Alaska Coastal Community Youth and the Future

The Alaska Sea Grant College Program. Project No. R/72-02.Executive Summary / Introduction / Background to the Research / Methods / Findings / Discussion and Policy Recommendations / Products from the Research / References Cited / Appendix A. Focus Group Protocol (High School) / Appendix B. Focus Group Protocol (12-20 year olds) / Appendix C. Focus Group Questionnaire / Appendix D. Occupational Rating Worksheet / Appendix E. Consent/Assent For

Participation and representation in ATSIC elections: a ten-year perspective

This paper examines participation and representation in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) elections over the ten-year period since its inception in 1990. It attempts to identify patterns of participation that seem to be emerging and what these might suggest about ATSIC's operation. By examining numbers of nominees compared to positions available, the paper suggests that ATSIC elected office has fairly keenly and consistently sought and competed for by Indigenous people, though there may have been some slight initial reticence in the 1990 elections. By examining voter numbers and voter turnout, the paper suggests that voter participation nation-wide rose slightly from 1990 to 1996 and then largely stabilised in 1999. It also suggests that there have been significant variations from this national pattern at State and Territory levels and it explores some reasons for this, such as change in postal voting procedures. The paper also examines voter numbers and voter turnout at the ATSIC regional level since 1993 and finds that there has been a much higher voter turnout in the sparsely settled regions of northern Australia and much lower voter turnout in the southern and urban areas. This is explained in terms of ATSIC program and expenditure priorities and in terms of polling place access. The final two sections of the paper examine the representation of women and Torres Strait Islanders among ATSIC elected representatives. Both are seen as significant issues, which should be of some ongoing concern within ATSIC, alongside the issue of the southern/northern difference in voter participation

Effects of habitat disturbance on the morphology of ant assemblages

Dissertação de mestrado em Análises Clínicas, apresentada à Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de Coimbra.Introduction: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) belongs to the Hepevirus genus from the Hepeviridae family. HEV is a non-enveloped small icosahedral virus with 30-32 nm of diameter and a (+) ssRNA genome. There are four genotypes (1-4) of the virus, genotype 1 and 2 are associated with exclusive infection on humans, while genotype 3 and 4 can also infect pigs and other mammalians. HEV is responsible for a liver disease, generally an acute hepatitis, most frequent in developing countries, where the main way of transmission of HEV is fecaloral through the ingestion of contaminated water or food. In other regions genotypes 3 and 4 may be causing outbreaks of infection through its zoonotic potential. Aim: Evaluate the prevalence of HEV infection in wild boars and deer as well as to its presence in wastewaters, in order to evaluate the risk for the public health caused by HEV, in Portugal. Methods: Thirty samples of wild boar and deer feces, 28 bile samples of wild boars and 30 wastewaters samples (15 samples collected from the influent of the WWTP and 15 samples of the respective effluent of the WWTP) from across country, were submitted to nucleicacid extraction followed by RT-PCR Real Time amplifications aiming the detection of the viral genome of HEV. Results: No HEV-RNA was detected in all feces and bile samples from wild animals. Two (13.3%) out of the 15 influent WWTP samples revealed the presence of HEV-RNA, while the viral genome was not detected in any of the effluent samples. Conclusion: We find that HEV is not spread across the population of Portuguese wild boars. Nevertheless we acquired that HEV is in fact present in our country which can cause outbreaks by contaminated water ingestion. We must be alert to HEV infections, even if most of them are asymptomatic, there is a high risk for pregnant women and for immunosuppressed population, and until the moment no effective and risk free treatment is available either to a possible chronic infection or even to a clinical symptomatic infection for the general population.Introdução: O vírus da hepatite E (HEV) pertence ao género Hepevirus da família Hepeviridae. O HEV é um vírus não envelopado, pequeno e com forma icosaédrica com 30- 32 nm de diâmetro e genoma (+) ssRNA. Existem 4 genótipos do vírus (1-4). Os genótipos 1 e 2 estão associados a infecções exclusivamente humanas. Os genótipos 3 e 4 podem infectar suínos e outros mamíferos além dos humanos. O HEV é responsável por provocar geralmente uma hepatite aguda, sendo mais frequente em países em desenvolvimento. A principal via de transmissão do vírus é a via fecal-oral através da ingestão de águas ou alimentos contaminados. Nas regiões desenvolvidas os genótipos 3 e 4 podem ser responsáveis por focos de infecção devido ao potencial zoonótico. Objectivo: Avaliar a prevalência da infecção por HEV em javalis e veado de forma a testar a presença do vírus em águas residuais, de forma a avaliar o risco para a saúde pública causado pelo HEV, em Portugal. Métodos: Trinta amostras de fezes de javalis e veado, 28 amostras de bílis de javali e ainda 30 amostras de águas residuais (15 amostras da entrada da ETAR (Estação de Tratamento de Águas Residuais) e 15 amostras da saída da ETAR), de vários locais do país, foram submetidas a extração do ácido nucleico seguida por amplificação RT-PCR em Tempo Real, para detectar a presença do genoma viral do HEV. Resultados: Não foi encontrado RNA do HEV em nenhuma amostra de fezes ou de bílis nos animais em estudo. Nas águas, 2 (13.3%) das 15 amostras colhidas à entrada das ETARs revelaram-se positivas para a presença do genoma do HEV, mas não foi encontrado genoma viral em nenhuma das amostras colhidas à saída da ETAR. Conclusões: Os resultados do presente estudo sugerem que o HEV ainda não se encontra disseminado pela população de javalis de Portugal. No entanto o HEV está presente no sistema de águas de Portugal e poderá causar epidemias através da ingestão de água contaminada com o vírus. Devemos estar alerta para as infecções causadas por HEV ainda que a maioria delas seja assintomática, uma vez que existe um risco maior para grávidas e doentes imunodeprimidos. Este risco é acrescido por não existir ainda um tratamento eficaz e sem contra-indicações para combater possíveis infecções sintomáticas ou ainda infecções crónicas, quer nos indivíduos saudáveis quer em imunodeprimidos

MultiVENT: Multilingual Videos of Events with Aligned Natural Text

Everyday news coverage has shifted from traditional broadcasts towards a wide range of presentation formats such as first-hand, unedited video footage. Datasets that reflect the diverse array of multimodal, multilingual news sources available online could be used to teach models to benefit from this shift, but existing news video datasets focus on traditional news broadcasts produced for English-speaking audiences. We address this limitation by constructing MultiVENT, a dataset of multilingual, event-centric videos grounded in text documents across five target languages. MultiVENT includes both news broadcast videos and non-professional event footage, which we use to analyze the state of online news videos and how they can be leveraged to build robust, factually accurate models. Finally, we provide a model for complex, multilingual video retrieval to serve as a baseline for information retrieval using MultiVENT

Non-Markov Policies to Reduce Sequential Failures in Robot Bin Picking

A new generation of automated bin picking systems using deep learning is evolving to support increasing demand for e-commerce. To accommodate a wide variety of products, many automated systems include multiple gripper types and/or tool changers. However, for some objects, sequential grasp failures are common: when a computed grasp fails to lift and remove the object, the bin is often left unchanged; as the sensor input is consistent, the system retries the same grasp over and over, resulting in a significant reduction in mean successful picks per hour (MPPH). Based on an empirical study of sequential failures, we characterize a class of "sequential failure objects" (SFOs) -- objects prone to sequential failures based on a novel taxonomy. We then propose three non-Markov picking policies that incorporate memory of past failures to modify subsequent actions. Simulation experiments on SFO models and the EGAD dataset suggest that the non-Markov policies significantly outperform the Markov policy in terms of the sequential failure rate and MPPH. In physical experiments on 50 heaps of 12 SFOs the most effective Non-Markov policy increased MPPH over the Dex-Net Markov policy by 107%.Comment: 2020 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE

2009 Alaska Health Workforce Vacancy Study

Alaska continues to experience health professional shortages. The state has long had a deficient “supply side” characterized by insufficient numbers of key health workers whose recruitment, retention, and training have been impeded by Alaska’s remoteness, harsh climate, rural isolation, low population density, and scarce training resources. Alaska is the only state without a pharmacy school and lacks its own dental and physical therapy schools as well. Health professional shortages can be decreased through the start of new training programs, the expansion of existing programs, and the improvement of the effectiveness of recruitment and retention efforts. However, strategic planning and the execution of such programs require valid and accurate data. To this end, stakeholders such as the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority (AMHTA) and Alaskan's For Access to Health Care (ACCESS), along with schools and departments within the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), funded the Alaska Center for Rural Health-Alaska’s AHEC (ACRH) and the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) to conduct a comprehensive health workforce study during winter and spring of 2009. This report highlights employers’ needs for employees to fill budgeted positions. This is different from a needs assessment that would take into account population demographics and disease incidence and prevalence. This health workforce study is an assessment of health manpower shortage based on budgeted staff positions and their vacancies in organizations throughout the state. Respondents included part-time positions, which resulted in our counting full-time equivalent (FTE) rather than individuals (“bodies”). In situations where a position was divided among more than one occupation (e.g., Dental Assistant and Billing Clerk), we asked the respondent to count the position under which they considered the position’s “primary occupation.” This was a point-in-time cross-sectional study. Recently filled vacancies or imminent vacancies were not counted. Positions filled by relief/temporary/locum/contract health workers were counted as vacancies only if these workers were temporarily filling a currently vacant, budgeted position. Due to budget and time constraints, we were not able to conduct a trend analysis that is a comparison of this study’s findings and the prior 2007 study. The key questions this study sought to answer were (1) How many budgeted positions, either full- or part-time, existed in organizations providing health services in Alaska? (2) How many of these budgeted positions were currently vacant? (3) What was the vacancy rate? (4) How many of the organizations that employ these occupations hired new graduates of training programs? (5) How many of the currently vacant budgeted positions (#2) could be filled by new graduates of training programs? (6) What were the mean and maximum length of time, expressed in months, that the vacancies have existed? (7) What were the principal, underlying causes of vacancies? The study was designed in consultation with an advisory group that included AMHTA, ACCESS, and UAA. The study targeted 93 health occupations. The unit of analysis was the employment site by organization type, which allowed for the allocation of positions and vacancies by geographic region. For each employer, we identified the staff person most knowledgeable about hiring and vacancies. In large organizations this meant that one employer might provide information about multiple sites and organization types; smaller employers were responsible for only a single site.Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority. Alaskan's for Access to Health Care. University of Alaska Fairbanks, Tanana Valley campus Telemedicine program. University of Alaska Anchorage, Community and Technical College. University of Alaska Anchorage, School of Nursing.Acknowledgements / Executive Summary / Table of Contents / Problem and Rationale / Methodology / Limitations of Study / Findings / Appendix A. List of Health Occupations / Appendix B. Health Workforce Surveys / Appendix C. Cover Letter Accompanying Survey Forms / Appendix D. Confidence Intervals for Positions, Vacancies, Number of Vacancies Filled with New Graduates, and Length of Longest Vacancy in Months / Appendix E. Tables of Samples and Estimates of Positions, Vacancies, Vacancy Rates, Number of Vacancies Filled with New Graduates, Mean and Maximum Length of Longest Vacancy in Months / Appendix F. Tables of Occupations Sorted By Estimates of Positions, Vacancies, Vacancy Rates, Number of Vacancies Filled with New Graduates, Mean and Maximum Length of Longest Vacancy in Month