Investigating Social Perceptions Associated with Water Quality in Morgantown, West Virginia

This dissertation investigates public perceptions of water quality in Morgantown, West Virginia. In recent years, water has become an increasingly critical issue in terms of quantity worldwide, and also in terms of quality. In developed countries such as the United States, water quality is often taken for granted by the general public. Nonetheless, recent water crises in Flint, Michigan and Charleston, West Virginia, are examples showing there are environmental risks associated with human activities. This dissertation explores the context of West Virginia, with coal mining that is decreasing and non-conventional oil and gas drilling that is increasing in the Appalachia region. The main focus of this dissertation is the understanding of tap water quality perceptions and drinking behaviors. The dissertation is divided in five chapters: introduction of the dissertation, context of West Virginia and risk perceptions, modeling drinking behaviors, model building with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), and proximity analysis. Utilizing an online survey and a mailing survey, we contacted 5492 residents in Morgantown and surrounding areas in Monongalia County to ask them to take part in a research survey about water quality. With a total effective response rate of 11.3%, 603 persons completed the survey (88% residing within Morgantown). The main results of the dissertation are: (1) there exist potential risks of chemical spills in West Virginia, due to the impacts of human activities; (2) most residents are not aware of the quality of their water and do not have strong feelings about their water; (3) bottled water consumption is linked to lower education, lower environmental concern but to higher risks perceptions from drinking from the tap, as well as lower perceptions of organoleptic perceptions from the water (taste, odor, color); (4) using a water filter is mainly linked to higher incomes, low organoleptic perceptions and younger populations; (5) SEM was a useful technique to depict relationships between the different water quality perceptions; (6) SEM found evidence that the construct Perceived Water Quality has multicollinearity issues; (7) Proximity to horizontal wells affect water quality perceptions, but the effect size is rather small. The main implications of these results and this dissertation are the lack of communications from industries and governments to the public. There is a gap between what consumers should know and understand about their water quality. Better information from scientists and local decision-makers should be available to the general public in order to make the right choices for water management and environmental protection. Last but not least, this dissertation argues that education is an important issue for West Virginia water quality and the Appalachia Region in general

Integrated olfactory receptor and microarray gene expression databases

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Gene expression patterns of olfactory receptors (ORs) are an important component of the signal encoding mechanism in the olfactory system since they determine the interactions between odorant ligands and sensory neurons. We have developed the Olfactory Receptor Microarray Database (ORMD) to house OR gene expression data. ORMD is integrated with the Olfactory Receptor Database (ORDB), which is a key repository of OR gene information. Both databases aim to aid experimental research related to olfaction.</p> <p>Description</p> <p>ORMD is a Web-accessible database that provides a secure data repository for OR microarray experiments. It contains both publicly available and private data; accessing the latter requires authenticated login. The ORMD is designed to allow users to not only deposit gene expression data but also manage their projects/experiments. For example, contributors can choose whether to make their datasets public. For each experiment, users can download the raw data files and view and export the gene expression data. For each OR gene being probed in a microarray experiment, a hyperlink to that gene in ORDB provides access to genomic and proteomic information related to the corresponding olfactory receptor. Individual ORs archived in ORDB are also linked to ORMD, allowing users access to the related microarray gene expression data.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>ORMD serves as a data repository and project management system. It facilitates the study of microarray experiments of gene expression in the olfactory system. In conjunction with ORDB, ORMD integrates gene expression data with the genomic and functional data of ORs, and is thus a useful resource for both olfactory researchers and the public.</p

Water taste and odor (T&O): challenges, gaps and solutions from a perspective of the WaterTOP network.

Aesthetic aspects of drinking water, such as Taste and Odor (T&O), have significant effects on consumer perceptions and acceptability. Solving unpleasant water T&O episodes in water supplies is challenging, since it requires expertise and know-how in diagnosis, evaluation of impacts and implementation of control measures. We present gaps, challenges and perspectives to advance water T&O science and technology, by identifying key areas in sensory and chemical analysis, risk assessment and water treatment, as articulated by WaterTOP (COST Action CA18225), an interdisciplinary European and international network of researchers, experts, and stakeholders

Environmental Harms, Use Conflicts, and Neutral Baselines in Environmental Law

Accounts of environmental law that rely on concepts of environmental harm and environmental protection oversimplify the tremendous variety of uses of environmental resources and the often complex relationships among those uses. Such approaches are analytically unclear and, more importantly, insert hidden normativity into putatively descriptive claims. Instead of thinking about environmental law in terms of preventing environmental harm, environmental problems can be understood more specifically and more meaningfully as disputes over conflicting uses of environmental resources. This Article proposes a use-conflict framework as a means of acquiring a deeper understanding of environmental problems and lawmaking without favoring any particular normative approach. The framework does not itself propose a resolution of any environmental problems but rather describes environmental problems and environmental lawmaking conceptually in a manner that exposes normative claims and attempts to establish some common ground across diverse normative perspectives

Preparation, Characterization and DFT Studies of Some New N-Nitrosocarbamates and N-Nitrosoureas

We are presenting the preparation, characterization and density functional theory (DFT) studies {B3LYP/6-31+G(d)) of several reiated classes of N-nitrosocarbamates and N-nitrosoureas. The iong-range goal is the design and preparation of compounds, which would undergo photochemical or hydrolytic decomposition, to yield stabilized cyclic cations that can serve as alkylating agents at various nucleophilic centers, including DNA bases

Mapping odorant sensitivities reveals a sparse but structured representation of olfactory chemical space by sensory input to the mouse olfactory bulb

© 2022, Burton et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/In olfactory systems, convergence of sensory neurons onto glomeruli generates a map of odorant receptor identity. How glomerular maps relate to sensory space remains unclear. We sought to better characterize this relationship in the mouse olfactory system by defining glomeruli in terms of the odorants to which they are most sensitive. Using high-throughput odorant delivery and ultrasensitive imaging of sensory inputs, we imaged responses to 185 odorants presented at concentrations determined to activate only one or a few glomeruli across the dorsal olfactory bulb. The resulting datasets defined the tuning properties of glomeruli - and, by inference, their cognate odorant receptors - in a low-concentration regime, and yielded consensus maps of glomerular sensitivity across a wide range of chemical space. Glomeruli were extremely narrowly tuned, with ~25% responding to only one odorant, and extremely sensitive, responding to their effective odorants at sub-picomolar to nanomolar concentrations. Such narrow tuning in this concentration regime allowed for reliable functional identification of many glomeruli based on a single diagnostic odorant. At the same time, the response spectra of glomeruli responding to multiple odorants was best predicted by straightforward odorant structural features, and glomeruli sensitive to distinct odorants with common structural features were spatially clustered. These results define an underlying structure to the primary representation of sensory space by the mouse olfactory system.Peer reviewe

Lake Mead Science Symposium, January 13 an 14, 2009, Las Vegas, Nevada: Program

Conference program for the 2009 Lake Mead Science Symposium. Includes abstracts of presentations, registration packet, exhibitor and sponsor information

Implementation of Artificial Intelligence in Food Science, Food Quality, and Consumer Preference Assessment

In recent years, new and emerging digital technologies applied to food science have been gaining attention and increased interest from researchers and the food/beverage industries. In particular, those digital technologies that can be used throughout the food value chain are accurate, easy to implement, affordable, and user-friendly. Hence, this Special Issue (SI) is dedicated to novel technology based on sensor technology and machine/deep learning modeling strategies to implement artificial intelligence (AI) into food and beverage production and for consumer assessment. This SI published quality papers from researchers in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Spain, and Mexico, including food and beverage products, such as grapes and wine, chocolate, honey, whiskey, avocado pulp, and a variety of other food products

Understanding consumers’ emotions and sensory experience for beauty care products

Doctor of PhilosophyDepartment of Food, Nutrition, Dietetics and HealthMartin TalaveraUnderstanding consumer experience related to hedonic, sensory, and emotional aspects of products is the key to driving consumer-centric product design for the beauty care category. This dissertation conducted three independent studies aiming to explore consumer experience of beauty care products from two perspectives: liking and beyond liking (emotions), based on conventional sensory and consumer data and online product reviews. The objective of Chapter 2 was to develop an emotion lexicon that could be used to profile consumers’ emotional responses to beauty care products in sensory and consumer tests. The lexicon was developed in four main steps: sourcing terms from online product reviews, term identification and categorization, term refinement, and term validation. The final emotion lexicon consists of 37 positive emotions and 2 negative emotions. Recommendations on the application of this lexicon to each of the three categories of beauty care (skincare, hair care and makeup) were provided. The validated emotion lexicon from this study is readily applicable to other emotion research for skincare, hair care and makeup. Chapter 3 explored sensory drivers of liking and emotional associations for beauty care products. Hand creams were used as testing samples to be evaluated for sensory characteristics and consumer perception. First, the sensory space (aroma, appearance, texture & skinfeel) of twelve hand creams was profiled by a highly trained descriptive panel using a modified flavor/texture profile approach. Then, seven hand creams selected from the descriptive sensory space were rated for overall liking, emotions using the lexicon developed from Chapter 2, and consumer characterization using check-all-that-apply (CATA) in a home use test (HUT) with a hundred female consumers from the Kansas City area. Cluster analysis and external preference mapping identified three consumer clusters with different liking patterns: the thick & waxy-texture likers, mild scent & low-medium-thickness likers, and strong-scent likers. Consumers with different liking patterns differed in their emotional associations with sensory characteristics of hand creams. However, high intensities of certain aroma attributes seemed to elicit high-arousal emotions for all groups. The findings of this study could guide the development of new hand cream products targeting different consumer segments. Chapter 4 explored consumer experience for hand cream products from the “voice of consumers”-online product reviews. A total of 17, 581 reviews representing 46 hand creams of different brands, price points, and sensory attributes were collected from Amazon and Ulta Beauty using a scraping software. Topic modeling using Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) identified five major topics consumers mentioned in these online reviews: greasiness & residue of the product, scent/fragrances of the product, skin feel & efficacy of the product, consumers’ skin issues, and occasions when to apply the product. Term frequency–inverse document frequency (tf-idf) calculated for each rating group suggested that unpleasant scent and overall dissatisfied quality were the main reasons why consumers gave a rating lower than 4 stars. High efficacy and desirable skinfeel were the drivers for 5 stars. These findings highlighted the importance of sensory experience and perception of efficacy in consumers’ whole product experience