As college campuses continue to house more students, build additional facilities and offer a variety of programmatic options to residents, the literature becomes equally expansive. A vast array of ...options exist, but the following references were selected because of the robust review of research they provide, the practical nature of the content, the exploration of various residential life models and facilities, or to increase an understanding of the value that intentional programmes add to students’ residential experiences. The selected references are also predominantly books. I would encourage readers to subscribe to the Association of College and University Housing Officers – International (ACUHO‑I) journal, which regularly publishes the latest and most relevant research globally in the field. A brief introduction to the selected literature is provided.
University students commonly received COVID-19 vaccinations before returning to U.S. campuses in the Fall of 2021. Given likely immunologic variation among students based on differences in type of ...primary series and/or booster dose vaccine received, we conducted serologic investigations in September and December 2021 on a large university campus in Wisconsin to assess anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels.
We collected blood samples, demographic information, and COVID-19 illness and vaccination history from a convenience sample of students. Sera were analyzed for both anti-spike (anti-S) and anti-nucleocapsid (anti-N) antibody levels using World Health Organization standardized binding antibody units per milliliter (BAU/mL). Levels were compared across categorical primary COVID-19 vaccine series received and binary COVID-19 mRNA booster status. The association between anti-S levels and time since most recent vaccination dose was estimated by mixed-effects linear regression.
In total, 356 students participated, of whom 219 (61.5%) had received a primary vaccine series of Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna mRNA vaccines and 85 (23.9%) had received vaccines from Sinovac or Sinopharm. Median anti-S levels were significantly higher for mRNA primary vaccine series recipients (2.90 and 2.86 log BAU/mL, respectively), compared with those who received Sinopharm or Sinovac vaccines (1.63 and 1.95 log BAU/mL, respectively). Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccine recipients were associated with a significantly faster anti-S decline over time, compared with mRNA vaccine recipients (P <.001). By December, 48/172 (27.9%) participants reported receiving an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine booster, which reduced the anti-S antibody discrepancies between primary series vaccine types.
Our work supports the benefit of heterologous boosting against COVID-19. COVID-19 mRNA vaccine booster doses were associated with increases in anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels; following an mRNA booster dose, students with both mRNA and non-mRNA primary series receipt were associated with comparable levels of anti-S IgG.
The phthalate concentrations in dust from undergraduate dormitories, classrooms, and homes in Beijing, China, were measured in April 2017. We analyzed the characteristics of phthalates in dust from ...three environments. In addition, we estimated the daily intake of phthalates via three pathways using Monte Carlo simulations. The detection frequency of eight phthalates in dust ranges from 74.5 to 100%. Di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP), and di-isobutyl phthalate (DiBP) are the most abundant phthalates. The median proportion of DEHP in dust is the highest, ranging from 67.1 to 72.9%. The PMF results indicated that two, four, and three types of phthalate sources exist in home, dormitory, and classroom, respectively. The differences in the phthalate concentrations between sunny and shaded rooms and urban and suburban classrooms are insignificant, whereas that between male and female dormitories is significant. The total daily intake of DEHP, DnBP, and DiBP ranges from 97.3 to 336 ng/ (kg·day). The oral intake for DEHP in classrooms and the dermal intake of DnBP and DiBP in homes are the highest. The carcinogenic risk of DEHP to university students is the highest in classrooms and the total carcinogenic risk of the three environments is 4.70 × 10
-6
.
Rapid identification and management of students with COVID-19 symptoms, exposure, or disease are critical to halting disease spread and protecting public health. We describe the interdisciplinary ...isolation and quarantine program of a large, public university, the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. The program provided students with wraparound services, including medical, mental health, academic, and other support services during their isolation or quarantine stay. The program successfully accommodated 844 cases during the fall 2020 semester, thereby decreasing exposure to the rest of the university and the local community. (Am J Public Health. 2021;111(10):1772–1775. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306424 )
Most suicide prevention programs focus on increasing knowledge regarding the problem of suicide, yet many fail to include information on the science and application of means reduction approaches. In ...an attempt to address this gap in practice, the Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) program was developed to educate clinicians on the importance of means reduction interventions.
In the current study, a gatekeeper CALM training was delivered to 167 resident assistants. Confidence levels regarding suicide prevention and means reduction skills were assessed at baseline, post-training, and after a 6-week follow-up.
Results were suggestive of medium to large training effects. Though there was a small decay of training effects at follow-up, the effects were durable when compared to baseline levels.
Given these findings, future gatekeeper trainings should be provided more consistently to help sustain the effects and data on the implementation of CALM principles should be measured during follow-up assessments.
This study explores how master's students perceive their learning experiences and build their identities as postgraduate learners. It also investigates how these students' perceptions affect their ...aspirations regarding academic careers. By applying the Community of Practice (CoP) framework, this study focuses on three dimensions of master's students' experience; community, practice and identity. Seventy master's students from one research-intensive university in Hong Kong were interviewed regarding motivations for doing a master's degree and reflections on learning. The interview results showed that master's students build their communities partly around shared academic interests. However, the boundaries of these communities are loose and flexible, due to the nature of master's programmes with their short periods of study and large numbers of part-time students. The study also showed how master's students develop their knowledge and skills through doing research and how they evaluate the prospect of becoming an academic.
This study proposes a genetic algorithm based algorithm for assigning freshmen's dormitory rooms according to five living habits and preferences. In the proposed genetic algorithm, we used a locally ...exhaustive crossover method to avoid divergence results, and then got better fitness values for this dormitory assignment problem. In addition, we used a half-half selection strategy to reduce the time consumption during the iteration procedure. Experimental results have shown that the proposed algorithm could have acceptable performances with reasonable computational time. In addition, two counterpart methods were used to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm: a simulated annealing method and a random assignment method. The comparative results have also shown that 1) the execution time of the proposed algorithm was significantly less that of the simulated annealing method; 2) the fitness value of the proposed algorithm was significantly less than that of the random assignment method; 3) the fitness value of the proposed algorithm is almost the same as that of the simulated annealing method; 4) the proposed algorithm is stable to repeated executions; 5) the proposed algorithm is still suitable even when the capacities (beds) of rooms are different.
The article is devoted to the use of public-private partnership in housing and communal services and the expansion of University housing infrastructure in Kazakhstan. The analysis of the qualitative ...and quantitative status of projects that are officially registered in the databases of relevant state institutions is carried out. All implemented projects of public-private partnership with participation of state budgeting are subject to competitive selection, certain stages of reviewing and study of economic efficiency of project solutions, search for business partners who are ready to take on certain risks. This analysis reveals the real state of implementation of state programs to modernize housing and utilities, increase the housing stock of University infrastructure. Since the analysis of the distribution of public-private partnership projects for housing and communal services, energy supply in all regions of Kazakhstan was carried out, the research results presented in this article will be used in drawing up strategic plans for the territories development. Since the financing of some investment projects for the modernization of housing and communal services is carried out on the basis of state, local budgets, all these projects must be registered in the information databases of state bodies. The article also presents the results of expanding University housing infrastructures through the construction of new and reconstruction of existing student dormitories using mechanism of public-private partnership in the regions, which is currently at the initial stage of project formation. The article presents the results of the implementation of this task in the regions, which is currently at the initial stage of the formation of PPP projects for the construction of student dormitories.
Malhotra and Clark review different baselining methods used to quantify load shed in academic buildings. Load shedding is a cost-effective technique for grid operators to manage high demand periods. ...However, accurately quantifying the size of the shed is essential for proper remuneration. Various methods have been proposed, but there is no consensus on the best approach. Most methods rely on metered data and establish a relationship between independent variables and energy consumption. The baseline is then determined by subtracting the measured energy consumption during a shed event from the counterfactual prediction. The study focuses on evaluating commonly used baseline models in academic buildings located in Ohio. The models are tested on 100 buildings, including classrooms, laboratories, offices, libraries, and dormitories. The evaluation metrics used are root mean square error (RMSE) and absolute percentage error (MAPE). Preliminary results show the performance of one model, with actual and predicted values compared. The findings of the study will contribute to selecting the appropriate baseline model for load shedding in college and university buildings.
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