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

Coordinating Collaboration to End Homelessness: A Mid-Point Learning Assessment of the Reaching Home Campaign and Opening Doors, Connecticut

In Connecticut, the Partnership for Strong Communities (PSC) and a group of advocacy organizations, government agencies, and community providers are leading a campaign to end homelessness in the state. Guided by the vision that "No one should experience homelessness," the Reaching Home Campaign and Opening Doors—Connecticut (the "Campaign") emphasizes housing as an essential platform for human and community development. The Campaign brings together a broad spectrum of partners representing diverse sectors to collectively build the political and civic will to end homelessness. In just three years, the Campaign has already achieved remarkable success advocating for and securing over $300 million in funding for programs to end homelessness and to create permanent supportive and affordable housing. Among its many accomplishments, the Campaign conducted the state's first study of youth experiencing homelessness and released the Opening Doors for Youth plan to end youth homelessness. The Campaign is also closing in on the goal of ending homelessness among Veterans, as well as launching a pilot program to connect families receiving rapid rehousing with employment supports and implementing a successful pilot that identifies and connects frequent users of emergency departments at hospitals to housing and supportive services. To support the Campaign's work at this important juncture as it moves past planning and towards implementation and sustainability, the Melville Charitable Trust—a private foundation and longtime partner of the effort—approached The Building Movement Project (BMP) to conduct a mid-point learning assessment. One goal of the assessment was to help the Campaign take stock of its internal structures and processes. Another goal was to share insights on what it means to coordinate collaboration, given the growing use of "collective impact" as a strategy to address social problems

Silver Saddles: An Equestrian Intervention for Older Adults with Dementia

Educational Objectives 1. Demonstrate the encouraging outcomes therapeutic horseback riding programs can have for older adults with memory loss. 2. Describe the importance of trained volunteers and staff at both the riding center and the long-term care community for aiding older adults with memory loss during the therapeutic riding program. 3. Showcase the research process and pilot results. 4. Highlight lessons learned and future directions for Silver Saddles

Huddle Implementation in the Perioperative Setting

Background: Communication is essential for safe and effective patient care. In the perioperative setting, information sharing is critical to care coordination. Lack of communication between caregivers can lead to medical errors. Evidence shows that huddles lead to increased communication, satisfaction, and engagement between team members resulting in better patient outcomes. Huddles are short, less than 10-minute gatherings that focus on the daily schedule, identify potential obstacles, explain unique needs, and discuss preceding day issues. Objectives: This project aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of huddles on employee satisfaction, engagement, and communication of healthcare workers while also determining if huddles were seen as valuable in the perioperative setting. Methods: This Quasi-Experimental, pretest-posttest design study was conducted at an academic medical center in the midwestern part of the United States. Huddles were done twice a week. Healthcare worker satisfaction, engagement, and communication practices were measured utilizing the Communication Assessment Questionnaire (CAQ), the Work and Well-being Survey (UWES-17), and some open-ended descriptive questions. Results: A total of 61 participants completed the pre-survey, and 24 completed the post-survey. The UWES-17, CAQ, and employee satisfaction subscale scores all increased post-implementation. Clarity of messages, a CAQ domain, was the only variable noted to be statistically significant. Study participants acknowledged the value of huddles in the perioperative services department. Conclusion: Employee satisfaction and engagement increased post-huddle implementation, although not to a significant amount. Communication effectiveness improved post-implementation and employees acknowledged the value of huddles for the perioperative team

Graphing Linear Equations Using TI-Calculator

Students will be able to represent and analyze using verbal descriptions, tables, equations, and graphs working in groups of two within a given block period

Understanding the Genetic Basis of Carotenoid Concentration in Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) Seeds

Lentils are an inexpensive source of protein, vitamins and minerals. Lentil seeds contain carotenoids that have antioxidant properties and play an important nutritional role as precursors of vitamin A. Improving concentration of carotenoids in lentils has potential as component of a bio-fortification program. The understanding of the genetic control of carotenoids in lentil will help breeders develop strategies for developing varieties with higher carotenoid concentration. The objectives of this research program were to evaluate the concentration of carotenoids in mature lentil seeds and to identify genomic regions that possibly influence carotenoid concentration. The experimental program involved: i) analyzing the carotenoid concentration in seeds produced from the specific crosses among lentil genotypes with three cotyledon colours using high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) ii) analyzing an association mapping panel to develop potential single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for genes associated with carotenoid concentration For the first objective, dihybrid crosses were made between lentil cultivars with red, yellow and green cotyledons. Hybridized lentil populations were grown in the greenhouse and phytotron chamber up to the F3 generation and then seeds were analyzed for carotenoid concentration. As expected, the expression of red cotyledon colour was dominant over yellow, and these two cotyledon colours were inhibited by an epistatic interaction with green cotyledon colour. Lentil seeds with green cotyledon colour had higher carotenoid concentration than red cotyledon types which in turn had higher carotenoid concentration compared to yellow cotyledon lentils. Identifying molecular markers associated with carotenoids can be part of a crop improvement strategy for both marker-assisted selection and marker-assisted breeding (MAS; MAB). Association mapping using broad genetic materials might result in high resolution. For this purpose an association mapping panel of 143 lentil genotypes was grown at two different locations near Saskatoon, Canada, in 2011 and 2012. Concentration of three carotenoids in lentil seed samples was measured using reverse phase HPLC. Of the 143 genotypes, 60 accessions were common for both years and locations. Concentrations of lutein, zeaxanthin and violaxanthin in seed samples were determined. Genotyping was accomplished using 1536 SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) markers of an Illumina Golden-Gate assay. It was determined that 168 of the SNP markers were significantly associated with carotenoid concentration components using the GLM (generalized linear model) model. These putative SNPs could be used for MAS and MAB to improve selection for carotenoids in lentil to increase the nutritional value of lentil

Fast time variations of supernova neutrino fluxes and their detectability

In the delayed explosion scenario of core-collapse supernovae (SNe), the accretion phase shows pronounced convective overturns and a low-multipole hydrodynamic instability, the standing accretion shock instability (SASI). These effects imprint detectable fast time variations on the emerging neutrino flux. Among existing detectors, IceCube is best suited to this task, providing an event rate of ~1000 events per ms during the accretion phase for a fiducial SN distance of 10 kpc, comparable to what could be achieved with a megaton water Cherenkov detector. If the SASI activity lasts for several hundred ms, a Fourier component with an amplitude of 1% of the average signal clearly sticks out from the shot noise. We analyze in detail the output of axially symmetric hydrodynamical simulations that predict much larger amplitudes up to frequencies of a few hundred Hz. If these models are roughly representative for realistic SNe, fast time variations of the neutrino signal are easily detectable in IceCube or future megaton-class instruments. We also discuss the information that could be deduced from such a measurement about the physics in the SN core and the explosion mechanism of the SN.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures. Final version accepted in PRD. Section on astrophysical relevance and several references adde

Classical proofs of quantum knowledge

We define the notion of a proof of knowledge in the setting where the verifier is classical, but the prover is quantum, and where the witness that the prover holds is in general a quantum state. We establish simple properties of our definition, including that nondestructive classical proofs of quantum knowledge are impossible for nontrivial states, and that, under certain conditions on the parameters in our definition, a proof of knowledge protocol for a hard-to-clone state can be used as a (destructive) quantum money verification protocol. In addition, we provide two examples of protocols (both inspired by private-key classical verification protocols for quantum money schemes) which we can show to be proofs of quantum knowledge under our definition. In so doing, we introduce new techniques for the analysis of such protocols which build on results from the literature on nonlocal games. Finally, we show that, under our definition, the verification protocol introduced by Mahadev (FOCS 2018) is a classical argument of quantum knowledge for QMA relations

Classical proofs of quantum knowledge

We define the notion of a proof of knowledge in the setting where the verifier is classical, but the prover is quantum, and where the witness that the prover holds is in general a quantum state. We establish simple properties of our definition, including that nondestructive classical proofs of quantum knowledge are impossible for nontrivial states, and that, under certain conditions on the parameters in our definition, a proof of knowledge protocol for a hard-to-clone state can be used as a (destructive) quantum money verification protocol. In addition, we provide two examples of protocols (both inspired by private-key classical verification protocols for quantum money schemes) which we can show to be proofs of quantum knowledge under our definition. In so doing, we introduce new techniques for the analysis of such protocols which build on results from the literature on nonlocal games. Finally, we show that, under our definition, the verification protocol introduced by Mahadev (FOCS 2018) is a classical argument of quantum knowledge for QMA relations

Psoriasis Vulgaris Successfully Treated with Goeckerman Treatment at Home: A Patient and Physician's Experience.

Goeckerman therapy is a highly effective treatment regimen for moderate-to-severe psoriasis. It involves regular exposure to ultraviolet B radiation and the application of crude coal tar. To our knowledge, only three centers in the USA currently offer a formal Goeckerman therapy treatment program; thus, access to this therapy is geographically limited. In this article, a motivated patient discusses his experience with generalized plaque psoriasis. This patient, while living in a Goeckerman-inaccessible area, deferred treatment with biologics and outpatient phototherapy to develop a modified Goeckerman regimen for at-home use. This home regimen, which did not involve the use of prescription-strength medications, resulted in full clearance of his psoriasis. We also discuss the patient's case from the perspective of a dermatology treatment team that has reviewed his experience