Social Support and Smoking among Midwest LGBT Adults

Title from PDF of title page, viewed on July 15, 2015Dissertation advisor: Patricia J KellyVitaIncludes bibliographic references (pages 76-92)Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Nursing and Health Studies. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2014Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations have smoking rates twice that of their heterosexual counterparts. To design effective outreach, prevention, and treatments for these individuals, a comprehensive collection of contributing factors is needed. The objective of this dissertation research was to increase understanding of how minority stress, social support, and environmental factors influence smoking behaviors among an LGBT population in the Midwest. This cross-sectional, descriptive study of 135 LGBT adults used an online data collection strategy and multivariate analyses were performed to examine factors associated with current smoking status. Results revealed the current smoking rate in this LGBT population was 30.3% which was greater than one and one half times the smoking rate of the general population in the United States. Depression, anxiety and perceived stress were significantly related to a greater likelihood of smoking. Overall, minority stress was a greater contributing factor than social support to the smoking behaviors of this LGBT populationIntroduction -- Literature review -- Methodology -- Results -- Discussion -- Appendix A. Letter of support -- Appendix B. UMKC IRB approval -- Appendix C. Recruitment postcard -- Appendix D. Recruitment flyer -- Appendix E. Consent form -- Appendix F. LGBT questionnair

Chronic meningococcemia in a 16-year-old boy: a case report

Herein, we present a case of meningococcal disease in a patient presenting with of a three-week history of fever, cutaneous vasculitis and joint pain, in whom chronic meningococcemia was retained as presumptive diagnosis, after the disease evolved towards meningitis. This unusual case illustrates the great heterogeneity in possible clinical presentations of Neisseria meningitidis infections and underlines that diagnosis should always be evocated when facing the triad of fever, vasculitic skin eruption and big joints arthralgia, in a person in otherwise good general condition

Bring-Your-Own-Application (BYOA): Optimal stochastic application migration in mobile cloud computing

The increasing popularity of using mobile devices in a work context, has led to the need to be able to support more powerful computation. Users no longer remain in an office or at home to conduct their activities, preferring libraries and cafes. In this paper, we consider a mobile cloud computing scenario in which users bring their own mobile devices and are offered a variety of equipment, e.g., desktop computer, smartTV, or projector, to migrate their applications to, so as to save battery life, improve usability and performance. We formulate a stochastic optimization problem to optimize the allocation of user applications to equipment despite future uncertainties. Furthermore, we extend the scenario to consider multiple locations and geographic migration. The performance evaluation shows the superior benefit, e.g., higher profit, compared with a baseline algorithm

Caractérisation fonctionnelle de gènes de Marinobacter hydrocarbonoclasticus lors du développement de biofilms sur composés organiques hydrophobes

Les composés organiques hydrophobes (HOCs), lipides et hydrocarbures, représentent une part significative de la matière organique dans l environnement marin. Leur faible solubilité dans l eau exige de la part des bactéries qui les dégradent des adaptations physiologiques permettant de stimuler leur transfert de masse de la phase organique vers la phase aqueuse où ils sont assimilés. La formation de biofilm à l interface HOC-eau est l une de ces adaptations. La bactérie marine Marinobacter hydrocarbonoclasticus (Mh), qui est capable d utiliser un catalogue assez large de HOCs comme les alcanes, les alcools gras et les triglycérides, a été utilisée comme modèle d étude de la formation de biofilms aux interfaces HOCs-eau. Le but de mes recherches était de : (i) mener la caractérisation fonctionnelle des gènes aupA et aupB, qui sont surexprimés en condition de biofilm sur hexadécane et (ii) dresser, par une étude de transcriptomique, une liste de gènes potentiellement impliqués dans l adhésion et la formation de biofilm aux interfaces HOCs-eau dans le but d appréhender les mécanismes moléculaires mis en jeu. L étude fonctionnelle de aupA et aupB a révélé que ces deux gènes forment un opéron dont l expression est activée par divers types de HOCs. Il a aussi été démontré qu ils sont impliqués dans le transport de l hexadécane et dans la formation de biofilm sur alcanes. La protéine AupA est localisée dans la membrane externe de Mh et AupB, une lipoprotéine présumée, est située dans la membrane interne. AupA appartient à une sous-famille de transporteurs FadL-like, spécifique des bactéries marines hydrocarbonoclastes (HCB). La distribution phylogénétique de l'opéron aupAB limitée aux bactéries marines ayant la capacité de dégrader les alcanes et sa présence en nombreuses copies chez certaines souches d Alcanivorax sp. suggèrent fortement que les protéines Aup joueraient un rôle primordial dans l adaptation des HCB à l utilisation d alcanes comme sources de carbone et d énergie. L analyse transcriptomique des cellules de Mh adhérées (après 15 min ou 3 h de contact) ou formant un biofilm aux interfaces HOCs-eau a révélé une modification importante et précoce de leur transcriptome. De nombreux gènes intervenant dans le métabolisme des HOCs, la production de polysaccharides, la synthèse d acides aminés et de protéines ribosomales présentent une expression modulée dès 15 min d adhésion. La surexpression des gènes de flagelle et du chimiotactisme conjointement avec celle de gènes de pili en condition d adhésion évoquent une possible mobilité des cellules de Mh à l interface dans les étapes précoces du développement du biofilm. De plus, il semblerait que le facteur de transcription RpoN soit impliqué dans la régulation de la formation de biofilm chez Mh et que les prophages puissent intervenir dans la structure et/ou la dispersion du biofilm. Enfin, le rôle potentiel d un îlot génomique dans la formation de biofilm sur trioléine a été suggéré.Hydrophobic organic compounds (HOCs), such as lipids and hydrocarbons, represent a significant part of the organic matter in the marine environment. Their low solubility in water requires from bacteria that degrade them physiological adaptations to stimulate their mass transfer from the organic to the aqueous phase where they are assimilated. Biofilm formation at the HOC-water interface is one of those adaptations. The marine bacterium Marinobacter hydrocarbonoclasticus (Mh) which is able to use a broad range of HOCs such as alkanes, fatty alcohols and triglycerides, was used as a model to study the biofilm formation at HOCs-water interfaces. The aim of my research was to (i) conduct the functional characterization of aupA and aupB genes which are overexpressed in biofilm on hexadecane, (ii) draw up a list of genes, through a transcriptomic study, that are potentially involved in adhesion and biofilm formation at HOCs-water interfaces in order to understand the molecular mechanisms involved.Functional study of aupA and aupB revealed that these two genes form an operon whose expression is activated by various types of HOCs. They have also been shown to be involved in the transport of hexadecane and in biofilm formation on alkanes. The AupA protein is localized in the outer membrane and the predicted lipoprotein AupB is located at the inner membrane. AupA belongs to a subfamily of the FadL-like transporters, specific to marine hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria (HCB). The phylogenetic distribution of the aupAB operon restricted to marine bacteria having the ability to degrade alkanes and its presence in multiple copies in somestrains of Alcanivorax sp. strongly suggest that Aup proteins play a key role in the adaptation of HCB to use alkanes as carbon and energy sources. The transcriptomic analysis of Mh cells adhering (after 15 min or 3 h of contact) or forming a biofilm at HOCs-water interfaces revealed significant and early changes in their transcriptome. The expression of many genes involved in the metabolism of HOCs, polysaccharides production, amino acids and ribosomal proteins synthesis is modulated as early as 15 min of adhesion. The overexpression of flagella and chemotaxis genes together with that of pili in adhesion condition suggest a possible motility at the interface during the early stages of biofilm development. In addition, it appears that the transcription factor RpoN is involved in the regulation of biofilm formation in Mh and that prophages could play a role in the structure and/or dispersal of the biofilm. Finally, a potential role of a genomic island in biofilm formation ontriolein was suggestedPAU-BU Sciences (644452103) / SudocSudocFranceF

UVisP: User-centric visualization of data provenance with gestalt principles

The need to understand and track files (and inherently, data) in cloud computing systems is in high demand. Over the past years, the use of logs and data representation using graphs have become the main method for tracking and relating information to the cloud users. While being used, tracking related information with 'data provenance' (i.e. series of chronicles and the derivation history of data on metadata) is the new trend for cloud users. However, there is still much room for improving data activity representation in cloud systems for end-users. We propose 'User-centric Visualization of data provenance with Gestalt (UVisP)', a novel user-centric visualization technique for data provenance. This technique aims to facilitate the missing link between data movements in cloud computing environments and the end-users uncertain queries over their files security and life cycle within cloud systems. The proof of concept for the UVisP technique integrates an open-source visualization API with Gestalt's theory of perception to provide a range of user-centric provenance visualizations. UVisP allows users to transform and visualize provenance (logs) with implicit prior knowledge of 'Gestalt's theory of perception.' We presented the initial development of the UVisP technique and our results show that the integration of Gestalt and 'perceptual key(s)' in provenance visualization allows end-users to enhance their visualizing capabilities, to extract useful knowledge and understand the visualizations better

Taxonomy of man-in-the-middle attacks on HTTPS

With the increase in Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks capable of breaking Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) over the past five years, researchers tasked with the improvement of HTTPS must understand each attacks characteristics. However with the large amount of attacks it is difficult to discern attack differences, with out any existing classification system capable of classifying these attacks. In this paper we provide a framework for classifying and mitigating MITM attacks on HTTPS communications. The identification and classification of these attacks can be used to provide useful insight into what can be done to improve the security of HTTPS communications. The classification framework was used to create a taxonomy of MITM attacks providing a visual representation of attack relationships, and was designed to flexibly allow other areas of attack analysis to be added. The classification framework was tested against a testbed of MITM attacks, then further validated and evaluated at the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI) with a forensic taxonomy extension, and forensic analysis tool

A new genomic resource dedicated to wood formation in Eucalyptus

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Renowned for their fast growth, valuable wood properties and wide adaptability, <it>Eucalyptus </it>species are amongst the most planted hardwoods in the world, yet they are still at the early stages of domestication because conventional breeding is slow and costly. Thus, there is huge potential for marker-assisted breeding programs to improve traits such as wood properties. To this end, the sequencing, analysis and annotation of a large collection of expressed sequences tags (ESTs) from genes involved in wood formation in <it>Eucalyptus </it>would provide a valuable resource.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We report here the normalization and sequencing of a cDNA library from developing <it>Eucalyptus </it>secondary xylem, as well as the construction and sequencing of two subtractive libraries (juvenile <it>versus </it>mature wood and <it>vice versa</it>). A total of 9,222 high quality sequences were collected from about 10,000 cDNA clones. The EST assembly generated a set of 3,857 wood-related unigenes including 2,461 contigs (Cg) and 1,396 singletons (Sg) that we named 'EUCAWOOD'. About 65% of the EUCAWOOD sequences produced matches with poplar, grapevine, <it>Arabidopsis </it>and rice protein sequence databases. BlastX searches of the Uniref100 protein database allowed us to allocate gene ontology (GO) and protein family terms to the EUCAWOOD unigenes. This annotation of the EUCAWOOD set revealed key functional categories involved in xylogenesis. For instance, 422 sequences matched various gene families involved in biosynthesis and assembly of primary and secondary cell walls. Interestingly, 141 sequences were annotated as transcription factors, some of them being orthologs of regulators known to be involved in xylogenesis. The EUCAWOOD dataset was also mined for genomic simple sequence repeat markers, yielding a total of 639 putative microsatellites. Finally, a publicly accessible database was created, supporting multiple queries on the EUCAWOOD dataset.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this work, we have identified a large set of wood-related <it>Eucalyptus </it>unigenes called EUCAWOOD, thus creating a valuable resource for functional genomics studies of wood formation and molecular breeding in this economically important genus. This set of publicly available annotated sequences will be instrumental for candidate gene approaches, custom array development and marker-assisted selection programs aimed at improving and modulating wood properties.</p

A scalable approach to joint cyber insurance and security-as-a-service provisioning in cloud computing

As computing services are increasingly cloud-based, corporations are investing in cloud-based security measures. The Security-asa- Service (SECaaS) paradigm allows customers to outsource security to the cloud, through the payment of a subscription fee. However, no security system is bulletproof, and even one successful attack can result in the loss of data and revenue worth millions of dollars. To guard against this eventuality, customers may also purchase cyber insurance to receive recompense in the case of loss. To achieve cost effectiveness, it is necessary to balance provisioning of security and insurance, even when future costs and risks are uncertain. To this end, we introduce a stochastic optimization model to optimally provision security and insurance services in the cloud. Since the model we design is a mixed integer problem, we also introduce a partial Lagrange multiplier algorithm that takes advantage of the total unimodularity property to find the solution in polynomial time. We also apply sensitivity analysis to find the exact tolerance of decision variables to parameter changes. We show the effectiveness of these techniques using numerical results based on real attack data to demonstrate a realistic testing environment, and find that security and insurance are interdependent