Screening of Soil Amendment as a Potential Urban Garden Soil Lead Remediation Treatment

Lead contamination in urban soils is a widespread problem caused by industry, leaded paint, and lead additives in gasoline up until the 1970’s. Methods are now being developed to treat the lead on site so that it no longer poses a health threat. One method that has proven effective is phosphate fertilizers, although results and rate requirements differ for each soil. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a commercial fertilizer-like product in immobilizing lead in contaminated soil intended for an urban garden. To do this, treatment was applied and allowed to incubate and was then analyzed for soil solution lead and relative bioavailability. While soil solution lead was significantly reduced, relative bioavailability was relatively unaffected. These results suggest the treatment would be effective for reducing the amount of lead that would be available to plants, but would not be effective in reducing exposure through direct soil ingestion.No embargoAcademic Major: Environmental Scienc

Monolithic whispering-gallery mode resonators with vertically coupled integrated bus waveguides

We report on the realization and optical characterization of a CMOS-compatible silicon-based microresonator/waveguide coupled system, fully integrated on a silicon chip. The device uses a vertical coupling scheme between the resonator and a buried strip waveguide. We demonstrate that its high optical quality follows from the accurate planarization of the waveguide topography. More importantly, we demonstrate a wafer-scale mass fabrication of freestanding planar resonators suspended in air and coupled to the integrated bus waveguides. A nanometer control of the coupling distances allows for a precise and selective excitation of different mode families of the resonator. This opens the door for the realization of stable all-integrated complex resonator systems for optomechanical and metrological applications, with the potential to substitute the nowadays intensive use of complicated fiber-taper coupling schemes.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure

CMOS-compatible graphene photodetector covering all optical communication bands

Optical interconnects are becoming attractive alternatives to electrical wiring in intra- and inter-chip communication links. Particularly, the integration with silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology has received considerable interest due to the ability of cost-effective integration of electronics and optics on a single chip. While silicon enables the realization of optical waveguides and passive components, the integration of another, optically absorbing, material is required for photodetection. Germanium or compound semiconductors are traditionally used for this purpose; their integration with silicon technology, however, faces major challenges. Recently, graphene has emerged as a viable alternative for optoelectronic applications, including photodetection. Here, we demonstrate an ultra-wideband CMOS-compatible photodetector based on graphene. We achieve multi-gigahertz operation over all fiber-optic telecommunication bands, beyond the wavelength range of strained germanium photodetectors, whose responsivity is limited by their bandgap. Our work complements the recent demonstration of a CMOS-integrated graphene electro-optical modulator, paving the way for carbon-based optical interconnects.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures. Nature Photonics, 201

The School-to-Prison Pipeline: A Panel Data Analysis

The objective of this paper is to analyze the potential affect public-school funding has on juvenile incarceration rates in the United States using a panel series data set from 2000 until 2020. The United States has the highest per capita incarceration rates among 114 other members of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with 639 individuals for every 100,000 are incarcerated in the United States. This papers aims to use explanatory variables like race (black and white), sex, age, arrests, educational attainment, and rates of school attendance to further help in answering if an increase in public spending on education will have an adverse effect on the rate of incarceration across the United States prison system

The Effects of a Low or High Fat Diet That Determines the Outcome of Diabetes

About 1 in 10 Americans have diabetes and about 90 –95% of those with diabetes have Type II diabetes (CDC). We wanted to look at the affects of diet, sex, and genes to determine if they play a significant role in Type II diabetes. We performed a glucose tolerance test injected the F34 LG,SM advanced intercross line. We found that determined that these factors play a role in having Type II diabetes

The relationship between ratings of perceived exertion and heart rate in NCAA Division III male soccer players 2017

Every sport has specific physical demands of the human body. The amount of physiological load that an athlete endures during a bout of exercise can be described as training load (TL). Accurate calculation of training loads within athletes is important when it comes to strength and power development, as well as injury prevention and monitoring fatigue. Common methods used to calculate training loads for athletes include rating of perceived exertion (RPE) based methods, heart rate (HR) based methods, rate of oxygen consumption (VO2) methods, and blood lactate methods. Specifically with NCAA male soccer athletes, HR based methods and RPE based methods are most prevalent. However, there has been conflicting research results when regarding the strength of the relationship between HR and RPE based methods to determine training loads with soccer athletes. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between Edwards’ TRIMP and session RPE methods of determining training loads in NCAA Division III male soccer players during bouts of intermittent soccer specific exercise of moderate to long duration. Participants in this study were current members of an NCAA Division III men’s varsity soccer team during the spring 2017 season (n=8, age=19.13 ± 0.835). Pre-existing HR and RPE data for each participant were taken from a scrimmage session played on April 23, 2017. Participants competed in a soccer specific scrimmage session lasting 60 minutes in duration (30 minute first half, 10 minute halftime, 30 minute second half). HR data for each participant were recorded for each participant throughout the entire soccer scrimmage using Polar Team 2 HR monitoring equipment. Each participant wore a Polar Team 2 HR chest monitor to record HR data for every second of activity. RPE data for each individual was collected 10 minutes post soccer scrimmage using a Borg’s CR-10 RPE scale. Edwards’ Training Impulse values were calculated for each individual using HR data while session RPE training load values were calculated using individuals’ CR-10 RPE scores. A Pearson’s correlation was run to examine the relationship between Edwards’ TRIMP and session RPE based training load methods. A significant, positive, moderately strong correlation was found between Edwards’ TRIMP and session RPE based TL methods (r=0.719). The r2 value of 0.517 suggested that about 52% of variance in TL values can be explained by the relationship between Edwards’ TRIMP and session RPE TL methods. The results of this study suggest that session RPE is a fairly accurate measure of TL within soccer specific exercise of moderate to long duration, specifically within NCAA Division III soccer athletes

Reducing Iatrogenic Opiate Withdrawal in the PICU: An Evidence-based Practice Improvement Project

BACKGROUND: Current recommendations to reduce pain associated with mechanical ventilation is the administration of opiate and benzodiazepine infusions for Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) patients. If these infusions are weaned too quickly, iatrogenic withdrawal syndrome (IWS) often occurs. IWS symptoms include tachycardia, hypertension, diaphoresis, fever, irritability, tremors, clonus, hyperactive reflexes, vomiting, and diarrhea. Untreated IWS can lead to life-threatening complications.LOCAL PROBLEM: The PICU at the project site contains fourteen beds and treats critically-ill pediatric patients. There was no standardized withdrawal assessment tool in practice. The purpose of this project was to implement the Withdrawal Assessment Tool-Version 1 (WAT-1) in the PICU to shorten the length of stay (LOS) and decrease IWS.METHODS: This project was guided by the Evidence-based Practice Improvement Model, a design that incorporates both evidence-based practice and quality improvement. The PICU nurses were educated on the WAT-1 and scored appropriate patients every twelve hours. Data was collected for three months pre- and post-implementation.INTERVENTIONS: The PICU nurses were educated on the use of the WAT-1 and scored appropriate patients every twelve hours. The average PICU LOS was analyzed to determine any difference after implementation.RESULTS: Implementation of the WAT-1 in the PICU at the project site did not result in a statistically significant decrease in LOS, however, the average length of stay decreased by 1.5 days. The majority of PICU patients during the implementation period were less than two years old and had a respiratory diagnosis.CONCLUSIONS: The use of the WAT-1 in the PICU demonstrated a 1.5 day decrease in the average PICU LOS. The implementation of a standardized withdrawal assessment tool is recommended by the Society of Critical Care Medicine. This project is sustainable after implementation into the electronic health record. The implementation of the WAT-1 allows for future development of a standardized methadone weaning protocol based on patient scores