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Interculturality in Health: The Infant Mortality Rate of Bolivia
Get PDFThe Bolivian government implemented an intercultural reform in 2006 in an attempt to improve the quality of health for its indigenous citizens throughout the country. One of the biggest focuses thereof was to improve the infant mortality rate, as it has historically far surpassed the rates of other Latin American nations. Though superficial data presented by the government seem to suggest that the intercultural reform has been an unprecedented success, very little extensive research has been done on the topic. My work gauges the merits of the intercultural reform and assesses which areas particularly have been successful. To do so, a mixed methods approach is used. Having traveled to Bolivian clinics and talked to health professionals and mothers, the first half of my work focuses on my ethnographic analysis of my fieldwork while in La Paz and Oruro coupled with content analysis of governmental health brochures and social media accounts. In the second half of my investigation, I analyze datasets presented by the government and non-governmental organizations to contrast the two and ascertain where reality may lie. Though I have discovered that the intercultural reform has doubtlessly had a tremendous impact on the lives of many indigenous children and mother, there persist many municipalities in dire need of assistance, despite the cheery allegations of the Bolivian government
Social and Emotional Learning and Its Implementation in a Standard 9th Grade English Language Arts Curriculum
Get PDFThe basis of the thesis is to examine effective teacher practices through the research of social and emotional learning, examining both teacher behavior and best teaching practices and how these two influences impact students' reception of the curriculum. The literature review will be divided in three parts: a pedagogical overview, the importance of critical reflection for teachers, and how empathy, in partnership with other thinking operations and qualities of character, effect student’s capacity to connect to the curriculum. Following the literature review is a curriculum design. This curriculum design serves to demonstrate an example of how social and emotional learning can be implemented in a standard ninth grade English language arts classroom. It contains an overview of four units with three sample lessons per unit. All units follow the Mississippi Department of Education’s College and Career Readiness Standards
The Effect of Participation in Party Politics on Terrorist Organizations: A Case Study of Hamas and Hezbollah
Get PDFThis thesis sought to explore the effect of participation in party politics on terrorist organizations through a comparative case study of Hamas in the Palestinian Territories and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The project was inspired by the existing literature on party-terror linkages and inclusion-moderation theory. The methodology used to test this relationship required analysis of the histories of the two organizations to identify each organization’s years of participation and non-participation in party politics. Then, using the data compiled by the Global Terrorism Database, I calculated the average number of terrorist incidents per year across the phases of participation in party politics for each organization. In summary, the data showed that participation in party politics has no effect on terrorist incidents per year. For Hezbollah, joining party politics led to an insignificant decrease in terrorist activity; while Hamas showed an insignificant increase in terrorist activity upon joining party politics. From this study, I conclude that there were extraneous internal and external factors for each organization that have produced a greater effect on terrorist activity
A Comparison of Small and Large European Cities for Tourism: Implications for Strategic Marketing Communications
Get PDFThe purpose of this thesis is to compare major and minor European cities based on their marketing mixes and creating the best marketing communication strategies for small municipalities. The secondary research completed for this report was done by reviewing dossiers, professional reports, newspaper articles, and scholarly and government websites, on the subject of travel trends and reasons to travel abroad. Next small and large cities were compared based on their price, product, place and promotion, which also included case studies comparing different sized cities from the same country to each other. A SWOT analysis was also conducted on the three smaller cities from the case studies and the target markets for the marketing communication strategies were defined. Primary research was conducted by interviewing and surveying couples who were part of the selected target market. Lastly, there were three marketing campaigns created for three separate cities with two target audiences. Through this research it was found couples want to visit safe locations, the city’s character, and beautiful views. American couples were influenced the most by friends and family as well as travel discounts when choosing where to visit. The conclusion from this thesis is American couples prefer the uniqueness of smaller cities, but they also take other factors such as safety and the general feel of the location into consideration when booking a vacation flight. It is important for cities to use this knowledge to their advantage and create a resonating brand image which entices couples to travel there. Hence, three comprehensive marketing communication strategies were developed to aid small cities in accomplishing this goal
Development of a Novel Salivary Cortisol Laboratory Experiment for Undergraduate Physiology Students
Get PDFDeveloping an endocrine-based laboratory exercise for undergraduate students is challenging because of the limitations that are characteristic of endocrine processes. These laboratory exercises often involve invasive methods and expensive biochemical analysis. They are also time consuming because of the slow-acting endocrine responses. A potential endocrine-based exercise that can be completed in 2-3 hours, is non-invasive, and at a low cost is a salivary assay. This assay is not without drawbacks, however, including sample collection outside the laboratory classroom. Cortisol is a hormone that is accessible in saliva and provides some insight into the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis (HPA Axis), also known as the stress cascade. Stress has been shown to evoke cravings for foods high in sugar content. Cortisol is often released in response to a stressor and tends to follow a circadian rhythm, tending to be higher in the morning and lower at night. Validation of the procedure for evaluating this circadian rhythm in an undergraduate laboratory setting was achieved by allowing 16 students to provide night and morning saliva samples by self-collecting samples at home. The other 84 students were split into groups to examine the effect of sugar intake on cortisol levels by eating snacks with varying amounts of sugar. These sugar treatment groups consisted of a control group (0g), low (<1g), medium (14g), and high (26g) sugar consumption. Samples were analyzed with a salivary cortisol ELISA assay kit procedure and with a microplate reader to obtain absorbance measurements. A paired t-test supported significance (p<0.001) between morning and night samples of cortisol. ANCOVA was used to determine a significance (p<0.001) found between samples in all sugar treatment groups. Therefore, sugar was shown to have an effect of increasing cortisol levels. The methods were successful in the ability to be integrated into an undergraduate laboratory curriculum by limiting the time and invasiveness of an endocrine-based laboratory approach to teaching students
Women in the Chilean National Identity: How Fútbol and Consumption Cultures Affect the Public Sphere
Get PDFIn the past thirty years, Chile has experienced dramatic political, social, economic, and cultural changes. A constant source of national identity, pride, and comfort through this tumultuous period was (and continues to be) fútbol. Chileans follow the sport relentlessly and it is a key part in the construction of local, regional, and national identities. My thesis work aims to answer the following question: how do the relationships between consumption cultures and football create/delineate/eliminate space for women in the overarching social public sphere of national belonging? In order to answer this question, I utilize a mixed methods approach to investigate how the sport combines with consumption cultures to impact the place women hold in the public sphere. I apply a theoretical framework built upon prevalent scholarship in investigations and theories of gender, sport, national identity, and consumption to analyze how women are affected by the relationships between these social forces. The results ultimately point to the conclusion that although Chile has been and continues to change, persistent practices around sport and celebration make it difficult for women to engage in these important elements of daily life. A deeper understanding of this topic will foster conversations on how the national narrative can simultaneously include contradictions of social equality in the public sphere and how addressing these inequalities will lead to greater female empowerment in Chile
Cell-free telomere DNA as a biomarker for treatment response and tumor burden in Glioblastoma
Get PDFTelomeres are repeated nucleotide sequences that cap the ends of each chromosome in eukaryotes. Telomeres are among the earliest genomic sequences to be degraded during apoptosis, potentially providing a biomarker of cell death. To study this, we quantified telomeres in serum from Glioblastoma and non-cancer patients. Cell-free DNA was isolated by centrifugation to remove intact cells, and purified using a QIAamp DNA Blood Midi Kit (Qiagen). Cell-free telomeric (cf-tel) and cell-free actin (cf-actin) DNA were analyzed with quantitative PCR. Total cell-free DNA was measured with PicoGreen assays. We hypothesize that patients with Glioblastoma tumors have higher cf-tel DNA levels than those without tumors. Our results indicate that cf-tel DNA was present at nearly double the amount in Glioblastoma patients when compared to non-cancer control patients with a significant difference (p=0.0151), while cf-actin DNA and total cell-free DNA amounts for Glioblastoma patients and non-cancer control patients were nearly identical. We conclude that cell-free telomeric DNA can be detected and measured in serum from normal patients and patients with a history of Glioblastoma, the increased presence of cell-free telomeric DNA is directly correlated with Glioblastoma disease conditions, and cell-free telomeric DNA may be a useful clinical biomarker for treatment response and for measurement of tumor burden
The Future was a Riot: Causes of Youth Unemployment in Spain and Challenges to Immigration and the Welfare State in the Era of the Common Market (1999-2016)
Get PDFThe purpose of this thesis is to exam the causes behind unusually high youth unemployment in Spain, even after the 2007-8 financial crisis has subsided. The primary means of investigating these causes is through constructing a set of empirical models and then using these models to perform several time-series regressions to find whether changes in educational patterns, demographics, and immigration have had any concrete effect on the youth unemployment rate and social capital. Some qualitative work is done; particularly in describing the legal structure surrounding unemployment and in the description of the Spanish welfare state. In my research, I find that a change in educational patterns does not deeply impact youth unemployment, nor do demographic shifts. The collapse of the Spanish economy (in particular the housing market) has had a far more determinative effect than any of these factors named. Levels of immigration do bear a positive relationship with youth unemployment, but only for a period, and have no measurable effect on social capital and may in fact aid social cohesion to a small degree, given enough time. In conclusion, the causes of high Spanish youth unemployment are not being dealt with well by the present government and further research into this area (particularly in to the effects of reforms undertaken in 2010 and 2012) is warranted before any policy prescriptions are formulated
Computational Investigation on Electronic Structures and Properties of 4,6-Bis(Nitroimino)-1,3,5-Triazinan-2-One: An Insensitive Munitions Compound
Get PDFIn order to minimize unintentional detonation, current munitions research has focused on the development of chemical compounds that are insensitive to external stimuli whilst maintaining their effectiveness. While these compounds, known as high performance in- sensitive munitions compounds, are promising in terms of potency and stability, their envi- ronmental impacts have either not been fully understood or are yet to be investigated. In the present research, we have performed a computational chemistry investigation on electronic structures and properties of an insensitive munition compound 4,6-bis(nitroimino)-1,3,5- triazinan-2-one (DNAM). The Density Functional Theory using the B3LYP and M06- 2X functionals and MP2 methodology were used for geometry optimization of various tautomeric forms of DNAM. The effect of bulk water solution was evaluated using the conductor-polarizable calculation model (CPCM) and the SMD solvation model. Ioniza- tion potential, electron affinity, redox properties, and pKa values were also computed and were compared with the available experimental data. It was revealed that DNAM can exist in different tautomeric forms. Different physical and chemical properties of DNAM will be discussed
The Effect of Social Media Addiction on Consumer Behavior: A Cultural Comparison of Spain and the United States
Get PDFThis paper will look at the new issue of social media addiction, how it has affected consumers’ behaviors and their interactions with companies, and whether cultural components play a role in this. It will specifically look at the differences between the Spanish and American cultures. I conducted literature searches from the databases in the University of Mississippi library. I researched social interaction theories, social media, The Addiction Theory, and compared the two cultures.
The second source of research I used was primary observational research conducted while I lived in Barcelona for five weeks. The observations were made at different points of the day and in different locations in attempts to gather the most diverse and accurate data. The findings uncovered the differences between how everyday Spaniards and American use social media and how the businesses use it to target their consumers. It also showed what cultural aspects affect social media use and can affect the propensity to get addicted to something. The results of this paper ended up defining the minor differences between the cultures social media use and addiction