Gender-Specific Mentorship for Collegiate Female Band Directors

The purpose of this study was to provide insight on the impact of gender-specific role models and mentorship for aspiring female collegiate wind band conductors. The areas of focus included methods of impactful mentorship, identifying role models, and potential improvements for the wind band field. This research project was approved for an IRB exemption by the Old Dominion University College of Arts and Letters Human Subjects Review Committee. The subjects in this study were separated into two groups. Those that completed Survey A were either female collegiate/university band conductors, current music education or conducting graduate students, or former music education or conducting graduate students (N = 97). Those that completed Survey B were female undergraduate instrumental music education students (N = 93). The subjects completed a survey created in Qualtrics that included an informed consent statement. Two surveys were used to accurately reflect the differences in the level of experience of wind band conductors. The survey questions addressed impactful methods of mentorship, identification of mentors, preferred gender of mentors, the importance of mentorship, potential improvements to the wind band field, and existing perceptions of the wind band conducting field. The Survey B subjects reported their likelihood to pursue graduate studies and careers at the collegiate level, while Survey A subjects reflected on the potential influence of their gender in their experiences conducting collegiate level bands. The data were analyzed using statistical mean, mode, and standard deviation, and through the use of thematic category tables. The results from this study were compared to Elizabeth Grant’s (2000) study on gender-specific mentorship. The results indicate that mentorship is viewed as important for aspiring wind band conductors, with a variety of responses focused on the type of mentor and the method of impactful mentorship. Additionally, the results demonstrate a male-dominated perception of the wind band conductor field, with subjects from Survey A and Survey B reporting fewer female mentors and previous female teachers in their experiences. The comparisons demonstrate the potential implications of gender-specific mentorship and the potential present-day gender inequities in the wind band community that may impact aspiring female wind band conductors

Evaluation of the Natural Biodegradation of Aircraft Deicing Fluid Components in Soils

This research effort was conducted to analyze the biodegradation of propylene glycol (PG) and tolyltriazole in two different soil types; a sandy soil and a high clay soil. Both an automated respirometer and a high performance liquid chromatograph (H PLO) were used in the analysis. Two separate experiments were conducted. In the first experiment, one level of tolyltriazole was added to the soils to determine whether or not there was a difference in the biodegradation rates of tolyltriazole in the two soils. The respirometer results indicated that there was a significant difference between the respiration rates of the microorganisms in the two soil types, and the HPLO results indicated that biodegradation of the tolyltriazole was occurring in the microcosms. In the second experiment, only the high clay soil was used since it had a significantly higher respiration rate than the sandy soil. This experiment was conducted to determine the affect (inhibition, stimulation, or no effect) of a combined treatment of tolyltriazole and PG vs. the contaminants acting by themselves. The soil was treated with tolyltriazole alone, PG alone, and a combined mixture of the two. One level of PG was used throughout, and two levels of tolyltriazole were used, for a total of five different treatments. Both the respirometer and HPLO results indicated that biodegradation was occurring. The respirometer results indicated that there was a significant increase in the respiration rates of the microorganisms when the contaminants were mixed vs. by themselves, thereby indicating an increase in biodegradation. The HPLC results, however, indicated that the same amount of tolyltriazole was biodegrading whether it was in combination with PG or acting alone. These results may indicate that the significant increase in respiration was due to an increase in biodegradation of PG

Aging, Emotion, Attention, and Binding in the Taboo Stroop Task: Data and Theories.

How does aging impact relations between emotion, memory, and attention? To address this question, young and older adults named the font colors of taboo and neutral words, some of which recurred in the same font color or screen location throughout two color-naming experiments. The results indicated longer color-naming response times (RTs) for taboo than neutral base-words (taboo Stroop interference); better incidental recognition of colors and locations consistently associated with taboo versus neutral words (taboo context-memory enhancement); and greater speed-up in color-naming RTs with repetition of color-consistent than color-inconsistent taboo words, but no analogous speed-up with repetition of location-consistent or location-inconsistent taboo words (the consistency type by repetition interaction for taboo words). All three phenomena remained constant with aging, consistent with the transmission deficit hypothesis and binding theory, where familiar emotional words trigger age-invariant reactions for prioritizing the binding of contextual features to the source of emotion. Binding theory also accurately predicted the interaction between consistency type and repetition for taboo words. However, one or more aspects of these phenomena failed to support the inhibition deficit hypothesis, resource capacity theory, or socio-emotional selectivity theory. We conclude that binding theory warrants further test in a range of paradigms, and that relations between aging and emotion, memory, and attention may depend on whether the task and stimuli trigger fast-reaction, involuntary binding processes, as in the taboo Stroop paradigm

A discussion of a cryptographical scheme based in F-critical sets of a Latin square

This communication provides a discussion of a scheme originally proposed by Falcón in a paper entitled “Latin squares associated to principal autotopisms of long cycles. Applications in cryptography”. Falcón outlines the protocol for a cryptographical scheme that uses the F-critical sets associated with a particular Latin square to generate access levels for participants of the scheme. Accompanying the scheme is an example, which applies the protocol to a particular Latin square of order six. Exploration of the example itself, revealed some interesting observations about both the structure of the Latin square itself and the autotopisms associated with the Latin square. These observations give rise to necessary conditions for the generation of the F-critical sets associated with certain autotopisms of the given Latin square. The communication culminates with a table which outlines the various access levels for the given Latin square in accordance with the scheme detailed by Falcón.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Gender-Specific Mentorship for Collegiate Female Band Directors

The purpose of this study was to provide insight on the impact of gender-specific mentorship for aspiring female collegiate wind band conductors. The areas of focus included impactful mentorship methods, identifying mentors, and potential improvements for the wind band field. This research project was approved for an IRB exemption by the Old Dominion University College of Arts and Letters Human Subjects Review Committee. Two Qualtrics surveys were created for this study to reflect the differences in the level of experience of wind band conductors. Female collegiate/university band conductors and current/former music education or conducting graduate students completed Survey A (N = 97). Female undergraduate instrumental music education students completed Survey B (N = 93). The survey questions addressed impactful mentors and methods of mentorship, preferred gender for mentors, the importance of mentorship, potential improvements for mentorship, and perceptions of the wind band conducting field. The Survey B subjects reported their likelihood to pursue graduate studies and collegiate level careers. The Survey A subjects reported the potential influence of their gender in their experiences conducting collegiate level bands. The data were analyzed using statistical mean, mode, and standard deviation, and through the use of thematic category tables. The results from this study were compared to Elizabeth Grant’s (2000) study on gender-specific mentorship. The results indicate that mentorship is viewed as important for aspiring wind band conductors, with a variety of responses on the types of mentor and the methods of impactful mentorship. The results demonstrate a male-dominated perception of the wind band conductor field, with subjects from Survey A and Survey B reporting fewer female mentors and previous female teachers in their experiences. The comparisons demonstrate the potential implications of gender-specific mentorship and the potential present-day gender inequities in the wind band community that may impact aspiring female wind band conductors.https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/gradposters2020_artsletters/1000/thumbnail.jp

Community and Cultural Responsivity: Climate Change Research in Tuvalu

The Community Mini-Grant was founded in 2010 with the intention of supporting small, time-sensitive community-based projects that are consistent with SCRA’s mission, principles, and goals. We are happy to support the great work being done by SCRA members and their community partners, and even happier to be able to highlight examples of this work and share them with the GJCPP readership.  Below, Dr. Laura Kati Corlew provides us with insight into research on the community and cultural impacts of climate change in Tuvalu, as well as a description of the impact that Community Mini-Grant funding had on implementing a culturally responsive research and dissemination process

Providing Psychosocial support through Virtual Support Groups to Patients with Parkinson’s Disease and their Caregivers: A Scoping Review

Abstract Individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) may require substantial support, owing to the significant physical, cognitive, and psychological symptoms that are associated with the disease. Furthermore, caregivers of individuals with PD may struggle with the demands of their responsibilities, which can impact their quality of life and ability to participate in social activities. The purpose of this scoping review was to evaluate the factors associated with providing psychosocial support to individuals with PD and their caregivers through virtual support groups. We applied the scoping review methodology described by Arksey and O’Malley to the 15 articles identified within our literature search. Evidence suggests that virtual support groups provide similar experiences to in-person support groups, demonstrating that they can provide an effective form of support, particularly for individuals who have difficulty leaving their home (possibly due to symptom severity or mobility issues) or who are unable to locate suitable in-person resources in their geographical area. Thus, online support groups appear to serve as an effective form of social support for individuals with PD and their caregivers. The perceived level of benefit derived from online support groups is further influenced by factors such as age, group similarity, and disease severity. Overall, the use of virtual support groups may increase access to social support by addressing accessibility barriers and may be a particularly valuable adjunctive service for individuals living in rural areas, or for whom PD symptoms present mobility challenges

Community and Cultural Responsivity: Climate Change Research in Tuvalu

The Community Mini-Grant was founded in 2010 with the intention of supporting small, time-sensitive community-based projects that are consistent with SCRA’s mission, principles, and goals. We are happy to support the great work being done by SCRA members and their community partners, and even happier to be able to highlight examples of this work and share them with the GJCPP readership.  Below, Dr. Laura Kati Corlew provides us with insight into research on the community and cultural impacts of climate change in Tuvalu, as well as a description of the impact that Community Mini-Grant funding had on implementing a culturally responsive research and dissemination process