Abstracts
 Research tests thumbprint identification to improve firefighting efficiency, safety
The scenario that frightens and motivates UTSA alum Alexander McLeod goes like this:
A commercial flight is hit by lightning during its descent into San Antonio International Airport. The plane makes an emergency landing adjacent to Interstate 10. The plane survives, but there’s chaos as passengers scramble for safety. Emergency responders, residents, passersby and the media speed toward the scene.
McLeod, who earned a Ph.D. in information systems and technology management, is working with College of Business doctoral candidate Darrell Carpenter to investigate new biometric technology that uses thumbprints to identify personnel who respond to a call. They believe it will improve safety and security at emergency sites, and improve management of firefighting personnel.
The joint project with the San Antonio Fire Department is funded with a Building and Fire Research Laboratory grant.
The technology could be used for daily management chores such as scheduling to technical rescues and major emergencies, explained McLeod, a retired firefighter.
“The larger the scale of the incident, the more difficult it is to know who is there,” he said. The current tracking system uses a board with clips and tags from helmets.
Introducing the technology raises privacy concerns, Carpenter said. His research focuses on the behavioral side of bringing new technology to an employment setting.
“We want to explore people’s privacy concerns and see how much [they] will affect their use of the system,” Carpenter said.
If the biometric-based information system is successful, the researchers would like to see it used with other emergency response systems in the future.
— Lynn Gosnell
Teaching the parents, protecting the kids
A 13-year employment history at the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) made Jolyn Mikow, an assistant professor of social work, the ideal person to receive a $100,000 research grant from the agency to evaluate parenting education programs in Texas and across the nation during spring and summer 2007.
The agency, which financed Mikow’s graduate education and inspired her to earn a doctorate in social work,
contacted her to manage the Texas team in a project called “Validation of Measurements for Evidence-Based Interventions
to Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect.” The project is designed to determine whether parenting education programs are
accomplishing their goal of preventing abuse and neglect.
 Mikow leads the study at UTSA
with the support of Maureen Rubin, a
visiting professor of social work, and
researchers from the University of
Kansas and national child advocacy
organizations. They are developing an
instrument to look at the objectives of
parent education classes and measure how the classes change parents’ behaviors with their children.
The DFPS and its federally funded Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention Program require evidence-based
practices for child abuse prevention— intervention methods with proven and
replicable results.
“The lack of evidence has led to questions about what kind of parent
education really works,” said Mikow,“and what child welfare agencies across the nation really need to do to reduce child abuse and neglect.”
Few methods exist to measure the success or failure of parent education classes, but the scant material Mikow
has found suggests that two elements contribute to successful programs:
reducing the risk factors and increasing the protective factors that build resiliency and help strengthen
family bonds.
The results of Mikow’s study should provide the agency with a tool to determine which classes work in changing
parenting practices and protecting children. She hopes it will lead to more
efficient and more effective programs throughout the state and nation.
— James Benavides
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