Analysis of Factors Associated With Tuberculosis Outcomes in District Kullu, India

India is the country with the largest number of tuberculosis (TB) cases, contributing 20% of the global burden of infection (1) and 2 million cases annually (2). However, few if any studies have examined the epidemiology of TB in the Northern state of Himachal Pradesh. This study is a retrospective review of medical records of all tuberculosis patients (N=1086) seen at the two hospitals in Manali, District Kullu, Himachal Pradesh, India between 2008-2011. The analysis determined that being younger, female, living in a town, and/or a patient at Mission Hospital, were factors significantly associated with having extrapulmonary versus pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB). Being older was associated with an increased likelihood of previous/complex treatment compared to new patients. Being female, from a town, and/or older were associated with receiving a non-standard regimen. Finally, patients who were previously treated/complex were significantly more likely to receive a non-standard regimen than new patients

Wound/ Healing/ Scar: an Urban School

The American city contains large brownfields and urban wastelands, remnants of our industrial past. The sprawling and unchecked development of our cities combined with short-sighted zoning laws and vast industrial infrastructure created these gashes in the post-industrial landscape. Old rail yards, industrial processes, abandoned buildings, interstates, and abandoned riverfronts and wharves wound the urban landscape, and the reactionary response is to clear the site and start over. Yet as Carol Burns states, there is no such thing as a “clear” site- all sites contain permanent imprints of past and present events. This thesis posits that architecture possesses the power to heal the wounds left by these damaging actions by constructing on the site buildings that reconnect the old and the new in a manner that regenerates the site. These constructed sites begin to heal the wound while leaving an architectural “scar” on the site. This thesis addresses the social and ecological wounds left on the city of Knoxville by the interstate system. I will demonstrate how architectural scars can activate the residual spaces around and below the interstates that once divided the city, re-stitching the urban landscape. The program explores the potential for healing the social and ecological wounds through the insertion of a community elementary and middle school as a scar

Never Forget Where You Came From: An Oral History of the Integration of a Rural Community

Historians have written much, particularly about large urban cities, on the desegregation of the American school system (Anderson 1988; Fairclough 2008; Watkins 2001; Irons 2004). However, little research has been conducted on the role that small communities played in supporting and influencing the development of desegregated school systems, and how African Americans in these communities experienced education. The focus of this research will be on the oral history of a rural community in Louisiana that desegregated schools in the early 1970s. What is unique is that, instead of avoiding desegregation, this community chose to create a unified school district in which all children were able to integrate which was unlike large urban school districts. This unusual response to integration was the result of the efforts of both Black and Whites. Using the methods of oral history, I examined how the school community of Zachary was able to adjust to desegregation. My primary question was, how did the community experience desegregation? What shaped and constructed an interracial community that struggled with the complexities of race and integration. As these issues were examined, research was conducted by recording oral histories of White and Black teachers, principals, and community members. Then, I looked at archival research of newspapers, yearbooks and documents of the city of Zachary. Together, these data sources painted a picture of how this community created unified school for both Black and White students. Zachary’s pragmatic choice to unify their schools in order to comply with the federal integration order led to themes in my research. Themes of integration as a bitter pill, unintended consequences of integration, and intended consequences of integration came to light. By examining these themes I was able to determine how this small rural community was able to unify their system with a positive long term outcome when many cities are still trying to gain a handle on integration 40 years later

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis research is a case study about the benefits and challenges of participating in a close-knit religious society. It uses oral history and rhetorical analysis to examine the lives of fifty-five young Latter-day Saint (Mormon) women who moved to Mormon homelands from 1975 through 2000. In this study, Mormon homelands primarily refers to regions of North America where Mormons settled from 1847 to 1910. Many of the young women interviewed found safety, belonging, and significant opportunities for personal growth in Mormon homelands; however, obtaining those positives sometimes required what narrators considered to be an unacceptable compromise of charity, self-worth, and individual agency because of the isolation, rules, and regimentation imposed upon them. For some narrators, Mormon homelands became totalizing, meaning they controlled many aspects of individual identity in the name of doing what was best for the group and its members. Narrators resisted this totalism both as adolescents and adults, observing that when they lived in Mormon congregations outside of homelands, they experienced better balancing of individual and community. The LDS church has had significant influence in the American West and is considered to be the largest and most enduring American-born religion. Few scholars have explored the lives of Mormon adolescents in the latter twentieth century. Using Mormon young women as a case study illuminates aspects of religious belonging for youth and fills a gap in women's religious history. Many adult women in contemporary society question the value of organized religion as they engage with issues of power, equality, and agency. This study provides historical context for that discussion because it asked adult women to examine the religious relationships, memberships, and allegiances they once had. As they connected past and present via oral history, these women were able to reflect on what they have gained and lost from participation in religious societies. This study is unusual in that it identifies mechanisms of totalism in ordinary rather than extreme religious contexts, it explores both adolescent and adult religious identity, and it approaches oral history rhetorically

English Studies as a Site for Healing: A Conversation about Place-Based and Indigenous Pedagogies in the English Classroom

This article summarizes a roundtable discussion from the 2016 Alaska Native Studies Conference among professors and students from two English Studies courses at the University of Alaska Anchorage: History of the English Language and History of Rhetoric. Jennifer and Heather discuss how the courses are traditionally taught and how they redesigned the courses to incorporate place-based and indigenous pedagogies. Then, Tayler, Samantha, Hailey, and Arlo--students from a range of backgrounds who took one or both of the classes--describe how the courses encouraged them to develop critical perspectives, build new knowledge through undergraduate research, and experience personal and professional transformations that led to advocacy. The dialogue provides a range of pedagogical perspectives and considers English Studies as a potential site for cultural and historical healing.Ye

Reproductive character displacement and potential underlying drivers in a species‐rich and florally diverse lineage of tropical angiosperms (Ruellia; Acanthaceae)

Reproductive character displacement is a pattern whereby sympatric lineages diverge more in reproductive character morphology than allopatric lineages. This pattern has been observed in many plant species, but comparably few have sought to disentangle underlying mechanisms. Here, in a diverse lineage of Neotropical plants (Ruellia; Acanthaceae), we present evidence of reproductive character displacement in a macroevolutionary framework (i.e., among species) and document mechanistic underpinnings. In a series of inter-specific hand pollinations in a controlled glasshouse environment, we found that crosses between species that differed more in overall flower size, particularly in style length, were significantly less likely to produce viable seeds. Further, species pairs that failed to set seed were more likely to have sympatric distributions in nature. Competition for pollinators and reinforcement to avoid costly inter-specific mating could both result in these patterns and are not mutually exclusive processes. Our results add to growing evidence that reproductive character displacement contributes to exceptional floral diversity of angiosperms

Virtual Reality: Authentic and Immersive Learning in the Science Classroom

The diversity of learners within education is neither linear nor constant. Educators are challenged to be responsive and understanding when encouraging learners to construct meaning while adhering to stringent standards. The objective of this study is to integrate science standards into authentic learning experiences, created in both a traditional teaching method and virtual reality (VR) platform, for 8th grade middle school students in Lafayette, Louisiana. The authentic experiences were based on oral histories of the residents of Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana, who have lost 98% of their ancestral homeland since 1955. These experiences were then tied to the National Science Standards (8-MS-ESS1-4, 8-MS-ESS2-2, and 8-MS-ESS3-1). The students were split into two groups and given either a PowerPoint or VR experience, both having the same content. The researchers tracked engagement, focus, interest, and how important the students thought the content was. Using an experimental approach, the researchers also gave a pre- and posttest to determine if the VR experience resulted in better academic learning than a regular, PowerPoint-based lecture. The students were also asked to comment on their experience of the PowerPoint versus the VR and describe what their experience

Does habitat stability structure intraspecific genetic diversity? It’s complicated...

Regional phylogeographic studies have long been conducted in the southeastern United States for a variety of species. With some exceptions, many of these studies focus on single species or single clades of organisms, and those considering multiple species tend to focus on deep historical breaks causing differentiation. However, in many species more recent factors may be influencing genetic diversity. To understand the roles of historic and contemporary processes in structuring genetic diversity, we reanalyzed existing genetic data from Southeast of North America using approaches gleaned from phylogeographic and landscape genetic literature that were implemented across species including AMOVAs, PCoAs, Species Distribution Modelling, and tests of isolation by distance, environment, and habitat instability. Genetic variance was significantly partitioned by ecoregions, watersheds, and across phylogeographic breaks in the majority of species. Similarly, genetic variation was significantly associated with some combination of geographic or environmental distance or habitat instability in most species. Patterns of genetic variation were largely idiosyncratic across species. While habitat instability over time is significantly correlated with genetic diversity in some species, it appears generally less important than isolation by geographic or environmental distance. Our results suggest that many factors, both historical and contemporary, impact genetic diversity within a species, and more so, that these patterns aren’t always similar in closely related species. This supports the importance of species- specific factors and cautions against assumptions that closely related species will respond to historical and contemporary forces in similar ways