Digital Commons Network^™

The Effect Of Concurrent Activation Potentiation During Fast Stretch Shortening Cycle Activity, Erich Petushek, Luke Garceau, William Ebben

Exercise Science Faculty Research and Publications

This study evaluated the effect of remote voluntary contractions (RVC) on depth jump performance. Subjects performed the depth jump in a RVC condition and a condition without RVC (NO-RVC). Ground reaction force (GRF), impulse (I), and reactive strength index (RSI) were assessed with a force platform. Data were analyzed using a two way ANOVA. Analysis of GRF showed no significant main effects for RVC condition (p = 0.46) and no interaction for RVC condition and gender (p = 0.11). Analysis of I showed no significant main effects for RVC condition (p = 0.99) and no interaction for RVC condition and …

An Examination Of State And Trait Anxiety Levels Among College Students Based On The Students' Alcohol Usage, Richard Kovalesky

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines anxiety and level of alcohol consumption among college freshman and sophomore student's to determine if state and trait anxiety are significant factors in high risk alcohol consumption or binge drinking. The State Trait Personality Inventory (STPI) and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) were administered to gather data on anxiety and alcohol consumption level. The investigation seeks to identify specific personality factors in college students' that impact high risk alcohol consumption and binge drinking in the undergraduate population. Specifically, state and trait anxiety are examined to determine their effect upon college freshmen and sophomores drinking practices. …

Paddy And The Public: Irish Immigrants, New York City, And Mass Culture, 1830-1860, William Patrick Mcgovern

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the role of visual images in reflecting and shaping attitudes of the native-born towards Irish immigrants in antebellum New York City. Representations in mass culture, specifically in the popular press and on minstrel sheet music covers, serve as a window into understanding native-born discourses on Irish Americans. Various elements of the Irish immigrant trope are analyzed, including massive immigration, crowding, disease, poverty, drunkenness, violence, public women, labor competition, and political corruption. In addition to visual analysis, gender, environmental, and discourse analysis are applied to representations of Irish immigrants. Taking the study of antebellum nativism in a new …

The Dance In Contexts: Exploring The Complexity Of The Helping/Healing Process With A Focus On Client Satisfaction, Margriet De Zeeuw Wright

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This multiperspectual study was undertaken to explore and describe the complexity of the helping / healing process in a community-based counselling centre. The standard for evaluation was client satisfaction. Client and worker participants’ perspectives were sought in an exploration of whether and / or how the client as an individual, the worker both as an individual and as a staff member, the therapeutic relationship, and the organizational setting impacted client satisfaction.

Former clients of the agency (N=400) were asked to complete Greenfield, Attkisson, and Pascoe’s (©2005) Service Satisfaction Scale (SSS-30). Respondents (N=73) were profiled using descriptive statistics which led the …

Young, Working And Black: A Study Of Empowerment, Oppression, Race And Gender In Community Settings, Julian Hasford

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between race, gender, and power in community settings. Taking the experiences of young Black Canadians within the workplace as an exemplar, the study sought to answer three main research questions: (a) How does oppression influence the psychological empowerment of Black youth and young adults in the workplace? (b) How do workplace characteristics promote Black youths’ and young adults’ psychological empowerment?, and (c) How does gender influence Black youths’ and young adults’ experiences of oppression and empowerment in the workplace? To answer these questions I conducted narrative interviews with 24 Black …

An Exploration Of Counselling Practices With Women Survivors Of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Should Therapists Ask About Thoughts Or Behaviour Involving Sex With Children?, Angela Karen Hovey

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Helping professionals and women, themselves, have been reluctant to recognize or acknowledge that females can and do sexually abuse children and adolescents. Research has also demonstrated that females most at risk to abuse children are those who were themselves victims of severe child sexual abuse (CSA) The purpose of this research was to explore whether or not current counselling practices with women survivors of CSA reflect the belief that women do not sexually abuse children. This study also focuses on whether or not therapists create space for discussion about thoughts and behaviour involving sexual abuse of children and adolescents with …

Place And Food: A Relational Analysis Of Personal Food Environments, Meanings Of Place And Diet Quality, Ellen Desjardins

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study investigates the relational layers of meanings that people experience at places in their food environment, and how individuals express a sense of place through their collective interactions with, and understandings of, food places. It also explores the patterns of difference among these meanings of place and sense of place in terms of their potential association with dietary quality. The context of this inquiry was two-fold: first, the need identified by several population health researchers and to re-imagine place as relational and include it in the study of behavioural responses to the changing food environment; and secondly, my interest …

Jane Austen In Contemporary Film: Interpretations And Reflections Of Austen's Novels In Contemporary Culture, Lindsay Anderson

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

There is no escaping Jane Austen. Though it has been nearly two hundred years since her death, Austen and her work continues to capture the minds and hearts of readers worldwide. Our fascination with her novels continues to grow, finding new expression in literature, television and film each year. What makes this phenomenon so interesting is the reality that Austen’s novels are so firmly “dated” – that is, so rigorously cemented and relevant to the age in which it was written. Why do readers and viewers continue to find Austen’s works so relevant, given that it is so bound to …

Intercultural Competence For The Nutrition Professional, Cynthia S. Klement

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Diversity training for nutrition care professionals is essential in order to provide patients with culture-specific strategies that allow them to succeed with their health program. Nutritionists are faced with the challenge of understanding the dietary preferences of their cross-cultural patients, as well as appreciating a patient's religious beliefs regarding dietary selections by identify foods that will or won't support a prescribed nutritional program. Knowledge of intercultural nonverbal and verbal behaviors is becoming increasingly necessary, as is who ultimately makes medical decisions for the patient.

The Insanity Defense: A Comparative Analysis, Kristin Neville

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

The topic of my thesis is the insanity defense. The insanity defense is a tactic that is rarely used and rarely successful. Generally states fall into three categories: Those who use the M'Naghten rule of law, those who use the American Law Institute (ALI) Model Penal Code, and those who have abolished the use of the insanity defense. This research compares states from each category to investigate whether or not the type of rule used affects the outcome. In order to determine whether these categories matter, the paper compares similar appellate felony case outcomes in New Jersey and North Carolina, …

Political Shifts In The Eastern Upper Peninsula Of Michigan During The Great Depression, Kristina Schwab

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Regarded as one of the greatest struggles in American history, the Great Depression was a catalyst not only for economic change but also political change. The defeat of Hoover in 1,932 was one of the largest margins of victory by a Democratic presidential candidate ever seen. The victory of Franklin D. Roosevelt brought change to a nation struggling with unemployment. The efforts of the Works Progress Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps, Public Works Administration, along with numerous other employment programs, helped put people back to work. More importantly, though, these public works projects ranged from the improvement of roads and preservation …

The Mitigation Effects Of A Barrier Wall On Blast Wave Pressures, Nathan Thomas Rouse

Masters Theses

"The study examined the mitigating effects of a blast barrier wall. This area of blast mitigation is of interest due to the many different applications involved in protecting a specific target from an explosive attack. The research follows a 1:50 scale layout using 73 gram, hemisphere-shaped, Composition-4 charges detonated at combinations of three standoff distances from a blast barrier wall set at three different heights. This project used 45 data points for each combination of standoff distance and wall height. This project expanded prior research conducted by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) by increasing the database of …

The Effects Of Personal Protective Equipment Level A Suits On Human Task Performance, Yvette L. Simon

Masters Theses

"First response teams dealing with hazardous substances often require the highest level of protection provided by Level A suits. These suits are fully encapsulating, bulky, and heat retentive. The effect of these suits on the wearer's ability to perform various tasks is of interest when it comes to human performance analysis. This research effort examined the effect of the Level A suit on fine motor and gross motor dexterity. Seven members of the National Guard's Civil Support Team (CST) performed a battery of six tasks designed to test these abilities. Tasks comprised the Minnesota Dexterity test and the Mirror Tracer …

Incorporating New Technology Into Healthcare: An Analysis Of Performance, Acceptance, And Safety, Anthony Joseph Strawhun

Masters Theses

"Each year, advances in the healthcare industry allows for better patient care and increased ability to save lives. Looking at standardized and common healthcare devices for both inside and outside the hospital environment, this research studied the tradeoffs and human factors that affect operator performance and patient survival. This research studied the impact of human factors and technology in the development and implementation of the automated external defibrillator for out-of-hospital use and the incremental advantages of SMArT infusion pump technology over traditional intravenous infusion pumps for in-hospital care. The study highlights the complex human factors of both products and establishes …

The Placement Of Remediation Amendments Into Contaminated Sediments Via Waterjet Technologies, Gavin Hunter Ray Risley

Masters Theses

"The use of amendments to perform in situ remediation of contaminated sediments is a technique that is relatively mature. The need exists to develop a method of amendment delivery that will efficiently place the amendments into the contaminated zone at depth with minimal impacts to the benthic communities and contaminant resuspension. Waterjets have been used for hundreds of years as an excavation, cutting, and cleaning tool, but they can also be used to inject remediation amendments into contaminated sediments if setup properly. In order to test this concept, a waterjet amendment injection system and nozzle have been developed and tested. …

The Properties And Structure Of Tin Phosphate Glasses Modified With Other Oxides, Jong Wook (Austin) Lim

Masters Theses

"The main objective of this research was to evaluate the properties and structures of glasses from the stannous (SnO) phosphate system for possible use in low temperature optical applications. Glasses in the binary xSnO-(100-x)P₂O₅ system (50 ≤ x ≤ 70) were prepared and their thermal and optical properties were evaluated. Differences in glass transition temperatures (T_g) measured here and reported in the literature were explained by differences in the residual water content in the glasses, as determined by infrared spectroscopy. In general, increasing the SnO content of the binary glasses increased the refractive index and the glass transition …

Contribution-Based Priority Assessment In A Web-Based Intelligent Argumentation Network For Collaborative Software Development, Maithili Satyavolu

Masters Theses

"Decision making is an important aspect of the collaborative software development process which usually involves complex process of conflict resolution. Stakeholders approach decision making process from multiple perspectives and their priorities play a vital role in it. The priority assessment methods used in the argumentation process so far are usually static. Priorities remain constant throughout the decision making process. In order to make the collaborative system more closely replicate real-world scenarios, this work incorporates dynamic priority assessment into a web-based collaborative system which is based on intelligent computational argumentation. It evaluates priorities dynamically for each cycle of decision process based …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Microspheres For Controlled Release, Gurpartap Singh Sandhu

Masters Theses

"Synthetic hydroxyapatite (HAp, (Ca₁₀(PO₄)₆(OH)₂) has always been of interest in medical applications because of its similarities to inorganic bone matrix. It has been used in biomedical applications for bone repair and substitution due to its biocompatibility. However, there are some differences in the stoichiometry, composition, and mechanical properties of human bone as compared to pure HAP. HAp particles have been successfully used as drug delivery carriers which deliver the drug to the affected part of the body and the remaining apatite gets degraded by the physiological processes in the body. In the present work, emphasis was on developing mechanically stronger …

Metabolic Actions Of Insulin In Men And Women, Faidon Magkos, Xuewen Wang, Bettina Mittendorfer

Faculty Publications

Insulin is an important regulator of glucose, lipid and protein metabolism. It suppresses hepatic glucose and triglyceride production, inhibits adipose tissue lipolysis and whole-body and muscle proteolysis and stimulates glucose uptake in muscle. In this review we discuss what is currently known about the control of substrate metabolism by insulin in men and women. The data available so far indicate that women are more sensitive to insulin with regards to glucose metabolism (both in the liver and in muscle) whereas there are no differences between men and women in insulin action on lipolysis. Potential differences exist in the regulation of …

Citizens United And The Threat To The Regulatory State, Tamara Piety

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Spatial And Temporal Patterns In Nitrous Oxide Flux From Agricultural Soil In Southern Ontario, Michelle E. Zurbrigg

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This research examines spatial and temporal variations in N₂O flux from agricultural clay loam in corn-wheat and corn-oat rotations in southern Ontario. Gas samples are collected by the chamber method following significant precipitation events, thaw events, fertilization events, and otherwise every two weeks over a two-year period. Crop type appears to influence the magnitude of N₂O emisions, whereas N₂O fluxes do not otherwise seem to vary by landscape position. The seasonal pattern of in situ N₂O flux at Strawberry Creek (SC) indicates that the highest N₂O emissions are occuring during …

The Role Of Choice And Control In Women’S Childbirth Experiences, Katie M. Cook

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The current study seeks to understand the role of choice and control in both planning and giving birth. This study explores three research questions: 1) What are the key influences on women’s birth plan decisions? 2) How do changes to a woman’s initial birth plan impact her overall birth experience? 3) What is the role of choice and control in women’s childbirth experiences? Narrative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of 16 women who had given birth in Waterloo Region within the two years preceding data collection. The findings of this study cover five categories. The first category …

Forestry-Based Livelihoods In Central Vietnam: An Examination Of The Acacia Commodity Chain: A Case From Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam, Robert Pietrzak

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Forestry-based livelihoods in remote Vietnamese communities have been influenced in recent years by forest land allocation schemes, changes to property rights, and forest management devolution initiatives. Examples include the Five Million Hectare Reforestation Program, Project 327, and official “Red Books” that grant long-term land use rights and access rights to villagers. Major challenges to forestry-based livelihoods include disputes over land tenure, conflict between different levels of government, illegal logging practices and harvesting of NTFPs and competition over land for natural versus plantation forests. As a result, forest degradation and rural poverty continue to be debilitating obstacles to development in Central …

Are Health Care Professionals Addressing The Psychological Aspect Of Athletic Injury? A Survey Of Injured Athletes, Hayley C. Russell

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Millions of athletic injuries occur annually. Athletic injures involve not only physical distress but psychological distress as well. Nevertheless, injured athletes rarely see a mental health care professional. It has been suggested that health care professionals, such as physicians, physiotherapists, and athletic therapists, are well positioned to address the psychological aspect of injury. Health care professionals report that they sometimes address the psychological aspect of injury with the athletes they treat. There is limited research, however, on what injured athletes perceive to be the role of health care professionals in addressing the psychological aspect of injuries. Therefore the purpose of …

Poverty And Disability: The Need For Inclusion, Alexis Buettgen

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Despite the fact that people with disabilities are disproportionately represented among the world’s poorest, they have been marginalized in poverty research and have had minimal involvement in poverty reduction strategies. The current study addresses this issue, by providing an opportunity for people with developmental disabilities to control and direct the research agenda, and to have an active voice on the topic of poverty and disability. Thus, the present study aims to support the development of poverty reduction strategies by raising key issues and breaking down barriers to participation for people with developmental disabilities. This study utilized a social power framework …

Administration Of A Cannabinoid Receptor Antagonist Following Chronic ∆9-Tetrahydrocannabinol Induces Physical Withdrawal In The Absence Of A Dysphoric State, Brittany Ford

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The selective cannabinoid CB1 receptor antagonist SR141716 has been shown to precipitate physical signs of withdrawal in ∆⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)-dependent rats; however, the affective state associated with this withdrawal state has not yet been well characterized. Thus, the aim of present study was to examine the physical and affective consequences of SR141716-precipitated THC withdrawal in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Rats were injected with THC (5 mg/kg, i.p.) or its vehicle twice daily for 13 consecutive days, and challenged with SRI 41716 (1 mg/kg, i.p.) or its vehicle 1 h later on days 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13. Consistent …

Interviewing Children About Repeated Events: Does Mental Context Reinstatement Improve Young Children’S Narratives?, Donna M. Drohan-Jennings

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study examined mental context reinstatement (MCR) as a technique to increase the quantity and accuracy of information provided by children during repeated-event narratives. Children (N = 46, 4-, 5- and 6-year olds) participated in four repeated laboratory activities and were interviewed 4-7 days later about the last occurrence with a control or MCR interview, including both a free narrative and specific questions about the events. Older children (6-year olds) provided a greater number of accurate instantiations (specific details) compared to 4-year olds. Five and 6-year olds reported a greater number of instantiations than 4-year olds, but this effect …

Effects Of Chlorpromazine On Feeding And Wheel Running On Rats With Acute Wheel Access, Graham Gregory Parfeniuk

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is characterized by a self-imposed starvation and is often accompanied by excessive exercise that results in severe malnutrition and sometimes death. Behavioural and pharmacological treatments of AN need to be improved. In rats, acute 3 h daytime wheel access suppresses ad lib feeding over the subsequent night relative to no wheel controls, a phenomenon that has been suggested as an animal model of AN. This acute wheel induced feeding suppression (WIFS), can be induced reliably when rats are given limited wheel access exposure during the light cycle (Lattanzio & Eikelboom, 2003). The acute WIFS is useful because …

Reconstructing Sex: Women Having Sex With Women, Alixandra Holtby

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study examines the experience of exclusion from the dominant understandings of sex for women who have sex with women, including queer, pansexual, bisexual, and lesbian women. Using ideas of the constructed nature of sex, particularly the use of sexual scripts (Simon & Gagnon, 1973), as well as the (hetero)sexist context in which these scripts are formed, qualitative interviews with 11 queer, pansexual, bisexual, and lesbian women were analyzed regarding their development of their understandings of what constitutes sex, their expectations and experiences of sex, their negotiation of desire and sexual identity, and their perspectives on sex between women and …

Two Sides To Every Trauma: The Role Of Posttraumatic Growth And Decline In Well-Being, Danay C. Novoa

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Research clearly demonstrates how traumatic events can damage psychological and physical health (Janoff-Bulman, 1992). However, Tedeschi and Calhoun (2004) argue that posttraumatic growth can also occur following adversity. Although largely well-received, their theory and the posttraumatic growth inventory (PTGI) have been critiqued as well. For instance, Wortman (2004) argues that Tedeschi and Calhoun give insufficient consideration to the negative consequences of traumatic events. Concurring with Wortman, we contend that the PTGI, constructed to measure only growth, does not allow participants the opportunity to report decline in any domain. This scale design may artificially inflate the apparent occurrence of posttraumatic growth …