Music and mood in the ensemble setting

Master of MusicDepartment of Music, Theatre, and DancePhillip PayneThe lessons demonstrated in this report are focused on applying the mood of a piece to the music. This set of lessons was developed with my teaching philosophy and my school districts interest in Conscious Discipline in mind. Conscious Discipline (2021) is a classroom management program for schools that focuses on social emotional learning for the students. I have found this classroom management plan to be very successful in helping students control their emotions and quell any potential big issues that may arise. But I have had a hard time finding ways to incorporate it into the ensemble setting without causing major disruptions to rehearsals. This set of lessons was designed to introduce students to emotions in music and allow them to explore how they can vent their emotions into their music while they play. This set of lessons was done with all my 7th and 8th grade students in both band and orchestra classes. As a result of these lessons, I believe that my students understand how to identify the mood of a piece of music and how to incorporate that mood into their playing. Hopefully they will carry this skill into their musical playing for the rest of their lives. Throughout my time at Kansas State University, I have developed many new skills and ideas that have helped me in my ensemble teaching in both band and orchestra. Although my focus has been band, I have found that many of the techniques and methodologies can be used in both areas with some minor adjustments. Taking a second look at my teaching philosophy was eye opening for me. I have found that many things have changed since I wrote my original philosophy in undergrad. Now that I have actual teaching experience, I was able to really focus my philosophy on things that matter in the classroom. Part of my teaching philosophy focuses on teaching students to grow up and be able to express themselves emotionally which was a main reason why I developed my mood and music lessons. I was also fascinated with my Curriculum and Assessment class. While my district provides a guided curriculum for me, it was more intense when I had to create it myself. This allowed me to view curriculum and lessons in a whole new light. When I have adjusted my lesson plans in the past I never focused on the bigger picture. Now, I find myself really thinking about how the adjustments will affect the rest of the year. I have a better sense of what I need to get through and how I should pace the year. Rehearsal Techniques was also a great class to take. We were able to collaborate and share rehearsal techniques with each other from around the country. It was great to be able to hear what others are doing that works for them and adapt it to use in my own classroom. This class was very practical and allowed me to take ideas and use them immediately

Symptom Presentation of Sexually Abused Youth at a Child Advocacy Center: An Examination of Parental Factors

Parental involvement and support are crucial factors in child sexual abuse (CSA) survivors’ outcomes (Kilroy et al., 2014); however, non-offending parents often report increased psychosocial distress or traumatization following CSA disclosure (Plummer, 2006). The present study explored the relationship between parental factors and child symptomology following CSA. It was hypothesized that parents who report greater difficulties in their parental role will report greater internalizing and externalizing problems for sexually abused youth presenting to a treatment program at a Child Advocacy Center. Participants were 273 parents of sexually abused youth presenting to Project SAFE (Sexual Abuse Family Education) and were 23-72 years old, 87.8% females, and 86.7% European American. Results from the analyses provide support for concurrent parent-child treatment programs and highlight the necessity for parent education within the program

Understanding Perceptions of Child Maltreatment Risk: A Qualitative Study of Early Head Start Home Visitors

Infants and toddlers enrolled in Early Head Start are at increased risk for child maltreatment. Within Early Head Start, home visitors are in a unique position to identify the families most likely to experience maltreatment by identifying characteristics and behaviors of children, caregivers, families, and environments that are of concern. However, research has demonstrated that home visitors are often ill-equipped to identify and address risk factors such as parental mental health concerns, substance abuse, and domestic violence. Further, little is known about how home visitors understand and perceive risk for maltreatment and identify vulnerable families. The study sought to identify how Early Head Start home visitors understand maltreatment, perceive risk for maltreatment, and work with families identified as at-risk. Qualitative interviews exploring identification of risk for maltreatment were conducted with fourteen Early Head Start home visitors and supervisors. Results indicate variable understanding of maltreatment. Home visitors identified numerous factors they believe suggest elevated risk for maltreatment and described variable approaches to working with families at risk. Findings provide rich information about the role that home visitors play in maltreatment prevention within Early Head Start. Directions for effectively training home visitors to engage families and deliver program and community-based services in a manner that reduces risk for and prevents maltreatment are discussed

Identifying and addressing barriers to treatment for child sexual abuse survivors and their non-offending caregivers

Mental health treatment is a critical part of an effective and compassionate response to the disclosure of child sexual abuse (CSA). Given the vast negative consequences for children and families following CSA, engagement in treatment can benefit youth and their non-offending caregivers. Yet, these families face unique barriers to treatment initiation, adherence, and effectiveness. The identification of these barriers allows clinicians, researchers, and policy makers to increase treatment utilization, engagement, and value. The current review and its recommendations derive from the existing literature combined with knowledge gained from a clinical research team with more than 20 years of experience offering a treatment program for CSA survivors and their non-offending family members. The review organizes barriers around factors related to individual characteristics of children and caregivers, perceptions and beliefs commonly held following CSA, and challenging family interactions in the context of individual and group treatment for CSA. Finally, barriers related to systemic and societal factors are examined given the importance of understanding the legal and cultural context in which families seek and engage in treatment. Recommendations for further research, suggestions for clinicians, and considerations for policy change to decrease the identified treatment barriers for families impacted by CSA are provided

The Presentation of Temperature Information in Television Broadcasts: What is Normal?

In a typical weather broadcast, observed daily temperature information such as maximum and minimum temperatures are shown and compared to the daily average or “normal”. Such information, however, does not accurately describe whether or not that particular day is fairly typical for that time of year or truly an unusual occurrence. Thus it is suggested that the presentation of temperature information can be augmented with elementary statistical information in order to give a more meaningful presentation of temperature information without the need to explain the basis of such statistical information. A study of the climatological maximum and minimum temperatures over a 30-year period for Columbia, Missouri is performed in order to provide the rationale for displaying a "typical" temperature range. This information was incorporated into television weather broadcasts at KOMU TV-8, which is the campus television station and local NBC affiliate

City of Hitchcock Comprehensive Plan 2020-2040

Hitchcock is a small town located in Galveston County (Figure 1.1), nestled up on the Texas Gulf Coast. It lies about 40 miles south-east of Houston. The boundaries of the city encloses an area of land of 60.46 sq. miles, an area of water of 31.64 sq. miles at an elevation just 16 feet above sea level. Hitchcock has more undeveloped land (~90% of total area) than the county combined. Its strategic location gives it a driving force of opportunities in the Houston-Galveston Region.The guiding principles for this planning process were Hitchcock’s vision statement and its corresponding goals, which were crafted by the task force. The goals focus on factors of growth and development including public participation, development considerations, transportation, community facilities, economic development, parks, and housing and social vulnerabilityTexas Target Communitie

Clever girl: Benevolent sexism and cardiovascular threat

Benevolent sexism is a double-edged sword that uses praise to maintain gender inequality, which consequently makes women feel less efficacious, agentic and competent. This study investigated whether benevolently sexist feedback that was supportive could result in cardiovascular responses indicative of threat (lower cardiac output/higher total peripheral resistance). Women received either supportive non-sexist or supportive yet benevolent sexist feedback from a male evaluator following practice trials on a verbal reasoning test. As expected, women receiving benevolent sexist feedback exhibited cardiovascular threat during a subsequent test, relative to women receiving non-sexist feedback. There was no support for an alternative hypothesis that benevolent sexist feedback would lead to cardiovascular responses consistent with disengaging from the task altogether (i.e., lower heart rate and ventricular contractility). These findings illustrate that the consequences of benevolent sexism can occur spontaneously, while women are engaged with a task, and when the sexist feedback is intended as supportive

Symptom Presentation of Sexually Abused Youth at a Child Advocacy Center: An Examination of Parental Factors

Parental involvement and support are crucial factors in child sexual abuse (CSA) survivors’ outcomes (Kilroy et al., 2014); however, non-offending parents often report increased psychosocial distress or traumatization following CSA disclosure (Plummer, 2006). The present study explored the relationship between parental factors and child symptomology following CSA. It was hypothesized that parents who report greater difficulties in their parental role will report greater internalizing and externalizing problems for sexually abused youth presenting to a treatment program at a Child Advocacy Center. Participants were 273 parents of sexually abused youth presenting to Project SAFE (Sexual Abuse Family Education) and were 23-72 years old, 87.8% females, and 86.7% European American. Results from the analyses provide support for concurrent parent-child treatment programs and highlight the necessity for parent education within the program

Structural Studies of E. coli FtsZ Filaments

FtsZ, the primary bacterial cytoskeleton protein, drives cytokinesis in the vast majority of archae and eubacteria by forming single-stranded filaments that coat the cell membrane and scaffold the peptidoglycan synthesis machinery. While the biochemistry and kinetics of FtsZ filaments are well studied, the structure details of the filaments remain elusive. Across species, FtsZ monomers are highly homologous, with all but two published monomer crystal structures assuming the same "Relaxed" conformation. However, a second "Tense" conformation has been identified in Staphylococcus aureus FtsZ monomers that is presumed to correspond to the monomer form present in active filaments. As of this writing, Tense monomers have only been directly observed in S. aureus, and while it is widely thought that they correspond to the active monomer form, this has not been confirmed. This dissertation presents a series of structural studies of Escherichia coli FtsZ filaments, primarily using the magic angle spinning solid-state NMR (MAS NMR) technique dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP). DNP uses cryogenic temperatures and high-powered microwave radiation to dramatically increase the NMR signal, making signal-to-noise limited systems, such as the ones presented here, much more efficient. I employ a differential isotopic labelling scheme to selective observe nuclei present at the inter-monomer interface using ZF-TEDOR to recouple the heteronuclear dipolar coupling. When combined with homology modelling and chemical shift prediction, this strategy allows for the generation of distance restraints across the interface and direct model comparison in the absence of full resonance assignments. The size of the EcFtsZ monomer (~300 structured residues), in comparison to the size of the intermonomer interface (30--80 residues depending on the model) makes it very difficult to generate enough signal-to-noise to do multi-dimensional NMR studies and obtain unambiguously assigned spectra. However, by combining 1D NMR with various sparse 13C labelling schemes, I was able to observe inter-monomer 13C--15N contacts and measure a set of 12 distances between 3.0--6.0 Å. Using this set of restraints, along with chemical shift predictions for three potential interface models---one corresponding to the Tense monomer state and two corresponding to different Relaxed states---I performed several different structural analyses on the ZF-TEDOR data, including residue counting, identifying peaks best described by a single model, and chemical shift difference analysis. This study provides multiple sets of evidence that active EcFtsZ filaments are primarily composed of Tense monomers. This is the first such direct structural evidence of the presence of Tense monomers in FtsZ filaments, and the first direct observation of Tense monomers in EcFtsZ. Additionally, I present a previously published study where we characterize chemical reduction of a nitroxide biradical, TOTAPOL, used in DNP experiments, specifically probing the stability in whole-cell pellets and lysates. DNP experiments use paramagnetic species to dramatically increase NMR signals. Although there is considerable excitement about using nitroxide-based DNP for detecting the NMR spectra of proteins in whole cells, nitroxide radicals are reduced in minutes in bacterial cell pellets. We show that addition of the covalent cysteine blocker N-ethylmaleimide to whole cells significantly slows the rate of reduction, suggesting that cysteine thiol radicals are important to in vivo radical reduction. The use of cell lysates rather than whole cells also slows TOTAPOL reduction, which suggests a possible role for the periplasm and oxidative phosphorylation metabolites in radical degradation. Reduced TOTAPOL in lysates can also be efficiently reoxidized with potassium ferricyanide. These results point to a practical and robust set of strategies for DNP of cellular preparations