[Review of] Adela de la Torre and Beatriz M. Pesquera, eds. Building with Our Hands

Building With Our Hands is a milestone in the development of Chicana Studies and its possibilities. This multidisciplinary anthology critiques the cultural, political and economic conditions of Chicanas in the US. by voicing their struggles against race, class, gender, and sexual oppression

Space Debris Characterization Using Machine Learning Methods

Orbital debris is a form of pollution that is growing at an exponential pace and puts current and future space infrastructure at risk. Satellites are critical to military, commercial, and civil operations. Unfortunately, the space they occupy is increasingly becoming more crowded and dangerous, potentially leading to a cascade event that could turn orbit around the Earth into an unusable wasteland for decades proper mitigation is not introduced. Unfortunately, existing models employed by NASA rely on a dataset created from 2D images and are missing many crucial features required for correctly modeling the space debris environment. Our approach uses highresolution 3D scanning to fully capture the geometry of a piece of debris and allow a more advanced analysis of each piece. This approach, coupled with machine learning methods, will allow advances to the current cutting edge. Physical and photographbased measurements are time-consuming, hard to replicate, and lack precision. 3D scanning allows much more advanced and accurate analysis of each debris sample, focusing on properties such as moment of inertia, cross-section, and drag. With these additional properties, we stand to substantially increase our understanding of the space debris environment through advanced characterization of each piece of debris. Once the characteristics of space debris are more thoroughly understood, we can begin mitigating the creation and danger of future space debris by implementing improved satellite construction methods and more advanced debris avoidance measures

An arborizing, multiport catheter for maximizing drug distribution in the brain via convection enhanced delivery

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a high-grade malignant glioma with a mortality rate that exceeds 95% despite over eight decades of medical research dedicated to improve outcomes. GBM is extremely difficult to treat and practically incurable with standard treatment involving surgical resection, radiation, concomitant and/or adjuvant chemotherapy. Therefore, convection enhanced delivery (CED) was developed to improve therapeutic outcomes. CED involves intraparenchymal delivery of drugs into diseased tissue via a small catheter. CED has proven to bypass the blood brain barrier and achieve better drug distribution than diffusion-based therapies. Nevertheless, the large volumes necessary to target entire tumors and peritumor volumes have been previously unachievable with currently-available catheters. This dissertation describes the development of a multiport, arborizing catheter designed specifically for improving drug distribution in the brain. The performance of early-stage arborizing catheter prototypes was compared to single-port catheters in infusion studies using agarose brain phantoms. Volume dispersed (V [subscript d]) and mean distribution ratios (V [subscript d] :V [subscript i]) were quantified and compared between the two catheters. The arborizing catheter produced higher V [subscript d] values; however, it did not exhibit the greatest V [subscript d] :V [subscript i], likely due to overlapping distribution volumes from the multiple individual ports. Following infusion in brain phantoms, a biotransport study of the arborizing catheter was conducted using a multiphasic finite element framework. The model was used to predict dispersion volume of a solute in a permeable hyperelastic solid matrix as a function of separation distance between adjacent ports. Results show that increasing port distance can increase V [subscript d]; however, infusion time also increases significantly with greater port distance. One way to mitigate increased infusion times is to employ higher infusion flow rates. Finally, the performance of improved arborizing catheters was compared to reflux-preventing single-port catheters in excised pig brains. CT scans were used to quantify V [subscript d] and V [subscript d] :V [subscript i] of infused iohexol (contrast-enhancing agent). The average volume dispersed for the arborizing catheter was 5.8 times greater than the single-port catheter. Mean distribution ratios for both catheters were similar. Using the multiple ports of the arborizing catheter, high V [subscript d] was achieved at a low infusion rate with negligible reflux. Given that previous attempts of CED reported poor drug distribution, the arborizing catheter may help overcome the limitations of CED.Biomedical Engineerin

THE ECONOMIC FREEDOM, COUNTRY RISK AND FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS

The interlinkages between country risk and foreign direct investments are the subject of research interest. The article tests the intuitive hypothesis that economic freedom is associated with low country risk and is an incentive for foreign direct investments. The research paper employs empirical quantitative within-between models to analyze the relationship between foreign direct investments and five indices: trade openness, freedom from corruption, trade freedom, investment freedom, and economic freedom. The database used is The Global Economy for 44 European Countries resulting a panel data employed for between within models, growth curve models, contextual models, generalized estimating equations models (GEE), and asymmetric effects models. Interesting is the different significance of the five indicators in different models. For the first three models within -between model, the growth curve model and the contextual model- statistical significance have trade openness, freedom from corruption, and investment freedom. For the Generalized equations model (GEE) the only indicator that has statistical significance is Investment freedom. For the asymmetric effects model that shows the effect of asymmetric increase and decrease of each indicator, there is no statistical significance for the analyzed indicators. The within – between models combine the robustness of the fix effects models with the flexibility of the random-effects models

Mujeres, Migration & Arizona’s SB1070: Codifying Patriarchy and White Privilege

No abstract available

TRADE OPENNESS, INVESTMENT FREEDOM- SELECTED COUNTRY RISK INDICATORS, IMPACT ON FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS, A PANEL VECTOR AUTOREGRESSION MODEL APPROACH

We employ a panel vector autoregression model (PVAR) selecting as endogenous variables Foreign Direct Investments percent of GDP, Trade Openness and Investment Freedom for a database comprised of European Countries. The data are collected from the Global Economy database. We compare different PVAR models changing the input of desired lags. We test the Hansen test for over-identifying restrictions and we generate the Generalised impulse response functions. The article uses a Hahn Kuehrsteiner Panel Var estimation estimating a stationarity PVAR with fixed effects. Econometric analysis shows a significant impact of trade openness and investment freedom indicators on foreign direct investment in Europe

Percepción del peso del hijo y estilos maternos de alimentación infantil.

Propósito y Método del Estudio: Los objetivos específicos fueron:1) Evaluar la percepción materna del peso del hijo (PMPH) de acuerdo a si/no presencia de sobrepeso (SP)-obesidad (OB) del hijo y verificar si existen diferencias, 2) Describir los estilos maternos de alimentación infantil (EMAI), 3) Identificar el EMAI de acuerdo a si/no presencia de SP-OB del hijo y verificar si existen diferencias. El objetivo general fue identificar el EMAI de acuerdo a la PMPH y al estado nutricio del hijo. La muestra se calculó con un nivel de confianza de .95, prueba bilateral, enfoque conservador de .50, límite de error de estimación de .03, tasa de no respuesta de 5%, resultó un tamaño de muestra de 209. Participaron diadas madre-hijo que se encontraba inscrito en el período escolar 2015 – 2016 en instituciones educativas públicas de nivel pre-escolar de la Zona 19 de San Nicolás de los Garza Nuevo León. La PMPH se evalúo mediante por la pregunta “Creo que mi niño/a está…” (PP) y por imágenes (PI), se aplicó el Cuestionario de Estilos de Alimentación de Cuidador y se midio peso y talla de las diadas. Para el análisis se obtuvieron estadísticas descriptivas y se aplicó estadística inferencial. Resultados y Conclusiones: Participaron 259 diadas. El 22.4% de los hijos (n = 58) presentó SP-OB. Se encontró que el 91.4% (n = 53) de las madres de hijos con SP-OB no percibió esta situación por PP y por PI el 62.1% (n = 36), diferencia significativa (X2 = 68.03, gl = 1, p .05) y PI (X2 = 4.421, gl = 3, p > .05) e independientemente de si/no el hijo presenta SP-OB (X2 = 0.780, gl = 3, p > .05). Finalmente el EMAI que predominó fue el autoritario independientemente del EMAI y del estado nutricio del hijo. El EMAI que se ha identificado en madres hispanas residentes en los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica es el indulgente, en esta población se identificó el autoritaritario el cual se caracteriza por baja responsabilidad/alta exigencia, los hijos podrían tener menor capacidad para determinar el tamaño de las porciones y la cantidad de energía. Es la primera vez que se estudia en población mexicana si la PMPH modifica los EMAI. Se requieren intervenciones que promuevan el EMAI con autoridad el cual se relaciona a menor ganancia de IMC del hijo y a hábitos saludables

Virtual Stethoscope - Otoscope

The purpose of this report was to develop a working prototype for a virtual stethoscope and otoscope. Sponsored by Courtney Farr, the virtual diagnostic care system – HouseCalls Mobile digital stethoscope/otoscope is meant for use by medical professionals and non – medical professionals for preliminary medical exams while physically not in a medical setting. The HouseCalls Mobile device is to characterize key biometric parameters such as breathing patterns, heart irregularities, and visual clinical evaluation of the inner ear. This device is intended for pediatric use