Most Popular Books by Taylor A

In today''s fast-paced world, we frequently find ourselves forgetting the most essential person in our lives: OURSELVES. The Secret to Self-Care is a game-changing book that reveals the secret to recovering your well-being and happiness by prioritizing yourself amid life''s craziness. This life-changing book delves into the art and science of self-care, providing vital insights and practical practices that anybody can use. It presents a plan to help you break away from the cycle of burnout, stress, and continual busyness, based on substantial study and personal experiences. You''ll learn: The genuine meaning of self-care and why it''s critical for your mental, emotional, and physical health. Simple, doable self-care practices that fit into even the busiest schedules. Mindfulness and meditation approaches that work to reduce stress and promote self-awareness. Techniques for setting limits and saying "no" without feeling guilty, allow you to reclaim control of your time. How to create a supportive self-care community and find your tribe of like-minded people. The Secret to Self-Care is a life-changing path toward a happier, healthier, and more balanced self. Whether you''re a parent balancing work and family, a student drowning in schoolwork, or a professional looking for work-life balance, this book will lead you down the path of self-discovery and self-nurturing. If you''ve ever pondered how to prioritize yourself without feeling selfish, if you''ve wished for the key to long-term self-care in a never-ending world, then this book is for you.

Introducing PCOS Diet Cookbook for Newly Diagnosed: Delicious Recipes For Hormonal Balance. Are you ready to take control of your PCOS journey with mouthwatering recipes designed to restore hormonal balance and promote overall well-being? Look no further than this comprehensive cookbook written specifically for those newly diagnosed with PCOS. Among the benefits you will find in this cookbook are: - Hormonal Harmony: Dive into a collection of recipes crafted to support hormonal balance, aiding in symptom management and improving overall health. - Nutritional Support: Discover dishes packed with nutrients essential for PCOS management, helping you feel energized and vibrant every day. - Delicious Variety: Explore a wide range of flavorful recipes that make healthy eating a pleasure, from satisfying breakfasts to comforting dinners and indulgent desserts. - Empowering Education: Learn about the role of nutrition in PCOS management and how each recipe contributes to your journey toward wellness. - Lifestyle Transformation: Embrace a new way of eating that not only benefits your PCOS but also enhances your overall quality of life. Don''t let PCOS control your life, empower yourself with the tools and flavors that support your well-being. Embrace the first step towards a happier, healthier you today Discover the power of delicious recipes for hormonal balance. Grab your copy of the PCOS Diet Cookbook for Newly Diagnosed now and embark on a journey to vibrant health and wellness!

Passive acoustic emissions were assessed for their potential as a non-invasive monitoring tool for the coating of pellets in a fluidized bed. Pharmaceutical pellets are small spherical particles that contain an active ingredient. They are film coated for the purpose of modified drug release and packed into capsules as a multiple unit dosage form. A more reliable monitoring and control method is desired to ensure the appropriate drug release profile is achieved by minimizing variations within and between coated pellets. Microphones attached to the exterior of a conical top spray fluidized bed measured acoustic emissions produced from the coating process. Statistical analysis of the signals was shown to provide information on fluidization quality and nozzle performance, while the amplitude of the acoustic emissions was shown to correspond to an increase in pellet film coat thickness. Overall, passive acoustic emissions reflected changes in process dynamics and particle interactions, indicating the ability to monitor fluidized bed pellet coating and potentially for the determination of a desired coating end-point.

Although human Salmonella infections are caused by a single species, Salmonella enterica, different Salmonella serovars cause distinctive clinical syndromes. Whereas non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) serovars typically cause self-limiting acute gastroenteritis, typhoidal serovars cause enteric fever, a severe protracted illness with systemic symptoms that can become chronic. Enteric fever accounts for a significant global burden of disease, with nearly 15 million infections and approximately 136,000 deaths annually. Currently the genetic basis for the distinct clinical outcomes caused by NTS and typhoidal Salmonella is not known. Enteric fever includes typhoid and paratyphoid fevers which are caused by S. Typhi and S. Paratyphi A, respectively; both are human host-restricted and unable to infect mice or other small animal models. Most Salmonella research has been conducted using the NTS serovar S. Typhimurium in murine models, which fail to recapitulate certain important aspects of human typhoid. The epidemiological features of acute versus persistent Salmonella infection are distinctive; inherited or acquired deficiencies in cellular immunity lead to increased susceptibility to NTS infection, but not to enteric fever. Additionally, S. Typhi and S. Paratyphi A share significant genomic differences from S. Typhimurium in the form of genomic decay and novel virulence factors. This dissertation aims to understand the underlying mechanisms that lead to the distinct clinical syndromes caused by NTS and typhoidal Salmonella infection. First, we conducted a genome-wide screen for S. Typhi virulence determinants by infecting susceptible humanized mice with a high-complexity transposon mutant library of S. Typhi. The screen identified known virulence determinants such as the Vi capsular polysaccharide and iron acquisition genes. Interestingly, certain some predicted virulence determinants were shown to be dispensible for virulence, including the typhoid toxin and Salmonella Pathogenicity Island 2 (SPI2). Given that human immune cells are required for S. Typhi infection, we next explored the interactions of both S. Typhi and S. Typhimurium with human macrophages. S. Typhi persists within human macrophages by causing minimal apoptosis unlike S. Typhimurium, which induces apoptosis in a SPI2-dependent manner. These results are consistent with our observation that typhoidal serovars S. Typhi and S. Paratyphi A have lost a significant portion of SPI2-secreted effector proteins, especially those that inhibit the NF-kB pathway. Further, inhibition of NF-kB was sufficient to cause macrophage apoptosis and may present a new strategy for treatment of persistent S. Typhi infection. S. Typhi also avoids inflammatory macrophage polarization and fails to induce a TH1 response in infected humanized mice. Such a response is required for NTS clearance in humans and represents another important difference between these serovars. Finally, due to the identification of iron acquisition genes as essential for S. Typhi virulence, we explored differences in iron acquisition capabilities between S. Typhi and S. Typhimurium. We found that S. Typhi is more sensitive to iron limitation, indicating adaptation to a macrophage niche that is not iron-restricted. Taken together, these chapters demonstrate the importance of employing models using typhoidal Salmonella to understand mechanisms of persistent human Salmonella infection rather than reliance on murine-NTS models.

Results: About half (46%) of primary caregivers had fatalistic oral health beliefs. Ethnicity (p=.014) and living situation (p=.019) were the only variables to be correlated to OHF. Primary caregivers of Hispanic origin had 2.4 (95% CI: 1.2 to 4.7) times increased odds of having higher oral fatalism in comparison to non-Hispanic primary caregivers. Conclusions: About half the caregivers of children with ASD expressed fatalistic oral health views. Similar to the medical literature regarding fatalistic beliefs, Hispanic caregivers have more fatalistic health beliefs than non-Hispanics. Comparing OHF and variables such as living situation, DMFT, participant age, and presence of other diagnoses is potentially of interest for further study.

Clathrate hydrates are ice-like solid substances that often form inside oil and gas pipelines and are responsible for flow blockages, sometimes leading to catastrophic disasters. Minimizing hydrate adhesion and accumulation of solids on pipelines can effectively address this problem. In this thesis, we reduce the adhesion of cyclopentane hydrates by promoting the formation of a cyclopentane barrier film between the hydrate and the solid surface. The presence of this liquid film depends on the spreading coefficient of cyclopentane on the solid in the presence of water. Through a systematic modification of the surface chemistry of the solid surface using two different silanes, we correlate the wettability of water and cyclopentane to the adhesion of cyclopentane hydrates. We demonstrate negligible hydrate formation and adhesion on octadecyltrichlorosilane-coated surfaces via macroscopic visualization, surface tilt and adhesion measurements. The use of the spreading coefficient as a design parameter could further advance the development of effective, passive, hydrate-repelling surfaces.

Planktothrix sp. is less studied than other bloom-forming cyanobacteria. The aim of this study was to determine characteristics of the Planktothrix bloom in Sandusky Bay. Using the 2013 Sandusky Bay metagenome and 2014 summer samples, it was found that the bloom in Sandusky Bay has limited diversity and is continuously dominated by Planktothrix. Nutrient profiles of the Bay suggest nitrogen limitation throughout the bloom season. Physical parameters recorded in Sandusky Bay are suboptimal for many known bloom-forming cyanobacteria. Given this information, it is not yet understood how Planktothrix survives and dominates Sandusky Bay. Future work will look further at community members playing a role in the nitrogen cycle in the Bay. Additionally, the succession of genotypes will be determined over time as the environmental parameters will be monitored over a longer period of time to determine how survival of Planktothrix is supported.

Increasing integrated circuit functionality and decreasing layout area over the past few decades has made power efficiency one of the most important requirements in all applications of electronic circuitry. Energy harvesting systems continue to address the increasingly apparent gap between silicon performance and battery energy density by providing an external source of power to a system. The focus of this paper will be the use of piezoelectric energy harvesting, which is the harvesting of vibrational power through piezoelectric ceramics. Piezoelectric ceramics have an inherent crystalline structure which allows them to transform the energy from a mechanical strain into electrical charge. This characteristic allows them to absorb the mechanical energy from their surroundings and transform it into electrical energy that has the potential to drive an electrical circuit. Specifically, this work strives to quantify the accelerations found in industrial and office settings and examine whether these vibrations are realistically applicable to be used in an actual circuit. This project complements another project, which examines the use of solar cells to power a low-power e-ink paper sensor circuit and focuses on attempting to see if there is a vibrational power source that could be used where the solar cells cannot harness enough power.

We show that banks significantly under-report the risk in their trading book when they have lower equity capital. Specifically, a decrease in a bank''s equity capital results in substantially more violations of its self-reported risk levels in the following quarter. The under-reporting is especially high during the critical periods of high systemic risk and for banks with larger trading operations. We exploit a discontinuity in the expected benefit of under-reporting present in Basel regulations to provide further support for a causal link between capital-saving incentives and under-reporting. Overall, we show that banks'' self-reported risk measures become least informative precisely when they matter the most.

Sports-related concussions (SRC, a subset of mild TBI) affect approximately 1.5 million adolescents annually and serve as a leading cause of disability in this population. Post-traumatic deficits in hippocampal-dependent learning and memory are frequently reported long-term impairments; however, an absence of FDA-approved pharmacological treatments highlights the need for continued studies examining the mechanisms underlying these deficits. Current literature on moderate TBI and chronic stress in adult animals demonstrates that alterations in the expression of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF) in the medial septum (MS), respectively, contribute to impairments in hippocampal-dependent memory. Bridging these studies, we hypothesized that CRF acts as a neuromodulator of ChAT expression in the MS wherein increased CRF signaling post-injury would reduce ChAT+ staining, leading to hippocampal-dependent cognitive deficits. Therefore, we developed and characterized a model of SRC in adolescent rats using a repeated mild TBI paradigm and found that male brain-injured animals exhibit early and sustained spatial memory deficits whereas female brain-injured animals show a delayed onset of impairment. Further, we examined alterations in the septo-hippocampal pathway which contains cholinergic neuronal projections from the MS to the dorsal hippocampus and revealed decreased ChAT expression and activity of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors that corresponded directly with the sex-dependent temporal pattern observed in behavioral output. While MS CRF expression remained unchanged following injury, we uncovered sex and time-dependent changes in crfr1 mRNA levels. Pharmacological manipulations using a CRFR1 antagonist injected directly into the MS allowed us to identify sex-specific roles of CRF as a mediator of cognitive output through modulation of ChAT expression in the MS post-injury. Collectively, this study is the first to identify a causal relationship between extrahypothalamic CRF and cognition in the context of mild TBI, offering insight into a novel therapeutic target for cognitive dysfunction following SRC in adolescents.

The overarching goal of my thesis is to better understand how sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) dialects vary over space and time, and to quantify the implications of these dynamics on cultural identity and evolution in sperm whale vocalizations. Female and immature sperm whales live in matrilineal social units that are stable over time, and different social units only associate if they belong to the same cultural clan. Clans forage, move, dive, associate, and distribute differently, but the primary way we distinguish them is through their unique dialects. These dialects are comprised of stereotyped patterns of clicks, called codas, and my thesis seeks to clarify the interplay between these social vocalizations and cultural identity in sperm whale clans. Inspired by rhythm in codas, I first survey the literature for evidence of rhythm in cetacean vocalizations and use a comparative lens to theorize about the functional roles it plays. I show that rhythm is common in cetacean vocalizations, but that it may be used in different behavioral contexts by mysticetes and odontocetes. In sperm whales, vocal rhythm is apparent across contexts, suggesting that it is a fundamental feature of communication. Next, I introduce a new method (IDcall) that detects putative biological structure in acoustic datasets using characteristic, repeated call types. I show that IDcall''s underlying theory is broadly applicable and can be used to detect sperm whale clans from codas, wren subspecies from songs, and cricket species from songs. Using acoustic data from 25 locations spanning 42 years, I then investigate the spatial and temporal dynamics of sperm whale clan dialects. In the spatial domain, I document the presence and distribution of seven clans in the Pacific Ocean, and provide empirical evidence that certain coda types function as symbolic markers of sperm whale clan identity, like ethnic markers in humans. In the temporal domain, I leverage long-term research efforts in the Mediterranean, eastern Caribbean, and Galápagos Islands to show that the fine-scale structure of coda types can change over decadal timespans within clans. Collectively, these findings illustrate the interplay between vocalizations and sociality in sperm whales, and emphasize the need for a global, multi-cultural approach to study and conserve this global, multi-cultural species.