Digital Commons Network^™

Investing In Connection: Exploring The Online Graduate Student Experience, Michelle Vaughan

Journal of Practitioner Research

Within the context of online learning, there are challenges presented by the virtual medium that may lead to diminished experiences in learning. Without a physical connection or the ability to feel the support from your teacher, online students can be left isolated, and the pedagogy can easily slip into an execution of tasks as opposed to a pedagogy of care. My inquiry into the online graduate student experience began with a survey to understand how online graduate students describe their experiences as an online learner and their relationships with their instructors. A thematic analysis of their responses revealed themes regarding …

Shared Philosophies, Conflict, And Critical Reflection: Developing Productive Teacher Collaboration, Erin Nerlino

Journal of Practitioner Research

As top-down mandates regarding what collaboration should look like continue to evolve from the policy level, it is critical to engage the knowledge of teachers – the ones experiencing the collaboration – to inform teacher learning as well as the conditions within schools that help productive collaboration partnerships to evolve. This article seeks to examine the foundational aspects that underpin a mutually productive collaborative relationship between myself – a full time high school English teacher – and another full-time English teacher at the public, regional school in the Northeast where we taught. Utilizing a participant research design, I drew upon …

Investigation Of The Function Of The First Epicentral Intermuscular Bone And The First Anal-Fin Radial Bone In Polymixia Lowei, Jesus M. Leal

Undergraduate Research and Engagement Symposium

Beardfishes, members of the genus Polymixia, are seen as living

fossils, as they are the sole survivors of a Late Cretaceous marine fish

radiation. In this genus, the first intermuscular bone differs from the

rest by lying in the horizontal septum and by being distinctively

larger. In addition, the first anal-fin radial bone is distinctively

enlarged. To investigate the function of these unique characteristics of

Polymixia, we examined multiple specimens and perfected a method

for staining nerves to reveal the innervation of the unique structures.

In doing so, we hypothesize that the function of these structures is

related to sound …

Technology And Consumer Engagement For Loop, Alaina Runkel, Sici Mirante, Brigitte Cueter, Katie Gardner, Maddie Thompson, Anna Shea, Taylor Nguyen

Undergraduate Research and Engagement Symposium

We are exploring how LOOP can develop their technology to increase consumer engagement. Our group will achieve this by exploring the following objectives: To investigate consumer comfort levels on privacy sharing, to assess how sellers find value in an online consignment store, to explore how the user experience on a company's website affects consumer loyalty, to evaluate how brands interact with consumers through technology, to explore how consumers can engage with online small-businesses, to explore buyer-seller communication in e-commerce, and to evaluate consumer engagement in online sustainable shopping.

Analysis Of Poverty In Chicago, Gabriel Dominguez, Jack Mcdonnell, Brett Johnson

Undergraduate Research and Engagement Symposium

This poster displays visualizations of the correlation between select public health indicators and their correlation to impoverished areas in Chicago.

Mellon Unpaid Academic Internship Award Presentation- Enes Eldes, Abdullah Eldes

Undergraduate Research and Engagement Symposium

My presentation is about my unpaid internship experience for KCommunications as a graphic designer for the spring semester. I was tasked in designing various social media graphics along with promotional materials for an event. The presentation talks about the experience and presents the works

Identification Of Ribbon Transcriptional Targets In The Adult Drosophila Testis, Madeline Hakala

Undergraduate Research and Engagement Symposium

Past research has demonstrated that the transcription factor Ribbon (Rib) plays an essential role in Drosophila testis development and function, but its transcriptional targets were previously unknown. Gene expression levels of rib overexpression flies were compared to the control (and results were filtered), resulting in the identification of 301 potential targets. Of these genes, approximately 20 potential targets were selected for additional analysis due to their implications in cell adhesion or the cytoskeleton, which are known functions of Rib. Follow-up experiments are currently being conducted to validate select genes of interest as targets of Rib.

Increasing Incentive Spirometry Use In Patients With Sickle Cell Disease: Longer Follow-Up Of Pdsa Cycle 1, Alexandra Prosser, Thomas Cochran

Research Days

Problem Statement/Question: Acute chest syndrome (ACS) is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in patients with sickle cell disease. Patients are at higher risk for this complication during hospital admission due to limited mobility leading to decreased lung inflation. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) recommends providing ten breaths of incentive spirometry (IS) every two hours while awake for patients admitted to the hospital with sickle cell disease to help prevent development of acute chest syndrome. Without this intervention, patients are more likely to develop ACS requiring increased level of care, prolonged hospital stays, and …

Influencing Influenza Immunization: Qi Project In A Pediatric Resident Continuity Clinic, Brittany Moore

Research Days

Problem Statement/Question: There have been a multitude of approaches to vaccine hesitancy in regard to childhood vaccinations. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic there was a noticeable decline in influenza vaccination among children aged 6 months to 18 years. The influenza vaccination rate in the pediatric resident continuity clinic at Children’s Mercy Hospital was below the national average for pediatric patients.

Background/Project Intent (Aim Statement): The aim of this study is to increase the percentage of patients aged 6 month and older currently enrolled in ROYAL clinic receiving at least one influenza vaccine from 38.6% to 55% by January 1, …

Increasing Utilization Of Gestational Age Based Table For Initial Intubation In A Level Iv Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Maribel Martinez, Dianne Lee, Christopher R. Nitkin

Research Days

Problem Statement/Question: Most providers in our unit are not using the NRP recommended method to determine the initial ETT insertion depth in neonates.

Background/Project Intent (Aim Statement): Endotracheal tube (ETT) depth in neonates is of critical importance due to significant adverse events when malpositioned. While randomized trials comparing different methods have not shown superiority of any particular method, the weight-based method (weight (kg) +6) has been found to be highly inaccurate in extremely low birth weight neonates. Furthermore, the Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) recommends using gestational age (GA)-based table (Kempley ST, et al, Resuscitation 2008) or nasal-tragal length for initial …

Rethinking In-School Suspension Through Restorative Practices, Lacey Bass, Rachel E. Gaines

Journal of Practitioner Research

This self-study focuses on the implementation of restorative practices (RP) with high school students assigned in-school suspension (ISS) for violating school rules. The investigation focuses on the use of two restorative practices (community circles and digital modules) as modes of restoration and behavioral change. Analysis of school disciplinary records and teacher reflections indicate that, overall, students were less likely to be referred to ISS again after completing the RP program and remained invested in meeting their behavioral goals. The success of the program appeared to be rooted in the ways the teacher built trusting, collaborative relationships through community circles and …

Converting Paper Faxes To Electronic Faxes To Improve Patient Care, Decrease Paper Burden, And Improve Staff And Provider Satisfaction: A Quality Improvement Project, Stephanie Green, Amanda Lindenberg

Research Days

Problem Statement/Question: Reliance on provider and administrative staff to be physically present at Adele Hall creates delays in delivery of completed documentation. Delays of up to 7-14 days are possible. Delays in completion result in outside offices resending (wasted duplication of work) requests and delay downstream delivery of equipment/services, ultimately negatively impacting patient care. Over a 2-week period in November 2022, it took at average of 6.08 days for time to completion of requests. Over a 4-week period in August 2022, divisional outgoing faxes in response to requests averaged 79.5 per week. In addition, reliance on hardcopies of requests increases …

Improving Frequency Of Peer Review Of Abnormal Genital Exam Findings In Patients Undergoing Sexual Abuse Evaluation, Lyndsey Hultman, Julia G. Harris, Terra N. Frazier, Jennifer B. Hansen

Research Days

Problem Statement/Question: Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) coordinate child abuse MDTs, and 2023 CAC accreditation standards require that “all medical professionals providing services to CAC clients must demonstrate that 100% of all findings deemed abnormal or “diagnostic” of trauma from sexual abuse have undergone expert review by an advanced medical consultant.” Scheduled Case Review occurs among Children’s Mercy child abuse pediatricians (CAPs), but current practice is to review cases only upon CAP request.

Background/Project Intent (Aim Statement): Appropriate interpretation of sexual abuse exam findings is crucial for accurate diagnosis and provision of medical information to multidisciplinary child protection teams (MDTs). Medical …

Unique Endoscopic Retrieval Of A Large Rectal Foreign Body, Laurie Mccann, Jose Cocjin

Research Days

Introduction: Large rectal foreign bodies are usually difficult to extract, usually requiring operative management.

Case: A 14-year-old male presented to the ER for a rectal foreign body. Earlier in the day, he had rectal itching and inflammation. He used a cylindrical reusable ice stick (for water bottles) for topical relief, which did not work, so he placed the tube in his rectum, then he was unable to retrieve it and sought medical help. Physical exam was significant for lower abdominal pain and palpable mass just below his umbilicus, which was painful to palpate. CT abdomen/pelvis showed a large foreign body …

Improving Imaging Practices Following Arterial Switch Operation, Mollie Walton, Nir Atlas, Sanket Shah

Research Days

Problem Statement/Question: Long-term risk in post-operative cardiac patients exists, and morbidity may be avoided with advanced imaging surveillance.

Background/Project Intent (Aim Statement): The Appropriate Use Criteria (AUC) for Multimodality Imaging During Follow-Up Care of Patients with Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) was published in 2020 by the American College of Cardiology Foundation. This includes a subsection for D-Looped Transposition of the Great Arteries (D-Loop TGA). The arterial switch operation (ASO) is the preferred method for surgical repair of D-Loop TGA. Appropriate and timely use of advanced imaging is essential in optimizing long-term postsurgical outcomes. The objective of this quality improvement (QI) …

Improving Fluid Management Of Extreme Premature Infants By Providing A Restrictive Fluid Management Algorithm In The Nicu, Jacob S. Ward, Dena Hubbard, Nicholas Clark

Research Days

Problem Statement/Question: At our institution we found wide variability in and a lack of an evidence-based standard for fluid management in premature infants.

Background/Project Intent (Aim Statement): Excessive fluid intake in premature infants during the first week of life increases the risk of adverse events and overall mortality. Fluid restriction is recommended to help decrease morbidity and mortality in this patient population. We aimed to improve the fluid management of premature infants born < 29 weeks gestation admitted to our intensive care nursery (ICN) by implementing a fluid restriction protocol with the goal of >70% compliance over a 16-month period.

Methods (include PDSA cycles): Institution of daily weights started at beginning of baseline period. In April of 2021, we implemented a …

Spectral Fits Of Brown Dwarfs: Discovering Trends Across The Spectral Type Sequence, Savanah Turner, Denise Stephens, Conner Scoresby

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Brown dwarfs are substellar objects that form like stars but never achieve the core temperatures and pressures needed to ignite hydrogen fusion. These "failed stars" have been shown to exhibit complex atmospheres similar to those of planets, making them useful analogs for exoplanets. As a brown dwarf cools over time, different cloud species condense or fall below the surface of the atmosphere, causing changes in the resulting spectrum of the object. Comparison of theoretical atmospheric models to real brown dwarf spectra can provide insight into the physical and chemical processes occurring in the atmosphere of the object. We have fit …

Hypereosinophilia With An Anterior Mediastinal Mass, Sonya Parashar, Aarti Pandya

Research Days

Background: Hypereosinophilia is defined as 1500 eosinophils/mL or above with evidence of end-organ damage due to the eosinophils at least 4 weeks apart.

Objectives/Goal: We describe a case of steroid resistant hypereosinophilia.

Methods/Design: A 3-year-old male was admitted for newly found anterior mediastinal mass and left pleural effusion. About 6 weeks prior to admission, he was seen in his primary care office for difficulty breathing. Despite the appropriate treatment for his symptoms, the patient continued to have significant respiratory symptoms and a chest x-ray showed a large left pleural effusion. He was immediately transferred to a tertiary care center and …

Bone Marrow Transplant For Macrophage Activation Syndrome In Systemic Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, Shailly Gaur, Michael J. Holland, J Allyson Hays, Ibrahim A. Ahmed

Research Days

Background

The recognition of macrophage-activation-syndrome (MAS) in the setting of systemic-juvenileidiopathic-arthritis (sJIA) is complex, but a necessary distinction given emerging treatment options. With overlapping clinical manifestations including fever, end-organ involvement and lymphadenopathy, there is a focus on laboratory values to differentiate MAS from a sJIA flare. Once parameters are met, multiple treatment modalities can be considered, as monotherapy or in combination, including steroids, immunosuppression, chemotherapy, intravenous immunoglobulin, and cytokine-directed biologics. Given the long-term morbidity and mortality associated with progressive inflammation and immune dysregulation due to MAS with sJIA, it is imperative to regain control over this complication. However, these treatments …

Improving In Pacu Sign-Out Times, Manan Karki, Todd A. Glenski, Christian M. Taylor

Research Days

The post anesthesia care unit (PACU) provides specialized care to post-surgical patients recovering from anesthesia. Patients are discharged from the PACU to other clinical units or home after they are deemed stable depending on the type of surgery. A delayed discharge from the PACU can occur due to varied reasons which can affect the dynamic patient flow, have implications on pediatric population (e.g., anxiety due to parental separation), and increase the overall cost of service.

This quality improvement project looks at possible causes to PACU sign-out delays and helps develop countermeasures to improve the efficiency of signouts once patients are …

Comparing A 3-D Printed Hemispherical-Head And Rankine Body Probe Shapes For Very Low Speed Air Data Measurements, Stephen A. Whitmore, Zheng Qi C. Case

Utah Space Grant Consortium

This study investigates the feasibility of using Flush Air Data Sensing (FADS) System technology for air data measurements at the very low-airspeeds, where many Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) operate. FADS is a non-intrusive alternative to pitot probes, where the vehicle nosecone, wing leading edge, or other aerodynamic surface is configured with multiple pressure-ports distributed along the windward surface. Although FADS technology has been used for a variety of high-speed aircraft, FADS has never been applied to very low-airspeed flight regimes. This study reports on wind tunnel tests of two 3-D printed shapes: 1) a cylindrical body with a hemispherical head, …

Continuous-Time Trajectory Estimation For Differentially Flat Systems, Jacob C. Johnson, Joshua G. Mangelson, Randal W. Beard

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Continuous-time estimation using splines on Lie groups has been gaining traction in the literature in recent years due to their ability to incorporate high-frequency sensor data without introducing new optimization parameters. However, evaluating time derivatives and Jacobians of Lie group splines is computationally expensive, limiting their use mainly to offline applications. Motivated by the trajectory planning literature, we develop a new estimation technique that leverages the differential flatness property of many dynamic systems to define the spline in the system's flat output space, which is often Euclidean, and show an example of its use with the unicycle dynamic model. We …

One-Dimensional Radial Turbomachinery Modeling, Chase Oliphant

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Centrifugal flow impellers are commonly used in a wide variety of industrial machines. Predicting the performance of these impellers over the entire operating range is key to the system development during the early design stages. The two element in series (TEIS) and two-zone model can be used to accurately predict impeller performance based on flow physics and empirical correlations. Correlations were made with linear regression on a database of 50 pumps and 75 impellers. These correlations were later found to only apply to designs that are similar to those in the database. This paper proposes a new method to generate …

A Preliminary Review And Discussion Of Metrics For Origami-Based Deployable Arrays, Katie Varela, Spencer P. Magleby

Utah Space Grant Consortium

When designing deployable structures, there are many things to consider that help the deployment method integrate with the system. Preliminary metrics are proposed to help rate the deployment systems to determine the best methods for each application. The top four metrics that apply to most space applications are mass, usable area, volume, and energy. Additional considerations that are less quantifiable are included for the value they contribute to the system. Trade-offs may be necessary for different applications.

Experimental Characterization Of Internal Wave Generation By Multiple Peak Topographies, Natasha Wilson, Julie Crockett

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Internal waves are generated in the oceans and atmosphere and play an important role in their energy budgets. The semidiurnal oscillation of the tides over topography in the oceans combined with the density stratification can create internal waves that radiate away from their source. The effect multiple peaks on a single topography has on internal wave generation is explored. Three and four topography peaks create three and four crests respectively in the internal wave beams. Five and six peak topographies generate internal wave beams characterized by two bounding crests and several smaller crests in the middle of the beam. In …

Development, Modeling And Performance Analysis Of An Electric Vtol Aircraft With Tiltable Rotors, Clayton Spencer, Samantha Burton, Tianyi He

Utah Space Grant Consortium

In this paper, the development and modeling of an electric Vertical-Take-Off-and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft with tiltable rotors. The front two rotors have tilting capability for transition flight from vertical take-off to forward-direction level flight. This paper focuses on the design and analysis of an eVTOL aircraft platform. The study includes layout and system architecture, the selections and optimization of components, such as electric motors, batteries, and controllers, as well as the integration of these components into the overall aircraft system. In addition, the dynamical model is derived as a nonlinear differential equation. Afterwards, a linearization-based model and Linear Parameter-Varying (LPV) …

Fabrication Of Metallic Far-Infrared Filters, Jared E. Payne, Joseph Eddy, Hunter R.J. Stevenson, Brad Ferguson, Ryan T. Beazer, Gregory N. Nielson, Stephen M. Shultz

Utah Space Grant Consortium

A far-infrared filter is fabricated by creating metallic squares on a dielectric substrate. This capacitive metallic filter is fabricated using direct write laser ablation consisting of a femtosecond laser in combination with a high numerical aperture objective. A representative capacitive filter is fabricated on soda-lime glass substrate with a period of 100 µm and separation width of 30 µm. A capacitive filter was also fabricated on a thin film polypropylene substrate with similar dimensions. The filter was tested and the frequency response is discussed.

Facilitation Of Deployable Antennas Using A Panel Structure Optimization Framework, Nathan Coleman

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Origami has become a popular method for beginning mechanical design due to its ability to stow compactly and deploy to a large area. One common origami pattern is the Flasher, which has a roughly circular shape and aspect ratio, centers around a polygon which can be grounded, and is easily extensible. Because of these advantages, the Flasher is a candidate for many deployable applications, including space-based optical telescopes, LiDaR telescopes, solar arrays, and reflectarray antennas. One of the primary difficulties when implementing the Flasher pattern is that it is not rigid-foldable and is subject to panel interference at high-degree vertices. …

Optimizing Nitrogen Use For Continuous Recycling In Closed Life Support Systems, Noah J. Langenfeld, Bruce Bugbee

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Nitrogen (N) is needed by plants in the highest amount among root-zone-derived nutrients. Closed life-support systems for space missions will rely on in-situ food production for long-term sustainability, but high resupply and N fixation costs necessitate N recycling to support human nutrition for extended mission durations. We studied combinations of four N forms [ammonium, nitrate, urea, and N-fixing bacteria (protein)] for their use as an optimal N source for lettuce (Lactuca sativa) grown in peat moss in two container sizes (1.7 L and 8 L). Plants grown with ammonium nitrate consistently had the highest mass. When ammonium, urea, or microbial …

The Law Of Equitable Distribution: When Is Domestic Violence More Than Just A Factor In Divorce?, Ada Tonkonogy

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Imagine you are married. After many years there are problems in your marriage. Some of these issues are beyond your control. You find out that your spouse is cheating on you. You plan to come home from work and confront your spouse about their infidelities. You even begin to think about the divorce process, confronting the concerns raised in your mind. I’ll be okay. I have a great career, I have worked my entire life, and I have saved. I will be okay.

That night you approach your spouse. After an argument breaks out, you tell your spouse that …