16144 research outputs found
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A Framework for General Chemistry and Biology Laboratory Design and Evaluation
No full textThe Departments of Chemistry and Biology at Hope College have a history of excellence in science education with an emphasis on integration of research experiences into undergraduate education. Hope College has endeavored to include proven new teaching methods such as peer review, real-world contextualization, and inquiry-based experiments into their curriculum as cohesively as possible. Here, a full literature review of recommended learning objectives will be presented, along with a meta-analysis, to generate a useful rubric for evaluating the quality of any General Chemistry or Biology Laboratory curriculum, followed by its application to Hope College’s own General Chemistry and General Biology sequence. Highlights of this project include a breakdown of the strengths of our current curricula as well as research-guided avenues for improvements with subsequent iterative evaluation. At the heart of this research is the creation of a framework for both design of new laboratories and evaluation of curricula that can be applied universally to any existing program to aid in the incorporation of effective pedagogies. The transferability of this generic iterative framework for improving laboratory curriculum to other institutions will be discussed
An Investigation of Dietary Habits in Overweight and Obese Children; Impact of a Childhood Wellness Intervention
No full textAccording to the CDC, 17% of children in the United Stated are obese and another 15% are overweight. Among children of the Holland-Zeeland area in Michigan, a staggering 28% of children are overweight or obese. In an effort to try and combat this epidemic, Foundations for Fitness was established in the fall of 2014 on Hope College’s campus. This is a program that provides families with exercise and lifestyle education while placing an emphasis on physical activity, nutrition, and family behavior modifications. The goal of the program is to take a holistic approach to improving the children’s health and fitness. Not many studies have looked into the nutrition of children in intervention programs like this one for reasoning related to the time-consuming nature of performing diet analyses and the problems surrounding self-reported data. This study investigated the differences in the diets of the children at week 1 of the 10-week program and at week 8. Their diets were compared to that of a control group of health experts’ children. The goal of this study is to identify if this intervention model is successful in changing the diets of the participating children. If so, other programs should consider adopting this model. Further, the results will help Foundations for Fitness develop their curriculum in a way that most benefits the children
A Statistical Analysis of River Flow Rate and Turbidity
No full textThe scientific community has established a correlation between river flow rate and turbidity, but the vast majority of research thus far has been focused on large rivers and bodies of water. Can the same conclusions be drawn from smaller rivers that may be subject to more local variance, such as weather, animal movement, and plant growth? After analyzing data from three streamlets, we conclude that studies on small, local ecosystems suffer the effects of confounding variables to a greater extent than studies on larger, more stable ecosystems. Because small rivers are subject to more variance than large rivers, no correlations were found between flow rate and turbidity
Braveheart: The Role of Films in Historical Storytelling
No full textMovies have become a quick, easy source of information but often fail to accurately represent history. This project examines the historical accuracy of the 1995 film Braveheart in its depictions of 13th-century Scotland and the Scottish War for Independence. This has been done through comparison of multiple historians’ analyses of the film. Upon comparing the body of work, it becomes clear that Braveheart was full of inaccuracies that render the film almost useless as a historical source. Through showing that Braveheart contains many false representations, this research highlights the importance for the need of research outside of Hollywood films
Grateful Remembering, Present Awareness, and Hopeful Anticipation: An Assessment of Worrying and Mental Health in College Students
No full textGratitude, mindfulness, and hope are three constructs that, along with individual associations with unique dimensions of time, have been empirically linked with positive outcomes (Vøllestad, Nielsen, & Nielsen, 2012; Rash, Matsuba, & Prkachin, 2011; Carr, 2004). The purpose of this study is to assess how brief experimental inductions of gratitude, mindfulness, and hope impact the psychological experience of worry and whether individual difference variables moderate the effects. In this incomplete repeated measures design experiment, undergraduate students (N = 89) complete individual difference measures. Next, they spend time two minutes imagining a current worry. Participants then write down three grateful thoughts, three things they could be mindful of, and three hopes for the future, followed by two-minute mental imagery inductions (counterbalanced order across participants). Between each condition, participants complete state questionnaires and rate their worry and mood. To test our hypothesis that engaging in positive mental imagery will attenuate worry, we will perform a within-subjects ANOVA comparing means for the self-report ratings after each imagery trial. We predict that each imagery induction will significantly decrease the psychological effects of worry and increase positive emotion and flourishing. We anticipate that gratitude will have the largest impact in reducing worry and increasing hope and flourishing. Finally, we hypothesize that individual difference variables, specifically trait emotion regulation, anxiety, and flourishing, will moderate these effects. Our findings will indicate how individual differences in trait hope, gratitude, mindfulness, worry, and flourishing are associated with participants’ responsiveness to the three interventions to cope with worry. We will also be able to describe worry’s relationship with anxiety and depression following brief interventions. Our findings will also suggest relative effectiveness of the three worry-coping strategies which we hope will provide novel insight into the treatment of worry in a clinical setting
Pictorial Mnemonic-Strategy Interventions for Children with Special Needs: Illustration of a Multiply Randomized Single-Case Crossover Design
No full textAn innovative single-case crossover design containing multiple forms of randomization was implemented with eight participants in seven weekly sessions, during which instruction was given in the use of two different pictorial mnemonic (memory-enhancing) strategies: one designed to improve the children’s learning of the dates of various inventions and the other designed to improve the children’s acquisition of unfamiliar vocabulary items. A composite randomization statistical test revealed that when compared with the children’s own preferred learning methods, the mnemonic-strategy approach produced the predicted facilitation effect. At the same time, it was evident that children’s performance on the vocabulary task was enhanced to a greater extent than was their performance on the inventions task. In-depth examinations of both individual student performance profiles and the tasks/procedures were conducted, yielding recommendations and challenges for follow-up single-case intervention research on the topic
Previous Hospitalization as a Risk Factor for Clostridium difficile Infection
No full textPrevious hospitalization is associated with Clostridium difficile (C. diff) colonization, which can occur without symptoms, but may lead to an infection when immunities are compromised. Clostridium difficile Infection (CDI) is expensive to treat and is associated with extended hospitalization. The objective of this study was to determine the percentage of positive healthcare-onset C. diff patients with previous hospitalization, and identify the length of time between the patient’s last discharge date and current hospitalization. Neuman’s Systems Model, the conceptual model for this study, views the patient multi-dimensionally, focusing on preventing and managing stressors and responses to stressors. This study addressed secondary prevention by identifying risk factors for CDI. All inpatients at a tertiary care hospital system with a positive C. diff PCR test in the first quarter of 2015 were identified using Compass Pathfinder®. Only patients classified with hospital-associated C. diff were included, totaling 37 participants. A retrospective chart review collected data from Cerner PowerChart®. Data were analyzed using SPSS® Version 22. Approximately 70% of patients had a previous discharge. Fifty-four percent were discharged within the last year and 16.2% were discharged over a year ago. Among the 26 with previous discharges, 3 were noted to have a previous positive C. diff test. In conclusion, most positive health-care C. diff patients had a previous hospitalization. Implications include healthcare provider awareness of previous hospitalization as a risk factor for CDI. Opportunities exist to evaluate prior and current length of stay and the number of hospitalizations to assess the association with CDI
Reducing the Rare Earth Content in Red- and Green-Emitting Phosphors for Lighting Applications
No full textFluorescent lamps remain a relevant, energy-efficient branch of lighting technology. However, commercially available fluorescent bulbs currently rely on phosphor coatings predominately composed of expensive and scarce rare earth elements (REs). These phosphor materials are necessary for converting the mercury vapor emission within the lamp to visible white light. To steer next-generation lighting technologies away from unstable RE markets, extensive efforts have gone towards developing phosphor materials that require reduced or eliminated RE content. This work explored the synthesis and performance optimization of three classes of reduced-RE phosphors. We prepared red-emitting magnesium germanate and magnesium fluorogermanate phosphors by different routes and investigated the effects of synthetic method, constituent precursors, and anion doping on the phase purity, light yield, and photoluminescence of these RE-free materials. We also demonstrate enhanced Eu3+ red emission in yttrium aluminate hosts via Sm3+ co-doping. To develop reduced-RE green-emitting phosphors, zinc pyrophosphates were studied as hosts for low levels of RE dopants. While the material exhibited a quantum efficiency rivaling commercial standards, RE dopants were insoluble in the zinc pyrophosphate crystal lattice. Preliminary results suggest the enhanced performance of the zinc pyrophosphate phosphor may be due to the particle size or crystallinity of monazite precipitates. The results of these studies highlight the challenges associated with the synthesis of inorganic phosphors and showcased unexpected optical properties for further investigation
Resonant Compton Physics for Magnetar Astrophysics
No full textVarious telescopes including RXTE, INTEGRAL, Suzaku, and Fermi have detected steady non-thermal X-ray emission in the 10 - 200 keV band from strongly magnetic neutron stars known as Magnetars. Magnetic inverse Compton scattering is believed to be the leading candidate for the production of this intense X-ray radiation. Scattering at ultra-relativistic energies leads to attractive simplifications in the analytics of the magnetic Compton cross section. We have recently addressed such a case by developing compact analytic expressions using correct spin-dependent widths acquired through the implementation of Sokolov & Ternov basis states, focusing specifically on ground-state−ground-state scattering. Compton scattering in Magnetar magnetospheres can cool electrons down to mildly relativistic energies. Moreover, soft gamma-ray flaring in Magnetars may involve strong Comptonization in expanding clouds of mildly relativistic pairs. Such environs necessitate the development of more general magnetic scattering cross sections, in which the incoming photons acquire substantial incident angles relative to the field in the rest frame of the electron leading to arbitrary Landau excitations of the intermediate and final states. Due to the rapid transitions of the excited-state to the ground-state, the initial electron is still assumed to be in the ground-state. The cross sections treat the plethora of harmonic resonances associated with various cyclotron transitions between Landau states. We present numerical results to show the comparisons to highlight the role of the spin-dependent widths of the resonances. The findings presented here will have applications to various neutron star problems, including computation of Eddington luminosities and polarization mode-switching rates in transient Magnetar fireballs
Surface Stimulation as a Potential Treatment for Phantom Limb Pain
No full textPhantom limb pain, a pain or discomfort in the missing limb, is experienced by a majority of amputees. Our work is based on the hypothesis that by eliciting a “real” sensation in the phantom limb, via surface electrical stimulation, pain may be decreased or even eliminated. Previously, we have shown that a variety of sensations can be obtained from stimulation on the surface of the skin. The goal of this study was to quantify the authenticity of the stimulated sensations using the rubber hand illusion. The median and ulnar nerves were stimulated with the goal of creating a realistic tapping sensation in the subject’s hand. The rubber hand illusion was then used to quantify the authenticity of the stimulated sensation. A total of five rubber hand illusion trials were performed on each subject: three traditional trials done by a human investigator tapping on both the real hand and the rubber hand, and two artificial trials using surface electrical stimulation to evoke a tapping sensation in the real hand while the robot tapped on the rubber hand. Data collected included: questionnaire results, proprioceptive drift, and temperature changes of the arm. The results of these measures were compared to determine if a significant difference was present between the traditional and artificial methods. The trials are still ongoing, but current analysis shows that the traditional method produced a more realistic illusion than the artificial method; however the artificial method produced a better illusion than the control. These results demonstrate the potential for using this combination of surface electrical stimulation and simultaneous visual feedback as a future therapy for phantom limb pain