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Quantifying Microplastic Contamination: Method Development
No full textPlastic accumulation has surged in the past decade due to its non-degradable nature, leading to the proliferation of microplastics, which pose risks to organisms as they mimic biological chemicals. Quantifying microplastic content in natural samples is crucial for assessing environmental load and intervention efficacy. We initiated our study by testing Nylon microplastics and developing quantification methods for soil samples. Utilizing a Chemidoc system, we aim to measure Nile-Red stained microplastics\u27 fluorescence in standards and spiked soil samples, enabling accurate quantification of environmental microplastics. Ultimately, our objective is to assess microbial degradation of microplastics, facilitated by these established methods, thereby gauging their effectiveness in experimental samples
Remote Work: How Leaders Impact Employee Wellbeing
Get PDFLeaders face many challenges in motivating team members including maintaining remote workers\u27 sense of organizational inclusion. Remote work and flexible working arrangements (FWA) have increased the complexity. Flexible working arrangements (FWA) provide value to employees and may help with work-life balance yet FWA can create employee loneliness and contribute to higher turnover. This quantitative study looked at whether leadership behavior affected remote workers’ loneliness, and the intention to quit. An online survey was conducted through LinkedIn sampling 92 adults who worked remotely at least 20 hours per week in the United States. The study found that the leader-member relationship does affect remote workers, the sense of loneliness, and the intention to quit. The implication for leaders is knowing leader behavior affects remote workers. Further research on leading remote workers is needed
Changes in Values and Perception of Life: Natural Disaster Devastates a Mountain Community
Get PDFThe mountain communities of Karakorum and the Himalayas in Pakistan are frequently experiencing climate change-induced natural disasters, which are inflicting irreparable losses to their generation\u27s old value system and socio-economic life. Focusing on the value system, this small-scale study explored the change in values and perceptions of a disaster-affected mountain community about natural hazards and its implications for their future lives. Twenty participants from the affected community, including local political activists, religious leaders, teachers, and youth activists, were thoroughly interviewed. The study explored significant deviations from their traditional values of connectedness to each other and with their ancestors\u27 land. The emergence of new values like local wisdom for disaster management and the education of their children was also noted. The fading of the values of connectedness to the region and the values of helping each other have serious implications for the breaking of generational old cultures and values that may trigger mass migrations from such regions that will result in the abandonment of mountain villages
Rupert Murdoch: Altruism Inverted
Get PDFAmerican entrepreneur, television producer, media owner and philanthropist, Ted Turner, once described Rupert Murdoch as “the most dangerous man in the world” (Beahm, 1). This is not an unusual judgement. But it is also one which may contribute to sustaining the Murdoch “brand”, his notoriety and appeal to supporters.
This article examines the deep origins of Murdoch’s cynical worldview, and the source of an ambition that drove him from ownership of a small provincial Australian newspaper to global media mogul. What compelled the need to disseminate often dangerously divisive views on as large a stage as possible, while purporting to be acting in the interests of society’s disenfranchised?
The purpose of the article is to critically, but disinterestedly, question the credibility of judgement, and so challenge the basis of his public influence.
The article’s approach is gendered and historical. It examines the values modelled by his grandfather, and transmitted to his father. It looks at the less direct, yet significant modelling of his boarding school headmaster, the institution that acted in loco parentis from age 10 to 18. It looks at the boyhood version of Rupert Murdoch and finds a direct, undeviating line of sight between the adolescent and the adult. Without access to the same eloquent and intimate relationship shared by Patrick and Keith, Rupert created for himself in adolescence a persona which not only distorted but inverted the altruism cherished his male predecessors
Stephen Covey’s Leadership Approach and the Quest for Ethics in Leadership
Get PDFThis article brings valuable insights from Stephen Covey’s Principle-Centered Leadership (PCL) to the limelight as a contribution to the critical efforts of leadership practitioners and scholars to remedy organizations and societies through quest for ethics in leadership and practice of value-based leadership (VBL). It explored the major ideas and content of PCL and demonstrated its significance in the current leadership research. Firstly, with a meta-analysis in comparison with five recent key theories of leadership, it revealed that those theories adopt the insights of PCL to a great extent. Secondly, subjecting PCL to the evaluative criteria of leadership ethics, it demonstrated the ethical quality of PCL as a leadership paradigm. These two rounds of analyses brought PCL to the limelight of scholarly enquiry, hinting at the significant place it could assume in future VBL research
Comparison of Deoxycholic Acid vs. Liposuction for Submental Fat Reduction
Get PDFObjective: Cosmetic surgery is significantly trending upward in society with many new procedures available. The overall goal is to evaluate the efficacy, patient satisfaction, and safety of submental fat reduction methods of deoxycholic acid and liposuction.
Methods: Studies included peer reviewed articles, a meta-analysis, placebo controlled trials, and a prospective study using search engines of Google Scholar, PubMed, and ScienceDirect.
Results: Through the use of both clinician and patient rated scales, deoxycholic acid compared against placebo was found to reduce submental fat, with common side effects of pain, swelling, and numbness. Liposuction was also found to effectively reduce submental fat with improvement in patient satisfaction when compared to preoperative results. Social media surveys also concluded that liposuction remained a preferred method when compared to modern non-invasive techniques.
Conclusion: Both procedures result as safe and effective for reducing submental fat with significant patient satisfaction and positive psychological impact. Choosing the correct procedure type depends on factors such as patient characteristics and treatment goal.
Key words: submental fat, submental adipose, deoxycholic acid, kybella, ATX-101, liposuction, submental liposuction, reduction, patient satisfaction, cos
Finding Potential Binary Stars in a Hubble Space Telescope Sample of Very Hot White Dwarfs
No full textThis project is the first step in determining precise temperatures for hot white dwarf stars using ultraviolet spectra from the Hubble Space Telescope. A way to get the temperature of a hot white dwarf is through performing binary modeling. This project used a list of hot white dwarfs that was obtained from our Hubble Space Telescope Heritage project named, A Treasury Far Ultraviolet Survey of the Hottest White Dwarfs , and evaluated if there was periodic variation in brightness or not. The list contained coordinates, which were put into the database Zubercal to obtain photometric (brightness) data and a light curve (or plot of brightness over time). The photometric data was used to determine if there was brightness variability present and whether that variability was periodic, or changed in a regular, repeating pattern. For any white dwarfs that showed periodic variability, their photometric data were used with a Python code to get a more accurate and precise period. If the white dwarf still showed signs of periodic variability, then it was plotted to the period that found along with a fitted sine curve
Binary Star System Modeling of a Double White Dwarf System in the Planetary Nebula PN G012.1-11.2
No full textPlanetary nebulae are the ejected outer layers of dying stars. At the center of these planetary nebulae remains the cores of the dead stars that created them. These remaining cores eventually become what we call white dwarfs. In order to understand planetary nebulae, white dwarfs, and their origins we can study the remaining core, or central star, inside the planetary nebula. We can do this by determining the physical properties of these central stars. One way to do this is if the central star has a companion and thus is in a binary star system. So I modeled the central star of the planetary nebula PN G012.1-11.2 which has a binary star system at its center. Using the PHOEBE modeling software I was able to create models that I qualitatively matched to the light curve (brightness variations) of this system. These models allowed me to find a range of radii, masses and temperatures for the stars along with the inclination of the system\u27s orbit. I will present the results of my modeling as well as discuss what it tells us about this particular object and how it helps us understand planetary nebulae and white dwarfs more broadly