Healthy Homes Neighbor to Neighbor Model

Ensuring the over health and well-being of a community is dependent not only on the healthcare professionals and resources in that community, but also the accessibility and reach of healthcare knowledge. Healthy Androscoggin established The Neighbor to Neighbor Healthy Homes Program in 2018 in order to spread awareness about environmental health risks in the homes of New Mainers by promoting community-held healthcare knowledge. The New Mainers working with Healthy Androscoggin are community members who have recently resettled in Maine from different African origin countries. The aim of the Neighbor to Neighbor Program, which is a branch of the Healthy Homes Initiative, is to identify and mitigate the most prevalent environmental health risks in the homes of New Mainers in Lewiston, Maine. Healthy Androscoggin collaborated with ambassadors from different African origin countries to educate their friends, families, and neighbors in order to share the Healthy Homes Education and behaviors that are affordable, attainable, and long-lasting. Healthy Androscoggin created and administered two surveys over the course of three weeks in order to evaluate the initial transfer and retention of healthcare knowledge among participating neighbors. Through a partnership between Bates College Environmental Studies Program and Healthy Androscoggin, we developed a third survey that was conducted eight months after the initial Healthy Homes Education session. The third survey aimed to identify what Healthy Homes behaviors were difficult to maintain, if the neighbors remembered all of the information from the initial education session, and if participants noticed changes in their personal health. The surveys consisted of both ‘yes/no’ and narrative questions in which ambassadors followed-up with neighbors about their experience in the program. The results from all three surveys were analyzed in order to recognize the current environmental health concerns among New Mainers, determine the overall success of the health education model, and inform future directions for the program. One major finding from the third survey was that 100 percent of the participants noticed changes in their overall health over the eight-month program period. In addition, 80 percent of the participating neighbors shared their Healthy Homes education with friends, family, and peers not formally enrolled in the program. This demonstrates that the program will continue to function even without the initial education provided by Healthy Androscoggin. Furthermore, this suggests that Healthy Androscoggin successfully promoted community-held healthcare knowledge about environmental health risks in Lewiston was established. Survey 3 also identified a new health concern among New Mainers that had not been explicitly addressed by the program. Some participating neighbors were concerned that their homes were not equipped with carbon monoxide detectors or that the existing detectors were not 3 functioning properly. Perhaps the most noteworthy findings from the third survey was that the Healthy Homes information assisted participants as they searched for new homes, thus encouraging tenants to advocate for their health. One third of participants from Survey 3 moved to new homes over the course of the eight months and explained that their decision to move and criteria for a new home was informed by the Healthy Homes Education. Lastly, multiple neighbors expressed a need for additional support when communicating with landlords about hazards such as lead and radon exposure. This alludes to the broader, systematic barriers that prevent those who are disproportionately impacted by environmental hazards from gaining true autonomy and control over their health. It is clear from the survey results that individual and community actions were successful in promoting community held healthcare knowledge. However, these actions can only go so far without structural, social, and political support

Moving from Rescue to Healing: Pit Bulls as Icons of White Salvation

Since their presence in black communities became visible in the 1980s, pit bulls have been understood as aggressive and inherently violent.[1] In more modern rescue efforts there are often underlying intents to “save” pit bulls from their association with black and low- income identities. By encouraging a type of pit bull activism that depends on relocation into white, suburban homes, pit bull activists perpetuate racist ideas about who is a savior, and who needs to be saved. Through this paper I hope to show the ways animals’ bodies are used as symbols of the right way to be.[2] Rather than choosing pit bull activism that depends on white salvation, I will promote activism that instead is centered on a logic of healing with and support. The act of “healing with” is meant to show how intimate acts of being with an animal creates a space in which both the identities of pit bulls and low-income/black communities will benefit from co-creating a joint identity. In a logic of support, I hope to promote recognition of the ways that racial oppression has created barriers to animal ownership in low-income communities. In doing this I will suggest that activist groups do work to support the continued ownership of animals in communities of color, by providing aid such as veterinary services. In healing with and encouraging animal companionship in communities of color I hope to avoid narratives of white salvation, that reinforce racial anxieties about African American identities. [1] Bronwen Dickey, Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon (New York: Random House, 2016), 130-146. [2] Weaver, Harlan. “‘Becoming in Kind’: Race, Class, Gender, and Nation in Cultures of Dog Rescue and Dogfighting.” American Quarterly 65, no. 3 (2013)

THE S1(n,π∗S_1 (n,\pi^{*}) STATE OF 2-CYCLOHEXEN-1-ONE: CAVITY RINGDOWN ABSORPTION SPECTRUM AND DFT CALCULATIONS

Author Institution: Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-\mbox{Eau Claire},; Eau Claire, WI 54702; Department of Chemistry, Hanyang University, Ansan 425-791,; Korea; Department of Chemistry, Texas A \& M University, College Station, TX 77843The cavity ringdown absorption spectra of 2-cyclohexen-1-one (2CHO) and a deuterated derivative were recorded near 380 nm in a room-temperature gas cell. The weak band system ($\epsilon \approx$ 20 $M^{-1}$ ${\rm cm}^{-1}$) in this region is due to the $S_1(n, \pi$*$) \leftarrow S_0$ electronic transition. The origin band was observed at \mbox{26,081(1) ${\rm cm}^{-1}$} for the undeuterated molecule and at \mbox{26,076(1) ${\rm cm}^{-1}$} for 2CHO-2,6,6-$d_3$. For the $d_0$ isotopomer, about 40 vibronic transitions have been assigned in a region from $-300$ to \mbox{$+700$ ${\rm cm}^{-1}$} relative to the origin band. Nearly every corresponding assignment was made for the $d_3$ species. Several fundamental vibrational frequencies in the $S_1$ state, as well as the five lowest ring-puckering (or inversion) energy levels in the $S_1$ state, have been determined for the $d_0/d_3$ isotopomers. The spectroscopic results are summarized below (frequencies in cm$^{-1}$, uncertainties $\pm 0.5$ cm$^{-1}$), along with results of a DFT calculation of the $d_0$ isotopomer: \begin{center}Vibrational frequencies of 2CHO in its $S_1$ state \end{center} \vspace{-3mm} \begin{displaymath} \begin{array}{cccccccc}\hline {\rm mode} & {\rm description} & d_0 & d_0 \hspace{0.02in}(\rm DFT \hspace{0.05in} calc) & d_3 & v'_{39} & d_0 & d_3 \\ \hline \rule[0mm]{0mm}{3mm} \nu'_{39} & {\rm inversion} & 122.1 & 120.8 & 114.4 & 1 & 122.1 & 114.4 \\ \nu'_{38} & {\rm ring \hspace{0.05in} bending} & 251.9 & 249.9 & 236.9 & 2 & 243.8 & 228.6\\ \nu'_{37} & {\rm C\hspace{-0.03in}=\hspace{-0.03in}C \hspace{0.05in} twisting} & 303.3 & 298.4 & 294.6 & 3 & 364.5 & 341.8\\ \nu'_{36} & {\rm carbonyl \hspace{0.05in} deformation} & 343.9 & 341.9 & 332.0 & 4 & 485.3 & 455.3\\ & & & & & 5 & 603.6 & 565.7\\ \hline \end{array} \end{displaymath} The inversion-level spacings in the $S_1$ state indicate a barrier to planarity that is significantly higher than the 2000-cm$^{-1}$ barrier height of the ground electronic state. Work is in progress to fit an $S_1$ inversion potential to the spectroscopic data