FROM CURRICULAR AUTONOMY TO CURRICULAR ALIGNMENT: DOCUMENTING A PROCESS OF CHANGE AT A LARGE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL

Ph.D

Using Creatures of Flight to Explore the Mind-Body Relationship and Transcendence in Emily Dickinson’s Poetry

Emily Dickinson is recognized as one of the most illustrious American poets of all time, famous for her explorations of profound concepts surrounding the mind and body life and death and. Yet in doing so, she does not simply paint binary understandings of the universe, but also makes evident that these dualities are not to be simply reconciled either. This literary and philosophical approach is captured in various symbolic forms throughout Dickinson’s poetry, and I chose to focus on the recurring appearance of flying creatures, namely birds, bees, and angels. By first sitting down and reading hundreds of her poems in order to take a top-down approach that was thus less biased in its analysis, I pieced together what I thought were notable themes and consistencies amongst each distinct category of creature in order to weave a greater, transcendent image of how Dickinson views the world

Optical Coherence Tomography Used as a Modality to Delineate Basal Cell Carcinoma prior to Mohs Micrographic Surgery

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has potential as a modality for in vivo imaging of non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC). By allowing identification of sub-surface margins of NMSC lesions, the use of OCT could improve the rate of complete excision and reduce the average number of stages during Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS). The objective of this study was to use OCT to delineate the apparent sub-surface margins of NMSC lesions prior to their excision by MMS. Lesions were scanned with reference to a physical marker on the skin, and the apparent margins were then identified from the OCT images and marked on the skin. Photographs of these margins and the Mohs defect were correlated and compared. OCT appears capable of visualizing the transition from lesional to normal tissue. In this case study, margins marked by use of the OCT system before surgery exhibit excellent correlation with the MMS defect. OCT offers the promise of better outcomes by enabling accurate margin mapping of NMSC in advance of MMS. Priorities now are to demonstrate this capability in a larger study, and to understand clearly indications and contraindications for use

Developing a Psychometric Scale to Measure One’s Valuation of Other People’s Privacy

Researchers invested tremendous efforts in understanding and measuring people’s perceptions, concerns, attitudes, and behaviors related to privacy risks from data gathering by online platforms, mobile devices, and other technologies. However, technology users often risk other people’s privacy by sharing their data actively (e.g., posting photos taken at public places online) or passively (e.g., granting mobile apps to access stored contacts). Moreover, technologies that continuously sense the environment and record behaviors and activities of everyone around them (e.g., smart assistants) are becoming pervasive. Thus, an instrument to quantify how much one values other people’s privacy is essential to understand technology adoption, attitudes and behaviors related to collecting and sharing data about non-users, inform the design of adaptive privacy enhancing technologies, and developing personalized technological or behavioral interventions to raise awareness and mitigate privacy risks. This abstract details a preliminary study towards developing such as scale. We report the methods of generating the initial item pool and findings from a pilot survey. We hope to get feedback from the community to improve the research design during the poster presentation

A Psychometric Scale to Measure Individuals’ Value of Other People’s Privacy (VOPP)

Researchers invested enormous eforts to understand and mitigate the concerns of users as technologies collect their private data. However, users often undermine other people’s privacy when, e.g., posting other people’s photos online, granting mobile applications to access contacts, or using technologies that continuously sense the surrounding. Research to understand technology adoption and behaviors related to collecting and sharing data about non-users has been severely lacking. An essential step to progress in this direction is to identify and quantify factors that afect technology’s use. Toward this goal, we propose and validate a psychometric scale to measure how much an individual values other people’s privacy. We theoretically grounded the appropriateness and relevance of the construct and empirically demonstrated the scale’s internal consistency and validity. This scale will advance the feld by enabling researchers to predict behaviors, design adaptive privacy-enhancing technologies, and develop interventions to raise awareness and mitigate privacy risks

Inconsistent Effects of Iron-Folic Acid and/or Zinc Supplementation on the Cognitive Development of Infants

Despite concerns over the neurocognitive effects of micronutrient deficiencies in infancy, few studies have examined the effects of micronutrient supplementation on specific cognitive indicators. This study investigated, in 2002, the effects of iron-folic acid and/or zinc supplementation on the results of Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence (FTII) and the A-not-B Task of executive functioning among 367 Nepali infants living in Sarlahi district. Infants were enrolled in a cluster-randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial of daily supplementation with 5 mg of zinc, 6.25 mg of iron with 25 µg of folic acid, or zinc-iron-folic acid, or placebo. These were tested on both the tasks using five indicators of information processing: preference for novelty (FTII), fixation duration (FTII), accelerated performance (≥85% correct; A-not-B), deteriorated performance (<75% correct and >1 error on repeat-following-correct trails; A-not-B), and the A-not-B error (A-not-B). At 39 and 52 weeks, 247 and 333 infants respectively attempted the cognitive tests; 213 made an attempt to solve both the tests. The likelihood of females completing the A-not-B Task was lower compared to males when cluster randomization was controlled [odds ratio=0.67; 95% confidence interval 0.46-0.97; p<0.05]. All of the five cognitive outcomes were modelled in linear and logistic regression. The results were not consistent across either the testing sessions or the information-processing indicators. Neither the combined nor the individual micronutrient supplements improved the performance on the FTII or the A-not-B Task (p>0.05). These findings suggest that broader interventions (both in terms of scope and duration) are needed for infants who face many biological and social stressors

The Role of Zinc and Iron-Folic Acid Supplementation on Early Child Temperament and Eating Behaviors in Rural Nepal: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Child eating behaviors play an important role in nutrient intake, ultimately affecting child growth and later outcomes in adulthood. The study assessed the effects of iron-folic acid and zinc supplementation on child temperament and child eating behaviors in rural Nepal. Children (N = 569) aged 4–17 months in Sarlahi district, southern Nepal were randomized to receive daily supplements of placebo, iron-folic acid, zinc, or zinc plus iron-folic acid and followed for approximately 1 year. At baseline and four follow-up visits mothers completed questionnaires including information on demographic characteristics and child temperament and eating behaviors. The main effects of zinc and iron-folic acid supplementation on temperament and eating behaviors were assessed through crude and adjusted differences in mean cumulative score changes between visits 1 and 5. The adjusted rate-of-change for these outcomes was modeled using generalized estimating equations. Mean changes in temperament scores and in eating behavior scores between visits 1 and 5 were not significant in either the zinc or non-zinc group. Children in the iron-folic acid group increased temperament scores by 0.37 points over 5 visits (95% CI 0.02, 0.7), which was not significant after adjustment. Neither the adjusted rate-of-change in temperament scores between zinc and non-zinc (β = −0.03, 95% CI −0.3, 0.2) or iron-folic acid and non-iron-folic acid (β = 0.08, 95% CI −0.2, 0.3) were significantly different. Adjusted rate of change analysis showed no significant difference between zinc and non-zinc (β = −0.14, 95% CI −0.3, 0.04) or between iron and non-iron eating behavior scores (β = −0.11, 95% CI −0.3, 0.1). Only among children with iron-deficiency anemia at baseline was there a significant decrease in eating behavior score, indicating better eating behaviors, when supplemented with zinc (β = −0.3, 95% CI −0.6, −0.01), Ultimately, this effect of zinc on eating behaviors was the only effect we observed after approximately one year of micronutrient supplementation