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Detection of Heavy Metals through the use of Tetra Hydroxyphenyl Porphyrin-Doped Silica Sol-Gels
No full textHeavy metal contamination is an important issue because of its negative health and environmental effects. This research investigates the development and reusability of a heavy metal sensor through the entrapment of tetra-hydroxyphenyl porphyrin (H2THPP) in silica sol-gels. Preliminary investigation of sol-gel monoliths confirmed the colorimetric indication of chromium (Cr), cobalt (Co), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) metals. The manufacture of a dip coater was designed and machined to produce thin films with optimal sensing properties. The interaction between the porphyrin and metals, the functionality of the porphyrin, and the structural integrity of the sensor was examined using colorimetric analysis, ultraviolet/visible (UV/Vis) spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The experimental methodology and preliminary results of the research will be presented
Does Treating Oneself Kindly Lead to More “Treating Yourself?”
No full textTrait self-compassion has been shown to aid a person in their ability to be kind to themselves when they are going through a hard time. For instance, people with higher levels of self-compassion are more likely to face difficult challenges and are less likely to give up on themselves (Gedik, 2019), two indicators of self-control. Our current investigation explores whether self-compassion leads to a more indulgent mindset (i.e., “treating oneself”) in the context of hypothetical and actual health-behavioral decisions, or to health behavior decisions that indicate more long-term health benefits.We expect that following a difficult challenge, individuals who have undergone a self-compassion induction will exhibit preferences for behaviors indicating self-control over those indicating indulgence when those choices are framed as in the future and have more psychological distance. For more short-term oriented decisions, we expect that self-compassion will lead to preference for short-term indulgence over long-term benefit. All participants complete a baseline measure including demographics, a self-compassion measure (Raes et al., 2011), and a trait self-control measure (Tangney 2004). They then try to solve an unsolvable puzzle which induces frustration. Afterwards, the experimental group answers three questions about their failed puzzle attempt directed at the three components of self-compassion–common humanity, self-kindness, and mindfulness (following Leary et al., 2007). The control group answers three objective questions about their performance on the task. Finally, all participants are given a post-test survey asking them to choose between present and future hypothetical health and wellness behaviors. Everyone is given a choice of healthy and unhealthy snack options to represent short-term indulgence, and then is asked to enter their name in a raffle for a gift card to a restaurant for the long-term indulgence. Once completing the full study, participants are debriefed on the intentions and background of our methods
Does Temperament Affect Alcohol Induced Effects in Betta splendens?
Full text linkBetta splendens are reliable models for aggression and for assessing the effects of psychoactive substances on aggression (Shapiro & Jensen, 2009). Richards and colleagues (2023) report that Betta aggression, observed as stereotyped behaviors called “dominance displays,” decreases with increasing doses of alcohol. Inflated variability in these effects also suggests temperament differences may exist. In this study, we assess the effects of alcohol on Betta aggression and the role of temperament in this relationship. Bettas (n = 11) are exposed to a mirror for 2-minutes while in their home tank to elicit aggression following a 5-minute exposure to alcohol in another tank (0.00%, 0.15%, 0.30%, or 0.50%). Non-testing days and a Latin square account for extraneous variables related to dosing. Aggression is video-recorded and coded for amount and duration (in seconds) of dominance displays (following Foberg, 2003). Temperament is determined by a median-split analysis utilizing baseline aggression data to categorize fish as Aggressive or Submissive (following Lewis, 2021). Baseline data are the median number of cumulative seconds spent displaying Gill Extension and Broadside behavior when administered 0% alcohol. Fish with a total duration above the median will be categorized as Aggressive, and fish with a total duration below the median will be categorized as Submissive. A series of 2 (temperament) x 4 (alcohol dose) Mixed-Model ANOVAs will be used to assess the effects of alcohol and temperament on aggression. The expected outcome of this study is that Submissive fish will display less aggression with increasing doses of alcohol, while Aggressive fish will display more aggression with increasing alcohol doses. This study will further our understanding about how temperament may impact the effects of alcohol on aggressive behavior
An Examination of the Strategies and Limitations for Engaging Parents in Urban Music Programs
Full text linkUrban music educators face unique challenges not encountered by their suburban and rural counterparts. A challenge that many urban music educators face is that of consistent and meaningful parent engagement. Urban music educators face issues engaging parents such as a lack of communication, cultural barriers and a lack of action that is ultimately out of the educator’s control. This can lead to low retention of students in the urban music program, difficulties managing negative student behavior, and overall poor program outcomes. Some possible solutions that may assist the urban music educator in engaging parents are engaging the community of the school, social events involving parents and guardians and providing parent education to help parents and guardians understand how to be present in their student’s music education. Although these strategies can be carried out with fidelity, urban music educators must remain aware that these strategies can still fail due to factors such as burnout, safety concerns and other practicalities that cannot be controlled. Additional suggestions for research to be added to the literature are explored, such as determining what strategies for parent engagement work the best for urban music educators and exploring the role that popular music pedagogy may have in engaging the community through community action research
Teaching Improvisation to Students with Intellectual Disabilities
Full text linkIt is the music teacher’s duty to provide their students with opportunities to express themselves through the creation of music. This literature review explores the current research about teaching musical composition to students with intellectual disabilities. Each article selected for review was published in 2015 or later in a music education journal sharing peer-reviewed scholarly articles about current trends and issues in music education. Though only Clipper & Lee’s study (2021) relates exclusively to teaching composition, many of the best practices for teaching general music to students with intellectual disabilities can be directly applied to teaching composition. This review analyzes the instructional strategies found in the Universal Learning Design (E. Draper, 2020), the Beleven in Muziek (BiM) method (Bremmer, Hermans, & Lamers, 2021), in Marina W. Wong’s research about gamification in the music classroom (2021), in the music program at Tower Elementary School (A. Draper, 2022), and Kimberly VanWeelden & Julia Heath-Reynolds’ approaches for designing assessments for students with disabilities (2017). This review will address the three recurring themes which emerge from recent literature about composition in the special education classroom: the duty of the music teacher when teaching students with disabilities, the inclusion of students with disabilities in the music classroom, and instructional approaches that best promote student creativity
Panel: Engaging Quixotism in Generative Artificial Intelligence: A GC1Y Experience
Full text linkIn this Digital Humanities panel, undergraduate students share their journey using Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen-AI) in a GC1Y course that explores the novel Don Quixote in cultural production. Tasked with using Gen-AI to reproduce compositional elements of a book illustration, the panel presenters share their experience in prompting – through input narrative – their chosen Gen-AI to recreate the illustration as closely as possible. Gen-AI’s quixotic tendencies are highlighted through their quests to produce an acceptable image as output. Presenters: Abbey Howell, [email protected] Hampton Sapp, [email protected] Jorja MacKenzie, [email protected] Hannah Savage, [email protected] Presenters and Presentation Titles: Abbey Howell: “Capabilities and Challenges of AI: Replicating Illustrations and Narratives of Don Quixote” Hampton Sapp: “‘Don Pixelote’: Quixotic Artificial Intelligence Image Generation” Jorja MacKenzie: “Recreating Iconography of Don Quixote with Artificial Intelligence” Hannah Savage: “Nuanced Narratives Matter: Prompting Artificial Intelligence to Reduplicate a Book Illustration of Don Quixote” Abstracts: Abbey Howell This presentation explores the complexity behind reduplicating book illustrations from the novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes using Artificial Intelligence (AI). This concept poses the question: “Is AI able to effectively replicate important elements shown in the illustration while also maintaining vital elements that make up the narratives of the novel?” To answer this, I began with an original illustration depicting a classic scene from Don Quixote. Desiring to fulfill his knight errantry duties, Don Quixote valiantly charges into a flock of sheep that he believes are two rival armies, creating a comical scene. The image I chose was created by Gaetan Evrard in 1986, a Belgian author and illustrator who specialized in children’s novels. In his illustration, Evrard places Don Quixote in the middle of the herd of sheep, and his artistic style gives the characters a very animated and cartoonish appearance, which is relevant considering the illustration is aimed towards a young audience. This presentation explores how proficient AI is at replicating scenes from Don Quixote while maintaining the important compositional elements relevant to both the illustration and novel. Using Dall-E 3, I provided the program with several prompts until I was given an image that related to the original illustration as closely as possible. The differences between my first and last AI prompts were drastically different, ultimately showing the complexity behind using AI to get desired images and highlighting its questionable reliability. Keywords: Accuracy, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Don Quixote, Complex, Illustration, Image, Prompt Hampton Sapp Artificial Intelligence (AI) image generating programs have become exponentially more effective at creating precise imagery. While Dall-E 3 and other AI generators are more popular, lesser-known programs are now available, including Adobe’s Firefly. This presentation examines Firefly’s ability to accurately recreate a work of art, and the user prompts that yielded the best results. To achieve this, a 1905 illustration by Spanish artist José Jiménez Aranda from a special edition of Don Quixote was used as a reference for recreation. The Chinese ink illustration depicts a crucial part of the novel’s plot in which the storyline comes to a halt. The narrator finds the rest of the story written in Arabic. This is a very unique part of the novel that yields unique illustrations. There are very few illustrations pertaining to this portion of the book, making it particularly interesting to see how the AI recreated it in its output. The results of the experiment show that Firefly was unsuccessful in recreating the 1905 illustration. This presentation discusses the project details by analyzing AI prompt specifications, Adobe Firefly abilities, and its limitations. Keywords: Adobe Firefly, Artificial Intelligence (AI), AI Art, AI prompts, Book Illustrations, Don Quixote, Cervantes Jorja MacKenzie This presentation explores a project that recreated an iconic scene from Don Quixote via AI image generation, revealing both promises and limitations. I aimed to replicate a 2005 book illustration by Spanish artist Antonio Mingote Barrachina that showed Sancho Panza\u27s comical tossing in a blanket using the platform wepik.com. Barrachina was known for his expressive etched illustrations depicting Spanish life and literature. His sketches utilized flowing contours and energetic linework to capture a sense of motion and emotion. Barrachina\u27s cartoonish style featured exaggerated gestures and comedic absurdity. These unique artistic qualities presented an ambitious challenge for AI recreation. Through five rounds of refinement and adjusting details like actions, positioning, and emotions, the AI images gradually transformed toward the dynamism and relationships in Barrachina’s original. Adding verbs like “catapulted” and imagery like Sancho’s “chubby limbs splayed” injected palpable chaos. Interactive phrases linking foreground and background also improved coherence. The final AI-generated image contained noticeable similarities to key components like Sancho\u27s suspended figure and the gleeful men below. However, finer artistic intricacies requiring discernment remained difficult for the AI. It struggled to replicate Barrachina\u27s finer artistic details, which require human discernment. This exercise showed AI’s promise for recreating renowned scenes once only achievable by master illustrators. However, limitations arose revealing human creativity still exceeds AI’s visual replication capabilities. While the vigorous AI facsimile fell short of flawless accuracy, this demonstrates the technology’s future potential if evolution continues. Recreating cultural images remains an aspirational yet partially fulfilled goal for AI. Keywords: Antonio Mingote Barrachina, Artificial Intelligence, Book Illustration, cartoon, Don Quixote, wepik.com Hannah Savage Artificial Intelligence, although constantly evolving, is known to produce errors when asked to complete highly specific tasks. This challenge is especially prevalent in image creation, since using AI to produce images as output relies on the descriptive narrative input provided by the user. This presentation analyzes how Dall-E 3, accessed through Microsoft Bing Image Creator, can reduplicate a book illustration of Miguel de Cervantes’s novel Don Quixote of la Mancha. The illustration selected is “Disappearance of Don Quixote’s Library by the Enchanter Freston” (1950) by Spanish artist Enrique Herreros. Seven narratives were required to produce an image that resembles the original illustration. Analyses of these narratives and each corresponding AI-generated image reveal the efficiency of certain word choices that in turn helped the AI produce the desired images. As each narrative input expanded upon the previous one, and was slightly altered to produce specific changes, nuanced phrasing was revealed that resulted in improved AI-generated images. While the style of the AI image is partly dependent on the specific software used, as some AIs are better at producing distinct types of images than others, it is apparent that using concise, well-known phrases and vocabulary in the input is essential to create an image in which the AI did not confuse the details. Keywords
Identifying Phytoremediation Performing Plant Species that can be Utilized in the Improvement of Heavy Metal Contaminated Soils
Full text linkHeavy metal pollution is a problem associated with industrialization and development. Two major metals that are commonly mined and can enter the environment, which can jeopardize communities’ health, are copper (Cu) and lead (Pb). There are different options for reducing heavy metal pollution in the environment via remediation efforts, including physical, chemical, and biological methods. However, physical and chemical remediation can be costly and labor-intensive, making them unsuitable for regions that do not have the funds to utilize these practices. Biological remediation is a more cost-conservative practice that has been shown in many studies to be effective in the gradual removal of some of the more dangerous heavy metals from the land. The goal of this project was to determine the effectiveness of three plants (Celosia plumosa, Celosia cristata, and Moringa oliefera) in removing Cu and Pb from contaminated soil. Plants were grown in soils contaminated with varying levels of Cu and Pb in a climate-controlled greenhouse. Preliminary results for the present study showed little to no uptake of Pb within these plant species, while there was a considerable uptake of Cu in the leaves and flowers of C. plumosa, suggesting that it could be a suitable phytoextractor of this metal
Community Perceptions on Tobacco Use and Secondhand Smoke Exposure in Rural Georgia
No full textINTRODUCTION: Tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure negatively impact the health of individuals and disproportionately so in African Americans and rural communities. We aimed to examine stakeholder perception on tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure. METHODS: A listening session following CDC guidelines was used to document residents’ views on tobacco use, secondhand smoke and policy aimed at reducing exposure in public places. Residents 18 years and older were invited to participate through flyers, emails, and social media. Additional key informant interviews by phone call/zoom. The discussion guide collected data on 1) attitudes of participants toward tobacco use and secondhand smoke, 2) barriers, and enablers to smokefree policy implementation, and 3) strategies to implement smokefree policy. Recorded dialogue along with meeting notes were transcribed and assessed using a thematic analysis. Codes and themes were used to create word maps to displays findings. RESULTS: We conducted 3 key informant interviews, and 15 stakeholders attended the listening session ranging from government, non-profit, faith-based organization, community members, and the department of public health. Three themes emerged around community perceptions of tobacco use, with an overall negative perception. Stakeholders expressed concern with health consequences and control measures being implemented. When discussing perceptions of barriers and enablers to smokefree policy implementation, themes identified challenges in implementation related to the imbalance of marketing power and equitable enforcement of existing policies. Stakeholders were motivated toward finding strategies to implement smokefree policies. Emerging themes around policy implementation were “improvement in the delivery of health information related to tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure” and “building community trust”. CONCLUSION: Stakeholders in this rural community perceived tobacco use and secondhand smoke as a public health hazard. The balance of marketing power, equity, improving message delivery and building community trust represents opportunities for intervention by local government and public health bodies
Exploring Preferred Days and Times for On-Campus Events
No full textThis study will examine the days and times in which Georgia College students prefer to have on-campus events. The goal of this study is to increase event attendance while adequately using the school’s resources to do so. By conducting this study, we will increase the value of the school’s resources while saving them time and money that would otherwise be wasted if on-campus events are overlooked. On-campus events are used to increase social interaction and display campus offerings. The study will be conducted using a mixed research method, solely focusing on data from campus-wide survey results. While conducting this study, the key focus will be on identifying optimal key success factors like days and times, event types, and scheduling issues. A netnography will also be conducted to interpret the online data. By analyzing this survey data, we will help the school be better equipped to host on-campus events that benefit both students and the college. Keywords: Times, dates, resources, planning, stud
Vibrio Harvey Clade Primers: Those That Work and Those That Do Not.
Full text linkIn our recent study, a wide array of virulence genes carried by Vibrio Harveyi clade pathogens has been detected in Georgia aquaculture waters and sediments. Identification of their carriers was attempted with qPCR and a set of previously published species-specific primers.
Reported as discriminating between species of Harveyi clade, the Vp-toxR primer (V. parahaemolyticus) cross-reacted with V. alginolyticus and V. campbellii. The Va-gyrB primer (Vibrio alginolyticus) was species-specific but revealed a very low sensitivity and cannot be used for detecting this pathogen at environmentally relevant concentrations. The rpoA primer (V. harveyi and V. campbellii) exhibited high selectivity for the above species and a lack of cross-reactions to other species of this clade.
A set of new primers has been obtained, and the VP 1155272 primer (V. alginolyticus) revealed a high species-specificity with a satisfactory detection limit. Testing and verifying the primers for other Harveyi clade species from the above set are in progress.
Our results call for more careful testing of published species-specific primers and qPCR parameters; and possibly for re-evaluation of published data obtained with the above primers. This ongoing study has highlighted the importance of evaluating published primers for their specificity and detection limits even if they have been previously reported as efficient primers for the detection and quantitation of Vibrio Harveyi clade species