The objective of this project was to complete an in-depth design study for the creation of a prophylactic knee brace. Background literature research analysis demonstrated that soft tissue injuries of the knee were the most prominent injuries related to the knee joint. The literature exhibited that the leading injury of the knee joint consisted of ACL lesions and meniscal tears. Utilizing the information obtained, it was determined that the objective of the knee brace was to emphasize prophylaxis of soft tissue injuries. As such, further analysis was performed in order to analyze injury mechanisms and knee joint biomechanics that would be relevant in injury prevention. An epidemiological review was also conducted regarding current braces that existed in the market today. These results were accounted for when formulating a novel design for the prophylactic device. The key feature of the brace is the implementation of shear-thickening fluid, a non-Newtonian fluid that is able to exhibit fluid-like properties at rest and solid-like properties when impacted by an outside force. This unique property is ideal for a knee brace for its enhanced adaptability and protective effects. A three dimensional digital prototype was designed in a SolidWorks software as the final result. Future endeavors consist of developing a physical prototype and conducting stress and strain analysis of the device in addition to testing its efficacy in human trials. After completion of testing and necessary revisions the goal will be to patent the technology and commercialize the brace into a device available on the public market.

A recent meta-analysis concluded that vinegar consumption could be considered effective adjunct therapy for improving glycemic control. Glycemic control strategies are useful for diabetic and pre-diabetic patients as a way of managing the symptoms of disease. However, liquid vinegar consumption is often poorly tolerated and ingestion can invoke nausea. This pilot study examined the effect of liquid vinegar versus commercial vinegar pills on postprandial glycemia in 12 healthy adults. All participants were healthy with fasting blood glucose averaging 91mg/dl. This study examined the efficacy of liquid vinegar ingestion (25 g apple cider vinegar [1.25 g acetic acid]) versus vinegar pill ingestion (4 vinegar tablets [1.5 g acetic acid] either consumed whole or crushed and then dissolved in water) on postprandial glycemia. At 30 minutes following a standard test meal (bagel + jelly + juice; 106 g carbohydrate), blood glucose concentrations were reduced 12% in comparison to the pill groups or to a no vinegar control (135.6±15.8, 154.3±22.2, 152.7±30.6, and 157.7±22.8 mg/dl for the liquid vinegar, whole pill, crushed pill, and control groups respectively; p=0.023). These data suggest that in healthy adults, four commercial vinegar pills with a reported acetic acid content of 1.5 g acetic acid are not effective for improving glycemic control.

Student to Student: A Guide to Anatomy is an anatomy guide written by students, for students. Its focus is on teaching the anatomy of the heart, lungs, nose, ears and throat in a manner that isn't overpowering or stress inducing. Daniel and I have taken numerous anatomy courses, and fully comprehend what it takes to have success in these classes. We found that the anatomy books recommended for these courses are often completely overwhelming, offering way more information than what is needed. This renders them near useless for a college student who just wants to learn the essentials. Why would a student even pick it up if they can't find what they need to learn? With that in mind, our goal was to create a comprehensive, easy to understand, and easy to follow guide to the heart, lungs and ENT (ear nose throat). We know what information is vital for test day, and wanted to highlight these key concepts and ideas in our guide. Spending just 60 to 90 minutes studying our guide should help any student with their studying needs. Whether the student has medical school aspirations, or if they simply just want to pass the class, our guide is there for them. We aren't experts, but we know what strategies and methods can help even the most confused students learn. Our guide can also be used as an introductory resource to our respective majors (Daniel-Biology, Charles-Speech and Hearing) for students who are undecided on what they want to do. In the future Daniel and I would like to see more students creating similar guides, and adding onto the "Student to Student' title with their own works... After all, who better to teach students than the students who know what it takes?

The Downtown ASU campus Bio 201 and 202 anatomy labs are planning on revising the method in which students are presented and evaluated on lab material for the Fall 2016 semester. The goal of this thesis project was to analyze the methods used in previous semesters in order to determine which method, if any, proved to be the most effective means of evaluation for the students. The general setup of the anatomy labs is that the students come to lab, receive that week's instruction, and then are quizzed on that week's material at the beginning of their next lab. Then roughly every five new segments there is a practical covering the cumulative information from the last five segments. Therefore it is imperative to analyze the current and previous methods of evaluation in order to find which one has the strongest correlation with an individual's quiz performance and their practical grade. Since the Fall 2014 semester three different quiz types have been used in lab while the practical has remained the same. The three different types of quizzes are written, turning point, and no quiz; in order to determine which method was most effective overall practical averages for each student was compared to their corresponding quiz average. This data was put into Excel and used to generate a graph in order to determine the r-squared values to determine which had the strongest correlation. The results showed that no matter what quiz type was used there was no statistically significant correlation between quiz performance and practical performance; in fact practical averages were nearly identical between semesters for Bio 201 and 202. However, visual analysis of the graph demonstrated that certain quiz methods did seem to be more effective than others. For Bio 201 it seemed that written quizzes were the most effective means of evaluation, while in Bio 202 the turning point quizzes were best.