Free to Be: Supporting Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Students on Catholic Campuses

There is a long history of tension between the authority of the Vatican and the relative autonomy of Roman Catholic institutions of higher education, particularly in the United States of America. These tensions currently arise on Catholic campuses where student affairs practitioners seek to support lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) students while at the same time operating within Vatican teaching that homosexuality is objectively disordered (Ratzinger, 1986). This paper will review those Catholic teachings on homosexuality and explore policies and practices of student affairs practitioners seeking to serve LGB students at Catholic higher education institutions

Non-Communicable Disease and Diabetes Screening in Community Settings in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Case Study in Senegal, West Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa is faced with a significant and increasing burden of non-communicable diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (diabetes). In Senegal, the prevalence of diabetes has been documented to be as high as 8.1% in urban-dwelling Senegalese and is fast approaching the United States prevalence of approximately nine percent; however, insufficient resources are available for prevention efforts and disease management. As a result, many cases remain undiagnosed, leading to an increased likelihood of diabetes complications and mortality. Many of these cases remain undiagnosed or are diagnosed only after complications have developed, such as the need for amputation, kidney failure, or loss of vision, which could be potentially reduced through diabetes self-management support. In addition, factors such as limited access to adequate facilities for screening and treatment lead to a disproportionate burden of diabetes related morbidity and mortality in this context. While early detection is a necessity, ethical and logistical considerations should be explored in order to inform and deliver culturally grounded, sustainable, and accessible diabetes screening. We discuss the use of community-based health fairs for diabetes screening and present a case study of a free screening program used in Senegal, West Africa

Vector Flow Imaging in Pediatric Cardiology - Extracting and Validating Data

In the field of bedside cardiac diagnostic imaging, Doppler Ultrasound (DU) is the gold standard for diagnosing heart conditions. The largest benefit of DU is its ability to noninvasively image cardiac flow and allow the estimation of blood velocity and quantification of anatomical disease. However, to get correct velocity estimation, the position of the transducer in relation to the flow field needs to be known. This is the problem of angle/direction dependency and limits DUs accuracy when imaging in areas where perfect alignment or exact position of the transducer in relation to flow field is not possible or known, such as in the left ventricle. As a solution to the problem of angle dependency, Vector Flow Imaging (VFI) is used because it is non-invasive and angle-independent. In this study, VFI was used in 12 pediatric patients from Arkansas Children’s Hospital to analyze left ventricular flow using the 4-chamber view. The shape, in the form of ellipse Major:Minor axis ratio, of ventricular vortices was then measured. The deviation of an individual patients heart flow from what is theoretically healthy as defined in literature, an ellipse with Major:Minor axis ratio of 1.9, was compared to what was measured with VFI. The average directional deviation for these 12 patients was 64.85o±10.34o from what is theoretically healthy. After optimizing ellipse parameters to actual patient flow, the true average optimal ratio was found to be 1.98 ±0.58. Additionally, it was found that heart rate (p \u3c 0.0001), age (p = 0.003), and weight (p \u3c 0.0001) had a significant effect on angle deviation. However, there was no trend in the data. This preliminary study paves the way for using VFI to define healthy parameters for left ventricular flow and assist clinicians with more accurate diagnoses in anatomical areas with complex flow

Selecting Optimal Experiments for Feedforward Multilayer Perceptrons

Where should a researcher conduct experiments to provide training data for a multilayer perceptron? This question is investigated and a statistically-based method for optimally selecting experimental design points for multilayer perceptrons is introduced. Specifically, a criterion is developed based on the size of an estimated confidence ellipsoid for the weights in the multilayer perceptron. This criterion is minimized over a set of exemplars to find optimal design points. Initially, single output networks are examined. An example is used to demonstrate the superiority of optimally selected design points over randomly chosen points and points chosen in a grid pattern. Also, two measures are successfully used to rank the design points in terms of their importance. Two methods are presented to significantly reduce complexity-a distributed linear feedthrough network structure and a weight subset method. Next, multiple output networks are examined. The criterion in this framework becomes more complex and a simplifying technique is employed to judiciously choose desired outputs of the network to produce uncorrelated actual outputs. Finally, the methods described above are integrated and tested on two applications dealing with aircraft survivability. In both cases, simulating the indicated experiments produced a superior multilayer perceptron

Network Visualization Design using Prefuse Visualization Framework

Visualization of network simulation events or network visualization is an effective and low cost method to evaluate the health and status of a network and analyze network designs, protocols, and network algorithms. This research designed and developed a network event visualization framework using an open source general visualization toolkit. This research achieved three major milestones during the development of this framework: A robust network simulator trace file parser, multiple network visualization layouts {including user-defined layouts, and precise visualization timing controls and integrated display of network statistics. The parser architecture is extensible to allow customization of simulator trace formats that are accepted by the visualization framework. This design makes the framework capable of accepting trace files from different network simulators and provides one common visualization testbed to study network scenarios run on different simulators. Multiple network visualization layouts are made possible using the prefuse visualization toolkit Layout class which provides many different visualization layouts and is easily extensible to create new Layout subclasses. Finally, precise timing controls give users better control for quicker navigation to specific network events at any time. The toolkit design is readily extensible allowing developers to easily expand the framework to meet research-specific visualization goals

Diabetes in Senegal

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Interdisiplinarity: A Major Issue

Interdisciplinary majors are a growing feature of the undergraduate university (Robles, 1998). Their widespread popularity should be of interest to both professional academics and student affairs professionals. These programs present unique opportunities to foster engagement across difference and to encourage a critically reflective learning approach, a style that the Association of American Colleges and Universities (2002), the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators and the American College Personnel Association (2004) all advocate. While highlighting the challenges and opportunities of interdisciplinary programs, these authors, who graduated with bachelor’s degrees in interdisciplinary majors, will argue that these programs provide important opportunities for bridging gaps between the academic and student affairs spheres of university life

A descriptive study of trauma cases encountered in the Grand M’Bour Hospital Emergency Department in Senegal

Introduction: this study analyzed the trends of trauma cases that presented to the Emergency Department (ED) in the Grand M'Bour Hospital. We examined demographics of patients, mechanisms of trauma and types of injuries that result and times from injury to arrival. Methods: this was a descriptive study using prospective ED trauma cases. Patients were selected for the study if their chief complaint was related to a traumatic injury. A trauma flow sheet was developed to obtain information. Data was collected from 6/22/16-7/13/16, with 105 cases recorded. Abstracted data included date, time of arrival, time of injury, age, gender, mechanism of injury, injury sustained and disposition. Results: patients presented to the ED for 13 different trauma-related reasons. 71% of the patients encountered had a mechanism of injury related to falls or motor vehicle accidents. The majority of patients who suffered from a fall-or motor vehicle-related injury were children, with ages 0-10 representing 31% and ages 11-20 representing 14% of the total patients. While 29% of patients were seen within 1 hour of the time of their injury, 10% of the patients were not seen until days after their injury. Conclusion: we report that traumatic injuries are most commonly a result of fall-related and vehicle-related accidents. Children under the age of 20 years old are a vulnerable population for traumatic injuries. We observed that many patients were unable to seek care within a day of their injury. This was concerning that proper emergency transportation was not available, leading to potential complications or improper healing of injuries. Knowing these trends, an ED can be better prepared to treat these patients

Unpreparedness and uncertainty: a qualitative study of African American experiences during COVID-19 pandemic

During disasters, vulnerable populations are disproportionately affected. COVID-19 disproportionately affected African American (AA) families, increasing their risk for COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. The pandemic also exacerbated existing negative milieu such as economic opportunity and access to social and healthcare services. We explored AA families’ experiences of indirect pandemic effects. Data were collected through semi-structured in-depth telephone interviews with 11 AA parent/grandparents of school-aged child (5–17 years). Line-by-line coding and thematic analysis were used to analyze and interpret the data. Three emergent themes highlighted the salient indirect effects of COVID-19 pandemic on AA families: (i) access to healthcare, (ii) access to food, and (iii) disaster unpreparedness. Participants expressed frustration with virtual healthcare services and inability to schedule in-person hospital appointments for health conditions unrelated to COVID-19. Lack of food products in stores and limited financial resources due to pandemic-related job layoffs were important food insecurity factors discussed. Unpreparedness on the part of institutions, state, and the nation, created heightened perceptions of vulnerability. Given the social vulnerability spectrum in the U.S., pandemic planning approaches that promote equity are critical if public officials are to develop effective adaptation, mitigation, response, and recovery plans that mobilize and serve diverse populations