Faculty Research & Creative Scholarship 2020: K-L

Description: Before beginning my doctorate in collaborative piano, I had little experience collaborating with saxophonists. Since then, I have explored many virtuosic, modern and avant-garde saxophone and piano duo works. Unlike the rich repertoire for strings and piano duo written by Russian composers, much of the standard saxophone repertoire is linked to commissions or works arising from the saxophone pedagogy lineages of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (Adolphe Sax and Marcel Mule) and American classical saxophone study (Larry Teal and Eugene Rousseau, plus many of their students). There is a disparity between compositions originating from the French and American schools and Russian advocates of the instrument. There are only two main pieces for saxophone written by Russian composers that collaborative pianists can encounter. One is the Concerto in E-flat major for Alto Saxophone and String Orchestra (1934) by Alexander Glazunov and another is the Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano (1970) by Edison Denisov. Furthermore, since the saxophone was patented in 1846, a majority of its repertoire comes from the 20th century and does not include works written by earlier major composers. This lack of repertoire inspired my idea to create a recording of standard string and piano sonatas by Russian composers transcribed for saxophone and piano duo. Two main factors were taken into consideration when selecting works for the project. One was that the selected Russian works differed with the modernity of most saxophone repertoire. The second was to create an album of transcriptions that covered a wide range of the saxophone instrument family. These transcriptions create a novel situation where these traditional Russian string works can be experienced on the relatively modern saxophone. Several unique challenges arose for both the process of transcribing the pieces and collaborating in performance because of the instrumental differences between strings and saxophone. For example, passages rewritten to accommodate these differences had to take into consideration the saxophone’s range, tone quality and technique. This included changing the octave of certain passages to make them more playable and to effectively match the tonal characteristics of specific tessituras of the saxophone with the character of the music. Slap tonguing on the saxophone was also used in place of pizzicato and double stops were either performed as quick arpeggios, possibly revoiced, or reduced to a single note. Also, this required rethinking collaborative decisions, such as dynamics, tempo pacing, articulation, pedal use, and sound color choice. These transcriptions also create a unique opportunity for both pianists and saxophonists. For saxophonists, these transcriptions allow them to encounter Romantic style works by major Russian composers, since most of the saxophone repertoire is modern and uses 20th-century harmonic language. For pianists, the transcriptions create options for innovative concert programming. Furthermore, playing these transcriptions is an opportunity for pianists to experience these standard string pieces with the completely different sonority and instrumental character of the saxophone, requiring them to rethink assumptions and be flexible in their approach to the music. This project represents my goal of a progressive fusion of traditional and modern influences in saxophone and piano duo repertoire.
Pianist: Cecilia Lo-Chien Kao, Assistant Professor of Professional Practice & Collaborative Piano Artist, Music

Journal Title: Clinical and Translational Science
Abstract: Despite a growing interest in, and commitment to, implementing pediatric clinical trials, approximately one in every five trials in children fails because of inappropriate study design, suboptimal experiment planning, or inadequate participant enrollment. This tutorial, presented from the perspectives of seasoned pediatric investigators, an experienced research coordinator, and an established pediatric clinical trials network, is designed to provide practical guidance for successfully implementing pediatric clinical trials at an academic center or another comparable institution.
Author: Gregory L. Kearns, Professor, TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine

Journal Title: Journal of Applied Biopharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics
Abstract: Palatability of oral drug formulations, especially liquids, can negatively impact therapeutic adherence in infants and children. While conventional visual analogue scales (VAS, facial Hedonic scales) are the current “gold standard” approach to assess drug palatability in adults and children, they can have significant limitations in very young children who are non-verbal or have developmentally diminished cognitive abilities. As these younger children often require administration of oral liquid drug formulations, objective methods to assess their palatability would positively impact drug development. We undertook a prospective, pilot study to assess the feasibility of using facial recognition technology to assess drug palatability in a cohort of 10 children ranging in age from 7 to 17 years. Using a randomized, cross-over approach with washout periods, participants were administered a small dose of three test articles: Prednisone (bitter tastant), Simple Syrup USP (sweet tastant) and a proprietary pharmaceutical suspending agent (neutral tastant). After a standardized period of facial recording, participants were administered an age-appropriate visual Hedonic scale and also, were asked to describe the taste of each test article. Qualitative assessment of the facial recognition data demonstrated that it could discriminate between the bitter and sweet tastants. Quantitative comparison revealed only a statistically significant relationship for Simple Syrup. Data from administration of the facial Hedonic scale clearly demonstrated a significant difference in the ability of study participant to discern a sweet vs. bitter taste. Our data provide proof-of-concept for the use of facial recognition technology to assess drug palatability in older children. They also support the potential for use of this technology to assess drug palatability in younger infants and children and serve as the support to undertake these additional investigations.
Author: Gregory L. Kearns, Professor, TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine

Journal Title: Interactive Learning Environments
Abstract: Many land-grant institutions with agriculture and natural resource programs in the United States offer online courses to meet student demand. The goal of this study was to understand how major educational stakeholders, including instructors and students, perceive the benefits and limitations of online teaching and learning in agriculture and natural resource sciences. This study utilized a mixed mode data collection method, which involved informal meetings as well as online survey administration. The data were analyzed through strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT)-Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP) framework. The study results offer novel perspectives on the perceived utility and challenges of several attributes of online learning including work-home balance, lack of social interactions, virtual classroom opportunities for working professionals, and academic integrity and cyber scam issues among others. Our findings may be beneficial to academic administrators, instructors, and institutions in identifying opportunities, challenges, and adopting programmatic strategies to improve effectiveness of online learning.
Author: Gehendra Kharel, Assistant Professor, Environmental Sciences

Journal Title: PeerJ, The Journal of Life and Environmental Sciences
Abstract: Best management practices (BMPs) are commonly used to reduce sediment loadings. In this study, we modeled the Fort Cobb Reservoir watershed located in southwestern Oklahoma, USA using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and evaluated the impacts of five agricultural BMP scenarios on surface runoff, sediment yield, and crop yield. The hydrological model, with 43 sub-basins and 15,217 hydrological response units, was calibrated (1991–2000) and validated (2001–2010) against the monthly observations of streamflow, sediment grab samples, and crop-yields. The coefficient of determination (R2), Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NS) and percentage bias (PB) were used to determine model performance with satisfactory values of R2 (0.64 and 0.79) and NS (0.61 and 0.62) in the calibration and validation period respectively for streamflow. We found that contouring practice reduced surface runoff by more than 18% in both conservation tillage and no-till practices for all crops used in this modeling study. In addition, contour farming with either conservation tillage or no-till practice reduced sediment yield by almost half. Compared to the conservation tillage practice, no-till practice decreased sediment yield by 25.3% and 9.0% for cotton and grain sorghum, respectively. Using wheat as cover crop for grain sorghum generated the lowest runoff followed by its rotation with canola and cotton regardless of contouring. Converting all the crops in the watershed into Bermuda grass resulted in significant reduction in sediment yield (72.5–96.3%) and surface runoff (6.8–38.5%). The model can be used to provide useful information for stakeholders to prioritize ecologically sound and feasible BMPs at fields that are capable of reducing sediment yield while increasing crop yield.
Author: Gehendra Kharel, Assistant Professor, Environmental Sciences

Journal Title: Annals of the American Association of Geographers
Abstract: Conflicts over resource extraction are key political issues in the contemporary United States and are a mobilizing issue for right-wing populism exemplified by President Donald Trump’s claims of ending the “war on coal.” Through a political ecology framework attentive to culture, discourse, and history, I examine how mining is symbolic of broader cultural, geographic, and class divides. Mining is mobilized in extractive populism through rhetoric of giving power back to the people, insiders versus outsiders, resource nationalism, and cutting burdensome government regulations. I study the emblematic case of the rural Iron Range mining region in northern Minnesota and the recent rightward swing in this historically Democratic stronghold, which I argue is intertwined with the micropolitics of struggles over proposed copper mines. Through ethnographic observations and interviews with local community and political leaders, workers, and residents, I find that support for mining among white, working-class, and rural residents is made meaningful through nostalgia for preserving mining as a way of life and anger at outsiders disrupting their livelihoods and extractive moral economy. These discourses resonated with the populist, nationalist, and racist rhetoric of Trump’s campaign. I argue that place-based and class identities and social imaginaries linked to mining are an important dynamic in emergent authoritarian populism and for understanding what motivates reactionary political movements and why populist politicians use mining to construct authenticity.
Author: Erik Kojola, Assistant Professor, Sociology and Anthropology

Journal Title: Environmental Sociology
Abstract: Proposed copper-nickel mines in Northern Minnesota are an emblematic case of participatory environmental justice dynamics in contested decision-making processes around new risky forms and sites of resource extraction. The mines have been embroiled in an over-decade long review process and pose a threat to popular waterways as well as natural resources that are protected by treaties with Ojibwe tribes. I examine how various actors engage in decision-making processes, and how risks and benefits are assessed in ways shaped by intersectional dynamics of power. What voices and knowledges are privileged and silenced? Whose bodies and livelihoods are privileged? Through discourse analysis of public documents and observations at public hearings, I find intersectional health risks from pollution are overlooked while the rhetoric of economic benefits privileges white male workers. Native American tribes have a formal role in the environmental review process, which provides them with visibility and legitimacy, but indigenous concerns are articulated through the discourse of science and expertise, and still bracketed from major conclusions. I contribute to environmental justice scholarship by applying an intersectional framework toward gender, whiteness and indigeneity in decision-making about environmental risks, and how the politics of knowledge effects procedural environmental justice.
Author: Erik Kojola, Assistant Professor, Sociology and Anthropology

Journal Title: Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work
Abstract: Using a mixed methods approach, the current study tested whether an intervention, the Gender By Us® Toolkit, decreased implicit gender bias compared to a generic conversation. Researchers randomly assigned participants in the study to the intervention (n = 11) or a generic conversation (n = 12). Participants completed pre-, post-, and 2-week follow-up surveys. Valid psychometric instruments and t tests were used to assess group differences on the following measures: (1) the Social Dominance Orientation Scale, (2) the Neosexism Scale, and (3) the Modern Sexism Scale. Quantitative results showed the intervention group scored significantly higher on the Modern Sexism Scale at posttest than the control group (p = .00), demonstrating increased acknowledgment of gender discrimination. Both groups also were asked open-ended questions related to the intervention and implicit gender bias. Qualitative results suggested that participants’ overall perception was that the intervention increased their awareness of implicit gender biases within themselves and their ability to identify biases in others, yet a comparatively low number of intervention participants retained the ability to identify an example of implicit gender bias at posttest. Findings may indicate the intervention had a small but positive effect on disrupting implicit gender bias.
Author: Katie Lauve-Moon. Assistant Professor, Social Work; Affiliate Faculty, Women & Gender Studies

Journal Title: Communication Disorders Quarterly
Abstract: This preliminary study investigated the effects of co-treatment by an adapted physical educator and speech-language pathologist on basic concept vocabulary learning in preschool children with Down syndrome as compared with the effects of treatment by either professional alone. In a Repeated Acquisition Design/Adapted Alternating Treatment study, 10 preschool children with Down syndrome were taught five basic concept words each week in a co-treatment intervention, in adapted physical education alone, or in speech-language therapy alone across 9 weeks. Each week, participants participated in a pre- and posttest. Four children learned the most words in the co-treatment condition and the remaining six children did not learn different numbers of words across conditions. Individual characteristics of children in the study were evaluated to determine possible factors that differentiate learning patterns among children. This preliminary study provides evidence that co-treatment may be effective for vocabulary teaching for some children with Down syndrome, particularly those with relatively high nonverbal intelligence.
Author: Emily Lund, Associate Professor, Communication Sciences & Disorders

Description: My Time is Now features the first ever recording of George Gershwin’s personal Steinway piano from his New York City apartment since it was recently restored by the Gershwin Initiative at the University of Michigan School of Music. Inspired by George Gershwin’s quote, “My people are American, my time is today. Music must repeat the thought and aspirations of the times,” Ms. Lee has created an album to reflect the current times of her generation. The album celebrates George Gershwin with new arrangements of his unfinished tunes as well as premiere recordings of contemporary works by distinguished American composers, Michael Daugherty, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, William Bolcom and Patrick Harlin who, much like Gershwin, incorporate their own distinctly American musical styles. Haerim Elizabeth Lee has been a guest soloist in symphonies with Filharmonie Bohuslava Martinu, Symphony of the Mountains, Orquesta Sinfonica de la Unal, Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra, SNU Virtuosi and Winston-Salem Symphony in North Carolina. Recognized as a bright new star, she was invited to appear in the 38th Kennedy Center Honors concert to recognize Maestro Seiji Ozawa with Yo Yo Ma. She has chosen to work with Alex Brown, Grammy-nominated pianist and composer and Jesse Lewis, Grammy Award-winning producer to compile this historic and timely album.
Artist: Haerim Elizabeth Lee, Lecturer in Violin, Music

screenprint and gouache on paper, 16" x 27", edition of 9
Artist: Rachel Livedalen, Assistant Professor, Art

screenprint, acrylic, and gouache on panel, 30" x 24"
Artist: Rachel Livedalen, Assistant Professor, Art