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Mathematical modeling, analysis, and simulation of Cholera dynamics
Get PDFWe propose multiple models to investigate the transmission dynamics of cholera. At first, we consider the intrinsic growth of cholera bacteria in cholera transmission and find that the regular threshold dynamics take place if the intrinsic growth is logistic; there are multiple endemic equilibria if the growth exhibits Allee effects, which may lead to backward bifurcation and forward hysteresis. In addition, we introduce a multi-scale modeling framework. At the population level, a Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) model for the between-host transmission of cholera is employed. At the individual host level, the evolution of the pathogen within the human body is incorporated. The between-host and within-host dynamics are connected through an environmental equation that characterizes the growth of the pathogen and its interaction with the hosts outside the human body. We put a special emphasis on the within-host dynamics by making a distinction for each individual host. We conduct both mathematical analysis and numerical simulation for the model in order to explore various scenarios associated with cholera transmission and to better understand the complex, multi-scale disease dynamics. Finally, we analyze the impact of available medical resources on cholera transmission by taking a realistic case: Yemen cholera outbreak during 2017-2018. By fitting our simulation results to the epidemic data published by the World Health Organization (WHO), we find that different levels of disease prevalence and severity are linked to different geographical regions in this country and that cholera prevention and intervention efforts should be implemented strategically with respect to these regions in Yemen
A meta-analysis of the human uses of pteridophytic species in Tennessee
Get PDFPteridophytes are an ancient lineage of plants, composed of ferns and fern allies, which are spread across the globe. There is also a long record of humans using pteridophytes to their benefit, which includes the broad categories of medicine, ornamentation, food, phytoremediation, and agriculture. Understanding these concepts, the goal of this thesis was to conduct a meta-analysis which pulled together data from many resources on the 94 Tennessee pteridophyte species to create a repository of human use information, as well as to examine, analyze, and comment on the trends present within and between taxonomic groups of pteridophytes. The methods used were meta-analytic, which included identifying appropriate databases and search strings, determining relevance of sources, and organizing and analyzing raw data from those sources. The results section taxonomically describes reported human uses to highlight trends across taxa. The broad results are that 29 Tennessee pteridophyte genera had reported human use, while 13 genera did not. Furthermore, the human use categories with most to least reported use are medicinal (593 uses), ornamental (125 uses), food (83 uses), phytoremediation (72 uses), and agricultural (63 uses). Tennessee pteridophyte species have been shown to offer many human benefits, so this thesis brings greater awareness to scientific researchers and the public about the wealth of resources pteridophytes can provide. The appendix to this thesis is organized taxonomically and includes a note about every relevant human use from all the sources examined
FACTORS RELATED TO SUBSEQUENT ADOLESCENT PREGNANCY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Get PDFObjectives: Adolescents with subsequent pregnancies in the Dominican Republic represent a significant but poorly understood population with little available data to inform health care services. The objective of this exploratory study was to begin to characterize this important cohort. Methods: A survey of demographic items and a sexual and obstetrical history was administered to 50 adolescents with subsequent pregnancies in La Romana, Dominican Republic. Results: Most participants were married (78%) and exclusively economically dependent on their partner (72%) and nearly half (48%) stopped attending school. Twelve percent reported having intended their current pregnancy. Conclusions: Adolescents with subsequent pregnancies were dependent on partners in the form of living conditions and marriage, economic dependence and unemployment, and lack of education
Digital resources for pain management: Psychologists\u27 perspectives and suggestions
Get PDFChronic pain has high prevalence, complexity, psychosocial and economic impact. There is a growing interest in the development and use of digital resources accessed through electronic devices for pain management. Qualitative interviews with eight registered psychologists explored their perspectives of and suggestions regarding digital resources for pain management. Six overarching themes were identified, indicating that digital resources are perceived as useful. Difficulties were identified pertaining to digital social support and client-decision making, plus perceived barriers and facilitators for digital resource use. Participants offered suggestions about what an ideal digital resource would incorporate. These findings may inform the modification of existing resources, and the formulation of additional appropriate and tailored co-designed digital resources for the management of chronic pain
An active shooter training video and the extended parallel process model: The role of dismissive contexts
Get PDFIt is not unreasonable for organizations to be interested in preparing their employees for an active shooter event. One mode of doing so is to require that employees view an active shooter training video. Little research, however, has examined the effectiveness of such videos. The current proposal examines the Avoid Deny Defend (ADD) active shooter training video. The effectiveness of the video may be understood in terms of the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM). The EPPM explains how fear appeals—or messages that arouse fear in order to persuade one to adopt recommended behaviors—can be successful. The model posits that fear appeals must be high in perceived threat and perceived efficacy. That is, messages must display that the threat in question is severe and that individuals are susceptible to it. Additionally, fear appeals must recommend behaviors that are perceived to be effective and easy to adopt. Once fear is aroused and perceived threat is high, individuals will attempt to reduce their fear in one of two ways, depending on the perceived efficacy of the appeal. If the fear appeal is high in perceived threat and efficacy, then individuals will display a danger control response by adopting the recommended behaviors. If the fear appeal is high in perceived threat but low in perceived efficacy, then individuals will display a fear control response by ridiculing or dismissing the message. The current proposal hypothesizes that the ADD video will produce high threat and efficacy perceptions, therefore eliciting a danger control response in participants. Very little research, however, has examined the context in which fear appeals take place. The current proposal examines how dismissive contexts may weaken danger control responses and foster fear control responses, limiting employees’ intentions to adopt and self-reported adoption of the recommended behaviors in active shooter training videos. Specifically, the proposal hypothesizes that context moderates the threat-response strength and efficacy-response type relationships. Undergraduate students (N = 100) will be recruited and randomly assigned to control and experimental conditions. Participants will rate their perceived threat and efficacy before and after viewing the ADD video. Danger and fear control responses will be measured after the video. In the experimental condition, participants will complete the study alongside a dismissive confederate joking about and ridiculing the video. Independent samples t-tests, correlations, and regressions will be used to test the study hypotheses
Hey, Are You Busy Right Now? Stressor Appraisals of Interruptions to Workflow
Get PDFAcademic research has studied interruptions to workflow under the pretext that all face-to-face interruptions are negative events, finding that frequent interruptions cause increases in employee stress and productivity loss. However, it is likely that not all interruptions are perceived as stressful by employees. Some interruptions could even be considered rejuvenating experiences that provide employees with renewed energy to return to their work tasks. We propose that employees’ stressor appraisals of various interruption events vary due to the characteristics of the event such as the content of the conversation and the length of the interaction. The proposed study is designed to tap into a largely unexplored dimension in the relationship between workflow interruptions and employee stress and well-being. It will explore three different interruption characteristics and determine whether or not they cause variability in employee well-being. Specifically, the study aims to explore how employee stressor appraisals and perceived energy change when the domain (work vs social), duration (long vs short), and urgency (high vs low) of an interruption are manipulated using a vignette technique
Workplace Telepressure and Workaholism: ICT Boundary Creation as a Potential Moderator
Get PDFThe goal of this study is to investigate the relationships between workplace telepressure, workaholism, and information and communication technology (ICT) boundary creation. Workaholism is the compulsive need to work incessantly (Oates, 1971). It has been linked with adverse effects such as work stress, sleep problems, burnout, physical complaints, and lower mental health (Andreassen et al., 2018; Clark et al., 2016). A work-related construct associated with similar negative outcomes (e.g., physical exhaustion, burnout, sleep problems, and poor work-life balance; Barber et al., 2019; Kao et al., 2020; Santuzzi & Barber, 2018) is workplace telepressure. Workplace telepressure is the urge and preoccupation to respond to work-related messages (Barber & Santuzzi, 2015). In our proposed study, we will examine the relationship between workaholism and workplace telepressure and test ICT boundary creation as a potential moderator. ICT boundary creation, the restrictions one sets for using ICTs for work, will be tested as a moderator because it could be part of a solution to minimize the negative effects affiliated with workaholism and workplace telepressure (Barber & Santuzzi, 2015). If significant results are found, organizations could alter their policies to promote separating work and personal life, thus lowering harmful consequences associated with both workplace telepressure and workaholism. Due to their similar associations with other organizational constructs, we expect workaholism will be positively related to workplace telepressure (H1). Furthermore, since ICT boundary creation allows workers to separate their work and home life, we hypothesize ICT boundary creation will be negatively related to workplace telepressure (H2a) and workaholism (H2b). Lastly, we expect ICT boundary creation will moderate the relationship between workaholism and workplace telepressure, such that the greater the level of ICT boundary creation, the weaker the relationship between them (H3). The participants will consist of full-time staff and faculty recruited through an online email distribution at a Southeastern university. The proposed hypotheses will be analyzed using correlations and multiple regression analysis. Moreover, the potential moderating influence of ICT boundary creation will be investigated through a PROCESS Hayes (2014) analysis
Impact of advanced energy recovery system on light commercial building
Get PDFCommercial buildings such as educational and commercial offices require large amounts of fresh air to maintain the indoor air quality as required by the building codes. This raises the energy costs of the buildings, especially when the number of occupants are large. In order to reduce the energy costs, traditionally, energy is recovered from the outgoing exhaust air to the incoming fresh air by use of various energy recovery technologies. The proposed advanced energy recovery system consists of desiccant, and heat wheels along with an indirect evaporative cooler (M-cycle). When this system is integrated into the air-conditioning system of the building it has a potential to significantly reduce the energy costs, and pave the way for use of PV/T panels to make the building a zero energy building
Awakening from androcentrism: calls for measurement of gender and sexuality in criminology
Get PDFIn recent years, calls have been made to progress the inclusivity of criminology, a field historically dominated by males. While specialty journals, such as Feminist Criminology, permit and encourage inclusive and progressive conceptualizations of social constructs such as gender and sexuality, these recent calls have noted mainstream criminology’s historical reluctance to such progress. The current study examined articles published in the past five years in a mainstream criminological journal and a well-respected victimization journal to examine inclusion and conceptualization of gender and sexuality. Gender and sexuality were included more in the diversity-focused victimization journal that was analyzed, compared to the mainstream criminological journal analyzed. However, conceptualizations of these constructs in both journals rarely fell outside of a binary measure, which suggests that the measurement and inclusion of gender and sexuality are still lacking, and within the field of criminology and victimology calls for inclusivity have not been fully heeded
Complex conversations: a creative exploration into language used over direct messages on social media platforms
Get PDFThis paper details a series of paintings that explore how the language used virtually over direct messages (DMs) on social media platforms can allude to how complex notions of gender, violence, and behavior function in reality. This research questions how forms of communication or interaction exist within different spaces and contexts, as well as how the recontextualization of language can disrupt power and produce new forms of interpretation. This paper acts as a secondary source of knowledge in relation to the paintings under review and provides further explanation of their conceptual motivations. In particular, the paintings engage with Sara Ahmed’s theory of “sweaty concepts” through the process of laying handwriting in paint because both entities leave an irreversible mark behind, one that can be painted over but never fully erased