This study was intended to characterize the perceived risks of urban agriculture by residents of four low-income neighborhoods in which the potential exists for further urban agriculture development and to provide data to support whether any chemical hazards and foodborne pathogens as potential food safety hazards were present. Sixty-seven residents participated in focus groups related to environmental health, food security, and urban gardening. In addition, soils from six locations were tested. Residents expressed interest in the development of urban gardens to improve access to healthy, fresh produce, but they had concerns about soil quality. Soils were contaminated with lead (Pb), zinc, cadmium (Cd), and copper, but not arsenic or chromium. Results from our study suggest paint was the main source of soil contamination. Detectable polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) levels in urban soils were well below levels of concern. These urban soils will require further management to reduce Pb and possibly Cd bioavailability to decrease the potential for uptake into food crops. Although the number of locations in this study is limited, results suggest lower levels of soil contaminants at well-established gardens. Soil tillage associated with long-term gardening could have diluted the soil metal contaminants by mixing the contaminants with clean soil. Also, lower PAH levels in long-term gardening could be due to enhanced microbial activity and PAH degradation, dilution, or both due to mixing, similar to metals. No foodborne pathogen targets were detected by PCR from any of the soils. Residents expressed the need for clearness regarding soil quality and gardening practices in their neighborhoods to consume food grown in these urban areas. Results from this study suggest long-term gardening has the potential to reduce soil contaminants and their potential threat to food quality and human health and to improve access to fresh produce in low-income urban communities.

Librarians from Purdue University wanted to determine which social media platforms students use, which platforms they would like the library to use, and what content they would like to see from the library on each of these platforms. We conducted a survey at four of the nine campus libraries to determine student social media habits and preferences. Results show that students currently use Facebook, YouTube, and Snapchat more than other social media types; however, students responded that they would like to see the library on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Students wanted nearly all types of content from the libraries on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, but they did not want to receive business news or content related to library resources on Snapchat. YouTube was seen as a resource for library service information. We intend to use this information to develop improved communication channels, a clear libraries social media presence, and a cohesive message from all campus libraries.

Ambivalent and indifferent pregnancy desires are common in Malawi and are associated with modern contraceptive use in different ways. Understanding the complex nature of pregnancy desires may be valuable in improving family planning programs.

We first briefly report on the status and recent achievements of the ELPA-AEO (Eigenvalue Solvers for Petaflop Applications -Algorithmic Extensions and Optimizations) and ESSEX II (Equipping Sparse Solvers for Exascale) projects. In both collaboratory efforts, scientists from the application areas, mathematicians, and computer scientists work together to develop and make available efficient highly parallel methods for the solution of eigenvalue problems. Then we focus on a topic addressed in both projects, the use of mixed precision computations to enhance efficiency. We give a more detailed description of our approaches for benefiting from either lower or higher precision in three selected contexts and of the results thus obtained.Keywords ELPA-AEO · ESSEX · eigensolver · parallel · mixed precision IntroductionEigenvalue computations are at the core of simulations in various application areas, including quantum physics and electronic structure computations. Being able to best utilize the capabilities of current and emerging high-end computing systems is essential for further improving such simulations with respect to space/time resolution or by including additional effects in the models. Given these needs, the ELPA-AEO and ESSEX-II projects contribute to the development and implementation of efficient highly parallel methods for eigenvalue problems, in different contexts.Both projects are aimed at adding new features (concerning, e.g., performance and resilience) to previously developed methods and at providing additional functionality with new methods. Building on the results of the first ESSEX funding phase [14,34], ESSEX-II again focuses on iterative methods for very large eigenproblems arising, e.g., in quantum physics. ELPA-AEO's main application area is electronic structure computation, and for these moderately sized eigenproblems direct methods are often superior. Such methods are available in the widely used ELPA library [19], which had originated in an earlier project [2] and is being improved further and extended with ELPA-AEO.In Sections 2 and 3 we briefly report on the current state and on recent achievement in the two projects, with a focus on aspects that may be of particular interest to prospective users of the software or the underlying methods.Mixed precision in the ELPA-AEO and ESSEX-II projects 3In Section 4 we turn to computations involving different precisions. Looking at three examples from the two projects we describe how lower or higher precision is used to reduce the computing time. The ELPA-AEO projectIn the ELPA-AEO project, chemists, mathematicians and computer scientists from the Max Planck Computing and Data Facility in Garching, the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin, the Technical University of Munich, and the University of Wuppertal collaborate to provide highly scalable methods for solving moderately-sized (n 10 6 ) Hermitian eigenvalue problems. Such problems arise, e.g., in electronic structure computations, and during the earlier ELPA project, efficient...

The purpose of this study was to explore surrogate women’s experiences of stress during the surrogacy process in India. We interviewed 15 women who had been a surrogate for an international couple at least once in their lives. The following themes emerged: stress regarding (1) physical health, (2) psychology well-being, and (3) the well-being of surrogates’ families and children. Transnational surrogates may experience more physical and psychological stress during pregnancy because their children and families continue to depend on them for support. Social workers must minimize the physical and emotional effects of surrogacy through counseling and psychosocial support.