Perceptions of safety in urban spaces: The Fan District, Richmond, VA

This project identifies and spatially analyzes environmental factors that influence the perception of safety in populations of women within Richmond’s LGBT community. The project was conceived due to increasing calls for awareness about street harassment. Its purpose is to examine what physical factors, at the street level, increase or decrease feelings of safety or discomfort for women within this community. In the first part of the project, survey data was collected from volunteer participants, members of either Diversity Richmond, downtown Richmond’s local LGBT resource center, or Madison Equality, the LGBT student organization at James Madison University. Using blank paper maps provided, participants highlighted areas of the city that they felt as “safe” with green, “less safe” with yellow, “neutral” with blue, or “unknown” with orange. The second part of the project aggregated the map data and determined areas of agreement using GIS technology, identifying points of overlap in both safe and less safe areas. These points of overlap were seen mainly at intersections. The third and final phase of the project evaluated the overlapping intersections. To do this, photos were taken in the field and researchers walked the area. Using a 16-factor metric, researchers tallied environmental factors influencing perceptions of safety and less safety in the area. This metric, developed from previous studies conducted on safe and unsafe urban areas, provides eight “safe” and eight “unsafe” qualities to be assessed per location. Safety factors included line of sight, lighting, vegetation alongside the walkway, and the width of the sidewalk. Factors contributing to the perception of less safety included the presence of graffiti, badly-maintained sidewalks, and few people in an area. By applying the 16-factor metric to the seven street intersections, the two sites considered safe were seen to have high instances of “safe” factors, with two “unsafe” factors each as well. Two of the five remaining intersections considered unsafe by participants met five and four “safe” criteria, as well as five and four “unsafe” criteria. This suggests further refinement of the safe/unsafe metric for future work. Further research would incorporate applying the results found in this study to other city models, or expanding the survey instrument to incorporate demographic or age data, to possibly account for the consensus on areas considered safe, but less consistent consensus on unsafe

Factors Related to Average Concentric Velocity of Four Barbell Exercises at Various Loads

The resistance exercise load is the primarily determinant of the average concentric velocity (ACV) during a repetition. It is unknown whether individual factors such as training experience or anthropometrics also influence the ACV. Previous research has shown the ACV during the 1 repetition maximum (1RM) varies between exercises, but it is not clear whether ACV is different between exercises at various percentages of the 1RM. This information could provide practical guidelines for trainees using ACV to select training loads. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether training age, current training frequency, limb length, height, and relative strength are related to ACV at loads between 35 and 100% of the 1RM for the squat, bench press, deadlift, and overhead press. A secondary purpose was to compare the ACV values between the 4 lifts at each relative load. Fifty-one (18 women and 33 men) completed 2 testing sessions in which the squat, bench press, deadlift, and overhead press ACV were measured during a modified 1RM protocol. Average concentric velocity values were significantly different among the 4 lifts (p \u3c 0.05) at all relative loads between 35 and 100% 1RM except for 55% 1RM (p = 0.112). Generally, compared at the same relative loads, the overhead press exhibited the greatest ACV followed by the squat, bench press, and deadlift (in order). In addition, relative strength level was inversely related to ACV at maximal loads (≥95% 1RM) for the squat, bench press, and deadlift while height was positively related to ACV at moderate loads (55% 1RM) for all lifts (p \u3c 0.05). These results suggest that the load-velocity profile is unique for each of these exercises, and that velocity ranges used for exercise prescription should be specific to the exercise. A trainee\u27s relative strength and height may be a primary influence on the ACV

Preharvest Management Strategies and Their Impact on Mycotoxigenic Fungi and Associated Mycotoxins

Mycotoxigenic fungi that contaminate grain crops can lead to reduced grain quality, crop yield reduction and mycotoxicosis among humans and livestock. Preharvest management of fungi and mycotoxin contamination is considered among the most important mitigating strategies. Approaches include the breeding of resistant cultivars, use of microorganisms chemical control, production practises and the management of plant stressors. Resistant plants provide an effective and environmentally sound strategy to control mycotoxigenic fungi and mycotoxins; and have been documented. Their incorporation into commercial cultivars is, however, slow and complex. Therefore, emphasis should be placed on determining the resistance of cultivars and landraces currently used by producers. Chemical control has been successfully used for wheat; yet little to no research has been done on other important crops. Biological control strategies have focussed on Aspergillus flavus that produces aflatoxins and infects commercially important crops like maize and groundnuts. Commercial biological control products have been developed and field-tested in several African countries with promising results. The impacts of production practises are unclear under variable environmental conditions; but subsequent disease manifestation and mycotoxin contamination can be reduced. Each preharvest approaches contribute to managing mycotoxigenic fungi and their mycotoxins but integrating approaches may provide more effective management of fungal and mycotoxin contamination in crops

Observing---and Imaging---Active Galactic Nuclei with the Event Horizon Telescope

Originally developed to image the shadow region of the central black hole in Sagittarius A* and in the nearby galaxy M87, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) provides deep, very high angular resolution data on other AGN sources too. The challenges of working with EHT data have spurred the development of new image reconstruction algorithms. This work briefly reviews the status of the EHT and its utility for observing AGN sources, with emphasis on novel imaging techniques that offer the promise of better reconstructions at 1.3 mm and other wavelengths.Comment: 10 pages, proceedings contribution for Blazars through Sharp Multi-Wavelength Eyes, submitted to Galaxie

Racial Mislabeling in Multiracial Individuals: Implications for Professional Counseling and Education

With the extreme growth of people who identify as Biracial or Multiracial, it is evident that their unique racial experiences need to be better understood, especially within the field of professional counseling to underscore competent practice (Charmaraman, Woo, Quach, & Erkut, 2014; Jackson, Yoo, Guevarra & Harrington, 2012; Tran, Miyake, Martinez-Morales, & Csizmadia, 2016). As a result, the researchers in this study investigated the lived experiences of racial mislabeling for Multiracial individuals. The participants of this study were fourteen (n=14) individuals who identified as Multiracial and endorsed experiencing the specific form of racial invalidation entitled racial mislabeling. Data were collected through individual, semi-structured interviews. The data was analyzed using phenomenological methods within Moustakas’ (1994) transcendental approach, which led to themes that described the essence of the participants’ experience. These themes are discussed in detail and recommendations for researchers and counselor educators to improve training and education are provided

Does voluntary assisted dying cause public stigma for the bereaved?:A vignette-based experiment

Objective Studies in countries where assisted dying is legal show that bereaved people express concern over the potential for social disapproval and social stigma because of the manner of death. There are indications that voluntary assisted dying is judged as less acceptable if the deceased is younger. A vignette-based experiment was used to determine whether public stigma (i.e., negative emotional reactions and desired social distance) and expected grief symptoms are higher for conjugally bereaved people through voluntary assisted dying (vs. long-term illness), when the deceased is a young adult (vs. older adult). Method A 2 × 2 randomized factorial design was conducted with 164 Australian adults (130 women, 34 men, Mage = 37.69 years). Each participant was randomized online to read one of four vignettes and completed measures of anger, fear, prosocial emotions, desire for social distance, and expectations of grief symptomatology. Results A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted. Death at a young age (28 years) was significantly associated with stronger negative emotional reactions of fear (η2p = 0.048) and anger (η2p = 0.010). There were no differences in outcomes associated with the mode of death, nor was there an interaction between mode of death and age group. Significance of results Concerns that voluntary assisted dying elicits public stigma appear unfounded. The fact that participants reported significantly higher anger and fear in response to bereaved people experiencing loss at a younger (vs. older) age, irrespective of cause of death, indicates that young people who lose their spouse might benefit from additional support. </p

Speaking up in Healthcare: An Exploration of the Allied Health New Graduate Workforce

Introduction: All healthcare workers are responsible for patient safety and quality improvement and need to “speak up” to communicate issues. As healthcare systems strain under the impact of reduced staffing and workloads increase, allied health new graduates are feeling under pressure and unsupported. Understanding their experiences of speaking up as they transition into the workforce will identify what support they require to fulfil their patient safety and quality improvement responsibilities. Method: An exploratory study was conducted to investigate how new graduates in allied health speak up. Informed by a realist theoretical position, this study was interested in what contexts and resources support new graduates to speak up or not. Two different focus groups with allied health new graduates were used to collect data. Reflexive thematic analysis was employed to draw out key themes and sub-themes. Results: Three main themes were generated –advocacy drives speaking up, scaffolding, and transition impact. Further analysis identified context-mechanism-outcome configurations which were then developed into an initial programme theory. Conclusion: Further in-depth exploration of speaking up behaviour with allied health new graduates will inform leaders within education and workplace settings about ways to develop confident and competent professionals who can speak up for patient safety and quality improvement

Link between method of delivery and childhood overweight or obesity

This study aimed to determine the relationship between the method of delivery and the incidence of overweight or obesity during childhood. This study was conducted on June 2012 to March 2013 in four selected elementary schools in Iligan City, Philippines wherein 96 overweight to obese children between 5-8 years old were selected as respondents through purposive sampling technique. A descriptive-correlational research design was used. To gather the pertinent data and information, a researcher-made questionnaire was employed. The data gathered were then tabulated and analyzed using frequency and percentage distribution, Chi-square test and Spearman correlation coefficient. It was found out that there is no sufficient evidence to harbor a significant relationship between the method of delivery and the incidence of childhood overweight or obesity among the respondents. Thus, other factors should be explored to relate to overweight or obesity in childhoo

White matter changes and confrontation naming in retired aging national football league athletes

Using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), we assessed the relationship of white matter integrity and performance on the Boston Naming Test (BNT) in a group of retired professional football players and a control group. We examined correlations between fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) with BNT T-scores in an unbiased voxelwise analysis processed with tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). We also analyzed the DTI data by grouping voxels together as white matter tracts and testing each tract's association with BNT T-scores. Significant voxelwise correlations between FA and BNT performance were only seen in the retired football players (p < 0.02). Two tracts had mean FA values that significantly correlated with BNT performance: forceps minor and forceps major. White matter integrity is important for distributed cognitive processes, and disruption correlates with diminished performance in athletes exposed to concussive and subconcussive brain injuries, but not in controls without such exposure