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  Maternal Autonomy and Child Health Care Utilization: Evidence from Bangladesh

  Ashiqul Alam

  My research looked into the relationship between maternal autonomy and how child health care is utilized in third world countries. I worked with my professor, Dr. Bibhudutta Panda, to specifically look at Bangladesh as our country of interest. The country itself is smaller than Florida but is ranked number 8 for the most populated country. In Bangladesh the infant mortality rate is 6 times more than the US, at 30.7 per 1000 live births and government expenditure is also low. The main reason behind to pick Bangladesh is also that it is a third world country and also a patriarchal society where the father demands the greater role in family-decision making. The level ranges depending on other important factors such as socioeconomic factors (e.g. household economic status), and child and mother specific characteristics related to health care utilization.

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  Toward the Development of a 10Be Chronology of Glaciation in the Mosquito Range, Colorado: A Progress Report

  Noah Bensen and Keith A. Brugger

  The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) in the Rocky Mountain region occurred about 21 ka (20,000 years before present). However, dated glacial chronologies suggest that while LGM glacier advances in individual ranges in Colorado were somewhat synchronous, retreat from their maximum extents was asynchronous, varying between ~20 and 15 ka or later. The precise timing and spatial variation of glacier advance and retreat provides insights into LGM climate change and is necessary to calibrate climate models. To better understand the timing of the LGM in the Mosquito Range in Colorado, we collected 12 samples from granitic boulders on moraine crests in the summer of 2016. Sample processing began in Fall 2016. Samples were crushed, sieved and subject to magnetic separation. Chemical processing is underway to further separate quartz grains, and ultimately to extract beryllium oxide (BeO) “targets.” Target will be analyzed for the concentration of ¹⁰Be, a cosmogenically-produced isotope, using accelerator mass spectrometry at PRIME Lab (Purdue University). ¹⁰Be concentrations will then be used to determine the age of the moraines and thus reveal the timing of the local LGM.

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  Impact of Fertilizer, Corn Residue, and Cover Crops on Mycorrhizal Inoculum Potential and Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Associations

  Rachel Brockamp

  Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) can associate with roots of most land plants, helping to take up water and nutrients. Intensive agricultural practices like fallow treatments and adding inorganic nutrients reduce soil AMF. The purpose of my research was to examine whether three factors influenced AMF-crop associations: 1) fertilizer type and application rate 2) inclusion of cover crops that do or do not associate with AMF, and 3) impacts of corn residue. Soil Mycorrhizal Inoculum Potential (MIP) was measured to test treatment differences. MIP is the ability for soil AMF to infect roots. Roots grown in soil from the different treatments were evaluated in a MIP bioassay. In situ AMF colonization data for roots of field-grown plants was assessed. In the fertilizer experiment, MIP was significantly greater in the no-fertilizer and manure fertilizer treatments, indicating more AMF associations. Adding full, or half the amount of fertilizer had lower MIP, showing that increased nutrients reduced plant-AMF associations. Forage radish does not form AMF associations while annual ryegrass does, but in the cover crop experiment, no significant differences between these cover crops and fallow treatments occurred. Corn residue removal was expected to reduce soil health and reduce AMF associations; however, there were no significant differences compared to the residue retention treatment. Overall, fertilizer type and amount influenced AMF, but certain cover crops and residue did not.

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  Asexual-Identified People’s Interactions with Health Care Practitioners

  Shelby Flanagan

  People who identify as asexual use this label because, rather than a sexual orientation like “heterosexual,” “homosexual”, or “bisexual,” which labels attraction by gender, they experience a lack of sexual attraction. Previous psychological research on the topic asexuality is limited, but one conclusion agreed upon by several studies is that people who identify as asexual differ from those diagnosed with hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) in several ways, the most notable of which is that asexual people were shown typically to have little or no distress related to their lack of sexual desire, whereas distress is a key part of the diagnosis of HSDD. The question of this research is whether those findings are reflected accurately in the practice of real-world health professionals, or whether health professionals consider asexuality to be related to mental or physical health problems. This is achieved by surveying individuals who self-identify as asexual about their experiences with healthcare practitioners. We expect to find that in at least some cases, asexual people who did reveal their sexual identities to health professionals would encounter negative reactions from the practitioners, due to pathologizing attitudes still present in the medical establishment toward asexuality.

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  Best Practices for Online Tutorials in Academic Libraries

  Kari Haynes

  In a world that is increasingly dependent on technology, libraries must find ways to harness this tool to stay relevant to the communities they serve. For example, Briggs Library offers onsite training as well as online tutorials to reach all types of users. The purpose of my literature review and research was to identify the best practices for online. This was achieved by locating academic sources that described how other university libraries created effective online tutorials. I came to the conclusion that effective online tutorials meet diverse student learning needs by using similar teaching strategies. Furthermore, the various universities made successful tutorials by catering to different learning styles present in their communities. My recommendation to Briggs Library for creating effective and relevant tutorials was to survey the students’ learning preferences and consider applying multimedia teaching strategies.

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  Investigation of HKUST-1 and Related Composites with Protein Adsorption

  Ramitha Rupasinghe

  Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) possess well-ordered porous structures that have been shown to adsorb proteins. MOFs can be enhanced by combining them with suitable materials to make composites. Enhancements include, but are not limited to, changing pore sizes, adding functional groups, improving selectivity of adsorption, and increasing stability. Previous research has shown high adsorption of proteins by the MOF, HKUST-1 but no research has been done to investigate the adsorption by its related composites, such as HKUST-1/GO, HKUST-1/ magnetite and HKUST-1/magnetite/GO. In this research, HKUST-1 and composites based on graphene oxide (GO) and magnetite were synthesized, characterized by FTIR, XRD and TGA, and investigated with the adsorption of insulin and bovine serum albumin (BSA). HKUST-1 and the composites adsorbed insulin rapidly within 20 minutes of incubation but with BSA, HKUST-1/GO (wt% = 18) showed the best adsorption of proteins within a 30-minute incubation period as indicated by the results of gel electrophoresis. Hydrolysis of the HKUST-1/GO (18%) with 0.02M sodium hydroxide solution improved the adsorption by varying the pore size but selectivity decreased. Magnetite and GO (18%) were compared and different levels of adsorption were observed; the GO composites indicated better adsorption. These results confirm the possibility of using HKUST-1 and related composites for adsorbing proteins at different amounts and with possible selectivity by varying the percent composition of magnetite and GO in the composites.

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  Paper or Plastic? A Comparison of the Carbon Emissions of Grocery Bags

  Hannah Tuomi

  Paper and plastic grocery bags, as well as reusable bags (non-woven polypropylene), all can be used to carry out purchases from the store. While these different bag types serve essentially the same function, how do their environmental impacts differ? One way to measure environmental impact is by examining a bag’s entire life cycle. A product’s life cycle encompasses various stages starting with the extraction of raw materials, going through production and then use, and ending with a waste management option (e.g. landfill or recycling). Life cycle assessment is a tool to evaluate one or more impact areas of a product over its entire life cycle. In this comparison, carbon emissions are the measure of environmental impact. Several scholarly articles about life cycle assessments of plastic, paper, and reusable bags were reviewed and their findings compared. The results of this research indicate that if all bag types were used only once, then a plastic bag would have the lowest carbon emissions. However, if paper bags were reused four times and reusable bags were used at least eleven times, then they could achieve lower carbon emissions than a plastic bag. Measuring environmental impact is complicated, and looking at carbon emissions to calculate environmental impact only highlights one problem area related to effects on the environment. Looking at other impact areas, such as water pollution, might yield different results regarding which bag type has less environmental impact.

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  Family Influence on Chinese International Students’ Sense of Coherence

  Yiwen Zhang

  As the number of Chinese international students rapidly increases in U.S. colleges, it becomes important to understand the factors that contribute to their mental health, especially during their first semester of adjustment to the new culture. This study tested the hypothesis that: family condition predicts Chinese International Students’ Sense of Coherence (SOC), the overall capacity of handling tension derived from life stressors, with adaptation performance works as a mediation during their first semester. Data collection sessions were conducted for a collage-based cohort of 43 freshman Chinese international students at the beginning and at the end of their first semester. Participants completed self-report questionnaires that included the SOC (23-term) scale, Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales (62-term) measuring parent-child relationship, and Sociocultural adaptation Scale (41-term) measuring adjustment performance. Result showed that participants with a healthy parent-child relationship reported a higher SOC than those with a weak family relationship. Those reported a better performance of adaptation to foreign environment also reported a higher SOC than others. Family relationship is a potential predictor of Chinese international students’ SOC through their first semester while the process of acculturation is predictive of their SOC and mediated the impacts of parent-child relationship on students’ SOC. This study contributes to the literature on Antonovsky’s theory of sense of coherence in Chinese international students.