Pediatric Manual Wheelchair Skills Handbook

The focus of this capstone project was to create a pediatric manual wheelchair skills group for the Vanderbilt Pediatric Seating & Mobility Clinic. Most current literature focuses on adult manual wheelchair mobility skills programs and this project seeks to contribute to the resources for the pediatric population. This was done through collaboration with stakeholders, review of manual wheelchair skills programs already developed, a literature review to identify skills needed for independent functional mobility and assessments of skills, and acquisition of manual wheelchair skills. The result was a handbook including both beginner and advanced pathways with instructions for skill acquisition and accompanying activities, identification of pre and post assessments, investigation into clinic payment models, and development of marketing materials

Beauty and Modern Art: The Importance of Classically Educating Students about Beauty through Modern Art

It has often been asked throughout the history of mankind what classifies beauty within an artwork. When observing some of the outstanding works of Leonardo DaVinci or Sandro Botticelli, a few of the great masters of the Renaissance, there is no problem teaching students about what makes those artists’ work beautiful. What about the artistic work from the past two hundred years to the current art being produced today? I have found through my own personal journey as an artist that there is a severe lack of promotion for creative gifts being used for God within the Christian communities (and even more so an appreciation for the role of the modern artist). As a Christian, I was always taught that Jesus loved me and had a purpose for me but I was not necessarily taught that my artistic talents could be a part of that purpose. I later on knew and believed that He gave me talents and gifts to be used for Him. It is important that other students in like-minded situations with artistic talents and gifts learn this as well. It is my intention through this paper to propose my design solution on how to properly educate students on the concept of beauty as defined by the Bible through the Modern and Contemporary art movements. I will prove if there is any way someone (more specifically, a student) of a Christian faith can relate the artwork of these art movements to the Biblical definition of beauty. I discuss the research, writing, and design process that was taken to create an elementary academic/interactive book that analyzes art from the Modern and Contemporary art movements seeking to classically educate the student or reader from a Christian perspective

The Effects of Animal- Assisted Therapy on the Health and Well- Being of Military Veterans: A Systematic Scoping Review and Recommendations for Future Research

Veterans of the armed forces may have experienced a range of physical and psychological traumas during their service, which can lead to long-standing problems with health and well-being, sometimes compounded with challenges accessing and engaging with support. Animal-assisted therapies (AAT) may offer an engaging, holistic approach that could be helpful for the veteran population. The aim of this scoping review is to examine the existing research on the effects of AAT on the health and well-being of veterans. Method: The databases EMBASE (OVID), Web of Science, Cinahl, Cochrane and Medline were searched in October 2020. Articles were screened against inclusion / exclusion criteria (based around language, accessibility, inclusion of veterans, use of AAT) and critically appraised using MMAT v.2018. Data were extracted and analyzed qualitatively. Results: Thirteen articles met the inclusion criteria. The studies showed heterogeneity in design and delivery, including nature of interaction with the animal; therapy duration; goals assigned to each session; and type and number of staff present. The most common animals used were horses, then dogs. The most evaluated health outcomes were post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, depression symptoms and change in quality of life. Short-term results included lower scores on the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 and PTSD checklist. Where assessed, participants enjoyed the therapy programs. Conclusion: This review reveals that currently, clear conclusions on the efficacy of AAT are lacking due to the heterogeneity of programs, session characteristics, small sample sizes and methodological limitations. AAT does appear to show promise, particularly for the short term treatment of psychosocial problems of veterans, but this needs more systematic, robust research and the development of protocols to establish cost effectiveness, feasibility and manualizable protocols

Capturing the Lost Phosphorus

Minable phosphorus (P) reserves are being depleted and will need to be replaced by recovering P that currently is lost from the agricultural system, causing water-quality problems. The largest two flows of lost P are in agricultural runoff and erosion (∼46% of mined P globally) and animal wastes (∼40%). These flows are quite distinct. Runoff has a very high volumetric flow rate, but a low P concentration; animal wastes have low flow rates, but a high P concentration together with a high concentration of organic material. Recovering the lost P in animal wastes is technically and economically more tractable, and it is the focus for this review of promising P-capture technologies. P capture requires that organic P be transformed into inorganic P (phosphate). For high-strength animal wastes, P release can be accomplished in tandem with anaerobic treatment that converts the energy value in the organic matter to CH4, H2, or electricity. Once present as phosphate, the P can be captured in a reusable form by four approaches. Most well developed is precipitation as magnesium or calcium solids. Less developed, but promising are adsorption to iron-based adsorbents, ion exchange to phosphate-selective solids, and uptake by photosynthetic microorganisms or P-selective proteins

Raman spectroscopic analysis of an early 20th century English painted organ case by Temple Moore

An organ case from Lincoln, England, designed by the architect Temple Moore in 1907 was examined during conservation work using Raman spectroscopy in order to analyze the decorative paint composition. Samples from the six principal colours were extracted and examined using a Bruker Senterra R200-L spectrometer. The results are the first known formal analysis of a painted scheme by this architect, and they reveal a mixture of commonly used pigments for the period and the unexpected use of simpler, earth pigments, along with an unusual admixture in the red, along with an organic additive. The findings are of importance to both the conservation of Temple Moore’s artwork, in understanding the experimentation used in early twentieth-century England, and in furthering our knowledge of ecclesiastical decorative artwork of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

The Spitzer Archival Far-InfraRed Extragalactic Survey

We present the Spitzer Archival Far-InfraRed Extragalactic Survey (SAFIRES). This program produces refined mosaics and source lists for all far-infrared extragalactic data taken during the more than six years of the cryogenic operation of the Spitzer Space Telescope. The SAFIRES products consist of far-infrared data in two wavelength bands (70 um and 160 um) across approximately 180 square degrees of sky, with source lists containing far-infrared fluxes for almost 40,000 extragalactic point sources. Thus, SAFIRES provides a large, robust archival far-infrared data set suitable for many scientific goals.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, published in ApJ

Genetic diversity, demographic history and neo-sex chromosomes in the Critically Endangered Raso lark

Small effective population sizes could expose island species to inbreeding and loss of genetic variation. Here, we investigate factors shaping genetic diversity in the Raso lark, which has been restricted to a single islet for approximately 500 years, with a population size of a few hundred. We assembled a reference genome for the related Eurasian skylark and then assessed diversity and demographic history using RAD-seq data (75 samples from Raso larks and two related mainland species). We first identify broad tracts of suppressed recombination in females, indicating enlarged neo-sex chromosomes. We then show that genetic diversity across autosomes in the Raso lark is lower than in its mainland relatives, but inconsistent with long-term persistence at its current population size. Finally, we find that genetic signatures of the recent population contraction are overshadowed by an ancient expansion and persistence of a very large population until the human settlement of Cape Verde. Our findings show how genome-wide approaches to study endangered species can help avoid confounding effects of genome architecture on diversity estimates, and how present-day diversity can be shaped by ancient demographic events

Mechanistic Indicators of Childhood Asthma (MICA) Study: piloting an integrative design for evaluating environmental health

BACKGROUND: Asthma is a common complex disease responsible for considerable morbidity and mortality, particularly in urban minority populations. The Mechanistic Indicators of Childhood Asthma study was designed to pilot an integrative approach in children's health research. The study incorporates exposure metrics, internal dose measures, and clinical indicators to decipher the biological complexity inherent in diseases such as asthma and cardiovascular disease with etiology related to gene-environment interactions. METHODS/DESIGN: 205 non-asthmatic and asthmatic children, (9-12 years of age) from Detroit, Michigan were recruited. The study includes environmental measures (indoor and outdoor air, vacuum dust), biomarkers of exposure (cotinine, metals, total and allergen specific Immunoglobulin E, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic carbon metabolites) and clinical indicators of health outcome (immunological, cardiovascular and respiratory). In addition, blood gene expression and candidate SNP analyses were conducted. DISCUSSION: Based on an integrative design, the MICA study provides an opportunity to evaluate complex relationships between environmental factors, physiological biomarkers, genetic susceptibility and health outcomes. PROJECT APPROVAL: IRB Number 05-EPA-2637: The human subjects' research protocol was reviewed by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the University of North Carolina; the IRB of Westat, Inc., the IRB of the Henry Ford Health System; and EPA's Human Subjects' Research Review Official

Slow nonequilibrium dynamics: parallels between classical and quantum glasses and gently driven systems

We review an scenario for the non-equilibrium dynamics of glassy systems that has been motivated by the exact solution of simple models. This approach allows one to set on firmer grounds well-known phenomenological theories. The old ideas of entropy crisis, fictive temperatures, free-volume... have clear definitions within these models. Aging effects in the glass phase are also captured. One of the salient features of the analytic solution, the breakdown of the fluctuation-dissipation relations, provides a definition of a bonafide {\it effective temperature} that is measurable by a thermometer, controls heat flows, partial equilibrations, and the reaction to the external injection of heat. The effective temperature is an extremely robust concept that appears in non-equilibrium systems in the limit of small entropy production as, for instance, sheared fluids, glasses at low temperatures when quantum fluctuations are relevant, tapped or vibrated granular matter, etc. The emerging scenario is one of partial equilibrations, in which glassy systems arrange their internal degrees of freedom so that the slow ones select their own effective temperatures. It has been proven to be consistent within any perturbative resummation scheme (mode coupling, etc) and it can be challenged by experimental and numerical tests, some of which it has already passed.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure