Digital Commons Network^™

The Development And Validation Of A Resource Kit For Use By Ngos Pertaining To The Inclusion Of People With Disabilities In Sport-Based Programmes In Developing Countries, Koffi Atitso Fiati

Theses

The current study is undertaken in relation to the recommendations of both Article 30 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities-UNCRPD, (UN, 2006) and the new Charter on Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport (UNESCO, 2015) to serve as a building block in the improvement of the health of people with disabilities (PWDs).

The study adopted a three-phase sequential mixed method approach with a participatory action research orientation. There was a document analysis, a survey, and interviews. The first phase comprised an analysis of four documents labelled as inclusive sport and physical activities resource kits. …

Synapps: Children’S Asd Management Through A Mobile Application And An Interactive Biofeedback Exercise, Elizabeth Richardson

Theses

This thesis explores how to provide better access to alternative treatment options through an immersive biofeedback exercise and mobile application for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This thesis also seeks to connect children with ASD to medical professionals and treatment facilities.

This is done through a motion graphics piece depicting an abdominal breathing exercise and correlating mobile application. Users participate in biofeedback exercises in which their real-time biofeedback is monitored, transmitted to the mobile application, and reflected to the user. The mobile application analyzes and identifies physiological signals and detects what feedback is most useful to help the individual …

Tech Mds: Improving User Experience Of Electronic Health Record System, Rootwa Sagar

Theses

Electronic Healthcare record keeping can be daunting. The available software does not usually allow for clinicians to input information concordant with their clinical work- ow. This disrupts the clinician-patient encounter and can lead to frustration for both clinicians and patients. Because of this, the organic interaction between the patient and the clinician is not accurately recorded with available EHR systems. For example, the idiosyncrasies of individual patients—how and why they present certain information—as well as the clinician’s response can be signi cant but are ignored by the demands of EHR data entry. Patient

or person-centered care is increasingly recognized as …

Effects On Muscular Strength And Muscular Power While Using Weighted-Chains During A 4-Week Bench Press Resistance-Training Program, Richard Stecker

Theses

This study investigates the effects of weighted chains on muscular strength and power during a four-week bench press resistance-training program in recreationally trained college-aged men. The research addresses a gap in the literature regarding the effectiveness of chain-loaded resistance as a method to enhance upper body performance, particularly in the bench press. Thirty healthy males aged 18–40 with a minimum of two years of training experience were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a weighted-chains group (60% 1RM: 40% bar weight, 20% chain), a top-weight-matched group (60% 1RM with no chains), and a bottom-weight-matched group (40% 1RM with no …

Effect Of Long-Term Beta-Alanine Supplementation On Performance In Male Collegiate Rugby Athletes, Charles Smith

Theses

This study investigated the effects of six weeks of beta-alanine (BA) supplementation on the anaerobic performance of collegiate male rugby players. Beta-alanine is a precursor to carnosine, an intramuscular buffer that helps maintain pH during high-intensity exercise. Rugby is a sport characterized by repeated bouts of high-intensity efforts, making it a prime candidate to benefit from improved buffering capacity.

Twenty-one male rugby players were recruited for the double-blind, placebo-controlled study, with 16 completing the post-testing. Participants were randomly assigned to either a beta-alanine group (6.4 g/day) or a placebo group (6.4 g/day of maltodextrin). Both groups continued their normal team …

The Relationship Between Lower Extremity Strength, Mobility, Movement Quality, And Pain In Collegiate Synchronized Swimmers, Paul Borges Costa

Theses

Synchronized swimming is a physically demanding sport that exposes the lower extremity to unusual forces. Currently, limited information exists that outlines the modifiable factors associated with knee pain experienced by synchronized swimmers.

PURPOSE: This study's aim was to identify the relationship between strength, mobility, movement quality, and pain in collegiate synchronized swimmers.

METHODS: Sixteen collegiate synchronized swimmers (mean ± SD, 20.5 ± l.8y; 165.8 ± 5.1cm; 63.8 ± 5.8kg) were tested. Hip musculature isometric strength was measured using an external force transducer. Hip mobility and Q-angle was assessed using a goniometer. Movement quality was deternined using the Functional Movement Screen …

Effects Of Rapid Weight Loss And Dehydration On Performance In Female Collegiate Wrestlers, Brittany David

Theses

BACKGROUND: Limited information is available on the physiological responses of female collegiate wrestlers to weight cutting practices and their impact on performance. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of rapid weight loss (R WL) and dehydration on the performance of female collegiate wrestlers one hour post RWL, and 12-hours postRWL.

METHODS: Five female collegiate wrestlers (age= 20.0 ± l .2 yrs, 62.9±2.2 in., 152.9±32.5 fbs., 27.24±3.33% body fat) underwent a pre-competition style period ofRWL where they voluntary cut 5.3 ± 0.2% of their initial body mass in four days. Performance tests were performed prior to …

Neoliberal Environmentalism In The War On Poverty: A Case Study Of Carbondale, Illinois, Gregory Matthew Carter

Theses

The following thesis examines the city of Carbondale, Illinois, during the tumultuous years between 1965 and 1975. Carbondale was the recipient of large amounts of funding from the Model Cities program, part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. During that time, Carbondale experienced violent anti-war protests and community-wide unrest. At the same time as Model Cities projects began, the modern environmentalism movement surrounding the first observance of Earth Day, April 22, 1970, also occurred. Within four years, environmental groups comprised mostly of white citizens were pitted against African-American community activists working to improve Carbondale’s segregated Northeast neighborhood and the …

Reevaluating Essential Fatty Acid Nutrition In Florida Pompano, Trachinotus Carolinus, And Nile Tilapia, Oreochromis Niloticus, Christopher John Jackson

Theses

Aquaculture is currently the fastest growing sector of protein production, and is expected to overtake the harvest of wild fisheries. Limitations in nutrition, specifically fatty acid nutrition, are preventing even more dramatic growth of many species of commercial importance. Currently, much of the research involving fatty acids examines requirements as being correlated to thermal guilds (warm vs. cool water) or salinity tolerance (marine vs. freshwater). However, recent studies have revealed the potential for trophic level to be as much, if not more, influential in determining fatty acid requirements of a species. As such, two feeding trials were conducted to determine …

Determinants Of Ball-Exit Velocity In Collegiate Baseball Players, Ross Hasegawa

Theses

Unavailable.

The Impact Of Tablet Digital Texts Vs Print Texts On Seventh Grade Students’ Reading Achievements, Strategies And Motivation, Sobhi Yousef Ahmed Abuhattab

Theses

Developing good reading skills and strategies in the English language is very important for the success of academic, cultural, economic and personal pursuits. However, some students are still experiencing serious difficulties in their reading comprehension skills that are attributed to an inadequate use of reading comprehension strategies, lack of reading motivation and inappropriate uses of resources. The study aimed at exploring the impact of Tablet Digital Texts versus Print Texts on seventh grade students' reading achievements, reading strategies, and reading motivation. A quantitative method with a correlational design was employed in this study. Moreover, the study sample consisted of seventh …

A Machine Learning Approach On Providing Recommendations For The Vacant Lot Problem, Md Towhidul Absar Chowdhury

Theses

Modeling municipal or urban decisions is challenging due to the abundance of variables that guide end results. One such challenging issue is the existence of vacant lots in a city, which causes poorer standard of living for the community. As a result, reclaiming these properties and putting them into productive use is a primary concern. However, each time community leaders had to ``reinvent the wheel'' and make decisions from scratch. To this end, we propose the creation of a vacant lot model and utilizing it to provide recommendations for vacant lot conversions, providing a starting point for such decision making. …

The Role Of Women In The Economy Of Kosovo, Hana Bacaj

Theses

Inequality in the labor market of Kosovo is persistent; the level of unemployment is very high, with the highest level among women. This paper aims to present the current role of women in the economy of Kosovo; through unpaid or paid work. This paper is based on secondary research, from which patterns about what effects women's current role in the economy of Kosovo were found. Some of these patterns were: 'motherhood,' gender differences in earnings, education, cultural factor etc. Additionally, this paper is based on the analysis of the results from surveys done to women in high profile jobs and …

Regional Sustainable Standard Exploration: The Case Of Chinese Rural Areas, Jinzuo Zhang

Theses

Evaluation criterion of sustainability is an effective method of protecting stable Eco-system, enhancing life quality and reducing the waste of resource.

Recently, with the emergence of resource shortage and environmental degradation, people started to shift their attention to the development of sustainability, which is to find the balance among social, environmental and economic factors. Especially in the end of the 20th century, the concepts of sustainability had been approved by the countries around the world [8]. Some developed countries took the lead in starting develop sustainable practices and set evaluation standard based on the real needs of project construction.

However, …

Deep Learning For Semantic Video Understanding, Sourabh Kulhare

Theses

The field of computer vision has long strived to extract understanding from images and videos sequences. The recent flood of video data along with massive increments in computing power have provided the perfect environment to generate advanced research to extract intelligence from video data. Video data is ubiquitous, occurring in numerous everyday activities such as surveillance, traffic, movies, sports, etc. This massive amount of video needs to be analyzed and processed efficiently to extract semantic features towards video understanding. Such capabilities could benefit surveillance, video analytics and visually challenged people. While watching a long video, humans have the uncanny ability …

Hegemonic Masculinity And Transphobia, Marilyn Chung

Theses

Transphobia research has focused on predictors and correlations of prejudice toward transgender people. Consistently, male participants have higher transphobic attitudes compared to female participants in various studies. Further, males are overrepresented in crimes against transgender people. However, these studies were correlational and causation cannot be determined. Masculinity researchers outside of psychology have discussed maintenance of masculine privilege as a motivator for oppressive beliefs and actions. Thus, the goal of this study was to provide an experimental study of causes for increased transphobic attitudes in men, based on sociological and gender studies’ research on hegemonic masculinity. To test this, participants were …

Importance Of Concentrated Flow Paths In Agricultural Watersheds Of Southern Illinois, Prabisha Shrestha

Theses

Field scale research shows concentrated flow paths (CFPs) are prevalent in agricultural watersheds. They are an important source of soil erosion in cropland and significantly contribute to the transport and delivery of agricultural pollutants such as sediment and nutrients to nearby water resources. High resolution LiDAR data have enabled the investigation of the prevalence of concentrated flow at a large geographic extent. This study focused on identifying CFPs in 389 agricultural fields in Jackson County in southern Illinois and estimating the contribution of the CFPs to drainage of the fields. Addressing the lack of literature on factors influencing CFP characteristics, …

In Vitro Apparent Ruminal Digestibility Of Diets Containing Corn Distillers Grain With Different Quantities Of Crude Fat, David Eldridge Williams

Theses

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF David Williams for the Master of Ruminant Nutrition degree in Animal Science, presented on December 12, 2016 at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: IN VITRO APPARENT RUMINAL DIGESTIBILITY OF DIETS CONTAINING CORN DISTILLERS GRAIN WITH VARYING LEVELS OF CRUDE FAT MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Rebecca Atkinson
 Four dual-flow continuous fermenters were used in a Latin square design to determine the apparent ruminal digestibility and ruminal characteristics of diets containing dried distillers grains plus solubles (DDGS) at various levels of fat content. Fermenters were randomly assigned to one of the following treatments: 1) 40% DDGS containing …

Evaluating Public Hearing Testimony In The Context Of A High-Risk Environmental Rulemaking: Does Public Hearing Testimony Provide The Epa With The Information The Agency Requests In Its Proposed Rulemaking?, Deborah Stein

Theses

Does public hearing testimony provide the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with the information the agency requests in its proposed rulemaking? In one EPA proposed rulemaking, the agency requests public comment on approximately 140 topics specific to the proposed rulemaking. This analysis examines the testimony from two public hearings to see if the speakers provided any of the information the agency requested. Public hearings are used frequently in our democratic system and can vary substantially. The public hearings associated with a high-risk environmental proposed rulemaking are compared to characteristics that are common to public hearings in general. The public participation characteristics …

Influence Of Media On Self-Objectification, Body Image, And Rape Myths Acceptance Among College Students, Catarina Durante Bergue Alves

Theses

This study is an investigation of how exposure to different media content influences self-objectification, body image, and rape myths acceptance (RMA) in female college students. The purpose of this study was to further explore the effects of immediate media exposure on body image, self-objectification, and RMA, as well as address the gap in the literature regarding the relationship between these variables (Dakanalis et al., 2015; Fox et al., 2015). One hundred and one students that identified as female were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions using a partially blind design. The students watched a short video pertaining to the condition …

Perceptions And Attitudes Of Recruitment Efforts For Undergraduate Enrollment In Southern Illinois University College Of Agricultural Sciences, Lindsay Jo Francis

Theses

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of and improve the recruitment efforts of The College of Agricultural Sciences at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. This study surveyed a group of freshmen and first-year transfer students enrolled in the College of Agricultural Sciences (COAS) at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) in the fall of 2016 on why they chose to attend, and what factors were considered when making their choice. 184 students were sent surveys and a total of 62 students completed the survey, giving a response rate of 34%. The instrument contained a 21 item questionnaire, with …

Design Strategies For Ultralow Power 10nm Finfets, Abhijeet M. Walke

Theses

Integrated circuits and microprocessor chips have become integral part of our everyday life to such an extent that it is difficult to imagine a system related to consumer electronics, health care, public transportation, household application without these small components. The heart of these circuits is, the metal oxide field-effect transistor (MOSFET) which is used as a switch. The dimensions of these transistors have been scaled from a few micrometers to few tens of nanometer to achieve higher performance, lower power consumption and low cost of production. According to the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS), beyond 32 nm technology node, …

Helping Office Workers To Prepare Quick And Health Meals, Runhao Zhao

Theses

Staying healthy at work is crucial to increase a wellness culture during the workday and can further help maintain the health of employees and employers both physically and mentally. Balanced eating is one of the most significant factors in maintaining good health. This thesis proposes a foldable cooking table top with an installed induction cooker. People can prepare and cook food on it cooperatively with a due division of labor in the office. Cooking in groups at the office provides opportunities for social engagement while making healthier meal choices. The proposed cooking table offers flexible interactions during cooking, dining, and …

Victimization Rates Among Deaf And Hard Of Hearing College Students, Kristi Love

Theses

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is receiving increased focus in society, with high profile examples of victimization involving athletes, actors, and politicians being discussed frequently. Society is more accepting of reporting issues of abuse and seeking help for victims. As awareness of domestic and intimate partner violence has increased, resources to address this issue are likely being utilized more. However, some populations are likely being overlooked, underserved, or excluded from accessing these resources. Deaf and hard of hearing individuals are among those who are underrepresented in the existing research on intimate partner violence. Research on victimization among Deaf and hard of …

Investigating The Impact Of Spatially-Explicit Sub-Pixel Structural Variation On The Assessment Of Vegetation Structure From Imaging Spectroscopy Data, Wei Yao

Theses

Consistent and scalable estimation of vegetation structural parameters from imaging spectroscopy is essential to remote sensing for ecosystem studies, with applications to a wide range of biophysical assessments. NASA has proposed the Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) imaging spectrometer, which measures the radiance between 380-2500 nm in 10 nm contiguous bands with 60 m ground sample distance (GSD), in support of global vegetation assessment. However, because of the large pixel size on the ground, there is uncertainty as to the effects of sub-pixel vegetation structure on observed radiance. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the link between vegetation structure …

Fundoggy: Using Gamification And Social Network Services To Create A Mobile Fundraising Application For Helping Shelter Dogs, Yu Ri Na

Theses

The proliferation of new media is rapidly changing the world of philanthropy and more effective methods of raising funds and developing donor relationships must be sought. Furthermore, today’s trends indicate that the amount of giving by individuals has increased gradually, but the generation gap in donors is increasing.

Fundamentally, this thesis project seeks effective ways to attract young donors and show how to maintain a continuous connection with them by using today’s trending business and marketing buzzwords, “gamification” and “social network services.” Employing a game’s entertainment, problem-solving challenges, interactive experience, and customer loyalty improvement is expected to create significant synergy …

Mdd, What And How: A Motion Graphics Short Film, Yi Zhou

Theses

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a growing mental health problem these days as it creates more social issues and creates problems for families and individuals. However, people still do not know enough about this mental disorder. The purpose of this short motion film is to provide people with a quick and effective introduction to MDD. This film explores a way to deliver essential information in a short amount of time and in a clear way for the audience to understand. It tells a story through the point-of-view of those who have friends or family members suffering from MDD. This story …

Degrees Of Altruism As Dependent Upon Degrees Of Relations, Bobbi Jackson

Theses

In David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature (1738), he asserts that humans act most altruistically toward people in the closest relations to us, e.g., in family or friendship relations, and somewhat less so toward those who are merely in our own ethnic group, of our own nationality, etc., and least altruistically toward people in the most distant relations to us. But, current empirical data appears to indicate vast multitudes of exceptions to Hume's claim. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to determine the cause of this apparent conflict and suggest potential solutions that might allow Hume's theory …

Network Exploration Of Correlated Multivariate Protein Data For Alzheimer's Disease Association, Matthew J. Lane

Theses

Alzheimer Disease (AD) is difficult to diagnose by using genetic testing or other traditional methods. Unlike diseases with simple genetic risk components, there exists no single marker determining as to whether someone will develop AD. Furthermore, AD is highly heterogeneous and different subgroups of individuals develop the disease due to differing factors. Traditional diagnostic methods using perceivable cognitive deficiencies are often too little too late due to the brain having suffered damage from decades of disease progression. In order to observe AD at early stages prior to the observation of cognitive deficiencies, biomarkers with greater accuracy are required. By using …

Literary Pedagogies At Umsl: Combining Case Study With Personal Narrative, Elizabeth Miller

Theses

Through traditional scholarship and an analysis of survey data collected from undergraduate literature students at the university, I investigate the ways in which pedagogies of composition and disability studies can be incorporated into the teaching of literature. Historically, literary scholarship has not focused on issues of pedagogy to the degree that other divisions within English Studies have done, and it is therefore necessary to determine what gaps exist, if any, and how they might be bridged. For example, composition pedagogies often emphasize active, student-based teaching paradigms that are rooted in students’ personal experiences and the kind of writing that interests …