Driving Drowsy

Driving Drowsy

Top of Mind with Julie Rose - Radio Archive, Episode 228 , Segment 4

Episode: China Economics, Charter Schools, Giving Birth, Driving Drowsy

  • Feb 8, 2016 10:00 pm
  • 17:50 mins

Guest: Hans Van Dongen, PhD, Director of the Sleep and Performance Research Center at Washington State University  Drowsy driving causes about 100,000 of accidents annually in the US – 1,500 of them fatal. The risks are even higher for commercial drivers who can be on the clock for 60 or 70 hours at a time.  Imagine if our cars could sense when we’re about to nod off and jolt us awake somehow? Researchers at the Sleep and Performance Research Center at Washington State University have recently patented a device that would do that. They’re also looking in-depth in to the short and long-term effects of sleep deprivation.

Other Segments

Charter Schools

17 MINS

Guest: David Miller, PhD, Director of the Collaborative Assessment and Program Evaluation Services at the University of Florida’s College of Education  Over the last decade, new charter schools have sprung up at a fast clip while every nearly every state in the country passed laws allowing them to receive public education funds. Charter schools are often popular for the special programs they’re able to offer as a result of the flexibility that comes with not being a formal public school. But the data so far on just how well charter schools do at improving student performance is mixed. Researchers at the University of Florida found that charter schools in that state lose about 10 percent of their teachers each year – more than double the turnover rate at public schools. The results are similar to what a number of other states have found.

Guest: David Miller, PhD, Director of the Collaborative Assessment and Program Evaluation Services at the University of Florida’s College of Education  Over the last decade, new charter schools have sprung up at a fast clip while every nearly every state in the country passed laws allowing them to receive public education funds. Charter schools are often popular for the special programs they’re able to offer as a result of the flexibility that comes with not being a formal public school. But the data so far on just how well charter schools do at improving student performance is mixed. Researchers at the University of Florida found that charter schools in that state lose about 10 percent of their teachers each year – more than double the turnover rate at public schools. The results are similar to what a number of other states have found.

Tech Transfer: Infant Ventilator

20 MINS

Guests: Jim Trent, Assistant Dean in the BYU College of Engineering; Mike Alder, Director of BYU’s Technology Transfer; Sheryl Flannery, Nurse  About 1 million babies die each year because they’re unable to establish breathing on their own. The World Health Organization neonatal asphyxia, as it’s called, is one of the primary causes of newborn mortality-- primarily in third-world countries where access to expensive ventilators is rare.   A team of BYU engineering students came up with a portable ventilator that costs $500 to make – a fraction of the $40,000 price tag on ventilators you’d typically find in American newborn intensive care units. Now, BYU management students are hatching a plan to get the device manufactured and into the hands of doctors and parents around the world.

Guests: Jim Trent, Assistant Dean in the BYU College of Engineering; Mike Alder, Director of BYU’s Technology Transfer; Sheryl Flannery, Nurse  About 1 million babies die each year because they’re unable to establish breathing on their own. The World Health Organization neonatal asphyxia, as it’s called, is one of the primary causes of newborn mortality-- primarily in third-world countries where access to expensive ventilators is rare.   A team of BYU engineering students came up with a portable ventilator that costs $500 to make – a fraction of the $40,000 price tag on ventilators you’d typically find in American newborn intensive care units. Now, BYU management students are hatching a plan to get the device manufactured and into the hands of doctors and parents around the world.