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- All Subjects: Health
- Creators: Barrett, The Honors College
Description
Every engineer is responsible for completing a capstone project as a culmination of accredited university learning to demonstrate technical knowledge and enhance interpersonal skills, like teamwork, communication, time management, and problem solving. This project, with three or four engineers working together in a group, emphasizes not only the importance of technical skills acquired through laboratory procedures and coursework, but the significance of soft skills as one transitions from a university to a professional workplace; it also enhances the understanding of an engineer's obligation to ethically improve society by harnessing technical knowledge to bring about change. The CC2541 Smart SensorTag is a device manufactured by Texas Instruments that focuses on the use of wireless sensors to create low energy applications, or apps; it is equipped with Bluetooth Smart, which enables it to communicate wirelessly with similar devices like smart phones and computers, assisting greatly in app development. The device contains six built-in sensors, which can be utilized to track and log personal data in real-time; these sensors include a gyroscope, accelerometer, humidifier, thermometer, barometer, and magnetometer. By combining the data obtained through the sensors with the ability to communicate wirelessly, the SensorTag can be used to develop apps in multiple fields, including fitness, recreation, health, safety, and more. Team SensorTag chose to focus on health and safety issues to complete its capstone project, creating applications intended for use by senior citizens who live alone or in assisted care homes. Using the SensorTag's ability to track multiple local variables, the team worked to collect data that verified the accuracy and quality of the sensors through repeated experimental trials. Once the sensors were tested, the team developed applications accessible via smart phones or computers to trigger an alarm and send an alert via vibration, e-mail, or Tweet if the SensorTag detects a fall. The fall detection service utilizes the accelerometer and gyroscope sensors with the hope that such a system will prevent severe injuries among the elderly, allow them to function more independently, and improve their quality of life, which is the obligation of engineers to better through their work.
ContributorsMartin, Katherine Julia (Author) / Thornton, Trevor (Thesis director) / Goryll, Michael (Committee member) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12
Description
This study investigates the use and perception of communications efforts among 197 animal-related and human services nonprofit organizations. Several facets of nonprofit communication such as traditional communication usage, social media adoption and usage, and the overall perception of the organizations' communications efforts were examined using a survey and Form 990 analysis. More in-depth analysis was conducted on the participating organizations' Facebook and Twitter accounts as well. After analyzing this data, the study found significant differences in how these two types of nonprofit organizations conduct their communications efforts. Animal-related organizations were much more active and saw higher levels of engagement on Facebook than human services organizations; however, there were no differences in how both types of organizations used Twitter. This study also found that human services organizations are more likely to have full-time or part-time staff members in charge of their communications, while animal-related organizations were more likely to assign this responsibility to a volunteer. These findings contribute valuable insight into how different types of nonprofit organizations are communicating with their stakeholders.
ContributorsColeman, Alexandria Elizabeth (Author) / Wu, Xu (Thesis director) / Taj, Torrie (Committee member) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / School of Community Resources and Development (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The Community Action Research Experiences (CARE) program collaborated with Singleton Moms, a local non-profit organization that provides financial, psychological, and social support services to single parents with cancer. The purpose of this action research project was to assess the volunteer program at Singleton Moms. Both past and present Singleton Moms' volunteers (N = 123; 87.0% female) completed an online survey assessing their motivation for volunteering and their satisfaction with the organization. A mixed ANOVA was conducted to identify the most important motivation and satisfaction domains and to see if the findings depended on whether the volunteers were current or past volunteers. For the motivation assessment, results indicated that the volunteers rate the cancer specific and moral/human kindness domains as the strongest reasons for motivating them to volunteer at Singleton Moms. In addition, results revealed that the social connection motivation domain was the only domain with differences between the ratings of the past and present volunteers. For the satisfaction assessment, results indicated that the volunteers rate the organizational climate domain as the most fulfilled area of satisfaction within the Singleton Moms' volunteer program. It was also revealed that there were no significant differences between the ratings of the past and present volunteers among all satisfaction domains. Both the quantitative and qualitative findings suggest that Singleton Moms' implications for action may include: 1) a volunteer database audit, 2) streamlining communications, 3) variability in volunteer times, and 4) bolstering volunteer motivation. Implementing some of these actions may help Singleton Moms increase volunteer motivation and satisfaction and thus create a more effective volunteer program. Ultimately, this may encourage volunteers to continue their services at Singleton Moms and thus help Singleton Moms expand their support programs and assist additional families.
ContributorsDubois, Courtney Michelle (Author) / Miller, Cindy (Thesis director) / Dumka, Larry (Committee member) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of injury related death in the United States. The complexity of the injury environment that follows TBI creates an incomplete understanding of all the mechanisms in place to regulate chemotactic responses to TBI. The goal of this project was to develop a predictive in silco model using diffusion and autocrine/paracrine signaling specific to stromal cell derived factor-1α (SDF-1α) gradient formation after TBI and compare this model with in vivo experimental data. A COMSOL model using Fickian diffusion and autocrine/paracrine reaction terms was generated to predict the gradient formation observed in vivo at three physiologically relevant time points (1, 3, and 7 days). In vivo data was gathered and analyzed via immunohistochemistry and MATLAB. The spatial distribution of SDF-1α concentration in vivo more consistently demonstrated patterns similar to the in silico model dependent on both diffusion and autocrine/paracrine reaction terms rather than diffusion alone. The temporal distribution of these same results demonstrated degradation of SDF-1α at too rapid a rate, compared to the in vivo results. To account for differences in behavior observed in vivo, reaction terms and constants of 1st-order reaction rates must be modulated to better reflect the results observed in vivo. These results from both the in silico model and in vivo data support the hypothesis that SDF-1α gradient formation after TBI depends on more than diffusion alone. Future work will focus on improving the model with constants that are specific to SDF-1α as well as testing methods to better control the degradation of SDF-1α.
ContributorsFreeman, Sabrina Louise (Author) / Stabenfeldt, Sarah (Thesis director) / Caplan, Michael (Committee member) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
This project looks into elementary school lunches around the world, with a focus on nutrition and government involvement. The project uses recent obesity research to determine the extent of childhood obesity and draws connections between obesity rates and each country's school food policies and resulting school lunch meals. The countries researched are Greece, the United States, Japan, and France. An effort is made to find accurate representations by using real unstaged pictures of the school lunches as well as using real, recent school lunch menus. Analysis of the nutritive balance of each country's overall school lunch meals includes explanation of possible reasoning for lower quality or lesser-balanced school lunch meals. In Greece, the steadily rising child obesity rates are possibly due to Greece's struggling economy and the loss of traditional Greek foods in school lunches. In the U.S., the culprit of uncontrolled obesity rates may be a combination of budget and an unhealthful food culture that can't easily adopt wholesome meals and meal preparation methods. However, there have been recent efforts at improving school lunches through reimbursement to schools who comply with the new USDA NSLP meal pattern, and in combination with a general increased interest in making school lunches better, school lunches in the U.S. have been improving. In Japan, where obesity rates are fairly low, the retaining of traditional cuisine and wholesome foods and cooking methods in combination with a higher meal budget are probable reasons why child obesity rates are under control. In France, the combination of a higher budget with school lunches carefully calculated for balance along with traditional foods cooked by skilled chefs results in possibly the most healthful and palatable school lunches of the countries analyzed. Overall it is concluded that major predictors of more healthy and less obese children are higher food budgets, greater use of traditional foods, and more wholesome foods and cooking methods over packaged foods.
ContributorsOsugi, Mallory Nicole (Author) / Grgich, Traci (Thesis director) / Mason, Maureen (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
There are two goals for this honors student project: (1) to determine (using an online survey) what college students do and do not know about cooking and preparing foods and (2) to video record short demonstrations of several cooking skills that college students lack the most based on survey responses. Ultimately, this project hopes to help students develop skills they can use in the kitchen to encourage more cooking at home and less eating out, dietary changes that should lead to more healthful meals and a healthier population. Links to cooking videos: https://youtu.be/ufsVYnfoCQM https://youtu.be/aZCIH33ebZ0
ContributorsKarr, Alexandra Rose (Author) / Johnston, Carol (Thesis director) / Jacobs, Mark (Committee member) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Community Music Therapy for Cultural Cohesion is the name of the research initiative to create a community music therapy program that addresses community attitudes toward cultural diversity. The program created is titled "Many Peoples, One Voice." Theories and findings in the field of social psychology regarding the formation of intergroup bias and how to prevent it from taking hold inform the goals of the program. Current practices in and theories on community music therapy inform the content, qualities, and perspective of the program. Information from the field of ethnomusicology inform the specific world music traditions incorporated into the program. The culmination of this research and the program it birthed is described in detail to promote a better understanding of the goals, activities, cultural handouts, additional content considerations, and structure of the program as well as the populations it may serve and the adaptions it may include. Finally, the program is related to the current trends in the field of music therapy and its potential to expand into nontraditional need and population areas is considered.
ContributorsOstrowski, Jennifer Lauren (Author) / Rio, Robin (Thesis director) / Little, Bliss (Committee member) / School of Music (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12
Description
This article summarizes exploratory research conducted on private and public hospital systems in Australia and Costa Rica analyzing the trends observed within supply chain procurement. Physician preferences and a general lack of available comparative effectiveness research—both of which are challenges unique to the health care industry—were found to be barriers to effective supply chain performance in both systems. Among other insights, the ability of policy to catalyze improved procurement performance in public hospital systems was also was observed. The role of centralization was also found to be fundamental to the success of the systems examined, allowing hospitals to focus on strategic rather than operational decisions and conduct value-streaming activities to generate increased cost savings.
ContributorsBudgett, Alexander Jay (Author) / Schneller, Eugene (Thesis director) / Gopalakrishnan, Mohan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Much research has been devoted to identifying trends in either convergence upon a neoliberal model or divergence among welfare states in connection to globalization, but most research has focused on advanced industrialized countries. This has limited our understanding of the current state of convergence or divergence, especially among welfare states in developing regions. To address this research gap and contribute to the broader convergence vs. divergence debate, this research explores welfare state variation found within Latin America, in terms of the health policy domain, through the use of cross-national data from 18 countries collected between the period of 1995 to 2010 and the application of a series of descriptive and regression analysis techniques. Analyses revealed divergence within Latin America in the form of three distinct welfare states, and that among these welfare states income inequality, trust in traditional public institutions, and democratization, are significantly related to welfare state type and health performance.
ContributorsJohnson, Kory Alfred (Author) / Martin, Nathan (Thesis director) / Gonzales, Vanna (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
This project studies trends in the corporate wellness sphere and what companies are currently doing to promote wellness among their employees. It outlines several key studies on diabetes and obesity and shows the economic impact these lifestyle diseases have on the healthcare system. It also covers how the Affordable Care Act is supporting preventative behavior, how companies are promoting wellness, and the long-term benefits of doing so. It examines the effectiveness of current corporate wellness programs, highlights best practices, and identifies areas for improvement. These findings are used to propose a realistic, holistic corporate wellness plan that will promote wellness among employees and reduce a companies' long-term healthcare costs.
ContributorsRobottom, Danielle P. (Author) / Hall, Rick (Thesis director) / Levinson, Simin (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor)
Created2014-05