Visual Expectations in Infants: Evaluating the Gaze-Direction Model

Schlesinger (in press) recently proposed a model of eye movements as a tool for investigating infants’ visual expectations. In the present study, this gaze-direction model was evaluated by (a) generating a set of predictions concerning how infants distribute their attention during possible and impossible events, and (b) testing these predictions in a replication of Baillargeon’s "car study" (1986; Baillargeon & DeVos, 1991). We find that the model successfully predicts general features of infants’ gaze direction, but not specific differences obtained during the possible and impossible events. The implications of these results for infant cognition research and theory are discussed

From Haiti to Cuba and Back: Haitians' Experiences of Migration, Labor, and Return, 1900-1940

This dissertation is a social history of the approximately 200,000 individuals who migrated seasonally between their homes in rural Haiti and the eastern regions of Cuba during the height of the United States’ military and economic presence in both countries. Existing scholarship explains Haitians’ movements in terms of the United States’ military presence in Haiti (1915-1934), the country’s rural poverty, and the massive growth of U.S.- and Cuban-owned sugar plantations in Cuba. However, the migrants themselves have not been studied. Instead, previous scholarship puts forth an image of Haitian migrants that is heavily influenced by false, long-standing assumptions about Haiti and the anti-immigrant stereotypes of the early 20th-century Cuban press. They are portrayed as a homogenous group of unskilled laborers who remained at the bottom of labor hierarchies, were isolated from other groups in Cuban society and were dominated by Cuban sugar companies and state officials in both countries. Due to their high rates of illiteracy, the life stories of the migrants are difficult to reconstruct using traditional sources such as letters or diaries. Drawing on research conducted in multiple archives and libraries in Cuba, Haiti, and the United States, my dissertation details migrants’ experiences in both Haiti and Cuba. It joins a rapidly growing body of scholarship on labor, migration, and trans-nationalism in Latin America and the Caribbean that seeks a fuller understanding of workers’ lives by emphasizing economic activities and coping strategies that occurred outside of formal wage activities and union mobilization. I show the ways that Haitian men and women navigated the harsh working and living conditions in both Haiti and Cuba by creating and maintaining kinship, commercial, religious, and social networks in sugar plantations, coffee farms, and urban spaces. These links cut across national lines and decisively shaped the conditions under which they moved, labored, and lived in both countries. Reconstructing Haitians’ interactions with other workers outside the gazes of company and state illustrates how those institutions functioned on the ground, questions the extent to which national-level racial ideologies determined local social relationships, and demonstrates how workers’ actions shaped the implementation of migration and trade policies

Blind Date

Blind Date is a documentary film about a young woman from rural China named Chun Cao Zhao who is pressured into marriage through a tradition known as blind dating. The film begins in Guangzhou, a sprawling metropolis in Southern China, where she has been living for the past ten years, and is just days away from returning home for her wedding. As she slowly says goodbye to city life, the life she wants to keep, she reveals to the camera her feelings toward her fianc, her thoughts on the impending wedding and her own struggles to find a boyfriend. As the film follows her back home we intimately witness the sacrifices she is forced to make in order to appease her parents and the greater instrument of Chinese culture. The film examines and contrasts contemporary China with traditional China and displays the varying roles of each gender in both rural and urban settings. The film concludes with her arranged marriage and a short follow-up with her new husband six months after the wedding

Exercise and Bone: Older Adults, Type II Diabetes, and Ketogenic Diets

Exercise is a well-appreciated modulator of bone and has other positive implications for overall fitness and health. The purpose of this dissertation was to determine the effects of exercise on bone in conjunction with other known modifiers: old age, type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and ketogenic diets. The three studies discussed in this dissertation utilized multiple methods of measuring bone to examine the effect of exercise on bone in individuals with type II diabetes, rodents consuming a ketogenic diet, and older adults participating in a novel resistance training intervention. The first study examined the effects of a 9-month resistance, aerobic, or combination exercise intervention on bone in individuals with T2DM. Whole-body and whole-body derived regional measures of bone mineral density (BMD) were obtained via dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and used to determine the effects. While the entire cohort, control group included, showed significant increases in BMD after a 9-month intervention, the lack of differences between groups, was surprising. An effect of exercise on bone in individuals with T2DM was not revealed by measures of BMD. The second study utilized rodents to determine the effects of a 6-week ketogenic dietary intervention interceded by a 3-week exercise intervention on their trabecular and cortical bone morphology, measured via micro-computed tomography. Our results did not identify any detriments in bone morphology in response to a ketogenic diet alone, but positive changes in trabecular morphology and density induced by exercise in mice fed a control diet were negated by the ketogenic diet. The last study examined the effects of resistance training along with low intensity breaks in sedentary activity on BMD, trabecular bone score (TBS), and serum markers of bone turnover in older adults. Changes in whole-body BMD, lumbar spine BMD, and TBS were not found in response to the 4-month resistance training intervention. Serum markers for bone turnover did not provide any additional context due to reagent, equipment, and technician error. Future re-analysis may be attempted, but for the purpose of this dissertation, the analysis of blood markers for bone turnover was too poor and not included

Changes in bone density following exercise training in older adults

Abstract Purpose: To determine effects of 8 wks of progressive whole-body training preceded by 4 wks of regional specific (RSTS) or aerobic training (AT), on bone mineral density (BMD). Methods: Subjects were over age 70 y, with a 6-min walk score of 218-490 m. Subjects were randomized to AT or RSTS for the first 4 wks (Phase 1). AT consisted of ~45 min of walking/biking (50-85% HR reserve), 3 d/wk. RSTS consisted of 8 exercises specific to major muscle groups and was performed for 3-5 min, at ~40-70% of max voluntary strength for ~45 min, 3 d/wk. After 4 wks, all subjects were advanced to a whole-body program using established guidelines (Phase 2). Bone mineral density of the lumbar and thoracic spine and pelvis was examined before training, after 4 wks, and after 12 wks, using Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Results Analysis showed a significant time effect for lumbar, thoracic, and pelvis BMD (p\u3c0.05, 0.05, and 0.01, respectively); however, group by time interactions were found only for thoracic and lumbar BMD (p\u3c0.05, p\u3c0.10, respectively). Post hoc analysis revealed a significant difference for thoracic BMD at 12 wks compared to 4 wks and baseline for RSTS while AT showed no significant changes in thoracic or lumbar BMD. A significant increase of 3.2% from baseline for RSTS was found for lumbar BMD after only 4 wks. Conclusion Preceding well-rounded training with RSTS proved beneficial with respect to thoracic and lumbar BMD. The rapid time course for change in lumbar BMD may support the use of RSTS when trying to reduce fracture risk in a short time frame

Enhanced Dynamometer for Conducting Long-Term Brake Wear Testing

The purpose of this project is to develop an automated control system for two constant torque dynamometers Krauss Friction Tester Type RWS60A – Serial no. 080 built in Orangeburg, West Germany recently obtained by FDP Friction Science. This control system will be efficient, effective, safer, and meet the standards of modern day technologies. Currently, the machines are outdated, obsolete, and unable to operate. Therefore, to bring the dynamometers back into full operation and be competitive in today’s industry a new control system that meets industry expectations must be implemented. For this reason, a programmable logic controller from Automationdirect named ClickPLC is being utilized. This industrial computer control system will continuously monitor the state of input for the device while determining the desired outputs based on a ladder logic program written by the control system designers. To create interference between the operator and the machine a C-more touch panel human machine interference from Automationdirect will be use. The HMI will provide a graphical interface designed to interchange and display graphics, animation and data from the PLC by touching the screen. The HMI will be programed accordingly to replace pushbuttons, switches, meters and any other analog input devices. This will streamline the brake life testing process down to a one-man operation for cost effectiveness.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/capstone/1196/thumbnail.jp

Ease into It. Effects of Mobilization with Movement Utilizing Patients Body Weight

The purpose of this case report is to utilize mobilization with movement (MWM) to restore knee flexion in a patient with delayed quadriceps tendon repair.https://soar.usa.edu/flsaspring2018/1002/thumbnail.jp