Identifying And Improving Green Spaces On A College Campus: A Photovoice Study

Research suggests that a large percent of college students experience stress due to the demands of college life. Campus health professionals use a wide range of interventions to reduce student stress; however, the ability of green spaces on campuses to alleviate stress is often lacking in college health programs and related research. In this study, photovoice methodology was used to conduct a community-based participatory research project in order to identify and improve campus green spaces that students frequent for stress relief. Participants included 45 undergraduate students enrolled in an emotional health course. Students were instructed to take photos that addressed two open-ended questions: (1) What green spaces on campus do you visit to alleviate stress? (2) How could the green spaces on campus be improved for alleviating stress? Afterward, students analyzed and placed their photos into distinct themes. Results showed that students enjoyed green spaces that featured both man-made structures (e.g., swings, fountains, benches) and exclusively natural areas (e.g., magnolia trees, campus parks). Students indicated that campus areas in need of improvement for alleviating stress included trash cans, areas lacking landscaping, piles of cigarette butts, and a dilapidated campus tower. Spaces that helped alleviate stress and spaces that needed improvement were both reflective of Attention Restoration Theory. At the culmination of the project, the students shared their findings with the campus community at a photo exhibit. During the exhibit, students' voices were heard by campus administrators in positions of authority (e.g., chancellor, director of Facilities Operations, grounds crew supervisor)

Monitoring Outdoor Tobacco Policies Of Virginia Colleges: A Descriptive Analysis

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to monitor current outdoor tobacco policies of colleges within the state of Virginia. Methods: The tobacco policies of 2-year public colleges, 4-year public colleges, and 4-year private non-profit colleges in Virginia were located online. The policies were then categorized according to the types of tobacco products that were prohibited (Smoking Policies, Tobacco Policies, and E-cigarette Policies) and where those products were prohibited outdoors (No Policy, Entrance Policy, Perimeter Policy, Designated Smoking Areas Policy, All Grounds Policy). Findings: From a final sample of 62 college policies, 2 (3%) had No Policy, 29 (47%) had an Entrance Policy, 12 (19%) had a Perimeter Policy, 10 (16%) had a Designated Smoking Areas Policy, and 9 (15%) had an All Grounds Policy. Conclusions: The far majority of colleges do not meet national recommendations for outdoor tobacco policies. Practical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed in the article

Student Experiences With Community-Based Enforcement Of A Smoke-Free University

A common approach to enforcing a university smoke-free policy is through “community-based” enforcement, in which the entire campus community is responsible for asking smokers in violation to abide by the policy. The purpose of the study was to explore university students’ experiences with this strategy of enforcing a smoke-free policy. A total of 43 undergraduate students were interviewed regarding their experiences and opinions of community enforcement. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using phenomenological methods, in which six major themes emerged from the data: Fear (alarm that smokers might respond with verbal insults orphysical violence), Situational (enforcing the policy depended on violators’ distance, group settings, strangers vs. peers), Protect Image (not wanting to be viewed as annoying, judgmental, or offensive), Lack of Authority (feeling a lack of authority to enforce the smoking policy), Compassion (empathy that violators smoke due to physical/emotional needs), and Enforcer (willingness to confront a policy violator). These findings reflected previous studies regarding people’s fear to ask a smoker to extinguish a cigarette, feelings of a lack of authority, and so on. The study demonstrated that using only a community-based approach to enforcement may not be a realistic responsibility to impose on an entire campus community

Conlangtionary: Prototyping a Language-Agnostic Dictionary For The Web

This project documents a prototype system that represents spoken languages of arbitrary structure or complexity for use by ?eld linguists and conlangers. The prototype is capable of representing complex languages, but serves only as a foundation for future work, as it lacks many generative features that would make it appealing to its target audience

The Reading Level Of Government And Voluntary Health Organization Smoking Cessation Websites: A Descriptive Analysis

Background: The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (USDHHS) recommends that health material be written at or below a sixth-grade reading level to ensure readability. Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the readability of online smoking cessation materials from several government and voluntary health organizations. Methods: A purposive sample of publicly accessible governmental and voluntary health organization websites was selected. The readability of the websites’ smoking cessation information was estimated using the previously validated SMOG readability formula, which determined reading level by correlating the number of polysyllabic words. Results: Of the 55 websites included in the analysis, none had cessation information at the USDHHS’s recommended reading level. The material ranged in reading level from seventh grade to a third year in college. Discussion: The findings indicate that the online cessation materials need to be modified in order to reach recommended reading levels. Translation to Health Education Practice: This study can be of practical use to Health Educators when designing, modifying, and evaluating smoking cessation materials. Several free, online government resources are available to assist Health Educators in using simple, non-polysyllable words to ensure that smoking cessation materials are written at the recommended reading levels

Student, Faculty, And Staff Approval Of University Smoke/Tobacco-Free Policies: An Analysis Of Campus Newspaper Articles

Objective: To provide a nontraditional source of data to university policymakers regarding student, faculty, and staff approval of university smoke/tobacco-free policies, as published through campus newspaper articles. Methods: From January to April 2016, a total of 2523 articles were retrieved concerning campus smoking/tobacco at 4-year, public universities. Of these, 54 articles met the inclusion factors, which described 30 surveys about campus approval of tobacco-free policies and 24 surveys about smoke-free policies. Results: In all, the surveys included more than 130000 respondents. With the exception of 4 surveys, all reported that the most of the respondents approved a tobacco/smoke-free campus policy. Conclusions: Although the study had several limitations, the findings provide a synthesis from a nontraditional data source that is consistent with findings from the peer-reviewed literature, in which most of the students, faculty, and staff on university campuses approve of smoke/tobacco-free campus policies

Burn Injuries Caused By E-Cigarette Explosions: A Systematic Review Of Published Cases

E-cigarettes have the potential to cause burns from batteries that explode. Although e-cigarette explosion burns have been reported by the media (e.g. local online news, blogs), there is a need for a comprehensive review of published medical case reports regarding these injuries. CINAHL and PubMed were systematically searched using common terms regarding e-cigarettes (electronic cigarette, e-cigarette, vape, vaping, electronic nicotine delivery systems) in every combination with the term ‘explosion’. Peer-reviewed articles were included if they: were written in English, described case reports of burn injuries caused by e-cigarette explosions, and were published in any year. Cases were categorized by demographics, location of the e-cigarette explosion, burned body areas, types of burns, total body surface area of burns, the need for skin grafting, and the length of hospital stay. Thirty-one articles were included in the review and described 164 cases. Most patients (90%) were male and between 20 to 29 years old. In the majority of cases (65%), e-cigarettes exploded in pockets, compared to exploding in the face or hand. Common burned areas included the thigh, hand, genitals, and face. Burn severity was typically second-degree burns (35%) or a combination of second-degree and third-degree burns (20%). In all, 48 patients required skin grafting, with 19 reporting a median hospital stay of 5 days. This review has several implications, including the need for regulation of batteries, education regarding battery safety, and leveraging images of the severity of e-cigarette explosion burns to discourage the use of e-cigarettes

Understanding Computer Science Academic Performance Using Principal Components Analysis

Some students perform better in school than others. Some classes are also harder than others. This thesis poses the question: Are there types of students that do better in certain types of classes? We model student grades as a combination of class difficulty, student GPA, and student-class preference using student transcript data for Computer Science undergraduates at Appalachian State University. This thesis applies principal components analysis to relate classes to each other, interprets these relationships, and quantifies their importance for grade estimation

The effect of sexist humor on women's sense of possible-selves

Social identity theory encourages the importance of maintaining a positive self-image, and positive view of one’s own group (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). A person’s sense of possible-selves (the imaginations of who they are and who they could be in any given interaction) can become damaged when interacting with an individual who encourages threatening stereotypes (Brown, 1998). The present study aims to extend the understandings of how one’s image can be threatened, via “social identity-threat,” using sexist humor. In this study, participants’ ideations of their “possible-selves” will be measured by how they respond to self-survey questionnaires. Participants will imagine interactions with a graduate Teaching Assistant who engages in humor by telling jokes. The humor will be sexist or neutral in manner. The imagined interaction will contain either a confederate (TA) who offers the jokes, or a different confederate whose behaviors are ambiguous and does not participate in the jokes. I hypothesize that by degrading and diminishing women, sexist humor will derogate and threaten women’s social identities, and break their sense of self-worth, in a way that isn’t limited to contextual factors

Students At Risk Of Being Marked On By Peers Due To Alcohol Poisoning: An Exploratory Study

This study explored the behavior of bystanders at parties who use markers to draw on intoxicated college students who show symptoms of alcohol poisoning, rather than helping those students. Half (50%) of the study’s 111 students reported being at a party where an intoxicated college student was drawn on with markers while passed out. The most common sign of alcohol poisoning observed was that the person could not be roused (63%). The most common location of drawings was the face (89%) and common items drawn were genitals (59%) and profanity (45%). The personal and legal ramifications of this is discussed