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  Qualitative Study Exploring Impacts Of Food Insecurity Among College Students

  Haley Lemp

  Food insecurity, or the inability to consistently obtain the amount of food or quality of food necessary for one to live a healthy lifestyle, remains a relevant and often unnoticed issue that college students face. The purpose of this study is to understand how the different dimensions of college students’ health are affected by food insecurity and to learn about what support or resources these students utilize and desire to help cope with their food situations. This study contains two components, including semi-structured interviews with the participants and a photovoice component. Through photovoice, participants take and submit photos that they feel represent how food insecurity impacts their health and their lives as college students. Analysis of the results focuses on detecting recurring themes of health effects derived from food insecurity as well as reported benefits and desires regarding resources intended for people, especially college students, facing food insecurity. Emerging themes consist of a lack of energy, missing out on wanted socialization, feeling the need to make unhealthy nutritional or health-related choices, and other health impacts. Patterns of a desire for a larger variety of food options and more advertising of resources available for food-insecure college students were also prominent.

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  Test The Filtration Efficiency Of N95 Respirators Recovered Using An Electrostatic Charging Device

  Gabriela Ornelas and Rowan Carroll

  The purpose of this research is to test the filtering efficiency of N95 respirators when recharged using an electrostatic charging device invented by the F.N. Smith corporation. If charging is found to be successful, potential opportunity lies within increasing protection, efficiency, and reuse of N95 respirators. All 20 unused respirators were fitted to a mask holder made of PVC pipe with two tubes, one for the vacuum pump set at 10 LPM and the other to measure the background particle concentration, using a particle counter. Each mask was tested once for filtration before being charged, with frequent background concentration checked every 30 minutes to ensure accurate readings. Recharging of the new respirators was done for five minutes then the filtration was tested again. The N95 respirators were decontaminated by two methods, cooking and UV irradiation, then recharged for an additional five minutes post cleaning. Test filtration was done again using the same experimental procedure noted at the start. The largest obstacle faced was creating an environment to mimic ideal conditions for proper N95 respirator use and filtration. This issue was resolved by using outdoor air from above a street, which when tested had substantially more particles than the air inside the lab. The results showed us information regarding the efficiency of new respirators and post- decontaminated respirators. Data analysis showed that the efficiency of the new mask without recharge was 93.1% for 0.3 micrometer particles. After the five-minute recharging, the efficiency was increased to 97%. the filtration efficiency didn’t decrease after going through the reuse- decontamination-recharging cycle twice, but slightly decreased after the third time.