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Record-Setting 2023-2024 GovState Women\u27s Basketball Team Earns NAIA National Tournament Spot
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Assessing the Safety and Efficacy of DIY-homemade Sunscreens with Natural, Aromatic and Herbal Ingredients
No full textSunscreen products are widely used during the summer months to protect against increased sunlight exposure. While there have been advancements in the effectiveness and safety of commercial sunscreens, there is a growing interest in completely natural and homemade skincare products, including sunscreens. These homemade alternatives often incorporating aromatic and medicinal herbal preparations, are being touted as safe alternatives on online social media platforms and alternative health websites. It is essential to recognize that scientific research has primarily focused on evaluating the effectiveness and safety of commercially available sunscreen products. Concerns have arisen regarding the potential risks associated with non-commercial sunscreens, particularly those labeled as homemade or completely natural. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate whether these DIY sunscreen products, advertised as natural and additive-free, pose any health threats due to their inadequate sun protection properties. This study aims to examine the formulations of these proposed homemade sunscreen products, specifically evaluating their durability, protection against ultraviolet A and B (UVA and UVB) radiation, and average sun protection factor (SPF) values from a toxicological perspective. Emphasizing the importance of safety in sunscreen products is paramount, as the use of unsafe sunscreens can lead to serious health risks, including skin cancer, premature aging, and other skin disorders.https://opus.govst.edu/fac/1280/thumbnail.jp
Counterfactual Geographies: Creating Urban Space in Post-Crash Irish Fiction
No full textThis chapter explores the depiction of the space of the International Financial Services Centre in Paul Murray\u27s 2015 novel The Mark and the Void. In doing so it provides an analysis of the relationship between Irish fiction and the financialisation of Irish urban space. The chapter suggests that Murray\u27s novel critiques the subjection of urban space to the logic of global financial capital, while also gesturing towards new ways of thinking about and constructing urban space that resist that logic. The Mark and the Void identifies the fissures in the financialised space of Dublin through which a different urban spatiality might be imagined and brought into being, and through which a ‘counterfactual geography’ might be imagined from within the conditions created by financial catastrophe. However, while the novel articulates the critical-utopian impulse to go beyond understanding the transformation of Dublin, towards the possibility of its being reimagined, it stops short of enacting that possibility in its own narrative structure. The chapter ends by noting that while Murray\u27s novel critiques the conditions by which urban space has been remade by neoliberal capital, literature has the capacity to not just demand that we reclaim the city, but also enable us, imaginatively, to do so.https://opus.govst.edu/fac/1219/thumbnail.jp
Drought-Induced Alterations in Carbon and Water Dynamics of Chinese Fir Plantations at the Trunk Wood Stage
Get PDFOver the past three decades, China has implemented extensive reforestation programs, primarily utilizing Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook) in southern China, to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and counter extreme climate events. However, the effects of drought on the carbon sequestration capacity of these forests, particularly during the trunk wood stage, remain unclear. This study, conducted in Huitong, Hunan, China, from 2008 to 2013, employed the eddy covariance method to measure carbon dioxide (CO2) and water fluxes in Chinese fir forests, covering a severe drought year in 2011. The purpose was to elucidate the dynamics of carbon and water fluxes during a drought year and across multi-normal year averages. The results showed that changes in soil water content (−8.00%), precipitation (−18.45%), and relative humidity (−5.10%), decreases in air temperature (−0.09 °C) and soil temperature (−0.79 °C), and increases in vapor pressure deficit (19.18%) and net radiation (8.39%) were found in the drought year compared to the normal years. These changes in environmental factors led to considerable decreases in net ecosystem exchange (−40.00%), ecosystem respiration (−13.09%), and gross ecosystem productivity (−18.52%), evapotranspiration (−12.50%), and water use efficiency (−5.83%) in the studied forests in the drought year. In this study, the occurrence of seasonal drought due to uneven precipitation distribution led to a decrease in gross ecosystem productivity (GEP) and evapotranspiration (ET). However, the impact of drought on GEP was greater than its effect on ET, resulting in a reduced water use efficiency (WUE). This study emphasized the crucial role of water availability in determining forest productivity and suggested the need for adjusting vegetation management strategies under severe drought conditions. Our results contributed to improving management practices for Chinese fir plantations in response to changing climate conditions.https://opus.govst.edu/fac/1060/thumbnail.jp