Science to Service Academic Program of Distinction: Proposal

A low level of scientific knowledge among the U.S. population has considerably hindered its economic preeminence and social development. Science to Serve is a distinctive framework at GCSU that embraces a significant number of formal and informal interdisciplinary practices with the single purpose of advancing the interest, engagement, and understanding of science and technology by people of all ages and backgrounds. That is, Science to Serve aims to make science “real” to those who might not ordinarily be engaged so that they see the role of science to life, in education, and to the economy. Primary support for this unique framework comes from the Office of Academic Outreach, the Department Biological &Environmental Sciences, the Department of Chemistry & Physics, the Science Education Center, and faculty from Middle Grades Education. This rich tradition of effectively communicating and instilling the usefulness of science to diverse communities has resulted in an impressive host of resources, programs, courses, and activities that are cross-disciplinary in scope. Science to Serve garners broad-based support from the university community and myriad constituencies beyond the campus with faculty and students of all majors serving as ambassadors of science. Partnerships with key statewide and national organizations have further strengthened this initiative and external funding has exceeded $2 million to date. For a relatively small liberal arts university in a rural location, this remarkably large number of resources focused on civic engagement through science is extraordinary. The Science to Serve framework will provide a cohesive, coherent and comprehensive structure that will greatly enhance opportunities for acquiring external support if selected as one of GCSU’s academic programs of distinctio

Analysis of pharmaceuticals in wastewater of three hospitals in the city of Puebla, Mexico

[EN] Through their effluents, hospitals contribute to the occurrence of emerging micro-pollutants, such as pharmaceutical products, in the water. This work quantified the presence of nine pharmaceuticals in the wastewater of three private hospitals in Mexico with 66, 92 and 120 beds, respectively. The samples were characterized physicochemically and, using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS / MS), the following average maximum concentrations were reported: acetaminophen(38740.11±33832.15 ng/L), naproxen (6321.42±11074.86 ng/L), ketorolac (1429.80±237.94 ng/L), ibuprofen (249.46±143.68 ng/L), ranitidine (149.60±303.70 ng/L), hydrocortisone (96.72±57.21 ng/L), dexamethasone (33.02±41.23 ng/L), esomeprazole (22.85±24.12 ng/L) and omeprazole (22.50±23.97 ng/L). In treated water, a reduction from 67 to 100% in hydrocortisone, naproxen, paracetamol and ranitidine levels was detected. The results obtained inform the presence of pharmaceuticals that had not been previously reported in Mexican hospital effluents and demonstrate the impact of treatment plants, contributing to the existing evidence to promote regulatory actions, technological innovation and monitoring.[ES] Mediante sus efluentes, los hospitales contribuyen a la ocurrencia de microcontaminantes emergentes como los fármacos, en el agua. Este trabajo cuantificó la presencia de nueve fármacos en las aguas residuales de tres hospitales privados de México con 66, 92 y 120 camas, respectivamente. Las muestras se caracterizaron fisicoquímicamente y, empleando cromatografía líquida de alta resolución acoplada a espectrometría de masas (UPLC-MS/MS), se reportaron las siguientes concentraciones máximas promedio: paracetamol (38740.11±33832.15 ng/L), naproxeno (6321.42±11074.86 ng/L), ketorolaco (1429.80±237.94 ng/L), ibuprofeno (249.46±143.68 ng/L), ranitidina (149.60±303.70 ng/L), hidrocortisona (96.72±57.21 ng/L), dexametasona (33.02±41.23 ng/L), esomeprazol (22.85±24.12 ng/L) y omeprazol (22.50±23.97 ng/L). En aguas tratadas se detectó una reducción del 67 al 100% en los niveles de hidrocortisona, naproxeno, paracetamol y ranitidina. Los resultados obtenidos informan la presencia de fármacos que no habían sido reportados previamente en efluentes hospitalarios mexicanos y demuestran el impacto de las plantas de tratamiento, contribuyendo a la evidencia existente para impulsar acciones de regulación, innovación tecnológica y monitoreo.Los autores agradecen al Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT) de México por el apoyo para la realización de esta investigación dentro del marco del Proyecto No. PN 2016 - 3620. Esta investigación también fue parcialmente apoyada por la Vicerrectoría Académica de la UDLAP (proyecto de investigación interno 2019).Castro-Pastrana, L.; Cerro-López, M.; Toledo-Wall, M.; Gómez-Oliván, L.; Saldívar-Santiago, M. (2021). Análisis de fármacos en aguas residuales de tres hospitales de la ciudad de Puebla, México. Ingeniería del agua. 25(1):59-73. https://doi.org/10.4995/ia.2021.13660OJS5973251Aedo, R. 2014. SINGREM, Sistema Nacional de Gestión de Residuos de Envases y Medicamentos A.C. Casos de éxito, XXIII Convención de la Industria Farmacéutica, CANIFARMA, Junio 26, Puerto Vallarta, México.Alder, A.C., Siegrist, H., Fent, K., Egli, T., Molnar, E., Poiger, T., Schaffner, C., Giger, W. 1997. The Fate of Organic Pollutants in Wastewater and Sludge Treatment: Significant Processes and Impact of Compound Properties. Chimia, 51, 922-928.Bedner, M., MacCrehan, W.A. 2006. Transformation of acetaminophen by chlorination produces the toxicants 1,4-benzoquinone and N-acetyl-p-benzoquinone imine. Environmental Science & Technology, 40(2), 516-22, https://doi.org/10.1021/es0509073Boix, C., Ibáñez, M., Zamora, T., Sancho, J.V., Niessen, W.M., Hernández, F. 2014. Identification of new omeprazole metabolites in wastewaters and surface waters. Science of the Total Environment, 468-469, 706-14, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.08.095Boix, C., Ibáñez, M., Bagnati, R., Zuccato, E., Sancho, J.V., Hernández, F., Castiglioni, S. 2016. High resolution mass spectrometry to investigate omeprazole and venlafaxine metabolites in wastewater. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 302, 332-340, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2015.09.05

Addressing challenges in information-provision: a qualitative study among oncologists and women with advanced breast cancer

Health and self-regulatio

Possible alleviation of symptoms and side effects through clinicians’ nocebo information and empathy in an experimental video vignette study.

Health and self-regulatio

Stroke awareness and knowledge in an Urban New Zealand population

© 2015 National Stroke Association. Background Stroke is the third most common cause of death and a major cause of chronic disability in New Zealand. Linked to risk factors that develop across the life-course, stroke is considered to be largely preventable. This study assessed the awareness of stroke risk, symptoMS detection, and prevention behaviors in an urban New Zealand population. Methods Demographics, stroke risk factors awareness, symptoMS responsiveness, and prevention behaviors were evaluated using a structured oral questionnaire. Binomial logistic regression analyses were used to identify predictors of stroke literacy. Results Although personal experience of stroke increased awareness of symptoms and their likeliness to indicate the need for urgent medical attention, only 42.7% of the respondents (n = 850) identified stroke as involving both blood and the brain. Educational attainment at or above a trade certificate, apprenticeship, or diploma increased the awareness of stroke symptoms compared with those with no formal educational attainment. Pacific Island respondents were less likely than New Zealand Europeans to identify a number of stroke risk factors. Ma¯ori, Pacific Island, and Asian respondents were less likely to identify symptoms of stroke and indicate the need for urgent medical attention. Conclusions The variability in stroke awareness and knowledge may suggest the need to enhance stroke-related health literacy that facilitates understanding of risk and of factors that reduce morbidity and mortality after stroke in people of Ma¯ori and Pacific Island descent and in those with lower educational attainment or socioeconomic status. It is therefore important that stroke awareness campaigns include tailored components for target audiences

High Involvement Management, High Performance Work Systems and Well-being

Studies on the impact of high-performance work systems on employees' well-being are emerging but the underlying theory remains weak. This paper attempts to develop theory of the effects on well-being of four dimensions of high-performance work systems: enriched jobs, high involvement management, employee voice, and motivational supports. Hypothesized associations are tested using multilevel models and data from Britain's Workplace Employment Relations Survey of 2004 (WERS2004). Results show that enriched jobs are positively associated with both measures of well-being: job satisfaction and anxiety–contentment. Voice is positively associated with job satisfaction, and motivational supports with neither measure. The results for high involvement management are not as predicted because it increases anxiety and is independent of job satisfaction

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter