Senior trumpet recital

This document consists of program notes, the repertoire selection process, and reflections following my senior trumpet recital. The program was as follows; Sonata for Trumpet and Piano by Eric Ewazen, The Lost Chord by Arthur Sullivan, Concerto in E-flat by Joseph Haydn, and Slavische Fantasie by Carl Höhne

Concordance of MEG and fMRI patterns in adolescents during verb generation

In this study we focused on direct comparison between the spatial distributions of activation detected by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and localization of sources detected by magnetoencephalography (MEG) during identical language tasks. We examined the spatial concordance between MEG and fMRI results in 16 adolescents performing a three-phase verb generation task that involves repeating the auditorily presented concrete noun and generating verbs either overtly or covertly in response to the auditorily presented noun. MEG analysis was completed using a synthetic aperture magnetometry (SAM) technique, while the fMRI data were analyzed using the general linear model approach with random-effects. To quantify the agreement between the two modalities, we implemented voxel-wise concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) and identified the left inferior frontal gyrus and the bilateral motor cortex with high CCC values. At the group level, MEG and fMRI data showed spatial convergence in the left inferior frontal gyrus for covert or overt generation versus overt repetition, and the bilateral motor cortex when overt generation versus covert generation. These findings demonstrate the utility of the CCC as a quantitative measure of spatial convergence between two neuroimaging techniques

Retention of Female Single Parents After the First Year of Higher Education

The problem this study addressed is that undergraduate, female, single parent students are less likely than other groups of women to complete college. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore perceived challenges of persistence to degree completion of undergraduate, female, single parent students in a Southern state, at a suburban community college. The research question used in this basic qualitative study determined what perceived challenges undergraduate female single parents in higher education face during their first year as a student in a community college regarding persistence to degree completion. Using Tinto’s theory of student integration as a conceptual framework, 10 semistructured interviews were conducted with participants from the study site who met the criteria of being female, single parent students, and completing their first year of higher education with a C or better average. Two rounds of open coding were used to identify codes and themes. The data were synthesized into three major themes: academic integration, financial commitment, and goal commitment. This study found that to be successful, single parent female students depended on academic integration, in the form of teacher and school support, financial commitment to pay for college and life expenses and goal commitment providing a motivation to continue even when confronted with challenges. Recommendations include accessing other single parent female students, and childcare, expanding financial support, and cultivating outside support systems. Positive social change can result if institutions of higher education support students and guide them through the challenges associated with the first year of college

Community education in Oklahoma :

The results of this study indicate that there is indeed a significant difference in the attitudes of superintendents toward the philosophy of community education. In every instance superintendents with community education programs were more receptive to both actual and ideal programs and actual facility use.This investigation attempted to determine the status of community education programs within the state of Oklahoma. Since the superintendent is considered by many to be a key person in the community education process, this study examined the differences in attitudes of superintendents in school districts with community education programs and in districts without community education programs.Responses were received from 39 community education districts and from 58 districts which had no community education programs.The results of the study led the author to recommend that an attitude change is needed from superintendents of districts without community education programs, if community education is to continue to spread. This might be accomplished by re-education. The author also recommended continued updating of legislators and initiation of research involving differences in attitudes of administrators in districts of varying sizes

Morgan Beatus: The Three-Dimensional Cosmos of the Adoration of the Lamb

“As part of its adornment I have painted a series of pictures for the wonderful words of its stories so that the wise may fear the coming of the future judgment of the world’s end.” These words are found in the colophon of the Morgan Beatus (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, Ms. 644), written by the scribe and illuminator Maius in the tenth century. The Morgan Beatus was created in San Miguel de Escalada in Tábara, Spain, sometime between 940 and 945. This is a copy of an eighth-century illuminated manuscript by Beatus of Liébana, both the text and imagery inspired by previous writers. Beatus of Liébana was a Spanish monk who lived in northern, Christian Spain between 750 and 798 and wrote one of the most influential commentaries on the Book of Revelation of his day. Beatus’s Commentary on the Apocalypse was emulated for several centuries and the illustrations in the surviving manuscripts have come to typify the art of Christian Spain during the medieval period. This chapter will focus on the historical background of the Morgan Beatus in order to illuminate how the Adoration of the Lamb, folio 87 of the Morgan Beatus (Figure 1), existed in and reflected its contemporary context.Bachelor of Art

A Linear Structural Equation Model for Covert Verb Generation Based on Independent Component Analysis of fMRI Data from Children and Adolescents

Human language is a complex and protean cognitive ability. Young children, following well defined developmental patterns learn language rapidly and effortlessly producing full sentences by the age of 3 years. However, the language circuitry continues to undergo significant neuroplastic changes extending well into teenage years. Evidence suggests that the developing brain adheres to two rudimentary principles of functional organization: functional integration and functional specialization. At a neurobiological level, this distinction can be identified with progressive specialization or focalization reflecting consolidation and synaptic reinforcement of a network (Lenneberg, 1967; Muller et al., 1998; Berl et al., 2006). In this paper, we used group independent component analysis and linear structural equation modeling (McIntosh and Gonzalez-Lima, 1994; Karunanayaka et al., 2007) to tease out the developmental trajectories of the language circuitry based on fMRI data from 336 children ages 5–18 years performing a blocked, covert verb generation task. The results are analyzed and presented in the framework of theoretical models for neurocognitive brain development. This study highlights the advantages of combining both modular and connectionist approaches to cognitive functions; from a methodological perspective, it demonstrates the feasibility of combining data-driven and hypothesis driven techniques to investigate the developmental shifts in the semantic network

Operational Behavioral Definitions

This document is the appendix for the study "Parent-Coaching in a Multimodal Communication Intervention for Children with Autism.

Optimized simultaneous ASL and BOLD functional imaging of the whole brain

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106990/1/jmri24273.pd

Listening Difficulties in Children: Behavior and Brain Activation Produced by Dichotic Listening of CV Syllables

Listening difficulties (LiD) are common in children with and without hearing loss. Impaired interactions between the two ears have been proposed as an important component of LiD when there is no hearing loss, also known as auditory processing disorder (APD). We examined the ability of 6–13 year old (y.o.) children with normal audiometric thresholds to identify and selectively attend to dichotically presented CV syllables using the Bergen Dichotic Listening Test (BDLT; www.dichoticlistening.com). Children were recruited as typically developing (TD; n = 39) or having LiD (n = 35) based primarily on composite score of the ECLiPS caregiver report. Different single syllables (ba, da, ga, pa, ta, ka) were presented simultaneously to each ear (6 × 36 trials). Children reported the syllable heard most clearly (non-forced, NF) or the syllable presented to the right [forced right (FR)] or left [forced left (FL)] ear. Interaural level differences (ILDs) manipulated bottom-up perceptual salience. Dichotic listening (DL) data [correct responses, laterality index (LI)] were analyzed initially by group (LiD, TD), age, report method (NF, FR, FL), and ILD (0, ± 15 dB) and compared with speech-in-noise thresholds (LiSN-S) and cognitive performance (NIH Toolbox). fMRI measured brain activation produced by a receptive speech task that segregated speech, phonetic, and intelligibility components. Some activated areas [planum temporale (PT), inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)] were correlated with dichotic results in TD children only. Neither group, age, nor report method affected the LI of right/left recall. However, a significant interaction was found between ear, group, and ILD. Laterality indices were small and tended to increase with age, as previously reported. Children with LiD had significantly larger mean LIs than TD children for stimuli with ILDs, especially those favoring the left ear. Neural activity associated with Speech, Phonetic, and Intelligibility sentence cues did not differ significantly between groups. Significant correlations between brain activity level and BDLT were found in several frontal and temporal locations for the TD but not for the LiD group. Overall, the children with LiD had only subtle differences from TD children in the BDLT, and correspondingly minor changes in brain activation

High-Tech Augmentative and Alternative Communication for Individuals with IDD and Complex Communication Needs: A Meta-Analysis (Search Terms)

Search Terms used in this manuscriptSearch Terms attached for the following paper: The use of mobile technology is ubiquitous and is rapidly increasing in novel use. The use of mobile apps as augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is rapidly expanding, both in the community and in the research literature. This article reports the social-communication outcome results of a meta-analysis of single-case experimental research on the use of high-tech AAC with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including autism spectrum disorder. Following inclusion determination, including excluding studies with poor design quality, raw data from 24 publications were extracted and included 89 A-B phase contrasts. Tau-U nonparametric, non-overlap effect size was used to aggregate the results across all studies for an omnibus and moderator analyses. Kendall’s S was calculated for confidence intervals, p-values, and standard error. The omnibus analysis indicated overall low to moderate positive effects on social-communication outcomes for high-tech AAC with people with IDD.The contents of this manuscript were developed under the Preparation of Leaders in Autism Across the Lifespan grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (Grant No. H325D110046)