Recruiting College Athletes: Ohio Northern University Case Study

Recruiting in college athletics is a critical duty for coaches in every sport. Recruiting athletes requires time, money, and personnel and is difficult for collegiate athletics at every level. When it comes to recruiting, Magnusen, Kim, Perrewe and Ferris (2014) separate recruiting factors into three categories: external, academic and athletic program factors. Those categories house numerous other subcategories that attempt to explain how intricate of a process recruiting is and how important the process is when it comes to the success of an athletics program. This case study of Ohio Northern University (ONU), a small Division III school in northwest Ohio, develops a better understanding of the challenges ONU and other Division III schools may face on a daily basis when attempting to recruit athletes. In this case study, fifteen head coaches and full-time assistant coaches at ONU completed an in-depth questionnaire that focused on recruiting at the university. The questionnaire concentrated on common recruiting themes such as funding, facilities, staff, and scholarships. The results showed that the location of the school was problematic for coaches at ONU in the recruiting process. It was also noted that recruiting efforts in-season were much more difficult due to a lack of time and staffing, which can be linked to underfunding. While research (Schneider and Messenger, 2012) supports the notion that facilities are low on the list of factors for a recruit in choosing a school, ONU coaches indicated that facilities are an important recruiting tool they utilize. All of the common themes (i.e. time, personnel, facilities, etc.) of the recruiting questionnaire responses can be linked to underfunding and can be addressed if the National Collegiate Athletic Association focused more of its time and energy on Division III athletics

The Pitch-class Integer Theorem

Mathematical music theory has assumed without proof that musical notes can be associated with the equivalence classes of $\mathbb{Z}_n$. We contest the triviality of this assertion, which we call the Pitch-class Integer Theorem (PCIT). Since the existing literature assumes the PCIT without proof, the mathematics to rigorously treat the PCIT does not yet exist. Thus, we construct an axiomatic proof of the PCIT to support the existing mathematical models of music theory.Comment: 8 pages, 2 tables, 5 figure

Assessing Climatological Impacts of Precipitation and Temperature at the NCAR Marshall Field Site from 1994-2018

The Marshall Field Site, located about ten miles southeast of Boulder, Colorado, is home to various precipitation and wind testing instruments to create data for the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Precipitation data has been recorded for nearly 30 years using three main types of instruments, the Ott Pluvio II rain gauge, the Geonor 16” Single Alter gauge, and the Geonor double fence intercomparison reference (DFIR) gauge located in the southern region of the Marshall Site. The Ott Pluvio II gauge has data ranging back to 2012, the 16” Geonor dates back to 1994, and the DFIR Geonor dates back to 1999. The 16 inch Geonor is cheaper to install and takes up less space but the DFIR Geonor is more accurate at detecting snowfall due to its dual layer of fencing to keep the wind out. To further understand what trends the precipitation has caused over the years, data will be compared for each month of each year side by side to show the decline that has occurred over the last three decades. The data from the devices is sent to the Marshall site database, where the precipitation amounts are recorded in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and organized into charts or other means of visualization. The maximum and minimum amount of precipitation recorded each month is used to determine the average precipitation for the entire month. Results from the study have shown that the maximum precipitation in each month has decreased steadily over the years. Precipitation was much more spread out and normalized during the earlier years than the more recent ones. Data shows the precipitation trends for the Denver-Boulder region of Colorado, but it is likely that similar climates in the United States have followed the same patterns. Further data could show the trend the precipitation follows over the next 10 to 20 years

Investigating the Use of Recurrent Neural Networks in Modeling Guitar Distortion Effects

Guitar players have been modifying their guitar tone with audio effects ever since the mid-20th century. Traditionally, these effects have been achieved by passing a guitar signal through a series of electronic circuits which modify the signal to produce the desired audio effect. With advances in computer technology, audio “plugins” have been created to produce audio effects digitally through programming algorithms. More recently, machine learning researchers have been exploring the use of neural networks to replicate and produce audio effects initially created by analog and digital effects units. Recurrent Neural Networks have proven to be exceptional at modeling audio effects such as overdrive, distortion, and compression. This research aims to analyze the inner workings of these neural networks and how they can replicate audio effects to such a high caliber. A Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) will also be used to model a distortion effect unit and compare the results they yield with the original audio device modeled

Using Neural Networks to Model Guitar Distortion

Guitar players have been modifying their guitar tone with audio effects ever since the mid-20th century. Traditionally, these effects have been achieved by passing a guitar signal through a series of electronic circuits which modify the signal to produce the desired audio effect. With advances in computer technology, audio “plugins” have been created to produce audio effects digitally through programming algorithms. More recently, machine learning researchers have been exploring the use of neural networks to produce audio effects that yield strikingly similar results to their analog counterparts. Recurrent Neural Networks and Temporal Convolutional Networks have proven to be exceptional at modeling audio effects such as overdrive, distortion, and compression. The goal of this research is to analyze the inner workings of these neural networks and how they can replicate audio effects to such a high caliber. Some of these networks will also be used to model a distortion effect and compare the results they yield with the original audio device modeled

Advancing shared accountability for meaningful community engagement with socially vulnerable communities: Lessons learned from COVID-19 health education and general outreach in an urban region

As COVID-19 public health emergency measures come to an end, socially vulnerable communities have reduced access to resources that address social and health disparities created or exacerbated by the pandemic. Social workers must uphold access to healthcare as a human right in the post-pandemic era by reducing social vulnerability and strengthening community resilience to respond to future health emergencies and natural disasters. This paper draws on the experiences of a team of social work researchers, students, and practitioners engaged in efforts to disseminate information on COVID preventive measures and broker access to local health and social resources. This project, based in one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States, formed part of the federal research response to promote community engagement in regions most disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through participation in health fairs and community events that targeted persons with limited access to healthcare resources, we gathered critical insights on how to build community capacity for meaningful community engagement. Drawing on a conceptual model for evaluating community engagement strategies, we describe three main barriers to collaborative community outreach: weak organizational communication and coordination, inconsistent strategies for requesting on-site health services, and low neighborhood awareness of outreach events. We advance strategies for improvement that engage community-based organizations, health systems, backbone organizations, and community members in targeted activities to build community resilience. This includes inter-organizational communication during outreach event planning, formal processes to promote greater use of mobile health services, centralized event communication, and grassroots outreach event promotion.Alors que les mesures d’urgence de santé publique liées au COVID-19 prennent fin, les communautés socialement vulnérables ont un accès réduit aux ressources permettant de remédier aux disparités sociales et de la santé créées ou exacerbées par la pandémie. Les travailleurs sociaux doivent défendre l’accès aux soins de santé en tant que droit humain dans l’ère post-pandémique en réduisant la vulnérabilité sociale et en renforçant la résilience des communautés pour répondre aux futures urgences sanitaires et catastrophes naturelles. Cet article s’appuie sur les expériences d’une équipe de chercheurs, d’étudiants et de praticiens en travail social engagés dans des efforts visant à diffuser des informations sur les mesures préventives du COVID et à faciliter l’accès aux ressources santé et sociales locales. Ce projet, basé dans l'une des zones métropolitaines à la croissance la plus rapide des États-Unis, faisait partie de la réponse fédérale en matière de recherche visant à promouvoir l'engagement communautaire dans les régions les plus touchées de manière disproportionnée par la pandémie de COVID-19. Grâce à notre participation à des foires sur la santé et à des événements communautaires ciblant les personnes ayant un accès limité aux ressources de santé, nous avons recueilli des informations essentielles sur la manière de renforcer les capacités communautaires pour un engagement communautaire significatif. En nous appuyant sur un modèle conceptuel pour évaluer les stratégies d'engagement communautaire, nous décrivons trois principaux obstacles à la sensibilisation communautaire collaborative : une communication et une coordination organisationnelles faibles, des stratégies incohérentes pour demander des services de santé sur place et une faible sensibilisation du quartier aux événements de sensibilisation. Nous proposons des stratégies d'amélioration qui engagent les organisations communautaires, les systèmes de santé, les organisations de base et les membres de la communauté dans des activités ciblées visant à renforcer la résilience communautaire. Cela comprend la communication inter-organisationnelle lors de la planification des événements de sensibilisation, les processus formels visant à promouvoir une plus grande utilisation des services de santé mobiles, la communication centralisée des événements et la promotion des événements de sensibilisation au niveau loca

Libraries of the Future

Libraries have been the source of innovation throughout human history. People today do not understand the importance of libraries and the resources they can provide to a community or society. This causes libraries to not receive the appropriate funding to support both their programs and new literary materials. The inspiration for libraries of the future is derived from the trends that will attract the citizens of tomorrow. Libraries will be more involved in the community and provide the public with accessible technology. Our ideas to improve libraries will gain the public’s interest and keep the fire of knowledge alive. Some of these ideas include creating a more relaxed area to draw in a larger audience, bringing in new and developing technologies that the public can access, and providing new educational opportunities that widen the purpose of libraries

Mental Optometry: The Mind’s Eye, You Go Where You’re Looking

The term, Mental Optometry, is newly developed concept that can be used to describe the interplay between mind, brain, and sensory interpretations. Taken from the premise of behavioral optometry and research explaining body orientation to physical field of vision, what we see or perceive with our mind’s eye, emotions and behaviors will also follow in the same manner. While not explicitly referred to in such a manner, cognitive, cognitive behavioral, and cognitive bias formation theories imply such a concept as being foundational to their systems. Mental Optometry arms the theorist and practitioner with a neurobiological empowered understanding of mood, emotion, thought, and interpretations of visual stimuli such that therapeutic interventions can be developed to assist patients in recognizing and altering skewed interpretations of what they think they see (the mind’s eye) – imagery that may deleteriously support negative cognitions leading to negative mood states