Browsing by Subject "Power"
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Item Aerobic training effects on rate of force production(2013-05) Carroll, Christopher K.Aerobic training has been negated as a training modality for many anaerobic sports and their participating athletes. The trend is due to a growing theory that aerobic training has the potential to inhibit strength, power, and/or overall anaerobic performance. However, there are studies that have produced conflicting as well as inconclusive findings when aerobic conditioning is performed concurrently with strength training. PURPOSE: The primary purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of aerobic training on anaerobic output defined by vertical jump (VJ), broad jump (BJ), and Wingate testing results in male and female recreationally trained runners over a period of 16 weeks. Additionally, body weight (BW), percent body fat (PF), pre-exercise resting heart rate (RHR), VO2max and anaerobic threshold (AT) were examined as exploratory measures. METHODS: A 16-week observational pre- and posttest design was used to determine the effects of a single phase aerobic training specific to preparing for a marathon on measures of anaerobic power as well as anthropometric measures and body composition. RESULTS: The primary findings demonstrated that after 16 weeks of a specified aerobic training for a marathon, there was no change in VJ (p = 0.307) and there was an increase in BJ (p = 0.011). There was no change in peak power (males p = 0.08, females p = 0.114). There was an improvement in fatigue index (males p = 0.017, females p = 0.006) during the 30-second Wingate cycle test among study subjects, however there was a decrease in PF (p=0.0001). In addition, marginal increases in VO2max (p = 0.055) as well as decreases in PF (p = 0.001) and RHR (p = 0.001) were observed. CONCLUSION: The findings do not support the notion of the universal nature that aerobic training has a negative effect in the development of rate of force production. However, the adverse effect may hold true in regards to explosive strength due to limited neural activation. The interference effect may also be present in a concurrent setting where aerobic and anaerobic training protocols are assessed in exclusively aerobically trained subjects. However, in a sport performance setting, as well as in general public health, the training for physical fitness requires the development of muscle strength, power and endurance. The present findings indicate that the influence of aerobic training is an important factor for not only overall fitness, but it does not appear to constrain anaerobic performance.Item Caring, Power, and the Emotional and Organizational Architecture of Life in Schools(2017-12) Walls, JeffPurpose: Schools are expected to care for students, but many students do not experience care at school- especially students from historically underserved populations. One reason why implicates the way that school adults use their positional and relational power inside and outside of classrooms. The purpose of this study is to examine how adults, individually and collectively, think about and use their power in efforts to care for students, and how students experience these efforts. Research Methods/Approach: This study employs a grounded theory approach and utilizes participant observation and photo elicitation interviews of students and staff at two middle schools. Findings: At the classroom level, caring and power intersect in ways that reveal teachers’ understanding and support of student emotions. Teachers with stable caring relations often view care and control as complements, whereas teachers with less stable caring relations view care and control as substitutes. At the organizational level, the existence of schoolwide expectations and common beliefs amongst teachers had implications for whether caring was practiced in a consistent way throughout the school. Conclusions and Implications: This study reveals the importance of leadership support for building teachers’ reflectiveness and decision-making regarding supporting students’ emotions. It also reveals the importance of consistent beliefs about caring and students’ potential amongst school adults to build capacity and solve organization-wide problems.Item Colonies, Clients, and Rogues: Power and the Production of Order in International Politics(2016-07) Asaadi, RobertThis dissertation problematizes the foreign policy paradigm in which certain states are labeled as 'rogue' or 'outlier' regimes and as a consequence subjected to forms of exclusion and discipline. My analysis focuses on the case of Iran and its relations with the US in the post-Cold War era. I argue through this case study that an overlooked aspect of the rogue state concept and hegemon-rogue relations pertains less to how rogue states behave, which has been the focus of the existing literature on this subject, and more to what they mean to those who name them as such. I trace the historical emergence of the term as well as its performative contradictions in an effort to denaturalize the rogue concept and uncover the strategic interests involved in its deployment. The rogue figure stands simultaneously as a radical threat, subject to isolation and targeting, and at the same time exists as an objective manifestation of the 'wrong' values / 'wrong' ways of being, which functions to reaffirm the normative order and legitimacy of the hegemon. The naming of rogues, I argue, functions as an exclusionary boundary and reaffirms the neo-imperialist desire to define the encounter with others.Item A Design Tool for Matching UAV Propeller and Power Plant Performance(2014-07-24) Mangio, ArionItem An empirical study of Bonett’s (2009) meta-analytic model(2012-10) Xie, AolinA key methodological decision in a meta-analysis has traditionally been the choice between the classic fixed-effects (FE) or random-effects (RE) models assumed to underlie effect sizes (see Hedges & Olkin, 1985). Recent work has criticized these models because of the implausibility of their underlying assumptions (Bonett, 2008, 2009; Hunter & Schmidt, 2000). Bonett (2009a) proposed a modified FE model and recommended using contrasts to compare mean effect sizes among levels of discrete moderators. This study empirically investigated the behavior of the Bonett (2009a) modified FE model and the classic FE model for interval estimation and hypothesis testing of effect size contrasts. The results suggested that the two models performed similarly well with normally distributed data. The Bonett model was robust to nonnormality combined with unequal within-study variances and unequal within-study sample sizes, whereas the classic FE model showed inflated type I error rates and lower statistical power under these conditions.Item Higher education: power and influence of academic administrative staff members(2014-05) Thompson, Denise RenaeThis study examines the role of informal power sources available to administrative staff in university academic departments. The research question that drives the analysis is, "In what ways do administrative staff members utilize informal power to influence departmental decision-making?" Data were collected through interviews with chairs, Directors of Graduate Studies, faculty, and administrative staff at a public research university, utilizing a structured interview guide. Results indicate that staff members in the four departments studied possess and use formal and informal power sources. The formal bases of power studied are formal power and legal prerogative power. The major sources of staff informal power described by the interview participants are productive power (notably, political alliances), information power, and resource power. The study suggests that administrative staff members have access to informal power and those with the skill and willingness to use that power can impact departmental decisions.Item Power and altruistic helping in organizations: roles of psychological closeness, workplace design, and relational self-construal(2013-09) Yoon, Jeehyun DavidI tested a model wherein psychological closeness mediated the negative relationship between power and altruistic helping. I also proposed two moderators--physical distance and relational self-construal--to moderate this relationship, specifically by interacting with power to influence psychological closeness. First of all, this study did not support the proposition that power was negatively related to helping. Power was not associated with helping in the lab setting; perceptions of power measures were positively associated with helping whereas most of the measures of status and relative power were not associated with helping. Second, I did not find support for the model wherein psychological closeness mediated the negative relationship between power and helping in both the lab setting and the field setting. Third, neither physical distance nor relational self-construal was a significant moderator of the relationship between power and psychological closeness. Therefore, the association between power and helping via psychological closeness did not vary by either of the moderators.Item Power and the Quest for Justice(2017-07) Snell, PaulThis dissertation asks how legal, political and social actors affect the beliefs and actions of public interest law organizations. In order to answer this question requires two conceptual prerequisites. The first is the concept of power. There are substantial limitation with current understandings of what it means to affect others . I conduct an ordinary language analysis to illustrate interest group scholars’ acceptance of one sense of power—as domination. In the process, I recover another sense of power— as influence—the ability to affect others through imperceptible and non-coercive means. The second conceptual prerequisite is what public law organizations do, and how these actions reinforce one another. I create the concept of triangular advocacy to explain how these groups try to change society through a combination of legal, political, and social advocacy. While legal advocacy is central to public law groups’ efforts, political and social advocacy complements their goals. With the concepts of power—as influence, and triangular advocacy, I examine the question that I posed at the outset: how key actors have power with public law groups. I find that legal and social advocacy are important ways for PILOs to overcome challenges that political actors and the broader public place in their way. If public law groups perceive themselves as having good relationships with political actors, however, then they can concentrate on insider forms of politics, and do not need to emphasize social change as strongly.Item Repeated Sprint Ability: The influence of aerobic capacity on energy pathway response and fatigue of hockey players(2014-05) Peterson, Benjamin JamesAn important factor for success in repeated sprint sports is a player's ability to produce power; the player that is quicker to the ball or faster off the line will often beat their opponent, giving them an advantage. Competitions for these sports, however, take place over the period of several hours and are divided into quarters, halves, or periods; each of these consisting of numerous maximal-work bouts interspersed with relatively short recovery periods. The ability to repeatedly produce high power outputs throughout a competition gives a competitive edge to a player over his/her opponent and is an important fitness component in repeated sprint sports. This ability has come to be known as repeated-sprint ability (RSA).Research has found athletes with higher VO2peak's to have an improved RSA. While there is research specific to the relationship in field-based team sports (e.g. rugby and soccer) there is very little published on the sport of ice hockey. This dissertation aimed to eliminate the shortfalls of the current research by addressing this population-specific void. The first study, "Aerobic Capacity is Associated with Improved Repeated Shift Performance in Hockey," established a foundation for future RSA research to build on by 1) accounting for task-specificity by obtaining players' VO2peak on a skating treadmill using a graded exercise test; and 2) evaluate RSA using an on-ice test, developed to mimic the motor patterns typically performed by hockey players during competition. The second study, "Division I Hockey Players Generate More Power than Division III Players During On- and Off-ice Performance Tests," established baseline, normative data for hockey players for both on- and off-ice performance tests; stratified by level of play. Finally, the third study, "Off-Ice Anaerobic Power is Not a Good Predictor of On-ice Repeated Shift Performance in Hockey Players," challenges both the scientific and sporting community to re-evaluate the emphasis placed on anaerobic power during off-ice player testing. The results of these studies could have important implications for the training and evaluation methods used by scientists, coaches, and players to prepare for the competitive season.Item Sensor Integration Software(2014-07-23) Murch, AustinItem Validity and reliability of the power/control scales.(2011-09) Kroupin, Georgi VladislavovichThe present study used a rather new instrument, the Power/Control Scales (P/C-S) to examine its reliability, factor structure and concurrent and discriminant validity. It used a convenience sample of 158 couples - graduate and undergraduate students--and their partners--at the University of Minnesota. Power/Control Scales (P/C-S) was found to be a reliable instrument. However, in contrast to the original theoretical conceptualization, constructs of "Power" and "Control" were found to be highly correlated. Analysis of correlations between the original "Power" and "Control" scales and similar SCI scales and between the original "Power" and "Control" scales and dissimilar SCI provided some support for the concurrent and discriminant validity of the P/C-S. Exploratory factor analysis provided limited support for the proposed four-factor structure ("Power", "Control", "Self", "Other") of the instrument. Although data analysis resulted in a clear difference between "Self" and "Other" for all subsets of data , only factors 3 and 4 resulting from the Varimax rotation of the male data provided partial support for the existence of the separate constructs of "Power" and "Control". The subsets of "Power" and "Control" items in the newly identified factors seemed to represent constructs that are different form the originally defined "Power" and "Control" constructs. The new factors were labeled "Active/Enabling Influence" and "Passive/Inhibiting Influence". A model of analyzing "Power" and "Control" dynamics in close relationships was introduced based on a redefined constructs and possible practical implications of the proposed model were discussed.