Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Appearance In Perceptions Of Personal Trainers 2013., Patrick R. Boerner

Master's Theses

The field of personal training in the United States is believed to have begun in the late 1970‟s and the early 1980‟s (Brooks, 2004). Today, personal training is a healthy profession that, according to the United States Department of Labor and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2012), is expected to grow 24% (60,400 jobs) between 2010 and 2020. In comparison, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2012) predicts the average growth rate for all occupations within the U.S. to be only 14% during the same ten-year span. Rapid growth within the field of personal training has brought an increased scrutiny on …

Analysis And Mitigation Of The Cubesat Dynamic Environment, Steve M. Furger

Master's Theses

A vibration model was developed for CubeSats inside the Poly-Picosatellite Orbital Deployer (P-POD). CubeSats are fixed in the Z axis of deployers, and therefore resonate with deployer peaks. CubeSats generally start fixed in the X and Y axes, and then settle into an isolated position. CubeSats do not resonate with deployers after settling into an isolated position. Experimental data shows that the P-POD amplifies vibration loads when CubeSats are fixed in the deployer, and vibration loads are reduced when the CubeSats settle into an isolated position. A concept for a future deployer was proposed that isolates CubeSats from the deployer …

The Influence Of Guided Drawing Curriculum On Drawing Development In Children, Alison Paige Myers

Master's Theses

This paper presents a case study of three first grade visual art classes over the course of one school year. In order to gauge the effectiveness and degree to which a visual art curriculum that embeds guided drawing experiences will accelerate the natural developmental stages of drawing, all classes engaged in various guided drawing experiences as well as three independent self-portrait drawing experiences. The study also examined the opinions of art educators regarding the effectiveness of such instruction. The study showed that although guided drawing can be an influential factor in children’s artistic development, there is not a causal relationship …

Thinking Through The Box: The Art Teacher's Role In Setting Ideationally Generative Assignment Parameters, And Expanding Students' Problem-Finding Strategies, Brad James Conklin

Master's Theses

This thesis explores the nature of generative parameters, and their present – as well as their much greater potential – function in visual art assignments. An effort of thoughtful self-study, it examines important questions that were revealed during the teaching of a fifth grade art unit. Collaboration and chance were used in that unit as productive constraints. Bringing together insights gathered from a number of sources and my own classroom action research, a theory of teaching for creative behavior is offered with suggestions for good practices in the art room. Promoting creative thinking in the art classroom does not require …

Brave Hearts And Minds: The Devolution Revolution And The (Re)Building Of The Scottish Nation, Cody Lynn Neidert

Master's Theses

In 1995, the myth-history presented in Mel Gibson’s award winning film, Braveheart, sparked the fires of nationalism in Scotland, leading to the nation’s partial autonomy. Braveheart’s influence on politics, historical memory and cultural identity are undeniable, yet few historians give the film the credit it rightly deserves. This demonstrates that, while it may not have single handily led to Scotland’s devolution in 1999, Braveheart did play a major role in the lead up to the 1997 devolution referendum. The film infused Scotland’s society, culture, and politics with nationalistic pride. Utilizing James DeFronzo’s five critical factors for revolutionary success as a …

A Two Hundred Year Old Lesson In Bullying: Building Community By Producing Honk! Jr., A Musical Based On The Ugly Duckling, Heidi Louise Jensen

Master's Theses

Benjamin Franklin Theatre Project was created in response to recent violence in schools and new anti-bullying legislation. Schools in Washington State are mandated by legislation to adopt anti-bullying policies. After a policy was made official, it was up to schools, particularly educators to guide students to understand, support and integrate the anti-bullying message into the school community. Theatre education, a constructivist, holistic approach to learning, was a successful way to do this at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School. By producing HONK! Jr. a musical play based on Hans Christian Andersen’s story “The Ugly Duckling”, students were able to explore, role-play and …

Mississippi's First Annual Farm To School Week: Evaluation Of School Participation, Kelsey Jean Lingsch

Master's Theses

Mississippi has recently established the first week of October as statewide Farm to School (F2S) Week, providing Mississippi the opportunity to improve the health status of children while improving the local economy. The study aimed to measure Mississippi school districts' participation during F2S Week 2012 and identify perceived barriers and future interest of participation among child nutrition directors (CND). An electronic survey was sent to the 156 CNDs in the state of Mississippi participating in the National School Lunch Program. Data were analyzed in SPSS v.20 using descriptive and correlational statistics. Among the 75 CNDs who responded to the survey, …

Role Of Electric Utility Companies In Economic Development Within Deregulation, Jessica Alys Cheeks

Master's Theses

This research seeks to determine if electric utilities participate in economic development, and if so, how might the trend of electric deregulation affect that relationship. The researcher reviewed the academic literature to determine that electric utilities do, in fact, participate in economic development and significantly contribute to economic growth. They participate in all areas of economic development, including business attraction, business retention and expansion, and community development; they arguably influence business development and economic vibrancy more than any alternative business in the community.

Since 1992, electric deregulation has influenced the way these utilities participate in economic development. State governments intend …

Voltage Stability Analysis Using Simulated Synchrophasor Measurements, Allan Agatep

Master's Theses

An increase in demand for electric power has forced utility transmission systems to continuously operate under stressed conditions, which are close to instability limits. Operating power systems under such conditions along with inadequate reactive power reserves initiates a sequence of voltage instability points and can ultimately lead to a system voltage collapse. Significant research have been focused on time-synchronized measurements of power systems which can be used to frequently determine the state of a power system and can lead to a more robust protection, control and operation performance. This thesis discusses the applicability of two voltage stability synchrophasor-based indices from …

Modeling And Analysis Of A Pv Grid-Tied Smart Inverter's Support Functions, Benjamin Anders Johnson

Master's Theses

The general trends in the past decade of increasing solar cell efficiency, decreasing PV system costs, increasing government incentive programs, and several other factors have all combined synergistically to reduce the barriers of entry for PV systems to enter the market and expand their contribution to the global energy portfolio. The shortcomings of current inverter functions which link PV systems to the utility network are becoming transparent as PV penetration levels continue to increase. The solution this thesis proposes is an approach to control the inverters real and reactive power output to help eliminate the problems associated with PV systems …

Modeling The Zimmer Fitmore And Ml Taper Implantation, Tyler Kazuo Franklin

Master's Theses

With more young adults requiring total hip

arthroplasties the need for bone saving implants becomes

more important. The Zimmer Fitmore is a new bone saving

implant that utilizes an implantation technique that

reduces the damage to the muscle tissue allowing for

patients to have a short recovery time as well as a new

design that allows it to rest on the medial cortex. There

has been anecdotal evidence that this device leads to early

revision within six months of implantation due to failures

occurring in the medial cortex. The main goal of this

study was to computationally model the Zimmer …

Parenting Nutrition Skills Workshop: An Evaluation Of Facilitated Group Discussions To Enhance Parenting Nutrition Self Efficacy, Lisa A. Dawes

Master's Theses

Abstract

Parenting Nutrition Skills Workshops: An Evaluation of Facilitated Group Discussions to Enhance Parenting Nutrition Self-Efficacy

By: Lisa Dawes, RD, CDE

This research study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of using facilitated group discussion (FGD), a less traditional method of nutrition education, for increasing parents’ feelings of self-efficacy in their ability to make nutrition-related decisions, and to set and enforce nutrition-related boundaries with their children.

Childhood obesity is on the rise; poor food choices, portion control, and inactivity are identified as contributing causes. Parents play a major role in creating healthy habits and providing a well-balanced diet for their …

Family Structure And Child Emotion Regulation Difficulties As Important Factors In The Relation Between Maternal Depression And Child Externalizing Behaviors, Kristy Marie Disabatino

Master's Theses

The purpose of the present study was to investigate if child emotion regulation difficulties mediated the relation between maternal depression and child externalizing behaviors. In addition, understanding whether family structure is an important moderator in the relation between maternal depression and child emotion regulation difficulties was of interest in the present study. Archival data from 210 children (64.3% boys; 71.9% self-identified as non-Caucasian, 28.1% as Caucasian), one female caregiver, and the child's teacher were used. It was hypothesized that child emotion regulation difficulties would be positively related to maternal depression and child externalizing behaviors and would mediate the relation between …

Wireless Cooperative Communication And Networking, Yi Zhu

Master's Theses

Cooperative communication can achieve diversity gain and increase the channel capacity. This paper proposes a novel cooperative scheme called Cooperative Step-Wise Demodulation, which utilizes low level demodulation to demodulate high level modulated signal cooperatively. This paper focuses cooperative scheme in multi-hop wireless networks. The bit error rate probability is analyzed. The comparison among the proposed scheme and the conventional scheme is made through simulation and soft-define radio based experiments. Results show that the proposed scheme has great potential in the performance improvement of cooperative communication.

Drive-By Geography: Perceptions Of Urban Growth And Land Use In Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Courtney Shea Norville

Master's Theses

One of the most important mechanisms in which human societies have transformed the earth is through urbanization. Land use changes such as from cropland to businesses are important ways in which urban growth transforms landscapes. This study uses qualitative and quantitative methods in order to visualize where urban growth and landscape changes are occurring between Hattiesburg and Columbia, Mississippi within the first decade of the 21st century. The methods I used involved conducting transects and creating hand-drawn maps, conversion of hand-drawn maps into ArcGIS shapefiles for interpretation and analysis, and lastly juxtaposition of shapefiles onto Landsat imagery. To analyze the …

Interactions Between Protozoan Prey (Phylum Protista) And Their Mosquito Predators (Order Diptera, Family Cuclicidae) Prey Size And Predator Behavior Effects, Jeffrey Jay Skiff

Master's Theses

Mosquitoes (Diptera. Culicidae) are insects that are medically important as adults as they vector numerous diseases. Yet, understanding the ecology of the larval stage can lead to surveillance and control of adult populations. Aedes albopictus, Aedes triseriatus, Cu/ex corona/or, and Culex quinquefasciatus are four species of mosquito that co-occur in discarded automobile tires. Mosqui-to larvae feed on microorganisms (including protozoans) and particulate organic matter Most larval feeding experiments. howt:ver, have dealt exclusively with bacteria, fungi , and particulate organic matter Although bactena and fungi are important sources of nitrogen and lipids, they may be 111sufficient sources of carbon, which may …

Empowerment And Health In A Low Income Community In Mumbai, India, Lwendo Moonzwe

Master's Theses

The data on which this thesis is based were collected in three study communities located in a marginalized area of Mumbai. We draw on two data sources: in-depth qualitative interviews conducted with 66 married women and a survey sample of 260 married women. This thesis examines the relationship between empowerment to women’s self-reported general health status and women’s self-reported health during pregnancy in low-income communities in Mumbai. The results of the analysis show that empowerment functions differently in relation to women’s general health situation and their pregnancy status. Findings indicate that women who are more empowered are more likely to …

Reactions To English Language Learning In Chile As A Means For Personal And National Development, Kortnee Byrd

Master's Theses

In our globalized world today, English has developed into the worldwide

language. Chilean leaders, in connection to their development goals to reach a developed

country status by 2020, have highlighted the need for Chilean citizens to become

bilingual in order to attract foreign investment and further integrate into the world

market. Leaders also highlight how English education will serve as an equalizing

measure to combat the socioeconomic inequality that has plagued this country since

Spanish colonization. While the economic benefits are clear, questions remain as to what

the social and cultural costs will be. This research project presents how a …

A Transnational And Intergenerational Account Of Value Preference Patterns: Revisiting Needs-Gratification And Post-Materialist Theories, Fouad Bou Zeineddine

Master's Theses

The socio-political values predominant in a particular society will reflect the correspondent needs of that society, and these needs can include factors other than material acquisition. In contrast to needs-gratification theory (Maslow, 1970), and post-materialist theory (Inglehart, 1971), this paper discusses agency in terms of relational autonomy (Oshana, 2006), as it pertains to power. I argue that a) personal and national economic affluence or security may not be sufficient to describe social ecology nor fully describe the ways that power can influence values, b) individual and collective relational power is utilitarian and essential, c) fulfillment of material and social needs …

An Experimental Investigation Of The Stol Performance Of Cal Poly's Amelia In The Nfac, Jonathan Andrew Lichtwardt

Master's Theses

Results from Cal Poly's recent wind tunnel test, during the Winter of 2011-2012, in the 40- by 80-foot test section at the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC) at NASA Ames Research Center are presented. AMELIA, the Advanced Model for Extreme Lift and Improved Aeroacoustics, is the first full-span, cruise efficient, short take-off and landing (CESTOL) model incorporating leading- and trailing-edge blowing wing circulation control and over-the-wing mounted turbine propulsion simulators (TPS) to date. Testing of the 10 foot span model proved successful and was the result of a 5 year NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program Research Announcement. The test generated extensive …

Improving Webide Through Delightful Design And Gamification, Michael Hilton

Master's Theses

WebIDE is a web-based online learning environment. WebIDE has been used

successfully to teach CS0 and CS1 students Java and C concepts and software

engineering best practices, specically Test Driven Development. Previous Web-

IDE development has concentrated on developing functionality. The main goal

of this eort is to improve two non-functional aspects of WebIDE. The rst is to

design a more delightful user interface. The second is to add a scoring mecha-

nism that encourages students to develop best practices. The scoring mechanism

rewards students who answer the question correctly on the rst attempt, dis-

couraging them from spamming the …

Home Range And Habitat Use Of Santa Rosa Island Foxes (Urocyon Littoralis Santarosae), Elizabeth Marie Drake

Master's Theses

Island foxes (Urocyon littoralis) are currently listed as federally endangered on four of the six Channel Islands to which they are endemic. The Santa Rosa Island (SRI) population declined by 99% during the 1990’s due to non-native golden eagle (Aguila chrysaetos) predation and is currently the lowest fox population (~280) and density (0.86 foxes/km²) of any of the Channel Islands. The goals of this study were to assess new miniaturized GPS technology and to quantify home range and habitat use of the SRI population. This is only the second use of Global Positioning System (GPS) …

Ad-Hoc Regional Coverage Constellations Of Cubesats Using Secondary Launches, Guy G. Zohar

Master's Theses

As development of CubeSat based architectures increase, methods of deploying constellations of CubeSats are required to increase functionality of future systems. Given their low cost and quickly increasing launch opportunities, large numbers of CubeSats can easily be developed and deployed in orbit. However, as secondary payloads, CubeSats are severely limited in their options for deployment into appropriate constellation geometries.

This thesis examines the current methods for deploying cubes and proposes new and efficient geometries using secondary launch opportunities. Due to the current deployment hardware architecture, only the use of different launch opportunities, deployment direction, and deployment timing for individual cubes …

Consumer Evaluation Of Low Sodium Mozzarella Cheese And Development Of A Novel Method For Evaluating Emotions, Lauren Alyse Collinsworth

Master's Theses

Mozzarella cheese is currently the highest consumed cheese in the United States. The popularity of mozzarella cheese is typically attributed to the high consumption rates of pizza cheese and string cheese; both of which are low moisture part skim (LMPS) mozzarella cheese. A single serving of LMPS mozzarella cheese contains approximately 8% of the daily value (DV) for sodium, a mineral which is currently consumed in excess among most Americans. On average, one in three Americans has hypertension. This condition is strongly associated with excessive sodium intake, and it is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease and stroke in …

Spoons: Netflix Outage Detection Using Microtext Classification, Eriq A. Augusitne

Master's Theses

Every week there are over a billion new posts to Twitter services and many of those messages contain feedback to companies about their services. One company that recognizes this unused source of information is Netflix. That is why Netflix initiated the development of a system that lets them respond to the millions of Twitter and Netflix users that are acting as sensors and reporting all types of user visible outages. This system enhances the feedback loop between Netflix and its customers by increasing the amount of customer feedback that Netflix receives and reducing the time it takes for Netflix to …

Dc, Rf, And Thermal Characterization Of High Electric Field Induced Degradation Mechanisms In Gan-On-Si High Electron Mobility Transistors, Matthew Anthony Bloom

Master's Theses

Gallium Nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) are becoming increasingly popular in power amplifier systems as an alternative to bulkier vacuum tube technologies. GaN offers advantages over other III-V semiconductor heterostructures such as a large bandgap energy, a low dielectric constant, and a high critical breakdown field. The aforementioned qualities make GaN a prime candidate for high-power and radiation-hardened applications using a smaller form-factor. Several different types of semiconductor substrates have been considered for their thermal properties and cost-effectiveness, and Silicon (Si) has been of increasing interest due to a balance between both factors.

In this thesis, the DC, …

Rfid Technology Selection And Economic Justification For Healthcare Asset Tracking, Tyler Robert Peabody, Tali Freed

Master's Theses

Although Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Real-Time Location System (RTLS) technologies for inventory tracking have been growing in popularity, the healthcare industry has been reluctant to adopt these technologies. One of the primary reasons for this lack of enthusiasm has been the risk associated with electromagnetic interference between RFID/RTLS systems and medical equipment functionality. The other reason has been the substantial cost and complexity of implementing RFID/RTLS in healthcare organizations. In this study, we show that there are several ways to safely install RFID/RTLS systems to improve the inventory management processes of hospitals and clinics. We then analyze the inventory …

Exploring The Efficacy Of The Community Organization Health Model As A Tool For Evaluating Sport-For-Development Programs: A Qualitative Content Analysis Of Three Model Programs, Lauren Faye Denman

Master's Theses

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is currently one of the most pressing world-wide concerns regarding the health and well-being of our global population. Due to the lack of a cure, recent efforts have focused on prevention measures for the disease. HIV prevention, particularly with the youth population, has spawned creative programs, such as the use of sport as an educational tool to equip youth with the skills to avoid contracting HIV. Due to the potent effect sport-for-development efforts exhibit on both individual and cultural level change, it can be assumed that HIV prevention sport-for-development programs are worth maintaining. Within the use of …

Optimizing Propagation Of Ceanothus Americanus L., (New Jersey Tea), Corylus Cornuta Marsh. (Beaked Filbert), Lonicera Canadensis Bartr. (American Fly Honeysuckle), And Viburnum Acerifolium L. (Mapleleaf Viburnum) By Softwood Stem Cuttings, Julia A. Cartabiano

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Multiplatform Analysis Seismic Evaluation Of A Non-Seismically Detailed Nonlinear Rc Structure Retrofitted With Magneto-Rheological Dampers, Eric R. Lovejoy

Master's Theses

In prior research, the MR damper's dynamic characteristics are typically modeled in the MATLAB/Simulink environment. Creating a structural model with nonlinear material properties, however, may be challenging in the MATLAB/Simulink environment without approximating the material behavior and neglecting effects such as P-∆ or panel zone behavior. More behaviorally accurate models of these structures can be produced using nonlinear finite element analysis tools such as Abaqus, OpenSees or ZuesNL. These analysis tools, however, are not traditionally used to model the complex nonlinear and controllable behavior of MR dampers, nor their associated control algorithms. One solution is to facilitate communication between these …