Dr. Edyta Greer, Baruch College

Author: weihangke1 (Page 1 of 2)

Reflective Post

IDC courses have generally been nerve-racking for me. There are always a lot of requirements to meet and works to complete, including the brochure in Seminar 1, booklet in Seminar 2, and presentations and posters in Seminar 3. However, I will always end up appreciating those classes for broadening my horizon and enriching my knowledge at the end.

Starting from the first day of this class, I had a strong feeling that it would be very stressful, and it did prove me right when we had our hot topic presentation in the first few weeks of the semester. However, without doing it, I would never have any knowledge of medical science or healthcare innovations. I would not gain insights into how insulin pills can be used to treat diabetes, nor how genes are edited to treat DMD, a topic presented by my classmates. As a result, it was truly an incredible experience in which I had the chance to open my eyes and direct my attention to see how science magically progresses nowadays.

If anything significant and meaningful, that will definitely be the two lab experiments that we have done. I had been quite indifferent about performing a lab experiment because I felt scientific terms are so difficult, and the experiment itself might be risky as well. However, until I personally did the lab in this class, I somehow started to understand the passion and excitement that people like Dr. Greer has for science. It was so amazing to see the colors changing, to see the reactions happening, and to have the chance to synthesize aspirin and soap by ourselves. I really love how my soap smells, and I feel so proud of myself when using it at home.

This class really shows the possibility and variety of science, from health science to natural science. Because of the healthcare innovation project, I learned about TinkerCad, MakerHub, and even realize that 3D innovations can be printed. On the other hand, I was also surprised to see how the posters were printed in such a huge size.

At the end, I really enjoy the small experiments that Dr. Greer did at the beginning of some classes, enjoy the nervousness that presentations cause me to have because I now fear less and less about doing presentations, and enjoy the comments that Jake and Dr. Greer provided to us because of them, I was able to focus on the small details in order to improve for the better. Thank you, Dr. Greer and Jake, for all the help!

Reflection of Creating Aspirin

Doing an experiment in the lab on Wednesday was such an amazingly magical experience. I had not had much scientific background and knowledge, but I really got hooked on to this experiment of creating aspirin, especially yielding the right result at the end after being so confused the entire time. It was so interesting and eye-opening to see the color of our aspirin magically turning yellow and to witness how science is able to play a vital part in our lives.

 

Furthermore, I believed that we wouldn’t just have an experiment for fun. Indeed, it emphasized all the concepts that we had been introduced for the past few weeks, including following scientific methods of doing an experiment, collecting and analyzing data, and facing a series of scientific uncertainty. Throughout the experiment, we have been observing our surrounding and environment by familiarizing ourselves with different experimental felicities, collecting data by measuring the amount of distilled water and timing the process, and questioning each step while following the procedures at the same time. Obviously conducting a scientific experiment requires us to be emotionally prepared to face a series of difficulties, and due to the uncertainty, we will be able to motivate ourselves to get over the challenge and discover something meaningful.

 

In addition, this experiment also has significant impacts on both scientific projects that we are performing: BioBlitz and 3D printing. I learned the importance of collecting data and following the instruction in my BioBlitz project. On the other hand, for my 3D printing, this experiment of creating aspirin enhanced my understanding of the amazingness and significance of healthcare innovation. Therefore, it inspires me to actually put my effort and time into this innovation development that we have.

 

It was such a meaningful experiment, and I had lots of fun despite the fact that I was so confused throughout.

Annotated Bibliography for Bioblitz

Group Members: Justin Bischof, Demir McRae, and Weihang Ke

Habeeb, Dana, Jason Vargo, and Brian Stone. 2015. “Rising Heat Wave Trends in Large U.S. Cities.” Natural Hazards 76, no. 3: 1651-1655. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-014-1563-z.

Natural Hazards is the official journal for the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards.  As a result, this article is academic in nature and peer-reviewed. The article analyzes the trends of heat waves in U.S. cities over time and the effects it has on the population of these cities.  Although it does not directly address the species found in New York City parks, which is the population our group plans on examining, it does provide insight into possible impacts climate change has on the human population.  It is significant to note that these effects of climate change may very well be felt by species of NYC parks, perhaps even more so than their human counterparts because, naturally, these species lack air conditioning during the hot summer months.  Moreover, the trends analyzed in this article will provide our group with vital information on the of rising temperatures in general. Therefore, it is crucial our group uses this information in our Bioblitz research project.

Hartig, Ellen, Vivien Gornitz, Alexander Kolker, Frederick Mushacke, and David Fallon. 2002. “Anthropogenic and Climate-Change Impacts on Salt Marshes of Jamaica Bay, New York City.” Wetlands 22, no. 1: 71-89. https://doi.org/10.1672/0277-5212(2002)022[0071:AACCIO]2.0.CO;2.

The Wetlands journal is the official scholarly journal of the Society of Wetland Scientists.  This is a peer-reviewed academic journal that has been cited numerous times on similar subjects.  Although the article cited is from 2002, it still provides accurate and imperative information about the negative effects of climate change: namely, the deterioration of wetlands, which provide a habitat for countless species in New York City and throughout the world.  The authors worked in tandem with the Society of Wetland Scientists to outline field studies conducted to determine how quickly these wetlands have been deteriorating. The article itself provides our group with relevant information, as the worsening conditions of the wetlands in New York City is directly correlated with both a declining diversity of species as well as a rising average temperature.

Savage, Amy, Elsa Youngsteadt, Andrew Ernst, Shelby Powers, Robert Dunn, and Steven Frank. 2017. “Homogenizing an Urban Habitat Mosaic: Arthropod Diversity Declines in New York City Parks After Super Storm Sandy.” ESA Journal of Ecological Applications 28, no. 1: 225-236. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.1643.

The ESA Journal of Ecological Applications is a credible, peer-reviewed academic journal that will provide my group with necessary information about the current and potential effects climate change has on the species living in New York City parks.  This article in particular provides the applicable information our group can use to demonstrate the harmful effects of global warming. Specifically, this article focuses on how hurricanes and other superstorms may negatively impact species in New York City.  The article claims these storms—which have been proven to be more and more frequent as a result of climate change—quickly diminish the species diversity in parks across the city. The authors provide accurate knowledge that our group will apply to our Bioblitz research project.

 

Hetem, Robyn S, Andrea Fuller, Shane K Maloney, Duncan Mitchell. “Responses of large mammals to climate change.” Temperature 1, no. 2(2014): 115-127

Temperature is a peer-reviewed physiological journal that has research papers on the interactions of living matter and temperature. This article talks about the response of mammals to climate change. The ways that animals survive is to evolve or adapt. Mammals, however, do not have the benefit of being able to rapidly adapt or evolve in order to survive. Therefore, the appropriate response for mammals os to leave certain environments with constantly changing climates.

 

Weins, John J. “Climate-Related Local Extinctions Are Already Widespread among Plant and Animal Species.” PLoS Biology 14, no. 12(2016): doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.2001104

This article speaks about linking local extinction to climate changes. We can use this information to see whether certain species became non-existent over time. This article doesn’t specifically cover New York, but we can use the information to our advantage. It can provide a possible explanation for a specific result that we find through our data.

 

Nogues-Bravo, David, Francisco Rodriguez-Sanchez, Luisa Orsini, Erik de Boer, Roland Jansson, Helene Morlon, Damien A. Fordham, Stephen T. Jackson. “Cracking the Code of Biodiversity Responses to Past Climate Change.” Trends in Ecology & Evolution 33, no. 10(2018): 765-776, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2018.07.005

This article talks about trying to find how species and ecosystems will react to future climate change by linking it to past changes in climate. There is some information out there, but there are still gaps in time. We can use this information to see if a change in the biodiversity is similar to one before and provide an explanation as to why the change in biodiversity would occur. Correlation does not equal causation, so using this information would be useful to link climate change and the respective changes in biodiversity.

 

Javeline, Debra, Jessica J. Hellmann, Rodrigo Castro Cornejo, Gregory Shufeldt. 2013. “Expert Opinion on Climate Change and Threats to Biodiversity”. August 1. BioScience, Volume 63, Issue 8, Pages 666-673. https://doi.org/10.1525/bio.2013.63.8.9

The authors of this academic paper all have some scientific backgrounds, especially in topics related to climate change. For instance, Debra Javeline has been interested in researching environmental politics and climate change, and she has published articles such as “Expert Opinion on Extinction Risk and Climate Change Adaptation”, proving her authority in writing this paper. On the other hand, Jessica J. Hellmann also has expertise on global change biology, including diagnosis of ecological impacts of climate change. This publishing journal BioScience is a peer-reviewed journal that focuses its papers mostly on biology, public policy, and education. In this paper, the authors conducted a research by interviewing knowledgeable environmental biologists and following some steps of the scientific method. Initially, by observing the temperature gradually rising, they were questioning what the ecological consequences would be due to climate change. Then, a scientific inference was made stating that the larger temperature increases, higher percentages of species extinctions. At a later stage, they even interviewed 2329 scientists consulting with their opinions on the topic of global warming. Indeed, this article mostly concentrates on describing and comparing the surveys conducted to people with different levels of scientific expertise. Despite the fact that there isn’t so much of scientific jargons, it has lots of statistics which further explain the issue of temperature rising. Overall, even though it does not really aim at the parks in NYC, the phenomenon of global warming, as indicated by the term, is a global issue, and at least this paper provides us a general idea of how the biodiversity would be negatively impacted. We will be able to narrow it to NYC and explore more as we research more.

Bellard, Céline, Cleo Bertelsmeier, Paul Leadley, Wilfried Thuiller, and Franck Courchamp. 2012. “Impacts of Climate Change on the Future of Biodiversity”. PMC. January 18.  doi: [10.1111/j.14610248.2011.01736.x]

PMC is a journal literature which mostly focuses on articles of biomedical and life sciences. It is a section within the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine, a very reputable and credible organization. Generally, this article discusses the relationship between temperature rising and the biodiversity in our ecosystem. Indeed, climate change can negatively affect the entire ecosystem because it decreases the diversity of population due to the migration. It also includes some charts and graphs to further support their points that climate change would eventually lead to the extinction of species. Additionally, it also touches upon on how the dynamics of metapopulation would be impacted by such phenomenon because metapopulation dynamics also play a role in determining the way species are distributed. Throughout the article, it uses lots of scientific terms and citation to give credit to the authors who come up with the assertions. Therefore, it is such a very reliable source that provides our group with lots of precious information on our topic.

Carey, Cynthia. 2009. “The Impacts of Climate Change on the Annual Cycles of Birds” PMC. November 27. doi: [10.1098/rstb.2009.0182]

Cynthia Carey, the author, is a professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology at the University of Colorado. In this article, he explains that climate change is a problem caused by human being, destroying the entire global ecosystem. Scientists predict that after several decades, existing animals and plant species would become extinct. This is a powerful sentence that appeals to human asking them to better protect the Earth by avoiding activities such as deforestation, burning fossil fuels, etc. Some of the data in this article are primary, which have been obtained by actually going out and observing the growth of tree rings, the core through glaciers, and sediment samples from oceans. This article also includes a thorough analysis of the observation that lists all the possible outcomes that come along with global warming.

 

HI Proposal — Back Brace for Scoliosis

Group Members: Weihang, Demir, Justin

The healthcare problem that we want to address is scoliosis. According to Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis, scoliosis is defined as “a complex three-dimensional deformity of the spine characterized by a lateral deviation of at least 10 degrees.” It can also be classified into three categories: congenital, neuromuscular, and idiopathic. We will focus on idiopathic scoliosis, which can be classified based on the age of the child at presentation. Early onset is when scoliosis presents itself from age 5-7 and late onset is if scoliosis presents itself from age 7 till maturity.

According to a New York Times article, there is evidence that wearing a back brace will slow the progression of the most common form of scoliosis in adolescents. Because we know that wearing a back brace slows progression of the most common form of scoliosis in adolescents, we can build further upon that conclusion. Back braces are usually clunky and extremely noticeable. We’re trying to make it less clunky and less noticeable, but have it function the same or even better than the current back braces now.

I think this innovation will function as well as current back braces. Commercially, I think this can do well. This product is always going to be in demand because, until there is a cure, people are always going to have scoliosis. Also, we can spend less money on supplies because this is going to be smaller than most back braces which will allow us to make more of a profit. Also, instead of purchasing different medical pills trying to alleviate the effect of scoliosis, people can now just use this innovation to treat this disease, saving lots of money and having a better outcome eventually. Therefore, commercially, we believe it will bring very positive impacts and feedback in the market. Our market is going to be heavily geared toward the medical profession. Doctors would take the measurements of patients’ and with those measurements, we should be able to build braces.  Additionally, the use of 3-D printed materials will allow us to be able to customize each model for each patient by adjusting the model in Tinkercad.

Weihang Ke–Back brace to treat Scoliosis

Group Member: Demir and Justin

Healthcare Innovation Idea: Back Brace

 

McAviney, J, and T Pappas. 2009. “Treating adult scoliosis and back pain with the SpineCor Pain Relief Back Brace.” PMC at U.S. National Library of Medical National Institute of Health. 2009;4(Supply 2): O67. doi: 10.1186/1748-7161-4-S2-O67

The U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, as the name indicates, is a very prestigious and credible organization. J McAviney and T Pappas, the authors of this primary source, are both doctors who have lots of knowledge about scoliosis in London. Both of them have conducted many types of research and published lots of scientific articles, including “Risk factors for Age-related Macular Degeneration in a Greek population: The Thessaloniki Eye Study” by Pappas T and “Determining the relationship between cervical lordosis and neck complaints” by J McAviney. This article, indeed, talks about the seriousness of adult scoliosis and how it can be successfully treated using the SpineCor brace. Since our 3D printed innovation is to design an object that could support one’s back or neck after a long time of sitting, we can use the SpineCor brace as a reference, which provides us a basic concept of how the object would look like.

 

 

Janicki, Joseph A, and Benjamin Alman. 2007. “Scoliosis: Review of diagnosis and treatment.” PMC at U.S. National Library of Medical National Institute of Health. 2007 Nov; 12(9): 771-776. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2532872/

The authors both have profound knowledge in the field they are experts at. Joseph A Janicki is an assistant professor of Orthopedic Surgery in Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and Dr. Benjamin Alman is a professor of Orthopedic Surgery in the University of Toronto. Therefore, both have very significant science and medical backgrounds, which prove their credibility to publish the articles. The article, on the other hand, deeply explains about scoliosis and describes the treatments and methods to help alleviate back pain. Before we even start designing our device, we should have known some knowledge about scoliosis so that we could design accordingly. Also, since this article describes the treatment in detail, we will be able to know the elements needed for the innovative object, designing an effective one.

 

 

Emery, Gene. 2013. “Braces Help Avoid Surgery in Teens with Scoliosis.” Reuters. Accessed October 10, 2018. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-braces-surgery-teens/braces-help-avoid-surgery-in-teens-with-scoliosis-idUSBRE98I0ZO20130919

Gene Emery is a journalist and news writer for Reuter. He has been specifically focusing on the medical field. He has been continuously publishing articles in this website that are health-related. In this article, he talks about the effectiveness of Braces to avoid scoliosis. We know how scary and serious scoliosis can be, so through his article, he appeals to the general public by advocating the need for the brace as he explains the example of how braces can help in our lives. Our group can use this article as a motivator. Because it indicates the urgent need for the braces and negative consequences scoliosis could bring to us, we will be inspired to design this object and make our lives better even if it is very complex to make one.

BioBlitz Research Question

Group Members: Demir Mcrae and Weihang Ke

  1. What is the final version of the question you are interested in asking?
    • How do the rising temperatures from climate change impact the species found in NYC parks?
  2. List some keywords to use when searching for related scientific literature. Be specific!
    • The temperature of past summers, Species in Inwood Hill Park, Effects of climate change, Species affected by temperature
  3. Where will your data come from? Do you need to collect new data? Please describe.
    • Our data would mostly come from different parks in NYC, specifically Inwood Hill Park. Also, our data would come from the internet and database through Baruch. We will need to collect some new data because we haven’t really paid attention to the species in NYC parks before. Therefore, we need to know how many different species are in the park, and the number of each species. Additionally, we will also take notes of the approximate location the species are in. We will also need to know the temperature that time so that comparison can be made.
  4. What will you be measuring or comparing? What are the dependent and independent variables?
    • We will be measuring the types of species that we see in the park and the change temperatures throughout the year. Depending on how the temperature changes, we will see what the cross-section of species is in the park. The independent variable is the temperature. The dependent variables are the species.
  5. Please make a list of your methods. If you are using existing BioBlitz data, you do not need to describe those data collection methods on this worksheet, but you do need to describe how you are extracting the relevant data from the entire BioBlitz data set.
    • As we are comparing the temperature over time, we will need to research the average temperature and how it has changed over time for both NYC itself as well as the average temperature recorded in specific parks (if available).  Then, we will compare our research to research found on the animals in the park. This will include the number of species, the count of animals of that species, etc. to determine the overall well being of species found in these city parks.  By comparing the average temperature changes to the possible changes in the overall well being of the species of the parks, we will be able to conclude how a rising temperature from climate change has impacted the species found in NYC parks.
  6. Why is this question interesting to you? Why should others care about this topic?
    • Our group members have always been concerned about climate change because global warming has been such a serious issue that needs everyone’s attention and action. We assume that no one is unfamiliar with global warming and the devastating consequences it can bring to our lives and to “Mother Earth”, including rising sea levels and causing severe droughts. New York, a city with different opportunities in different industries, inevitably contributes to the phenomenon of global warming. Since it is already so rare to see different organisms in NYC, we wonder in what ways rising temperature would harm the species in NYC parks. Rather than being interested in this question, we would say that it is our responsibility to learn about it and do whatever to minimize the negative impacts so that nature would continue being prolific with species. In terms of why others should care, we are all parts of Earth, and it would be so beautiful to stop to see the nature in such an overwhelming city.

A comfortable and stable walking tool that helps the elders

My grandfather has been reacting and walking so slowly. Walking as an exercise can be very helpful, but it is very difficult for him to move his feet. Indeed, as people get older,  they become very slow and easily get hurt. The walking sticks are not really safe because icy and slippery ground might cause them to fall down. Therefore, I would like to invent a four-leg walking tool that supports them while walking.

Blog Post 1

It is such a significant experience to have personally researched a scientific journal and watched all the other educational and profound presentations made by classmates. Not only I have gained knowledge of different creative healthcare innovations that are introduced to better people’s lives, but I also have concluded some essential elements needed in popular media reports in order to appeal to a broader audience and yet remain scientifically sound.

If I had to author an article in a comparable periodical on a scientific paper, I would certainly make sure to include some graphs that show the statistical information of my scientific topic. Any scientific discovery, to my understanding, involves multiple times of conducting experiments and collecting data before being published. Therefore, to make sure the credibility of my scientific paper, I would definitely include the statistical numbers since it is also my respect to the public audience who put their trust in me. Additionally, I would also make sure that the article has been consistently objective throughout because scientific articles, unlike personal narrative, are very serious and profound. The content has already been so abstract and the scientific jargon has already been so sophisticated, so it is more appropriate that we don’t express our own thoughts to further confuse the audience into thinking if that is the writer’s feeling or the researchers’ who perform such experiment.

From the presentations that I have seen, I believe that an effective popular media report, in order to best represent the scientific research, should contain mixed parts of interview with the primary scientists, quotes from them, and the paraphrase to show the writer’s understanding of the scientific journal. By including these three elements, the writer will be able to cater to the public audience more by demonstrating the authenticity of the report. And this is what I have realized after browsing through different popular reports.

Furthermore, I did not realize it at first, but later came to notice from some classmates’ presentations that including some related video clips might   also be a useful strategy in catering to the audience because nowadays as the technologies are getting so advanced, we are more likely to be attracted by the use of the internet rather than just be educated orally. Therefore, I found out that it could be a helpful tool in making a PowerPoint and delivering a presentation in the future.

It was a fascinating and informative experience in general!

 

Paraphrase Exercise

In the United States, school nurses have constantly been confronting certain issues regarding the safety of children. Unexpectedly, the causes of the obstacle are those health care providers, who would sometimes write emergency action plans that don’t correspond with the guidelines set by the students’ school district and the American Academy of Asthma, Allergy, and Immunology. Such inconsistency and miscommunication between nurses and providers can potentially worsen their patients’ conditions by increasing the risk of anaphylaxis. In fact, according to research, the consequence could be very serious if the allergic illness, including the severe actions with epinephrine, is not treated properly and in time (Boyce et al., 2010; Carlisle et al., 2010; Fleischer et al., 2012; Nowak-Wegrzyn, 2012b). Therefore, in order to provide a safe and peaceful environment for children, school nurses, health care providers, and parents play significant roles in daily lives and should work with each other to avoid any latent illness at all cost.

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