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Patient-provider communication about pregnancy and HIV among female sex workers living with HIV in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
No full textBMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, Volume 19, Issue 1, 21 November 2019, Article number 427.Background: Health providers can play an important role in communication about pregnancy, particularly for women at increased risk for pregnancy complications, including female sex workers (FSWs) living with HIV. This study explored factors related to patient-provider communication about pregnancy among 253 FSWs living with HIV of reproductive age in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Methods: A cross-sectional design was employed including structured socio-behavioral surveys. Data were analyzed utilizing bivariate and multivariate logistic regression. Results: Of the 253 FSWs living with HIV in this study, 95.7% had been pregnant at least once (median: 4; IQR: 3,6), 28.0% wanted more children and 36% reported a pregnancy after HIV diagnosis. Over half of participants (58.0%) reported having ever spoken to a health provider about pregnancy while living with HIV. Multivariate logistic regression found significant associations between having spoken to a health provider about HIV in pregnancy and a more positive perception of their provider (AOR: 2.0; 95% CI: 1.0, 2.5) and years since HIV diagnosis (AOR: 1.1; 95% CI: 1.0, 1.1). Participants were less likely to speak with a provider if they had a history of drug use (AOR: 0.4; 95% CI: 0.2, 0.9) or current alcohol use (AOR: 0.5; 95% CI: 0.3, 0.9). Conclusion: Findings highlight the importance of non-judgmental and tailored provider-initiated conversations surrounding pregnancy. Future research is needed to better understand how and when pregnancy communication is initiated, as well as the content of clinical care conversations, to address the reproductive health of FSWs living with HIV
Estimating preferential pairing in polyploids
No full textPolyploids (organisms with more than two copies of each chromosome) exhibit more complicated meiotic behavior compared to diploids. In diploids, two homologous chromosomes pair and separate during meiosis. However, multiple pairing configurations between chromosomes are possible in polyploids. This pairing behavior characterizes import classes of polyploids. With the growth of next-generation sequencing (NGS), non-model organisms are being studied and their meiotic behavior is of interest. However, no method currently exists to estimate interpretable parameters that characterize the degree and strength of preferential pairing during meiosis directly from genotypes, which are typical outputs of NGS data. In this thesis, we describe a way to directly estimate levels preferential pairing at individual loci using genotype data derived from NGS data. However, data from one locus are not able to identify interpretable parameters of interest. Thus, we provide a way to combine information between loci using a novel model-based clustering approach to obtain parameter estimates that are interpretable for the scientific community. We evaluate our methods on simulated data.StatisticsMathematics and StatisticsDegree Awarded: M.S. Mathematics and Statistics. American Universit
Three decades of globalisation: which countries won, which lost?
No full textWorld Economy, Volume 43, Issue 4, 1 April 2020, Pages 1076-1102.The world average exports-to-GDP ratio increased from 17% in 1985 to 27% in 2015. Hence, world exports have grown much faster than world GDP. However, despite this overall trade integration, which is a key aspect of globalisation, the exports-to-GDP ratios have declined for 29 of the 118 countries with such data from 1985 to 2015. Some countries have been driving globalisation, while others have become marginalised. This paper examines three decades of globalisation to shed some light upon which countries might be considered winners and which countries might be considered losers of globalisation. After summarising the evolution of income and income per capita, we examine the evolution of exports and net inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI). Contradictory to previous decades, we show there are now many countries from all income groups that have either experienced marginalisation or been driving globalisation. We then use novel regression analysis to review the robustness of generally accepted drivers of globalisation and marginalisation, with education and macroeconomic stability being the two most robust determinants
Suzanne Des Marais takes a selfie while wearing a surgical mask and gloves
No full textSuzanne Des Marais takes a selfie with her iPhone while wearing a surgical mask and gloves. She is a Realtor preparing for a virtual tour of a house
Signs supporting garbage collectors at The Car Barn Condominiums
No full textTwo signs are taped together with blue tape and hang outside at The Car Barn Condominiums. The top sign says 'GARBAGE COLLECTOR' in yellow and red font. The bottom sign continues the message with 'WE LOVE YOU', indicating love with a multicolor heart symbol made of an outline of smaller hearts
Boarded up windows and doors at the Line D.C.
No full textBoarded up windows and doors outside of the Line DC Hotel
Direct Mass Measurements and Light Curve Modeling for Planets Discovered by Gravitational Microlensing
No full textThe gravitational microlensing phenomenon occurs when light from a background star (the source) is lensed by a foreground massive object (the lens) as viewed from an observer. The lens is usually a stellar mass object, but can also be a stellar remnant like a white dwarf or even a black hole. If the lens object has a planet orbiting at a particular distance, this can cause additional lensing due to the planetary object. When the light curve for such a microlensing event is properly modeled, this can reveal the existence of planets. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman) will conduct the first ever microlensing survey from space. It will monitor millions of stars toward the Galactic center and is expected to discover over 1400 bound exoplanets, as well as several free-floating exoplanets. This mission will complement our current understanding of exoplanet demographics by discovering colder exoplanets that orbit their stars at distances at or beyond the snow line, which has not yet been substantially probed. This dissertation can be broken into two major parts. First, I perform a detailed study of Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images inside the Stanek window, which is a relatively clear sight-line toward the Galactic center that is directly adjacent to the proposed Roman microlensing fields. The multi-epoch HST observations allow me to disentangle the foreground disk stars from the Galactic bulge stars by precisely measuring relative proper motions between the two populations. I then measure the bulge-only stellar surface density and compare these results to several Galactic population synthesis models. I find that most of the models underpredict low-mass bulge stars by 33% below the main-sequence turnoff, and upwards of 70% at redder J and H wavebands. These near-infrared wavelengths overlap the wavelength coverage that Roman will use during its microlensing survey. My work to determine the source magnitude distribution for bulge stars in the proposed Roman field is essential for maximizing the scientific yields of the mission. Second, I have conducted an Adaptive Optics (AO) analysis of images from the Keck-II telescope Near-Infrared Camera 2 (NIRC2) instrument of the planetary microlensing event MOA-2009-BLG-319. The 10-year baseline between the event and the Keck observations allows the planetary host star to be detected at a separation of 66.5 ± 1.7 milliarcseconds from the source star, consistent with the light curve model prediction. This analysis yields the host star and planet masses of Mhost = 0.516 ± 0.060 solar masses and Mplanet = 66.3 ± 7.7 Earth masses at a distance of DL = 7.0 ± 0.7 kiloparsecs from Earth. This planet resides in the “planet desert” predicted by the runaway gas accretion scenario. There have now been several microlensing planets with measured masses that lie in this gap, thus it appears that runaway gas accretion may not play a major role in determining giant planet masses for stars somewhat less massive than the Sun. As part of this work, I developed a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) package that can retrieve precise astrometric and flux fits for highly blended stars. This was previously inaccessible in Keck AO imaging, and the routine has now been used to analyze several more targets. This will ultimately aid in the development of the primary method that the Roman mission will use to determine the masses of microlensing planets and their hosts.PhysicsAstrophysicsExoplanet, Microlensing, Modeling, Roman Space TelescopePhysicsDegree Awarded: Ph.D. Physics. The Catholic University of Americ