Digital Commons Network^™

Technological Interventions For Reducing Climate Change Impacts On Health: An Overview Of Future Possibilities, Sujatha Alla, Vijay Kumar Chattu, Bawa Singh

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Globally, over five million deaths annually are attributed to extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change, such as heatwaves, hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, and floods, which create health crises and economic losses. The 2015 Paris Declaration emphasized climate technology mechanisms, including research and development, to enhance resilience and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Biotechnological advancements have mitigated about 20% of economic losses since the 1960s, highlighting technology’s potential to address climate-induced health risks.

Envisioning The Role Of Community-Owned Stores & Aligning Federal Food Policies: A Participatory Approach To Food Security And Food Sovereignty In Sambaa K’E, Denendeh (Northwest Territories, Canada), Narayan Subramoniam

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Northern Indigenous communities have relied on traditional food systems for meaningful, nutritious diets since time immemorial. But many Indigenous communities in remote northern regions of Canada still face disproportionately elevated levels of food insecurity due to climate change radically altering the availability for traditional foods, colonial food policies imposing Western diets, and the high costs of transporting store-bought foods. Extreme weather events such as wildfires further isolate fly-in remote communities increasing both the costs of transporting store-bought foods and the difficulties of harvesting traditional foods. There are many examples of community-based initiatives for supporting traditional and locally grown foods, however, …

Neighborhood Socioeconomic Deprivation And Physical Activity Associate With Extracellular Vesicle Size And Cargo In A Community-Based Cohort Of Women, Yvonne Baumer, Elizabeth M. Aquino Peterson, Matthew R. Bavuso, Noel Miller, Cristhian A. Gutierrez-Huerta, Nithya P. Vijayakumar, Sam J. Neally, Kaveri Curlin, Valerie M. Mitchell, Billy S. Collins, Neelam R. Redekar, Subrata Paul, Anca D. Dobrian, Tiffany M. Powell-Wiley

Department of Biomedical and Translational Sciences Faculty Publications

African American (AA) women face disproportionate cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk due to adverse social determinants of health (SDoH), including lower socioeconomic status (SES). Physical activity (PA) and plasma extracellular vesicles (EVs) modulate CVD risk, but their relationships with SDoH remain unclear. This study examines associations between SDoH, PA, and plasma EVs in a Washington, DC-based cohort of at-risk AA women. Participants (N = 24, Age: 57 ± 12, BMI: 35 ± 6, ASCVD: 9 ± 5) joined the Step It Up Community-Engaged, Digital Health Physical Activity Intervention pilot study. EVs were isolated from fasting plasma samples. Multivariable regression, adjusted for …

A Program Evaluation Research Study Of The Implementation Of Mothers With Mentors: A Dissertation On Shelter From The Rain’S Mentorship Program, Danielle Louise Smith

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This program evaluation study examines the implementation of the 2025 Shelter From the Rain “Mothers with Mentors” program in Savannah, GA. Utilizing a convergent parallel mixed-methods approach, the study evaluates the program’s acceptability, feasibility, and perceived benefit through the theoretical lenses of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the Health Belief Model (HBM), and Bonding Social Network (BSN). The analysis incorporates quantitative and qualitative data for participant mentees (n=7) and mentors (n=12), with a specialized paired analysis of five mentor-mentee matches.

The findings indicate a complex landscape of convergence and divergence across the groups. Quantitative results depicted high convergence on …

Swimming In Uncertainty: Filling Data Gaps And Providing An Educational Platform For Beach Water Quality At Tybee Island, Georgia, Lukas Roberson

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

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Swimming in beaches water contaminated with high levels of bacteria can make you sick. Current monitoring at the public beaches on Tybee Island consists of weekly monitoring and enumeration of fecal indicator bacteria that takes 24 hours for results. If the number of bacteria exceed regulatory limits, a public health advisory is issued, and affected waters are retested until …

Redling And Soil Contamination In Los Angles County: Mapping The Influence Of Polutants And Regulatory Landscapes On Enviromental Justice Outcomes, Gillian G. Maynard

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines soil contamination in Los Angeles as a pervasive yet underexamined environmental justice issue, rooted in the region’s history of industrialization, racialized land-use policy, and regulatory failure. It argues that soil operates as both a long-term repository and an active pathway of toxic exposure, embedding environmental risk directly within residential landscapes. Through an analysis of key contamination sources, including legacy lead pollution, urban oil extraction, wildfire-related toxins, and industrial sites such as the Santa Susana Field Laboratory and the Exide battery recycling facility, this study demonstrates how contaminants persist across generations, often long after their original sources have …

Understanding Motivations And Health Outcomes Of College-Aged Triathletes During Covid-19: A Mixed-Methods Study, Patrick Wilson, Eddie Hill, Justin Haegele, Xihe Zhu

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

A triathlon is a multi-sport event that consists of three simultaneous events: swimming, biking, and running. This sport has experienced significant growth in the past few decades, with colleges and universities now participating. This exploratory mixed-methods study examined the motivations and perceived health benefits of college triathletes during the COVID-19 pandemic, using the Means-Ends of Recreation Scale and the Perceived Health Outcomes of Recreation Scale (N = 29), as well as semi-structured interviews (N = 4). Results indicate no difference in motives or health outcomes between male and female survey respondents. The thematic analysis of open-ended interview questions highlighted lived …

After The Aid Boom: Government Responses To The Global Health Agenda And Political Commitment In Low- And Middle-Income Countries, Sana Abdelkarim

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

How do governments respond to the global health agenda? Does external health assistance translate to sustained domestic political commitment in low- and middle-income countries? Over the past three decades, development assistance for health has expanded, accompanied by international agreements emphasizing country ownership, alignment, and domestic resource mobilization. Yet domestic fiscal commitment to health remains uneven across countries. These questions have become more pressing as the global aid landscape enters a period of contraction, with a significant decline in development assistance, including health financing, raising concerns about the sustainability of health systems that have become reliant on external support.  This raises …

Imagining Genomics And Population Health In 2050: Anticipating Future Research, Policy, And Governance Needs, Bartha Maria Knoppers, Yann Joly, Ma Apos N H Zawati, Habiba Alsafar, Jeffrey C Barrett, Laura Blackburn, Brian Hon-Yin Chung, Martina C Cornel, Edward S Dove, David Glazer, Calvin Wai-Loon Ho, Muin J Khoury, Anna C F Lewis, Anneke Lucassen, Peter F R Mills, Colin Mitchell, Nicola Mulder, Ainsley J Newson, Anthony Ng, Paul D P Pharoah, Vasiliki Rahimzadeh, Megan C Roberts, Saskia C Sanderson, Jeffrey M Skopek, Ron Zimmern, Eric M Meslin

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Putting The L In Elsi: Legal Methods For Bioethics Research, Anya E R Prince, Benjamin Berkman, Donald Ford, Dov Fox, Christi Guerrini, Amy Koopmann, Natalie Ram, Jessica L Roberts, Kayte Spector-Bagdady, Sonia Suter

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Lawyers and law professors are increasingly involved in interdisciplinary scientific teams and grant research to answer ethical, legal and policy questions related to biomedical topics. Yet, the methods that lawyers use to conduct legal research and analysis are not always familiar to scientists and social scientists conducting peer review of a proposed project with legal aims or a publication reporting a legal study. To better facilitate interdisciplinary ethical, legal, and social implications collaboration, there is a need to better explain how legal research methodologies can provide robust tools to address a range of nuanced biomedical questions. This paper explores …

Defining The European Union’S Top Public Health Priorities: What Can Be Gleaned From Its Multi-State Interdisciplinary Systems?, Mattie Frascella, Thierry Leger

Symposium of Student Scholars

Delineation of the European Union’s (EU) contemporary public health agenda is examined within the evolving architecture of a ‘European Health Union.’ Five interdependent domains are synthesized: climate and planetary health, digital transformation, resilient systems and workforce development, non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention, and cross-sectoral and global leadership. Mutual reinforcement is essential for achieving equitable outcomes. The climate pillar reframes environmental disruption as a public health emergency, embedding adaptation, mitigation, and Planetary/One Health approaches across EU initiatives. The digital pillar examines the European Health Data Space and adjacent tools (telemedicine, e-prescribing, mobile health) as infrastructure for secure interoperability, research, and quality improvement. …

A Prevalence Study Of Iron Deficiency Anemia Among Children In Elbasan, Albania: Directions For Health Care Policy, Artilda Lala

All Dissertations

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is one of the most prevalent disorders worldwide, especially in children from low-income and underdeveloped countries. In Albania, anemia is a major public health concern with many unstudied regions (prefectures and rural municipalities). Childhood IDA can impair cognitive development, immunity and overall well-being, so early diagnosis and prevention of anemia is critical. This study examined the prevalence of IDA in children aged 0-10 years in the district of Elbasan, Albania. The data were additionally analyzed for relationships with demographic (age, gender, education, parental education and child academic performance) and nutrition variables.

A cross-sectional study design was …

Deepening Our Understanding Of Resilience: How Evaluation Can Contribute, Michael Quinn Patton

The Foundation Review

Resilience is the capacity to experience a significant shock and adapt as needed to survive and move forward. The current age is one of constant system shocks economically, environmentally, and politically. Resilience becomes essential for navigating these and other risks.

Individuals, organizations, communities, and ecosystems manifest different degrees and types of resilience requiring appropriately matched evaluation responses. In considering new directions for philanthropic evaluation, this article offers for the first time an overarching framework of four different responses to system shocks and disruptions. This leads to four different evaluation criteria: continuity, adaptation, innovation, and capitulation.

In addition to the long-term …

Post-Release Health Insurance Utilization Among Ex-Prisoners: A Scoping Review, Icha Khaerunnisa, Megah Andriany, Luky Dwiantoro

Kesmas

The lack of health insurance coverage after prison release significantly reduces access to essential healthcare services, hindering the continuity of care during community reintegration. The evidence on studies of health insurance use following prison release is limited. This scoping review aimed to summarize research on health insurance utilization after release from prison. Literature searches were conducted across databases including ScienceDirect, PubMed, and Scopus. Relevant articles were selected through a two-stage screening process. Data were extracted from the included studies and presented in tabular and descriptive formats. The keywords used were "health insurance AND post-release" and "inmates OR prisoners." This scoping …

Raising Public Awareness On Space Themes: Analysis Of Brazilian Space Policy Using Data From Google Trends, Andrea Felippe Cabello, Michele Melo

Space and Defense

This study examines whether Brazil’s national space policy goal of increasing public awareness of space activities has been met, using Google Trends data as a proxy for public interest. While public perception surveys are scarce outside the United States, web-based data provide a cost-effective and timely alternative for gauging public engagement. The authors analyzed two decades (2004–2024) of Brazilian search activity related to space topics, institutions, technologies, companies, and missions. Results show no clear upward trend in public interest, suggesting that Brazil’s stated policy objectives of raising awareness have not yet translated into measurable outcomes. Although searches related to government …

Enhancing Antitrafficking Initiatives Through An Interagency Collaboration Framework, Robert Louis Baxter

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The challenges individual agencies face in addressing the complex issue of human trafficking and how interagency collaboration can strengthen survivor-centered support are largely unknown. Organizations often lack formal alliances that combine expertise and resources to deliver more comprehensive care. The absence of such partnerships represents a missed opportunity to provide the essential services necessary for survivors’ recovery, empowerment, and social reintegration. The purpose of the study was to use interagency collaboration to address the question: How can education, law enforcement, public health, and community-based organizations assess the barriers and benefits of interagency collaboration to create a more seamless support network …

Uthealth Mcgovern Medical School 2025 Quality Symposium Abstracts

Teaching in Clinics

UTHealth McGovern Medical School 2025 Quality Symposium Abstracts

Driving Climate Mitigation And Health Equity In Rapid Test Diagnostics (Rdts): A Sustainable Biodegradable Patch Solution, Sarah Abozeid

COP30

Total energy-related CO2 emissions increased by 0.8% in 2024, hitting an all-time high of 37.8 Gt CO2, driven primarily by energy, transport, and industrial sectors. The healthcare sector, often overlooked in mitigation discussions, contributes 4.4% of total global GHG emissions, a footprint exceeding that of many countries. Disposal of petroleum-based plastics—especially through incineration—emits approximately 2.7 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) per tonne of plastic burnt. Production itself accounts for around 2.5 tonnes CO2 per tonne of

plastic, making the combined lifecycle emissions significant when including end- of-life incineration or decomposition. Around 16,000 tonnes of plastics are

produced globally for rapid …

African Swine Fever In Indonesia: Insights From Southeast Asia’S Policy Response Through The One Health Approach, Niken Salindri, Wachyu Sulistiadi

Journal of Indonesian Health Policy and Administration

African Swine Fever (ASF) seriously threatens pig production systems, food security, and rural livelihoods across Southeast Asia. This study employs an analysis of secondary national data from Indonesia using a quantitative descriptive analysis approach, complemented by regional policy responses to ASF from 2019 to 2024. To contextualize regional findings, this study also integrates official statistics from Statistics Indonesia (BPS) covering provincial pork production trends (2021–2023), the number of ASF-affected pigs per province (2020–2024), and per capita pork consumption by district. Quantitative data show that ASF outbreaks have been disproportionately concentrated in specific provinces such as East Nusa Tenggara and North …

Hurricane Katrina Archive: Faculty Publications Bibliography 2005-2009, Lsu Health Sciences Center - New Orleans Libraries, Sharon Duffy, Matthew Folse

LSUHSC Hurricane Katrina Archive: Bibliographies

This bibliography includes 91 articles about Hurricane Katrina written by authors affiliated with LSU Health – New Orleans between January 2005 and December 2009.

State Parties’ Self-Reported Adherence To Article 31’S Right Of The Child To Play: A Systematic Content Analysis, Richard Smith, Caroline Bond, Francesca Woods

International Journal of Playwork Practice

Article 31 of the introduction of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) legally protects children’s right to rest, leisure, play, recreation, and cultural and artistic activities. Concerns for the adequate realisation of Article 31 have been longstanding, with the right to play particularly requiring greater attention. This research aims to understand how states are self-reporting right to play observance within the wider context of Article 31 rights. A systematic content analysis was completed with relevant sections of 174 state party reports using Article 31 domains and General Comment 17 factors as an evaluative framework. The …

Flooding: Risk Assessment And Its Interaction With Population & Environmental Health, Shivendra Srivastava

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

Flood events have significant implications for both population and environmental health. This dissertation aims to explore flood risk and its interaction with humans and the environment. The key questions addressed in this dissertation include improving the existing flood risk framework to better assess population vulnerability and associated risk. Additionally, it explores how interactions among risk components vary across spatial scales and regions, and how these variations influence overall flood risk. The dissertation also investigates how to design a vulnerability component specific to flooding within flood risk estimation. Finally, it answers whether flood-specific vulnerability differs for a population compared to vulnerability …

Institutional Betrayal And Military Vaccine Mandates: An Inquiry Into Loss Of Health Autonomy Concerning Unlimited Liability Contractual Employment In The Covid-19 Era, Aaron G. Dehaven

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The balance between government control and personal liberty is a growing concern in the modern world. Nowhere is this more evident than in discussions surrounding government policy in public health and individual health autonomy. The Covid-19 pandemic forced many institutions to change their standard operating procedures by adapting to rapidly changing health guidance instituted to protect public health. These changes highlighted the role of health autonomy and individuals’ rights to refuse medical treatments. The Department of Defense changed many aspects of how it operated during the pandemic, including the mandate of the Covid-19 vaccine for all service members. For various …

Conceptualizing Covid-19 As A Biosecurity Threat To The National Security Of Twelve Countries: Implications For Global Health Policy, Lydia Donkor

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Biosecurity threats, including diseases such as COVID-19, influence public health and national security policies. The COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China, reveals the risks of biological agents to public health. This study investigates how varying perceptions of COVID-19 as a biosecurity threat affected public policy in 12 countries, including the United States (U.S.), the United Kingdom (U.K.), China, and Ghana, aligning with the Copenhagen School's Securitization Theory and employing causal inference methods. This research used qualitative document analysis to examine government responses to COVID-19 within a security framework among the research participants. The findings demonstrate that nations that viewed COVID-19 as …

Wild Hogs In The Water: Contested Infrastructural Ecologies Of Reservoir Storage In Texas, Sayd Randle

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Reservoirs are developed to store water in reserve for future use. But once built, reservoir sites inevitably hold more than just water, often serving as a key habitat for a range of species. This paper examines how one such animal has transformed water storage facilities and nearby landscapes into contested ground in urbanising areas of Texas, USA. Living around the reservoirs, feral hogs complicate the process of urbanisation by degrading the stockpiled water and infrastructure at the storage sites themselves and by damaging private property throughout the surrounding landscape. Tracking local efforts to manage the hogs, the case study illustrates …

Against The Phrase "Aggressive Care", Trevor M Bibler

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Language is the primary technology clinical ethicists use as they offer guidance about norms. Like any other piece of technology, to use the technology well requires attention, intention, skill, and knowledge. Word choice becomes a matter of professional practice. The Brief Report offers clinical ethicists several reasons for rejecting the phrase "aggressive care." Instead, ethicists should consider replacing "aggressive care" with the adjacent concept of a "recovery-focused path." The virtues of this neologism include: the opportunity to set aside the emotion of "aggression," the phrase's accuracy when capturing the intention of the patient or their representative, and an unappreciated rhetorical …

Havana To Port-Au-Prince: Cuba’S Medical Internationalism Aid To Haiti, Wilner Saint Cyr

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Haiti ranks among the lowest in healthcare quality in the Americas, according to the health indicators used by the World Health Organization. Despite national and international efforts to improve health service delivery, access to primary medical care and preventive services is limited, especially in rural areas. In response to a request from the Haitian government following the devastating Hurricane Georges, the arrival of the first Cuban doctors to support ongoing public health needs commenced in December 1998. Recognizing an opportunity for international cooperation, the Haitian president sought assistance from Cuba by signing a bilateral cooperation agreement for initial and ongoing …

Strategic Narratives To Counter Global Threats, Jerry E. Landrum, Chase Metcalf, Michael M. Posey

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This article argues that the current National Security Strategy lacks the necessary coherence and fidelity to mobilize collective action against the emerging Russia-China axis. It merges multiple theoretical concepts to assert that the “rules-based order” theme is insufficient for mobilizing public support. Using textual analysis of the strategy compared with publicly available polling to determine levels of popular resonance, the authors find that the “rules-based order emphasis” does not resonate. This study’s conclusions will assist practitioners as they develop an updated National Security Strategy in the new presidential administration.

One Health Integration To Control And Prevent Zoonoses: Application Of Organizational Theory Literature, Lisset M. Dumet Poma, Sherril Gelmon, Julia M. Goodman, Seth E. O’Neal

Hatfield Graduate Journal of Public Affairs

Zoonoses are infectious diseases transmitted between animals and people that disproportionately affect low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The One Health (OH) approach aims to integrate systems, incentivizing collaboration among animal, human, and environmental systems to address zoonoses and improve health. Innovative solutions for effectively and sustainably achieving systems integration are needed. Organizational theories can facilitate the study of the context of OH implementation, applying comprehensive approaches that recognize the interconnections among organisms, the environment, and social systems, including the diverse entities needing integration (e.g., policy, community, public organizations). This narrative review examines organization and systems literature to provide recommendations for …

Covid-19 & Healthcare (Re)Privatization? A Comparative Analysis Of High And Medium Per Capita Gdp Countries, Kristina Donders, Kaitlyn Matthews, Brittany Reyes, Frank. H. Rizzo

Working Papers Series

This paper examines whether the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated healthcare privatization in high- and medium-GDP countries. Drawing on political economy theories of path dependence and privatization, we analyze changes in public and private healthcare expenditures in eight countries: Canada, Chile, Denmark, Georgia, Luxembourg, Norway, the Philippines, and South Korea—comparing data from 2019 and 2022. Using World Bank indicators on healthcare financing, GDP, aging populations, and food insecurity, we find that although healthcare expenditures generally increased during the pandemic, this increase was primarily in public, not private, spending. Case studies of Georgia and South Korea reveal that local economic and demographic pressures, …