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Rsif Mozambique Country Report 2023 - English, Regional Scholarship And Innovation Fund (Rsif)

Rsif Country Progress Reports

Mozambique is one of the fastest growing economies in Sub Saharan Africa, with GDP growth of 4.8% in 2023 and 8.3% projected in 2024, according to the African Development Bank. Mozambique is paying great attention to higher education, science and innovation to increase the proportion of scientifically skilled workforce that is necessary to sustain and increase growth opportunities. Mozambique is one of the nine African countries that is contributing to the Regional Scholarship and Innovation Fund (Rsif) of the Partnership for skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET), since 2021. Its contribution of USD 6 million is through the …

Feed Value And Utilization Of Corn Residue: Implications For Cow Performance And Grazing Strategies, Kaylee E. Wheeler

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Two experiments were conducted to determine the correlation of corn residue feed value and utilization on cow performance and potential grazing strategies. A qualitative observation of corn residue grazing by 13 cattle herds across Nebraska was conducted over two years. Based on producer reported grain yields and stocking rates, it was found that these producers were generally not as aggressive as the recommended 1.2 animal unit months (AUM) for each 6,280 kg/ha (100 U.S. bushels/acre) of harvested grain. They stocked 17 to 101% of the recommendation and on average used 63% of the carrying capacity. Across herds, average body condition …

Predicting Body Weight Of Cattle And Nutrient Digestion Of Individual Sweet Bran Components To Improve Beef Cattle Production Efficiency, Dalton J. Anderson

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Efficiency is of high importance to beef cattle producers to ensure that beef cattle are being raised without unnecessary resource use. Two separate experiments were conducted to evaluate potential strategies to improve efficiency in beef cattle production. A metabolism study was conducted to evaluate digestion parameters of individual Sweet Bran components. The objective was to determine the effects of diet components on nutrient digestion and rumen fermentation parameters. The individual components of Sweet Bran (Corn bran, solvent-extracted germ meal, and corn steep liquor) were included at 40% diet dry matter (DM) in a steam-flaked corn (SFC) based diet. A SFC-based …

The Evaluation Of Feed Additives On Reducing Enteric Methane Production From Cattle, Reba L. Colin

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Environmental sustainability can be positively impacted by the inclusion of feed additives to reduce enteric methane production from cattle. Methane production can be affected by feed additives that either alter the rumen environment or act as methanogenesis inhibitors. A reduction in methane from cattle can contribute to meeting carbon neutrality.

A metabolism study was conducted to evaluate Alga 1.0, a product containing bromoform, fed to cattle to evaluate the effects on gas emissions. Treatments were (0, 69, or 103 g/d Alga 1.0) fed in a corn-based diet. Headbox-style indirect calorimeters were used to measure gas emissions. Feeding Alga 1.0 linearly …

Chemical Investigation Of Dichloromethane Extract Of Aloe Vera Peels: An Agricultural Waste, Nazmul Huda

Theses and Dissertations

Aloe barbadensis Miller, commonly called Aloe Vera, is a widely popular succulent plant species cultivated across subtropical regions worldwide from India to the Tex-Mex border. Besides its historical uses, Aloe juice has garnered attention as a potential remedy for various ailments, particularly in treating various skin conditions and facilitating wound recovery, including obesity, diabetes, hepatitis, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis. Regrettably, the agricultural practice following sap extraction involves discarding Aloe vera peels, constituting agricultural waste. As part of our continuous research on extraction, isolation, separation, and spectral characterization of value-added chemicals present in waste botanicals herein, …

Is The Speed Of Law Faster Than The Speed Of Light: Considerations Of The Impact Of Special Relativity On The Operation Of Law In The Context Of Deep Space Missions, Alex Simmonds

Journal of Space Law

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Silage Inclusion In Diets With Different Corn Processing And The Effect Of Natural And Conventional Feeding Programs On Finishing Cattle Performance, Jessica L. Miller

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A finishing experiment was conducted to determine the effects of natural and conventional feeding programs on finishing performance of steers and heifers. Factors were conventional and natural feeding programs in steers and heifers. Cattle assigned to the conventional program were fed diets that contained Rumensin (Elanco Animal Health), Tylan (Elanco Animal Health), MGA (Zoetis), and received growth promoting implants whereas cattle in the natural program received neither. Compared to natural fed cattle, G:F was improved by 15.5% when heifers were fed in a conventional program (P < 0.01) and 23.8% when steers were fed in a conventional program (P < 0.01). The incorporation of implants and feed additives within the finishing period increased …

Forages And Technology Management In Growing And Finishing Beef Cattle Systems, Kelton Cole Adair

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A systems study evaluated the effects of an implant [25.7 mg estradiol (Compudose; Elanco Animal Health)] at two rates of gain (LOW: 0.45 kg/d and HIGH: 0.9 kg/d) applied during the winter backgrounding phase in drylot and winter grazing systems and its effects on subsequent phases of production. HIGH supplementation with an implant during the winter backgrounding phase in the drylot system yielded the greatest ending body weight (EBW) during the summer backgrounding phase (P = 0.04). LOW supplementation, without an implant, improved summer backgrounding average daily gain (ADG; P = 0.05) while achieving similar carcass adjusted final body …

Factors Affecting Forage Quality And The Subsequent Response In Production And Energy Metabolism In Lactating Jersey Cows, Kassidy Kate Buse

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Forage quality is the potential of a forage to produce a production response in animals. Because of how essential they are in dairy cattle rations, forages can have major influence on the behavior and production of dairy cattle. In experiment 1, the effect of forage fragility on the rumen environment and digestibility was evaluated. Increasing the inclusion of a less fragile forage led to greater rumen retention time, which resulted in lower rumen pH and greater NDF digestibility. Experiment 2 evaluated the effects of diets high in either corn silage or alfalfa haylage supplemented with either corn- or soybased protein …

Early-Life Supplementation Of Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Improved Growth And Skeletal Muscle Glucose Metabolism In The Heat Stress-Induced Iugr Neonatal Lamb, Melanie Ryann White

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Our 1^st study determined whether metabolic deficits of IUGR-born neonatal lambs can be improved by ameliorating elevated inflammatory tone. Supplementation with ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω-3 PUFA) improved hindlimb insulin-stimulated glucose oxidation rates and basal lactate secretion. Ex vivo skeletal muscle-specific glucose oxidation rates were improved when heightened inflammatory tone was moderated. Pancreatic β cell function in response to hyperglycemia was improved by ω-3 PUFA supplementation. Tempered inflammatory tone also partially recovered skeletal muscle glycogen stores. Thus, we found that targeting heightened inflammatory tone inherent in IUGR-born neonatal lambs moderately improved glucose metabolism and pancreatic β cell …

Law Library Blog (December 2023): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Microbiota Dynamics, Metabolic And Immune Interactions In The Cervicovaginal Environment And Their Role In Spontaneous Preterm Birth, Stanely Onyango, Jia Dai Mi, Anjela Koech, Patricia Okiro, Marleen Temmerman, Peter Von Dadelszen, Rachel Marie Tribe, Geoffrey Omuse

Pathology, East Africa

Differences in the cervicovaginal microbiota are associated with spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB), a significant cause of infant morbidity and mortality. Although establishing a direct causal link between cervicovaginal microbiota and sPTB remains challenging, recent advancements in sequencing technologies have facilitated the identification of microbial markers potentially linked to sPTB. Despite variations in findings, a recurring observation suggests that sPTB is associated with a more diverse and less stable vaginal microbiota across pregnancy trimesters. It is hypothesized that sPTB risk is likely to be modified via an intricate host-microbe interactions rather than due to the presence of a single microbial taxon …

Fair Canonical Correlation Analysis, Zhuoping Zhou, Davoud Ataee Tarzanagh, Bojian Hou, Boning Tong, Jia Xu, Yanbo Feng, Qi Long, Li Shen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

This paper investigates fairness and bias in Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA), a widely used statistical technique for examining the relationship between two sets of variables. We present a framework that alleviates unfairness by minimizing the correlation disparity error associated with protected attributes. Our approach enables CCA to learn global projection matrices from all data points while ensuring that these matrices yield comparable correlation levels to group-specific projection matrices. Experimental evaluation on both synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrates the efficacy of our method in reducing correlation disparity error without compromising CCA accuracy.

Oral Glucose Tolerance Test In Pregnancy And Subsequent Maternal Hypertension, Maged M Costantine, Madeline Murguia Rice, Mark B Landon, Michael W Varner, Brian M Casey, Uma M Reddy, Ronald J Wapner, Dwight J Rouse, Alan T N Tita, John M Thorp, Edward K Chien, Alan M Peaceman, Sean C Blackwell

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective: The aim of the study is to evaluate whether values and the shape of the glucose curve during the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in pregnancy identify women at risk of developing hypertension (HTN) later in life.

Study design: This category includes the secondary analysis of a follow-up from a mild gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) study that included a treatment trial for mild GDM (n = 458) and an observational cohort of participants with abnormal 1-hour glucose loading test only (normal OGTT, n = 430). Participants were assessed at a median of 7 (IQR 6-8) years after their …

Evaluating Strength Of Recommendations For Commonly Administered Medications In Lactating Women, Yevgenia Y Fomina, John J Byrne, Catherine Y Spong

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective: To characterize the data on medications for lactating people in the LactMed database and evaluate the strength of the data for the most commonly administered medications in lactating women.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of all medications in the LactMed database in 12/2020 was performed. Each medication was classified into one of three categories: absent data, minimal-moderate data, strong data pertaining to safety in lactation. No data was defined as no available research studies associated with the medication. Minimal-moderate data was defined as absent research studies in one or more of the four LactMed categories: maternal drug levels, infant drug …

Systematic Analysis Of Proximal Midgut- And Anorectal-Originating Contractions In Larval Zebrafish Using Event Feature Detection And Supervised Machine Learning Algorithms, Ryan M Cassidy, Erika M Flores, Anh K Trinh Nguyen, Sai S Cheruvu, Rosa A Uribe, Anne Marie Krachler, Max A Odem

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Zebrafish larvae are translucent, allowing in vivo analysis of gut development and physiology, including gut motility. While recent progress has been made in measuring gut motility in larvae, challenges remain which can influence results, such as how data are interpreted, opportunities for technical user error, and inconsistencies in methods.

Methods: To overcome these challenges, we noninvasively introduced Nile Red fluorescent dye to fill the intraluminal gut space in zebrafish larvae and collected serial confocal microscopic images of gut fluorescence. We automated the detection of fluorescent-contrasted contraction events against the median-subtracted signal and compared it to manually annotated gut contraction …

Does Maternal Mental Health (Anxiety And Depression) Negatively Impact Exclusive And Continued Breastfeeding Practices?, Smriti Neupane

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Exclusive and continued breastfeeding practices are the optimal source of nutrition for an infant's well-being, cognitive growth, and development and have positive health outcomes for the mother too. Anxiety and depression are common perinatal mental health conditions associated with early breastfeeding interruption. However, Nevada lacks data on perinatal mental health and its influence on breastfeeding practices. The objective of this study was to assess whether maternal mental health (anxiety and depression) impacts exclusive and continued breastfeeding practices in Clark County, Nevada. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 358 mothers having children 0-23 months old and residing in Clark County, Nevada. …

Physiological And Molecular Bases Of The Boron Deficiency Response In Tomatoes, Junjun Li, Huihui Fan, Qianqian Song, Lili Jing, Hao Yu, Ruishan Li, Ping Zhang, Fei Liu, Weimin Li, Liangliang Sun, Jin Xu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Boron is an essential microelement for plant growth. Tomato is one of the most cultivated fruits and vegetables in the world, and boron deficiency severely inhibits its yield and quality. However, the mechanism of tomato in response to boron deficiency remains largely unclear. Here, we investigated the physiological and molecular bases of the boron deficiency response in hydroponically grown tomato seedlings. Boron deficiency repressed the expression of genes associated with nitrogen metabolism, while it induced the expression of genes related to the pentose phosphate pathway, thereby altering carbon flow to provide energy for plants to cope with stress. Boron deficiency …

Chinatown Outreach - Targeted Resources For The Unhoused Population, Jesus Herrera

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Addressing housing insecurities is one of The Epicenter’s pillars while utilizing a new federal grant. The Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program is the division implementing the project that will consist of outreach through a mobilization team. Housing insecurities are not only a city issue but a statewide one and YHDP is designed to help reduce those insecurities and improve a client’s quality of life while providing food, clothing, hygiene packs, and resource information to improve their livelihood. To assess the effectiveness of our deliverables it consisted of tallying, informal dialogues, and data analysis. The most important measure is that we were …

Prevalence Of Diabetes In Monterey County, Irenee Judith Flores-Morgado

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Aspire Health is a nonprofit organization that collaborates with community partners to improve the health and well-being for residents in Monterey County. In Monterey County, about 50% of the adult population is affected with type 2 diabetes and prediabetes. Aspire Health provides a free diabetes education module to students in Monterey County grade K-12, where they learn about diabetes and how to make healthier lifestyle choices. The project consisted of launching a texting feature that provided resources on diabetes. The purpose was to raise awareness and education about diabetes in Monterey County by providing local resources on diabetes with the …

Fall Collection Drive For Homeless Individuals In Monterey County, Xitlali Amaya Romero

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Monterey County has a high rate of homeless individuals. CSUMB Community Health Engagement (CHE) in Salinas, CA, provides various services and resources to homeless individuals to help meet their basic needs. A collection drive was a resourceful project implemented to allocate items to be donated to homeless individuals during CHE's outreach efforts through different encampments. The intern's implementation methods used various methods to spread the word about the event, including creating a flyer, using media, and networking. The expected outcome was to have people donate various items to give back to homeless individuals during CHE's outreach efforts or tabling events. …

Food Insecurity At Los Abuelitos, Rosalina Duran

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Food insecurity among the senior population is a social problem that can cause malnutrition, chronic conditions, and death. CHISPA Housing Management and Community Services is a non-profit organization that builds low-income senior housing in Monterey County and provides senior hot lunches to its residents. The causes of food insecurity are a lack of income, chronic conditions, and transportation issues. The consequences of food insecurity are the deterioration of their physical and mental health. This capstone project is an assessment that consists of gathering data on the residents who reside at the Los Abuelitos Townhome housing rather than taking advantage of …

Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy With Or Without Selective Dismutase Mimetic In Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma: An Adaptive, Randomised, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Phase 1b/2 Trial, Cullen M Taniguchi, Jessica M Frakes, Todd A Aguilera, Manisha Palta, Brian Czito, Manoop S Bhutani, Lauren E Colbert, Joseph Abi Jaoude, Vincent Bernard, Shubham Pant, Ching-Wei D Tzeng, Dae Won Kim, Mokenge Malafa, James Costello, Geena Mathew, Neal Rebueno, Eugene J Koay, Prajnan Das, Ethan B Ludmir, Matthew H G Katz, Robert A Wolff, Sam Beddar, Gabriel O Sawakuchi, Shalini Moningi, Rebecca S Slack Tidwell, Ying Yuan, Peter F Thall, Robert A Beardsley, Jon Holmlund, Joseph M Herman, Sarah E Hoffe

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) has the potential to ablate localised pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Selective dismutase mimetics sensitise tumours while reducing normal tissue toxicity. This trial was designed to establish the efficacy and toxicity afforded by the selective dismutase mimetic avasopasem manganese when combined with ablative SBRT for localised pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

METHODS: In this adaptive, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 1b/2 trial, patients aged 18 years or older with borderline resectable or locally advanced pancreatic cancer who had received at least 3 months of chemotherapy and had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0-2 were enrolled at six …

Kinome Profiling Identifies Mark3 And Stk10 As Potential Therapeutic Targets In Uveal Melanoma, Usman Baqai, Alison M Kurimchak, Isabella V Trachtenberg, Timothy J Purwin, Jelan I Haj, Anna Han, Kristine Luo, Nikole Fandino Pachon, Angela Jeon, Vivian Chua, Michael A Davies, J Silvio Gutkind, Jeffrey L Benovic, James S Duncan, Andrew E Aplin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Most uveal melanoma cases harbor activating mutations in either GNAQ or GNA11. Despite activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway downstream of Gαq/11, there are no effective targeted kinase therapies for metastatic uveal melanoma. The human genome encodes numerous understudied kinases, also called the "dark kinome". Identifying additional kinases regulated by Gαq/11 may uncover novel therapeutic targets for uveal melanoma. In this study, we treated GNAQ-mutant uveal melanoma cell lines with a Gαq/11 inhibitor, YM-254890, and conducted a kinase signaling proteomic screen using multiplexed-kinase inhibitors followed by mass spectrometry. We observed downregulated expression and/or activity of 22 kinases. …

Delineating The Impact Of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Abca1/G1 And Mir-33a Expression On Atherosclerosis, Olanrewaju Oladosu

All Dissertations

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality worldwide due to being the predominant factor in heart attack and stroke deaths. Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is caused by cholesterol accumulating in arteries. It is historically thought that the cell type most responsible for causing atherosclerosis via excessive cholesterol accumulation is intimal monocyte-derived macrophages. However, macrophage-like cells (MLC) of vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) origin have now been proposed as another cell type to trigger atherosclerosis, since VSMC cholesterol accumulation results in these cells to trans-differentiate into a MLC phenotype. Three major genes involved in cholesterol metabolism are ABCA1, ABCG1, and …

Place-Based Philanthropy With An Adaptive Lens: Actively Balancing Community-Driven And Foundation-Driven Orientations, Douglas Easterling, Tanya Beer, Kristen Burwell Naney, Mina Silberberg, Laura Gerald, Adam Linker

The Foundation Review

With place-based philanthropy, a foundation provides extensive, long-term support for a comprehensive mix of programs within specific communities, with the expectation that this will produce benefits at a communitywide level. One of the key questions in designing a place-based initiative is how much the foundation will control local decision-making.

In some initiatives, the foundation dictates the issues that community groups must address and/or the nature of the planning process that will be used to develop solutions. This sometimes produces ineffective or irrelevant solutions. In contrast, other initiatives allow local groups considerable discretion in naming the issues and choosing the solutions, …

Understanding The Interaction Of Environmental Contaminants With Polystyrene Nanoparticles And Dna Using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy And Density Functional Theory, Saduni Arachchi

All Dissertations

The objective of the thesis is to study the effect of environmental pollutants on polystyrene nanoparticles and biomolecules. This is done in two different techniques, particularly NMR and density functional theory. In this thesis, we use a combination of 1H NMR, Saturation-Transfer Difference (STD) NMR and relaxation experiments to study the interactions, kinetics and dynamics of antibiotics with polystyrene nanoparticles. (PS NPs) Density functional theory (DFT) is used to study the binding of commonly used non-oxidative hair dyes to biomolecules (DNA and amino acids) and PS particles.

Enhanced Wound Care Identification And Intervention, Melissa Faura Rd, Ldn, Rachel Geosits Ms, Rdn, Cnsc, Ldn, Ann Flickinger Ms, Rd, Ldn

Clinical Nutrition Service

No abstract provided.

A 2-Tiered Educational Program To Enhance Nutrition Knowledge, Confidence And Application Among Medical Residents, Kimberly Cephas Ms, Rd, Cnsc, Ldn, Jacqueline Labatch Rd, Cnsc, Ldn, Renee Selby Rd, Cnsc, Ldn

Clinical Nutrition Service

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Barriers To Utilizing Length Boards In A Level Iv Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Heather Kistler Rd, Csp, Ldn, Kristi L. Ruth Rd, Cnsc, Ldn, Laura Kurtz Ms, Rd, Ldn

Clinical Nutrition Service

No abstract provided.