The Masters in Social Work (MSW) program at California State University of San Bernardino utilizes a substantial portion of lecture hours bringing attention to areas in which racial disparities exist, as well as the negative impact that these racial disparities have on certain cultures and communities. This project focuses on the disparities involving African-American families in the public child welfare system and how cultural competence trainings may impact this overrepresentation. This research project consists of the exploration of past research relevant to this project, which pertains to cultural competence, the overrepresentation of African-American, and trainings on cultural competence. In addition, a 5-point Likert-scale survey focused on the need and effectiveness of cultural competency trainings from a student’s perspective, was completed by CSUSB MSW students. The data was then analyzed using SPSS statistics software employing tests that included frequencies, ANOVA, and a t-test. This project hypothesized that perspectives on cultural competence and cultural competence trainings differed along racial lines, and that there was no significant difference in response based on year in MSW program. Only the latter was support according to the data. This could also be interpreted to mean that students are not receiving much curriculum on cultural competence, which the curriculum is not meaningful enough to change their perceptions, or that students enter the program with fairly favorable perceptions of the importance of cultural competency.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer occurring in the men in USA and Europe. According to CDC, incidence of Prostate cancer in African American men in the year 2008 was 234.6 cases per 100,000 compared to 150 cases per 100,000 in Caucasian men, reasons for this disparity remain unclear. Castration resistant prostate cancer is an advanced form of prostate cancer with poor survival rates. 10-20% of prostate cancer patients develop metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) within approximately 5 years of follow-up. Androgen deprivation therapy which is at the center of metastatic prostate cancer is often impeded by development of CRPC. Previous studies have demonstrated that prostatic androgen concentration ranging between 10-25 percent in the treated patients versus the untreated could still continue AR signaling. Previous in vitro studies have demonstrated higher tumor homing potential in normal adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADMSC) from African American patient compared to ADMSC derived from a Caucasian patient when grown in prostate cancer cell condition media. This study attempts to exploit this tumortropicity of ADMSC for selective delivery of alpha keto reductases in the metastasized prostate cancer cells to hydrolyse DHT and other androgens into weaker androgens. Enriched ADMSC were plated in a 6 well plate and were co-transfected with transfected with AKRC14 and GFP. Gene expression was confirmed by PCR and WB. ADMSCs are capable of expressing AKR1C14 on transfection with plasmid. Stem cells expressing AKR1C4 open the avenues for furthering therapeutic strategies in metastatic CRPC by hydrolyzing the androgens. / 1 / Manish Ranjan

<p>This thesis investigates how disparity estimation may be used to visualize an object on a 3D-screen. The first part looks into different methods of disparity estimation, and the second part examines different ways to visualize an object from one or several stereo pairs and a disparity map. Input to the system is one or several stereo pairs, and output is a sequence of images of the input scene but from more angles. This sequence of images can be shown on Setred AB's 3D-screen. The system has high real time demands and the goal is to do the disparity estimation and visualization in real time.</p><p>In the first part of the thesis, three different ways to calculate disparity maps are implemented and compared. The three methods are correlation-based, local structure-based and phase-based techniques. The correlation-based methods cannot satisfy the real-time demands due to the large number of 2D-convolutions required per pixel. The local structure-based methods have too much noise and cannot satisfy the quality requirements. Therefore, the best method by far is the phase-based method. This method has been implemented in Matlab and C and comparisons between the different implementations are presented.</p><p>The quality of the disparity maps is satisfying, but the real-time demands cannot yet be fulfilled. The future work is therefore to optimize the C code and move some functions to a GPU, because a GPU can perform calculations in parallel with the CPU. Another reason is that many of the calculations are related to resizing and warping, which are well-suited to implementation on a GPU.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D. (Economics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

This dissertation includes three studies, devoted to trying to understand inequality in health between people from different social groups in a democratic society. In the U.S., social inequality in health takes various forms and the key to understanding how democracy solves the problem of inequality lies in a complex set of political and social factors. I take an institutional approach and focus on examining how political and policy institutions, their administrative processes, and the policy implementation environment are linked to social inequality in health. The first essay, Whose Baby Matters More, uses a theoretical framework for evaluating heterogeneous group responses to public health policies and depicts how racial disparities in health are rooted in group heterogeneity in policy responses. The second essay, Anxious Girls and Inactive Boys, focuses on how state-level policy interventions and social capital interactively affect gender differences in health. The third essay, Responsibility for Equity, explores the link between publicness of state healthcare systems and social equity in healthcare access. In the first essay, I focus on racial disparities in infant mortality rates and pool state-level data from 1990 to 2006. The empirical analysis suggests that enhancing the capacity of state healthcare systems is critical to improving population health. Blacks and whites, nevertheless, exhibit different responses to the same policy. Racial disparities could be reduced only when policy interventions generate more relative benefits for Blacks. In the second essay, I find that social capital conditions the effect of public health policies with regard to managing childhood obesity. There are gender differences, moreover, in health outcomes and behavioral responses to state and local-level obesity policies. In the third essay, I find that different institutional factors exhibit different impact on inequality in healthcare access. While public finance resources may reduce inequality in healthcare access, public ownership and the public healthcare workforce do not have significant association with inequality in healthcare access. State Medicaid eligibility rules exhibit moderate impact on inequality in healthcare access.

Real estate brokerage has gradually progressed from growth to maturity since management regulations were executed. Since the government has ensured consumer rights by legislations, the confidence of consumers in real estate brokerage has been greatly enhanced. The success ratio of real estate cases has therefore increased. In addition, for the past two years, the economy has been recovering and the government has continued in its policy of subsidizing house loan interest. Real estate brokerage has therefore been highly prosperous for these two years. The internet has developed rapidly, and it is changing transaction modes in many industries with its low costs and capacity for rapid information transfer. It also puts industry leaders in a stronger position. The rules of the game have changed in industry. Corporations have to reevaluate business modes affected by the internet and consider the resultant changes. The character of real estate usually complicates transactions and thus influences the actions of buyers and sellers. The transaction therefore has many variables. Moreover the buyers are not aware of all of these variables. The brokers usually take advantage of the buyers¡¦ relative ignorance for their own professional gain. What is the brokers¡¦ advantage in this situation of information disparity? How do they utilize this advantage? In this study these questions will first be clarified and expounded. It will then be investigated whether the influence of the internet will lessen the need for professional intermediation or the brokers¡¦ information advantage. Finally comparisons will be made between the pre- and post-Internet world. Sinyi Realty Inc. is the only listed real estate company in Taiwan at present. According to Commonwealth Magazine market survey Sinyi Realty Inc. is the most trusted and best-known company in real estate brokerage. It even has the highest sales figures in the industry. In addition Sinyi Realty Inc. is the only real estate company ranking in the Taiwan Top 500. For these reasons it has been singled out as a case study for in-depth research in order to evaluate the possible influence of the Internet now and in the future. This study will begin with the analysis of Sinyi Realty Inc.¡¦s development background and competitive advantages followed by the internal and external changes arising from the Internet¡¦s influence. Finally the potential advantages, disadvantages risks, and opportunities will be studied and analyzed. It is hoped this study can act as a reference for real estate brokers as they formulate their development strategies in the Internet-influenced world of the future.

Regardless of age or mental capacity, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is the first line of treatment for ST-elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI). This study evaluates the disparities in the use of diagnostic cardiac catheterization and PCI in STEMI patients with dementia. A retrospective analysis was performed of Florida‟s comprehensive inpatient surveillance system for the years 2006-2007 with admission diagnosis of STEMI. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify disparities in the use of intervention among all STEMI patients. A total of 8,331 STEMI patients met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 77% were catheterized and of these 67% received PCI. A total of 605 (7.3%) were demented. Patients with dementia were less likely to be catheterized (RR 0.4, 95% CI 0.3-0.5) and less likely to receive PCI within 24 hours (RR 0.5, 95% CI 0.4-0.6). This study concludes that STEMI patients with dementia were much less likely to receive cardiovascular interventions.

In this dissertation, I examine binocular 3D motion processing through a series of psychophysical and neuroimaging experiments aimed at uncovering the neural computations involved and their interaction with the known hierarchy of visual motion processing. Two primary binocular cues could be used to compute 3D motion: one based on changing disparities over time (CD), the other based on interocular velocity differences (IOVD). Under normal viewing conditions, both cues coexist and (potentially) provide the same 3D direction information, yet whether CD, IOVD, or both mechanisms exist has distinct implications for how 3D motion is processed along the visual stream. First, I measured 3D direction discrimination sensitivity is measured for isolated binocular cues under a range of 3D motion speeds and visual eccentricities. Comparison of isolated-cue sensitivity to corresponding combined cue sensitivity (i.e. concurrent IOVD & CD cue stimuli) provided an estimate of relative cue contributions under normal viewing conditions. Second, I conducted a series of motion adaptation experiments to differentiate the neural representation of 2D and 3D directions of motion, and examine the degree to which IOVD or CD mechanisms can account for 3D motion adaptation. Third, I examined the neural locus of 3D motion processing by measuring 3D direction- selectivity throughout a range of visual cortical areas using functional neuroimaging in an event-related paradigm that parallels psychophysical adaptation experiments. Finally, I discuss the broader implications for the neural mechanisms of binocular 3D motion processing and future experimental directions. Together, these results reveal that: (1) the IOVD cue is the dominant cue to 3D motion processing across the majority of natural speeds & eccentricities, (2) neural tuning for 3D motion is distinct from 2D motion and can be fully explained by an IOVD mechanism, and (3) the IOVD cue is computed relatively late in the visual processing stream, in areas MT & MST— cortical areas primarily associated with 2D/retinal motion and thought to be beyond the point of binocular combination. The significance of IOVD —but not CD—cues to 3D motion perception motivates a drastic modification to canonical models of motion processing to include the late-stage comparison of eye- specific motion signals. / text

The purpose of this study was to identify micro, mezzo, and macro level factors which may be contributing to disparities in the removal decision among Latino and Native Americans in the Idaho child welfare system. Additionally, this study explored what factors contribute to the decision to investigate a referral or substantiate a claim of child abuse or neglect. This study used a secondary data analysis of all families (n = 4547) referred for abuse or neglect to the Idaho public child welfare system between April 1 and September 30, 2009. It was found that children were more likely to be removed if they had previously been a victim of abuse or neglect. Native American children were 4.39 times more likely to be removed than White children and Latino children were 1.78 times more likely to be removed than White children. Additional positive predictors of removal were domestic violence, being on public assistance, being referred for "other" maltreatment type rather than neglect, and the county poverty rate. The only negative predictor of placement was being referred for physical abuse rather than neglect. The R2 for these variables was 17.09%. Additional significant results indicated that county variables, such as the presence of a field office in a given county and level of rurality, were factors in the investigation decision. Referrals for physical abuse were also more likely to result in an investigation than referrals for neglect. The child's age and a referral for "other" maltreatment type were negatively related to the disposition of a case. Finally, an assessment was conducted of disparity at various decision points in the child welfare process. It was determined that Native Americans, Latinos, and Blacks/African Americans all experience disparity at some point in the early decision-making process of a child welfare case. For Black/African American children, the greatest disparity occurs at the referral to child welfare. For Latino children, the greatest disparity occurs at the removal decision. Native American children also have the greatest disparity at the removal decision, although they experience disparity at nearly every explored point in the child welfare process. / text

Background: Hospitalizations for pediatric gastroenteritis are considered potentially avoidable and are used to monitor access and quality of primary care for children. Previous reports have found pediatric gastroenteritis admissions higher in Florida compared to the South and the nation.Purpose: The purpose of this project was to explore variation in county admission rates for pediatric gastroenteritis related to non-clinical factors in Florida during 1995-2002. Specific aims included identifying the unique contributions of county socioeconomic characteristics and availability of primary care resources to annual county pediatric gastroenteritis hospital admission rates. Method: The study was retrospective and longitudinal assessing variation in annual county admission rates for pediatric gastroenteritis from 1995 to 2002. Secondary data sources included Florida hospital discharge data and multiple publicly available state and federal datasets. Explanatory variables included county-level measures of socioeconomic status and primary healthcare resources. Analysis: Multivariate analysis was performed using multilevel modeling techniques. A two-level, random coefficients model was constructed in HLM6 to account for variation over years and across counties. Linear and non-linear trends over time were also assessed. Results: None of the hypotheses were supported by the data. The average pediatric gastroenteritis admission rate across all occasions and counties was 205.72 admissions per 100,000 child population. The proportion of children 0-4 years was the only significant predictor of pediatric gastroenteritis rates. Conclusion/Discussion: The significant effect of age on admission rate was not surprising and was well supported in the literature. Missing data issues and low statistical power may have contributed to the lack of significant effects of other explanatory variables