Digital Commons Network^™

Topological And Historical Considerations For Infectious Disease Transmission Among Injecting Drug Users In Bushwick, Brooklyn (Usa), Kirk Dombrowski, Richard Curtis, Samuel Friedman, Bilal Khan

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Recent interest by physicists in social networks and disease transmission factors has prompted debate over the topology of degree distributions in sexual networks. Social network researchers have been critical of “scale-free” Barabasi-Albert approaches, and largely rejected the preferential attachment, “rich-get-richer” assumptions that underlie that model. Instead, research on sexual networks has pointed to the importance of homophily and local sexual norms in dictating degree distributions, and thus disease transmission thresholds. Injecting Drug User (IDU) network topologies may differ from the emerging models of sexual networks, however. Degree distribution analysis of a Brooklyn, NY, IDU network indicates a different topology than …

A Study Of The Effect Of Organizational Communication Cultures On Interorganizational Collaboration Of Crisis Response, Laura Pechta

Wayne State University Dissertations

Recent history has indicated that crises are becoming more frequent rather than exceptional events. Dozens of organizations, often with very different missions, methods, technologies and cultures, are called upon to coordinate activities in order to mitigate the crisis and assist in recovery efforts. Although several interorganizational coordination perspectives and strategies have been proposed, they have neglected to examine how different organizational communication cultures of crisis response organizations involved in an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) may affect crisis collaboration efforts. Previous studies have also disregarded the important distinction between crisis coordination and crisis collaboration and the challenges and benefits of each …

Examination Of The Impact Of Race-Related Stress And Culture-Specific Coping On Burnout And Compassion Fatigue In Black Nursing Assistants, Marika A. Maris

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Towards A Framework Convention On Global Health: A Transformative Agenda For Global Health Justice, Lawrence O. Gostin, Eric A. Friedman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

International law has responded weakly to the inequities in health care, public health, and the broader determinates of health that collectively cause the greatest loss of lives and human potential every year. Approximately one-third of global deaths can be attributed to enduring and unconscionable inequities. Despite significant progress in improving global health over the past several decades, these inequities persist. Current global governance for health is inadequate to the task of resolving these inequities, from lack of accountability and enforcement to inadequate funding and the absence of leadership required to respond to the threats to health that arise from other …

Bloomberg’S Health Legacy: Urban Innovator Or Meddling Nanny?, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Michael Bloomberg leaves the mayoralty of New York City, with his health legacy is bitterly contested. The public health community views him as an urban innovator—a rare political and business leader willing to fight for a built environment conducive to healthier, safer lifestyles. To his distractors, however, Bloomberg epitomizes a meddling nanny—an elitist dictating to largely poor and working class people about how they ought to lead their lives. His policies have sparked intense public, corporate, and political ire—critical of sweeping mayoral power to socially engineer the city and its inhabitants.

Here, I seek to show how Bloomberg has fundamentally …

The Role Of Social Support And Emotional Representations In Health Outcomes For Individuals With Chronic Illness, Courtney Ann Lemons

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Health related outcomes for individuals with chronic symptoms of illness can be influenced by complex, socio-emotional processes. The primary interest of this study was to determine whether perceived social support lessens the negative emotional appraisals of illness experience (e.g. anger, fear, hostile interpretations of illness), and the role of these emotional appraisals in health outcomes for those diagnosed either with a conventional chronic illness (e.g. diabetes, arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) or a functional somatic syndrome (e.g. fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel). Data for this study were collected from a series of four surveys administered online, which included measures …

The Threat Of Domestic Bioterrorism: Fact Or Fiction, Stacy M. Langston

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The threat of a domestic bioterrorist attack can be a daunting issue to cover. Using the analytic technique What If? Analysis a scenario was created for a domestic bioterrorism attack in Houston, TX. Indicators were developed to determine how to mitigate and respond to the attack. Recommendations were provided following the attack that can be used to prevent future attacks that were conducted in the scenario. Having a hindsight view of an attack is the best way to prevent and respond to the attack.

African Irregular Migrants In Malta: Exploring Perceptions And Renegotiating The Socio-Cultural Siege Of Malta, Hannah E. Durick

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

This paper discusses the influx of African irregular migrants seeking asylum in Malta and how their arrival and growing presence in Malta is perceived by the Maltese. Since becoming an EU Member State in 2004 Malta has been overwhelmed by the number of irregular migrants arriving on its shores while en route to continental Europe. Due to its proximity to the North African coastline Malta becomes a frequent, albeit unintentional, destination for African migrants who are rescued in Maltese waters and subsequently placed in a closed detention facility until their legal status is determined in a court of law. Although …

Factors That Shape Environmental Perceptions: The Role Of Health And Place, Elizabeth Langlois

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Risk perception is the judgment people make about the characteristics and severity of a risk. Numerous theories and models exist which have identified the factors that influence risk perception. Among these factors, location, health status, and demographic characteristics are known to shape risk perception. To measure the influence of these factors on environmental perception, a series of surveys conducted in four Louisiana communities between 2004 and 2005 describe community perceptions about environmental issues and health status. The objective of the study was to characterize and compare environmental concerns relative to location, health status, and demographic characteristics. Results indicate that location …

Leadership Traits Of School Health Coordinators In Tennessee, Katherine Andrea Strickland

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the leadership traits of the school health coordinators (SHCs) for the state of Tennessee and to determine if self-perceptions of the SHC leadership traits coincide with supervisor and colleague perceptions of SHC leadership traits. The health challenges facing young Americans today are different from those of past decades and child health is a major federal and state policy platform. SHCs work at the nexus of 2 highly regulated and political entities: healthcare and education. Thus, it is critical for SHCs to possess strong leadership traits to navigate through the issues and …

Health Professionals’ Challenges In Managing Hiv/Aids In South Africa, Lynette Louw, Claude-Helene Mayer

Organization Management Journal

The unprecedented human immune deficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) crisis worldwide, and specifically in Africa, requires new thinking, new practices, and new research into health management. Identifying the challenges in managing HIV/AIDS from a health professional’s perspective would bring new opportunities and uncertainties to health management. Being able to use the opportunities and to better cope with the uncertainties would require a fundamental change and transformation in organizational health management, thinking, and practices. This case study presents selected research findings from a more comprehensive qualitative research study conducted in a selected health organization in South Africa. The …

Insights From Characterizing Extinct Human Gut Microbiomes, Raul Y. Tito, Dan Knights, Jessica Metcalf, Alexandra J. Obregon-Tito, Lauren M. Cleeland, Fares Najar, Bruce Roe, Karl Reinhard, Kristin D. Sobolik, Samuel L. Belknap, Morris Foster, Paul Spicer, Rob Knight, Cecil M. Lewis Jr.

Sociology & Anthropology Faculty Publications

In an effort to better understand the ancestral state of the human distal gut microbiome, we examine feces retrieved from archaeological contexts (coprolites). To accomplish this, we pyrosequenced the 16S rDNA V3 region from duplicate coprolite samples recovered from three archaeological sites, each representing a different depositional environment: Hinds Cave (~8000 years B.P.) in the southern United States, Caserones (1600 years B.P.) in northern Chile, and Rio Zape in northern Mexico (1400 years B.P.). Clustering algorithms grouped samples from the same site. Phyletic representation was more similar within sites than between them. A Bayesian approach to source-tracking was used to …

Progression Magazine, 2012-2013, Coastal Carolina University

Progression Magazine

Magazine of the College of Science at Coastal Carolina University.

Neuropsychological Outcomes In Adults Commencing Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Treatment In South Africa: A Prospective Study, John Joska, John Joska, Jennifer Westgarth-Taylor, Jacqueline Hoare, Kevin Thomas, Robert Paul, Landon Myer, Dan Stein

Psychology Faculty Works

BackgroundInfection with HIV may result in significant neuropsychological impairment, especially in late stage disease. To date, there have been no cohort studies of the impact of highly active anti-retroviral treatment (HAART) in South Africa where clade C HIV is predominant.MethodsParticipants in the current study were recruited from a larger study of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) and included a group of individuals commencing HAART (n = 82). Baseline and one-year neuropsychological function was assessed using a detailed battery, and summary global deficit scores (GDS) obtained. Associations with change in GDS were calculated.ResultsParticipants had a median CD4 cell count of 166 at …

Situation Analysis Of Somalia’S 2011 Famine, Ahmed Mohamed Askar

Master of Public Health Program Student Publications

This CE examined the contributing factors of famine in Somalia and developed a situation analysis of Somalia’s 2011 famine. The situational analysis was developed using health and famine indicators. Data from geographic information system (GIS) was also used to supplement analysis to look for trends and patterns of the famine. I predicted that conflict was the leading factor in Somalia’s 2011 famine. I concluded that conflict exacerbated the famine situation in the south of Somalia but in the north (Somaliland) famine was due to climate and lack of permanent rivers and water sources.

Mapping Xenophobic Violence In South Africa: Modeling Spatial Relationships Between Group Grievances And Opportunities To Measure The Propensity For Xenophobic Violence, Eric Holder

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Xenophobia can be defined as the hatred or fear of foreigners or strangers or of their politics or culture (Ngwane et al., 2008). This sentiment reached its tipping point in urban areas across the Republic of South Africa in May 2008 when mass, widespread and systematic attacks against African non-nationals took place across the country. Although previous research agrees on who played the various roles during this crisis event (Everatt, 2010), little research has been carried out to create a predictive model to assess where future violence could occur based on a set of conflict indicators. The purpose of this …

Climate Change And The Spread Of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, Courtney B. Reed

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

The Ozark Historical Review, V. 41, 2012 Entire_Issue

The Ozark Historical Review

No abstract provided.

Information Outlook, November/December 2012, Special Libraries Association

Information Outlook, 2012

Volume 16, Issue 6

Policy-Making Under Evo Morales: Explaining Ethnopopulist Redistributive Measures In Bolivia, Luis Ferreira

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The Evo Morales administration has radically transformed the Bolivian state since his election in 2005. As a result of Morales' indigenous identity and overt ethnic tensions in this state, there is a perception that this factor plays a decisive role in Bolivia's policymaking. However, as the 'renegotiation' of the hydrocarbon industry in 2006 demonstrates, ethnopopulism and political survival provide the most comprehensive approach to predicting the policies of the current Bolivian government.

The resistance to liberalization efforts, the success of redistributive measures and the role identity has had in Bolivia explains why this approach to policy-making has allowed Morales to …

Youth And Saving In Ghana: A Baseline Report From The Youthsave Ghana Experiment, Gina Chowa, David Ansong, Rainier Masa, Mat Despard, Isaac Osei-Akoto, Atta-Ankomah Richmond, Andrew Agyei-Holmes, Michael Sherraden

Center for Social Development Research

Youth and Saving in Ghana: A Baseline Report From the YouthSave Ghana Experiment

African American Women: The Face Of Hiv/Aids In Washington, Dc, Ndidiamaka N. Amutah

The Qualitative Report

In 2007, the estimated HIV and AIDS case rates among adult and adolescent African-American females in the United States was 60.6 per 100,000, as compared to 3.3 per 100,000 for adult and adolescent white American females. Women living with HIV or AIDS often face complex social problems that may inhibit them from accessing resources and healthcare services to assist them in coping with the disease. In-depth interviews and direct observations utilizing open-ended note taking were conducted at an HIV service provider’s office to determine the unique needs that develop because of these complex social issues, specifically among HIV positive women …

Prevalence And Antimicrobial Agent Susceptibility Of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus In Healthy Pediatric Outpatients In Las Vegas, Echezona E. Ezeanolue, Mark P. Buttner, Patricia Cruz, Joanne L. Henry, Chad L. Cross, Linda D. Stetzenbach

Nevada Journal of Public Health

Colonization and infection by community-associated resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus are being reported in epidemic proportions. The purpose of this study was to determine the local prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) colonization in children and to characterize the MRSA isolates in the laboratory with regard to antimicrobial agent susceptibility patterns, and the presence of the mecA and the Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) genes. Nasal swabs were collected at two pediatric clinics from a total of 505 children during health maintenance visits. A brief questionnaire was administered to collect demographic data and pertinent medical, family, and social history. Samples were cultured …

Graph Matching Based Decision Support Tools For Mitigating Spread Of Infectious Diseases Like H1n1, Jomon Aliyas Paul, Kedar Sambhoos

Faculty Articles

Diseases like H1N1 can be prevented from becoming a wide spread epidemic through timely detection and containment measures. Similarity of H1N1 symptoms to any common flu and its alarming rate of spread through animals and humans complicate the deployment of such strategies. We use dynamic implementation of graph matching methods to overcome these challenges. Specifically, we formulate a mixed integer programming model (MIP) that analyzes patient symptom data available at hospitals to generate patient graph match scores. Successful matches are then used to update counters that generate alerts to the Public Health Department when the counters surpass the threshold values. …

Information On Small Populations With Significant Health Disparities: A Report On Data Collected On The Health Of Asian Americans In Massachusetts, Carolyn Wong, Hannah Hosotani, John Her

Institute for Asian American Studies Publications

An analysis of publicly available sources of data on Asian Americans in Massachusetts with recommendations on ways to improve this collection of data.

Our report begins with a discussion of the important issues of data collection and reporting and then discusses the particular challenges of collecting and reporting on data in Massachusetts. Profiles of major datasets based on records for administrative entities are presented such as the Massachusetts Cancer Registry, hospital discharges, MassHealth, and Medicare, and mortality and natality records. This is followed by a description of major datasets based on population surveys such as the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance …

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Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Barriers To The Effective Implementation Of Immunization Information Systems In A Private Provider Setting, Echezona E. Ezeanolue, Ineada Jack, William Downey, Benjamin Hart, Chad L. Cross

Nevada Journal of Public Health

One of the goals of Healthy People 2010 is to increase the proportion of children less than 6 years of age with two or more vaccinations recorded in a fully operational population-based immunization information system to 95%. In 2008, we piloted the Nevada web-based immunization information system (WEBIZ) in a large private pediatric clinic in north-west Las Vegas. Our objectives were: (1) to determine compliance with the recommendation that all vaccine providers report immunization activities to the WEBIZ without a state mandate and (2) to determine perceived barriers to compliance and suggestions on how to overcome expressed barriers. We documented …

Prevalence And Antimicrobial Susceptibility Of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus In Pregnant Women And Their Newborns In Las Vegas, Nevada, Mark P. Buttner, Echezona E. Ezeanolue, Patricia Cruz, Joanne L. Henry, Ineada Jack, Chad L. Cross

Nevada Journal of Public Health

Colonization and infection by resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus are being reported in epidemic proportions. The goal of this study was to determine the local prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) colonization in pregnant women in southern Nevada and how it correlates with colonization and infection of their neonates. Signed consent was obtained, and a brief questionnaire was administered by the medical staff to each pregnant woman to collect demographic data and pertinent medical, family and social history. Nasal and vaginal specimens were obtained from pregnant women at ≥35 weeks gestation, and nasal and umbilicus specimens were obtained from their …

A Preliminary Qualitative Evaluation Of The Virginia Gold Quality Improvement Program, Gerald A. Craver, Amy K. Burkett

The Qualitative Report

Certified nursing assistants (CNAs) perform an important role in the long-term care system because they provide the majority of paid care to nursing facility residents. Unfortunately, annual CNA turnover often exceeds 100 percent nationally. Many factors account for this, including stressful working conditions, low pay, and limited benefits. The end result of high turnover is compromised continuity of care for residents, which often leads to poor quality and substandard care. In an effort to improve quality of care and staffing, the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services in 2009 implemented a pilot program, known as the Virginia Gold Quality Improvement …

Beyond Biases And Barriers: Incorporating Women Into International Clinical Research, Bridget R. Nugent

Journal of Interdisciplinary Feminist Thought

The application of ethical principles in medical research has been a challenging issue because of the multiplicity of health care systems and the variations that exist in standards of care around the globe. This paper addresses the human rights issues that arise from the unethical treatment of women in clinical research worldwide. It includes the history of international human rights legislation as well as the problems that arose because of the exclusion of women from clinical trials. This paper includes a model for ethical clinical research based on the theories of a biologist and human rights scholar and a bio-ethicist, …