Implementation of curbside recycling

My project is on the program of curbside recycling in Huntington, WV. Recycling came into play around the 1970s when reduce reuse recycle was introduced, since then many laws and implements have been created, some successful, and others not so much. There is a lot of research on recycling and some on curbside recycling but not much on the process of what it takes to implement the program. There have been bans that do not allow our recyclables to go where it once went, many questions to if it even gets recycled, and the education of how to recycle. In my research, I have found what other small towns have done and if it is working, as well as what our city workers believe about the recycling program. Even if we do not get curbside recycling, this will help our town understand why we couldn\u27t and what goes on behind the scenes

School: A Community and Environmental Resource

Schools play an important role in the lives of children, and can play a larger role in the broader community. Throughout history, schools have existed that have been connected to the environment, whether it was to simply provide children with the opportunity to spend time outside, or to teach students about the natural world. With the state of climate change that exists today, connecting students to the environment is of utmost importance. Students must understand the environment, in order to appropriately understand the threat of climate change, and ultimately take action to combat it. Schools are an ideal location to incorporate environmental education. Different styles of learning can be accommodated through environmental education, such as project-based and problem-based hands-on work, or individual research work. Education can take place on the campus and in the community, to help students have a sense of place and feel connected to where they are, while potentially improving local conditions for people and wildlife. Community members can also become involved in the environmental work done at schools, resulting in new relationships and intergenerational learning

Machine Shop Learning Kits

Currently in the Cal Poly Machine shops, students are struggling to find ways to fulfill the 10 hours of shop experience required to gain their Yellow Tag certification. Red Tag is the first level of certification students generally achieve their freshman year. It allows them to use basic machine tools such as drills, shears, benders, etc. Then after completing 10 hours of shop experience they can take the Yellow Tag test, which gains them access to use a welder, mill, and lathe. The heads of the machine shop, the shop technicians, and the mechanical engineering students will all have different but mutually beneficial advantages from these kits. Currently, the students ask shop technicians for ideas, and the employees of the shop then give them a stack of project folders on file. These folders contain photos of various wood and metal projects with limited instructions, and can be confusing for a student with no previous shop experience. Students currently have problems because these folders contain limited instructions, and so they are unable to immediately know the correct process to start making the project. Another problem associated with this current solution, is that many students are unable to acquire the proper materials due to lack of transportation or lack of knowledge about which materials they would need. Many students start college without shop or machinery experience, and so entering the machine shops can be intimidating. The managers of the Hangar and Mustang 60 would like to decrease any confusion with a set of kits containing basic and detailed instructions. These projects would ideally be creative and interesting projects students would enjoy making, and in the process learn how to use the various machinery available in both shops. Originally we assumed these students had never used a tool before. We then surveyed around 300 mechanical engineering students to gauge a more accurate depiction of average skill level. We will be designing these kits around the data found in our survey as discussed later in this report. These kits would be available and useful to all students attending Cal Poly who wish to increase their tool and manufacturing knowledge. Our goal, by the end of three quarters, is to create kits for mechanical engineering students to earn hours working in the shop and to become familiarized with the tools and resources there. We will have four kits designed for students with their Red Tag certification, which allows them to use wood tools and general sheet metal work. In addition we will have one kit for students who have their yellow tag, and wish to learn how to use the welders, mills, and lathes. This will give us a final count of 5 projects. Our overall objective is to create projects that contribute to furthering a student’s machining education, and give them first-hand experience with the tools in Mustang 60 and the Hangar. By the end we will deliver a total of five kits containing detailed instructions for kit assembly and product assembly. The different kits will require a variety of experience and certification, more specifically four red tag kits and 1 advanced yellow tag kit

Incorporating metrics and nonmetrics in the development of a population-inclusive sex estimation model using volume rendered CT images of the skull

In forensic anthropology, methods for estimating sex from the skeleton have historically been developed on skeletal collections comprised exclusively U.S. Black and white populations and thus inherently rely on ancestry estimation as a foundational component for the construction of the biological profile. However, these population-specific methods of sex estimation fundamentally limit the applicability, accuracy, and reliability of the method for use on remains of diverse population affiliations (ancestry). A reliable and population-inclusive method for estimating sex in the skeleton can serve as a useful tool for forensic investigators, especially in cases with unidentified remains where the population affiliation is indeterminate and in light of recent discourse involving the removal of ancestry estimation from the biological profile as a whole This study assessed the reliability of population-inclusive nonmetric and metric sex estimation from 3D-volume rendered computer tomography (CT) scans of the skull. The study sample was comprised of 431 individuals (242 males and 189 female) from the New Mexico Decedent Imaging Database (NMDID) and included a relatively equal distribution of African American, Asian American, European American, Latin American, and Native American population affinities. The images were obtained from the CT slices using 3D-reconstructions and volume rendering technique (VRT) in the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) viewer, exported to Meshmixer™ and then processed to isolate the skull from the postcranial skeleton and remove identifying objects. In Meshmixer™, nonmetric traits were scored following Buikstra and Ubelaker (1994) and Walker (2008) and included the supraorbital ridge/glabella, supraorbital margin, mastoid process, mental eminence and nuchal crest. The metric traits, following Spradley and Jantz (2011), included 18 points of measurement of the cranium and mandible. Binary logistic regression (BLR) and discriminant function analyses (DFA) were used to produce models and probabilities from the nonmetric a metric data respectively and an additional binary logistic regression was developed that combined both the nonmetric and metric data. Overall, the population-inclusive nonmetric and metric model produced classification accuracies that ranged from 81-87% and 86.7-87% respectively, and performed as well as population-specific models in estimating sex and were not significantly different from population-specific accuracies. When some of the population-specific models were applied across population, particularly the European American model, the classification accuracy was significantly reduced relative to the population-inclusive model. Intraobserver error was assessed for the nonmetric and metric data collection and confirmed that the nonmetric and metric methods of data collection for the volume-rendered images was consistent. The results of this study indicate that a population-inclusive nonmetric and metric models of sex estimation using the skull can be used in place of more traditional population-specific models in cases where ancestry is unknown, indeterminate, or in the event ancestry is removed from the biological profile

Improving Education Opportunity, Health, and Quality of Life of Orphans and Vulnerable Children: The Sustainable Action against HIV and AIDS in Communities (SAHACOM)

Aims: This study evaluated the impact of the Sustainable Action against HIV and AIDS in Communities (SAHACOM) project in improving education opportunity, health, and quality of life of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in Cambodia. Study Design: Operational intervention study. Place and Duration of the Study: Five provinces in Cambodia, from 2010 to 2014. Methodology: A two-stage cluster sampling method was used to select 756 OVC at midterm and 785 OVC at end line for face-to-face interviews. Outcome indicators from end line (2014) were compared to those obtained at midterm (2012). Where possible, the data were also compared with data obtained from baseline documentation (2010). Results: The percentage of OVC receiving external support for child care surged from 30.0% at baseline to 84.0% at midterm but decreased to 76.8% at end line. Compared to children at midterm, children at end line were significantly more likely to report having attended school regularly in the past 12 months, less likely to suspend study in order to work to help feed the family in the past 12 months, less likely to respond that food supports and other basic needs such as clothes and other household materials were the most important needs for their family today, more likely to perceive that supports for child education were the most important for their family today, less likely to report that their family reduced times for daily meals due to the shortage of food in the past 12 months, and more likely to rate their general health and overall quality of life as fair, good, or very good. Conclusion: This study indicates significant impact of the SAHACOM on education, health, and quality of life of OVC in Cambodia. This community-based model should be adapted for future interventions, taking into account the available resources

Impact of Summer Residential Camps on the Tourism System

A study was conducted to understand the contributions of organized summer camps to the tourism system, as well as their contributions to the local economy. The sources of information families used for trip planning were also explored. Results revealed that summer residential camps in Western North Carolina can be a catalyst for the travel and tourism industry. In addition to the generation of considerable economic impact and substantial tax revenues, summer camps also draw the majority of camp families and staff to travel great distances to local areas, spend large amounts of money there, and actively participate in tourist opportunities

Ferroelectric domain nucleation and switching pathways in hafnium oxide

Nanoscale ferroelectrics that can be integrated into microelectronic fabrication processes are highly desirable for low-power computing and non-volatile memory devices. However, scalable novel ferroelectric materials, such as hafnium oxide (HfO2), remain in a state of development, and a clear understanding of the effects of relevant compositional and processing parameters to control their ferroelectric properties and the actual polarization switching mechanisms are still under investigation. One key fundamental knowledge gap is the polarization switching pathway in ferroelectric hafnia. To further our fundamental understanding of domain nucleation and switching, we have studied polarization switching pathways in HfO2-x thin films in real-time at the atomic scale using transmission electron microscopy. We employed differential phase contrast imaging that allows for the acquisition of both hafnium and oxygen atomic column signals and facilitates the observation of relative movement of atomic columns between both sublattices. Our results demonstrate that the switching pathway involves a transient tetragonal-like local structure, as oxygen ions shift in locations and remain within their parent hafnium polyhedra

The Sustainable Action against HIV and AIDS in Communities (SAHACOM): Impacts on Health and Quality of Life of People Living with HIV in Cambodia

This study evaluated the impacts of the Sustainable Action against HIV and AIDS in Communities (SAHACOM) Project on health and quality of life of people living with HIV (PLHIV). Outcome indicators from baseline documentation (2010) were compared to those obtained at midterm (2012) and end line (2014). Results showed that HIV prevalence among pregnant women aged 15–24 attending antenatal care decreased from 0.5% at baseline to 0.3% at midterm and end line. Proportion of PLHIV who were on antiretroviral therapy (ART) 12 months after the initiation of the treatment increased from 85% at baseline and midterm to 89.5% at end line. Proportion of PLHIV in need for ART and currently on the treatment increased from 90.0% at baseline to 92.5% at midterm and to 96.0% at end line. Regarding their health status, proportion of PLHIV reporting their overall health as good increased from 52.0% at baseline to 78.3% and 80.2% at midterm and end line, respectively. Similarly, proportion of respondents reporting their overall quality of life as good increased sharply from 35.0% at baseline to 73.3% and 72.0% at midterm and end line, respectively. In conclusion, the SAHACOM is effective in improving health and quality of life of PLHIV in Cambodia