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IRB Protocols and Presentation Outline

 

  1.  Does your work require IRB approval?

 

Our plan to address the air quality issue in Kazakhstan is being developed. We have many different ideas floating around regarding our plan, so we are still working out the specifics. However, based on the rough draft of our plan, we will need IRB approval. One component of our plan is to interview locals regarding the air quality problem in their city. The interviews will allow us to strengthen our approach to the issue by learning about the first-hand experience of living in Almaty with the challenges of dangerous air quality. 

We are aware that people are extremely concerned just by scrolling through Facebook pages. For example, there is a Facebook page named, “SMOG ALMATY” which is used as a platform for Almaty locals and allies to discuss their concerns and opinions on the way people in power are handling the air quality issue. 

Although we will be receiving a lot of constructed criticism regarding our plan and presentations before abroad fieldwork, the most impactful criticism will come directly from the people of Almaty. 

We might also set up a survey that provides feedback for our project. As a result, in order to interview, we need IRB approval. According to the certification that my group completed, we learned that any research that will consist of surveying requires IRB approval to make sure that we protect any revealing information of the participants. 

Another idea that we are working towards finalizing are nasal filters. In order for my group to review whether or not our filters are effective and used amongst the Almaty population, it will involve having locals test them out. We might not be the exact group of undergraduate students that will have this filter finalized because of it being a long process of lab work and engineering. However, we recognize that this type of research needs to be reviewed by IRB in order for any of it to be implemented and continued. 

 

2. Develop an outline for your mid-semester presentations. What supporting evidence will you provide for each point? How will you boost your credibility every step of the way?

 

  1. Introduction slide: 
    1. Picture of Almaty’s mountains and introduce team members
  2. 1st Slide: (problem/ solution) 
    1. Jumps right into the problem with a statistic or two about the severity of the air quality problem in Almaty
    2. Picture of Almaty on a day with bad air quality 
    3. State our proposed solution: Detecting -> Transmission -> Public Awareness/ Public Safety 
      1. Increasing data collection points
      2. Mappings of specific areas that are suffering more due to air pollution (include image)
      3. Creating an easily accessible server for the population to access data
      4. Giving strategies to minimize exposure to air quality
  3. 2nd Slide: 
    1. List causes of the problem in Almaty
      1. Traffic
      2. Power plant 
      3. Coal-burning furnaces 
      4. Bad air circulation, cold weather
    2.  Sighting health risks from being exposed to air pollution
      1. Cardiovascular disease death rates
  4. 3rd Slide: Potential Solutions 
    1. Addressing possible solutions (our ideas of what we came up with or ones other cities have tried implementing)
      1. Public services announcements 
      2. Government policy 
      3. Increasing greenery 
      4. Creating new power plant filters (nasal strips, other)
  5. 4th Slide: Details on our solution
    1. Showing app we found that isn’t reliable
      1. Providing images of what it looks like
      2. Data and statistics is provides
      3. Including single data points 
    2. Improving the quality of data (Account for more air pollutants)
      1. Getting more air quality detecting devices to distribute throughout the city
      2. Including public areas like parks, walkways, schools, neighborhoods… 
  6. 5th Slide: Existing Kazakhstan Proposed solutions
  7. Government Regulation
    1. Improve Transportation with efficiency and reliability
    2. Reliable Bike Lanes (Promoting bike riding)
    3. Greenway
    4. Investigate Airflow in city 
    5. All long term solutions, no short term
    6. Public announcements on when pollution is high and low
  8. 6th Slide: Prototype
    1. What kinds of air quality testers are we going to use? 
      1. Still pending, but have a meeting with an expert on 3/3
      2. Sustainable, maintainable, cheapish
    2. Pollutants we are trying to target
      1. PM 2.5
      2. CO, SO2, NO2
  9. 7th Slide: Our overall plan 
    1. What are we planning to do with the data
      1. Create understandable models and analyzing the impacts of specific polluted areas
      2. Connecting info to health advice and actable things to do to minimize exposure
      3. Detecting -> Transmission -> Public Awareness/ Public Safety 

Potential new slide: Analyzing the information gaps between income classes about their knowledge on the air pollution issues

Do they know what they’re doing that could be causing it

Do they know some of their own actions are adding to the air pollution?

Do they feel helpless? 

Do they think someone else is going to fix it

Do they know the actual health outcomes from it

 

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