A Mixed-Methods Exploration of the Relationship Between Crime and Community Gardens: A Case Study of Seattle’s P-Patches from 1996 to 2006

Urban community gardens have been shown to have positive affects social capital, yet like many public spaces, are open to negative activities like crime. Contrary to this idea, most of the literature has indicated that urban green spaces are associated with a reduction in crime. This study utilized a mixed-methods research design to explore the hypothesis that areas around Seattle’s “P-Patch” community gardens are associated with a reduction in crime. We employed spatio-temporal GIS (Geographic Information Systems) analyses, statistical analyses, and qualitative interviews with gardeners. Yearly violent and property crime rates for 132 census tracts in Seattle, locations of 84 P-Patches were mapped, and changes in crime and garden establishment from 1996 to 2006 were observed. Correlations were conducted on socio-demographic, crime, and P-Patch variables. Interviews with four gardeners were conducted and qualitatively analyzed for common themes. Geographic visualization showed interesting patterns in crime and P-Patch establishment in South Seattle in particular, but outcomes of the correlation between P-Patch and crime variables were inconclusive. Qualitative interviews with gardeners provided a fuller account of the overall changes in Seattle crime, gardeners’ perceptions of neighborhood safety, and its relation to the development of urban community spaces such as P-Patches.Faculty Sponsor: Jin-Kyu Jun

A Mixed-Methods Exploration of the Relationship Between Crime and Community Gardens: A Case Study of Seattle’s P-Patches from 1996 to 2006

Urban community gardens have been shown to have positive affects social capital, yet like many public spaces, are open to negative activities like crime. Contrary to this idea, most of the literature has indicated that urban green spaces are associated with a reduction in crime. This study utilized a mixed-methods research design to explore the hypothesis that areas around Seattle’s “P-Patch” community gardens are associated with a reduction in crime. We employed spatio-temporal GIS (Geographic Information Systems) analyses, statistical analyses, and qualitative interviews with gardeners. Yearly violent and property crime rates for 132 census tracts in Seattle, locations of 84 P-Patches were mapped, and changes in crime and garden establishment from 1996 to 2006 were observed. Correlations were conducted on socio-demographic, crime, and P-Patch variables. Interviews with four gardeners were conducted and qualitatively analyzed for common themes. Geographic visualization showed interesting patterns in crime and P-Patch establishment in South Seattle in particular, but outcomes of the correlation between P-Patch and crime variables were inconclusive. Qualitative interviews with gardeners provided a fuller account of the overall changes in Seattle crime, gardeners’ perceptions of neighborhood safety, and its relation to the development of urban community spaces such as P-Patches

Therapeutic Efficacies of Nano Carriers in Delivering Drugs

The drug release rates of poorly soluble medications such as doxorubicin has been investigated in this paper. Since the drug was fixed, different carriers used to deliver it and their release rates compiled from literature were evaluated in this paper. Even though targeting of drugs is very important in drug delivery, it is not within the scope of this paper. However, functionalization of the carrier may provide this benefit, those constructs are included for comparison in terms of hybrid constructs. Dendrimer, micelles and hybrid constructs used in the delivery of doxorubicin compared in this paper with respect to carrier size and drug loading. Assuming that the dissolution follows a slow release, 40-50% of the drug in the phase I representing a sudden or the burst release, followed by a steady release of 50-60% of the drug in phase II, not all the carriers and their sizes exhibited this behavior. Carriers and hybrid constructs 38nm size were more effective where phases I and II observed, however, as the size decreased to 34 nm or increased above 40nm, minimal release occurred meaning the carriers were too big to penetrate the vasculature permeability. Nano-carriers, dendrimers, micelle, hybrid dendrimers and micelles were found to be effective with the carrier manufacturing, generation, polymer, molecular weight of the carrier and other parameters. The release rate of doxorubicin was found to be effective with dendrimers together with hybrid dendrimer exhibiting a bilinear behavior. Micelles 20nm were more effective representing 60% of release in 10 hours followed by additional 25% in 35 hours exhibiting a bilinear behavior. Size greater than 20nm resulted in slow release reaching less than 10 to 40% of drug. Several drugs exhibited multiple slopes in their kinetics when micelle was used. The therapeutic efficacy of hybrid micelle was superior to other nano-carriers

Effectiveness of Mesoporous Bioglass in Drug Delivery

Since the invention of bioactive glass 50 years ago, it has become a versatile material used in healthcare in a variety of applications and compositions. Bioactive glass has shown superior capabilities of drug delivery compared to traditional carriers. For example, time-released medications are less likely to reach toxic levels, while delivering a specific, therapeutic dose to a localized area. The objective of this paper is to investigate the properties and effectiveness of mesoporous bioglass (MBG) as a drug delivery carrier. A literature review of various polymer coated 45S5 Bioglass® loaded with vancomycin was analyzed to determine their drug release response. Since MBG continues to be a preferred carrier with numerous combinations; size, coating, doped with ions, medications, and other physical conditions, there is a need to understand more fully their effectiveness. For a given loading efficiency of 5-15% the burst release % for day 1 remained 15-30% for given surface area, pore volume and pore size of 3.5 to 5 nm. The mechanical properties summarized in this paper are compared with the drug release kinetics. In general, for a given fracture toughness and compressive strength, the ratio of Young’s modulus to bending strength around 250 determined poor apatite mineralization resulting in slow release. As this ratio increased the apatite mineralization and dissolution rate increased. Doping MBG with ions enhanced the drug efficacy to treat a particular condition, for example, silver. Polymer coated MBG exhibited slower dissolution rate than uncoated MBG. Dissolution time increased with the drug loading rate, drying time of the coating, multi-layer coats of drug and polymer for the drug studied in this paper to more than 50%

Therapeutic Efficacies of Nano Carriers in Delivering Drugs

The drug release rates of poorly soluble medications such as doxorubicin has been investigated in this paper. Since the drug was fixed, different carriers used to deliver it and their release rates compiled from literature were evaluated in this paper. Even though targeting of drugs is very important in drug delivery, it is not within the scope of this paper. However, functionalization of the carrier may provide this benefit, those constructs are included for comparison in terms of hybrid constructs. Dendrimer, micelles and hybrid constructs used in the delivery of doxorubicin compared in this paper with respect to carrier size and drug loading. Assuming that the dissolution follows a slow release, 40-50% of the drug in the phase I representing a sudden or the burst release, followed by a steady release of 50-60% of the drug in phase II, not all the carriers and their sizes exhibited this behavior. Carriers and hybrid constructs 38nm size were more effective where phases I and II observed, however, as the size decreased to 34 nm or increased above 40nm, minimal release occurred meaning the carriers were too big to penetrate the vasculature permeability. Nano-carriers, dendrimers, micelle, hybrid dendrimers and micelles were found to be effective with the carrier manufacturing, generation, polymer, molecular weight of the carrier and other parameters. The release rate of doxorubicin was found to be effective with dendrimers together with hybrid dendrimer exhibiting a bilinear behavior. Micelles 20nm were more effective representing 60% of release in 10 hours followed by additional 25% in 35 hours exhibiting a bilinear behavior. Size greater than 20nm resulted in slow release reaching less than 10 to 40% of drug. Several drugs exhibited multiple slopes in their kinetics when micelle was used. The therapeutic efficacy of hybrid micelle was superior to other nano-carriers

Identification, Characterization, and Abiotic Stress Analysis of microRNAs in Nicotiana tabacum

microRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding RNAs with short sequences that negatively regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional levels by either binding to mRNAs for degradation, or by inhibiting protein translation. miRNAs are highly evolutionarily conserved, from lower mosses to higher flowering plants, and have been shown to play an important role in plants by regulating growth and development, developmental timing, hormone signaling, organogenesis, and response to environmental stresses. Based on the conservation of mature miRNA sequences, computational methods have been used to predict thousands of miRNAs in numerous plant species, such as soybean, maize, cotton, potato, rice, apple, and switchgrass. In this project, using tobacco as my model organism, I first employed genome survey sequence analysis to identify conserved miRNAs in tobacco and then investigated their expression profiles during different growth conditions. My results identified 259 potentially conserved miRNAs in tobacco, belonging to 65 miRNA families. In addition, I also discovered antisense miRNAs as well as miRNA clusters in tobacco and predicted putative target genes for the newly identified tobacco miRNAs. Eleven of these miRNAs are highly expressed in young tobacco seedlings as well as under different environmental stress conditions. The expression profiles of tobacco miRNAs were significantly affected by Titanium Dioxide nanoparticles, salt, and drought stresses, in a dosage-dependent manner. Some miRNAs, for example miR395, exhibited a change in expression of one thousand fold after exposure to stress conditions. Abiotic stresses also affected the expression of two stress-related genes, alcohol dehydrogenase and alcohol peroxidase. Given the results of this project, I believe that miRNAs may play an important role in tobacco growth and development and that miRNAs may function in tobacco tolerance to environmental stresses.  M.S

Evaluation of a Dental Diagnostic Terminology Subset

The objective of this study was to determine how well a subset of SNODENT, specifically designed for general dentistry, meets the needs of dental practitioners. Participants were asked to locate their written diagnosis for tooth conditions among the SNODENT terminology uploaded into an electronic dental record. Investigators found that 65% of providers’ original written diagnoses were in “agreement” with their selected SNODENT dental diagnostic subset concept(s)

Bridge to Transplantation: Current Outcomes

The use of implantable ventricular assist devices for the treatment of advanced, decompensated heart failure as a bridge to heart transplantation has experienced considerable evolution over the past decade. Improvements in the management and prevention of serious adverse events, and introduction of new continuous-flow rotary pumps that are smaller, more durable, and associated with fewer serious adverse advents has expanded the use of this therapy to a larger population of patients for bridge to transplant indication . (J Card Surg 2010;25:455-461)Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78660/1/j.1540-8191.2010.00996.x.pd

Continuous Wavelets on Compact Manifolds

Let $\bf M$ be a smooth compact oriented Riemannian manifold, and let $\Delta_{\bf M}$ be the Laplace-Beltrami operator on ${\bf M}$. Say 0 \neq f \in \mathcal{S}(\RR^+), and that $f(0) = 0$. For $t > 0$, let $K_t(x,y)$ denote the kernel of $f(t^2 \Delta_{\bf M})$. We show that $K_t$ is well-localized near the diagonal, in the sense that it satisfies estimates akin to those satisfied by the kernel of the convolution operator $f(t^2\Delta)$ on \RR^n. We define continuous ${\cal S}$-wavelets on ${\bf M}$, in such a manner that $K_t(x,y)$ satisfies this definition, because of its localization near the diagonal. Continuous ${\cal S}$-wavelets on ${\bf M}$ are analogous to continuous wavelets on \RR^n in \mathcal{S}(\RR^n). In particular, we are able to characterize the H$\ddot{o}$lder continuous functions on ${\bf M}$ by the size of their continuous ${\mathcal{S}}-$wavelet transforms, for H$\ddot{o}$lder exponents strictly between 0 and 1. If $\bf M$ is the torus \TT^2 or the sphere $S^2$, and $f(s)=se^{-s}$ (the ``Mexican hat'' situation), we obtain two explicit approximate formulas for $K_t$, one to be used when $t$ is large, and one to be used when $t$ is small