Covering Kids & Families Evaluation: Sustaining the Effects of Covering Kids & Families on Policy Change

Presents results of a follow-up survey of Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program officials to assess the policy and procedural changes shaped by Covering Kids & Families, RWJF's initiative to expand enrollment in these programs

Super-Resolution for Overhead Imagery Using DenseNets and Adversarial Learning

Recent advances in Generative Adversarial Learning allow for new modalities of image super-resolution by learning low to high resolution mappings. In this paper we present our work using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) with applications to overhead and satellite imagery. We have experimented with several state-of-the-art architectures. We propose a GAN-based architecture using densely connected convolutional neural networks (DenseNets) to be able to super-resolve overhead imagery with a factor of up to 8x. We have also investigated resolution limits of these networks. We report results on several publicly available datasets, including SpaceNet data and IARPA Multi-View Stereo Challenge, and compare performance with other state-of-the-art architectures.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, WACV 2018 submissio

A Case Study in the Superiority of the Purposive Approach to Statutory Interpretation: \u3cem\u3e Bruesewitz v. Wyeth \u3c/em\u3e

This Article uses the Supreme Court’s 2011 decision in Bruesewitz v. Wyeth to examine the textualist or “plain meaning” approach to statutory interpretation. For more than a quarter-century, Justice Scalia has successfully promoted textualism, usually associated with conservatism, among his colleagues. In Bruesewitz, Scalia, writing for the majority, and his liberal colleague Justice Sotomayer, in dissent, both employed textualism to determine if the plaintiffs, whose child was allegedly harmed by a vaccine, could pursue common-law tort claims or whether their remedies were limited to those available under the no-fault compensation system established by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. Despite these Justices’ common approach to statutory interpretation, they reached diametrically opposite conclusions in opinions that dissected the statutory language and quarreled over the meaning of “even though” and “if” clauses. In contrast, Justice Breyer employed a purposive or “purposes and objectives” approach to statutory interpretation. Rather than obsessing over the meaning of each and every phrase, Breyer looked at Congress’s goals in passing the Act. He recognized that Scalia’s conclusion was correct, not because of the supposedly “plain” meaning of specific language, but because this interpretation was the only one that enabled the alternative compensation system to function as Congress envisioned. Other scholars have analyzed Bruesewitz as a preemption case, but despite statutory interpretation’s inherently decisive role in express preemption cases, this is the first Article to highlight Bruesewitz as an illustration of the emptiness of textualism

Social Psychology of Religion

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay\u27s first paragraph. John Polkinghorne’s description of God offers an insight into what supports his belief in God. Each religion has a specific description of who God is understood to be. Polkinghorne believes that God must have a purpose, and a mind with which to ponder this purpose and make decisions. While we may not be clear on what this purpose is and to what extent this mind reaches, Polkinghorne believes that the universe would not otherwise exist without the presence of God. He does not explain why God’s presence is veiled, but there has never been a case of anyone claiming to be the almighty creator and proving it. Many religions teach that God is always with us, (in our hearts, in our minds, in the flowers, etcetera,) and that we must have faith even though we cannot see or hear him. Because of this “veiled presence,” he is worthy of worship. The idea of God fosters hope among believers. Those who believe are comforted in knowing that this hidden being has a plan for everyone, and while we might not know what that plan is, we have faith that God will us pull through somehow

Factors that contribute to rural provider retention, service utilization, and engagement in mentorship by cultural experts

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2012A substantial amount of time, money, and other resources are expended on recruiting behavioral health providers to fill vacant positions in rural Alaska. This exhaustive drain on resources is perpetual due to the high turnover rates of providers. This exploratory qualitative study utilized grounded theory methodology to investigate personal qualities of providers and other factors contributing to long-term retention of providers relocating to Alaska's Bering Strait Region from elsewhere, community members utilizing the provider's services, and the provider's engagement in cultural mentorship to facilitate the integration of culture into their practice. Furthermore, factors contributing to local provider retention were examined. Key informant interviews were conducted with 21 healthcare providers living and working in the region long-term. A theory emerged that connected provider retention to community member service utilization and cultural mentorship. Results indicated that providers who are open, willing to learn, good listeners, calm, friendly, respectful, flexible, compassionate, genuine and possess a sense of humor, humility, and ability to refrain from imposing personal values, beliefs and worldviews upon others are a good fit for living and work in rural Alaska. Such qualities facilitate a provider achieving professional and personal satisfaction through building relationships and creating opportunities for cultural mentorship, professional support, and social support. These opportunities enhance the delivery of quality services that are culturally appropriate and well-utilized by community members, which, in turn, increase provider satisfaction and retention. Recommendations are made to healthcare organizations regarding recruitment and retention strategies. Recruitment strategies include careful screening of potential applications for specific qualities and enlisting local community members and students into the healthcare field. Retention strategies include professional support by way of a comprehensive orientation program, clinical supervision, cultural mentorship, and continuing education training opportunities that focus on cultural competency. Recommendations for retention of local providers include professional development incentives and opportunities that qualify local providers for positions typically held by outside providers

From Script to Stage: A Costume Designer’s Perspective

In the process of designing the costumes for a show, it is important to understand the psyche of each of the characters. The completion of thorough research can give valuable insight into the characters, as well as details of the setting of the play. A designer then takes this information, in the form of photographs, journals, period documents, and modern analysis and combines it to achieve a unified vision of the play’s environment. They must then work with the director and other designers to present this vision to the audience. This semester, I had the opportunity to explore this process when I was chosen to design the costumes for URI Theatre’s production of Sam Shepard’s Buried Child, winner of the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play is a chilling and macabre look at American family life. Sam Shepard presents a normal family, but as the play progresses and we learn more about the characters we are forced to challenge that assumption. As we begin to question the normalcy of this fictional family, Shepard challenges his audience to question the façade that every American family presents to the world around them, and whether the normal family even exists. It seems, after all, that every family has that one thing that is not to be talked about. The first part of this semester was spent on the actual design of the show - developing it from vague images and feelings to real clothing for the characters of the show. The second part of the semester was spent both critiquing my work and expanding my knowledge of the themes present in this work. I did this by further analyzing Buried Child along with other works by Sam Shepard

Breaking Traditional Ways of Teaching: Communicative Second Language Teaching

This portfolio is a collection of the author’s beliefs about second languageteaching that represent the change of the author’s views about teaching. The first sectionof this portfolio contains the author’s teaching philosophy statements, which include adescription of a communicative classroom, the role of input, and brain-based research.Three artifacts support the teaching philosophy and reflect what the author had learnedduring the MSLT program. First, the language artifact is a collection of technologicalideas that can be helpful in teaching Russian to different level students. Second, theliteracy artifact is a literature review regarding benefits of authentic materials indevelopment of language skills, cultural awareness, and critical thinking. Last one, thecultural artifact provides research on declining an offer in a polite way. The last section isthe annotated bibliography which presents the main themes of this portfolio

Predicting the effectiveness of hepatitis C virus neutralizing antibodies by bioinformatic analysis of conserved epitope residues using public sequence data

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a global health issue. Although direct-acting antivirals are available to target HCV, there is currently no vaccine. The diversity of the virus is a major obstacle to HCV vaccine development. One approach toward a vaccine is to utilize a strategy to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) that target highly-conserved epitopes. The conserved epitopes of bNAbs have been mapped almost exclusively to the E2 glycoprotein. In this study, we have used HCV-GLUE, a bioinformatics resource for HCV sequence data, to investigate the major epitopes targeted by well-characterized bNAbs. Here, we analyze the level of conservation of each epitope by genotype and subtype and consider the most promising bNAbs identified to date for further study as potential vaccine leads. For the most conserved epitopes, we also identify the most prevalent sequence variants in the circulating HCV population. We examine the distribution of E2 sequence data from across the globe and highlight regions with no coverage. Genotype 1 is the most prevalent genotype worldwide, but in many regions, it is not the dominant genotype. We find that the sequence conservation data is very encouraging; several bNAbs have a high level of conservation across all genotypes suggesting that it may be unnecessary to tailor vaccines according to the geographical distribution of genotypes

\u3cem\u3eArabidopsis\u3c/em\u3e AZI1 Family Proteins Mediate Signal Mobilization for Systemic Defence Priming

Priming is a major mechanism behind the immunological \u27memory\u27 observed during two key plant systemic defences: systemic acquired resistance (SAR) and induced systemic resistance (ISR). Lipid-derived azelaic acid (AZA) is a mobile priming signal. Here, we show that the lipid transfer protein (LTP)-like AZI1 and its closest paralog EARLI1 are necessary for SAR, ISR and the systemic movement and uptake of AZA in Arabidopsis. Imaging and fractionation studies indicate that AZI1 and EARLI1 localize to expected places for lipid exchange/movement to occur. These are the ER/plasmodesmata, chloroplast outer envelopes and membrane contact sites between them. Furthermore, these LTP-like proteins form complexes and act at the site of SAR establishment. The plastid targeting of AZI1 and AZI1 paralogs occurs through a mechanism that may enable/facilitate their roles in signal mobilization

The sources of stress experienced by professional Australian footballers

Previous studies looking at the sources of stress in sport have generally overlooked the unique experiences of professional athletes participating in team sports. This paper describes the results of a qualitative study aimed at identifying the sources of stress experienced by a cross-section of professional Australian footballers. Players from two Australian Football League clubs took part in the study involving in-depth, one-to-one interviews and focus group discussions. The results revealed that players identified sources of stress that went beyond those associated with the competitive event (such as poor performances) and included a lack of feedback, difficulty balancing football and study commitments, and job insecurity. The influence of both competition and non-competition sources of stress parallels previous research involving non-professional athletes and indicates that the entire sporting experience needs to be taken into account when developing stress management strategies.<br /