SCU Events

As students at Santa Clara University for the past four years, we have noticed a lack of student participation in school-sponsored events. Sporting events, art exhibits, student performances and so on do not draw the desired participation from the Santa Clara community. Part of this problem is that the university’s event calendar page is unorganized, lacks a comprehensive list of SCU events and has a poor user interface. Without a comprehensive, centralized place to find information on Santa Clara events, it is difficult for people to attend events and even more challenging to increase awareness about what is happening on campus. With the ultimate goal of increasing both awareness and participation for university events, we have a created a new SCU events calendar page. This calendar page aims to simplify the user experience so that obtaining desired information and browsing through upcoming events is intuitive and effective. This paper details our year-long process for creating the webpage, SCU Events

Technical Supplement for the article A Meta-Analysis of the Correlations Among Broad Intelligences: Understanding their Relations

This technical supplement was developed by the author along with their report, “A eta analysis of the correlations among broad intelligences: Understanding their relations” as part of a single, ongoing research project. The original report provides the general purpose and theoretical overview of the project, as well as the key analyses. This supplement also includes pieces of that material where relevant but focuses on detailing the programming and data analyses of the project to a far greater extent

Examining the Effect of Immunity on Infection Dynamics at the Host, Population, and Multi-Population Levels.

Dynamic modeling is an important tool for informing public health decisions. In this dissertation, we explored the role of host immunity in infection transmission models at the host, population, and multi-population level. We applied these models to two pathogen systems: 1) anthrax infection at the host level and 2) polio transmission at the population and multi-population level. At the host level, dose-response models are used to characterize the risk of infection given a pathogen exposure and are one of the primary tools for risk assessments. These models are generally static assuming invariant risk over time. We developed a dose-response model that incorporates the immune response to pathogen exposures and thereby allows risk calculations to be dependent on exposure patterns that vary over time. An analysis of an anthrax disease system indicated that the risk of anthrax is invariant to exposure patterns. Although the anthrax data set did not reveal a dose-timing pattern of risk, more variable exposure data is needed to fully evaluate this process. At the population level, transmission models elucidate dynamic infection processes and provide a framework to analyze intervention effectiveness. We developed a model of polio transmission that incorporates vaccine strain transmission and waning immunity to assess the successes and failures of the polio eradication campaign. We demonstrated that long-term success might be difficult due to reinfection transmission dynamics attributable to waning immunity. Increased vaccine strain transmission mitigates the influence of reinfection by boosting immunity but cannot be relied upon due to risk of disease caused by circulating vaccine. Therefore additional interventions may be appropriate such as adult boosters or improved sanitary conditions. We then extended the polio transmission model to the multi-population level to assess the effect of vaccination policies across population groups through migration. Our analysis demonstrated that if vaccination coverage lapses in one population, it is detrimental to the vaccination programs in neighboring populations. This is exemplified when migration comes from high transmission populations. Thus, eradication campaign success might be greatly aided by interventions focusing on mobile populations.PHDEpidemiological ScienceUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98008/1/mayerbry_1.pd

Temperature-Dependent Diffuse Reflectance Measurements of Ceramic Powders in the Near- and Mid-Infrared Spectra

This study focuses on experimentally measuring temperature-dependent diffuse reflectance in the near- and mid-infrared spectra for ceramic particles with applications as heat-transfer and thermal-storage media in concentrated solar power (CSP) plants. Specifically, a commercially available sintered bauxite ceramic powder, ACCUCAST ID80, and its primary chemical constituents, alumina (Al2O3) and silica (SiO2), are measured using a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) coupled with a specialized diffuse reflectance accessory and a heated stage. Room-temperature diffuse reflectance measurements show increased absorption in tests with greater mass fractions of the ceramic samples. There is a strong correlation in the measured reflectance spectra of ACCUCAST with alumina and silica in the spectral range 2000-500 cm-1. For the first time, temperature-dependent diffuse reflectance measurements are reported for ACCUCAST, including a novel technique for accessing reflectance values above the limiting temperature of the background material KBr. All three materials exhibit a calculated emittance of ~0.9 at room temperature. However, this value drops to 0.68 at 1000 C for ACCUCAST and ~0.43 for alumina and silica. Thermal cycling in air from 25 C to 1000 C resulted in a visible color change from dark grey to light orange for ACCUCAST and a subsequent 5X greater increase in reflectance at 4000 cm-1 as compared to ACCUCAST thermally cycled at 1000 C in vacuum. Alumina and silica spectra proved to be largely unaffected by thermal cycling under atmospheric and evacuated conditions

Survivorship Care Plans: Prevalence and Barriers to Use

Survivorship care plans (SCPs) are intended to educate survivors and providers about survivors’ transition from cancer treatment to follow-up care. Using a survey of 23 cancer programs in the South Atlantic United States, we (1) describe the prevalence and barriers to SCP use and (2) assess relationships between SCP use and (a) barriers and (b) cancer program characteristics. Most cancer programs (86%) reported some SCP use; however, less than a quarter of cancer programs’ providers had ever used an SCP. The majority (61%) began using SCPs because of professional societies’ recommendations. Key barriers to SCP use were insufficient organizational resources (75%) and systems for SCP use. We found patterns in SCP use across location, program type and professional society membership. Most cancer programs have adopted SCPs, but use remains inconsistent. Efforts to promote SCP use should address barriers, particularly in cancer programs that are susceptible to barriers to SCP use

Reduced Left Executive Control Network Functional Connectivity Is Associated with Alcohol Use Disorders

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/108693/1/acer12505.pd