The Evolution of the Image of the First Lady

The role of the First Lady of the United States is often seen as symbolic and figurative rather than an active participant in the American political landscape. Little research exists about the role of the first ladies, making it a minimal role in the history books. Through this research I seek to shed light on the active roles of the first ladies of the last century. My research seeks to debunk the Separate Spheres Ideology that surrounds the first ladies. The Separate Spheres Ideology is a theory that is centered on women in the private sphere of the home and men in the public sphere. For centuries I believe this theory surrounded the women of the White House. Due to the fact that First Ladies have only been that cliché face of the White House, I believe gender inequality has been at work, but through their own perseverance, determination, and effort, the First Ladies of the twentieth and the twenty-first century have sought to change the stereotypical role of yesteryear and become active and empowering women in the White House. Through the analysis of women like Edith Wilson, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Hillary Clinton, I seek to show that first ladies have been making their mark on politics and public policies. The evolution of the first lady’s image is an empowering statement of what women can accomplish if only they set out to make a difference in the world around them

Medicaid and CHIP Strategies for Improving Child Health

Explains state programs' need for child health measures that focus on outcomes; are standardized across programs, agencies, and states; and reward performance through provider reimbursement. Points out opportunities for foundation and government support

EFFECTIVENESS OF COMPUTER AIDED INSTRUCTIONS (CAI) ON STUDENTS' PERFORMANCE IN BASIC ELECTRICITY IN TECHNICAL COLLEGES IN RIVERS STATE OF NIGERIA

The study focused attention on the effectiveness of Computer Aided Instructions (CAI) on students’ performance in basic electricity in technical colleges in Rivers State. The study adopted the pretest posttest quasi experimental design method. The population of the study comprises of all the vocational I basic electricity students in the five technical colleges in Rivers State. They comprised of 93 students. Purposive sampling technique was used to select two Government Technical Colleges and a sample size of 60 students was randomly selected for the study. This sample size comprised of 30 males and 30 females. The research instrument used for the study was the Basic Electricity Test (BET). The instrument was validated by two lecturers from technical education department of Ignatus Ajuru University of Education Port Harcourt. The reliability of the instrument was done using test-re-test method and Pearson’s product moment correlation was used to obtain a coefficient of 0.65. Two research questions were drawn and two hypotheses were formulated for the study at 0.05 level of significance. The data for the study were analyzed using Mean and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The result indicated that students taught using Computer Aided Instructions (CAI) performed significantly better than those taught using conventional method. Also, there was no significant difference in the post test performance scores of male and female students. Some recommendations were made from the findings

Meeting Colorado's future water supply needs: opportunities and challenges associated with potential agricultural water conservation measures

September 2008.Presented by Colorado Agricultural Water Alliance.Includes bibliographical references

Evaluation of alternative horizontal well designs for gas production from hydrate deposits in the Shenhu area, South China Sea

Gas hydrate deposits were confirmed in the Shenhu Area, the north slope of South China Sea during a drilling expedition in 2007. Hydrate deposits in the area are distributed in disseminated forms in forams-rich clay sediments with permeable overburden and underburden layers. Production of gas from such a type of hydrate deposits is very challenging. In this study, we develop a numerical approach for investigation of gas production strategies by horizontal wells and preliminary estimation of the production potential based on the limited data that are currently available. Numerical models are built to represent the typical hydrate deposits in the area, including the thickness of the Hydrate-Bearing Layer (HBL), hydrate saturation, water depth, temperature at the sea floor, initial thermal gradient and pressure distribution. The models are used to simulate the different production schemes and well designs. In this paper, production strategies of horizontal well system with combination of depressurization and thermal stimulation are investigated through numerical models. Gas production potential from the deposits and effectiveness of the different production methods are evaluated. The simulation results indicate that with current technology, gas production from Shenhu hydrate deposits may not be economically efficient for all the production strategies we have investigated. Copyright 2010, Society of Petroleum Engineers

Human-in-the-Loop Operations over Time Delay: NASA Analog Missions Lessons Learned

Teams at NASA have conducted studies of time-delayed communications as it effects human exploration. In October 2012, the Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Analog Missions project conducted a Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) with the primary stakeholders to share information and experiences of studying time delay, to build a coherent picture of how studies are covering the problem domain, and to determine possible forward plans (including how to best communicate study results and lessons learned, how to inform future studies and mission plans, and how to drive potential development efforts). This initial meeting s participants included personnel from multiple NASA centers (HQ, JSC, KSC, ARC, and JPL), academia, and ESA. It included all of the known studies, analog missions, and tests of time delayed communications dating back to the Apollo missions including NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO), Desert Research and Technology Studies (DRATS/RATS), International Space Station Test-bed for Analog Research (ISTAR), Pavilion Lake Research Project (PLRP), Mars 520, JPL Mars Orbiters/Rovers, Advanced Mission Operations (AMO), Devon Island analog missions, and Apollo experiences. Additionally, the meeting attempted to capture all of the various functional perspectives via presentations by disciplines including mission operations (flight director and mission planning), communications, crew, Capcom, Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA), Behavioral Health and Performance (BHP), Medical/Surgeon, Science, Education and Public Outreach (EPO), and data management. The paper summarizes the descriptions and results from each of the activities discussed at the TIM and includes several recommendations captured in the meeting for dealing with time delay in human exploration along with recommendations for future development and studies to address this issue

Nonengraftment Haploidentical Cellular Therapy for Hematologic Malignancies

Much of the therapeutic benefit of allogeneic transplant is by a graft versus tumor effect. Further data shows that transplant engraftment is not dependant on myeloablation, instead relying on quantitative competition between donor and host cells. In the clinical setting, engraftment by competition alone is not feasible due to the need for large numbers of infused cells. Instead, low-level host irradiation has proven to be an effective engraftment strategy that is stem cell toxic but not myeloablative. The above observations served as the foundation for clinical trials utilizing allogeneic matched and haploidentical peripheral blood stem cell infusions with minimal conditioning in patients with refractory malignancies. Although engraftment was transient or not apparent, there were compelling responses in a heavily pretreated patient population that appear to result from the breaking of tumor immune tolerance by the host through the actions of IFNγ, invariant NK T cells, CD8 T cells, NK cells, or antigen presenting cells

Effects of vitamin D deficiency on neurobehavioural outcomes in children: a systematic review

Introduction: Vitamin D plays an important role in brain development in experimental studies; however, the effect of vitamin D deficiency on child development remains inadequately characterized. We aimed to estimate the effects of vitamin D deficiency on neurobehavioural outcomes in children up to 18 years of age. Methods: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and Open Grey for published studies up to 10th January 2020. We included all studies that assessed the effects of maternal or child vitamin D status or vitamin D supplementation on neurobehavioural outcomes in children. Study findings were synthesized qualitatively as the high level of heterogeneity in study populations and methodologies precluded a quantitative meta-analysis. Results: Our search identified 5,633 studies, of which 31 studies with 31,375 participants from 18 countries were included in the systematic review. Of the studies identified, one was a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of vitamin D supplementation in children, while 30 were observational. The RCT (n=55) reported a beneficial effect of supplementation with lower doses compared to higher doses of vitamin D on motor development. Twelve mother-child studies (n=17,136) and five studies in children (n=1,091) reported an association between low maternal or child 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and impaired neurobehavioural outcomes in children, while 15 mother-child studies (n=20,778) and eight studies in children (n=7,496) reported no association. Conclusions: Although animal studies point to an effect of vitamin D deficiency on brain development, there are few studies on the effects of vitamin D deficiency on neurobehavioural outcomes in children and their findings are inconsistent. There is a need for well-conducted, adequately powered studies to further determine these effects in children

Morphometric and morphological analysis of indigenous Matabele goats of Zimbabwe

This study aimed to characterize Matabele goats based on their qualitative and quantitative traits, to facilitate their genetic improvement and conservation. Data were collected from 120 goats over 12 months, comprising 20 males and 100 females using a stratified random sampling approach. Body weight and various body measurements were recorded. Five growth curve estimation models were employed to describe the growth pattern of Matabele goats. Descriptive statistics were computed for both qualitative and quantitative traits. Ttests were conducted to assess the impact of sex on morphometric measurements in different age groups. The results revealed an average body weight of 20.93 kg, with significant sex-related differences (p < 0.05) observed across all quantitative traits. Most goats displayed horned and bearded characteristics, while black and white coat colours were predominant. Among the growth curve models, the Gompertz model exhibited the highest R2 value (0.992). Notably, the study found relatively low average morphometric measurements and body weight for Matabele goats, emphasizing the urgent need for genetic improvement efforts and the development of comprehensive breeding standards for this breed

MTN-001: Randomized Pharmacokinetic Cross-Over Study Comparing Tenofovir Vaginal Gel and Oral Tablets in Vaginal Tissue and Other Compartments

Background: Oral and vaginal preparations of tenofovir as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection have demonstrated variable efficacy in men and women prompting assessment of variation in drug concentration as an explanation. Knowledge of tenofovir concentration and its active form, tenofovir diphosphate, at the putative vaginal and rectal site of action and its relationship to concentrations at multiple other anatomic locations may provide key information for both interpreting PrEP study outcomes and planning future PrEP drug development. Objective: MTN-001 was designed to directly compare oral to vaginal steady-state tenofovir pharmacokinetics in blood, vaginal tissue, and vaginal and rectal fluid in a paired cross-over design. Methods and Findings: We enrolled 144 HIV-uninfected women at 4 US and 3 African clinical research sites in an open label, 3-period crossover study of three different daily tenofovir regimens, each for 6 weeks (oral 300 mg tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, vaginal 1% tenofovir gel [40 mg], or both). Serum concentrations after vaginal dosing were 56-fold lower than after oral dosing (p<0.001). Vaginal tissue tenofovir diphosphate was quantifiable in ≥90% of women with vaginal dosing and only 19% of women with oral dosing. Vaginal tissue tenofovir diphosphate was ≥130-fold higher with vaginal compared to oral dosing (p<0.001). Rectal fluid tenofovir concentrations in vaginal dosing periods were higher than concentrations measured in the oral only dosing period (p<0.03). Conclusions: Compared to oral dosing, vaginal dosing achieved much lower serum concentrations and much higher vaginal tissue concentrations. Even allowing for 100-fold concentration differences due to poor adherence or less frequent prescribed dosing, vaginal dosing of tenofovir should provide higher active site concentrations and theoretically greater PrEP efficacy than oral dosing; randomized topical dosing PrEP trials to the contrary indicates that factors beyond tenofovir's antiviral effect substantially influence PrEP efficacy. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00592124