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Revealing the Neuroanatomical Basis of working memory: A Multivoxel Morphometric Study
No full textWorking memory is an important higher-level cognitive function that plays a crucial role in people’s life, study and academic work. Although behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have extensively examined the cognitive and neural mechanism of working memory, controversies over the core structure and the neural mechanism of working memory still remain. In particular, existing studies have revealed very low correlations between the performances measured by the two classical and popularly used working memory tasks – the n-back task and the complex span task, yet the neural substrates underlying these working memory performances have not been directly compared. In the present study, large number of college students were recruited to perform four working memory tasks belonging to two categories. Combining brain structure imaging data and multivariate pattern analysis, we aimed at examine the neuroanatomic basis of different components of working memory. Factor analysis on behavioral data revealed two orthogonal factors underlying working memory, with high factor loads on the performance of n-back tasks and complex span tasks, respectively. Multivariate support vector regression shows that the gray matter volume (GMV) of different regions across the brain was associated with individual differences in the two working memory components. Specifically, complex span performance could be predicted by the GMV of the left precuneus and posterior cingulate cortex, right middle frontal gyrus (rMFG), bilateral frontal pole and left inferior frontal gyrus (lIFG), and that of the n-back tasks could be predicted by the GMV of the left middle frontal gyrus (lMFG), bilateral caudate nucleus and putamen, and left parahippocampus. These results provide anatomical evidence to suggest that complex span tasks and the n-back tasks measure different aspects of working memory and are supported by distinct neural networks. The complex span tasks are associated with the executive control and plan function of the frontal and parietal cortex, whereas the n-back tasks are supported by the circuit of frontal-basal ganglia.M.S., Psychology -- Drexel University, 201
Identifying Ankyloglossia in Newborns at Paoli Hospital: A Quality Improvement Project
Get PDFBackground: Ankyloglossia or tongue-tie, the tethering of the frenulum under the tongue, can adversely affect breastfeeding by causing a poor latch, maternal nipple pain, and poor milk supply. Not identifying this condition could lead to early breastfeeding cessation. Since nurses at Paoli Hospital are not using evidence-based methods of assessment, they may not be identifying all cases of ankyloglossia. In addition, the best evidence-based method for identifying ankyloglossia has not been established at Paoli Hospital. As popularity in breastfeeding increases, nurses need to know how to assess for ankyloglossia and should be aware of the effects of ankyloglossia on breastfeeding. Purpose: The purpose of this DNP project was to: 1) compare ankyloglossia prevalence rates between the ATLFF (an evidenced based tongue assessment tool) and the prevalence rates using usual nursing tongue assessment, and 2) determine the best objective evidence-based method of ankyloglossia assessment by nurses among healthy newborns before hospital discharge at Paoli Hospital by comparing the BTAT to the ATLFF. Methods and Results: This descriptive comparative design was conducted from October 1 - 28, 2017 using a convenience sample of 130 newborns admitted to the Family-Centered Maternity Unit at Paoli Hospital. Prevalence was found to be 13.8% using the ATLFF and 3.8% as assessed by the nurses’ usual tongue assessment methods. The sensitivity and specificity of usual nursing tongue assessment methods relative to the ATLFF was 22% and 99%, respectively. The prevalence of ankyloglossia measured with the BTAT was 18.5% (185 cases per 1000 newborns), compared to the prevalence measured with the ATLFF which was 13.8% (138 cases per 1000 newborns). The sensitivity and specificity of the BTAT relative to the ATLFF was 77.8% and 91.1%, respectively. Among the two raters, Cohen’s kappa for the ATLFF and BTAT was calculated to be 0.36 and 0.42, respectively. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) between the ATLFF function scores was 0.77 (95% CI [0.55; 0.88]). The ICC between the ATLFF appearance scores was 0.78 (95% CI [0.12, 0.92]). The ICC of the BTAT scores was determined to be 0.79 (95% CI [0.56, 0.89]). Cronbach’s alpha for ATLFF function assessment was 0.79 (95% CI [0.73, 0.84]), while Cronbach’s alpha for the ATLFF appearance assessment tool was 0.82 (95% CI [0.76, 0.86]). The overall Cronbach’s alpha of the ATLFF assessment scale was 0.88 (95% CI [0.85, 0.91]). Cronbach’s alpha for the BTAT was 0.75 (95% CI [0.68, 0.82]). Conclusions: This quality improvement project found that usual nursing subjective assessment did not identify as many cases of ankyloglossia compared to ankyloglossia cases identified using the “gold standard” ATLFF. In addition, the findings suggest that the BTAT is an evidenced-based tongue assessment tool that compares favorably to the ATLFF. Because the BTAT is easier to use, it is recommended nurses use the BTAT for timely ankyloglossia identification to facilitate early referral for frenotomy to achieve optimal breastfeeding outcomes. Future implications are to 1) develop an ankyloglossia assessment protocol for nurses that incorporates the BTAT for ankyloglossia assessment, and 2) measuring hospital ankyloglossia prevalence rates and breastfeeding duration before and after implementation of the protocol.D.N.P., Nursing Practice -- Drexel University, 201
Training Future Psychologists to be Competent in Self-Care: A Systematic Review
No full textThe purpose of this systematic review of the literature was to explore the ways in which clinical, counseling, and school psychology doctoral-level graduate students are trained to build competency in self-care and the scientific methodologies that are being used to assess self-care competency trainings. Twenty self-care competency training articles were identified. Results from the systematic review revealed that the majority of studies conducted were quantitative (50%), followed by mixed methods (25%), theoretical (15%), and qualitative (10%). Over half of the quantitative studies used a cross-sectional design. A pre-post test design was also commonly used, but none included a control group. The qualitative portions of the mixed study designs were varied, including exploratory, content and thematic analysis, and grounded theory. Furthermore, five themes of self-care training content were identified: Self-care interventions, mentorship and supervision, self-compassion, workbooks and training tools, and creating a culture of self-care. More rigorous methodology is needed to determine the efficacy of each of five themes of training that have been identified. Recommendations were made for future research, both within the five identified themes and for self-care training studies in general.M.S., Psychology -- Drexel University, 201
A Case Study: Exploring Mindfulness Practices in Pennsylvania Elementary School Settings
No full textSocial emotional well-being has a direct effect on school performance. Students who engage in prosocial peer interactions and feel a connectedness to school are more likely to experience growth in their social emotional competence and academic performance. Often, students who live in high stress environments come to school with inadequate skills in this area, affecting their ability to self-regulate, attend, and interact with others. However, these skills can be directly taught to students and improved through regular instruction and practice. Mindfulness practices serve as a gateway skill for developing social emotional well-being and are becoming more commonly used in the school setting. Using the perspectives of elementary teachers in Pennsylvania who have attended professional development and thus implemented mindfulness practices into their classrooms, an instrumental case study was conducted. The study explored how teachers describe the effects of mindfulness practices on their students' social emotional well-being, classroom climate, and overall academic performance. Nine elementary teachers in public schools in Pennsylvania participated in the study, which included a semi-structured interview and completion of a participant journal. All teachers had participated in at least eight hours of district-provided professional development series and had implemented mindfulness practices into their classrooms at least three times per week. The interviews were analyzed to gain insight into the participants' perspectives of their professional development, their personal and professional experiences with mindfulness practices, and the perceived effects of mindfulness practices on the students in their classrooms. Four thematic findings emerged: (a) opportunities for professional development, (b) personal mindfulness practices of teachers, (c) social emotional learning and mindfulness practices in the classroom, and (d) the effects of mindfulness practices on students in the classroom setting. From the findings, four results were drawn regarding the implications of implementing mindfulness in school settings. First, teachers expressed the need and desire for ongoing, supported professional development. Secondly, the teacher serves as a model in the classroom, establishing an environment in which desired, prosocial behaviors and social emotional competence are modeled for students. Thirdly, the data analysis showed that the implementation of mindfulness practices can serve as a means to develop social emotional competence in students. Finally, the analysis of participant responses indicated that mindfulness practices had a positive effect on student learning and classroom interactions. The study concluded and recommended implementing mindfulness practices into school settings with potential benefits for administrators and teachers as well as students. This recommendation begins with recognizing the importance of social emotional learning for students and supporting both pre-service and practicing teachers in the development of their own social emotional well-being. Given the impact of social emotional learning on all facets of education, administrators and educational leaders should advocate for support and funding for programs that would support social emotional development in school settings. Recommendations for future research include expanding the study to additional sites or extended years of implementation, an in-depth examination of professional development opportunities and structure, consideration of the educational leader's role in encouraging social emotional learning and self-care for educators, analysis of mindfulness programs implemented with fidelity, and the addition of student and family perceptions of mindfulness practices into the current research base. Keywords: social emotional learning, mindfulness practices, prosocial classroom, emotional intelligence, professional developmentEd.D., Educational Leadership and Management -- Drexel University, 201
Deep Learning Techniques For Multimedia Forensics
No full textDigital images play an important role in a wide variety of settings such as news reporting, criminal investigations, etc. As a result, it is necessary to devise forensic algorithms capable of determining the source camera and the processing history of digital images. This is possible because both image editing operations and an image's source camera leave behind unique statistical traces in the same way that a criminal leaves behind fingerprints at a crime scene. Previous forensic techniques identify these fingerprints through theoretical analysis or develop heuristic features to capture their effects. These methods have their drawbacks where theoretical analysis is not always achievable and heuristic based approaches are often suboptimal. Recently, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have gained significant attention due to their ability to adaptively learn classification features directly from data. While a forensic analyst can use CNNs to learn forensic fingerprints, this is problematic because CNNs in their standard form tend to learn features related to an image's content as opposed to learn forensic fingerprints which are content-independent. Thus, a forensic analyst must adapt the CNN to capture forensic fingerprints from images. To do this, they must develop new CNN architectures for different forensic tasks such as camera model identification and image editing detection. Additionally, CNNs in forensics must be robust to common post-processing operations which significantly deteriorate the performance of the existing forensic algorithms. Unfortunately, techniques from computer vision to increase CNN's robustness are not effective when designing and training forensic CNNs. As a result, new techniques must be developed to design and train forensic CNNs such that they are robust enough to operate in realistic scenarios. In this dissertation, we propose a set of new deep learning approaches to perform several multimedia forensic tasks. We first develop a new type of convolutional layer within a CNN, called a `constrained convolutional layer', that can jointly suppress an image's content and adaptively learn low-level forensic classification features directly from data. The constrained CNN has proven effective at performing image manipulation detection, order of processing operations detection, image manipulation parameter estimation, and camera model feature extraction for unknown classes detection. Next, we propose the architectural design guidelines to build a new CNN architecture associated with a forensic data augmentation based training method that can capture camera's traces in post-processed color images. We demonstrate the advantage of our approach over the existing forensic methods at identifying camera models in post-processed color images through rigorous experiments and analysis.Ph.D., Electrical Engineering -- Drexel University, 201
Automotive Recall Decisions
No full textAutomobile manufacturers have a responsibility to consumers to remedy product defects through recalls. This research studies consumer product recall decision making in the automotive industry. The recall decisions considered include: defect identification and investigation, uninfluenced recalls, proactive recalls and recall timing. Textual, statistical and analytical analysis methods are used to address three major decision-making scenarios. First, the antecedents and consequences of the recall decisions, uninfluenced and proactive, are empirically modeled and analyzed. Next, the recall timing decision is empirically and analytically modeled, with an emphasis on the timing choice within the framework of a cost minimization problem. Finally, a consideration of the choice between two text-based modeling alternatives, supervised and unsupervised, is presented which aims to provide a foundation for a framework for consumer product defect trend monitoring and identification.Ph.D., Business Administration -- Drexel University, 201
Race In The Writers' Room
No full textThe purpose of this study is to research the proposition that diversifying the writers' room on television comedies and dramas could increase the accuracy of the characteristics portrayed through African American characters. The data found comes from television show data reports, peer reviewed journals, The Writer's Guild of America and questionnaires completed by film and television executives, staff writers and other employees. This study will discuss diversity in the hiring of writers and if the success of a show depends on the number of writers of color. Also exploring the necessity of the diversity programs put into place by networks and if they are beneficial to the African American writer's experience in the writers' room of a television show.M.S., Television Management -- Drexel University, 201
Social Action in Art Therapy with Veterans
No full textArt therapy has shown the benefits it has when working with veterans transitioning back into civilian because it accounts for the complexity of trauma persons may have obtained while serving their country, as well as the effects service has had on their families. In the veteran population, there are ample amount of challenges veterans face in their day-to-day life. Specifically, with women veterans, they still have yet gained the recognition that is rightfully deserved. Despite the challenge, this project demonstrated how art therapy could activate and support frameworks of social action and social justice advocacy while working alongside women veterans. This project-enacted social action qualities such as promoting and advocacy; reflection on cultural and developmental identity; allowing participants to guide the process; using a systems lens-equality is not equity; leadership roles; and radical authenticity.M.A., Art Therapy and Counseling -- Drexel University, 201
Comparing Effectiveness and User Behaviors of Two Versions of a Just-In-Time Adaptive Weight Loss Smartphone App
No full textResearch suggests that even small lapses from a weight control diet could explain suboptimal outcomes in behavioral weight loss programs. Just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAI) delivered via smartphone apps can allow for the prediction and prevention of lapse behavior through momentary alerts to risk. Our team developed an app (OnTrack) that has been programmed to: (a) record data via ecological momentary assessment (EMA) on dietary lapse behavior and variables known to predict lapses, (b) apply machine learning to determine risk of a dietary lapse, (c) alert individuals when risk is high, and (d) offer a brief text-based micro-intervention (approximately 150-250 words) tailored to momentary risk factors. Phases I and II trials of OnTrack provided initial evidence for the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of the app. However, during app development, there has been a tension between reducing participant burden by assessing fewer questions at each survey and having a more complete dataset from which to generate lapse predictions. A useful study of OnTrack could empirically examine the effect of additional EMA questions per prompt on app usage behaviors (i.e., EMA adherence, accessing the library of brief interventions, and opening alerts to lapse risk), user outcomes (i.e., lapses and weight change), and the quality of algorithm predictions. The study (n=121) evaluated these research questions by randomizing participants to use either the original app (i.e., 8 questions per prompt; OT-S) or an app with a longer question distribution scheme (i.e.,17 questions per prompt; OT-L) for ten weeks. Results indicate that OT-L and OT-S did not produce equivalent EMA compliance (MOT-s=65.35% v. MOT-L=60.49%; p=.16). Regardless, the completeness of cases did have a positive influence on the quality of algorithm predictions (MOT-S=50.70% v. MOT-L=57.9% accurate). Contrary to our hypotheses, improved predictive quality did not necessitate differences in accessing momentary interventions (MOT-s=47.66% v. MOT-L=46.15% risk alerts opened; p=.12) and this is likely due to problems that can arise while predicting an event that is also being intervened upon. Consequently, there were no differences in lapse frequency (MOT-s=3.3 v. MOT-L=3.1, p=.85) or weight change (MOT-s=-3.3 v. MOT-L=-3.5 PWL; p=.82) observed across conditions. Results from the current study have important implications for the next development phases of OnTrack, provide scientific insight into the relationship between app design and user behaviors, enhance our knowledge about the appropriate methods for using machine learning to personalize intervention, and add to existing literature regarding the effectiveness of just-in-time interventions for weight loss.Ph.D., Biological Sciences -- Drexel University, 201
Feasibility of an evidence-based stretching program on healthcare worker pain scores and professional quality of life
Get PDFBackground: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Bureau of Labor Statistics deems hospitals as one of the most hazardous places to work, with injury rates almost twice the rate found in construction and manufacturing industries. Work related musculoskeletal disorders adversely affect the health and well-being of the health care workers. Pain is the most common symptom associated with work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Purpose: The purpose of this project was to implement and evaluate the effects of an evidence- based stretching program on generalized pain scores and professional quality of life among healthcare workers who experience musculoskeletal disorders. The hypothesis for this study was engaging in a ten minute evidence-based stretching program during work hours for four weeks would decrease generalized pain scores and improve professional quality of life for healthcare workers who experience musculoskeletal disorders. Methods: This project was a pre-test, post-test one-group comparative design feasibility study using a convenience sample of healthcare workers from inpatient medical surgical units in a tertiary care hospital. The intervention was a ten-minute evidence-based stretching program during work hours for four weeks. The participants were assessed for generalized pain and professional quality of life before and after the intervention. Evaluation: Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 24 software. Data was cleaned, coded and checked for shape of distribution and outliers. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the sample. In order to test the hypothesis, a Wilcoxon Signed Rank test was used to compare pain scores and a paired -T test was used to compare professional quality of life before and after the intervention. Results: The findings using a Wilcoxon signed rank test indicated a statistically significant decrease in pain scores from baseline to post intervention (M = 2.29, SD 1.22 vs M = 1.27, SD 1.02, p < 0.001). A paired-T test found a statistically significant decrease in secondary traumatic stress (component of professional quality of life) (M = 20.96, SD 5.25 vs M = 19.64, SD 5.08, 95% CI = 0.47 – 2.17, t (43) = 3.12, p = 0.003). No statistically significant differences were found for compassion satisfaction (M = 40.8, SD 5.42 vs M = 41.27, SD 5.03, 95% CI = -1.46 – 0.51, t (43) = -0.98, p = 0.335) and burn out (M = 21.32, SD 5.24 vs M = 20.61, SD 5.22, 95% CI = -0. 37 – 1.78, t (43) = 1.32, p = 0.193) pre to post intervention. Clinical Implications: The findings of this project showed feasibility of an evidence-based stretching program to significantly reduce pain scores and improve professional quality of life among healthcare workers who experience musculoskeletal disorders. The findings of this study could be used to inform a hospital wide study to see if a larger sample of healthcare workers could benefit from this type of program. Future studies could be directed at long-term follow-up of outcomes, a cost benefit analysis, and examination of impact on long-term behavior changes to sustain health habits.D.N.P., Nursing Practice -- Drexel University, 201