Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of Powered Mobility Devices On Occupational Performance : A Systematic Review ; And, The Experience Of Being A Motorised Mobility Scooter User, Ryan Fomiatti

Theses : Honours

The impact of powered mobility devices on occupational performance: A systematic review

Purpose: To systematically review the impact powered mobility devices have on engagement in independent occupations for adults with acquired mobility limitations. Method: The following databases were searched electronically: CINAHL Plus, Medline, PsychInfo, OT Seeker, Joanna Briggs Institute and Physiotherapy Evidence Database. The search terms used a combination of words to encompass all terms which are used for powered mobility. Studies were included if they evaluated adults’ use of a motorised mobility device, and if individuals used a powered mobility device due to acquired mobility limitation. Results: Eleven studies …

The Effect Of Working Memory (N-Back) Training On Fluid Intelligence, David Preece

Theses : Honours

The purpose of this thesis is to report on a study that examined the effect of working memory training (using the n-back task) on fluid intelligence (Gf). Recent research by Jaeggi and colleagues (2008; 2010) found that training in a visualspatial n-back task resulted in gains on two different matrix reasoning tests of fluid intelligence (compared to participants who did no task). The present study replicated and extended these results by testing the fluid intelligence construct using a different type of fluid intelligence test, and employing an ‘active’ rather than ‘no-contact’ control group to account for motivational effects on intelligence …

Retrospective Time Perception Of A Long Task: Using Music To Distinguish Between Attention-Based And Memory-Based Models, James Brooks

Theses : Honours

There are two main models of time perception, attention-based models, and memorybased models. The aim of this study was to determine which model best explained retrospective time perception of a long and monotonous task. The monotonous task was a Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) that lasted 1390s. The monotony of the task was altered by the addition of musical stimuli. Participants were randomly assigned to either a silent condition, or one of three music conditions that differed in song familiarity and performing instrument. Participants were 48 adults, primarily recruited from Edith Cowan University. The perceived duration of the task, …

Detection Of Evolving Injury To The Brachial Plexus During Transaxillary Robotic Thyroidectomy., Adam Luginbuhl, Daniel M Schwartz, Anthony K Sestokas, David Cognetti, Edmund Pribitkin

Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery Faculty Papers

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: Continuous intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) of transcranial electric motor evoked potentials (tceMEPs) and somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) has gained universal acceptance as an efficacious method for detecting emerging positional brachial plexopathy or peripheral nerve compression during spinal and shoulder surgery. This has implications for transaxillary thyroid surgery.

STUDY DESIGN: Case report with literature review.

METHODS: The patient underwent robotic transaxillary thyroid surgery with continuous tceMEP and SSEP monitoring of brachial plexus function. We present detailed IONM data depicting the emergence of positional brachial plexopathy.

RESULTS: Significant amplitude loss of both IONM modalities were identified during an evolving positional plexopathy, which …

Assessment And Training Of Muscular Force And Power Qualities Of The Lower Limb Using Traditional And Cluster Loading, Keir Hansen

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

It is widely accepted that lower body muscular force and power capabilities are of significant importance to many athletic tasks. Thus the assessment and training of these qualities are a key focus in both sports science and strength and conditioning practice. The purpose of this thesis was firstly to investigate previously discussed but poorly researched methods of assessing force and power characteristics of the lower limb particularly focusing on the analysis of the force-time and power-time curves during the rebound jump squat, and secondly, to investigate the effectiveness of cluster loading, an alternative resistance training paradigm, in training for lower …

The Transition Experience To Boarding School For Male Aboriginal Secondary School Students From Regional And Remote Communities Across Western Australia, David James Mander

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The experience of transitioning to boarding schools away from home for Aboriginal secondary school students from regional and remote communities in Australia has not received the attention it deserves (Calma, 2009; Dodson, 2009). The weight of public discourse and a paucity in research provided strong testimony for undertaking the current study. Moreover, it was evident the voice of those Aboriginal students undertaking the experience was absent from this public dialogue and the literature. This qualitative research investigated from a social constructionist perspective how 32 male Aboriginal secondary school students from regional and remote communities constructed meaning and understanding around the …

Use Of Robotics In Spinal Cord Injury: A Case Report., Lori Siedziewski, Roseann C. Schaaf, Julie Mount

Department of Occupational Therapy Faculty Papers

OBJECTIVE: We examined the use of robotics to treat upper-extremity (UE) dysfunction in tetraplegic patients with spinal cord injury (SCI).

METHOD: a 51-yr-old man with incomplete SCI participated in an occupational therapy program that combined traditional occupational therapy with Reo Go®, a comprehensive therapy platform that includes a robotic guide featuring a telescopic arm to enable high repetitions of functionally relevant UE exercises.

RESULTS: The participant demonstrated measurable improvements in active range of motion, muscle strength as measured through manual muscle testing, perceived right UE function, and self-care performance as measured by the FIM™.

CONCLUSION: The findings from this case …

Generational Faith: Change And Consistency Across Generations, Steve Case

All Books

Will your children be just like you? Will their faith look like yours? If so, to what extent? If not, why? The Bible refers to consequences continuing to the third and fourth generations, and blessings for a thousand generations. If that’s true, why has the next generation dropped out of church and lost interest in God? Have the Bible’s promises expired? Maybe the world’s rapid changes have sped up the process, or perhaps this world has simply become too evil for faith to survive. And yet when all hope seems to be gone, young people shoot past their parents in …

Tweets And Votes: A Study Of The 2011 Singapore General Election, Marko M. Skoric, Nathaniel D. Poor, Palakorn Achananuparp, Ee Peng Lim, Jing Jiang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This study focuses on the uses of Twitter during the elections, examining whether the messages posted online are reflective of the climate of public opinion. Using Twitter data obtained during the official campaign period of the 2011 Singapore General Election, we test the predictive power of tweets in forecasting the election results. In line with some previous studies, we find that during the elections the Twitter sphere represents a rich source of data for gauging public opinion and that the frequency of tweets mentioning names of political parties, political candidates and contested constituencies could be used to make predictions about …

A Hybridized Lagrangian Relaxation And Simulated Annealing Method For The Course Timetabling Problem, Aldy Gunawan, Kim Leng Poh

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper describes a timetabling problem at universities, where a master course timetable is given extrinsically and conflicts due to students' course enrollment do not need to be considered. A solver for the problem, which integrates both teacher assignment and course scheduling, is described. An initial solution is obtained by a mathematical programming approach based on Lagrangian relaxation. This solution is further improved by a simulated annealing algorithm. The proposed method has been tested on instances from a university in Indonesia, as well as on several randomly generated datasets, and the corresponding computational results are reported.

Information Extraction From Text, Jing Jiang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Information extraction is the task of finding structured information from unstructured or semi-structured text. It is an important task in text mining and has been extensively studied in various research communities including natural language processing, information retrieval and Web mining. It has a wide range of applications in domains such as biomedical literature mining and business intelligence. Two fundamental tasks of information extraction are named entity recognition and relation extraction. The former refers to finding names of entities such as people, organizations and locations. The latter refers to finding the semantic relations such as FounderOf and HeadquarteredIn between entities. In …

A Spatial Analysis Of The Italian Second Republic, Second Version, Massimiliano Landi, Ricardo Pelizzo

Research Collection School Of Economics

We apply the Optimal Classification method to a newly created dataset to provide a spatial map of the Italian Second Republic (1996-2008). We find a bi-dimensional political space in the XIII Legislature and virtually a one dimensional political space in the XIV and XV Legislatures. In addition, the main dimension is explained along the dimension government opposition rather than on the traditional left and right dimension. During the Second Republic, Italy experienced changes in electoral system and in the format of the parties. We use our data to discuss the implications of either change on the dimensionality space. We find …

Conditional Independence Specification Testing For Dependent Processes With Local Polynomial Quantile Regression, Liangjun Su, Halbert L. White

Research Collection School Of Economics

We provide straightforward new nonparametric methods for testing conditional independence using local polynomial quantile regression, allowing weakly dependent data. Inspired by Hausman's (1978) specification testing ideas, our methods essentially compare two collections of estimators that converge to the same limits under correct specification (conditional independence) and that diverge under the alternative. To establish the properties of our estimators, we generalize the existing nonparametric quantile literature not only by allowing for dependent heterogeneous data but also by establishing a weak consistency rate for the local Bahadur representation that is uniform in both the conditioning variables and the quantile index. We also …

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Severity, Dissociation, And Perceived Social Support Predict Performance On Event Processing And Memory Tasks, Michelle Eisenberg

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

Strategic Insight And Age-Related Goal-Neglect Influence Risky Decision-Making, John Westbrook

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Maximizing long-run gains often requires taking on some degree of risk, yet decision-makers often exhibit risk aversion: RA), rejecting risky prospects even when these may have higher expected value than safer alternatives. We investigated whether explicit strategy instruction and practice can decrease prepotent RA, and whether aging impacts the efficacy of such an intervention. Participants performed a paired lottery task with options varying in risk and magnitude, both before and after practice with a similar task that encouraged maximization of expected value and instruction to use this strategy in risky decisions. In both younger and older adults, strategy training reduced …

The Failed Promise Of A General Theory Of Pure Economic Loss: An Accident Of History?, Anthony J. Sebok

Articles

The article explores the evolution and challenges of pure economic loss doctrine in American tort law, focusing on the contrasting approaches of Robert Rabin and Gary Schwartz. While Schwartz critiques the feasibility of a general theory due to the diversity of economic injuries, Rabin advocates for a nuanced, fact-specific approach. The article highlights the ad hoc nature of the doctrine, as seen in key cases like JAire Corp. v. Gregory and Aas v. Superior Court, which reflect shifting judicial attitudes toward negligence and liability. It concludes that the failure to establish a coherent principle for determining duty underscores the ongoing …

Rescuing The Dignitary Torts From The Constitution, Cristina Carmody Tilley

Faculty Publications

The rights of individuals to recover for dignitary torts has been withering for the past forty years, since the Supreme Court constitutionalized the state common law tort of defamation in New York Times v. Sullivan in 1964. The Court announced in that case that the First Amendment required it to impose high standards for individual defamation claims in order to protect robust speech. As that principle has taken hold, it has in effect squeezed the rights of individuals to recover for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress as well as defamation. Just last Term, the Court held …

Development And Application Of Fluxomics Tools For Analyzing Metabolisms In Non-Model Microorganisms, Xueyang Feng

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Decoding microbial metabolism is of great importance in revealing the mechanisms governing the physiology of microbes and rewiring the cellular functions in metabolic engineering. Complementing the genomics, transcriptomics, proteinomics and metabolomics analysis of microbial metabolism, fluxomics tools can measure and simulate the in vivo enzymatic reactions as direct readouts of microbial metabolism. This dissertation develops and applies broad-scope tools in metabolic flux analysis to investigate metabolic insights of non-model environmental microorganisms. 13C-based pathway analysis has been applied to analyze specific carbon metabolic routes by tracing and analyzing isotopomer labeling patterns of different metabolites after growing cells with 13C-labeled substrates. Novel …

Quantification And Reconstruction In Photoacoustic Tomography, Zijian Guo

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Optical absorption is closely associated with many physiological important parameters, such as the concentration and oxygen saturation of hemoglobin. Conventionally, accurate quantification in PAT requires knowledge of the optical fluence attenuation, acoustic pressure attenuation, and detection bandwidth. We circumvent this requirement by quantifying the optical absorption coefficients from the acoustic spectra of PA signals acquired at multiple optical wavelengths. We demonstrate the method using the optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy: OR-PAM) and the acoustical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy: AR-PAM) in the optical ballistic regime and in the optical diffusive regime, respectively. The data acquisition speed in photoacoustic computed tomography: PACT) is limited by the …

Disordered Eating Habits And Extreme Weight Loss Techniques In Collegiate Wrestlers: A Qualitative Analysis, Jaime Marie Mayer

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Eating disorders are a common concern for the general public, especially with adolescent teenagers, however the difficulty with eating disorders is the diagnosis. Eating disorders have been classified into three different types, which can also be broken down further into sub-types. Diagnoses were originally based on clinical observation and were then refined by expert opinion, and the review of research (Grilo, Devlin, Cachelin & Yanovski, 1997). The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM; American Psychological Association, 2000; First, Frances & Pincus, 2002) labels the three types of eating disorders as anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN) and eating …

Piezoelectric Wafer Active Sensors In Lamb Wave-Based Structural Health Monitoring, Lingyu Yu, Victor Giurgiutiu

Faculty Publications

Recent advancements in sensors and information technologies have resulted in new methods for structural health monitoring (SHM) of the performance and deterioration of structures. The enabling element is the piezoelectric wafer active sensor (PWAS). This paper presents an introduction to PWAS transducers and their applications in Lamb wave-based SHM. We begin by reviewing the fundamentals of piezoelectric intelligent materials. Then, the mechanism of using PWAS transducers as Lamb wave transmitters and receivers is presented. PWAS interact with the host structure through the shear-lag model. Lamb wave mode tuning can be achieved by judicious combination of PWAS dimensions, frequency value, and …

Affirmative Action Plan 2012, Office Of Equal Opportunity, Ethics, & Access

Affirmative Action Plans

Illinois State University Affirmative Action Plan

New Mri Techniques For Nanoparticle Based Functional And Molecular Imaging, Lingzhi Hu

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Although in clinical use for several decades, magnetic resonance imaging: MRI) is undergoing a transition from a qualitative anatomical imaging tool to a quantitative technique for evaluating myriad diseases. Furthermore, MRI has made great strides as a potential tool for molecular imaging of cellular and tissue biomarkers. Of the candidate contrast agents for molecular MRI, the excellent bio-compatibility and adaptability of perfluorocarbon nanoparticles: PFC NP) has established these agents as a potent targeted imaging agent and as a functional platform for non-invasive oxygen tension sensing. Direct readout and quantification of PFC NP can be achieved with fluorine: 19F) MRI because …

[Introduction To] Rethinking The Post-Soviet Experience: Markets, Moral Economies, And Cultural Contradictions Of Post-Socialist Russia, Jeffrey K. Hass

Bookshelf

Thus, one goal of this book is to challenge and expand our understandings of post-Soviet transformations by tapping theories so far underutilized (if used at all) in analyses. I will draw on various sources of data--original primary-source data as well as secondary data from various disciplines and accounts--to map out a theoretical landscape.One important goal is to rethink how to look at these data. I want to look deeper into social dynamics of institutional change.

Racial Inclusion, Exclusion And Segregation In Constitutional Law, Michelle Adams

Articles

In Part I of the Article, I examine early cases in which the Court described segregation as a form of resource "lock-up." In several cases leading up to Brown, the Court detailed how racial segregation allows a more dominant group to hoard substantial societal resources. In these early cases, the Court's focus was on segregation as a mechanism for excluding individuals from valuable benefits on the basis of race; it did not speak explicitly to the harms associated with racial classification schemes. In this Part of the Article, I also return to Brown v. Board of Education and explore the …

The Effectiveness Of A Ninth-Grade Mentorship Program For Increasing Reading Comprehension, Yolanda M. Tucker

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation compared 50 Grade 9 students’ reading and English language arts performance before and after a mentoring program focused on reading. There were no instructional support programs at this high school that could assist struggling students in the area of reading and English language arts. This high school mentoring program was implemented during the 2008–2009 school year to help students in areas such as oral reading fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension in response to a growing number of Grade 9 students failing the state’s annual reading assessment. Foundational reading skills are needed to succeed in all subject areas. …

From Bacteria To Human: Biophysical Studies Of Inward Rectifying Potassium Channels, Wayland Cheng

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Inward rectifying potassium: Kir) channels are important in regulating cellular excitability in organs such as the heart, brain and pancreas. Prokaryotic KirBac channels are structurally similar to eukaryotic Kir channels, but distantly related and of unknown function. The goal of this thesis has been to investigate the functional properties of KirBac1.1 and to relate these findings to eukaryotic Kir channels. The approach was to use recombinantly-expressed, purified K+ channels--KirBac1.1, KcsA, Kir2.1 and Kir2.2--in order to integrate findings from functional studies, using liposomal flux assays and patch-clamping, with high-resolution crystal structures. By reconstituting KirBac1.1 into giant liposomes for patch-clamping, I show …

The Role Of Notch Signaling In The Pathogenesis Of Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia, Nicole Grieselhuber

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The t(15;17) translocation is found in nearly 98% of acute promyelocytic leukemia: APL, FAB subtype M3) cases and results in the fusion of the promyelocytic leukemia: PML) gene with the retinoic acid receptor alpha: RARA) gene. The fusion product, PML-RARA, encodes a functionally altered transcription factor that is the initiating event in APL. To better understand the transcriptional changes associated with APL pathogenesis, we compared the gene expression profiles of APL samples to those of other acute myeloid leukemia FAB subtypes and of enriched normal human promyelocytes. We identified a signature of genes that are specifically dysregulated in APL relative …

Seismic Array Analysis Of Core-Diffracted Waves And Microseisms, Garrett Gene Euler

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

In this thesis I discuss some existing array techniques and extend them in new ways to study specific seismic phases with immense amounts of seismic data. The results of this new and unique dataset have implications on the state and natural processes occurring in two main regions of the Earth: the bottom of the mantle and the near-surface of the Earth. Chapter 2 analyzes more than one million frequency-dependent measurements of the ray parameter: horizontal slowness) and decay constant of both P_diff and SH_diff waveforms for more than 100 earthquakes to observe the influence of geographic variations of …

American Women Writers, Visual Vocabularies, And The Lives Of Literary Regionalism, Katherine Mary Bloomquist

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

American Women Writers, Visual Vocabularies, and the Lives of Literary Regionalism reads American literary regionalism through its visual vocabularies--such as sketches, photographs and portraits. Though critics often deemed this genre inferior or unfinished, using visual vocabularies of the "sketch" or "local color," later books of regionalism simply brim with visual vocabularies, when characters are seeking the lives of others or filling in the blanks of their own. The writers in my dissertation--Sarah Orne Jewett, Willa Cather, and Ann Petry--ground literary regionalism in the politics of writing places, but draw also from the arts of life writing circulating in the late …