Music Therapists\u27 Self-Care: Examining the Effectiveness of Educational Preparation for Clinical Practice

The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of undergraduate academic and clinical training programs for music therapy in addressing the subject of personal growth, as it relates to the development of critical self-awareness and self-care strategies. The study further attempted to identify which self-care strategies are being used by practicing music therapy clinicians and how a practice of self-care impacts their work with distressed and/or traumatized individuals. An electronic survey sent to all board-certified music therapists (MT-BCs) (N = 6369) generated a demographic profile of music therapy practitioners who identified their clientele as distressed and/or traumatized. The survey doubled as a means to identify a sample population for participation in face-to-face interviews. These interviews disclosed the clinicians’ perception of the effectiveness of their educational programs in preparing them to work with trauma-informed populations. An arts-based response further provided qualitative information corroborating the interviews. An open-ended survey questionnaire sent to academic directors of AMTA approved program directors (N = 79), investigated whether curricula related to self-care was included. The results revealed that 63.83% of MT-BCs (bachelor, masters, and doctorate levels) identified their clientele as distressed and/or traumatized. Specifically, 45.03% were bachelor-level clinicians. Results of the survey questionnaire to academic program directors (n = 16; 20.25% responding) indicated that 50% did not include a dedicated unit on self-care in their curricula. Interviews with clinicians exposed that 37.5% graduated from either graduate or undergraduate programs where the topic of self-care was not addressed. A thematic analysis of interview data and mandala arts-based responses, generated five primary and secondary themes; the analysis further identified indicators of vicarious traumatization related to the work experience. A plethora of self-care strategies and practices were communicated throughout the interview and creative response. The results of the survey suggest that more emphasis related to self-care in music therapy academic and clinical training programs would serve to provide graduates with increased knowledge and resources regarding self-care, thereby enabling clinicians to mitigate or circumvent the potential professional risks associated with treating a distressed and/or traumatized clientele

Opportunity, perception, and privilege : community resources and upward mobility as perceived by Spryfield youth

1 online resource (61 p.)Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (p. 58-61).This research aims to understand the relationship between youth access to community resources in Spryfield and Spryfield youth’s perception of their chances of attaining upward socioeconomic mobility. The main research question I investigate is: how do Spryfield youth perceive the availability of community resources as contributors to their potential upward mobility? I also explore questions such as: what community resources are available to Spryfield youth? How do youth of different genders and ages perceive the availability of community resources in Spryfield? I use Pierre Bourdieu’s forms of capital and neighbourhood effect theory to assess the Moving to Opportunity experiment as it relates to Spryfield youth. Primary data from a focus group formed through convenience sampling is compared to results from the Moving to Opportunity study. From the focus group, three themes are developed: 1) neighbourhood effects on Spryfield youth, 2) Spryfield lacks community resources that specifically focus on mental and physical health, and 3) the results coming out of Pathways to Education Spryfield challenge the MTO experiment. This thesis argues that disadvantages in attaining upward mobility are more effectively challenged when community resources for youth are implemented within their communities and when neighbourhood effects are addressed. The findings in this research suggest that community resource implementation within socioeconomically disadvantaged communities may prevent gendered differences in impact from occurring, as was the case in the Moving to Opportunity experiment

Dementia Wristband Report

This research project explored the use of new wearable and mobile technologies to support independent living and social interactions in the community for people living with dementia and their carers, more safely and for longer. The three key aims of the project were to: • Assess the potential acceptability, and usability of a mobile phone App and wearable wristband solution • Test the use of the technological in the everyday life contexts • Evaluate the usability and utility of a mobile phone App and digital wristband to reduce social isolation and improve health outcomes The research project had two stages: Stage 1 - Acceptability, utility and usability of the devices This stage of the project focused on developing initial understandings of the ways in which the proposed technological solutions work and potentially meet the needs of people living with dementia and their carers. This was achieved through: - Technology testing by the project team members. This gave the team a better understanding of the device used in the project. - Interviews with people with dementia and their carers, and with health and social care professionals. The interviews explored whether participants were receptive to, and what they thought about, the proposed solutions. Any concerns they had about the tracking technology in general or about the technology used in the project were also examined. Stage 2: Real world testing of the wristbands and smartphone App Research participant’s trialled the technology, as part of their everyday lives, for up to three months. During this period the research team worked closely with them to provide training and technological support and used a multi-method data collection focused on semi-structured interviews and observation to capture their experiences of using the technology. The participants living with dementia and their carers were given the opportunity to choose the technology that best suits them, either a wristbands or a smartphone application. Key findings In summary, through the interviews and focus groups and real world technology testing the research team and SME partners found there are issues around: - the use of technology for people living with dementia and their carers – for some people it was seen as a real benefit, others did not want to engage with the technology or have others know where they were. - education, information and support for people living with dementia and their carers to use new technologies; even when delivered via familiar technologies this can be challenging and needs support and time - support for family/other carers who are key to the support of mobile and wearable technologies. - support for people who do not have a local or remote family carer who can support the use of new technologies needs to be considered. - current GPS technologies not being accurate as a stand alone way of finding someone who may be lost or needing support. - safeguarding – which needs to take an holistic approach and include more traditional and ‘paper based’ safeguarding systems such as the Herbert protocol, - emerging and new technologies, which are developing constantly but a national approach is still missing; - the challenges for unpaid carers and people living with dementia to around exploring options around new technologies and deciding what are the best/cost effective options for their situations. - wearable and mobile technologies which can support people to be more independent in the community, but the technologies need to be: introduced early; affordable and be more easily supported by family and professional care givers as appropriate

Radon backgrounds in the DEAP-1 liquid-argon-based Dark Matter detector

The DEAP-1 \SI{7}{kg} single phase liquid argon scintillation detector was operated underground at SNOLAB in order to test the techniques and measure the backgrounds inherent to single phase detection, in support of the \mbox{DEAP-3600} Dark Matter detector. Backgrounds in DEAP are controlled through material selection, construction techniques, pulse shape discrimination and event reconstruction. This report details the analysis of background events observed in three iterations of the DEAP-1 detector, and the measures taken to reduce them. The $^{222}$Rn decay rate in the liquid argon was measured to be between 16 and \SI{26}{\micro\becquerel\per\kilogram}. We found that the background spectrum near the region of interest for Dark Matter detection in the DEAP-1 detector can be described considering events from three sources: radon daughters decaying on the surface of the active volume, the expected rate of electromagnetic events misidentified as nuclear recoils due to inefficiencies in the pulse shape discrimination, and leakage of events from outside the fiducial volume due to imperfect position reconstruction. These backgrounds statistically account for all observed events, and they will be strongly reduced in the DEAP-3600 detector due to its higher light yield and simpler geometry

In-situ characterization of the Hamamatsu R5912-HQE photomultiplier tubes used in the DEAP-3600 experiment

The Hamamatsu R5912-HQE photomultiplier-tube (PMT) is a novel high-quantum efficiency PMT. It is currently used in the DEAP-3600 dark matter detector and is of significant interest for future dark matter and neutrino experiments where high signal yields are needed. We report on the methods developed for in-situ characterization and monitoring of DEAP's 255 R5912-HQE PMTs. This includes a detailed discussion of typical measured single-photoelectron charge distributions, correlated noise (afterpulsing), dark noise, double, and late pulsing characteristics. The characterization is performed during the detector commissioning phase using laser light injected through a light diffusing sphere and during normal detector operation using LED light injected through optical fibres

Improving Photoelectron Counting and Particle Identification in Scintillation Detectors with Bayesian Techniques

Many current and future dark matter and neutrino detectors are designed to measure scintillation light with a large array of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). The energy resolution and particle identification capabilities of these detectors depend in part on the ability to accurately identify individual photoelectrons in PMT waveforms despite large variability in pulse amplitudes and pulse pileup. We describe a Bayesian technique that can identify the times of individual photoelectrons in a sampled PMT waveform without deconvolution, even when pileup is present. To demonstrate the technique, we apply it to the general problem of particle identification in single-phase liquid argon dark matter detectors. Using the output of the Bayesian photoelectron counting algorithm described in this paper, we construct several test statistics for rejection of backgrounds for dark matter searches in argon. Compared to simpler methods based on either observed charge or peak finding, the photoelectron counting technique improves both energy resolution and particle identification of low energy events in calibration data from the DEAP-1 detector and simulation of the larger MiniCLEAN dark matter detector.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figure

Measurement of the scintillation time spectra and pulse-shape discrimination of low-energy beta and nuclear recoils in liquid argon with DEAP-1

The DEAP-1 low-background liquid argon detector was used to measure scintillation pulse shapes of electron and nuclear recoil events and to demonstrate the feasibility of pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) down to an electron-equivalent energy of 20 keV. In the surface dataset using a triple-coincidence tag we found the fraction of beta events that are misidentified as nuclear recoils to be $<1.4\times 10^{-7}$ (90% C.L.) for energies between 43-86 keVee and for a nuclear recoil acceptance of at least 90%, with 4% systematic uncertainty on the absolute energy scale. The discrimination measurement on surface was limited by nuclear recoils induced by cosmic-ray generated neutrons. This was improved by moving the detector to the SNOLAB underground laboratory, where the reduced background rate allowed the same measurement with only a double-coincidence tag. The combined data set contains $1.23\times10^8$ events. One of those, in the underground data set, is in the nuclear-recoil region of interest. Taking into account the expected background of 0.48 events coming from random pileup, the resulting upper limit on the electronic recoil contamination is $<2.7\times10^{-8}$ (90% C.L.) between 44-89 keVee and for a nuclear recoil acceptance of at least 90%, with 6% systematic uncertainty on the absolute energy scale. We developed a general mathematical framework to describe PSD parameter distributions and used it to build an analytical model of the distributions observed in DEAP-1. Using this model, we project a misidentification fraction of approx. $10^{-10}$ for an electron-equivalent energy threshold of 15 keV for a detector with 8 PE/keVee light yield. This reduction enables a search for spin-independent scattering of WIMPs from 1000 kg of liquid argon with a WIMP-nucleon cross-section sensitivity of $10^{-46}$ cm$^2$, assuming negligible contribution from nuclear recoil backgrounds.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic

Rhetoric and reality: Critical perspective on education in a 3D virtual world

The emergence of any new educational technology is often accompanied by inflated expectations about its potential for transforming pedagogical practice and improving student learning outcomes. A critique of the rhetoric accompanying the evolution of 3D virtual world education reveals a similar pattern, with the initial hype based more on rhetoric than research demonstrating the extent to which rhetoric matches reality. Addressed are the perceived gaps in the literature through a critique of the rhetoric evident throughout the evolution of the application of virtual worlds in education and the reality based on the reported experiences of experts in the field of educational technology, who are all members of the Australian and New Zealand Virtual Worlds Working Group. The experiences reported highlight a range of effective virtual world collaborative and communicative teaching experiences conducted in members’ institutions. Perspectives vary from those whose reality is the actuation of the initial rhetoric in the early years of virtual world education, to those whose reality is fraught with challenges that belie the rhetoric. Although there are concerns over institutional resistance, restrictions, and outdated processes on the one-hand, and excitement over the rapid emergence of innovation on the other, the prevailing reality seems to be that virtual world education is both persistent and sustainable. Explored are critical perspectives on the rhetoric and reality on the educational uptake and use of virtual worlds in higher education, providing an overview of the current and future directions for learning in virtual worlds

Rhetoric and reality: Critical perspective on education in a 3D virtual world

The emergence of any new educational technology is often accompanied by inflated expectations about its potential for transforming pedagogical practice and improving student learning outcomes. A critique of the rhetoric accompanying the evolution of 3D virtual world education reveals a similar pattern, with the initial hype based more on rhetoric than research demonstrating the extent to which rhetoric matches reality. Addressed are the perceived gaps in the literature through a critique of the rhetoric evident throughout the evolution of the application of virtual worlds in education and the reality based on the reported experiences of experts in the field of educational technology, who are all members of the Australian and New Zealand Virtual Worlds Working Group. The experiences reported highlight a range of effective virtual world collaborative and communicative teaching experiences conducted in members’ institutions. Perspectives vary from those whose reality is the actuation of the initial rhetoric in the early years of virtual world education, to those whose reality is fraught with challenges that belie the rhetoric. Although there are concerns over institutional resistance, restrictions, and outdated processes on the one-hand, and excitement over the rapid emergence of innovation on the other, the prevailing reality seems to be that virtual world education is both persistent and sustainable. Explored are critical perspectives on the rhetoric and reality on the educational uptake and use of virtual worlds in higher education, providing an overview of the current and future directions for learning in virtual worlds