MacEwan Open Journals (MacEwan University)
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Branding Your Brain: How Internal Branding Creates Unsafe Work Conditions
No full textIndividuals\u27 identities are influenced by the social systems they belong to and, therefore, the organizations they work for (Allen, 2005, p. 35; Ashman & Gibson, 2010, p. 133). Many organizations attempt to influence employees’ actions through internal branding (Handelman, 2009, p. 51; Mesmer-Magnus, 2012, para. 5, Mitchell, 2002, pp. 100-105). Internal branding may include the use of manipulation through marketing to influence employees’ values and perceptions of the organization (Handelman, 2009, p. 51; Mesmer-Magnus, 2012, para. 5, Mitchell, 2002, pp. 100-105). Since social systems influence social identity, internal branding that uses manipulation may influence individual identity (Allen, 2005, pp. 35-36). Internal branding also includes the organization requiring employees to adopt brand-congruent behaviours in their interactions (Löhndorf & Diamantopoulos, 2014, Employee Brand-Building Behaviors section, para. 2). Brand-congruent behaviours usually require emotional labour, which has been shown to have psychological and physical ramifications (Mesmer-Magnus et al., 2012, ‘Discordant emotional states’ section). Internal branding is also expected of employees outside of work due to social media surveillance by their organization (Jeske & Shultz, 2016; Madera, 2012, as cited in Sutherland et al., 2019). This paper explores the existing scholarship to understand the impact of internal branding on the identity of employees and how it could create mentally unsafe working conditions for employees
Massage Therapy for Ankle Mobility and Spasticity in an Adult with Cerebral Palsy: A Case Report
No full textBackground: Cerebral palsy (CP) refers to a group of permanent neurologic disorders associated with injury to the brain during its development. The most common type of CP is spastic CP. Individuals with spastic CP commonly present with increased deep tendon reflexes, tremors, muscular hypertonicity, and weakness. Treatment aims to manage primary and secondary symptoms of CP and improve quality of life.
Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of massage therapy in increasing ankle mobility and decreasing spasticity in a patient with spastic CP.
Method: A student massage therapist at MacEwan University administered five massage therapy treatments over six weeks on a 55-year-old female with spastic diplegic CP. The treatment goals were to increase ankle mobility and decrease spasticity in the knee extensors that negatively impacted the patient’s ability to don socks and shoes. Progress was monitored using goniometry pre- and post-treatments to assess ankle mobility, and the Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) to assess spasticity. The MAS was administered before the third, fourth, fifth, and final sessions. Techniques included static contact, effleurage, broad compressions, petrissage, muscle stripping, Golgi tendon organ release, muscle approximation, joint mobilizations, and passive range of motion.
Results: Ankle mobility increased. Spasticity in the knee extensors decreased, but the change was not clinically significant.
Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that massage therapy may improve ankle mobility and decrease spasticity in a patient with spastic CP.
Faculty Mentors: Pamela Cushing & Jeff Moggac
Kepler\u27s Blooms: \u27erbs of the earth
No full textThe inspiration of the project, “Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch” is a novel written about the trial of Katharina Kepler, set in the 17th century. When she is accused of being a witch, she must defend herself through her son, a mathematician and scientist, and her neighbor Simon. The story follows themes such as truth vs lies, and natural vs supernatural. Katharina as a character strives to be rooted in the real world, going against the tales of supernatural deeds, and believes strongly in the power of the natural world which can be seen in her many herbal remedies.
The product is a collection of herbal information cards with recipes included, intended to educate the reader on the many uses of everyday herbs. It is a modern take on the herbs that Katharina uses in many of her remedies, aiming to show the importance and benefits of learning about the natural world around you. They show Katharina’s need to be grounded in reality, her desire to help people as best she can, and how much she treasures this knowledge. Throughout the story, she uses herbs to treat physical ailments, but in such a way that feels as though she is also battling the vile nature of the lies surrounding her trial by finding respite in the truths of nature.
Faculty Mentor: Constanza Pacher 
Examining parent-child play types, duration, and engagement with loose parts: How parental income, educational attainment, and children’s age and cognitive functioning shape loose parts play
No full textChildren’s access to play materials can significantly account for the social stratification of knowledge and achievement gap among low-, middle- and high-income children. Since disposable income enables purchasing stimulating toys and materials, low-income families often cannot afford these ‘non-essentials.’ Professionals working with children in impoverished homes typically find few toys available. There are many calls to enrich young children’s indoor play, experimentation, and learning through Loose Parts Play. Loose Parts Play is unique, involving open-ended materials (e.g., cardboard, sticks, pipes, beads) generally not intended for play. Many policymakers and professionals explicitly endorse loose parts to facilitate child development and learning. However, despite extensive public and educational recommendations, empirical research on how young children engage in loose parts play is minimal. Our exploratory study investigated 40 parent-child dyads’ and how the play material type (loose parts vs. single-purpose toys) influenced young children’s play types, duration, and engagement while controlling for parental income and educational attainment, children’s cognitive functioning and age at the time of testing. Preliminary results demonstrated the main effects of play material and age in duration and play types with loose parts. Executive function and parental education were predictors of children’s play engagement and duration.
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ozlem Cankaya 
Synthesis and evaluation of molecular hydrogels: Chemistry Practicum with the Nanotechnology research center
No full textThe broad application of hydrogels makes their commercial, pharmaceutical, and industrial markets a multi-billion dollar industry, that with advancements can change our world for the better. The Nanotechnology research center (NRC) is a government-owned and operated institution focusing on many projects one of which is synthesizing and evaluating hydro gelator compounds. As a chemistry internship practicum student (CHEM 497) from Jan 2023-April 2023 I have been working as an Intern at the NRC. I will present my internship work on the synthesis of 5 caping groups and dipeptides which were linked together via elimination reactions to form hydrogelators.
I will also showcase the technical and practical skills I acquired during the internship which will be integral to my career in chemistry. For example, in terms of technical skills, I have refined many foundational techniques needed for successful organic synthesis. Additionally, I have spent a great deal of time learning to troubleshoot reactions and optimizing procedures which have sharpened my critical thinking skills and chemistry knowledge. Moreover, I have developed many professional skills essential to any prosperous career. Among these skills are networking, professional and scientific communication, and industry-relevant professionalism. Therefore this practicum has been a catalyst for my professional and scientific growth. I will highlight my internship journey in the presentation.
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Samuel Mugo 
A Comparison of Student Achievement Across Pedagogical Modalities
No full textRecent research provides evidence that students’ active participation in course activities creates stronger connections and enables deeper levels of information processing and learning compared to passive teaching and learning methods (Nurbavliyev et al., 2022). The present study investigated the effect of active learning (i.e., class activities) vs passive learning (i.e., lecture) on academic performance, and whether this effect was influenced by student characteristics. We hypothesized that students in the active learning group would perform better on multiple choice exam questions than students in the passive learning group. We further hypothesized that students with text anxiety would benefit more from active vs passive learning in terms of exam performance.
Participants were students enrolled in hybrid (with activities) or in-person (lecture-based) PSYC 105 courses at MacEwan University. Our sample size for our analyses related to academic performance included 24 participants, 14 from the active group and 10 from the passive group. Our sample size for our correlational analyses included 97 participants. Participants filled out questionnaires assessing personality, self-regulation, procrastination, and test anxiety. They attended their regular Psychology course throughout the semester and completed their course exams. Our results show that students in the active learning condition performed better on standardized multiple choice questions than students in the passive learning condition. We also found a moderately positive relationship between procrastination and test anxiety, and neuroticism and test anxiety. These results illustrate the potential benefits of universities offering more opportunities for active learning to help improve students’ academic performance.
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Michele Moscicki 
Calculating Risk: Sexual Behaviour as a Consequence of Personality, mating orientation, and alcohol consumption
No full textSexual Strategies Theory suggests people fall on a continuum between having short-term mating orientation (STMO) and long-term mating orientation. One way STMO individuals signal mating goals is via risky drinking. The current study I will be replicating therefore aims to investigate drinks per week (DPW) as a mediator between STMO and risky sexual behavior (RSB), with gender as a moderator between STMO and DPW.
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Lynne Honey 
Stressed and Stuck: How Can We Motivate Students to Use Effective Coping Strategies?
No full textUniversity students face high levels of stress and are not using adaptive coping strategies. We conducted a pilot study with 28 MacEwan University students to investigate student barriers to coping and what coping strategies they use. Almost half of our sample reported that they only sometimes try to cope with stress and many were not engaging in adaptive and effective coping techniques. The main barriers to coping that students reported were that they often forget to use coping strategies in the moment, are unaware they exist, they have not worked in the past, they have not been taught how to use them effectively, and they lack motivation and time to use them. Our study is designed to address these barriers by educating students about two fast and effective coping techniques (i.e., deep breathing and cognitive reappraisal) and using biofeedback to show the effectiveness of the techniques and increase their salience to make them memorable. Participants in the education groups performed a stress induction task before learning one of the two coping methods. Participants in the biofeedback groups also had their heart rate and blood pressure measured before and after engaging in the coping technique they learned. Pilot results indicate that the stress task was not effective at inducing stress. Preliminary evidence suggests that both deep breathing and cognitive reappraisal effectively reduce biofeedback markers. In the future, we will investigate whether a growth mindset, education, and biofeedback lead to increased use of the learned coping technique in the future.
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Michele Moscicki 
Surrogate Memory: A Leadership Remembering a Revolution for Egyptian
No full textEgypt’s revolution in 2011 has been remembered collectively as an integral event that combines with several uprisings in other Arab states in what is known as the Arab Spring. While the event may have marked a reprieve for Egyptians from the history of persecution that past generations had been subjected to by Egyptian governments, the revolution was unsuccessful in founding a new political era for Egypt. Of the wealth of factors resulting in these circumstances, the military government’s remembering of the event has served a new authoritarian administration well as it has secured their political supremacy and altered what the revolution symbolizes for the nation. Utilizing terms and ideas from collective memory theorists and analyzing crucial events from the aftermath of the revolution, it becomes clearer how challenging it is for a revolution to be commemorated in its original form. Initially, the revolution was seen as a political rebirth for Egypt. Instead, it represented a swift reclamation of the army’s seat of power in government and subsequent self-characterization as heroes of the revolution. Amongst other things, this analysis reveals how easily interpretations of collective memory can affect, and be affected by, macro-level events in the future
From Science to Scandal: The Impact of the Wakefield Studies on MMR Vaccine Acceptance
No full textVaccine hesitancy threatens the efficacy of immunization and public health. This paper provides an overview of the history and success of vaccine development, and the recent increase in vaccination conspiracies. Although vaccines have been proven effective, vaccine hesitancy is a complex phenomenon. The Wakefield studies is an example of how misinformation can cause lasting damage to public trust in vaccines and healthcare institutions. We can ensure that future generations remain protected from preventable diseases by approaching this issue with empathy and dispelling misinformation