The aging experience of men and women in rural America is different than that of their urban counterparts. In this study, I identified key disparities in access to health care, mortality, and utilization of health care that result from geographic location. Foundational theories are discussed to illustrate that disparities can originate from historical societal behaviors. Secondary data and literary reviews create a combined qualitative and quantitative approach to explore the rural/urban divide, concluding that the potential for increased disparities as the aging population grows is very real and rural residents remain vulnerable to a poor(er) aging experience. Recommendations for policy and practice, as well as additional research, are made to address the conclusion.

Joint detection is vital for characterizing human pose and serves as a foundation for a wide range of computer vision applications such as physical training, health care, entertainment. This dissertation proposed two methods to detect joints in the human body for pose analysis. The first method detects joints by combining body model and automatic feature points detection together. The human body model maps the detected extreme points to the corresponding body parts of the model and detects the position of implicit joints. The dominant joints are detected after implicit joints and extreme points are located by a shortest path based methods. The main contribution of this work is a hybrid framework to detect joints on the human body to achieve robustness to different body shapes or proportions, pose variations and occlusions. Another contribution of this work is the idea of using geodesic features of the human body to build a model for guiding the human pose detection and estimation. The second proposed method detects joints by segmenting human body into parts first and then detect joints by making the detection algorithm focusing on each limb. The advantage of applying body part segmentation first is that the body segmentation method narrows …

Frequent absences resulting from a chronic illness can disrupt adolescent school involvement, impacting academic achievement and psychosocial development as a result. This study explores whether certified child life specialists (CCLSs) could be a resource for parents as they address their adolescents' academic disruptions. Specifically, this study assesses an online training program designed to increase CCLSs' knowledge and self-efficacy as related to adolescents' academic adjustment following frequent absences. This knowledge and skill based training was designed as a three part module with sections including: academic considerations, psychosocial considerations, and availability of school resources in promoting successful adolescent academic adjustment. 62 CCLSs were recruited to participate and complete measures evaluating knowledge, in relation to content included in each module, and self-efficacy, involving communication with parents in regards to adolescent academic adjustment. T-tests were conducted to determine whether there were differences in reports of self-efficacy and knowledge following participation in the intervention between and within the treatment and control groups. Results indicate statistical significance for enhanced knowledge and self-efficacy for the treatment group at post-test. Therefore, the outcomes from this study support the effectiveness of brief online training in fostering knowledge and feelings of efficacy for CCLSs in a context not typically included …

The goal of this project completed for the Greater Northfield Sustainability Collaborative (GNSC) was to understand how Northfield, Minnesota citizens are experiencing climate change. Thirty individuals were interviewed to find out what they know about climate change, what actions they are taking, what they think the solutions are to the problems, and what barriers they have to more fully engaging with climate change issues. The interview results are intended to promote and advance the community's discussion on climate change via social learning and community engagement activities such as town hall forums and community surveys. These activities encourage citizens in the community to have direct input into the development of the community's climate action plan (CAP). Analysis of the interviews showed that the interviewees are witnessing climate change, that most are taking at least some action such as recycling or lowering thermostats, that they can name barriers to their own inaction, that they say communication about climate change remains confusing and is not widespread in Northfield, and that they are able to provide numerous suggestions for what the local and broader leadership should be doing. The analysis also showed wide individual variation within the group. Interviewees who were less knowledgeable about …

The purpose of this study was to explore the role and impact of adventure therapy (AT) on student development and to identify the greatest challenges to the implementation of AT in schools. The Delphi method was used to generate consensus of opinion within a group of experts in the field of adventure therapy and school counseling. Purposive sampling was used to identify the members of the expert panel and the definition of consensus was set at 80% for each item. Content and descriptive analysis were used to develop representative statements from participant responses between rounds. Ten Caucasian respondents, 6 men and 4 women, having met at least one of the expert criteria for the study, completed three rounds of participation which resulted in the attainment of consensus on 36 items addressing the role of adventure therapy in school counseling and the impact of AT in the areas of academic/career and social/emotional development. Twelve challenges to the implementation of AT in schools were identified and put in rank order. According to the results, experts believe adventure therapy has the greatest impact on social connectedness, problem solving, and student engagement in schools. Access to appropriate training in AT, administrative support, and funding …

The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of charter schools on African-American students, this study sought to determine if the practice of connectedness, alignment, rigor, and engagement (C.A.R.E.) influenced academic outcomes. The research methodology employed a meta-analysis in conjunction with a systematic review as a cross-reference and to address variables not covered in the meta-analysis. Utilizing a meta-analysis allowed for a synthesis of the existing quantitative published data to consolidate the results. This produced a specific report of achievement data for African-American students. The results revealed that regardless of region, subject, type of assessment, or school focus charter school do positively influence African-American students' academic outcomes. This study also found the practices connectedness, alignment, rigor, and engagement, the C.A.R.E. model when employed in schools improve academic outcomes, especially when combined and implemented with best practices.

The purpose of this investigation (a quasi-experimental design called a non-equivalent design group (NEDG)) was to determine if allowing students in a science majors general Chemistry I course the choice in establishing the due dates that their homework was due to the instructor would improve course averages. This study covered two semesters with a total of 288 students participating with n = 158 in the fall and n = 130 in the spring. The students self-selected the homework group, VOICES, that best fit his/her needs which included (1) the instructor's homework schedule, (2) a student-customized schedule or a schedule that followed the exam schedule, or (3) all homework due by the last class day prior to the final exam. Online homework was assigned and graded with individual assignment and homework average grades collected and analyzed. No statistically significant differences were found among the VOICES groups with respect to final course average. Other results of this study replicated findings in the literature; namely, that there is a higher correlation between mathematics skills and course success. Course averages of students who had completed Calculus I or higher were statistically significantly higher than students with less completed mathematics coursework in all VOICES groups. …

NiTi-based shape memory alloys (SMAs) offer a good combination of high-strength, ductility, corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility that has served them well and attracted the attention of many researchers and industries. The alloys unique thermo-mechanical ability to recover their initial shape after relatively large deformations by heating or upon unloading due to a characteristic reversible phase transformation makes them useful as damping devices, solid state actuators, couplings, etc. However, there is a need to increase the temperature of the characteristic phase transformation above 150 °C, especially in the aerospace industry where high temperatures are often seen. Prior researchers have shown that adding ternary elements (Pt, Pd, Au, Hf and Zr) to NiTi can increase transformation temperatures but most of these additions are extremely expensive, creating a need to produce cost-effective high temperature shape memory alloys (HTSMAs). Thus, the main objective of this research is to examine the relatively unstudied NiTiZr system for the ability to produce a cost effective and formable HTSMA. Transformation temperatures, precipitation paths, processability, and high-temperature oxidation are examined, specifically using high energy X-ray Diffraction (XRD) measurements, in NiTi-20 at.% Zr. This is followed by an in situ XRD study of the phase growth kinetics of the favorable …

Eukaryotic platelets are small cell fragments that are released into the bloodstream from megakaryocytes, and their production is initiated in the bone marrow. They are mainly involved in blood hemostasis and thrombus formation. The newly synthesized platelets are called reticulated platelets or young platelets. Zebrafish thrombocytes are equivalent to mammalian platelets and have similar characteristics and functions. Likewise, zebrafish has both young and mature thrombocytes. Only young thrombocytes as reticulated platelets are labeled with thiazole orange. Similarly, labeling zebrafish thrombocytes with a specific concentration of DiI-C18 showed two populations of thrombocytes (DiI+ and DiI-). Again, only young thrombocytes showed DiI+ labeling. The mechanism of selective labeling of young thrombocytes by is unknown. Furthermore, there is no zebrafish line where young and mature thrombocytes are differentially labeled with fluorescence proteins. Therefore, in this study, we identified and confirmed that the RFP labeled cells of Glofish were young thrombocytes. In addition, we found that myosin light chain 2 (MLC2) promoter is expressed in young thrombocytes. We also generated a transgenic zebrafish line, GloFli fish, where the young and mature thrombocytes are labeled with red and green fluorescence proteins respectively. Furthermore, this study showed a two-fold increase in glycerol-phospholipids (GP) in mature thrombocytes …

This study applied the impression management theory in the context of social networking to investigate the generalized research question of this dissertation which is "Do active social media presence and various privacy concerns influence online behaviors of students on social media?" The results and conclusions are presented via the conduct of three different studies and the summary provides insights and explain the overall contribution of the research. For each study we developed a research model for which data was collected separately for each of these models. Hypotheses of each model were tested by partial least squares- structural equation modeling techniques using SmartPLS 2.0. Our findings confirm the hypotheses and showed that all the predictors positively influence online social networking behaviors. Active social media presence is operationalized as predictors such as SNS stalking awareness, Selective disclosure, desired differential persona, impression motivation, and information trustworthiness. Privacy concerns have been operationalized as SNS privacy awareness, technology awareness. Online behaviors have been operationalized as responsible image and reckless image.

In this thesis, I analyze some of the most important contributions concerning the inclusion of animals in the moral and political sphere. Moving from these positions, I suggest that a meaningful consideration of animals' sentience demands a profound, radical political theory which considers animals as moral patients endowed with specific capabilities whose actualization needs to be allowed and/or promoted. Such theory would take human-animal different types of relationships into account to decide what kind of ethical and political responsibilities humans have towards animals. It would be also based on the assumption that animals' sentience is the necessary and sufficient feature for assigning moral status. I start from the consideration that in the history of political philosophy, most theorists have excluded animals from the realm of justice. I then propose an examination of utilitarianism, capabilities approach, and relational-based theories of animal rights (in particular the works by Kymlicka and Donaldson, and Clare Palmer) and borrow essential elements from each of these approaches to build my theory. I claim that a political theory which attaches high importance to individual capabilities, as well as to the various types of relationships we have with animals, is the most appropriate to tackle the puzzle of …

The main goal of this research has been to investigate elderly people's needs, perceptions, fears, hopes, and expectation regarding elderly care, including ethical issues linked to assistive technologies. As faith seems to take an important place in how some elders face the aging process, the spiritual dimension was also included. Therefore, the research was conducted among 15 church congregants. Results show that most respondents fear the physical and mental decay due to aging, often resulting in becoming a burden to someone else, along with abandonment and lack of financial resources. Most ethnic groups perceive that other cultures take better care of their elders than their own. Faith seems to offer a great support, as it gives the confidence that divine power will always be there for them even beyond death. The respondents in this research suggest that guidance should be provided in a more structured way, more focus should go on the youth and the elderly, more activities should be organized and practical information should be shared. Regarding the ethical issues of assistive technologies, they are not well informed about their possibilities but acknowledge their potential usefulness, combined with human care. They don't want technology to be too intrusive in …

This dissertation is devoted to study of complex systems in human physiology particularly heartbeats and brain dynamics. We have studied the dynamics of heartbeats that has been a subject of investigation of two independent groups. The first group emphasized the multifractal nature of the heartbeat dynamics of healthy subjects, whereas the second group had established a close connection between healthy subjects and the occurrence of crucial events. We have analyzed the same set of data and established that in fact the heartbeats are characterized by the occurrence of crucial and Poisson events. An increase in the percentage of crucial events makes the multifractal spectrum broader, thereby bridging the results of the former group with the results of the latter group. The crucial events are characterized by a power index that signals the occurrence of 1/f noise for complex systems in the best physiological condition. These results led us to focus our analysis on the statistical properties of crucial events. We have adopted the same statistical analysis to study the statistical properties of the heartbeat dynamics of subjects practicing meditation. The heartbeats of people doing meditation are known to produce coherent fluctuations. In addition to this effect, we made the surprising …

Human body is a complex system organized at different levels such as cells, tissues and organs, which contributes to 11 important organ systems. The functional efficiency of this complex system is evaluated as health. Traditional healthcare is unable to accommodate everyone's need due to the ever-increasing population and medical costs. With advancements in technology and medical research, traditional healthcare applications are shaping into smart healthcare solutions. Smart healthcare helps in continuously monitoring our body parameters, which helps in keeping people health-aware. It provides the ability for remote assistance, which helps in utilizing the available resources to maximum potential. The backbone of smart healthcare solutions is Internet of Things (IoT) which increases the computing capacity of the real-world components by using cloud-based solutions. The basic elements of these IoT based smart healthcare solutions are called "things." Things are simple sensors or actuators, which have the capacity to wirelessly connect with each other and to the internet. The research for this dissertation aims in developing architectures for these things, focusing on IoT-based smart healthcare solutions. The core for this dissertation is to contribute to the research in smart healthcare by identifying applications which can be monitored remotely. For this, application-specific thing architectures …

Nanoparticles, simple yet groundbreaking objects have led to the discovery of invaluable information due to their physiological, chemical, and physical properties, have become a hot topic in various fields of study including but not limited to chemistry, biology, and physics. In the work presented here, demonstrations of various applications of chemical free nanoparticles are explored, from the determination of a non-invasive method for the study of the exposome via using soft-landing ion mobility (SLIM) deposited nanoparticles as a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI-MS) matrix replacement, to the direct SLIM-exposure of nanoparticles onto living organisms. While there is plenty of published work in soft-landing at operating pressures of 1 Torr, the work presented here shows how this technology can be operated at the less common ambient pressure. The ease of construction of this instrument allows for various modifications to be performed for a wide array of applications, furthermore the flexibility in metallic sample, operating pressure, and deposition time only open doors to many other future applications. The work presented will also show that our ambient SLIM system is also able to be operated for toxicological studies, as the operation at ambient pressure opens the door to new applications where vacuum conditions are …

This thesis aims to utilize data analysis and predictive modeling techniques and apply them in different domains for gaining insights. The topics were chosen keeping the same in mind. Analysis of customer interests is a crucial factor in present marketing trends and hence we worked on twitter data which is a significant part of digital marketing. Neuroscience, especially psychological behavior, is an important research area. We chose eye tracking data based on which we differentiated human concentration while watching controllable (video game) videos and uncontrollable (sports) videos. Currently, cities are using data analysis for becoming smart cities. We worked on the City of Lewisville emergency services data and predicted the vehicle-accident-prone areas for development of precautionary measures in those areas.

Articulation is an element of musical performance that affects the attack, sustain, and the decay of each sound. Musical articulation facilitates the degree of clarity between successive notes and it is one of the most important elements of musical expression. Many believe that the expressive capabilities of percussion instruments, when it comes to musical articulation, are limited. Because the characteristic attack for most percussion instruments is sharp and clear, followed by a quick decay, the common misconception is that percussionists have little or no control over articulation. While the ability of percussionists to affect the sustain and decay of a sound is by all accounts limited, the ability of percussionists to change the attack of a sound with different implements is virtually limitless. In addition, where percussion articulation is limited, there are many techniques that allow performers to match articulation with other instruments. Still, percussion articulation is often a topic of little concern to many musicians. The problem is not that this issue has been completely ignored, but rather that a vast number of contradictory and conflicting viewpoints still permeate pedagogical methods and literature. This is most certainly the case with the marimba, where a review of method books reveals …

This dissertation applies philosopher Henri Bergson's methodology and his ideas of duration and creativity to the definitional problem of art, particularly as formulated within analytic aesthetics. In mid-20th century, analytic aesthetics rejected essentialist definitions of art, but within a decade, two predominant definitions of art emerged as answers to the anti-essentialism of the decade prior: functionalism and proceduralism. These two definitions define art, respectively, in terms of the purpose that art serves and in terms of the conventions in place that confer the status of art onto artifacts. Despite other important definitions (including historical and intentionalist definitions), much of the literature in the analytic field of aesthetics center on the functional/procedural dichotomy, and this dichotomy is an exclusive one insofar as the two definitions appear incompatible with each other when it comes to art. I use Bergson's methodology to demonstrate that the tension between functionalism and proceduralism is an artificial one. In turn, abandoning the strict dichotomy between these two definitions of art opens the way for a more fluid conception of art. Using Bergson's application of duration and creativity to problems of laughter and morality, I draw parallels to what a Bergsonian characterization would entail.

An artificially structured boundary (ASB) produces a short-range, static electromagnetic field that can reflect charged particles. In the work presented, an ASB is considered to consist of a spatially periodic arrangement of electrostatically plugged magnetic cusps. When used to create an enclosed volume, an ASB may confine a non-neutral plasma that is effectively free of applied electromagnetic fields, provided the spatial period of the ASB-applied field is much smaller than any one dimension of the confinement volume. As envisioned, a non-neutral positron plasma could be confined by an ASB along its edge, and the space-charge of the positron plasma would serve to confine an antiproton plasma. If the conditions of the two-species plasma are suitable, production of antihydrogen via three-body recombination for antimatter gravity studies may be possible. A classical trajectory Monte Carlo (CTMC) simulation suite has been developed in C++ to efficiently simulate charged particle interactions with user defined electromagnetic fields. The code has been used to explore several ASB configurations, and a concept for a cylindrically symmetric ASB trap that employs a picket-fence magnetic field has been developed. Particle-in-cell (PIC) modeling has been utilized to investigate the confinement of non-neutral and partially neutralized positron plasmas in the trap.

A brief reading assessment and preference assessment were conducted with three participants with developmental and learning disabilities (i.e., two participants were diagnosed with Autism, the third participant was diagnosed with intellectual disability) who did not acquire fluent reading in previous individualized instruction. The results of the brief reading assessment were analyzed in an alternating treatment design and a preference assessment was conducted to determine the participants' preferred reading intervention. Following the results of the two assessments, a reading intervention that matched effectiveness with preference when possible or favored effectiveness when a match was not possible. The selected interventions (and later combined interventions) were implemented for each participant using an A-B-A-C or an A-B-A-C-D design. The results suggest that the four reading strategies are effective options for improving reading fluency. Also, a brief reading assessment can help identify an effective reading strategy. The results are discussed in the context of fluency gains, limitations, and implications for future research.

As epidemiologic research demonstrates health concerns for hand problems among pianists, scientists are measuring historic piano keyboards and realizing that much of the piano literature was composed for and played on pianos with smaller keys compared to what is used on the modern piano. Having to play this literature on a larger keyboard is especially difficult for small-handed piano students and professionals. Fortunately, smaller keyboards are now available for use with standard pianos - and research shows that this ergonomic adjustment does reduce piano-related hand pain for small-handed musicians. Major universities are now offering this option to students, but only a few music schools possess these keyboards and not many people know about them. There are no known research studies to address people's awareness and attitude toward ergonomically scaled piano keyboards (ESPKs). The purpose of this study was to assess perception and attitude toward ESPKs and help to raise its awareness. To examine pianists' perception, two surveys was composed. First one was conducted on UNT campus in which ESPKs are available for their students, and the second survey was carried out on schools of music in the United States. The results reveal that substantial number of people already know about …

Behavioral skills training (BST) is often used to train caregivers to implement various behavior management procedures; however, additional strategies are sometimes required to promote the generalization of skills from a contrived setting to the natural environment. Generalizing skills to the natural environment requires that the caregiver's behavior transfer from control of stimuli in the contrived setting to stimuli in the natural environment, and the skill continues to be performed with high levels of accuracy. The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which caregivers generalized the use of social reinforcement, in the form of descriptive praise, from the contrived setting to the natural environment. When caregivers failed to respond to opportunities, a progressive prompt delay was used to bring caregivers' responding under the control of relevant client behavior; feedback was used to improve the accuracy with which caregivers implemented reinforcement. Five caregivers in a large residential facility participated in the study; single-opportunity probes were used to assess caregiver's identification of opportunities and accuracy in implementing reinforcement for two defined client behaviors, compliance and appropriate attention-getting behavior. Results of the study suggest that skills failed to generalize from the contrived setting to the natural environment. However, prompting was …

This investigation was a post-hoc, quantitative analysis of secondary academic performance and participation choices of Hispanic students. Three years of longitudinal student-level data was collected to examine the likelihood of college enrollment based on college and career readiness (CCR) factors. At the time of the study, CCR was defined as qualifying exam scores, credit for at least two advanced/dual enrollment courses, or enrollment in a career and technology education (CTE) coherent sequence of courses. Research participants (N = 803) consisted solely of Hispanic high school graduates from the 2014 cohort. Frequency statistics indicate 45.5% (n = 365) attended an institute of higher education (IHE) within 2 years of high school graduation. Findings reveal Hispanic females were more likely than Hispanic males to meet CCR indicators as well as postsecondary resiliency outcomes. Analysis of chi-square tests of independence suggests a moderately strong association exists between CCR indicators and postsecondary participation among high school graduates. Differences were found in terms of gender and postsecondary enrollment, x^2(6) = 24.538, p < .001. Differences were also found in terms of type of IHE and postsecondary resiliency, x^2(3) = 34.373, p < .001. More Hispanic CCR graduates enrolled at 2-year and 4-year IHE than expected …

The present study aims to examine which maladaptive and Big Five personality traits, as well as which lower order facets, are related to symptoms specific to PTSD (i.e., intrusions and avoidance). Unique effects were isolated by controlling for nonspecific general depression that occurs in the disorder but is not specific to it. 707 undergraduate students were administered a self-report online survey to assess their personality, trauma history, PTSD and mood symptoms. Additionally, data from 536 9/11 World Trade Center (WTC) responders who have been administered personality, PTSD, and mood surveys as part of a longitudinal study were analyzed. As expected, neuroticism was highly correlated with PTSD, but had fewer associations with PTSD dimensions after controlling for depression. Trust and agreeableness emerged as important, being negatively related to PTSD, while most maladaptive personality domains and facets were positively related to PTSD (perceptual dysregulation had the highest association). Other traits, such as antagonism and openness, were not significantly related to PTSD. There is growing evidence that clinical interventions can change personality traits; the present study provides new personality targets for intervention that are uniquely related to PTSD.