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Purpose. Sensory feedback from the vestibular system and neck muscle stretch receptors is critical for the regulation of posture. The relationship of the head to the trunk is a major factor determining the availability and integration of sensory feedback and can be interfered with by varying head orientation. The goal of this research was to assess (1) how adopting different head-on-trunk orientations would impact postural stability, particularly in relation to the stability boundary, during static balance tasks and (2) how adopting different head-on-trunk and head-in-space orientations would impact postural stability, movement characteristics, and multi-segmental torso coordination during a dynamic postural transition task in healthy, young participants. Methods. Healthy, young participants were asked to maintain 30 seconds of upright stance and forward lean or to move from sitting to standing with extended, flexed, and neutral head orientations. Dual force plates were used to assess postural stability from center of pressure variability, range, velocity, or time-to-contact. Six motion capture cameras were used to assess kinematics. During the sit-to-stand task, head velocities, trunk flexion, and movement phase durations were calculated. Segment cross-correlation and joint range of motion were calculated for six torso segments. Results. Extended head-on-trunk orientations decreased postural stability during upright stance, forward lean, and the sit-to-stand movement compared to flexed or neutral orientations. During the sit-to-stand task, head-on-trunk extension, with or without head-in-space extension, led to reduced head velocities, trunk flexion, movement duration, and transition phase duration. Head extension led to increased inter-segmental torso motion, and decreased temporal coordination of torso segments. Conclusions. This study demonstrated that interfering with head-trunk posture by adopting head extended orientations impairs balance and leads to sit-to-stand strategy changes that may interfere with movement and coordination. Results show that head-on-trunk extension is more critical than head-in-space extension for determining postural and movement changes. The findings suggest that vestibular system interference may not be the main route through which head extension impacts postural control, but that extensor muscle stretch receptors may be a factor in the posture and movement changes associated with head-on-trunk extension. It is possible tonic neck muscle activity is a critical factor for regulating balance and movement.

<p> Research demonstrates that there is a gap in focusing understanding factors of information communication technology (ICT) acceptance and use in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). ICT is gaining popularity because it is a force in the economic growth equation. SMEs adopt ICT to promote their business strategy, performance, and growth. This study focused on the factors influencing ICT acceptance and use in SMEs. The research questions were 1) what factors influence SME owners/managers to accept ICT in Kenya? 2) What is the relationship between ICT acceptance and SMEs retail business growth in Kenya? and 3) What is the relationship between ICT usage and SMEs retail business growth in Kenya? The researcher used quantitative research methodology to survey SME owners/managers in Kenya. The researcher hand delivered the survey to 121 potential participants, of which 118 responded. This study evaluated factors of ICT acceptance in SMEs, the relationship between ICT acceptance and SME growth, and the relationship between ICT usage and SME growth. Research findings showed that customer services, cost reduction and business relationships were the most influential factors of ICT acceptance. Computer applications and mobile phones were the most commonly used ICT tools. The study found a strong positive relationship between ICT acceptance and SME growth, and a moderate positive relationship between ICT usage and SME growth. The research results are valuable to stakeholders including potential entrepreneurs, sponsors, government official and financial institutions who make informed decision and formulate policies about ICT investment and effective business strategies for SMEs growth.</p>

<p> This dissertation focused on advancing the current research on the connection between physical and psychological health. This study focused on two psychotherapy groups that integrate mind-body practices in the form of yoga, meditation, and relaxation. These groups were ongoing and are held once a week for one hour in an urban outpatient mental health clinic. Participants in these groups attended consistently for approximately 1-4 years and experienced a wide-range of trauma and chronic pain symptoms. Because the groups were active and running for several years, this study followed a qualitative research approach to comprehensively capture the participants&rsquo; subjective experience. Understanding the experience of these particular clients could prove to be advantageous to the field of psychology as it will help to elucidate the individual&rsquo;s experience of an integrated mind-body modality for trauma and pain treatment. Using phenomenological interviews, this study explored the subjective experience of individuals in these groups. In-depth interview questions focused on participants&rsquo; reactions to the mind-body interventions for combined physical and psychological symptom relief.</p>

<p> This thesis, by analyzing how rape is treated in William Shakespeare&rsquo;s <i> Titus Andronicus</i> (1592-3), Thomas Middleton and William Rowley&rsquo;s <i> The Changeling</i> (1622), and Aphra Behn&rsquo;s <i>The Rover</i> (1677), details how the early modern English theater frequently dramatizes the period&rsquo;s problematic understanding of rape. These texts reveal the social and legal illegibility of rape, illuminating just how deeply ambivalent and inconsistent patriarchy is toward female sexuality. Both using and departing from a feminist critical tradition that emphasized rape as patriarchy&rsquo;s sexual entrapment of women, my readings of the period&rsquo;s legal treatises and other documents call attention to the ambiguity of how rape is defined in early modern England. As represented in these three plays, male rapists exploit the period&rsquo;s paradoxical views of female sexual consent, thus complicating how raped women negotiate their social and legal status. The process of disclosing her violation ultimately places a raped woman in an untenable position.</p>

<p> The goal of this study is to explore the effects of mindfulness on smoking behavior and craving including nicotine dependence, nicotine withdrawal, and smoking cessation. Adults with more than ten years of chronic smoking and current smoking of five or more cigarettes daily were recruited for the study. Utilizing both a qualitative and quantitative research design, this study was experimental in nature with an interrupted time-series design using both within- and between -subjects comparisons. Ten smokers were recruited. All participants participated in a semi-structured telephone interview as well as completed the following assessment measures: the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) to assess smoking related behavior including physiological and behavioral symptoms; the Mood and Physical Symptoms Scale (MPSS) to assess withdrawal symptoms; the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) to assess for mindful awareness of what was happening in the present moment; and the Smoking Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ) to assess participants' experience of, feelings about, and awareness of their smoking habit. Participants were assessed at three intervals; pre- intervention, immediately post- intervention, and two weeks post- intervention. It was hypothesized that the use of mindfulness practices would prove to be effective in decreasing nicotine withdrawal symptoms and nicotine dependence through increased mindful awareness indicating that mindfulness interventions are a viable treatment option for individuals wishing to quit smoking. Using a general linear model for repeated measures within the following covariates (age and years smoking) and factors (gender, marital status, and use of log book) there was no statistically significant difference in between-subjects and within-subjects results, however, a paired t-test on number of cigarettes smoked before and after the study revealed a significant reduction. Qualitative analysis also revealed that the use of mindfulness effectively reduced urges to smoke, nicotine withdrawal symptoms, frequency of smoking, and smoking related behaviors. Qualitative results further revealed that the mindfulness practice reduced stress, increased sense of calm and of peace, and increased mindful awareness and presence in participants' day to day lives.</p>

<p> This production thesis examines home and homelessness through various psychological lenses including depth psychology, trauma theory, and art therapy. It explores how creating a personal shrine can help an individual process emotional homelessness. It offers an example of how one might experience a psychological transformation using the creation of a shrine as a safe container and transitional object to connect with unconscious aspects of one&rsquo;s personal story and examine some of the psychological elements therein. The author&rsquo;s investigation of emotional homelessness and its resolution includes his own experiences of engagement with the imaginal realm and he provides an example of a three-dimensional imaginal visual tool to advance understanding of home.</p>

<p> Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Adolescents (DBT-A) is an acceptance and change-based treatment protocol that includes parent participation, and has been shown to be effective with emotionally dysregulated, suicidal, and self-injurious adolescents (Mehlum et al., 2014, 2016) who often show high rates of treatment utilization and subsequent dropout (Groves, Backer, van den Bosch, &amp; Miller, 2012). Despite its demonstrated effectiveness and despite parents&rsquo; active role in treatment, there is limited treatment acceptability data for DBT-A, and even less investigation into the parent perspective. Pretreatment expectancies and preferences are two common factors associated with treatment acceptability that have been shown to influence treatment participation, adherence, and outcomes that can inform methods for enhancing evidence-based treatments, yet remain underinvestigated (Nock &amp; Kazdin, 2001; Wymbs et al., 2015). The primary goal of the current study was to assess parent pretreatment expectancies and preferences prior to entering an outpatient DBT-A program with their adolescents. Twenty-three parents completed two self-report assessment measures just prior to starting treatment: The Parent Expectancies for Treatment Scale (PETS; Nock &amp; Kazdin, 2001), and the Parent Preferences for Treatment form developed for this study to assess preferences for eight alternative treatment delivery formats. Results showed that parents had moderately high overall expectancies for DBT-A (<i> M</i> = 97.78, <i>SD</i> = 9.03). Subscale analyses indicated high parent expectancies for its credibility (Credibility, <i>M</i> = 52.09, <i>SD</i> = 5.44), moderately high expectancies for child improvement (Child Improvement, <i>M</i> = 23.43, <i> SD</i> = 3.49), and moderate expectancies for parent involvement (Parent Involvement, <i>M</i> = 22.17, <i>SD</i> = 2.98). Highest rated expectancies were related to the credibility of DBT-A as a valuable, worthwhile treatment and the large role of parent involvement in treatment. The four most preferred alternative format options were to add weekly skills training for individual families, weekly individual parenting skills sessions, weekly parent-only support groups, and weekly parent therapy sessions. The two least preferred format options involved partially or fully separating parent and teens in multifamily skills group. This study provides preliminary support for the use of assessing parents&rsquo; pretreatment expectancies and preferences for DBT-A as an initial step toward understanding the treatment attitudes and desires of parents with teens referred to DBT-A. Clinical implications for the utility of these findings in clinical practice and future research are discussed.</p>

<p> The purpose of the present study was to test the Emotional Stability dimension of the Big Five factors of personality traits theory to predict or explain a relationship with Employee Organizational Commitment, when the relationship between Emotional Stability (ES) and Employee Organizational Commitment (EOC) was moderated by Gender and AgeGroup. Public domain secondary data from the General Social Survey were used in the study. The three age groups under investigation were Millennials, Generation X, and the Boomer generation. A hierarchical linear multiple regression model was applied to test the hypotheses. The statement of the omnibus null hypothesis (H₀) was that the Emotional Stability dimension of the Big Five factor model of personality traits theory did not have the ability to predict EOC. Main hypotheses stated that there was not a statistically significant relationship between the moderated independent variable (IV) and the dependent variable (DV). Results of the full model showed that the theory-testing null hypothesis (H₀) was not supported (<i>p</i> &lt; .05), and the Boomer generation contributed most to the DV (Beta = -.511). Recommendations were made for future research.</p>

<p> A fundamental question in Complexity Science is how numerous dynamic processes coordinate with each other on multiple levels of description to form a complex whole&mdash;a multiscale coordinative structure (e.g. a community of interacting people, organs, cells, molecules etc.). This dissertation includes a series of empirical, theoretical and methodological studies of rhythmic coordination between multiple agents to uncover dynamic principles underlying multiscale coordinative structures. First, a new experimental paradigm was developed for studying coordination at multiple levels of description in intermediate-sized (<i>N</i> = 8) ensembles of humans. Based on this paradigm, coordination dynamics in 15 ensembles was examined experimentally, where the diversity of subjects&rsquo; movement frequency was manipulated to induce different grouping behavior. Phase coordination between subjects was found to be metastable with inphase and antiphase tendencies. Higher frequency diversity led to segregation between frequency groups, reduced intragroup coordination, and dispersion of dyadic phase relations (i.e. relations at different levels of description). Subsequently, a model was developed, successfully capturing these observations. The model reconciles the Kuramoto and the extended Haken-Kelso-Bunz model (for large- and small-scale coordination respectively) by adding the second-order coupling from the latter to the former. The second order coupling is indispensable in capturing experimental observations and connects behavioral complexity (i.e. multistability) of coordinative structures across scales. Both the experimental and theoretical studies revealed multiagent metastable coordination as a powerful mechanism for generating complex spatiotemporal patterns. Coexistence of multiple phase relations gives rise to many topologically distinct metastable patterns with different degrees of complexity. Finally, a new data-analytic tool was developed to quantify complex metastable patterns based on their topological features. The recurrence of topological features revealed important structures and transitions in high-dimensional dynamic patterns that eluded its non-topological counterparts. Taken together, the work has paved the way for a deeper understanding of multiscale coordinative structures.</p><p>