Changes in Knowledge of HPV, Cervical Cancer, PAP Smears, and Attitudes Towards HPV vaccination from a Community-Based Intervention for Latinas

Purpose/Background: Latinas are 20% less likely to receive the HPV vaccine and, in Idaho, are 35% more likely to die of cervical cancer than non-Latinas -16.2/100,000 in Latinas vs. 7.6/100,000 non-Latinas-. Research indicates that this disparity is due to low health literacy, and barriers of language, culture, and poverty. This project’s purpose was to assess the efficacy of a community-based intervention designed to increase rural Idaho Latina health literacy about cervical cancer prevention and detection, about the Women\u27s Health Check program, and to assess participant attitudes towards child HPV vaccination. Materials & Methods: Investigators trained six bilingual Latinas from rural SE Idaho as promotoras. Project investigators and promotoras created videos in English and in Spanish providing information about cervical cancer prevention, detection, treatment, the HPV vaccine, and the Women\u27s Health Check Program. The promotoras identified Latina participants (n=44) from their communities, delivered educational materials in participant homes and at schools, and administered pre and post video surveys to assess changes in knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of cervical cancer, the Pap test, and the HPV vaccine. Participants, who were all Latinas, chose either English or Spanish language materials. Results: 50% chose English and 50% chose Spanish language materials.100% of intervention completers (n=44, 18-70+ years), showed increases in knowledge of cervical cancer, the Pap Test, HPV vaccine and the Women\u27s Health Check Program. Pre-intervention, 25% did not know that there was a vaccine for HPV, 18% had not heard of cervical cancer, and 44% had not heard about the Women\u27s Health Check Program. Post intervention knowledge for these items was a 100%. With regard to intention to vaccinate for HPV, “How likely are you to get your child the HPV vaccine?” -- a 7 point LIKERT scale question with lower numbers reflecting more positive intention ---there was a significant mean difference in the total sample at pre (M = 2.07, SD = 1.44) and post (M = 1.23, SD = 0.53), F (1, 41) = 14.39, p \u3c .001. Language choice (proxy for acculturation) was not a significant factor in intent to vaccinate F(1, 41) = 0.30, p = .588. Although not statistically significant, Spanish speakers showed a larger change in intention to vaccinate with mean scores of 2.14 to 1.18 compared to English speakers 2.00 to 1.41. Discussion/Conclusion: All participants demonstrated increases in knowledge and intention to vaccinate. Results indicate that there was a significant movement in the report of increased intention to vaccinate children for HPV. The project shows that Latinas in rural SE Idaho lack knowledge of cervical cancer prevention and detection including the role of the HPV vaccine in the prevention of cervical and other associated cancers. Language choice indicates continued need for bilingual health education. Data shows that a community-based, bilingual intervention is effective in this community

Inequities in Social Determinants of Health Factors and Criminal Behavior: A Case Study of Immigrant Ex-Offenders

When immigrants arrive in a new country, they often discover that being an immigrant does not allow them to integrate easily into the new society. Immigrant offenders are more likely to engage in criminal behaviors due to inequities in social determinants of health factors as a source of strain.  This study was focused on utilizing the personal experiences of immigrant offenders to discover the various circumstances that contributed to their criminal behavior. General Strain Theory has been shown to be a useable theoretical model in explaining the relationship between race/ethnicity and criminal behavior. The participants in this study were adult immigrant ex-offenders in the province of Alberta, Canada.  The results of the study indicated a consensus among ex-offenders that there are social determinants of health factors such as stress, income problem, education issues, employment issue, and health risk behaviors that have led them to commit crime.  The recommendations presented below are divided into three groups. Recommendations include:  (a) future research in federal, provincial and territorial correctional systems, (b) identification of multiple risk factors that lead an individual to commit crime, (c) crime prevention strategies that help prevent criminal behavior for immigrants.

The interactions of hadrons containing a heavy quark in the strong coupling limit of lattice QCD

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-107).In this thesis we calculate the interaction potentials between two hadrons that are pinned in place on the lattice by infinitely heavy quarks. The potentials are calculated to leading order in the strong coupling and hopping parameter expansions for the following six systems: meson/meson, baryon/antimeson, baryon/baryon, meson/antimeson, baryon/meson and baryon/antibaryon. For each hadron/hadron system, we consider all allowed spin and isospin configurations for the light quarks. The interaction potentials we find take the form of one-meson-exchange potentials, whose sign and magnitude depends on the light quarks' spin and isospin.by Brian C. Fore.Ph.D

Studies of Two-Phase Flow Dynamics and Heat Transfer at Reduced Gravity Conditions

The ability to predict gas-liquid flow patterns is crucial to the design and operation of two-phase flow systems in the microgravity environment. Flow pattern maps have been developed in this study which show the occurrence of flow patterns as a function of gas and liquid superficial velocities as well as tube diameter, liquid viscosity and surface tension. The results have demonstrated that the location of the bubble-slug transition is affected by the tube diameter for air-water systems and by surface tension, suggesting that turbulence-induced bubble fluctuations and coalescence mechanisms play a role in this transition. The location of the slug-annular transition on the flow pattern maps is largely unaffected by tube diameter, liquid viscosity or surface tension in the ranges tested. Void fraction-based transition criteria were developed which separate the flow patterns on the flow pattern maps with reasonable accuracy. Weber number transition criteria also show promise but further work is needed to improve these models. For annular gas-liquid flows of air-water and air- 50 percent glycerine under reduced gravity conditions, the pressure gradient agrees fairly well with a version of the Lockhart-Martinelli correlation but the measured film thickness deviates from published correlations at lower Reynolds numbers. Nusselt numbers, based on a film thickness obtained from standard normal-gravity correlations, follow the relation, Nu = A Re(sup n) Pr(exp l/3), but more experimental data in a reduced gravity environment are needed to increase the confidence in the estimated constants, A and n. In the slug flow regime, experimental pressure gradient does not correlate well with either the Lockhart-Martinelli or a homogeneous formulation, but does correlate nicely with a formulation based on a two-phase Reynolds number. Comparison with ground-based correlations implies that the heat transfer coefficients are lower at reduced gravity than at normal gravity under the same flow conditions. Nusselt numbers can be correlated in a fashion similar to Chu and Jones

Counting constituents in molecular complexes by fluorescence photon antibunching

Modern single molecule fluorescence microscopy offers new, highly quantitative ways of studying the systems biology of cells while keeping the cells healthy and alive in their natural environment. In this context, a quantum optical technique, photon antibunching, has found a small niche in the continuously growing applications of single molecule techniques to small molecular complexes. Here, we review some of the most recent applications of photon antibunching in biophotonics, and we provide a guide for how to conduct photon antibunching experiments at the single molecule level by applying techniques borrowed from time-correlated single photon counting. We provide a number of new examples for applications of photon antibunching to the study of multichromophoric molecules and small molecular complexes

Integration of Art Pedagogy in Engineering Graduate Education

The integration of STEM with the Arts, commonly referred to as STEAM, recognizes the need for human skill, creativity, and imagination in technological innovations and solutions of real-world technical problems. The STEAM paradigm changes the dominant “chalk and talk” lecture and “closed-ended” problem-solving orientation of traditional engineering pedagogy to a hands-on, studio-based, and open-ended creative learning approach, typical in art education. A growing body of literature has provided evidence of the favorable impact of situating STEAM in K-16 education. The long-term objective of this work is to promote creativity in engineering students by integrating learning methods and environments from the Arts into graduate STEM education. To this end, an integrating engineering, technology and art (ETA) educational model is developed and is currently being tested. This ETA educational model systematically merges technical instruction with studio-based pedagogy. The ETA model consists of three courses, which were piloted in the year 2017. In each course, engineering and art instructors and students collaborated for 15 weeks on design projects. These projects ranged from drones to architectural installations

Environmental aspects of the transuranics: a selected, annotated bibliography

This bibliography of 500 references is compiled from the Data Base on the Environmental Aspects of the Transuranics built to provide information support to the Nevada Applied Ecology Group (NAEG) of ERDA`s Nevada Operations Office. The general scope is environmental aspects of uranium and the transuranic elements, with emphasis on plutonium. Laboratory and field studies dealing with the effects of plutonium-239 on animals are highlighted in this bibliography. Supporting information on ecology of the Nevada Test Site and reviews on the effects of other radionuclides upon man and his environment has been included at the request of the NAEG. The references are arranged by subject category with first authors appearing alphabetically in each category. Indexes are given for author, geographic location, keywords, taxons, permuted title and publication description

Translocal imagination of Hong Kong connections: the shifting of Chow Yun-Fat's star image since 1997

Anyone who is interested in Hong Kong cinema must be familiar with one name: Chow Yun-fat (b. 1955). He rose to film stardom in the 1980s when Hong Kong cinema started to attract global attention beyond East Asia. During his early screen career, Chow established a star image as an urban citizen of modern Hong Kong through films such as A Better Tomorrow/Yingxiong bense (John Woo, 1986), City on Fire/Longhu fengyun (Ringo Lam, 1987), All About Ah-Long/A Lang de gushi (Johnnie To, 1989), God of Gamblers/Du shen (Wong Jing, 1989), and Hard Boiled/Lashou shentan (John Woo, 1992)

HT_FED2004-56432 Mechanical Degradation Effects on Turbulent Flows with Macro- Molecular Polymer Structures

ABSTRACT Macro-molecular polymer structures due to either the entanglement of polymer molecules or the ionic character of the polymer, have been shown in the literature to enhance the drag reducing abilities of polymer solutions in internal water flows. The purpose of this study is to contrast the performance of an ionic and a non-ionic polymer as drag reduction agents with and without the presence of such macro molecular polymer structures. The endurance of such polymer structures to mechanical degradation is also assessed and documented herein. It will also be shown that special attention needs to be paid to the design of optimum polymer delivery systems since they can contribute to the formation or to further enhancing the drag reducing abilities of homogeneous polymer solutions

How will radar layover impact SWOT measurements of water surface elevation and slope, and estimates of river discharge?

Water surface elevation (WSE), slope and width measurements from the forthcoming Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission will enable spaceborne estimates of global river discharge. WSE will be measured by interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR). InSAR measurements are vulnerable to contamination from layover, a phenomenon wherein radar returns from multiple locations arrive at the sensor simultaneously, rendering them indistinguishable. This study assesses whether layover will significantly impact the precision of SWOT estimates of global river discharge. We present a theoretical river layover uncertainty model at the scale of nodes and reaches, which constitute nominal 200 m and 10 km averages, respectively, along river centerlines. The model is calibrated using high-resolution simulations of SWOT radar interaction with topography covering a total of 41,233 node observations, across a wide range of near-river topographic features. We find that height uncertainty increases to a maximum value at relatively low values of topographic standard deviation and varies strongly with position in the swath. When applied at global scale, the calibrated model shows that layover causes expected height uncertainty to increase by only a modest amount (from 9.4 to 10.4 cm at the 68th percentile). The 68th percentile of the slope uncertainty increases more significantly, from 10 to 17 mm/km. Nonetheless, the 68th percentile discharge uncertainty increases only marginally. We find that the impact of layover on SWOT river discharge is expected to be small in most environments