We started with a large group meeting with Mr. Self. He discussed what Vector textiles is and we were introduced with the question that will need to be answered by the end of this WEP: what are the effects of chemicals, specifically permethrin, on the environment in Sub-Saharan Africa? After the discussion, our group created an outline of what will need to be accomplished each day and we started doing general research of what permethrin is and its effect on the environment, people, and animals.
This is a screenshot of the meeting we did with Ms. Houston, a med student. Ms. Houston gave unique insight into the differences between different medical fields and why she chose to be an osteopathic doctor. We learned a lot about the importance of priorities in a future medical career: What day-to-day activities would you enjoy? Would you prefer a holistic or medicinal side for aiding patients? And much more! We also met with Dr. Zipkin who among many other things, explained her perspective to the medical world as a primary care doctor. She described her role in the hospital compared with other doctors as well as the values that led her to choose primary care. This was a fun day!
Participated in a meeting about Marketing and the secrets behind the business no one tells you about!
Our work experience began with Travis, Gabriella, and I meeting with Professor Jamie Markham on Zoom. He is a professor at the UNC school of government, who works a lot with criminal justice and corrections. In particular, he has been working a lot recently on a newly introduced bill to the North Carolina General Assembly, Senate Bill 300.
Senate Bill 300 serves as a fairly comprehensive overhaul of policing and the justice system and covers quite a significant number of topics. The bill covers things like making a public database to track officers’ suspensions and infractions, giving an officer the duty to prevent the use of excessive force when seen in the field, and increasing offenses for rioting and assaulting an officer (something Mr. Markham says was a legislative compromise in order to gain more support for the bill)
He then assigned us to focus on researching a few of the key topics in the bills that are widely debate. For example, using satellite monitoring on sex offenders (supreme court case Grady v. North Carolina), the legality and constitutionality behind releasing police body camera footage, and overcriminalization by stopping violations of a city’s code of ordinances from going on someone’s criminal record.
Mr. Markham also informed us that we will get the opportunity to visit a senate judiciary committee meeting next week where they may potentially be debating this very bill we are researching.
During our morning meeting, we each went around and shared what we learned about our research topics from yesterday afternoon. After we shared, everyone asked questions, and Greyson gave us feedback on how to turn the information we found into cohesive PowerPoint slides. He also gave us specific concepts within our findings to research that afternoon.
Before our afternoon meeting, I worked on refining my PowerPoint slides about the differences between Ethereum and Ethereum 2.0, as well as researching differences in the supply systems of various cryptocurrencies. We each shared our new findings during our afternoon meeting and discussed goals for the rest of the WEP. I think by the end of this program, we should have dazzling PowerPoint which reflects a comprehensive understanding of cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and applications of digital asset technologies.
The afternoon of my first day at North Carolina Heart & Vascular, I sat in for a few stress tests and cardiovascular ultrasounds, all of which were performed by the in-house cardiac sonographer.
Stress tests are tests used by cardiologists to determine how the heart responds to stress by inducing controlled exercise and measuring the heart’s response. Each patient has 11 electrodes attached to their chests, placed to measure and track the electrical signals the heart generates to beat. This representation of the signals is called an EKG or electrocardiogram. Patients are put on a treadmill that has in incline. It begins slow and flat, and in 3 minute intervals, the treadmill both speeds up and the incline is increased. After the patient meets and exceeds their target heart rate (determined by their age and weight), they quickly transition from the treadmill to the table, lying on their sides. This transition is important, because a hardworking heart that is ‘exercising’ may reveal to the doctor any blockages in the arteries, dependent on how the heart is moving.
Cardiac ultrasounds are done the same way whether they are after a stress test or done singularly. These tests can be called ECHOS or echocardiograms. A transducer is used to transmit sound waves into the body and then record the waves the are echoed or returned back to it. These return waves allow the heart to be interpreted, and create an image of the structure on a screen. These tests allow doctors to assess how the heart chambers and valves are working, and thus can allow for condition diagnosis. One patient we saw was an old gentlemen, aged 89, whose heart valves, both the bicuspid and tricuspid, regurgitated. This meant that the blood which should be pumping in one direction instead flowed backwards to previous chambers in between beats, because his valves were separated, and thus did not block and regulate blood flow in between beats. Several other heart conditions and abnormalities can be discovered through the ultrasound.
I spent the morning and early afternoon of my first WEP day with North Carolina Museum of Natural Science’s Astronomy and Astrophysics Department crafting a project proposal for my mentor, Dr. Rachel Smith. This included working in OpenSpace, a program that attempts to catalog and visualize the entire known universe. OpenSpace is a NASA-funded project through the American Museum of Natural History I’ve been working with Dr. Smith on for several months, and today I used it to pull in data on the asteroid belt and various Earth craters to create a project proposal for the animated 3D-modeling of the impact of the Vredefort Crater in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The picture to the left is a screenshot of OpenSpace when I used it to look at the mountains to the west of Mono Lake in California.
Additionally, I looked at the Vredefort Crater in NASA worldview because it was a little faster to get distance measurements than in OpenSpace, and you can see that in the image the right
At the end of the day I had a zoom call with Dr. Smith to discuss the project proposal and make some tweaks to it, as well as make plans for the rest of the week and discuss when I might be able to come into the lab and work. I had a really great first day, and I’m super excited to continue my research over the next two weeks!
My work experience program with Vascular Wellness started today. We went through the powerpoints Vascular Wellness created to give us insight into how they and other companies operated. We started with the basic categories in a company which for Vascular Wellness were 4 different categories: clinical, business development, marketing, and administration. Clinical was used to describe the nurses or essentially the product Vascular Wellness sells. Business development is a sales department- essentially used to describe their efforts in gathering and making use of leads. The marketing team creates a brand image to become more recognizable, and the administration works on the more finite details to keep the business running smoothly. Personally, I think I’m interested in the business development and administration team so I can build entrepreneurial skills. After eating lunch, we learned about Vascular Wellness’ goals this year, the service they offer, how every business operates, and more.
I’m really excited about my time at Vascular Wellness! Our hosts are very welcoming, and I think I’ve already learned a bit about how small businesses operate.
In preparation for the week ahead, I spent time researching recent developments in the NC General Assembly as well as reviewing House and Senate bills that had been passed or filed in previous weeks. Because the NCGA does not meet until evening on Mondays, I did not travel downtown but instead met with lawyer/lobbyist Ashley Perkinson via zoom to discuss logistics and gain a basic understanding of her work. It was really cool to hear about some of the groups that she represents- her clients include the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and the North Carolina Occupational Therapy Association among many others. Ashley summarized some bills she had been working with recently, and I found it interesting that she’s able to deal with legislation relating to fields that differ completely, like education and public health. I spent the rest of the day looking more into bills that had passed out of one chamber before the crossover deadline and would therefore be further discussed by the opposite chamber in the future. Overall, it was a great first day!
Ashley Perkinson (pictured right) representing the North Carolina Occupational Therapy Association at an event in 2018.
