Participation in sport has well-documented physical, psychological and social benefits that can lead to positive youth development (c.f., Eime, Young, Harvey, Charity, & Payne, 2013; Hebert, Møller, Andersen, & Wedderkopp, 2015; Vandell, Larson, Mahoney, & Watts, 2015) as well as youths’ thriving (Zarrett & Lerner, 2008). However, evidence continues to demonstrate that the number of sport participants in Canada and Japan continues to decline (Canadian Heritage, 2013, Statistics Canada, 2019; Nippon Junior High School Physical Culture Association, 2017). Such trends indicate the importance of understanding the psychological factors and the mechanisms of the relationships which may be important in determining how to keep young people in sport and optimally functioning. As thriving has been a popular topic in psychology research for two decades (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), recent evidence suggests that the concept of thriving is a positive predictor of desired outcomes such as retention, well-being, and performance (e.g., Porath, Spreitzer, Gibson, & Garnett, 2012; Ren, Yunlu, Shaffer, & Fodchuk, 2015). Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000, 2017), a well-cited tenet explaining human motivation and function, has concomitantly been utilized to explain the relationship between motivational factors and thriving (Ryan & Deci, 2017; Spreitzer & Porath, 2014). Since motivation is a key element for sport continuation and positive functioning (Roberts, 2012), the current dissertation focused on the investigation of the psychological mechanism underlying youth athletes’ thriving by examining self-determination theory. The overall purpose of this dissertation was to examine the psychological mechanism underlying thriving within a youth sport context. To do so, the current dissertation involved three different studies. Study 1 investigated the mechanism underlying youth athletes’ thriving with specific consideration regarding personal predictable factors and the consequences. Study 2 tested the buffering effect of mental toughness on the negative indirect relationships between basic psychological need thwarting and important outcomes for youth athletes’ positive functioning (intention to continue, subjective well-being in sport, and goal progress) through thriving. Study 3 examined how personal and social factors are related to thriving, in turn associating with important outcome variables of interest. In Study 1, the results revealed that basic psychological need satisfaction are positively associated with intention to continue in sport, subjective well-being in sport, and goal progress through thriving. Furthermore, both hedonic and eudaimonic motives were indirectly related to thriving through basic psychological need satisfaction. Lastly, hedonic and eudaimonic motives were positively related to intention to continue in sport, subjective well-being in sport, and goal progress through basic psychological need satisfaction and thriving. The findings from study 1 contribute to nurturing the body of literature in the self-determination theory by presenting a comprehensive model to enhance the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of thriving within the youth sport context. In addition, hedonic and eudaimonic motives have been rarely applied to the sport context and the youth participants in particular. As motives are more broadly defined than the reasons for behaviors (Cambridge University, 2001), the present study indicated that youth athletes’ motivational orientations (e.g., hedonic seeking or eudaimonic seeking for their sport participation) would have important meanings in their sport participation to increase the experience and thriving and positive functioning. In Study 2, the results demonstrated significant moderating effects of mental toughness on the indirect associations between basic psychological need thwarting and the outcomes through thriving. In other words, the negative impacts of basic psychological need thwarting on important outcomes were weakest for those participants who showed high mental toughness and strongest for the individuals with low mental toughness. The results demonstrated novel findings in that the mediating role of thriving between a motivational factor and outcome variables were moderated by the degree of mental toughness. Lastly, in Study 3, the results demonstrated that the social factors (i.e., autonomy supportiveness of both coaches and parents) were positively related to thriving and intrinsic regulation three months later through increased basic psychological need satisfaction. Additionally, hedonic motives did not predict thriving while eudaimonic motives indirectly predicted thriving and intrinsic regulation through basic psychological need satisfaction. Eudaimonic motives, but not hedonic motives, positively predicted intrinsic motivation three months later through basic psychological need satisfaction. Although previous research demonstrated significant relationships with high degrees of self-determined motivation regulation (e.g., intrinsic regulation) and both hedonic and eudaimonic experience (i.e., Waterman et al., 2008), our research demonstrated only eudaimonic motives were positively related to intrinsic regulation. Furthermore, the study found that hedonic motives did not indirectly predict thriving through basic psychological need satisfaction while eudaimonic motives predicted thriving through basic psychological need satisfaction. Since both social factors were significantly associated with intrinsic regulation and thriving through basic psychological need satisfaction, hedonic motives were not an important predictor of the enhancement in youth athletes’ intrinsic regulation and thriving when comparing with another personal factor (eudaimonic motives) and the social factors (i.e., autonomy supportiveness of coaches and parents). Overall, this thesis provides a greater theoretical understanding of the comprehensive mechanism underlying thriving within a youth sport context by using a theory of motivation. As the dissertation examined both personal and social factors affecting youth thriving, the results provide insight into the ways in which youth can thrive and thus, implications are also drawn for important stakeholders in sport.

Magister Scientiae Dentium - MSc(Dent) / Human identification is one of the major responsibilities in the field of Forensic Odontology as it plays a role in identifying deceased individuals using their oral and dental structures. Furthermore, human identification could be a challenging procedure in catastrophic disasters and mass fatality incidents in terms of decomposed and skeletonized human remains. Identification process can be applied using different methods such as fingerprint, DNA and detention. Gender-determination of the victim facilitates reconstruction and rebuilding in the profiling of a medico-legal case investigation. Gender-determination facilitates the procedure up to 50% for positive identification. Anthropology studies have shown that the sexual dimorphism of skeletal remains and teeth can facilitate the identification process. However, teeth are the hardest structures in the human body and virtually immortal as they can withstand diverse circumstances This study aimed to investigate sexual dimorphism of teeth by measuring the mesiodistal width of the maxillary and mandibular permanent canines in a sample of the South African population living in Cape Town. Two hundred orthodontic study models were used, 50 males and 50 females, between 13-30 years of age.

Self-determination as a concept within political philosophy has developed exponentially in the last few decades. This thesis maps the most prominent conceptions and establishes three main arguments. Firstly, that self-determination is a universal right for all self-identified peoples. Secondly, that secession should not be universal, but instead is dependent on the level of cohesiveness of a given people, as well as historical or contemporary injustice. Third, that while Palestine does have a right to secession, there is a risk of neglecting the refugees and their right of return in the quest for statehood. Alternatives to secession, i.e. power-sharing solutions, are discussed as well, and applied to Palestine. Critiques of nationalism, intergenerational justice and group rights are evaluated as well.

Taiwan is one of the four smaller Asian economies. Before 1960, Taiwan pursued industrialization policies by limiting imports of manufactured goods, gradually adopting an open and outward-oriented economic policy, believing it would expend exports and yield gained ground. With this increasingly open and outward-oriented economic policy as the background, we will study the real exchange rate (RER) misalignment in Taiwan over the period 1981-93. The RER plays a critical role in maintaining external competitiveness. Hence, from the policy point of view, this rate should not be allowed to deviate much from its equilibrium level. Since the equilibrium real exchange rate (ERER) is unobservable, it is very important that the concept be based on sound economic reasoning and its measurement should be done as correctly as possible. It is generally agreed that misalignment in the RER has a negative effect on the economic performance of a country. This dissertation is divided into two essays. The first essay deals with the estimation of ERER by using the Edwards and the Elbadawi approaches and the measurement of the RER misalignment from two different approaches. The second essay investigates the empirical importance of the distinction between the permanent and temporary components of the determinants of the ERER. By using the same reduced form equation from the first essay and reestimating the ERER by employing the techniques of a modern time-series analysis, which is introduced by Steven Beveridge and Charles Nelson, an empirical analysis is presented of the RER behavior.

Spin-stabilized spacecraft generally rely on sun and three-axis magnetic field sensor measurements for attitude determination. This study experimentally determines the total accuracy of attitude determination solutions using modest quality sensors. This was ac- complished by having a test spacecraft collect data during spinning motions. The data was then post-processed to find the attitude estimates, which were then compared to the exper- imentally measured attitude. This same approach will be used to test the accuracy of the attitude determination system of the DICE spacecraft to be built by SDL/USU.

Northern Pike (Esox lucius) is an economically and ecologically valuable species with a circumpolar distribution across the Northern Hemisphere. Northern Pike have been shown to have low levels of genetic variation despite their great capacity to colonize new environments. Here, high-resolution resequencing data from 47 Northern Pike from across North America was used for SNP discovery and population analysis. Our analysis reveals an extraordinary lack of genetic variation among Northern Pike with observed heterozygosity (Ho) of just 0.0835. Our analyses suggest that two major groups of Northern Pike exist in North America that are separated by the North American Continental Divide. Genetic variation associated with the stratification of these two groups resides across the genome particularly in gene regions with multiple copy number variants and functions related to immunity, tissue permeability, and development. Northern Pike from Alaska and the Yukon River harbour about two times more heterozygosity than Northern Pike east of the Continental Divide with an average of one heterozygous SNP every 6,250 bases. Populations east of the Continental Divide possess a remarkable level of genetic homogenization with an average of just one heterozygous SNP every 16,500 bases. For comparison, an average of one heterozygous SNP per 309 bases was reported in herring (Martinez Barrio et al., 2016), one per 500 in Atlantic cod (Star et al., 2011), and one per 750 bases in Coho and chinook salmon (Koop, 2018). This is at least 5 – 10 fold less variation than is seen in humans (the 1000 Genomes Project Consortium, 2015). We observed a recently described master sex-determining gene, amhby, in three western North American populations but not in populations east of the Continental Divide. We could not resolve any signals indicating a genetic sex determination system was present in populations from southern Manitoba or the St. Lawrence River. This may indicate that environmental sex determination is at play in these populations. We found evidence of a possible female-heterozygous, male homozygous ZW-ZZ genetic sex-determination system in New Jersey Northern Pike. With the highest average of 181,268 heterozygous SNPs genome wide and the greatest Ho (0.3228) of all populations, as well as the presence of the sex-determining gene amhby indicate that Northern Pike from our Alaskan population are the oldest in North America. Fewer numbers of heterozygous SNPs (61,073), low Ho (0.0922), and the absence of amhby in Northern Pike east of the Continental Divide suggests that these are relatively young populations and are descended from a small founding population. These results imply that Northern Pike first came to North America through Beringia and colonized its North American range from there, possibly via pro-glacial lake formation and drainage. However, from the data herein it was not possible to trace how re-colonization occurred after the final retreat of glaciers at the end of the last ice age. This thesis provides a genetically high-resolution snapshot of Northern Pike population structure in North America. It demonstrates that organisms with largely homogenous genomes can be incredibly successful and resilient. Finally, it adds to the complex subject of sex determination in fish and provides insight into a sex determination system in transition. / Graduate / 2020-10-15

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / There is a gap in our knowledge and understanding of perceptions of political activities, including the influence of education policies, by young adult Black males. There is a gap in our understanding of the formation of perceptions and attitudes. The purpose of this study is to gain a perspective of the perceptions of young adult Black male students regarding civic and political activism. By increasing our knowledge of Black students’ experiences and motivations, in relation to perception development, there could be lived experience-based pedagogy that encourages Black young adults to engage politically in a greater proportion. Additionally, such knowledge could provide insight toward being enabled to effectively react to perceived injustices and intolerant outcomes.

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