Taking Afrobarometer Data Everywhere

According to statistics gathered by research group Afrobarometer, many countries in Africa lack infrastructure and basic necessities. In fact, Afrobarometer knows the specific rates of need and availability sampled across thirty-six countries but more prosperous African countries do not know these numbers. These more developed countries are in a position to help their less fortunate neighbors if only made aware of the social and economic climate in the respective areas. Our partnership with Afrobarometer will allow us to advertise these statistics through the use of a mobile application. The data will be displayed in a way that is easy for the average reader to digest and understand. By exposing a larger African audience to the results from these public opinion surveys, Afrobarometer hopes to inspire these people to take action and make donations to the appropriate social benefit groups. The countries represented by the surveys can then receive help in the areas expressing need

The effects of perinatal methamphetamine use on maternal and child outcomes: implications for education among BSN nursing students

The implications of methamphetamine use are vast and prevalent in the U.S. This epidemic is also well recognized in Tennessee and in Hamilton County. The number of men and women that continue to use methamphetamine speaks to the importance of this issue. Among these individuals, pregnant women comprise a significant portion of female methamphetamine users across the United States. The potential complications that can arise for not only a mother but also her child due to maternal methamphetamine use pose a much more significant issue. The detrimental effects that a child can experience as a result of maternal methamphetamine use during pregnancy can potentially lead to ramifications that remain with the child throughout the duration of its life. A methamphetamine using woman should be aware of the negative complications that methamphetamine use may have on her and her child, both in utero and long term. The purpose of this study was to provide educational content on methamphetamine, the general effects of methamphetamine use, and the effects of perinatal methamphetamine use on maternal and child outcomes. Since limited knowledge on this topic is currently made available to nursing students, this project took a unique approach to enhancing the practice of nurses by educating nursing students so that they are better equipped to recognize methamphetamine users in the clinical arena and to increase awareness and knowledge through education in order to increase prevention and reduce the rate of disease. PRE/POST surveys were used to assess level of knowledge prior to and following an educational presentation of methamphetamine content. Teaching was performed through the use of a standardized patient role scenario and electronic Prezi presentation. At the conclusion of the study, a comparison of the PRE/POST data illustrated an apparent knowledge deficit regarding the effects of perinatal methamphetamine on maternal and child outcomes among the third level nursing students enrolled in the maternal-childbearing course. Results from the quantitative data indicated a significant increase in student knowledge from PRE to POST test (t (33) = -16.94, p \u3c .001, d = 3.66). Qualitative data reflected in the students’ written responses showed that information acquired from the study is anticipated to be used in future clinical practice. Four major themes emerged from the qualitative data: (1) teaching others, (2) identification of drug use, (3) patient care, and (4) overall presentation benefit. The increased ability to demonstrate these major themes as a result of increased knowledge will subsequently enhance the students’ practices as nurses. This was expressed through the student’s reflection statements. From the data, it is evident that the students displayed a statistically significant increase in knowledge and awareness that has the potential to positively influence their professional nursing practices. This project is the first of many steps that will hopefully be taken in the future to combat the problem surrounding methamphetamine use. Continuous education through the use of additional teaching strategies may continue to enhance student knowledge in other settings outside the medical arena and among larger populations. Continued education can potentially reduce the incidence and prevalence of methamphetamine

Integrating sustainability thinking and practices into surfing events: case studies in Hawaii and Jeffreys Bay

Sustainable surfing events are a recent phenomenon and there is little to no academic literature reflecting this development. Sustainable event management (SEM) is the integration of sustainability principles and practices into event production to produce an event that goes beyond economic longevity and fulfils important social, cultural, and environmental roles that people value. This research explores the current practices and issues surrounding the implementation of SEM into surfing events held in Hawaii, USA and in Jeffreys Bay, South Africa. The thesis follows a qualitative case study approach using semi-structured interviews, participant observation and documentary evidence. Findings demonstrated that the key obstacles to implementing sustainable event management principles and practices include limited access to capital, lack of government support, resistance to change, the absence of a common vision, and a lack of education and awareness. This study revealed the importance of context in a hosting community's journey towards sustainable event production. Overcoming these obstacles requires engagement of the private sector, influence of local champions, involvement of NGOs, trusting relationships between local and external event stakeholders, access to technology and resources, and the strategic use of media to promote sustainability awareness to all event stakeholders. Based on these findings, recommendations for improving the sustainability performance of surfing events include the development of a formal policy, education and training for event staff, a media campaign focused on sustainability issues, and in-depth engagement with the local hosting community. How the enabling or inhibiting factors play out on the ground depends on the variety of factors previously highlighted. In practice, there are linkages across SEM practices and many work in concert to enhance the overall sustainability performance. Theoretically, the implications of this research lie in its contribution to a growing body of knowledge pertaining to the surfing industry's transition towards more sustainable business operations. Practically, this information can be used to inform policy, set goals, carefully examine alternatives, establish effective factors to enable SEM, and encourage sustainable decision-making and actions. Other surfing communities can learn from the experiences of the event stakeholders in Hawaii and Jeffreys Bay to improve their efforts of hosting a sustainable surfing event. Overall, this knowledge can promote a more balanced dissemination of sustainability thinking and practices within the global surfing events sector

Structural and Functional Studies of Proteins Involved in Antigen Processing: A Dissertation

This thesis is comprised of studies of proteins involved in class I and class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC) antigen procressing. In class I MHC processing, structural and functional studies were conducted of an aminopeptidase, ERAP1, that mediates the final step in antigen processing to understand how it is particularly suitable for cleavage of antigenic peptides for class I MHC presentation. In the class II MHC antigen presentation pathway, structural studies were conducted to characterize a fluorogenic peptide that can be used to understand peptide loading events in vivo and in real time. Also structural studies of class II MHC and peptide complexes were conducted to understand the nature of an unique C-terminal secondary structure element exhibited by an HIV derived peptide in the peptide binding groove of class II MHC. The studies discussed in this thesis provide insights into the proteins involved in the class I and class II MHC antigen presentation pathway. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) aminopeptidase, ERAP1, is a 941 amino acid member of the M1 family of zinc metalloaminopeptidases. Unlike other aminopeptidases, ERAP1 has a length and C-terminal preference for its substrates. Interestingly, ERAP1 has been shown to trim antigenic peptides to lengths of 8 or 9 amino acids long. This length matches the length required to bind into the peptide binding groove of class I MHC molecules. In addition, ERAP1 is upregulated in the ER of cells treated with interferon gamma (IFN-γ). Knock-down of ERAP1 by siRNA results in less overall antigenic presentation during IFN-γ treatment, although the knock-down does not affect all class I MHC epitopes equally. Knock-out studies show that ERAP1 effects the antigen repertoire at the cell surface. These and other data implicate ERAP1 as an important player in class I MHC antigen presentation. A chapter of this thesis will describe the crystallographic work describing the structures of ERAP1 with an aminopeptidase inhibitor, bestatin, and ERAP1 without an inhibitor that suggest possible peptide binding site in ERAP1 that will allow it to generate suitable substrates for a subset of class I MHC alleles. Class II MHC plays a key role in the immune response by presenting antigenic peptides on CD4+ cytotoxic cell surfaces for T-cell response. The binding of peptides onto the MHC is an important step in creating an immune response. Structures of peptide bound MHC class II show conserved side chain binding pockets within the overall peptide-binding groove. In HLA-DR1, a common human class II MHC, the P1 pocket shows a preference for large hydrophobic side chains. Development of environmentally sensitive peptide analogs, that can bind into the class II MHC the same way as native peptides, can assist in visualizing the antigen binding process. A chapter in this thesis describes the crystallographic work showing that (4-DAPA)-HA can be used to study antigen-presenting processes in a cell by visualizing the changes in fluorescence of the synthesized peptide upon antigen loading. Crystallographic analysis of MHC class II, HLA-DR1, in complex with HIV gag-derived peptide, GagP16(PEVIPMFSALSEGATP), and superantigen, SEC3- 3B2, reveals the conventional polyproline conformation up to MHC binding pocket residue, P9, while the C-terminus of GagP16 adopts an unusual β- hairpin loop structure. Additionally, interactions between the leucine at P8 (LeuP8) and other residues on the loop such as ThrP16 and AlaP14 of the hairpin loop, was observed. Importantly, GagP16 requires the last 4 amino acids (P13-P16), which is part of the hairpin loop, for T-cell recognition. Understanding what dictates the C-terminal hairpin loop and the interaction motif of HLA-DR1/GagP16 complex with its TCR will provide insights on why it is important for T cell activation. A chapter in this thesis discusses the structural investigation conducted to understand the determinants of the loop at the C-terminus of GagP16 using designed peptides. It will also discuss work involving HLA-DR1 with the T cell receptor, AC25, that was cloned from T cells that are specific to HLA-DR1 in complex with the GagP16 peptide

Numerical and analytical analysis of flow in stratified heterogeneous porous media.

Master's thesis in Petroleum engineeringThe groundwater flow through a porous media is well-researched to extend the basic knowledge in both academia and industry, specially the oil industry. The Boussinesq equation represents a water height of fluid spreads into the semi-infinite medium for unsteady flow. Property of this flow represents a groundwater flow after a high water period or after a breakthrough of a dam around a reservoir. The fluid is drained out as an intense pulse at the boundary and ow through the porous medium by gravity-driven motion. In this studying, the Boussinesq equation is re-produced from Barenblatt et al. (1999) [1]. The analytical and numerical analysis is used to solve this equation for a homogeneous porous medium. In the real life, we do not always have the homogeneous porous medium. A system fissures is counted into the Boussinesq equation and applies a basic of a "double-porosity" model for a stratified heterogeneous porous medium. The model is a system of two equations: one for water level in fissurized porous blocks and one for water level in system cracks. These equations are only solved with numerically because they are very complicated when we solve with analytically. For comparison, a purely porous blocks is obtained under same conditions with fissurized porous blocks. This demonstrates how the fissures influence on the groundwater flow in stratified heterogeneous porous media, increasing of the speed and the penetration of the fluid into the medium. At first stage, the groundwater flow is rapid breakthrough at the boundary into the porous media via a system cracks; and at later stage, the fissures is supported by the fluid in fissurized porous blocks.submittedVersio

Linear Convergence of Stochastic Iterative Greedy Algorithms with Sparse Constraints

Motivated by recent work on stochastic gradient descent methods, we develop two stochastic variants of greedy algorithms for possibly non-convex optimization problems with sparsity constraints. We prove linear convergence in expectation to the solution within a specified tolerance. This generalized framework applies to problems such as sparse signal recovery in compressed sensing, low-rank matrix recovery, and co-variance matrix estimation, giving methods with provable convergence guarantees that often outperform their deterministic counterparts. We also analyze the settings where gradients and projections can only be computed approximately, and prove the methods are robust to these approximations. We include many numerical experiments which align with the theoretical analysis and demonstrate these improvements in several different settings

The DIM system: WOZ Simulation Results - Phase II

We report an experiment designed to compare human-human spoken dialogues with human-computer spoken dialogue. Our primary purpose was to collect data on the kinds of protocols that were used to control the interaction. Three groups of 12 subjects each were asked to complete tasks over the phone. These tasks involved the use of custom-calling features such as call-forwarding and speed-dialing. The experimental procedure was a new variation on the Wizard of Oz (WOZ) technique that allowed much clearer comparisons to be made between human-human and human-computer interactions. Subjects in the Operator Group were told they were talking to a human operator. Subjects in the second two groups were told they were talking to a machine when in fact their queries were dealt with by two humans. Of these two groups, one listened to a sample dialogue before attempting the tasks (Computer Group (T)), while the other did not (Computer Group (NT)). Previous studies have shown that there are significant differences between human-human and human-computer interactions. The aim of this study is to examine such differences more closely. While some effects can be attributed to the beliefs about computers the subjects bring to the task, others appear to be connected with the on-going interaction styles of the speakers. Our study focuses on effects created by differences in interaction style. An important feature of the study is the use of two wizard, a technique which results in a realistically degraded communication channel. This created an interaction style that was very distinct from that of the human operator

The Contribution of Ethical Governance of Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning in Healthcare

With the Internet Age and technology progressively advancing every year, the usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) along with Machine Learning (ML) algorithms has only increased since its introduction to society. Specifically, in the healthcare field, AI/ML has proven to its end-users how beneficial its assistance has been. However, despite its effectiveness and efficiencies, AI/ML has also been under scrutiny due to its unethical outcomes. As a result of this, two polarizing views are typically debated when discussing AI/ML. One side believes that AI/ML usage should continue regardless of its unsureness, while the other side argues that this technology is too dangerous and should not be utilized at all. Given the fact that AI/ML can provide prompt and fairly accurate results, it is unrealistic to assume that AI/ML usage will end any time soon. Therefore, governance of AI/ML is needed to ensure that these technologies are reliable. Notably, AI governance has been positively reviewed and pushed for by scholars in the field. While AI governance does guarantee a sense of oversight on AI/ML, this form of governance is not sustainable. AI governance primarily focuses on the safety of the technology, with ethical, legal, and social factors serving as elements of AI governance. The safety of AI/ML is only one of the considerations for producing and ensuring ethical AI/ML. Ethical governance of AI/ML, which concentrates on incorporating ethics into all aspects of AI/ML—specifically, narrowing in on the stakeholders involved, will lead to not only a safer product but a more viable one as well. Thus, ethical governance of AI/ML must be advocated for in order to bring more awareness, which would lead to greater research and implementation of this type of governance. Although AI/ML can be used for a multitude of areas, the healthcare industry is slightly more significant, especially since these technologies directly affect the patients’ health. This dissertation explores the contribution of ethical governance of AI/ML in several facets of healthcare. As AI/ML requires big data to provide outcomes, the context of data analytics is discussed. Other areas the dissertation explores are clinical decision-making, end-of-life decisions, and biotechnology. While these topics certainly do not cover the whole healthcare field, the dissertation attempts to include a wide range of AI/ML functions from the beginning of its process (with data analytics) to the future of AI/ML (with biotechnology). With each of these areas of interest, various ethical governance principles are introduced and endorsed for to develop ethical AI/ML. The goal of this dissertation in discussing the contribution of ethical governance of AI/ML in healthcare is to provide a foundational groundwork for more future research of the ethical governance of AI/ML

The SARS-CoV-2 S1 spike protein subunit potentiates the neuroinflammatory response to a subsequent immune challenge.

By February 2021, the global death toll from SARS-CoV-2 reached approximately 2.5 million individuals. Evidence suggests that the S1 spike protein subunit of SARS-CoV-2 may initiate neuroinflammation through pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), contributing to post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) manifestations, including cognitive and neuropsychiatric problems. However, it remains unclear whether persistent microglial activation beyond the acute phase modulates behavioral and neuroinflammatory responses, potentially priming microglia in a sustained proinflammatory state, introduced by the &ldquo;two-hit&rdquo; model. Therefore, we investigated whether the S1 spike protein would potentiate the neuroinflammatory response in the hypothalamus to a subsequent immune challenge of a bacterial mimetic. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats received intra-cisterna magna (ICM) injections of vehicle or S1, followed by intraperitoneal (IP) injections of the bacterial mimetic, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), or vehicle 7 days later. Two days after LPS, neuroimmune gene expression was measured in the hypothalamus.&nbsp;Independent of LPS, S1 increased neuroimmune gene expression of MHCII, IL-6, and NLRP3 in the hypothalamus, indicative of heightened neuroinflammation from S1. S1 potentiated the effect of LPS on IL-1b&nbsp;and CD200R1. These findings underscore the potential of SARS-CoV-2 S1 spike protein subunits to exacerbate the neuroinflammatory process to subsequent immune challenges, potentially contributing to neurological manifestations of PASC.</p

Characterizing Nitrogen and δ15N Values in the Tissues of a Windward Population of Avrainvillea lacerata, an Invasive Green Alga

OCN 499 - Undergraduate Thesi