Do later-timed workshops affect learning?

Students have voiced concerns about why workshops are held so late in the day, some of them even expressed that the time of workshop is affecting how much material they learn. This group decided to see if there was actually a correlation between the time of workshops and tiredness. We, therefore, expect to find a negative correlation between later-timed workshops and success of students in class. The workshop students available for data collection was limited because the three workshops led by group members were al late. There were two 6:15 PM workshops and one 7:40 PM workshop so there was no control group to compare against. The survey was also using self-reported information on how the respondents felt about the course rather than analyzing the students using their midpoint grades. This group considered that information confidential and did not wish to use even in an anonymized form. This group found that 35% of respondents report that they have difficulty focusing on the topics of workshop due to its lateness also found was that 55% of respondents report that this negatively affects their learning at a rate of three or higher on a five-point scale. Our findings are consistent with the complaints made by students that prompted this research. Works Cited K, W., N, K., & R, F. (2017). The effect of physical activity on sleep quality, well-being, and affect in academic stress periods. Nature and Science of Sleep, , 117-126. Valic, M., Pecotic, R., Lusic, L., Peros, K., Pribudic, Z., & Dogas, Z. (2014). The relationship between sleep habits and academic performance in dental students in croatia. European Journal of Dental Education, 18 (4), 187-194. doi:10.1111/eje.12081 TUCKER, M. E. (2006). Sleep deprivation affects academics, behavior. Clinical Psychiatry News, 34 (1), 38-38. doi:10.1016/S0270-6644(06)71116-

Effects of Halides on Organic Compound Degradation during Plasma Treatment of Brines

Plasma has been proposed as an alternative strategy to treat organic contaminants in brines. Chemical degradation in these systems is expected to be partially driven by halogen oxidants, which have been detected in halide-containing solutions exposed to plasma. In this study, we characterized specific mechanisms involving the formation and reactions of halogen oxidants during plasma treatment. We first demonstrated that addition of halides accelerated the degradation of a probe compound known to react quickly with halogen oxidants (i.e., para-hydroxybenzoate) but did not affect the degradation of a less reactive probe compound (i.e., benzoate). This effect was attributed to the degradation of para-hydroxybenzoate by hypohalous acids, which were produced via a mechanism involving halogen radicals as intermediates. We applied this mechanistic insight to investigate the impact of constituents in brines on reactions driven by halogen oxidants during plasma treatment. Bromide, which is expected to occur alongside chloride in brines, was required to enable halogen oxidant formation, consistent with the generation of halogen radicals from the oxidation of halides by hydroxyl radical. Other constituents typically present in brines (i.e., carbonates, organic matter) slowed the degradation of organic compounds, consistent with their ability to scavenge species involved during plasma treatment