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Anthropogenic Litter In Urban Waterways: An Analysis Of Litter, Urbanization, And The Emerging Role Of Citizen Science In Beargrass Creek, Louisville, Ky., Ella Swigler May 2024

Anthropogenic Litter In Urban Waterways: An Analysis Of Litter, Urbanization, And The Emerging Role Of Citizen Science In Beargrass Creek, Louisville, Ky., Ella Swigler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addressed the ever growing presence and persistence of anthropogenic litter (AL) in urban waterways. AL has been studied in marine environments, but research gaps exist in riverine ecosystems. Most of the AL that reaches the Earth’s oceans is carried by urban rivers, so understanding the relationship between these waterways and AL is critical in effectively fighting AL accumulation, especially for legacy plastic pollutants. The study explored fifteen sites throughout Beargrass Creek and recorded the quantity and type of AL present throughout the summer and fall of 2023. The National Geographic Marine Debris Tracker App was employed to successfully …


The Utilization Of Grassroots Organizing By Black Women Pioneers To Achieve Reproductive Justice., Madison Ruth Ellsworth May 2024

The Utilization Of Grassroots Organizing By Black Women Pioneers To Achieve Reproductive Justice., Madison Ruth Ellsworth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since enslavement in the United States Black women have cultivated different ways to fight for their Reproductive Justice. After emancipation Black women have continued to utilize the practices learned from our ancestors to obtain Reproductive Justice. Despite the women’s movement becoming mainstream in the 1960s many Black women continued to grassroots organize to adequately address the issues that were unique to them. The efforts of various Black women organizers tend to go unacknowledged because the mainstream women’s movement attracts the attention of most. In my research I focused on Byllye Avery, Loretta Ross, and Toni Bond to explore and showcase …


The Landscape Does Not Care It Is A Landscape: A Utopian Pessimist Journey In Kentucky., Shachaf Polakow May 2023

The Landscape Does Not Care It Is A Landscape: A Utopian Pessimist Journey In Kentucky., Shachaf Polakow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

These thesis and exhibition, invite the viewers to travel through different places in Central and Eastern Kentucky. The region’s landscape, like many other American landscapes, is often known to the public through the settler colonial lens—a lens that ignores Indigenous peoples’ history in the region. The work in the exhibition is a response to landscape art's history and its complicity with American settler colonialism- art that was recruited to create a new identity for the settlers and for the country from the beginning of the American Colonial Project. Landscape art was a crucial part of this effort, presenting the land …


Generative Ai As A Tool For Environmental Health Research Translation, Lauren B. Anderson, Dhiraj Kanneganti, Mary Bentley Houk, Rochelle H. Holm, Ted Smith Feb 2023

Generative Ai As A Tool For Environmental Health Research Translation, Lauren B. Anderson, Dhiraj Kanneganti, Mary Bentley Houk, Rochelle H. Holm, Ted Smith

Faculty Scholarship

One valuable application for generative artificial intelligence (AI) is summarizing research studies for non-academic readers. We submitted five articles to Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) for summarization, and asked the article's author to rate the summaries. Higher ratings were assigned to more insight-oriented activities, such as the production of eighth-grade reading level summaries, and summaries highlighting the most important findings and real-world applications. The general summary request was rated lower. For the field of environmental health science, no-cost AI technology such as ChatGPT holds the promise to improve research translation, but it must continue to be improved (or improve itself) …


Environmental Health Justice Across The Globe, Arnita Gadson, Rochelle H. Holm Jan 2023

Environmental Health Justice Across The Globe, Arnita Gadson, Rochelle H. Holm

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Nationwide Public Perceptions Regarding The Acceptance Of Using Wastewater For Community Health Monitoring In The United States, A. Scott Lajoie, Asli Aslan, Rochelle H. Holm, Lauren B. Anderson, Heather D. Ness, Ted Smith Oct 2022

Nationwide Public Perceptions Regarding The Acceptance Of Using Wastewater For Community Health Monitoring In The United States, A. Scott Lajoie, Asli Aslan, Rochelle H. Holm, Lauren B. Anderson, Heather D. Ness, Ted Smith

Faculty Scholarship

To assess the levels of infection across communities during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, researchers have measured severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 RNA in feces dissolved in sewer water. This activity is colloquially known as sewer monitoring and is referred to as wastewater-based epidemiology in academic settings. Although global ethical principles have been described, sewer monitoring is unregulated for health privacy protection when used for public health surveillance in the United States. This study used Qualtrics XM, a national research panel provider, to recruit participants to answer an online survey. Respondents (N = 3,083) answered questions about their knowledge, …


An Interdisciplinary Discussion On Climate Change, Aamira Shah, Jaley F. Adkins, Kelsey Littrell, Priyadarshini Chandrashekhar Sep 2022

An Interdisciplinary Discussion On Climate Change, Aamira Shah, Jaley F. Adkins, Kelsey Littrell, Priyadarshini Chandrashekhar

The Cardinal Edge

No abstract provided.


Disparate Sense Of Exclusion Between Young People Of Color Living Within Variable Social Infrastructures., James M. Joyce Aug 2022

Disparate Sense Of Exclusion Between Young People Of Color Living Within Variable Social Infrastructures., James M. Joyce

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I analyzed transcripts of listening sessions with youth/young adults of color in 2021-2022 for the purpose of addressing local racial inequity during COVID-19. I used inductive coding methods and found three themes on sense of exclusion to be most salient. These themes related to racial exclusion, exclusion of social infrastructures in the community, exclusion of young people of color by people working in schools and other public settings, and exclusion or disconnection of young people of color from opportunities for building community. I show how these themes vary across some dimensions of the local social infrastructure, and I discuss implications …


Pediatric Oncology Social Work Job Analysis., Alyssa Ashlyn Middleton Aug 2022

Pediatric Oncology Social Work Job Analysis., Alyssa Ashlyn Middleton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an examination of the tasks most important to the pediatric oncology social work role. It begins with an argument that pediatric oncology social work is a blend of four social work specialties: generalist medical social work, oncology social work, pediatric social work, and hospice and palliative care social work. Studies report pediatric oncology social workers feel unprepared for numerous tasks related to their role. Despite calls for increased education and training opportunities, few are available. Until now, there has been no study evaluating the tasks that pediatric oncology social workers deem most important to their role, nor …


Hiv And The African American Church: Millennial Faith Leader's Perspectives., Kelsey Leann Burton May 2022

Hiv And The African American Church: Millennial Faith Leader's Perspectives., Kelsey Leann Burton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

African Americans are disproportionately impacted by HIV compared to other racial groups. Stigma surrounding HIV has created challenges for effective HIV prevention and stigma reduction programs. The African American church has been criticized for its slow and stigmatizing response to the HIV epidemic. Despite this, African American faith leaders play significant roles in guiding the perspective of the community. Numerous studies examine African American pastors’, faith leaders’, and ministers’ perspective about HIV and other HIV-related topics. However, there is no research that specifically examines young African American pastors’ perspectives of addressing HIV, stigma, and prevention. The purpose of this dissertation …


On (Not) Seeing The Chicken: Perdue, Animal Welfare, And The Failure Of Transparency, Calvin Coker, Rachel A. Coker Jan 2022

On (Not) Seeing The Chicken: Perdue, Animal Welfare, And The Failure Of Transparency, Calvin Coker, Rachel A. Coker

Faculty Scholarship

In this essay, we analyze Perdue’s animal welfare campaign from 2016 to 2020 to isolate how demands for transparency are mediated and subverted by Perdue’s public facing rhetoric. Though Perdue’s annual releases and commitments to change nominally constitute a victory for animal welfare advocates, the company’s campaign enacts transparency as a sort of publicity for the company that belies marginal gains for the lives of chickens and may ultimately result in increased meat consumption. In providing trackable metrics, offering paternalistic justifications for their treatments of chickens, and through strategic omissions of language and visuals, Perdue satisfies demands for transparency without …


Social Disorganization And Violent Crime Across Nonmetropolitan Areas Of Kentucky., Daniel Ray Jude Dec 2021

Social Disorganization And Violent Crime Across Nonmetropolitan Areas Of Kentucky., Daniel Ray Jude

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This macro-level study examines the effects of social disorganization predictors on violent crime registered in nonmetropolitan areas of Kentucky from 2012 to 2016. The study intends to expand the line of research interested in verifying the applicability of the social disorganization theory (Shaw & McKay, 1942), including its new theoretical developments, to non-urban settings and plans to contribute to the literature willing to provide a better understanding of violent crime in rural areas. In response to Narag et al.’s (2009) call for a theoretical integration of environmental contaminants among the ecological factors that influence variations in crime, the study also …


A Qualitative Study Of Nimbyism For Waste In Smaller Urban Areas Of A Low-Income Country, Mzuzu, Malawi, Rochelle H. Holm, Brighton A. Chunga, Adrian Mallory, Paul Hutchings, Alison Parker Jan 2021

A Qualitative Study Of Nimbyism For Waste In Smaller Urban Areas Of A Low-Income Country, Mzuzu, Malawi, Rochelle H. Holm, Brighton A. Chunga, Adrian Mallory, Paul Hutchings, Alison Parker

Faculty Scholarship

When waste management infrastructure is built, there can be resistance from the local affected populations, often termed the Not in My Backyard (NIMBY) phenomenon. This study aims to understand the forms of resistance that may develop in such contexts, focusing on 2 solid waste and 1 liquid waste management site within Mzuzu City, Malawi. At the newest solid waste site, community resistance had grown to the extent that the site was reportedly destroyed by the local community. Interviews and observations of the sites are complemented by examining historic and recent satellite images. It was found that, at the new solid …


Radical Renewal, The Sisters Of Loretto, Nouvelle Theologie, And The Second Vatican Council., Carol Bolton Easterly Aug 2020

Radical Renewal, The Sisters Of Loretto, Nouvelle Theologie, And The Second Vatican Council., Carol Bolton Easterly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the experiences of women who were members of the Sisters of Loretto, an American congregation of women religious, in the years around the Second Vatican Council (1962 – 65). It argues that the ideas of nouvelle théologie – a movement among progressive European Catholic scholars aimed at reconnecting faith with lived experience – had a profound impact on how the Sisters of Loretto interpreted the Council’s directives. The movement’s core ideas: ressourcement, a return to original sources of Christian inspiration; an overlapping relationship between natural and supernatural; and the importance of Church engagement with modern social …


Breathing Easier: Indoor Air Quality Education Program., Sarah Kuner Jul 2020

Breathing Easier: Indoor Air Quality Education Program., Sarah Kuner

Doctor of Nursing Practice Papers

Background: Exposure to indoor air pollutants increases the risk for poor health outcomes and health disparities among vulnerable groups such as children. The purpose of this evidence-based project was to implement an indoor air quality program that would: 1) improve caregiver awareness of indoor and outdoor environmental health exposures and 2) increase the intention to reduce exposures to indoor household pollutants. The target population included caregivers of preschool children, ages 3 to 5 years, who currently attend the Ohio Valley Education Cooperative. Methods: This project used a pre and post test study design that included two, virtual-learning modules that reviewed …


Assessing Conduct Disturbance And Fly Ash Exposure In Children., Jillian G. Winn May 2020

Assessing Conduct Disturbance And Fly Ash Exposure In Children., Jillian G. Winn

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

Minimal research has been conducted on fly ash (a byproduct of coal combustion) and health outcomes among exposed communities, and even less has looked at its effect on children’s behavior. This study specifically looks at fly ash exposure and conduct disturbance, using logistic regression to characterize their relationship. Conduct disturbance was gauged by t-scores of 55 or higher on the dimensions of aggression and delinquency of the Child Behavior Checklist. Fly ash exposure was determined by air and surface sampling of the children’s homes. While the odds ratios suggested fly ash exposure increases the likelihood of conduct disturbance, the results …


Soil Nutrient And Contaminant Assessment In Community Gardens, Louisville, Kentucky., Jessica Lynne Eggleston May 2020

Soil Nutrient And Contaminant Assessment In Community Gardens, Louisville, Kentucky., Jessica Lynne Eggleston

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Urban population impact on environmental warming has inspired interest in vegetative coverage to mitigate human influence. Community gardens are proposed to increase green space and access to fresh food, improve health, and quality of life. The potential for soil contamination in post-industrial cities is high presenting a health risk for gardeners. Three Louisville, Kentucky community gardens were chosen for analysis of soil texture, pH, concentration of trace nutrients and metals using Mehlich 1 Extraction. In two community gardens, relative absence of heavy metals suggest they are currently safe for gardening. One garden had a concentration of copper and zinc over …


Effectiveness, Equity, And Ethics Of Costa Rica's Payment For Environmental Services Program., Anna J Carter Mar 2020

Effectiveness, Equity, And Ethics Of Costa Rica's Payment For Environmental Services Program., Anna J Carter

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

This paper examines the effectiveness of Costa Rica’s Payments for Environmental Services, or PSA program, which provides government subsidies to participants who protect forested lands or reforest their land. Effectiveness is determined in terms of the program’s progress in reversing deforestation and generating reforestation efforts, with particular attention paid to the success and failings of the program in reaching small landowners. The claim that the PSA program can act as a tool for human development is evaluated through its accessibility to small landowners. Finally, the ethical costs and benefits of the market based scheme underlying the PSA program as a …


What Is The Status Of The Lee’S Lane Landfill Superfund Site?, Jordan Lynch, Stacey Konkle, Jamar Wheeler, Katlyn Mcgraw, Lauren Heberle Jan 2020

What Is The Status Of The Lee’S Lane Landfill Superfund Site?, Jordan Lynch, Stacey Konkle, Jamar Wheeler, Katlyn Mcgraw, Lauren Heberle

Faculty Scholarship

The Lee’s Lane Landfill is located in western Louisville, KY along the Ohio River (Fig. 1) [1]. The site was used as a quarry in the 1940s before being repurposed as a landfill from 1948 to 1975 (Fig. 2). At least 212,400 tons of municipal and industrial waste were disposed of in the landfill during this period. In 1980, the Kentucky Department of Hazardous Materials and Waste Management discovered approximately 400 drums of hazardous waste within the landfill; these drums were removed by the landfill owners in the fall of 1981, but the remaining drums of non-hazardous material, as well …


Sustainable Solutions, Fall/Winter 2020, Issue 41 Nov 2019

Sustainable Solutions, Fall/Winter 2020, Issue 41

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.


Environmentally Responsible Land Use, Spring/Summer 2010, Issue 22 Sep 2019

Environmentally Responsible Land Use, Spring/Summer 2010, Issue 22

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.


Sustainable Communities, Fall/Winter 2010, Issue 21 Sep 2019

Sustainable Communities, Fall/Winter 2010, Issue 21

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.


Environmental History, Fall/Winter 2009, Issue 19 Sep 2019

Environmental History, Fall/Winter 2009, Issue 19

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.


Global Sustainability, Fall/Winter 2005, Issue 11 Sep 2019

Global Sustainability, Fall/Winter 2005, Issue 11

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.


Environmental Justice, Spring/Summer 2004, Issue 10 Sep 2019

Environmental Justice, Spring/Summer 2004, Issue 10

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.


Consent Decrees, Fall/Winter 2017, Issue 35 Sep 2019

Consent Decrees, Fall/Winter 2017, Issue 35

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.


Carbon Neutral, Spring/Summer 2018, Issue 38 Sep 2019

Carbon Neutral, Spring/Summer 2018, Issue 38

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.


Doing Place : A Framework For Interpreting Young Adults' Commitments To Appalachian Kentucky., Jeanelle Susanne Sears May 2019

Doing Place : A Framework For Interpreting Young Adults' Commitments To Appalachian Kentucky., Jeanelle Susanne Sears

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Confronted with negative consequences of rural youth outmigration, many rural communities are interested in how to recruit and retain young adults. Yet, attention has largely been focused on those who leave. This study thus explores the experiences of young adults who make conscious commitments to improving the communities of Appalachian Kentucky despite many obstacles and pressures to leave. Two aims were established in this pursuit: 1) Understand and provide deep description of young adults’ experience of committing to stay and work in Appalachian Kentucky and the meaning they make of these decisions and 2) Develop a context specific framework for …


An Assessment Of Sustainability In Jefferson County Public Schools (Kentucky)., Elizabeth Ann Ruhe May 2019

An Assessment Of Sustainability In Jefferson County Public Schools (Kentucky)., Elizabeth Ann Ruhe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Schools play a vital role in preparing the next generation of citizens to be active, engaged, creative thinkers and problem-solvers. Schools are also large institutions in their communities, employing many people and spending large sums of money. What happens in schools has an impact on their surrounding communities. Human behaviors are having a significant impact on our planet and changes in our society are affecting the sense of safety and security of our citizens. These are aspects of sustainability that schools need to begin addressing. This research looks at sustainability practices in a large urban school district to document current …


There Is Water In The World For Us : The Environmental Theories Of Alice Walker., Janae Lewis Hall May 2018

There Is Water In The World For Us : The Environmental Theories Of Alice Walker., Janae Lewis Hall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The emergence of African-American Environmental thought responds to the ongoing erasure of Black experiences and their perspectives on nature. Mainstream environmentalism maintains a legacy of perceived innocence and incorruptibility towards the land, while Black Environmentalism demonstrates the limitations of that ideology. Limitations include the erasure of history in regards to stealing land from Indigenous people, the brutality of slavery, legalized lynching, forced removal from the land, exploitation in sharecropping, destruction of sacred lands, heavy pollution in urban centers, and harmful environmental policies. For Black and Indigenous peoples, it is impossible to view American soil as innocent. This project surveyed the …