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Political Agency in the Occupied House: Reconstructing Memory through Squatter Resilience at Topf and Sons Historical Museum
Get PDFDuring the Holocaust the company of J.A Topf and Sons refocused their production to produce and improve a design for corpse incineration ovens. Their contributions streamlined the efficiency and performance of the death camps adding to the mounting death toll. Years after these evens the company grounds were abandoned and then given life again by a leftist youth movement. The squatter’s reinterpreted the history, led tours and utilized the grounds to create a third place for community, art and music. When the city decided to recognize the history of the company, the squatters were forcefully removed, and the building transformed into Topf and Sons Historical Museum. This research explores how different groups utilize Holocaust memory to pursue divergent political and social goals. The research highlights the evolving perspectives on historical responsibility and collective memory in Germany, revealing the tensions between grassroots activism and institutionalized commemoratio
Genetic Knowledge and Causal Beliefs: Implications for Health Behavior in Clinical and Non-Clinical Samples
Get PDFObjective: As the genomic era in healthcare continues to surge, it is vital to examine genetically-related psychological concepts, such as genetic knowledge and genetic causal beliefs, in genetically relevant clinical groups. Parents /caregivers of children born with cleft lip and/or palate represent a population whose knowledge and beliefs about genetics may be influenced by their frequent utilization of genetically-related healthcare services (e.g., genetic testing and genetic counseling). To date, little is known about how such beliefs vary across disease types. Even less is known regarding how disease-specific genetic causal beliefs relate to perceived behavioral control for disease development. Method: A cross-sectional design was conducted to examine genetic knowledge, genetic causal beliefs for selected diseases, and perceived behavioral control over disease development in a clinical sample of parents/caregivers of children born with cleft lip and/or palate and a non-clinical parent/caregiver comparison group (N = 293). Study group differences in genetic knowledge and disease-specific genetic causal beliefs were assessed. Variations between genetic causal beliefs across disease types (i.e., general medical diseases, neurological diseases, oral health diseases, and psychological diseases) were explored. Ordinary least squares linear regression modeling was used to examine the association between genetic causal beliefs and perceived behavioral control over disease development. Results: Parents/caregivers of children born with cleft lip and/or palate received significantly higher genetic knowledge scores compared to non-clinical parents/caregivers [t(1, 291) = 4.45, p \u3c .001]. Parents/caregivers of children born with cleft lip and/or palate held greater genetic causal beliefs toward oral health diseases compared to non-clinical parents/caregivers [t(1, 291) = 3.03, p = .003]. Genetic causal beliefs varied significantly between each disease type (p \u3c .01). Greater disease-specific genetic causal beliefs were significantly associated with lower perceived behavioral control over disease development, r(291) = -.56, p \u3c .001. Conclusion: Study findings suggest that health behavior interventions aimed at increasing perceived behavioral control over specific diseases would benefit from targeting reductions in disease-specific genetic causal beliefs, perhaps through genetic education. Moreover, concepts such as genetic knowledge and genetic causal beliefs are critical to investigate in the context of the growing use of genetics in healthcare. For parents/caregivers of children born with cleft lip and/or palate, further development of genetic education materials and interventions could improve informed medical decision-making and utilization of genetic testing
Three Essays in Urban and Regional Economics
Get PDFThis dissertation Three Essays in Urban and Regional Economics contains three chapters which explore urban and regional economics. The first chapters focuses on examining the effect of stadiums on congestion; the second chapter on the effect of military base closures on the housing market; and the third chapter is a meta-analysis on historical instrumental variables.
The first chapter examines the effect of National Football League games on traffic congestion in Cincinnati, Ohio; Seattle, Washington; and Santa Clara, California during the 2018 and 2019 seasons. By linking sporting events to traffic congestion, this paper provides the mechanism for stadiums generating additional externalities such as pollution and lower emergency vehicle response rates. Additionally, by utilizing Uber\u27s high-frequency vehicle movement speed data at the hourly level on individual road segments, this paper breaks from traditional annualized data which captures traffic conditions peripheral to those generated by stadiums. This paper finds traffic speed declines range from 0.32 to 4 miles per hour, up to 7-miles from a stadium. Converting the average speed decline into a time delay, and utilizing the average city wage provides a congestion cost estimate ranging from \$108,000 - \$19 million per NFL home game.
The second chapter examines the effect of the US government\u27s Base Closure and Realignment policy on counties in the US from 1998 and 2020 on the housing price index. The policy was announced in 2005, and saw military bases across the US being permanently shut-down or realigned to other military purposes from 2007 to 2011. This paper expands on the current literature by examining the changes in the housing price index using fixed effects difference in difference model. The results show that military base closures had a positive impact on the housing price index, but a negative impact on the growth of the housing price index. This suggest that after the 2005 BRACs announcement, there was an increase in the housing price index due to higher demand, but lower growth compared to counties without a military base.
The third chapter examines the exclusion restriction\u27s role in ensuring that the historical instrumental variable only affects the dependent variable through the independent variable in instrumental variable regression models. However, the elapsed time between the historical instrument and contemporary covariates may allow alternative channels of influence to develop between the historical instrument and contemporaneous variables. These channels can lead to persistence in unobserved historical covariates, violating the exclusion restriction. This paper analyzes potential bias generated by the time elapsed between the measurement of infrastructure historical instruments and contemporary covariates on reported IV results in the urban and regional economics literature
Influence of Scaling and Root Planing with Minocycline Microspheres on Clinical Outcomes of Patients with Periodontitis
Get PDFBackground: Scaling and root planning (SRP) has been established as a “gold-standard” non-surgical initial treatment for periodontitis. Along with SRP, some systemic adjuncts like systemic antibiotics were used in the past to gain maximum benefits of SRP by reducing the need for further periodontal surgeries. Due to some drawbacks of systemic antibiotic use, like “transient antibiotic resistance”, “non-adherence” and “insufficient concentrations in the periodontal pockets to be clinically effective”, there was a shift towards the use of local antibiotic adjuncts to SRP like minocycline, tetracycline, chlorhexidine etc. Minocycline is a semi-synthetic tetracycline derivative which is available in a powder form, clinically marketed as “Arestin*”. With its property of substantivity (remains active in the periodontal pocket upto 7-10 days and releases minocycline till 14 days) and dual mode of action(bactericidal and minimize tissue destruction), it seems to be clinically effective as an adjunct to SRP, however, the evidence is heterogenous.
Aim: To identify the change in proportion of sites with residual periodontal pocket depth (PD) \u3e/=5mm in a patient with periodontitis when treated with initial non-surgical therapy of SRP alone or in combination with locally administered minocycline microspheres(MM, Arestin*). Also to detect any difference within groups(SRP alone v/s SRP + MM) and amongst groups from baseline to final follow up visit for different PD categories of shallow (PD 1-4mm), moderately deep(5-6mm) and deep (\u3e/=7mm) and bleeding on probing(BOP) and furcation involvement(FI).(This study is a part of the larger study aiming to detect the compositional and functional difference in the microbiome of the subgingival plaque samples obtained from different PD categories for patients with periodontitis before and after treatment with either SRP alone or SRP + MM and compare it with healthy patients.)
Materials and Methods: This was a randomized clinical trial. 28 Stage II, III or IV periodontitis patients were enrolled in the study. There were 4 visits in the study. 1st visit consisted of enrolment, periodontal exam and radiographic exam. 2nd visit was scheduled after 2 weeks of 1st visit and entailed removal of supragingival plaque from shallow, moderately deep and deep PD sites, collection of subgingival plaque from these sites. 3rd visit included the treatment with either SRP alone or in combination with MM. 4th visit was scheduled after 2 months of 3rd visit and plaque samples were collected the same way from the same sites as visit 2, followed by periodontal exam.
Results: From a total of 28 patients, 4 patients dropped out and data for 24 patients was available for analysis. Out of these 24 patients, 12 patients were in SRP alone group and 12 in SRP + MM group. It was noted that SRP + MM group had 6.79% lesser sites with residual PD \u3e/=5mm than SRP group at final visit and an overall reduction of 49.79% of sites was seen for both treatment groups from baseline to final visit. The reduction in proportion of sites between groups at final visit was not found to be statistically significant(p=0.71) due to a small sample size, however, within-group results from baseline to final visit were statistically significant(p
Conclusion: Within the limitations of this study, it was found that minocycline microspheres, might have some added benefit when used as an adjunct to SRP, especially in patients with known risk factors for periodontal disease(diabetes, smoking) to prevent the number of surgical procedure
Hepatic mRNA Expression of Innate and Adaptive Immune Genes in Beef Steers with Divergent Residual Body Weight Gain
Get PDFImmune system function is critical to maintaining the health and increasing productivity of cattle, affecting both their growth and their disease resistance. In an efficient immune system, the liver assumes an integral function in detoxification and metabolic processes and contributes substantially to overall production and immunity. In this study, we evaluated the hepatic mRNA expression of genes involved in innate and adaptive immunity in crossbred beef steers with either a positive or negative residual body weight gain (RADG). Positive-RADG beef steers (n = 8; RADG = 0.76 kg/d) and negative-RADG beef steers (n = 8; RADG = -0.64 kg/d) were identified from a group of 108 growing crossbred beef steers (average BW = 286± 380kg) after a 56-d performance testing period. At the end of the 56-d period, liver tissue samples were collected from the beef steers for total RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis. The mRNA expression of 84 genes involved in innate and adaptive immunity were analyzed using pathway-focused PCR-based arrays. The mRNA expression of genes with false discovery rate-adjusted P-values (FDR) ≤ 0.05 and absolute fold change (FC) ≥ 1.2 were determined to be differentially expressed. Out of the 84 genes analyzed, four genes (IL-2, MYD88, CD-80, NFkB-1) were differentially expressed. All four genes were upregulated in positive compared with negative-RADG beef steers. Gene ontology pathway enrichment analysis of the differentially expressed genes revealed that pathways related to positive regulation of interleukin-17 production, cellular response to lipopolysaccharide, and positive regulation of lymphocyte activation were enriched in the positive-RADG steers (P ≤ 0.05). In conclusion, our study revealed that positive-RADG beef steers had increased expression of genes and pathways involved in pathogen recognition and initiation of responses to effectively fight off infections while mitigating excess inflammatory reactions compared to negative-RADG steers, which potentially explains, in part, the improved feed efficiency of these beef animals.
Keywords: feed efficiency, immunity, pathogen recognition, gene expression, liver, beef stee
Evaluating the Impact of Ergonomic Interventions on Reducing Knee Musculoskeletal Disorder Risks during Residential Roof Shingle Installation: A Phase-Level Analysis
No full textThe prevalence of knee musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) among roofers due to awkward kneeling postures during shingle installation is a well-recognized concern. While knee-saving interventions like knee savers (KSs) and knee pads (KPs) have shown the potential to reduce MSD risks, their effectiveness across different phases of shingle installation remains unknown. The objective of this study is to assess how interventions of KSs and KPs alleviate the risks of MSDs in the knees during various phases of shingle installation. These phases include (1) reaching for shingles, (2) placing shingles, (3) grabbing a nail gun, (4) moving to the first nailing position, (5) nailing shingles, (6) replacing the nail gun, and (7) returning to an upright position. In a laboratory setting, nine male participants simulated the shingle installation task on a slope-adjustable roof platform (0°, 15°, and 30° slopes) under four intervention conditions: no intervention (NO), with KPs only (KP), with KSs only (KS), and with both KPs and KSs (BO). Knee flexion, abduction, adduction, and internal/external rotations were measured to assess the intervention impact through statistical analysis. One of the riskiest phases, phase 5 (nailing shingles), revealed a decrease in knee rotations, with BO and KP interventions showing the most beneficial results. As a result of the BO intervention, phase 6 (replacing the nail gun) demonstrated significant decreases in all knee rotations, and there were also notable improvements in specific knee angles during other phases. This study emphasizes the importance of employing ergonomic interventions, particularly BO and KP, in the roofing sector to significantly reduce knee strain and the risk of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) during shingle installation, especially at critical phases and on steeper slopes, thereby improving worker health and safety
An Investigation of the Performance of a 140 kW Solar Panel in West Virginia
Get PDFSolar panels are recognized as a viable technology for producing electricity from sunlight. The performance of a solar panel is influenced by factors such as solar irradiance, tilt angle, orientation, shading, panel age, degradation, and various environmental conditions including ambient air temperature, humidity, dust, soil, and snow.
In this research, a mobile solar panel testing system consisting of a mobile cart, a solar panel, and a portable power station was designed and fabricated to evaluate the performance of a solar panel. The battery is equipped with a thermal management system controlling its temperature and charging and discharging system. The current produced is measured by a Hall effect direct current (DC) transducer, and the charging power of the battery is recorded. Solar irradiance was measured using a Seaward Solar Survey 200R irradiance meter. Preliminary testing verified that this system can be used to evaluate the performance and efficiency of solar panels. The impact of tilt angle, irradiance, ambient air temperature, humidity, and solar panel temperature on the performance and efficiency of a REC Solar Alpha REC375AA solar panel can be investigated. Performance analysis showed that the maximum efficiency of this panel was obtained between 11:00 AM and 1:45 PM when the solar irradiance exceeded 800 W/m² on June 21, 2024. The average efficiency of the solar panel throughout the experiment was 17.72%.
This research also presents a performance and status assessment of a 140-kW solar array installed on the rooftop of the Mountain Line Transit Authority (MLTA) building in Morgantown, West Virginia (WV). The total electricity produced from January 1st, 2013, to December 31, 2023, was 1,518,832 kWh, with an average annual production of 138,076 kWh. Correspondingly, the CO2 emissions reduction from this array was approximately 1,347,204 kg over the 11-year period, roughly 122,473 kg/year on average compared to conventional power plants in WV. The highest and lowest average daily capacity utilization hours (CUH) were recorded in June (4.53 h) and January (1.04 h), respectively. The average daily and annual CUH throughout the past 11 years of the solar panel system were 2.73 h and 995 h, respectively. The current average PV array efficiency was found to be 10.70% in April 2024. Additionally, the maximum efficiency of 14.30% was observed at 2:00 PM.
Finally, a methodology for evaluating the degradation of this 140-kW solar panel performance was developed. It was assumed that the panel productivity depends on solar energy received and panel efficiency, factoring out shadow blockage, with weather or cloud being the only factors affecting the performance. It was found that the best performance of this panel decreased by 2.28% each year from 2013 to 2016, and then became relatively stable from 2017 to 2023. This methodology assumes that there is at least one sunny day each month, which may not always be correct but is true at a very high percentage.
The results achieved in this research help us to better understand the performance of solar panel systems and their degradation with time. The mobile solar panel testing system developed in this project can be used to evaluate the efficiency of solar panel and evaluate the efficiency of solar panel-battery system efficiency
