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Delta-8 Tetrahydrocannabinol Policy and Related Health Impact Among College-aged Individuals in South Carolina: A Scoping Review
No full textAfter the 2018 Farm Bill passed, loopholes were quickly found that led to the popularization of delta-8 THC, a derivative of delta-9 THC, more commonly known as marijuana. Use of this substance became particularly high in states that criminalized marijuana, such as South Carolina. This scoping review aimed to assess South Carolina’s current delta-8 policies in the context of health-related impacts among college-aged students. Comprehensively analyzing the results of relevant studies, it was determined that there are three commonly observed threats to public health that are direct outcomes of existing policies: 1) a lack of quality control standards; 2) misleading marketing practices; and 3) the absence of regulatory oversight within South Carolina. Furthermore, this review highlights elevated risks for those who use THC-containing vapes and those who are underage, particularly within the college-aged demographic. Health professionals and policymakers are urged to spread awareness of risks related to delta-8 and to reassess the efficacy of current policies in protecting public health
Creating Systems of Professional Learning to Encourage Deep Thinking in Social Studies: A Qualitative Study
Get PDFThis paper describes a problem that developed due to a lack of systems in place to provide professional learning for teachers in social studies. This problem was ignited when revised standards were adopted which shifted from heavy content focus to skills and content. Standards requiring both skills and content encourage student inquiry and promote deep thinking by students through the use of historical evidence. Therefore, the purpose of the improvement science plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles was to develop a system of job-embedded professional learning to assist teachers with teaching strategies that use historical evidence to promote deep thinking in social studies guided by the improvement question: How do we develop a system of on-site professional learning to assist teachers with teaching strategies that use historical evidence to promote deep thinking in social studies?
Through collaboration with two different middle schools in the same local education agency (LEA), a collaborative approach was utilized to engage in professional learning related to the skills-based state standards and indicators and the resources supplied by the SDE. The results of the study indicated positive outcomes when teachers were provided with the time, collaborators, and necessary materials to develop instructional opportunities to engage students in deep thinking
Photometric Redshifts of Galaxies in Quasar Fields
Get PDFUnderstanding the gas in and around galaxies is crucial for understanding galaxy evolution. Absorption lines detected in the spectra of background quasars offer a powerful tool to study the gas in and around the intervening galaxies. As a part of an effort to understand how the gas interacts with the stellar component of galaxies, our team previously obtained imaging and spectroscopic observations for a large sample of galaxies using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). This sample includes thousands of galaxies, including many without spectroscopic data. The overall goal of this work is to estimate the redshifts of as many of the galaxies without spectroscopic redshifts as possible. Redshift is a fundamental parameter in observing any galaxy. In this work, we make use of photometric data to estimate the redshifts of the galaxies. This is done using a technique called spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting. The base sample of galaxies is from the MUSE-ALMA-HST study, from which we chose 720 galaxies that had photometric measurements in at least one Hubble Space Telescope (HST) band and also had photometric data from the SDSS and/or in DELVE surveys and within an angular separation of 1 arc-second from the galaxy coordinates known from the HST imaging. We performed SED fitting for these 720 galaxies using these photometric measurements. Out of 720 galaxies, 146 galaxies have a spectroscopic redshift to compare with, which we used to test our SED fitting methodology. Having thus confirmed the methodology, we determined the photometric redshifts of the remaining 574 galaxies. We present our results on the photometric redshifts for the galaxies with and without the spectroscopic redshifts. We also report the distribution of the photometric redshifts for galaxies without the spectroscopic redshifts. Our results suggest that most absorbers in our sample are associated with multiple galaxies or galaxy groups. Finally, we discuss possibilities for future improvements
The Design and Optimization of Optical Systems for the Detection and Characterization of Phytoplankton
Get PDFPhytoplankton are among the smallest organisms found in marine and freshwater ecosystems. Despite their small size, phytoplankton play a vital role in sustaining life on Earth as primary producers. Through oxygenic photosynthesis phytoplankton are also responsible for large scale carbon fixation and oxygen production. The distribution of phytoplankton in a given water resource can exhibit a high degree of variability across time and space, and this is in large part due to their varying sensitivities to environmental conditions such as resource availability and grazing by predator organisms. As such, phytoplankton community structure is widely used as an investigative tool for assessing the general health of aquatic ecosystems. Adequate monitoring of these systems can require a variety of techniques, like satellite remote sensing, grab sampling of water for ex situ analysis, or in situ sensing. These techniques all have some form of inherent disadvantage associated with their use, namely spatial, temporal, or taxonomic resolution – though the advantages of one technique will often offset the disadvantages of another. Further, interpretation of results from monitoring efforts is difficult to achieve without controlled laboratory analyses aimed at characterizing phytoplankton and their unique responses to a changing environment. This work will discuss an effort to design and optimize novel sensing and sampling technology that facilitates higher efficiency and accuracy with respect to the monitoring of phytoplankton in the field. Additional work was done to develop a polarized fluorescence microscope system for the characterization of nonmotile phytoplankton, specifically the harmful algal bloom forming cyanobacterium Microseira wollei, which can facilitate a better understanding of biogeochemical cycles that govern bloom dynamics and advance work in areas such as predictive modelling and remote sensing
Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Uptake Among Black/African American Men Who Have Sex With Other Men in Midwestern, United States: A Systematic Review
Get PDFIntroduction: Black/African American men who have sex with other men (BMSM) are disproportionately affected by HIV, experience significant disparities in HIV incidence, and face significant barriers to accessing HIV treatment and care services, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Despite evidence of individual and structural barriers to PrEP use in the Midwest, no review has synthesized this finding to have a holistic view of PrEP uptake and barriers. This review examines patterns of, barriers to, and facilitators of PrEP uptake among BMSM in the Midwest, United States (US).
Methods: Five databases (CINAHL Plus, PUBMED, PsycINFO, SCOPUS, and Web of Science) were searched in March 2023. We included studies that focused on BMSM in the Midwestern states; only empirical studies (either quantitative or qualitative or both) were considered. We synthesized the qualitative data and teased out some of the factors inhibiting or facilitating PrEP uptake among BMSM.
Results: We screened 850 articles, and only 22 (quantitative: 12; qualitative: 8; mixed methods: 2) met our set eligibility criteria. Most of the studies were conducted in Chicago. Most BMSM use oral than injectable PrEP. Uptake of PrEP ranged from 3.0 to 62.8%, and the majority reported a prevalence of less than 15%. The barriers include PrEP awareness, PrEP access, PrEP stigma, side effects, PrEP preference, socioeconomic status, medical insurance and support, partner trust, trust in the health system, and precautions with sexual partners. The identified PrEP facilitators include PrEP use until HIV is eradicated, friend influence, experience with dating men living with HIV, safety, phobia for HIV, disdain for condoms, and power to make decisions.
Conclusion: Our review summarized patterns of, barriers to, and facilitators of PrEP uptake among BMSM in the Midwest, United States. The low PrEP uptake of BMSM was primarily attributed to mistrust in the health system and low socioeconomic status. Multimodal and multilevel strategies are needed to improve PrEP uptake among BMSM, including improving the marketing of PrEP to BMSM and removing financial barriers to accessing PrEP service
