Cycling Injury Risk in London: Impacts of Road Characteristics and Infrastructure

This study of cycling injury risk in London examines impacts of road characteristics and environment, including different types of cycling infrastructure. It controlled for exposure by using a case-crossover method alongside an algorithm developed by Transport for London to predict cyclist routes. When compared to no infrastructure, this study found that protected cycle infrastructure reduced odds of injury by 40-65% in the morning commute, whereas advisory lanes increased injury odds by 34%. Junctions were found to increase injury odds threefold; higher pedestrian density also increased injury odds. This study supports growing evidence of a ‘safety in numbers’ effect

COMMERCIALIZATION OF A SMALL, LIGHTWEIGHT, LOW-COST SEISMIC BOREHOLE RECEIVER

Herein, conceptualization of a recently patented seismic borehole receiver and its components is developed for commercialization. The device is significantly cheaper, lighter, and smaller than existing technologies on the market. Additionally, it has the potential to achieve better seismic readings than its competitors via patented sensor-to-borehole coupling mechanism. It is the hope that the commercialization of this device will not only provide a more affordable alternative to engineers and geophysicists in the existing market, but the significant cost difference may open new seismic measurement opportunities in the developing world. Its compact size and light weight will increase mobility, allowing investigators to conduct surveys where previously deemed infeasible. Many impoverished states in regions of high seismicity lack the seismic data this and other such devices can provide. This data has been crucial to infrastructure advancements and public safety in seismic hazard areas of the developed world, yet the technology used to ascertain it is inaccessible in the developing world due to cost and availability. This thesis will outline the potential impact of the device, review governing seismic wave behavior and the current state of the seismic measurement field, as well as outline the components, development, and future development of the instrument

An Unconventional Once Upon A Time: A need for a children\u27s book describing the challenges of a deployed spouse

There are many texts that focus on a child’s experiences and difficulties when a parent is away in the army or at war. Currently, there are no books that provide the perspective of a parent or spouse\u27s struggles in dealing with their loved one who is away, and taking care of what is left at home. This independent study had a purpose of not only providing another resource for children to cope, but to allow for them to gain perspective of someone else’s experience as well. The story written speaks not from a child’s perspective, but from one of an adult dealing with having her loved one serving during war time. The fairytale element to the text is meant to act as a child-directed element in order to engage students. The purpose of this text and research is to provide information and awareness for those suffering, and for others to understand the difficulty and be able to provide support for one another as well

Interview with Rachel Adams, Class of 2020

Oral history interview with Illinois State University alumnus Rachel Adams, Class of 2020. The interview was conducted on August 4, 2022, by Ryan Cox, at the time an undergraduate student at Illinois State University. They discussed their involvement in History Club, working in Milner Library, graduating during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and working at ISU as a recent alumnus.https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/aoh/1042/thumbnail.jp

How Do the Perceived Barriers, Attitudes, and Knowledge of Grocery Store Personnel Affect Availability of Organic Food Products?

Organic food is one of the fastest-growing segments of food production and consumption in the U.S. Even though organic foods are becoming more widely available, some studies suggest they may not be equally available to all populations because people in some areas are being excluded from the organics market either geographically or financially. The purpose of this study was to examine how individual and local characteristics affect the attitudes of grocery store personnel toward organic food products and how these attitudes affect availability. Grocery store personnel were surveyed about their attitudes toward organic foods, their perceptions of the barriers to offering organic foods, their knowledge of organic foods, and the availability of organic foods in their stores. The survey data was then matched to contextual statistics about the local environment from the USDA\u27s Food Environment Atlas based on the store locations. Multi-variate regression analyses were conducted to determine which individual, store, and county characteristics influenced store personnel attitudes and how their attitudes influenced the availability of organic foods at their stores. The results shothat store type was a strong predictor of attitudes, especially regarding perceived barriers and customer demand. Out of the types of stores examined, personnel from natural/gourmet food stores reported lower perceived barriers and more positive attitudes about customer demand, and personnel from convenience stores reported higher perceived barriers and more negative attitudes about customer demand. Among the county-level characteristics, relative price of milk and percentage of white residents proved to be the strongest predictors of attitudes toward organics. Attitude toward customer demand for organic products was the strongest positive predictor of availability, while perceived barriers had the strongest negative correlation. This is a logical conclusion, and it supports previous findings that organics are more likely to be made available if store managers perceive barriers to be low and customer demand to be high. Other significant findings about availability were that younger age and white race are correlated with greater availability of organic products. There was also a strong negative association between convenience stores and organic availability

Contribution of Vegetation to the Microbial Composition of Nearby Outdoor Air.

UnlabelledGiven that epiphytic microbes are often found in large population sizes on plants, we tested the hypothesis that plants are quantitatively important local sources of airborne microorganisms. The abundance of microbial communities, determined by quantifying bacterial 16S RNA genes and the fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, in air collected directly above vegetation was 2- to 10-fold higher than that in air collected simultaneously in an adjacent nonvegetated area 50 m upwind. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling revealed that the composition of airborne bacteria in upwind air samples grouped separately from that of downwind air samples, while communities on plants and downwind air could not be distinguished. In contrast, fungal taxa in air samples were more similar to each other than to the fungal epiphytes. A source-tracking algorithm revealed that up to 50% of airborne bacteria in downwind air samples were presumably of local plant origin. The difference in the proportional abundances of a given operational taxonomic unit (OTU) between downwind and upwind air when regressed against the proportional representation of this OTU on the plant yielded a positive slope for both bacteria and fungi, indicating that those taxa that were most abundant on plants proportionally contributed more to downwind air. Epiphytic fungi were less of a determinant of the microbiological distinctiveness of downwind air and upwind air than epiphytic bacteria. Emigration of epiphytic bacteria and, to a lesser extent, fungi, from plants can thus influence the microbial composition of nearby air, a finding that has important implications for surrounding ecosystems, including the built environment into which outdoor air can penetrate.ImportanceThis paper addresses the poorly understood role of bacterial and fungal epiphytes, the inhabitants of the aboveground plant parts, in the composition of airborne microbes in outdoor air. It is widely held that epiphytes contribute to atmospheric microbial assemblages, but much of what we know is limited to qualitative assessments. Elucidating the sources of microbes in outdoor air can inform basic biological processes seen in airborne communities (e.g., dispersal and biogeographical patterns). Furthermore, given the considerable contribution of outdoor air to microbial communities found within indoor environments, the understanding of plants as sources of airborne microbes in outdoor air might contribute to our understanding of indoor air quality. With an experimental design developed to minimize the likelihood of other-than-local plant sources contributing to the composition of airborne microbes, we provide direct evidence that plants are quantitatively important local sources of airborne microorganisms, with implications for the surrounding ecosystems

Aristotle on mind

The mind as it is found in Aristotle\u27s great work De Anima is a special capacity of the soul. It has both active and passive properties that work together to allow discursive thinking and moral ethical behavior to emerge. This work will look at Aristotle\u27s philosophy of mind, and I will forward a new interpretation of the mind as he understood it: what I call the active and passive mind property dualism. Aristotle\u27s four causes allow for a unique application of a form of dualism that accounts for the ontological status of the mind and the emergence of rational thinking. The importance of potentiality and actuality in Aristotle\u27s metaphysics gives a different sort of formulation of the mind-body problem than is traditionally understood in the philosophy of mind. The first section of this paper will look at the terms used, especially actuality and potentiality. A comparison to Plato\u27s tripartite soul will be given. Next, Aristotle\u27s different kinds of soul and their varied capacities will be explored. Finally, the active mind will be explained as it appears in Book III, chapter 5

Passive sampling methods for contaminated sediments: scientific rationale supporting use of freely dissolved concentrations.

Passive sampling methods (PSMs) allow the quantification of the freely dissolved concentration (Cfree ) of an organic contaminant even in complex matrices such as sediments. Cfree is directly related to a contaminant\u27s chemical activity, which drives spontaneous processes including diffusive uptake into benthic organisms and exchange with the overlying water column. Consequently, Cfree provides a more relevant dose metric than total sediment concentration. Recent developments in PSMs have significantly improved our ability to reliably measure even very low levels of Cfree . Application of PSMs in sediments is preferably conducted in the equilibrium regime, where freely dissolved concentrations in the sediment are well-linked to the measured concentration in the sampler via analyte-specific partition ratios. The equilibrium condition can then be assured by measuring a time series or a single time point using passive samplers with different surface to volume ratios. Sampling in the kinetic regime is also possible and generally involves the application of performance reference compounds for the calibration. Based on previous research on hydrophobic organic contaminants, it is concluded that Cfree allows a direct assessment of 1) contaminant exchange and equilibrium status between sediment and overlying water, 2) benthic bioaccumulation, and 3) potential toxicity to benthic organisms. Thus, the use of PSMs to measure Cfree provides an improved basis for the mechanistic understanding of fate and transport processes in sediments and has the potential to significantly improve risk assessment and management of contaminated sediments