Analyzing the efficacy of improvisational music therapy as a treatment method for children with ASD

The field of CSD relies on evidence-based practice or the notion that all therapy and evaluation procedures are determined by clinical opinion or reliable research. Several studies have been conducted on the efficacy of music therapy as a treatment method for children with autism; however, this method is not widely practiced by speech-language pathologists. This literature review outlines the results, strengths and weaknesses of 14 studies on the efficacy of music therapy for children with ASD. The studies were an average of 20 weeks, with 1-3 sessions per week ranging from 30-60 minutes. The sessions were all conducted by music therapists and included both individual and group sessions. The studies revealed music therapy leads to significant improvement for children with ASD in the following areas: joint attention, eye gaze, turn-taking, selective attention, expressive language, Social-emotional reciprocity, motor skills, and emotional synchrony. The paper also includes relevant background information on why music therapy works especially well for children with ASD, and suggestions for practical clinical implementation and future research. The overarching goal of this paper is to encourage SLPs to explore the research that exists outside of play-based therapy in order to ensure the best possible treatment and outcomes for children with ASD.Communication Sciences and Disorder

Ending Intimate Partner Homicide: A Call for Reform of Kansas Protective Order Statutes

This is the published version

Anxiety in Experience: H.R. Ginger\u27s Swiss Bars

H.R. Giger, an artist frequently recognized for his design presence in the Alien movies,created numerous bars that seek to rebel against current trends of relaxing escapism. They encourage anxiety rather than comfort, and force patrons to be accountable for their actions. An examination of architectural therapy, bar trends, anxiety, and spatial construction yield a consistent support of the artist’s history and intent. By analyzing the artist’s life and influences, as well as his body of work, this paper submits the Giger bars are the culmination of his spatial design efforts, which began with two-dimensional images and moved into three-dimensional furniture and set design, incorporating the uncanny and the sublime with his hyper-realistic horror aesthetic

Self-Monitoring and Relationship Commitment: Mediating Effects of Satisfaction, Investment, and Quality of Alternatives

High self-monitors are concerned with social appropriateness, whereas low self-monitors are concerned with self-congruence (Fuglestad & Snyder, 2010; Snyder, 1974). These self-monitoring characteristics are related to the dynamics of close relationships – particularly commitment (Leone & Hall, 2003; Simpson, 1987). Commitment is predicted from relationship satisfaction, investment, and alternatives (Rusbult, Agnew, & Arriaga, 2012). We explored these three variables as mediators of the connection between self-monitoring and commitment. Fifty couples (50 wives, 50 husbands) ages 19 to 72 completed the 18-item Self-Monitoring Scale (Snyder & Gangestad, 1986) and the satisfaction, investment, quality of alternatives, and commitment subscales of Rusbult’s Investment Model (Rusbult et al. 2012). Except for spouses’ relationship satisfaction (r=.53), spouses’ self-monitoring (r=.03), commitment (r=.19), investment (r=.03), and alternatives (r=.08) were uncorrelated. We therefore analyzed wives’ and husbands’ data separately. Using a parallel mediation model (Hayes, 2013), there was a reliable indirect effect – mediated by satisfaction – of self-monitoring on commitment for wives (r= -.31). For husbands, there were reliable indirect effects – mediated by satisfaction (r=-.26) and alternatives (r=.31) – of self-monitoring on commitment. For wives and husbands, there were no reliable direct effects of self-monitoring on commitment. These findings extend our understanding of self-monitoring differences in commitment within close relationships. These findings have been replicated with a sample of individuals in romantic relationships. Future directions include examining effects at a dyadic level (Kenny, Kashy, & Cook, 2006) as well as assessing protective versus acquisitive forms of self-monitoring (Wilmot, 2015)

Delay-based Physical Unclonable Function Implementation

As we venture further into the 21st century, it becomes much clearer that hardware security is at the forefront of many challenges that we face today in ensuring that data is protected. “Keys” (a sequence of bits) can be used to unlock pieces of data and is a concept that is pervasive throughout cryptography, but storage in memory makes this sole method nonviable. To make the approach more practical, one can dynamically generate a key through a Physical Unclonable Function (PUF). PUFs are circuit primitives that use intrinsic variations of microchips created during the manufacturing process to generate a unique “fingerprint” for each chip. We simulated several different PUF designs on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) board to determine how changes to a starting design can affect the reliability, randomness, and uniqueness of these IDs. We propose two schemes, a parallel and a serial scheme for a ring oscillator (RO) based PUF. The parallel scheme is a useful benchmark for other designs, and the serial scheme uses much less hardware than other RO PUF designs. The serial scheme is not as random, reliable, or unique as the parallel scheme, but it creates input-output pairs with much less area

Together We Stand, Divided We Fall: Formulating An Interprofessional Care Plan For Alex Simpson

Research poster documenting the following project: Utilizing interprofessional team immersion to develop interprofessional skills among other health care professions to plan for the best course of care for our patient, Alex Simpson.https://dune.une.edu/cecespring2020/1011/thumbnail.jp

Engineering bacterial nitroreductases for anticancer gene therapy and targeted cell ablation

Bacterial nitroreductases are members of a diverse family of oxidoreductase enzymes that can catalyse the bioreductive activation of nitroaromatic compounds, including anti-cancer and antibiotic prodrugs. Nitroreductases have diverse applications in medicine and research, including anti-cancer gene therapy and targeted ablation of nitroreductase‑expressing cells in transgenic zebrafish to model degenerative diseases. Research in these fields to date has focused almost exclusively on the canonical nitroreductase NfsB from Escherichia coli (NfsB_Ec), which is a relatively inefficient choice for most applications. By exploring alternative nitroreductase candidates from a variety of bacterial species, in concert with enzyme engineering to fine-tune specific activities, we have generated improved prodrug-activating enzymes. The nitroreductase NfsB from Vibrio vulnificus (NfsB_Vv) has been central to our efforts, and following solution of its crystal structure, was selected as a scaffold for directed evolution via site-saturation mutagenesis. By applying library screening strategies that involved rounds of both positive and negative selection, several mutants that displayed improved activity with a promising next-generation cancer prodrug were identified. In parallel work, an engineered NfsB_Vv variant from the same library was found to be substantially improved in activation of the antibiotic prodrug metronidazole, which is widely used for targeted cell ablation in transgenic zebrafish. Current methods of ablation employing NfsB_Ec require high, near lethal concentrations of metronidazole to achieve total ablation of nitroreductase-expressing cells. A transgenic zebrafish line expressing a lead NfsB_Vv variant was generated and we found we could achieve robust ablation of nitroreductase-expressing cells at a 100-fold reduced metronidazole concentration compared to the NfsB_Ec line (0.1 mM challenge for 24 hours vs 10 mM challenge for 48 hours respectively). The identification of these superior nitroreductase variants offers improved tools for researchers aiming to achieve targeted cell ablation in either a cancer therapy or degenerative disease-modelling context

Gender Identity, Disability, and Unmet Healthcare Needs among Disabled People Living in the Community in the United States

Disabled adults and transgender people in the United States face multiple compounding and marginalizing forces that result in unmet healthcare needs. Yet, gender identity among disabled people has not been explored, especially beyond binary categories of gender. Using cross-sectional survey data, we explored the rates of disability types and the odds of unmet healthcare needs among transgender people with disabilities compared to cisgender people with disabilities. The rates of disability type were similar between transgender and cisgender participants with two significant differences. Fewer transgender participants identified physical or mobility disability as their main disability compared to cisgender participants (12.31%/8 vs. 27.68/581, p < 0.01), and more transgender participants selected developmental disability as their main disability compared to cisgender participants (13.85%/9 vs. 3.67%/77, p < 0.001). After adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, the odds of disabled transgender participants reporting an unmet need were higher for every unmet need except for preventative services