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This thesis examines the anatomical locations of the dynamic pressures that create the first five footprints when a standing person starts to walk. It is hypothesized that the primary activity starts with the dorsiflexion or lifting of the great toe. Consequently, the metatarsophalangeal region of the forefoot was studied from three directions. Viewed side-on, the great toe free-body is found from a detailed post hoc analysis of previous kinematic data obtained from cadavers to operate as a cam. The cam model also follows closely from Aristotle's ancient description of the hinged instrument o...

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death among women in the US, and African American women (AAW) have a disproportionately high rate of deaths from CVD. Physical inactivity plays a major role in CVD development. It has been reported that some rural women have low rates of physical activity; 39% of White women and 57% of women of color are reported to be physically inactive. Rural AAW have a high mortality and morbidity rate related to CVD and a high rate of physical inactivity. The purpose of this study was to describe rural AAW's perception of wellness in conjunction with t...

In providing a comprehensive investigation of alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana initiation among adolescents, the overarching goals of the research were to build upon extant findings, address important gaps found in the literature, and contribute to the prevention science knowledge base. A four-fold purpose founded the study: 1) provide a systematic review of the soft drug initiation literature; 2) test a modified version of Kandel's (2002) drug sequencing hypothesis; 3) determine if predictors of soft drug initiation differ in kind or saliency by biological age and drug type; and 4) examine a...

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) and soot share the same origin (incomplete combustion or pyrolysis) and nature, namely structural and electronic features. The purpose of the research work discussed in this thesis is to offer a theoretical contribution to elucidate some aspects of PAH and soot particle formation. The interest in carrying out such a work lies on one hand in the ubiquitous presence of both species in the environment, on the other hand on the concern for their impact on both human health, specifically involving the respiratory system, and climate, in particular as regards ...

During a conversation, listeners do not assimilate passively all of the speaker's words; they actively participate in the interaction providing information about how they feel and what they think of the speaker's speech. The speaker relies on signals emitted by the listener to know if he is listening or not, understanding or not, agreeing or not, etc. This informs the speaker on the success or failure of the communication and helps him to decide how to carry on with the interaction. In this thesis, to refer to signals provided by listeners, we adopt the term backchannel proposed by Yngve. We d...

Promoting healthier ageing amongst older adults has never been more important. Most conventional health promotion interventions for older adults take very reactive approaches, typically attempting to minimise specific age-related functional losses. This implies an underlining assumption that such age-related losses are inevitable. However, we know that it is possible to take proactive action to prevent or mitigate negative health events in later life before they occur. Research suggests that proactive coping and future investment strategies may work harmoniously with adaptive definitions of he...

Septoria leaf blotch has been the major disease of wheat in Britain and much of the rest of Europe. It has been reported that the disease causes serious yield losses to range from 31 to 53%. Mycosphaerella graminicola (anamorph: Septoria tritici) is the pathogen which causes Septoria leaf blotch. The disease can be controlled by various methods such as cultural practices, chemical control, using resistant varieties and biological control. In plant pathology, the term biological control leads to the introduction of microbial antagonists or host specific pathogens to suppress diseases and popula...

Through the Department of Human Services in the State of Oregon, children with autism can access varying services, although, in the rural communities of Oregon, the delivery of those services becomes difficult. Rural availability is affected as members of the rural communities are less knowledgeable of the practices involved in administering effective services, instruction, and interventions to children with developmental disorders. The aim of this thesis is to identify areas within Umatilla County, Oregon where services and support systems are in place, or not in place. The population with wh...

This dissertation will discuss the uncertainty encountered in the daily operations of businesses. The concepts will be developed by first giving an overview of probability and statistics as used in our everyday activities, such as the basic principles of probability, univariate and multivariate statistics, data clustering and mapping, as well as time sequence and spectral analysis. The examples used will be from the oil and gas exploration industry because the risks taken in this industry are normally quite large and are ideal for showing the application of the various techniques for minimizi...

Multicarrier Modulation (MCM) has significant features over Single Carrier Modulation (SCM). Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a special form of Multicarrier Modulation with its key feature of Orthogonality. Along with the several advantages of MCM or specifically OFDM, it has some drawbacks, too, in which High Peak to Average Power ratio is the dominant one. There are different techniques available to lower that PAPR. Every technique has its own benefit as well as shortcoming, so each is suitable for different circumstances. Tone Reservation is one technique in which a s...