MS-171: Corporal Luther Jacob “Jake” Thomas Papers

This collection consists of letters, photographs, documents, and artifacts relating to Luther J. “Jake” Thomas’s military service during the Second World War. The majority of the collection features correspondence between Thomas and his family, particularly his mother Anna Thomas, between 1943 and 1945. While serving as an MP in the Army Air Corps, Thomas regularly mailed letters and photographs home detailing his training, travels, and experiences as a soldier. The collection also includes Thomas’s military documentation (for example, induction and separation papers), training materials, wartime souvenirs and artefacts, and post-war awards and honors. The collection includes documents related to Thomas’s veteran status following his discharge in late 1945, as well as his subsequent enrollment in the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. Finally, the collection contains general information about the Thomas family, including photographs, obituaries, and documents concerning Luther C. Thomas (Thomas’s father)’s military service in World War I. Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More information about our collections can be found on our website http://www.gettysburg.edu/special_collections/collections/.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/findingaidsall/1142/thumbnail.jp

Virtual reality urban modelling - an overview

This paper offers an overview of the increasing use of Virtual Reality (VR) technologies for the simulation of urban environments. It provides a summary of cities worldwide where three-dimensional computer modelling is being utilised to aid urban planning. The study considers the need for a digital representation of cities and raises issues pertaining to advantages, barriers and ownership. A case study of a pilot project on the visualisation of Newcastle upon Tyne is examined to show an approach adopted for the representation of this city in North East England. The process of this visualisation is summarised and future research is outlined in relation to this city model

A Contribution to the Study of the Peripheral Innervation of the Uterus

The present investigation was undertaken to throw some light upon the nature of the peripheral nervous mechanism of the uterus. The nervous mechanism of the uterus may be divided into a central and a peripheral part. This peripheral part may be further studied in its extrinsic and instristic mechanism

Major epidemiological changes in sudden infant death syndrome : a 20-year population-based study in the UK

Background Results of case-control studies in the past 5 years suggest that the epidemiology of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) has changed since the 1991 UK Back to Sleep campaign. The campaign's advice that parents put babies on their back to sleep led to a fall in death rates. We used a longitudinal dataset to assess these potential changes. Methods Population-based data from home visits have been collected for 369 consecutive unexpected infant deaths (300 SIDS and 69 explained deaths) in Avon over 20 years (1984—2003). Data obtained between 1993 and 1996 from 1300 controls with a chosen “reference” sleep before interview have been used for comparison. Findings Over the past 20 years, the proportion of children who died from SIDS while co-sleeping with their parents, has risen from 12% to 50% (p<0·0001), but the actual number of SIDS deaths in the parental bed has halved (p=0·01). The proportion seems to have increased partly because the Back to Sleep campaign led to fewer deaths in infants sleeping alone—rather than because of a rise in deaths of infants who bed-shared, and partly because of an increase in the number of deaths in infants sleeping with their parents on a sofa. The proportion of deaths in families from deprived socioeconomic backgrounds has risen from 47% to 74% (p=0·003), the prevalence of maternal smoking during pregnancy from 57% to 86% (p=0·0004), and the proportion of pre-term infants from 12% to 34% (p=0·0001). Although many SIDS infants come from large families, first-born infants are now the largest group. The age of infants who bed-share is significantly smaller than that before the campaign, and fewer are breastfed. Interpretation Factors that contribute to SIDS have changed in their importance over the past 20 years. Although the reasons for the rise in deaths when a parent sleeps with their infant on a sofa are still unclear, we strongly recommend that parents avoid this sleeping environment. Most SIDS deaths now occur in deprived families. To better understand contributory factors and plan preventive measures we need control data from similarly deprived families, and particularly, infant sleep environments

Assessing the Cytotoxicity of Engineered Nanoparticles: Applications and Implications

This work examines the cytotoxicity of nanoparticles applied in two engineered systems: (I) chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) and (II) membrane water treatment. Nanoparticle cytotoxicity is central to both sections: Part I characterizes the interactions of CMP nanoparticles with cell membranes following their use and Part II investigates the efficacy of antibacterial silver nanoparticles as they are applied in membrane treatment. During CMP, abrasive silica, ceria, and alumina nanoparticles contact the base of integrated circuit devices, producing an atomically smooth surface. Following CMP, these nanoparticles enter the environment through the wastewater treatment system. CMP nanoparticles were characterized to determine physicochemical changes incurred during processing that may alter their environmental fate and cytotoxicity. No significant changes in size, charge, or aggregation behaviors were observed. Interactions of CMP nanoparticles with model cell membranes were assessed using Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation Monitoring (QCM-D). Ceria and alumina nanoparticles did not interact strongly with model cell membranes, likely due to stabilizing slurry additives that remained effective even at high dilutions. Silica nanoparticles showed the strongest tendency to attach to supported lipid bilayers, with significant attachment detected at concentrations as low as 1 mg/L. Attachment was correlated with epithelial cell membrane damage observed by collaborators at North Carolina A&T State University. In Part II of this dissertation effort, I explored how the antibacterial nature of silver nanoparticles, when coupled with the hydrophilicity of polydopamine, can be harnessed to decrease the detrimental impact of biofouling on low pressure membranes. This work demonstrated that the hydrophilicity provided by the polydopamine coating decreased the initial rate of bacterial deposition by almost 50%. However, over the course of 3 days of filtration, only the combination of both polydopamine and silver nanoparticles was able to improve the rate of clean water production, increasing the flux to more than 175% of the unmodified membrane. The unique properties associated with nanomaterials can be implemented in a variety of innovative environmental engineering applications. In designing these applications, the full life cycle of the nanoparticles must be considered