Tissi

Tissi is a series of short stories depicting the lives of children living in Sudan through the genocide. There are three stories of pain and suffering that depict the lives of Yaya, Abit, and Tahir. Each child is forced to deal with the ill effects of the genocide. The stories conclude with a story of hope of one child who was able to get help in a refugee camp located in Tissi

Tissi

My thesis is a collection of short stories. The stories depict the lives of four children living in South Sudan trying to survive the genocide. One young girl has been brutally raped. A young boy is taking on the responsibility of raising his younger siblings. The third story shows a young boy who has been kidnapped and forced to be a child soldier. The fourth story is a story of hope. These stories are designed to show the chaos of genocide, and the difference that even a little assistance could make to the lives of the people in South Sudan.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/stander_posters/1530/thumbnail.jp

Gradient and Passive Circuit Structure in a Class of Non-linear Dynamics on a Graph

We consider a class of non-linear dynamics on a graph that contains and generalizes various models from network systems and control and study convergence to uniform agreement states using gradient methods. In particular, under the assumption of detailed balance, we provide a method to formulate the governing ODE system in gradient descent form of sum-separable energy functions, which thus represent a class of Lyapunov functions; this class coincides with Csisz\'{a}r's information divergences. Our approach bases on a transformation of the original problem to a mass-preserving transport problem and it reflects a little-noticed general structure result for passive network synthesis obtained by B.D.O. Anderson and P.J. Moylan in 1975. The proposed gradient formulation extends known gradient results in dynamical systems obtained recently by M. Erbar and J. Maas in the context of porous medium equations. Furthermore, we exhibit a novel relationship between inhomogeneous Markov chains and passive non-linear circuits through gradient systems, and show that passivity of resistor elements is equivalent to strict convexity of sum-separable stored energy. Eventually, we discuss our results at the intersection of Markov chains and network systems under sinusoidal coupling

Role of macrophages in experimental group B streptococcal arthritis.

Septic arthritis is a clinical manifestation of group B Streptococcus (GBS) infection in both neonates and adults. Because macrophages are known to participate in tissue injury, the role of this cell population in GBS-induced arthritis was investigated. Mice were rendered monocytopenic by administration of etoposide, a drug that selectively depletes the monocyte/macrophage population and then injected with GBS (1 x 10(7) colony-forming units per mouse). Appearance of arthritis, mortality, GBS growth in the organs, and local and systemic cytokine production were examined. Etoposide-treated mice had a significantly less severe arthritis than control animals. Histopathological analysis of the joints confirmed clinical observations. Decreased joint levels of the proinflammatory cytokines interleukin 1 (IL-1) beta and IL-6 accompanied the less severe development of arthritis in monocytopenic mice. In contrast, mortality was increased in the etoposide-treated mice compared with controls. Monocytopenic mice exhibited elevated bacterial load in the blood and kidneys at all time points examined. These results indicate that lack of macrophages leads to less severe joint lesions, but also results in impaired clearance of bacteria, and consequent enhancement of mortality rates

IL-4 Deficiency Decreases Mortality but Increases Severity of Arthritis in Experimental Group B Streptococcus Infection

IL-4 is an anti-inflammatory cytokine that inhibits the onset and severity in different experimental arthritis models. Group B streptococci (GBS) have been recognized as an ever-growing cause of serious invasive infections in nonpregnant adults. Septic arthritis is a clinical manifestation of GBS infection. To investigate the role of IL-4 in experimental GBS infection, IL-4 deficient or competent mice were inoculated with 1 × 107 GBS/mouse. Mortality, appearance of arthritis, GBS growth in the organs, and local and systemic cytokine and chemokine production were examined. IL-4−/− mice showed lower mortality rates but increased severity of arthritis and exhibited a lower microbial load in blood, kidneys, and joints than wt mice. Increased local levels of IL-1 β, IL-6, TNF-α, MIP-1α, and MIP-2 accompanied the more severe arthritis in IL-4−/− mice. Our results suggest a detrimental role of IL-4 in GBS sepsis, whereas it plays a beneficial effect on GBS-induced arthritis

Variation in non-fluencies in a corpus of simultaneous interpreting vs. non-interpreted English

The present study aims to investigate the occurrence of various non- fl uencies (mispronounced words and hesitations; self-repairs and editing terms; silent pauses; repetitions; fi llers) in interpreted and non-interpreted, spontaneously produced English. The material for the study is the English component of a parallel bidirectional corpus of Russian-English interpreting of political discourse, consisting of approx. 130,000 words from 77 speech events. The instances of non- fl uencies have been automatically extracted from the corpus, with the exception of self-repair, which was subject to manual annotation. The fi gures for the two subcorpora were compared using the Mann-Whitney U test, chi-square test, and Fisher ' s exact test, as appropriate. The results show that (1) interpreted English has more dis fl uencies overall, and serial truncations speci fi cally; (2) the number of repaired dis fl uencies is lower in interpreted English; (3) and interpreted English has fewer fi llers and dis fl uent repetitions than non-interpreted English. The results on editing terms are inconclusive. While the fi rst fi nding conforms to the predictions in the literature on SI, the other two can be ascribed to di ff erences in style among interpreters

MAKING MEANING IN THE MARGINS: IDENTITIES, BELONGING, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE COMMITMENTS IN A CROSS-RACE INTERGROUP DIALOGUE FOR QUEER AND TRANS COLLEGE STUDENTS

This qualitative research study used constructivist grounded theory methods to explore the lived experiences of 11 queer and trans undergraduate college students of various racial and ethnic backgrounds in a cross-race intergroup dialogue (IGD) course. Using document analysis of course assignments and post-dialogue semi-structured interviews allowed for rich inquiry into how these queer and trans students made meaning of their intersecting identities, sense of belonging, cross-race relationships, and social justice commitments. This study contributes new knowledge about the meaning-making processes of queer and trans college students of various racial and ethnic backgrounds and the role that IGD plays in supporting their meaning-making. This study will help inform practice and scholarship about the experiences of queer- and trans-identified college students of various racial and ethnic backgrounds and how they make meaning of their intersecting identities, commitments to social justice action, find support, and foster belonging on campus. This study demonstrates the role that IGD can play in supporting the meaning making processes and community development of queer and trans college students

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT REPORTS ON BRICS: VIOLATIONS TO FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

This article was developed through meetings of study groups and documentary research. The results were based on the UN Reports on Human Rights and Development and specifically on the main normative, institutional and political-economic advances and setbacks in the BRICS States (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are discussed. Which have been adopted by them in accordance with the ideals of social progress and substantive freedoms, of the UN development agenda. The conclusions based on documentary research on the development of freedoms related to the expansion of social rights in BRICS countries. On the other hand, this report contains analyzes of the recommendations made to the five countries, in original documents in English, on the rights to health, pensions and social assistance, and the shortcomings they have not yet overcome in the fulfillment of these rights, as well as some normative advances, Institutional and political-economic in order to fulfill them