Challenges to Climate Planning in Rural Inland Florida and Recommendations for Future Actions

Despite being farther away from direct impacts of sea-level rise, Florida’s rural inland localities, like those across the nation and world, can be as vulnerable to a changing climate as coastal ones. However, unlike their urban coastal peers, many have not addressed or acknowledged climate change. Few existing research projects have explored the reasons why. To begin filling the knowledge gap and understanding the complexities of the rural Florida climate story, this research aims to answer the question: What challenges are preventing rural inland communities in Florida from addressing climate change, and what do they need to overcome them? To characterize these obstacles and identify next steps, a combination of primary (i.e. surveys) and secondary sources from the author, government agencies, scientists, universities, and other expert organizations were analyzed holistically. The four challenges identified include: community sentiment, investment capacity, gaps in climate literacy, and external connections and coordination. These challenges are linked to numerous underlying issues characteristic of rural communities, such as socioeconomic levels, physical and social isolation, the availability of human capital, and cultural values and perceptions. Based on this information, the discussion section reviews how various stakeholders - local governments, community members, and external supporting agents - can actively curtail disparities in climate preparedness.

Gender Differences in the Prevalence of Electronic Nicotine Product Use Among College Students in the U.S. - Analyses of the 2017 Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study

The objective of this study was to analyze, among a nationally representative sample of college students in the U.S., gender differences in the lifetime, past 12-months, and past 30-day prevalence of e-nicotine products (ENPs) use, reasons for use, and susceptibility to ENP use among never users. We analyzed data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study. The study population included college-aged individuals (18-24 years old) enrolled in a degree program. The results of the study revealed that males were more likely to use ENPs than females. Both males and females reported a high proportion of misconception about ENPs, particularly with regards to ENPs being less harmful to the user than cigarettes. It also indicated that 36% of male and 32% of female college students were susceptible to start using ENPs. Our results highlight the need to provide comprehensive, tobacco-prevention education among U.S. youth.

Associations Between Sleep Quality, Household Income and Medication Adherence in Adolescents With Asthma

Adolescents with asthma are at-risk for poor sleep quality. Little research has examined the relationship between sleep quality and inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) adherence. Individuals from lower-income backgrounds experience disparities that may alsocontribute to sleep quality. This study sought to 1) examine associations between household income and sleep quality and 2) analyze the relationship between sleep quality and ICS adherence among adolescents with asthma.Forty-one adolescents with persistent asthma (Mage = 14.83, SD = 1.28) completed the Adolescent Sleep Wake Scale (ASWS) to measure sleep quality across five subscales. Caregivers provided their estimated household income per year and completed a free response question measuring ICS adherence. Spearman’s rank-order correlations were used to examine associations between sleep quality,household income and ICS adherence. Sleep quality and household income were not significantly related (r = .262, p = .098). Sleep quality was not associated with ICS adherence (r = -.028, p = .867). Sleep quality was not significantly related to household income or ICS adherence in adolescents with asthma. Limitations include limited power given a small sample size and less reliable measures of household income and adherence therefore, future directions should focus on using more precise measures. Additional research with larger sample sizes may help better understand potential relationships between sleep quality, ICS adherence, and household income within youth with asthma.

Designing Cities Through Sound

Sound shapes space. However, the architectural training of designers usually prioritizes visual aspects of a building or urban space without considering the sonic environment and auditory responses of humans who may engage or occupy the built environment. The concept of the “soundscape” brings together the visual and sonic environments, allowing designers to develop more nuanced, responsive, and effective spaces (Southworth, 1967, pp. 6-8) Acousticians define soundscape as “a person’s perceptual construct of the acoustic environment of that place” (Kang & Schulte-Fortkamp, 2017, p. 5). People’s interpretation of auditory sensations can lead to either positive or negative feelings regarding that specific place. Because urban spaces include both a great number of sound sources and a high number of people occupying and moving through them, the sonic environments and urban soundscapes are complex, layered, and dense. This research evaluates the sonic qualities of urban spaces to provide designers with a means by which these complex environments can be better understood, analyzed, and created. It draws on an expanding body of research in architectural acoustics, and direct observation of cities in the United States and Italy conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than relying solely on numeric calculations, this work probes the notion of the “perceptual construct,” seeking to make visual these constructs. Drawings and photographs from different cities are used to study the form of the city through urban edges and the emerging concept of green acoustics. The work provides a way of creating a new architecture of public space through the lens of the sonic environment.

Fitness Staff’s Perceptions of Offering the 3-Step Workout for Life Program in Senior Living Communities

As the population of elderly adults continues to rise, a greater strain will be placed on the healthcare system. Functional exercise programs, such as the 3-Step Workout for Life, have been shown to improve activities of daily living and delay the disablement process. However, the majority of senior living communities do not utilize functional exercise in their fitness programming. This research study aimed to understand the perceptions that fitness staff working at senior living communities have towards the 3-Step Workout for Life program in order to determine the program’s acceptability, feasibility, and appeal. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with five fitness personnel. Participants were recruited from independent living communities. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. Using NVivo 12, data was analyzed using thematic analysis techniques to identify common themes. The participants’ perceptions touch on four key themes: 1) revision of screening process; 2) group resistance band exercise would be feasible after minor adaptation; 3) individualized one-on-one ADL exercise is not currently feasible for staff or residents; 4) program addresses a gap in senior fitness. The results of this study provided insight into the feasibility of this program and helped direct modifications needed to enable successful integration.

Predictive Sampling Method for Spread Models in Networks

This paper proposes a novel, exploration-based network sampling algorithm called caterpillar quota walk sampling (CQWS) inspired by the caterpillar tree. Network sampling identifies a subset of nodes and edges from a network, creating an induced graph. Beginning from an initial node, exploration-based sampling algorithms grow the induced set by traversing and tracking unvisited neighboring nodes from the original network. Tunable and trainable parameters allow CQWS to maximize the sum of the degrees of the induced graph from multiple trials when sampling dense networks. A network spread model renders effective use in various applications, including tracking the spread of epidemics, visualizing information transmissions through social media, and cell-to-cell spread of neurodegenerative diseases. CQWS generates a spread model as its sample by visiting the highest-degree neighbors of previously visited nodes. For each previously visited node, a top proportion of the highest-degree neighbors fulfills a quota and branches into a new caterpillar tree. Sampling more high-degree nodes constitutes an objective among various applications. Many exploration-based sampling algorithms suffer drawbacks that limit the sum of degrees of visited nodes and thus the number of high-degree nodes visited. Furthermore, a strategy may not be adaptable to volatile degree frequencies throughout the original network architecture, which influences how deep into the original network an algorithm could sample. This paper analyzes CQWS in comparison to four other exploration-based network in tackling these two problems by sampling sparse and dense randomly generated networks.

Comparing Hedge Funds: Highest Return Strategy

Since 1997, the hedge fund industry has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 16.07%, resulting in a 26-fold increase from its original value to its present value of $3.1 trillion Assets Under Management. This study researched the varying investment strategies used by hedge funds to determine the strategy that provides the highest returns for its investors. From the previous literature, the study identified Long/Short Equity, Global Macro, Arbitrage, Event Driven, and Cross-Asset Multi-Strategy as viable and relevant investment approaches. Using hedge fund index data from Bloomberg, Hedge Fund Research, Eureka Hedge, Barclay’s, and Credit Suisse, returns for each respective strategy were collected and compared against the Bloomberg Global Hedge Fund (BHEDGE) Index and the S&P 500 Index. Alpha adjusted returns for each strategy were later calculated and plotted against the average weighted returns of each individual strategy. The results of this study show that the L/S Equity strategy provided the highest returns for its investors. Specifically, only the L/S Equity strategy outperformed the BHEDGE Index by a narrow margin, while all other strategies provided negative alpha figures. All hedge fund strategies outperformed the overall equity market on a year-to-date basis, however, provided negative alpha returns when compared to the S&P 500 1-Year market gains. This deficit between hedge funds and the overall equity market can be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic and its inflationary effects through low interest rates, market stimulus packs, and an increased money supply.

Protect the Filter Bubbles

In 2018, Knight v. Trump sparked discussion about the boundaries between government and citizen speech on social media. Some scholars argued that the courts erred in their decision to characterize the speech in question as government speech. Others argued that the court decided correctly and claimed that the use of forum analysis was necessary to protect both the health of our democracy and the First Amendment rights of social media users. Within the context of algorithmic curation of social media feeds, this article argues that (1) social media platforms are not designated public forums due to the algorithmic curation of online user speech, (2) due to this, the public forum doctrine should not have been applied to the Knight v. Trump case, (3) despite this, user speech rights should be protected online. It also reviews proposed models of thinking that could address unresolved issues of the case.

African Past, American Future: Uplift Ideology in Early 20th Century Opera

This paper explores how two African American composers, Scott Joplin (c. 1868-1917) and Harry Lawrence Freeman (1869-1954), advocated for Black Advancement and uplift ideology through their syncretic operas in the early 1900s. What is presented here however is the introductory content of a larger work. Joplin and Freeman were intimately conscious and supportive of national debates for Black Advancement, propelled especially by W.E.B. DuBois, and both employed rhetorical strategies paradigmatic of the movement. They were both interested in showing White and Black Americans alike that African American music, such as gospel, spiritual, and ragtime, could be held to the same high esteem as music of the Western canon, just as Black academics often endeavored to prove their intellectual prowess to their White counterparts. To this end, Joplin and Freeman combined “Black” music and classical styles in their operas to declare the equality and richness of an integrated sound. The thematic content of these operas, Treemonisha and Voodoo, respectively, interact with the Black Advancement movement’s drive for progress and education as well. They present Black Americans’ struggle for modernity as a conflict between the “superstitious” West African religious customs still ingrained in emancipated communities and Christianity. However, Joplin and Freeman’s works diverge aesthetically and ideologically from this point forward. Joplin’s aesthetic considerations derived chiefly from ragtime, a modern African American musical form genre, while Freeman took inspiration not only from African ethnic music but Africa itself. Joplin’s form of uplift was found in the education of small Black communities, while Freeman framed his work in a nationalistic and pan-Africanist context. These distinct choices, though crafted with the same aim, help reveal subtle divergences in argumentation within the Black Advancement movement.

Optimization of Multi Two-Level Batch Testing

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, rapid testing could help curb asymptomatic transmission. Thus, it is paramount that the most efficient testing method be identified and implemented, as to reduce the strain on the medical community. This project introduces a novel batch testing method called multi two-level batch testing, which was hypothesized to increase the efficiency of batch testing in terms of minimizing the number of tests performed for a given population. While Dorfman’s two-level and Li’s multi-level batch testing methods already exist, this method offers a novel strategy distinct from existing methods. A Java simulation was created to iteratively compute the number of tests required for each testing method at various percentages of population infection rate, batch sizes, and other parameters specific to each method. Based on this simulation, it can be shown that the multi two-level procedure is more efficient than both the two-level and the multi-level procedures at an infection rate of 0.01, which is the anticipated rate at the University of Florida during the Spring 2021 semester. Additionally, at infection rates between 0.05 and 0.30, the multi two-level batch testing method slightly outperforms multi-level. When the infection rate exceeds 0.30, all methods are unviable and begin to require more tests than necessary to test each person in the population individually. If laboratories implement multi two-level batch testing, they may reduce costs and labor. Additionally, the novel batch testing procedure can be applied to other diseases and future pandemics.