Digital Commons Network^™

Nationwide Practices And Perspectives On Early Literacy Activities In Daycare, Analaura Amador

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Soft Infrastructure In Developing Sustainable Volunteer-Based Healthcare For Transient Migrants In The El Paso-Ciudad Juárez Border Region, Daniel Avitia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Perceptions Of Applied Behavior Analysis Therapy On Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder Via Social Media, Kaitlyn Drilling

Honors Thesis

The use of Applied Behavioral Analysis Therapy (ABA) on children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a controversial topic. Stakeholders have strong opinions, and the use of social media allows them to reach a bigger audience to share their perceptions. Stakeholders such as parents of children with ASD, adults with ASD who have been treated using ABA therapy, and ABA clinicians themselves may post on long-form social media such as Reddit or Facebook to ASD specific forums. These forums provide stakeholders with information, community, and support that they might not have otherwise. The perceptions of ABA on children with ASD …

A Randomized Controlled Study Of The Effects Of Targeted Health Education On Uptake Of Contraceptives Among Women Of Reproductive Age In Nnewi City, South-East Nigeria, Yanmeer Tyotswam, Rosebella Iseme-Ondiek, Eliphas Makunyi

Population Health, East Africa

Objective: There is a need for contraception uptake among people to enable them to fulfil their right to determine the timing, number and spacing of their children. In regions with poor contraceptive prevalence rates, lack of effective education has been largely implicated, and Nigeria falls among such regions. Thus, the present study is designed to examine the impact of an educational intervention on uptake of contraceptives among women aged 18–49 years seeking care at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital Nnewi.

Methods: Being an interventional study to underscore the effect of targeted health education on uptake of contraceptives, …

Model Tuning Or Prompt Tuning? A Study Of Large Language Models For Clinical Concept And Relation Extraction, Cheng Peng, Xi Yang, Kaleb E Smith, Zehao Yu, Aokun Chen, Jiang Bian, Yonghui Wu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective: To develop soft prompt-based learning architecture for large language models (LLMs), examine prompt-tuning using frozen/unfrozen LLMs, and assess their abilities in transfer learning and few-shot learning.

Methods: We developed a soft prompt-based learning architecture and compared 4 strategies including (1) fine-tuning without prompts; (2) hard-prompting with unfrozen LLMs; (3) soft-prompting with unfrozen LLMs; and (4) soft-prompting with frozen LLMs. We evaluated GatorTron, a clinical LLM with up to 8.9 billion parameters, and compared GatorTron with 4 existing transformer models for clinical concept and relation extraction on 2 benchmark datasets for adverse drug events and social determinants of health (SDoH). …

The Stigma Of Deaf: Managing A Stigmatized Identity And Well-Being, Renca Dunn

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

The Deaf identity encompasses cultural, linguistic, and social dimensions that significantly influence the lives of Deaf individuals. The World Health Organization predicts that by 2050, nearly 2.5 billion people worldwide will be living with some degree of hearing loss (2021). While there may be a growing number of people who have some type of hearing loss, there is a distinct group who identify their hearing loss as part of a culture and community. The Deaf community has a rich history, culture, language, and linguistic heritage. The development of the Deaf identity is influenced by factors such as family, education, and …

Social Support In An Internet Weight Loss Community, Richard Freund, Marta Favara, Catherine Porter, Jere Behrman

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Many low- and middle-income countries have introduced public works programs (PWPs) to fight poverty. This paper provides the first evidence that children from families who benefit from PWPs show increased foundational cognitive skills. The results, based on unique tablet-based data collected as part of a long-standing longitudinal survey, show positive associations between participation in the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) in Ethiopia during childhood with long-term memory and implicit learning, and suggestive evidence for working memory. These associations appear to be strongest for children whose households were still PSNP participants in the year of data collection. Evidence suggests that the …

Talking About Aphasia: A Social Media Analysis Of What Individuals With Aphasia And Communication Partners Convey About Functional Discourse, Anna Williams

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to blend what we know about aphasia and functional communication. Specifically, how individuals with aphasia are functionalizing communication on the social media platform of YouTube. Extensive clinically significant literature exists on functional communication within speech-language pathology that provides practical guidance for clinical applications. Moreover, an emerging theoretical framework on functional communication and aphasia has sparked fresh insights, particularly from the perspective of individuals with aphasia. This perspective holds promise for exploring how individuals and their families leverage social media for functional communication. This study aims to integrate established clinical research findings on functional communication with the evolving …

Investigating Self-Perception Of Speech And Motivation For Return To Intervention For Post Cochlear Implantation In Young Adults, Madison Henry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Cochlear Implants (CI) are designed to address severe to profound hearing loss. When implantation occurs after language develops, it is referred to as post-lingual (PL) implantation. Currently, no interventions have been identified to address the communication challenges that young adults with PL-CIs may face after they complete post-CI rehabilitation services. This study analyzes if an individualized intervention plan is beneficial for a person with PL-CIs when experiencing changing communication demands in the transition to college or the workforce. Methodology: Baseline assessments were conducted; the results of which allowed for the establishment of four co-constructed goals. These goals were targeted …

Expanding The Access To Kidney Transplantation: Strategies For Kidney Transplant Programs, Angie Nishio Lucar, Ankita Patel, Shikha Mehta, Anju Yadav, Mona Doshi, Megan Urbanski, Beatrice Concepcion, Neeraj Singh, M. Lee Sanders, Arpita Basu, Jessica Harding, Ana Rossi, Oluwafisayo Adebiyi, Milagros Samaniego-Picota, Kenneth Woodside, Ronald Parsons

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

Kidney transplantation is the most successful kidney replacement therapy available, resulting in improved recipient survival and societal cost savings. Yet, nearly 70 years after the first successful kidney transplant, there are still numerous barriers and untapped opportunities that constrain the access to transplant. The literature describing these barriers is extensive, but the practices and processes to solve them are less clear. Solutions must be multidisciplinary and be the product of strong partnerships among patients, their networks, health care providers, and transplant programs. Transparency in the referral, evaluation, and listing process as well as organ selection are paramount to build such …

Representation Learning For Generative Models With Applications To Healthcare, Astronautics, And Aviation, Van Minh Nguyen

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores applications of representation learning and generative models to challenges in healthcare, astronautics, and aviation.

The first part investigates the use of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) to synthesize realistic electronic health record (EHR) data. An initial attempt at training a GAN on the MIMIC-IV dataset encountered stability and convergence issues, motivating a deeper study of 1-Lipschitz regularization techniques for Auxiliary Classifier GANs (AC-GANs). An extensive ablation study on the CIFAR-10 dataset found that Spectral Normalization is key for AC-GAN stability and performance, while Weight Clipping fails to converge without Spectral Normalization. Analysis of the training dynamics provided further …

Pragmatic Strategies To Address Health Disparities Along The Continuum Of Care In Chronic Liver Disease, Mayur Brahmania, Shari Rogal, Marina Serper, Arpan Patel, David Goldberg, Amit Mathur, Julius Wilder, Jennifer Vittorio, Andrew Yeoman, Nicole E Rich, Mariana Lazo, Ani Kardashian, Sumeet Asrani, Ashley Spann, Nneka Ufere, Manisha Verma, Elizabeth Verna, Dinee Simpson, Jesse D Schold, Russell Rosenblatt, Lisa Mcelroy, Sharad I Wadhwani, Tzu-Hao Lee, Alexandra T Strauss, Raymond T Chung, Ignacio Aiza, Rotonya Carr, Jin Mo Yang, Carla Brady, Brett E Fortune

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities exist in the prevalence and natural history of chronic liver disease, access to care, and clinical outcomes. Solutions to improve health equity range widely, from digital health tools to policy changes. The current review outlines the disparities along the chronic liver disease health care continuum from screening and diagnosis to the management of cirrhosis and considerations of pre-liver and post-liver transplantation. Using a health equity research and implementation science framework, we offer pragmatic strategies to address barriers to implementing high-quality equitable care for patients with chronic liver disease.

Acoustic-Perceptual Relations Between Fundamental Frequency And Expressiveness In Speakers With Hypokinetic Dysarthria, Alena Portnova

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Hypokinetic dysarthria is a motor speech disorder that occurs in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and affects not only their speech intelligibility but also how their attitudes and emotions are perceived by listeners. People with PD have been judged as less happy, involved, friendly, and interested based only on their speech samples. A lack of speech expressiveness is one of the characteristics that is likely to be related to these negative listener judgments. Specifically, it has been suggested that a lack of fundamental frequency (F0) variation reduces speakers’ ability to express various emotions. To investigate whether speech expressiveness is related …

Development And Validation Of The Human Aspects Influencing The Oral Healthcare Data Quality (Hai-Dq) Questionnaire Among Primary Oral Healthcare Workers In Malaysia, Alwani Mohd Zuhudi, Syirahaniza Mohd Salleh, Mohd Zulkarnain Sinor, Mohd Zarawi Mat Nor, Basaruddin Ahmad, Sarliza Yasmin Sanusi

Journal of Dentistry Indonesia

Resolving substandard oral healthcare data quality requires identifying the influencing factors. However, no known instrument for such assessment can be used locally. Objective: To develop and validate the HAI-DQ questionnaire for assessing human factors that influence oral healthcare data quality among primary oral healthcare workers in Malaysia. Methods: The HAI-DQ questionnaire was developed based on literature reviews, focus group discussions, and focus observations. Six experts assessed its content validity using the Content Validity Index (CVI), and the Face Validity Index (FVI) was used to establish its face validity through a pre-test involving 30 primary dental personnel. Results: Four …

Determinant Factors Of Academic Stress: A Study Of First-Year University Students In Indonesia, Ade Herdian Putra, Zadrian Ardi

Jurnal Kajian Bimbingan dan Konseling

Academic stress can reduce academic performance in first-year university students. Based on theoretical studies and previous research, three factors are predicted to influence academic stress: academic self-efficacy, life satisfaction, and happiness. This study analyzes the correlation of academic self-efficacy, life satisfaction, and happiness with first-year university students' academic stress. This research uses a quantitative approach with correlational methods and path analysis. The participants in this research were 720 first-year university students in Indonesia. The research instruments used were the Academic Self-Efficacy Scale, Life Satisfaction Scale, Happiness Scale, and Academic Stress Scale. Research data was collected online and then analyzed using …

Accelerating Medicines Partnership® Schizophrenia (Amp® Scz): Rationale And Study Design Of The Largest Global Prospective Cohort Study Of Clinical High Risk For Psychosis, Cassandra M J Wannan, Michael P. Harms, Daneil Mamah, Spero C. Nicholas, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

No abstract provided.

Supporting Text And Data Analysis Across Campus From The Academic Library, Amy Kirchhoff, Hejin Shin Phd

Digital Initiatives Symposium

The ability to comprehend and communicate with text-based data is essential to future success in academics and employment, as evidenced in a recent survey from Bloomberg Research Services which shows that nearly 97% of survey respondents now use data analytics in their companies and 58% consider data and text mining a business analytics tool (https://www.sas.com/content/dam/SAS/bp_de/doc/studie/ba-st-the-current-state-of-business-analytics-2317022.pdf). This has fueled a substantial growth in text analysis research (involving the use of technology to analyze un- and semi-structured text data for valuable insights, trends, and patterns) across disciplines and a corresponding demand on academic libraries to support text analysis pedagogy and text analysis …

Afterword And After The Ward: The Poetry Cure, Abriana Jette, Margarita Sverdlova

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

What impact might poetry have on an individual's psychosomatic system? This piece connects current research in occupational therapy with the acts of writing, listening, and reading poetry.

An Undergraduate Baccalaureate Simulation On Weight Bias And Caring For A Patient With Obesity, Kathy Andrews

DNP Projects

Background: There is considerable evidence showing the correlation between weight related bias among healthcare professionals, and poor health outcomes for patients with obesity. Educating healthcare professionals on both safe and effective care practices and compassionate patient-centered care techniques can reduce the negative health impact of weight bias on this patient population. Purpose: This scholarly project adjusted the existing curriculum to address existing weight bias among a cohort of undergraduate baccalaureate nursing students and to inspire improvement in their care of patients with obesity. Methods: Using Kolb’s ELT a sequence of learning activities were adapted and implemented as a …

Maternal Care Utilization And Provision During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Voices From Minoritized Pregnant And Postpartum Women And Maternal Care Providers In Deep South, Ran Zhang, Tiffany Byrd, Shan Qiao Ph.D., Myriam E. Torres Phd, Msph, Xiaoming Li Ph.D., Jihong Liu Sc.D.

Faculty Publications

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected maternal care services especially for minoritized individuals, creating challenges for both service users (i.e., African American and Hispanic pregnant/postpartum women) and maternal care providers (MCPs). Guided by a socioecological framework, this study aims to investigate the experiences of African American and Hispanic pregnant and postpartum women, as well as MCPs, in accessing and providing maternal care services during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Deep South.

Methods

We conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 African American women, 20 Hispanic women, and 9 MCPs between January and August 2022. Participants were recruited from Obstetrics and Gynecology …

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind: The Hidden Issues And Entertainment Within The World Of Crime And Punishment, John Charlton, Christian Sorrells, Aaron Burney, Jonathan Yi

ENGL 1102 Showcase

An anthology diving into observing topics related to crime and punishment and determining the effect on the greater topic. Explains why people are so interested in crime, how PTSD can lead to violence and questioning how prisoners spend their time and all through provoking questions addressed in this anthology in the hope that it creates a greater understanding of crime and punishment as a whole.

Cultural Adaptation Of The Ayres Sensory Integration® (Asi) Caregiver Education Module 1: "The Importance Of Play In Asi" For Parents Of Children In Hong Kong With Sensory Integration Challenges, Stephen Chan

Post-Professional Occupational Therapy Doctorate Culminating Presentations

Introduction: Occupational therapy using Ayres Sensory Integration® is an evidence-based intervention that includes parent education and participation to support outcomes. However, culturally-adapted guidelines for this parent component in Hong Kong have not been published.

Objective: To culturally and linguistically adapt Module 1 of the Ayres Sensory Integration® Caregiver Education Guidebook: “The Importance of Play” for Hong Kong parents of children with sensory integration challenges and obtain user input to determine if it is useful, easy to understand, and culturally relevant.

Method: Survey methodology from a convenient sample of 10 occupational therapists using Ayres Sensory Integration for at least 5 years. …

Proposal: How Does The Total Sugar Intake Impact Cognitive Function In Children 10 Years Of Age?, Andrew O. Laidlaw, Camila Arrieta, Shoshana Yachnes

Department of Nutrition Student Projects

The effects that high sugar intake has on cognitive function is an ongoing topic in research today. Although most studies point to a negative relationship between the variables, the evidence is not conclusive enough to be able to confirm its true effect. While evidence finds an association between high sugar intake and chronic diseases, its impact on cognitive function is yet to be determined. The purpose of this proposed research study is to examine how total sugar intake impacts the cognitive function in children. Fifty children, age 10, will be randomly chosen from schools in South Florida for a cross-sectional …

"Salir Adelante": Improving The Quality Of School Entrance Physicals For Immigrant Minors, Jennifer Sternberg, Elizabeth Morse

DNP Projects

The purpose of this QI project was to improve the delivery of school physicals in the setting of an -friendly non-profit safety-net clinic by creating a patient-centered clinical pathway to improve focused screening and referrals for newly arrived migrant children and their families by routinely assessing and addressing behavioral health care (BH) and social determinants of health needs (SDoH).

Using QI methodology and Donabedian’s Structure Process Outcomes framework, the project team implemented a clinical pathway that included an immigration-focused history of present illness, systematic behavioral health (BH), and social determinants of health (SDoH) screenings embedded within an electronic health record …

Patient Advocate Experience: Combatting Language Barriers In Healthcare, Caroline Tourgee '24

Health Sciences Student Scholarship

Caroline Tourgee ’24, Health Policy and Management major

Impacts Of Socioeconomic Status On Language Development In Preschool Children, Denise Adriaansen

Student Academic Conference

According to Lee (2023), 37.9 million Americans are living in poverty. Poverty is associated with deficits in language, communication, and social skills. Language development is a crucial aspect of a child's development. Children who live in low-socioeconomic households have a higher prevalence of language impairments. This paper will explore the impact that socioeconomic status has on language development in preschool-aged children. It includes becoming knowledgeable on serving individuals that come from different backgrounds, including level of socioeconomic status. It is important for all individuals especially professionals who will serve this population to understand how level of socioeconomic status can affect …

The Speech Language Pathologist's Role In Intervention For Parkinson's Disease, Jenna Lovaas

Student Academic Conference

This literature review explored the available intervention techniques utilized by Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs) when treating individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD). Parkinson's disease affects six million people worldwide and is expected to double by the year 2040. Deficits associated with PD manifest themselves into motor and non-motor symptoms that show varying benefit from pharmacological approaches alone. For this reason, SLPs provided comprehensive treatment approaches to address the challenges related to dysarthria, dysphagia, and cognitive linguistic skills. Treatment consisted of behavioral techniques, diet modifications, compensatory strategies, muscle strength training, and restorative training. While some techniques demonstrated benefit to more than one …

Best Practice Interventions For Individuals With Cleft Palate, Aleisha Johnson

Student Academic Conference

Cleft palate and cleft lip with palate occur in every 1,700 and 1,600 births (ASHA, n.d.). Speech-language pathology intervention is often needed by individuals who have had a cleft palate; about 50% of individuals who have had a repaired cleft palate are referred to speech pathology services (Sand et al., 2022). According to Alighieri et al. (2021), there is a lack of clear procedures when administering treatment to individuals with repaired cleft palates. The purpose of this project is to identify best practice for speech therapy interventions for individuals with repaired cleft palates. This project reviews the traditional articulation approach, …

Memantine For Preservation Of Neurocognitive Function During Reirradiation Of Recurrent Glioblastoma, Yeun Hiroi

Yale School of Medicine Physician Associate Program Theses

Glioblastoma is the most common malignant primary brain tumor in adults. This disease has a dismal prognosis with a median overall survival between 12-18 months. Recent analyses of salvage therapies for recurrence suggest that reirradiation may improve survival. A possible adverse effect is radiation-induced neurocognitive decline. There is a dearth of literature investigating neuroprotective strategies, like using memantine. Our aim is to investigate whether memantine protects neurocognitive function in this population, with an additional goal to show that memantine does not reduce overall and progression free survival. Subjects were randomly assigned to reirradiation plus memantine or reirradiation alone, and the …

Modeling The Human Learning Process Using An Industrial Steam Boiler Analogy To Design A Psychophysiological-Based Hypermedia Adaptive Automation System, Liliana María Villavicencio López

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims to address the existing gap in the integration of various dimensions within the student learning system, encompassing cognitive, emotional, and physical variables. The primary objective is to construct a Personalized Learning Adaptive Automation model using Electroencephalography (EEG) technology.

To provide deeper insight into the intricate nature of the Human Learning Process, this study introduces a novel analogy with an Industrial Steam Boiler. This analogy serves as a distinctive contribution to research in the field.

The research methodology involved the collection of brainwaves data from engineering students while they undertook educational tasks of varying levels of difficulty, categorized …