Motivating Employees Through Thick and Thin: The Relationship Between Hospital Employee Aspirations and Body Mass Index

The purpose of this study was to bridge the gap in the existing literature regarding the relationship between motivation and aspirations of obese and overweight employees. Based on data collected from 103 hospital employees, obese and overweight employees placed significantly lower importance on intrinsic aspirations than did their healthier counterparts. In addition, healthy, overweight, and obese employees all placed equal importance on extrinsic aspirations. The results of the study indicate that using intrinsic aspirations and rewards to motivate overweight and obese employees in a disease prevention program may be less effective than using an extrinsic reward system

Do Honors Programs Make a Difference during the First Year of College? The Development of Critical Thinking Skills and Exposure to Good Practices in Undergraduate Education

This longitudinal study analyzed pretest-posttest data to 1) examine the influence of honors programs on first-year college students\u27 critical thinking skills, 2) to determine whether students in honors programs receive more exposure to good practices in undergraduate education than their non-honors peers, and 3) to assess the effect of good practices on critical thinking. The quasi-experimental study also investigated whether the influence of honors programs on critical thinking skills varied in direction and magnitude for male versus female students and White versus students of color. To replicate an earlier study conducted by Seifert et al. (2007), the current study utilized data from a recent national study, the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education. In order to fulfill this purpose, five research questions were addressed using descriptive statistics analysis and Ordinary Least Squared multiple regression. The current study included 1,824 first-year college students from 21 institutions that offered an honors program during the first-year of college. The treatment group (honors students) consisted of 306 students, whereas the control group (non-honors students) consisted of 1,518 students. The findings indicate that honors programs did not have a statistically significant effect on honors students\u27 critical thinking or their exposure to good practices in undergraduate education. Furthermore, the effect of honors program participation did not differ in direction or magnitude for male versus female students and White versus students of color

A national survey of experiential learning in occupational therapy education: implications for fieldwork

The current Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) Standards include a provision for the use of experiential learning methods as level I fieldwork experiences by entry-level occupational therapy (OT) education programs (ACOTE, 2018). Included in these experiences are two specific types of simulation: simulated environments and standardized patients. Earlier versions of the ACOTE Standards did not allow for the use of simulation as level I fieldwork experiences. This provision may help mitigate a shortage of level I and level II fieldwork placements and allow academic programs to provide consistent quality level I fieldwork across students (American Occupational Therapy Association [AOTA], 2017). This use of simulation as a fieldwork training method is an emerging area of OT education that has limited research on its use and best practice. This doctoral project sought to contribute to the existing knowledge by conducting a research study which investigated the use of both simulated environments and standardized patients by academic programs, as well as identifying the primary supports and barriers to its implementation. The project included the creation, distribution, and analysis of a national survey of entry-level OT programs. The survey found that the main barrier and support to implementation of simulation was funding and that private institutions are more likely to utilize standardized patients than public institutions. The results of this study will help inform future ACOTE Standards, provide both the American Occupational Therapy Association and ACOTE with additional information to help determine how to best provide resources for academic programs that facilitate successful implementation of the simulation methods, and help identify programs that can participate in the dissemination of best practice in the use of simulation as fieldwork experiences. The author recommends that ACOTE should also consider mandating the use of simulation, along with other experiential learning activities, as partial fulfillment of level I fieldwork requirements, to allow for better access to funding, decrease the fieldwork burden on traditional fieldwork sites, and allow for more consistent level I fieldwork experiences

Investigation of Higher Count Rate and Helium-3 Alternative Beam Monitors for Neutron Scattering Facilities

Beam monitors are an important diagnostic tool at neutron science facilities. At high flux neutron scattering facilities, neutron beam monitors with very low intrinsic efficiency (10-5) are presently selected to keep the counting rate within a feasible range, even when a higher efficiency would improve the counting statistics and yield a better measurement of the incident beam. This report outlines a beam monitor with a parallel-plate avalanche chamber design that is capable of measuring a high count rate without saturation. Several designs of the beam monitor using different electrode materials and different neutron conversion materials were constructed and tested. The different designs had efficiencies ranging from 9.8 x 10-7 to 1.2 x 10-3 for thermal neutrons. One of the designs measured 1 x 106 cps, which means it is possible to measure neutron fluxes over 109 cps without saturation while maintaining a 10-3 efficiency

Master of Arts

thesisThe recent performance work of Ernesto Pujol complicates the notion of site-specific art, extending into the tension of what--or who--constitutes a site. This project considers Pujol's April 2010 site-specific performance entitled Awaiting as a case study in the decidedly complicated relationship between the discursive or fluid nature of the body and the constructed notion of place. Awaiting used performance to call attention to what Pujol identified as an unspoken but omnipresent "culture of waiting" in Utah. However, rituals of shared dress, gesture, and extended rhythms punctuated by spatial and temporal gaps simultaneously invoked and transformed the cultural, historical, and social landscape in which Awaiting was situated. Looking to the various uses of gesture and mapping within Awaiting, I argue that Pujol's invocation of "site" prevented him from creating a space that matched his intention to transcend the constructed nature of site. Rather, the embodied representations of Salt Lake's local identity infiltrated and transformed Awaiting. Consequently, I use Pujol's intentionality in Awaiting as a foil to examine the possibilities and limitations of site-specific performance. I conclude that Awaiting's site-specificity originates not only in its allusion to a culture of waiting, but rather in its resemblance to a ritualistic history characteristic of Utah starting with the definitive utterance of "this is the place.

On with the Motley: Television Satire and Discursive Integration in the Post-Stewart/Colbert Era

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report became cultural phenomena in mid-2000s. Their influence on politics and the news media brought political satire on television to a new level of prominence as politicians, world leaders, authors, and journalists flocked to the Comedy Central shows to spread their messages. The shows greatly expanded the boundaries of previous television satire programs by offering in-depth analysis of important issues in creative, hilarious ways, while taking the news media to task when it failed to critically inquire into government claims. When Stephen Colbert ended his show in 2014 and Stewart departed The Daily Show the next year, they left a gap in television satire that has yet to be completely filled. This thesis explores the current state of satirical television news shows. The manuscript traces the emergence of political satire on television. Then, through the theory of discursive integration, the thesis takes an in-depth look at Stewart and Colbert’s satire, and investigates current political satire in the post-Stewart/Colbert era. The thesis explores current political satire in the context of the shows that came before it, again using discursive integration as a theoretical underpinning. The goal of the thesis is to gain an understanding of where current satire fits in the historical context of television satire, and how newer shows have pushed discursive boundaries established by The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report

Oral History and Archaeology of the Keith\u27s Siding Site Location

At the beginning of the 20th century railroad logging camp settlements dotted the landscape in Northern Wisconsin in order to supply growing city populations and immigrants moving west with building materials. Many temporary towns were created in order to house the workers and their families and provide basic amenities needed to survive in an isolated environment. These communities typically lasted until the extraction of the hardwood was complete and then communities would abandon their makeshift dwellings and move on to the next stand of trees. Very few of the lumber siding settlements have been documented within the archaeological record. Great Lakes Archaeological Research Center, Inc. conducted a phase II archaeological investigation of the Keith\u27s Siding site (47-FR-147) located in Northern Wisconsin in order to assess the site\u27s eligibility for listing on the National Register of Historic Places (Mier 1996:159). Keith\u27s Siding was a hardwood extraction settlement that operated from 1910-1925 and most extensively during the years 1915-1922. There is evidence also of the reuse of the settlement during the 1930\u27s (Mier 1996:157). The goal of this research was to systematically conduct oral history interviews in order to compare the information derived from those interviews with the historical documentation and archaeological data to create a richer interpretation of the Keith\u27s Siding site. Multiple lines of evidence were employed to investigate the potential reoccupation of Keith\u27s Siding by Kentucky migrant families. The data were also used identify the exact location of the site as well as the various names used to label the settlement. Through the amalgamation of historical documentation, oral histories, and the archaeological record it is possible to better understand the families present at lumber settlements as well as the destruction of Keith\u27s Siding by fire. The difficulties of using oral histories as part of the site\u27s interpretation are also presented in this thesis