Genotypic Resistance Tests Sequences Reveal the Role of Marginalized Populations in HIV-1 Transmission in Switzerland.

Targeting hard-to-reach/marginalized populations is essential for preventing HIV-transmission. A unique opportunity to identify such populations in Switzerland is provided by a database of all genotypic-resistance-tests from Switzerland, including both sequences from the Swiss HIV Cohort Study (SHCS) and non-cohort sequences. A phylogenetic tree was built using 11,127 SHCS and 2,875 Swiss non-SHCS sequences. Demographics were imputed for non-SHCS patients using a phylogenetic proximity approach. Factors associated with non-cohort outbreaks were determined using logistic regression. Non-B subtype (univariable odds-ratio (OR): 1.9; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.8-2.1), female gender (OR: 1.6; 95% CI: 1.4-1.7), black ethnicity (OR: 1.9; 95% CI: 1.7-2.1) and heterosexual transmission group (OR:1.8; 95% CI: 1.6-2.0), were all associated with underrepresentation in the SHCS. We found 344 purely non-SHCS transmission clusters, however, these outbreaks were small (median 2, maximum 7 patients) with a strong overlap with the SHCS'. 65% of non-SHCS sequences were part of clusters composed of >= 50% SHCS sequences. Our data suggests that marginalized-populations are underrepresented in the SHCS. However, the limited size of outbreaks among non-SHCS patients in-care implies that no major HIV outbreak in Switzerland was missed by the SHCS surveillance. This study demonstrates the potential of sequence data to assess and extend the scope of infectious-disease surveillance.

Eye Gaze Behavior at Turn Transition: How Aphasic Patients Process Speakers' Turns during Video Observation

The human turn-taking system regulates the smooth and precise exchange of speaking turns during face-to-face interaction. Recent studies investigated the processing of ongoing turns during conversation by measuring the eye movements of noninvolved observers. The findings suggest that humans shift their gaze in anticipation to the next speaker before the start of the next turn. Moreover, there is evidence that the ability to timely detect turn transitions mainly relies on the lexico-syntactic content provided by the conversation. Consequently, patients with aphasia, who often experience deficits in both semantic and syntactic processing, might encounter difficulties to detect and timely shift their gaze at turn transitions. To test this assumption, we presented video vignettes of natural conversations to aphasic patients and healthy controls, while their eye movements were measured. The frequency and latency of event-related gaze shifts, with respect to the end of the current turn in the videos, were compared between the two groups. Our results suggest that, compared with healthy controls, aphasic patients have a reduced probability to shift their gaze at turn transitions but do not show significantly increased gaze shift latencies. In healthy controls, but not in aphasic patients, the probability to shift the gaze at turn transition was increased when the video content of the current turn had a higher lexico-syntactic complexity. Furthermore, the results from voxel-based lesion symptom mapping indicate that the association between lexico-syntactic complexity and gaze shift latency in aphasic patients is predicted by brain lesions located in the posterior branch of the left arcuate fasciculus. Higher lexico-syntactic processing demands seem to lead to a reduced gaze shift probability in aphasic patients. This finding may represent missed opportunities for patients to place their contributions during everyday conversation.

Managerialism at the bottom of the pyramid: a case study in Brazil

Nas últimas décadas, a Base da Pirâmide tem sido cada vez mais debatida entre líderes ocidentais como a nova terra das oportunidades. Com o advento do neoliberalismo no campo do desenvolvimento na década de 1990, o papel da sociedade civil e, em particular, o de Organizações Não-Governamentais, passou a ser enfatizado como sendo central nas estratégias ocidentais no "Sul" do mundo. Os atores do desenvolvimento, no entanto, muitas vezes abordaram essas questões utilizando perspectivas tradicionais, que estavam geralmente fora de contexto. A tese foca na controvérsia em torno do uso de técnicas de gestão em cenários que diferem daqueles nos quais estas ferramentas têm sido desenvolvidas. Em particular, ela procura compreender em que medida o gerencialismo - a ideologia da gestão - está a influenciando as atividades de uma Organização Não-Governamental brasileira, a Galpão Aplauso. O estudo, usando uma estrutura teórica, analisa o relacionamento entre a ONG e seus parceiros, sublinhando os resultados de conflitos ideológicos. No geral, descobriu-se como o encontro das perspectivas do Norte e do Sul originou alguns debates que levaram, em parte, à aceitação de ideias gerencialistas, tais como a replicabilidade e sistematização de processos, enquanto que em alguns casos, eles intensificaram a resistência da ONG sobre conceitos como sustentabilidade financeira e transformação em um negócio social.

On the Interest in Beauty and Disinterest

Contemporary philosophical attitudes toward beauty are hard to reconcile with its importance in the history of philosophy. Philosophers used to allow it a starring role in their theories of autonomy, morality, or the good life. But today, if beauty is discussed at all, it is often explicitly denied any such importance. This is due, in part, to the thought that beauty is the object of “disinterested pleasure”. In this paper I clarify the notion of disinterest and develop two general strategies for resisting the emphasis on it, in the hopes of getting a clearer view of beauty’s significance. I present and discuss several literary depictions of the encounter with beauty that motivate both strategies. These depictions illustrate the ways in which aesthetic experience can be personally transformative. I argue that they present difficulties for disinterest theories and suggest we abandon the concept of disinterest to focus instead on the special kind of interest beauty fuels. I propose a closer look at the Platonic thought that beauty is the object of love.

Eliciting Euphoria Online: The Aesthetics of “ASMR” Video Culture

“Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response” (ASMR) is a term that has emerged online to describe a mysterious tingling sensation that some people experience in response to particular audiovisual and interpersonal “triggers.” Initially coalescing via discussion threads on health forums, ASMR culture quickly began using platforms like YouTube and Reddit to exchange trigger videos. This paper frames the emergence of ASMR video culture as an example of how bodies and algorithms are conspiring to bring into being new cultural forms that can seem literally inexplicable on first encounter. Treating videos as “inputs,” judged not as messages to be understood or interpreted but by their ability to elicit particular affective and somatic “outputs,” ASMR communities cultivate a quasi-cybernetic relationship with the moving image, using video as a vehicle for “feeling out” phenomena that seem to thwart linguistic articulation and rational comprehension.

Papers relating to America. Presented to the House of commons, 1809.

Papers relating to the encounter between His Majesty's ship Leopard, and the American frigate Chesapeake.--Correspondence between Mr. Secretary Canning and Mr. Pinkney, from September 23, to November 28, 1808.--Instructions to the Honourable D. M. Erskine, by Mr. Secretary Canning; and the correspondence between the Honourable D. M. Erskine, and the Honourable Robert Smith.

Youth's encounter,

Published in Great Britain as v. 1 of Sinister street.

Annotated record of the detailed examination of Mn deposits in the submarine canyons off George Bank taken by the R/V ATlantis in 1939

New surveys were completed and data from the field sheets were kindly furnished by the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for use in dredging and coring operations. This field work, first reported in 1936, was continued from time to time until 1941 as new soundings became available. Rock dredging and coring has been carried out in every major canyon on the slope from Corsair Canyon at the tip of Georges Bank to Norfolk Canyon off the entrance to the Chesapeake. Numerous cores have also been taken from the areas in between; and while the whole slope from Georges to the Chesapeake has not been covered, it is believed that no significant areas have been missed. In the following report the tows and cores will be described by areas from Georges Bank southwards, as the same region was revisited in successive years. The various samples, however, will be referred to by number followed by the year in which they were taken. The material is in storage in the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University.

Three Generations of FPGA DAQ Development for the ATLAS Pixel Detector

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Intersectionality in the Language and Writing Classroom

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

The 2014 chikungunya virus outbreak in the U.S. Virgin Islands: epidemiology, long-term health outcomes, and economic burden

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Examining the Relationship Between Secondary Traumatic Stress and Sickness Absenteeism within 9-1-1 Emergency Call Centers

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Mahler's Third Symphony and the Languages of Transcendence

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Mental Health Experiences within the Hmong American LGBTQ Community: A Qualitative Research Project

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06