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ON THE FOOD SOVEREIGNTY PATH: ESTABLISHING A HYBRID FOR-PROFIT/NONPROFIT AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE ON THE NAVAJO NATION TO IMPROVE EARLY CHILDHOOD NUTRITION
Get PDFTheory: Food insecurity continues to proliferate on the Navajo Nation. To combat this, it is critical that more indigenous farmers find innovative ways to navigate systemic structural challenges and increase agricultural production. Toward this end, this study examines the organizational strategies, economic opportunities, potential for growth and key results of establishing on the Navajo Nation an agricultural cooperative that combines for-profit and nonprofit entities, under a so-called “hybrid model,” to improve nutrition and population health outcomes in early childhood (0-5 years) and beyond.
Methods: This study uses the Johns Hopkins University “Workplace Challenge” dissertation framework, consisting of an organizational assessment, economic evaluation, plan for new service/program and discussion of implications. I apply it to two entities: Bidii Baby Foods (BBF), a for-profit Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) and the first agricultural cooperative registered domestically on the Navajo Nation; and the BEN Initiative, a not-for-profit corporation registered in the State of New Mexico and recognized as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Code. For the organizational assessment I use the Balanced Scorecard strategic planning and management tool to develop and apply key indicators to Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) performance data. Using a Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis, I conduct an economic evaluation and score the social impact of the hybrid model on the healthcare costs associated with treating childhood overweight and obesity. In the Plan for New Program component, I combine a literature review, conceptual framework and implementation planning to identify best practices in developing a successful “farmer incubator” training/mentoring program.
Results: The Balanced Scorecard assessment of the BBF/BEN Initiative hybrid model focuses on four domains using FY22 data: Financial, Customer, Learning & Growth and Internal Business. I analyzed each and identified six areas for improvement. I calculated the running costs of a scaled-up five-year program designed to meet the nutritional demands of Navajo Nation children aged 0-5 years and found the hybrid model achieved a 3:1 SROI.
Conclusion: The BBF/BEN Initiative hybrid provides a unique and effective business model for increasing food sovereignty and improving early childhood nutrition on the Navajo Nation
«Tam de Tristibus quam de Ponto»: Latin Education and the First Volume of Poetry Published in Colonial Mexico
No full textThe aim of my dissertation is to examine «P[ublii] Ovidii Nasonis tam de Tristibus quam de Ponto, una cum elegantissimis quibusdam carminibus divi Gregorij Nazianzeni» (“Both the Tristia and the [Epistulae ex] Ponto by Publius Ovidius Naso, together with some very exquisite poems by Saint Gregory of Nazianzus”), an early modern anthology of Latin poetry printed in the late sixteenth century in New Spain, as colonial Mexico was called, as a basis for understanding the transmission of classical humanism to the early Americas and the education of elites in colonial Mexico.
The volume, published anonymous in the Jesuit College of San Pedro and Pablo in Mexico City in 1577, is the first volume of poetry in any language to be printed in Mexico and contains texts excerpted from classical, medieval, and humanist works, both of Latin and Greek provenance, both pagan and Christian.
Since the book survives in only one complete copy and is unstudied and unedited, this dissertation presents an edited transcription preceded by three interpretive essays, providing an account of its historical, pedagogical, and literary contexts. A set of appendices offers further insights on the history of the production, circulation, and transmission of this anthology
Institutional Barriers to Innovation in Public Education: A Case Study in Innovation in Public Education in Washington State
Get PDFInnovation in public education is restricted by the forces of institutionalism, namely mimetic, normative, and coercive isomorphism. As a result, school leaders struggle to find ways to innovative to meet the unique demands of their students, often conforming to district, state, and federal policies that prevent them from designing new school systems and practices. In Tacoma, WA a school leader acted as an educational entrepreneur, designing and opening three high schools inside the third-largest public school district in Washington State over the course of two decades. Using a theory of strong ties, this case study explores the case from its inception in a large comprehensive high school in the mid-1990s to the present day, where the three high schools operate under a school board policy that allows them more freedom to innovate and change. The case study uses qualitative interviews and documents to develop a narrative, social network analysis, and critical event analysis to develop the story of how this school leader was able to create three new high schools inside a large public institution
ADVANCED INTRAOPERATIVE IMAGE REGISTRATION FOR PLANNING AND GUIDANCE OF ROBOT-ASSISTED SURGERY
Get PDFRobot-assisted surgery offers improved accuracy, precision, safety, and workflow for a variety of surgical procedures spanning different surgical contexts (e.g., neurosurgery, pulmonary interventions, orthopaedics). These systems can assist with implant placement, drilling, bone resection, and biopsy while reducing human errors (e.g., hand tremors and limited dexterity) and easing the workflow of such tasks. Furthermore, such systems can reduce radiation dose to the clinician in fluoroscopically-guided procedures since many robots can perform their task in the imaging field-of-view (FOV) without the surgeon.
Robot-assisted surgery requires (1) a preoperative plan defined relative to the patient that instructs the robot to perform a task, (2) intraoperative registration of the patient to transform the planning data into the intraoperative space, and (3) intraoperative registration of the robot to the patient to guide the robot to execute the plan. However, despite the operational improvements achieved using robot-assisted surgery, there are geometric inaccuracies and significant challenges to workflow associated with (1-3) that impact widespread adoption.
This thesis aims to address these challenges by using image registration to plan and guide robot- assisted surgical (RAS) systems to encourage greater adoption of robotic-assistance across surgical contexts (in this work, spinal neurosurgery, pulmonary interventions, and orthopaedic trauma). The proposed methods will also be compatible with diverse imaging and robotic platforms (including low-cost systems) to improve the accessibility of RAS systems for a wide range of hospital and use settings.
This dissertation advances important components of image-guided, robot-assisted surgery, including: (1) automatic target planning using statistical models and surgeon-specific atlases for application in spinal neurosurgery; (2) intraoperative registration and guidance of a robot to the planning data using 3D-2D image registration (i.e., an “image-guided robot”) for assisting pelvic orthopaedic trauma; (3) advanced methods for intraoperative registration of planning data in deformable anatomy for guiding pulmonary interventions; and (4) extension of image-guided robotics in a piecewise rigid, multi-body context in which the robot directly manipulates anatomy for assisting ankle orthopaedic trauma
CREATING DEMOCRATIC CLASSROOMS TO EDUCATE, VALIDATE, AND EMPOWER STUDENTS THROUGH SUPPORTING TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
Get PDFAfrican American high school youth experience low civic engagement from limited opportunities to gain civic knowledge, socioeconomic inequalities, and racism in community-level and individual-level civic engagement. For students to advocate to create the society they want to live in, they must have an education that gives them the skills to do so. However, contemporary civics classes focus on understanding how to maintain current societal realities instead of empowering citizens to change their realities. Using the School Citizenship Education Climate Assessment and the Civic Interactions Motivating Diverse Individuals in Classroom Settings, the needs assessment investigated the reciprocal relationship among school climate/culture, teachers, curricula, and student perceptions about civic empowerment at a mid-Atlantic high school. It concluded that this mid-Atlantic high school’s climate and use of civically efficacious classroom practices were minimal, but action-oriented civic participation increased student civic efficacy. The literature highlighted possible ways to support the growth of teachers’ abilities to engage in opportunities to cultivate a more civically empowering school climate. This research hypothesis was that teacher professional development would improve student civic empowerment by growing teachers' action civics pedagogy based on three factors: creating democratic classrooms of empathy and conversation, increasing students’ voices, and developing teacher action civics competencies. Two parts of this professional development intervention included professional learning sessions and professional learning communities. Mikva Challenge organization provided professional development on building community and empathy, having courageous conversations, and amplifying youth voices. The outcomes included increased teacher efficacy in action civics pedagogy and use, increased student civic efficacy, and an improved overall school climate. The intervention concluded that exposing teachers to professional development and using it to support them in crafting classroom lessons and activities benefits students
REASONING ABOUT AND MITIGATING PERFORMANCE ISSUES IN LARGE-SCALE SYSTEMS
Get PDFIn today’s software landscape, end-users expect consistent and optimal performance from modern software services. However, achieving and maintaining consistently good performance poses significant challenges. Despite the widespread adoption of testing and performance analysis techniques, modern systems continue to experience performance issues. The root cause of these problems lies in the inadequate support provided by systems to developers in understanding and mitigating software misbehavior. Modern software is highly customizable and dynamic, making it challenging to reason about code and effectively test performance issues. Additionally, the resource management mechanisms of operating systems assume that application behavior is independent of the system, thereby offering limited control over performance issues executed on behalf of the application.
This dissertation aims to address the lack of system support for systematically understanding and mitigating performance issues in large-scale software. The research begins by comprehensively understanding and characterizing real-world performance issues, including misconfiguration, performance interference, and software bugs. Leveraging insights gained from this study, three key contributions are presented:
First, a tool is developed to systematically estimate the performance impact of configuration settings using a combination of static analysis and symbolic execution. ii This approach aims to prevent performance-related misconfiguration from occurring in production environments.
Second, a novel system abstraction is introduced to mitigate performance interference at runtime. This abstraction provides enhanced control over resource allocation, allowing for improved performance isolation and mitigation of interference effects.
Lastly, a lease-based resource allocation mechanism is developed to address energy misbehavior caused by applications at runtime. This mechanism focuses on effectively managing resource allocation to mitigate excessive energy consumption and promote efficient utilization.
Through these research efforts, this dissertation seeks to provide systematic support for understanding and mitigating performance issues in large-scale software. The proposed tools, abstractions, and mechanisms aim to improve performance management and enhance end-user experiences in modern software systems
Insurance Coverage of Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Adults
No full textTransgender and gender diverse (TGD) people represent between 0.1-2% of the United States population. Due to stigma and discrimination, TGD people experience significant health disparities including disproportionate rates of substance use disorders, suicidality, and depression. Gender-affirming care (GAC) has been shown to improve quality of life and reduce psychiatric disorders for TGD people who seek it. Health insurance is a barrier to access for many TGD people, who experience high rates of claims denials. This dissertation explores the phenomenon of coverage denial for GAC empirically, using quantitative and qualitative methods, and then develops and compares two ethical arguments for insurance coverage of GAC. Aims 1 and 2 approach the issue of coverage denial for GAC as a barrier to patient access to care. To explore the distribution of this burden across TGD subpopulations, Aim 1 examines the sociodemographic correlates of coverage denial among a sample of 1,951 US-residing TGD adults. A primary finding was lower likelihood of both attempting to get GAC and being denied for coverage of it among Black TGD people (compared with white) and non-binary TGD people (compared with binary TGD). Private insurance and living in the US west were also associated with higher rates of denials than other types of coverage and regions. Aim 2 examines the experience of coverage denial through in-depth semi- structured interviews with 40 purposively sampled TGD adults. Important findings include anticipation of denials as a driver of decision-making, harms of denial on health and major life goals, and unwillingness to pursue future care related to negative experiences of denials. Reports of successful appeals of denials were typically dependent upon clinician expertise and support. Aim 3 builds two normative ethical arguments for insurance coverage of GAC. This paper first develops an argument based on a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and the obligation of medicine to ameliorate suffering. Recognizing that TGD communities often object conceptually to “gender dysphoria,” it then develops a second argument rooted in Martha Nussbaum’s capabilities approach to social justice. The two arguments are compared and evaluated in terms of their likely effects on health spending and other patient populations
CHARACTERIZING THE ROLE OF RIBOSOME COLLISIONS AND THE COLLISION SENSOR MBF1 IN RESPONSE TO AMINO ACID STARVATION
Get PDFAmino acid starvation induces near-global repression of protein synthesis in a conserved mechanism known as the Integrated Stress Response (ISR). Upstream open reading frames in the GCN4 mRNA permit privileged translation of the transcription factor Gcn4p, which mobilizes an amino acid biosynthetic gene program known as General Amino Acid control (GAAC) in yeast. I show that Mbf1, which has been characterized as a transcriptional co-activator for Gcn4, is recruited to ribosome collisions induced by amino acid starvation, though mutations that abrogate this recruitment have inconsistent effects on sensitivity to starvation. I also show that ribosome collisions are a common feature of stresses that mobilize a GAAC-like transcriptional response. Significantly, RNA-seq analysis indicates that ribosome collisions alone, even in the absence of detectable changes in Gcn4 protein expression, appear to be sufficient for the induction of GAAC target genes. These results suggest a model wherein signaling at the collided ribosome represents an additional layer to regulation of General Amino Acid control absent activation of the ISR
COVID-19 Among Industrial Livestock Operation Workers: Salivary Biomarkers and Mixed Methods Approaches
No full textBackground: Industrial livestock operation (ILO) workers face many occupational hazards, including infectious diseases. ILOs, particularly animal slaughtering and processing facilities, emerged as centers of COVID-19 outbreaks in spring 2020. Confirmed cases underestimate true prevalence.
Objectives: The objectives of this dissertation were to improve understanding of COVID-19 among ILO workers and nearby communities as well as animal slaughtering and processing industry workplace health and safety.
Methods: We enrolled 298 participants living in North Carolina, predominantly near ILOs, from February 2021 to August 2022. Participants completed a questionnaire and provided a saliva swab we analyzed for SARS-CoV-2 IgG using a multiplex immunoassay. We used the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Industry and Occupation Computerized Coding System (NIOCCS) to classify employed participants’ industry sectors. We compared infection-induced IgG antibody prevalence by study group, industry, and with general population seroprevalence estimates. We investigated risk factors for infection. We also conducted in-depth interviews with nine animal slaughtering and processing industry workers to investigate experiences during COVID-19, with a focus on workplace health and safety concerns.
Results: The prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection-induced IgG was high in our study population (53%). Animal slaughtering and processing industry workers had higher infection-induced IgG prevalence (71%) compared with participants employed in other industries, as well as 1.5 to 4.3-fold higher compared with North Carolina general population infection-induced seroprevalence estimates. Lower formal education, more people per bedroom, Hispanic/Latino ethnicity, and working outside the home were associated with higher infection-induced IgG prevalence. Participants working with more than 1000 compared to 10 or fewer coworkers at their jobsite also had higher odds of prior infection. Animal slaughtering and processing industry workers reported lower rates of infection prevention and control measures prioritized by the hierarchy of controls and obstacles to taking time off when ill.
Conclusions: We add to evidence of health disparities related to COVID-19 by occupation and industry, socioeconomic position, and ethnicity. Inadequate paid leave and management communication were stressors for animal slaughtering and processing industry workers, as well as potential contributors to the spread of COVID-19 and other workplace hazards
Understanding intimate partner violence reporting to police and the impact of the sociopolitical environment among Latina survivors In the United States
Get PDFBackground: Intimate partner violence is a major public health concern in the US and is associated with serious health concerns including injury, chronic illness, and death. While Latina women in the US experience IPV at similar rates to non-Latinas, they experience disproportionate health consequences, perhaps due to differences in help-seeking. IPV reporting to police is one important avenue for help-seeking associated with decreased future victimization. To date, research on IPV reporting to police among Latinas has relied on qualitative methods to explore individual-level determinants, with less focus on sociopolitical context and differences among Latinas.
Methods: This dissertation used secondary data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (Aims 1 and 2) and in-depth qualitative interviews (Aim 3) conducted among a convenience sample of Latina IPV survivors living in Baltimore, MD. Aim 1 evaluated the chilling effect of Trump-era anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy on IPV reporting to police among Latina survivors compared to non-Latina white survivors. Aim 2 examined differences in IPV reporting among Latinas by country of origin and citizenship status from 2017 to 2022. Aim 3 explored how the sociopolitical environment impacted Latina women’s IPV reporting to police.
Results: No Trump-era chilling effect on IPV reporting among Latinas was observed in Aim 1. In Aim 2, no significant differences in the odds of an IPV incident being reported to police were observed by country of origin or citizenship status. In Aim 3, women described a Trump-era chilling effect on their IPV reporting to police as well as a persistent chilling environment whereby fear of deportation and economic dependence on an abuser hindered reporting regardless of presidential administration; however, increased time in the US contributed to increased self-efficacy in IPV reporting to police.
Conclusion: Results underscore nuanced barriers Latina face in reporting IPV to police. Police, service providers, and policymakers should tailor interventions that facilitate the use of police services to Latina survivors’ unique needs, while also accounting for heterogeneity among this population. Future research should adapt current sampling methods to promote inclusion of more vulnerable populations and improve measurement to reflect the diverse lived experiences of Latinos in the US.