The current study explored the health risk of E. coli O157:H7 to diarrhoeic confrimed and non-confirmed HIV/AIDS patients due to their exposure to presumed ingestion of water, meat, meat products and vegetables ostensibly contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. Strains of E. coli O157:H7 were isolated by enrichment culture and on Cefixime-Telurite Sorbitol MacConkey agar. Average counts of presumptive E. coli O157 were used for dose-response assessment.Probability of infection to confrimed and non-confirmedHIV/AIDS patients was 20 and 27 % from meat and meat products, 21% and 15% from vegetables and 100% due to ingestion of 1500ml person day of water. Drinking water had higher probability of transmitting E. coli O157 :H infections than meat and meat products and vegetables.Prabability of E coli O157:H7 infections were high for confrimed HIV/AIDS patients than for non-confirmed patients. Water and foods consumed by HIV/AIDS patients should be safe of any microbial contaminants, these waters and foods should as well be investigated for other enteric pathogens to establish their safety.

Over 60% of U.S. adults are either overweight or obese. The effect of obesity on cancer mortality is striking: approximately 90,000 deaths per year from cancer may be avoided if Americans could maintain a BMI of <25.0 throughout adulthood. The aim of this research was to employ and evaluate energy balance interventions designed to reverse obesity-related risk factors. The overarching hypothesis was that energy balance interventions would reduce cancer risk. To test this hypothesis, we used mostly animal models of diet-induced obesity and tested the effect of a low carbohydrate diet, calorie restriction, and exercise on adiposity, levels of circulating hormones, insulin resistance, and oxidative stress. To extend on in vivo findings from the final animal study, we utilized a human breast cancer cell line to further characterize the gene expression of thioredoxin-interacting protein in the context of p53 deficiency. Calorie restriction was the most potent energy balance intervention. It caused weight loss, slowed tumor growth, reduced circulating IGF-1 and leptin levels, improved insulin resistance, and elicited a robust transcriptional response in visceral white adipose tissue following weight loss. Although a low carbohydrate diet and exercise did decrease hormones associated with obesity, (IGF-1 and leptin respectively) calorie restriction proved to be the most effective at reducing multiple obesity-related factors. Finally, from our studies analyzing the effect of obesity and exercise on oxidative stress in the context of p53-deficiency, we discovered that thioredoxin-interacting protein is transcriptionally upregulated in response to increased glucose flux associated with metabolic dysregulation that occurs as a consequence of loss of p53. / text

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Statistics and Actuarial Science / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

The evaluation of risk is often performed assuming static conditions when in reality, conditions are continually evolving. In the following dissertation, the evaluation of risk with changing conditions over time is considered for a specific project - placing overburden into an active, open pit mine. The research focuses on the geotechnical components of risk with the goal of identifying whether and to what extent it is possible to place overburden on mined out portions of the open pit slopes. The relevant factors, which change with time or impact risk, are first identified and an evaluation is performed to estimate a probability of failure at various stages of the project life. Potential damages are then assessed by first evaluating the run out distance and post failure geometry of a slope failure and then estimating the percentage of material that would have to be removed to continue extraction of ore. To convert the uncertainty into economic terms, unit values for savings that result from placing overburden in the pit and costs associated with cleaning up failure debris are estimated. The probability of failure, potential for cleanup, and unit values are combined to produce estimates of the likely costs and benefits associated with dumping overburden in the open pit.The results of the analysis indicated that risk varies considerably with time. However, it is possible to place overburden in the central portion of the open pit up to a limit of approximately 80 million tons while maintaining a positive net value of expected costs and benefits.

Bakgrund: Förr var det ofta kvinnan som hade till uppgift att ta hand om hemmet, medan mannen var familjeförsörjare. Idag arbetar kvinnor och män i princip lika mycket utanför hemmet, men de befinner sig på olika delar av arbetsmarknaden. I tidigare forskning har man funnit att personer som är beredda att ta risker har en benägenhet att bli egenföretagare. Det finns flera undersökningar där forskare funnit könsskillnader när det handlar om risktagande. I vilken utsträckning dessa skillnader är bevis på att det verkligen finns allmänna könsskillnader i riskpreferens och att det inte bara beror på sociala och omvärldsfaktorer är ännu olöst. Syfte: Syftet är att beskriva och förklara om det finns något samband mellan finansiellt risktagande och kön. Avgränsningar: Vi har avgränsat oss till egenföretagare i Växjö kommun. Vi har endast inriktat oss på riskbenägenhet som har med respondenternas finansiella beslut i företaget att göra. Metod: I uppsatsen har vi använt oss av ett positivistiskt synsätt och ett kvantitativt tillvägagångssätt. Det empiriska materialet har vi samlat in med hjälp av enkäter. Vi har sedan testat våra hypoteser och analyserat övriga variabler. Slutsatser: I vissa beslutssituationer fann vi samband mellan kön och riskbenägenhet, och där visade det sig att kvinnorna tog mer risk än männen. Eftersom vi inte fann samband överallt beror riskbenägenhet snarare på beslutssituationen och hur beslutsfrågorna är formulerade än på kön. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Att undersöka hur risktagandet ser ut i en bransch. Det skulle vara intressant att intervjua några kvinnliga och manliga egenföretagare om vad de har för syn på sitt risktagande i den specifika branschen.

Many infrastructure networks rely on each other to deliver utilities and services to the community. In the event of a disaster, these networks can sustain significant damage. It is therefore important to identify interdependencies among networks to mitigate the disaster consequences. In 2003, Public Safety Canada (PSC) and NSERC initiated the Joint Infrastructure Interdependencies Research Program (JIIRP) for this purpose. The research was carried out at six Universities across Canada including the University of British Columbia (UBC). The aim of JIIRP at UBC was to study infrastructure interdependencies during disasters in order to aid in decision making. This involved the development disaster simulation methodology and tool, and the implementation of a case study. UBC's Point Grey campus was used as case study. The campus is located in southwestern British Columbia, a known seismic zone, therefore earthquake disaster scenario was chosen. Reasonable estimations of the expected seismic damage and losses are required in order to simulate a realistic disaster scenario. For this reason, in this thesis, seismic risk assessment was carried out for the buildings at UBC. This involved the development of a building database, the assessment of the expected level of damage to the structural and nonstructural building components, and the estimation of monetary, human and functionality losses. Buildings in the database were classified into prototypes and the damage was estimated for several levels ofintensity using damage probability matrices. As expected, the most vulnerable buildings on campus were those containing unreinforced masonry. These buildings make up 7% of the buildings on campus. The least vulnerable buildings were multi-family residential woodbuildings which account for 27% of the buildings on campus. Losses were estimated following the damage assessments. Casualties were estimated for three times of day. 2PM was determined to be the critical time of day as the campus population is the greatest at this time. Monetary loss and functionality trends were examined with respect to earthquake intensity and it was shown that for moderate intensity earthquakes, the losses depend primarily on nonstructural damage, while structural damage plays the most important role for higher intensities.

This research addressed the question of how information technology (IT) tools influence the perceived risk of consumers in e-commerce transactions in three phases. First, an exposure-driven model of e-commerce transaction perceived risk was developed and tested, providing a theoretical and conceptual basis for this research. Nine salient risk beliefs were modeled as formative dimensions of three risk belief categories based on prior perceived risk research: information misuse risk, performance risk, and functionality inefficiency risk. The model was tested in an online survey of 565 internet users. The results support the proposed construct of e-commerce transaction perceived risk, modeled as formed by the three proposed risk categories, validating the measurement model and finding that the construct was associated as expected with accepted e-commerce constructs in a nomological network. In the second phase, this model was used to examine the ways in which IT tools influence those beliefs. Participants were asked to observe an example of one risk-reducing IT tool (RRIT) and to indicate their willingness to use the tool for reducing the probability of each risk category and risk dimension. This research confirmed that consumers do perceive RRIT as being useful in reducing the probabilities of risk categories, compared to their willingness to adopt a control IT tool or other RRIT for that purpose. The final phase of this research investigates the adoption and influence of RRIT. Participants were shown an example RRIT and were asked to compare a store providing the tool to an identical website that did not provide the tool. This research supported hypotheses that perceived improvements in the probability of one or more of the risk dimensions when an RRIT is provided would lead to an intention to adopt the RRIT, and that the intention to adopt the RRIT would be associated with an improvement in attitude toward buying from a web retailer and the subsequent improvement in intention to buy from a web retailer.

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No description available.