University of Maine Research on the Frontiers of Science
Radon in schools
Waterborne radon from dishwashers, sinks, drinking fountains and other fixtures can contribute small but significant amounts of radon gas to the air in public schools, according to a UMaine study. However, ventilation systems are very effective in keeping radon concentrations at low levels and reducing exposure to the radioactive gas, researchers have also found.
Mary Jo Norris, a master's student in physics from Brecksville, Ohio, has been analyzing data collected last summer in six elementary schools and UMaine facilities in Orono and Walpole. Her work is supported by grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Maine Department of Human Services. She is working with Charles Hess, professor of physics, one of the pioneers of radon research in the U.S.
Elementary schools in her study include Dedham, Whitefield, Brownville, Swanville, Frankfort and Penobscot. Among the schools, Swanville has the highest concentration of radon in its water supply, but the school also uses an aeration system to remove it prior to use. The highest waterborne radon level in the study was recorded at a field research building at the Darling Marine Center in Walpole.
“We placed devices that detect radon in the air for 24 hours in each school,” says Norris. “We also measured how much radon is emitted by water from each of the appliances.”
Measurements have been taken during regular school hours when ventilation systems were operating or windows were open, as well as during times when the buildings were closed for the night.
The goal of the study is to determine the relative contribution of radon from water fixtures and appliances to the total radon concentration in the air.
Norris has a bachelor's degree in physics from Cleveland State University and came to UMaine in 1998 to do graduate work on a project related to the decommissioning of Maine Yankee. She became involved in the radon study when funding for that project did not materialize.
Protection without pasteurization
Finding unpasteurized apple cider isn't easy. Outbreaks of illness linked to contamination of unpasteurized cider by e. coli bacteria have occurred in apple growing states from Maine to Washington, and cider producers have been sterilizing their product to protect consumers.
However, heating cider affects the taste. Researchers in the Bio-Resource Engineering Program (BRE) are studying the use of ultra-violet light to sterilize cider without noticeably affecting the flavor.
If they are successful, their work could help the cider industry protect public health and win back consumers who might have turned away from the pasteurized product.
Nazife Canitez, a master's student from Cyprus, has been inoculating samples of unpasteurized cider with bacteria and then treating it with varying levels of ultra-violet (UV) light. The project is under way with help from faculty members Darrell Donahue of BRE, Al Bushway of Food Science and Human Nutrition and Amyl Ghanem of Chemical Engineering.
“We are looking for an alternative to pasteurization,” says Canitez. “We bring the cider to our lab, spike it with harmless bacteria and then treat it with UV light. One of the problems with UV is that it doesn't penetrate very far through all the particles that are in cider. Some researchers deal with this by filtering the cider, but we prefer to test cider as it is actually produced.”
Canitez has also been giving samples of UV-treated cider to subjects in the sensory lab in food science. The results indicate that people could not distinguish between treated and untreated cider, she says.
After she graduates, Canitez intends to continue working in the food industry in her country. She comes by her chosen career naturally. She grew up surrounded by delicious smells from her father's chocolate business, Horozoglu Chocolate and Confectionary Ltd.
Canitez received a bachelor's degree in 1998 in food engineering from Ege University in Izmir, Turkey. She intends to complete her project next summer.
Crowding and crime
The study of crime in the past century has focused primarily on trying to explain why individuals commit antisocial acts. In a new study, Sociology Professor Steve Barkan has found that the roots of crime on a local level lie at least partly in the problem of household overcrowding.
In “Household Crowding and Aggregate Crime Rates,” Barkan, argues that household crowding is an often-overlooked contributor to high crime rates. The paper was published in a recent issue of the Journal of Crime and Justice.
“In this paper, all of the reasons why household crowding should raise crime rates is laid out,” says Barkan. “The correlation was fairly strong and in some cases it was the strongest of any other variable I took into account.”
Barkan and other scholars define household crowding as households with more than one person per room. He says although a number of studies have examined the effects of household crowding, most have not. The main focus of most crime studies has been on the effects of poverty and race.
“In this study, I controlled for both poverty and population density, and still found that areas with overcrowded households are more likely to have higher crime rates,” he says.
Barkan suggests four reasons for this trend:
- Members of overcrowded households, especially adolescents, tend to spend more time outside the home with friends and associates.
- Because children in these households tend to stay away from home, they have less parental supervision, which lowers their school achievement. Low school achievement leads to deviant behavior.
- Crowded homes produce higher levels of conflict among family members. This conflict weakens the parent-child bond and increases deviant behavior.
- Crowded homes increase what Barkan calls moral cynicism, as household members are much less able to shield discreditable acts and information from one another. This reduces respect for conventional moral standards and increases willingness to violate those standards.
The two main categories of crime measured in the report are violent crime and property crime. Barkan used the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports for the figures on crime in the report.
Barkan hopes that research like his will lead urban planners and policymakers to consider solutions to the problem of overcrowding.