Day4 – CA Work Experience Program

Day 4- Explanations

Yesteray Dr. Hotz explained how the Gas Chromatograph worked and I’d like to share the specifics of the essential piece of equipment I worked with here.

Looking at the key, there are a multitude of essential parts to this machine. Distilled into a user’s guide, the two coils in the center (inside the oven) are constantly carrying gas through the machine and out the back. When the measurement is engaged, the sampler (1), which feeds the coils, switches off and prevents any more gas to enter. This gas is then heated. The coil is coated with an absorptive substance that the gasses stick to. As the gas mixture is heated and the particles separate, different gasses detatch from the coating at different times (once they have reached the heat necessary unique to the molecule). By measuring the time at which the gas molecules detatch in the detector (4), we can tell which gasses are in our final composition i.e. what reaction took place, how much reacted, and what the yield in terms of energy will be.

Day 4: Ultrasounds and How PT Works

Today, I did yet another ultrasound. Basically, when using an ultrasound on a patient, you are creating a deep heating affect in the soft tissue of the body. The waves from the ultrasound cause cells to vibrate faster on a cellular level creating that heat. The heat ultimately promotes blood flow and helps to break up knots, thus loosening and promoting healing in the targeted tissue. When performing an ultrasound, you can (and should) adjust many this according to the patient. You can first change the time, though typically we use eight minutes at Response Therapy, then you choose which sized head you will use. There is a 2 cm head for targeting smaller areas (things like tendons or ligaments) and a 5 cm head for targeting larger areas (like entire parts of a muscle). After that you choose the “duty cycle” percentage which basically controls what percent of the time the ultrasound will actually be sending waves into the body; there is 100%, 50%, 20%, and 10%. Next, you choose the frequency – either 1 MHz or 3 MHz – which determines how deep the ultrasound waves will penetrate into the soft tissue (1 MHz goes about twice as deep as 3 MHz). Finally, you adjust intensity of the waves; we typically use 1.2 or 1.5 W/cm².

Later in the day, I saw an ultrasound being performed along with e-stim. Another intern asked what that did and I realized that Dan’s response was very similar to what he had said needling with e-stim did. This prompted me to ask him about the difference between the two and when you would choose one over the other. He explained that the two processes are extremely similar in helping to break up knots and loosen the muscle, how needling is an “irritation” as he called it that also helps to reteach muscles to fire, whereas, while e-stim can help to reteach muscles to fire, it is less of an “irritant” and promotes more healing aspects. Dan explained that, in therapy, the way they help people is actually through micro-irritation. He explained that micro-irritation, like needling and other things they do at Response Therapy, helps the body. Macro-irritation is what injures the body in the first place, for example: surgery, tearing something, etc. The easiest way to think about it is which exercise. When you exercise you create micro-tears in your muscles, a form of micro-irritation, which then heal and actually promote growth of new muscles which is how working out and exercising works. However, if you push too hard you may go beyond micro-irritation into macro-irritation such as tearing a muscle which would now be an injury.

Day 4

Today, we arrived again at 8am and quickly moved to the OR to watch a robot surgery which was being completed by Dr. Boulton, who by this point we knew pretty well because we had sat in on many of his long surgeries. This patient needed a bypass surgery but refused to have a sternotomy (opening of the chest). This surgery with the robot was less invasive and involved sticking the arms of the robot through the ribs, which also has complications like an open heart surgery. Dr. Boulton controlled the robot from a machine in the corner of the room. We watched what was happening on a television that was showing what the camera was seeing inside the body. Below is a picture of the robot used in the surgery. It definitely took up most of the room.

This surgery lasted from about 8:30am- 1:30pm. After a quick lunch, we visited the patient whose surgery I watched on the very first day in the morning. That was the only patient that I had seen multiple times and gotten the most information on during my whole experience at WakeMed and it was very cool to be apart of that experience. We then learned a little bit more about EKG’s and looked at the EKG’s of many random patients in the hospital at that time just to see all the information you can learn about a patient just from their EKG. Dr. Hamrick then had another surgery, but it was one we had seen many times, so we sat in on that for 20 minutes, then called it a day.

Day 4- Inspection Day

Today we drove to Johnston County in order to oversee a home inspection on a property Tiffany intends to buy and then rent out. She intends to buy this property for around $80,000, almost $20,000 under asking price, and rent it to two people because it is a duplex for around $1200 a month. I learned about the 1percent rule in which every property should rent for at least onepercent of the total price of the property each month. Her mortgage on the property would be around $450 which means she is making almost $800 a month on this property. Eventually, she wants to have a monopoly of the street and rent out every property on the street. She doesn’t know if that is possible because the house next-door had been condemned and deemed inhabitable for humans and some of the other properties are in such bad condition she would have to put a lot of money into renovating them. However, a monopoly of the street allows her to control rental pricing and comparables for selling prices in the future. In the home inspection, a home inspector drove out and tested everything in the home from the heating and cooling systems to the stove, the paint to see if it was lead paint all the way to looking underneath the house. We should know on Monday whether or not Tiffany will purchase the property.

Day 4: Last Day

For my last day at the Fuquay Varina Pediatrics office, I was again with Dr. Dupuy. Unlike this past week, today was unusually slow. In fact, in the morning we only had a handful of patients, but this was on purpose. Dr. Dupuy’s most intensive special needs patient was coming in to get a yearly blood analysis test, and this appointment would take longer than others. It took the nurses about 20 minutes to fill a few tubes of blood, and then after Dr. Dupuy did his normal wellness check procedure. The family was incredibly appreciative and complementing of Dr. Dupuy, describing how he was so popular they had to schedule their appointment four months in advance. This truth was again repeated when the nurse asked about a patient who needed a necessary wellness check by the next two weeks, but Dr. Dupuy was booked until august. With his passion and true care about each patient, he decided to give up one of his lunch hours to meet with this stressed patient.

The afternoon was also slow, with more wellness checks and a few checkups for patients with ADHD. This was a simple check of social, emotional, and physical components of the patients. Dr. Dupuy would first question the parents, asking if they have noticed any difference in the kids attitude. Next, he would ask the patient if they had noticed a difference in their social interactions or behavior. This was important to understand if the drug was too intense for the child, and affecting them in more ways than it should.

I also saw a cholesterol test today on two patients. Dr. Dupuy likes to test a patients cholesterol levels when they are between 9-11, to make sure everything is ok. The nurse just finger pricks the patients, and squeezes the incision to fill a very small tube full of blood. This is than brought to a machine in the office which does a blood analysis, including cholesterol.

Other than these checkups, today was pretty relaxed and similar to the past few days (a lot of wellness checks). I have had a lot of fun, and am so excited for the NIH next week!

Image result for cholesterol test

(I had to use this picture from the internet because HIPPA laws do not allow me to take pictures of the patients or their results)

The First Normal Day

The office, for the first time, felt calm today; the CEO visit passed, no internal audits were going on, and most of the administration staff took the day off. However, unlike all my Cheez-IT concocting comrades, I was handed more work and projects…

The day started off with rummaging through file cabinets! The white cheddar Chz-IT project wasn’t finished, and we needed more data points; being the lowly intern, I found all the files for Gary. However, afterward, I populated a spreadsheet that calculated all the metrics we needed to complete the project; I developed a few of my own metrics and created numerous graphs, as well as explained my findings to both the controller and Gary, so the file-rummaging turned out to be worthwhile.

Beyond that: macros. Gary learned that I enjoy programming, so he’s begun to look for excel macros that don’t work quite as he expected, and I’ve been tasked with fixing them! While Visual Basic for Applications isn’t my favorite language nor my strong suit, I am excited to attempt to fix a spreadsheet that’s been giving them trouble for months (apparently no finance employees know VBA, which makes sense: VBA hasn’t been in vogue for years).

The controller’s job also felt like it shifted overnight. No longer is it accounting like on days 1 & 2, nor is it just projections, now it’s interactions with other department heads to sign documents… and saying “no” when needed.

Not too much happened today, I’ll admit, but I’m excited to see how next week shapes out! I’ll be spending time with Lou, the head mixer, on Monday!

My favorite room on-site: the Chz-IT Quality Control Room.

Day 4- An Absence of Waffles

With a spare hour before our first meeting, Dr. Nanda offered to treat us to some Belgian waffles from a local food truck making a special appearance only a block from FHI. Thrilled to receive the invitation, we all excitedly followed her to the truck and waited in line for five minutes, and to our dismay, the waffles ran out! Despite this tragedy, the rest of the day proved to be better. We first met with Ms. Wigley and Ms. Gianone and discussed humanitarian crises- ranging from the blocking of ports in Yemen by Saudia Arabia causing a food shortage to religious attacks across the world. This presentation really moved me seeing this video of an underfed baby crying, just regaining the ability to eat again, with each bone and ligament visible under her paper-thin skin. It really put my world into perspective comparing my 10-month-old brother with sizable rolls to this poor, helpless girl. On a more exciting note, we made huge progress on our group project; an instagram page devoted to educating about water access and filtration while also gaining feedback from the public. Next, we talked to Ms. Tenorio about the protection of human subjects in research and polling, with countless regulations and questions of ethics. Finally, we met with Mr. Healy to talk about his gap year in Senegal. We all thought he had went to Cameroon based on our schedules and many of the employees! His presentation was also moving and made me really consider volunteering more for my community after seeing his amazing work.

The disappointing waffle food truck.

Working on our project!

Day 4 – Integrated Pain Solutions: It’s a bird… It’s a plane…No, It’s HEMP!!

For our last day at IPS, Liya and I learned more about the urine testing, hemp oil bottling, and data organization. Like the previous days, we spent the mornings with Dr. Sean who did another mass spect test using highly concentrated hemp oil – a viscous, black gel that smelled exactly like marijuana*. Then again, hemp and marijuana smell similar since they do come from the same plant. Anyways, Sean did the same dilution series with one more diluted set to test for the chemical concentrations and potency. I was really impressed when seeing his data later that day because his work was incredibly precise, only 3/10,000^ths off of a flawless trial! Watching the mass spectrometer in action is always pretty nifty.

Since Dr. Taylor came in on Wednesday, Liya nor I expected to see him again today, but it was a pleasant surprise when he entered! We got to talk again and reflect on our week at IPS. He took us to Ashleigh afterwards, who showed us more details about the urine testing and the various parts of the process that we did not see earlier. I was wowed by the efficiency and effectiveness of the lab team at ILS. The lab team which is comprised of three scientists and a communications director had over 107 urine samples to analyze this week and were cranking them out quickly!

After lunch, Liya and I met with Stephanie, the lady who oversees Hemp Farmacy. As we helped her sticker more hemp oil bottles, she explained details regarding the different cannabinoids in the market as well as the various vendors that they work with. I enjoyed learning about the business/marketing elements – specifically, the way Integrated Pain Solutions, Integrated Lab Solutions, and Integrated Hemp Solutions work together. Although they act as separate businesses, they share the same facilities and blend both analytical chemistry and business models to create Integrated Solutions.

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at IPS and my time with the employees who work there. Big thanks to Dr. Sean, Krystal, Ashleigh, Rachel, and Dr. Taylor for making my experience at IPS so exciting!

*No one got high in the making of this blog

Day 4

Today, I was with the digital group who is one of two groups of electrical engineers at Plexus. I finished up some CAD in the morning for the box for everything to sit into. I realized that I needed screws that would go into the sides of the box, but my sides were probably too thin for standard screws to go into and I forgot some important holes in the side of the box. These ended up sounding kind of basic written down but they didn’t present so easy on CAD. Kyle showed me how they use CAD for laying out circuits for boards. It was also interesting to learn about the various ways things can be soldered with both wave and with paste. After a really fun lunch, I visited the lab in which I was introduced the wide variety of lab equipment that they have at Plexus. I was shown how you can use an oscilloscope and all the different wave forms that you can see. We also talked about how box waves are formed using many different sin waves. There is another piece of equipment that graphs frequency over power which would show many spikes at many frequencies for a box wave. After spending some time doing calculations using a multimeter and information provided by the manufacturer, I was able to find the resistors needed. My biggest design challenge was that I needed to control a 12V pump off a 5V Arduino. I couldn’t power the pump through the Arduino for obvious reasons so therefore, I had to have a switch to control this, which created another problem. I didn’t want the user to have to flip a switch every time the plant needed to be watered. Therefore, I needed a Transistor. Transistors allow power to flow when the voltage proved to one of the pins is sufficiently high or low. This solved my problem. The one main electrical component that I still have out standing is the sensor for soil level. This should be fairly easy to install but will need to be tested for the values for high and low. I can’t believe that it is already day 4 and we are almost half way through. I have included some photos below of my notebook with some electrical diagrams and calculations about resistors below.

Day 4 at Pentair:

The first of half of the day at Pentair consisted of mostly meetings. The first meeting was between Mrs. Rai and one of her project members down in Florida. The meeting was held in the arctic ocean.. Brr. This was a weekly meeting where the two would discuss weekly progress and problems. Mrs. Rai explained the more they talked, the more problems they would find, therefore she liked to keep the meetings short 🙂 In between the first and second meeting Mrs. Rai had me read the PCO or product change order. This was a lengthy document, which Mrs. Rai said would definitely put me to sleep, but said it was a document that every Pentair employee had read once, almost like a rite of passage . Thankfully, I didn’t dose of, but I really didn’t understand too much of the form. The form was basically explaining the process that an employee had to take in order to change a key aspect of a product. The process was long and thorough, nothing slips through the cracks at Pentair! After this lengthy read, we headed into the next meeting of the day, which was in the Indian Ocean! This meeting was similar to the last, in that both were weekly checkups. However, meeting number 2 consisted of a lot more people, the whole team, from Florida, Samford, and here. Mrs. Rai warned me that these meetings can sometimes get choppy with arguments and bickering, but thankfully this one stayed pretty clean. The team followed a similar schedule as the first meeting: checkups and problems. There were definitely more problems with this project than the last, which was unfortunate, but expected. After these two lengthy meetings and the reading, I was pretty tired and ready for some lunch.

After lunch, Mrs. Rai and I crossed the hallway to another cubicle of a lady who worked in finance. She helped Mrs. Rai with her budget request, making sure everything was in check, before Mrs. Rai sent in the corporate office in Minnesota. After that quick meeting, Ms. Eason showed up! It was great to see a familiar face! After that short meeting, phew lot of meetings today, it was time to resume my side project with the Geneva Mechanism. Today was step 3: running the simulation. It was frustrating but after many attempts, it finally worked! The project was a success and I was quite proud of the accomplishment, even though I couldn’t have done it without some help.