East Carolina University : Research and Creative Achievement Week 2011
seaboard in the early 1600s.
Autism in Eastern North Carolina: Stories from the Families, Karen Fieselman, Todd Savitt Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a group of developmental disabilities that affects communication, behavior, and social interactions. Autism impacts all racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups and occurs four times more frequently in boys than in girls. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that 1 in every 110 children in the United States is diagnosed with ASD. The purpose of this study was to understand how families in Eastern North Carolina handled the diagnosis of autism and how they navigated the available resources within the region. The primary care givers for nine families living in Eastern North Carolina were interviewed for the project, each with a family member diagnosed with autism under the age of 18. The primary care giver was asked to explain how their child was diagnosed and how they found the autism resources and support systems within their immediate community. All families received their diagnosis through the Treatment and Education of Autistic and Communication related handicapped Children (TEACCH) Center or through the Childrenâ€&#x;s Developmental Services Agency (CDSA). All parents concluded the most important events for the family and child were receiving proper therapies and support resources. Access to resources varied with regards to the particular decade in which the child was diagnosed, age of the child at diagnosis, location within the region and time of enrollment in State therapeutic programs and treatments. Through the interviews, it was found that all families eventually found similar resources when available within the region, but with variation in the length of time before gaining access due to how the child was diagnosed, family persistence, severity of Autism and quality of assigned case worker. It was found that many of the resources within the community are isolated from one another with no central medical or social service that connects the providers, making it a difficult and stressful process for families to navigate the autism resources of the region.
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Subsurface fracture distribution and influence of fractures on groundwater flow in the Piedmont and Blue Ridge physiographic provinces of North Carolina, Justin Nixon,Alex Manda, Department of Geological Sciences, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858 Crystalline rocks of North Carolinas Piedmont and Blue Ridge provinces are characterized by significantly low matrix porosity (<1%), and depend on secondary porosity created through fracturing to readily transmit fluids. These fractures serve as the primary conduits that regulate groundwater movement and storage in fractured rock aquifers. Although commonly sought after for domestic water use, these complex groundwater systems are not well understood partly because it is difficult to characterize fractures in the sub-surface. Fracture analyses that are based on surface measurements of fractures may be inadequate because fracture characteristics may vary with depth. In this study, fracture attributes derived from borehole geophysical logs are used to investigate how 172
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