The purpose of this project was to research the expression of Autism Spectrum Disorder in children and create a children’s book that can help the peers of individuals with a diagnosis to understand what the disorder entails and potentially gain a new sense of empathy for peers of all levels of physical and mental abilities. The research component includes interviews with individuals deemed knowledgeable about ASD, including occupational therapists, behavioral analysts, and parents, as well as a literature review of research studies on the expression of Autism in children. This written portion of the project may also serve as a manual for individuals who have little to no knowledge of ASD, as it dives deeper into the content of the book and research, while remaining easily understandable and clear to those without any prior knowledge or experience with ASD. It could prove especially useful for those in professions that come into contact with individuals with Autism, but do not necessarily require psychology courses or training as a prerequisite for the role, such as teachers and some health professionals.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals including occupational therapy practitioners (OTPs) were required to transition to working utilizing an online-service delivery model called telehealth. The use of telehealth for occupational therapy (OT) sessions was limited prior to the pandemic, and this shift required OTPs to provide services in ways many had never experienced. The purpose of this study was to identify how the transition to telehealth impacted OTPs and their ability to provide proper care to the pediatric population via telehealth. The final analytic sample included 32 female OTPs who worked with the pediatric population. Results from qualitative and quantitative analyses showed that OTPs had positive feelings toward using telehealth and that the telehealth modality had a moderate impact on their job performance. The areas that pediatric OTPs want to be addressed included technology and internet issues, lack of parent involvement, decreased quality of care, inaccessibility of materials, decreased attention span and increased distractions, and lack of general knowledge about telehealth among clients, parents, and professionals. Despite these drawbacks, a positive theme emerged that the telehealth model is good for current circumstances. The results show telehealth is a positive experience for OTPs and allows OT to be more accessible to their clients. Implications for increasing education for healthcare professionals, clients, and parents/guardians to make telehealth accessible to clients on a large scale are discussed.

The present study explored the relationship between desired purchasing behavior and individual differences using two nationally-representative, longitudinal samples of the U.S. population early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Past research has shown that individual differences provide information about how one might respond to threat. Therefore, we predicted changes in desired purchasing behavior across different sociodemographic variables that might reflect those differences. Specifically, we investigated hypotheses related to political orientation, age, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and whether or not the participant had children. We measured participants’ reported desired purchasing behavior across eleven categories of goods and investigated the connection between specific demographic variables and desired purchasing behavior. We found that conservatives desired to purchase more basic protection goods (guns/ammunition, cash, gas) and that older people desired to purchase more cleaning supplies and toiletries. These findings illustrate possible explanations for purchasing behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic and reveal directions for marketing designed to influence purchasing behavior.

Introduction. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infections globally. HPV is responsible for several health concerns including genital warts, cancer of the cervix, vulva, penis, anus, and oropharynx. In China, HPV infection accounts for 69.1% of invasive cervical cancer. Currently, there is no treatment for HPV infection, but HPV vaccination has been proven to be effective against HPV-related diseases. Given the highest rate of contracting HPV and suboptimal vaccination rate in college students including international students in the U.S., it is important to investigate key factors associated with vaccine uptake among Chinese international students. Purpose. This study aimed to investigate knowledge and awareness of HPV and the vaccine, attitudes, and vaccination intention in this population. We conducted a cross-sectional online survey via REDCap. Methods. Participants who were (1) Chinese international student at Arizona State University; (2) 18 and older; (3) able to read, speak and write in Chinese or English were recruited from Arizona State University. Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, frequency) and inferential statistics (Chi-square test, independent t-test) were conducted using SPSS 26.0. Results. One hundred and ten participants were included in this study (56.4% female, mean age = 24, SD = 3.7). Female students had significantly higher HPV vaccination rate than males (p = 0.000). The mean knowledge score was 8.09 (SD = 1.35); female students were more likely to receive HPV education than males (p = 0.001). The most common source of education was friends (50.7%). Three most common perceived risks were not being sexually active, being male, and not having any physical signs and symptoms. The three most common facilitators were infection prevention, access to vaccination, and ability to afford vaccination. The three most common barriers were the cost, safety, and efficacy of HPV vaccine. In conclusion, gender disparities exist among Chinese<br/>international students’ HPV vaccine uptake and HPV related education. Implication. Although Chinese international students possess moderate to high level of knowledge about HPV and HPV vaccines, they lack education from credible sources. Culturally and gender appropriate education is needed in order to address barriers of getting HPV vaccination.

This paper investigates the challenges associated with creating engaging virtual programming during the COVID-19 pandemic through the event Playfest from the ASU Art Museum. A survey was created and given to participants of the live Zoom event to understand which aspects were a success from the audience perspective. Staff members from different job ranks were interviewed about the internal structure in place for altering the popular in-person event into a digital one. Even though the COVID-19 pandemic will not last forever, exploring how to create virtual programming that is successful at engaging audiences allows for museums to remain relevant in a world where digital media is frequently consumed.

HackerHero is an educational game designed to teach children, especially those from marginalized backgrounds, computation thinking skills needed for STEAM fields. It also teaches children about social injustice. This project was focused on creating an audio visualization for an AI character within the HackerHero game. The audio visualization consisted of a static silhouette of a face and a wave-like form to represent the mouth. Audio content analysis was performed on audio sampled from the character’s voice lines. Pitch and amplitude derived from the analysis was used to animate the character’s visual features such as it’s brightness, color, and mouth movement. The mouth’s movement and color was manipulated with the audio’s pitch. The lights of Wave were controlled by the amplitude of the audio. Design considerations were made to accommodate those with visual disabilities such as color blindness and epilepsy. Overall the final audio visualization satisfied the project sponsor and built upon existing audio visualization work. User feedback will be a necessity for improving the audio visualization in the future.