University Town Research Articles

A Dangerous, Costly Neighborhood: A Critique of Blight and Obsolescence Claims in Local Media Coverage of a Planning Project

ABSTRACT This article examines how local newspaper stories in a college town created a dominant cultural narrative about an urban redevelopment project using tropes of physical blight and financial obsolescence. The article discusses descriptive tactics that appear throughout 16 years of coverage alongside patterns in the stories’ frequency, focus, and authorship. The conclusion shares a series of practical takeaways for technical writers looking to collaborate with communities facing redevelopment.

Artificial Intelligence Distinguishes Pathological Gait: The Analysis of Markerless Motion Capture Gait Data Acquired by an iOS Application (TDPT-GT).

Distinguishing pathological gait is challenging in neurology because of the difficulty of capturing total body movement and its analysis. We aimed to obtain a convenient recording with an iPhone and establish an algorithm based on deep learning. From May 2021 to November 2022 at Yamagata University Hospital, Shiga University, and Takahata Town, patients with idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (n = 48), Parkinson's disease (n = 21), and other neuromuscular diseases (n = 45) comprised the pathological gait group (n = 114), and the control group consisted of 160 healthy volunteers. iPhone application TDPT-GT captured the subjects walking in a circular path of about 1 meter in diameter, a markerless motion capture system, with an iPhone camera, which generated the three-axis 30 frames per second (fps) relative coordinates of 27 body points. A light gradient boosting machine (Light GBM) with stratified k-fold cross-validation (k = 5) was applied for gait collection for about 1 min per person. The median ability model tested 200 frames of each person's data for its distinction capability, which resulted in the area under a curve of 0.719. The pathological gait captured by the iPhone could be distinguished by artificial intelligence.

Finding strength in adversity: Exploring the process of posttraumatic growth among multicultural individuals.

We explore the process of posttraumatic growth for multicultural individuals after experiences of cumulative multicultural identity-relevant adversity. We conducted an exploratory sequential mixed methods study with two parts. Study 1 utilized Photovoice methodology and individual interviews (N = 27; 13 women, 14 men) with multicultural individuals living in a Midwestern college town. In Study 2, we tested the relationships between themes revealed by our qualitative analysis in Study 1 in a sample of multicultural individuals living across the U.S. (N = 526; 40.1% men, 59.9% women) using a conditional process analysis. Findings from Study 1 indicate that participants appreciated environments that valued diversity, and this helped participants positively frame their cumulative adversities. Participants also described how the struggle with these adversities fostered psychological wellbeing outcomes of personal growth and positive relations with others. Results from Study 2 indicate that appreciation of diversity mediates and positive framing moderates the relationship between discrimination and personal growth, thus supporting and building on the findings in Study 1. Together, these studies highlight the significance of including cumulative adversity in the posttraumatic growth process for multicultural individuals, while identifying appreciation of diversity and positive framing as potential postadversarial growth mechanisms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Quality Assessment of Drinking Water in Vehari District of Punjab, Pakistan

The current study is performed to assess the physio-chemical characteristics and drinking water quality in three Tehsils (Mailsi, Burewala and Vehari) of District Vehari, Punjab (Pakistan). The water samples of investigated regions were subjected to physicochemical characterization (pH, EC, TDS, HCO3-, CO3-2, Cl-, NO3-, PO4-3, SO4-3, Na+, K+, Ca+2, Mg+2, Fe+2, Cu+2, Zn+2 and Mn+2). It was demonstrated that certain parameters were exceeding WHO standard limits. The water of Lalazar colony, college town, Y-Block and Sharqi colony was found unfit for drinking purposes so it may cause serious health concerns in the citizens of the investigated areas.

Off-campus housing supply and utilization: perspectives of landlords and students in Chinhoyi

ABSTRACT Off-campus housing remains a major issue related to studentification in African cities. This study analyses the perspectives of landlords and students on off-campus housing supply and utilization in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe. The study was qualitative and adopted a case study research design. Interviews were conducted with purposively selected key informants, while textual and content analysis was used. We argue that studentification is a potential catalyst for housing development in Chinhoyi, yet the municipality fails to formulate relevant housing policies. The study contributes to studies on student housing in African university towns by highlighting the perceptions of the different stakeholders towards off-campus housing.

South Asian students’ migration to, within and from Finland and Sweden: connecting the dots to arrivals and departures

Much of the current research on international student migration is focused on home-to-host and stay-or-leave migration behaviours. However, there is a possibility that international students might migrate within the host country before making their final stay-or-leave migration decisions. This paper adapts stepwise migration theory as an analytical tool with which to investigate the migration behaviour of Indian and Pakistani students. Based on 57 interviews and extensive participant observation, it analyses the factors that prompt South Asian student migration to, within and, subsequently for some, from Finland and Sweden. The findings support the argument that international student migration is multistage. Initial origin-to-destination migration is often insufficient to meet the high-set ambitions of talented young migrants. Disappointment with perceived missing opportunities in the university city or town lays the basis for subsequent intercity and stay-or-leave migration stages. Subsequent migration within the destination country impacts on the students’ stay-or-leave aspirations, while the origin-country situation influences return-or-onward migration decisions.

How Midwestern College students protected their families in the first year of COVID-19.

College students routinely visit their families due to geographic proximity and their financial dependence. Consequently, the potential of transmitting COVID-19 from campus to their families' homes is consequential. Family members are key sources of support for one another in nearly all matters but there is little research uncovering the mechanisms by which families have protected each other in the pandemic. Through an exploratory qualitative study, we examined the perspectives of a diverse, randomly sampled, group of students from a Midwestern University (pseudonym), in a college town, to identify COVID-19 prevention practices with their family members. We interviewed 33 students between the end of December 2020 and mid-April 2021 and conducted a thematic analysis through an iterative process. Students navigated major differences in opinions and undertook significant actions in attempts to protect their family members from COVID-19 exposure. Students' actions were rooted in the greater good of public health; prosocial behavior was on display. Larger public health initiatives could target the broader population by involving students as messengers.

What American Readers Remember: A Case Study

This article describes an archive consisting of literary memories obtained via interviews from one hundred contemporary readers of literature, sourced from a college town in the United States. The memories were summarized and studied in order to establish what readers tend to remember as important and/or impressive in their everyday reading of literature. The summaries include both quantitative and qualitative data, which are presented in brief extracts (tables) referring to facts such as recall of textual elements, circumstances of reading, and most remembered texts and authors. Characteristics of non-professional readers and their readings are thus observed according to three distinct sources of information: (a) the type of text they preferred; (b) the context of their reading; (c) the textual elements they found most memorable. All of these are considered in turn, including more specific discussion on topics of attachments to texts; the role of “classics”; and the readers’ paracanon. The study concludes with three main findings: (1) the participating American readers are shown to have rich and diverse memories of literary works, (2) which usually consist of coherent mental representations of the texts accompanied by some sort of episodic memory attaching them to their lived experience, (3) and these representations mostly involve unusual and incongruous characters and plot occurrences set against the ground of narrative content, which might imply that literature is used as a form of simulation.

Assessing SARS-CoV-2 Testing Adherence in a University Town: Recurrent Event Modeling Analysis.

Healthy Davis Together was a program launched in September 2020 in the city of Davis, California, to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and facilitate the return to normalcy. The program involved multiple interventions, including free saliva-based asymptomatic testing, targeted communication campaigns, education efforts, and distribution of personal protective equipment, community partnerships, and investments in the local economy. This study identified demographic characteristics of individuals that underwent testing and assessed adherence to testing over time in a community pandemic-response program launched in a college town in California, United States. This study outlines overall testing engagement, identifies demographic characteristics of participants, and evaluates testing participation changes over 4 periods of the COVID-19 pandemic, distinguished by the dominant variants Delta and Omicron. Additionally, a recurrent model is employed to explore testing patterns based on the participants' frequency, timing, and demographic characteristics. A total of 770,165 tests were performed between November 18, 2020, and June 30, 2022, among 89,924 (41.1% of total population) residents of Yolo County, with significant participation from racially or ethnically diverse participants and across age groups. Most positive cases (6351 of total) and highest daily participation (895 per 100,000 population) were during the Omicron period. There were some gender and age-related differences in the pattern of recurrent COVID-19 testing. Men were slightly less likely (hazard ratio [HR] 0.969, 95% CI 0.943-0.996) to be retested and more likely (HR 1.104, 95% CI 1.075-1.134) to stop testing altogether than women. People aged between 20 and 34 years were less likely to be retested (HR 0.861, 95% CI 0.828-0.895) and more likely to stop testing altogether (HR 2.617, 95% CI 2.538-2.699). However, older age groups were less likely to stop testing, especially those aged between 65-74 years and 75-84 years, than those aged between 0 and 19 years. The likelihood of stopping testing was lower (HR 0.93, 95% CI 0.889-0.976) for the Asian group and higher for the Hispanic or Latino (HR 1.185, 95% CI 1.148-1.223) and Black or African American (HR 1.198, 95% CI 1.054-1.350) groups than the White group. The unique features of a pandemic response program that supported community-wide access to free asymptomatic testing provide a unique opportunity to evaluate adherence to testing recommendations and testing trends over time. Identification of individual and group-level factors associated with testing behaviors can provide insights for identifying potential areas of improvement in future testing initiatives.

Atmospheric phthalate esters in a multi-function area of Hangzhou: Temporal variation, gas/particle phase distribution, and population exposure risk

Phthalate esters (PAEs) are prevalent in both indoor and outdoor environments. However, there are relatively few studies on phthalate contamination in the air of multi-function areas. Experiments were conducted to analyze the concentrations of 14 distinct PAEs in outdoor air in the college town of Hangzhou throughout both the warm and cold seasons. Correlation and principal component analyses were performed to investigate the influence and source factors of PAEs. This study also focused on the relationship between the gas/particle partition coefficient Kp and temperature, as well as the application of the gas/particle partition model. The risk of exposure to PAEs via inhalation was predicted for four groups of the general population: toddlers, adolescents, adults, and older adults. The results indicated that the concentration levels of Σ14PAEs in outdoor air were 1573 ng/m3 in the gaseous phase and 126 ng/m3 in the particulate phase. Additionally, this study indicated three primary sources of PAEs: indoor diffuse sources, industrial emission sources, and building construction sources. The gas/particle partitioning of PAEs also revealed that low-molecular-weight PAEs are more prevalent in gas, whereas high-molecular-weight PAEs are more predominant in the particle phase. A health risk analysis revealed high estimations of daily intakes (EDI) for toddlers and adolescents and high lifetime average daily doses (LADD) for older adults. This study establishes a solid foundation for formulating scientific and effective air pollution control measures by analyzing the characteristics and assessing the health risks of PAEs.

Coupling Study of Urban Ecological Planning and Environmental Music in Hefei University Town, China

Urban ecological planning uses ecology, environmental science, economics, and urbanology to adjust and transform various complex urban relationships, seeking to expand benefits and reducing risks. Environmental music, a kind of non appreciative music, can act on subject consciousness and may influence the urban ecosystem in which it is employed. Many connections appear between urban ecological planning and environmental music. This study took the university town of Hefei City, Anhui Province, China, as an example. This work was conducted to explore the effects of environmental music on the development of urban ecological planning by combining relevant studies of environmental science, urban ecology, urban planning, and musicology. The results showed that environmental music, as a cultural information flow, affected the urban ecosystem and had a typical function for different ecological function zones in the city. Different types of environmental music had spiritual and cultural publicity functions in regulating the main body of the urban ecosystem (residents and students), and it also influenced the growth of common plants in cities and had different ecological and environmental effects.

COVID-19 infection during pregnancy may result in foetal brain haemorrhage.

aFaculty of Pharmaceutical Science, Assam Down Town University, Panikhaiti, Guwahati, Assam 781026, India bDepartment of Pharmacology, Kasturba Medical College Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka 575001, India cDepartment of Pharmacy, BGC Trust University Bangladesh, Chittagong 4381, Bangladesh dDepartment of Pharmacy, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Daffodil International University, Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh Running title: COVID-19 and pregnancy. Sponsorships or competing interests that may be relevant to content are disclosed at the end of this article. Published online ■ ■ *Corresponding author. Address: Department of Pharmacy, BGC Trust University Bangladesh, Chittagong 4381, Bangladesh. T: +88-030-3356193, Fax: +88-031-2550224, Cell: +88-01819942214. E-mail address: [email protected] (T. B. Emran). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially without permission from the journal. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Nanotechnology Approaches for Colon Targeted Drug Delivery System: A Review

Debgopal Ganguly1, Ananta Choudhury1 and Subhabrota Majumdar2 Author informationArticle notesCopyright and License information 1Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, Assam Down Town University, Sankar Madhab Path, Gandhi Nagar, Panikhaiti, Guwahati, Assam, INDIA 2Department of Pharmaceutics, Calcutta Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology and Allied Health Science, Uluberia, Howrah, West Bengal, INDIA Corresponding author. Correspondence: Prof. Ananta Choudhury Assam Down

Baron Eric Hermelin—Translation and the Merge of Traditions; Encoding and Reception of Persian Sufi Poetry in 20th Century Sweden

The mysticism of the 19th and 20th centuries has often been perceived as a reaction towards the new fast, dense, and modern world. But is it not so that it thrives on the same material foundations, globalism, networks, and mass production of text, that built our contemporary global information society? In this article, thoughts found in the writings of the Swedish mystic and translator Baron Eric Hermelin are analyzed. Hermelin was born into a Swedish noble aristocratic family in 1860. After traveling through the British Empire as a soldier in his youth, he returned to Sweden with books and knowledge. Unfortunately, he spent most of his remaining life incarcerated in the mental hospital St. Lars in the university town of Lund in the south of Sweden. But from the hospital, he released translations of Rumi, Khayyam, and other Persian mystics as well as reflections on Böhme and Swedenborg. The analysis will use Eric Hermelin’s work and focus on the process of creating and delivering the texts of the Persian Sufis to a Swedish audience.

Compound Semiconductors

CSW’2022 continued the tradition of bringing together the compound semiconductor community to discuss the most recent advances in the field. After the successful meetings in Stockholm, Sweden in 2021 (held virtually due to Covid-19), Nara, Japan (2019), and Boston, USA in 2018, CSW came back to the US, to the beautiful college town of Ann Arbor, Michigan, a perfect setting to reunite the semiconductor community. As in previous years, CSW combined both the International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors (ISCS, now in its 48t year) and International Conference on Indium Phosphide and Related Materials (IPRM, in its 33rd year) conferences into a single integrated event. ISCS, established in 1966, is the preeminent international conference in the field of III–V, II–VI, and IV–IV semiconductors, whereas IPRM is, since 1989, a major worldwide conference on indium phosphide and related materials, from physics to applications. CSW’2022 was successfully organized during June 1–3, 2022, presenting 4 plenary talks, 2 tutorials, 37 invited talks, 94 contributed talks and 107 posters among an audience spread over Europe, Asia, and North America. In order that these contributions may meet even a wider audience, Wiley offered the authors an opportunity to publish their papers in physica status solidi (a). This resulted in this special issue of physica status solidi (a) containing 12 papers related to applications and materials science of compound semiconductors. The conference abundantly covered topics from “Materials Characterization” and “Device technologies”, to “Physics of Emerging Devices”, allowing the community to engage in fruitful discussions. This year CSW launched a special event to welcome “New Faces” in compound semiconductors and continued the tradition of rump sessions. Overall, we had about 252 registrants, their participation showing a healthy sign of return to in-person events! We gratefully acknowledge the substantial support received from individuals and organizations that helped us to make CSW’2022 a successful event: the technical program committee for efficiently evaluating all the submitted abstracts; the IEEE Electron Devices Society, IEEE conference management team, and all our industrial sponsors and exhibitors for their financial support; the local organizing committee as well as the ISCS and IPRM steering committees for practical support and guidance. Thanks to Ann Stals (University of Michigan) for all her help in the event management. Finally, our special appreciation goes to Drs. Stefan Hildebrandt and Marc Zastrow, and their team at Wiley for bringing out this special issue. Guest Editors: Grace Xing, Zetian Mi, and Srabanti Chowdhury

Slow-governance in smart cities: An empirical study of smart intersection implementation in four US college towns

This empirical study of governance and ethics regarding the adoption of smart intersection in four US college towns, structured by the Governing Knowledge Commons (GKC) framework, calls for deliberative, slow-governance of public data to respect human rights and align with community norms.

Assessment of the excretion of oxidative stress biomarkers and anabolic steroids based on sewage: A case study of college students and the general population

The use of wastewater-based epidemiology to evaluate the health and lifestyle of the population is a novel research interest. However, studies concerning the excretion of endogenous metabolites due to oxidative stress and the consumption of anabolic steroids have rarely been involved. In this study, we compared the effects of events such as final examination and sports meeting on the levels of four oxidative stress biomarkers (8-isoPGF2α, HNE-MA, 8-OHdG, and HCY) and four prohibited anabolic steroids (Testosterone, Androstenedione, Boldenone, and Metandienone) in sewage, using university students and urban populations as studying target. It was found that the per capita mass load of the four oxidative stress biomarkers 8-isoPGF2α, HNE-MA, 8-OHdG, and HCY in the sewage of Guangzhou urban area and university town were 256.6 ± 76.1, 9.4 ± 3.8, 1.1 ± 0.5, and 0.9 ± 0.4 mg/d/1000, respectively. The mean mass load of 8-isoPGF2α was significantly higher than that before the COVID-19 pandemic (74.9 ± 29.6 mg/d/1000 people, P < 0.05). The per capita load levels of oxidative stress biomarkers were significantly higher (P < 0.05) during the 2022 exam week relative to the pre-exam period, indicating that the exams caused transient stress to students. The per capita mass load of androgenic steroids was 77.7 mg/d/1000 people. There was an increase in the per capita load level of androgenic steroids during the provincial sports meeting. In this study, we quantified the concentration of oxidative stress biomarkers and androgenic steroids in the sewage and better realized the application of WBE on the health level and lifestyle of the population during special events.

A comparative evaluation of housing supply concepts in two larger medium-sized cities in a similar cases design

This paper presents a comparative evaluation of the municipal housing supply concepts for the university towns of Giessen and Marburg. The very high degree of similarity between the two cities in terms of the framework conditions allows for the assessment of the differences in the design of these concepts. The influence of the extent of stakeholder participation on the implementation and effects of the concepts cannot be determined. However, there are indications with regard to the stringency of the formulation of the concepts.

Long-term wastewater-based surveillance and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on drug use trends in a U.S. Northeast rural town

Herein we discuss the findings of a two-year wastewater-based drug use surveillance from September 2018 to August 2020 and present objective evidence on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on drug use in a rural community. 24-h composite wastewater samples were collected twice each month from a university town in Northeastern United States and were analyzed for ten priority opioids and stimulants: morphine, codeine, hydrocodone, methadone, fentanyl cocaine, methamphetamine, amphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), and 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-ethylamphetamine (MDEA). All target drugs were detected at 100 % frequency in wastewater samples. On a mass basis, the average estimated per capita drug consumption were highest for cocaine, morphine, and amphetamine, and lowest for MDMA, MDEA, and hydrocodone. Furthermore, the estimated per capita consumption of fentanyl was higher than previous reports from rural and university settings in the U.S. Generally, drug consumption was higher during the spring semesters, with year-on-year semester increases also noted over the 2-y study period. Except for methadone and cocaine, the estimated average per capita consumption of drugs increased over the pandemic period, with the highest increase noted for MDMA (286 % increase compared to baseline, p = 0.016). Estimated average consumption of methadone and cocaine decreased slightly by 6 % and 7 %, respectively. These results demonstrate the utility and strength of wastewater-based approaches in capturing long-term and evolving trends in drug use within communities. Our study findings reflect the regionwide problem with opioid-related overdoses and increasing stimulant prescription rates. Our findings also provide objective data and insights for health policymakers on the effects of the pandemic period on community drug use in a rural U.S. town.

The impact of international students on housing markets

AbstractWe study the impact of the 2005–2015 international student boom in US universities on local housing markets. By constructing a sample of American college towns characterizing rarely studied local markets in small urban areas, we show that international students exogenously sustained demand for rentals and residential investment, representing counter‐cyclical shocks during the Great Recession. Exploiting the historical distribution of foreign enrolment across college towns and country‐of‐origin networks, we find that international students increased rents by 1.3% and home prices by 2.5% relative to the housing boom peak, translating into home equity gains of $4,000. An analysis exploiting within‐city dynamics reveals that neighbourhoods near campus absorbed international inflows by replacing single‐family homes with apartment rentals.