“The Other Hangover”: Implementing and Evaluating an Original, Student-Designed Campaign to Curb Binge Drinking

Binge drinking is a serious health and safety issue that has continued to plague college campuses, despite decades of education campaigns promoting moderation towards alcohol. As part of a student advertising competition, undergraduates were asked to develop an integrated marketing campaign focused on reducing binge drinking among college students which would successfully capture attention and resonate with their peers. The campaign the students created, called “The Other Hangover,” takes a unique approach to the binge-drinking issue—focusing attention on the social consequences of overconsumption, such as damage to one’s reputation and the loss of friendships. This case study examines the strategic development and implementation of the campaign, a process which was largely managed by undergraduate students connected to the project. In addition results of the evaluation effort which was conducted to measure the campaign’s success are reported, along with discussion questions designed for students and educators to further explore the relevant issues related to the project

Global Flows with Invariant Measures for the Inviscid Modified SQG Equations

We consider the family known as modified or generalized surface quasi-geostrophic equations (mSQG) consisting of the classical inviscid surface quasi-geostrophic (SQG) equation together with a family of regularized active scalars given by introducing a smoothing operator of nonzero but possibly arbitrarily small degree. This family naturally interpolates between the 2D Euler equation and the SQG equation. For this family of equations we construct an invariant measure on a rough $L^2$-based Sobolev space and establish the existence of solutions of arbitrarily large lifespan for initial data in a set of full measure in the rough Sobolev space.Comment: 18 page

Mechanical testing of nanotwinned alloys

There has been much interest recently in nanotwinned metals due to their potential for simultaneous high strength and ductility. By introducing alloying elements, one can modify the stacking fault energy of the material, allowing for the synthesis of fully twinned structures with controlled microstructures. In this study, fully nanotwinned Cu-based binary alloys and Inconel 600 were synthesized by magnetron sputtering with stacking fault energies ranging from 6 to 60 mJ/m2, mean twin thicknesses ranging from 4 to 22 nm, and mean grain sizes ranging from 80 to 260 nm. Tensile and tension-tension fatigue behavior of these materials was determined with a custom-built small-scale tensile tester utilizing DIC to generate in-situ strain maps. The effects of varying microstructure are examined for different alloy systems in order to understand the effect of alloying elements in the mechanical behavior. The samples displayed yield strengths ranging from 830 to 1340 MPa for the Cu-based alloys and up to 2400 MPa for the Inconel 600, varying with both alloy content and microstructural parameters. Nanoindentation tests were also used to evaluate the deformation behavior for dual microstructures of twinned and non-twinned grains in order to identify optimum ductility

The neighbourhood physical environment and active travel in older adults : a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Perceived and objectively-assessed aspects of the neighbourhood physical environment have been postulated to be key contributors to regular engagement in active travel (AT) in older adults. We systematically reviewed the literature on neighbourhood physical environmental correlates of AT in older adults and applied a novel meta-analytic approach to statistically quantify the strength of evidence for environment-AT associations. METHODS: Forty two quantitative studies that estimated associations of aspects of the neighbourhood built environment with AT in older adults (aged ≥ 65 years) and met selection criteria were reviewed and meta-analysed. Findings were analysed according to five AT outcomes (total walking for transport, within-neighbourhood walking for transport, combined walking and cycling for transport, cycling for transport, and all AT outcomes combined) and seven categories of the neighbourhood physical environment (residential density/urbanisation, walkability, street connectivity, access to/availability of services/destinations, pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, aesthetics and cleanliness/order, and safety and traffic). RESULTS: Most studies examined correlates of total walking for transport. A sufficient amount of evidence of positive associations with total walking for transport was found for residential density/urbanisation, walkability, street connectivity, overall access to destinations/services, land use mix, pedestrian-friendly features and access to several types of destinations. Littering/vandalism/decay was negatively related to total walking for transport. Limited evidence was available on correlates of cycling and combined walking and cycling for transport, while sufficient evidence emerged for a positive association of within-neighbourhood walking with pedestrian-friendly features and availability of benches/sitting facilities. Correlates of all AT combined mirrored those of walking for transport. Positive associations were also observed with food outlets, business/institutional/industrial destinations, availability of street lights, easy access to building entrance and human and motorised traffic volume. Several but inconsistent individual- and environmental-level moderators of associations were identified. CONCLUSIONS: Results support strong links between the neighbourhood physical environment and older adults’ AT. Future research should focus on the identification of types and mixes of destinations that support AT in older adults and how these interact with individual characteristics and other environmental factors. Future research should also aim to clarify dose-response relationships through multi-country investigations and data-pooling from diverse geographical regions. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12966-017-0471-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Discovery of low-metallicity stars in the central parsec of the Milky Way

We present a metallicity analysis of 83 late-type giants within the central 1 pc of the Milky Way. K-band spectroscopy of these stars were obtained with the medium-spectral resolution integral-field spectrograph NIFS on Gemini North using laser-guide star adaptive optics. Using spectral template fitting with the MARCS synthetic spectral grid, we find that there is large variation in metallicity, with stars ranging from [M/H] $<$ -1.0 to above solar metallicity. About 6\% of the stars have [M/H] $<$ -0.5. This result is in contrast to previous observations, with smaller samples, that show stars at the Galactic center have approximately solar metallicity with only small variations. Our current measurement uncertainties are dominated by systematics in the model, especially at [M/H] $>$ 0, where there are stellar lines not represented in the model. However, the conclusion that there are low metallicity stars, as well as large variations in metallicity is robust. The metallicity may be an indicator of the origin of these stars. The low-metallicity population is consistent with that of globular clusters in the Milky Way, but their small fraction likely means that globular cluster infall is not the dominant mechanism for forming the Milky Way nuclear star cluster. The majority of stars are at or above solar metallicity, which suggests they were formed closer to the Galactic center or from the disk. In addition, our results indicate that it will be important for star formation history analyses using red giants at the Galactic center to consider the effect of varying metallicity.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, ApJ Accepte