Digital Commons Network^™

Race Differences In Pain And Pain-Related Risk Factors Among Former Professional American-Style Football Players., Robert R. Edwards, Can Ozan Tan, Inana Dairi, Alicia J. Whittington, Julius Dewayne Thomas, Claudia M. Campbell, Edgar Ross, Herman A. Taylor, Marc Weisskopf, Aaron L. Baggish, Ross Zafonte, Rachel Grashow

Faculty Articles

The burden of pain is unequal across demographic groups, with broad and persisting race differences in pain-related outcomes in the United States. Members of racial and ethnic minorities frequently report more pervasive and severe pain compared with those in the majority, with at least some disparity attributable to differences in socioeconomic status. Whether race disparities in pain-related health outcomes exist among former professional football players is unknown. We examined the association of race with pain outcomes among 3995 former professional American-style football players who self-identified as either Black or White. Black players reported more intense pain and higher levels of …

The Effect Of Acute Aerobic Exercise On Measures Of Stress And Inflammation In Healthy Young Adults, Julien Tartar, Anthony Ricci, Jonathan Banks, Hannah Murphy, Cassandra Evans, Jose Antonio, Jaime Tartar

Faculty Articles

Introduction: While the effects of long-term measures of inflammation and stress are well studied, less is known about the effects of an acute exercise challenge on exercise in young healthy individuals. Methods: This was a randomized crossover design (mean age = 19.25, SD = 1.45)that measured biomarkers of stress (cortisoland salivary alpha amylase, sAA)and inflammation (IL-1β, CRP)in an exercise and control condition. In the exercise condition, participants walked or ran on a treadmill at 75-85% of their maximum heart rate for 40minutes. Under the control condition, participants stood for 40 minutes to control for orthostatic effects. Biomarkers were quantified from …

Sex Differences In Metabolic Phenotype And Hypothalamic Inflammation In The 3xtg-Ad Mouse Model Of Alzheimer's Disease., Lisa S. Robison, Olivia J. Gannon, Abigail E. Salinero, Charly Abi-Ghanem, Richard D. Kelly, David A. Riccio, Febronia M. Mansour, Kristen L. Zuloaga

Faculty Articles

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is notably associated with cognitive decline resulting from impaired function of hippocampal and cortical areas; however, several other domains and corresponding brain regions are affected. One such brain region is the hypothalamus, shown to atrophy and develop amyloid and tau pathology in AD patients. The hypothalamus controls several functions necessary for survival, including energy and glucose homeostasis. Changes in appetite and body weight are common in AD, often seen several years prior to the onset of cognitive symptoms. Therefore, altered metabolic processes may serve as a biomarker for AD, as well as a target for treatment, …

Racial Concordance On Healthcare Use Within Hispanic Population Subgroups., Alyson Ma, Jason Campbell, Alison Sanchez, Steven Sumner, Mindy Ma

Faculty Articles

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association of patient-provider racial and ethnic concordance on healthcare use within Hispanic ethnic subgroups.

METHODS: We estimate multivariate probit models using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, the only national data source measuring how patients use and pay for medical care, health insurance, and out-of-pocket spending. We collect and utilize data on preventive care visits, visits for new health problems, and visits for ongoing health problems from survey years 2007-2017 to measure health outcomes. Additionally, we include data on race and ethnicity concordance, non-health-related socioeconomic and demographic factors, health-related characteristics, provider communication characteristics, and provider …

Editorial: Appraisal Processes In Moral Judgment: Resolving Moral Issues Through Cognition And Emotion., Justin F. Landy, Tom R. Kupfer

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

A Thematic Analysis Of Shared Experiences Of Essential Health And Support Personnel In The Covid-19 Pandemic., Linda Carman Copel, Suzanne C. Smeltzer, Christine D. Byrne, Mu-Hsun Chen, Donna S. Havens, Peter Kaufmann, Heather Brom, Jennifer Dean Durning, Linda Maldonado, Patricia K. Bradley, Janell Mensinger, Jennifer Yost

Faculty Articles

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: Studies have shown that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on individuals who interact with patients with SARS-CoV-2 but focused largely on clinicians in acute care settings. This qualitative descriptive study aimed to understand the experiences and well-being of essential workers across settings during the pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Multiple studies of the well-being of individuals who have cared for patients during the pandemic have included interviews of clinicians from acute care settings and revealed high levels of stress. However, other essential workers have not been included in most of those studies, yet they may also experience stress. …

Using Hands-On Experiences Including Various Forms Of Arts To Increase Ninth-Grade Female Students’ Interest In Stem, Hui Fang Huang Su, Jia Borror, Teri Williams

Faculty Articles

Aim: The research aims to increase interest and a greater awareness of STEM fields among female minority students by providing hands-on STEM-infused workshops incorporating the arts as a central theme. Methodology: The research methodology involved conducting workshops for thirty-seven female students, primarily from low socioeconomic backgrounds, who attended fifteen-hour-long STEM-infused hands-on workshops presented by university professors in the College of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences. Findings: The study’s results revealed that the 15-week STEM workshops positively impacted the female students’ attitudes toward STEM. In addition, the post-survey results showed a significant increase in their interest in Science, …

Long Covid & Antidepressants, Rafael Rivas-Vázquez, Enrique J. Carrazana, Mark A. Blais, Gustavo J. Rey, Emma Rivas-Vázquez, Alan Quintana

Faculty Articles

Three years into this historic pandemic, the scientific and healthcare communities continue to learn a great deal regarding COVID-19, the disease that is produced by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The most urgent and immediate focus has been on vaccine development for disease prevention/mitigation and on identification of effective therapeutic interventions for acute phase of illness. However, attention is increasingly being placed on formulating treatment strategies for individuals who are post-COVID-19 and experiencing a syndrome of persistent cognitive, somatic and behavioral symptoms that is being referred to as long COVID. In addition to identifying novel compounds that …

What Drives Opposition To Suicide? Two Exploratory Studies Of Normative Judgments, Justin F. Landy, Pritika Shah

Faculty Articles

The act of suicide is commonly viewed as wrong in some sense, but it is not clear why this is. Based on past empirical research and philosophical theorizing, we test ten different explanations for why suicide is opposed on normative grounds. Using a within-subjects design, Study 1 showed that seven out of ten manipulations had significant effects on normative judgments of suicide: time left to live, lack of close social relationships, a history of prior immoral behavior, the manner in which the suicide is committed, painful, incurable medical issues, impulsive decision-making, and the actor’s own moral-religious background. However, in all …

Using The Community Of Inquiry Framework To Analyze Emojis As An Emerging Language In An Online Educational Experience Via Whatsapp, Jennifer L. Reeves, Glenda A. Gunter, Junia Braga, Marcos Racilan

Faculty Articles

With the ever-growing interest in WhatsApp as a social space to accommodate pedagogical initiatives, the role of emojis as an emergent Internet language in this social space needs to be better understood as mobile technologies have been integrated in education. With that in mind, this paper reports a study that employed an embedded correlational mixed methods design, and aimed to identify: the emojis used to support cognitive, teaching, and social presences in a teacher education course via WhatsApp; participants’ attitudes regarding the use of emojis, and their age and gender relation to this use. The data generated from the interactions …

Typologies Of Stress Appraisal And Problem-Focused Coping: Associations With Compliance With Public Health Recommendations During The Covid-19 Pandemic., Justin F. Landy, Aya Shigeto, Daniel J. Laxman, Lawrence M. Scheier

Faculty Articles

BACKGROUND: Given prior research finding that young adults are less likely to engage in recommended public health behaviors (PHBs) than older adults, understanding who is and is not likely to engage in PHBs among young adults is crucial to mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the Transactional Theory of Stress and Coping, this study examined how typologies of stress appraisal (SA) and problem-focused coping (PFC) among young adults were associated with compliance with public health recommendations during the pandemic.

METHODS: An online sample of young adults in the United States, ages 18-35, was recruited during the early …

And Finally... Systems And Instructional Design, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

A system is a set of interrelated parts, all working together toward a defined goal. The parts of the system depend on each other for input and output. The entire system uses feedback to determine if its desired goal has been reached. If not, then the system is modified until it reaches its goal (Dick et al., 2015).

The Crises Facing Today’S Colleges And Universities, Robert W. Hill Ed.D.

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

And Finally... A New Era..., Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Some have written that the modern era of distance education began with the widespread availability of the internet. Others move the date back to when it was possible to communicate quickly, such as with the telephone.

And Finally... Crisis Planning, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

The time to plan is now. If you do not have a plan to move to online teaching and learning, develop one. If you do have a plan, review it, update it, and train everyone.

And Finally … It’Ll Never Happen …, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Educational contingency planning is the process of developing in advance what will be done if there is an event that impacts the school or training organization. Contingency planning for distance education is a subset of general contingency planning.

And Finally … The Night Is Dark …, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

For many, the previous 18 months have been dark and uncertain. Jobs have been changed, friends are different, and future events seem threatening— the playing field of doomsayers and charlatans preaching negativity.

Indian Classical Dance And The Development Of Cultural Identity In The Indian Diaspora, Madhavi Menon

Faculty Articles

Cultural identity can be broadly defined as a person’s self-view vis a vis their identity or perception of belonging to a larger group or collective. Cultural identity is hence focal to a person's identity and influences how they see themselves, as well as how they relate to the world. The development of cultural identity can be especially challenging for members of the Indian diaspora, who often traverse multiple cultures simultaneously. The current paper reviews dance ethnographic as well as experiential research to explore the links between engagement with Indian classical dance and the development of cultural identity in the Indian …

Understanding Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Among Haitian American Women: A Cultural Perspective, Balkys L. Bivins, Indra R Hershorin, Lonar M. Umadhay

Faculty Articles

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is 19.7% in Haiti (DeGennaro et al., 2018). Haitian American women (HAW) experience difficulties with adherence to T2DM treatment and management (Bivins, 2016; Magny-Normilus et al., 2019; Vimalananda et al., 2011; Huffman et al., 2013); however, no previous study was found that focused exclusively on Haitian American women with T2DM. Van Manen's six research activities guided this phenomenological qualitative inquiry. Recruitment included 25 Haitian American women (N = 25) with T2DM from three South Florida counties. Data were collected using a vignette and audio-recorded semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions. Recordings were then …

A Concept Analysis: Adherence In Type 2 Diabetes, Balkys L. Bivins, Lorelei M. Bivins, Brenda Owusu

Faculty Articles

Aim: The aim of this analysis is to develop a better understanding of the concept of adherence among individuals with Type 2 Diabetes.

Background: The incidence and prevalence of diabetes in the United States continues to increase at epidemic proportions yearly.

Design: The analysis was conducted using Rodgers' evolutionary method including database searches from Cumulative Index to Nursing Health Literature (CINAHL), COCHRANE, EBSCO, Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and SocINDEX. Keywords included adherence, compliance, diabetes care, type 2 diabetes and theories.

Results: Rodgers' evolutionary method guided this inquiry of concept of …

And Finally A Baker’S Dozen Ideas For Creating An Online Course, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Most likely, everyone reading this column in Distance Learning journal has been asked how to quickly develop an online course, or tasked to actually redesign a course for online delivery. For those who have taught and learned in the world of distance education this process is easy, straightforward, even if time-consuming. One issue for new online designers or instructors is that much of the process for converting a traditional course to an online one is not intuitive, and in some respects is counterintuitive. For example, the idea of chunking instruction into single concept building blocks is an example of …

And Finally... Blending In All The News That’S Fit To Print, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Even the New York Times agrees. In a recent Business section article about success in online courses, the Times wrote that “The instructional ingredients of success include … short videos of 6 minutes or less, interspersed with interactive drills and texts; online forums where students share problems and suggestions; and online mentoring and tutoring” (“Online Courses,” 2020). The Times got it right.

And Finally … What’S In A Name?, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Call me Ishmael” is the first line of the classic novel, Moby Dick. Most high school students do not realize the importance of Ishmael’s name when they start reading. However, if they wanted an A on the final essay they wrote about the novel, they should have mentioned how this first line of three words set the intellectual tone for Herman Melville’s masterpiece.

Haitian American Women With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: An Integrative Review, Balkys L. Bivins, Indra R. Hershorin, Lonar Anthony Umadhay

Faculty Articles

Diabetes is escalating at staggering levels in the United States and worldwide. This paper will present a review of relevant literature that supports the need for research in Haitian American women, a particularly vulnerable group, with type 2 diabetes mellitus. It will also unveil the cultural factors that pose challenges to the treatment and management of this condition.

Estradiol Modulation Of The Renin-Angiotensin System And The Regulation Of Fear Extinction, Jenna N Parrish, Megan L Bertholomey, Hong W Pang, Robert Charles Speth, Mary M Torregrossa

Faculty Articles

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is more prevalent in women than men, yet much remains to be determined regarding the mechanism underlying this sex difference. Clinical and preclinical studies have shown that low estradiol levels during extinction of fear conditioning in rodents (i.e., cue exposure therapy in humans) leads to poor extinction consolidation and increased fear during extinction recall. The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) is also associated with stress-related pathologies, and RAS antagonists can enhance extinction consolidation in males. However, less is known about how estradiol and the RAS converge to alter fear extinction consolidation in females. Since estradiol downregulates the RAS, …

Developing A Biased Unmatched Bivalent Ligand (Bumbl) Design Strategy To Target The Gpcr Homodimer Allosteric Signaling (Camp Over Β-Arrestin 2 Recruitment) Within The Melanocortin Receptors., Cody J Lensing, Katie T Freeman, Sathya M Schnell, Robert Charles Speth, Adam T Zarth, Carrie Haskell-Luevano

Faculty Articles

Understanding the functional relevance of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) homodimerization has been limited by the insufficient tools to assess asymmetric signaling occurring within dimers comprised of the same receptor type. We present unmatched bivalent ligands (UmBLs) to study the asymmetric function of melanocortin homodimers. UmBLs contain one agonist and one antagonist pharmacophore designed to target a melanocortin homodimer such that one receptor is occupied by an agonist and the other receptor by an antagonist pharmacophore. First-in-class biased UmBLs (BUmBLs) targeting the human melanocortin-4 receptor (hMC4R) were discovered. The BUmBLs displayed biased agonism by potently stimulating cAMP signaling (EC

Nutrition Manual For Nsu Student Athletes, Kaitlyn Flaskerud, Katie Emerson, Stephanie Fonesca, Angel Marquez, Alejandra Velandia, Marilyn Gordon

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

And Finally... Course Quality Or Instructional Quality, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Quality has become a popular word in distance education literature. Quality this, and quality that, all demanding that distance education, online learning, or virtual schooling must “have” something called quality— most often course quality.

And Finally … Open Access, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Open Access—the idea that scholarly literature should be free and easily available to read online to anyone with an interest. We distance educators naturally embrace the idea of having readily available content that can be used in courses in a format that is easy to use and access. According to the web location Opensource.com there are two different versions of open access—libre and gratis.

And Finally … Telepresence—New Or ?, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Telepresence is most simply defined as the virtual presence of a speaker who is at a distance. More sophisticated definitions emphasize the use of technologies that allow a videoconference viewer to feel as if distant participants are present.