The Last Word

A Bank Street School for Children student looking back on her years at the School.https://educate.bankstreet.edu/progressive/1010/thumbnail.jp

Always Judge A Book By Its Cover

The goal for this honors project is to build my illustration portfolio and to explore the world of children\u27s book illustration. This project will facilitate my improvement in design layout, theming, and illustration. I would love to pursue a job involving children\u27s book illustrations at some point in the future and completing this project would help me to understand the challenges that come with designing such covers, it would improve my ability to illustrate in a purposeful manner, and it would strengthen my portfolio overall

Blurring Boundaries: Transforming Place, Policies, and Partnerships for Postsecondary Education Attainment in Metropolitan Areas

By 2020, more than six out of 10 U.S. jobs will require postsecondary training. Despite a slight increase in college attainment nationally in recent years, the fastest-growing minority groups are being left behind. Only 25 and 18 percent of Blacks and Hispanics, respectively, hold at least an associate's degree, compared with 39 percent of Whites. Without substantial increases in educational attainment, particularly for our nation's already underserved groups, the United States will have a difficult time developing a robust economy.Home to 65 percent of Americans, and a majority of all African Americans and Hispanics (74 and 79 percent, respectively), the 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) can play a strong role in developing this nation's workforce. In fact, to reach a national attainment target that meets our workforce needs, more than half of college degrees could be generated from the these cities. The majority of degrees needed among African-American and Hispanic adults could also be produced in MSAs.Clearly, investing in and organizing around the potential of metropolitan areas is critical, and the stakes have never been higher. Yet the current funding climate requires strategic public and private partnerships to invest in education innovation and human capital development in order to have the most robust impact on sustainable national growth. For this study, the Institute for Higher Education (IHEP) sought to follow up on its previous work examining MSA educational attainment rates by further exploring policies that either inhibit or facilitate degree production, and identifying metropolitan-level, cross-section collaborations that help local leaders contribute to national completion goals

The Youngest Victims of the Opioid Epidemic

When babies are born to opioid-addicted mothers, they often develop Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS). NAS is characterized by symptoms associated with abrupt opioid withdrawal (“Neonatal Abstinence”, 2015). By preventing NAS in babies before they are born and properly caring for a baby with NAS after birth, we will aim to decrease the incidence of this condition and as its harmful effects in the lives of babies. In Ohio, there are many neonates suffering from NAS. The rates for babies born with NAS have quadrupled since 2011 when 2.2 out of every 1000 babies had NAS to 2015, where 12.3 out of 1000 babies suffer from NAS (“Number”, nd). NAS not only affects the baby immediately after birth, but also throughout the course of their lives. Babies with NAS are more likely to experience things like chronic stress, inconsistent caregiving, out-of-home placements, and long-term health issues. (“Long-Term Outcomes”, nd). To counter the problem of NAS, we would like to propose a two-part solution. This solution consists of medical care that first focuses on preventing NAS, and secondly treating its effects. Two treatments that show great promise in the prevention of NAS include the use of Ondansetron while the baby is in utero (“Ondansetron Pharmacokinetics”, 2014), and vaccination against opioids (“Novel pharmacotherapeutic”, 2012). The second part of the solution is used if these preventative treatments are not possible. In this case, the goal of treatment becomes to mitigate the effects of NAS. In this situation, promising interventions include stabilizing the baby in the NICU and admitting the baby to a facility specializing in NAS. In order to solve the ongoing health effects of NAS, we have two recommendations. The first is that specialized facilities enroll parents in counseling and parenting classes, reducing the chance that the child will experience out of home placement (“Assessment of”, 2014). Secondly, we propose that specialized facilities expand their scope of care to treat babies with NAS until age 18 with the goal of decreasing the incidence of common NAS-related health issues by providing more consistency in healthcare

Computational Stylometry: An Interdisciplinary Project

This project was an analysis of a writers word usage and writing tendencies which, allows a person to recognize a piece of work with out knowing who wrote it and make a reasonable guess about whose work it is

Perceptions of Professionals, Faculty, and Students Regarding the Implementation of an Agricultural Communications Degree Program in the United Kingdom

The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of professionals, faculty, and students regarding the implementation of an agricultural communications degree program in the United Kingdom (U.K). It aimed to gather detailed opinions to aid in the planning of future agricultural communications curricula in the U.K., where no formal academic programs in this discipline exist in higher education. This study used a qualitative approach in the form of interviews to gain in-depth opinions on four different research objectives. Participants were pooled from three different demographic groups in the U.K: industry professionals, faculty, and students. These stakeholder expressed that writing and journalistic skills were extremely important for agricultural communications graduates to possess. Interpersonal skills were also useful. A generalized knowledge of agriculture was preferred. The study found that experiential learning placements would be a beneficial addition to a potential program, and those could be customized to fit the needs of the student. It also found that degree programs in the discipline would fit well into a bachelor’s or master’s program, or single modules could be integrated into existing programs in related disciplines. Recommendations of the study focused on the layout of a potential degree program. They also focused on conducting further research on potential placement opportunities and on the impact an agricultural communications degree program could have on females in agriculture

The Little Paint Site: A Classic Toyah Camp on the South Llano River, Kimble County, Texas

On behalf of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) conducted testing and data recovery investigations at the Little Paint site (41KM226), a prehistoric multi-component site in the US 377 right-of-way along the South Llano River in Kimble County, Texas. While the site revealed Archaic and Late Prehistoric components, the earlier components were stratigraphically intermixed. Consequently, data recovery focused almost entirely on a discrete Toyah component, which, based on earlier test excavations conducted in August and September 2006, had previously been determined to be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places and as a State Archeological Landmark. SWCA performed the investigations under Texas Antiquities Permits 4184 and 4318. Kevin A. Miller served as Principal Investigator. The excavations recovered approximately 102 m2 of a stratigraphically-discrete Toyah component consisting of rock-lined hearths, Perdiz points, Cliffton points, a bird-bone bead, bone-tempered ceramics, bifaces, scrapers (notably end scrapers on blade-flakes), various informal lithic tools, drills, awls, debitage, and faunal remains. Based on the assemblage, the site is interpreted as a Toyah basecamp as indicated by a diversity of tool forms and site furniture. The component has good integrity, is vertically and horizontally discrete, and contains a substantial amount of archaeological materials. The suite of 16 radiometric dates indicates intermittent Toyah occupations between 240 and 570 years ago, a time range that is generally consistent with recognized span of the Toyah assemblage. The archaeological assemblage and site structure, however, suggests a possible single Toyah occupation. While not a focal point of the data recovery investigations, the excavations also recovered mixed Archaic components below the Toyah component. Artifacts include diagnostic point styles that indicate Late Archaic to early Late Prehistoric occupations, representing 1,000 to 2,000 years of the regional cultural chronology compressed within a thin stratum. Based on the findings, the depositional conditions below the Toyah component, as was previously determined by the testing data, were found to be generally not conducive to the formation of stratigraphic separation of the successive occupations. This compression resulted in intermixing of components and poor integrity. Below the mixed Archaic zone, deeply buried Middle to Early Archaic deposits were identified. These retained a better potential for significant isolable strata, but these deeper deposits were beyond the project impacts and therefore were not the subject of mitigative efforts. The deeper deposits are preserved by avoidance. As previously determined and further substantiated by the data recovery investigations, the Little Paint site, because of the Toyah component and perhaps earlier deposits, is eligible for National Register of Historic Places listing under Criterion D, 36 CFR 60.4, and eligible for State Archeological Landmark designation under Criteria 1 and 2 of the Rules of Practice and Procedure for the Antiquities Code of Texas, 13 TAC 26.8. The excavations have mitigated the adverse effects of the US 377 bridge replacement by recovering the vast majority of the Toyah component within the area of potential effect of the roadway undertaking. No further archaeological work is recommended. Portions of the site outside of the right-of-way have not been fully evaluated. The artifacts and records from the project are curated at the Center for Archaeological Studies, Texas State University

Adjustable Prone Trolley Design for People Suffering from Spinal Cord Injuries in Nepal

For people suffering from spinal cord injuries, it is important to stay active. However, with spinal cord injuries, the use of a wheelchair isn’t feasible. These patients require a prone trolley. A prone trolley is a horizontal pad with four wheels that a patient can maneuver and control while lying in a prone position. Our partner, International Nepal Fellowship (INF), deals directly with patients who suffer from spinal cord injuries on a daily basis. INF, a Christian, medical organization, manages a hospital in Pokhara, Nepal which specializes in treating patients with spinal cord injuries. The Nepal Prone Trolley Team’s goal is to provide our partner with a sustainable prone trolley design and create the required manufacturing documentation to enable them to produce the prone trolleys in country at their Green Pastures hospital. The team began our work by researching what a prone trolley is, how it functions and what is currently available. During the research, the team discovered that there weren’t many examples of a manually powered prone trolley or critical dimensions for ergonomics for manually powered trolleys. This drove the team to develop testing methods and preliminary designs specifically for INF. Various basic designs were considered, but, through communication with INF, a single design was chosen. Computer modeling of this design was used to decrease the overall weight of the trolley and simplify the frame. With most of the design finalized, the team is ready to begin prototyping next semester.https://mosaic.messiah.edu/engr2021/1012/thumbnail.jp