Open Access Kent State (OAKS)

PROBLEM: Knee wraps have been used to improve squat performance for decades. Their effectiveness to increase a 1 repetition maximum has been documented in lifting records for several organizations but the effect on vertical jump performance is unknown. METHODS: Ten healthy active males (Height- 1.74±5.88m, Mass- 86.1±14.6kg, Age- 27±3 years) volunteered to participate in a 2 week vertical jump training study. On three different testing days (1, 4, and 11) subjects performed 2 sets of 5 vertical jumps with 20 seconds rest between jumps and 5 minutes rest between sets. One set was performed without knee wraps and one set was performed with knee wraps. On two separate training days, subjects performed 3 sets of 10 vertical jumps with 20 seconds rest between jumps and 5 minutes rest between sets. One group (KW; n=5) performed the sets with knee wraps and one group (UW; n=5) performed the sets without knee wraps. Vertical jump height data was collected with a Vertec Device. RESULTS: A significant 3-way interaction (p=.003) was observed for vertical jump height such that groups were different on vertical jump height for sets without knee wraps on Day 4 (UW-55.986±6.332cm, KW- 62.382±9.646cm) and Day 11 (UW- 56.087±8.851cm, KW-63.805±7.701cm). In addition, sets without knee wraps were observed to be significantly greater (p<.001) than sets with knee wraps on all days regardless of group. CONCLUSION: Different from back squat research, knee wraps do not improve vertical jump performance even though vertical jump with knee wraps increases with training.

Past research (Fitzsimons & Finkel, 2011) has found that when people’s romantic partners are instrumental to their pursuit of personal goals, they report decreases in their planned goal-related effort. The current study extended these findings by examining the effects of romantic partners’ instrumentality on actual effort toward goals and goal progress over time. We also examined the role of relationship satisfaction in the association between instrumentality and effort and progress. We predicted that partner instrumentality would decrease goal effort and have positive impacts on goal progress over time, but only for people with high relationship satisfaction. Seventy-eight couples completed questionnaires on relationship satisfaction, their romantic partner’s instrumentality to their goals, goal effort, and goal progress at 2 time points, 3 months apart. To analyze the data, we used a 3-level multilevel model. We found that partner instrumentality at Time 1 was not related to changes in goal effort, but was related to changes in goal progress across time, such that higher partner instrumentality was related to more progress. However, the relation between instrumentality and goal progress depended on relationship satisfaction, such that higher relationship satisfaction was related to greater increases in progress over time. Although we did not find that partner instrumentality decreases goal-related effort, we found that it predicts increases in goal-related progress across time, especially for individuals with higher levels of relationship satisfaction. Therefore, having a romantic partner who is instrumental, making it easier to pursue a given goal will result in more goal progress.

According to the CDC, over one-third of adults in the United States are obese. Long-term obesity has been linked to many health problems including heart disease, diabetes, and several forms of cancer. Unlike humans that tend to gain weight as we age, there are vertebrates that appear to be resistant to weight increase such as many species of non-migratory birds including zebra finches. The goal of this experiment was to determine if we could alter weight in zebra finches by exposing them to a high caloric diet of finch seed mixed with suet (15% by weight). We hypothesized that birds receiving suet would gain more weight compared to controls. Birds were fed either regular finch seed or suet mixed diet for 17 weeks, and were housed in modified cages to restrict activity. Every other week they were weighed, and lean mass and fat mass were measured using an EchoMRI. From this, average lean and average fat mass percentages were calculated. Preliminary results demonstrate that within the suet fed group there was variability in these two measures that paralleled controls. Despite this, neither group experienced a significant change in weight. These results imply that there is a mechanism responsible for maintaining weight homeostasis that cannot be overridden by solely challenging them with an increased calorie diet. Some possible mechanisms that may explain the results include increased metabolism, an increased output of thermoenergy, or changes in food consumption.

Title: The Effectiveness and Advancement of Military Combat Gear:

Michaela M. Judy

Undergraduate Business Major

College of Business Administration

Kent State University

Steve Riczo

Faculty Advisor

Exploring Business Professor

College of Business Administration

Kent State University

Trevor Watkins, MS, MCIS, MLIS

Faculty Advisor

Assistant Professor, Science Librarian

Kent State University Libraries

Assistant Dean, Elizabeth Sinclair

Co-Faculty Advisor

College of Business Administration

Kent State University

Title: The Effectiveness and Advancement of Military Combat Gear

As technology continues to advance at a rapid rate, U.S. soldiers face endless threats on the battlefield everyday and the threats of modern warfare using today’s technology are deadlier than ever. Our enemies are enhancing their military weapons making it imperative that we keep pace with protective gear for our armed forces who risk so much for us everyday. Military combat uniforms have evolved to become more advanced to meet military standards. However, we believe that current uniforms used in combat today, do not provide our soldiers with the most advanced protection needed when facing these threats. We investigated different ballistic fibers.

During the process of conducting the research for this project, we discovered the need to address some business aspects as well. For example, subsequent to patenting our product, we would joint venture with a military contractor for final testing and production of improved military combat uniforms that provide soldiers full body protection. We are also exploring the possibility of bringing on technical experts in liquid crystals and chemistry to work with us in enhancing our combat gear. We have used both qualitative and quantitative methods to conduct this research project, such as connecting with different universities in our quest for technical experts.

I am confident that our combat uniform will ultimately: have superior durability and protective qualities than that of its predecessors; protect a soldier’s entire body including arms, legs and neck; stand up to various climate conditions; and, last longer than the current 2-year lifespan of today’s uniforms.

Both children and adults find fractions challenging. Understanding how adults cognitively process fractions is important for making beneficial changes to math education in the future. We investigated whether the size of a fraction's denominator plays a significant role in the speed and accuracy with which adults compare the magnitude, or values, of two fractions (e.g., which is bigger ¾ or 3/19?). Should adults find fractions with large denominators more difficult to differentiate based on magnitude, it would suggest that participants are deconstructing the fractions into their component parts (e.g., focusing on the denominator), rather than thinking about the magnitude of the fractions in terms of the value of the fractions as a whole (e.g., ¾ = 0.75 or 75%). If participants are focusing on the components of fractions, then they may make slower and more error prone decisions when the comparison involves fractions with larger denominators, because these are fractions that actually possess smaller magnitudes (e.g., ¾ = 0.75 vs. 3/19 = 0.16). As hypothesized, adults in our study made significantly more mistakes when comparing fractions with larger denominators (11-20) as compared to fractions with smaller denominators (1-10). Adults focus on the denominators of fractions and treat them as whole number indicators of the fractions' magnitude, and this can lead to decreased accuracy on a magnitude comparison task.