Risks Factors and Resiliency in Secondary School Students after the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Abstract The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill on students of two coastal Louisiana secondary schools. Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems theory was used as a framework to understand how exposure, gender, socioeconomic status, and resilience interact to influence the impact of the spill on students. Cross-sectional questionnaires were administered to 155 high school students in May 2012 and 225 middle school students in January 2013 out of 1247 possible for a return rate of about 30%. Results showed that exposure groups differed significantly on students’ Impact of Event Scale (IES; Horowitz, Wilner, & Alvarez, 1979) scores. Students with high exposure to the oil spill had significantly higher IES scores than those with no exposure and low exposure. Logistic regression results indicated that exposure was a significant predictor of higher IES scores and as exposure increased by 1, students were 1.46 times more likely to experience higher impact. Males were found to have significantly higher IES scores than females, with a low effect size. Students did not differ significantly across resilience levels. In the entire sample, lower-SES students did not score significantly different on IES scores than higher-SES students. However, in the high school significant differences were found between SES groups and SES was a significant predictor of higher IES scores. Implications are provided for counselor educators interested in disaster mental health. Conclusions include suggestions for counselors servicing areas affected by the oil spill and how individual and environmental characteristics of students can influence risk factors. Keywords: Disaster mental health, crisis intervention counseling, ecological systems theory, BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, secondary school students, resilience, risk factor

Assessing Communities of Practice in health policy : A conceptual framework as a first step towards empirical research

Peer reviewe

Alerting Services as Tools For Promoting The Uptake of Open Access Resources in Higher Learning Institutions. Case of the University of Zambia

ABSTRACT This study aimed at identifying and recommending appropriate alerting services to promote awareness and uptake of open access resources in higher learning institutions such as the University of Zambia. It identifies itself with the pragmatic paradigm; using the mixed-methods approach and a case study mixed-methods design to investigate the problem of low uptake of open access resources and how alerting services can improve the uptake. The study further applied the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology to provide the context for examining and explaining open access usage and promotion. The study used University of Zambia students, researchers and librarians as informants. The results reveal low usage of open access as well as alerting services in the University. To improve the uptake, the researchers suggest the use of various social media tools, vendor and Google email alerts, mobile phone sms, customised website, flashcards on Moodle and astria, SDIs and peer-to-peer sensitisations

User Perception of the Effectiveness of Open Access Resources in Academic and Professional Achievements

Abstract. This study examined the University of Zambia students and researchers’ perception of the relevance of open access resources in their academic and professional work.The investigation was based on continued problem of low usage of online resources provided by the University of Zambia Library to support learning, teaching and research in the University. The study used a mixed-methods approach and took a case study-mixed methods design to investigate the research problem. Findings:The study revealed that although the overall results showed an average level of awareness and low usage of the open access resources among students and researchers, the majority had a positive perception of open access resources, especially during covid-19 as it allowed remote access to information they needed. They regarded open access to be scholarly anduseful in their academic and professional work. The study recommends the Library to adopt of social media platforms, email/RSS/Google alerts, UNZA website, Selective dissemination of information, WhatsApp groups,mobile phone alerts and vendor alerts to boost both awareness and usage. Originality:The study recommends the use of alerting services to promote access and use of open access resources such as Google alerts, WhatsApp groups and mobile phone alerts, using a pragmatic approach. This allowed the application of different knowledge from a different perspective on existing systems, as well as establishments of new discoveries and interpretations of research findings using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model

Proactive Risk Identification in New Zealand Infrastructure Projects: A Machine Learning Approach to Classifying Project Risk

In the construction industry, proactive identification and management of challenges such as delays, budget constraints, and regulatory hurdles are essential for effective risk management and successful project delivery. Traditional methods, relying on manual analysis and expert judgment, are often time-consuming, inconsistent, and subjective. This study proposes a data-driven framework to automate the identification and classification of challenges within project descriptions using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) techniques. Utilizing the Pacificon dataset, comprising 254,923 infrastructure projects across New Zealand, the study defines challenge categories through regular expressions and implements a machine learning pipeline with TfidfVectorizer and Logistic Regression. The framework achieves a cross-validation mean accuracy of 74.6%, demonstrating robustness and reliability. Experimental results highlight strong performance in categories like regulatory hurdles and budget constraints while identifying areas for improvement, such as environmental factors. By automating challenge identification, the framework reduces reliance on manual risk assessments, enhances consistency, and enables early intervention for improved project management outcomes. This research contributes to the digital transformation of construction risk management, offering scalable, data-driven solutions aligned with industry demands for efficiency and precision in managing project complexities

Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta

Research to action to address inequities: the experience of the Cape Town Equity Gauge

© 2008 Scott et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

A novel planar optical sensor for simultaneous monitoring of oxygen, carbon dioxide, pH and temperature

The first quadruple luminescent sensor is presented which enables simultaneous detection of three chemical parameters and temperature. A multi-layer material is realized and combines two spectrally independent dually sensing systems. The first layer employs ethylcellulose containing the carbon dioxide sensing chemistry (fluorescent pH indicator 8-hydroxy-pyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonate (HPTS) and a lipophilic tetraalkylammonium base). The cross-linked polymeric beads stained with a phosphorescent iridium(III) complex are also dispersed in ethylcellulose and serve both for oxygen sensing and as a reference for HPTS. The second (pH/temperature) dually sensing system relies on the use of a pH-sensitive lipophilic seminaphthorhodafluor derivative and luminescent chromium(III)-activated yttrium aluminum borate particles (simultaneously acting as a temperature probe and as a reference for the pH indicator) which are embedded in polyurethane hydrogel layer. A silicone layer is used to spatially separate both dually sensing systems and to insure permeation selectivity for the CO2/O2 layer. The CO2/O2 and the pH/temperature layers are excitable with a blue and a red LED, respectively, and the emissions are isolated with help of optical filters. The measurements are performed at two modulation frequencies for each sensing system and the modified Dual Lifetime Referencing method is used to access the analytical information. The feasibility of the simultaneous four-parameter sensing is demonstrated. However, the practical applicability of the material may be compromised by its high complexity and by the performance of individual indicators