Institutionalising decarbonisation in South Africa: navigating climate mitigation and socio-economic transformation

Strong climate institutional governance is necessary for countries to meet their international climate mitigation commitments. This article shows that while South Africa steadily created climate institutions up to 2011, these failed to take hold in the following years. Also, despite the systemically critical energy sector dominating the emissions profile, these climate institutions had no purchase over it. This situation is largely due to South Africa’s political economy of energy, which gave powerful actors the sustained ability to block meaningful institutionalisation of decarbonisation in the energy sector. As a result, South Africa’s climate institutions play few of the roles expected for successful institutionalization of climate action, with energy institutions instead playing a shadow climate governance role. This case suggests that conceptions of climate institutional governance in countries where single sectors dominate in emissions and power must accommodate the roles of institutions affecting climate outcomes despite this not being their primary objective

A Delicate Balance: Academic Advising in the Age of Customer Service

As student retention becomes an ever-increasing priority for universities world-wide, Academic Advisors are assuming more and more responsibility in improving retention rates. With ubiquitous focus on student assistance and satisfaction, Advisors are being called on to act in both academic and customer-service capacities. While these two focuses can initially seem at odds with each other, academic advising and customer-service skills can be synthesized to work as one. This presentation will overview the changes advising has faced as retention rates have become a major priority in higher education and also highlight advising techniques used at Walden University, an on-line, for-profit school with students based all over the world

Bus Network Analysis: Vulnerability and Suitability Modelling in Four Western U.S. Cities

Public bus transportation provides critical services to urban areas across the U.S. Bus service provides accessibility to populations that may otherwise face limited access. Unfortunately, bus ridership faces declines, but these declines can be mitigated or reversed by improving bus service. This thesis assesses the levels of bus service in four American cities: Austin, Denver, Las Vegas, and Sacramento. This research determines whether service is similar for vulnerable and non-vulnerable populations, as defined by relevant American Community Survey (ACS) variables. Areas in the four cities where bus service should be expanded or service frequency should be adjusted are also identified. This two-stage analysis first establishes a vulnerability metric and assesses similarities or differences between bus service in vulnerable and non-vulnerable areas by comparing residuals of a multiple linear regression model. Then, suitability analysis is conducted comparing the Boolean and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) methods for each of the four cities. Findings of the AHP models are then compared with current bus service to identify areas to expand, increase, or reduce service. Results of this work should benefit transportation managers and regional planners and aid in improving bus service in other urban areas around the U.S

Chromatin proteins and RNA are associated with DNA during all phases of mitosis.

Mitosis brings about major changes to chromosome and nuclear structure. We used recently developed proximity ligation assay-based techniques to investigate the association with DNA of chromatin-associated proteins and RNAs in Drosophila embryos during mitosis. All groups of tested proteins, histone-modifying and chromatin-remodeling proteins and methylated histones remained in close proximity to DNA during all phases of mitosis. We also found that RNA transcripts are associated with DNA during all stages of mitosis. Reduction of H3K27me3 levels or elimination of RNAs had no effect on the association of the components of PcG and TrxG complexes to DNA. Using a combination of proximity ligation assay-based techniques and super-resolution microscopy, we found that the number of protein-DNA and RNA-DNA foci undergoes significant reduction during mitosis, suggesting that mitosis may be accompanied by structural re-arrangement or compaction of specific chromatin domains

Formulation of Plasticity Models through Symbolic Regression

No abstract availabl

Utilizing An Evidence-Based Practice Framework In Non-Operative ACL Rehabilitation - A Case Report

Study Design: Case Report. Background: The patient was a 51-year-old female who tore her left anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) playing pickleball and opted for non-operative treatment. The clinicians involved treated the patient using the three pillars of practice: relevant scientific evidence, clinician experience, and patient perspective. Treatment: The patient’s treatment consisted of therapeutic exercises, neuromuscular re-education, soft tissue massage, and motivational interviewing. Therapeutic exercises were designed to strengthen the muscles surrounding her hip and knee. Neuromuscular re-education helped to improve the patient’s knee stability and balance, while soft tissue massage was used to decrease swelling. Motivational interviewing helped her better align her attitude toward her restrictions with the goals of the rehabilitation process. Outcome: The patient made progress and increased satisfaction throughout rehabilitation which was illustrated by objective tests and subjective reports. Improvements were noted with a 24% positive change in lower extremity functional scale (LEFS) score between initial and follow-up testing. Single leg hop tests by discharge revealed a 90% or higher right-to-left compatibility score. Discussion: This case highlighted the plausibility of a conservative treatment approach in a patient with an ACL tear. It introduced a clinical decision-making model that emphasized the importance of including relevant research in the form of Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG’s), addressing the patient\u27s perspective on the impact of her injury, and incorporating clinician expertise in observing movement impairments. During treatment, the patient demonstrated appropriate lower extremity strength and stability according to the clinician’s expertise and outcome measures, but she did not feel confident enough to return to previous lifestyle activities. Patient perspective played a large role in determining progressions and accomplishments

Non-dairy treats leave lactose behind with alternative ingredients

Medical and dietetic students often co-author a column for the Daily Reflector under Dr. Kolasa's byline. The students research the topic a reader or patient has asked. Dr. Kolasa reviews their draft for technical accuracy, patient friendly language, people first language. She fact checks the study or other evidence-based reference the student provides. If a physician review is appropriate, Dr. Kolasa requests a colleague from ECU physicians to review the article. The final draft is submitted to the Reflector with the editor having the final say. The headline is written by the Reflector headline writer. The food and nutrition column has run weekly since 1987. Starting in 2020, in addition to the Daily Reflector, the article is published in daily and weekly papers owned by the Adams Publishing Group East (https://adamspg.com)This is a weekly Q and A newspaper column under the byline of Dr. Kathy Kolasa. Today's column is about how to still enjoy frozen desserts when you are lactose intolerance. Also, this column provides information about what types of non-dairy frozen desserts are out there.Non

Independent and Interactive Associations of Negative Affect, Restraint, and Impulsivity in Relation to Binge Eating Among Women

There is growing recognition that impulsivity may serve as an underlying risk factor for binge eating. In addition, the association of impulsivity with binge eating may be moderated by other affective and cognitive risk factors. This study examined independent and interactive associations of negative affect, dietary restraint, and facets of impulsivity with binge eating. A diverse sample of 566 undergraduate women completed online questionnaires of study variables. Results revealed a three-way interaction of negative affect, dietary restraint, and attentional impulsivity in relation to binge eating. Women who were high on each of these three variables reported the greatest levels of binge eating. In addition, a two-way interaction was found for negative affect and nonplanning impulsivity in relation to binge eating, such that nonplanning impulsivity strengthened the association between negative affect and binge eating. Attentional and nonplanning facets of impulsivity may function as an underlying trait-level risk factor interacts with affective and/or cognitive risk (e.g., negative affect, dietary restraint) factors to predict elevated binge eating

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GLOBAL TRAINING

A technique is proposed to translate slide-based documents, for example, into videos with or without captions or subtitles. The presentation intake component extracts a script or speaker notes from the content inputted by the user, and creates a text file corresponding to each slide or image. The translation component then translates the script into multiple target languages. The synthesizing component uses a text-to-speech conversion to create an audio file for each slide or image. The video creator component creates a silent video for each image for the duration of the audio file corresponding to each still image, with or without captions or subtitles created using the translated text. The video creator component merges the silent video files with the audio files in order to produce a final video translation. Along each step of the way, the technique saves each file as intermediate artifacts, which may be downloaded, altered and/or uploaded by the user during the production process