Introduction: Irish dance has evolved to become more athletically demanding, thus making the art form very hard on dancers' bodies. Irish dancers must land from difficult moves without letting their knees bend or heels touch the ground, causing large amounts of force to be absorbed by the body. Past studies have found dancers landing with a range of 4.5–6 times body weight, potentially causing high amounts of overuse injury. The majority of injuries incurred by Irish dancers are due to overuse (79.6%). The landings that occur in Irish dance have been minimally evaluated in current literature. Obtaining values of vertical ground reaction forces (GRFs) produced by Irish dancers will assist in understanding the causes of overuse injuries, fill significant gaps in the current literature, and identify which Irish dance moves should be used less frequently to possibly reduce the chance for overuse injury. Purpose: To determine vertical GRFs produced by female Irish dancers in hard and soft shoes during common movements. The purpose of this study was to determine peak force, rise rate of force, and impulse in selected Irish hard shoe and soft shoe dance movements. Materials and Methods: Sixteen female Irish dancers between 14 and 25 years of age were recruited from the 3 highest competitive levels. Each performed a warm-up, reviewed 8 common Irish dance moves, and then performed each move 3 times upon a force plate. Four moves each were performed in soft and hard shoes. GRFs were measured using a 3-dimensional force plate running at 1000 Hz. Peak force, rise rate, and vertical impulse were all calculated. It was hypothesized that the 8 moves would produce different GRFs. Results: Peak forces normalized by each dancer's body weight were significantly different across moves (F = 65.4, p < 0.01; F = 65.0, p < 0.01; and F = 67.4, p < 0.01 respectively). Years of experience was not correlated with peak force, rise rate, or impulse (p < 0.40). Conclusion: There is a large range in peak forces created by Irish dancers. Moves that have high average peak forces may have a higher risk in causing overuse injuries. All dancers should take care to limit the use of these moves in their choreography to prevent such injury.

We investigate the formation of droplets in a thin liquid film on a solid substrate due to the combined action of surface tension and van der Waals forces. Current models for droplet formation assume that droplets have a shallow profile. By removing that assumption and numerically solving for stable droplet profiles, we have modelled droplets that separate from the substrate on which they sit.

Spanish authorities used two agencies to occupy and control California as a royal province from 1769 to 1821: the church and the army. While the story of the missions and the missionaries has been thoroughly chronicled, little attention has been focused on the men who comprised Spain's military forces. This thesis examines the experience of the royal soldier in California to determine his significance in the Golden State's Spanish colonial era. The journals, diaries, and correspondence of the soldiers, missionaries, explorers, traders, and foreign rivals who visited or occupied the province comprise a major part' of the source material. The variety of viewpoints represented by these · documents facilitated examination from several perspectives. Another valuable primary source was the Spanish frontier regulations, which provided the royal perspective on the military enterprise. Published materials based on documents in the major archival repositories such as those in Mexico, Spain, and the Bancroft Library in California were accessible through works in the Portland State University Library and the Oregon Historical Society which supplied sources pertinent to this investigation. Secondary works by historians provided both a historical background and data on specific aspects of a soldier's life. Cited periodical articles concentrated more specifically on the military experience both in California and the Spanish northern frontier.

In 2010, regulators established new rules for single-family mortgage services that tightened the loan amount consumers could qualify for, restricted fees lenders could charge, and placed numerous financial penalties for improper servicing of loans. Regulatory fee restrictions made it difficult for leaders to offset the compliance costs through the price of services provided. Leaders responsible for mortgage regulatory compliance experienced increased operating costs for single-family mortgage services due to the new regulations, and some leaders found it challenging to comply and remain competitive. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies leaders in the single-family mortgage services industry used to comply with federal regulations and remain competitive. The study population included 5 leaders responsible for single-family mortgage regulatory compliance from the southwestern and northern regions of the United States Porter's 5 forces analysis was the conceptual framework. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and analysis of data from a website hosted by government regulators. Data were analyzed using color-coded transcriptions, methodological triangulation, member checking, and coding software. Themes that emerged from data analysis revealed that costs and control methods for regulatory compliance strategies required leaders to change their infrastructure to remain competitive and profitable. The implication of this study for positive social change relates to competitive pricing for single-family mortgage loans for consumers yielding an increase in home ownership.

Approximately 52% of food and accommodation businesses survive 5 years or more. Small business restaurant owners face greater challenges in marketing and sustainability than larger and well-established chain restaurants. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the successful marketing strategies of small business restaurant owners who sustained their businesses 5 years or more. The population was small business restaurant owners in Eugene, Oregon. The conceptual framework for this study was Porter's 5 forces. Data collection included semistructured interviews with 4 business owners, and data analysis consisted of coding and thematically analyzing interview data and data collected from the business and marketing documents of research participants. Five themes emerged: adherence to fundamental restaurant marketing principles; migration of restaurant promotions to websites and social media; innovation and flexibility in marketing; diner loyalty, reputation, and relationship marketing; and marketing evolution from hospitality experience. Each research participant emphasized the importance of food and service quality, flexibility in marketing, budgeting, and relationships with diners as marketing strategies for sustainability. Each restaurateur recognized the prohibitive costs of traditional television, radio, and print marketing and disclosed how social media and word of mouth were effective promotional channels with minimal costs. Findings may be used by small business restaurateurs to increase opportunities for duplicable and predictable sustainability and to increase revenues, job growth, and funds for environmental and philanthropic programs.

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In this study the author attempts to evaluate structural evolutionary networks after turbulence using reconstructive logic. Analysing contingent stages of evolution provide for an in-depth study of the various forces impacting on a non-linear social system's recovery after turbulence. Similarly, such a mode of analysis allows for studying the inter-relationships among a system's endogenous and exogenous forces. Although each crisis is unique, yet an analysis of previous events would pave the way to generate learning curves geared towards the prevention, or at least mitigation, of the impact of future similar events. A detailed conceptual analysis of decision-making contexts and behavioural styles under varying levels of turbulent environmental states are evaluated to illustrate the direct and indirect inter-relationships among the actors/participants and their contributions to the creation and prolongation of a state of turbulence and instability. Since environmental states relate to the perceptions of the actors involved and their interactions over time, the connection between the two main environmental levels, namely, the system's internal micro-environmental factors - including inherent socio-political contradictions - and its external uncontrollable macro-environmental influences - incorporating regional and international forces - are evaluated. This study primarily deals with contingency planning for system's evolution after crisis. It is essentially a case study of turbulence at the national level of analysis, mainly dealing with the development of normative and predictive transferable policy implications geared towards a system's embarkation on a recovery and reconstruction mode. With this purpose in mind, this research study aims at developing a Reconstruction - Governance Contingency Path Analysis (RGPA) in terms of identifying and evaluating contingent stages of evolution based on an analysis of developmental leadership pathways. This is accomplished through an in-depth analysis of the components and conditions for a system's evolution as well as evaluating the inter-relationship between the system itself and its environment, both at the micro- and macro-levels. To illustrate its application to a specific country, the RGPA is applied to the case study of Lebanon / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis examines the risk and internationalisation practices of International New Ventures (INVs) in the environmental sector. The purpose of the research is to make observations regarding the manner in which environmental INVs manage risk when internationalising.The literature review focuses upon the published literature that relates to INVs, risk and risk management, mode of entry and the environmental sector. Section one of the literature review provides the characteristics of what constitutes an INV. Section 2 provides a review of the risk literature, this allows the differences between Multi National Enterprise (MNE) and INV risk and risk management to be reviewed. Section 3 takes the international business risks mentioned in section 2 and relates them to the mode of entry literature (i.e. the internationalisation of firms). The final section of the literature review is used to justify the investigation into the water pollution and control sector of the environmental industry. The research question is 'What strategies do environmental INVs use when entering new international markets?' The research question is broken into five specific research questions and addressed using the Repertory Grid process. The Repertory Grid process is used as it can turn the tacit knowledge held by the participants into explicit knowledge. The results show areas of convergence and divergence between practice and academia. The results also suggest new issues that need to be considered when firms internationalise. This culminates in the observations made in regard to the way environmental INVs manage risk when internationalising.

In considering the concept of surface-immobilised liposomes as a drug release system, two factors need to addressed, the interfacial surface density of the liposomes for maximum drug loading and the stability of these liposomes to allow for controlled drug release. This thesis investigates a multilayer system for the affinity immobilisation of liposomes and their stability to various applied stresses. In the work presented here an allylamine monomer was used to create plasma coatings that were stable, thin and amine-rich. The aging studies using AFM showed these films to rapidly oxidise on exposure to water. The freshly deposited films were used for further surface modifications, by the covalent grafting of PEG layers of different interfacial densities under the conditions of varying polymer solvation. The AFM was used to measure the interaction forces between the grafted PEG layers and modified silica interfaces. It was found that the polydispersity of the PEG species resulted in bridging interactions of ???brush???-like PEG layers with the silica surface. These interactions were screened minimised by increasing the ionic strength of the solution. Although the densely grafted PEG layers were found to be highly protein-resistant by the XPS and QCM-D some minor protein-polymer adhesions were observed by the AFM. The densely anchored biotinylated PEG chains served as an optimum affinity platform for affinity-docking of NeutrAvidinTM molecules, which assembled in a rigid, 2-D layer as confirmed by the QCM-D. The submonolayer surface density of NeutrAvidin, as determined by Europium-labelling, was attributed to steric hindrance of the immobilised molecules. The final protein layer enabled specific binding of biotin-PEG-liposomes as a highly dissipative, dense and stable layer verified by tapping mode AFM and QCM-D. We found that these liposomes were also stable under a range of stresses induced by the shearing effects of water, silica probe and HSA layer at increased loads and velocities. The frictional response of the liposome layer also demonstrated the viscoelasticity and stability of these surface immobilised liposomes. Finally, the minimal adhesive interaction forces, as measured by the AFM, demonstrated the repellency of these liposomes to commonly found proteins, such as HSA.