The Bolton Dome Fundraiser Film Thesis

The sport of rock climbing has evolved drastically since its conception, nearly 150 years ago. Recently, climbing has experienced a surge in popularity and has begun to leave noticeable impacts on fragile cliffside ecosystems. These cliffsides are not only home to rare nesting birds, but also support specialized biotas, like bryophytes, lichen and fragile trees that can grow to be 1,000 years old (Kelly & Larson 1997). Because of this, conflicts have surfaced between the objectives of conserving natural land and the acceptance of climbing in these areas. Though climbing has been proven to have many physical and mental health benefits (Luttenberger, 2015), some argue that the negative effects of climbing outweigh its benefits. Through a short fundraiser film, I aim to resolve this debate by portraying the strengths of the Vermont climbing community and how the Local Climbing Organization (LCO), CRAG-VT, has been extremely successful at conserving cliffside ecosystems and providing access to cliffs through land acquisitions and land easements. The film explores the ways in which CRAG-VT works with national climbing organizations and collaborates with the community to open cliffs such as Bolton Dome with a strong focus on land conservation and protection against development. The films second aim is to help CRAG-VT raise $65,000 to pay for the Bolton Dome property by sharing the fundraiser on a national level through popular media organizations. Finally, the film is meant to portray how important and welcoming the Vermont climbing community is to the growing outdoor recreational community in the greater Burlington area and to show the excitement of climbing outside

Master of Science

thesisHemodialysis vascular access, the interface between a dialysis patient and a dialysis machine, is quite literally the lifeblood of a patient's health. Vascular access dysfunction is the leading cause of hospitalization in hemodialysis patients. The occlusive growth of neointimal hyperplasia (NH) in expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) ringed grafts is the primary cause of failure. To further develop a proposed thermal ultrasound treatment to reduce or prevent NH in arteriovenous vascular grafts, the acoustic properties of ePTFE were studied in water and alcohol solutions. Previous reports of ePTFE acoustic properties are critiqued. It was found that the acoustic transmission and attenuation through ePTFE, and therefore the potential for an ultrasound-based therapy for NH, are heavily dependent on the medium in which the graft is immersed, suggesting that the acoustic properties of implanted grafts will change as grafts mature in vivo. The acoustic impedance and attenuation of water-soaked ePTFE were 0.478 ± 1.43 × 10-2 MRayl and 1.78 ± 0.111 Np/cm·MHz, respectively, while the acoustic impedance and attenuation of ePTFE in alcohol were 1.49 ± 0.149 MRayl and 0.77 ± 1.1 × 10-2 Np/cm·MHz, respectively. The use of focused ultrasound to heat implanted ringed ePTFE grafts was numerically modeled from 1.35- and 1.443-MHz transducers for in vitro geometries. Power deposition and heating, in turn, differed by an order of magnitude between various graft acoustic properties. Graft rings were predicted to be substantial absorbing and iv scattering features. In vitro phantom models were constructed: one with and one without thermocouples. At 1 W of acoustic power, the maximum temperature rise was 8˚ C. The thermocouple model containing a water-soaked graft did not experience heating in the far graft wall. The MRTI model confirmed that the graft rings are an absorbing/scattering feature. Heating was not prevented in the presence of water flow through the graft. Water was not heated significantly. Overall, results suggest ultrasound exposure can be used to generate temperature rises corresponding with the potential prevention or inhibition of NH in ringed ePTFE vascular grafts. A hybrid therapeutic/diagnostic transducer design with a therapeutic semi-annular array surrounding a diagnostic linear array is presented. Compared to a solid transducer of the same dimensions, there were only marginal aberrations in the focal plane. Numerical optimization of the element drive configuration indicated that the least distorted focal plane was produced by uniform phase and magnitude at each element

Query Learning with Exponential Query Costs

In query learning, the goal is to identify an unknown object while minimizing the number of "yes" or "no" questions (queries) posed about that object. A well-studied algorithm for query learning is known as generalized binary search (GBS). We show that GBS is a greedy algorithm to optimize the expected number of queries needed to identify the unknown object. We also generalize GBS in two ways. First, we consider the case where the cost of querying grows exponentially in the number of queries and the goal is to minimize the expected exponential cost. Then, we consider the case where the objects are partitioned into groups, and the objective is to identify only the group to which the object belongs. We derive algorithms to address these issues in a common, information-theoretic framework. In particular, we present an exact formula for the objective function in each case involving Shannon or Renyi entropy, and develop a greedy algorithm for minimizing it. Our algorithms are demonstrated on two applications of query learning, active learning and emergency response.Comment: 15 page

How to best support clinical social workers in their practive with children who have experienced trauma

This research set out to explore how clinical social workers working with children who have experienced trauma are supported in their practice, both at an individual and organizational level. Given the concepts of vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, secondary trauma and burnout as a natural part of working with trauma, it is essential to make sure that clinical social workers are properly supported in their work. With the theoretical understanding of person-in-environment, individuals must be understood in their environment, as both individual and environment constantly influence one another. For this qualitative study, twelve clinical social workers across the United States, in different agency settings, participated in semi-structured interviews. Participants were asked to discuss their personal forms of self-care and support, forms of support they receive in their work place, and areas of need for greater support within the field. Findings of this study are consistent with the literature, demonstrating the important influence that one\u27s environment can have on their health and well-being. The findings of this work suggest that appropriate interventions lead to feelings of support, but must take place at both the personal and organizational level, in order to properly help social workers as they regularly come face-to-face with the trauma of their clients

Ecological approach to increasing literacy of at risk youth

About a quarter of the children under the age of six are living in poverty, a factor that is highly relevant to school failure. Protective factors are individual or environmental safeguards that enhance a youngster\u27s ability to resist stressful life events and promote resilience. There are protective factors at work in every system--individual, family, peer, school, and community;The Model City/Woodland Wilkie Literacy project was designed to increase the participants\u27 protective factors and academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to determine if participants in the Model City/Woodland Wilkie Literacy Project exhibited evidence of protective factors and had increased their academic achievement;This qualitative research study was a single case, embedded design. The study examined the elementary grade level program of the Woodland Wilkie/Model City Literacy Project and used a variety of sources for evidence. The sample was purposive in nature. Nine participants were chosen who met the criteria of having been in the program for more than 18 months, their folios had rich and varied data, and they had the same program assistant as their one-on-one tutor. Data were collected by a program assistant working in two elementary schools throughout the duration of the project. Excerpts were transcribed from the folios into a computer file and were analyzed using Data Collector, a computer program designed specifically for managing qualitative research. The following major themes emerged from the data: increased academic skills, relationships with others, personal characteristics, and process skills;There were 264 examples of protective factors and 185 examples of increased academic achievement found in the participants\u27 folios. The report cards indicated that only six of the nine showed an increase in academic achievement. The combination of the data from the one-on-one observation forms and the report cards indicated the participants exhibited an increase in academic achievement and protective factors;Recommendations included suggestions to design youth programs which help to increase protective factors in young people, focus on providing young people the opportunity to bond with a supportive adult, and encourage the collection of qualitative data in youth programming, especially as it relates to protective factors

A Case Study of a Collegiate Intersex Athlete

This study explored the experience of one collegiate intersex athlete. Grounded in a transfeminist perspective, narrative analysis was used to tell the story of the athlete’s experiences in life and in sport. The analysis revealed several themes, which are told through a series of five vignettes. The storytelling approach illustrates how the athlete negotiates the terrain between sex and gender and how her intersex condition has affected more than just her sporting experience. The themes that were pulled from the interview covered the medical side of CAH, her personal experience with CAH, how it has affected her family, her sporting experience, and how she feels about advocacy. Overall, this athlete’s experience is vastly different than what current popular press has to say about intersex athletes. Her story sheds light into the vast differences between each intersex condition and adds to the discourse of intersex athletes and the practice surrounding intersex children

Commercial education in the Civilian Conservation Corps

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University, 1938. This item was digitized by the Internet Archive