Acadia Scholar
Not a member yet
4433 research outputs found
Sort by
The effects of percussion stimulation on perceived tightness and soreness, range of motion, and performance measures in trained university students
No full textPercussion therapy has gained popularity as a non-invasive treatment for muscle soreness, and range of motion. However, there is a lack of consensus on the overall effects of percussion therapy and its impact on athletic performance. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of percussion therapy on a range of variables related to athletic performance. Twenty-two athletic individuals (mean age = 21.27, SD ± 0.88) participated in three treatment sessions: baseline, control, and percussion. During the control and percussion treatments, participants were exposed to a ten-minute treatment to the quadriceps for each leg, several measures were then taken to determine the overall effectiveness. The study assessed the participants' perceived tightness and soreness of muscle groups surrounding the targeted muscle, range of motion, and performance measures (countermovement jump, wall sit, leg extensions, and an agility T-test). The study showed that percussion therapy yielded positive outcomes in various areas. It helped to alleviate perceived tightness, enhance range of motion particularly in knee flexion, and improve certain performance measures, such as isometric contraction and leg extensions. These findings highlight the potential of percussion therapy as a promising treatment option for athletes to improve recovery and enhance performance
Navigating the tides of change: community futures planning in Scots Bay, Nova Scotia
No full textAs rural coastal communities in Nova Scotia, Canada experience a downturn in resource-based industries, community-led development initiatives may lead to revitalization. Scots Bay, Nova Scotia is a small community located at the end of a provincial highway on the Bay of Fundy and home to approximately 200 full time residents and two busy Provincial Parks. The research uncovered that tensions have recently arisen in the community for a variety of reasons and by embarking on a participatory action research project with the residents of this close-knit coastal community, sources of this unease were uncovered. Tens of thousands of tourists bring more garbage and speeding traffic but very little economic benefits. Private development proposals demand time and energy from community members but provide no tangible, enforceable positive impacts. Skyrocketing real estate prices may benefit individuals but threaten the community’s long-held social cohesion with new residents and/or absentee owners. These tensions, combined with an aging population, a lack of rural services, and a sense of political disempowerment, make resident unease palpable. However, by uniquely using the two systems-based community development frameworks of Community Capitals and Three Horizons in conjunction, the project was able to identify how connections to this place and each other ground this community’s residents and find the strengths and assets to build future plans upon. Project participants were able to share concerns and preferences about the future and brainstorm potential solutions. With this information a futures-based Community Action Plan can be created which can help this rural coastal community chart a course on the tides of change. The futures-based process may also prove useful to other rural coastal communities that would like to create their own community-led development initiatives.KEYWORDSRural Community Development, Coastal Communities, Futures Planning, Community Capitals, Three Horizons, Community Action Planning, Rural Resiliency, Community-Led Development</p
Discovering important features for charitable organizations using machine learning
No full textIn charities and non-profit organizations, a fundamental question for fundraisers is how to determine potential donors. The answer to this question could help fundraisers eminently before starting any fundraising campaign. One of the approaches is building machine learning models using past activities of constituents as training data to predict constituents' donationb ehavior. To achieve this, we implemented machine learning models with decision trees (DT) and LASSO regression (LR) to explore different types of donor behavior using features of donors. We formulated a novel synthesized approach using DT and LR with three different educational charitable organizations' data. In this study, four types of donor behavior were framed into four typ es of experiments. This approach was able to discover some important features to predict donor behavior. One of the experiments was able to identify that the number of people related to a constituent in the charity database can influence donation behavior. We also aimed to identify similarities in important features across different types of donor behavior. Our analysis identifed similarities in features where two experiments have some similarities in important features but opposite effects in describing the donor behavior. This study has a unique approach and should help charities understand their donors in an enhanced way using technologies from machine learning. Furthermore, This research is a groundwork in the realm of predicting donor behavior using features and many more possibilities can b e uncovered from here in the area of non-profits
Anglican and Dissenter responses to the Great Plague of London in 1665: approaches to patient care and pastoral care
No full textThe Great Plague of London in 1665 brought tremendous challenges for the Christian church. The lack of facilities and expertise for the care and treatment of the sick left Anglican and Dissenter congregations with the responsibility of attending to both the physical and spiritual needs of the city. As many citizens, clergy, and physicians fled the city, those left behind were inundated with the needs of the sick and the poor. This thesis asserts that the theological beliefs of Anglicans and Dissenters concerning providence, fleeing and staying, and charity framed the actions of both their clergy and laity in regard to patient care and pastoral care. Anglican and Dissenter attitudes towards patient care and pastoral care sometimes coincided but more often differed. Investigation of care for the infected, visitation of the sick, worship services, written pamphlets, and plague sermons reveals the work of Anglican and Dissenting churches during this period of crisis. Anglicans most often worked through the parish system to provide for the sick and the poor. Dissenters more often had personal connections to victims of the pestilence. These two Christian groups held different theological views on providence, charity, and fleeing and staying as they pertained to the plague. The findings of this thesis suggest that what these Christians believed about their God and the plague explained to a large degree why they behaved as they did.</p
Could a trigger warning that encourages adaptive coping be more useful?: a comparison of a traditional trigger warning and a modified warning
No full textThe growing body of research suggests that trigger warnings are unhelpful in reducing distress associated with exposure to emotionally-provocative stimuli. Limited research, however, has been conducted on the potential benefits of using modified trigger warnings that encourage adaptive coping. The current study explored whether modifying traditional trigger warning language to encourage more adaptive responding to emotionally-provocative stimuli would reduce participants' negative affect and increase engagement with distressing content. Participants were randomly assigned to either a traditional trigger warning, modified trigger warning or control group. Following display of a trigger warning or neutral message, negative affect (NA) was measured before (pre-stimuli NA) and after each distressing stimulus presentation (post-stimuli NA). Avoidant attention and the personal benefits, perceived drawbacks and emotional reactions to research participation were examined as well as the moderating effects of anxiety sensitivity and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) on NA and
avoidant. A qualitative exploration of self-reported coping strategies used during the stimuli presentations was also conducted. No group differences in pre- and post-stimuli NA, avoidant attention, reactions to research participation or coping strategies were identified. Anxiety sensitivity and PTSS both had a significant main effect on pre- and post-stimuli NA but no moderating effects were observed on NA or avoidant attention. Qualitative results revealed a wide range of coping strategies however there were no differences in adaptive or maladaptive coping. The current study builds on the growing body of research highlighting the ineffectiveness of existing and modified trigger warnings that are employed with emotionally-provocative stimuli
George MacDonald's Christian universalism within his confessional tradition and today
No full textChristian universalism is a commonly misunderstood and sometimes caricatured version of theology. Within evangelicalism specifically, universalism is a controversial and potentially divisive issue. George MacDonald, the nineteenth century Christian writer of fantasy and theology, found himself to be a dissenting universalist voice within his evangelical tradition.
MacDonald's theology was both a combination and contradiction of his various contexts. Celtic mysticism, Federal Calvinism, optimistic Romanticism, and utilitarian Victorianism were the streams of cultural and theological thought that informed his vision. Themes that emerged in his theology that shall be highlighted in this thesis are Relationship, Christocentrism and Purification. It shall be argued that with his imaginative style and Biblical foundation MacDonald adhered to the core leitmotifs of evangelicalism despite being precluded from that establishment.
MacDonald's enduring influence shall be considered by engaging with several current scholars who continue to refer to and develop MacDonald's creative theological proposals. The nature of Judgement, Hell and Love provide interesting examples of ways in which MacDonald's ideas have endured and expanded through the work of contemporary scholarship. This examination of MacDonald's universalist theology shall conclude that although he was a dissenting voice within his confessional tradition, he was in fact theologically orthodox and evangelically zealous. Thus, offering us an example of how to occupy divergent theological spaces while maintaining godly character, Biblical veracity and missional sincerity
Participating in kingdom shalom: rediscovering the practice of integral discipleship among Bolivian Baptists
No full textThe purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between compassionate care toward the poor and discipleship practice within the Bolivian Baptist context. A review of relevant literature is carried out, revealing a theological basis for an integral approach to discipleship that inspires kingdom shalom. This is followed by a historical overview of theological developments affecting conflicting discipleship practice in Latin America with a focus on Bolivia. These include an integral approach to discipleship presented by Latin American theologians as well as the outside theological influence of premillennial dispensationalism.
Finally, eight Bolivian Baptist who offer examples of healthy, integral discipleship were chosen to participate in semi-structured interviews. The qualitative data shows that disciples who are actively engaged in compassionate, justice-seeking service to those in poverty experience a deeply wholistic discipleship contributing to personal transformation and healthy, fruitful ministry. Their stories provide helpful insight into the components of integral discipleship in the following ways. First, genuine, intentional relationships with core qualifiers of longevity, mutuality, and reciprocity. Second, a less structured but intentional approach. Third, relationships with the poor that include holistic care. Fourth, active participation in holistic discipleship beyond receiving trainings
Understanding the determinants of public transit in Canada 1981-2016
No full textIn February 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a package that would allocate billions of dollars toward improving public transportation over the next eight years. This thesis aims to use regression techniques to determine what characterizes the demand for public transportation. The goal of studying fluctuations in different socioeconomic and demographic characteristics is to find which factors most significantly influence ridership demand. Identifying the variables that have the most substantial influence on ridership demand will allow policies to target different populations to maximize the impact of investment from Trudeau's administration.
This thesis explores 103 transit agencies between 1981-2016, with data coming from the Canadian Urban Transit Association and Statistics Canada. Different regression specifications and techniques are used to achieve results. Model (1) uses ordinary least squares regression analysis and examines the impacts of different socioeconomic variables on linked trips per capita. Model (2) uses the same specification as Model (1) but instead examines passenger revenue kilometers per capita as the dependent variable. Moreover, Model (3) investigates the difference between ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares regression analysis. Previous research has not contrasted the results of different measures of ridership demand, nor has it compared the quantitative differences from utilizing different regression specifications.
The conclusion drawn from analyzing these models was that linked trips per capita is the best measure of ridership demand, which is consistent with the results from previous studies. Additionally, across all specifications, transit supply (measured as revenue vehicle hours) is shown continually to be statistically significant in determining ridership demand. Furthermore, the results showed that as the population and number of immigrants in a region increase, it can be expected that, on average, more people will take public transportation
Development and assessment of an augmented reality feedback system for prosthesis users
No full textUsers of upper limb prostheses face a challenge when attempting to grasp fragile objects due to an impairment of naturalistic sensory feedback regarding grip strength. Augmented Reality (AR) has shown promise as a candidate in solving this issue. The present study introduced a novel AR application for the Microsoft HoloLens 2 and tested it using an upper limb prosthesis simulator. The AR system presented a colour overlay on top of a user's prosthetic hand that changes based on grip strength. In an experimental design, a mechanical egg grasp-and-hold task was used to assess motor learning and performance, which was compared to performance when no additional feedback was provided via a two-way ANOVA test, using presence/absence of AR feedback and training block number as independent variables, and number of broken/dropped eggs as the dependent variable. We observed no statistically significant difference in motor learning or performance. Such results call for improvements to the developed application, as well as changes to the provided task to probe more subtle aspects of motor abilities
Power, public pressure, and politics: insight into the Canadian public's role in the Iraq war and its security consequences
No full textThe Iraq War left the relationship between Canada and the United States politically strained. In order to understand why Canada decided to not join the War effort, my research examines what factor had the greatest effect on Canada's decision. Using secondary sources and public opinion polls, I argue that public opinion likely was the deciding factor that caused Jean Chrétien to keep Canada out of the Iraq War. Subsequently, this research examines how the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) relationship with the US military was affected by this decision. By interviewing senior CAF members who served from the 1980s through to the 2020s, I argue that the country's military relationship was unaffected by Chrétien's decision. Moreover, I show that CAF members did not feel the public pressure facing the Canadian government during the buildup to the Iraq War