Golden Hour

This nonfiction piece is a journal-like collage of various people and places that hold meaning to me. The title, Golden Hour, reflects the fleeting nature of relationships and the cycle we must all go through as relational beings in our friendships, romantic relationships, familial relationships, etc. We all search for connection, but is it worth the pain when it ends? [the age-old question] Each section in this thesis is a thread, a weaving of stories focused on either one person, one place, or a set of relationships. These threads all meet at the end, section titled Endings, where their time eventually comes to a close. These threads follow the movement of golden hour: intense beautiful brightness--so warm and welcoming--until they dissipate like the last light of day. The collaging effect is made through differing forms of writing structure and forms, as well as images which guide the thematic points of the thesis as a whole, as well as the specific pieces themselves

The Nazi Genocide: Eugenics, Ideology, and Implementation 1933-1945

The purpose of this study is to seek knowledge of how eugenics justified extreme racial policy, territorial expansion, committing unprecedented crimes against humanity; and to understand why and how eighty million human beings yielded to totalitarianism and racial murder. Further, by examining Nazi science and policies, through the lens of concentration/extermination camps at Dachau and Auschwitz, we sought to understand the linkage between scientific racism, Nazi ideology and genocide. Critiquing Germany’s failure to exercise sound science and morality in its occupation, subjugation, and depopulation during WW II, this paper will argue Nazi Germany’s evolution to systematized, industrial mass murder of Untermenschen (or “subhumans”) ‘justified’ their territorial expansion, and the elimination of whole populations based on the concept of an inferior class war. Consequently, my research indicates apathy and greed, ignorance and intolerance will inevitably pull society into the abyss of perdition, thus services humanity as a grave warning to remember the fallacy of racial intolerance

Molecular Imprint Polymerization for Caffeine Removal from Water Samples

Molecular imprint polymers (MIPs) have applications in wastewater treatment. The current focus of this research project is synthesizing MIPs that bind small molecule, organic contaminants with an emphasis on caffeine. The imprint polymer for caffeine is synthesized from a solution of acetonitrile, acrylamide, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA), caffeine, and Azo(bis)isobutyronitrile (AIBN) that is purged with nitrogen and polymerized and cross-linked in a variable-temperature oven for a period of time1. The caffeine template is extracted from the polymer by Soxhlet extraction and then the imprinted polymer is then placed in various standard solutions of caffeine (10-30 ppm) for approximately 48 hours. The samples are analyzed by UV­Visible spectroscopy to determine the amount of caffeine the imprint polymer has absorbed. Both the control and caffeine MIP managed to absorb approximately 20 nanomoles of caffeine per mg of polymer

Comparison of Prioritisation Schemes for Human Pharmaceuticals in the Aquatic Environment

Only a small proportion of pharmaceuticals available for commercial use have been monitored in the aquatic environment, and even less is known about the effects on organisms. With thousands of pharmaceuticals in use, it is not feasible to monitor or assess the effects of all of these compounds. Prioritisation schemes allow the ranking of pharmaceuticals based on their potential as environmental contaminants, allowing resources to be appropriately used on those which are most likely to enter the environment and cause greatest harm. Many different types of prioritisation schemes exist in the literature and those utilising predicted environmental concentrations (PECs), the fish plasma model (FPM), critical environmental concentrations (CECs) and acute ecotoxicological data were assessed in the current study using the 50 most prescribed drugs in the UK. PECs were found to be overestimates of mean measured environmental concentrations but mainly underestimations of maximum concentrations. Acute ecological data identified different compounds of concern to the other effects assessments although the FPM and CECs methods were more conservative. These schemes highlighted antidepressants, lipid regulators, antibiotics, antihypertensive compounds and ibuprofen as priority compounds for further study and regulation

DECISION QUALITY METRICS – A TOOL FOR MANAGING QUALITY OF REPEATED BIOASSAYS

Bioassays are often used in tiered screening systems to detect potential products, such as crop protection products. Often these assays are not replicated. The ultimate products of these bioassays are decisions, with biologically “active” compounds advanced to the next level of screening. Activity is determined by the response of the test organisms (e.g., weeds, insects or fungi) to each compound. The reproducibility of the bioassay is crucial. There are two types of possible errors in screening, false positives and false negatives. The quality of the decisions based upon these bioassays can be monitored through time using controls. This paper will discuss Decision Quality Metrics, quality control metrics customized for bioassays used to select the most “active” compound. These metrics monitor the reproducibility of the screens, translating bioassays responses to controls into potential impact on decision making

Restaurants and Relationships: Varied Experiences with Celiac Disease

During the summer, we conducted interviews for Professor Hillary Crane with people who had either celiac disease or gluten intolerance. It quickly became apparent that people experience celiac disease in vastly different ways. We cover these varying experiences in terms of symptoms, eating at restaurants, and personal relationships. There are common symptoms associated with celiac disease and gluten intolerance, but most people have just one or a set few of these symptoms. Due to varying symptoms and severity of them, there is no definitive celiac symptom or experience. This is true for social events involving food and for personal relationships. As seen in our interviews, most people with celiac do not approach things in the same way, and often the way they do go about it is dependent on their symptoms. Most diseases have set symptoms, and a shared experience, but with these varying experiences, it is difficult to define celiac. This research shows how celiac is an indefinable disease in terms of its shared experience and social impact

Occurrence and effects of pharmaceuticals in estuaries

Pharmaceuticals have been identified as emerging contaminants of concern due to their widespread occurrence in the aquatic environment and potential to be biologically active, yet the implications of their presence in the environment is not fully known. There is a plethora of pharmaceuticals commercially available making it unfeasible to carry out detailed investigations on all of these compounds, and prioritisation schemes can provide a useful tool to determine how best to direct resources. Different prioritisation schemes were carried out on the fifty most prescribed drugs in the UK, and their results were compared in order to assess the efficacy of these schemes. Many failed to accurately identify these risks, but a holistic approach using more than one method to generate a priority list of compounds, may provide better protection for the environment. To date, most monitoring and ecotoxicological studies have focused on pharmaceuticals in freshwater, and there is less understanding of their occurrence and effects in estuaries. In order to gain insight into their spatio-temporal patterns, five pharmaceuticals were monitored in the Humber Estuary every other month for twelve months. Patterns in their spatial and temporal occurrence were related to source points, consumption patterns and environmental conditions. Eleven further estuaries were monitored to give an overall picture of pharmaceutical pollution in the UK. The Humber Estuary contained highest levels of pharmaceuticals and concentrations of ibuprofen were the highest measured globally. Finally, ragworms (Hediste diversicolor) were exposed to diclofenac and metformin in a controlled experimental exposure, and the expression of selected target genes, ATP synthase and c-amp activated protein kinase was measured. Highest levels of metformin (1 µg l-1) were found to significantly increase expression of ATP synthase, indicating that this drug induces environmental stress in H. diversicolor. Overall, this body of research has further contributed to the knowledge of pharmaceuticals as emerging contaminants in estuaries, and information on the occurrence, current levels and biological effects of the drugs studied may be of interest to regulators in their management decisions for such environments

Nitrogen loading of shallow groundwater aquifers in varying soil and topographic settings of southwestern Indiana

Presented at the Geological Society of America Meeting (22–25 October 2006), Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaNumerous sources of nitrogen capable of impacting groundwater exist in rural areas of the midwestern United States. These sources include commercial and non-commercial fertilizers as well as on-site septic distribution systems. Over the past three years, we have undertaken detailed monitoring studies aimed at quantifying nitrate loading of shallow groundwater aquifers resulting from natural recharge at seven sites in southwestern Indiana. The sites occur in a variety of topographic settings and are associated with both well drained and poorly drained soils. Measured changes in soil-moisture profiles were used along with continuous measurements of precipitation and potential evapotranspiration to calculate the storage and movement of groundwater in the unsaturated zone. Nitrate loading of the shallow aquifers was then calculated by combining the flow rate with analytical data on solute chemistry from multiple depths within the unsaturated zone. The results of these calculations show that the highest loading rates occur at the study sites adjacent to agricultural fields treated with commercial and non-commercial (manure) fertilizers. The calculated nitrogen loading at these three sites ranged from 21 to as high as 136 kg of N per hectare (the highest loading rate occurred at the site where the manure was applied). In contrast, much lower loading rates were calculated using data collected from four sites associated with residential on-site septic distribution systems. In these cases, the calculated nitrogen loading values were an order of magnitude lower and ranged from 1.3 to 7.4 kg of N per hectare. These findings have implications for land-use management and have been used to guide the compilation of GIS-based maps that identify high- and low-risk areas throughout Indiana. This was accomplished by evaluating areas on the basis of soil characteristics and unsaturated zone thicknesses.Funding provided by a U.S. EPA Clean Water Act Section 104(b)(3) Water Quality Cooperative Agreements/Grants Program and a Cooperative Agreement between IGS and the Indiana State Department of Healt

Dressing the Emperor: The Role of Three-Dimensional Information Visualization Software in the Development of Three-Dimensional Hydrogeologic Models

This poster was presented at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America, October 22-25, 2006, Philadelphia, Pa.The goal of this research is to develop a model that describes the saturated and unsaturated groundwater flow in Berrien County, Michigan (1,350 km2), an area containing a complex sequence of glacio-lacustrine deposits. Stone and others (2001) mapped the morphosequences in Berrien County at a scale of 1:24,000, which includes georeferenced structure contours for 20 individual units. We have developed a methodology to translate this detailed morphostratigraphy into a solid three-dimensional geologic model, and then into a three-dimensional block of data that can be used as input to a finite-difference groundwater-flow model. Letsinger and others (2006) describe the process of using geographic information system software to convert the structure contours into georeferenced raster layers that describe each unit. At this stage of the reconstruction, only the bounding surfaces between the units are defined. In order to stack the units in vertical space using customized computer code, a “virtual well field” (regularized two-dimensional array of points) samples each x-y location in each of the 20 rasterized data layers. Units that are intersected from the top bounding surface (surface topography) to the bottom bounding surface (bedrock surface) are then identified. The result of this step is a vector (one-dimensional array) at each virtual well location that describes the elevation of each morphostratigraphic unit boundary intersected at that location. However, at this stage, the model is essentially a regularized three-dimensional point cloud, and three-dimensional information visualization software (3DIVS) is then utilized to generate a solid geologic model by interpolating the vertical geologic “samples” throughout the model domain. A finite-difference grid (“brickpile”) at the chosen resolution of the groundwater-flow model is then generated from the solid geologic model using data-processing functions of the 3DIVS

Dressing the Emperor: The Role of Three-Dimensional Information Visualization Software in the Development of Three-Dimensional Hydrogeologic Models

This poster was presented at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America, October 22-25, 2006, Philadelphia, Pa.The goal of this research is to develop a model that describes the saturated and unsaturated groundwater flow in Berrien County, Michigan (1,350 km2), an area containing a complex sequence of glacio-lacustrine deposits. Stone and others (2001) mapped the morphosequences in Berrien County at a scale of 1:24,000, which includes georeferenced structure contours for 20 individual units. We have developed a methodology to translate this detailed morphostratigraphy into a solid three-dimensional geologic model, and then into a three-dimensional block of data that can be used as input to a finite-difference groundwater-flow model. Letsinger and others (2006) describe the process of using geographic information system software to convert the structure contours into georeferenced raster layers that describe each unit. At this stage of the reconstruction, only the bounding surfaces between the units are defined. In order to stack the units in vertical space using customized computer code, a “virtual well field” (regularized two-dimensional array of points) samples each x-y location in each of the 20 rasterized data layers. Units that are intersected from the top bounding surface (surface topography) to the bottom bounding surface (bedrock surface) are then identified. The result of this step is a vector (one-dimensional array) at each virtual well location that describes the elevation of each morphostratigraphic unit boundary intersected at that location. However, at this stage, the model is essentially a regularized three-dimensional point cloud, and three-dimensional information visualization software (3DIVS) is then utilized to generate a solid geologic model by interpolating the vertical geologic “samples” throughout the model domain. A finite-difference grid (“brickpile”) at the chosen resolution of the groundwater-flow model is then generated from the solid geologic model using data-processing functions of the 3DIVS