Bridging journalism’s technological divide

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA COLLEGE AND GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS & SCIENCES

Local news organizations were once a mainstay of American life, building strong community connections and economies and holding community leaders and officials to account. Today, as large media corporations grow in size, influence and resources, editors and reporters in smaller newsrooms are finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with the emerging technologies and resources that could help them continue to play an important role in the communities they serve. However, a project co-led by University of Virginia sociologist Mona Sloane, supported by a $250,000 grant from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, could provide important insight into the state of journalism and technology today and help level the playing field.

As the volume of data the world produces increases dramatically and large language model-based chatbots like ChatGPT and other tools emerge that can help in searching that data and shaping it into useful content, the skills needed to practice the craft of journalism are changing rapidly.

“We depend on journalism to help us be informed citizens and to help us make informed political decisions, and technology is playing an increasingly important part in that process,” said Sloane, an assistant professor with the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences’ Department of Media Studies and the University’s School of Data Science.

“We can’t leave this up to just a few newsrooms – some of which are owned by tech billionaires – that have the resources and the power,” Sloane added. “We need local news organizations to do this kind of work, too, and to be able to run their own investigative reporting.”

To better understand the technological challenges reporters and editors face, especially those whose shrinking newsrooms lack resources, Sloane will be running a research project aimed at developing a better understanding of how contemporary journalists work. The project also will analyze the often expensive technology available to today’s newsrooms, along with the risks those tools pose for creating biased reporting.

The work builds on a project Sloane launched in 2021 in partnership with Emmy Award-winning reporter and NYU journalism professor Hilke Schellmann. That project integrated the natural-language processing tool Gumshoe into the cloud-based, open-source platform MuckRock, a research tool used by thousands of newsrooms across the country. The project makes it possible to harness AI to search large collections of Freedom of Information Requests and other documents more efficiently and with the help of a tool that learns about the individual journalist’s needs and improves with each use.

“FOIA material is a very rich resource not only because it may contain interesting information in and of itself, but because it can often be the means to uncovering, as my collaborator and investigative journalist Hilke Schellmann likes to say, ‘a smoking gun.’” Sloane said. “It can give us a name, or it can turn an investigation in an important new direction.”

A journalist might uncover a piece of data they wouldn’t have found otherwise using a tool that starts to understand what the investigation is about and that works to understand the relationship between relevant and irrelevant keywords before ranking them in a search, Sloane said.  

“That can save investigative reporters a lot of time and resources,” she said.

The project is being expanded with funding provided by the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, a philanthropic organization that supports efforts to explore how technology can be used to advance social good. The funding will provide the resources necessary to expand graduate work in media studies and data science at UVA and will allow Sloane and a team of University graduate students to develop a more comprehensive understanding contemporary journalism practices and their technology use and needs.

She also sees the work as being essential to helping the public better understand the interplay of journalism and technology.

“I think we will be able to shed some light on how automation in the newsroom actually happens, because there’s a lot of fear around that in the public sphere and in the industry as well,” Sloane said.

Another of Sloane’s goals for the project is to use the project’s research to inform and train journalists through partnerships she’s forging with newsrooms across central Virginia.

“We need journalists to make sure that our democratic values are actually practiced and are made stable, and we want to make sure that even small rooms and independent journalists have the opportunity to do really cutting-edge investigative reporting,” Sloane said. “That’s the bigger mission. It’s tech research for the greater good.”

The initiative and Sloane’s research has drawn praise by Schellman and other media studies scholars.

“Dr. Sloane’s commitment to interdisciplinary research and to helping journalistic practitioners deepen their knowledge and giving them more access to AI tools is incredibly helpful as we are all building the future of journalism together,” said Schellman, whose award-winning work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The New York Times and the MIT Technology Review,

Andrea Press, UVA’s William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of media studies and sociology and chair of the College’s Department of Media Studies praised the initiative for its efforts to make cutting-edge developments in AI and algorithm research available to working journalists.

“It is the beginning of a closer collaboration between scholars and working professionals, which is more and more necessary given the realities of the new media environment within which we all live.”
 

25th Arkansas poll finds economy to still be primary concern for voters

The annual project also finds that the top concerns remain unchanged from previous year: the economy as well as politics/politicians and education

Reports and Proceedings

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

 

IMAGE: 

ARKANSAS POLL APPROVAL RATINGS OF ARKANSAS GOVERNORS 1999-2023.

view more 

CREDIT: CHARLIE ALLISON

 NEWS RELEASE 30-OCT-2023

The 25th annual Arkansas Poll, released today, found voters were most concerned about the economy, politics/politicians and education. While the number of respondents reporting concerns about the economy declined three points from the previous year, it was still more than all other concerns combined, except for the catch-all category “Other/don’t know/refused to answer.”

Other questions addressed life in Arkansas, approval ratings for public figures, level of satisfaction with public services, current issues, willingness to seek help for mental health concerns and political party and ideology.

Answers to questions pertaining to life in Arkansas suggested that Arkansas voters were feeling modestly more optimistic than last year. The question, “Do you feel AR is headed in the right or wrong direction?” saw a 6-point increase of people answering “right.” And when asked “a year from now, will you be better, worse, or the same financially,” the number of people answering the “same” rose by nearly 10% over the previous year while the number of people answering “worse” held steady (the increase in people answering “same” came from those who were simply uncertain the previous year).

Janine Parry, director of the Arkansas Poll and professor of political science at the University of Arkansas, noted however that the portion of respondents answering “wrong direction” has increased in recent years, to 1 in 3.

“A volatile economic and political environment is likely influencing some people’s general sense of well-being, in Arkansas and elsewhere,” Parry said.

As it does every year, the poll invited approval ratings for public figures. For the first-year governor of Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the poll reported an approval rating of 48%. Although this was the lowest approval rating for an Arkansas governor in the last 20 years, it compared favorably to the approval ratings for Sen. Tom Cotton (42%), Sen. John Boozman (40%), and President Joe Biden (33%).

Still, the overwhelming majority of respondents said they were “very satisfied or satisfied” with state and local services like police protection, public libraries, parks and recreation or colleges and universities. The only two areas where ratings of “unsatisfied or very unsatisfied” approached or exceeded 50% were on the topics of K-12th grade public schools (47%) and the public welfare system (53%). These were also the two areas of highest dissatisfaction 20 years ago, showing the durability of that dissatisfaction over time.

Each year the poll provides space to other researchers to provide questions. Questions this year were provided by collaborator Samantha Robinson, an associate professor and vice chair of mathematical sciences who is also director of the Data Science Initiative in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. Robinson is examining respondents’ willingness to seek a professional if mental health concerns arose as well as their opinions about the efficacy of mental health professionals.

Robinson noted that “overall, Arkansans seem to feel that seeking help from a mental health professional is important, useful and healthy but they are less certain about whether such mental-health help seeking is effective, healing or empowering. Arkansans seem to be similar to the rest of the country in terms of these attitudes.”

This was Parry’s 25th year as director of the poll, which she founded as a junior faculty member in 1999, making it one of the oldest state-level polls in the country. Parry, who will retire from the university in 2024, estimates over that time the poll has completed more than 23,000 interviews, typically containing in excess of 60 questions. This works out to an estimated 1.4 million data points about what Arkansans think about, and want from, their public servants.

“Shepherding this project has never been dull,” Parry said in summation. “Polling during the elections of 2010, 2012, and 2014 — in the thick of Arkansas’s rapid party flip — was stressful. But by maintaining gold standard methods and full transparency we’ve produced an enviable track record.”

The poll was conducted through 801 telephone — cell and landline — interviews with randomly selected adult Arkansans between Oct. 4 and Oct. 22. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.

The full 2023 Arkansas Poll Summary Report, protocols and historic outcomes can be found at the Arkansas Poll web page.

 

New species of mosasaur named for Norse sea serpent

Jormungandr, a 24-foot aquatic lizard that lived 80 million years ago, is found to be a transitional species between two well-known mosasaurs

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

 

IMAGE: 

A RECONSTRUCTION OF TWO JORMUNGANDR WALHALLAENSIS MOSASAURS FIGHTING

view more 

CREDIT: © HENRY SHARPE

Scientists have discovered a new species of mosasaur, large, carnivorous aquatic lizards that lived during the late Cretaceous. With “transitional” traits that place it between two well-known mosasaurs, the new species is named after a sea serpent in Norse mythology, Jormungandr, and the small North Dakota city Walhalla near to where the fossil was found. Details describing Jǫrmungandr walhallaensis are published today in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 

“If you put flippers on a Komodo dragon and made it really big, that’s basically what it would have looked like,” said the study’s lead author Amelia Zietlow, a Ph.D. student in comparative biology at the American Museum of Natural History’s Richard Gilder Graduate School.

The first mosasaur was discovered more than 200 years ago, and the word “mosasaur” predates the word “dinosaur.” But many questions about these animals remain, including how many times they evolved flippers and became fully aquatic—researchers think it was at least three times, and maybe four or more—and whether they are more closely related to monitor lizards or snakes. Researchers are still trying to determine how the different groups of mosasaurs are related to each other, and the new study adds a new piece to that puzzle.

The fossil on which the study is based was discovered in 2015, when researchers excavating in the northeastern part of North Dakota found an impressive specimen: a nearly complete skull, jaws, and cervical spine, as well as a number of vertebrae.

After extensive analysis and surface scanning of the fossil material, Zietlow and her collaborators found that this animal is a new species with a mosaic of features seen in two iconic mosasaurs: Clidastes, a smaller and more primitive form of mosasaur; and Mosasaurus, a larger form that grew to be nearly 50 feet long and lived alongside Tyrannosaurus rex. The specimen is estimated to be about 24 feet long, and in addition to flippers and a shark-like tail, it would have had “angry eyebrows” caused by a bony ridge on the skull, and a slightly stumpy tail that would have been shorter than its body.

“As these animals evolved into these giant sea monsters, they were constantly making changes,” Zietlow said. “This work gets us one step closer to understanding how all these different forms are related to one another.”

The work suggests that Jormungandr was a precursor to Mosasaurus and that it would have lived about 80 million years ago.

“This fossil is coming from a geologic time in the United States that we don’t really understand,” said co-author Clint Boyd, from the North Dakota Geological Survey. “The more we can fill in the geographic and temporal timeline, the better we can understand these creatures.”

Coauthor Nathan Van Vranken from Eastern West Virginia Community and Technical College added, “The tale of Jormungandr paints a wonderful picture and helps contribute to our understanding of the northernmost regions of the interior seaway, especially with the mosasaurs, and discoveries such as these can pique scientific curiosity.”

A line drawing of the skull of Jormungandr walhallaensis

CREDIT

© Henry Sharpe

ABOUT THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY (AMNH)

The American Museum of Natural History, founded in 1869 with a dual mission of scientific research and science education, is one of the world’s preeminent scientific, educational, and cultural institutions. The Museum encompasses more than 40 permanent exhibition halls, galleries for temporary exhibitions, the Rose Center for Earth and Space including the Hayden Planetarium, and the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation. The Museum’s scientists draw on a world-class permanent collection of more than 34 million specimens and artifacts, some of which are billions of years old, and on one of the largest natural history libraries in the world. Through its Richard Gilder Graduate School, the Museum offers two of the only free-standing, degree-granting programs of their kind at any museum in the U.S.: the Ph.D. program in Comparative Biology and the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Earth Science residency program. Visit amnh.org for more information.

---

JOURNAL

Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History

ARTICLE TITLE

Jormungandr walhallaensis : a new mosasaurine (Squamata: Mosasauroidea) from the Pierre Shale Formation (Pembina Member: Middle Campanian) of North Dakota

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

30-Oct-2023

Disclaimer: AAAS a

 

NSF funds holistic approach to help farmers adapt to climate change

Integrating environmental and socioeconomic data

Grant and Award Announcement

EMORY UNIVERSITY

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Emily Burchfield, Emory assistant professor of environmental sciences, $1.6 million to lead efforts to identify emerging pressures on agriculture in Georgia, Iowa and Ohio and to develop predictive models to help farmers and policymakers weather these changes.

“In a nutshell, we’re trying to understand what climate change will mean for agriculture in these three states,” Burchfield says. “We’ll be integrating biophysical projections based on environmental data with insights gathered from farmers and agricultural experts.”

The goal is to develop possible scenarios for the impacts of climate change — along with the evolving technical, socioeconomic and political landscapes in each state — for how and where crops could be grown over the next 30 to 40 years. The researchers will create a public, online tool to allow farmers and policymakers to explore the possible futures of agriculture at regional and state levels and to support their efforts to manage these scenarios.

The grant is part of the NSF Dynamics of Integrated Socio-Environmental Systems Program (DISES).

“Traditionally, the NSF has mainly split programs into the social sciences and the natural sciences but DISES is one of their newer programs that joins the two, looking at how nature affects people and people affect nature,” Burchfield says. “Coupling human and natural systems in theoretical frameworks allows us to take on some of the grand challenges that we’re facing, like climate change and food and water security.”

Burchfield is principal investigator for the project, which also includes researchers from Arizona State University, Ohio State University and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

A range of agricultural systems

While the two main crops in both Iowa and Ohio are corn and soy, agriculture in Georgia is far more diverse. The state leads the nation in the production of peanuts, pecans, blueberries and spring onions and is also a leading producer of cotton, watermelon, peaches, cucumbers, sweet corn, bell peppers, tomatoes, cantaloupes, rye and cabbage.

Agriculture contributes nearly $70 billion annually to Georgia’s economy and one in seven Georgians works in agriculture, forestry or related fields, according to the Georgia Farm Bureau.

“Compared to other parts of the country, Georgia is incredibly diverse not just in terms of what is grown in the state but in terms of who grows it,” Burchfield says. “A lot of exciting changes are happening in the state — citrus production is moving into South Georgia. And the biggest organic farm east of the Mississippi is located in Georgia, producing carrots.”

While California currently produces the bulk of the nation’s produce, that state is facing significant challenges for water availability, Burchfield notes. “Georgia has a unique opportunity to expand its fresh-produce production to help meet future demand,” she says. “We want to provide farmers the resources they need to capitalize on such trends.”

Building tools for the future of farming

Burchfield’s research combines spatial-temporal social and environmental data to understand the future of food security in the United States, including the consequences of a changing climate.

For the current project, the researchers will draw from available climate, soil and land-use data to create biophysical models for how changes in climate will affect where and how particular crops can be grown. These models will be integrated with data gathered from surveys and focus groups conducted with agricultural experts, climatologists and farmers working the land throughout Georgia, Iowa and Ohio.

The project aims to get input from a diverse range of farmers growing different crops and using different management practices.

“There is already a lot of work on what climate change may mean for agriculture in general,” Burchfield says. “But what climate change means for an individual farm must be filtered through issues particular to that farm. So many dimensions that matter deeply to farmers are not included in policy discussions about agriculture.”

Farmers will be asked what information and resources they need to sustain their operations and to adapt to climate change. “We want to understand the vision that farmers have for the future of their farms,” Burchfield says. “What would they would like to see happen? What do they see as the barriers and bridges to achieving that vision?”

The public, online tool that the researchers develop will include interactive maps for crop forecasts by region. It will also provide information to guide policymakers and to help farmers adapt to the changes ahead.

“It’s impossible to accurately say exactly what’s going to happen in the future,” Burchfield says. “But combining biophysical data with an understanding of the technical, economic and political changes emerging in each of these states, along with the expertise of our farmers, will allow us to forecast trends for how suitable particular regions will be for growing certain crops. The bottom line is we are pulling together the best information available to give a sense of the emergent opportunities in the state for agriculture as well as the emergent challenges.”

Researchers studying children’s health related to chemical exposures

Funding from the U.S. EPA will create the Children’s Environmental Health Center in the U.S. Southern Great Plains, which includes Oklahoma and Texas

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

 

IMAGE: 

PHOTO OF AN EDUCATOR READING TO PRE-SCHOOL STUDENTS.

view more 

CREDIT: PROVIDED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA. – OU researchers have received a $1.8 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish a research center to address children’s cumulative health impacts from agricultural and non-chemical exposures. This grant will create the Children’s Environmental Health Center in the U.S. Southern Great Plains, which includes Oklahoma and Texas. The Center will focus on mitigating the chemical and non-chemical stressors that affect school absenteeism caused by gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases.

This collaborative center will be under the direction of Changjie Cai, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health in the Hudson College of Public Health on OU’s Health Sciences Center campus; Diane Horm, Ph.D., director of the Early Childhood Education Institute at OU-Tulsa; and Dan Li, Ph.D. from the University of North Texas College of Education.

Research has shown that children in underserved, rural, and agricultural communities face increased health risks due to the combination of agricultural pollutants in the air, water, and soil, as well as non-chemical stressors such as poverty and limited access to health services. This project addresses an urgent need to investigate the cumulative health impacts of chemical and non-chemical exposures for children in these communities to help keep children healthy.

“Our team will investigate the cumulative health impacts of early exposure to pollutants and the added effect of non-chemical stressors among children in these communities across the United States,” Cai said. “The goal of the Center is to reduce the environmental health disparities and promote environmental justice for children living in underserved, rural agricultural communities.”

Through a multidisciplinary approach, the center will use techniques such as low-cost sensors, satellite observations, air quality modeling and more to establish and evaluate impact assessments. Utilizing those results, affordable interventions will be assessed to reduce school absenteeism and address health disparities.

“At the Early Childhood Education Institute, it has always been our goal to advance and support equity for all children through research,” Horm said. “The opportunity to collaborate with Dr. Cai, Dr. Li, and others on this grant to establish the Children’s Health and Social Vulnerability Index (CHS) will allow us to better assess children’s health disparities in rural schools.”

The CHS will be stakeholder-and data-driven and will focus on children’s health disparities in rural school systems and focus on chemical and non-chemical stressors that lead to absenteeism in school due to gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases.

This research grant is part of EPA’s larger effort to advance children’s environmental health and environmental justice by effectively reducing early childhood and lifetime health disparities in these communities. 

“This collaboration of OU researchers from various disciplines highlights OU’s commitment to supporting our faculty researchers so that they can deliver science-based recommendations to improve the lives of our youngest learners,” said Darrin Akins, vice president for research at the OU Health Sciences Center. “This research will have a strong focus on chemical and non-chemical environmental stressors that children in the Southern Great Plains face every day.”

Learn more about the Hudson College of Public Health and the Early Childhood Education Institute.

###

About the Hudson College of Public Health

The Hudson College of Public Health is located within one of the nation's premier academic health centers, comprising seven professional colleges. Established in 1967, it stands as the sole accredited college of public health in Oklahoma and is nationally recognized, ranking No. 6 in the Top 10 Colleges for Public Health Degrees by College Magazine. The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center serves over 4,000 students across more than 70 undergraduate and graduate degree programs on campuses in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. As Oklahoma’s flagship comprehensive academic health system, it remains committed to education, research and patient care, shaping the future of health care.

About the Early Childhood Education Institute

The Early Childhood Education Institute (ECEI) at OU-Tulsa is an applied research institute with multiple ongoing projects designed to advance and support equity in early childhood programming and policies by generating and disseminating high-quality, meaningful research. This research is vital to ECEI’s partners and the early childhood field to drive improvements in early childhood education and improve the lives of the children it serves.

About the University of Oklahoma

Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. OU was named the state’s highest-ranking university in U.S. News & World Report’s most recent Best Colleges list. For more information about the university, visit www.ou.edu.

EPA testing shows the power of 

D-I-Y air filters to trap viruses

The results are in: US Environmental Protection Agency research testing of do-it-yourself ‘Corsi-Rosenthal Box’ Indoor Air Filters shows they are 99% effective in removing airborne virus

Reports and Proceedings

UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT

 

IMAGE: 

UCONN’S CROSS-CAMPUS COMMUNITY HAS UNITED FOR AN INDOOR AIR QUALITY INITIATIVE, BUILDING, DONATING, AND STUDYING THE POWER OF HUNDREDS OF INEXPENSIVE DO-IT-YOURSELF (DIY) “CORSI-ROSENTHAL BOX” AIR PURIFIERS.

view more 

CREDIT: UCONN PHOTO

There is a low-cost way for you to protect yourself and reduce your risk of respiratory diseases such as flu, RSV, and COVID-19. Build yourself a Corsi-Rosenthal box (CR box) in 30 minutes with just $60 worth of common hardware store supplies.

In July, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientists began several weeks of advanced bioaerosol chamber testing to assess the efficacy and power of this air filter against infectious aerosols, like the virus that causes COVID-19. The results are in, and they are good.

The U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development’s 3,000 cubic ft. bioaerosol chamber testing results show that the CR box removes 97% of infectious aerosols in just 30 minutes, and 99.4% within 60 minutes. Importantly, the device successfully captures a surrogate virus for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

A team of EPA scientists led by Katherine Ratliff conducted the bioaerosol chamber testing of the CR box after testing more expensive air cleaning technologies throughout the pandemic.

“The study results are extremely exciting,” says EPA’s Ratliff. “These CR boxes really work. The Corsi-Rosenthal box works against infectious aerosols in the air. The results are really powerful. Three different sets of biochamber testing data show that these air filters reduce the amount of infectious virus in the air and capture both smaller and larger sized particles. CR boxes are more effective at reducing concentrations of infectious aerosols in indoor air than some of the more expensive technologies that we tested.”

“These scientific results are huge!” says Marina Creed, APRN, director of the UConn Indoor Air Quality Initiative. “These inexpensive, do-it-yourself air filters are for everyone. If you put this in your home, it will remove infectious germs that cause disease from the air. Schools, students, and teachers if you run one of these inside your classrooms it can reduce your exposure to viruses and bacteria, reducing the risk of disease transmission, meaning you are less likely to get sick.”

Interestingly, the CR box tested by the EPA, known as ‘Owl Force One’, was built, named, and decorated this spring by a then 9-year-old fifth grader and her classmates with members of the UConn Indoor Air Quality Initiative at Macdonough Elementary School in Middletown, Connecticut. The device, decorated as the school’s owl mascot, was driven in July 2023 on a road trip from Connecticut by UConn researchers to the EPA’s Office of Research and Development in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina for the advanced testing. The road trip to the EPA was sparked by then fifth grader, Eniola Shokunbi, 9, now a six-grader, from Middletown who wrote and mailed UConn a letter inviting them to her public school to help her class build the air cleaner and perform experiments.

Creed’s Initiative co-collaborators are Kristina Wagstrom, Ph.D. of UConn School of Engineering, and Misti Zamora, Ph.D. of UConn School of Medicine.

For over two years the UConn team has been building and donating hundreds of these air filters to the Connecticut community, including the state’s public schools, to fight COVID-19 in classrooms while conducting real world testing of the powers of the DIY air cleaners inside schools and other community settings. The researchers have submitted a manuscript for peer review to further build upon the EPA’s testing results.

In June UConn Health donated 150 free CR boxes to vulnerable members of the community to protect them from the dangers of wildfire smoke particles in the air. Also, as a public service, UConn has donated materials and STEM lesson plans for 100 air filters to the Connecticut Education Association for schools and teachers in need of immediately improved indoor air quality this cold and flu season.

You can learn how to build your own simple, affordable DIY air cleaner with UConn’s simple online directions whether for your home, your classroom, or community setting. Also, view a how-to video by UConn School of Engineering students.

The filtration systems are named for their creators, Dr. Richard Corsi, dean of engineering at the University of California-Davis, and Jim Rosenthal, CEO of Texas-based company Tex-Air Filters.

The UConn Indoor Air Quality Initiative’s cross-campus collaborators include: UConn Health and its Comprehensive Multiple Sclerosis Center, UConn School of Medicine and its Department of Public Health Sciences, UConn School of Engineering, UConn School of Nursing, Connecticut Area Health Education Center Network (CT AHEC), UConn Neag School of Education, and Connecticut Children’s.

Informational Resources:

Find out how to build your own DIY air purifier. 

Learn more about the UConn Indoor Air Quality Initiative. 

Do-It-Yourself Air Cleaners: Making Cleaner Air More Accessible | US EPA  

Research on DIY Air Cleaners to Reduce Wildfire Smoke Indoors | US EPA

For the latest updates on this Initiative follow on social media.

---

METHOD OF RESEARCH

News article

  

The UConn Initiative's goal is to improve health in local elementary schools and beyond. Research shows the DIY devices stop the spread of COVID-19 by removing virus-carrying aerosols from the air. The nurse-led initiative is spearheaded by Marina Creed, APRN, of the Comprehensive Multiple Sclerosis Center at the University of Connecticut's academic medical center UConn Health. 

The UConn Indoor Air Quality Initiative launched during COVID-19 to help battle the virus inside public schools. The simple, inexpensive purifiers, known as Corsi-Rosenthal boxes, can be assembled in 30 minutes with $60 worth of hardware store supplies. “It is critical that we all know how to protect ourselves. Teaching our community how they can stay safe and prevent illness from exposure to bad air is critical,” says initiative director Marina Creed, APRN, instructor of neurology at UConn School of Medicine. “This device can help everyone access free, clean indoor air.” The U.S. EPA  tested the efficacy of the device using “Owl Force One,” the box made by members of the Initiative with fifth graders at Commodore Macdonough Elementary School, a public school in Middletown, Connecticut. The road trip to the EPA this July was sparked by then fifth grader, Eniola Shokunbi, 9, now a six-grader, from Middletown who wrote and mailed UConn a letter inviting them to her public school to help her class build the air cleaner and perform experiments. Eniola is pictured with her classmates with "Owl Force One."

After a long road trip from Connecticut to North Carolina, the owl landed. 'Owl Force One' arrived to the EPA on July 26, 2023 for testing in the agency's 3,000 cubic ft. bioaerosol test chamber.

CREDIT

UConn/Marina Creed

‘Owl Force One’ at the EPA on July 26, 2023 started being testing in the agency’s large bioaerosol test chamber.

'Owl Force One' during EPA testing

The D-I-Y Corsi-Rosenthal air filter being tested by EPA scientists. 

'Owl Force One' undergoing advanced biochamber testing by the EPA. 

CREDIT

UConn photo

 

Sociodemographic disparities and hearing-related quality of life in children with hearing loss

JAMA Network Open

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JAMA NETWORK

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that race and ethnicity and neighborhood disadvantage are associated with hearing-related quality of life in deaf or hard-of-hearing children. The neighborhood association was seen most broadly in children older than 13 years. 

Authors: Dylan K. Chan, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, is the corresponding author. 

 To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.40934)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article

 http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.40934?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=103023

---

JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open