work addresses the design and creation of five proof-of-concept authentication schemes that seek to increase the security of mobile authentication …


Characterizing The Effects Of High-Intensity Exercise On Balance And Gait Under Dual-Task Conditions In Parkinson’S Disease, El Iva Baron Jan 2018

Characterizing The Effects Of High-Intensity Exercise On Balance And Gait Under Dual-Task Conditions In Parkinson’S Disease, El Iva Baron

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Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by four cardinal motor symptoms including bradykinesia, tremor, rigidity, and postural instability, and non-motor symptoms including cognitive impairment. Daily activities, such as walking and maintaining balance, are impacted due to impairments in motor function, and are further exacerbated with the addition of cognitive loading, or dual-tasking (DT). High-intensity exercise has demonstrated centrally-mediated improvements of PD symptoms, with additional positive effects on overall health. The goal of this project was to identify changes in dynamic balance recovery and gait function under conditions with and without increased cognitive load after a high-intensity exercise intervention …


China's Soft Power Aims In South Asia: Experiences Of Nepalese Students In China's Internationalization Of Higher Education, Romi Jain Jan 2018

China's Soft Power Aims In South Asia: Experiences Of Nepalese Students In China's Internationalization Of Higher Education, Romi Jain

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Internationalization of higher education is a major characteristic of China's higher education policy. Accordingly, the Chinese government is fervently encouraging the spread of Chinese language and culture through Confucius Institutes, student exchange programs, recruitment of international students, and international collaborations. South Asia is no exception to China's higher education outreach. Against this background, this qualitative study examined experiences of South Asian students with regard to China's higher education program(s) in relation to the explicit and implicit aims of China's soft power policy. Soft power refers to the power of attraction and co-optation, which is based on a nation's intangible resources …


Development Of Esi-Lc-Ms Method For Drug Analysis, Kimberly Yacoub Jan 2018

Development Of Esi-Lc-Ms Method For Drug Analysis, Kimberly Yacoub

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Brain cancer, particularly astrocytomas, is one of the ten most common related deaths related to cancer. Temozolomide (TMZ), an oral alkylating chemotherapy drug, is used to treat anaplastic astrocytoma and glioblastoma multiforme. A few advantages of TMZ are its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, its small size, and it is rapidly absorbed in the small intestine. Since this drug is advantageous to brain cancer patients, it is important to study the extraction of this drug. In addition, it is important to study administering this drug via microdialysis as the efficiency of the drug could increase. In mice brain tumor …


Murder At The Palace Theater, Robert Mclane Knight Daniels Jan 2018

Murder At The Palace Theater, Robert Mclane Knight Daniels

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This play has come a long way. This play started off as a series of sketch scenes about an incompetent magician, his lovely assistant, and dim, but loveable stage hand named Bosco. At some point as a writer, I became fascinated with obsession, and what people will do when they are obsessed with something. Over time, this play became an examination of duality. Specifically the difference between art versus commerce, craft versus fame, surface level versus what goes on below that surface. And because every play that I write will, in part, be inspired by a need for me to …


Synthesis And Biological Evaluation Of Small Molecular Drug Candidates For The Treatment Of Her2 Overexpressed Breast Cancer, Anran Zhao Jan 2018

Synthesis And Biological Evaluation Of Small Molecular Drug Candidates For The Treatment Of Her2 Overexpressed Breast Cancer, Anran Zhao

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In the US breast cancer is the most common cancer after skin cancer. Currently in the US the average risk of a woman to develop breast cancer in her life is roughly 12%. About 25-30% of breast cancer patients have HER2 overexpressed tumor, and the growth of tumor cell is depend on HER2 pathway. It has been well-documented that patients with over-expressed HER2 are associated with increased disease recurrence, worse prognosis and lower survival. Currently there are two type of HER2 targeting drug. The first group is HER2 monoclonal antibody drugs such as trastuzumab approved by FDA in 1998; the …


Rumination In Borderline Personality Disorder: An Examination Of Interpersonal Contexts In Experimental And Daily Life Settings, Skye C. Napolitano Jan 2018

Rumination In Borderline Personality Disorder: An Examination Of Interpersonal Contexts In Experimental And Daily Life Settings, Skye C. Napolitano

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This study examined whether Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) features predict increased rumination in response to interpersonal contexts, leading to increased negative affect (NA) outcomes across self-report, experimental, and daily life settings. As BPD is characterized by sustained NA, emotion dysregulation, and pervasive difficulties in interpersonal relationships, interpersonal contexts may present a specific liability for individuals with BPD to ruminate, and subsequently, experience enduring NA. Undergraduate participants (N=119) completed measures of BPD features, dispositional rumination, emotion dysregulation, and both 1) a laboratory protocol that measured spontaneous rumination and affective reactivity to non-interpersonal (sad film clip) and interpersonal (Cyberball) stimuli and 2) …


The Effect Of Taboo Words And Reprimands In An Audio-Visual Modified Stroop Task, Rachel B. Fernandes Jan 2018

The Effect Of Taboo Words And Reprimands In An Audio-Visual Modified Stroop Task, Rachel B. Fernandes

ETD Archive

Previous research has found that participants respond less efficiently to taboo words in a modified emotional Stroop task than to neutral words because of the emotional nature of taboo words. Additionally, there is some evidence that the extent to which these words impact performance depends on whether the words appear in a participant’s native language. More specifically, the taboo effect has been found to be more pronounced in a person’s native language. One purpose of the current study was to determine whether previous results in a taboo Stroop task would be replicated. Another purpose of this study was to determine …


First Person Plural: Short Stories, Justin R. Lazor Jan 2018

First Person Plural: Short Stories, Justin R. Lazor

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I decided to title this collection First Person Plural after observing that one of the most prominent motifs common among these stories concerns the instability and multiplicity of identity. Horror is one of the traditions that most influences my writing, particularly the claustrophobic psychological horror of writers like Edgar Allen Poe. I mainly deploy the tropes of horror in an effort to destabilize my characters’ inner and outer realities. Another important influence on my writing has been that brand of fiction which exists within the liminal space between horror and realism, such as Dan Chaon’s collection Stay Awake, Bringing Out …


The Moderating Role Of Emotion Regulation In The Relationship Between Stress And Inflammatory Bowel Disease Severity Among Diagnosed Individuals, Sarah M. Ghose Jan 2018

The Moderating Role Of Emotion Regulation In The Relationship Between Stress And Inflammatory Bowel Disease Severity Among Diagnosed Individuals, Sarah M. Ghose

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This study examined whether both perceived and objectively rated chronic stress are contributing external factors to altered Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) disease severity among diagnosed individuals. This study further examined whether emotion regulation (ER) acts as an ameliorative factor within this relationship. Of additional interest to this investigation was whether objectively rated stress (acquired via the UCLA Life Stress Interview) provided a unique contribution to this relationship. Recent investigations suggest that higher levels of perceived stress may result in increased IBD severity. Further, ER deficits may be associated with increased IBD disease activity in response to both chronic and perceived …


Investigating The Electrophysiology Of Long-Term Priming In Spoken Word Recognition, Erin K. Bell Jan 2018

Investigating The Electrophysiology Of Long-Term Priming In Spoken Word Recognition, Erin K. Bell

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When participants are listening to the same words spoken by different talkers, two types of priming are possible: repetition priming and talker-specific priming. Repetition priming refers to the exposure of a stimulus improving responses to a subsequent exposure. Talker-specific priming refers to the exposure of words spoken by same talkers improving responses relative to those same words spoken by different talkers. There are conflicting theories regarding whether talker-specific priming should be observed. Abstract representational theories suggest that episodic details (e.g., talker identity) are not stored in the mental lexicon, while episodic theories of the lexicon posit that lexical representations include …


Examining Effects Of Arousal And Valence Across The Adult Lifespan In An Emotional Stroop Task, Samantha E. Tuft Jan 2018

Examining Effects Of Arousal And Valence Across The Adult Lifespan In An Emotional Stroop Task, Samantha E. Tuft

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As age increases, there is evidence that people tend to pay less attention to negative information, pay more attention to positive information, or both. There are many theoretical accounts that attempt to explain this positivity bias. In the current study, I examined positivity effects across the adult lifespan by evaluating competing predictions of two theories: Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, which is based in motivation, and Dynamic Integration Theory, which is based in capacity. Computer mouse tracking was used to examine effects across levels of Valence (negative, neutral, and positive) and Arousal (low, medium, and high) in an emotional Stroop task. Participants …


Limits Of Small Scale Pressure Swing Adsorption, Aaron A. Moran Jan 2018

Limits Of Small Scale Pressure Swing Adsorption, Aaron A. Moran

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Portable or small scale pressure swing adsorption (PSA) systems have gained increasing popularity in both industry and literature due to the commercial success of personal oxygen concentrators (POCs). While these processes have much in common with larger PSA systems, significant differences exist that make understanding process limitations difficult. These include faster cycle times, smaller adsorbent particles, and a reduced column size. Macropore diffusion is traditionally assumed to control the mass transfer rate in columns packed with zeolite particles in an oxygen production process. While numerous studies have confirmed this assumption for the particle size used in industrial size PSA processes, …


Evaluating Extended Learning Time On Urban Student Performance, Andrea Moss Jan 2018

Evaluating Extended Learning Time On Urban Student Performance, Andrea Moss

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In the United States, children between the ages of five and eighteen spend up to 85 percent of their time out of school. After the school day ends, working parents of school-age children and youth need to secure adequate after-school care. During after school hours, between the hours of 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., 19 percent of violent offenses committed by juveniles occur (U.S. Department of Justice, 2010). On the National Assessment of Educational Progress (2015) the average eighth-grade minority student performs at about the level of the average fourth-grade white student. These data indicate that the best use of …


The Impact Of Traumatic Symptomology And Social Support On The Effective Management Of Death Anxiety, Emily Pauline Courtney Jan 2018

The Impact Of Traumatic Symptomology And Social Support On The Effective Management Of Death Anxiety, Emily Pauline Courtney

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Terror management theory (TMT) posits that people function effectively in the world, in part, by relying on social anxiety-buffer systems to protect against death awareness; however, a new extension called anxiety buffer disruption theory (ABDT), posits that traumatic experiences can overwhelm those buffers, leaving people vulnerable to death anxiety and at increased risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. To test these hypotheses, participants with low and high posttraumatic stress symptoms were identified and recruited using a general population pre-screen, prompted to engage in a relationship threat priming task (vs. control topic), and then asked to complete a standard measure …


Spurious Grain Formation During Directional Solidification In Microgravity, Supriya Ramashankar Upadhyay Jan 2018

Spurious Grain Formation During Directional Solidification In Microgravity, Supriya Ramashankar Upadhyay

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This research is aimed at carrying out a systematic investigation of the nucleation, and growth of spurious “misoriented” grains during directional solidification in the low gravity environment of space. Three Al–7 wt. % Si alloy cylindrical samples (MICAST-6, MICAST-7 and MICAST2-12) were directionally solidified on the Space Station at growth speeds varying from 5 to 50 µms-1 under thermal gradients varying from 14 to 33 K cm-1 in alumina crucibles, under a joint NASA-ESA (European Space Agency) project called, MICAST (Microstructure formation in casting of technical alloys under a diffusive and magnetically controlled convection conditions). The primary purpose of directionally …


Determining The Extent To Which Information Literacy Online Learning Objects Follow Best Practices For Teaching And Assessing Critical Thinking, Goodsett Mandi Jan 2018

Determining The Extent To Which Information Literacy Online Learning Objects Follow Best Practices For Teaching And Assessing Critical Thinking, Goodsett Mandi

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Critical thinking is widely accepted as a primary goal of higher education. The skills and dispositions of critical thinking have much in common with those of information literacy, and instruction librarians could improve their information literacy instruction by integrating critical thinking. However, it is not currently clear to what extent instruction librarians encourage critical thinking in their teaching. Moreover, rather than credit-bearing courses, much of library instruction currently consists of either “one-shot” (single class period) sessions or online learning objects which students complete asynchronously. This study focuses on online learning objects, which are often created with great effort, have long-lasting …


Factors Influencing Efficacy Of Celebrity Endorsement In Saudi Arabia, Ibrahim Qabur Jan 2018

Factors Influencing Efficacy Of Celebrity Endorsement In Saudi Arabia, Ibrahim Qabur

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The study investigates factors that influence the efficacy of celebrity endorsement on social media in Saudi Arabia. The study builds upon the findings of research done primarily in East Asia and in the U.S. This research studied how celebrity endorsement via social media influences celebrity followers on brand recognition, purchase decision, support a cause, and overall, celebrity influence. This study’s 911 respondents were selected through the snowball method of sampling. Data was conducted using online survey with Saudi nationals, both in Saudi Arabia and in the United States, on their attitudes towards the credibility of celebrities and their influence. This …


International New Venture Performance: Role Of International Entrepreneurial Culture, Marketing And Positional Advantage, Dominic Buccieri Jan 2018

International New Venture Performance: Role Of International Entrepreneurial Culture, Marketing And Positional Advantage, Dominic Buccieri

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Over the past two decades, the growth of international new ventures has stimulated a great deal of interest among international entrepreneurship scholars to understand how these entrepreneurial start-ups internationalize given their resource deficiencies. However, the literature exhibits considerable gaps related to how international new ventures, can overcome their asset-constrained positions to enhance performance. Employing the concept of international entrepreneurship culture, which provides a holistic operationalization of international entrepreneurship, this dissertation develops and tests a conceptual framework to better understand how international new ventures' entrepreneurial culture and entrepreneurial marketing actions of opportunity-based discovery and –exploitation impact their performance in global markets. …


Neuromuscular Reflex Control For Prostheses And Exoskeletons, Sandra K. Hnat Jan 2018

Neuromuscular Reflex Control For Prostheses And Exoskeletons, Sandra K. Hnat

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Recent powered lower-limb prosthetic and orthotic (P/O) devices aim to restore legged mobility for persons with an amputation or spinal cord injury. Though various control strategies have been proposed for these devices, specifically finite-state impedance controllers, natural gait mechanics are not usually achieved. The goal of this project was to invent a biologically-inspired controller for powered P/O devices. We hypothesize that a more muscle-like actuation system, including spinal reflexes and vestibular feedback, can achieve able-bodied walking and also respond to outside perturbations. The outputs of the Virtual Muscle Reflex (VMR) controller are joint torque commands, sent to the electric motors …


Human Activity Tracking And Recognition Using Kinect Sensor, Roanna Lun Jan 2018

Human Activity Tracking And Recognition Using Kinect Sensor, Roanna Lun

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The objective of this dissertation research is to use Kinect sensor, a motion sensing input device, to develop an integrated software system that can be used for tracking non-compliant activity postures of consented health-care workers for assisting the workers' compliance to best practices, allowing individualized gestures for privacy-aware user registration, movement recognition using rule-based algorithm, real-time feedback, and exercises data collection. The research work also includes developing a graphical user interface and data visualization program for illustrating statistical information for administrator, as well as utilizing cloud based database system used for data resource.


Non-Intrusive Optical Measurement Of Electron Temperature In Near Field Plume Of Hall Thruster, Peter J. Urban Jan 2018

Non-Intrusive Optical Measurement Of Electron Temperature In Near Field Plume Of Hall Thruster, Peter J. Urban

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Currently there is a large interest in the use of more efficient means of propulsion in long term missions due to the costs and difficulties associated with placing and maintaining the needed fuel for conventional chemical systems in orbit. Mass reduction of upper stages will return large returns due to the great reduction in required lower stage fuel. Due to these factors, alternatives are undergoing active research, though this paper is concerned with the area of electrical propulsion. Electric propulsion is broadly defined as propulsion where the energization of the exhaust occurs via application of electromagnetic fields as opposed to …


The Sting In The Green City, Nicole Tsakoumagos Jan 2018

The Sting In The Green City, Nicole Tsakoumagos

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In an irradiated, alternate earth, where a mysterious supernatural phenomenon caused a near-apocalypse, the human race is back on it’s feet. Four major cities dominate the landscape: New Sparta, The Mel, The Nocturn and Oz. In the first installment of “The Sting” series, explore the emerald, Greene Mob run metropolis, Oz. Gun-slinging, Ex-mercenary Kyra `The Sting’ Lee is living quietly in the outer part of the city with her dog, Doogie. The only family she has are the Castellanoses, a Greek four-part ensemble that own Kyra’s favorite greasy spoon diner. Maria Castellanos is Kyra’s best friend and her seemingly unobtainable …


Effects Of Age On Cognitive Performance While Sitting And Walking At A Treadmill Workstation, Audrey E. King Jan 2018

Effects Of Age On Cognitive Performance While Sitting And Walking At A Treadmill Workstation, Audrey E. King

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Purpose: This study compared cognitive function and age using the Stroop test while sitting and while walking at a self-selected speed at a treadmill work station. Methods: 50 subjects aged 20-69 years completed the Stroop test while sitting and while walking at a self-selected speed at a treadmill workstation. A repeated measures ANOVA was conducted to analyze for an interaction between age and cognition. Results: The results showed a significant increase in reaction time as age increased (p<.01). The results also showed no significant difference in reaction time for any age group between sitting and walking (p>.05). Conclusion: As individuals age there is an expected increase in cognitive and motor function and an increase in reaction time, those …