Mississippi leads the nation in chronic disease, obesity, poverty, and food insecurity. Preventing further growth in disease rates, requires a cultural shift towards a ‘healthy eating’ environment. Healthy patterns of food consumption along with physical activity can prevent and reduce these rates. A state-wide ‘healthy eating’ social marketing campaign could motivate voluntary population behavioral change. Three different methodologies were used to develop a strategy for Mississippi: a systematic review of the literature, a state-wide phone survey (quantitative), and focus groups (qualitative). A systematic review of articles published since January 2007 was conducted, using PRISMA guidelines. Five databases were searched with key terms. Past healthy eating campaigns in the US focused on children and parents as the target audiences and consumption of fruits and vegetables as the behavioral outcome. A web-based campaign from Oregon, was one of the successful models; in 2015, their website had over 125,000 monthly users. This campaign appeals to mothers as its primary audience and produces recipes that are tested and ‘kid-approved’; almost all the recipes include fruits and/or vegetables. The phone survey data was analyzed for participants who were responsible for children under the age of 18 in their homes. Values, attitudes, beliefs and barriers were analyzed using univariate frequencies. Chi Square tests were conducted to investigate the differences between demographic groups. The survey found that Mississippi SNAP-eligible and recipients have positive beliefs and attitudes towards ‘healthy eating.’ A majority (60%) agreed that cost was a barrier to ‘healthy eating’ while 35% thought that access to quality fruits and vegetables was lacking. Focus groups (n=17), from 12 counties were conducted with mothers, grandmothers, aunts who were caretakers of young children. Findings indicated participants had a broad range of perceptions and practices for ‘healthy eating.’ They were motivated to eat healthy for their personal health and for their children. Mothers and guardians are motivated to satisfy their children’s hunger, often a barrier to healthy eating. The findings indicate that time, convenience, and cost are also barriers. A consumer-oriented, culturally appropriate social marketing campaign in Mississippi should resonate with mothers and their need to satisfy their children.

This thesis aims to find general principles governing the behaviour of biological systems, with a particular emphasis in the communicational (social) aspect of these systems. Communication between biological entities plays a major role in their evolution, enabling them to exchange information about their environment and thereby improving their chances of survival. Communication also plays a pivotal role in the organisation of populations of organisms, clearly observed in social insects, but present also at least in bacteria, plants, fungi, animals and humans. It is also theorised that the genetic code is a by-product of the establishment of an innovation-sharing protocol between primitive cells [Vetsigian et al., 2006]. This thesis is mainly concerned with identifying necessary conditions for the emergence of communicational codes, and the problems that arise with their establishment. For this purpose, we introduce an information-theoretic framework where species maximise their growth rate by following a Kelly-gambling strategy to bet on environmental conditions. Information theory provides a powerful tool for abstracting away mechanisms and for focusing on hard limits of a system's dynamics which cannot be circumvented. We begin by exploring the relation between information exchange and limited resources. We show that a transition from cooperation to antagonism in the exchange of environmental information follows from a change in the availability of resources, from abundant to scarce. We then assume a non-competitive scenario with abundance of resources, where conflicts in a population occur only at a communicational (informational) level, rather than on the physical level, such as competing for (physical) resources. However, traditional Shannon communication is non-semantic, as opposed to the semantic communication observed in biological systems, which is necessary for capturing conflicts in communication. In the traditional use of information theory, it is assumed that every organism knows how to \interpret" the information offered by other organisms. However, this assumes that one \knows" which other organisms one observes, and thus which code they use. In our model, however, we wish to preclude that: namely, we will do away with the assumption that the identity of the organisms who send the messages and those who receive them is known, and the resulting usable information is therefore influenced by the universality of the code used and by which organisms an organism is \listening" to. We introduce a model which captures semantic communication in information-theoretic terms, where organisms talk to each other in a communication network. We show that, for particular population structures, when organisms cannot identify which other organisms they talk to, the adoption of a universal code emerges as a solution for full interpretation of the shared information. However, the evolution and establishment of universal codes for communication introduces vulnerabilities: organisms can be exploited by parasites. We de ne two types of parasites whose strategies have different levels of complexity and study the co-evolution of a host (the population) and a parasite by optimising their respective objective functions in stages. First, we consider a disruptive parasite (a troll) that inflicts harm in a host by minimising a population's mutual understanding, and then a more complex parasite, which manipulates the members of the population via their codes (the puppetmaster). We show emergent characterisations of both parasites, as well as which host configurations are robust against parasites and show adaptive properties. This thesis introduces a framework which allows the study of informational properties in the host-parasite co-evolution, where the rules of the parasite's habitat, the host, are the outcome of an evolutionary process, and where these very same rules are those that allow the parasite to exploit the host.

Do you find it hard to envision the future when you are struggling to keep up with the present? A reality in many libraries is high demand but limited resources. In this session, participants will develop a menu of current services offered in their position or department. After group discussions on criteria for evaluating services and shortening workflows, participants will eliminate one service and/or shorten its prep time in order to add a forward thinking service.

“Många bäckar små blir en administrativ å” is a bachelor thesis in sociology authored by Molly Jannerman and Lina Sjöberg. In light of the fact that Swedish schools has been subject to a series of reforms which has stimulated an increase of administrative work, this study aims to offer an insight in how elementary school teachers experience the administration and how it is dealt with.  The study takes a qualitative approach and is based on semi structured interviews with six elementary school teachers. The analytical framework of the study is made of Lipsky’s theory of street level bureaucracy, Tummer’s theory of policy alienation, Hodson’s model of workers behaviors, and parts of new institutionalism and legitimacy theory. The result indicates that the teachers’ experiences of the administrative work are complex. As well as they view it as relevant and important, they also find some of the tasks overwhelming and stressful. The administrative work is also found to be a way to create legitimacy in the teaching role; it becomes a tool to justify their decisions against the surroundings.The teachers develop strategies to deal with the administration, which tends to relate closely to how it’s experienced, and therefore includes touches of both compliance and resistance. The identified strategies are made up of simplifying of tasks, shortcuts, procrastination and avoidance, and the goals are mainly to create time for the students and make their working hours sufficient. / ”Många bäckar små blir en administrativ å” är en kandidatuppsats i sociologi författad av Molly Jannerman och Lina Sjöberg. Mot bakgrund av att den svenska skolan varit föremål för en mängd reformer som bidragit till att det administrativa arbetet i skolan ökat, är studiens syfte att ge en inblick i hur grundskollärare upplever det administrativa arbetet samt hur det i praktiken hanteras. Studien utgår från en  kvalitativ ansats och bygger på sex semistrukturerade intervjuer med verksamma grundskollärare. Studiens analytiska ramverk utgörs av Lipskys teori om gräsrotsbyråkrater, Tummers teori policy alienation, Hodsons typologi över organisatoriska beteendemönster samt delar av nyinstitutionell teori och legitimitetsteori. Resultaten visar att lärarnas upplevelse av administrationen är komplex, i vissa avseenden upplevs den relevant men i andra som övermäktig och som en bidragande faktor till stress. Utmärkande är att administrationen fyller en legitimitetsskapande funktion och fungerar som ett verktyg för att rättfärdiga sina beslut och sin lärarroll gentemot omgivningen. De strategier lärarna utvecklar för att hantera administrationen står i nära relation till hur den upplevs och visar således drag av både samtycke och motstånd. Strategierna som identifierats handlar om att skapa förenklingar, ta genvägar, skjuta upp och prioritera bort administrationen och används främst i syfte att skapa tid till eleverna och få arbetstiden att räcka till.

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Estimating the prevalence rate of a disease is crucial for controlling its spread, and for planning of healthcare services. Due to limited testing budgets and resources, prevalence estimation typically entails pooled, or group, testing where specimens (e.g., blood, urine, tissue swabs) from a number of subjects are combined into a testing pool, which is then tested via a single test. Testing outcomes from multiple pools are analyzed so as to assess the prevalence of the disease. The accuracy of prevalence estimation relies on the testing pool design, i.e., the number of pools to test and the pool sizes (the number of specimens to combine in a pool). Determining an optimal pool design for prevalence estimation can be challenging, as it requires prior information on the current status of the disease, which can be highly unreliable, or simply unavailable, especially for emerging and/or seasonal diseases. We develop and study frameworks for prevalence estimation, under highly unreliable prior information on the disease and limited testing budgets. Embedded into each estimation framework is an optimization model that determines the optimal testing pool design, considering the trade-off between testing cost and estimation accuracy. We establish important structural properties of optimal testing pool designs in various settings, and develop efficient and exact algorithms. Our numerous case studies, ranging from prevalence estimation of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in various parts of Africa, to prevalence estimation of diseases in plants and insects, including the Tomato Spotted Wilt virus in thrips and West Nile virus in mosquitoes, indicate that the proposed estimation methods substantially outperform current approaches developed in the literature, and produce robust testing pool designs that can hedge against the uncertainty in model inputs.Our research findings indicate that the proposed prevalence estimation frameworks are capable of producing accurate prevalence estimates, and are highly desirable, especially for emerging and/or seasonal diseases under limited testing budgets. / Doctor of Philosophy / Accurately estimating the proportion of a population that has a disease, i.e., the disease prevalence rate, is crucial for controlling its spread, and for planning of healthcare services, such as disease prevention, screening, and treatment. Due to limited testing budgets and resources, prevalence estimation typically entails pooled, or group, testing where biological specimens (e.g., blood, urine, tissue swabs) from a number of subjects are combined into a testing pool, which is then tested via a single test. Testing results from the testing pools are analyzed so as to assess the prevalence of the disease. The accuracy of prevalence estimation relies on the testing pool design, i.e., the number of pools to test and the pool sizes (the number of specimens to combine in a pool). Determining an optimal pool design for prevalence estimation, e.g., the pool design that minimizes the estimation error, can be challenging, as it requires information on the current status of the disease prior to testing, which can be highly unreliable, or simply unavailable, especially for emerging and/or seasonal diseases. Examples of such diseases include, but are not limited to, Zika virus, West Nile virus, and Lyme disease. We develop and study frameworks for prevalence estimation, under highly unreliable prior information on the disease and limited testing budgets. Embedded into each estimation framework is an optimization model that determines the optimal testing pool design, considering the trade-off between testing cost and estimation accuracy. We establish important structural properties of optimal testing pool designs in various settings, and develop efficient and exact optimization algorithms. Our numerous case studies, ranging from prevalence estimation of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in various parts of Africa, to prevalence estimation of diseases in plants and insects, including the Tomato Spotted Wilt virus in thrips and West Nile virus in mosquitoes, indicate that the proposed estimation methods substantially outperform current approaches developed in the literature, and produce robust testing pool designs that can hedge against the uncertainty in model input parameters. Our research findings indicate that the proposed prevalence estimation frameworks are capable of producing accurate prevalence estimates, and are highly desirable, especially for emerging and/or seasonal diseases under limited testing budgets.

The need for health informatics education is recognized by many countries which are now engaged in introducing technology to healthcare. Universities have been slow to respond to the need for health informatics professional education. Governments are also involved in initiatives to fund the development of curricula and programs in this area. Entry level and generic courses in health informatics are being developed in order to start education programs. There are now a number of such programs being initiated in some of the developing countries. To meet this demand there is need for individuals who are educated in health informatics. These individuals should be able to perform health informatics related tasks and activities in order to serve the healthcare community better. The focus of their work should be on producing effective leaders in health informatics through formal educational programs and professional education. The purpose of this research is to answer the following research questions: 1) Is there a perceived demand for health informatics professionals in the healthcare institutions of Karachi as expressed by administrators of healthcare institutions? 2) Is there a perceived need for post-secondary Health Informatics education in Karachi as expressed by directors of academic institutions? 3) What types of skills and competencies will health informatics professionals need to acquire through educational programs in Karachi? Setting: This research was conducted in Karachi, Pakistan in 2010 to determine the demand for health informatics education by interviewing representatives from academic and healthcare institutions in Karachi. Participants: A snowball sampling methodology was used. Participants from different types of healthcare centers were interviewed including public and private healthcare centers, nongovernmental organizations, primary healthcare centers of Karachi, and academic institutions that include private and government institutes which are representative of the entire city. Method: Approval was elicited from Human Research Ethics Board of University of Victoria to conduct the study in Karachi, Pakistan. The study described in this thesis used a qualitative design. Thirty participants including fifteen directors of academic institutions and fifteen head of administration of healthcare institutions participated in the study. The sampling methodology used was snowball sampling, which is a non-probability type of sampling. This is the type of sampling where samples are gathered in a process that does not give all the individuals in the population equal chances of being selected [92]. The researcher identified an expert who provided the contacts of academic directors who were invited to participate in the study. The researcher conducted face-to-face interviews with them. Findings: There are many educational gaps and there is also a lack of resources needed to fulfill the demand for health informatics education in healthcare institutions. Ways to improve education in health informatics were discussed and competencies required for health informaticians were established. By obtaining understanding about health informatics, the need for health informatics education to meet the demand of healthcare institutions of Karachi was identified. After reviewing details and results from the research, institutions can make an independent decision regarding choosing an appropriate approach to health informatics education that blends in with the culture of the target population. The most important themes that were derived from the responses of directors of academic institutions fall under a number of different categories. Understanding of health informatics was expressed by participants as representing an integration of computer science and healthcare. It was also clear that subjects felt that capacity building was required for the development of skill sets related to data and system management. The status of HI education in Karachi was noted as being in its infancy, which was a constant theme in all the responses of the participants. Additionally, limited resources available along with a lack of financial assistance, lack of knowledge, manpower, educators and awareness were also a few prominent themes. The administrators had hands-on experience in managing healthcare institutions and they expressed important themes with regard to understanding health informatics as being the management of data and the maintenance of patient records through computer science. The collection of encounters and compilation of clinical documentation was seen as the key concept behind medical records. Themes related to job market requirements included critical thinking, computer knowledge, understanding of medical terminology and specific expertise related to the HI field. Limited resources and scarcity of funds were seen as themes reflecting barriers for health informaticians in the healthcare organizations. Administrators expressed the need for developing academic programs to address manpower training for prospective employees. Conclusion: This paper presents results that could be a major contribution towards enhancing the approach of training professionals in the field of health informatics in Pakistan. This research will hopefully help educators adopt health informatics in their curricula and will encourage educators in the field to impart their knowledge to local people. / Graduate

A l’avenir, l'agriculture et l'environnement vont pouvoir bénéficier de plus en plus de données hétérogènes collectées par des réseaux de capteurs sans fil (RCSF). Ces données alimentent généralement des outils d’aide à la décision (OAD). Dans cette thèse, nous nous intéressons spécifiquement aux systèmes sensibles et adaptatifs au contexte basés sur un RCSF et un OAD, dédiés au suivi de phénomènes naturels. Nous proposons ainsi une formalisation pour la conception et la mise en œuvre de ces systèmes. Le contexte considéré se compose de données issues du phénomène étudié mais également des capteurs sans fil (leur niveau d’énergie par exemple). Par l’utilisation des ontologies et de techniques de raisonnement, nous visons à maintenir le niveau de qualité de service (QdS) des données collectées (en accord avec le phénomène étudié) tant en préservant le fonctionnement du RCSF. Pour illustrer notre proposition, un cas d'utilisation complexe, l'étude des inondations dans un bassin hydrographique, est considéré. Cette thèse a produit un logiciel de simulation de ces systèmes qui intègre un système de simulation multi-agents (JADE) avec un moteur d’inférence à base de règles (Jess). / In the future, agriculture and environment will rely on more and more heterogeneous data collected by wireless sensor networks (WSN). These data are generally used in decision support systems (DSS). In this dissertation, we focus on adaptive context-aware systems based on WSN and DSS, dedicated to the monitoring of natural phenomena. Thus, a formalization for the design and the deployment of these kinds of systems is proposed. The considered context is established using the data from the studied phenomenon but also from the wireless sensors (e.g., their energy level). By the use of ontologies and reasoning techniques, we aim to maintain the required quality of service (QoS) level of the collected data (according to the studied phenomenon) while preserving the resources of the WSN. To illustrate our proposal, a complex use case, the study of floods in a watershed, is described. During this PhD thesis, a simulator for context-aware systems which integrates a multi-agent system (JADE) and a rule engine (Jess) has been developed.Keywords: ontologies, rule-based inferences, formalization, heterogeneous data, sensors data streams integration, WSN, limited resources, DSS, adaptive context-aware systems, QoS, agriculture, environment.