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Using lichens as bioindicators to assess the impacts of nutrient deposition and urbanization in Nashville, TN
Get PDFLichen species have been used as bioindicators for over a century due to their sensitivity to pollution and urbanization. For example, nitrogen and sulfur compounds can hinder lichen metabolism while urban imperviousness and development can restrict available green spaces. Because lichens continue to be found in polluted areas we set out to investigate how contemporary air pollution and urbanization in Tennessee may be impacting lichen presence and diversity. To assess this, we examined how different lichen functional groups and species are impacted by nitrogen and sulfur deposition and urban imperviousness across Tennessee. Using this approach, we found that nitrogen and sulfur deposition limited the presence of the most sensitive functional groups of lichens. Interestingly, however we found that there was an opposite effect when we looked at urban imperviousness. Collectively, our findings suggest that lichen functional groups are accurate predictors of urban air pollution, but that development alone is not
Falling Flat: The Final Feminist Frontier
Get PDFThis critique examines the topics discussed in Jessica Grose\u27s 2013 article titled Cleaning: The Final Feminist Frontier that was published in The New Republic. Cleaning: The Final Feminist Frontier tells a tale of how cleaning has become one of the things women have not been able to overcome in this age of modern feminism. Grose\u27s article gives advice on how women can close the cleaning disparity gap within their relationships and put an end to this final feminist frontier. This critique looks at the phrasing and examples Grose uses in her article and examines how her solutions actually come off as anti-feminist and invalidates her argument
Myself Reappeared
No full textMy intentions while choreographing my piece “Myself Reappeared” were mainly to utilize many of the ideas we had talked about in class and marry them with my own style and story. This process was much different than how I might normally approach choreographing a piece; however, my intentions were to try something new and challenge myself and the expectations I had at the beginning of this semester. My intention for the choreography on a technique and movement aspect mainly came from taking elements from the 16 manipulations of a motif, such as repetition, phrasing, form, dynamics, and staging to make a cohesive piece. From the story standpoint, my choreographic intention was to communicate the emotion of my journey of recovery (my “spine”) rather than trying to make the audience completely understand the details of my story. During my creation of the dance, my primary concern was communicating this idea of doing and undoing when trying to make changes. Rather than trying to incorporate all of the elements of my journey such as struggling with body image or self-harm, I wanted to make it less literal and develop what I felt was more important. Therefore, a lot of my movement was not miming the physical elements of what could have communicated an eating disorder, but rather it was movement that I felt communicated the inner workings of my mind and heart posture. I also adapted my original idea of being painted black to dancing with a black strip of fabric wrapped around me.I decided on the form of repetition of six phrases but with slight changes each time because it represented the non-linear path I took in recovery. Changing habits or elements of your life that are so ingrained in your being is a gradual process and often can feel like no progress is being made. This idea was best communicated by returning to the beginning and having to repeat the same movements to get to standing and get back up. We also live in very cyclical patterns which can seem monotonous and maddening which I felt was shown by the many times that I had to repeat the choreography to try and move
Using Microfluidics to Sort Cells by Size
No full textAll throughout healthcare, analyzing a sample of cells can be a gateway into the truth of a patient and can often lead to life saving treatment. Whether it is to diagnose someone with a chronic disease, cancer, or just for a checkup, our cells provide insight into our wellbeing. Sorting cells can often be a difficult and time consuming task, however, and in dire situations that could lead to the loss of a patient. Microfluidics is actively changing the way we go about conducting analysis throughout scientific fields. Microfluidics is the study of fluid dynamics on the micro scale. At this scale, fluid dynamics takes on different attributes that allow forunprecedented levels of control over systems. This article outlines a form of microfluidicsknown as chip microfluidics which uses the foil embossing method to imprint micro channels inPDMS. In this article, the micro channels are in a spiral shape in order to effectively use DeanFlow, a type of flow in curved channels, to sort cells by size
Electrochemical Detection and Determination of Lead Concentration in Lactuca Sativa Using the BEARS Device
No full textElectrochemical Detection and Determination of Lead Concentration in Lactuca Sativa Using the BEARS Device
Lauren Martinson, Dr. Thom Spence
Department of Chemistry, College of Science and Mathematics, Belmont University
The consumption of heavy metals, such as lead, has become a significant health concern in recent years, attributed to factors like weathering, volcanic eruptions, and agricultural practices. Lead contamination in agriculture has become widespread, stemming from polluted soil and wastewater. The ingestion of heavy metals poses a threat to various human body systems, from the nervous to the gastrointestinal system. There is a need for a sensitive, cost-effective, and mobile instrument or detection method. Electrochemical detection methods have demonstrated superior cost-effectiveness and mobility compared to the widely used atomic absorption spectroscopy technique. The Belmont Electrochemical Analysis Research System (BEARS) employs square wave stripping voltammetry to detect varying concentrations of heavy metals in a solution. In this study, lettuce plants were cultivated hydroponically in tap water, 40 ppm lead water, and 400 ppm lead water; each was then digested and adjusted to a pH of 4. The BEARS device was able to detect lead in the 40 ppm and 400 ppm plants. Standard addition was performed to verify the results. The findings further indicated that while a seed planted in 400 ppm lead-contaminated water would germinate, the resulting plant would not thrive. The utilization of a cost-effective and mobile device, such as BEARS, exhibits the potential to detect contamination in agriculture promptly, offering a valuable tool for addressing this issue. This research aimed to determine how much lead lactuca sativa would uptake
Measuring Stress Levels in Virtual Reality: Calming vs. Stressful Sounds
No full textThis is an experimental study where we will be studying the effects of calming and stressful sounds and their impact on stress levels through the use of virtual reality. Participants will watch a video clip twice, one with calming nature sounds and another with intense nature sounds. The calming audio will consist of calming nature sounds, which are intended to induce a relaxing state, and the stressful sounds will consist of fast-paced intense nature sounds such as wild animal sounds which are intended to increase the heart rate. The video presented will portray a rainforest/environmental landscape. The audio will also be related to the video’s environment but will have manipulations to invoke stress. Participants will then take a short Qualtrics survey answering questions on demographics on a personal device
The Effect of Crises in Polarization of Democracies
No full textPolarization. This has been the primary political issue under the lights of the American news apparatus, on the mouth of virtually every analyst, politician, and democratic member. It is only fitting that this issue is analyzed in light of different aspects of what may be causing it. With the recent world recovery from the crisis that will likely—and hopefully—mark the 2020s and experiencing firsthand the effects that the pandemic has had on the American people, a question arose regarding the contribution of general crises—be it health, economic, or a result of natural disasters—on the polarization of democratic nations all around the world. Abstractly, there were two initial conflicting presumptions on how crises would impact polarization: (1) crises increase polarization within the masses by exacerbating the ideological differences between democratic factions; or (2) crises decrease polarization by allowing ideologically divided groups to come together in defense of common values against a common enemy. These two presumptions would then lead to a more intricate synthesis of: crises only increase polarization between groups that are polarized beyond a certain threshold, uniting various groups that already lean towards a general direction but also causing the auto-intensification of their political extremism, decreasing intra-party divides but increasing inter-party polarization. This paper analyzes multiple democracies around the world during times in which they experienced social crises, looking for the different variables that explain the shift in polarization of the population of the studied democratic nation. The research indicates there may be an effect of social media consumption and exposure to facts about the crisis unto the level of extremity of individuals towards their already-present biases, which would logically result in an increase in polarization when observed at the macro scale
The Effects of Water Pollution on Educational Outcomes in the United States
No full textThis study investigates the association between water pollution and educational outcomes throughout various areas in the United States, offering awareness of environmental influences on educational achievements. By analyzing data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on water quality and academic performance data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series(IPUMS), the research gives an understanding of how different levels of water pollution, more specifically lead pollution, impact student outcomes in metropolitan, rural, and other areas in the US. This includes socioeconomic and demographic factors to identify relationships between the environment and education. The study utilizes an econometric method to analyze the effects of water pollutants on educational metrics like standardized test scores, graduation rates, and level of educational attainment. The findings are expected to highlight the cognitive effects polluted water can have on educational disparities and to mitigate effects of water pollution on learning environments
Code and Cognition: Investigating the Working Memory, Attention, and Linguistic Processing of Programmers
No full textGiven the increasing demand for programming skills, a new wave of research studying human factors has begun to investigate the cognitive advantages of programming. Historically, studying the cognition of programming has been limited to a focus on software developers and the cognitive implications within different aspects of the development life cycle such as documentation, design, and testing. In recent years, studies have moved towards modeling various underlying cognitive process in programming activities such as comprehension, debugging, and code reviews. In addition to utilizing objective measures such as eye tracking, EEG, and fMRI, studies have expanded to investigating the application on computer science education. As more research begins to shed light on the cognition of programming using objective measures, this study aims to investigate the cognitive implications of acquiring programming knowledge in college students through the use of EEG, specifically focusing on the acquisition of the syntax of object-oriented languages and its correlation to memory and attention