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- All Subjects: Sustainability
- Creators: Chemical Engineering Program
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
- Status: Published
The purpose of this study is to examine the social and communicative barriers LGBTQIA+ students face when seeking healthcare at campus health and counseling services at Arizona State University. Social barriers relate to experiences and internalizations of societal stigma experienced by sexual and gender minority individuals as well as the anticipation of such events. Communication between patient and provider was assessed as a potential barrier with respect to perceived provider LGBTQIA+ competency. This study applies the minority stress model, considering experiences of everyday stigma and minority stress as a predictor of healthcare utilization among sexual and gender minority students. The findings suggest a small but substantial correlation between minority stress and healthcare use with 23.7% of respondents delaying or not receiving one or more types of care due to fear of stigma or discrimination. Additionally, communication findings indicate a lack of standardization of LGBTQIA+ competent care with experiences varying greatly between respondents.
Plastic consumption has reached astronomical amounts. The issue is the single-use plastics that continue to harm the environment, degrading into microplastics that find their way into our environment. Finding sustainable, reliable, and safe methods to break down plastics is a complex but valuable endeavor. This research aims to assess the viability of using biochar as a catalyst to break down polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics under hydrothermal liquefaction conditions. PET is most commonly found in single-use plastic water bottles. Using glycolysis as the reaction, biochar is added and assessed based on yield and time duration of the reaction. This research suggests that temperatures of 300℃ and relatively short experimental times were enough to see the complete conversion of PET through glycolysis. Further research is necessary to determine the effectiveness of biochar as a catalyst and the potential of process industrialization to begin reducing plastic overflow.