Implementation Evaluation: Grady’s Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program

Wholesome Wave, a nationwide organization, aims to increase food security and to decrease the burden of many nutrition-related chronic diseases through programs such as their Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program (FVRx). Wholesome Wave Georgia has partnered with Grady Health System, one of Atlanta’s largest hospitals, to implement FVRx. Previously under physician leadership, the program is now being redirected to the Nutrition Department. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the implementation of the program – to determine if predetermined procedure and goals were followed with high fidelity. For this project, a program plan document was created to guide implementation for future program years. Additionally, a focus group was conducted to evaluate areas of difficulty related to implementation and fidelity. From this evaluation, recommendations were for the implementation of the program with future cohorts

Adventist Encounter Curriculum: The story continues

Stories have always been a powerful medium. They have captivated humanity since ancient times and continue to draw us in via different mediums. Great stories engage us, shape our worldview and identity, and encourage us to live grander lives. Teachers of the Bible share a God-given privilege; they are Storytellers, creative crafters of words that teach by attraction; inviters of narrative experiences that capture the imagination and reach the heart. However, Bible teachers are far more than a storyteller using an effective pedagogical tool within an academic discipline, for they share ‘the greatest story ’ the world has ever known. It is a metanarrative that surrounds us and bookends time itself

Reconstruction of hidden 3D shapes using diffuse reflections

We analyze multi-bounce propagation of light in an unknown hidden volume and demonstrate that the reflected light contains sufficient information to recover the 3D structure of the hidden scene. We formulate the forward and inverse theory of secondary and tertiary scattering reflection using ideas from energy front propagation and tomography. We show that using careful choice of approximations, such as Fresnel approximation, greatly simplifies this problem and the inversion can be achieved via a backpropagation process. We provide a theoretical analysis of the invertibility, uniqueness and choices of space-time-angle dimensions using synthetic examples. We show that a 2D streak camera can be used to discover and reconstruct hidden geometry. Using a 1D high speed time of flight camera, we show that our method can be used recover 3D shapes of objects "around the corner"

Strategic Climate Change Communication: A Creative Effort Toward Mitigation and Adaptation Changing the Current

As our planet undergoes radical change as a result of the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, it is clear that action to mitigate the effects of climate change and adapt to its impacts is critical. Yet mobilizing the public around this global phenomenon has proven to be challenging. My undergraduate thesis translates the research around strategic climate change communication and successful community engagement into a creative project: a game. Changing the Current is a non-competitive, visual game, communicating the local impacts of a warming planet in Vermont, global ramifications, and the myriad of actions to take toward mitigation – from personal behavior change to community building to political involvement. In addition to allowing for this information to be communicated, the game serves as a brainstorming tool to posit the question to the players: how can we collectively adapt to this changing world? The game was launched on Town Meeting Day, 2012, an annual event known for its truly democratic nature, in four Vermont towns. Each copy was hosted by a Climate Ambassador,†who was a community member involved with local climate activism. This approach of implementation was based around concepts such as adaptive capacity and social diffusion, capitalizing on what is known on the strength of community-based knowledge and civic participation. In this way, Changing the Current was able to go beyond traditional methods of disseminating information that applies to the public realm. This project thesis was intended to further action around climate change in Vermont, a phenomenon that promises to affect us all

Stress-induced anxiety is dependent upon caspase-1 processing of active IL-1β in brain macrophages

The murine repeated social defeat (RSD) model reveals that neuroimmune signaling is implicated in the development of stress-induced anxiety-like behavior. Work from our lab showed that the anxiety-like behavior exhibited following RSD is associated with microglial activation, increased recruitment of brain-macrophages, and increased IL-1b expression in the brain. Moreover, this neuroinflammatory process was dependent upon IL-1 receptor 1 in the CNS. To determine the source of cytokine production following stress, NanoString mRNA analysis was conducted on FACS-sorted microglia and brain-macrophages. This revealed that brain macrophages rather than resident microglia are the primary source of increased IL-1b mRNA production in the brain following repeated social defeat. To address the functional role of IL-1b in the development of anxiety-like behavior, caspase-1 knockout (KO) mice were used. Caspase-1 is required for the cleavage of pro-IL-1b into its active form. Results show that caspase-1 KO mice did not develop anxiety-like behavior following RSD. Furthermore, our data indicates that caspase-1 KO mice do not exhibit increased microglial activation as characterized by Iba-1 immunolabeling. However, caspase-1 KO mice still had increased peripheral macrophage trafficking to the brain and increased IL-1b mRNA expression in the brain. We interpret these results to indicate that the development of anxiety-like behavior is dependent on functional IL-1b released by brain macrophages that is cleaved by caspase-1.A five-year embargo was granted for this item.Academic Major: Biomedical Scienc