Digital Commons Network^™

Sensor Characterization And Signal Fusion For Instanteye, Wyman T. Smith

Honors Theses and Capstones

The practicality and effectiveness of using a TerraRanger Duo—a parallel sonar and infrared time-of-flight distance sensor—payload for obstacle detection is investigated for use with Physical Science Inc.’s InstantEye drone. A Python program was developed to interface with the serial data output before comparing the sensor’s empirical performance against its data sheet. The two signals from the distinct sensor modules, each with their characterized strengths and weaknesses, were then fused with a Kalman filter. This was further refined by imposing conditional weighting based on the known sensor characteristics. The filter output, with conditional corrections, was able to accurately track a single …

Characterizing Food Selectivity In Children With Autism, Samantha H. Wohlmacher

Honors Theses and Capstones

Food selectivity or “picky eating” affects a large percentage of children on the autism spectrum and as a result can have negative impacts on a child’s health and nutritional status (Cermak, Curtin, & Bandini, 2010). Few studies compare food selectivity in children on the autism spectrum to children with other developmental issues. Such a comparison may reveal how food selectivity presents itself uniquely in children on the autism spectrum. This study examined data from past health records collected from the Seacoast Childhood Development Center (SCDC). Thirty-eight children whose parents were concerned about their diets were taken from a larger sample …

Assessment Of The Intake And Knowledge Of Folate/Folic Acid Among Unh Students, Jessica Lee Pelletier, Ruth Reilly, Sherman Bigornia

Honors Theses and Capstones

There are 3,000 U.S. pregnancies affected by spina bifida and anencephaly annually. If women consume adequate amounts of folic acid (400 mcg/day) one month before pregnancy and through the first trimester, then the risk of their infant developing a neural tube defect (NTD) is reduced by 50-70%. However, approximately 50% of pregnancies are unplanned, with some of the highest rates among 18-24 year olds. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the knowledge source, knowledge level, and intake of folic acid among college-aged students. Qualtrics surveys from 96 subjects (87.5% female, aged 18-24) were used for analysis. In the …

A Journey Towards Conscientisation: Motives Of Volunteers Who Support Asylum Seekers, Refugees And Detainees, Sarah Koelsch

Theses

The focus of this case study is an examination of the factors that motivate people to engage in volunteerism working with asylum seekers. In the research project, volunteering is understood as a civic responsibility of an active member of society which involves social interactions that foster social inclusion: active citizenship. The co-researcher agency of this project is the Perth based Centre for Asylum seekers, Refugees and Detainees (CARAD). The project aim is to investigate the values, belief systems, and attitudes of CARAD’s volunteers. This informed the decision to employ a social constructionist approach and is intended to enable further understanding …

Establishing Factors That Enable Or Inhibit Student Access To Academic Support Office Services, Louise Johnston

Theses

With the increasing diversity of students entering higher education there is a greater need and obligation to assist in creating an even playing field to ensure the academic success of all students. Learning support has received much attention in the last decade with the introduction of a more diverse population. Consequently, now more than ever, universities must ensure best practices are implemented for enhancing academic skills of students. This qualitative case study, undertaken at one university in Sydney, examined the factors that enabled or inhibited students from accessing Academic Support Office services. A survey and interviews were used to collect …

Exploring The Concept Of Receptivity To Bereavement Support: Implications For Palliative Care Services In Rural, Regional And Remote Western Australia, Pippa Blackburn

Theses

Background: Palliative care services are primary organisations that provide bereavement support in Australia and aim to mitigate potential adverse outcomes of grief and bereavement The success of bereavement services depends, in part, on how ‘receptive’ the bereaved are to receiving support. Although palliative care services provide support services for bereaved carers and families, there still remains a discord between what is delivered, what is needed and factors that deter or encourage a person’s receptiveness to support.

Purpose: The aim of this research was to examine utilisation of bereavement support through the ‘lens’ of receptivity. Bereavement and receptivity are complex multifactorial …

Hospitalisation And Comorbidities In Parkinson's Disease: A Large Australian Retrospect Study, Michal Lubomski

Theses

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive and disabling neurological disorder that affects approximately 1% of the adult population aged over 65 years in Australia. Parkinson’s disease, as with many other chronic illnesses, results in frequent patient hospitalisations. There is a paucity of information on the causes and related co-morbidities that lead to hospitalisation among these patients in an Australian setting. The aim of this study was to examine patterns of hospitalisation of Parkinson’s disease patients with regards to demographic factors, co-morbidities and aspects relating to clinical management. In this study, data was extracted from the NSW Ministry of Health’s Admitted …

Bioimpedance Spectroscopy - Can It Be Used As A Tool For Monitoring Fluid Shifts In Burns?, Pippa Kenworthy

Theses

Large fluid shifts and oedema are features of burn injuries. Oedema hampers burn wound healing and is directly related to the size and depth of the burn. The degree of oedema in burns covers a broad spectrum: Minor burns cause localised or peripheral oedema, whilst major burns may result in a systemic inflammatory response which can be life threatening and necessitates formal fluid resuscitation. Acute burn fluid resuscitation is paramount in decreasing patient morbidity and mortality but can contribute to already large amounts of oedema. There is currently no single clinically applicable, non-invasive and accurate outcome measure to titrate fluid …

Assessment Of The Neuroprotective Potential Of Poly-Arginine Peptides In Stroke Models, Diego Milani

Theses

Currently, there is no available neuroprotective treatment for reducing acute brain injury following stroke. Recent studies have demonstrated that poly-arginine and arginine-rich peptides (e.g. R18; R = arginine residues) exhibit potent neuroprotective properties in both in vitro and in vivo stroke models, and therefore have the potential to be developed into a neuroprotective treatment for stroke.

Consequently, the aim of this thesis was to further assess the neuroprotective efficacy of several poly-arginine and arginine-rich peptides in permanent and transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) stroke models in the rat.

The poly-arginine peptides R12, R15, R18 and the arginine-rich peptide protamine …

The Effect Of Continuing Professional Development From The Perspective Of Nurses And Midwives Who Participated In Continuing Education Programs Offered By Global Health Alliance Western Australia: A Mixed-Method Study, Yan Ing (Jenni) Ng

Theses

Continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities for nurses and midwives are central to improving knowledge, broadening skills and maintaining competencies to provide best practice and clinical care. This is gained through participating in continuing education (CE). CPD is readily accessible and a mandatory requirement for nurses and midwives in developed nations, such as Australia. However, in developing countries, such as Tanzania, while CPD is promoted, it has limited availability. As such, the Global Health Alliance Western Australia (GHAWA), an international health development program, seeks to provide further sustainable CPD opportunities for nurses and midwives in Tanzania.

The purpose of this research …

Social Media In The Workplace: Legal Challenges For Employers And Employees, Jacques C. Duvenhage

Theses

Social media has become prevalent through platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and has essentially changed the way people communicate. At first, social media networks were used for private purposes; however, businesses have started using social media as a way to improve and advertise their products online. Therefore, social media presents many benefits such as lower costs for advertising and convenience for customers to view and share products online. However, the advent of social media in the business environment also creates challenges within the workplace that can have a negative effect on the employer–employee relationship. This is especially significant when …

Singing Exile: Music In Irish Emigration Literature, Christopher Mccann

Theses

Ireland possesses a cultural heritage that is particularly literary and musical. The island is also renowned for its extensive and ongoing history of emigration, and imagery of exile and return is as intrinsic to conceptions of Irishness as the island’s artistic lineage. The impact on the creation of a modern Irish identity by exilic Irish writers and musicians is testament to this relationship.

The act of emigration can be conceived as a narrative of individual identity framed by a wider cultural discourse. It is therefore natural that the themes of exile and departure are a frequent presence in Irish art, …

Women's Imprisonment And Recidivism: An Illustrative Analysis Of Boronia Women's Pre-Release Centre (Western Australia) And Progressive/Open Prison Systems In Norway And Sweden, Cheryl M. Botello

Theses

Boronia Women’s Pre-release Centre (Boronia) is a minimum-security level correctional facility located in Perth, Western Australia. Boronia has adopted a progressive/open imprisonment approach to incarceration that is fairly unique within the Southern Hemisphere. This thesis examines Boronia as a progressive/open prison via an illustrative case study analysis and investigates if it does produce a recidivism rate that is comparative to the international progressive/open prison sector. Boronia’s facilities, policies, programs and recidivism rates, are reviewed against two international progressive/open women’s prisons - “Ravneberget” in Norway, and “Ystad” in Sweden. Scandinavian prisons were chosen, as they are known for producing some of …

Communion Ecclesiology And Communication In The Post-Vatican Ii Church, Marita Winters

Theses

From the time of the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) there has been a recovery of the understanding of the nature of the Church as communion. The communion of the Church is derived from the divine love between the three Persons of the Trinity and gives rise to communion among the faithful. It is evident in scripture and was understood by the early Church. This shift in ecclesiology underpinned the renewal of the Church’s mission of evangelization in the years since the Council. The Church is called to go out to the whole world and tell the Good News of Jesus …

A Comparative-Historical Analysis Of Cross-Cultural Influences Affecting The Evolving Of Christian Marriage In The First Century Ce, Kevin Smith

Theses

Anecdotal evidence and media discussions indicate that today formal marriage is not deemed necessary to cement a conjugal relationship. Many nominally Christian countries such as France, Germany, the U.K., Ireland and Australia have given de facto relationships the same or similar legal standing as formal marriages. In addition, the legitimacy of children born of de facto liaisons is no longer a contested issue. We are living in a time of important social change.

Similarly, the Roman world of the first century was experiencing great social change, including issues surrounding marriage and the bearing and raising of children. This investigation examines …

The Modification Of Two Tools To Measure Emotional Intelligence In Undergraduate Student Nurses: A Mixed Method Pilot Study, Laurel Collin

Theses

Nurses need a range of strategies to manage their clinical practice while helping patients to cope with their health problems. Stress and inefficient coping skills of student nurses have been shown to lead to attrition within the university and later, on graduation, in the workplace. Student nurses can learn some of these strategies as they are expected to cope with issues associated with the practical nature of nursing, university demands and home life. One strategy offered is the use of emotional intelligence (EI). An ability to monitor and regulate emotions may contribute to an increase in the repertoire of coping …

The Effectiveness Of Low Intensity Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Li-Cbt) On Reducing Symptoms Of Depression In Arab Clients, Safa Ali Bait Jameel

Theses

This study examines whether an awareness of LI-CBT skills would result into the reduction of symptoms of depression in Arab clients. The study exclusively applies two techniques, behavioral activation (BA) and cognitive restructuring (CR), to clients of varying levels of depression residing in the United Arab Emirates. Utilizing a pre-test-post-test design, 50 participants (25treatment and 25control) were included in the analyses of the study and level of depression was measured using the PHQ-9. Results indicate that 76 percent of participants in the treatment group showed improvement in their level of depression, when compared to 30.4 percent of participants in the …

Writing Behaviors And Critical Thinking Styles: The Case Of Blended Learning, Zahra Ahmadpour, Reza Khaasteh

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The advent in technology has shown that the individual differences and cognitive styles influence the way the process of writing transpires . Setting up the quasi-experimental study, the researchers sought to explore the writing behaviors of EFL learners in a blended learning environment in the light of critical thinking styles. To this end, 30 advanced language students took part in the four weeks experiment of this study. They were asked to write texts based on the provided information presented by the online module, designed by the researchers. Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (CTA) was used to measure the students’ critical thinking …

The Theoretical Framework Of Teacher Collaboration, Lyailya Shakenova

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

In this study the focus will be on the existing literature about teacher collaboration.Firstly, the notion of collaboration in education and forms of collaborative culture will be outlined.Then the benefits and drawbacks of teacher collaboration will be discussed.The next step will outline the factors which restrict collaboration.Finally, factors which help to improve effective collaboration will be examined, which are divided into two main areas as structural conditions and interpersonal dynamics

English Language Textbooks In Efl Education: Do They Improve Students’ National, International And Target Culture Familiarity?, Reza Abbasian, Reza Biria

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate English language textbooks of grade 7, 8 and 9 in theIranian Pedagogical curriculum to see to what extent students are exposed to national, international and target cultural familiar content in their classes. As Gurkan (2012) and Ganjabi (2014) say students who are familiar to cultural content of the target language have better reading comprehension scores than those who lack familiarity to target language cultural content. Since culturally familiar content of language in international and target level increases learners‟ comprehension almost in all skills, textbooks are one of their real manifestations in …

Quality Of Human Resources In Europe Measured By Selected Indicators Of Human Potenti, Slavomir Bucher

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The paper deals with regional differentiation of human resources and its determinants identified by selected indicators of human potential. The selection of correct and relevant indicators has a key role in the identification and measurement of human potential. The aim of the study is to outline causal and determinant relationship (the relation and the level of dependence) in the spatial differentiation of human resources in Europe and approaches to their interpretation. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the link between human potential and quality or inequality of life and its effect on population from a demographic viewpoint. …

Fragments Of Azerbaijan-Russian Literary Relations: On Sergei Yesenin’S Baku Visits, Isaxan Isaxanli

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

This article is devoted to Sergei Yesenin’s meetings while he visited Baku in 1924-1925; it explores his relations with Azerbaijani intellectuals, poets and writers. Here we also carry out analysis on the socio-political scene of the period during Yesenin’s sojourn to Baku. The article clarifies points related to Yesenin’s meeting with famous singer of Azerbaijan, JabbarGaryaghdioglu, as well as with popular Azerbaijani poet, AliaghaVahid, the events of which have been the subject of debate.Although many researchers consider the latter meeting to be a fact, the article emphasizes that there is no historical document to prove it. The article also contains …

Assessment Of Training Needs For Teaching At The Elementary Schools In Saudi Arabia, Feras Mohammed Al-Madani

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The study aimed to identify Arabic language teachers' training needs in teaching my beautiful language Textbook with regards to lesson plan, its implementation and evaluation in investigating the statistically significant differences in training needs related to gender differences, years of experience, and number of training courses attendance at the primary level in Arar, Saudi Arabia. The study employed descriptive statistics to describe mean scores of the samples, standard deviation and ANCOVA to determine the statistically significant differences among the respondents. The study tool consisted of (46) item which was divided into three areas namely; planning, implementation and evaluation. The samples …

A ‘Thick Description’ Genre Analysis Of Death Announcement Notices, Farzad Salahshour

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

As a universally recognized social practice, the discourse of the Death Announcement Notice, henceforth DAN, is subject to macro-cultural and micro-contextual influences, and consequently to various procedural strategies that shape its schematic structure. A ‘thick description’, one which combines outsider theoretical models with insider experiential knowledge was adopted for the analysis of a randomly compiled corpus of 50 DAN texts. Based on Swales’ (1990) model of genre, eight schematic moves were discerned. The researcher’s insider knowledge was employed to yield a deeper understanding of this social practice

Teachers’ Understanding-Check Practices And Learners’ Following Orientations In Efl Classroom Interaction: A Conversation Analytic Study, Sedigheh Karimpour, Baqer Yaqubi

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Classroom discourse is typically dominated by question and answer routines in which teachers ask most of the questions, a practice constituting one of the principal ways in which they control the discourse and push learners to contribute to classroom interaction (Brock, 1986; Walsh, 2006). Most of previous research on teachers’ questions mainly focused on identifying and discovering different question types which believed to be helpful in creating the opportunities for learners’ interactions. Drawing on conversation analysis through adopting socio-cultural perspective, this study, however, aims to examine how EFL learners orient to the teachers’ understanding-check questions in three sequential contexts (activity-boundary, …

Spatial Requirements For Elderly And Disabled People In The Frame Of Universal Design, Yavuz Arat

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The living areas and fulfilling all the requirements of these areas’ users are very important for designers. Space design for the old and disabled users in the scope of privileged individuals is important from this point. The situation of the privileged individual mass fulfilling their basic needs like shelter, education, working and entertainment in a physically and psychologically unlimited way unlike to the other individuals is exposed as the most important design problem. Designers must pay attention to the user desires and requirements while they design spaces. However, the desires and requirements of the changing/changed body structures of old and …

Reshaping The National Image Of Azerbaijan Through Nation Branding Endeavours, Sana Imran

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Every nation possesses a nation brand image, either with or without nation branding. A well thought out nation branding campaign can however, project a nation’s image and solicit global recognition. Such an endeavor concurrently instills a greater sense of belonging, self-determination and ideals of public communication in the domestic audience. The value of nation branding for tapping the economic potential of a nation remains arguable. In this paper, an effort is being made to understand how a developing country like Azerbaijan is accruing international recognition through apt utilization of nation branding tools. Strategic, conceptual and practically relevant aspects will be …

The Adaption Of Grice’S Maxims In Wole Soyinka’S Discourse In The Strong Breed, Shahram Afrougheh, Atefeh Lieaghat

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

This study tries to find the adoption of Grice’s Maxims in Soyinka's discourse in The Strong Breed (1962). In addition to, it seeks to find in which mutual conversations of all parts of drama the writer obeys Grice’s principles. Soyinka in this drama depicts how ritual and superstitious beliefs cover the social life.In Yoruba the village where the events occur; the villagers believe that before each New Year one strong and strange person should sacrify to purify the society for arriving in New Year.This idea conveys among the characters by reciprocal conversation. Since this play focuses on the real social …

“…Aspects Of My Life That I Am Trying To Understand Better”: Reinterpreting The Misinterpreted Mother In Doris Lessing’S Under My Skin And The Grass Is Singing, Rabia Ashraf

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

With the application of psychoanalytic and feminist tradition, the psychotherapeutic aspect of interpreting the mother, concept of motherhood and the phenomenon of mothering using feminist tradition is analyzed in this paper. Doris Lessing, through her self-representational writing, fictive protagonists (based on herself and her mother) and by declaring in the later part of her life that her mother was a personality that demanded more thinking, understanding and empathy on her part instead of repulsion, hatred and fear to be like her which is called matrophobia, it can be stated that this psychotherapy of matrophobia (Ashraf 77) is Lessing’s predominant concern …

Reliability Of Micro Mechanical Low Frequency Energy Harvesters For Implanted Cardiac Pacemakers, Sunny Jay

Theses

The aim of this project was to develop methods to assess the suitability and reliability of silicon-based piezoelectric micro-electro-mechanicai systems (MEMS) energy harvesters to capture the kinetic energy of the heartbeat in an implanted cardiac pacemaker. The major challenges of the work were that harvesters for vibration frequencies below 100 Hz have not been widely reported and the system requires reliable operation over a long lifetime. In this work device modelling was used for harvester design assessment. Experimental test methods and equipment were developed to produce data to validate the device models and to assess device reliability. A 2D analytical …