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Effects of Multi-Sensory Training in Physical Activity on Reaction Time and Fitness in Elementary Students.
No full textAbstract This study examined the effects of multi-sensory Neuroplasticity training (MSNP™) using the ROXPro system on the psychomotor abilities of third-grade students in a Midwestern elementary school. The research aimed to determine whether the integration of interactive sensory-reactive technology in physical education could improve reaction time, agility, and explosive power compared to standard PE instruction. A total of 49 participants were assigned to either a control group or an intervention group, with the latter engaging in six weeks of ROX-based drills. A pretest-posttest design was employed, and data were analyzed using ANCOVA, repeated measures ANOVA, and independent t-tests to assess differences between groups while controlling for baseline performance. Results indicated that while the intervention group demonstrated improvement over time, there were no statistically significant differences between the control and intervention groups for any of the measured outcomes. Reaction time and agility scores improved similarly in both groups, suggesting that the ROXPro training did not produce a measurable advantage under the conditions and time frame of this study. These findings contribute to the growing body of literature on technology integration in physical education and underscore the importance of consistent movement experiences for young learners. Although the ROXPro system did not result in statistically significant improvements beyond those of standard instruction, its potential remains promising for future applications. Further research with larger sample sizes, longer intervention periods, and the inclusion of cognitive outcome measures is recommended to more fully explore the benefits of MSNP™ in school settings
Coastal Consumption: Diet and Social Organization at Four Postclassic Sites in the Yucatán Peninsula
No full textThis research examines Postclassic Maya food practices during CE 1200–1600 to understand how eating behaviors reflect systems of social hierarchy, political economy, and cultural identity. The investigation focuses on four archaeological sites in the northern Yucatán Peninsula—Tulum, El Rey, El Meco, and San Miguelito—to examine dietary behaviors through dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA), oral pathology, and stable isotope data within a biocultural framework. The research aims to identify whether elite and non-elite individuals exhibited notable variations in food texture consumption, access to resources, and nutritional health. High-resolution 3D surface metrology enabled DMTA to assess the mechanical properties of consumed foods, revealing short-term dietary fluctuations. Long-term nutritional stress was evaluated by analyzing dental caries and enamel hypoplasia. Carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis provided insights into protein sources from marine versus terrestrial environments, as well as distinctions between C₄ and C₃ plant consumption. Burial positioning, associated artifacts, and site-level data on political control and trade access were used to contextualize the biological indicators. This multi-proxy approach facilitated a detailed understanding of how diet functioned both biologically and symbolically within complex Maya social systems. The analysis reveals subtle but meaningful differences between elite and non-elite diets, despite minimal statistically significant distinctions. Higher-status individuals may have consumed foods that required different preparation techniques or had access to more nutritionally diverse options, as indicated by microwear texture and pathology data. Lower-status individuals exhibited slight indicators of increased physiological stress. These differences demonstrate how political control, trade connections, and household-level food availability shaped daily life and reinforced social inequality. This research contributes to ongoing debates in bioarcheology and Mesoamerican archaeology by showing how small-scale dietary differences, when interpreted in context, can reveal broader patterns of social differentiation and survival strategies. Food functioned as both a material necessity and a symbolic medium through which political-economic systems were maintained and, at times, contested. The integration of new microwear data with existing isotopic and archaeological evidence provides a more refined understanding of how ancient Maya societies negotiated status, identity, and subsistence through practices of consumption
Refining the Geochronologic Framework of the Early Cretaceous Nonmarine Western Interior Basin, USA
No full textThe Early to mid-Cretaceous marks a period of dynamic shifts in tectonism, depositional environments, climate, and biota across the mid-North American continent. However, despite their importance for understanding crucial biotic and geologic transitions during this period, nonmarine Early Cretaceous strata of the Western Interior Basin (WIB) remain poorly constrained geochronologically. Radiometric dating of syndepositional detrital minerals, such as ash-fall zircon, offers a solution to refining geochronologic frameworks. However, a magmatic lull in the Cordilleran magmatic arc during the Early Cretaceous limited the delivery of syndepositional zircon to the WIB, impeding such refinement. In this dissertation, I developed and tested new methods for enhancing syndepositional zircon recovery based on grain morphology and depositional settings within Early Cretaceous deposits of the WIB. I then applied tandem LA-ICP-MS and CA-TIMS zircon U-Pb geochronology to build a geochronologic framework for seven key Early Cretaceous sections within the WIB. In Chapter 3, I show that handpicking sharply faceted detrital zircon increases the likelihood of encountering first-cycle zircon and yields maximum depositional age estimates closer to the true depositional age. This method is evaluated through intra-sample comparisons of randomly selected versus handpicked zircon separates from 30 samples within and outside the WIB. Results show an ~9-fold increase in the abundance of syndepositional zircon in handpicked samples compared to randomly analyzed zircon. In Chapter 4, I evaluate the hypothesis that targeting fine-grained lithologies deposited in low-energy settings enhances the recovery of syndepositional zircon compared to coarse-grained samples. Results from 16 samples of the Early Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation indicate that fine-grained samples contain an ~8-fold increase in the abundance of syndepositional zircon, likely due to the better preservation of ash-fall zircon in low-energy depositional settings that lack fluvial reworking or dilution. In Chapter 5, I integrate the results from Chapter 3-4 by using detrital zircon CA-TIMS U-Pb dates and other geochronological constraints to construct Bayesian age models for the Yucca, Cedar Mountain, Cloverly, Kootenai, and Blackleaf formations. These age models constrain depositional timing and reveal key stratigraphic hiatuses within these formations. Notably, these models identify an eastward-propagating depositional slowdown, interpreted as the earliest signal of forebulge migration. Collectively, these findings provide a refined geochronologic and tectonic framework that serves as a foundation for future studies of climatic and biotic change during the Early Cretaceous in the Western Interior Basin. To complement field-based geochronology and address the challenges of growing, unwieldy detrital zircon U-Pb datasets, I applied automated machine learning (AutoML) to classify age distributions based on source similarity in Chapter 2. AutoML outperforms traditional methods in both synthetic datasets and in predicting tectonic settings using a natural dataset from the Triassic–Eocene North American Cordillera. AutoML also identifies diagnostic age ranges, including the 145 – 125 Ma Cordilleran magmatic lull. This work advances the analytical toolkit available to geochronologic researchers and demonstrates machine learning as a predictive and interpretive tool
Cultural Vibrations: Student Power, International Exchange, and Black America in Mai 1968
No full textAbstract This thesis examines the prominence of Black Americans in the 68’ student movement in France. May 68’ incorporated a diverse and global network of social movements and political organizations, and had a notable connection to the American student movement. Black Americans had formed a large expatriate community in France which overlapped with many of the transnational connections forged by the student movements of 68’. This community was extremely notable in the French public sphere for popular works of literature and music, but its political contributions have been minimized or understudied. By utilizing student accounts, state and organizational records, and media archives, this thesis highlights the role of Black Americans as prominent and vital participants in the French student movements. Student accounts and the records of international exchange programs such as the Fulbright program are of exceptional importance to this study, as they provide for both American perspectives of their participation and how organizations responded to it. This thesis seeks to contribute to the scholarship of France Noir and Transatlantic history by showcasing how they have become intertwined. The scholarship of ‘Black France’ has noticed the socio-political role of Black Americans in France, and Scholarship about the 1968 Student movements have identified the transatlantic connections of the student movements, but both have yet to engage with the other. This work puts forward that these distinct studies are evidence towards the growing historical development of a ‘Black Atlantic’ and a new form of Black internationalism
Why Food in the United States May (Still) Never Be Safe: A Look Back at My Over Thirty Years Thinking About Food and the Law
No full textThis article can serve a function as a concluding section—a kind of coda—for issues addressed in greater depth by the author (Denis Stearns) before.
This article also allows Sterns to return to a central question that prompted his thought-journey in the first place: Why does the food in this country continue to be so unsafe, despite all of the laws, all of the enforcement efforts, all of the food safety advocacy, and all of the lawsuits filed to recover damages on behalf of people injured and killed year after year. What follows, then, are additional and updated conclusions that thirty years of thinking about the question of food, food safety, and the law have allowed him
Apparatus For Integrated Microwave Photonics On A Sapphire Platform, Method Of Forming Same, And Applications Of Same
Full text linkAn integrated microwave photonics (IMWP) apparatus is provided using sapphire as a platform. The IMWP apparatus includes: a sapphire substrate having a step-terrace surface; and a III-V stack layer epitaxially grown on the sapphire substrate. The III-V stack layer includes: a first III-V layer disposed on the sapphire substrate; a low temperature (LT) III-V buffer layer disposed on the first III-V layer; multiple second III-V layers disposed and stacked on the LT III-V buffer layer; a third III-V layer disposed on the second III-V layers; a III-V quantum well layer disposed on the third III-V layers; and a fourth III-V layer disposed on the III-V quantum well layer. The second III-V layers are respectively annealed. A growth temperature of the LT III-V layer and a growth temperature of the III-V quantum well layer are lower than a growth temperature of each of the first, second, third and fourth III-V layers
Fungi To Form: Exploring Mushroom Mycelium as a Bio-material for Zero-waste Interior Furnishings and Forms
Full text linkThis capstone explores new applications for mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms, in the architecture and interior design industry. Due to its naturally renewable and 100% compostable nature, mycelium proves itself to be a highly sustainable material. Through a combination of research, analysis, and hands-on experimentation, both the challenges and possibilities of mycelium are documented and defined in the context of solutions for fast-furniture waste, a phenomenon that includes mass-produced, low-cost items designed for short-term use. Following a foundation of literature reviews and case studies, this paper documents small-scale prototyping of mycelium-based models for the Ground-Up Chair, a simple yet uniquely crafted design for a seat that users can grow in their very own living room and fertilize their garden with it as the end of its life as a chair
Administering Grant-Subsidized Workforce Training: A Critical Case Study
Full text linkGrant monies are distributed for the purpose of funding workforce training programs aimed at affecting the skills gap in the United States. While research has shown that these grants are being awarded, there is not a well-established standard for designing and implementing the programs they fund. This study focuses on recording and classifying the lived experiences of grant staff working on a state funded workforce training program in the United States. This study will employ a qualitative case study approach designed to capture and codify, in the words of those most familiar with it, the aspects of the grant program that worked well and those that did not. The primary objective of this research is to provide an account of the experiences of grant staff working on the front lines of a bureaucratic organization over which they have little or no control. The findings of this research will add a unique and valuable perspective to the body of literature surrounding not-for-credit post-secondary education, specifically that which is designed to affect the workforce. In doing so, this research will inform stakeholders at every level in a manner that empowers them to make administrative decisions that will improve the experience of staff and students alike
Creating a Sense of Home: Hispanic Students at Hispanic-Serving Institutions
Full text linkHispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) provide critical access to higher education for Hispanic students, yet their designation is based on enrollment rather than active support for student success. The purpose of the study was to describe and explore the sense of belonging for Hispanic students at a select Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) with a high percentage of Hispanic students. Using photo voice, document analysis, and semi-structured interviews, the study identifies five key themes: (1) agency in belonging, (2) club participation, (3) fostering a sense of value, (4) institution and institutional agents, and (5) scholarship and funding. Findings underscore the need for HSIs to move beyond demographic designation and intentionally foster environments where students can create their own sense of belonging. Implications include strategic policy development, faculty engagement, and resource allocation to enhance Hispanic student success. Future research should explore belonging at institutions with lower Hispanic enrollment, the role of student agency in belonging, and how HSIs can better serve their evolving student populations