The purpose of this project was originally to find ways of increasing the amount of green spaces in cities such as London. In areas like this many buildings are packed densely into little space which does not allow for many green areas, so green roofs seemed a sensible solution to this problem. From experiments we conducted we found that green roofs also absorb a substantial amount of water at one time and could provide a solution to flooding in cities. Based on these results we decided to look into this further by looking at the different materials that could be used as substrates and what effect each material has on the amount of water that is absorbed.

 Constructing an ROV that can operate underwater to collect the golf balls that are littering ponds all over the world will benefit the environment that is being poisoned as the golf balls decompose. It will offer a much safer method of extraction than diving for the gold balls because humans will not come into direct contact with the toxins and animals present in the water. During the construction we decided to use a 3D printer to print the wheels and scoop. We had to connect and make waterproof the motor’s wires to give more power to the ROV and we used PVC pipe to construct the body to provide buoyancy. During the construction and testing phase we encountered many setbacks. Because of our strict timeline and these unforeseen complications, we were not able to make the necessary adjustments to the ROV for it to be operational in a realistic setting.

Recently an epidemic has occurred in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city of over 11 million people, where in an inner city community known as “Crackloandia”, hundreds of people are openly using crack cocaine. The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of the treatment method known as contingency management (CM) paired with standard treatment (STCM) to see whether or not this treatment would alter depression and or anxiety in the population. It was hypothesized that CM would lessen the severity of anxiety and depression in the population while they received treatment for their crack cocaine use as a secondary, indirect effect. All data for the clinical trial was collected from 45 individuals seeking treatment for crack cocaine use disorder. This study found that CM effectively reduces depression and anxiety scores in patients who abuse crack cocaine. The implications of this research find it likely that CM is a treatment option capable of treating patients with a comorbidity of anxiety, depression, and substance abuse disorders.

The dissertation examines the quantity of parasitic bacterial colonies growing in schools. By focusing on parasitic bacteria, the objective is to reduce student illnesses causing absences and therefore decreased academic performance. To achieve this objective, the levels of bacteria on commonly touched surfaces were audited in Phase I. Following, it was determined in Phase II whether cleaning student desks daily with a disinfectant would be tactful against the combat on bacteria. Accordingly, the study was implemented by culturing bacteria from surfaces inside several classrooms. In Phase I, surfaces included student desks, chairs, and other commonly touched surfaces. Bacterial counts in total ranged from no bacteria to as many as 208 colonies. Student desks, specifically, contained around 34.4% of the 2050 total bacterial colony count across the three sample rooms. After determining the student desks had the highest level of human contact, as well as moderately high bacterial levels, a commonly applied cleaning protocol was examined in Phase II. The results obtained demonstrate disinfecting student desks once per day was significant at reducing the present bacteria by as much as a 41.3% decrease. All in all, since desks had the highest human contact, disinfecting them with antibacterial wipes would be a worthwhile and inexpensive procedure to reduce the spread of disease. Keywords: disinfection, human contact, parasitic bacteria.