Literature Review Introductions
Kinesiology
The Effects of Occlusion Training on Athletes
Athletes, fitness enthusiasts, and recreational gym goers are always looking for new and better ways
to get bigger and stronger. As a result, researchers have begun to study occlusion training and its
effects on individuals’ muscular strength and size. Occlusion training utilizes low intensity resistance
training while moderately restricting blood flow to the working muscle group. The restriction of blood
flow has been shown to activate more fast twitch muscle fibers at low intensities and cause an increase
in growth hormone secretion due to the accumulation of metabolic by-products. Prior research shows
promising evidence that low intensity occlusion training increases muscular strength and size in
untrained and rehabilitating populations. This literature review will address the benefits and drawbacks
of occlusion training in trained individuals, with a specific focus on athletes.
Nursing
The Impact of Nurse Staffing on Patient Outcome
As healthcare rapidly changes and improvements are made in treatment, disease and injury
prevention, and overall patient outcome, long-term care (LTC) patients are being left in the dust.
While new medical technologies are being developed to improve patient outcome, some of the
most basic ways of preventing patient decline are being ignored. According to the American
Health Care Association, there were 70,000 vacant positions in LTC facilities (9,800 RNs,
12,900 LPNs, and 47, 300 CNAs) in the United States in 2012. Throughout the United States,
researchers are looking at healthcare staffing in LTC facilities to investigate staffing levels in
Registered Nurses (RN), Certified and Licensed Nursing Assistants (CNA or LNA), and Licensed
Practical Nurses (LPN) and their impact, if any, on patient outcome. These studies focus on either
the number of staff members in a facility or the amount of time each staff member can spend with
LTC residents each day. Prior research suggests that higher staffing levels and subsequent increased
time spent with LTC residents can vastly improve patient outcome. Researchers are looking for changes
in patient outcome by measuring variables such as urinary tract infections, pressure ulcers, dehydration,
weight loss, falls, and hospitalization. Other studies measured patient outcome by self-reported patient
happiness, comfort, and emotional well-being in comparison to staffing levels. Creating LTC
environments with safe and adequate staffing levels has the potential to rapidly improve healthcare
for LTC residents through direct care time or through reducing the amount of overtime done by
nurses and nursing staff. This literature review will address the challenges in accurately measuring
patient outcome, the advantages of researching staffing ratios and patient outcome, and the
challenges and benefits of researching and implementing safe staffing levels to improve
Government
Reproductive Rights in the U.S. Prison System
While women have historically represented a small minority of the prison population in the United States, they are currently the fastest growing segment of the prison population: Between 1980 and 2010, the number of incarcerated women increased at around 1.5 times the rate of men. The number of women increased by 646%, while the number of men increased by 419% (The Sentencing Project, 2012). Women have unique health concerns that require additional resources and expertise, particularly in relation to reproductive issues, but prisons have largely not met these concerns in part due to women’s historical absence from the prison system. Incarcerated women’s access to adequate reproductive health services is even more important because of the disproportionate percentage of incarcerated low-income and of color women, historically already disadvantaged minorities. In the last few years, feminist and social justice circles have paid increased attention to prisoners’ rights and the prison-industrial complex. As a result, the unique experiences of incarcerated women have been given more attention, particularly in relation to pregnancy and coerced sterilization. Efforts to shine a light on incarcerated women have focused on women’s lived experiences and possible legal and administrative avenues for change, though there is some disagreement on where to focus advocacy work. This paper will explore the state of incarcerated women’s reproductive rights, concentrating on coerced sterilization, access to abortion services, and experiences of pregnancy and childbirth, and identify areas of conflict in approaches to reform. These issues will be contextualized within the historical experiences of reproductive injustice for women of color.
Game Design
In recent decades, public education in the United States has floundered and stagnated, leaving
students uninspired, unmotivated, and most importantly, less educated. When video games were first
being developed in the 1970s, few would have imagined that someday they could hold the key to
revitalizing the educational system and engaging generations of students who might otherwise find
themselves weighed down by the monotony of standardized tests and one-size-fits-all curriculums. Past
research conducted to assess the capacity of video games in stimulating intellectual growth has
primarily focused upon cognitive developments, including spatial reasoning skills, spatial awareness,
working memory, and attention allocation, among several others. In addition to the cognitive gains, this
paper will further explore the intellectual growths that can be achieved through video games, such as
social engagement, motivational boosts, and emotional development, and will explore how video games
could augment public education based upon these findings.
Public health
Comparison of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
Since more synthetic chemicals are being developed and diseases are constantly evolving, our
rapidly globalizing world is at increasing risk of new epidemic diseases. In order to prepare for
unexpected outbreaks in the future, it is important to explore various cases of epidemic diseases
throughout the world and compare them to identify the reasons behind the success or failure in the
prevention of the spread. Although there have been numerous studies done on individual epidemic
diseases, there are a limited number that compare multiple infectious diseases. This literature review
will study and compare various aspects of two major outbreaks: Middle East Respiratory Syndrome
(MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Since experts and past research have found
MERS poses a greater threat than SARS, the two diseases will be analyzed and compared in the following
categories: transmission pattern, geography, demographics, and effect on healthcare personnel.
Global Affairs Top of Form
Climate Change Refugees
Climate change has become the most pressing matter in the international community as people
from all over the world have been negatively affected by the warming of the planet. As sea levels rise,
people living in vulnerable areas are forced to migrate to more a sustainable land. This mass
displacement of people has created a new subgroup of migrants called Climate Change Refugees who
have little to no legal rights. In the small Pacific nation of Kiribati, climate change adaptation policies
have been implemented in order to stunt the negative effects of rising sea levels, however,
contamination of fresh water has led to increased health issues, and destruction of land used for living
and farming. Climate refugees often face unwelcoming nations and no international relief even though
many large nations such as the United States have made international agreements with Kiribati but have
yet to act. This literature review will cover the themes of climate change effects and adaptation,
international treaties and aid, and the legal rights of climate change refugees.
Accounting
With the development of technology, the capitalization of companies is becoming
more and more globalized. Meanwhile, the companies are facing greater risk of corruption. Past
research has been done to find the best way to detect, reduce, and avoid corruption inside
companies, and how to use internal control to solve corruption problems. Studies have
shown that corruption in high-tech companies is more difficult to detect than in other types
of companies, and special use of internal control is required under this condition. This
literature review will focus on the following themes: reasons that corruption happens inside
high-tech companies, why it is difficult to detect the corruption, how high-tech companies
can use internal control methods to detect and avoid corruption, and how high-tech
companies can develop their internal control strategy to avoid corruption in the future.
Graphic design
Education in the Graphic Arts
As society emerges into the digital age of the 21st century, graphic design is gaining
increased prominence as a career path worldwide. Along with constant changes and
improvments in technology used by designers, a key debate in the field regards the methods
and techniques used to develop and educate new graphic designers. To be more specific,
researchers have questioned the effectiveness of teaching graphic design courses in the
same way we teach fine arts courses. However, many of the current thoughts on the subject
are simply speculation, with little practical research being done in classrooms. This
literature review will address the current methods of pedagogy for graphic design in higher
education, discussing the aspects that do not need to be changed and offering solutions to
aspects that do need to be changed to best suit today’s technological environment and most
efficiently develop cognizant designers.
9.Criminology
Forensic Science and the War on Terror
As the war on terror has raged on for nearly two decades, both policymakers and military leaders have sought to maintain the upper hand by any means necessary. Studies have been done to ensure our weaponry and fighting tactics have evolved in response to our changing enemy, and properly protective vehicular armor and evasive Humvee maneuvering have been developed to contend with improvised explosive devices (IEDs). However, advances are also being made in how we approach wartime physical evidence analysis, data collection, and culprit attribution. We have begun deploying forensic science techniques both on the battlefield and at home as we take on the threat of terrorism. This methodology is well known in local and state crime scene investigation (CSI) circles, but has only recently started to be applied to battlegrounds. Thus far, the impact has been palpable. Research has shown that active duty soldiers can be suitably trained on using CSI techniques to trace IED remnants back to their makers, and military intelligence analysts have successfully profiled terrorist masterminds based on proven forensic psychological studies. Looking forward, forensic science is now being sought as a preventative measure to thwart chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) attacks. This review will shed light on the evolution of forensic science and its future warzone applications.
Kinesiology
The Effect of Caffeine on Vertical Jump in College Athletes
In collegiate sports, it is common practice by athletes to use ergogenic aids to gain a competitive edge. By far the most popular aid used among college athletes is caffeine because of its high availability in various foods, drinks, and supplements and because of the benefits seen in various sports. However, more is known about the benefits of caffeine in endurance sports compared to high-intensity sports that utilize the anaerobic energy system (Bloms et al. 2015). In addition, literature is limited in regards to the effect of caffeine on sports specific skills that utilize ballistic movements. Among these various sports, vertical jump performance can be an indicator of how well athletes can perform these tasks. The reason why this is important is because the NCAA has numerous regulations on the use of substances but has allowed the use of caffeine within a certain limit. With caffeine being an accepted substance by the NCAA and showing promising effects for high intensity sport athletes, the effects of caffeine on vertical jump should be reviewed and further developed. In this literature review, the topics that will be covered are the effects of caffeine on vertical jump performance, factors that affect vertical jump height, caffeine’s effect on various high-intensity sports specific tasks, and overall sports performance.
11. Government and International Relations
The Morality and Legality of Justifying Torture
As the threat of terrorism continues to grow around the world, the question of what to do with captured terrorists looms large. Is it justified to torture them to extract valuable and time-sensitive information, especially if there are potentially hundreds of thousands of lives at risk? Most of the existing literature on the topic, both past and current, argues no, torture is never justified. However, dissenting opinions still exist. Examining the question of torture can be broken into a dichotomy: no, torture cannot be justified, and yes, torture can be justified. Each side can be examined under two lenses, that of morality and that of legality. This literature review will discuss arguments within those spheres, to attempt to provide a conclusion to the question of the permissibility of torture.
Psychology
Social Media, Body Dissatisfaction, and Social Comparison Theory
Eating disorders are a serious and potentially life threatening mental illness. In the United States, 20 million women and 10 million men suffer from an eating disorder at some time in their life (Wade, Keski-Rahkonen, & Hudson, 2011). The risk factors for eating disorders are largely beyond a person’s control. Risk factors for developing an eating disorder include having a family history of disordered eating, being a woman, being an adolescent, having mental disorders like depression and anxiety, having high levels of stress, and being prone to perfectionism. While many of the risk factors for developing an eating disorder are hereditary, factors like media consumption can be controlled. Body dissatisfaction and poor body image are key components to eating disorders, so understanding how preventable factors like media consumption impact body dissatisfaction is important to understanding eating disorders (Ferguson et al., 2014). Early research on the media and body dissatisfaction focused the thin ideal, meaning media that featured emaciated models or actresses. While this kind of media did prove to be harmful, more recent research argues that widely used social media is far more harmful. According to the Social Comparison Theory, people are far more likely to compare themselves to similar others. This means that when young women use websites like Facebook, or popular applications like Instagram, they are likely looking at how they compare to their friends. This is particularly dangerous when the people using social media are at a vulnerable age, as eating disorders often onset in adolescence. While thin-ideal media can be very damaging to the body image of young women, the worst damage to self-esteem and body image is done by consuming media consisting of peers and similar others. For this reason, monitoring the use of social media in young women is critical in preventing permanent damage to self-esteem, body image, and body satisfaction. This paper aims to separate previous research by the methods in which the research was conducted (experimental vs. correlational), while also offering a direction for future research. Examining previous research on this topic is important because by identifying damaging social media use patterns, parents and teachers will be better able to support the young women in their lives, and protect them from popular and potentially harmful social media content.
anthropology
The Effect Disney Princesses Have on Young American Females
Introduction
Walt Disney Company is one of the most prominent producers of children’s media, with a social monopoly of films, TV shows, games, clothing, lunch boxes, and more. Disney has made and released animated films for decades, influencing several generations. Past research has been done to understand the effect Disney princesses have on a young girl’s self-image and behavior, and how the portrayal of gender, families, and couples also affect a young viewer’s perspective in the real world. Studies have shown that girls with more exposure to Disney have a more positive self-image, lower aggression, higher pro-social behavior, and more female gender stereotyping than girls with less exposure. This literature review will look at the following themes: gender roles, relationship and couple portrayal, body image, and behavior, as well as how traditional fairy tales portray women and how that influenced Disney movies. Lastly, females in their early to mid-twenties, who grew up when Disney began to release films more frequently, were the focus of a short survey to show the potential new research related to Disney films and its viewers.
Engineering
Challenges for STEM Education
The standing offer of high pay, a high level of prestige, a high degree of autonomy, and great job security that accompanies STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) careers is, surprisingly, not enough to draw the desired level of interest from today’s young people. As the innovators of the world, STEM professionals are essential to international economic success and to the future, and the current shortage merits significant concern. As a result, there has been a lot of research done about how to get more people interested in STEM, and how to encourage people to maintain their interest and go into a STEM career. Much of the focus of past research has been on STEM curriculums and programs in early education, encouraged by the notion that students need to be converted to STEM at an early age through exposure. However, there is increasingly more research on alternate ways to encourage STEM interest. These include cultural and psychological factors, the effects of project-based learning, and entirely different ways to approach the problem. This paper will discuss existing research within the field of STEM education, noting the ways in which the different studies support and contradict each other, and will also present several potential expansions that can help to more accurately describe the motivating factors that lead to STEM careers.