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Developing a Curiosity-Centered Pedagogy for Music Technology
No full textTwo of the foundations of learning are attention and active engagement, the latter being “an algorithm also called curiosity” (Dehaene 2021, p. 145). Curiosity is fundamental to being human, encourages exploration, and when curiosity is engaged, optimizes learning. We know that a person who is not engaged does not learn as much “because learning requires an active generation of hypotheses…” (Dehaene 2021, p. xxvii) as well as testing and refining these hypotheses through exploration. Curiosity motivates and deepens this process.
In music technology, we have the attention of our students, as the relevance and meaningfulness of our area of study are readily apparent in popular culture and are hopefully made even more clear in the classroom. Knowing this attention is present, I will explore how we can use music technology to best engage the algorithm called curiosity and increase the level of active engagement. Contrarily, I will interrogate and give examples of how we—as professors in programs focusing on music technology—can crush curiosity in students and how to avoid this
Implementation of Education-Based Reminders to Improve Cervical and Breast Cancer Screening Rates
No full textBACKGROUND: Increased cervical and breast cancer screening is associated with reduced morbidity and mortality. Despite clear recommendations, cervical and breast cancer screening rates remain decreased at the national, statewide, and local levels.
LOCAL PROBLEM: The project setting was a rural, outpatient community clinic that provides primary care services to uninsured populations. The project site reported less than optimal cervical and breast cancer screening rates. The purpose of this project was to send education-based appointment reminders in the patient’s preferred language. The project aimed to increase cervical cancer screening rates in women ages 21-65 to 65% and breast cancer screening rates in women ages 40-74 to 50% within 3 months of project implementation.
METHODS: The Evidence Based Practice Improvement (EBPI) model was used to guide the project. Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycles were used to test the practice change before full implementation. Cervical and breast cancer screening rates were measured throughout the project. The number of reminders sent to patients due for screening, and whether it was sent in the patient’s preferred language, was also measured.
INTERVENTIONS: Phone prompts included a brief message with educational content on the screening type due and an opportunity to schedule an appointment. Mail prompts also contained educational content with an appointment reminder. All appointment reminders were made or sent in the patient’s preferred language.
RESULTS: 100% of patients due for cervical and/or breast cancer screening received a reminder in their preferred language. Cervical cancer screening rates increased 11.3%, from 53% to 59%. Breast cancer screening rates increased 20%, from 40% to 48%.
CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of education-based appointment reminders resulted in a clinically significant increase in cervical and breast cancer screening rates, increasing access to patient education and cancer screening services. Given the success and sustainability of this project, future efforts include spreading the practice change to add similar reminders to improve other cancer screening rates and access for the clinic population
The Implementation of Wound Care Education for People Affected by Homelessness
No full textBackground: People who experience homelessness are more at risk for developing wounds due to living conditions, comorbidities, malnutrition, and environmental exposures. This population is also more at risk for wounds due to limited access to free medical care and resources.
Local Problem: A community-based organization in the Southeastern region of the United States raised concerns about the need for wound care prevention, education, and treatment for the unhoused population. The organization commonly encounters wounds related to injection sites, diabetes, environmental exposure, and other causes.
Methods: The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Model for Improvement guided the project. Improvements were made utilizing the plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycle. Data was collected by comparing the pre-survey results to the post-survey results. A three-month follow-up survey was conducted to measure sustained knowledge.
Interventions: This project provided brochures and an educational program to increase the homeless population’s knowledge of wound prevention and treatment. Participants received a survey to assess their understanding of wounds before, immediately after, and three months after the education. The frequencies and percentages of each response type were recorded for each specified time point.
Results: Fourteen participants took the pre- and post-surveys for the educational programs. The 3-month survey results were skewed as the population at the community organization was continuously changing. Data showed improvement in participant confidence and knowledge on wound care and prevention. Participants reported that the educational brochure and presentation were helpful in better understanding wound care management.
Conclusions: The use of brochures and an educational program increased the participants’ knowledge of wound care prevention and management. The project’s results were limited due to the organization’s changing population. The project can be sustained by the continued use of the brochure and educational program by the staff for the residents
Pathway to Blue Hydrogen: Converting Methane to Hydrogen via Auto-Thermal Reforming Process
Full text linkThe Correlation between Pre-Operative Obstructive Sleep Apnea Screening and the Patient Risk for Post-Operative Respiratory Compromise
Full text linkProgram Closure - Fundamentals of Engineering and Computing Teaching in Higher Education Graduate Certificate
Full text linkPhysical Victimization of Youth in the Juvenile Justice System: The Roles of Maltreatment and Sexual and Gender Minority Statuses
Full text linkThe victimization of youth incarcerated in juvenile justice (JJ) facilities by institutional staff and peers is a salient issue within the JJ system, posing serious risk to the safety and wellbeing of youth in custody. Physical victimization in particular has remained largely understudied, despite being linked to myriad adverse social and emotional outcomes. Certain factors, such as youths’ history of maltreatment, may increase risk of physical victimization during incarceration. Given that sexual minority (SM) and gender minority (GM) youth are disproportionately impacted by childhood maltreatment and have a heightened likelihood of coming into contact with the JJ system, the risk of victimization among SM and GM youth during incarceration warrants further study. Using self-report data gathered as part of the National Survey Youth in Custody, the current study expands the existing body of literature by investigating the roles of distinct maltreatment types and SM and GM statuses as risk factors for the physical victimization of JJ youth by institutional peers and staff. The study utilized a hierarchical binary logistic regression analysis conducted via generalized linear modeling to parse out the effects of SM and GM statuses as a risk factor above and beyond youth maltreatment history, and to examine the additive risk posed by the intersection of maltreatment history and SM and GM statuses. Findings indicated that facility physical victimization by peers was significantly associated with older age of youth, identifying as Black or Hispanic, prior sexual abuse, and the interaction between SM status and prior physical abuse. Facility physical victimization by staff was significantly associated with identifying as Black and prior physical abuse. These findings suggest that other demographic factors (e.g., age, race and ethnicity) may have stronger associations with facility victimization than SM and GM statuses, and underscore the role of prior trauma exposure in predicting facility victimization. The results of this study have the potential to inform targeted and trauma-informed intervention strategies aimed at the prevention of physical victimization of youth in JJ facilities
The Novel Use of the Urbanski-Colburn Valve for Liquid Bi-Propellant Rocket Engines
Full text linkLiquid bi-propellant rockets have been in use since the early 20th century, but their complexity and risk of bodily harm have kept all but the most advanced and well funded institutions from attempting to design and build them. Liquid rockets are the most cost-effective and efficient source of transporting materials from the earth’s surface to space. Typically, the infrastructure supporting these rockets is just as large, if not larger than, the rocket it is supporting. In this thesis a new, much less complex, and more cost efficient way to fuel a liquid bi-propellant rocket is designed and tested. Through the use of the Urbanski-Colburn valve, a floating injector baffle within the rocket, and nylon fill lines, the total infrastructure surrounding the liquid rocket can be greatly reduced. A 3 inch diameter liquid-bipropellant rocket engine was developed to test this theory. The engine used a mixture of 70% ethanol and nitrous oxide as the fuel and oxidizer. The unlike-pentad injector design provided a 4:1 oxidizer to fuel mixture through the use of orifices and push-to-connect injectors. An igniter was developed to simultaneously burn away the fuel and oxidizer fill lines and begin the combustion process in the combustion chamber. After a year\u27s long test fire campaign, it was found that the Urbanski-Colburn valve could be utilized in the case of liquid bi-propellant rockets. The final test fire of the campaign provided the following results: thrust: 188 pounds; specific impulse: 119 seconds; total impulse 810 pound-seconds
Post-Fire Geomorphic Response in the Northeast Cascades, Washington, USA: Insights from the 2021 Methow Valley Fires
Full text linkWildfires significantly alter landscapes, increasing susceptibility to debris flows during subsequent rainfall events. In Washington State’s Methow Valley, the 2021 Cedar Creek, Cub Creek 2, and Muckamuck fires burned over 56,000 hectares, but produced markedly different geomorphic responses. This study examines the factors driving these differences using machine learning and high-resolution environmental data. I modeled post-fire debris flow susceptibility across 1,378 basins using Random Forest (RF) and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) algorithms, incorporating basin morphology, soil properties, burn severity, vegetation indices, and short-duration precipitation intensity. These models were compared to the widely used USGS M1 logistic regression model to assess regional accuracy. Results show that 15-minute rainfall intensity was the dominant trigger of debris flows. Terrain features like Melton’s Ruggedness Number and slope, as well as soil characteristics such as sand content, were also influential predictors. Among the RF models, the one using USGS M1 model-aligned variables showed the strongest performance, offering improved regional hazard mapping over the M1 model alone. Satellite precipitation data proved useful for climate context but insufficient for capturing localized storm peaks, reinforcing the need for dense rain gauge networks in mountainous terrain. This research advances post-fire hazard assessment in the Pacific Northwest by emphasizing regional model calibration and the integration of high-resolution datasets