Comparison of Social Networks, Perceived Risk and HIV Risk Behaviors between Older and Younger African Americans Living in High HIV Prevalence Zip Codes of Atlanta, Georgia

The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the United States is still high despite advances in prevention and therapies. Among all races and ethnic groups, African Americans are the most severely affected and face a disproportionate burden. African Americans account for a higher proportion of HIV infections and deaths than other races and ethnicities. In addition, one of the fastest growing segments of AIDS cases is patients more than 50 years of age. This segment receives little attention concerning HIV infection and as the U.S. population continues to age, it is important to be aware of specific HIV-related risks faced by these older African Americans and to ensure that they get information and services to help protect them from infection. This study aims to understand and compare the social network characteristics, perceived risk of getting HIV infection and HIV risk behaviors between younger (18 to 49 years of age) and older (50 plus years of age) African Americans living in high HIV prevalence zip codes of Atlanta, Georgia. The study population included 897 African Americans. Controlling for socio-demographic variables, multivariate analyses revealed that older African Americans have significant higher proportion of injection drug use, are less likely to get tested for HIV and more likely to have a risky sex partner (i.e., exchange sex for money or drugs); however, older African Americans were less likely to engage in sexual risk behaviors. Groups did not differ in terms of their perceived risk for HIV and social network characteristics. More research is necessary to understand their HIV-related risk behaviors, both sexual and drug use, and the specific needs for primary prevention effort of HIV/AIDS transmission among older African Americans

The Effect of Social Media Marketing Activities on Brand Equity and Purchase Intention Towards Sebamed Skin Care Products

The purpose of this research is to determine the impact of digital marketing plans on Sebamed skin care product brand equity, as well as the impact of brand equity on purchase intention. To attain the aforesaid goals, expressive and analytical research methodologies are applied. This study makes use of both primary and secondary data. A basic random sampling approach is used to pick respondents. Primary data was acquired utilizing structured questionnaires with a 5-point Likert scale from 269 Sebamed product clients out of 29,900 Sebamed Myanmar Facebook page followers. Secondary data is drawn from textbooks, prior research articles, and Sebamed reports. All digital marketing initiatives have a considerable positive effect on brand value, according to the findings. Promotion is the most important determinant of the value of the brand among those digital marketing actions. Brand equity of Sebamed skin care products is positively correlated with personalization, upgrade, and social impact. Brand value has a robust beneficial impression on consumers' purchase purpose, according to the regression results. Sebamed should maintain its existing online digital campaign and improve its page in order to reach more client segments, as well as cooperate with associate promotions. Product line could be provided in terms of Myanmar’s most common skin ailments. Beauty bloggers conclusively and celebrities should be invited to participate in Sebamed’s digital advertisement efforts on Telegram, Twitter and brand’s own website

Relationship Between Serum Testosterone, Leptin,Interleukin-6 (il-6) Level and Insulin Sensitivity in Non-obese and Obese Male Subjects in Magway Region, Myanmar

Objective: To determine the relationship between insulin resistance and related variables (serum testosterone, interleukin (IL-6) and leptin level) in obese and non-obese healthy subjects. Methods: Community-based crosssectional, analytic study was undertaken in 60 subjects for each obese group (BMI ≥ 30.0 kg/m2) and non-obese group (BMI 18.5 to 24.9 kg/m2) (age;18-45 years) residing in Magway Township from December 2016 to December 2017. Serum insulin, testosterone, IL-6 and leptin levels were measured by enzyme linked immunoassay, and serum fasting glucose was measured by glucose oxidase method. Insulin sensitivity was calculated by HOMA formula (Homeostatic Model Assessment). Results:HOMA-IR, serum leptin and IL-6 level were significantly higher in obese group while serum testosterone level was significantly lower in obese group. There was a significantly correlation between HOMA-IR with leptin (r=0.306, p=0.001), IL-6 (r=0.237, p=0.009) and testosterone (r=-0.209,p=0.02). Moreover, serum leptin was significantly and positively correlated with IL-6 (r=0.391, p<0.001) while serum testosterone was significantly and negatively correlated with leptin (r=-0.408, p<0.001), and IL-6 (r=-0.34, p<0.001).Conclusions:Obese men are more likely to have low testosterone, high inflammatory markers leptin and Il-6, which were associated with decreased insulin sensitivity.

panel data analysis in ASEAN countries

Thesis(Master) -- KDI School: Master of Public Policy, 2020This study investigated the correlation between domestic government health expenditure (DGHE) and the rate of infant deaths among ten ASEAN member countries within 6 years period (2010-2016). The required data was collected from World Development Indicators (WDI) and random effects and fixed effects model were used to run regression analysis. Infant mortality rate was considered as outcome variable and domestic government health expenditure as predictor variable. In fact, private health expenditure, external health expenditure, urban population, immunization, GDP per capita and access to basic sanitation facilities were assumed as control variables in the model. The regression results revealed that domestic government health expenditure was negatively correlated with infant mortality rate at 5% significance level. Although private health expenditure and external health expenditure were negatively correlated with the rate of infant mortality, their relationship was not significant. Moreover, other control variables were also negatively associated with infant mortality rate in ASEAN countries. The findings suggest that, in the developing countries like Myanmar, the government should increase government health expenditure to promote better health outcomes such as reducing infant mortality rate through performing the correct allocation and good management of public health funds and it is worthy to consider on investing and providing more for the improvement of immunization programme and sanitation facilities to reduce infant mortality rates.I. Introduction II. Literature Review III. Methodology IV. Findings and Discussion V. Conclusion and Policy RecommendationmasterpublishedThu Thu Thein

Empirical Analysis of Causes of Income Inequality: A Level Playing Field for Children at the Start of School Career

Numerous and countless factors have been theorized to be causes of inequality. This paper started with identifying the most important determinants of income inequality through theoretical research. Among the various theories of causes of inequality, I hypothesized creating a level playing for children at the very start of their career as students as an important determinant. In order to test the hypothesis that a level playing field is important to help fight inequality, a regression tailored for this question is created. I develop a regression model using the variable public expenditure on primary education as the variable to be tested while controlling for other important determinants of inequality including public expenditure per student on all stages of education, unemployment rate, GDP per capita, GDP growth, and governance indicator. The empirical model confirms theory that quality of primary education is highly beneficial for students. I conduct further theoretical research concerning ways to improve the quality of primary education and included them in policy recommendation section

書き換え可能なゲートアレイを用いた無作為抽出法に基づく実時間画像処理に関する研究

長崎大学学位論文 学位記番号:博(工)甲第53号 学位授与年月日:平成30年3月20日Nagasaki University (長崎大学)課程博

Reaction mechanisms of natural gas in the HIsarna alternative ironmaking process

To tackle climate change, caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, legislation to curb CO2 emissions have become more stringent. The steel industry is responsible for 6.5% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Consequently, the steel industry has been endeavouring to develop green steel production technologies with HIsarna being one of the promising alternative ironmaking technologies. HIsarna technology offers the flexibility to use reductants other than solid carbon materials. Natural gas has the potential to be used either partially or fully as an alternative to solid carbon materials in the ironmaking process. Its major component, methane, contains two reductants: elemental carbon (Carbon Black) and hydrogen. The by-product of using hydrogen in the ironmaking process is steam, resulting in reduced CO2 emissions from the overall process. This PhD research studies the reaction mechanisms of methane in the smelting reduction vessel (SRV) based on five main objectives with the aim to provide the fundamental knowledge needed to (partially) replace coal with natural gas in the HIsarna process. A static heat and mass balance model was developed for the HIsarna process to predict CO2 emissions and coal consumption. The results were validated against pilot plant data. The model was used to predict the CO2 emissions for two cases: (1) methane used as a carrier gas of coal (2) methane fully replacing coal. The research also investigated the gasification reactivity of carbon black (CB) along with its chemical-physical properties, which could potentially effect its reactivity. The reduction behaviour of the individual reductants, carbon and hydrogen, with molten HIsarna slag in conditions similar to the smelting reduction vessel (SRV) was examined. Finally, the reaction mechanism between methane and the HIsarna slag was investigated. This research has been conducted systematically and provides a fundamental understanding of the methane gas reduction behaviour in HIsarna thermal conditions

Strengthening of Shear-Critical RC Columns by High-Strength Steel-Rod Collars

This research investigates the strengthening of shear-dominated reinforced concrete (RC) square columns using the high-strength steel-rod collars, which enhance confinement by steel rods around the column perimeter. This method is less intrusive to the existing building with infilled walls because steel rods can penetrate through the walls with minimal openings (holes) at the location of collars. In this study, one control specimen and two specimens strengthened by steel-rod collars were tested. All specimens were subjected to lateral cyclic loading along with a constant axial load. The difference between the two strengthened specimens were the spacing of steel-rod collars mounted on the columns. The spacing of steel-rod collars was 200 mm in the column specimen SC-200, while the other strengthened specimen, SC-100 has a spacing of 100 mm. The unstrengthened column failed in shear while the strengthened columns failed in flexure. In addition, the strengthened specimens failed at the higher load and ductility. Comparing to the unstrengthened column, the lateral load capacity and ductility ratio of the column SC-200 increase by 18 % and 59%, respectively. While, the lateral load and ductility ratio of SC-100 increase by 16% and 69%, respectively. Furthermore, the finite element models of all column specimens are developed using the OpenSees program. The analysis results are found in a close agreement with the experimental results

Vision-Based Autonomous Human Tracking Mobile Robot

Tracking moving objects is one of the most important but problematic features of motion analysis and understanding. In order to effectively interact robots with people in close proximity, the systems must first be able to detect, track, and follow people. Following a human with a mobile robot arises in many different service robotic applications. This paper proposes to build an autonomous human tracking mobile robot which can solve the occlusion problem during tracking. The robot can make human tracking efficiently by analysing the information obtained from a camera which is equipped on the top of the robot. The system performs human detection by using Histogram of Oriented Gradient (HOG) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithms and then uses HSV (Hue Saturation Value) color system for detecting stranger. If the detected human is stranger, robot will make tracking. During the process, the robot needs to track the stranger without missing. So, Kalman filter is used to solve this problem. Kalman filter can estimate the target human when the human is occluded with walls or something. This paper describes the processing results and experimental results of a mobile robot which will track unmarked human efficiently and handle the occlusion using vision sensor and Kalman filter