Matching Items (62)
Description
Background
The transmission dynamics of Tuberculosis (TB) involve complex epidemiological and socio-economical interactions between individuals living in highly distinct regional conditions. The level of exogenous reinfection and first time infection rates within high-incidence settings may influence the impact of control programs on TB prevalence. The impact that effective population size and the distribution of individuals’ residence times in different patches have on TB transmission and control are studied using selected scenarios where risk is defined by the estimated or perceive first time infection and/or exogenous re-infection rates.
Methods
This study aims at enhancing the understanding of TB dynamics, within simplified, two patch, risk-defined environments, in the presence of short term mobility and variations in reinfection and infection rates via a mathematical model. The modeling framework captures the role of individuals’ ‘daily’ dynamics within and between places of residency, work or business via the average proportion of time spent in residence and as visitors to TB-risk environments (patches). As a result, the effective population size of Patch i (home of i-residents) at time t must account for visitors and residents of Patch i, at time t.
Results
The study identifies critical social behaviors mechanisms that can facilitate or eliminate TB infection in vulnerable populations. The results suggest that short-term mobility between heterogeneous patches contributes to significant overall increases in TB prevalence when risk is considered only in terms of direct new infection transmission, compared to the effect of exogenous reinfection. Although, the role of exogenous reinfection increases the risk that come from large movement of individuals, due to catastrophes or conflict, to TB-free areas.
Conclusions
The study highlights that allowing infected individuals to move from high to low TB prevalence areas (for example via the sharing of treatment and isolation facilities) may lead to a reduction in the total TB prevalence in the overall population. The higher the population size heterogeneity between distinct risk patches, the larger the benefit (low overall prevalence) under the same “traveling” patterns. Policies need to account for population specific factors (such as risks that are inherent with high levels of migration, local and regional mobility patterns, and first time infection rates) in order to be long lasting, effective and results in low number of drug resistant cases.
The transmission dynamics of Tuberculosis (TB) involve complex epidemiological and socio-economical interactions between individuals living in highly distinct regional conditions. The level of exogenous reinfection and first time infection rates within high-incidence settings may influence the impact of control programs on TB prevalence. The impact that effective population size and the distribution of individuals’ residence times in different patches have on TB transmission and control are studied using selected scenarios where risk is defined by the estimated or perceive first time infection and/or exogenous re-infection rates.
Methods
This study aims at enhancing the understanding of TB dynamics, within simplified, two patch, risk-defined environments, in the presence of short term mobility and variations in reinfection and infection rates via a mathematical model. The modeling framework captures the role of individuals’ ‘daily’ dynamics within and between places of residency, work or business via the average proportion of time spent in residence and as visitors to TB-risk environments (patches). As a result, the effective population size of Patch i (home of i-residents) at time t must account for visitors and residents of Patch i, at time t.
Results
The study identifies critical social behaviors mechanisms that can facilitate or eliminate TB infection in vulnerable populations. The results suggest that short-term mobility between heterogeneous patches contributes to significant overall increases in TB prevalence when risk is considered only in terms of direct new infection transmission, compared to the effect of exogenous reinfection. Although, the role of exogenous reinfection increases the risk that come from large movement of individuals, due to catastrophes or conflict, to TB-free areas.
Conclusions
The study highlights that allowing infected individuals to move from high to low TB prevalence areas (for example via the sharing of treatment and isolation facilities) may lead to a reduction in the total TB prevalence in the overall population. The higher the population size heterogeneity between distinct risk patches, the larger the benefit (low overall prevalence) under the same “traveling” patterns. Policies need to account for population specific factors (such as risks that are inherent with high levels of migration, local and regional mobility patterns, and first time infection rates) in order to be long lasting, effective and results in low number of drug resistant cases.
ContributorsMoreno Martinez, Victor (Author) / Espinoza Cortes, Baltazar (Author) / Barley, Kamal (Author) / Paredes Gutierrez, Marlio (Author) / Bichara, Derdei (Author) / Mubayi, Anuj (Author) / Castillo-Chavez, Carlos (Author) / Simon M. Levin Mathematical, Computational and Modeling Sciences Center (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2017-01-11
Description
Phytochromes are a family of photoreceptors that control light responses of plants, fungi and bacteria. A sequence of structural changes, which is not yet fully understood, leads to activation of an output domain. Time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) can potentially shine light on these conformational changes. Here we report the room temperature crystal structure of the chromophore-binding domains of the Deinococcus radiodurans phytochrome at 2.1 Å resolution. The structure was obtained by serial femtosecond X-ray crystallography from microcrystals at an X-ray free electron laser. We find overall good agreement compared to a crystal structure at 1.35 Å resolution derived from conventional crystallography at cryogenic temperatures, which we also report here. The thioether linkage between chromophore and protein is subject to positional ambiguity at the synchrotron, but is fully resolved with SFX. The study paves the way for time-resolved structural investigations of the phytochrome photocycle with time-resolved SFX.
ContributorsEdlund, Petra (Author) / Takala, Heikki (Author) / Claesson, Elin (Author) / Henry, Leocadie (Author) / Dods, Robert (Author) / Lehtivuori, Heli (Author) / Panman, Matthijs (Author) / Pande, Kanupriya (Author) / White, Thomas (Author) / Nakane, Takanori (Author) / Berntsson, Oskar (Author) / Gustavsson, Emil (Author) / Bath, Petra (Author) / Modi, Vaibhav (Author) / Roy Chowdhury, Shatabdi (Author) / Zook, James (Author) / Berntsen, Peter (Author) / Pandey, Suraj (Author) / Poudyal, Ishwor (Author) / Tenboer, Jason (Author) / Kupitz, Christopher (Author) / Barty, Anton (Author) / Fromme, Petra (Author) / Koralek, Jake D. (Author) / Tanaka, Tomoyuki (Author) / Spence, John (Author) / Liang, Mengning (Author) / Hunter, Mark S. (Author) / Boutet, Sebastien (Author) / Nango, Eriko (Author) / Moffat, Keith (Author) / Groenhof, Gerrit (Author) / Ihalainen, Janne (Author) / Stojkovic, Emina A. (Author) / Schmidt, Marius (Author) / Westenhoff, Sebastian (Author) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Biodesign Institute (Contributor) / Applied Structural Discovery (Contributor) / Department of Physics (Contributor)
Created2016-10-19
Description
This project examines a complex issue in urban ecology: the impact of biodiversity on ecosystem services, and considers how this varies across cities. Data were gathered on multiple economic and ecological parameters for a selection of seven cities around the world and analyzed via multiple linear regression in order to assess any relationships that may be at play. Significance values were then calculated to further define the relationships between the data. Analysis found that both biophysical and socioeconomic factors affected ecosystem services, although not all hypotheses regarding these relationships were met. Conclusions indicate that this model was fairly effective in describing physical drivers of ecosystem services, but were not as clear regarding social drivers. Further study regarding social parameters' effect on ecosystem services is recommended.
ContributorsMcDannald, Lindsay JoAnne (Author) / Perrings, Charles (Thesis director) / Kinzig, Ann (Committee member) / Grimm, Nancy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Smoke exposure in preterm infants can cause adverse health outcomes in these children. Preterm infants exposed to tobacco smoke have an increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and metabolic syndrome, asthma, respiratory infections, ear infections and decreased cognitive function compared to healthy infants (Wilson 2011, Blizzard 2003, Bock 2008, Hutchison 1998). A smoking cessation program for parents of pre-term infants at Aultman Hospital in Canton, Ohio was designed to help parents of pre-term infants cease smoking behavior. The outcomes of this program were intended to be the topic of my honors thesis; however, lack of participation in the program shifted my research focus to designing a program, based on a review of "best practices" in the literature, that might increase participation. Among those parents who were asked to participate (N=56), being of low socioeconomic status correlated highest with smoking behavior . Through a literature review, I determined that the best practices to enhance participation for this group would be to include motivational interviewing, the phone number to a toll free quit line, and alternate smoking resources (pamphlets, alternative DVD's) for these Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) parents at Aultman. By the parent's participation in the Aultman smoking cessation program, long-term health outcomes of their newborns may improve by reducing their exposure to tobacco smoke. These children may grow up in an environment with less smoke exposure, which may decrease their risk of disease (Bock 2008).
ContributorsLach, Laura Elizabeth (Author) / Kinzig, Ann (Thesis director) / Oswalt, Krista (Committee member) / Mossman, Kenneth (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
More than 90 million Americans suffer from low health literacy levels that can lead to detrimental health practices. One of the greatest issues stemming from low health literacy is the misuse of medication, which results in 125,000 deaths per year and close to $200 billion dollars in health care funds (Ngoh 2009). With their implementation into neighborhood settings and consequently the everyday lives of individuals, pharmacies show potential in being great assets towards increasing health literacy on an individual and societal level. However, pharmacists must first be made aware of the opportunities and challenges that exist concerning this effort. Through a three step literature review and corresponding comparative analysis, the results of this study show that pharmacists should focus on four main areas: overall assessment of health literacy in a pharmacy setting, individualization and tailoring of health/ medication plans, development of verbal and written communication tools, and the pharmacist-patient relationship. Each area presents a set of opportunities and challenges that must be accounted for in order to design more effective initiatives and tools in the pharmacists' aim to increase health literacy.
ContributorsMergens, Rianna Lynn (Author) / Robert, Jason Scott (Thesis director) / Maienschein, Jane (Committee member) / Kinzig, Ann (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Science communication to the public can help create informed citizens and help bolster professional creativity and skills. A method for exploring this discourse is through art and multimedia. In this study, online educational videos were created to test whether specific misconceptions about biological evolution could be effectively addressed while also engaging the viewer. Two short videos (~5 minutes total) were created and hosted on a website where participants could access the videos. Survey questions were provided before and after the videos to test participants' learning abilities. Additional survey questions asked for participants' opinions and experiences with the videos to gauge engagement. Overall improvement was observed in participants' learning and engagement with the videos but with variable levels of understanding and suggestions for better experience. Future work will focus on improving the quality of the video content as well as the level of engagement between participants and media.
ContributorsRuiz, Cuathemoc Reyes Cesar Abram (Author) / Sandrin, Susannah (Thesis director) / Kinzig, Ann (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Waste generation in the U.S. has reached new heights, but the exploitation of Native American lands for waste disposal is nothing new. Many of the negative effects of massive waste production and toxic pollution, such as poor health outcomes and decreased property values, disproportionately burden impoverished, minority communities inside and outside the United States (Brulle and Pellow, 2006). Native American communities have long been exploited for their natural resources and land-use, but in recent decades Indian country has also become a common place to store nuclear, hazardous and municipal wastes. This project is a case study of a local Indian reservation, the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, and examined the socio-historical context of the landfill operations in terms of five principles of environmental justice. Each principle was defined and key moments from the SRPMIC's landfill history were discussed to demonstrate ways that the situation has improved, stayed the same or worsened with regard to the rights outlined in each principle. It was concluded that there needs to be an acknowledgement by involved municipalities and industries of the historical context that make the SRPMIC and other nearby Native American communities "ideal" contractors for waste management. Additionally, while the SRPMIC could currently benefit from looking into the principles of environmental justice as a guide to manage past and operating landfills, the Community will have a specific opportunity to revisit these issues under closer scrutiny during the closure of the Salt River Landfill in 2032 in order to ensure more environmentally just outcomes. Finally, it was concluded that scholarship at the intersection of environmental justice and Native American communities should continue because looking closer at the ways that local Native American communities are facing and resisting environmental injustice can serve to develop future models for other communities facing similar challenges to achieving environmental justice.
ContributorsScott, Nicole Danielle (Author) / Kinzig, Ann (Thesis director) / Harlan, Sharon (Committee member) / Maienschein, Jane (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Community Resources and Development (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The Modern Synthesis embodies a theory of natural selection where selection is to be fundamentally understood in terms of measures of fitness and the covariance of reproductive success and trait or character variables. Whether made explicit or left implicit, the notion that selection requires that some trait variable cause reproductive success has been deemphasized in our modern understanding of exactly what selection amounts to. The dissertation seeks to advance a theory of natural selection that is fundamentally causal. By focusing on the causal nature of natural selection (rather than on fitness or statistical formulae), certain conceptual and methodological problems are seen in a new, clarifying light and avenues toward new, interesting solutions to those problems are illustrated. First, the dissertation offers an update to explicitly causal theories of when exactly a trait counts as an adaptation upon fixation in a population and draws out theoretical and practical implications for evolutionary biology. Second, I examine a case of a novel character that evolves by niche construction and argue that it evolves by selection for it and consider implications for understanding adaptations and drift. The third contribution of the dissertation is an argument for the importance of defining group selection causally and an argument against model pluralism in the levels of selection debate. Fourth, the dissertation makes a methodological contribution. I offer the first steps toward an explicitly causal methodology for inferring the causes of selection—something often required in addition to inferring the causes of reproductive success. The concluding chapter summarizes the work and discusses potential paths for future work.
ContributorsAnderson, Wesley (Author) / Armendt, Brad (Thesis advisor) / Creath, Richard (Committee member) / Glymour, Bruce (Committee member) / Kinzig, Ann (Committee member) / Perrings, Charles (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Sustainable urbanism offers a set of best practice planning and design prescriptions intended to reverse the negative environmental consequences of urban sprawl, which dominates new urban development in the United States. Master planned developments implementing sustainable urbanism are proliferating globally, garnering accolades within the planning community and skepticism among social scientists. Despite attention from supporters and critics alike, little is known about the actual environmental performance of sustainable urbanism. This dissertation addresses the reasons for this paucity of evidence and the capacity of sustainable urbanism to deliver the espoused environmental outcomes through alternative urban design and the conventional master planning framework for development through three manuscripts. The first manuscript considers the reasons why geography, which would appear to be a natural empirical home for research on sustainable urbanism, has yet to accumulate evidence that links design alternatives to environmental outcomes or to explain the social processes that mediate those outcomes. It argues that geography has failed to develop a coherent subfield based on nature-city interactions and suggests interdisciplinary bridging concepts to invigorate greater interaction between the urban and nature-society geographic subfields. The subsequent chapters deploy these bridging concepts to empirically examine case-studies in sustainable urbanism. The second manuscript utilizes fine scale spatial data to quantify differences in ecosystem services delivery across three urban designs in two phases of Civano, a sustainable urbanism planned development in Tucson, Arizona, and an adjacent, typical suburban development comparison community. The third manuscript considers the extent to which conventional master planning processes are fundamentally at odds with urban environmental sustainability through interviews with stakeholders involved in three planned developments: Civano (Tucson, Arizona), Mueller (Austin, Texas), and Prairie Crossing (Grayslake, Illinois). Findings from the three manuscripts reveal deep challenges in conceptualizing an empirical area of inquiry on sustainable urbanism, measuring the outcomes of urban design alternatives, and innovating planning practice within the constraints of existing institutions that facilitate conventional development. Despite these challenges, synthesizing the insights of geography and cognate fields holds promise in building an empirical body of knowledge that complements pioneering efforts of planners to innovate urban planning practice through the sustainable urbanism alternative.
ContributorsTurner, Victoria (Author) / Gober, Patricia (Thesis advisor) / Eakin, Hallie (Committee member) / Kinzig, Ann (Committee member) / Talen, Emily (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Over the past two decades there has been much discussion surrounding the potential of zoos as conservation institutions. Although zoos have clearly intensified their rhetorical and programmatic commitment to conservation (both ex situ and in situ), many critics remain skeptical of these efforts. This study was comprised of two parts: 1) an investigation of the general relationship between U.S. zoological institutions and the conservation agenda, and 2) a more specific single case study of conservation engagement and institutional identity at the Phoenix Zoo. Methods included extensive literature review, expert interviews with scholars and zoo professionals, site visits to the Phoenix Zoo and archival research. I found that the Phoenix Zoo is in the process of consciously creating a conservation-centered institutional identity by implementing and publicizing various conservation initiatives. Despite criticism of the embrace of conservation by zoos today, these institutions will be increasingly important agents of biodiversity protection and conservation education in this century.
ContributorsLove, Karen (Author) / Minteer, Ben (Thesis advisor) / Kinzig, Ann (Committee member) / Collins, James (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014