Shaping the Lives of Little Ones Developmental Equipment Project

Premature infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) may experience extensive hospitalizations due to prematurity and medical complications requiring interventions to sustain life and support physiological development. NICU staff are often focused on immediate medical concerns for these infants and may not consider the development and play needs for these long term hospitalized infants. Occupational therapists are aware of the importance of play and supporting the parental role and co-occupations between the infant and parents. This capstone paper discusses the Shaping the Lives of Little Ones Developmental Equipment Project for infants, nurses, and parents designed to provide opportunities for sensory-motor experiences and play for older infants by increasing access to essential equipment and toys for infants’ development. Details of the project, methodology, implementation, results and future implications for practice and research are presented

Bryan Proksch, Reviving Haydn: New Appreciations in the Twentieth Century. Eastman Studies in Music. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2015. ISBN 978-1-58-046512-0.

While reading Bryan Proksch’s study of Haydn’s reception over the past two hundred years, I remembered a conversation I once had with a colleague about Classical music’s position in today’s world. The matter that sparked the discussion was what we might call the “Pires-Chailly” incident, the now somewhat famous performance at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in which the pianist Maria Joao Pires, who had prepared the wrong Mozart concerto (K.467), heroically recalled the scheduled work (K. 466) on the spot, much to the delight and astonishment of conductor Riccardo Chailly

REMChlor Model of Tritium Transport at the MADE Site

Groundwater transport models are commonly used at sites with groundwater contamination. Models are used to study the extent of the contamination and the possible risks it poses. Contaminant transport models use properties of the aquifer and the solute to simulate how the solute moves through the aquifer. Screening level models are often used as a first modeling approach at sites to get an idea of the general trends of contaminant transport. They offer an efficient approach to modeling, usually requiring fewer input parameters than other models. This study uses a screening level model to describe tritium transport for the second Macro-Dispersion Experiment (MADE). The MADE site, at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi, is situated at an aquifer with a high degree of heterogeneity in hydraulic conductivity. The variability in hydraulic conductivity at the site produces non-classical tritium transport. Ideally, the tritium tracer should have behaved as an instantaneous source with a tracer pulse traveling with groundwater flow. However, the actual distribution of tritium by the end of the sampling period shows that the bulk of the tracer stays within 20 m of the injection site with a low-concentration leading edge extending almost 300 m downgradient. There have been a variety of attempts to model the tritium distribution for the MADE-2 experiment. A traditional advection-dispersion model with an instantaneous point-source fails to capture the actual tritium distribution. Others have used dual-domain mass transfer numerical models to capture the tritium distribution. An alternate approach is to treat the area near the injection site as a source zone, where the discharge concentration leaving the source is proportional to the tritium mass remaining in this zone. This study uses REMChlor, an analytical model available through the US EPA. REMChlor uses a source-plume concept to describe solute transport at sites that have non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) contamination. REMChlor was used for this modeling approach with the source depletion term set to 1 (Γ= 1) to simulate exponential depletion of the mass in the source zone. This produces a 1 to 1 relationship between source mass and discharge. The ability of this model to reproduce the tritium distributions is largely dependent on the size of the area defined as the source zone. This approach reproduces key features of the observed tritium distributions such as the plume length and the mass distribution along the centerline of the site

CONVERSATIONS WITH FRANCESCA: TCHAIKOVSKY, LISZT, AND WAGNER (AND ZANDONAI AND GRANADOS AND RACHMANINOV) GO TO HELL

Tchaikovsky completed his tone poem Francesca da Rimini in 1876, during the period he was attending the premiere of Wagner’s Ring Cycle at Bayreuth. Critics of the work drew comparisons with the Tetralogy and faulted what seemed to be Tchaikovsky’s derivative inspiration. Indeed, the composer him-self acknowledged Wagner’s influence. In this paper, I set aside influence to consider intertextual dialogues between Tchaikovsky’s work and others by Liszt, Zandonai, Rachmaninov, and not Wagner’s Ring, but Tristan und Isolde. Drawing upon theories by Klein and Peirce, I examine parallelisms of topic, melodic contour, tonal motion, and timbral signifiers to establish a “conversation” between Francesca’s tale and King Marke’s speech at the conclusion of Act 2 of Tristan. The results reveal an interactive field of narration and symbolization that projects both stories’ themes of desire, betrayal, guilt, and love

A Case Report of Guillain-Barre Syndrome

Background and Purpose: Guillain-Barre Syndrome is a medical condition with no known cause. Incidence of this condition is 1 to 2 per 100 000 people in the United States. Guillain-Barre Syndrome is a condition in which a person’s immune system attacks the person’s nervous system and demyelinates nerves in a person’s body. Case Description: The patient is a 64-year-old male who received physical therapy services following a diagnosis of Guillain-Barre Syndrome. The condition came on with insidious onset and the patient had no signs or symptoms prior to his diagnosis. The patient was evaluated and treated by my clinical instructor (CI), who is a licensed physical therapist, and me, with subsequent treatment sessions being performed by me. I treated the patient for four weeks before my clinical experience finished. Interventions: Physical therapy interventions focused on improving strength, range of motion (ROM, transfer training, and gait training. Outcomes: Over the course of his physical therapy treatments in a transitional care unit, the patient made improvements in strength, range of motion, transfer training, and gait training. He met some of his long-term goals and short-term goals while I was there. He was still receiving physical therapy services following the completion of my time at the transitional care unit. Discussion: PT evidence supports patient progress with Guillain-Barre Syndrome to improve strength, range of motion, ability to transfer, gait mechanics, and cardiovascular enduranc

From Deficit to Strength: The Educational Influence of Single Black Mothers on their Sons’ Academic Achievement

The purpose of this study was to examine the lived experience of single Black mothers’ in supporting their sons’ academic achievement and to better understand their overall success. Historically, research that has been conducted on single Black mothers is viewed from a deficit lens (Copeland, 1977; Grier & Cobbs, 1968; Karon, 1958; Moynihan, 1965; Pettigrew, 1964). The role of single Black mothers has been grossly misunderstood, insinuating that they would be economically poor, uneducated, and lacked effective parenting skills. This study incorporated phenomenological and narrative methodologies, such as semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and observational field notes to capture the participants’ experiences. The results of this study yielded six themes related to the perceived educational influence of single Black mothers and the contributing factors of their influence on the overall academic performance of their son(s). Based on the research findings, this in-depth study revealed that single Black mothers are resilient, and their role is pivotal in their sons’ long-term achievement

BIOFRAG – a new database for analyzing BIOdiversity responses to forest FRAGmentation

Habitat fragmentation studies have produced complex results that are challenging to synthesize. Inconsistencies among studies may result from variation in the choice of landscape metrics and response variables, which is often compounded by a lack of key statistical or methodological information. Collating primary datasets on biodiversity responses to fragmentation in a consistent and flexible database permits simple data retrieval for subsequent analyses. We present a relational database that links such field data to taxonomic nomenclature, spatial and temporal plot attributes, and environmental characteristics. Field assessments include measurements of the response(s) (e.g., presence, abundance, ground cover) of one or more species linked to plots in fragments within a partially forested landscape. The database currently holds 9830 unique species recorded in plots of 58 unique landscapes in six of eight realms: mammals 315, birds 1286, herptiles 460, insects 4521, spiders 204, other arthropods 85, gastropods 70, annelids 8, platyhelminthes 4, Onychophora 2, vascular plants 2112, nonvascular plants and lichens 320, and fungi 449. Three landscapes were sampled as long-term time series (\u3e10 years). Seven hundred and eleven species are found in two or more landscapes. Consolidating the substantial amount of primary data available on biodiversity responses to fragmentation in the context of land-use change and natural disturbances is an essential part of understanding the effects of increasing anthropogenic pressures on land. The consistent format of this database facilitates testing of generalizations concerning biologic responses to fragmentation across diverse systems and taxa. It also allows the re-examination of existing datasets with alternative landscape metrics and robust statistical methods, for example, helping to address pseudoreplication problems. The database can thus help researchers in producing broad syntheses of the effects of land use. The database is dynamic and inclusive, and contributions from individual and large-scale data-collection efforts are welcome

How indeterminism shapes ecologists’ contributions to managing socio-ecological systems

To make a difference in policy making about socio-ecological systems, ecologists must grasp when decision makers are amenable to acting on ecological expertise and when they are not. To enable them to do so we present a matrix for classifying a socio-ecological system by the extent of what we don’t know about its natural components and the social interactions that affects them. We use four examples, Midcontinent Mallards, Laysan Ducks, Pallid Sturgeon, and Rocky Mountain Grey Wolves to illustrate how the combination of natural and social source of indeterminism matters. Where social indeterminism is high, ecologists can expand the range of possible science-based options decision makers might consider even while recognizing societal-based concerns rather than science will dominate decision making. In contrast, where natural indeterminism is low, ecologists can offer reasonably accurate predictions that may well serve as inputs into decision making. Depending on the combination of natural and social indeterminism characterizing a particular circumstance, ecologists have different roles to play in informing socio-ecological system management