Datalog for Non-Profit Demographic Analysis

Datalog is a useful tool in organizing data. With it, we can achieve a better in-depth analysis on how the FIT program is performing. What is F.I.T.? FIT, the Foundation for an Independent Tomorrow, is a non-profit organization that provides resources and training for those who want employment

Considering Sustainability from the Perspective of Accountability: Rethinking Consumerism and the Environment

Professor Tabassum Ruby, Women’s and Gender Studies, with Madeline Mulcahey and Christine Recchi - Considering Sustainability from the Perspective of Accountability: Rethinking Consumerism and the Environmen

Differential item functioning in the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Pediatric Short Forms in a sample of children and adolescents with cerebral palsy.

AIM: The present study examined the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Mobility, Fatigue, and Pain Interference Short Forms (SFs) in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy (CP) for the presence of differential item functioning (DIF) relative to the original calibration sample. METHOD: Using the Graded Response Model we compared item parameter estimates generated from a sample of 303 children and adolescents with CP (175 males, 128 females; mean age 15y 5mo) to parameter estimates from the PROMIS calibration sample, which served as the reference group. DIF was assessed in a two-step process using the item response theory-likelihood ratio-differential item functioning detection procedure. RESULTS: Significant DIF was identified for four of eight items in the PROMIS Mobility SF, for two of eight items in the Pain Interference Scale, and for one item out of 10 on the Fatigue Scale. Impact of DIF on total score estimation was notable for Mobility and Pain Interference, but not for Fatigue. INTERPRETATION: Results suggest differences in the responses of adolescents with CP to some items on the PROMIS Mobility and Pain Interference SFs. Cognitive interviews about the PROMIS items with adolescents with varying degrees of mobility limitations would provide better understanding of how they are interpreting and selecting responses to the PROMIS items and thus help guide selection of the most appropriate way to address this issue

Classroom enrichment through children's specialties.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

The internet as a tool for feminist development in post-revolutionary Tunisia

This project analyzes the role of the internet in the development of grassroots feminism in Tunisia following the 2011 revolution that toppled the longstanding regime, and sparked a wave of protest throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Following the collapse of the regime, and its program of state feminism, Tunisian women had the opportunity to develop new forms of grassroots feminism, and they did so using a variety of tools, including the internet. The internet is free, and widely accessible, and it offers new ways of facilitating social movements. It is changing the way that women react to sexism and oppression in their societies, and is therefore becoming a key piece in contemporary feminist development, as was the case in Tunisia. In order to understand how Tunisian women are utilizing this tool, I conducted an in-depth analysis of three online entities, including the blog A Tunisian Girl, the Chaml Collective, and the topless images of Amina Sboui. Through online ethnography and cultural visual analysis, I discovered that there were a number of development methods that these entities held in common. Each source utilized the internet to create transnational feminist connections and promote feminine agency, and through their ability to affect offline spaces, they each challenged the idea that the online social movements are ineffective. I also found that the type of entity is important, as different sources were better suited to achieve specific goals, including the use of images in order to quickly share a message across diverse online platforms, and Chaml’s use of Facebook to facilitate discussions. My research into the specific use of these online entities to aid in the development of a grassroots feminist movement in Tunisia contributes to a growing body of scholarship on the intersection of online and offline spaces, and the role of new technologies in the development and facilitation of social movements, including contemporary feminism

Integration of Animal-Assisted Therapy Standards in Pediatric Occupational Therapy

The primary purpose of this study was to describe how the best practice recommendations and standards of practice related to animal-assisted therapy (AAT) are being incorporated into pediatric occupational therapy (OT). The study design was a nonexperimental survey that identified the qualifications of pediatric occupational therapists that are incorporating AAT, the AAT standards of practice that are or are not used in practice, and the barriers and facilitators to being an AAT qualified occupational therapist. There were 21 respondents to the survey. The majority of respondents had a master’s degree, more than 10 years working as an occupational therapist, less than 10 years of experience with AAT, and practiced in the inpatient rehabilitation setting. The data collected indicated that 2 out of the 13 standards of practice and none of the best practice recommendations are being implemented by 50% or more of respondents. The lack of education and awareness of the AAT standards of practice according to the professional organization Animal Assisted Intervention International and the actual role of volunteer organizations may be impacting the best practice implementations in pediatric occupational therapy practice

Atypical HUS: A Rare Life-Threatening Pregnancy Complication Not to Miss

Case Description: 32yo G2P2002 woman developed hypertension and AKI on the day after her c-section. She also had vision and mental status changes, headaches, paresthesia, dyspnea, and abdominal pain. Her labs were significant for increased LFTs, thrombocytopenia, and worsening kidney function. After receiving urgent hemodialysis and not responding to plasmapheresis, she was diagnosed with atypical hemolytic-uremic syndrome (aHUS) and started on eculizumab which resulted in significant improvement. She continued to receive dialysis for 2.5 weeks. Conclusions: Atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome is a rare but life-threatening postpartum complication that can resemble other conditions like preeclampsia, HELLP, and TTP. Post-partum patients experiencing hypertension or other kidney injury symptoms should be evaluated further and started on eculizumab early to prevent permanent kidney damage. Clinical Significance: Pregnancy represents a complement amplifying condition which may reveal underlying genetic abnormalities. When working up women who experience acute kidney injury (AKI) during pregnancy, it is important to consider risk preceding obstetric conditions such as hypertensive disorders (preeclampsia, HELLP), fetal death, and hemorrhagic events which may trigger disorders like aHUS/TTP. Plasma exchange response can help differentiate TTP from aHUS. If unresponsive to plasmapheresis, eculizumab effectively treats aHUS by inhibiting the terminal complement cascade. Renal recovery after aHUS is variable. Women can undergo complete recovery or long term dialysis with eventual kidney transplantation. Early initiation of Eculizumab is linked to greater improvement in GFR after one month and fewer incidences of end-stage renal disease. Recurrent episodes of aHUS are possible and prophylactic Eculizumab has been shown to decrease the likelihood of recurrence. Future pregnancies are advised against due to the risk of pregnancy to cause further thrombotic events

Convective instability of oscillatory flow in pulse tube cryocoolers due to asymmetric gravitational body force

Pulse tube cryocoolers (PTCs) are among the most attractive choices of refrigerators for applications requiring up to 1 kW of cooling in the temperature range of 4-123 K as a result of the high relative efficiency of the Stirling cycle, the reliability of linear compressors, and the lack of cryogenic moving parts resulting in long life and low vibration signature. Recently, PTCs have been successfully used in applications in the 150 K range, extending the useful range of the device beyond the traditional cryogenic regime. A carefully designed cylindrical cavity referred to as the pulse tube replaces the mechanical expander piston found in a Stirling machine. A network consisting of the pulse tube, inertance tube, and surge volume invoke out-of-phase pressure and mass flow oscillations while eliminating all moving parts in the cold region of the device, significantly improving reliability over Stirling cryocoolers. Terrestrial applications of PTCs expose a fundamental flaw. Many PTCs only function properly in a narrow range of orientations, with the cold end of the pulse tube pointed downward with respect to gravity. Unfavorable orientation of the cold head often leads to a catastrophic loss of cooling, rendering the entire cryocooler system inoperable. Previous research indicates that cooling loss is most likely attributed to secondary flow patterns in the pulse tube caused by free convection. Convective instability is initiated as a result of non-uniform density gradients within the pulse tube. The ensuing secondary flow mixes the cryogen and causes enhanced thermal transport between the warm and cold heat exchangers of the cryocooler. This study investigates the nonlinear stabilizing effect of fluid oscillation on Rayleigh-Bénard instability in a cryogenic gas subject to misalignment between gravitational body force and the primary flow direction. The results are directly applicable to the flow conditions frequently experienced in PTCs. Research has shown that the convective component can be minimized by parametrically driven fluid oscillation as a result of sinusoidal pressure excitation; however, a reliable method of predicting the influence of operating parameters has not been reported. In this dissertation, the entire PTC domain is first fully simulated in three dimensions at various angles of inclination using a hybrid method of finite volume and finite element techniques in order to incorporate conjugate heat transfer between fluid domains and their solid containment structures. The results of this method identify the pulse tube as the sole contributor to convective instability, and also illustrate the importance of pulse tube design by incorporating a comparison between two pulse tubes with constant volume but varying aspect ratio. A reduced domain that isolates the pulse tube and its adjacent components is then developed and simulated to improve computational efficiency, facilitating the model’s use for parametric study of the driving variables. A parametric computational study is then carried out and analyzed for pulse tubes with cold end temperatures ranging from 4 K to 80 K, frequencies between 25-60 Hz, mass flow - pressure phase relationships of -30◦ and +30◦, and Stokes thickness-based Reynolds numbers in the range of 43-350, where the turbulent transition occurs at 500. In order to validate the computational models reported and therefore justify their suitability to perform parametric exploration, the CFD codes are applied to a commercially developed single stage PTR design. The results of the CFD model are compared to laboratory-measured values of refrigeration power at temperatures ranging from 60 K to 120 K at inclination angles of 0◦ and 91◦. The modeled results are shown to agree with experimental values with less than 8.5% error for simulation times of approximately six days using high performance computing (HPC) resources through Georgia Tech’s Partnership for Advanced Computing (PACE) cluster resource, and 10 days on a common quad-core desktop computer. The results of the computational parametric study as well as the commercial cryocooler data sets are compiled in a common analysis of the body of data as a whole. The results are compared to the current leading pulse tube convective stability model to improve the reliability of the predictions and bracket the range of losses expected as a function of pulse tube convection number. Results can be used to bracket the normalized cooling loss as a function of the pulse tube convection number NPTC. Experimental data and simulated results indicate that a value of NPTC greater than 10 will yield a loss no greater than 10% of the net pulse tube energy flow at any angle. A value of NPTC greater than 40 is shown to yield a loss no greater than 1% of the net pulse tube energy flow at all angles investigated. The computational and experimental study completed in this dissertation addresses static angles of inclination. Recent interest in the application of PTCs to mobile terrestrial platforms such as ships, aircraft, and military vehicles introduces a separate regime wherein the angle of inclination is dynamically varying. To address this research need, the development of a single axis rotating cryogenic vacuum facility is documented. A separate effects apparatus with interchangeable pulse tube components has also been built in a modular fashion to accommodate future research needs.Ph.D