Sensory Evaluation of Dark Chocolate Sugar Cookies Prepared With Fat Substitutes

The purpose of this experiment was to create a heart friendly double chocolate sugar cookie by substituting three different types of fat and evaluating sensory characteristics of each. This experiment took place at Ouachita Baptist University. The control consisted of a batch of cookies with the original ingredients and the same baking time. There were three variations of fat to the original recipe. The three variations used were margarine Promise®, olive oil margarine Smart Balance®, and unsweetened applesauce. The four cookies were taste tested by eighteen dietetics students and volunteers. The taste testers evaluated the cookies using a scorecard based four different characteristics ranking the characteristics between one and nine, with one being disliked extremely and nine being liked extremely. The results showed that the batch of cookies substituted with margarine Promise® were the best

Understanding Alcohol Marketing and Youth Alcohol Consumption in Kampala, Uganda

Introduction: Alcohol consumption leads to a disproportionate number of deaths around the globe every given year. Most of the current research regarding alcohol consumption is conducted not only on the adult population, but among what could be considered affluent first-world counties in North America and Europe. This undermines two key populations, developing and under-resourced countries, and youth. Alcohol marketing is also a widely used tool to advance sales within countries, however its impact upon communities is also lacking research. This study seeks to not only advance research by studying youth in Kampala, Uganda, but to look at the relationship between drinking habits and alcohol marketing exposure among youth who live on the streets and in the slums. Methods: The Kampala Youth Survey is a cross-sectional survey administered in 2014 to youth ages 12 to 18 years old, living in the slums of Kampala, Uganda (n=1,134). This study subset its survey population to look specifically at youth who had responded to questions regarding drinking habits and alcohol exposure (n=413). Descriptive statistics were calculated and logistic regression was conducted using SAS 9.3. Results: Among the population of youth included within the study, 89.1% had a high exposure to alcohol marketing within their communities. Among participants, 84.18% had consumed alcohol within the past year and 94.49% had consumed alcohol within the last 30 days. The results of the logistic regression showed that there was a significant association between age and alcohol consumption within the last year and within the last 30 days in 2014. It also showed that certain locations were also a significant indicator of alcohol consumption. High alcohol marketing exposure was not seen as significant over low exposure, though high levels reported could indicate that future research will find it to be significant. Conclusions: Exposure to alcohol marketing towards youth is a dangerous and impactful tool that can lead to alcohol consumption. While this study could not show that a higher exposure to alcohol marketing impacts drinking at a higher rate, the results suggest that alcohol marketing exposure in any form can impact drinking habits within youth. This realization is dangerous and gives pathways for not only future studies, but future regulations around alcohol marketing to protect youth not only in Kampala, but globally

Slough: Revealing the Animal

When making my work I constantly reflect on past mythologies, images, and objects. These served people as a way to make sense of and understand the dynamics of the world around them. As we continue to alter and shape the world into one designed for exclusively human benefit, we need new models that reveal the dynamics of our relationship to the world around us. This is what artists have been doing for centuries, and I specifically look to those using animals and animal imagery in their work to further mythologize our contemporary understanding of the human-other animal relationship. My body of work utilizes methods of drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and video to create contemporary icons, objects, and rituals. Icons are re-appropriated, objects are redefined, and rituals are reinterpreted in my work in a way that becomes relevant again for a contemporary audience. Animal imagery is used in a way that explores current trends in genetics, industry, consumerism, and power to reveal this contemporary mythology. These are certainly informed by the prehistoric understanding of this relationship as it is in jarring contrast to our notions today. This juxtaposition serves to illuminate how this relationship has been distorted in this historically recent time while aiming to enlighten us to the power of the other, the thing-ness or vitality of the animal and re-calibrate contemporary notions in order to achieve reconciliation with a natural order of things

Plasmon-mediated Energy Conversion in Metal Nanoparticle-doped Hybrid Nanomaterials

Climate change and population growth demand long-term solutions for clean water and energy. Plasmon-active nanomaterials offer a promising route towards improved energetics for efficient chemical separation and light harvesting schemes. Two material platforms featuring highly absorptive plasmonic gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are advanced herein to maximize photon conversion into thermal or electronic energy. Optical extinction, attributable to diffraction-induced internal reflection, was enhanced up to 1.5-fold in three-dimensional polymer films containing AuNPs at interparticle separations approaching the resonant wavelength. Comprehensive methods developed to characterize heat dissipation following plasmonic absorption was extended beyond conventional optical and heat transfer descriptions, where good agreement was obtained between measured and estimated thermal profiles for AuNP-polymer dispersions. Concurrently, in situ reduction of AuNPs on two-dimensional semiconducting tungsten disulfide (WS2) addressed two current material limitations for efficient light harvesting: low monolayer content and lack of optoelectronic tunability. Order-of-magnitude increases in WS2 monolayer content, enhanced broadband optical extinction, and energetic electron injection were probed using a combination of spectroscopic techniques and continuum electromagnetic descriptions. Together, engineering these plasmon-mediated hybrid nanomaterials to facilitate local exchange of optical, thermal, and electronic energy supports design and implementation into several emerging sustainable water and energy applications

Grassroots and Professional Volunteers: Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee 1982-1994

The issue of food insecurity is a growing problem. Multiple studies and organizations have examined and attempted to solve the issue of hunger. The Hunger Task Force was founded in Milwaukee in 1974 and influenced by grassroots organizing of concerned Milwaukee residents’ efforts to help alleviate hunger in Milwaukee. I examine the historical context of the city of Milwaukee that led to the inception of the Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee. This thesis delves deeper into the origins of the Hunger Task Force and how those origins related to its operations in the 1980s and early 1990s. I utilize archival data from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) and published secondary literature to define and analyze what I am calling the elite and nonelite volunteer programs at the Hunger Task Force. Elites were mostly white career professionals, and nonelites were low-income women of color. This shows the effects of an organization deploying its volunteers differently and departing from its origins of operating. It also explores the importance of community voice in advocacy work and governance. This thesis argues that elite and nonelite Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee volunteers received unequal levels of supervision due to the different level of trust by the Board of Directors

The transfer veteran student experience: Exploring college choice, transition, and collegiate experiences of veterans

The tragic series of events that took place on September 11, 2001, changed the course of this nation and became the catalyst for wars that have spanned for more than a decade. As a result, over 2 million veterans have been deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), and Operation New Dawn. In 2008, President George W. Bush signed into law provisions for what has been commonly referred to as the Post 9/11 GI Bill. This legislation substantially increased educational benefits for veterans and has led to an increase of veterans enrolling in institutions of higher education across the country. Unfortunately, we still know very little about the student veteran, aside from the recent literature that has largely focused on combat veterans and the issues they face relative to their transition from the military to college. This qualitative collective case study takes a different approach as it focuses on the experiences of 14 transfer student veterans and their satisfaction at Southeast Public University. Tinto’s (1993) model of student attrition was used as a guiding framework, as this study did not focus on the veteran’s decision to depart their previous institution but to explore their current experience at Southeast Public University

Financial Report, 2007

This resource is one among many in the UMSLCAB open dataset at IRL.UMSL.edu/CABhttps://irl.umsl.edu/cab/1442/thumbnail.jp

Financial Report, 2003

This resource is one among many in the UMSLCAB open dataset at IRL.UMSL.edu/CABhttps://irl.umsl.edu/cab/1388/thumbnail.jp

Financial Report, 2006

This resource is one among many in the UMSLCAB open dataset at IRL.UMSL.edu/CABhttps://irl.umsl.edu/cab/1432/thumbnail.jp

ANALYSIS OF CHALLENGES FACED BY UNDERREPRESENTED GROUPS AND THEIR SOURCES

In this thesis, we use surveys and interviews with first-term Sailors on board U.S. naval ships to identify the factors most influential in their stay/leave decisions and how these factors vary across gender and race/ethnicity groups. Our framework of analysis is built on Frederick Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory and Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory to highlight relationships between factors of diversity of leadership and peers, mentoring, and first-term retention. Our analysis finds that most underrepresented groups and females have very different experiences than non-Hispanic whites in relation to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs factors of safety and security, social needs, esteem needs and self-actualization. Of these factors, negative experiences in social needs, which encompasses mentorship, the sense of belonging, and peer support, was found to have the largest impact on retention decisions of underrepresented groups and females. Based on these findings, our recommendation is the implementation of measures and strategic directives that address and resolve the gap felt in the lack of social needs fulfillment. We believe these findings can assist Navy leadership in their continuing efforts to improve strategies and initiatives to recruit, develop, and retain a high-quality military workforce. Improved racial and gender minority retention is a vital element in cultivating workforce talent and unlocking our Navy’s full potential in better support of national defense.OPNAV N17Lieutenant, United States Navy ReserveLieutenant Commander, United States NavyApproved for public release. distribution is unlimite