MEASURING HEAD IMPACT CONTACT PRESSURE IN COLLEGIATE FOOTBALL GAMES TO CORRELATE HEAD KINEMATICS TO BRAIN KINETICS ELUCIDATING BRAIN INJURY DYNAMICS

Does a brain store thoughts and memories the way a computer saves its files? How can a single hit or a fall erase all those memories? Brain Mapping and traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) have become widely researched fields today. Many researchers have been studying TBIs caused to adult American football players however youth athletes have been rarely considered for these studies, contradicting to the fact that American football enrolls highest number of collegiate and high-school children than adults. This research is an attempt to contribute to the field of youth TBIs. Earlier studies have related head kinematics (linear and angular accelerations) to TBIs. However, fewer studies have dealt with brain kinetics (impact pressures and stresses) occurring during head-on collisions. The National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE) drop tests were conducted for linear impact accelerations and the Head Impact Contact Pressures (HICP) calculated from them were applied to a validated FE model. The results showed lateral region of the head as the most vulnerable region to damage from any drop height or impact distance followed by posterior region. The TBI tolerance levels in terms of Von-Mises and Maximum Principal Stresses deduced for lateral impact were 30 MPa and 18 MPa respectively. These levels were corresponding to 2.625 feet drop height. The drop heights beyond this value will result in TBI causing stress concentrations in human head without any detectable structural damage to the brain tissue. This data can be utilized for designing helmets that provide cushioning to brain along with providing a resistance to shear.

ENHANCING COMMUNICATION THROUGH SUCCESSFUL REPAIR: EXAMINING FLUENCY AND MECHANISMS FOR SYNTACTIC PROGRESS IN APHASIC AND NON-APHASIC SPEECH

The fields of Rhetoric and Communication usually assume a competent speaker who is able to speak well with conscious intent; however, what happens when intent and comprehension are intact but communicative facilities are impaired (e.g., by stroke or traumatic brain injury)? What might a focus on communicative success be able to tell us in those instances? This project considers this question in examining communication disorders through identifying and analyzing patterns of (dis) fluent speech between 10 aphasic and 10 non-aphasic adults. The analysis in this report is centered on a collection of data provided by the Aphasia Bank database. The database’s collection protocol guides aphasic and non-aphasic participants through a series of language assessments, and for my re-analysis of the database’s transcripts I consider communicative success is and how it is demonstrated during a re-telling of the Cinderella narrative. I conducted a thorough examination of a set of participant transcripts to understand the contexts in which speech errors occur, and how (dis) fluencies may follow from aphasic and non-aphasic participant’s speech patterns. An inductive mixed-methods approach, informed by grounded theory, qualitative, and linguistic analyses of the transcripts functioned as a means to balance the classification of data, providing a foundation for all sampling decisions. A close examination of the transcripts and the codes of the Aphasia Bank database suggest that while the coding is abundant and detailed, that further levels of coding and analysis may be needed to reveal underlying similarities and differences in aphasic vs. non-aphasic linguistic behavior. Through four successive levels of increasingly detailed analysis, I found that patterns of repair by aphasics and non-aphasics differed primarily in degree rather than kind. This finding may have therapeutic impact, in reassuring aphasics that they are on the right track to achieving communicative fluency.

THE EFFECTS OF WEB-BASED TECHNOLOGICAL RESOURCES IN A RURAL SCIENCE CLASSROOM

Today’s technology is evolving at an exponential rate. Everyday technology is finding more inroads into our education system. This study seeks to determine if having access to technology, including iPad tablets and a teacher's physical science webpage resources (videos, PowerPoint® presentations, and audio podcasts), assists ninth grade high school students in attaining greater comprehension and improved scientific literacy. Comprehension of the science concepts was measured by comparing current student pretest and post test scores on a teacher-written assessment. The current student post test scores were compared with prior classes’ (2010-2011 and 2009-2010) to determine if there was a difference in outcomes between the technology interventions and traditional instruction. Students entered responses to a technology survey that measured intervention usage and their perception of helpfulness of each intervention. The current year class’ mean composite scores, between the pretest and post test increased by 6.9 points (32.5%). Student composite scores also demonstrated that the interventions were successful in helping a majority of students (64.7%) attain the curriculum goals. The interventions were also successful in increasing student scientific literacy by meeting all of Bloom's cognitive levels that were assessed. When compared with prior 2010-2011 and 2009-2010 classes, the current class received a higher mean post test score indicating a positive effect of the use of technological interventions. The survey showed a majority of students utilized at least some of the technology interventions and perceived them as helpful, especially the videos and PowerPoint® presentations.