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Más que un juego: Lives at Play in the Hispanic Football Novel
No full textFootball in the Hispanic World is king. This dissertation explores the significance and function of professional and international football in the Hispanic World as viewed through its fictional representation in four football novels. In each novel - one from Chile, Argentina, Spain, and Colombia - football plays a primary role in the broader societal institutions and exercises great influence over the lives of individuals both in and outside the formal “football world.” My analysis examines the way the literary representation of the game intervenes in the game’s real world history -Pinochet’s military coup of 1973, Argentina’s hosting and winning of the 1978 World Cup under military rule, Spain’s return to democratic rule and Barcelona’s preparations to host the 1992 Olympics, and the Colombian National team’s tragic performance at the 1994 World Cup during the informal rule of the infamous drug cartels- interrogating, revealing, affirming, and at times decrying, the use of the game for non-sporting ends, particularly the pursuit of political agendas and financial gain and the power relations which underlie and support the global game. By considering the subjective experiences of actors such as players, coaches, agents, ownership, and everyday people as represented in these novels, I explore the ways the sport has come to constitute much more than a game. This analysis shows literature, the novel in particular, to be a fruitful lens through which one may glean a deeper understanding of the power and importance this simple game wields in the lives of individuals and the state of nations in the Hispanic world
PERCEIVED COMPETITION, JOB PERFORMANCE, AND SENSE OF BELONGING AMONG RESEARCH ADMINISTRATORS
Get PDFResearch administrators are personnel in the highly collaborative and ever-changing research enterprise. The focus on competition as a means to promote productivity has the potential to work against a perception of belonging that can motivate non-task-specific job performance that benefits the organization. This study investigated the perspectives of research administrators regarding the level of competition amongst coworkers in their work environments in relation to their level of perceived insider status and contextual performance. A sample of 112 adult research administrators employed in the United States from Johns Hopkins University and an online platform for research administrators, NCURA’s Collaborate, was used for hypothesis testing. Data were collected through a self-report survey hosted in Qualtrics. The results of Pearson’s correlation analyses found a significant positive association between competition influenced by coworkers and contextual performance. The simple linear regression analysis of competition influenced by coworkers and contextual performance indicated a statistically significant positive relationship
THE EFFECTS OF STUDY DESIGN CHARACTERISTICS ON DEMENTIA MEASUREMENT: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE EPIDEMIOLOGIC STUDIES
No full textBackground: Epidemiologic studies of dementia rely on objective standardized assessments of both cognition and functional limitations, which form the core of physician-adjudicated diagnoses and algorithm-based classifications of dementia. However, assessment methods used in scientific research vary widely; sub-optimal procedures may lead to measurement error. The overarching goals of this dissertation are to characterize how study design characteristics affect dementia measurement and understand best practices for dementia measurement in epidemiologic studies. We focus on the effects of two study design characteristics that could affect measurement: geographic context (Chapter 2) and the ascertainment of prevalent dementia cases in cross-sectional studies versus the ascertainment of incident dementia cases (which will be on average less severe than prevalent cases) in longitudinal studies (Chapters 3 and 4).
Methods: Chapter 2 leveraged data from the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) surveys across five countries. We used logistic regression models to assess item performance across five different geographic contexts. Chapters 3 and 4 used data from the Religious Orders study. Chapter 3 used multinomial regression models with generalized estimating equations to assess individual item-level associations with dementia, while Chapter 4 evaluated the performance of example dementia algorithms in capturing incident and prevalent dementia. The implications of sub optimal performance were further assessed using a realistic example and simulation analyses.
Results: Some items, including polytomous items assessing language and memory (category fluency, delayed word recall), performed well across geographies and for the classification of incident and prevalent dementia. The performance of other items was more variable. Dementia algorithms had lower sensitivity for the detection of incident dementia in longitudinal studies as compared to cross-sectional validation samples. However, bias due to the use of algorithms was largest when specificity was poor or with differential algorithm performance by exposure status.
Conclusions: The properties and performance of dementia measurement procedures should not be assumed to be invariant across study settings. Different items and approaches to algorithm development perform differently across contexts. Therefore, researchers should carefully consider study goals when designing methods for dementia ascertainment. Results presented here provide quantitative evidence to help guide measurement procedures for future studies
Geopolitics for Securing America's Future
No full textThe climate movement has not yet evoked appropriate action to minimize the damages from anthropogenic climate change. 1 There are abundant opportunities throughout society to reduce the negative impact of pollution. 2 It is safest to strategically pursue sustainability whenever possible, yet until environmental science is incorporated into policy to help guide our society, we will not have enforcement to protect us from when people abuse the laws of nature. This thesis consists of three chapters divided by energy security, geoengineering policy and its impact on ecology, and toxicology at the community level to follow the nuance of sustainability in environmental policy through quantitative data. This thesis seeks sustainability in a technologically advanced world. Science is a tool for harm mitigation. Humanity is causing its own collapse. This environmental policy research focuses on some of the greatest risks to human health to optimize a secure adaptation and save millions of lives
Adapting the Eat-Lancet Healthy Reference Diet to Cambodia: Understanding Dietary Intake, Perceptions of Environmental Challenges, and Environmental Impacts of Diets
No full textBackground: Global food systems are being called upon to deliver healthier and more sustainable diets. Few studies have explored shifts to a healthy and sustainable diet or evaluated dietary impacts on multiple environmental systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).
Objective: This study sought to develop a framework for adapting a global healthy and sustainable diet, the EAT-Lancet Healthy Reference Diet (HRD), to the context of Cambodia by exploring perceptions of the relevance of environmental challenges for the Cambodian food system, exploring current diets, and analyzing environmental footprints of Cambodian diets and of the HRD.
Methods: In the absence of quantitative dietary data for Cambodia, this dissertation estimates daily individual intake based on data from FAO Food Balance Sheets (FBS) 2016-19, the Cambodia Living Standards Measurement Study Plus (LSMS) 2019-20, the Global Dietary Database (GDD) 2018, the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2019, and the Dietary Quality Questionnaire (DQQ) 2021. Average individual daily consumption and prevalence of food group consumption were calculated and compared to the HRD mean recommended intake and food group ranges. Semi-structured interviews with food system experts (n=15) were conducted to elicit perceptions of Cambodian food systems' environmental challenges. The planetary boundaries framework was used to rank which of the five environmental dimensions were perceived to be under most stress. To estimate the environmental impacts of diets, this study adapted the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Planet-Based Diets environmental impacts model for greenhouse gas emissions (GHGe), freshwater consumption, land use, and biodiversity loss. Three baseline daily intakes were used based on data from FBS, LSMS, and GDD. Environmental impacts intensities were calculated by food group and applied to baseline diets and the HRD. Impact of individual yearly diets were compared to food systems 2050 targets downscaled from the global to the individual level.
Results: There is agreement across data sources on the low consumption of vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts, and whole grains compared to the HRD recommendations. Results show animal-source food consumption is within HRD recommended ranges except for pork, with animal-source food estimated at 17 to 33 g/person/day compared to the recommended 0-14 g/person/day. Consumption of vegetable protein sources (beans, soy foods, nuts) is low, ranging from 5 to 31 g/person/day across data sources compared to a mean recommendation of 125 g/person/day. Environmental challenges across five environmental systems were described as impacting the Cambodian food system. Participants ranked climate change as the most concerning area, with freshwater systems and land use change tied as second and biodiversity loss as the third most concerning dimension. Participants perceived environmental challenges to have cascading adverse impacts across all areas of the food system. A dietary shift from baseline Cambodian diets to the HRD is associated with a 12.9-34.1% reduction in GHGe, 10.4-29.9% reduction in land use, 5.1-19% reduction in freshwater consumption, and a 0.3-20.1% reduction in biodiversity loss, depending on the data source used to estimate the baseline diet. Nonetheless, HRD footprint continue to surpass 2050 food system targets for GHGe and land use.
Conclusions: This study emphasize the importance of environmental sustainability for Cambodian food systems and the potential for dietary changes to play a positive role in natural resource conservation. While Cambodian diets have low environmental impacts relative to other countries, the HRD offers a roadmap for further reducing the national food consumption footprint on four environmental systems. However, differences in estimated food intakes can lead to distinct interpretations of human and planetary health impacts of diets
Seq2Seq Scene Graph Generation Utilizing Vision-language Pretrained Model
No full textScene graph generation (SGG) aims to represent a visual scene with a hierarchical structure that contains objects, attributes and relationships. Most existing SGG methods require two stages for detecting objects and predicting their pairwise relationships, which is complicated and computational intensive. Motivated by the recent progress in vision-and-language pretraining (VLP), we propose to formulate SGG as a sequence generation problem that is compatible with the unified VLP pipeline. In this work, we present a one-stage sequence-to-sequence (Seq2Seq) SGG model with a Transformer backbone that can be trained alongside other vision-and-language tasks. Our approach achieves good performance in predicting both object labels and relationships. This study demonstrates the feasibility of formulating SGG as a Seq2Seq task and the potential of improving SGG with the vision-and-language pretrained models
ACTIVE SURVEILLANCE FOR LOW-RISK PROSTATE CANCER: DECISION FACTORS, UTILIZATION, AND OUTCOMES
No full textIntroduction: Men with a recent low-risk Prostate Cancer diagnosis can choose between curative Immediate Treatment and Active Surveillance. Though existing conceptual models for decision-making have been applied to this context, these models generally assume all such men systematically process decision factors rather than rely on heuristics. Further, there are gaps in the literature with respect to comparing utilization of Active Surveillance at the population level and the moderating effects of sociodemographic characteristics on the relationship between treatment decision and mental health outcomes. The goal of this project is to synthesize knowledge regarding psychosocial factors in these men’s decision-making process, and to harness existing population health data to assess treatment decision and the effect of treatment decision on mental health outcomes.
Methods: In manuscript 1, a narrative literature review applies the novel, comprehensive conceptual model to psychosocial decision factors for treatment decision. In manuscripts 2 and 3, retrospective cohort analyses are conducted utilizing data from the US (SEER-Medicare) and Ontario. In the quantitative analyses, treatment decision is abstracted based on procedure codes.
Results: The comprehensive conceptual model integrating heuristics, such as the use of an expert opinion as an alternate to systematic processing, was supported by the literature review. Younger age, higher income, white race, and Canadian residence were significantly associated with choosing Active Surveillance over Immediate Treatment. Men who pursued Active Surveillance were less likely to experience incident anxiety in the first year after diagnosis and less likely to experience incident depression during survivorship. Age moderated the treatment effect on anxiety and income moderated the effect on depression.
Discussion: For men with a recent low-risk Prostate Cancer diagnosis, treatment decision is a multi-faceted process that may have long-term mental health effects. The decision by some men to rely on a heuristic, rather than to systematically weigh the risks and benefits of curative treatment, should be both understood by clinicians and incorporated into decision aids. Further, the potential impact of treatment decision on long-term mental health outcomes should be communicated to patients making a decision, especially those at highest risk of psychological distress following diagnosis
CHLORINATION OF PHENOLS REVISITED: INVESTIGATION OF (NOVEL) RING CLEAVAGE PRODUCTS
No full textDespite the prevalence of phenols in both anthropogenic and natural compounds, their fate in reactions with chlorine remains incompletely understood. To address this knowledge gap, this work revisited the disinfection byproducts (DBPs) formed during the chlorination of phenols, with a particular focus on the ring cleavage products.
We firstly investigated the formation of DBPs in the reaction of chlorine with model phenols. Reactivity-directed analysis in conjunction with liquid chromatography−high-resolution mass spectrometry, was employed to identify the DBPs. Among the detected DBPs, α,β-unsaturated C4-dialdehydes, and C4-dicarboxylic acids, which, for the first time, were identified and quantified in this study. The molar yields of 2-butene-1,4-dial (BDA) reached a maximum value of 10.4% for bisphenol S. Molar yields of 2-chloromaleic acid (Cl-MA) reached a maximum value of 30.5% for 4-hydroxy-phenylacetic acid under given conditions.
Then, we used a series of synthesized ethyl parabens containing stable isotope (13C) labels at different positions of the molecule to probe the formation of ring cleavage DBPs. Our results highlighted the involvement of four general ring cleavage pathways, three of which involve all carbons in the DBPs originating from the aromatic ring, while the fourth pathway involves the participation of the substituent carboxyl carbon in the formation of dichloroacetic acid and C4-dicarboxylic acids. Quantitative comparison of the 13C-labeled DBPs enabled further assessment of the contribution of these distinct pathways.
Lastly, we investigated the effect of experimental factors such as chlorine dose, pH, and buffer species on the formation of ring cleavage DBPs during the chlorination of TCP. Results showed that all three factors have significant effects on the formation of DBPs. Most interestingly, buffer experiments demonstrate that borate buffer enhances the formation of BDA and Cl-BDA during phenol chlorination. A mechanistic explanation is provided to elucidate the underlying processes involved in the borate buffer-induced enhancement of BDA formation.
Overall, these findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the fate of phenols and the formation of ring cleavage products during chlorination. This information is crucial for epidemiological studies and the development of future regulations to mitigate the potential health risks associated with DBPs
CROSS-MODAL PLASTICITY OF THE HIGHER ORDER THALAMUS
No full textPrimary auditory cortex has long been considered a unimodal sensory area, with multimodal processing expected to occur in higher association cortex, yet prior work in our lab has demonstrated that even a short duration of visual deprivation in the form of dark exposure can produce robust plasticity in auditory cortex. Whether this cross-modal plasticity is confined to cortex or occurs in subcortical regions as well has remained unknown. Here we document plasticity in short-term dynamics of thalamic reticular inhibition of primary auditory thalamus concurrent with an increase in amplitude of spontaneous excitatory input and no change in excitatory short-term dynamics following dark exposure. Simultaneously, we observe a drastic reduction in spontaneous excitatory input to higher order auditory thalamus, suggesting that visual deprivation triggers divergent forms of regulation in lemniscal and non-lemniscal pathways
Factors Influencing the Diffusion of Value-based Health care Delivery Systems
No full textBackground: Value-based payment reform encourages healthcare providers to lower hospital spending by investing in care coordination and moving services from facility-based care to less intensive care settings. However, little is known about whether these initiatives are associated with organizations’ adoption of cost-lowering care delivery models in terms of their management strategy. This study examines whether hospitals’ experience with a prior CMMI program is associated with their decisions to adopt a change in the next period, focusing on three care delivery innovations – BPCI-Advanced, Acute Hospital Care at Home, and outpatient surgery.
Methods: CMMI participation files and Medicare claims data are used to construct hospitals’ experience with a previously operated episode-based bundled payment program (BPCI) that required advanced care coordination. Five categories of hospitals’ experience with the program were identified based on the Medicare claims data and participation history files. Multilevel mixed-effect regressions were performed.
Results: Hospitals’ direct experience with a CMMI payment innovation program (BPCI) was associated with the hospitals’ decisions to implement a new care delivery model in the next period. Hospitals that indirectly participated in BPCI through participating physician group practitioners were also likely to adopt the new changes if the hospitals had previously revealed interest in the payment reform. These two observations did not hold in the case of adopting outpatient surgery at hospitals’ outpatient departments. Hospitals located in a community with a higher prevalence of early adopters were more likely to adopt the change for all three cases.
Conclusion: This study provides evidence to support three arguments: (1) Change management experience handling inter-organizational service coordination in the prior period increases organizations’ likelihood of adopting a change in the next period. (2) Partnership with change agents facilitating the innovation increases the organizations’ likelihood of adopting a change when the organizations lack their own change experience but have revealed interest in a similar innovation. (3) The community’s change climate, shaped by the prevalence of adopters in the community, increases a member organization’s adoption of innovation. Mere exposure to the change did not induce the adoption. CMMI should consider hospitals’ experience with prior programs when designing future value-based payment programs