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Thrifting: Sustainable or Just a Trend?
No full textThrifting: Is it the answer to textile waste or just another trend? This research is an examination of how today’s generation uses the practice of thrifting versus the environmentally beneficial origins of second-hand clothing. In recent years, teens and young adults have been making a profit through purchasing low-cost items from thrift stores and reselling them on popular websites at a much higher cost. This brings up the potential issue of gentrification wherein the thrifting experience has become something of privilege (Abdellatif et al., 2020 p. 51), rather than just an eco-friendly or low-budget approach to shopping. At the basis of it all is whether or not these consumers care about the environmental impact of their habits or if it is all about staying trendy. Results from the research explore the psychology behind this trend-driven consumerism, sustainable shopping habits, and how this idea of reselling thrifted items will impact sustainability in the future
The Role of Legacy Building in Chronically Ill Children's Overall Well-Being
No full textWhat is the link between legacy building and chronically ill children’s overall wellbeing? Legacy building refers to interventions that are focused on helping children and families create lasting memories during extended, significantly stressful, or end-of-life healthcare experiences. In this review, the role of legacy building in chronically ill children’s overall wellbeing will be discussed. To gather sources, 10 different databases were searched to provide a variety for the project. Key terms used for identifying articles included legacy building, child life, children, legacy activities and end-of-life intervention. Research suggests a need for child life specialists to provide psychosocial support at the end of life, mainly through legacy building. Throughout the literature there was a common finding, children and families use legacy building to cope with the death and dying process. Children who are faced with end-of-life scenarios can benefit from legacy building. Legacy building improves families’ overall coping abilities, adjustment to death, and provides them with keepsakes of the deceased
“Thou gaudy gold”: Wealth in The Merchant of Venice
Get PDFA great deal of scholarship on the Merchant of Venice analyzes the play’s romantic themes and Jewish stereotypes. However, the play’s main theme is wealth. The lack of scholarship on wealth in this play is surprising, especially given that the title indicates the importance of economics. Wealth is central to the characterization, and the historic, and economic contexts presented in the play. This paper analyses the play in these contexts. Wealth is the most important theme of the play since it is connected to most, if not all, of the critical parts within it. The context of Shylock’s wealth should be explained to a modern audience. As such, I explain the modern monetary value of Shylock’s 3000 Ducat loan and his fortune rather than an estimation of the raw gold value of Ducat coins. Shakespeare uses many Greek mythological references, here the golden fleece and King Mydas are used. It is no coincidence that gold is the central object in these myths. Even in the play’s romantic scenes, wealth is still tied to love and is often the motivating factor for the characters. Sometimes love is betrayed for economic power. The paper also includes the historic economic importance of marriage and its pressures on men and women. And lastly Shakespeare often used other settings to comment on England. As such, I analyze the English view of other countries’ wealth under the guise an Italian setting
Pair Movements in Canada Geese
Get PDFCanada geese (Branta canadensis) are a staple of most parks, neighborhoods, and even shopping centers (Conover 1998) – wherever there is a body of water with subsequent aquatic vegetation, you will most likely find Canada geese. This is especially true during their annual molting period from mid-June to late July, in which they shed and regrow their flight feathers. It is generally accepted that geese with broods prefer to molt and rear the brood near to or at their own birthplaces- this concept is known as philopatry. Over the summer of 2020, I observed the Canada goose flock of Cookeville, Tennessee to discern whether this philopatric trend can be observed within the flock. Geese with broods and those without were examined and analyzed separately to accommodate for the heightened philopatry that is commonly seen in geese that are rearing broods. Results showed that local males, those first captured in the Cookeville flock as hatch years, did indeed travel farther on average than local females. It was also found that individuals were philopatric to their natal sight whether or not they had had a brood that season. Such results raise questions regarding the following, or lack thereof, of seen trends within the study: (1) If the trends followed are seen in the Cookeville flock, are they followed by other resident flocks? and (2) Are the common trends that are not being followed due to the flock being a resident flock, or is it due to other variables
PPP Loans - Small Business Vaccine and Corporate Sting
Get PDFAs a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the U.S. Government passed the CARES Act. One key aspect of the Act was the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), whose primary purpose was to provide relief to struggling small businesses and retain employment levels through the use of forgivable loans. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, in 2020, over 383,000 PPP loans totaling just under $42.5 Million went to the Accommodation and Food Services industry. As intended, most loans went to small businesses; however, a few large public corporations faced severe public backlash after applying to and accepting PPP loans. A legislative loophole allowed individual restaurants to qualify, even if their parent corporation did not. We analyzed quarterly financial statements from March 2019 through December 2020 of 23 public companies in the restaurant industry, including eight that accepted PPP payments. We noted whether any subsidiary or franchisee applied for, received, or returned a PPP loan. We present an analysis of key metrics from the quarterly financial statements
Towards using mesoporous silica as a drug delivery system for chlorpromazine ibuprofenate ionic liquid
No full textIn pharmacies around the world, solid-state pharmaceuticals sit on shelves changing their crystalline structures day by day through polymorphic transformations (polymorphism is the event of a substance crystallizing into more than two crystalline forms). As a result, a drug’s effectiveness may change during shelf life due to a decrease in aqueous solubility which may lead to a limited bioavailability. These disadvantages can be resolved through the conversion of solid-state drugs into a liquid state compound (ionic liquid, IL) with a greater therapeutic effect on users. ILs can be synthesized by combining two different pharmaceuticals into one single compound to create ILs with dual functionality, in that both parent drugs retain their functions. The IL of interest for this project is chlorpromazine ibuprofenate which is synthesized through the metathesis reaction between chlorpromazine hydrochloride and sodium ibuprofenate. Spectroscopic methods (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Infrared Spectroscopy) are employed to determine the purity and structure of the synthesized IL while the supported ionic liquid phase (SILP) methodology is used as a potential delivery strategy. This procedure is favorable for a highly viscous liquid drug. Its adsorption onto solid supports (e.g., mesoporous silica) consolidates the benefits of the liquid state compound with the ease of transfer and handling. Investigating the leaching of the IL from the solid support into simulated body fluids (e.g., simulated gastric fluid) will test the potential for this drug’s delivery mechanism
The Role of Attachment in Families Affected by Substance Abuse and Vicarious Trauma
No full textMany studies have evaluated the role of attachment as it relates to substance abuse, mental health, trauma, and psychosocial functioning. Vicarious trauma, also known as secondary trauma, refers to alterations in perspectives resulting from prolonged engagement in another individual’s traumatic material. Research on vicarious trauma has focused on those in helping professions rather than the general population. The present paper will focus on the general population, specifically family system members over the age of 18, whom have been exposed to substance abuse by a separate family member. Research articles on substance abuse exposure, attachment, and vicarious trauma are briefly explained. To conclude, articles are explored and synthesized collectively, as studies have not focused on the correlation between these variables. The goal of this paper is to instigate research aimed at evaluating the family system’s experience of vicarious trauma stemming from substance abuse exposure, through the lens of Attachment Theory
Writing Ability and Gender as Moderators of the Relationship Between Instrumental Motivation and Academic Self-Efficacy
Get PDFStudies have shown that students with high academic self-efficacy are more likely to perform better in the classroom and other environments. In addition to presumably directly influencing achievement, students’ self-efficacy beliefs can indirectly influence their achievement through affecting their willingness to learn and their approach towards challenges (Mahyuddin et al., 2006; Zimmerman, 1995). The purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to test the moderating effect of home literacy resources, student writing ability, and gender on the relationship between instrumental motivation and English self-efficacy, controlling for the reading interests and habits of high school students. This study utilized secondary data from a sample of about 11,000 students who participated in the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002. Reading habits and self-efficacy beliefs were measured using questionnaires given to students in their sophomore year in high school. Using Hayes’s PROCESS tool, the results of the moderation analysis showed that (i) differences in self-efficacy between students of different writing levels decrease as instrumental motivation increases, (ii) the amount of home literacy resources did not significantly moderate the relationship between instrumental motivation and self-efficacy, and (iii) as instrumental motivation increases, the difference in self-efficacy between males and females increases, with females having higher mean values than males across the whole range of the predictor variable
Modeling Chemical Reactors from First Principles: The Batch Photocatalytic Reactor
No full textIn the modeling of isothermal chemical reactors, the specialization of the species continuity equation (for a given reactor domain) is one of the key aspects that the modeler needs to handleaddress. A helpful guidance starting point is the identification of proper simplifying assumptions for the various phenomena involved in the reaction process; these may be related to the type of reactor used, the type of reactant mixture present in the system, and the chemical reactions that taketaking place, among other aspects. In addition, for the case of a photocatalytic reactor, the modeling of the light radiation field must be coupled with the species continuity equation. The reason behind this need is based upon the dependence that of the reaction rate has withon the radiation field intensity. This field can be modelled on the basis of the photon balance equation. In this contribution, we will outline a systematic approach to derive the up-scaled equations for a batch photocatalytic reactor with degradation taking place at the photocatalytic thin film surfaces located at the wall of the reactor. Both, the species continuity equation and the photon conservation equation will be upscaled using a volumetric averaging approach in order to derive the engineering reactor equations. Furthermore, the model solution will be illustrated with conversion results of a biomedical contaminant, i.e., acetaminophen, and comparison with experimental results. Suggestions for future work will be also highlighted
Effects of Salinity on the Rate of Aggregation of Humic Acids and Substances
No full textHumic substances comprise a major portion of organic matter found in natural waters, the presence of which poses issues in water treatment, as they react with chemicals used in the chlorination process, forming toxic by-products. Humic acids have the potential to disaggregate and move across a membrane, such as those used for filtration, and proceed to re-aggregate after filtration, though little is known about the process that allows re-aggregation to occur. This study focuses on how the rate of this aggregation could be affected through the variation of salinity in a humic acid-containing water sample. Each of the 15 collected pond water samples were filtered at 0.45 microns, subjected to constant shearing via a rheometer, and subsequently monitored through Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) as the humic substances re-aggregated. The aggregation time, defined as the first appearance of a 5-micron particle, was found to have a quadratic dependence on NaCl concentration